Biography of Ian Wilmut Essay Example

Biography of Ian Wilmut Paper | The Life and Accomplishments of Ian Wilmut| Dr. Ian Wilmut with the year-old Dolly in 1997. Dolly was the first animal to be cloned from DNA taken from an adult animal.  © Najlah Feanny/CORBIS SABA| James Ray| Shepherd University| 9/16/2011| | Ian Wilmut is an embryologist from England that is arguably the most controversial researcher in recent history. He is considered to be the pioneer of cloning. He and his colleagues successfully cloned a lamb they named Dolly. He received many awards for his controversial work while enduring great backlash for the ethical implications of his accomplishments. Ian Wilmut was born July 7, 1944 in Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire, England (American Academy of Achievement, 2005). His father was Leonard Wilmut, a mathematics teacher at the Boys’ High School in Scarborough were Ian would later attend. His father was also a long time diabetes sufferer that eventually lost his sight to the disease (Lovetoknow Corp, 2008). It is thought that this experience may have been the early foundation for Ian Wilmut’s interest in scientific research. As a child, Ian Wilmut was raised in the town of Coventry (American Academy of Achievement, 2005). Early in his life Wilmut was interested in agriculture and farming spending much of his time in the outdoors and working as a farm hand (Wilmut, Creating the Genetic Replica, 1998). Wilmut once dreamed of a naval career, but those dreams were short lived due to his color blindness (Wilmut, Creating the Genetic Replica, 1998). As a young adult Ian Wilmut attended the University of Nottingham to pursue a degree in Agriculture. He felt he did not have the business sense to be successful in commercial farming so Wilmut focused his attention on agricultural research. We will write a custom essay sample on Biography of Ian Wilmut specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Biography of Ian Wilmut specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Biography of Ian Wilmut specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer While completing his undergraduate work at the University of Nottingham, Wilmut was exposed to the field of embryology by his mentor G. Eric Lamming. Lamming was a renowned expert in reproduction and after introducing Wilmut to his field, Wilmut knew that genetic engineering of animals was his quest in life. After graduation from the University of Nottingham, Wilmut attended the Darwin College at the University of Cambridge. In 1966 Wilmut spent 8 weeks working with Christopher Polge in his laboratory (Wilmut, Creating the Genetic Replica, 1998). Polge is credited with developing the technique of cryopreservation in 1949 (Rall, 2007). Wilmut was fascinated by Polge’s work and joined his laboratory in pursuit of a research PhD. His doctoral dissertation dealt with the freezing of boar semen and embryos. Based on this research, Wilmut was able to successfully produce the first calf born from a frozen embryo, a Hereford-Friesian named Frostie (Wilmut, Campbell, Tudge, The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control, 2000). This scientific advance allowed cattle breeders to increase the quality of their herd by implanting the embryos of the cows that produced the best meat and milk into cows of inferior quality. Wilmut graduated with his PhD in 1973 and took a research job with the Animal Breeding Research Station in Scotland. The research station was both privately and government funded and soon became known as the Roslin Institute in Roslin, Scotland (Wilmut, Campbell, Tudge, The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control, 2000). It is widely believed that Wilmut began his research in embryology after over hearing a conversation about Dr. Steen Willadsen, an embryologist that had used a cell from an embryo already in development to clone a sheep. Wilmut began applying Dr. Willesden’s research findings to his own research at the Roslin Institute. In 1991, animal activists heard about Wilmut’s research and burned down his laboratory. However, Wilmut was undeterred and secured funding from Pharmaceutical Proteins, LTD Therapeutics to continue his research. The greatest and most controversial part of Wilmut’s career began in 1996. Wilmut and a team of researchers took the DNA of a 6 year old Finn Dorset ewe’s mammary gland, switched off the active genes, and fused it with an egg cell from a Scottish Blackface ewe from which he removed the genetic material (Wilmut, Campbell, Tudge, The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control, 2000). Wilmut used electricity to fuse that mammary cell with its own DNA to the empty egg while it was in the dormant state. He repeated the same process with 277 udder cells and eggs from sheep (Wilmut, Campbell, Tudge, The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control, 2000). 9 of those eggs began to grow and divide into embryos (Wilmut, Campbell, Tudge, The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control, 2000). Wilmut then transferred the 29 embryos into surrogate sheep resulting in 13 of the sheep becoming pregnant (Wilmut, Campbell, Tudge, The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control, 2000). Of those 13 sheep, only one delivered a healthy lamb (Wilmut, Campbell, Tudge, The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control, 2000). On July 5, 1996, Dolly was born at the Roslin Institute. Wilmut has said that he named the lamb after country music singer Dolly Parton (Wilmut, Creating the Genetic Replica, 1998). After insuring Dolly was developing in a healthy manner and securing a patent for his work, Wilmut introduced Dolly to the world in February 1997 as a product of somatic cell nuclear transfer. DNA testing revealed that Dolly was in fact the genetic replica of her mother (Dewar, 2004). Dolly delivered four healthy offspring during her lifetime. In 2003, Dolly succumbed to pulmonary adenomatosis (Wilmut Highfield, After Dolly, 2006). After cloning Dolly, Wilmut went on to produce Molly and Polly, who had commercial value. They were each cloned with a human gene that allowed their milk to contain a blood clotting protein factor IX, which could be extracted to treat human hemophilia (Wilmut Highfield, After Dolly, 2006). Eventually, herds of sheep with genetic proteins in their milk could be produced, turning them into living drug factories for other diseases as well. Wilmut hoped that technology could be used with pigs to create human-adaptable organs for transplants. He also envisioned that certain genes could be more easily isolated and modified. Wilmut did could not have predicted the controversy his accomplishments would create. Media played up society’s fears of cloning human beings. Religious organizations lobbied against the use of embryos in research and called it murder. In March 1997, Wilmut appeared before the U. S. Senate public health and safety subcommittee hearing to discuss the ethical implications of his work. He said†I know what is bothering people about all this. I understand why the world is suddenly at my door. But this is my work. It has always been my work, and it doesn’t have anything to do with creating copies of human beings. I am no haunted by what I do, if that’s what you want to know. I sleep very well at night. † In 1999, Wilmut lobbied for a change to Great Britain’s 1990 Human Fertilization and Embryology Act to allow for the use of surplus eggs from assisted fertilization treatments to be developed for their stem cells. He sits on a Church of Scotland committee that examines the ethical issues surrounding advancements in science and technology. Although he is not a religious person, his focus is to neutralize critics so that scientific and technological advances can continue. Ian Wilmut wrote two books with his colleagues including Keith Campbell. These works include The Second Creation: The Age of Biological Control by the Scientists Who Cloned Dolly and After Dolly. In 2005, Wilmut received a license in the U. K. to clone human embryos for the purpose of culturing human stem cells. His goal was to investigate treatments for Motor Neuron Disorder. At the same time, the United States passed legislation to prohibit the use of government funding for research involving human embryos. Wilmut abandoned his use of human embryos when Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Japan was able to program skin cells from adult mice to revert back to their original stem cell state. Ian Wilmut’s discoveries and advancements to the scientific community have garnered him several awards. His work with Dolly earned him Time Magazine’s 1997 Man of the Year Runner Up (Time Magazine, 1997). In 1998 he was inducted into the Museum of Living History in Washington, D. C. and was given the Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran Award. He was entered into the Order of the British Empire (OBE), the Fraternal Order of the Royal Society (FRE), the United Kingdom’s Academy of Sciences (FMedSci), and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE). In 2008, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of England (BBC, 2007). Ian Wilmut is a balding, unassuming man. He is married with three children, Helen, Naomi, and Dean. While currently out of the controversial limelight, Wilmut is the current Director of the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He lives in the Scottish countryside with his family. He enjoys gardening, the sport of curling and taking long walks (Wilmut, Creating the Genetic Replica, 1998). The impact of Ian Wilmut’s work is far reaching. It lays the basis for possibly treating or curing diseases such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s through the use of stem cells (Wilmut Highfield, After Dolly, 2006). It could lead to better agricultural stock without the fear of deadly diseases such as mad cow disease (Wilmut, Campbell, Tudge, The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control, 2000). Furthermore, his works could possibly be used to prevent animals from becoming extinct. Although controversial, I believe Ian Wilmut’s advances in science are for the greater good. The only concern I have is now that the process is known, what is to prevent some self funded millionaire from cloning humans (Dewar, 2004). It is easier to control research that is dependent on public or governmental funds, but one cannot control those that already have the funds. I chose Ian Wilmut because I was interested in cloning and what useful purposes it has for society. I understood the implications for the treatment of diseases but I did not realize the other uses as well. For example, I did not think that a lamb could be genetically engineered, without harm, to produce milk that could treat hemophilia in humans (Wilmut, Campbell, Tudge, The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control, 2000). I did not consider that cloning could be used to prevent the extinction of endangered species. Works Cited Time Magazine. (1997, March 10). Time. American Academy of Achievement. (2005, October 25). Retrieved September 15, 2011, from Museum of Living History: http://www. achievement. org/autodoc/page/wil0bio-1 BBC. (2007, December 29). Retrieved September 22, 2011, from BBC: http://news. bbc. co. uk/1/uk/7163587. stm Lovetoknow Corp. (2008). Retrieved September 20, 2011, from biography. yourdictionary. com: http://biography. ourdictionary. com/ian-wilmut Dewar, E. (2004). The Second Tree. New York: Carrol Graf Publishers. Rall, W. (2007). Ernest John Christopher Polge. In W. Rall, Cryobiology (pp. 241-242). Wilmut, I. (1998, May 23). Creating the Genetic Replica. (T. A. Achievement, Interviewer) Wilmut, I. , Highfield, R. (2006). After Dolly. New York: W. W. Norton Company. Wilmut, I. , Campbell, K. , Tudge, C. (2000). The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

The real monster in Frankenstein Essays

