CRIS Bulletin 2012/02

BULLETIN
PRAGUE COLLEGE CENTRE FOR RESEARCH & INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES
Head of CRIS Stefano Cavagnetto CooRdINaToR Masa Hilcisin aRT & PRoduCTIoN Gavin Bird CoNTeNT edIToR Leah Adler deSIgN & LayouT Silvia Weinzettelova To submit your work, please contact the project coordinator of CRIS: Masa Hilcisin <[email protected]>
2012 Centre for Research and Interdisciplinary Studies, Prague College aLL RIgHTS ReSeRVed. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, stored or used in any form by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. Names, logos, brands, and other trademarks featured or referred to within this publication are the property of their respective trademark holders. Printed in Prague, Czech Republic.
Contents page imagery: Mini Cooper Logo adrianhancu/123RF.COM
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ethics of downsizing Olga Osipova The phenomenon of downsizing first appeared in the mid 20th century in the United States. What were the forces that drove the US firms for the need of reevaluating their organisational structures, one of the results of which were mass layoffs? does individuAl morAl responsibility leAd to collective morAl responsibility for orgAnisAtions? Tamara Ayrapetova The concept of moral responsibility is essential to understand if we are talking about individual and collective moral responsibility. trAditionAl type in the digitAl erA Silvia Weinzettelova
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mini cooper: current mArketing strAtegy, digitAl mArketing ApproAch, the brAnd & ethicAl vAlues Oxana Sribnyak AnAlysing & criticAlly evAluAting spencer stuArts compAny strAtegy Simona Valentova The author of this paper identifies and critically evaluates strategic techniques of a global executive search company, Spencer Stuart. the cApitAl Asset pricing model: theory And empiricAl testing on the greek stock exchAnge mArket Tamara Ayrapetova This paper covers the main ideas and concepts behind Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Portfolio Theory.
themAtic key
Art & Design
Business & Economics
IT & Computing
Humanities
PREFACE
The Centre for Research and Interdisciplinary Studies (CRIS) was founded with the idea of developing interdisciplinary research crossing several fields and subject areas underlying the academic curricula at Prague College, and its main purposes are: To promote a medium of participation and discussions by means of regular interdisciplinary workshops and seminars. To promote and to encourage the collaboration among different schools and programmes in the design and creation of multidisciplinary courses in the college. To provide a means of publishing research work for both students and staff as part of a quarterly academic bulletin and e-journal. To cooperate with other education institutions and organisations in the development of common projects of interest.
The Centre was developed from projects initiated by Stefano Cavagnetto in the context of his role as Head of the School of Business and the School of Computing, by Bruce Gahir, Principal Lecturer in the School of Business and Computing, and by Pascal Silondi, Director of Libat and Principal Lecturer in Interactive Media. Beginning in 2009, research in the following areas had been initiated: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Game theory and its application to economics, business, philosophy, and international relations. The history of programming languages and history of computers. Experimental media (Prague College and the CRIS, formerly PCRC, is an associate partner for Underground City XXI an international interdisciplinary EU project). The history of cryptology and the science of enciphering. Art and mathematics: a profitable relationship in history - from classical geometry to fractals and topology.
By combining academic study with practical training, the CRIS aims to create an environment where personal achievement goes hand-in-hand with social responsibility. Strategically, this offers students the chance to actively collaborate in several research areas with the support of faculty members and lecturers of the college. Since 2010 a quarterly Bulletin has been published detailing progress in relevant research activities of lecturers and students. This bulletin forms an integral part of the CRIS and provides a medium whereby the research activities of the centre can be documented. Faculty members, lecturers and students belonging to every school of the college are welcome to submit their work for publication. You can find the published Bulletins of CRIS on Ebrary (electronic library), in the college library, in six Prague libraries (Narodni knihovna, Knihovna Narodniho muzea v Praze, Ministerstvo kultury CR, Parlamentni knihovna, Mestske knihovne v Praze, Knihovna a tiskarna pro nevidome K.E. Macana), Moravska zemska knihovna in Brno, Stredoceska vedecka knihovna in Kladno, Jihoceska vedecka knihovna in Ceske Budejovice, Studijni a vedecka knihovna Plzenskeho kraje in Plzen, Severoceska vedecka knihovna in Usti nad Labem, Krajska vedecka knihovna in Liberec, Studijni a vedecka knihovna in Hradec Kralove, Moravskoslezska vedecka knihovna in Ostrava, Vedecka knihovna in Olomouc, Krajska knihovna in Pardubice, Havlickuv Brod, Zlin, and Karlovy Vary. deadlines for the next issue in 2012 is 30th december 2012.
CRIS Bulletin 2012/02
TRadITIonal Type In The dIgITal eRa
TRADITIONAL TYPE IN THE DIGITAL ERA

SILVIA WEINZETTELOVA The rapid transformation of print to digital media has been triggered by the technological development of past few decades. With the invention of personal computers and graphical user interface (GUI) to make interaction between the user and the machine possible, typography for UI has become one of the most challenging parts of user experience development. Nowadays, the statistics show that the modern society is about to reach yet another significant milestone a full switch towards mobile technology. Smartphones, iPhones, and tablets have been dominating the market for the past few years. However, the predictions show that in the next few years, sales of such devices are going in any other direction but upwards. This paper explores the predestination of traditional typefaces nowadays, in the era of digital technology. The author argues that the traditional typefaces are struggling to stay relevant in a world where most media is viewed on electronic screen devices. For the research, mostly secondary sources were used which may also pose a limitation to the study. Primary data would have been valuable, especially in the area of semiotics, emotions, and subjective comprehension of typography and UI. The first part of this paper briefly reviews the history of typography and the ways how the traditional typefaces had been modified in order to ensure high readability and legibility. Semiotics of type, as well as the importance of positive emotional response to UI and UX, are discussed in the second part, highlighting the important patterns in the users comprehension and emotional responses. In the third place, the shift towards the mobile first approach is emphasised, and the importance of adopting the appropriate methods and techniques which would ensure the optimal representation on in-formation on small screen handheld devices is justified; the problems caused by type scaling and reading patterns, screen resolution, pixel representation, and back-lit environment are identified. Furthermore, the optimal characteristics of screen fonts are explained. Last but not least, the present and future of typography on small screens is discussed.
1. BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPOGRAPHY While the individual symbols, glyphs, alphabets, words, and languages started to form thousands of years ago, it was not until the 15th century when European typography reached one of its most significant milestones. The first and supposedly the most notable step in the development of the type was the invention of movable type, which is usually contributed to the German goldsmith and printer Johann Gutenberg, around the mid-15th century. The true origins of this lay much earlier though, with the forerunner of Gutenbergs revolutionary system being invented by Bi Sheng in China between 1041 and 1048. Further refinements were made during the Goryeo Dynasty of Korea by ChweYun-Ui in about 1234, where metal was first used instead of brittle clay or easily damaged wood (Ambrose & Harris, 2006: 12). Initially, the first type of text to be reproduced by the movable type printing press was laid out in Blackletter, the style of type also known as Gothic or Old English, which is characterised by a complex, ornate quality to its thick to thin strokes. However, due to its decorative nature and limited readability, Blackletter was soon substituted by a different class of type.
Figure 1: Gutenbergs Bible.
After the invention of metal movable type, France, Italy, Great Britain, and Holland became the centres of constant typographic progress. Thus, it is hardly surprising that the first independent type foundry was founded in Paris, France, in 1530. Claude Garamond, the founder of the aforementioned type foundry, quickly popularised the so-called Old Style typefaces, the lighter and more legible versions of the ones classified as Humanist (Fig. 2).
Figure 2: Visual comparison of Humanist and Old Style typefaces.
Figure 3: Visual comparison of three different versions of Garamond, (from top to bottom). Adobe Garamond, Garamond Premier, and Original Garamond.
Throughout the centuries, the original Garamond typeface became a foundation stone to number of versions; some of which were based solely on Claude Garamonds design, the others on Jean Jannons, and inevitably, new revival versions like Adobe Garamond and ITC Garamond came into existence. ITC Garamond was designed in 1977 by Tony Stan for ITC. Very loosely based on the forms of the original sixteenth-century Garamond-era work, this version has a taller x-height and tighter letterspacing, two elements that were very popular in New York advertising design during the 1970s (Linotype GmbH, no date). While Garamonds popularity for print and other non-digital use might seem immense, especially thanks to its optimal legibility and readability, traditional serif typefaces may appear to be scarcely used across the online media.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the rapid industrial growth resulted in the Industrial Revolution, bringing mechanisation that allowed printing to speed up, photo-engraving which replaced handmade printing plates and line-casting machines that revolutionised typesetting and allowed for ever-ever-increasing levels of detail and intricacy. The use of points as the measurement system was cemented during this period (Ambrose & Harris, 2006: 34). The 18th century was an era of stylistic innovation. In 1737, William Caslon established his type foundry, and thanks to his valuable contribution to the development of typography in Britain, he has been regarded as the father of British typography since. Later, the French and Italian contemporary typographers refined and modernized typography as they stepped further from their calligraphic origins. While Baskerville was the pioneer of the neoclassical style letterform, the most extreme forms were developed by Firmin Didot and Giambattista Bodoni (Designhistory.org, 2000). Both Didot and Bodoni inclined towards high visual contrast within the glyphs, turned away from slanted serifs, and preferred a vertical axis for their glyphs. In 1884, Ottmar Mergenthaler introduced a revolutionary typesetting machine. The linotype machine used a keyboard device to operate lines of cast type, which was then pressed into a mold and printed (In-dependent Television Service, 2008). However, phototypesetting, a typesetting method using the photographic procedures in order to produce columns or scrolls of text, soon replaced the mechanical typesetting devices. The popularity of this method reached its peak in the 1960s and became a standard in the industry. With the blossom of the International Typographic Style in the 1950s, the graphic designers focused on positioning the elements according to a grid system and the use of very legible sans serif typefaces such as Akzidenz Grotesk, the forerunner of Helvetica. The type was usually the most prevalent and significant element of the design piece. Typefaces like Max Miedingers Helvetica, Adrian Frutigers Univers and Frutiger, and Eric Gills Gill Sans all offered the same features legibility and readability, cleaniness, rationality, minimalism, uniformity, and neutrality. With the arrival of computers, the highly legible and emotionally versatile typefaces became a cornerstone of the first screen fonts which are discussed on page 15. 2. TYPE AS A SIGN
Arguably, type can be considered as an image on the premise that the text is a visual object. If the text is deconstructed into sentences, words or even individual glyphs, every such piece carries individual visual and semiotic characteristics. The roots of semiotics, the study of signs used in differing environment and context, reach back to ancient Greece and are most often linked with the philosophical work of Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle. However, only two major directions, one of the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839 1914) and the other one of Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 1913) will be discussed in this paper. In regards to typography, Saussares pragmatic concept is based on the assumption that type exists solely to represent vocal communication. According to his theory, a sign is a combination of two equal parts, the signifier (or signal) and signified (or signification), where the signifier is the signs physical presence, and the signified is the concept evoked in the mind of the receiver (Brownie, 2009: 3). When this notion is applied to type, the visual aspect of a sign (a word) is inconsiderable. Thus, it can be said the visual appearance of the signs is completely overpowered by their meaning.
Peirce, on the other hand, argues that a sign is composed of three parts, representamen, object and interpretant. In this model, the representamen is the representational object or form, equating to Saussures signifier, the object is the thing to which is directly represented, and the interpretant is the meaning that is achieved once the sign has been evaluated by the audience (Brownie, 2009: 4). From a semiotic and linguistic point of view, any symbol, whether typographic or not, carries a certain value and meaning. Spitzmller (2007) supports this notion by stating that typography has the potential to refer to a specific value system and thus can be used to express values, attitudes, associations, etc. In other words: typographic elements might be used as signs. This claim is supported by Ecos (1979: 179) point that signs [] possess a certain quality of material uniqueness (e.g. a word which someone speaks or which is handwritten). In the case of typography, the material value of a word is demonstrated not only by the physical features (such as colour of ink, size, and so on) but also by its visual form font choice or visual style.
The importance of material quality to the textual sign indicates that the symbolic perception of a word can be strengthened by using a specific style of a typeface or font
According to Roland Barthes (1915 1980), every sign can be analysed according to three different orders. First, denotation is a literal description of a sign. Secondly, connotation is a secondary meaning which relies on cultural or historical contexts, contexts of both the image and the viewer (Carroll, no date). Last but not least, a third level of meaning a myth expands the area of possible connotations. Barthes myth can be defined as a collective historical and cultural background which influences the viewers subjective understanding of a sign. The possible amount and content of the connotative meaning is therefore unpredictable. It can be concluded that the form of a written or typed word can influence the overall comprehension of a sign, especially if the visual aspect of the sign articulates the signified faster, or together with the verbal aspect, helps the viewer to comprehend the message in a specific way. However, the presence of Barthes myth leaves the connotative meaning open to the collective background and knowledge of the society, as well as to the subjective experience and judgment of a viewer. The importance of material quality indicates that the symbolic perception of a word can be strengthened by using a specific style of a typeface. Thus, the font choice is extremely important in order to evoke an optimal viewer response. Furthermore, a positive emotional response to design, looks and overall feel of the piece of work, be it printed material, web experience or native application, is extremely important for a message to be clearly communicated and well understood by a viewer. 3. THE UPRISE OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES
In 2009, Meeker, Devitt & Wu (2009) in their talk at the Web 2.0 Summit stated that usage of mobile devices on IP-based networks should surprise to upside for years to come and bandwidth suppliers (telcos / cable) face serious challenges in managing incremental traffic. Smartphones were boldly predicted to out-ship the combined global market of laptop, desktop and notebook computers in 2012. They did so in the last quarter of 2010 [] two years earlier than predicted (Wroblewski, 2011: 7). It is expected that by 2013, the number of heavy mobile data users will reach one billion (Wroblewski, 2009).
In spite of different smart phone brands having different screen and browser (both web and OS-based, in-built one) features, the current wave of app-development seems to focus on the three most popular mobile operating systems: iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile. In December 2011, Google announced that they had reached a milestone of 10 billion downloads from Android Market (Fig. 4). Earlier in June, Apple had celebrated 15 billion downloads from the App Store. The rapid growth and development of mobile technologies call for a prompt switch towards the mobile first approach to web and UI design.
Figure 4: The number of downloads from Android Market has been rapidly increasing.
TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS: SCREEN RESOLUTION AND PIXEL RENDERING The boom of digital technologies was triggered in 1983 when Apple introduced the Apple Lisa, the first desktop computer with a graphical user interface (GUI) (Hillner, 2009: 79). Followed by Apple Macintosh only a year later, digital typography did not only meet its first important milestone but also a series of setbacks. Apple Macintoshs screen was 9 inches wide; therefore slightly smaller than todays iPad, with a resolution of only 512 x 342 pixels. Low screen resolution combined with poor pixel representation, resulting in a mere 68 PPI (or 4,680 PPI) and 0.3713mm dot pitch, did not allow the use of sophisticated serif type. Compared to the Apple iPhone 4 which is equipped with approximately 330 PPI (or 108,669 PPI2) and dot pitch of 0.0771mm, the graphic representation of visual elements in the first Apple Macintosh was extremely limited.
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Figure 5: The simulation of the identical 100 x 100 pixel image on devices with various pixel densities.
Another problematic aspect of on-screen reproduction of traditional serif typefaces is scaling. With the invention of metal movable type, the moulds for the various sizes were individually customised in order to maintain optimal readability and legibility in print. Therefore, a serif typeface would in smaller sizes consist of thicker strokes, serifs, and slightly increased kerning. When printed, the serifs on typefaces are only a tiny percentage of the typefaces design. But on screen, in order to display the serifs using the limited number of available pixels, they take up a much bigger proportion of the information than they do on a printed page. Serifs should be small things--but on screen they become big--no longer visual cues but noise--distracting chunks of interference (Will-Harris, no date). On the condition that text of the same typeface, size, width, and leading is displayed on screen and in print, side by side, the on-screen version would presumably be less legible. First of all, that is due to the fact that a modern laser printer is able to reproduce a document at a resolution up to 2400 dpi, as compared to a screen resolution of 72 or 96 dpi. The modern approach to digital typesetting allows the designers to scale the text pari passu, or in other words, proportionately. The infinite scalability is caused by the fact that single glyphs are stored as Bzier curves. Assuming that a glyph of a vector-based font is digitally re-sized, the form itself shall not demonstrate any distortion or malformation (Fig. 6).
Figure 6: A font stored in Bzier curves does not show any distortion when enlarged.
However, a font is not displayed in vector format in the web and UI environment. On-screen font rendering from a vector format into raster may cause significant changes to the shape and form of a glyph, as illustrated by Fig. 7. The translation of a fonts outlines into pixellated text of varying quality, consistency, and sharpness is not straightforward. It involves both a font and a rendering engine, and only so much can be controlled by type designers and web designers (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2009).
Figure 7: Rendering of a lowercase a by three rendering engines.
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Additional techniques have been developed in order to avoid substantial changes in the form of glyphs. Anti-aliasing is a font-smoothing rendering method uses partial opacity to emulate smooth curves of the glyphs. As the final result, the shape of glyphs is more true to the types design (Szafranek, 2009)(Fig.8). Anti-aliasing is dependent upon hinting (Fig. 9), a technique which uses mathematical algorithms to determine not only the exact position of a pixel, but also to determine what areas of a glyph need to be smoothed. However, anti-aliasing is not being used for small font sizes due to the blurriness it causes.
Figure 8: Comparison of an uppercase A, aliased and anti-aliased.
Figure 9: Visual comparison of differences between hinted and unhinted rendering of a typeface.
Sub-pixel rendering method, a technique which involves a subdivision of RGB pixels, smooths the edges by distributing red, green and blue sub-pixels along the ragged edge (Fig. 10). Software capable of using subpixels can effectively emulate horizontal resolution that is 3 times bigger than normal resolution, e.g. 3072768 instead of 1024768. Subpixels are small enough to be indistinguishable to a human eye, but can be identified with a magnifying glass (Giannattasio, 2009).
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Figure 10: Standard rendering causes greyscale pixels to be added, while subpixel rendering creates pixels of different colour shades.
