The Introduction To Malicious Software Computer Science Essay

The Introduction To Malicious Software Computer Science Essay Malware is a collective term for any malicious software which enters system without authorization of user of the system. The term is created from amalgamation the words malicious and software. Malware is a very big hazard in todays computing world. It continues to grow in capacity and advance in complexity. As more and more organization try to address the difficulty, the number of websites distribute the malware is rising at an frightening rate and is getting out of control. Most of the malware enters the system while downloading files over Internet. Once the malicious software finds its way into the system, it scans for vulnerabilities of operating system and perform unintended actions on the system finally slowing down the performance of the system. Malware has ability to infect other executable code, data/system files, boot partitions of drives, and create excessive traffic on network leading to denial of service. When user executes the infected file; it becomes resident in memory and infect any other file executed afterwards. If operating system has a vulnerability, malware can also take control of system and infect other systems on network. Such malicious programs (virus is more popular term) are also known as parasites and adversely affect the performance of machine generally resulting in slow-down. Some malware are very easy to detect and remove through antivirus software[1]. These antivirus software maintains a repository of virus signatures i.e., binary pattern characteristic of malicious code. Files suspected to be infected are checked for presence of any virus signatures. This method of detection worked well until the malware writer started writing polymorphic malware [15][16] and metamorphic malware. These variant of malware avoid detection through use of encryption techniques to thwart signature based detection. Security products such as virus scanners look for characteristics byte sequence (signature) to identify malicious code. The quality of the detector is determined by the techniques employed for detection. A stealth malware detection[36] technique must be able to identify malicious code that is hidden or embedded in the original program and should have some capability for detection of yet unknown malware. Commercial virus scanners have very low resilience to new attacks because malware writers continuously make use of new obfuscation methods so that the malware could evade detections. 2.1 Computer Virus A computer virus[6] is basically a program which is written by the programmers whose behaviour is to replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term virus is also normally, but incorrectly, used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware .and these spyware programs that do not have a reproductive ability. Malware includes various computer viruses[6], such as computer worms, Trojan horses[17], most of them are rootkits, spyware which are also considered as dishonest adware and other malicious or redundant software, including proper viruses. Viruses are occasionally confused with worms and Trojan horses, which are theoretically different. A worm can exploit security vulnerabilities to spread itself repeatedly to other computers through networks[7], while a Trojan horse is a program that appears nontoxic but hides malicious functions. Worms and Trojan horses[17], like viruses, may harm a computer systems data or recital. Some viruses and other malware have symptoms noticeable to the computer user, but many are surreptitious or simply do nothing to call attention to themselves. Some viruses do nothing beyond reproducing themselves. An example of a virus which is not a malware, but is putatively benevolent, is Fred Cohens theoretical compression virus[6]. However, various antivirus professionals[5] dont admit the concept of kindly viruses, as any beloved function can be implemented without involving a virus automatic compression, for instance, is available under the Windows operating system at the choice of the user. Any virus will by definition make unconstitutional changes to a computer, which is undesirable even if no damage is done or intended. On page one of Dr Solomons Virus pdf, the undesirability of viruses, even those that do nothing but reproduce, is thoroughly explained. 2.1.1 Academic Work Veith Risak published[6] the article whose title was as follows Selbstreproduzierende Automaten mit minimaler Information sà ¼bertragung (Self-reproducing automaton with minimum information switch over). The article described a fully serviceable virus written in assembler language for a particular SIEMENS 4004/35 computer system. In the year 1980 Jà ¼rgen Kraus wrote his thesis on Selbstreproduktion bei Programmen at the University of Dortmund. In his work Kraus guess that computer programs[4] can behave in a way parallel to biological viruses. In the year of 1984 Fred Cohen at the University of Southern California wrote his paper on the Computer Viruses[6] Theory and Experiments. It was the first paper of him in which he has explained to clearly call a self-reproducing program a virus, a term introduced by Cohens mentor Leonard Adleman. Fred Cohen published a exhibition that there is no algorithm that can perfectly detect all potential viruses. An article that published on malware that describes useful virus functionalities was available by J. B. Gunn in the title Use of virus functions to provide a virtual APL predictor under user control in 1984. 2.1.2 Science Fiction There are several myths associated with the science.The actual term virus was first used to symbolize a self-reproducing program in a small story by David Gerrold in Galaxy magazine in 1969-and later in his 1972 novel, When HARLIE Was One. In that novel, a attentive computer named HARLIE writes viral software to recover damaging personal information from other computers to blackmail the man who wants to turn him off. Michael Crichton[7] told as a sideline story of a computer with telephone modem dialing potential, which had been automatic to randomly dial phone numbers until it hit a modem that is answered by another computer. It was an attempt to program the answer computer with its own program, so that the second computer would also begin dialing unsystematic numbers, in search of yet a different computer to program. The program is assumed to spread exponentially through susceptible computers. 2.1.3 Virus Programs The Creeper virus[6] was first detected on ARPANET, the prototype of the Internet, in the early 1970s. Creeper was an new self-replicating program developed by Bob Thomas at BBN Technologies in 1971. Creeper has used the ARPANET to infect DEC PDP-10 computers which are running on the TENEX operating system. Creeper gain admission via the ARPANET and banal itself to the isolated system where there was a message, Im the creeper, catch me if you can! was displayed. The Reaper program was created to delete Creeper. A program called which is known as Elk Cloner was the first PC virus to appear in the uncultivated that is, outside the single computer or lab where it was created by Richard Skrenta, it attached itself to the Apple DOS 3.3 operating system and spread via floppy disk. This virus, created as a practical joke when Skrenta was studying in the high school and was injected in a game on a floppy disk. On his 50th iterative use the Elk Cloner virus would be activate, which prone to infecting the PCs and displaying a short poem beginning Elk Cloner: The program with a personality. The first IBM PC virus in the natural was a boot sector virus dubbed and created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, seemingly to deter piracy of the software they had written. Before computer networks[7] became widespread, most viruses spread on removable media, particularly floppy disks. In the early days of the PCs, many users frequently exchanged their information and programs on floppies. Some of the viruses are spread by infecting programs which are stored on these disks, while others programs installed themselves into the disk boot sector, which ensure that they would be run when the user booted the computer from the disk, usually inadvertently. Personal computers of the period would try to boot from the floppy at first if one had been left in the drive. Until floppy disks rejects, this was the most unbeaten infection strategy and that is why boot sector viruses were the most common in the wild for many years. Conventional computer viruses[6] emerge in the 1980s, that are driven by the spread of PCs and the consequential increase in BBS, modem use, and software sharing. Bulletin board-driven software giving out contributed directly to the swell of Trojan horse programs, and computer viruses which were written to infect readily traded software. Shareware and bootleg software were equally common vectors for viruses on BB Systems Viruses can increase their chances of spreading over the several other computers which in networks[7] by infecting the files on the particular network file system or a file system which can be access by other computers Macro viruses have become common since the mid-1990s. Most of these viruses are written in the scripting languages for Microsoft programs such as MS-Word and MS-Excel and spread throughout Microsoft Office by infecting documents and spreadsheets. Since Word processor and Excel spread sheets were also available for Mac OS, most could also spread to Macintosh computers. Although most of these computer viruses[6] may not have the capability to send contaminated email messages to those viruses which did take advantage of the Microsoft Outlook COM interface. Some old versions of Microsoft Word allow macros to repeat themselves with added blank lines. If two macro viruses concurrently infect a document, the combination of the two, if also self-replicating, can appear as a mating of the two and would likely be detected as a virus unique from the parents. A virus may also send a web address link as an instant message to all the contacts on an infected machine. If the recipient, thinking the link is from a friend which isa trusted source follows the link to the website, the virus hosted at the site may be able to infect this new computer and continue propagating. Viruses that spread using cross-site scripting were first reported in 2002, and were academically demonstrated in 2005.There have been multiple instances of the cross-site scripting viruses in the wild, exploiting websites such as MySpace and Yahoo!. 