The real monster in Frankenstein Essays The real monster in Frankenstein Paper The real monster in Frankenstein Paper In focusing upon the creatures first murder, the moment where he becomes truly demonic, Shelley encourages us to consider how our personalities are formed and what forces can transform a man into a monster. The next cruel act committed by the creature is to frame Justine with the childs murder. He is almost killing two birds with one stone here. This is another monstrous act of revenge emphasising the fact that the creature is the monster in this passage. Shelley seems to be suggesting that it is both the external forces that act upon us and the inner workings of the mind that turn men into monsters. At the end of the passage, the creature demands a companion, also created by Victor. This is what he has been waiting for since his creation. If Victor rejects this demand he will become a monster because, once again, he is denying the creature love and compassion in the form of a companion. But Victor does not want to create another creature like this one. He is in a lose-lose situation. If he creates another being, he will feel double the guilt; if he does not, the creature will continue to exact revenge. Later in the story, Victor starts to reconsider his decision to create a companion for the creature. He is considering the effects of having two superhuman beings in the world. He is indecisive until he sees the creature at the window of his workshop. He is reminded of the past actions of the creature. Victor, perceiving the creature to be spying on him, rips apart the second creation, almost in defiance. The creature is deeply unhappy about this, The Wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness. Victor is the monster here but when the creature returns later and says I shall be with you on your wedding night, We start to think of what the creature will do to Victor. The reader is now undecided about who the real monster is. The creature is the master of Victor but Victor is the only one who can give him a mate. The creature is powerful over Victor physically and can control his outer movements, but Victor is in control of his own mind and his conscience and he cant be forced to make a mate for the creature. Near the conclusion of the novel, Victor is sent to gaol following a wrongful arrest for the murder of Clerval. He is distraught when he finds Clervals body. He believes that he has caused the death and says Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, of life? Two I have already destroyed; other victims await their destiny: but you, Clerval, my friend, my benefactor This shows that Victor has now come to think of himself as a monster for creating a creature that had killed even his best friend. After serving some time in gaol, he is eventually released and decides to marry Elizabeth as soon as possible because he suspects that the creature is going to kill him on his wedding night and he is prepared for death. However, by marrying Elizabeth, he is really hastening her death unknowingly. He is anxious and apprehensive of what may happen soon, but he is so concerned about his own safety fears that he does not think about anyone elses. The negative side of his character has increased, selfishness has taken over and he bears no responsibility for Elizabeth. When Elizabeth dies at the hands of the creature, Victors thoughts turn to revenge. By killing the creature he hopes to put an end to the traumatic events. After Victor has finished his narration to Walton, Walton continued to write letters to his sister because he is filled with admiration for Victor. It appears to the reader that Walton is so desperate for a companion that he thinks favourably of Victor even if he were to be a murderer. This associates Walton with the creature in some ways. The previous passage fills the reader with sympathy for Victor. He has practically given up on life and the only purpose he has for living is to destroy the being to whom I gave existence. He feels that no man can be as close a friend as Clerval was to him and no woman can be like Elizabeth. Both of these important people have been removed by the creature. Can any man be to me as Clerval was; or any woman another Elizabeth? Victor believes that when he has killed the creature his Lot on earth will be fulfilled, and I may die. The creature is portrayed as a monster who has destroyed Victors very reason for living, but it may be argued that Victor created the being and so brought the misery on himself. The last passage in the book is very moving. Victor has died (through natural causes) and as Walton returns to his cabin to prepare him for his funeral, he discovers the creature bent over the cold body of Victor, in immense grief. The creature has come to hate himself for what he has put his creator through. That is also my victim! In his murder my crimes are consummated: the miserable series of my being is wound to its close! Oh, Frankenstein! Generous and self-devoted being! What does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me? I, who irretrievably destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovedst. Alas! He is cold, he cannot answer me. This shows the creature regretted his actions. The creature himself has realised how monstrous he has been to Frankenstein but it is not as much as the creature has had to endure in his short life. Overall, I believe that Victor is the real monster in this novel. He creates nearly all the suffering and misery in the story. He creates the creature which suffers because of disfigurement; he makes his family suffer misery by hardly ever acknowledging their constant support and love for him, and, probably most of all, he makes himself suffer huge amounts of misery through his unplanned actions. Also by usurping the powers of God, he is performing the biggest sin: trying to play God. Victors overwhelming ambition was to give life to something which was lifeless. By creating life by himself without the need of the involvement of a woman was against the laws of nature and could be seen as monstrous. This could only bring destruction and misery to everyone involved. Frankenstein pays dearly for this and, in some ways, gets his just reward by having all he ever loved taken away from him. The creature was not born evil. His actions were merely reactions to the way he was treated. Even his murder of Elizabeth was only a copy of Victors actions when destroying the mate he was making for the creature. Frankenstein had an overwhelming desire to be reknowned for a major achievement in medical science. This desire to satisfy his own ego grew into something which turned him into a monster. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Mary Shelley section. Download this essay Print Save Not the one? Search for

Identify two reported court cases that have impacted the evidentiary Research Paper

Identify two reported court cases that have impacted the evidentiary process or analysis in digital forensic cases - Research Paper Example The defendant was consequently sentenced to the federal prison of the US for 57 years, which was recorded to be the longest term of imprisonment in the constitution of cyber crimes. The prosecution of the court revealed that the defendant was using the Federal protected computer ‘botnets’ for creating spam-wire all over the internet, launching of critical cyber attacks and to receive the fixing adware that caused immense threat to the confidential data protection of the government. During the hearing process, the defendant also committed that he had gained over $3,000 by selling the access of his botnets, which further deepened the seriousness of the cybercrime threatening the national security (The Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2006). He had sold the botnets to others who were using it for sending spontaneous commercial spam and the launch of Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS). Ancheta also provided his customers with carious knowledge regarding the use of botnets and proper maintenance of the DDOS attacks and the commercial spam that were considered as against the Federal law (Samaha, 2010). Holding The US court charged Ancheta with a number of acts under the constitution of cyber crime laws. The defendant was charged under 18 U.S.C. Â § 1030 (a)(5)(A)(i) and 18 U.S.C. Â § 1030 (a)(5)(B)(i) for making attempts to the transmission of code to a protected computer, under 18 U.S.C. Â § 1030 (a)(5)(B)(v) against the attempts to make the transmission of code to the computers used by the government for the national defense, under 18 U.S.C. Â § 371 against conspiracy of Federal and national defense information, under 18 U.S.C. Â § (a)(4) against the access to the computers with an intention to commit fraud, and under 18 U.S.C. Â § 1956 (a)(1)(A)(i) against his activities to promote money laundering (Imhof, 2010). Analysis In the case of Ancheta, the decision levied by the court was justified as his crime was found to be severely threatening fo r the US national security. The acts those were imposed on him were all in accordance to the law. The court also instructed Ancheta to pay $51,000 to the Federal against the damage caused to their computers (Imhof, 2010). Furthermore, the defendant’s 57 months of imprisonment created a record of the longest term of punishment in the US, which was very much justified if his severity of fraud was to be kept in consideration. Affect The case of United States of America v. Jeanson James Ancheta is often considered as a landmark case in the history of cyber and telecommunication crimes. The rule of the case contributed towards the development of stricter and a more advanced framework to identify and penalize the persons found guilty for committing cyber fraud or unauthorized access to protected computers being treated as unlawful (Schiller & Binkley, 2011). 107 F3d 4 United States V. Fernandez Lee Synopsis In the month of December 1992, Mr. John Lee was accused with the charge of framing a conspiracy to possess as well as use a cyber device, which was not authorized as per regulatory norms. This approach of the accused was found to be violating the section 18 U.S.C. Â § 371 of the Federal Conspiracy law, which later resulted in his

Poverty and Pollution Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Poverty and Pollution Case Study - Essay Example Many of the businesses firms in third world nations across continents have collapsed due to in obedience to the business ethics. More on that, said nations do not establish an ethical decision making process. Ethical decision-making process encourages ethical business behavior (Pride, Hughes, and Kapoor, 2012).   Business Pollution and Poverty. Third World Countries are the states characterized by poor economies. Developing countries is another name for these very poor nations in the world. The common factors that makes a state be referred to as a Third World Country are low economical development, high poverty levels, heavy dependency to industrialized states, mortality infancy is high, and low natural resource utilization. The developing countries, famously Third World Countries, have a characteristic that they are technologically less developed, and they highly depend on the industrialized nations in the world for their survival. Moreover, these states has a high population grow th rate, high levels of illiteracy, and diseases since they do not establish proper disease management practices in both prevention and treatment. In addition, the reported high diseases are due to poor environmental conservation practices. This may include poor disposal of chemical industrial emissions to the air and water bodies. The pollution mostly occurs in water, land, and noise. These pollutions are done through dumping or disposal of toxic chemicals into the water bodies, and toxic gasses into the atmosphere (Pride, Hughes, and Kapoor, 2012).  The said disposal leads to business environmental contamination. This greatly affects inhabitants around the industrial business firm. Arguably, it can therefore, be said that the firm’s workers reside from within the environment. This reflects that pollution of the environment will have to affect the firm in one way or the other. This in turn, affects the production process of the firm activities. Besides the above named type s of pollutions, there exists land pollution, which has turned out to be a threat in many nations of the United States; majorly those depend on agricultural activities for survival. It is arguable that, when the soil through land pollution is contaminated, it no longer becomes nutritious for crop growth. This will consequently, lead to reduced crop yield and hence, hunger. Consequently, the said land pollution leads to poverty through the said reduced farm crop yields and hunger. Arguably, many industries have greatly aided the environmental pollution in million ways. Many extracting companies and industries have taken minimum precautions in environmental conservation, an act that has lead to a lot of pollution. Evidently, if suitable cautions and precautions not well taken, then it mean the future generation of the society is greatly, exposed to danger as some of the extraction companies, deal with nuclear element, and some radioactive chemicals. These elements really pollute the a tmosphere, which carries the air (oxygen) we breathe. Some of the industrial excretions, the unwanted toxic chemical materials are dumped, or disposed in rivers and other water bodies. (Tittle, 2000).   People in the society nearly are, exposed to the contaminated water sources and bodies on daily basis through either consumption or bathing. Understanding that the water is chemically contaminated, high chances are that the habitants of the business environm