Current methods of pixel rendering generously vary across operating systems and browsers. However, operating systems and browsers using subpixel rendering engine Quartz, such as OSX, seem to render the fonts more accurately than Windows-based ClearType engine is able to represent. Therefore, Quartzrendered fonts lose less detail and are significantly closer to the original type designs. BACK-LIT ENVIRONMENT Another factor to impact the text legibility is the back-lit environment it appears in. Since a lit monitor is much brighter than the reflective light of paper, the contrast between black and white on a monitor is much greater than it is on printed materials. To promote readability, screen typography should have enough contrast to be legible, but not so much contrast as to unnecessarily irritate the viewers eyes (Rabinowitz, 2006: 260). It is suggested that on-screen text should be laid out as in reverse, using black background and white colour of the text. Taking into account the basic colour theory rules, black, grey, and white are considered to be neutral colours. However, as seen in Fig. 11, high levels of contrast can cause an optical dazzle effect. High contrast can also cause type glow, which occurs when the brightness of a background permeates the edges of darker or duller letterforms, making them appear thinner. Type glow can also happen when the brightness of letterforms seems to overflow into a darker or duller background, creating an optical aura that makes the letters seem to glow (Rabinowitz, 2006: 261). Frazier (1920: 13) states that recognition of letters may be difficult if there is not in them an adequate amount of white space, as for instance in the center of the o, the loops of the p and b, the spot at the top of the e and at the bottom of the a, and between the stems of the m, n, h and u. It is important to note that according to some studies, a human eye does not focus on reading individual letterforms but on comprehending general shapes and forms, mostly by processing the white space around the glyphs.
Figure 11: Type glow.
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A revolutionary approach to reading comfort emerged with the successful development of digital link technology. E Ink is a proprietary technology of a company called E Ink Corporation. E Ink is considered a type of electronic paper, which is a technology class designed to mimic the look of real paper and print on an electronic screen (Zarley, 2011: 17). Unlike the liquid crystal displays, E Ink-based eBook readers such as Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Nobble Nook, and Kobo eReader do not reflect light which notably improve the legibility. Furthermore, the displayed text is less limited in terms of upholding to the standardised set of typographic rules. MARK-UP LANGUAGE AND BROWSER SUPPORT The pre-determined options for control over the web typography are still limited. The latest version of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS 3), and CSS Fonts Module Level 3 in particular, specify a wider range of font properties than the older versions. The constraints stem from the fact that in essence, CSSs main purpose was to provide control over the style of web elements and not the layout. Additionally, the cross-browser support of CSS 3 varies greatly, and therefore scripts, hacks, and other complementary techniques are being used to overcome the existing restrictions. In addition to the aforementioned lack of control over the typographic aspect of web layout, there is an extremely scarce number of effective and legible screen fonts. Verdana (Fig. 12), Georgia, and Trebuchet MS (Fig. 13), both designed specifically for display on screen, contain the most important characteristics which enhance their readability and legibility on screen. They were most popular in the 90s and early 2000s. Of late, Helvetica [] is gaining huge popularity (Kolman, 2009: 4). Benevolent x-height, wider tracking, relatively wide space within the glyphs, and distinctive letterforms significantly add towards legibility of the text, even if displayed in small sizes.
Figure 12, 13, 14 (from top to bottom): Desired characteristics of a screen font demonstrated with Verdana, Trebuchet MS, and Helvetica.
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While Helvetica (Fig. 14) was not initially designed for the screen, the aforementioned characteristics have contributed towards its popularity as a screen font. In all three cases, the ratio of white and occupied space is notably similar. Therefore it can be concluded that nearly any typeface with relatively tall x-height, wide tracking, wide punch width, and relatively thick distinctive glyphs can potentially be a successful screen font, if adhering to pre-existing fundamentals of typographic layout. Consequently, the designers should focus more on designing screen fonts because larger numbers of computer users spend their entire time in front of a screen and never (or seldom) print anything. So it became obvious to us that this was a reversal of priorities -- we should not approach this as doing printer fonts adapted for the screen, we should design them as screen fonts from the outset. The printer fonts are secondary in this case (Byrne, 2003: 14). USERS INTERACTION: READING PATTERNS In 2006, the Nielsen Norman Group conducted a study on web reading patterns. For this purpose, an eyetracking device was used. It was discovered that the most prevalent way of reading a website sequentially resembles a F-letter, when a viewer starts reading with two horizontal eye movements across the top area of the website, which are then followed by a vertical movement towards the bottom of a browser window or a website. Unfortunately, very little is known about the reading patterns on small screen devices and concerns whether information gathering from such small screens results in a cognitive trade-off in subsequent performance (size-on-small-screens) have been raised. Although the smartphones and tablets ordinarily offer a landscape view option, large font size causes an increased need for scrolling, which has proven detrimental to the cognitive comprehension of the text. While it is important to minimise the need for scrolling, the user should also be given an option to resize the text according to his/her needs. Reading patterns on small screen devices are significantly dependent upon the design of the website or application itself. Mobile versions of websites tend to adhere to designs which support the F-letter reading pattern by implementing a horizontal menu and logo at the top. This trend is clearly shown on Jonathan Snooks website (Fig. 15).
Figure 15: SNOOK.CA J. Snooks website.
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In the mobile version (Fig. 16), the hierarchy of elements is essentially maintained; the main emphasis is put on dynamically-generated text (blog entries), while the sidebar with stagnant information and advertisements has been removed. Another notable change is to be seen in the title of the article. Although the original web version uses dynamic text replacement technique, the mobile version uses web-safe fonts for all the typographic elements. Such an approach may be caused by inability to render alternative fonts in mobile versions properly, or the desire to maximise the readability and legibility of all text on small screens. The tendency to emphasise dynamically-generated text is prevalent in web-based applications and mobile websites a website which contains CSS styling especially for mobile devices.
Figure 16: Mobile version of SNOOK.CA, shown on an iPhone screen.
EWMOTION IN INTERACTION As any aspect of design, the users interaction with UI and displayed information are affected by their emotion-based perception. According to Norman (2002), emotion is one of the strongest differentiators in user experience namely because it triggers unconscious responses to a product, website, environment or interface. Our feelings strongly influence our perceptions and often frame how we think about or refer to our experiences at a later date. While the importance of overall user experience and functionality cannot be undermined, aesthetics and visual form of a design piece play a crucial role in forming a positive bound with the user. The strive for a pleasurable experience can be well explained by the Maslows Hierarchy of Needs (Fig. 17).
Figure 17: Maslows Hierarchy of Needs.
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As reported by Walter (2010), a Hierarchy of Needs for UX (Fig. 18) emphasises that the interfaces we design must first be functional they need to solve a problem for us. Next, they need to be reliable no fail whales please. Our interfaces need to be usable easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to remember.
Figure 18: Hierarchy of Needs adapted for the demonstration of needs in user experience.
Similarly to the Maslows Hierarchy, if any of the needs are insufficiently fulfilled, the person does not feel content. Self-actualisation, defined as the realization or fulfilment of ones talents and potentialities, especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone (Oxford University Press, no date), is essentially a group of positive feelings and actions, such as spontaneity, happiness, self-growth, autonomy, excitement, appreciation, joy, and pleasure. Therefore, the interaction with UI should be enjoyable enough to provoke such positive feelings in a user.
Successful UX significantly increases the users satisfaction, trust and loyalty, credibility of the brand, enjoyment, and sense of accomplishment
Undoubtedly, type as a significant, and often crucial, part of the user experience is subjected to emotive response from a user. While the technical requirements, such as legibility, appropriate font size, and leading are relatively easy to measure, the overall success of the interaction is subjected to a level of uncertainty. The type is considered a sign or code, thus semiotic and hierarchical problems might be present; the response is influenced by the users aesthetic preferences; last but not least, emotive responses, however, are dependent, somewhat, upon the readers individual psychological state and social-cultural context (Jury, 2004: 138). Saltz (2009) argues that the proper choice of typeface is [] essential to the tenor of the message, and it may add to or, if a poor choice, may detract from the believability of the text. Although the tone of voice of a UX is important in order to make the users interaction with the device enjoyable, functionality, reliability, and usability should be granted as much attention. The typographical treatment of the layout, namely right font choices, can aid to establish the desired aesthetic effect. Successful UX significantly increases the users satisfaction, accessibility of information, trust and loyalty, credibility of the brand, enjoyment, and sense of accomplishment.
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4. THE PRESENT & FUTURE OF TRADITIONAL TYPE ON SMALL SCREENS
From the major part, the future of traditional typefaces and their usage on small-screen displays seems to be defined by the prospective development of internet browsers, applications and UI. Even though the onscreen representation of information has severely improved in past few years, especially with the outbreak of fast and intuitive devices such as Apple iPhone and other smart-phones, the older devices with limited view and UI capability have to be taken into account (Fig. 19).
Figure 19: An example of different websites viewed on older devices with various resolutions and CSS browser support.
The release of the Apple iPhone (1st generation) in 2007 has provoked a revolution in treatment of applications for small-screen devices. While their development was limited to only a couple of devices (iPhone and iPod Touch), the UI designers and developers obtained an important advantage the opportunity to focus on a single device without taking different sizes and resolution of non-Apple devices into consideration. Thus, the rapid expansion of quality Apple-approved applications granted the developers more freedom in the treatment of UI and UX, which could be easily tested. A significant opportunity for screen fonts emerged when Apple introduced iPhone 4 with its signature Retina Display. Seemingly misleading marketing claims about the extraordinary sharpness, resolution, and vibrancy are recognised as valid when a neuroscientist Bryan Jones states that Apples Retina Display adequately represents the resolution at which images fall upon our retina (Jones, 2010). Thus, a rendered font which is consequently displayed on a Retina Display is able to represent significantly finer design details than a regular phone screen (Fig. 20).
Figure 20: From right to left pixel density of screens of Apple iPad, iPhone 1G, iPhone 3G and iPhone 4G with Retina Display.
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Current development of mobile applications is directed in two directions, web and native apps. Native apps tend to be faster, highly responsive, can be easily connected to, and use the phone hardware such as a camera or microphone, and offer better control over the typefaces and overall layout. Their downsides are the necessity of update downloads, more complicated sharing of content on social networks, the need of approval for official app stores, and the need for specific development platform on the creators side. On the other hand, web apps store the data outside the device, and updates and installations are downloaded automatically, and there is no need for the development for multiple platforms (Calore, 2010). Their biggest setback and blessing at the same time, however, seem to be their architectural structure and potential. While not all the browsers represent the data as precisely as intended, HTML 5 introduces lots of new tags and enhancements for a wide range of features including form controls, APIs, multimedia, structure, database support and faster processing (Anderson, no date). While not all the enhancements have been fully utilised yet, it is expected that in combination Javascript, especially with updated libraries like jQuery Mobile, web apps will be able to fairly compete with the native apps. With the introduction of Retina Display and continuous transformation of the web apps are closer towards the functionality of the native apps, it can be expected that the existing typographic and layout limitations will not be as profound as nowadays. The sharpness of Retina Display allows high-detail elements to be used which contributed to improvements in font rendering and display. As web apps, the regularly updated services such as news and social apps tend to inherit the CSS styling from the main website (The Guardian). In the future, it can be expected that the web apps will be able to offer a more pleasurable experience to the user.
Figure 21, 22 (from left to right): Screenshots of The Guardian app for iPhone/iPod Touch. The Guardian app is web-based and its look is controlled by CSS.
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Figure 23, 24 (from left to right): Screenshots of the Trip Lingo app for iPhone/iPod Touch. Native apps allow the designers to experiemnt with typography more than in case of web apps.
Figure 25, 26 (left to right): Screenshots of Instagram. The combination of photography and social media have helped Instagram to become one of the most popular apps on the App Store.
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CONCLUSION
Throughout time, the on-going strive for a legible and visually pleasing typeface grew until it reached its peak with the invention of Gutenbergs movable type. The metal movable type became a foundation for further development of typecasting and typesetting. In the centuries following the Gutenbergs invention, the iconic typefaces such as Garamond, Bodoni, Baskerville, and Caslon came into existence. Their popularity still lasts, as their old faces and revivals are being used mainly in print. Type as a sign communicates not only its literal and connotative meaning; it also has a certain material quality which is expressed by its form. Therefore, the appropriateness of the chosen font to the overall message can either strengthen or weaken the meaning of the word. Moreover, the subjective perception of the sign is tightly connected with the emotive responses of a viewer. The traditional typefaces, however, often carry an aged, sophisticated, historic, or conservative look. As a result, their visual connotation may not cover the desired visual characteristics of a modern user interface design. An important factor to influence the use of traditional typefaces in a digital environment is a varying screen resolution and different methods of type rendering. The parts of a serif type which require a precise representation, such as serifs and thin strokes, are often distorted. Such deformity negatively influences the readability and legibility on the screen. The back-lit environment also poses a problem. High contrast levels between the type and background cause undesired optical effects which are even strengthened by the emission of light on the background and additional reflection. E Ink technology used for modern e-readers addresses these problems; the surface of the screen is matte and does not emit any light. Therefore, the reflection is minimal and the feel of reading a hard copy is maintained. Unlike the traditional serif fonts, screen fonts such as Verdana and Trebuchet MS exhibit characteristics which significantly improve their legibility and readability on digital screens. Generous x-height, wide tracking, wide punch width, and relatively thick, distinctive glyphs contribute to their successful representation in the digital environment. The tools for online font integration, such as Typekit, offer a technological base for usage of fonts outside the default choices; unfortunately, such services still lack a uniform support on small-screen devices. The future of traditional typefaces in digital media seems to be determined by the technological advancement of mobile technologies. Current innovations, such as the sharpness of Apples Retina Display, together with developmental progression of web-based apps, might still bring the dawn to the use of traditional typefaces in digital media.
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REFERENCES
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Meeker, M., Devitt, S. & Wu, L. (2009) Economy + Internet Trends, Web 2.0 Summit. San Francisco, 20th October 2009. Morgan Stanley Research. Available at: http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/ MS_Economy_Internet_Trends_102009_FINAL.pdf (Accessed: 29 November 2011). Nielsen, J. (2006) F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content. Available at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_ pattern.html (Accessed: 26 December 2011). Norman, D. A. (2002) Emotion & Design: Attractive things work better. Available at: http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/ emotion_design_attractive_things_work_better.html (Accessed: 13 December 2011). Noth, W. (1990) Handbook of Semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Oxford University Press (no date) Self-actualization. Available at: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/selfactualization?q=self-actualisation (Accessed: 3 January 2012). Rabinowitz, T. (2006) Exploring Typography. Clifton Park: Thomson Delmar Learning. Saffer, D. (2009) Designing for Interaction: Creating Innovative Applications and Devices. 2nd ed. Berkeley: New Riders. Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E. (2004) Rules of Play. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Saltz, I. (2009) Typography essentials: 100 design principles for working with type. Minneapolis: Rockport Publishers. Sanchez, C. A. & Goolsbee, J. Z. (2010) Character size and reading to remember from small displays, Elsevier Computers & Education 55, pp. 10561062. Shaugnessy, A. (2005) How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul. London: Laurence King Publishing. Shaugnessy, A. (2009) Graphic Design: A Users Manual. London: Laurence King Publishing. Shaw, P. (2005) The Digital Past: When Typefaces Were Experimental. Available at: http://www.aiga.org/the-digital-pastwhen-typefaces-were-experimental/ (Accessed: 3 December 2011). Spitzmller, J. (2007) Visible by Design: The Significance of Typography in Media Communication. Tokyo: Nihon University. Szafranek, K. (2009) Font Smoothing Explained. Available at: http://szafranek.net/works/articles/font-smoothingexplained/ (Accessed: 29 December 2011). Walter, A. (2010) Emotional Interface Design: The Gateway to Passionate Users. Available at: http://thinkvitamin.com/ design/emotional-interface-design-the-gateway-to-passionate-users/ (Accessed: 13 December 2011). Walter, A. (2011) Designing for Emotion. New York: Jeffrey Zeldman. Weinschenk, S. (2011) 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People. Berkeley: New Riders. Will-Harris, D. (no date) The Best Faces for the Screen. Available at: http://www.will-harris.com/typoscrn.htm (Accessed: 8 December 2011). Wroblewski, L. (2009) Mobile First. Available at: http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?933 (Accessed: 2 December 2011). Wroblewski, L. (2011) Mobile First. New York: Jeffrey Zeldman. Zarley, J. (2011) EBook Publication for Training. Purple Palm Media.
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IMAGE LIST
fIguRe 1, P. 8: Sherman, N. (2009) Gutenberg Bible Initial [Online Image]. Available at: http://woodtyper.com/444 (Accessed: 1 December 2011). fIguRe 2, P. 9: Broadley, J. (2007) History of typography: Old Style [Online Image]. Available at: http:// ilovetypography.com/2007/11/21/type-terminology-old-style/ (Accessed: 1 December 2011). fIguRe 3, P. 9: UXDE Magazine (2011) Garamond [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.lava360.com/fonts/ top-10-pro-fonts-to-spark-some-creativity-in-you/ (Accessed: 29 December 2011). fIguRe 4, P. 12: Isaac, M. (2011) Android Market Growth [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.wired.com/ gadgetlab/2011/12/android-market-downloads/ (Accessed: 15 December 2011). fIguRe 5, P. 13: Rieger, B. (2011) Effective Design for Multiple Screen Sizes [Online Image]. Available at: http:// mobiforge.com/designing/story/effective-design-multiple-screen-sizes (Accessed: 26 October 2011). fIguRe 6, P. 13: Silvia Weinzettelova (2012) Scaling of fonts Bzier curves. fIguRe 7, P. 13: Brown, T. (2010) Proxima Nova lowercase a, as rendered by three different browser/OS mixes at 16px [Online Image]. Available at: http://blog.typekit.com/2010/10/05/type-rendering-on-the-web/ (Accessed: 26 November 2011). fIguRe 8, P. 14: Giannattasio, T. (2009) 42pt Goudy Oldstyle Bold: aliased and anti-aliased versions [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/02/the-ails-of-typographic-anti-aliasing/ (Accessed: 29 December 2011). fIguRe 9, P. 14: Giannattasio, T. (2009a) Hinted and unhinted type [Online Image]. Available at: http://www. smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/02/the-ails-of-typographic-anti-aliasing/ (Accessed: 29 December 2011). fIguRe 10, P. 15: Giannattasio, T. (2009b) Subpixel rendering [Online Image]. Available at: http://www. smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/02/the-ails-of-typographic-anti-aliasing/ (Accessed: 29 December 2011). fIguRe 11, P. 15: Rabinowitz, T. (2006) Type Glow, Exploring Typography. Clifton Park: Thomson Delmar Learning fIguRe 12, P. 16: Hume, A. (2005) The Verdana face in detail [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.sitepoint. com/anatomy-web-fonts/ (Accessed: 19 December 2011). fIguRe 13, P. 16: Hume, A. (2005) The Trebuchet face in detail [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.sitepoint. com/anatomy-web-fonts/ (Accessed: 19 December 2011). fIguRe 14, P. 16: Hume, A. (2005) The Helvetica face in detail [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.sitepoint. com/anatomy-web-fonts/ (Accessed: 19 December 2011). fIguRe 15, P. 17: Snook, J. (no date) SNOOK.CA [Online Image]. Available at: http://snook.ca/ (Accessed: 29 December 2011). fIguRe 16, P. 18: Dick, M. (no date) Snook [Online Image]. Available at: http://cssiphone.com/gallery/page/2 (Accessed: 29 December 2011). fIguRe 17, P. 18: Silvia Weinzettelova (2012) Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. fIguRe 18, P. 19: Silvia Weinzettelova (2012) Hierarchy of Needs for UX. fIguRe 19, P. 20: Rieger, B. (2011) The Problem With Pixels [Online Image]. Available at: http://mobiforge.com/ designing/story/effetive-design-multiple-screen-sizes (Accessed: 26 October 2011). fIguRe 20, P. 20: Jones, B. (2010) Apple Retina Display [Online Image]. Available at: http://prometheus.med.utah. edu/~bwjones/2010/06/apple-retina-display/ (Accessed: 19 December 2011). fIguRe 21 (LefT), 22 (RIgHT), P. 21: Guardian News & Media Ltd (no date) The Guardian [Online Image]. Available at: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/the-guardian/id409128287?mt=8 (Accessed: 8 December 2011). fIguRe 23 (LefT), 24 (RIgHT), P. 22: TripLingo LLC (no date) TripLingo French - France [Online Image]. Available at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/triplingo-french-france/id434845830?mt=8 (Accessed: 3 January 2012). fIguRe 25 (LefT), 26 (RIgHT), P. 22: Burbn Inc. (no date) Instagram [Online Image]. Available at: http://itunes. apple.com/us/app/instagram/id389801252?mt=8 (Accessed: 3 January 2012).