2.2 Classification In order to replicate itself, a virus must be permitted to execute code and write to memory. For this reason, many viruses attach themselves to executable files that may be part of legitimate programs (see code injection). If a user attempts to begin an infected program, the virus code may be executed concurrently. Viruses can be separated into two types based on their performance when they are executed. Nonresident viruses straight away search for other hosts system or OS which can be infected, or infect those targets, and finally transfer organize to the application program they infected. Tenant viruses do not search for hosts when they are happening. Instead, a resident virus masses itself into memory on execution and transfers control to the host program. The virus stays active in the background and infects new hosts when those files are accessed by other programs or the operating system itself. 2.2.1 Nonresident Viruses Nonresident viruses can be notion of as consisting of a finder module and a replication module. The finder module is responsible for finding new files to infect. For each new executable file the finder module encounters, it calls the replication module to infect that file. 2.2.2 Resident Viruses Resident viruses contain a replication module which is parallel to the one that is engaged by nonresident viruses. This section, however, is not called by a finder module. The virus[27] masses the duplication module into memory when it is executed instead and ensures that this module is executed each time the operating system is called to carry out a certain operation. The replication module can be called, for example, each time the operating system executes a file. In this case the virus infects every suitable program that is executed on the computer. Resident viruses are sometimes can be divided into a class of fast infectors and a class of slow infectors. Fast infectors are those which are designed to infect as many files as soon as possible. A fast infector, for instance, can infect every potential host file that is accessed. This pose a special difficulty when using anti-virus software[1], since a virus scanner will access every prospective host file on a computer when it performs a system-wide scan. If the virus scanner fails to notice that such a virus is present in memory the virus can piggy-back on the virus scanner and in this way infect all files that are scanned. Fast infectors rely on their fast infection rate to spread. The disadvantage of this method is that infecting many files may make detection more likely, because the virus may slow down a computer or perform many suspicious actions that can be noticed by anti-virus software. Slow infectors, on the other hand, are designed to infect hosts infrequently. Some slow infectors, for instance, only infect files when they are copied. Slow infectors are designed to avoid detection by limiting their actions: they are less likely to slow down a computer noticeably and will, at most, infrequently trigger anti-virus software[5] that detects suspicious behavior by programs. The slow infector approach, however, does not seem very successful. In most of the operating systems which use file extensions to determine program relations such as Microsoft Windows. The extensions may be normally hidden from the user by default. This makes it probable to create a file that is of a different type than it appears to the users or programmers. For example, an executable file may be created named picture.png.exe, in which the user sees only picture.png and therefore assumes that this file is an image and most likely is safe, yet when opened runs the executable on the client machine. An additional scheme is to generate the virus system from parts of existing operating system files by using the CRC16/CRC32 data. The initial code can be quite small (tens of bytes) and unpack a fairly large virus. This is analogous to a biological prion in the way it works but is vulnerable to signature based detection. This attack has not yet been seen in the wild. 2.3 Infection Strategies Virus avoids detection[31] by users, some viruses employ different kinds of deception. Some of the old viruses, especially on the MS-DOS operating system, make sure that the last modified date of a host file stays the same when the file is infected by the virus. This approach does not fool antivirus software, however, especially those which maintain and date cyclic redundancy checks on file changes. Some viruses can infect files without increasing their sizes or damaging the files. They accomplish this by overwriting unused areas of executable files. These are called cavity viruses. For example, the CIH virus, or Chernobyl Virus, infects Portable Executable files. Because those files have many empty gaps, the virus, which was 1 KB in length, did not add to the size of the file. Some viruses try to avoid detection by killing the tasks associated with antivirus software[1] before it can detect them. As computers and operating systems grow larger and more complex, old hiding techniques need to be updated or replaced. Defending a computer against viruses may demand that a file system migrate towards detailed and explicit permission for every kind of file access. 2.3.1 Read Request Intercepts While some antivirus software employ various techniques to counter stealth mechanisms, once the infection occurs any recourse to clean the system is unreliable. In Microsoft Windows operating systems, the NTFS file system is proprietary. Direct access to files without using the Windows OS is undocumented. This leaves antivirus software little alternative but to send a read request to Windows OS files that handle such requests. Some viruses trick antivirus[5] software by intercepting its requests to the OS. A virus can hide itself by intercepting the request to read the infected file, handling the request itself, and return an uninfected version of the file to the antivirus software. The interception can occur by code injection of the actual operating system files that would handle the read request. Thus, an antivirus software[1] attempting to detect the virus will either not be given permission to read the infected file, or, the read request will be served with the uninfected version of the same file. File hashes stored in Windows, to identify altered Windows files, can be overwritten so that the System File Checker will report that system files are originals. The only reliable method to avoid stealth is to boot from a medium that is known to be clean. Security software can then be used to check the dormant operating system files. Most security software relies on virus signatures or they employ heuristics, instead of also using a database of file hashes for Windows OS files. Using file hashes to scan for altered files would guarantee removing an infection. The security software can identify the altered files, and request Windows installation media to replace them with authentic versions. 2.3.2 Self-Modification Most modern antivirus programs try to find virus-patterns inside ordinary programs by scanning them for so-called virus signatures. Unfortunately, the term is misleading, in that viruses do not possess unique signatures in the way that human beings do. Such a virus signature is merely a sequence of bytes that an antivirus program looks for because it is known to be part of the virus. A better term would be search strings. Different antivirus programs[1] will employ different search strings, and indeed different search methods, when identifying viruses[6]. If a virus scanner finds such a pattern in a file, it will perform other checks to make sure that it has found the virus, and not merely a coincidental sequence in an innocent file, before it notifies the user that the file is infected. The user can then delete, or in some cases clean or heal the infected file. Some viruses employ techniques that make detection by means of signatures difficult but probably not impossible. These viru ses modify their code on each infection. That is, each infected file contains a different variant of the virus. 2.3.3 Encryption With A Variable Key A more advanced method is the use of simple encryption to encipher the virus. In this case, the virus consists of a small decrypting dependent methods and an encrypted copy of the virus code. If the virus is encrypted with the help of different key for each infected file, the only part of the virus that leftovers stable is the decrypting unit, which would (for example) be appended to the end. In this case, a virus scanner will not able to detect directly the virus using signatures, but it can still detect the decrypting unit, which still makes indirect revealing of the virus possible. Since these would be symmetric keys, stored on the infected host. In fact completely possible to decrypt the final virus, but this is almost certainly not required, since self-modifying code is such a scarcity that it may be basis for virus scanners to at least flag the file as suspicious. This may be old , but solid, encryption involves XORing each byte in a virus with a even, so that the exclusive-or operation has only to be frequent for decryption. It is doubtful for a code to adjust itself, so the code to do the encryption as wll as decryption may be part of the signature in many virus definition. 2.3.4 Polymorphic Code Polymorphic code was the first technique that posed a serious threat[27] to virus scanners. Likewise various normal encrypted viruses such as a polymorphic virus[15][16] infects files with an encrypted copy of itself, which may be decoded by a decryption method. In the case of polymorphic viruses or polymorphic worms[10], however, this decryption module is also modified on each infection. A well-written polymorphic virus thus has no parts which wait identical between infection, making it very difficult to detect directly using signatures. Antivirus software can detect it by decrypting the viruses using an emulator, or by statistical pattern analysis of the encrypted virus body. To enable polymorphic code, the virus has must have a polymorphic engine which is also called mutating engine or mutation engine anywhere in its encrypted body. Some viruses employ polymorphic code in a system that constrain the change rate of the virus appreciably. For example, a virus can be planned to alter only slightly over time, or it can be programmed to refrain from mutating when it infects a file on a computer that previously contains copies of the virus. The benefit of using such sluggish polymorphic[15][16] code is that it makes it more difficult for antivirus professionals to get representative sample of the virus, because tempt files that are infected in one run will naturally have identical or parallel sample of the virus. This will make it more liable that the detection by the virus scanner will be variable, and that some instances of the virus may be able to avoid detection. 2.3.5 Metamorphic Code To avoid being detected by emulation, some viruses revise themselves completely each time they are to infect new executables. Viruses that make use of this technique are said to be metamorphic. To enable metamorphism, a metamorphic engine must be needed. A metamorphic virus is usually very large and complex. For example, W32/Simile consists of over 15,000 lines of assembly language code, 90% of which is part of the metamorphic engine. 