Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, grade: 74%, University of Sunderland, language: English, abstract: Tourism is said to be the largest industry in the world. More and more people have the possibility to travel around the globe thanks to cheaper flights and increased leisure time. More than 760 million international tourist arrivals worldwide were counted in 2004 WTO, 2005). According to the WTO, international tourism revenue reached a new record high of US $ 622 billion in 2004. 52% of it was earned by Europe, 21% by the Americans, 20% by Asia and the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East contributed with 3% each (South African Tourism, 2005). Moreover, the tourism and travel industry supports directly and indirectly approximately 200 million jobs worldwide, this is 8% of the total employment at present, which is expected to grow to 260 million jobs in 2011 (Hall and Page, 2002). These figures give us a short impression of the importance of this sector. However, the tourism industry is very volatile. Political changes, the opening of former communism countries like China or Cuba, permanent economic fluctuation as well as social, environmental and technological changes influence the tourism industry. Nowadays tourists prefer high quality standards, safety environments and interesting locations and are more concerned of environmental impacts (Gunn and Var, 2002). All the above mentioned facts show the necessity of effective and sustainable tourism planning. This assignment will assess the theories of strategic planning and will investigate its application in practice on the basis of two case studies. One case, The White Paper Plan South Africa, is an example for good practice and the other, Disneyland Paris, is an example for bad practice.

Essay from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Trade and Distribution, grade: 74% - A, University of Sunderland, language: English, abstract: International trade can to some extent be explained by the theory of absolute and comparative advantage. By nature, countries have distinctive immobile production factors and hence different relative production costs for the same good/service (Lawler and Seddighi, 2001). The theory of the absolute advantage by Adam Smith is that a country should specialise on the product/service where it has an absolute advantage over any other country in order to increase productivity and output. Ricardo s theory of the comparative advantage says a country should export products where it has the greatest comparative advantage or where the comparative disadvantage is smallest and should import goods in which its comparative disadvantage is greatest (Trebilcock and Howse, 2005). This model still represents the basis for international trade theory, but it was further modified and reformulated which will be discussed later on. The pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland by looking at innovation, R&D expenditure, export figures and the growth level will be analysed. All this is interrelated to theoretical background of newer trade theories of Vernon, Krugman and Cantwell.

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: B (67%), University of Sunderland, course: Marketing (Master), language: English, abstract: The world today is changing faster than ever. Technological developments, financial constraints, expanding markets, restructuring and mergers, new philosophies and government legislation are all putting pressure on organisations to change and stay dynamic (Davenport and Short, 1990; Aijo, 1996). This paper defines the external environment the private healthcare sector is facing in the USA, the world largest economy, and China, one of the biggest emerging markets and third largest trading nation in the world (bpb, 2005). According to Farnham (1999) the PEST-Analysis and Porter s (1980) five forces model provide a useful start for analysing the external environment. Building up on the information gathered it will be discussed what key challenges the private healthcare sector is facing, the significance of these challenges and how they might be overcome. Finally, it will be examined whether strategies of localisation or standardisation should be chosen in the USA and China, respectively.

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: A (73%), University of Sunderland, language: English, abstract: The world today is changing faster than ever before. Technological developments, financial constraints, expanding markets, mergers and acquisitions, new government legislation are all putting pressure on organisations to change and stay dynamic (Davenport and Short, 1990; Aijo et al., 1996). It is argued that organisations have to pay attention to environmental changes in order to survive in the market (Fahey and Narayanan, 1986). Especially the financial sector is driven by two key environmental features; global deregulation of the sector and global decline in cost and technological changes such as the use of electronic media for service provisions and greater use of the Internet for banking transactions (Grosse, 2004). Corporate Strategy is the cornerstone of the success or failure of a company. It gives direction to corporate values, goals, mission and culture. This paper defines the core competencies and dynamic capabilities of four of the leading financial institutions (for a company brief refer to Appendix A, SWOT analysis Appendix B) as well as the importance of corporate governance. Furthermore based on the information gathered it will be discussed what key challenges Citibank and Deutsche Bank are facing, the significance of these challenges and how they might be overcome. Finally, strategic implementations are suggested.