Molecular Identification of DMS-Producing Bacteria Isolated from Dissertation

Molecular Identification of DMS-Producing Bacteria Isolated from Marine Algae - Dissertation Example Michael Steinke, for his unfailing and relentless support, and insightful remarks. His guidance in the conception and interpretation of this study granted me the confidence and multiplied my abilities for the successful execution of this project. I am grateful to the University, especially to the Department of Biosciences for enabling me in bringing this study to realization by providing me with all the necessary resources and support. I am greatly indebted to the University, my supervisor and colleagues, without whom the completion of this dissertation would have been a highly daunting task if not totally impossible. Contents Abbreviations 8 Abstract 10 1. Introduction 11 1.1 Distribution of DMSP in upper and lower photic zones 12 1.2 Microbial breakdown of DMSP and production of DMS 12 1.2.1 Microbes involved in DMSP breakdown 12 1.2.2 Mechanism of conversion of DMSP to DMS 16 1.2.3 Genes, proteins, promoters and gene regulation 18 1.3 Environmental significance of DMS and its role in global climate 25 1.4 Importance of identification, characterisation and phylogenetic analysis of DMS producing bacteria 26 2. Materials and methods 28 2.1 Isolation and growth of DMS producing bacteria 28 2.2.1 Preparation of growth media 28 2.2.2.1 Chemicals and reagents required 29 2.2.2.2 Preparation of M9 media of normal salinity with glucose as a carbon source 29 Rami Abdullah Aldagrer September 9th, 2011 Contents UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX 1 DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 1 MSc. DEGREE IN BIOTECHNOLOGY 1 Acknowledgements 2 Contents 2 Abbreviations 8 Abstract 10 1. Introduction 11 1.1 Distribution of DMSP in upper and lower photic zones 12 1.2 Microbial breakdown of DMSP and production of DMS 13 1.2.1 Microbes involved in DMSP breakdown 13 1.2.2 Mechanism of conversion of DMSP to DMS 16 1.2.3 Genes, proteins, promoters and gene regulation 18 1.3 Environmental significance of DMS and its role in global climate 24 1.4 Importance of identification, characterisation and phylogenetic analysis of DMS producing bacteria 26 2. Materials and methods 28 2.1 Isolation and growth of DMS producing bacteria 28 2.2.1 Preparation of growth media 28 2.2.2.1 Chemicals and reagents required 29 2.2.2.2 Preparation of M9 media of normal salinity with glucose as a carbon source 29 2.2.2.3 Preparation of M9 media of normal salinity with DMSP as a carbon source 29 2.2. 2.4 Preparation of M9 media without any carbon source of normal salinity 29 2.2.2.5 Preparation of M9 media of high (32 N) salinity 30 2.2.3 Inoculation into three different media to identify DMSP utilizing bacteria 30 2.2.4 Gram staining 31 2.2.5 Spectrophotometric analysis of growth and calculation of specific growth rate and doubling time 31 2.2 Extraction of DNA 31 2.2.1 Chemicals and materials required for the CTAB method of DNA extraction: 32 2.2.2 Preparation of reagents 32 2.2.3 Methodology of DNA extraction 33 2.2.4 Verification of extracted DNA 34 2.3 Amplification of 16s rRNA using PCR 34 2.4 Purification of PCR products 35 2.5 Identification of bacteria and phylogenetic analysis 35 3. Results 37 3.1 Observation of growth in different media 37 3.1.1 Growth in M9 media with DMSP 37 3.1.2 Growth in M9 media with glucose 38 3.1.3 Growth in M9 media without any carbon source 39 3.2 Results of gram staining 40 3.3 Plotting of growth curve 41 3.4 Calculation of specific growth rate and doubling time 44 3.4.1 Specific growth rate of bacteria in M9 media with glucose 45 3.4.1.1 Specific growth rate of B3B 45 3.4.1.2 Specific growth rate of B2B 46 3.4.1.3 Specific growth rate of B2A 46 3.4.2 Calculation of doubling time of bacteria in M9 media with glucose 47 3.4.3 Specific growth rate of bacteria in M9 media with DMSP 47 3.4.3.1 Specific growth rate of B3B 47 3.4.3.2 Specific growth rate of B2B 48 3.4.3.3 Specific growth rate of B2A 48 3.4.4 Calculation of doubling time of bacteria in M9 media with DMSP 49 3.4.5 Summary of specific growth rate and generation time 50 Specific growth rate bacteria in M9 media with glucose and M9 media with DMSP 50 Doubling time of bacteria in M9 media with glucose and M9 media with DMSP 50 3.4.6 Analysis of variance between the growth rates in two different media 51 3.4.7 Analysis of variance in doubling time 52 3.2 Results of DNA extraction 53 3.3

Social Enterprise Potential for Sustainability in the UK

Social Enterprise Potential for Sustainability in the UK Social enterprise is an active and sustainable business form of choice which is able to bring economic, communal and environmental benefits to the UK. It operates across all sectors of the economy, serving individuals in the private, public and third sectors. Through out this research will identify the increase levels of understanding of the role and value of Social Enterprise, given that a lack of understanding of the role and value of social enterprises was cited as a major barrier to the acceleration of the use of the business model. The purpose of this research will identify the key barriers faced by Social Enterprise and explore how these barriers could potentially be overcome to achieve sustainability. Chapter 1: Introduction A brief overview of social enterprise is introduced in the first chapter. Then, the purpose of the study will be next discussed which will end with a specific research question. In the end of this chapter the contribution of this research is also presented. A Brief Overview of Social Enterprise Social enterprise is a business structure that aims to distribute across a range of economic, social and environmental outputs which refer as‘ Triple bottom line. Within this business structure, anyone can develop a business and considers social and environmental impact as central part objectives. It can bring wealth as well as empowerment to disadvantaged communities which may be otherwise suffering exclusion. Social enterprises are organisations that supply goods and services to communal economy sector. These comprise a collection of organisations that subsist between the traditionally private and public sectors and have a stronger association with the community and non-profit sector. This sector has a key function to take part in achieving many of its goals, including overcoming social injustice and exclusion. Fundamental ethos are most often used by social enterprise organisations themselves, emphasises following three general features: †¢ Enterprise oriented like any other business, social enterprise is capable of generating income from production of goods and services to a market. As far as viable trading concerns, they are also able to make surplus from their trading. †¢ Social aims they are driven forward by unambiguous social aims. They are capable of creating new employment opportunity, training skills development and provision of local public services. They are responsible to their members and the larger society to increase its effectiveness and financial sustainability with the ultimate goal of creating social, environmental and economic impact or change. †¢ Social ownership they are self-governing organisations with an authority and the ownership structures are based on participation by stakeholder groups for example users or clients and local community groups and by trustees. Profits or surplus are disseminated as profit sharing to stakeholders or are used for the benefit of the community. In the United Kingdom, social enterprises are gradually becoming a well-known sector of the local and national economy. The organisation which is operating in this sector is conscious about the most important factor that becoming sustainable businesses is the path to independence both financially and in mission. However, this emerging sector is struggling for further growth and eventually it leads to have impact negatively on their sustainability. Social Enterprise should be supported and encouraged to grow both as a sector and as individual organisations so that these will become more sustainable organisations. Purpose of the Study My paper has been developed to explore how the term social enterprise has acquired meaning in the United Kingdom and to demonstrate how practitioners, policymakers and academics influence each other in the development of new sustainable ideas, given that a lack of understanding of the role and significance of social enterprises was cited as a major barrier to the acceleration of the use of this business model. These challenges come in many forms. Some are the same as those affecting any other business including access to business support and finance, a lack of affordable premises and finding skilled staff. However, social enterprises also face one huge barrier that seriously affects their ability to assume a position within the market. That barrier is a lack of understanding of how social enterprises work and of their potential value. This lack of understanding exists across the public, private and voluntary and community sectors. Often its been very difficult to secure contract and mainstream funding support as there are plenty of confusion surrounding the social enterprise business model. So my dissertation will identify the key barriers faced by Social Enterprise and explore how these barriers could potentially be overcome in order to achieve sustainability. It examines critical incidents that have shaped the meaning of social enterprise in England and reflects on these incidents to draw conclusions about the future sustainable development of social enterprise practice. Through out this paper, I will also study the possible circumstances for the sustainable development of social enterprise. The purpose is to notify both policy-making and the wider argument about social enterprise: what its potential might be and how that potential can be realised in different settings. Structure of the Report: This research is divided into six chapters; the first chapter is an introduction with purpose of the study. In the second chapter, literature based review of definitions of social enterprise, roots of social enterprise, discussion relevant to the sustainability of social enterprise, the nature of their contribution and their sponsors and sources of funding. The third summarises the background information of social enterprise in the UK and the fourth and fifth chapter contain the methodology and the summary of the main findings of the study with implications for policy. Finally, the sixth chapter is giving the idea about possible areas that further research could be conducted with the limitations of the study of this research paper. Chapter 2: Literature Review This chapter will give an overview of literature and models that are related to the research problem presented in the previous chapter. This chapter will introduce the roots and concepts of social enterprise in order to give a clear idea about the research area. 2.1 Roots of social enterprise Scott specified (2006, p.50) mentioned â€Å"The roots of social enterprises and community enterprise overall can be found in the mutual, self help and co-operative sector which goes back, in the UK, at least to the Fenwick Weavers in Ayrshire 1769 and Dr William King of Brighton in the 1820s with earlier antecedents.† Local community based organisation played vital role within the development of this movement and empowering disadvantaged poor community to move forward labour market. Grass root social worker Harry Cowley campaigned between first and second world war for housing needs and employment opportunity for returning service people and capacity building support for small business. He also advocated â€Å"job creation† programme from the local public service authority for unemployed people and eventually had some success. 