2.3.6 Avoiding Bait Files and other Undesirable Hosts A virus wants to infect hosts in order to multiply further. In some cases, it might be a bad idea to infect a mass program. For example, many antivirus softwares perform an integrity check of their own code. Infecting such programs will therefore increase the likelihood that the virus is detected. For this reason, some viruses are programmed not to infect programs that are known to be part of antivirus software. Another type of host that viruses[27] sometimes avoid are bait files. Bait files (or goat files) are files that are specially created by antivirus software, or by antivirus professionals themselves, to be infected by a virus. These files can be created for various reasons, all of which are related to the detection of the virus: Antivirus professionals can use tempt files to take a test of a virus. It is more realistic to store and exchange a small, infected lure file, than to swap a large application program that has been infected by the virus. Antivirus professionals can use bait files to study the actions of a virus and assess detection methods. This is particularly useful when the virus is polymorphic[15][16]. In this case, the virus can be made to infect a large number of entice files. The grimy files can be used to test whether a virus scanner detects all versions of the virus. Some antivirus software employ bait files that are accessed regularly. When these files are modified, the antivirus software warns the user that a virus is probably active on the system. Since bait files are used to detect the virus, or to make detection possible, a virus can benefit from not infecting them. Viruses typically do this by avoiding suspicious programs, such as small program files or programs that contain certain patterns of garbage instructions. A related strategy to make baiting difficult is sparse infection. Sometimes, sparse infectors do not infect a host file that would be a suitable candidate for infection in other circumstances. For example, a virus can decide on a random basis whether to infect a file or not, or a virus can only infect host files on particular days of the week. 2.4 Vulnerability and Countermeasures 2.4.1 The Vulnerability of Operating Systems to Viruses Just as genetic diversity in a population decreases the chance of a single disease wiping out a population, the diversity of software systems on a network similarly limits the destructive potential of viruses. This became a particular concern in the 1990s, when Microsoft gained market dominance in desktop operating systems and office suites. Microsoft software is targeted by virus writers due to their desktop dominance. Although Windows is by far the most popular target operating system for virus writers, viruses also exist on other platforms. Any operating system that allows third-party programs to run can theoretically run viruses. As of 2006, there were at least 60 known security exploits targeting the base installation of Mac OS X (with a Unix-based file system and kernel). The number of viruses[6] for the older Apple operating systems, known as Mac OS Classic, varies greatly from source to source, with Apple stating that there are only four known viruses, and independent sources stating there are as many as 63 viruses. Many Mac OS Classic viruses targeted the HyperCard authoring environment. The difference in virus vulnerability between Macs and Windows is a chief selling point, one that Apple uses in their Get a Mac advertising. In January 2009, Symantec announced the discovery of a Trojan that targets Macs. This discovery did not gain much coverage until April 2009. While Linux, and Unix in general, has always natively blocked normal users from having access to make changes to the operating system environment, Windows users are generally not. This difference has continued partly due to the widespread use of administrator accounts in contemporary versions like XP. In 1997, when a virus for Linux was released-known as Bliss-leading antivirus[5] vendors issued warnings that Unix-like systems could fall prey to viruses just like Windows. The Bliss virus may be considered characteristic of viruses-as opposed to worms-on Unix systems. Bliss requires that the user run it explicitly, and it can only infect programs that the user has the access to modify. Unlike Windows users, most Unix users do not log in as an administrator user except to install or configure software; as a result, even if a user ran the virus, it could not harm their operating system. The Bliss virus never became widespread, and remains chiefly a research curiosity. Its creator later posted the source code to Usenet, allowing researchers to see how it worked. 2.4.2 The Role of Software Development Because software is often designed with security features to prevent unauthorized use of system resources, many viruses must exploit software bugs in a system or application to spread. Software development strategies that produce large numbers of bugs will generally also produce potential exploits. 2.4.3 Anti-Virus Software and other Preventive Measures Many users install anti-virus software that can detect and eliminate known viruses after the computer downloads or runs the executable. There are two common methods that an anti-virus software application uses to detect viruses. The first, and by far the most common method of virus detection is using a list of virus signature definitions. This works by examining the content of the computers memory (its RAM, and boot sectors) and the files stored on fixed or removable drives (hard drives, floppy drives), and comparing those files against a database of known virus signatures. The disadvantage of this detection[32] method is that users are only protected from viruses that pre-date their last virus definition update. The second method is to use a heuristic algorithm to find viruses based on common behaviors. This method has the ability to detect novel viruses that anti-virus security[7] firms have yet to create a signature for. Some anti-virus programs are able to scan opened files in addition to sent and received email messages on the fly in a similar manner. This practice is known as on-access scanning. Anti-virus software does not change the underlying capability of host software to transmit viruses. Users must update their software regularly to patch security holes. Anti-virus software also needs to be regularly updated in order to recognize the latest threats[27]. One may also minimize the damage done by viruses by making regular backups of data (and the operating systems) on different media, that are either kept unconnected to the system (most of the time), read-only or not accessible for other reasons, such as using different file systems. This way, if data is lost through a virus, one can start again using the backup (which should preferably be recent). If a backup session on optical media like CD and DVD is closed, it becomes read-only and can no longer be affected by a virus (so long as a virus or infected file was not copied onto the CD/DVD). Likewise, an operating system on a bootable CD can be used to start the computer if the installed operating systems become unusable. Backups on removable media must be carefully inspected before restoration. The Gammima virus, for example, propagates via removable flash drives. 2.4.4 Recovery Methods A number of recovery options exist after a computer has a virus. These actions depend on the virus. Some may be safely removed by functions available in most anti-virus software products. Others may require re-installation of damaged programs. It is necessary to know the characteristics of the virus involved to take the correct action, and anti-virus products will identify known viruses precisely before trying to dis-infect a computer; otherwise such action could itself cause a lot of damage. New viruses that anti-virus researchers have not yet studied therefore present an ongoing problem, which requires anti-virus packages[1] to be updated frequently. 2.4.5 Virus Removal One possibility on Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 is a tool known as System Restore, which restores the registry and critical system files to a previous checkpoint. Often a virus will cause a system to hang, and a subsequent hard reboot will render a system restore point from the same day corrupt. Restore points from previous days should work provided the virus is not designed to corrupt the restore files and does not exist in previous restore points. Some viruses disable System Restore and other important tools such as Task Manager and Command Prompt. An example of a virus that does this is Cia Door. Many such viruses can be removed by rebooting the computer, entering Windows safe mode , and then using system tools. Many websites run by anti-virus software companies provide free online virus scanning, with limited cleaning facilities (the purpose of the sites is to sell anti-virus products). Some websites allow a single suspicious file to be checked by many antivirus programs in one operation. Additionally, several capable antivirus software programs are available for free download from the internet (usually restricted to non-commercial use), and Microsoft provide a free anti-malware utility that runs as part of their regular Windows update regime. 2.4.6 Operating System Reinstallation Reinstalling any OS is another loom to virus removal. It involves either reformatting the computers hard disk drive and installing the operating system and

An Online Utility Bill Payment System