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ETHICS OF DOWNSIZING
ETHICS OF DOwNSIzING
OLGA OSIPOVA 1. INTRODUCTION THE PHENOMENON OF DOwNSIzING The phenomenon of downsizing first appeared in the mid 20th century in the United States. What were the forces that drove the US firms for the need of re-evaluating their organisational structures, one of the results of which were mass layoffs? One of the strongest forces is perhaps the economic shift of the 1980s, when much of the assumptions about the organisation have been re-evaluated and changed. The economic boom, particularly the fast industrial development added with the technological progress and processes of globalisation and de-regulation, placed large international businesses in a tough competitive environment. Therefore, businesses started to look for new organisational structures (a shift from tall bureaucratic structure to a flat one) and new leadership approaches. This shift demanded major cost cutting; therefore, for this reason, many US organisations turned to downsizing as a survival strategy. Downsizing can be defined as a set of activities undertaken on the part of management, designed to improve organizational efficiency, productivity, and/or competitiveness. It represents a strategy that affects the size of the firms workforce and its work processes (Huber & Glick, 1993). Therefore, from the management point of view, downsizing is referred to as a strategy or a management tool as a way of re-engineering and rightsizing. Downsizing or rather rightsizing affected nearly every economic sector such as air transportation, banking and finance, pharmaceutical industry, information technologies, etc. For example, in 1998 Boeing (Aerospace, USA) laid off as much as 20,000 workers, following with 28,000 more in 1999. This is approximately a 10% cut from the total number of employees (Freeman, 1998). Over the course of four years, Boeing had decreased its number of employees from 238,600 in 1998 to 187,000 in 2001, which is more than 20% of terminated workers (Boeing employment table, 2012). One of the major reasons for downsizing was Boeings merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997 as a prevention of duplication of work and optimising resources. However, during early 1998, Boeing experienced problems with meeting its operational plan, one of the causes of which was that the company let go many skilled workers and the existing workforce was not able to handle the workload (Freeman, 1998).
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The study by Clark & Koonce (1995) revealed that 68% of the companies that downsized in the 1990s did not experience an increase in profits during that period. It also showed that a majority of these companies failed to report any improvements in productivity. This has led to major criticism of downsizing coupled with the fact that senior executives salaries had increased by over 1000% between 1980 and 1995, while the percentage of layoffs continued to increase (Case studies and Management resources, 2002). Despite of all these, announcements on downsizing are taken positively by Wall Street, because downsizing is viewed as a way of cost savings, thus higher returns (Cole, 1995). The danger of this is that many companies may see downsizing as a tool for increasing their financial value and apply rightsizing as me-too strategy, even if it is not necessary. The study conducted by Hickok (1995) examined the problems of downsizing from a psychological point of view. Hickok observed a major change in organisational culture after downsizing: a shift from the welfare of an individual to the welfare of the organisation as a whole; from familial working relationships to being competitive; from viewing an employer as a long-term and stable to short-term and contingent. By briefly looking at the downsizing phenomenon and some of its causes and implications, it is clear that this is an extremely controversial issue, which creates an ethical dilemma. Is rightsizing always justified or is it often led by corporate greed? Is it indeed an effective management tool that benefits the organisations? Is downsizing unethical or is it the only solution for a company to remain competitive in tough economic conditions? I shall try to answer these and many other questions in further sections of this paper. In the second section Downsizing: Identifying Moral Issues and Moral Principles, I will look at the notion of downsizing, taking a real case study of layoffs in Boeing Corporation (1971 & 1997), and try to determine the possible motives for these layoffs. Each of the reasons creates moral issues or ethical dilemmas in a sense that they have numerous effects on stakeholders that are often in conflict with each other (employees, shareholders, people in the community, etc). I will then discuss these moral issues in the context of moral principles and talk about possible limitations of the applied principles. In general, my arguments shall be following the diagram outlined below:
Diagram 1 A model of moral reasoning (adopted from Bruce Gahir)
In the third part Downsizing in the theoretical framework - I will summarise my arguments from the main section, applying different approaches to ethical dilemmas, and reason about whether the particular reason for downsizing in Boeing Corp. is ethical in the light of a moral theory and why. In the Conclusions, I will suggest which of the theories (or their combination) are best applicable in certain circumstances.
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2. DOwNSIzING: IDENTIFYING MORAL ISSUES AND MORAL PRINCIPLES
Ethical theories exist to assist in the decision-making process and making the right ethical choice among any other alternatives that may exist in certain circumstances. These decision-making tools adopted from philosophy are especially useful when two or more right values are in conflict; this is often called ethical dilemmas. Before I put the downsizing problematic in the context of various ethical theories, it is important to note that none of the approaches suggest the best solution. They just look at the issue from the multiple perspectives and can and usually do come to different conclusions. The theories are nevertheless helpful to analyse the ethical dilemmas carefully and comprehensively, and one is able to explain the decision-making process if required to do so. I shall illustrate the ethics of corporate downsizing in the case study of Boeing Corporation, the worlds largest aerospace company and manufacturer of jetliners and defense security systems. Boeing currently (April, 2012) employs 172,000 people across the United States and in 70 countries (Boeing employment table, 2012). Case Study Boeing layoffs 1971 & 1997 (a summary from the EIREconomics journal article Boeing layoffs usher in new phase of production collapse by Richard Freeman, 1998): The history of Boeing Corp. dates back to 1917, when founder William Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products Company. During the wartime Boeings production was at its peak, manufacturing 16 airplanes every 24 hours. During late 1960s, however, Boeing experienced the slowdown, especially when the complex and costly project on SST aircraft was called off by the U.S Congress in 1971. The company was close to bankruptcy and this was when the first major staff reduction was announced. 43,200 employees were laid off; this represented 53.7% of the total workforce in 1971! The second major workforce reduction took place during 1997-1998, when as much as 48,000 people were laid off due to the two major causes: cost-accountant of workforces after the merger with McDonnel Douglas and Asian recession that resulted in the cancellation of significant number of orders from Boeing.
REASON 1: COST REDUCTION DUE TO THE RECESSION PERIODS, LEADING TO REDUCING LABOR COSTS. MoRaL ISSue 1.1: effeCTS oN STakeHoLdeRS: eMPLoyeeS, SuPPLIeRS & LoCaL CoMMuNITy 1. Losses of jobs lead to loss of income and decreased standards of living. For families for which Boeing employment was the only income stream, financial consequences can be devastating. 2. Psychological effect: low self-esteem, depression, frustration, guilt, and other damaging emotions of former employees that affect also their families and friends. 3. According to Henkoff (1990), 74% of senior managers in downsized companies said morale, trust, and productivity suffered after downsizing. Cole (1995) adds that personal relationships between employees and customers, customer loyalty, and common organisational culture are lost. 4. Local unemployment rate went up significantly in Seattle; highly skilled labor pool (e.g. machinists, engineers, etc.) had been laid off (Freeman, 1998). 5. Cuts in Boeing production create cascades of layoffs in related sectors of the economy, e.g. Northrop Grumman (military aircraft maker) laid off 1,100 workers in response to Boeings layoffs in 1997, representing almost 17% of their workforce (Freeman, 1998).
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Moral Principle 1.1: Organisations are socially responsible towards its employees to ensure the good livelihood of people in the community, because it is a part of the society. By downsizing a large number of people, they fail to perform Corporate Social Responsibility from the ethical theory point of view. One of the approaches of CSR is normative stakeholder theory adapted from the kantian capitalism approach to business ethics, the core principle of which is that stakeholders are to be treated as an ends, and not as a mere means of earning profits for shareholders. Therefore, the organisation has a duty to ensure the employment in the community, because it is the right thing to do, despite of some desired outcome. Limitations: While organisations have duty towards employees, they are also responsible for their shareholders. The question is therefore: whose interests to serve first? Shareholders have risked their money in the investment in the organization; employees, on the other hand, have taken on different kinds of risk. Consequently, the right thing to do is to evaluate the involvement based on risk and balance the two. MoRaL ISSue 1.2: effeCT oN BoeINg CoRPoRaTIoN. 1. The layoffs in 1970 saved the company from bankruptcy. 2. The company was able to survive and revitalize after the recession in the aviation industry in 1970. 3. After the recession Boeing was able to gear up production, but had difficulties meeting the deadlines due to the lack of experienced workers. Boeing rehired many of them during 1972-74. Moral Principle 1.2: Despite all of the negative effects on the companys stakeholders, thanks to downsizing, the Boeing Corporation was able to sustain its business activity. Unlike the Kantian approach, the Utilitarian view takes into account all possible consequences of the action, which the principle is the greatest good for the greatest number. Should the company had kept its staff, it would have most probably gone bankrupt. In this case not 43,200 people would have lost their jobs, but all 80,500 workers who were employed by Boeing in 1970, and the effect on the community would have been twice, if not three times more devastating, not mentioning the fact that currently Boeing is the largest maker of airplanes supplying its jets to countries around the world, employing 171,660 people (Boeing employment table, 2012). Limitations: Apart from the negative consequences on stakeholders listed above, there may be many others that have not been quantified, because it is impossible to oversee all of them. It is also not possible to assign the monetary value to calculate all the indentified costs and benefits, as well as it is not possible to claim that the company would have ceased to exist should it have not reduced its workforce. Therefore the statement that downsizing maximises welfare because it benefits the majority of population is hard to prove.
REASON 2: REORGANISING AND RESTRUCTURING DUE TO THE MERGER wITH MCDONNEL DOUGLAS COMPANY, LEADING TO ELIMINATING jOBS. MoRaL ISSue 2.1: effeCT oN BoeINg CoRPoRaTIoN. 1. By restructuring, Boeing became the largest commercial aerospace maker in the world and the second largest defense company, which helped them diversify their services, all through the cost of people working in both of the organisations. Moral Principle 2.1: According to one of the formulations of Kants Categorical Imperative, act only on maxims which you can will to be universal laws of nature. In other words: does restructuring justify downsizing? Would a world where every company after mergers and acquisitions laid off duplicate workers
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be possible? Kant does not focus on the consequences here (which we know can be significant); rather he is suggesting a test on morality: if the very concept (downsizing after merger), when adopted as a principle by everyone is coherent, then it is morally permissible. The real life examples show that this is the common practice that most of the companies reduce their workforce after mergers and acquisitions (HP and Compaq, Procter & Gamble and Gillette, etc). Limitations: The fact that downsizing became a common practice as a means of reducing workforce after mergers does not automatically make it a moral act. Employees do not participate in the merger/ acquisition decisions, yet they are affected above all. On the other hand, doing nothing about duplicate jobs would create more complications and chaos within the company, not mentioning the costs keeping the workers whose jobs has been taken over by someone else. This is where The ethics of Care could be useful. The questions that should be asked are: since downsizing after merger is the last resort for businesses, does this action exhibit appropriate care for those employees who have been redundant? What kind of care has been provided (severance pay, help in finding another job, etc)? MoRaL ISSue 2.2: effeCT oN eMPLoyeeS (foRMeR aNd SuRVIVoRS) 1. Where duplicate jobs took place, the best performer was chosen. Moral Principle 2.2: I have already stated that from the Utilitarian point of view, when the company is forced to cut costs in the recession periods, downsizing can be justified because it is more likely to provide greater good to greater number of people. In case of mergers, however, the company was not forced by external factors such as economic slowdown, and therefore redundancy of workforce is the companys internal strategy to increase the financial value for shareholders. Therefore, if we look at the downsizing after merger issue through the lenses of justice and fairness, then we can say that greater benefits for some do not justify injustices to others. According to which principles have the workers been eliminated? Downsizing can become a very delicate issue for the companies, for example, to avoid discrimination accusations (age, gender, race, etc.).
Lasse Kristensen/123RF.COM
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3. DOwNSIzING IN THE THEORETICAL FRAMEwORk
In the chosen business case scenario, the Boeing layoffs (1970 & 1997), I have identified two main reasons for downsizing, cost reduction due to the economic recession and the job elimination due to the merger. The list of reasons, however, is much more extensive than that, but the main motive behind all of the layoffs is cost reduction. I have, however, identified that cost cutting as an internal strategy can be either forced or planned. In the first case scenario, organisations are forced to slow the production and cut costs due to the economic slowdowns. Another type of cost reduction can occur due to the management decision to increase financial value, reallocate resources, or change/stop the production of a particular type of product(s), and other internal reasons. It is essential, in my opinion, to differentiate the motives, because the conclusions regarding the morality of the downsizing phenomenon based on the reasons can be made different.
CoST CuTTINg ReCeSSIoN downsizing is ethical according to the utilitarian approach, if in times of recession it is the least harmful option. Comparing to the consequences of bankruptcy, should Boeing have not reduced its workforce, downsizing effect was less harmful.
CoST CuTTINg ReSTRuCTuRe & MeRgeR In this case greater benefits for greater number of people are much less obvious, because the existence of the company is not threatened (at least not on the short-run). It seems that greater benefits are only experienced by the company executives and the companys shareholders. Reducing the costs while becoming the largest commercial airplanes maker can also put great pressure on smaller companies, as well as barriers to entry for new companies. According to kants Categorical Imperative, when applying the universal Law in maxim (rule) formulation, there can be two kinds of contradictions: with fundamental human desires and when the very concept, when adopted as a universe principle, is incoherent. The formulation such as: organisations should downsize in order to eliminate duplicate jobs that have occurred due to the merger/acquisitions does not contradict any of the two, and therefore it is morally permissible.
Downsizing is like a sword with two ends; one end represents employees and the other one the shareholders. According to the kantian theory, if we focus solely on shareholders, we treat employees as means (means of reducing costs), but not as ends. Vice versa, if we serve only employees interest we treat them as ends, but we treat shareholders as means (means of having an investment). Therefore, if downsizing is driven by the external factors (such as recession) and the action is based on the balance of interests, downsizing can be said to be ethical, if this is the reason that everyone could act upon taken into account the balance of interest, and everyone be willing to have all others use this reason with this condition as well. Unlike the utilitarianism, where an action is understood in terms of the consequences, kant views an action in terms of intentions. Intentions behind downsizing in times of recession are to save the company from bankruptcy, therefore saving more people from losing the jobs. Simplifying: the intention is to treat people as ends.
In case of mergers, the intention is to restructure the organisation in the most efficient way, and that is to reduce workforce and save costs. Simplifying: the intention is to treat people as means.
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4. CONCLUSIONS
There is no universal truth about the ethics of downsizing; no theoretical framework is able to help us justify the morality of the notion in full certainty. Being guided, for example, solely by the Utilitarian approach, we can come to the conclusion that downsizing is not unethical, because consequently the benefits are greater than the damage. Kants supporters would disagree, saying that consequences do not justify the action itself, and that downsizing is unethical, because it contradicts the very desire of people to have a source of income. Both deontological and teleological approaches are categorical in their own way. But both of them are applicable in a given scenario to a certain extent, and this is because each scenario of downsizing is individual, as well as the motives and the circumstances surrounding it, and this is why by combining the two, by creating some sort of a hybrid of ethical theories, we may be able to broaden our mind about the issue. They do not necessarily have to contradict one another, but rather fill each others gaps. For example, it makes a lot of sense to suggest that downsizing is the least harmful option when the slowdown of economy forces companies to reduce their costs to stay in the market. But is this the last resort for a business, or rather it turns to downsizing as one of the first options? In other words, were people treated as ends, rather than means? What are the intentions of the companys management? Do they intend to rehire the staff after the situation will have been stabilised? Another example such as the reorganisation, where applying the Utilitarian approach does not give us a clear understanding of the costs and benefits, we may create the formulation of maxim such as Organisations should downsize in order to eliminate duplicate jobs that have occurred due to the merger/acquisitions, which does not contradict once applied universally and is therefore rationale. However, each case should be examined separately. Companies should evaluate the consequences: whether by downsizing they are not contributing to the local unemployment rate, they should also take into the account the effects it is going to have on the remaining employees and the organisational culture as a whole.
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REFERENCES
Atwood, J., Coke E., Cooper, C., and Loria K. (1996) Has downsizing gone too far? University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, USA. Available at: <http://faculty.css.edu/dswenson/web/downsize.html> [Accessed 19 May 2012]. Bowie, N.E. (n.d.) Business Ethics and Normative Theories. [pdf] Available at: <http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ content/BPL_Images/Content_store/Sample_chapter/1405101024%5C001.pdf> [Accessed 24 May 2012]. Carriga, E. and Mele, D. (n.d.) Corporate Social Responsibility Theories: Mapping the Territory. [pdf] Available at: <http:// www.cs.unitn.it/~andreaus/bs1112/garriga_mel%C3%A9.pdf> [Accessed 20 May]. Field, R. (1999) A Practical Guide to Ethical Theory, Northwest Missouri State University. Available at: <http://catpages. nwmissouri.edu/m/rfield/274guide/title.htm> [Accessed 20 May 2012]. Freeman, R. (1998) Boeing layoffs usher in new phase of production collapse, EIR, 25(50) [Online]. Available at: <https://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1998/eirv25n50-19981218/eirv25n50-19981218_004-boeing_ layoffs_usher_in_new_phas.pdf> [Accessed 19 May 2012]. IBS Center for Management Research (2002) Employee Downsizing. Available at: <http://www.icmrindia.org/free%20 resources/casestudies/employee-downsizing-3.htm> [Accessed 19 May 2012]. Prague College/Teesside University (2012) B.A. Business Ethics and Corporate Governance. Readings and Case Studies, Prague College, Prague. Project on Government Oversight (1997) Boeing McDonnell Douglas: A Merger Too Far. Available at: <http://www. pogo.org/pogofiles/alerts/national-security/ns-dcm-19970101.html> [Accessed 25 May 2012]. The Boeing Company (2012) The Boeing Company. Available at: <http://www.boeing.com/> [Accessed 19 May 2012]. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2008) Kants Moral Phylosophy. Available at: <http://plato.stanford.edu/ entries/kant-moral/#ForUniLawNat> [Accessed 26 May 2012].