2.2 General Discussion on Social Enterprise Social Enterprises combine the requirement of successful businesses with communal aims. They seek to qualify as businesses by setting up a market share and making a profit and draw attention to the long-term benefits for employees, consumers and the community. Todays competitive business world stated that defining the social enterprise is a challenging task. According to OECD (1999, p.9) â€Å"there is no universal, commonly accepted definition of social enterprise.† On the other hand, the OECD (1999, p.10) has described social enterprise as: â€Å"any private activity conducted in the public interest, organised with an entrepreneurial strategy but whose main purpose is not the maximisation of profit but the accomplishment of certain economic and social goals, and which has a capacity of bringing innovative solutions to the problems of social exclusion and unemployment†. Doherty and Thompson (2006, p.362) mentioned in their article that social enterprises are organizations which are seeking business solutions to social crisis. These are needed to be distinguished from other socially-oriented organizations. These also need to take initiatives that can promote to communities but which are not seeking to be â€Å"businesses†. In this esteem, these latter organizations remain dependent on endowments and donations rather than build up true paying customers. According to DTI report A Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success (2003, p.6), social enterprise is such kind of business which reinvests its surpluses in the business or in the community rather than increases profit for shareholders or owners. Drucker (Gendron, 1996, p.37) argued that social entrepreneurs are those who altered the performance capacity of society but Henton et al. (1997, p.1) mentioned that ‘civic entrepreneurs are a new generation of leaders who built new, powerfully productive connections at the intersection of education, business, community and government. Somers (2005, p.46) stated â€Å"Social enterprise emphasise creating social and environmental value at all stages of their production process, as an intrinsic part of their identity†. Following Figure: 1 describes the production process of social enterprise. Laville and Nyssens (2001, p.325) argue that when the roots of social enterprises are based in reciprocity and in this way these are part of the third system, their force is based in their ability to valve into all three economic principles and systems. They are different from private and public enterprise. In terms of private enterprise they do not only maximize profit to benefit owners, they also develop market activities and generate profits. With the comparison to public enterprise, they are independent from direct control by public authorities but they benefit to a greater or lesser extent from public subsidy. In this way, they mobilize market relations to sell services or goods and use redistributive relations by utilizing government funding to finance their services. Their long-term sustainability depends on their ability to ‘continuously hybridise the three poles of the economy so as to serve the project. 2.3 Discussion Relevant to the Sustainability of Social Enterprise According to Asefa (2005, p.1), â€Å"Sustainable development is the concept of a relationship between economic growth and the environment. The term was first used in 1987 by the world Commission on Environment and Development .Although the term has been around for almost two decades, different interpretation have kept it from being a useful guide for development policy†. Bornstein (2004, p.3) mentioned that over the last decade there has been unprecedented growth of social enterprise world wide. This business model has been getting attention from both government and corporate sector though sustainability remains the major concern. According to 2004 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, a survey was conducted of social entrepreneurship activity in the UK. These data suggested that latest ‘social activates are emerging at a faster rate than more conventional, commercial endeavours. Within local and global level there are three areas to focus on sustainability in business activity and they are environment, economy and community. (Harding and Cowling, 2004, p.5) Environment It ensures that business is engaged in the appropriate and careful use of limited supplies and the management of waste so that it will be able to minimize the negative and maximize the positive impact of human activity. Economy It ensures that business is financially viable and it engages in good employment practice. Finally it is beneficial to the whole economy. Social It ensures that business is overall of advantage to communities, their customs and does not cause danger to them. Schulyer (1998, p.3) described that social entrepreneurs are those who have a powerful visualization for social change and who have the strong financial resources to support their ideas. That means they should reveal all the abilities of conquering business people and a compelling aspiration for social change. On the other hand, Catford (1998, p.96) argued that â€Å"social entrepreneurswill only flourish if they are supported by the right environment, which will be created largely by governments together with the private sector†. 2.3.1Financial Sustainability Social Enterprise looks for surplus generation in order to achieve financial sustainability. This is a fundamental need to social enterprises. Emphasizing financial sustainability in addition to profit distribution becomes a way to account for all activities the organization engages in, including advocacy and in support of bono work. Sacrificing one cause and effect chain for another can have significant implications for both the quality of work and social enterprises financial sustainability. Whilst many may rely on combination of grant and trading income, ultimately, if an organisation is not financially sustainable, it cannot deliver its social and environmental impact. Fig3. Shows how the profit of social organisation is distributed to the organization itself and community. 2.4 Policy Reform and Good Governance DTI report A Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success (2003, p.6) describes the three key goals for government: creating an enabling environment, making social enterprises better businesses and establishing the value of social enterprise. Thompson et al. (2000, p.328) describe â€Å"people who realize where there is an opportunity to satisfy some unmet need that the state welfare system will not or cannot meet, and who gather together the necessary resources (generally people, often volunteers, money and premises) and use these to ‘make a difference†. Brown and Murphy (2003, p.57) mentioned on Bank of England report that â€Å"Social enterprises, like all businesses, need access to a range of financial products appropriate to their activity and stage of development†. A HM Treasury report on Enterpriseand Social Exclusion (1999, p.108) came to the conclusion, arguing that social enterprise was â€Å"less understood and rarely promoted in a consistent way by the existing infrastructure for business support†. It is more constructive to judge and expand social enterprise capabilities rather than expertises and capacity building. The fact that social enterprises need to combine commercial objectives with social mission as well as internal governance means that a â€Å"capabilities approach† is more comprehensive. This is a useful way of recognising factors additional to individual skills that inter-play to determine the effectiveness and impact of a specific enterprise. It also moves away from limited considerations of a key person or group within the organisation, and their specific skills, towards a more holistic view of what the organisation is capable of doing, irrespective of the location of particular skills. Catford (1998, p.97) articulated the problems and gave one probable way out: â€Å"Traditional welfare-state approaches are in decline globally, and in response new ways of creating healthy and sustainable communities are required. This challenges our social, economic and political systems to respond with new, creative and effective environments that support and reward change. From the evidence available, current examples of social entrepreneurship offer exciting new ways of realizing the potential of individuals and communitiesinto the 21st century†. Academic writing about modern social entrepreneurship skills is relatively limited, compared to mainstream business or charities. The concept of ‘social enterprise has been quickly appearing in the public, private and non-profit sectors over the last few years. Todays increased competitive not for profit sector there is extensive needs for the improvement of organisation effectiveness and sustainability even though securing funding is harder to meet the criteria of funding body. There is a good opportunity to tap in to corporate social responsibility programme by utilising better communication and marketing strategy in order to tackle complex social problems. Chapter 3: Background Information of Social Enterprise This chapter will give the idea about the social enterprise in the UK along with the impact, barriers and access to finance. Social Enterprise in the UK The UK government has been at the front position of enabling and encouraging the increase of social enterprises as part of both welfare services delivery and community regeneration at the policy level. The impacts and influence of public, private, and citizen are empirically proven and exhibit that these conventional sectors of society are playing a part in re-evaluating the value creation opportunities offered by market (or quasi-market) mechanisms. DTI research suggested that there are at least 55,000 social enterprises in the UK, and combined turnover of  £27billion per year. These social enterprises account for 5% of all businesses with employees and the contribution to GDP is approximately  £8.4 billion, around 0.7% of the total economy. Cabinet Office mentioned on their website that in the year 2004-2005, the charity sector in the UK had a overall income of about  £27.6 billion which was raised over  £800 million from the previous year. It stand for about 2% of the UKs GDP. The data obtained from the Cabinet Office website in social sector showed that, 67% of them expected activity to grow in the next three years compare to 56% in the year 2003-2004 of third sector organisations reported an increase in activity in the previous year. Positive aspects of Social Enterprise: Social enterprise is a diverse activity and can contain a range of organisations working on different extents and at different stages of trading. They can work in commercial markets or in public services. Some work nationally, while others work at community level. They often work in the most deprived areas and work with the most underprivileged groups. Some organisations work only as a social enterprise while in other organisations social enterprise is often a part of their activity. It works in a number of key priority areas for the UK economy- these include: employment and training adult care services childcare and health transport financial enclosure recycling rural enhancement renewable energy and community regeneration According to Doherty and Thompson (2006, p.362) the common characteristics for a Social Enterprise are: They have a social rationale and yields and surpluses are not shared out to shareholders. Reinvested income can be utilized to provide training and improvement opportunities for workers. They use assets and capital to generate community benefit. It gives assurance that resources provide value for money where a public-sector agreement is essential for the activity. Members or employees can also take part in decision making. The SE model could make new structures of entrepreneurship and employment within a society. The enterprise is responsible to both its members and a wider community. Social enterprise can propose goods and services to its consumers in an elastic and inventive way. Often the market has failed or the private sector does not want to go in this area. The potential of earnings and returns stream could unleash organisations from the oppression of fundraising and grant applications. There is either a double or triple-bottom line concept. The assumption is that the most effective social enterprises show signs of healthy financial and social returns rather than high profits in one and lower profits in the other. Social Enterprise adopted enterprising solutions to deal with social and environmental issues following evidence of the beneficiaries of social enterprise activity is shown in Figure.3 (IFF, 2005). According to IFF (2005, p.28), a survey of social enterprises was conducted in 2004 for the Small Business Service (SBS), the UK Government, is showed on the following figure.4. It shows 19% beneficiaries were people with disabilities; 17% were children and young people; 15% were elderly; 12 % were people on low incomes and the unemployed. Social enterprise has been playing vital role to tackle these targeted disadvantaged group and moving forward them in the labour market, predominantly in poor areas with soaring levels of poverty and joblessness. Barriers of social enterprise According to UK Government, there are mainly four significant barriers to accessing appropriate business support and finance for social enterprises throughout the region. 