An Online Utility Bill Payment System Abstract With the growing number of people who are been increasing pressured for time, online utility bill payment has become a graceful solution for the consumers with busy life styles. Through online payment of utility bills, consumers are able to save time, hassle and therefore make their lives much easier. Although online utility bill payment has become one of the fastest growing trends in the world particularly in the US, in the Sri Lanka however, the progress of households adopting to online utility bill payments is rather slothful. Thus, the primary objective of this study is to analyse the factors influencing the consumers intention to adopt an utility bill payment system in Sri Lanka alongside with the secondary objectives of identifying the awareness level on online bill payments systems, examining the most preferred utility bill payment options and models, and the degree of acceptance of online utility bill payment systems by the consumers and finally to analyse the future prospect with regards to online utility bill payments. Hence a survey was conducted among 50 physicians from four major hospitals in the Colombo city. According to the result obtained from this research, it was revealed that although in general all the respondents were somewhat aware about online utility bill payment systems, the younger respondents acquired a better knowledge about online utility bill payments than respondents from older age categories. Furthermore, all the respondents positively reacted and stated that it is important for all the utility companies to mark their online presence thus allow customers to conduct online transactions as it would be more convenience. Moreover, factors categorised under perceived risks and perceived benefits were found to have a considerable force on the consumers intention to adopt an online utility bill payment system. Other factors such as services and features offered by companies, individuals computer knowledge and skill, and usage of credit and debit cards were also identified and are di scussed in this research. Key Words: Online utility bill Payment system; Credit card usage; e-commerce; adoption; User intention. Chapter 1 Introduction Today the improvement of e-commerce has led to the derivation of various internet based activities. For e.g. companies are able to conduct their business activities at all hours, reaching customers in all parts of the world thus expand their customer base without geographically being limited. Whereas in customers perspective, e-commerce provides a platform on which they can easily carry out the necessary transactions at their convenience. Hence even the companies which provide utility services are boldly revolutionizing their industry thus adopting internet for e-commerce purposes (Buccigross, 2000). This allows customers to make their utility bill payments directly through utility companies websites or through a third party website such as banks, financial institutions and aggregators. Online utility bill payment is when the customer makes his or her payment transactions online for the utility services obtained from a particular company. By paying utility bills via online, consumers have the benefits of avoiding crowds, queuing, parking problems, and cutting their travelling costs and time (Ramayah et al, 2005). Hence consumers could simply get their utility bills paid with just a click of their mouse. In Sri Lanka, the payment system of utility bills is rather different to the systems established in other countries. The utility bills usually arrive by post thus the consumers must visit the payment office in order to settle the payments. As mentioned earlier, this process is usually accompanied by queuing, parking problems, and limited payment options. For example, the CEB NWS DB only accepts payments made by cash or cheques at their payment counters. These issues can be considered as a hassle for people whose jobs are of hectic and stressful nature. Many utility companies in Sri Lanka have identified this problem thus have implemented various types of payment systems in order to provide their consumers with a wider choice when it comes to their payments (refer appendix A). Online utility bill payment is one of the elite choices of payment systems that have been implemented in the contemporary world. Problem Statement What are the factors shaping and influencing an individuals intention to adopt an online utility bill payment system? Problem Justification There is a lack of understanding as to what is really happening in the local context with regards to the adoption of new technological services related to the internet. Hence there are hardly any researches that have been carried out in order to understand the consumers view point with regards to online utility bill payment systems that have been implemented. Therefore the knowledge about consumers behaviour related to this area of study is vital for utility companies and other vendors operating in similar businesses in order to estimate the potential market available hence utilize the internet as a tool of opportunity for those companies to grow and expand their market. The study will also be essential for government utility companies (e.g. CEB) since they have not yet implemented the service of allowing the customers to pay their utility bills directly through the companies websites. The information originated from this research will enable both the government and private utility companies to identify the significance of the factors influencing the consumers intention to adopt online utility bill payment systems thus develop strategies to further enhance their business activities. Objectives of the Study To determine awareness level about online utility bill payment systems by consumers. To analyse the factors influencing the consumers intention to adopt an online utility bill payment system. To find out the most accepted online utility bill payment options and the preferred bill payment modes by consumers. To analyse the degree of acceptance of an online utility bill payment system by consumers. To examine the impending future prospect of online utility bill payment systems in Sri Lanka. Significance of the Study This study will mainly facilitate the utility companies and other vendors in Sri Lanka to identify the factors influencing the consumers intention to adopt online utility bill payment systems, in this case physicians who are residing in Colombo, a highly skilled and a valued population in the country. Therefore by understanding such factors, companies will be able to eliminate the uncertainty levels and have a clear view about the potential market for online utility bill payment in Sri Lanka. This study will further help the utility companies develop enhanced strategies regarding the payment options that are being made available to their clients. Awareness about online utility bill payment will allow consumers to acclimatize to these new technologies thus exploit the advantages of the internet. The information and data that have been collected in this study will aid the future researchers conducting researches related to consumers intention to adopt online bill payment systems in general. Scope of the Study This study was carried out to empirically investigate the factors affecting the consumers intention to adopt an online utility bill payment system. However, the survey sample of the study consisted only of physicians working in four (4) private hospitals situated within the Colombo city limits. Furthermore, the physicians were from various backgrounds thus to achieve results that are more realistic and to better signify the people that pay utility bills, the sample have to be more diversified in terms of age and geographical location (He Mykytyn, 2007), preferably homeowners who are responsible for their respective household bill payments. Chapter 2 Literature Review Online Utility Bill Payment Online utility bill payment is when the consumer makes his/her payments for the utility service(s) obtained with the use of the internet. The types of utility services are illustrated in the table below. Today, the consumers trend in making utility bill payments is increasing particularly in the developed nations Brant (2008). In the Sri Lankan context however, although the country illustrates a steady growth in terms of internet usage especially from the users in the urban areas (Sathrasinghe, 2004), this has not been escorted by a similar growth in the number of consumers making online utility bill payments. In fact according to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (2008), the overall transactions made by consumers over the internet illustrated a declining trend. Online Utility Bill Payment Models Options There are various payment models and payment options available to the customers when it comes to paying online utility bills unlike in the traditional (or offline) method of bill payment where the customer is limited to pay by either in cash, cheque, or electronic payment at a given payment centre. There are two types of online utility bill payment models, namely direct model and indirect model. The following table describe further details on these two models. Indirect Model (Third Party) Consumers pay any biller through a third party website such as a bank or portal, or by using software that interacts with the payers bank (Flynn Bowes, 2005) Automatic Bill Settlement by American Express (American Express, 2010) HSBC Easy Bill Settlement for Utility Bills (Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, 2010) With the evolution of payment options from barter to commodity-based, to currency and coin, to card-based and, more recently, to electronic network-based systems (Mantel, 2000), modern consumers have a wider choice when it comes to paying their utility bills via online. The table 3 below illustrates various online payment options available for consumers. Table 3 Online Payment Options Online Payment Options Definition Examples (Sri Lanka) Virtual Credit cards A disposable payment card that can be used to make purchases or payments over the internet (Economy Watch, 2010). Sampath Web card (Sampath Bank, 2010) E-cheques An electronic representation of a paper cheque (Acosta, 2008). e-cheques by Union Bank (New Sri Lanka, 2009) Smart cheques by Standard charted (Standard Chartered Bank, 2008) E-Wallets A software that has been installed on the consumers desktop which automatically fills payment forms (Acosta, 2008). Sampath e-wallet (Sampath Bank, 2010) Credit Cards (VISA, MasterCard American Express) The money for purchases or payments is credited directly to the consumers bank account, allowing consumer to pay later. HSBC credit cards (Premier, Platinum, Gold, Classic) (Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, 2010) Debit Cards The money for purchases or payments is deducted directly from the consumers checking account. HSBC VISA Debit card (Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, 2010) Sampath Bank Debit card (Sampath Bank, 2010) Online bank accounts Allows users to manage their bill payments through online banking Personal banking by HSBC (Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, 2010) Payeasy by Sampath Bank (Sampath Bank, 2010) Combank Online by Commercial Bank (Commercial Bank, 2010) Literate Review on Dependent Variable Given the fact that online bill payment is one of the fastest growing consumer activities on the internet that has being accepted by the business world today (McCormick, 2005), a few published empirical studies have specifically addressed the underlying factors that could materially affect customers adoption of an online utility bill payment system (He Mykytyn, 2007). Cheung et al (2003) have stated that theories such as the TRA, the TPB and the TAM are the most dominant theories that are been used to test studies related to the online consumer behaviour. Hence out of the three theories, TAM is considered as a suitable theory to analyse