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Does inDiviDual moral responsibility leaD to collective moral responsibility?
DOES INDIvIDUAL MORAL RESPONSIBILITY LEAD TO COLLECTIvE MORAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ORGANISATIONS?
TAMARA AYRAPETOVA BACkGROUND In this essay the author will look at ethics and its application to business operations on different levels (individual, corporate, and systematic issues). She will devote specific attention to the way individual and collective responsibility is linked to each other. What is individual responsibility and does collective responsibility has a place to be in todays business world. To start this essay the author would like to look at the ethics itself, what is it and how it affects our vision of things. Ethics is a part of philosophy that deals with our moral obligations and beliefs. As most of the philosophy it starts from setting questions, which are in need of answers. Those questions in ethics lead to determining what is right and what is wrong from the moral sense. Ethics tries to question things or actions, which sometimes people predetermine to be morally right or wrong just because they think that those are like that by definition. Ethics seeks for rational and logical conclusions, in the actions and decision which we are facing every day. The interesting fact about ethics is that it does not open anything new to us. What it does is question and examine things we already know. According to Socrates, the unexamined life is not worth living (Plato, 5e-6a, after 399 BC). Ethics is mainly dealing with the moral norms and moral duties individuals have to each other. Ethics investigates how relevant or irrelevant human actions are in reference to the consequences they bring (consequentialism) or the rules and principles governing them (categorical or deontological approaches). Ethics is a normative study, which means that it tries to come to some normative conclusion, in most cases on whatever is right or wrong, and this is what makes ethics so important in our lives. In all the world and in all of life there is nothing more important to determine than what is right. Whatever the matter which lies before us calling for consideration, whatever the question asked us or the problem to be solved, there is some settlement of it which will meet the situation and is to be sought (Lewis, 1995)
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The word ethics takes its roots from the Greek word ethos, whereas morality comes from Latin word mores. Both of the words take their meaning from the idea of custom or moral behavior. (Pojman & Fisher, Ethics Discovering Right and Wrong, 6e) Even though in general ethics is about our moral values and actions, it is important to remember that those are defined differently depending on the theories (deontological and teleonotological). This essay will link the ethics of individual responsibility with the collective moral responsibility in the organisations. What the author finds essential to understand in this topic is the notion of individual responsibility when one enters the business environment. What role he/she plays and on which behalf the actions are performed is paramount. It is also crucial to see the way individuals are connected in organisational context and if this connection actually means that we can have collective moral responsibility and as the result to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). To start a discussion on wherever individual moral responsibility leads to collective moral responsibility and is there any collective responsibility at all? The author of this essay would like to first of all define what is a moral responsibility and discuss the concept of moral agency and individual moral responsibility as well as their direct connection. Then she will look at the concept of collective moral responsibility and the way it is built on the previous concepts. She will also look at the concept of CSR which is directly connected with the collective moral responsibility in organisations. In the end, a conclusion will be drawn. 1. MORAL RESPONSIBILITY
The concept of moral responsibility is essential to understand if we are talking about individual and collective moral responsibility. When any of us is judging any kind of action we usually tend to give this action a value of good or bad and assign a responsibility for this action to someone who was involved. Responsibility comes from moral obligations and certain commitments and obligations we have to each other. Those obligations might come from cultural, religious views, or some society standards. To be morally responsible for something, say an action, is to be worthy of a particular kind of reaction praise, blame, or something akin to thesefor having performed it (Eshleman, 2009). One of the key concepts one has to understand here is the difference between causal and moral responsibility. To understand the difference better let us look at the simple example: 1. The flood has been responsible for all of the damages in Prague. 2. The car crash damages due to the drunk driver. One can see a very big difference between those two. The first example illustrates purely the connection between the hurricane and the harm whereas the second one also assumes obligations and other moral responsibilities towards the action. The concept of moral responsibility is very complex and consists of the following factors: The concept, or idea, of moral responsibility itself; (1) (2) The criteria for being a moral agent; (3) The conditions under which the concept of moral responsibility is properly applied, (e.g., a moral agent can be responsible for an action he/she has performed only if he/she performed it freely); and (4) Possible objects of responsibility ascriptions (e.g., actions, omissions, consequences, character traits, etc.)(Eshleman, 2009).
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Those conditions are building blocks of moral responsibility and are the key to understanding of individual and collective moral responsibility. As it has been mentioned above each action or obligation is assigned to specific moral agent, who either performs it or fails to perform it. In case of individual responsibility the connection between the action and moral agent is pretty straight forward; however when looking at the collective responsibility, the extent to which each member contributes to the decision and action is hard to observe. That is why there is a debate wherever one can call a group/collective a moral agent. 1.1 A CONCEPT OF MORAL AGENCY AND INDIvIDUAL MORAL RESPONSIBILITY The concept of moral agency has a key role to play in ethics and the understanding of moral action and consequences of any act. It is mainly vital for assigning praise or blame. Moral agent in a simple meaning of this concept is a person or an entity performing an act, or deciding to perform some kind of action, which is ought to be taken as morally right or wrong. According to this concept a moral agent is acting upon some duties, obligations or set of moral rules he/she finds right. Those standards and obligations might differ from person to person and are called either moral values or moral norms.
One who qualifies generally as an agent open to responsibility ascriptions (e.g., only beings possessing the general capacity to evaluate reasons for acting can be moral agents) (Eshleman, 2009)
There are different types of moral agents. Not always an agent has a free choice to make or for against a certain action he/she performs. An agent with free choice is called a Free Agent, and this type of agent can do as he/she wishes to do without any constraints or influences; however this does not include moral influences like codes of ethics and moral obligations. Understanding this concept is very important since moral agent can be responsible for an action only if he/she performed it freely.
Moral agent can be responsible for an action she has performed only if she performed it freely, where acting freely entails the ability to have done otherwise at the time of action (Eshleman, 2009)
According to Aristotle (384323 BCE), a voluntary or also called free action has also another characteristic.
An agent must be aware of what it is she is doing or bringing into being (Eshleman, 2009)
This characteristic makes it harder to make someone liable for an act since they might not know exactly what they bring about but negative consequences may still be present. Later the statement has been developed into more specific and in-depth, where a moral agent could only be responsible for an action if he/she possessed a capacity for the decision. This type of statement changes the picture of moral responsibility as a whole. It makes it harder, especially in collectives and groups, to find the one responsible for an action, but it also makes it fairer in a sense of overall responsibility. It also forwards the question of should the individuals in the collectives be held liable for their specific decisions and actions (which means no collective responsibility), or should the collectives or groups held liable for all of the actions individuals inside of it perform. To give a reasonable answer to this question one needs to investigate if collective moral responsibility can exist.
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1.2 THE CONCEPT OF COLLECTIvE MORAL RESPONSIBILITY Collective moral responsibility refers to actions, which had been performed by more than one individual. It can be an organisation, team or other groups of people. Collective moral responsibility unlike the individual does not necessarily mean that there has been a contributory fault of the entire group, which makes it hard to assign responsibility and obligations for some of the decisions. Collective moral responsibility has been always under a big discussion, and many philosophers hold that all of the actions still lead to individuals inside the collectives. One of the biggest discussions has been due to the concept of moral agency and the existence of group intentions and group decisions. The second important discussion aroused about moral blameworthiness. 2. CAN COLLECTIvES BE MORAL AGENTS?
In the case of collective moral agency there are two types of views; some of the philosophers believe that collectives cannot be taken as moral agents, some that collectives are moral agents and as the result can be held responsible for the actions they perform. The important idea here is that if collectives are not moral agents we cannot assign any responsibility to them. 2.1 ARGUMENTS FOR COLLECTIvE MORAL AGENCY There is a big discussion between professional about whether something like collective or group responsibility can exist. Some of the philosophers take their reasoning from the theory behind moral agency. They argue that groups of individuals cannot have collective actions and intentions. H.D. Lewis (1948) highlighted that groups cannot hold beliefs or make choices since they do not have a mind of their own. Lewis also argued that value belongs to the individuals and it is individuals who are the sole bearer of moral responsibility. The idea behind this argument is that of individualism, which holds that individuals should not be blamed on the bases of someone elses actions. This type of thought was held by most of the classical methodological individualists like Max Weber (1914) and H.D. Lewis (1948). If this is true then no organisation or institution can be held responsible for the actions perform, since there is no such a thing as collective responsibility. However, this type of approach has been lately argued and according to J. Angelo Corlett (2001), there is collective responsibility since there is a collective action. Collective action is an action caused by the beliefs and desires of the collective itself, whether or not such beliefs and desires can be accounted or explained in individualistic terms (Corlett 2001). Peter French also argues that collective responsibility should be true due to the fact that some of the actions cannot be assigned to individuals. Such actions most of the times are results of collective decision like elections of the President. According to Marry Lay (1987) one can have collective responsibility only when individuals in collective are related, which is possible in the cases of corporate social responsibility inside the organisations and institutions. May also sets 2 conditions: 1. The first condition is those individuals involved in collective action would be related in such a way so that they could not perform this action by their own. 2. The second condition is that some of the individuals will be authorised to represent their individual actions as the actions of the group (May, 1987).
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Both of these conditions can be easily applied in the working environment, where employees are related exactly in a way that they cannot perform certain actions by their own, as the result they cannot be responsible individually. Looking at the second point specific employees inside of organisation, do have ability to present their own actions as group actions, like actions of managers and CEOs. But even though we might have collective actions what about collective intentions and the group mind? Some philosophers stick to a classical believe that groups cannot have minds in any sense other than the minds of individuals inside the group, which makes it useless to talk about collective moral responsibility, when it again comes back to our individual obligations. The defenders of collective responsibility though say that there is a possibility of group intentions. David Velleman in his works calls this concept truly plural subject, Raimo Tuomela defines we intentions and collective subject, which can be also seen in the Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes (1651). The later works of Larry May and other philosophers argue that group intentions may not be necessarily of the same type as traditional individual intentions. This type of assumption brings the argument or for against collective moral responsibility on a new level. May (1987 and 2006) comes up with his own way of describing group intentions, which now combines both approaches of individualism and collectivism. Larry May (1987) calls these intentions pre-reflective. What is specifically important here is that the origin of this type of intention comes from the relationship between the members of the collective, which again comes back to the earlier argument of May, where he says that collectives can be taken as a moral agents if and only if there is a relationship between them (ex. a connection where one is dependent on the other). All of the defenders of collective moral responsibility though do not say that all of the groups are able to act collectively and have collective intentions. All that they say is that some specific kinds of groups can be acting collectively, and as the result be responsible for the consequences of their acts. 2.2 ARGUMENTS AGAINST COLLECTIvE MORAL AGENCY Many philosophers of mainly individualistic approaches argue that moral responsibility of a group or collective always comes back to the individual responsibility inside the collective. The argument is that collectives do not have an ability to make moral choices by themselves. H.D. Lewis (1948) argues that actions relate strictly to individuals and he also states that groups do not have minds of their own and due to this are not able to decisions and have beliefs. The same view is held by Watkins (1957). Most of the critics of collective moral responsibility look at the collective actions and forget to look at the nature of blame. R.S. Downie (1969) focused at the moral blameworthiness. The point he was trying to make is that collectives do not have moral faults, since they do not make moral choices. To have moral responsibility one must have blameworthiness and immoral decision (Downie, 1969). Other critics like Naverson (2002) argue that only the individual can have moral agency and only moral agent can perform morally right or wrong acts. According to the argument brought about by Larry May (1987), individuals do stay as the only moral agents, since they are the only agents who are able to perform actions. However, he gives a new view on this by saying that collectives are not that much agents, they are rather a process which as the result produces actions. Those actions according to May are formulated by the structure of the corporation and can be called corporate actions. This type of agency is more an event agency, which means it is based on the performed activities and processes. Most of the contradictors of collective moral responsibility still agree that in a limited number of cases it has a place to be. However, what they are trying to specify is that there are a number of mismatches arising when one admits that collectives do not have mental lives.
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3. INDIvIDUAL TO COLLECTIvE MORAL RESPONSIBILITY THROUGH CSR
Most of the time collective moral responsibility in organisations is represented by the sum of the responsibility of each individual member. This argument for collective moral responsibility is directly built on the individual responsibility, taking into account the roles and the hierarchy of decision making of the organisation. This concept is very logical when looking at it but makes it hard to quantify the degree of moral responsibility assigned to each individual. It is also true that till now there is no model which could help to prove this approach. In this essay the author decide to look from another perspective. She decided to look at the Corporate Social Responsibility and through this concept prove existence of Collective Moral Responsibility. In the 20th century there has been a great change in the way cooperation work and grow. Due to their rapid development and growth, their activities and power largely increased. The society had started to be concerned with the way companies work and operate, specifically the harm they might bring to the society while performing their business activities. Many people have noticed that the influence of the big organisations grew with the years, but the responsibilities for their actions still stayed in the boundaries of legislation of the land they are operating in. This has led to new discussion about new concept of corporate social responsibility of companies towards the society. The concept of corporate social responsibility has been firstly mentioned only in the 1960s and has been very theoretically based through the 1990s. The big change came from the side of civil society groups, which were fighting for better management of the effects of the business operations. The concept of corporate social responsibility is closely linked to the collective moral responsibility in organisations. When we are talking about making collectives liable/responsible for their actions most of the times we are talking about their obligations and behaviour towards society. Nowadays, we can see increasing attention of customers, employees, and other stakeholder groups towards the CSR of the organisations. CSR is a growing trend in todays business world. It is used for consumer branding, employer branding and is a key to a good reputation of an organisation. The existence of this concept is no more argued. Since we know that CSR exists, we can build this very simple logical assumption: If collective moral responsibility would not exist, CSR would not have place to exist, since organisations are collectives. This can be transformed into a simpler sentence if collective responsibility then CSR.
q if p
Where: p is collective moral responsibility and q is CSR Assuming that q is CSR and p is collective moral responsibility; let us discuss this logical status by formalising it as follows:
if q then p
Here it is important to mention concepts of necessary condition and sufficient condition. Necessary condition means that variable X would not exists without variable D, in other words, an absence of D would mean an absence of X. To say that X is a sufficient condition of D means that the existence of X guarantees the presence of D. Looking at our implication we can say that p is a necessary condition whereas q is a sufficient condition. Since q (CSR) is sufficient condition, and we know it exists in various formats, then it would follow by modus ponens, that p (collective moral responsibility) must also exist.
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4. CONCLUSIONS
The main aim of this essay was to investigate if individual moral responsibility leads to collective moral responsibility in organisations. Looking at everything covered in this essay the author can conclude that organisational structure and culture very much incorporates the possibility of collective moral responsibility. Looking at the two factors of Larry May mentioned in this essay (page 8), the author would convey that groups/teams inside organisations are the most suitable types of collectives for applying this concept. The structure of an organisation provides the relationship between the employees and team workers in a specific way that they are actually related in their actions. This creates so called collective action. This relationship also creates intentions of not only individual type but a group type, where each of the members follows the same pattern of thinking. What is also crucial is that all of organizations have representative bodies, which also shows that according to the concept of Larry May, they can be held liable for their decisions. In this essay the author has listed the arguments and for against the concept of collective moral responsibility. She has also touched a concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which in the case of organisations, implies the concept of collective moral responsibility. This concept is extremely important in todays business environment. It is used for various purposes and has proved its existence. From the authors point of view, CSR is directly connected with collective responsibility, since organisations are collectives. CSR is one of the most important applications of collective moral responsibility in practice. By building a simple assumption CSR then collective moral responsibility and using a method of logical deduction, the proved if existence of collective moral responsibility occurred. To conclude, the author would like to assert that increasing value and concern towards Corporate Social Responsibility and its implications will have to lead to a creation of relevant, practical, logical, and ethical framework of identifying the notion of collective moral responsibility and giving it a measure, which has not existed before.
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REFERENCES
Aristotle, (1985) The Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by Terence Irwin. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co. Downie, R. S., (1969) Collective Responsibility, Philosophy 44: 6669. Eshleman, A. (2009), Moral Responsibility, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2009 Edition) (Available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-responsibility/) (Accessed on 16.04.12). French, P. (1984) Collective and Corporate Responsibility. New York: Columbia University Press. Friedman, M. and May, L. (1985) Harming Women as a Group, Social Theory and Practice, 11: 218221. Hobbes, T. (1651), Leviathan, New York: Penguin, 1968. Journal of Law and Policy (2010), From Moral Agency to Collective Wrongs; Re-thinking Collective Moral Responsibility, Volume 19. Lewis, C.I. (1955) The Ground and the Nature of Right. New York: Columbia University Press. Lewis, H.D. (1948) Collective Responsibility, Philosophy, 24: 318. Louis, P. Pojman & James, Fisher. (2005) Ethics Discovering Right and Wrong, 6e. May, L. and Hoffman, S. (eds.), (1991) Collective Responsibility: Five Decades of Debate in Theoretical and Applied Ethics, Savage, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. May, L. (1992) Sharing Responsibility. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Plato (after 399 BC) Euthyphro, 5e-6a. Weber, M. (1914) Economy and Society, Vol. 1, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
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MINI COOPER
MINI COOPER: CURRENT MARkETING STRATEGY, DIGITAL MARkETING APPROACH, THE BRAND & ETHICAL vALUES
OXANA SRIBNYAK ABSTRACT This paper aims to analyse the MINIs case study to discover which marketing tools have best served to build a world-class iconic car brand. Using knowledge learned over the marketing course, their current marketing strategy will be analysed in detail. The second part will then critically examine the digital marketing approach of the MINI to answer the question of what are the benefits to MINI from such a broad approach? Drawing on the MINI case study, the paper will explore how emotions are used in marketing to build loyalty to the brand. MINIs successful brand performance, and the spirit created by its brand, the values and beliefs of typical MINIs buyers will be investigated in detail. The paper will also highlight the ethical values of the MINI Company and conclude with opinions about why some car companies put so much emphasis on conducting their business in an ethical manner.
