Consumer Values Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Consumer Values - Research Paper Example This research examines how hedonic versus utilitarian consumption can vary in typical purchase situations, depending on the decision context, and the manners in which consumers justify their purchases with their own values of time, money and method. Babin and Darden's article "Work and/or Fun: Measuring Hedonic and Utilitarian Shopping Value" focuses on the dimensions of hedonic and utilitarian consumer purchases, with the "shopping as work" and the "shopping as fun" consumer experiences. The shopping experience is an activity in which both the utilitarian based need and the hedonic based desire are important dimensions of the consumer's shopping experience because shopping involves more than the economics of supply and demand, there is also the social and psychological aspect. These dual dimensions are scaleable to recognize "formally that a shopping experience can be valuable, or valueless, in more than one way" (Babin and Darden p 644 1994). The statement 'in more than one way,' as it approaches the valuation of consumption is the theoretical view that consumers have scaleable utilitarian and hedonic desires in a psychological and physical sense, as well as the fact that customers have behavioral responses to these senses. Hedonic and Utilitarian Concepts The traditional concepts of cost and benefit values are perceived as having characteristics of exclusively product and price, the standard economics of supply and demand where the consumers experience is exclusively based on the products quality and price evaluations to control consumption choices and demands, and yet this does not define the reasoning of consumers emotional connections, where "A fourth definition equates value with an overall assessment of subjective worth considering all relevant evaluative criteria" (Babin and Darden p 645 1994), in a sense the overall assessment is the consumers emotional constructs, the sociological and psychological desire to feel rewarded in more than the physical sense of achievement. Babin and Darden analyze that shopping has both utilitarian and hedonic traits, where a methodology only encompasses the consumable and its dimensional and monetary values lacks the ability to fully measure the shoppers' experience, a concept expressed as having importance in other research, although "Far less research has been conducted to examine whether contrast effects occur among hedonic experiences (i.e., experiences of pleasure or pain)" (Novemsky and Rattner p 507 2003). Babin and Darden's research recognizes the empirical and "experiential perspective," with the value of the experience being the key outcome variable as described by Holbrook. The researchers reveal Holbrook statement on value as having "an interactive relativistic preference experience," meaning that the experience and value are relative to one another in the sense of importance the consumer places on those as well as on the actual purchase. The initial conclusion is that both utilitarian

Organization of Islamic Conference Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Organization of Islamic Conference - Essay Example The Organization was established in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco, on 12 Rajab 1389H (25 September 1969) when the First meeting of the leaders of the Islamic world was held in this city in the rouse of the unlawful arson perpetrated on 21 August 1969 by Zionist fundamentals against Al-Aqsa Mosque, in occupied Jerusalem. 1 It was certainly in order to secure the honor, dignity and faith of the Muslims, to face this inconsiderate challenge launched in the holy city of Al-Quds so dear to them and against the Mosque of Al-Aqsa, that the leaders of the Muslim world, at their Summit in Rabat, held that event, which brought about unanimous worldwide denunciation and reprobation, to think together of their common cause and congregate the force required to overcome their differences, unite and lay the foundations of this large grouping of States, that is, the Organization of the Islamic Conference which they commended, in absolute precedence, with liberating Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa from occupation. After that, the meeting of Heads of State and Government constitute the highest policy making organ of the OIC. The Summit Conferences enable the leader of the Islamic world to periodically review the conditions within the Islamic world as well as the entire spectrum of international political developments from an Is lamic perspective. Organization of the Islamic Conference - OIC "Six months after that historical meeting, i.e. in Muharram 1390H (March 1970), the First Islamic Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs held in Jeddah set up a permanent General Secretariat, to ensure a connection among Member States and charged it to synchronize their action. The Conference appointed its Secretary General and chose Jeddah as the Headquarters of the Organization, in anticipation of the liberation of Jerusalem, which would be the permanent Headquarters."2 Framework of the OIC Four dedicated institutions have been set up within the framework of the OIC, namely, The Islamic Development Bank; The Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization; the Islamic States Broadcasting Organization and the International Islamic News Agency. The general secretariat of the OIC has permanent viewer status at the United Nations and maintains its headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Doha Declaration (November 2000) called for an end to the occupation in Palestine and invited those member states that had traditional relations with the State of Israel to "put an end to all forms of normalization with Israel until it authentically and exactly implements U.N. resolutions relevant to the issue of Palestine. " The Kuala Lumpur Statement on International Terrorism, issued during the extraordinary