the factors influencing the physicians intention to adopt an online utility bill payment system (Taylor and Todd, 1995 cited Karami, 2006). (Please refer Appendix B for further details on the theories). Literature Review on Independent Variables In order to address the problem in this study, the following independent variables were selected as suggested by many previous studies. Perceived Characteristics Perceived risk Previous findings on the impact of perceived risk on consumer behaviour have suggested that the consumers consider adopting online payment methods more risky than tradition offline methods (Palvou 2003 and Koufaris et al 2002 cited He Mykytyn, 2007). In the Sri Lankan context, the risk of online utility bill payment is relative moderate. This is complemented by the fact that there are many banking services providing secure methods for the online financial transactions. However, according to the central banks statistics (2008), the total volume of transactions decreased by 5.7%. This indicates that there is a tendency that Sri Lankan consumers are concerned about the perceived risk associated with online payments in terms of security, trust and privacy. Perceived benefits the intention of online utility bill payment can be explained by the two components of TAM; PU and PEOU. Hence according to these components, when physicians consider online utility bill payments is more useful in terms of time saving, convenience and service reliability, and it is easy to use, they should be more likely to pay their utility bills online. Previous findings by (He Mykytyn, 2007 and Ramayah et al, 2006) revealed that perceived benefits are the significant drivers of consumers intention to adopt an online utility bill payment system. These findings were also consistent with previous studies on TAM (Chan Lu, 2004 cited Ramayah et al, 2006). Consumer Characteristics Consumer characteristics variables include gender, age, and nature of occupation, credit/debit card usage, attitude towards innovative payment methods, and individuals personal computer knowledge and skills. Gender Most of the previous researches on online bill payment, it is found that males are more willing to pay their bills through online than females. However, in a study by Masters (2006) it was found that the gender difference between males and females rate of internet usage among physicians are diminishing. In the Sri Lankan context, the computer literacy between males and females are 22% and 18.7% respectively (Department of Census Statistics, 2009). This indicates that the gender differences in how each perceives internet technology are blurring. Age Most studies indicates that the tendency of younger consumers intention of online bill payment is much higher than that of old consumers. This maybe mainly due to the familiarity of the internet based activities at an early stage. The circumstances in Sri Lanka are also similar; this may be mainly due to the high percentage of computer literacy in young people than older people (Department of Census Statistics, 2009). However, in the case of online utility bill payment, a study by Mantel (2000) showed that older people are more likely to pay utility bills via online than young people. General physicians/ Specialists Although most previous researches did not find a significant positive relationship between the user intention in online bill payment and education level, in study by Masters (2006) an interesting relationship between the nature of the work and internet usage was revealed. The study showed that there is a greater tendency for specialists to use the internet more than general physicians (Masters, 2006). Credit/Debit Cards Usage A study by Hayashi Klee (2003) stated that consumers who intent to use new technology have a more tendency in utilizing electronic payment methods than those who do not. Though the credit cards usage in Sri Lanka has indicated a declining trend since the recessionary months of 2008 the debit card usages have shown a considerable increase. Thus this could be assumed as a factor influencing the intention to pay utility bills via online. Attitude Attitude refers to the ones evaluation of consequences on performing a particular behaviour (Karami, 2006). Thus attitude has long been shown to influence behavioural intentions (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980 cited Pavlou and Fygenson, 2006). Computer Skills In most cases this stands as a key barrier for adoption of online transactions. Computer skills are mainly a persons ability to understand the set-up of online payments and the ability to use such online payment systems. Most of previous studies indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between individuals computer skills and intention to adopt an online utility bill payment system. (Please refer appendix C for the summarised table on literature review). Chapter 3 Methodology Secondary Data Analysis Population Sample The population selected for this study comprised of registered physicians in Sri Lanka. In order to obtain the sample, multistage sampling method was used. As illustrated in the figure below, initially cluster sampling method was used to divide the population into sub categories based on geographical area and then on obtaining a list of physicians employed in private hospitals in Colombo city, stratified sampling method was used to further divide the sample into homogeneous groups based on nature of occupation, hence a simple random sample was drawn from the two combined categories. (Please refer appendix D for further details). Secondary Data Analysis The Future of Online Utility Bill Payment Systems Although the idea of online utility bill payment is quite unfamiliar to most Sri Lankan households, online utility bill payments is one of the popular method of paying utility bills, mostly in developed countries such as the US. Hence according to a survey by the NLCCDG in 2005, 75% of the US cities had already implemented a separate webs5%ite for their citizens in order to make utility bill payment (IT Facts, 2005). According to Forrester Research, it is estimated that some47 million US households will pay utility bills online at the end of year 2010, which is a 75% increase from 2004 (illustrated in the figure below). Furthermore, the survey reported that among the consumers who are below the age of 30, the interest in online utility bill payment will grow by 219% and 32% of increase among baby boomers (BCR Access, 2006). Although there are no direct surveys that has been carried out in the Sri Lankan context with regards to online utility bill payments, according to the internet world stats website, the internet users have increased significantly during the past few years hence the percentage of penetration have increased by approximately 3% in year 2010 compared to 1.8% increase in year 2009 (internet world stats, 2010). The figure below illustrates the trend in internet users in Sri Lanka (source: internet world stats, 2010). Although the adoption of new technologies by the Sri Lankans is comparatively sluggish when compared to other Asian countries in the region, the government of Sri Lanka has taken numerous steps in order to enhance the e-commerce base activities. Hence one of the most significant episodes in the authorized regulation of e-commerce in Sri Lanka was the endorsement of the Electronic Transactions Act in 2006. This act was implemented in order to assist the commercial and financial activities by removing barriers to electronic transactions (Kariyawasam, 2008). Consequently since then many companies providing various services, especially utility services, have implemented systems that allows consumers to conduct their transactions via online. Chapter 4 Data Analysis The primary data for this study were collected through a survey based field study which consisted of thirteen questions (please refer appendix E for the questionnaire). The survey was administered to the physicians working at four major private hospitals in Colombo, namely Lanka Hospitals, Oasis Hospital, Asiri Surgical Hospital and Nawaloka Hospital. Fifty (50) questionnaires were randomly distributed among the physicians employed at all four hospitals and the responses were collected two days after the initial distribution of the survey. In total, forty four (44 i.e. 88%) physicians responded. Total of 29 items were used in this empirical study, including customer characteristics, perceived risk, perceived benefits, and merchants website and service features. To calculate the internal consistency of these items, a reliability analysis was performed by computing Cronbachs Alpha for each item. Hence all items are within the range of 0.746 (illustrated in the figure below) which is within the commonly accepted range, i.e., ÃŽÂ ± à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ 0.69 (He Mykytyn, 2007). According to the findings about the awareness level on online utility bill payment systems in Sri Lanka, the results indicated that in general all the respondents were moderately aware. However, when categorized according to the age, those of who were over 46 years old were only slightly aware about online utility bill payment systems, and male respondents demonstrated more knowledge on online utility bill payment systems than female respondents. 