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MINI COOPER
1. INTRODUCTION
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself. - Peter F. Drucker Marketing affects everyone, every day, and in all areas of life. It is the key driver for bringing people goods and services they desire, and includes many different industrial activities, including marketing research, product development, organisation of resource distribution, pricing strategies, press and public relations, advertising and personal selling, a long supply chain that ends in the sale. Marketing influences more than just retailers and buyers, but even non-buyers, via impacts on the common environment. But to distill it simply, marketings main objectives can be identified as the following: To achieve the highest possible consumption rates, to achieve maximum customer perceptions of satisfaction, to provide consumers with the widest selection possible in the most cost efficient manner, and to maximize the quality of lifestyle (Peter Drucker, 2006). Many believe the highest ideal must be to improve the quality of life, but as world famous management consultant Peter Drucker noted, the primary aim of marketing is to better understand customers in order to sell them more products. That is why marketers, the actual people funding the marketing industry, measure the success of campaigns in terms of units moved, not lives improved: MINIs introduction into the worldwide market ended in 2002 with more that 144,000 cars sold, which went beyond the expectations of BMW Group and continues significantly to our success (Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, 2003). What drives the sales of so many MINIs? Is it so well made that success comes easily? Or is it something more that they sell to consumers, for example the spirit or lifestyle? These and other questions will now be explored on the next page of this paper. 2. ANALYSIS OF MINIS CURRENT MARkETING STRATEGY
After WWII, Europe saw the immediate rise of demand for affordable cars for the general public, and advances in wartime production brought new processes of production to the consumer production lines. Across resource-poor Europe, compact car production sprang up, and in the British market, the MINI was born. The project, under the guiding influence of Anglo-Greco car designer Sir Alec Issagonis, launched in 1959 as the UKs first fuel-efficient car. Highly customisable without losing its unique character, (a unique selling point throughout the life of the brand), after two years zooming around British streets, the MINI launched a sportier racing version developed by legendary track-racer John Cooper, the MINI Cooper, cementing their popularity with the public. Thus this British everymans car became known as the masculine, small utility car with maximum interior space, a fun road adventure on wheels; a driving experience which to this day influences the brands marketing positioning. MINI thrived as an icon around the world for Cool Britannia, through the Beatles wave in the 60s, spy movies of the 70s, road trip movies of the 80s, to British comedies of the 90s. Then, in 2002, an effort began to revitalise the brand, bringing back the retro image of the MINI, modernising it and targeting it to those most likely to share the same brand values of the company.
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MINI COOPER
Successful marketing requires vision and resources to develop successful strategies, and while most do not know that the initial designer of the MINI was related to then BMW Director Bernd Pischetsrieder, few today know that todays MINI is a brand owned by the BMW Group, which successfully brought their legendary branding philosophies and resources into effect to develop an integrated marketing strategy that has seen the brand exceed all market expectations (Motor Trader, 2012). 2.1 MARkETING SEGMENTATION Marketing segmentation breaks down the general market into distinct groups, aka target markets, each requiring different products and influenced by different marketing approaches (Jobber, 2007). For cost effectiveness, businesses divide markets into manageable segments defined by socioeconomic and cultural factors to better understand consumer demand. MINI has developed their cars to be highly attractive to their target market, and yet still spends tens of millions of dollars each year to ensure effectively reaching those right buyers. This is because smart marketers like MINI know that focusing on the right segment is essential for sales, so they use strategic market segmentation to increase profitability. By pricing their cars in the MSRP range of $19,500 to $35,000, they use the classical models of price discrimination to maximise profitability. With no master method of segmentation, ensuring the target is profitable enough requires experimenting with differing pricing options, further segmenting the market to find the sweet spot pricing approaches that increase sales without reducing profitability. MINI, with a 360 degree marketing approach, uses a full arsenal of tools in segmenting consumer markets along geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral lines (Jobber, 2007). Segmentation by geography. By breaking down markets into geographical units: state, regions, counties, cities, even neighborhoods, MINI has the option to act locally, across a region, or even globally, tailoring their branding message to meet the differences in needs and preferences as defined by geography. Segmentation by demographic lines. Using digital and direct mail to collect data on those most likely to buy, MINI has been very effective in breaking down target markets into groupings based on statistical variables such as gender, age, family size, family life-cycle stage, income levels, occupation, education, religion, race, and nationality. This method is most popular in defining consumers because determining needs and preferences, even consumption frequency, is most often closely associated with demographic characteristics. Psychographic segmentation. This is where MINIs marketing advantage comes into play, as parent company BWM has long divided buyers into groups based upon social class, upbringing, lifestyle, and likely personality characteristics in order to sell them higher-priced models over their lifetimes. Niche marketing is a more expensive customer acquisition method, but offers the best ROI for high-ticket items like automobiles. Segmentation of behavioural principles. Also known as consumer behavior, is based on the behavioural characteristics of all buyers, and drives MINIs global marketing strategy. Dividing groups according to patterns of usage and measured reactions to the products, in terms of costs, is the most affordable basis for forming mass-marketing strategies. MINI claims that they do not identify their customers as a single specific demographic, but since the 2002 re-branding they have chosen to market in each country with differing advertising agencies, which means de facto segmentation (Simm and Trott, 2006). According to AdAge Magazine, January 2012, they have called for an agency review, meaning their current year advertising will be in a holding pattern as they focus all of their resources on finding the right agency to bring all their marketing under one roof.
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MINIs global marketing strategy to date, dealing with so many fragmented global markets, keeps in mind that very few cars reach out to so many consumers from such diverse walks of life (MINI Marketing, 2012). But that same fragmentation makes it necessary to use localised approaches to aggressively grow the market share in markets where some segments do not exist; not every market has developed to the same level of product awareness and familiarity. At the core of MINIs global strategy is segmentation by demographics. The first are young affluents, in the 20-34-age range: Novelty seekers, adventurous and active, they want to stand out and their car helps them do so. They are fashion-oriented, and want a car that reflects their style. The MINI brand matches their attitude and is edgy, fun, and exciting (The MINI Story, 2012). Slightly older, the second group spans the 35-50 segment, affluent with a progressive worldview. More practical and experienced in life, cars like the MINI are likely to be an additional car, something for their teen children or significant others. The third group is MINI enthusiasts who love the brand passionately, typically a result of fond memories from youth. This segment makes MINI a legacy brand, with 9 out of 10 Brits having at one point enjoyed riding in one, so it is only natural that BMW ensured that the styling of the new car evokes those memories in a way to drives sales and strengthen brand loyalty. 2.2 TARGET MARkETING MINI focuses its global strategy on these core targets, researching constantly in order to best profitably engage them via marketing strategies such as: mass marketing (or undifferentiated marketing), differentiated marketing, niche marketing (or concentrated marketing) and micro marketing. Mass marketing, aka branding, allows MINI to ignore differences in market segmentation by selling to the greatest number of customers using standardised global marketing programmes. MINI can use this strategy because their products are famous worldwide, and the pool of potential buyers is large. Differentiated marketing allows MINI to approach several market segments simultaneously, each with a unique approach. Cheaper versions might be sold where GDP is lower, larger models targeted to rural audiences, etc. These marcom activities, using insights on the specifics of particular markets, provide better results, but can be costlier, so constantly measuring effectiveness for these promotions is essential. Concentrated marketing (target) allows better focus on large portions of one or more submarkets and involves cherry picking the most promising audiences to market to. Instead of the shotgun approach across many markets, MINI focuses on increasing sales where there is more chance of a sale. In market after market, once MINI is established, they then switch focus to other potential growth markets. Considering the demands, the amount spent determines the amount of advertising localisation, and often price reductions and special sales at the dealer level comprise the whole of the marketing effort in some markets (MINI, 2012). To help dealerships, micro-marketing is used; a strategy where ad-spend is focused on niche groups of desirable consumers. Micromarketing requires defining an audience by things like residential areas or career ranks, and tailoring limited campaigns to that particular segment. Involving significantly more cost due to customisation and tracking, with many executions done repeatedly, so digital and direct mail are the main avenues of this approach.
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A look at MINIs advertising shows that the primary focus is on the younger consumer, both affluent and those aspiring to be. When it comes to differentiating these two, the approach is identical, with the aspiring affluent consumer sometimes even more motivated to invest in a product that reflects their selfperceptions, even if that means decreasing spending in other areas. Compare this with luxury brand BMW, targeting professional-class car buyers, especially singles or those with child-raising years behind them, a segment usually with more disposable income (Simm and Trott, 2006). MINI especially appeals to the fun seekers, even though MINI describes their ideal as being someone just taking off in their career, younger and ambitious, and image conscious. Owning a MINI helps them showcase their success, reflecting their personal style and cosmopolitan worldview. So whether young or old, MINI keeps this at the forefront of the consumers perception in all its mass-marketing approaches. 2.3 MARkETING POSITIONING Marketing Positioning is the process by which marketers define the product in the publics mind, distinct in relation to other competing products (E. Rice and J. Trout, 1972). This works on the presumption that given too many choices, consumers are generally unable to desire the next new product or service. In order for consumers to imagine the benefits of new products, space in the mind (mindshare) must be released, by closing off knowledge of similar offerings. MINIs success is a result of positioning their brand in alignment with the legacy of the brand as defined by the publics perceptions, differentiating the brand as unique from competitive offerings, dominating their niche, separate from and different to the competition. Elevating mindshare helps potential customers identify the product with a personality, with the ultimate goal of elevating it to a preference, or affinity. So if MINI were a person, you would say they are sneaky, clever, fun, daring, cheeky, even trouble makers. MINI positions itself as sporty & fun, and at the same time as fashionable & trendy. Since 1960, across all media, MINI was positioned as the spunky, masculine, compact motorsport champion. Mass Media showing iconic celebrity MINI owners exemplified the lifestyle, a strategy revitalised via strategic film placement in the 2003 remake of The Italian Job, when they positioned the MINI as a car fast enough to quickly escape quickly the scene of a bank heist. This was not just a chance role, but part of a long term branding strategy: film placements are an attractive way to target specific audiences, such as teenagers, and they allow firms to expose their products to consumers who would not normally pay attention to the brand (Reibstein, Day and Wind, 2009). 2.4 MARkETING DIFFERENTIATION Differentiation serves to make products unique, focusing on its USP (Unique Selling Points) to make it stand out and outshine the competition. With increasing awareness over the price of petrol and the polluting of the environment, demand for fuel-efficient compact cars has steadily grown. While cheaper and weaker cars have filled that demand for many years, MINIs quality and perceived masculinity helped them dominate the segment as the premium compact car. But competition grows as demand grows, and the field now includes the VW Beetle, the VW Golf GTI, Alfa Romeo Mito, Fiats 500, the BMW 1-Series, Audis A3, and Mazdas Miata series (Simm and Trott, 2006). Rivaling MINIs niche most strongly is VWs Polo, the Smart Car, and the BMW1. Peugeots 207 and the VW Polo have taken the most market share from the MINI, but they lack MINIs lifestyle cache, and their purchase motivators lean more towards the practical (Simm and Trott, 2006). For lifestyle motivators, MINIs main competition comes from the Beetle and the Smart Car, which appeal to the same consumer, but have just a fraction of the market share of the MINI.
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Moving forward, MINIs new Countryman is a Crossover, (a SUV with passenger vehicle features). Functionality is the key USP for this category, and Countryman brings to the table 50 years of MINI legacy and the promise of high performance fun. This is how MINI Countryman stands out from others: There are cars you use to go to special places. There are cars that are so special, only special people can have them. Then there are cars that turn a simple chore, such as sitting in your car to drive, into a special experience (MINI Education, 2012). Expanding a unique personality and lifestyle perception for this new brand will dominate the marketing efforts once a new global advertising agency is selected in 2012. Thus, the main tools of differentiation - promotional advertising and branding - are brought to the forefront, as this researcher will now go into in more detail. 3. THE DIGITAL MARkETING APPROACH
Advertising and promoting products via the growing number of digital channels is called Digital Marketing a data-driven approach measured in real time, making it a highly-strategic method, rapidly rivaling traditional channels. According to McMains (2012), MINI has narrowed their search as of May 2012 to four advertising agencies, but excluded from this search was the digital work, which is staying with Beam Interactive, whose success can be seen by their effective leveraging of the above the line campaigns into online advertising focusing on the core branding platforms of prestige and motion. MINIs online campaigns mesh perfectly with the print & TV campaigns, the captivating cinema ads, and outdoor experiential advertising, except in one notable incident in February 2012, when their German digital agency Sassenbach came up with what seemed a great idea to build awareness of the wind and weather proof aspects of the MINI. The digitally-driven exercise involved paying a sponsorship fee to name the cold front Cooper after the Mini Cooper, and then encouraging consumers to follow the storms path on meteorological websites, unaware at the time that the cold front would result in hundreds of deaths. MINI may win many awards for their advertising efforts, but sometimes their attention grabbing digital campaigns necessitate an official apology instead (BBC News Europe, 2012). Such is the importance of digital as a marketing channel, and MINI has successfully used digital marketing in many new and exciting ways, like MINI Frances Google Maps Racing Advergame and NickleFishs 50th Anniversary mobile app game. MINIs global agency oversees production of display banners matching the current ATL campaigns, all directing consumers to microsites built around the brand. MINIs home site serves a very important role as it funnels fans towards their own MINI purchase. Much has been spent to ensure a well-designed interface reflective of the wider brand image, with engagement features like the Design your own MINI tool, or the interactive MINI story which allows users to Bring a bit of MINI into their life with free games, screensavers and stylish wallpapers (MINI Education, 2012). Another channel for localised internet marketing are dealers websites, and MINIs guidelines ensures that dealer sites match the parent site consistently in tone and look, a difficult task when so many different national agencies are used, each responding to different multicultural marketing consultancies insights, but overall, brand discipline is maintained across markets by internal audits by MINIs brand managers, who are ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance with global standards.
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Once visitors have made contact, direct mail campaigns come into effect, like the one in 2006 tempting buyers with exclusive offers and an invitation to that years Motor Show. DM is only as effective as the mailing list, and MINI constantly measures consumer response rates and ensures details are current. Recently, they mailed customers requesting confirmation of their personal contact details, offering them free handwriting analysis via handwriting competition entry forms, the winner getting a personalised adventure weekend (MINI Education, 2006). All these engagement strategies, executed in an across-the-board manner, serve one function: to drive the highest sales results for MINI at the lowest cost. Each discipline works in unity towards that goal, from branding and environmental advertising to raise awareness, to digital campaigns to collect potential consumer data for deeper personal selling efforts. Digital is just a small fraction of the overall marketing budget, but when used correctly can have outsized results during the most crucial phase of the integrated marketing effort, to collect leads for potential buyers. MINIs award winning digital efforts have given them a competitive advantage in this aspect, and will continue to play an important role in future initiatives.
4. THE SPIRIT OF MINI, EMOTIONS, AND THE BRAND 4.1 MOTIvATIONS AND EMOTIONS The core strategy is to position MINI with a singular focus: as a great fun-to-drive car, affordable yet upscale, and to channel customers through their life stages into becoming, eventually, lifetime BMW consumers (MINI, 2012). Consumer motivation is the driving force behind that effort and advertising directs this behavior. Personality is reflected by the general reactions a person exhibits in response to an ongoing situation, based upon emotions, the strong, relatively uncontrolled feelings that affect our behavior (Kapferer, 2004). These factors are intertwined and difficult to separate. For example, a self-confident consumer (personal characteristic) needs self-affirmation (motivation) so they seek situations that allow them to feel powerful (an emotional response). Self perception is the strongest factor in motivation, personality, and emotions. Motivation is an invisible, implicit inner strength, enabling behavioural responses, providing specific direction for reactions. Not readily visible, their existence can be determined based upon a customers purchasing decisions (Kapferer, 2004). Personality, being the sum of our emotions, is very strong, making it possible to effectively push someone to consume. The vividness of such a collection of emotions, so important to the individual, causes companies to tie their brand experience to a recognisable personality as well, to build a consumer relationship (Kapferer, 2004). Emotions in general are controversial. Creative advertising leaves you feeling that you are in love with the product. It is an experience of brightly colored emotions. But can companies really make someone fall in love with their brand? As the term Lovemarks by Kevin Roberts, CEO of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi shows, in the post-brand world, the answer is very much yes. Someone might buy Product A based upon price considerations, but will spend more for Product B for emotional reasons, even though each product is of similar quality and cost of manufacture. This is why many manufactures spend more on marketing than they do on making their products.
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4.2 BRAND AND EMOTIONS Marketing, done correctly, links the brand with consumers emotions, but how best to do this? Sometimes it is as simple as showing a model representative of the target group expressing how the brand meets their personal needs. Sometimes social proof is required, a demonstration in the context of the peer group. But regardless how, the goal is clear; to make the brand and personal value synonymous. Is this mind control? Very much so, but all is fair in love and business (Kapferer, 2004). An intensely competitive marketplace pushes companies to take advantage of all technologies of influence, and linking brands emotionally is the only one effective over the long term. Simple familiarisation with the MINI brand shows how everyone can feel the strength of the connection between the brand and its emotional profile. This is because people buy more than just a car when they buy a MINI. They are buying a spirit, a set of values reflecting the beliefs they express to the world about who they are (MINI Education, 2012). This is seen in MINIs strategic vision: Match the emotional power of the original mythic model with the technology of the future. Another branding strategic vision is: To allow people to drive in safety a mythical car while giving it their personal touch, finding everywhere a place to park, and preserving the environment. More than just transportation, drivers seek out the MINI to express themselves. People notice the MINI because its iconic design evokes emotional responses, known as an emotional modifier (Simm and Trott, 2006). The same amount of money could be spent on marketing that does not evoke, but to get real value for the marketing effort requires keeping the emotive drives of consumers at the forefront of the marketing effort via analytical understanding of the target consumer, and reaching them with world-class creative executions based on those strategical insights.
5. THE ETHICAL vALUES OF MINI As a proud legacy brand, MINI places a lot of value on relationships, from sales associates, the community, the consumer, to the environment. A strong ethical foundation underlies the parent companys standards for managing the companys social, environmental, and economic footprint. Key to relationships is communication, and communicating their social and ethical standards provides them with many marketing opportunities (Onkvisit and Shaw, 1993). A look at the parent companys corporate philosophy shows the balance they seek: In this respect, companies must ensure that their traditional focus on corporate profits and shareholder value is accompanied by equal concern for the needs of society and the environment (BMW, Corporate Responsibility, 2003). While one can rightly question if the automobile industry, contributing about 10% to the worlds annual CO2 emissions (Appendix 1), could ever really be considered an ethical industry, (given car manufacturers historical resistance to fuel economy and alternative energy sources, combined with planned obsolescence to ensure frequent car repurchasing), everyone can agree that cars using less fuel is a good start, a belief core to MINIs ethical underpinning. Unlike many car brands, environmental groups generally agree that MINI is doing it right, and to capitalise on the branding aspects of their attention to the life-cycle assessment they have created a digital product differentiator that supports the eco-friendly brand position. Carfun Footprint (vs. Carbon Footprint) allows you to measure your existing cars greenness against the MINI: Your Carfun Footprint is a measure of how fun your car is versus how much impact it has on the environment. Determined by using a real equation and real math, it is, in fact, a real number. And the 37-MPG MINI Cooper has the best Carfun Footprint on the road (MINI, 2012)..