1. Cultural barriers between those setting up social enterprises and mainstream business advisors. 2. Lack of transparency about where to access business support at the local level, largely due to the huge diversity of routes into starting up social enterprises. 3. Limited numbers of qualified technical specialists in key business advice areas where social enterprises require specialist support, for example on legal structure, potential investors or taxation. 4. Limited sources of affordable equity and loan finance of all sizes. Bank of England (2003, p.25), took the survey of Social enterprise and it stated that 32% of social enterprises mentioned the problems in obtaining external finance and 25% problems in getting grants as major barriers to expanding their trading activities. However, other problems are lack of qualified staff (14%); lack of appropriate premises (16%); and lack of cash flow (10%) Low (2006, p.381) cited in his journal according to the source of DTI â€Å"†¦often have boards of directors or trustees who come from a voluntary sector rather than a business background. This can lead to a lack of business focus and prevent social enterprise from truly reaching their potential† The Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success(2003, p.68) concluded that there is little hard substantiation to show the impact and added value of social enterprise. According to the report, the main reason is that social enterprises generate a variety of social and environmental impacts, beyond their financial return that are difficult to measure. Policy makers, business support providers and finance providers find it difficult to assess the value of targeting social enterprises or of including them in their activities due to lack of information on their social and environmental, as well as financial impact. Access to Finance The key factor in an enterprises development is access to appropriate sources of finance. Social enterprises have been rejected more for finance compared to the SMEs. In addition, a large minority of social enterprises perceive access to external finance as a major barrier to expansion, including some of those that have successfully accessed finance in the past. There is no clear reason to account for the higher rejection rates among social enterprises but possible contributory factors are: lack of obtainable security and private financial stake; use of organisational structures and grant funding streams with which lenders may be unfamiliar, and which may result in lengthy arrangement times; low levels of investment readiness among some social enterprises depends on some elements of credit and behavioural scoring and reputational risk to the lender. For example creating â€Å"venture philanthropy† organisation will ensure long term financing of charities infrastructure, proact ive management support and capacity building support. Dees (2004, p.18) mentioned that â€Å"Businesses fail all the time and many donor-dependent nonprofits have been around for many decades, even centuries. Social entrepreneurs look for the strategy, structure, and funding mechanisms that are most likely to ensure effective and efficient social performance given specific mission objectives and a particular operating environment†. Chapter 4: Methodology This chapter will present detailed idea about the research were conducted. This includes the research design, sample selection methods and data collection methods. At the end of this methodology part validity and reliability issues will be discussed to follow the quality standards of the research. 4.1 Research Design The present study endeavoured to explore the sustainability of social enterprise for the development of the UK. Exploratory research is selected as research design as little information exists about the social enterprise of the UK. The aim of exploratory research is mainly to gain enough information before doing more thorough research. Cooper Schindler (2003, p.21) mentioned that we basically start by gathering as much information about the object as possible and with a vague impression of what we should study. Exploratory studies are a valuable means of finding out what is happening, to seek new insight, to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new light. It is particularly useful if researcher wish to clarify the understanding of a problem. According to Saunders et.al. (2003, p.360), there are three principle ways of conducting exploratory research and these are: a search of the literature, talking to experts in the subject, conducting focus group interviews. Qualitative interviews would be best in achieving and addressing the questions that I am looking forward to address in this dissertation paper. The research requires data that is both rich and varied as I am keen to extract the opinions and insight about practices, insights and expectations of leaders and beneficiaries in the social sector. Adopting this methodology, I will extract this data without limiting the responses of the respondents; I am mostly interested in their innate insights, opinions and organisational beliefs. Anastas (1988, p.19) mentioned that when there are the cases of sensitive subject issue and difficult decision-making procedures, individual in-depth interviews give a far more valuable tool and create a situation where participants would be likely to speak more explicitly and freely. According to Sokolow (1985, p.28) , there are several other advantages of one-to-one in-depth interviewing which include the support of individual thought, respondent thoughtfulness to questions and the offering the capability of the interviewer to sense non-verbal opinion. 4.2 Sampling Cooper and Schindler, (2003, p.44) stated in their book that selecting some of the elements in a population is the fundamental idea of sampling and researcher may draw conclusions about the entire population. There are a number of convincing reasons for sampling, including: lower cost, greater correctness of result, greater speed of data collection and accessibility of population selection. The sample would be randomly selected nationally from Social Enterprise and are actively fund raising. It is easier to make some comparison and a fairer analysis of the data because the similar size of organizations most likely to follow related trends and they are also affected by the same factors. Due to the complexity of the sector, the samples would be drawn from the wider UK region; this is to widen the organisation from which to select the qualifying sample. 4.3 Data Collection The major form of data collection was based on the semi-structured interview process with senior managers, policy officer and research development officer of the 7 selected Social enterprises operating in the UK. The interviews were designed to gain an understanding of Social Enterprises potential sustainability issues and further research needed to achieve sustainability. Therefore, interview procedures needed semi-structured interview process which is relatively informal; relaxed discussion based around a predetermined topic. Whilst conducting a semi-structured interview first of all I provided the background information regards to the research programme and its objectives to the interviewee. My interviews questions are based on open question where the interviewees had the opportunity to express opinions through its discussion. To keep momentum of discussion with the interview it is important to prepare easy to understand approach when building question with a logical sequence. In terview questions were tested among prior to interviews. Semi-structured interview was highlighted by Leech (2002, p.665) as â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦one that can provide detail, depth and insiders perspective, while at the same time allowing hypothesis testing and the quantitative analysis of interview responses†. For collecting secondary data participant social Enterprises annual report, various books, websites, newspapers, annual reports, monthly reviews and significant articles were chosen. Also for collection of primary data in-depth interviews with a range of designated professional, related to this field, were taken. I contacted with Business Links and DTI to obtain the list of social enterprise operating in the UK. 4.3.1. Validity Saunders et. al. (2003, p. 109) emphasised validity is concerned with whether the findings are really about what they appear to be about. Validity defined as the extent to which data collection method or methods accurately measure what they were intended to measure. Cooper Schindler (2003, p.71) believe that validity refers to the extent to which a test measures what we actually wish to measure. There are two major forms: external and internal validity. The external validity of research findings refers to the datas ability to be generalized across persons, settings, and times. Internal validity is the ability of a research instrument to measure what is purposed to measure. To ensure the validity of the study numbers of different steps were taken: †¢Data was collected from the reliable sources, from respondents who are more experienced senior management position within Social Enterprise; †¢Survey question were made based on literature review and frame of reference to ensure the validity of the result; †¢Questionnaire has been pre-tested by the responded before starting the survey. Questionnaire was tested by at least ten persons; †¢Data has been collected through four weeks, within this short period of time no major event has been changed with the related topic. 