1= Never, 2= Almost never, 3= Sometimes, 4= Almost every time, 5= Every timePreferred Bill Payment Options The respondents mostly preferred to use credit and/or debit cards for their online transactions. The debit card usage frequency was higher than the credit card usage for online utility bill payments, although in general a higher number of respondents acquired a credit card. The indirect bill payment method was the most preferred among the respondents, i.e. most consumers preferred to pay their utility bills (excluding the telephone bills) through a third party website such as a bank or portal, or by using software that interacts with the payers bank (Flynn Bowes, 2005). Despite of any age differences, the consumers attitude towards online utility bill payment systems were positive. Hence most respondents thought that it is important that all companies must implement online bill payment systems as opposed to offline payment methods. Regression Analysis A regression analysis was performed using the individuals intention (UI) as the dependent variable and perceived risk (PR), perceived benefits (PB), merchants website service and features (MWSF) and computer skill (CK) as the independent variables. The Equation for this model is as follows Individuals Intention to adopt an online utility bill payment system (UI) = ÃŽÂ ²0 + ÃŽÂ ²1Perceived Risk (PR) +ÃŽÂ ²2 Perceived Benefits (PB) + ÃŽÂ ²3 Merchants Website Service Features (MWSF) + ÃŽÂ ²4 Individuals Computer Skill (CK) i.e. UIn = ÃŽÂ ²0 + ÃŽÂ ²1PRn +ÃŽÂ ²2PBn + ÃŽÂ ²3 MWSFn + ÃŽÂ ²4CKn Where ÃŽÂ ²01234 = Regression coefficients n = 1, 2, 3à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ 44 Table Regression Analysis Result Dependent Variable: Individuals Intention to Adopt an Online Utility Bill Payment Option Figure Framework on Factors Affecting the Individuals Intention to Adopt an Online Utility Bill Payment System .316 .418 -.281 .238 Individuals Intention to Adopt an Online Utility Bill Payment System Individuals Computer Skill Merchants Website Service Features Perceived Benefits Perceived Risks Therefore from the findings above, it is evident that perceived risks, perceived benefits and individuals computer skill variables indicate a positive relationship with the intention to adopt an online utility bill payment system variable. The merchants website service features variable, however, indicates a negative relationship, this explains that more than the services offered by certain merchants regarding online utility bill payments, respondents were more concerned about factors such as security, trust, privacy, time, and other beneficiaries when it comes to adopting an online utility bill payment system. Chapter 5 Conclusion Recommendation The main objective of this study was to empirically investigate the factors affecting the individuals intention to adopt an online utility bill payment system in Sri Lanka. The primary investigation on the topic identified that there are several factors influencing the adoption of online utility bill payment systems by consumers in the country. Since the country is still in its infancy of adopting online payment methods as oppose to offline payment methods, the study was conducted among physicians, a highly qualified and professional set consumers who are more likely to be in touch with new technologies. Thus the findings of this study are from a survey that consisted of 44 physicians employed at four major private hospitals in the Colombo city. The results indicated that although in general all the respondents were reasonably aware about the online utility bill payment systems that were available for them, the younger who were below the age of 30 were extremely aware about online utility bill payment systems compared to the rest of age groups. Additionally it was also found that male respondents were more aware about online payments than female respondents. The general usage of credit/debit cards and online bank accounts for the payments of utility bills was found to be relatively less. This can be also related to the finding from the secondary research which analysed that the usage of credit and debit cards has declined in Sri Lanka due to various reasons such as the economic turmoil and high interest charges applied by subsequent banks which issue the credit/ debit cards. Thus, the use of online bank accounts for the settlement of online utility bill payments showed a higher rate over credit and debit card usages. Moreover, although most respondents stated that they preferred to pay their telephone bills directly from the consequent merchants website, for other payments such water and electricity, most respondents preferred to adopt payment systems that were implemented by third party vendors such as banks. Concerning the consumers attitude towards online utility bill payment systems, majority of the respondents stated that it is important for utility service companies to mark their presences on the internet thus implement online payment systems. Interestingly, apart from the younger age group below 30, respondents between the ages 41-45 also indicated a high positive attitude towards the importance of online utility bill payment systems. Hence the survey revealed that most respondents were concerned about the credit cards frauds, security levels, and privacy when it came to making online payments. Thus these factors which fell under the variable perceived risks indicated a positive relationship with the individuals intention to adopt an online utility bill payment system. Furthermore, it was found that respondents enthusiasm to make online utility bill payments also depended on perceived benefits, which included factors such as ease of use of the system, speed, avoidance of late payments and queues, and time. This also supported as positive with the individuals intention to adopt an online utility bill payment system. Moreover, individuals computer skill which was measured using the information based on the years of computer experience and internet experience which the respondents possessed supported positive (although weak) relationship with the adoption of an online utility bill payment system. Nevertheless, the impact of merchants website service and features were not considered as an important or influential factor by the respondents to adopt an online utility bill payment system. This may be due to the lack of design and service features that are made available to the customers by the existing utility companies. In conclusion, this investigation was carried out as an extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which was initially developed by Davis in 1989 (cited in Ramayah et al., 2005); with additional variables that were assumed to affect the individuals intention to adopt online utility bill payment systems, which is a branch of e-commerce associated with online consumer behaviour. Hence according to the findings in this investigation, it could be assumed that the youthful consumers who have received a higher level of education are more aware about online bill payment systems thus are more notably agreeable to adopt online bill payment systems as a convenience way of settling utility bills. It can also be assumed that the method of online utility bill payment is not being widely accepted in Sri Lanka due to the lack in consumers confidence on security of payments, privacy issues, and their trust on particular merchants. Therefore companies must take necessary actions required to improve to consumers confidence about online bill payments and further emphasis and educate the consumers on particular benefits that will be offered to them through the utilisation of online bill payment systems.

Critique On Keynes :: essays research papers

History of Economic Thought: The writer begins with an introduction in which it is stated that the schools of thought were contradictory in their theories. What should have been answered is how and from what perspective: Neo-classical or Keynesian? The main points of her paper are the following: "Neo-classicists, such as Friedman, hold that the U.S. failed to provide liquidity to its banks," which caused the great depression; if the government does not intervene, the economy would then head towards full employment. Keynesian economists, on the other hand, believe that the government should intervene actively through means of fiscal and monetary policy to promote full employment and economic growth (with price stability). Moreover, they believe that the cause of the Great Depression was due to the government not intervening as they should have. The writer assumes that the Great Depression could have been resolved by both the Keynesian method, or the Neo-classical, however, does not state the cause of it or methodology. There may be no wrong or right answer, nonetheless, some reason for it should have been drawn; this approach would clarify what the Keynesian or Neo-classical remedies are. The writer does not develop the main points throughout the paper. She goes on restating the ideas by saying that Friedman believes that the economy is "self-adjusting and regulating" and that "Keynesian economists credit good monetary and fiscal policy with getting an economy out of recessions and periods of low growth. I did not get a sense of what side she was advocating, it seems that she may have been neutral. Furthermore, she did not state the two schools of thought’s analysis of th macroeconomy, which led them to think that their methodology was correct (according to them). In reference to the monetarists (especially Friedman) she did not mention how they advocated steady and consistent growth of money stock. In her conclusion, she stated that "human behavior is complex and often hard to predict. Keynesian ans Neo-classical economists are often trying to make sense of the nonsensical".

Essay --

Abe Lincoln was Americas 16th president. He had served from 1861-1865 he had a vice president his name was Hannibal Hamlin. He had supported the Republican Party. Which means he believed each person is responsible for his/her own rights in society. Abe was 52 at the start of his presidency. Abe had little to no knowledge of anything, but he had a very strong interest in books this is where he obtained most of his knowledge. So you could say that Abe was a self-taught man. When Abe was a kid he had a variety of jobs such as: a shopkeeper, a surveyor and postmaster. For a while he even chopped wood. After that he had started his place in the government. He won a seat in the Illinois legislature when he was 25. Abe served in Illinois for several terms when he had served in Illinois he had started to study to became a lawyer. He had ended up running for U.S congress. He eventually ended up winning the seat. Abe served as a congressman for one term. A term is approximately 2 years. He tried to run for senate. Abe did not win. When he did run though his concern for slavery caught some people’s attention. In 1860 Abe ran for president. He was fairly new in the Republican Party which back then had a meaning that the northern states didn’t allow any states to succeed from the US. Or in other words leave the country and form there own. They were also against slavery. Abe was inaugurated in 1861which means he became president. The southern states did not want Abe to be president. Abe didn’t want slavery so all the southern states were getting mad because slaves could go to the north and be free. Before Abe officially became president the southern states began to succeed. The first to leave was South Carolina. Soon 6 more would leave ... ...d been bumped to General-in-chief of the whole union army. Grant led the union army against Robert E. Lee in Virginia. The both of them battled for over a year with grant winning over Lee in Virginia ion April 9th 1865 Grant offered some generouse terms for the confederate army so that they did completely destroy the south and there army. When Grant took office his popularity becamne more thatn ever before but when he tried to rin for his third term he was accused that his whole presidency was a scandal. Many of the people in his administration had stolen from the gaverment. After he didn’t win his third term he decied he should travel the world and meet all the countries leaders. Upon returning he tried to run for offcice again but was unsuccessful. So he started to write an auto biography. He later had died of throat cancer due to smoking cigars his whole life.