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tupungato/123RF.COM
5.1 SUSTAINABILITY AS A MANAGING PRINCIPLE As market leaders, BMW takes seriously concepts of sustainability throughout their operations, based not just on economic considerations, but social and ecological as well. Managing consumer perceptions in light of the long-term environmental damage automobiles cause is a key concern in maintaining profitability as global demand for personal vehicles grows. Their policies are well established; that resources needed by the group are to be used efficiently and sparingly; risk prevention and management is to the highest international standards; and employee actions must enhance the companys reputation in the marketplace. These goals are core to long-term profitability, so one can see why sustainability and business success go together (BMW, 2012). 5.2 USING RESOURCES RESPONSIBLY Handling resources efficiently means responsibly using production materials, water, energy, and capital sustainably, from management to manufacturing, throughout the production chain. In addition to self-audits, each supplier must conduct process audits. And as employees are the storehouse of the brands future, the BMW Group has developed long-term human-resource development strategies, ensuring employee health and well-being with many proactive programmes and practices (BMW, 2012). 5.3 RECOGNISING AND MINIMISING RISkS As a global company, they face many ecological and social risks that can significantly impact the bottom line, both economically and socially. The public at large regularly shares their concerns with companies to make clear their expectations, and these stakeholder concerns need to be addressed, not just to reduce problems, but also to discover opportunities to engage with the market profitably (BMW, 2012).
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6. CONCLUSION
It is well established in the marketplace the critical role marketing plays as one of the most important of human industries, due to its critical role in driving sales throughout the rest of the economy. According to Vranica (2010), the total global advertising spent in 2010 was $450B, making it an almost half a trillion dollar industry. Any company seeking long-term viability and a profitable return on investments of time, effort, and money will need a well developed and efficient marketing strategy to succeed, and MINIs market dominance shows strong mastery of these principles, via their well-executed and multi-channel marketing strategy. In addition to branding, they defend their market share by building a premium quality car that meets the expectations of their discriminating customers. By recognising the exponential growth in the premium compact market, MINI has successfully dominated this growing market segment (BMW, 2012). For the parent company, the re-introduction of the MINI is key to BMWs efforts to funnel their customers up the value chain and into the luxury automotive market. All channels drive future sales growth, from their legacy foundation through to their award winning digital marketing approaches, enabling MINI to cement itself in the mind of the consumer as the fun, stylish car to express yourself in. There is nothing more emotive than identifying ones self with ones possessions, and MINI has employed strong emotional appeals to connect its brand to that expression of self, in a forward-looking manner that also shows strong stewardship of the environment and society at large.
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REFERENCES
Blythe, J. (2006) Essentials of marketing communications. 3rd ed. Harlow: FT Prentice Hall Harlow Jobber, D. (2007) Principles and Practice of Marketing. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education. Hardey, M. (2012) New vision: capturing digital data and market research, International Journal of Market Research, 54(2), pp. 2-9. Gordon, R. (2012) Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing mix, Australasian Marketing Journal, 20(2), pp. 113-178. Josiassen, A., Assaf, G. and Karpen, I. (2011) Consumer ethnocentrism and willingness to buy: Analyzing the role of three demographic consumer characteristics, International Marketing Review, 28 (6), pp. 627-646. Drucker, P. (2006) Classic Drucker: The Man Who Invented Management. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Kapferer, J. (2004) The new strategic brand management. London: Kogan. Maklan, S. and Klaus, P. (2011) Customer experience: are we measuring the right things, International Journal of Market Research, 53 (6), pp. 23-29. Onkvisit, S. and Shaw, J. (1993) International Marketing: Analysis and Strategy. New York: Macmillan. Pickton, D. and Broderick, A. (2005) Integrated marketing communications. 2nd ed. Harlow: FT Prentice Hall. Riefler, P. (2012) Why consumers do (not) like global brands: The role of globalization attitude, GCO and global brand origin, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 29(1), pp. 25-34. Reibstein, D., Day, G. and Wind, J. (2009) The Worth of Product Placement in Successful Films: An Event Study Analysis, Journal of Marketing, 73(4), pp. 45-47. Simm, C. and Trott, P. (2006) The perceptions of the BMW MINI brand: the importance of association and historical model, Journal of Product & Brand Management, 15 (4), pp. 228-238. Vries., L., Gensler, S. and Leeflang, P. (2012) Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of the Effects of Social Media Marketing, Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26 (2), pp. 83-91. BBC News Europe (2012) Mini named lethal weather front Cooper in PR gaffe. [Online]. Available on: http://www.bbc. co.uk/news/world-europe-16852429 (Accessed: 18 May 2012). MINI Education (2012) About us. Available at: http://www.MINI.co.uk/about-us/ (Accessed: 11 April 2012). McMains (2012) 4 Shops Advance in Mini Cooper Review, AdWeek. [Online]. Available on: http://www.adweek.com/ news/advertising-branding/4-shops-advance-mini-cooper-review-138842 (Accessed: 18 May 2012). The MINI Story (2012) About us. Available at: http://www.MINI.co.uk/about-us/MINI-story/ (Accessed: 15 April 2012). BMW Principle Sustainability (2012) Our philosophy. Available at: http://www.bmw.com/ (Accessed: 21 April 2012). Car Franchise of the Year Award (2012) Motor trader. Available at: http://www.motortraderawards.com (Accessed: 19 April 2012). Ministry of Ownership (2012) It knows what your future holds. Available at: http://www.MINIstryofownership.co.uk/ (Accessed: 17 April 2012). Thrence, A. (2010) Advertising, Promotion, and other aspects of Integrated Marketing. Google Books [Online]. Available at: http://books.google.cz/books?id=wUB9cczGxiAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Integrated+Advertising,+Promot ion+and+Marketing+Communications&hl=cs&ei=E8SeT_zGKsLjtQbo_7iPAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=bookthumbnail&resnum=4&ved=0CEEQ6wEwAw#v=onepage&q=Integrated%20Advertising%2C%20Promotion%20 and%20Marketing%20Communications&f=false (Accessed on 04 May). The Italian Job (2003) Directed by Gary Grav [DVD]. USA: Paramount Pictures. http://www.minispace.com/en_us/ (2012) (Accessed on 01 May). Vranica, S. (2010) Ad Recovery Picks Up Speed, Journal of Media & Marketing. [Online]. Available at: http://online.wsj. com/article/SB10001424052748704049904575554701849735046.html (Accessed: 18 May 2012).
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APPENDIX 1
Figure 1: World GHG Emissions Flow Chart, 2012. Source: World Resources Institute.
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AnAlysing & criticAlly evAluAting spencer stuArts compAny strAtegy
ANALYSING & CRITICALLY EvALUATING SPENCER STUARTS COMPANY STRATEGY

SIMONA VALENTOVA 1. INTRODUCTION In todays increasingly global and competitive business environment where turbulent change, risk, and uncertainty play role in all aspects of a companys decision-making, it is harder than ever for companies to succeed (Kotler and Caslione, 2009). The ever-increasing globalisation, which is rapidly accelerated by changes in technologies such as the Internet, gives rise to new opportunities, but requires companies to constantly monitor and adjust to changing circumstances (Hillis, 2006). Therefore, in order to remain competitive, businesses need to adjust their conduct with their environment (Kotler and Caslione, 2009) for which they need a responsive business strategy (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington, 2008). This paper identifies and critically evaluates strategic techniques of a global executive search company, Spencer Stuart. It concludes with a suggestion of most appropriate strategic techniques that the company could use in the future while proposing how these should be implemented.
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2. BACkGROUND INFORMATION 2.1. THE COMPANY - OvERvIEw Spencer Stuart is one of the worlds leading executive search consulting firms. Established in 1956, the company applies its knowledge of industries, functions and talents to advise its clients (ranging from major multinationals to emerging companies to nonprofit organisations) on how to address their leadership requirements. Spencer Stuarts consultants specialise on senior-level executive searches, board director appointments, succession planning, and in-depth senior executive management assessments through 53 offices in 29 countries and a broad range of practise groups. The company has over 1,250 personnel of whom almost 300 are consultants (Spencer Stuart, 2012). Similarly to the model of the Big Fours in other more generally known industries such as the financial or legal advisory, the company is one of the top players in the area of executive search globally right next to its key competitors Korn / Ferry International, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds Associates and Egon Zehender (depending on the region). 2.2. EXECUTIvE SEARCH MARkET 2.2.1. OVERVIEW The history of the executive search industry stretches to the end of World War II. Since then it has grown into a global consulting industry with annual revenues of over $10 billion (AESC, 2009). Over the past 50 years the development of executive search has been closely linked to the market, and therefore has paralleled major trends in business, organisations, and socio-economic developments. With the increase of international trade and consequent globalisation, markets became increasingly competitive resulting in a greater need for experienced executives, who now realise that they might achieve more rapid career growth outside their alma mater (AESC, 2009). Today, internal HR departments focus on lower ranks recruitment; companies therefore seek to outsource the knowledge and art of finding the best possible solutions. Search for emerging market leaders in countries such as the CEE has become particularly strong. On top of standard executive search services, the industry is creating new forms of revenue through other leadership consulting services such as board placement and succession planning (AESC, 2009). 2.2.2 MARKET COMPARISON 2.2.2.1. Global Retained executive SeaRch RevenueS 1978-2009 With increasing globalisation resulting in major demographic shifts, looming in the western countries as the baby boomers retire, and increasing demands from emerging markets, the War for Talent predicted by McKinsey & Company some thirteen years ago has clearly arrived (AESC, 2009). This explains the almost 120% increase in global demand for executive search services from 2004 to 2008 (see Figure 1). In 2009, global retained executive search industry revenues fell by 32.5% compared to 2008 year-end figures, giving the industry an estimated $7.43 BN worth in 2009. Regardless of the economic crises considerably impacting the industry, annual revenue comparisons showed 2009 as the sixth year beston-record; placing the strength of a consulting profession in a critical demand (AESC, 2010).
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Figure 1:. Source: AESC, State of the Executive Search Industry Report, Q4 2009 & Year-End Summary.
2.2.2.2 MaRket ShaRe by ReGion, yeaR-on-yeaR tRend: Q3 2010 to Q3 2011 The executive search market in North America is more concentrated than in other continents (see Figure 2). The worldwide demand for executive search services has however significantly increased and it is now gaining greater market share in new regions such as Asia/Pacific and Latin America (AESC, 2011).
Figure 2:. Source: AESC, State of the Executive Search Industry Q3 2011.
2.2.2.3. MaRket bReakdown by induStRy, yeaR-on-yeaR tRend: Q3 2010 to Q3 2011
Figure 3:. Source: AESC, State of the Executive Search Industry Q3 2011.
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2.3. DEvELOPMENT TRENDS Although it was expected that the global economic crises should have a negative impact on the industry, the underlying trends of globalisation and the talent shortage persist, which bodes well for the long-term future of the industry. 3. ROLE OF STRATEGY IN CHANGING BUSINESS ENvIRONMENTS According to Johnson, Scholes & Whittington (2008) strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations. Although the above statement is fundamentally correct, Reeves and Deimler suggest that the the long-term part of the statement is no longer applicable to modern business environment which creates a new level of uncertainty and unpredictability. This uncertainty, according to Reeves and Deimler, cannot be approached by traditional strategies based on market assumptions and traditional forecasting activities. They argue that strategy requires some level of prediction for which relatively stable and predictable environment is necessary the logic of strategy planning in a traditional sense of the word is therefore impossible to apply in an unpredictable environment (Reeves and Deimler, 2011). Although modern companies still tend to plan for the short-term and tend to review their strategies on periodic basis, this, according to the writers, is still being done with industry analysis and forecasts in mind but given the ever increasing uncertainty, the expectations and clearly set strategies might become rather limiting as they tend to restrict the business leaders. Although the executive search insiders tend to suggest that the executive search market still remains, in comparison to other industries, pretty conservative and traditional market approach tends to be the most fruitful (Meloun, 2012). Reeves and Daimlers research (2011) suggests that businesses will be increasingly pressured to change in accordance with their environments. Companies should therefore constantly monitor and read the signals of change, search for hidden relationships and act responsively (Reeves and Daimler, 2011), in order to do this well, they should remain more flexible, decentralised and able to operate naturally (Morgan, 2005). Although the above-mentioned point appears to be valid, given the ever-increasing pace of change in the modern business environment, it is necessary to analyse and act accordingly almost immediately. Kotler and Caslione (2009) confirm this and say that speed is crucial to take advantage of opportunities and respond to counterattack competitors. Reeves and Daimler further suggest that a truly competitive company should be able to experiment with new approaches, structures, business models and processes as well as strategies (2011, p. 6). An innovative and open attitude to the constantly changing market is necessary. Kotler and Caslione (2009) have suggested that in todays increasingly interconnected world any change has a Butterfly Effect, a change in any area of the human environment causes a chain reaction throughout the whole society and its environments. The dynamic changes will therefore directly or indirectly impact upon the organization and in turn the organization will be pressured to respond accordingly. This idea was also suggested by Morgan (2005), who proposed that companies living like organisms that constantly evolve in line with their environments have a better chance to succeed in a highly competitive market place. Reeves and Deimler indirectly support the idea stating that companies should live in harmony with their ecosystems (co-existent or somehow co-existent companies). Companies should therefore manage their complex multi-company systems to keep their ecosystems functioning. In order to do this well, the company must think beyond its own boundaries (Reeves and Deimler, 2011). These ecosystems may not only be competitors, customers or suppliers, but also environments that can be somehow relevant to a given sector.
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The last point Reeves and Daimler highlighted in their 2011 study focuses on the role of motivating partners and employees. According to the writers, organisations need to create environments that encourage the knowledge flow, diversity, autonomy, risk taking, sharing and flexibility on which the adaption thrives (Reeves and Daimler, 2011, p. 8). In order to do so, companies need to create more fluid and adaptive structures that drive decision-making into the front lines. This idea is in line with Kotler and Caslione (2009) or Porter and Siegel (1965) who believe that breaking companies into smaller and flatter structures can increase the pace of responses to the market changes and developments.
THe NeW aRT of keePINg uP. adaPTaBLe STRaTegy aS THe NeW CoMPeTITIVe adVaNTage. Read & aCT eXPeRIMeNT MaNage MoTIVaTe on signals of change rapidly & frequently: new services, business models & strategies complex & interconnected systems of multiple stakeholders both employees & partners
4. THE COMPANY STRATEGY 4.1. SPENCER STUART CORPORATE STRATEGY Spencer Stuart bases most of its strategy on its image and constant sharpening of its reputation. It is apparent that the company places immense emphasis on articulating what the Spencer Stuart brand stands for in the marketplace across each country in which the company operates, as well as all its industry practises. This task is not only about logos or colours or having a clever theme line, rather it is a strategic and pragmatic set of actions designed to determine how the company could most effectively position itself to attract, win, and retain the best clients. Spencer Stuart based its current strategy on a considerable client research in multiple countries, talking with senior executives to find the intersection between what they really value most and what makes Spencer Stuart distinctive when the company is delivering its best work. The result was not a new slogan, but a strategic proposition that provided a clearer picture of how the company should be positioning and differentiating itself. The strategy conveyed Spencer Stuarts brand positioning and highlighted the real behaviours that, if consistently delivered, could make the company more distinctive and compelling to clients. More importantly, it was not a new and unexpected direction; the result of the study suggested that it rather captured the company at its best. As is the case in most professional service situations, the above articulated brand positioning is not an approach that only one firm could successfully adopt. Not unlike other experiential businesses, from management consulting to luxury hotels, the bigger issue is however whether its employees are sufficiently committed and disciplined to out-execute competitors in a superior and consistent way. Spencer Stuart has recognised the need to embrace its direction not only through claims on their website and other promotional material, but has constantly strove to deliver it through its employees behaviours and the quality of their work. Despite the somewhat transactional, entrepreneurial, and dispersed nature of the business, all worldwide offices remain remarkably interdependent from a brand perspective. Spencer Stuart has therefore placed immense emphasis on the quality of its work and behaviour in one executive search market or practise that have real impact on its collective reputation.
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The strategy is being constantly reviewed and adjusted based on the results of the clients annual satisfaction surveys. The strategy is clearly communicated to all Spencer Stuart employees who are constantly invited to share their ideas regarding possible improvements. 4.2. ANALYSIS EvALUATION
dISadVaNTageS Often uncompetitive cost structure Possible communication barriers between different European countries Not all clients in all markets understand the product which limits the flexibility to change the companys approach in developing markets Standardisation of systems and procedures across borders and educating clients as well as candidates are time consuming and costly
adVaNTageS Based on real data gained from close co-operation with the client from various markets and across multiple regions Clearly stated and communicated to all Spencer Stuart employees Constant feedback from the client and adjustments to the strategy and actions as required Constant feedback from the employees Commitment to quality
4.2.1. CLIENTS In the light of Kotlers and Casliones argument that the customer is no longer just a passive agent in the marketing process (2009), Spencer Stuart strives to involve its clients in the development of its strategy; it is interested in their feedback and is prepared to act on the outcomes of the process. This suggests that the company is market-focused making the majority of its decisions with their customers in mind. Its competitive advantage is directly reflected in the speed in which it can respond to the market changes and changes in its clients preferences. 4.2.2. EMPLOYEES The company places emphasis on its employees, which is clear from its actions such as communication and openness towards employees feedback. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the company recognises the value of its employees and manages them as its greatest asset. The employees are specialists and are treated as such they are constantly inspired to make creative and intelligent contributions that improve the companys processes. This has been recognised for instance by Bolman & Deal (1997) as one of the key conditions of a successful modern organisation. 4.2.3. STRUCTURE AND CULTURE Although the structure of Spencer Stuart is considerably flat and teams are created flexibly according to requirements of any individual assignment, it is apparent that the company is growing into a corporation and therefore becoming more rigid. For instance, not all rules developed in sophisticated markets may be applicable to developing countries. Requirements of the company such as third party sourcing (taking references from senior managers about their colleagues who have not yet confirmed their interest in a career move) may in developing countries cause issues (e.g. threaten the position of the candidate in his current company), as the markets are still not fully familiar with executive search services. This can be problematic to understand by the top management in the headquarters who is striking to keep the best in class standard of Spencer Stuart work worldwide. Although the culture of the company supports communication and constant feedback from local management, the top management may not always act accordingly and be prepared to adjust the rules to the local requirements (Research Spencer Stuart, 2012).