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, grade: 74%, University of Sunderland, language: English, abstract: Tourism is said to be the largest industry in the world. More and more people have the possibility to travel around the globe thanks to cheaper flights and increased leisure time. More than 760 million international tourist arrivals worldwide were counted in 2004 WTO, 2005). According to the WTO, international tourism revenue reached a new record high of US $ 622 billion in 2004. 52% of it was earned by Europe, 21% by the Americans, 20% by Asia and the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East contributed with 3% each (South African Tourism, 2005). Moreover, the tourism and travel industry supports directly and indirectly approximately 200 million jobs worldwide, this is 8% of the total employment at present, which is expected to grow to 260 million jobs in 2011 (Hall and Page, 2002). These figures give us a short impression of the importance of this sector. However, the tourism industry is very volatile. Political changes, the opening of former communism countries like China or Cuba, permanent economic fluctuation as well as social, environmental and technological changes influence the tourism industry. Nowadays tourists prefer high quality standards, safety environments and interesting locations and are more concerned of environmental impacts (Gunn and Var, 2002). All the above mentioned facts show the necessity of effective and sustainable tourism planning. This assignment will assess the theories of strategic planning and will investigate its application in practice on the basis of two case studies. One case, The White Paper Plan South Africa, is an example for good practice and the other, Disneyland Paris, is an example for bad practice.

Essay from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Trade and Distribution, grade: 74% - A, University of Sunderland, language: English, abstract: International trade can to some extent be explained by the theory of absolute and comparative advantage. By nature, countries have distinctive immobile production factors and hence different relative production costs for the same good/service (Lawler and Seddighi, 2001). The theory of the absolute advantage by Adam Smith is that a country should specialise on the product/service where it has an absolute advantage over any other country in order to increase productivity and output. Ricardo s theory of the comparative advantage says a country should export products where it has the greatest comparative advantage or where the comparative disadvantage is smallest and should import goods in which its comparative disadvantage is greatest (Trebilcock and Howse, 2005). This model still represents the basis for international trade theory, but it was further modified and reformulated which will be discussed later on. The pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland by looking at innovation, R&D expenditure, export figures and the growth level will be analysed. All this is interrelated to theoretical background of newer trade theories of Vernon, Krugman and Cantwell.

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: B (67%), University of Sunderland, course: Marketing (Master), language: English, abstract: The world today is changing faster than ever. Technological developments, financial constraints, expanding markets, restructuring and mergers, new philosophies and government legislation are all putting pressure on organisations to change and stay dynamic (Davenport and Short, 1990; Aijo, 1996). This paper defines the external environment the private healthcare sector is facing in the USA, the world largest economy, and China, one of the biggest emerging markets and third largest trading nation in the world (bpb, 2005). According to Farnham (1999) the PEST-Analysis and Porter s (1980) five forces model provide a useful start for analysing the external environment. Building up on the information gathered it will be discussed what key challenges the private healthcare sector is facing, the significance of these challenges and how they might be overcome. Finally, it will be examined whether strategies of localisation or standardisation should be chosen in the USA and China, respectively.

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: A (73%), University of Sunderland, language: English, abstract: The world today is changing faster than ever before. Technological developments, financial constraints, expanding markets, mergers and acquisitions, new government legislation are all putting pressure on organisations to change and stay dynamic (Davenport and Short, 1990; Aijo et al., 1996). It is argued that organisations have to pay attention to environmental changes in order to survive in the market (Fahey and Narayanan, 1986). Especially the financial sector is driven by two key environmental features; global deregulation of the sector and global decline in cost and technological changes such as the use of electronic media for service provisions and greater use of the Internet for banking transactions (Grosse, 2004). Corporate Strategy is the cornerstone of the success or failure of a company. It gives direction to corporate values, goals, mission and culture. This paper defines the core competencies and dynamic capabilities of four of the leading financial institutions (for a company brief refer to Appendix A, SWOT analysis Appendix B) as well as the importance of corporate governance. Furthermore based on the information gathered it will be discussed what key challenges Citibank and Deutsche Bank are facing, the significance of these challenges and how they might be overcome. Finally, strategic implementations are suggested.