An Ounce of Cure :: essays papers

An Ounce of Cure An Ounce of Problems Problems, we think they all disappear when we try to live life as though they never happen. In the fictional story of â€Å"An Ounce of Cure†, her teenage crises of the undying love for her boyfriend was persistent even after she was â€Å"dropped†. This mid-teenage problem, to her, was the end of her pre-destined life. Teenagers often exaggerate their tragedies, which result in sometimes life threatening situations. The theme of this story is even though we feel like our whole life has flipped over it will get better and our problems will die out. The narrator in this story expresses her point of view as she lives through this horrible stage in her teenage life. The characters that Alice Munro uses in the story are common and very realistic. The narrator never gives her name. She is the major character in the story and conveys this in first person. She is considered the reliable character since she is telling of a stage in her own life. I think she in insecure do to her parents already â€Å"hoping for a lesser rather than a greater disaster—an elopement, say, with a boy who could never earn his living, rather than an abduction into the White Slave trade.†(451) She has been given this pre-conceived destiny, which also contributes to her instability and by her boyfriend leaving her. Here in the story the character could be considered a dynamic character. The fact that her drinking and her attempt at suicide are spread throughout the whole town places a cloud of remorse and shame over her. She paid a great deal for her mistakes and learned from them. I think her mom could be considered a static-flat character. Here her daughter is trying to grow up and get a boyfriend, going to high school, and babysitting on the side and her mother still does not want to see her daughter as â€Å"gentleman material.† She has this fixed idea that her daughter will marry some person who cant make a living. By the end of the story, the narrator gets over him and goes on with her life, which I’m sure her mother is appalled.

Negative Consumer Behavior Essay

To fully understand what negative consumer behavior is and what makes a bad customer, we first have to understand what â€Å"consumer behavior† is. In their book, â€Å"Consumer Behavior: Concepts and Strategies,† Berkman and Gilson (1981) say that the American Cultural System, which is made of values and artifacts, strongly influences consumer activity in the United States. â€Å"In the twentieth century, American Culture reflected a distinct consumption ethic based upon affluence and gratification of desires through material acquisition† (Berkman and Gilson, 1981). Consumer Behavior is defined as â€Å"the activities of people engaged in actual or potential use of market items-whether products, services, retail environments, or ideas† (Berkman and Gilson, 1981). Thus, there are unlimited types of behaviors that the consumers can exhibit making it difficult to distinguish between good and bad consumer behavior. Sometimes, a consumer behavior that maybe considered negative in one market place can be considered positive in another. Shoplifting for example. â€Å"Some 800,000 times a day, this tableau of temptation, fear and exhilaration plays out in the humdrum aisles of department stores and supermarkets† (Adler, 2002). Shoplifting without a doubt is a type of negative consumer behavior since this behavior costs department stores and supermarket thousands of dollars every day. Yet in the February 25, 2002 â€Å"Newsweek† article written by Jerry Adler, Brandy Samson, the manager of a jewelry and accessories store in the Sherman Oaks California Fashion Square, sees shoplifting in a positive way by using it to understand what it is that the consumers want. She continued to say â€Å"We know what’s hot among teens by seeing what they steal† (Adler, 2002). Though shoplifting has negative effects for one type of market it is a positive consumer behavior in another like the security and protection market. The rise in shoplifting incidents will lead storeowners to increase their spending on security devices like cameras and sensor tags for clothing. Kelly Barron, the author of the article â€Å"Your money or your life? Crime rates are down. Are Americans overspending for security?† says that  even though crime rates have been decreasing over the past years, revenues in the security business are on the rise. â€Å"Americans keep buying more and more protection. Revenues for the security industry have risen 46% over the past five years, to an estimated $57 billion† (Barron, 1997). The vast increase of credit card use has given birth to yet another type of this complex consumer behavior that can be categorized as the compulsive buyers. In their study, James A. Roberts and Eli Jones, say that â€Å"the consumer culture is defined as a culture in which the majority of consumers avidly desire, pursue, consume, and display goods and services that are valued for non-utilitarian reasons, such as status (power), envy provocation, and pleasure seeking† (2001). Such behavior has both positive and negative outcomes. In one hand, the rise of consumer spending increases revenues for certain goods and services. In the other hand, the same behavior increases debt. â€Å"For the first three month of 1999, consumer spending increased at an annualized rate of 6.7 percent. Purchases of durable goods, non-durable goods, and services all registered healthy gains. During the same period, savings reached an all-time low of -0.5 percent† (Roberts and Jones, 2001). Roberts and Jones noted in their study that past research shows that credit cards facilitate spending and that college students were found to spend more at a given store if the store accepted credit cards as a mode of payment. It was also noted that such compulsive buying activities was a significant reason for the large number of credit card debt and personal bankruptcy filings. Roberts and Jones acknowledge that earlier studies have found that students with high debt earn lower grades, and have higher probabilities of dropping out of school. You would think that educational organizations would limit the access of credit card vendors into a college campus. However, what is happening is exactly the opposite. â€Å"Four of five universities allow on-campus solicitations for credit cards and charge credit card vendors between $175 to $400 per day to rent tables during freshman orientation. Schools also receive a percentage of all student charges when they authorize the issuance of an affinity card† (Roberts and Jones, 2001). So is compulsive buying behavior negative or positive? There are however some consumer behaviors that are easy to distinguish from being negative or positive. The abusive customer for example, is a type of consumer that is never satisfied that induces high amounts of stress on the employees. Those who have worked in retail and customer service have probably dealt with such consumers. Working in a clothing store has given me the opportunity to experience the stress created by dealing with the so-called â€Å"abusive customers.† This negative behavior creates a conflict between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. â€Å"The consumer satisfaction category has the main position in marketing theory and is based on the premise that the profit is made through the process of satisfaction of consumers’ demands†¦researchers continually confirm a significant correlation between satisfaction and repeated buying, greater brand loyalty, and spreading a positive opinion of the product† (Dubrovski, 2001). Customer is indeed important to the success of a business, but so is employee satisfaction. See the problem when it comes to dealing with abusive customers? The face-to-face interactions with abusive customers cause employees to increase their â€Å"emotional labor† which is also known as emotional dissonance. â€Å"Emotional dissonance occurs when expressed emotions conform with organizational norms but clash with true feelings† (Rafaeli and Sutton, 1987). In her study on emotional dissonance, Rebecca Abraham establishes that emotional dissonance provokes unhappiness at a job, which motivates the intentions to quit. At my former job, a clothing store, I was able to observe high employee turnover rates due to job dissatisfaction. Not a day passed by without a single interaction with an abusive customer. I wouldn’t doubt that the high volume of such interactions lead to the high employee turnover. This particular store did nothing to decrease the high employee turnover, probably costing them hundreds of dollars. When does employee satisfaction become more important than customer satisfaction? Abusive customers, no matter what they spend and no matter how high their lifetime value is, are expressing negative consumer behavior. This particular clothing store that I used as an example should evaluate or re-examine their values because in the  end nobody will want to work for them. Exhibiting negative consumer behavior in one type of market may result in a positive outcome in another market. Some types of consumer behaviors are so complex that it is extremely difficult to distinguish it from being a positive or negative behavior. It depends on what side of the market the specific business is. In this paper I illustrated for the most part a few of these complex consumer behaviors. However, there are some consumer behaviors that a business owner might be better off with. In the retail business there are some customers that take a great deal of time in deciding what it is that they want to purchase. If you are a storeowner, you might want to have your employees spend less time pleasing these types of customers. After all time is money. The welfare and satisfaction of employees should also be a great concern for the employers. I believe that the more satisfied an employee is with their job, the better they will perform at it. Thus, it is important to protect employees from abusive customers. I can recall a time when a customer became extremely angry when we did not have a specific item in the size he was looking for. There was nothing that I could do but to deal with the costumer’s mistreatment. The types of negative consumer behavior are immense that some are hard to even conceptualize. Such behaviors range from lack of spending, usually expressed by the elderly, to theft and overspending. Future research should examine these activities. Bibliography Abraham, Rebecca. The impact of emotional dissonance on organizational commitment and intention to turnover. Journal of Psychology v133, n4 (July, 1999): 441. Adler, Jerry. The â€Å"Thrill† of Theft: it’s not just the movie stars. Why, each year, ordinary people shoplift $13 billion of lipsticks, batteries and bikinis from stores. Newsweek (Feb. 25, 2002): 52. Barron, Kelly. Your money or your life? Crime rates are down. Are Americans overspending for security? Forbes v160 (November 17, 1997): 66. Berkman, Harold W; Gilson, Christopher. Consumer Behavior: concepts and strategies. Kent Publishing Company. Boston 1981. Dubrovki, Drago. The role of customer satisfaction in achieving business excellence. Total Quality Management. (December 2001): 920 Rafaeli, A.; Sutton, R. Expression of emotion as part of the work role. Academy of Management Review. (1987): 12, 23-37. Roberts, James A; Jones, Eli. Money attitudes, credit card use, and compulsive buying among American college students. Journal of Consumer Affairs, Winter 2001, 35(2): 213-240.