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4.3. RECOMMENDATIONS Despite the global economic crisis, Spencer Stuart has been flourishing on a global scale. This trend suggests that the companys corporate strategy has not only been well designed, but also well communicated and implemented throughout its international structures. It can be concluded that given its success, the company will be gaining more market share not only within the 29 countries where it operates today, but also in new markets. The challenge for the growing company will naturally be keeping its standards, communication-flow, and focus on both clients and employees while growing into a global corporation. Further, it appears that the company will need to become even more flexible and adaptable, in developing markets in particular. It could therefore be recommended that the structure of the company should become even flatter, leaving more power within individual country offices. The flatter structure would also allow for better information flow in order to keep the standards up throughout the whole company. As mentioned earlier in this paper, Kotler and Caslione (2009) proposed that breaking companies into smaller, flatter groups that are able to reach one another, can facilitate and achieve faster reaction times as close to the market as possible. This view is supported by Porters initial argument (1965) that too many layers of structure slow down information exchange and thus prolong an organisations response to the markets changing requirements. Furthermore, based on the above, it could be suggested that Spencer Stuart could extend its services to cover other areas of the market, such as legal or financial advisory as these industries are closely related as they may be incorporated into the employment contract negotiations with the candidate selected by Spencer Stuart or to a tax advisory when negotiating the package. This can be done through creating an alliance or a number of alliances with Big Fours in each of the aforementioned industries. The result could not only become a competitive advantage over its competitors in regards to the complex service offered, but also, this approach could further reinforce the corporate image and market position of all partner companies involved (for instance, in markets where the other partner have might not yet gained any or a strong enough position). 4.4. IMPLEMENTATION Wickham (2008) suggests the 8-step change implementation process:
eSTaBLISH SeNSe of uRgeNCy
CReaTe PoWeRfuL CoaLITIoN
deVeLoP VISIoN
CeLeBRaTe SHoRT TeRM SuCCeSS
eMPoWeR eMPLoyeeS
CoMMuNICaTe VISIoN
CoNSoLIdaTe IMPRoVeMeNTS
aNCHoR CHaNgeS
Figure 5:. Source: Wickham L (2008) Management Consulting: Delivering an Effective Project Prentice. Hall: London..
As shown above, all steps logically follow. First, Wickham proposes that any change requires a sense of urgency a need for a change. In the case of the Spencer Stuart services extension recommendation in order to cover other areas of the market, such as legal or financial advisory, the management as well as other employees must be given a sense that the market requires more than the company is currently offering. After the general sense of urgency has been established, it is necessary to create a powerful coalition, to gain the support of both formal and informal leaders. The top management in the headquarters should communicate the need for a change with managers in regional offices and gain their input and support.
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Next step is the development of vision, clear and communicable picture of desired future position of the company. It should be easy to understand, straight to the point, yet strong. It would be beneficial for the vision to include information about where the company stands today, where it wants to be in the future and an information about how will the company get there. This vision must be communicated effectively in order to gain the acceptance and support throughout all structured of the company keeping in mind the possible differences within the audience. This new vision should be visible to all employees for instance, it can become a part of the companys statement. It is necessary to involve as many employees as possible, empower them, gain their support and make them feel they are actively contributing in the change process. This can be done through special workshops or training to equip employees with the right skills required for the change (workshops and trainings further have the capacity to increase employees job satisfaction which can have a further positive impact on the change implementation process). Any successful completion of the parts of the change process should be somehow celebrated in order to gain even greater involvement and support from the employees (e.g. signed contract with one of the legal or financial advisory Big Fours or first closed full service deal executive search, legal and tax advisory). Further, it should be constantly reviewed and consolidated to ensure that the cooperation/partnership is beneficial and that the market preferences have not changed. Last but not least, the changes should be anchored in the culture of the organisation (Diamond, 2006). Spencer Stuart should constantly ensure that all employees perceive the new company partners as such. 5. CONCLUSION
This paper analysed and critically evaluated Spencer Stuarts corporate strategy. Further, it suggested the most appropriate strategic techniques that the company should use in the future while proposing how to implement them. The most important for the company remains keeping close to its market and its employees.
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REFERENCES
articles Hillis, K. (2006) Modes of digital identification: virtual technologies and webcam culture in Kyong Chun, W, H & Keenan, T (Eds) New media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader New York and Oxon: Routledge, pp. 347-357. Porter, W, L & Seigel, J (1965) Relationships of tall and flat structures to the satisfaction of foreign managers Personnel Psychology, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 388-391. Reeves, M. & Deimler, M. (2011) Adaptability: the new competitive advantage in Harvard Business Review, pp. 3-9.
Books and Brochures Hillis, K. (2006) Modes of digital identification: virtual technologies and webcam culture in Kyong Chun, W, H & Keenan, T (Eds) New Media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader New York and Oxon: Routledge. Johnson G., Scholes K. & Whittington R. (2008) Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases, 8th Edition Prentice Hall, p. 3. Kotler, P. & Caslione, J.A. (2009) Chaotics: The Business of Managing and Marketing in the Age of Turbulence New York: AMACOM Books. Morgan, G. (2005) Nature intervenes: organisations as organisms Images of Organisations London: Sage. Morgan, G. (2005) Images of Organisations London: Sage. Wickham L (2008) Management Consulting: Delivering an Effective Project Prentice. Hall: London.
Websites and Web articles AESC: Association of Executive Search Consultants (2009) A History of Retained Executive Search Consulting Retrieved on 23rd April 2012 from https://members.aesc.org/eweb/upload/AESC_50thanniversary_Article_FINAL.pdf. AESC: Association of Executive Search Consultants (2010) State of the Executive Search Industry Report Q4 2009 & Year-End Summary Retrieved on 23rd April 2012 from https://members.aesc.org/eweb/upload/ Q409%20Stats%20 Report.pdf. AESC: Association of Executive Search Consultants (2012) State of the Executive Search Industry Q1 2012 Retrieved on 23rd April 2012 from https://www.bluesteps.com/Client/Documents/AESC%20Q1%202012%20State%20of%20the%20 Executive%20Search%20Industry%20Report.pdf. Diamond, A. (2006) Top strategies for embracing change Retrieved on 27th April 2012 from www.management-issues. com/2007/3/2/research/top-strategies-forembranci ng - change.asp Groysberg, B. & Slind, M. (2011) Leadership is a conversation in Harvard Business Review. Retrieved on 25th April 2012 from http://hbr.org/2012/06/leadership-is-a- conversation/ar/1. Spencer Stuart official website. Retrieved on 25th April 2012 from www.spencerstuart.com
Interviews and Presentations Interview with Research team members of Spencer Stuart Czech Republic conducted on 21st April 2012. Interview with Meloun, L., Consultant of Spencer Stuart Czech Republic conducted on 12th April 2012. Spencer Stuart (2011). The way forward. Internal Company Data.
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The CapiTal asseT priCing Model
THE CAPITAL ASSET PRICING MODEL

THEORY AND EMPIRICAL TESTING ON THE GREEk STOCk EXCHANGE MARkET TAMARA AYRAPETOVA
In this paper I will cover the main ideas and concepts behind Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Portfolio Theory, which gave a great contribution to CAPM development. This paper is based on a presentation and will contain slides, tables, and graphs from the various resources used to create it.
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CAPM was developed by William Sharpe (1964) and John Lintner (1965); later in 1990 this development resulted in a Nobel Prize. The model has brought gradual improvements into the way assets are priced nowadays. CAPM has been based on the earlier works of Harry Markowitz in the 1950s, one of which was called the Optimization Theory. The most famous and widely used finding of this paper is the MeanVariance Model. This paper was the first theory highlighting the importance of investor risk preferences and the concept of diversification that allowed investors to maximise their profits by finding optimal portfolios for a specific level of risk. CAPM offers a new way of identifying risk on the securities. It gives a measure of risk in relation to overall market fluctuations. This concept of correlation between price movements of an individual asset/portfolio and the market as a whole, gives the model its main difference from past models in this area and models, which were grounded on CAPM such as the Arbitrage Theory. Even though CAPM is recognised as one of the most reliable tools for managers and investors to predict the returns on securities and portfolios, there has been a lot of debate if empirical evidence is in support of the model. There have been few case studies and research conducted, which show evidence against the model, but even so, it is still clear that the majority of the times the model gave accurate predictions. Most of the opponents of the model base their arguments on the assumptions of CAPM. They are said to be too general and not reflecting reality by providing idealistic approaches on the way markets work. In this paper we will be able to look at all of the assumptions applied to the case study of the Greek Stock Exchange Market and examine the models relevance. The main aim of this paper is to go through the crucial concepts constituting CAPM and to apply it to real life examples. Hopefully, by the end of this paper, it will be clear what the weaknesses and strengths of CAPM are. PORTFOLIO THEORY OR MEAN-vARIANCE MODEL In this paper we are looking at CAPM and its application to make sure that we get an accurate understanding of all of the insights of the model, one has to consider looking at the Portfolio Theory developed by Harry Markowitz during the 1950s. Portfolio Theory was the first of its kind trying to justify prices on the risk associated with the security. The theory assumes normal distribution of returns and market efficiency. Efficiency is a central concept in portfolio theory and utility theory, which is based on the idea of the maximisation of profits. The main idea behind Portfolio Theory is Dont put all of your eggs in the same basket. The concept is often referred to as diversification of assets, which played one of the key roles in the progress of asset management and finance as a whole. Harry Martkowitz (1952) specified two main types of risk in his Optimization Theory. Systematic risk, or also called Market risk, which cannot be eliminated by diversification, and Unsystematic risk, or also called Company Specific risk, which by applying Portfolio Theory, could be reduced or fully eliminated. Portfolio Theory gave a lot more opportunities to investors who were seeking to make profits with lower risk, such investors in Portfolio Theory and later in CAPM are called risk-averse investors. Those investors are seeking to maximise their utility but are not ready to take extra risk. Later James Tobin (1958) developed Portfolio Theory (see CML p. 9), where he highlighted that it is better to combine risky securities with risk free assets like treasury bills or bonds. This idea gave a significant change to the way investors chose their optimal portfolios for the specific level of risk. This change also impacted on the efficiency frontier. According to the theory, it is possible to construct an efficient frontier of optimal portfolios offering the maximum possible expected return for a given level of risk, as described in the Harry Markowitz (1952) Portfolio Selection Journal of Finance.
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EFFICIENCY FRONTIER
Figure 1: Efficient Frontier with many risky assets.
As has been already mentioned above by introducing the Portfolio Theory, investors are able to combine different securities and construct optimal portfolios. Generally those portfolios will be achieving the same expected returns but at different levels of risk. However, using the Markowitz Optimization Theory we can compute a so called efficiency frontier, which can be seen from the Figure 1. In the Figure 2 (below) one can see representation of Investment Opportunities, where abc represents efficiency frontier. The original paper developed by Markowitz assumed that all of the asset combinations are risky. If this is true, then the efficiency frontier can be represented by parabola abc in Figure 2.
Mean-VarianceEfficient Frontier with a Riskless Asset Minimum Variance Frontier for Risky Assets
Figure 2: Investment Opportunities.
Only portfolios above b, on the abc, can be taken as mean-variance efficient. However, with the later development of James Tobin (1958) the risk-free asset changed the picture dramatically. The straightline, which goes from Rf towards T, tangency portfolio, or market portfolio, which has the highest Sharpes ratio, represents the mean-variance efficiency frontier with risk-free security. As the result, Tobin found that an efficient portfolio for all investors will consist of risk-free lending or borrowing and risky market portfolio M. This was a key statement of Tobins Separation Theorem (1958). The risk-free security is said to minimise the variance on the portfolio. That is why this change has been so vital. CAPM developed by Sharpe and Lintner is based on the later version with the risk-free security, since one of the main assumptions behind CAPM is that investors can borrow and lend unlimitedly at risk-free rate of return. However, there is another CAPM model which we will not focus in this paper, and it excludes the ability of investors to lend and borrow on the risk-free interest rate. This model was developed by Black and is often referred to as Black CAPM.
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STATIC CAPM
Static CAPM is the original version of CAPM developed by Sharpe and Lintner during the 1960s. Static CAPM assumes that there is an opportunity to borrow and lend unlimitedly at the risk-free interest rate. The key objective of this model is to describe the behaviour of the investor as risk-averse. The theory assumes that since investors are risk-averse they need to be compensated for the additional risk they are taking. This compensation is represented in the model as excess return per unit of risk, which is justified as Beta of an asset. This compensation is called risk premium. The model looks at the portfolio selection based on the mean-variance criteria. It brings out very crucial aspects of price setting, by giving as a foundation assumptions that set a framework. According to the model, investors have the same mean-variance expectations which are linked to their choice of the portfolio and risky assets. It looks at the volatility and price fluctuations of specific individual portfolios and links them to the market as a whole. This connection between market and portfolio is essential when predicting expected returns on the portfolio and is represented by a correlation coefficient. Correlation is a part of the Beta of the asset; the higher the Beta of the portfolio, the higher the returns and the volatility, and that means higher risk. When a correlation coefficient is bigger than one, the portfolio will tend to outperform the market. CAPM works only when looking at the equilibrium market. Under equilibrium markets we mean that prices constantly adjust in such a way that demand to hold each assets equals its total stock. The condition of equilibrium markets is the first assumption of CAPM. ASSUMPTIONS
When we look at CAPM it is essential to understand the assumptions behind it correctly since a misinterpretation of them can lead to inaccurate forecasts. The model is very restricted by what is assumed to be true. The assumptions can be generally divided into 3 conditions: Markets are Equilibrium this concept consists of various factors. First of all, it means that markets have zero transaction costs and short sales are allowed. Both of these assumptions are surely idealised; in this case they are there to show that CAPM is more likely to give accurate forecasts when markets have less friction. Secondly, it means that an investor can borrow and lend unlimitedly at a risk-free rate of return. Thirdly, it means that investors will be able to divide their assets into units. This, as the result, gives them the ability to invest different amounts into various assets. In equilibrium markets all assets can be bought and sold at an observed market price. The price of the asset is not affected by the investor decision, since markets are assumed to be competitive. Finally, taxes are neutral. In this case it does not mean that they are equal to zero, but more importantly, they are the same for all of the investors. Mean-Variance Portfolio Selection this condition takes into consideration single-period time horizons. This simply means that investors when invested do not revise their choice of asset. It also means that investors are choosing their portfolios based on mean-variance criteria. Homogeneous Beliefs - all investors have the same expectations of variance and covariance of asset returns, since as it has been mentioned above, all of the investors are basing their choice on mean-variance criteria; they all choose the same portfolio of risky assets. This portfolio later on will be mentioned as Market Portfolio or Tangency Portfolio.
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THE THEORY BEHIND CAPM
Returning to the assumptions of CAPM, one can see that according to CAPM all investors have an equal possibility to invest into a risk-free security like a Treasury bill. In accordance to this concept, the investor can decide to invest a certain proportion of his/her wealth into risk-free security and the rest into risky assets. Since all of the investors have the same expectation of mean-variance, they are going to choose the same portfolio of risky assets, which is usually called a market portfolio. This portfolio is the same for all investors due to their homogeneous beliefs. The market portfolio is considered to be efficient since it consists of efficient portfolios. If an investor decided to invest in risk-free securities and a Risky Market Portfolio M, then the standard deviation of such a portfolio will be simply the standard deviation of M multiplied by its weight since the standard deviation of risk-free security is zero.
p = wm p 2 = w2m2
Now let us assume that Market Portfolio M weight is 1 then (1-w) will be the weight of the risk-free asset. Assuming this is true, the expected return on the portfolio M would be expressed through the following equation:
ERp = 1 wR* + wE ( Rm)

This equation then can be rearranged into:
ERp = R* + wE ( Rm) R*
This is the equation of Capital Market Line, which we will look at later on in this paper. If we then go back to the variance of the portfolio taking equation 1, we can rearrange it into:
p 2 = w2m2 w = pm
Substituting the following equation into equation 2 we get:
ERp = R* + pERm R*
Where beta coefficient
p = pm
This equation represents Security Market Line, which we will look at later in this paper. The second part of the equation represents risk premium. With this result, this equation shows that all investors will choose the same optimal portfolio M, just with different weight invested into risk free security, depending on their risk preferences. Looking at the equation we can see that the expected returns are directly connected to the beta coefficient; the higher the beta, the higher will be the risk premium on the security/portfolio.
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CAPITAL MARkET LINE - CML
As has been already mentioned in this paper, CAPM predicts that all investors will choose the same risky portfolio M, just with different proportions invested in risk-free assets. The choice of wealth invested into risk-free securities will mostly depend on the risk attitudes of the investor. CML is a straight line going from a risk-free rate of return towards the efficiency frontier abc and forms a tangent to portfolio T (also called the market portfolio). What is essential to mention here is that according to CAPM, all of the efficient portfolios will be located along the CML. Since CML allocates only efficient portfolios, the total risk is represented by standard deviation. CML is a method of identifying expected rates of return on efficient portfolios; if a portfolio does not lie on the CML, it means that it is either overpriced or underpriced.
SECURITY MARkET LINE - SML
The most important implication of CAPM is a security market line (SML), which one can see above. SML plots the expected returns on the portfolio against its beta coefficient. It is another possible way of rearranging the CAPM equation after CML. The intercept is equal to the risk-free rate of interest and the slope to the excess returns on the portfolio, represented by expected market returns minus risk-free rate of return. CAPM predicts that all assets (efficient and inefficient) will lie on the SML. Due to this, the total risk is represented by a beta coefficient. This is one of the most widely used practical applications of CAPM. The model predicts that if one plots the average rate of return on a portfolio/asset against its beta, the results will give the SML.
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kEY PREDICTIONS OF CAPM
To summarise everything mentioned about CAPM assumptions and concepts behind it, let us look at the key predictions. There are five key predictions CAPM makes: 1. The intercept a (also called alpha) of the asset should be equal to zero. If alpha is bigger than zero, the CAPM model is missing some variable or other factors to fully explain portfolio excess returns. 2. The beta of an asset, or portfolio, is supposed to be the only explanation of the rate of return on the risky portfolio. The slope of beta should be positive. It also should not have big difference with the risk premium and the average market risk premium. 3. There should be a linear relationship between the beta of the stock, or average portfolio risk, and the average market risk premium. 4. After some time, the market returns or Rm should exceed risk-free rate of return, since market portfolio is riskier than risk-free asset. 5. Explanatory variables like dividend yields, form size, etc., should not prove to be statistically significant to forecast the required rate of return.
EMPIRICAL TESTING
Due to the complicated nature of CAPM, there have been a lot of arguments and for against the model. In the past 40 years, CAPM has been tested by using different tools and approaches. Generally all empirical tests can be divided into two categories: earlier tests, which were focused more on risk premium testing, tests on beta coefficients, and their relationship with returns, and recent tests, which started in the late 1970s and were mainly looking at irrational pricing and proxy problems. There were a lot of scientists such as Fama and French (1992), Jensen and Scholes (1972), Blume and Friend (1973), and many more who researched CAPM implementation and presented concerns towards some of the predictions and assumptions of the model. The reason for all of these debates to my point of view is the complexity of variables composing CAPM. A good example of such is the estimate of the beta coefficient. It is also worth saying that a lot of times the results of the testing have measurement errors and statistical weaknesses, or proxies are chosen wrongly. There has been some research which is particularly important for our case study. In 1970 Friend and Blume conducted their research on CAPM trying to improve beta estimates for individual securities, then later in 1972, Black, Jensen, and Scholes focused on portfolios. The studies found that beta estimates are more precise on diversified portfolios then on individual securities. That is why later on in this paper, when looking at the Greek Stock Exchange, we will use portfolios instead of individual securities. Even though generally CAPM proved to hold, the studies done identified weaknesses of CAPM, and it is worth mentioning them. There are 3 key contradictions against the CAPM model: The estimated intercept or alpha is different than zero. This contradicts Prediction 1. The first rea search which has found that was conducted by Lintner (1965) and Douglas (1968). In 1972, Blank, Jensen, and Scholes tested CAPM by applying regression analysis; they have subsequently proved that intercept is greater than zero, but also that it changes over time.