4.3.2 Reliability: To ensure the reliability of the study numbers of different steps were taken: In order that responders could concentrate more on each question questionnaire was divided into three parts; The Ground Theory that has been selected for the study was clearly described and research question has been formulated based on the previous theory. Data has been collected based on the frame of reference that was drawn from the discussed theories. The objective is to make sure t Social Enterprise Potential for Sustainability in the UK Social Enterprise Potential for Sustainability in the UK Social enterprise is an active and sustainable business form of choice which is able to bring economic, communal and environmental benefits to the UK. It operates across all sectors of the economy, serving individuals in the private, public and third sectors. Through out this research will identify the increase levels of understanding of the role and value of Social Enterprise, given that a lack of understanding of the role and value of social enterprises was cited as a major barrier to the acceleration of the use of the business model. The purpose of this research will identify the key barriers faced by Social Enterprise and explore how these barriers could potentially be overcome to achieve sustainability. Chapter 1: Introduction A brief overview of social enterprise is introduced in the first chapter. Then, the purpose of the study will be next discussed which will end with a specific research question. In the end of this chapter the contribution of this research is also presented. A Brief Overview of Social Enterprise Social enterprise is a business structure that aims to distribute across a range of economic, social and environmental outputs which refer as‘ Triple bottom line. Within this business structure, anyone can develop a business and considers social and environmental impact as central part objectives. It can bring wealth as well as empowerment to disadvantaged communities which may be otherwise suffering exclusion. Social enterprises are organisations that supply goods and services to communal economy sector. These comprise a collection of organisations that subsist between the traditionally private and public sectors and have a stronger association with the community and non-profit sector. This sector has a key function to take part in achieving many of its goals, including overcoming social injustice and exclusion. Fundamental ethos are most often used by social enterprise organisations themselves, emphasises following three general features: †¢ Enterprise oriented like any other business, social enterprise is capable of generating income from production of goods and services to a market. As far as viable trading concerns, they are also able to make surplus from their trading. †¢ Social aims they are driven forward by unambiguous social aims. They are capable of creating new employment opportunity, training skills development and provision of local public services. They are responsible to their members and the larger society to increase its effectiveness and financial sustainability with the ultimate goal of creating social, environmental and economic impact or change. †¢ Social ownership they are self-governing organisations with an authority and the ownership structures are based on participation by stakeholder groups for example users or clients and local community groups and by trustees. Profits or surplus are disseminated as profit sharing to stakeholders or are used for the benefit of the community. In the United Kingdom, social enterprises are gradually becoming a well-known sector of the local and national economy. The organisation which is operating in this sector is conscious about the most important factor that becoming sustainable businesses is the path to independence both financially and in mission. However, this emerging sector is struggling for further growth and eventually it leads to have impact negatively on their sustainability. Social Enterprise should be supported and encouraged to grow both as a sector and as individual organisations so that these will become more sustainable organisations. Purpose of the Study My paper has been developed to explore how the term social enterprise has acquired meaning in the United Kingdom and to demonstrate how practitioners, policymakers and academics influence each other in the development of new sustainable ideas, given that a lack of understanding of the role and significance of social enterprises was cited as a major barrier to the acceleration of the use of this business model. These challenges come in many forms. Some are the same as those affecting any other business including access to business support and finance, a lack of affordable premises and finding skilled staff. However, social enterprises also face one huge barrier that seriously affects their ability to assume a position within the market. That barrier is a lack of understanding of how social enterprises work and of their potential value. This lack of understanding exists across the public, private and voluntary and community sectors. Often its been very difficult to secure contract and mainstream funding support as there are plenty of confusion surrounding the social enterprise business model. So my dissertation will identify the key barriers faced by Social Enterprise and explore how these barriers could potentially be overcome in order to achieve sustainability. It examines critical incidents that have shaped the meaning of social enterprise in England and reflects on these incidents to draw conclusions about the future sustainable development of social enterprise practice. Through out this paper, I will also study the possible circumstances for the sustainable development of social enterprise. The purpose is to notify both policy-making and the wider argument about social enterprise: what its potential might be and how that potential can be realised in different settings. Structure of the Report: This research is divided into six chapters; the first chapter is an introduction with purpose of the study. In the second chapter, literature based review of definitions of social enterprise, roots of social enterprise, discussion relevant to the sustainability of social enterprise, the nature of their contribution and their sponsors and sources of funding. The third summarises the background information of social enterprise in the UK and the fourth and fifth chapter contain the methodology and the summary of the main findings of the study with implications for policy. Finally, the sixth chapter is giving the idea about possible areas that further research could be conducted with the limitations of the study of this research paper. Chapter 2: Literature Review This chapter will give an overview of literature and models that are related to the research problem presented in the previous chapter. This chapter will introduce the roots and concepts of social enterprise in order to give a clear idea about the research area. 2.1 Roots of social enterprise Scott specified (2006, p.50) mentioned â€Å"The roots of social enterprises and community enterprise overall can be found in the mutual, self help and co-operative sector which goes back, in the UK, at least to the Fenwick Weavers in Ayrshire 1769 and Dr William King of Brighton in the 1820s with earlier antecedents.† Local community based organisation played vital role within the development of this movement and empowering disadvantaged poor community to move forward labour market. Grass root social worker Harry Cowley campaigned between first and second world war for housing needs and employment opportunity for returning service people and capacity building support for small business. He also advocated â€Å"job creation† programme from the local public service authority for unemployed people and eventually had some success. 2.2 General Discussion on Social Enterprise Social Enterprises combine the requirement of successful businesses with communal aims. They seek to qualify as businesses by setting up a market share and making a profit and draw attention to the long-term benefits for employees, consumers and the community. Todays competitive business world stated that defining the social enterprise is a challenging task. According to OECD (1999, p.9) â€Å"there is no universal, commonly accepted definition of social enterprise.† On the other hand, the OECD (1999, p.10) has described social enterprise as: â€Å"any private activity conducted in the public interest, organised with an entrepreneurial strategy but whose main purpose is not the maximisation of profit but the accomplishment of certain economic and social goals, and which has a capacity of bringing innovative solutions to the problems of social exclusion and unemployment†. Doherty and Thompson (2006, p.362) mentioned in their article that social enterprises are organizations which are seeking business solutions to social crisis. These are needed to be distinguished from other socially-oriented organizations. These also need to take initiatives that can promote to communities but which are not seeking to be â€Å"businesses†. In this esteem, these latter organizations remain dependent on endowments and donations rather than build up true paying customers. According to DTI report A Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success (2003, p.6), social enterprise is such kind of business which reinvests its surpluses in the business or in the community rather than increases profit for shareholders or owners. Drucker (Gendron, 1996, p.37) argued that social entrepreneurs are those who altered the performance capacity of society but Henton et al. (1997, p.1) mentioned that ‘civic entrepreneurs are a new generation of leaders who built new, powerfully productive connections at the intersection of education, business, community and government. Somers (2005, p.46) stated â€Å"Social enterprise emphasise creating social and environmental value at all stages of their production process, as an intrinsic part of their identity†. Following Figure: 1 describes the production process of social enterprise. Laville and Nyssens (2001, p.325) argue that when the roots of social enterprises are based in reciprocity and in this way these are part of the third system, their force is based in their ability to valve into all three economic principles and systems. They are different from private and public enterprise. In terms of private enterprise they do not only maximize profit to benefit owners, they also develop market activities and generate profits. With the comparison to public enterprise, they are independent from direct control by public authorities but they benefit to a greater or lesser extent from public subsidy. In this way, they mobilize market relations to sell services or goods and use redistributive relations by utilizing government funding to finance their services. Their long-term sustainability depends on their ability to ‘continuously hybridise the three poles of the economy so as to serve the project. 2.3 Discussion Relevant to the Sustainability of Social Enterprise According to Asefa (2005, p.1), â€Å"Sustainable development is the concept of a relationship between economic growth and the environment. The term was first used in 1987 by the world Commission on Environment and Development .Although the term has been around for almost two decades, different interpretation have kept it from being a useful guide for development policy†. Bornstein (2004, p.3) mentioned that over the last decade there has been unprecedented growth of social enterprise world wide. This business model has been getting attention from both government and corporate sector though sustainability remains the major concern. According to 2004 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, a survey was conducted of social entrepreneurship activity in the UK. These data suggested that latest ‘social activates are emerging at a faster rate than more conventional, commercial endeavours. Within local and global level there are three areas to focus on sustainability in business activity and they are environment, economy and community. (Harding and Cowling, 2004, p.5) Environment It ensures that business is engaged in the appropriate and careful use of limited supplies and the management of waste so that it will be able to minimize the negative and maximize the positive impact of human activity. Economy It ensures that business is financially viable and it engages in good employment practice. Finally it is beneficial to the whole economy. Social It ensures that business is overall of advantage to communities, their customs and does not cause danger to them. Schulyer (1998, p.3) described that social entrepreneurs are those who have a powerful visualization for social change and who have the strong financial resources to support their ideas. That means they should reveal all the abilities of conquering business people and a compelling aspiration for social change. On the other hand, Catford (1998, p.96) argued that â€Å"social entrepreneurswill only flourish if they are supported by the right environment, which will be created largely by governments together with the private sector†. 2.3.1Financial Sustainability Social Enterprise looks for surplus generation in order to achieve financial sustainability. This is a fundamental need to social enterprises. Emphasizing financial sustainability in addition to profit distribution becomes a way to account for all activities the organization engages in, including advocacy and in support of bono work. Sacrificing one cause and effect chain for another can have significant implications for both the quality of work and social enterprises financial sustainability. Whilst many may rely on combination of grant and trading income, ultimately, if an organisation is not financially sustainable, it cannot deliver its social and environmental impact. Fig3. Shows how the profit of social organisation is distributed to the organization itself and community. 