An Essay on the Views of Booker T Washington

Born a slave, Booker T. Washington rose to become a commonly recognized leader of the Negro race in America. Washington continually strove to be successful and to show other black men and women how they too could raise themselves. Washington†s method of uplifting was education of the head, the hand, and the heart. From his founding of the Tuskegee Institute in 1881 to his death in 1915 Booker T. Washington exerted a tremendous influence on the people that surrounded him. With his emphasis on industrial education Washington†s approach gave African-Americans hope of accomplishment and success. Growing up in Franklin County, Virginia, Booker was a young slave living on a plantation in a cold, dismal cabin with his mother being the plantation cook. He struggled through the hardships not unlike all the other slaves in the country. Booker T. Washington did not know his own father, which sounds very terrible, but was nothing unusual to young children of enslaved mothers. However Booker†s thoughts and feelings were different from what you†d suspect. Booker states, † I do not find especial fault with him (his father). He was simply another unfortunate victim of the institution which the Nation unhappily had engrafted upon it at the time. â€Å"(4) Booker T. Washington was engulfed in labor throughout his adolescence and young boyhood days, joining his step-father in working in salt furnaces and coal-mines after the civil war. Of course the labor force in this country was predominately slaves, and after the civil war black people were paid little money to do some of the same work. The whole machinery of slavery was constructed as to cause labor, as a rule, to be looked upon as a sign of degradation and inferiority. The slave system took the spirit of self-reliance and self-help out of white people. Again, Booker T. Washington†s thoughts about the labor of black people differ from a traditional view. Washington feels that many white boys and girls never mastered a single trade or special line of productive industry. All the cooking, cleaning, everything was done by slaves, so when freedom came blacks were well off to begin a life of their own. Except for book-learning and ownership of property, Washington felt positively of the long term investment made from all that hard labor. Washington envisioned a future for Black America where their hard work would earn them the respect of whites and pave the way for equality between the races. Washington had success on his mind for his whole life. There is not a moment in his life where he did not think of achieving a goal that would make him more successful and a better person. He used to picture in his mind how he would climb from the bottom of the ladder and one day be on the top, despite his race. He did envy the white boy as you would think in his early part of his life, but once again his view changed from what is considered normal in my opinion. Washington states, † I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. â€Å"(27) Washington felt that a Negro youth must work harder and must perform his tasks even better than a white youth in order to secure recognition, and in that also gaining more strength and confidence than a white youth. Booker T. Washington was infatuated with learning ever since his childhood slave days. His intense desire to learn enabled him to master a Webster â€Å"blue-back† spelling book, and even led him to move ahead the hands of a clock at work so that he could get to his night school on time. Washington had a goal to go to Hampton where he can get a descent education, and his hard work and long journey paid off when he got admitted their due to his cleaning abilities. This was an example of what I had stated earlier in that some of the labors he had done in his life as a slave and a worker paid off. At Hampton Washington met the principal, General Armstrong, and because of Mr. Armstrong, Washington saw the ideal he was to strive for, Washington said, † the noblest, rarest human being that it has ever been my privilege to meet. â€Å"(36) Washington was inspired by educational work and felt that General Armstrong was one of the men and women who went into the Negro schools at the close of the war to assist in lifting up his race. The greatest benefit in my mind that Washington received from Hampton was his attitude toward education which changed form the common idea that education would free one from manual labor, to love of labor, self-reliance, and usefulness, an unselfishness that strives to do the most to make others useful and happy. When Washington experienced this himself, he could take what he learned and lead others through more practical education. The Reconstruction period from 1867-1878 helped fuel an urge that Washington had to educate his race. He felt that blacks throughout the South looked to the Federal Government for everything, just like a child needing its mother. Also, that the Reconstruction policy, so far as it related to blacks, was in a large measure on a false foundation. Washington states, † In many cases it seemed to me that the ignorance of my race was being used as a tool with which to help white men into office. â€Å"(56) He felt that â€Å"general political agitation drew the attention of our people away from the more fundamental matters of perfecting themselves in the industries at their doors and in securing property. (56) In July of 1881, when the Tuskegee Institute for colored people opened, Booker T. Washington was asked to be the principle. Washington tried to expand as much as possible during the years of the school, he wanted to accommodate as many kids as possible and in order to do that the school needed to be bigger, so he put the kids to work, building the school and stressing the importance of work to the kids. Washington felt the value of this work for self-confidence, esteem and disciplined conduct was immense. How likely would a student write his initials on a wall if an older student next to him told him that he had built that wall. Washington felt Industrial education was a foundation. From it would come the professional positions of responsibility, wealth, and leisure. His way was to combine industrial training with mental and moral culture. He observed that the need to take care of one†s body and property and to have an economic foundation was more important than memorizing facts and readings of Latin and Greek. That†s why Washington stressed cleanliness, personal neatness, also housekeeping and mechanical skills. Through proper training of head, hand, and heart, Tuskegee could develop teachers and leaders who would go out to people and change their lives. Industrial education had three functions: First, black students could work to pay their expenses at school. Secondly they could develop skills that would be of economic value when they left school. Third, and most important, was to teach economy, thrift, the dignity of labor, and provide a strong moral backbone. Booker T. Washington had visions of equality for the black and white race, but his visions were somewhat different from that of the norm. He wanted to build up the black race slowly, knowing that equality was not to be achieved overnight. He taught blacks the power of knowledge and hard work to which they could gain a respect from their former masters of this country, and prove to them that they could live together and help out each other. He didn†t want to be better than the white man, he didn†t even dislike the white man, he just wanted to prove to the white man that a black man can have just as good of a heart. Washington took the positive factors out of everything in life, whether good or bad, and paved the way for a non-segregated country. He has no remorse for anything that has happened to his race, infect he says it best when he states, â€Å"Ever since I have been old enough to think for myself, I have entertained the idea that, notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted upon us, the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did. â€Å"(13)