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Frank Coenders/123RF.COM
The estimated slope b when positive, tends to be less than the difference between average market returns and the risk-free rate of return. In contradiction to Prediction 2. The Beta coefficient is not the only explanatory variable being important when looking at portfolio returns. Contradiction to Prediction 5. Lintner (1965) and Douglas (1968) found in their research that residual risk has an impact on the expected reruns. Most of the research acknowledges: That there is a linear relationship between the risk on the portfolio or the beta coefficient and its expected returns. There is also compliance with the condition that in the long run the expected market portfolio returns tend to exceed the risk-free rate of interest. Prediction 3 and 4. In this paper we will discover some of these findings in a case study of the Greek Stock Exchange. This part of the paper is based on the article published in 2006 by the University of Macedonia in Economics. GREEk STOCk EXCHANGE
The study focused specifically on the Athens Stock Exchange Market during the period of January 1998 to December 2002. This time period has been chosen due to high returns volatility, which helps to test CAPM prediction better. The sample consists out of 100 companies, which constitute the following indices: FTSE/ASE 20 - it is a large cap index containing the 20 largest companies which are also called blue chip companies. FTSE/ASE Mid 40 - mid cap index stand for performance of another 40 companies. FTSE/ASE Small Cap- this index captures the performance of the next 80 companies.
Each of the series consists of 260 observations of weekly closing prices. Those are the sum of prices at which the stock exchange market is closing the day trading. All of the stocks were chosen according to their trading value to avoid stocks, which are not traded regularly. All of the data has been taken from the MetaStock Data Base, which proves their reliability. The reason why the data has been collected weekly and not monthly or daily was to prevent noisy data. Monthly estimates could result in beta coefficient changes during the set period, whereas daily data could be too noisy to cover. All stocks were adjusted to dividends, to make a data set fitting the assumptions of CAPM. The ASE Composite Share Index has been used as a proxy for market portfolio and the 3-month Treasury Bill has been chosen for risk-free asset representation. What is crucial to highlight here is that it is better to choose the 3-month treasury bill instead of other maturity periods since it is taken as a benchmark, which reflects market changes better.
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METHODOLOGY
Due to the complexity of the model, the methodology will be divided into 5 steps, each of those will focus on testing of specific predictions of CAPM. Some of the steps are interconnected so it is important to highlight the relationship between the variables in use. The first step in the investigation of the practicality of CAPM is to estimate the beta of the stocks used in the study. To do this we need to regress each of the stocks weekly returns against the market index, which in our case is represented by the ASE Composite Share Index. The equation below shows the mathematical representation of the above mentioned: equation 1
Rit R ft = ai + i ( Rmt R ft ) + eit
Where: Rit - Is the return on the stock in our case from 1 to 100 Rft - Is the rate of return on risk-free security Rm - The return on the market index i - The estimate of beta for stock i eit - Random disturbance error on the regression. By applying this equation we get the results shown in the Table 1. Table 1: Stock beta coefficient estimates (Equation 1)
SToCk NaMe OLYMP EYKL MPELA MPTSK FOIN GKOYT PAPAK ABK MYTIL FELXO ABAX TSIP AAAK EEEK ERMHS LAMDA OTE MARF MRFKO KORA RYLK LYK ELASK NOTOS KARD BeTa .0984 .4192 .4238 .5526 .5643 .5862 .6318 .6323 .6526 .6578 .6874 .6950 .7047 .7097 .7291 .7297 .7309 .7423 .7423 .7520 .7682 .7684 .7808 .8126 .8290 SToCk NaMe THEMEL AIOLK AEGEK AEEXA SPYR SARANT ELTEX ELEXA MPENK HRAKL PEIR BIOXK ELMEK LAMPSA MHXK DK FOLI THELET ATT ARBA KATS ALBIO XAKOR SAR NAYP BeTa .8302 .8303 .8305 .8339 .8344 .8400 .8422 .8427 .8668 .8698 .8747 .8830 .8848 .8856 .8856 .8904 .9005 .9088 .9278 .9302 .9333 .9387 .9502 .9533 .9577 SToCk NaMe PROOD ALEK EPATT SIDEN GEK ELYF MOYZK TITK NIKAS ETHENEX IATR METK ALPHA AKTOR INTKA MAIK PETZ ETEM FINTO ESXA BIOSK XATZK KREKA ETE SANYO BeTa .9594 .9606 .9698 .9806 .9845 .9890 .9895 .9917 .9920 1.0059 1.0086 1.0149 1.0317 1.0467 1.0532 1.0542 1.0593 1.0616 1.0625 1.0654 1.0690 1.0790 1.0911 1.1127 1.1185 SToCk NaMe EMP NAOYK ELBE ROKKA SELMK DESIN ELBAL ESK TERNA KERK POYL EEGA KALSK GENAK FANKO PLATH STRIK EBZ ALLK GEBKA AXON RINTE KLONK ETMAK ALTEK BeTa 1.1201 1.1216 1.1256 1.1310 1.1312 1.1318 1.1348 1.1359 1.1392 1.1396 1.1432 1.1628 1.1925 1.1996 1.2322 1.2331 1.2500 1.2520 1.2617 1.2830 1.3030 1.3036 1.3263 1.3274 1.4369
International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Issue 4 (2006), 84. Source: Metastock (Greek) Data Base and calculations (S-PLUS).
The results here are given in ascending order with the highest beta coefficient of 1.43 is for the ALTEK stock and the lowest of 0.098 for the stock OLYMP.
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The next step will be calculating the average excess returns by using equation 2 below: equation 2
k
rpt =
r
i =1
it
Where: k - The number of the stocks included in each portfolio, in our case from 1-10 rit - The excess returns on stocks that form each of the portfolios based of K stock rpt - The excess returns on the portfolio p, which in our case is from 1-10. By substituting the results from equation 1 into equation 2, we get the results for average excess returns, which then will be used to form 10 equally weighted portfolios. By forming 10 equal portfolios we are able to spread the beta as much as possible, like this the connection between the beta and the results is clearer. It is also important to acknowledge that by diversifying, we are able to remove most of the specific risk that also helps us to see with the highest precision the effect of beta on the expected returns. To build 10 equally weighted portfolios, we are going to use equation 3 below: equation 3
rpt = a p p rmt + e pt
Where: rpt - Is average excess returns on the portfolio p - Is the beta coefficient of the portfolio. By substituting the results from the equation 2 into the equation 3 we are able to get the results shown in Table 2. Table 2 shows the beta coefficients for 10 portfolios, their returns, variance error, and standard deviation of the regression. From the table one can see that the results contradict the prediction of CAPM which says that the higher the beta, the higher the returns. Table 2: Average excess portfolio returns and betas (Equation 3)
PoRTfoLIo a10 b10 c10 d10 e10 f10 g10 h10 i10 j10 Average Rf Average rm=(Rm-Rf) rp .0001 .0000 -.0007 -.0004 -.0008 -.0009 -.0006 -.0013 -.0004 -.0004 .0014 .0001 BeTa (p) .5474 .7509 .9137 .9506 .9300 .9142 1.0602 1.1066 1.1293 1.2024 VaR. eRRoR .0012 .0013 .0014 .0014 .0009 .0010 .0012 .0019 .0020 .0026 R2 .4774 .5335 .5940 .6054 .7140 .6997 .6970 .6057 .6034 .5691
International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Issue 4 (2006), 85. Source: Metastock (Greek) Data Base and calculations (S-PLUS).
Table 2 clearly shows that the return on the portfolio j10 with the highest beta coefficient is lower than of the portfolio a10 with the lowest beta coefficient. It is also true that the returns on the higher beta coefficients are negative. What is also worth mentioning here is the average risk-free rate of return, which is 0.0014 and the return on the risk market portfolio, which is 0.0001. In this case, we can see that the returns on the riskfree security would be the same as on the portfolio a10, which has the highest returns.
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equation 4
rP = 0 + 1 P + eP
The next step is to estimate the SML by taking the average excess returns on the portfolios and regressing them against the betas of the portfolios. This step is done on the ex-post bases, which means that we are building our forecasts on historical data. The equation showing this relationship is given below: The beta coefficient of the portfolio is taken from equation 3. To test if the predictions of CAPM in regards to SML hold, we need to add additional variables: 1 - The market price of risk or in other words the risk premium 0 - The expected return on the zero-beta asset/portfolio, or the intercept ep - The random disturbance error in the regression analysis. The results of equation 4 can be seen in Table 3. To test if CAPM holds, we need to see if the intercept of the SML is zero. In our case, the intercept is represented by 0. Looking at the table we can see that the 0 is not exactly zero, but is not much more significant in a statistical point of view. It is also true that the correlation coefficient between 0 (the intercept) and 1 (the slope) is high 0.98, which shows that CAPM explains the excess returns. Table 3: Statistics of the estimation of the SML (Equation 4)
CoeffICIeNT 0 1 -.0011 (-1.8375) .1034 Value .0005 t-value (.9011) p-value .3939 Residual standard error: .0004 on 8 degrees of freedom Multiple R-Squared: .2968 F-statistic: 3.3760 on 1 and 8 degrees of freedom, the p-value is .1034 Correlation of Coefficients p01 - .9818
International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Issue 4 (2006), 86.
From the results of equation 4, we can see that by examining SML we cannot reject CAPM. Another prediction of the CAPM is that the slope of SML will be equal to the excess returns on the market portfolio; however one can see that if we take the excess returns on the market portfolio 0.0001 from Table 2 and compare them to the results of the slope 1 -0.0011 in Table 3, they are quite different. The next step will be testing the prediction 3 of the CAPM hypothesis. The third prediction talks about the linear relationship between the portfolio returns and the beta coefficient. To do that we regress them and also add an extra variable which is beta coefficient squared. The described steps can be seen in equation 5 below: equation 5
2 rp = 0 + 1 p + 2 p + e p
Where: p - beta and beta squared has been taken from equation 3 2 - Stands for nonlinearities in SML and should be equal to zero, the rest of the variables stay the same as in the equation 4 above.
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The results from this equation can be seen in Table 4 below. Table 4: Testing for non-linearity (Equation 5)
CoeffICIeNT 0 1 2 .0041 (1.5686) 0.1607 Value .0036 -.0084 t-value (1.7771) (-1.8013) p-value .1188 .1147 Residual standard error: .0003 on 7 degrees of freedom Multiple R-Squared: .4797 F-statistic: 3.2270 on 2 and 7 degrees of freedom, the p-value is .1016
From this table we can make the following conclusions: the intercept is still bigger than 0, even though still statistically not significant. It is also true that it has been greater than the risk-free interest rate of 0.0014. These results show a contradiction with the CAPM assumption that SML goes from the risk-free interest rate. The slope of the SML is negative and different from zero. The coefficient 2 is very small and statistically different from zero, which means that a CAPM assumption regarding linear relationship holds. The standard error is small, which means that the results are statistically reliable. A further step is to examine prediction 5 of the model, which states that no other variables different than beta explain the expected returns on portfolios. To test this hypothesis we add another variable residual risk, or in simple words, an unknown risk. In finance this risk is most of the times referred to as unsystematic or company/asset specific risk. To do this, equation 5 has been improved by adding two additional variables. equation 6
2 rp = 0 + 1 p + 2 p + 3 RV p + e p
Where: RVp - Is the residual variance of the portfolio returns 3 - Stands for residual risk, according to the CAPM assumptions this should be equal to zero. The rest of the variables stayed the same as in the equation 5. The results from equation 6 can be seen in Table 5 below. Since CAPM states that no other variables than beta can explain the excess returns on the portfolio, the coefficient 3 should be equal to zero. In Table 5 we can see that it is very small and statistically not significant from zero. From this one can conclude that the CAPM assumption holds. The residual standards error is also very small. The T-value which measures how many standard errors the coefficient is away from zero is less than 2. Table 5: Testing for non-systematic risk (Equation 6)
CoeffICIeNT 0 1 Value .0017 -.0043 t-value (.5360) (-.6182) p-value .6113 .5591 Residual standard error: .0003 on 6 degrees of freedom Multiple R-Squared: .5302 F-statistic: 2.2570 on 3 and 6 degrees of freedom, the p-value is .1821 2 .0015 (.3381) .7468 3 .3505 (.8035) .4523
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CONCLUSIONS
CAPM has been a great development in the world of finance. It is widely used by different market participants, to determine not only the future returns on securities, but the risk associated with that security/ asset. The idea behind the model was built on that of Portfolio Theory developed by Markowitz and afterwards improved by James Tobin. Portfolio theory has been a crucial development and the concepts it brought into the pricing of securities and management of the returns are essential for the optimisation of resources. Diversification allowed investors to spread the risk and to find the best optimal portfolio for their risk preferences. CAPM goes beyond this notion and develops it even more. Now we are not only looking at the portfolio/ asset expected returns individually, but we are linking them to the overall market condition and fluctuations. By correlating them, we predict how the portfolio will react to certain market conditions. To do this CAPM introduces a beta coefficient. Beta of the stock not only shows it riskiness, but also predicts its returns since risk-premium is a giver per unit, of beta or risk. From this, one of the most important CAPM predictions is built; the higher the beta coefficient the higher are the expected returns. In the case study of the Greek Stock Exchange we could see that this prediction did not work on this specific market. The results of the research done by the University of Macedonia and published in the International Research Journal of Economics in 2006 have shown the following: The result of the study of ASE contradicts the CAPM assumption that the higher the beta coefficient the higher the returns (Table 1). The results received from the Table 2 and 3 show that the model explains the excess returns. CAPM predicts that the value of the intercept should be zero and the slope of SML should be equal to the excess returns of the market portfolio (risk premium) the findings of this case study contradict this hypothesis (Table 3). The test for non-linearity has shown that there is a linear relationship between the average excess returns on the portfolio and its beta coefficient (Table 4). Finally, according to the results from Equation 6, beta is the only explanatory variable for portfolio excess returns and residual risk has no effect on the expected return.
The case study of the Athens Stock Exchange has shown some evidence against CAPM; however, it does not mean that the data completely rejects the model. The following result has measurement errors that might have occurred due to the proxies the case study took as its foundations. This is very crucial to understand since most of the empirical tests are very dependent on the proxies they take as given variables of the model. The results of such empirical tests can have much debate on relevance. Due to all of these factors, most of the finance professionals still use CAPM as one of the tools, by combining it with other methods. The model is still taken as one of the most accurate and reliable tools.
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REFERENCES
Black, F., Jensen, M. C. and Scholes, M. (1972) The Capital asset pricing model: Some empirical tests. Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets. p. 79-121. New York: Praeger. Black, F. (1993) Beta and return. Journal of Portfolio Management No. 20, p. 8-18. Blume, M. (1975), Betas and their regression tendencies, Journal of Finance No. 30, p. 785-795. Coolidge, F.L. (2006) Statistics: A Gentle Introduction. Ch. 6, p. 153-161. Fama, E. and K. French (1993), Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds, Journal of Financial Economics No. 33, p. 3-56. Fama, E.F. and French, K.R. (2004) The CAPM: Theory and Evidence, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol 18, No. 3, 2004. FTSE/ASE Indices (Available at: http://www.capitallink.com/indices/indices.php3?page=View%20ASE%2040) International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Issue 4 (2006) Testing the CAPM: The Case of the Emerging Greek Securities Market, University of Macedonia. Levy, H. (2011) The Capital Asset Pricing Model in the 21st Century. Analytical, Empirical and Behavioral Perspectives. Cambridge. Mabrouk, H.B. and Bouri, A. (2010) The Quarrel on the CAPM: A Literature Survey, June 2010, Vol. 2, No. 2. Markowitz, H. (Mar., 1952), Portfolio Selection, The Journal of Finance, Vol. 7, No. 1, p. 77-91. Pilbeam, K. (2010) Finance and Financial Markets. Ch. 8, 3rd Ed. R.E. Bailey (2005) The Economics of Financial Markets. Ch. 6, p. 143.
Tables and figures figure 1: Andre F. Perold (2004) Journal of Economic PerspectivesVol 18, No. 3, p. 12. figure 2: Eugene F. Fama and Kenneth R. French The CAPM: Theory and Evidence, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol 18, No. 3, 2004. figure 3: Andre F. Perold (2004) Journal of Economic PerspectivesVol 18, No. 3, p. 12. figure 4: Andre F. Perold (2004) Journal of Economic PerspectivesVol 18, No. 3, p. 18. Table 1: International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Issue 4 (2006), p. 84. Table 2: International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Issue 4 (2006), p. 85. Table 3, 4: International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Issue 4 (2006), p. 86 Table 5: International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Issue 4 (2006), p. 87.
equations equation 1: International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Issue 4 (2006), p. 82. equation 2 - 6: International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Issue 4 (2006), p. 83.
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EDITORIAL IMAGES
Page 3, ToP LefT: Brown, T. (2010) Proxima Nova lowercase a, as rendered by three different browser/OS mixes at 16px [Online Image]. Available at: http://blog.typekit.com/2010/10/05/type-rendering-on-the-web/ (Accessed: 26 November 2011). Page 3, BoTToM LefT: adrianhancu/123RF.COM (2011) Stock Photo - Cologne, Germany - 16 June 2011: Photograph of a Mini Cooper, a classical British car manufactured by BMW. Photograph represents the logo, radiator stripes and rain drops. [Online]. Available at: http://www.123rf.com/photo_11116941_cologne-germany--16-june-2011-photograph-of-amini-cooper-a-classical-british-car-manufactured-by-bm.html (Accessed: 29 July 2012). Page 29: Lasse Kristensen/123RF.COM (2012) A worried business man sitting on some stairs [Online]. Available at: http:// www.123rf.com/photo_6115839_a-worried-business-man-sitting-on-some-stairs.html (Accessed: 29 July 2012). Page 49: tupungato/123RF.COM (2012) Stock Photo - BIRMINGHAM - MARCH 11: Mini cars dealer on March 11, 2010 in Birmingham, UK. According to Car Dealer Magazine, Mini was the 7th best selling car in the UK in 2009 [Online]. Available at: http://www.123rf.com/photo_7137755_birmingham--march-11-mini-cars-dealer-on-march-11-2010in-birmingham-uk-according-to-car-dealer-maga.html (Accessed: 29 July 2012). Page 62: RafaOlechowski/123RF.COM (2012) Financial crisis in Greece concept in word tag cloud [Online]. Available at: http://www.123rf.com/photo_10221107_financial-crisis-in-greece-concept-in-word-tag-cloud.html (Accessed: 29 July 2012). Page 70: Frank Coenders/123RF.COM (2012) Man investing euro coin to the national economy [Online]. Available at: http:// www.123rf.com/photo_12760176_man-investing-euro-coin-to-the-national-economy.html (Accessed: 29 July 2012).
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