2.4 Policy Reform and Good Governance DTI report A Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success (2003, p.6) describes the three key goals for government: creating an enabling environment, making social enterprises better businesses and establishing the value of social enterprise. Thompson et al. (2000, p.328) describe â€Å"people who realize where there is an opportunity to satisfy some unmet need that the state welfare system will not or cannot meet, and who gather together the necessary resources (generally people, often volunteers, money and premises) and use these to ‘make a difference†. Brown and Murphy (2003, p.57) mentioned on Bank of England report that â€Å"Social enterprises, like all businesses, need access to a range of financial products appropriate to their activity and stage of development†. A HM Treasury report on Enterpriseand Social Exclusion (1999, p.108) came to the conclusion, arguing that social enterprise was â€Å"less understood and rarely promoted in a consistent way by the existing infrastructure for business support†. It is more constructive to judge and expand social enterprise capabilities rather than expertises and capacity building. The fact that social enterprises need to combine commercial objectives with social mission as well as internal governance means that a â€Å"capabilities approach† is more comprehensive. This is a useful way of recognising factors additional to individual skills that inter-play to determine the effectiveness and impact of a specific enterprise. It also moves away from limited considerations of a key person or group within the organisation, and their specific skills, towards a more holistic view of what the organisation is capable of doing, irrespective of the location of particular skills. Catford (1998, p.97) articulated the problems and gave one probable way out: â€Å"Traditional welfare-state approaches are in decline globally, and in response new ways of creating healthy and sustainable communities are required. This challenges our social, economic and political systems to respond with new, creative and effective environments that support and reward change. From the evidence available, current examples of social entrepreneurship offer exciting new ways of realizing the potential of individuals and communitiesinto the 21st century†. Academic writing about modern social entrepreneurship skills is relatively limited, compared to mainstream business or charities. The concept of ‘social enterprise has been quickly appearing in the public, private and non-profit sectors over the last few years. Todays increased competitive not for profit sector there is extensive needs for the improvement of organisation effectiveness and sustainability even though securing funding is harder to meet the criteria of funding body. There is a good opportunity to tap in to corporate social responsibility programme by utilising better communication and marketing strategy in order to tackle complex social problems. Chapter 3: Background Information of Social Enterprise This chapter will give the idea about the social enterprise in the UK along with the impact, barriers and access to finance. Social Enterprise in the UK The UK government has been at the front position of enabling and encouraging the increase of social enterprises as part of both welfare services delivery and community regeneration at the policy level. The impacts and influence of public, private, and citizen are empirically proven and exhibit that these conventional sectors of society are playing a part in re-evaluating the value creation opportunities offered by market (or quasi-market) mechanisms. DTI research suggested that there are at least 55,000 social enterprises in the UK, and combined turnover of  £27billion per year. These social enterprises account for 5% of all businesses with employees and the contribution to GDP is approximately  £8.4 billion, around 0.7% of the total economy. Cabinet Office mentioned on their website that in the year 2004-2005, the charity sector in the UK had a overall income of about  £27.6 billion which was raised over  £800 million from the previous year. It stand for about 2% of the UKs GDP. The data obtained from the Cabinet Office website in social sector showed that, 67% of them expected activity to grow in the next three years compare to 56% in the year 2003-2004 of third sector organisations reported an increase in activity in the previous year. Positive aspects of Social Enterprise: Social enterprise is a diverse activity and can contain a range of organisations working on different extents and at different stages of trading. They can work in commercial markets or in public services. Some work nationally, while others work at community level. They often work in the most deprived areas and work with the most underprivileged groups. Some organisations work only as a social enterprise while in other organisations social enterprise is often a part of their activity. It works in a number of key priority areas for the UK economy- these include: employment and training adult care services childcare and health transport financial enclosure recycling rural enhancement renewable energy and community regeneration According to Doherty and Thompson (2006, p.362) the common characteristics for a Social Enterprise are: They have a social rationale and yields and surpluses are not shared out to shareholders. Reinvested income can be utilized to provide training and improvement opportunities for workers. They use assets and capital to generate community benefit. It gives assurance that resources provide value for money where a public-sector agreement is essential for the activity. Members or employees can also take part in decision making. The SE model could make new structures of entrepreneurship and employment within a society. The enterprise is responsible to both its members and a wider community. Social enterprise can propose goods and services to its consumers in an elastic and inventive way. Often the market has failed or the private sector does not want to go in this area. The potential of earnings and returns stream could unleash organisations from the oppression of fundraising and grant applications. There is either a double or triple-bottom line concept. The assumption is that the most effective social enterprises show signs of healthy financial and social returns rather than high profits in one and lower profits in the other. Social Enterprise adopted enterprising solutions to deal with social and environmental issues following evidence of the beneficiaries of social enterprise activity is shown in Figure.3 (IFF, 2005). According to IFF (2005, p.28), a survey of social enterprises was conducted in 2004 for the Small Business Service (SBS), the UK Government, is showed on the following figure.4. It shows 19% beneficiaries were people with disabilities; 17% were children and young people; 15% were elderly; 12 % were people on low incomes and the unemployed. Social enterprise has been playing vital role to tackle these targeted disadvantaged group and moving forward them in the labour market, predominantly in poor areas with soaring levels of poverty and joblessness. Barriers of social enterprise According to UK Government, there are mainly four significant barriers to accessing appropriate business support and finance for social enterprises throughout the region. 1. Cultural barriers between those setting up social enterprises and mainstream business advisors. 2. Lack of transparency about where to access business support at the local level, largely due to the huge diversity of routes into starting up social enterprises. 3. Limited numbers of qualified technical specialists in key business advice areas where social enterprises require specialist support, for example on legal structure, potential investors or taxation. 4. Limited sources of affordable equity and loan finance of all sizes. Bank of England (2003, p.25), took the survey of Social enterprise and it stated that 32% of social enterprises mentioned the problems in obtaining external finance and 25% problems in getting grants as major barriers to expanding their trading activities. However, other problems are lack of qualified staff (14%); lack of appropriate premises (16%); and lack of cash flow (10%) Low (2006, p.381) cited in his journal according to the source of DTI â€Å"†¦often have boards of directors or trustees who come from a voluntary sector rather than a business background. This can lead to a lack of business focus and prevent social enterprise from truly reaching their potential† The Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success(2003, p.68) concluded that there is little hard substantiation to show the impact and added value of social enterprise. According to the report, the main reason is that social enterprises generate a variety of social and environmental impacts, beyond their financial return that are difficult to measure. Policy makers, business support providers and finance providers find it difficult to assess the value of targeting social enterprises or of including them in their activities due to lack of information on their social and environmental, as well as financial impact. Access to Finance The key factor in an enterprises development is access to appropriate sources of finance. Social enterprises have been rejected more for finance compared to the SMEs. In addition, a large minority of social enterprises perceive access to external finance as a major barrier to expansion, including some of those that have successfully accessed finance in the past. There is no clear reason to account for the higher rejection rates among social enterprises but possible contributory factors are: lack of obtainable security and private financial stake; use of organisational structures and grant funding streams with which lenders may be unfamiliar, and which may result in lengthy arrangement times; low levels of investment readiness among some social enterprises depends on some elements of credit and behavioural scoring and reputational risk to the lender. For example creating â€Å"venture philanthropy† organisation will ensure long term financing of charities infrastructure, proact ive management support and capacity building support. Dees (2004, p.18) mentioned that â€Å"Businesses fail all the time and many donor-dependent nonprofits have been around for many decades, even centuries. Social entrepreneurs look for the strategy, structure, and funding mechanisms that are most likely to ensure effective and efficient social performance given specific mission objectives and a particular operating environment†. Chapter 4: Methodology This chapter will present detailed idea about the research were conducted. This includes the research design, sample selection methods and data collection methods. At the end of this methodology part validity and reliability issues will be discussed to follow the quality standards of the research. 4.1 Research Design The present study endeavoured to explore the sustainability of social enterprise for the development of the UK. Exploratory research is selected as research design as little information exists about the social enterprise of the UK. The aim of exploratory research is mainly to gain enough information before doing more thorough research. Cooper Schindler (2003, p.21) mentioned that we basically start by gathering as much information about the object as possible and with a vague impression of what we should study. Exploratory studies are a valuable means of finding out what is happening, to seek new insight, to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new light. It is particularly useful if researcher wish to clarify the understanding of a problem. According to Saunders et.al. (2003, p.360), there are three principle ways of conducting exploratory research and these are: a search of the literature, talking to experts in the subject, conducting focus group interviews. Qualitative interviews would be best in achieving and addressing the questions that I am looking forward to address in this dissertation paper. The research requires data that is both rich and varied as I am keen to extract the opinions and insight about practices, insights and expectations of leaders and beneficiaries in the social sector. Adopting this methodology, I will extract this data without limiting the responses of the respondents; I am mostly interested in their innate insights, opinions and organisational beliefs. Anastas (1988, p.19) mentioned that when there are the cases of sensitive subject issue and difficult decision-making procedures, individual in-depth interviews give a far more valuable tool and create a situation where participants would be likely to speak more explicitly and freely. According to Sokolow (1985, p.28) , there are several other advantages of one-to-one in-depth interviewing which include the support of individual thought, respondent thoughtfulness to questions and the offering the capability of the interviewer to sense non-verbal opinion. 