Conceptual Theoretical Frameworks Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Conceptual Theoretical Frameworks - Dissertation Example These factors can be broadly classified as curricular, institutional, political as well as economic, and social ones. Besides these listed factors, some of the factors that led to the increase in the number of nontraditional students are the existence of evening and weekend programs and even the existence of various courses that were taught in central locations and shopping malls. The political forces that emerged from the victory during the era of the World War II further facilitated the enrollment growth. The term nontraditional students refer to any learner in an institution of higher learning that hails from any part of the country that is from either urban or rural areas and the learner can be of any race and can be of any social state. According to Stewart and Rue (1983), nontraditional student can be defined as any learner who happens to be 25 years old or even more. However, this definition has been disputed by other authors and the reason for the dispute is the fact that the use of age is not satisfactory for the determination of the term nontraditional. Traditional students, on the other hand, can be referred to as learners that fall within an age bracket of 18 and 24 years and are attending college full time as well as residing in colleges. The difference between nontraditional and traditional students can, therefore, lie in the age, college attendance, and their residence. Structure of the Conceptual Model The conceptual model proposed by Bean and Metzner (1985) indicates that decisions involving dropouts basically rely on four variables, and these variables are background and defining variables, academic variables, environmental variables, and an intention to persist variable. Background and defining variables primarily concern various educational goals and the performance from high schools. Academic variables concern the performance, and the students with a low performance are expected to drop out of school at a higher rate compared to the student s with a higher performance. The third variable is environmental, and these variables are concerned with direct effects on the various decisions of dropping out of school (Tinto, 1975). Finally, the fourth variable is the intent to persist variable; and this variable is primarily affected by various psychological outcomes as well as various academic variables. The various variables are related through direct and indirect effects though the indirect effects can be easily calculated and testing of the resultant statistical significance brought about by these effects can be carried out. In the model, the various paths can be estimated using common convention that is capable of calculating both indirect and direct effects for each variable, which is independent, and the result is the greatest effect that is the sum of indirect and direct effects. A larger proportion of undergraduate student population is composed of commuter students, and the trends in the enrollment of these commuter s tudents are expected to increase because of the decrease in the number of the traditional age. The rate of attrition of nontraditional students is high, and commuter students generally take up the gaps left by these students. Community Retention Model According to Stahl and Pavel (1992), the community retention model had a lot of emphasis on two-year college nontraditional students, and the aspects of social integration were eliminated, and this elimination was due to the construct for two-year college nontraditional student decision persistence. The model has four variables, a

Case Study on Toys R US Japan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Case Study on Toys R US Japan - Essay Example The fate of Toys â€Å"R† US Japan is encompassed by issues such as leadership, understanding cultural diversity and implementing effective communication across varying cultures. Toys â€Å"R† US is a market leader in its industry particularly in the United States. Due to this advantage, its potential to expand can be possible across other economies with varying cultural backgrounds. Toys â€Å"R† US eventually made its way in Europe. Amidst contradiction from the start among local counterparts, Toys â€Å"R† US was able to grow and continue to exist in the marketplace in Europe. Its expansion was not achieved overnight. It was able to experience challenges in times that it attempted to carry its strategic formula that it was able to successfully apply in the US retailing industry. In the US, its understanding about the market with customers who are after of the value they can get was able to inspire its discount formula. This made its fortune in the US retailing industry that it also envisioned to be achievable in other foreign markets. Toys â€Å"R† US evaluated the toy market in Japan and the result was promising. In 1991, Japan had higher spending for toys. In fact, it was the world’s second largest market for toys for that year. The case is pointing it out that the good opportunity for toy market in Japan may be due to small number of children within a family and a higher demand for excellence in the academe. Children in Japan are encouraged to be excellent in the academe and a way to motivate them would be to reward them with toys. Furthermore, parents can afford to provide more toys for their children. A less number of children in a family in Japan proved to be an important factor why parents can eventually provide for their children’s needs for almost everything. ... The company was willing to expand and go global. It started in Europe but eventually moved its way to Asia. If finally tried its chances in Japan and created a market evaluation in there at first. One important assessment it made was the interrelation between Japanese culture and its market. According to Hofstede the American culture emphasizes competition while Japanese culture emphasizes cooperation and harmony (Rainey, 1999). In reality Toys â€Å"R† US having the foundation of an American culture is always aiming to reach its competitive advantage. This is the very reason why it was able to evaluate the Japanese market in great detail. Along the way, it finally saw the importance of understanding precisely the prevailing Japanese retailing industry. Japan culture is known for collectivism while the United States is recognized for its individualism (Rainey, 1999). Toys â€Å"R† US finally was able to understand how the traditional retailing in Japan worked compared w ith the modern retailing strategies in the United States. Marked with certain level of competition and individualism, the Toys â€Å"R† US could hardly enter the Japanese retailing industry which was highly fragmented and ran by long-standing relationships among manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers (Spar, 1999). As stated in the case, Toys â€Å"R† US never took instantly its plunge into Japan’s retailing industry. It was able to familiarize the ongoing market trend in the retailing industry within the Japanese market. Toys â€Å"R† US was able to emphasize the value of understanding how it would market its product offerings and make it fit in the Japanese marketplace. Even though it was marked with full enthusiasm to enter into Japan’s market, Toys â€Å"R† US in the