4.2 Sampling Cooper and Schindler, (2003, p.44) stated in their book that selecting some of the elements in a population is the fundamental idea of sampling and researcher may draw conclusions about the entire population. There are a number of convincing reasons for sampling, including: lower cost, greater correctness of result, greater speed of data collection and accessibility of population selection. The sample would be randomly selected nationally from Social Enterprise and are actively fund raising. It is easier to make some comparison and a fairer analysis of the data because the similar size of organizations most likely to follow related trends and they are also affected by the same factors. Due to the complexity of the sector, the samples would be drawn from the wider UK region; this is to widen the organisation from which to select the qualifying sample. 4.3 Data Collection The major form of data collection was based on the semi-structured interview process with senior managers, policy officer and research development officer of the 7 selected Social enterprises operating in the UK. The interviews were designed to gain an understanding of Social Enterprises potential sustainability issues and further research needed to achieve sustainability. Therefore, interview procedures needed semi-structured interview process which is relatively informal; relaxed discussion based around a predetermined topic. Whilst conducting a semi-structured interview first of all I provided the background information regards to the research programme and its objectives to the interviewee. My interviews questions are based on open question where the interviewees had the opportunity to express opinions through its discussion. To keep momentum of discussion with the interview it is important to prepare easy to understand approach when building question with a logical sequence. In terview questions were tested among prior to interviews. Semi-structured interview was highlighted by Leech (2002, p.665) as â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦one that can provide detail, depth and insiders perspective, while at the same time allowing hypothesis testing and the quantitative analysis of interview responses†. For collecting secondary data participant social Enterprises annual report, various books, websites, newspapers, annual reports, monthly reviews and significant articles were chosen. Also for collection of primary data in-depth interviews with a range of designated professional, related to this field, were taken. I contacted with Business Links and DTI to obtain the list of social enterprise operating in the UK. 4.3.1. Validity Saunders et. al. (2003, p. 109) emphasised validity is concerned with whether the findings are really about what they appear to be about. Validity defined as the extent to which data collection method or methods accurately measure what they were intended to measure. Cooper Schindler (2003, p.71) believe that validity refers to the extent to which a test measures what we actually wish to measure. There are two major forms: external and internal validity. The external validity of research findings refers to the datas ability to be generalized across persons, settings, and times. Internal validity is the ability of a research instrument to measure what is purposed to measure. To ensure the validity of the study numbers of different steps were taken: †¢Data was collected from the reliable sources, from respondents who are more experienced senior management position within Social Enterprise; †¢Survey question were made based on literature review and frame of reference to ensure the validity of the result; †¢Questionnaire has been pre-tested by the responded before starting the survey. Questionnaire was tested by at least ten persons; †¢Data has been collected through four weeks, within this short period of time no major event has been changed with the related topic. 4.3.2 Reliability: To ensure the reliability of the study numbers of different steps were taken: In order that responders could concentrate more on each question questionnaire was divided into three parts; The Ground Theory that has been selected for the study was clearly described and research question has been formulated based on the previous theory. Data has been collected based on the frame of reference that was drawn from the discussed theories. The objective is to make sure t

Matewan: A John Sayles Film :: Economy Economics Movies Essays

Matewan: A John Sayles' Film John Sayles, the writer and director of the film Matewan, demonstrates an understanding, albeit possibly an unconscious one, of the struggle between two economic systems. This work depicts the historical events of 1920 in the Mingo County, West Virginia town of Matewan, a place that came to be known as "Bloody Mingo". Although many people are accustomed to viewing feudalism as a social system from the past, history is not such an orderly, linear progression of societies and ways of life but is, rather, a dynamic, chaotic process. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that in the 1920s in this part of the United States there was a clash of two different economic systems—capitalism and feudalism. Economic systems are attempts to solve the following questions: Who does the production? Who controls the profits? And what is the social arrangement by which the two previous questions are resolved? There is an interlocking triad of considerations: economic relationships; political relationships; and cultural relationships. We see these relationships brought to life in the events of Matewan. Feudalism exists when free people have to work for a single employer, or not work at all. Capitalism, in contrast, allows free people to choose their employers. There is often in history a struggle between feudal and capitalist structures. The story of the coal miners is the story of one such clash. The Stone Mountain Coal Company owns everything in the town of Matewan. Its owners, the economic elite, could be likened to a collective feudal lord presiding over the estate of Matewan. Theirs is the only game in town and the miners have no choice in where they work This monopoly is feudal because of the absence of free choice. Capitalism requires competition over capital, not just capital. The total lack of competition is exposed in the train scene. The new men are told that they are beholden to the company for expenses—their tools, their train fare, tool sharpening, and even their fuses, caps, and powder. What little pay is left over is issued in company scrip, which is only good at the company’s store. We, the audience, are told at the onset of the film that the pay rate per tonnage has just been lowered. The company’s grip is vise-like; it can charge more and pay less. This combination is the scissors effect, and it leaves the miners in a subservient positio n.

Hello Kitty case study Essay

1.0Introduction Hello kitty is a cartoon character of a small white cat that looks kind, sweet and cute, with a button nose, two black dot-eyes, six whiskers and a ribbon in her hair. Hello kitty has no mouth and this represents a major source of emotional association for buyers and buyers can put many different feelings to the little cat. Owners and their cat can be happy, sad and cheerful or any other feelings that user wishes to feel. Hello Kitty was firstly introduced in Japan in 1974 and is a segment of Japanese popular culture and hello kitty is a Japanese bobtail cat also knows as kitty white. Currently hello kitty is 40 years of age; hello kitty trademark is worth over 5 billion annually worldwide. 2.0What the appeal of Hello Kitty? What needs does it fulfill? Hello Kitty appeal is success in Japan to the prevalence of the Kawaii culture in the country. The Japanese, regardless of their age, were known to have a passion for ‘cute’ objects. ‘Kawaii’ itself mean cute. Hello Kitty not only popular among kid but for adult too. They describe as ‘kidult’, the combination of ‘kid’ and ‘adult’. It attracts user who love pink and cat. For instance, it was considered normal for grown women in Japan to be seen with mobile phone cases that were adorned with cartoon characters, or for banks to print check books with pictures of cartoons. The postal department issued stamps featuring popular cartoon characters. Even the Japanese government used Hello Kitty as tourism campaign in Hong Kong and China. Hello Kitty is fulfilling the need of belonging and love. She has become a friend and has its own social fans. People will feel happy when they buy it for their self or receive it as a gift. The appearance and cuteness make people happy when they see it. It becomes collectable items and fans become happy when they can collect all the various looks of Hello Kitty. 3.0What make Hello Kitty distinctive in its early years from other dolls,  and what made non-distinctive in later years as its sales declined? In its early years, Hello Kitty is the most attractive because that time there no other animate that is cute and represent a girl. Hello Kitty then become viral that attract people from any ages. It not only the symbol of cuteness but also as a friend. Hello Kitty for a little girl she become a friend, for teenager special friend and trend and women also is attracted as the symbol of feminine. Hello Kitty enters all age groups and market. The ‘kawaii’ thing that make it very attractive compare to other dolls. Even though Hello Kitty was still among the top-selling brands in Japan, the avenues for future growth seemed limited. The increased popularity of other animate like Pokemon among female consumers make the attraction of Hello Kitty’s was at risk in Japan. Sanrio may have succeeded in reviving the brand in the 1990s by repositioning Hello Kitty to make her appealing to a larger number of people. However, the company could not pull off the same trick a second time. There were several reasons for this. Hello Kitty had already been placed on a wide range of items and there were few new items left. Furthermore, Technology changes factor may lead to it declined. Abundance electronic and gadget that is more attractive to children and teenager. All the gadget come with sound and voice that is more attractive to be watch. Hello Kitty is created without mouth, so it a bit difficult to create a television animation likes others. It seems weird if Hello Kitty has a voice because she doesn’t have mouth. 4.0How have the needs of children change over the years in term of what they look for in a doll? Today technology change rapidly with many gadget and advanced technology in market. As a user it affects us when we can’t catch up with the changes. We may left behind from other. This changes not only effect adult but children too. When toys are now using advanced technology to express the animator creativity and to enter the market. The impact of this, children more  attract to figure that are look more real. Children today not only looking for toys that are attractive but come with voice and have their own trademark. Example like Upin Ipin, the television series with in their graphic technology, latest is Frozen animation, Elsa is the popular one from the movie. It becomes viral among children. The movies itself very interesting come with good graphic, storyline, song and products. It’s a complete package that attract children today, they memories the song. It’s completely different with Hello Kitty that has no mouth and can’t talk. Hello Kitty has the sentimental value that not everyone can understand it. Children now want something that more related to real life, real expression. The technologies today have impact on children choice. Conclusion There many competitor that come with more advanced technology that are more attractive not only for children but for adult too. Hello Kitty is now left behind even there so many promotion and contract with big company. Hello Kitty has lost it shine but not for the fans. The loyal fans are from kids from past year that are adult today. Kitty fails to attract younger kids in this 21st century. Kids may like the kitty but still can’t be the loyal fans of kitty. Hello Kitty should be able to cope with technology changes to attract young kid today. Hello Kitty must change to something that is catchier suitable with kids this 21st century.