European System of Balance of Power Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

European System of Balance of Power - Article Example France was very much afraid of Germany after WWI. During the treaty of Versailles, they made their point. After the WWI the French economy weakened day by day. Their demands include the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France, financial and military aid by League of Nations in case of the German attack and should have French control over left bank of the Rhine Republic and Saar. Finally, it has been said that the French asked too much and pushed the Germans to a corner. The US, on the other hand, helped the European community by giving financial aid. They helped the Germans to come out of the financial crisis. The US realized the importance of the United Nations and convinced its allies and enemies to join the group. After centuries of bloodshed on the continent, with reconstruction after WWII financed by the American Marshall plan and protection provided by the American military during the Cold War, old adversaries in Europe achieved reconciliation and integration. Americans see a Germany that was wounded in WWI, destroyed in WWII, and then rehabilitated and protected (in the case of West Germany) in the post-war period thanks to American military might and American money. During the second half of 1944, the Nazi empire gradually imploded as its enemies invaded from east, west, and south. Supplies and manufacturing dwindled on a daily basis. The once mighty had some of the best military aircraft in the world but lacked fuel to fly them and parts to maintain them. Evidence suggests that Chancellor Adolf Hitler himself became addicted to a variety of drugs and that he may also have suffered from syphilis, Parkinson's disease, or both.  

Corporate social responsibility Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 16500 words

Corporate social responsibility - Dissertation Example Organisations have recognised the importance of generating various strategies by which they could profit from their operations. One of the business initiatives recognised as increasing the financial performance of a company is the use of corporate social responsibility. Briefly, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is defined as those methods by which an organisation minimizes its negative impacts on the environment and society. To ensure the maximization of benefits arising from CSR, it is important to give consideration to employees. Nevertheless, little research has been conducted with respect to the role of the employees in ensuring CSR. In this present study, the role of the employees has been validated. True enough, corporations have acknowledged their importance and it is in this regard that they have coming up with various initiatives to promote employee engagement. However, these strategies have not been employed in the branches of the companies outside their home country, in view of their desire to reduce operational costs. This study makes use of a qualitative design to explore the topic at hand. Chapter One: Introduction Background of the study The importance of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) was first addressed during the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 (Kotler and Lee, 2005). In highlighting its importance, many have argued that to ensure their efficiency companies nowadays must also be able to give consideration to social and environmental areas. Aside from this, they are likewise mandated to deliver the results of their achievements in honest and transparent ways (Werther and Chandler, 2010). Apparently, the participants of the said summit have recognised the fact that it is through the attainment of these purposes that the efficiency of the companies is guaranteed. The development of a framework was one of the most significant contributions of this particular summit (Kotler and Lee, 2005). In the said framework, two approaches were reflected: the advocacy as regards the adoption of regulatory frameworks that makes the concept of CSR mandatory based on the behaviour of the entrepreneur (OECD, 2001). This particular approach is popular amongst developing countries and the major non-governmental organisations that were present at the said summit. As was to be expected, there were others who rather objected thereto. The business organisations that also participated in the event, and thus contributed to the development of the said framework, mentioned that compliance with the principles of CSR must be voluntary and not mandatory (Banerjee, 2007; Werther and Chandler, 2010). They also recommended the need to develop broad agreements such as the initiative of the United Nations

Assessment Base Reading Instruciton Case Study Essay Example for Free

Assessment Base Reading Instruciton Case Study Essay Table of Contents Introduction Description of the Student Background Information PART 1: Administration of Assessments DIBELS: A Universal Assessment Battery Description and Purpose of the Assessment Setting for the Assessment Description of the Assessment Administration Process Results of the Assessment Analysis of the Assessment Results Running Records Description and Purpose of the Assessment The running record allows you to record the child’s reading behavior as he or she reads from the book. The purpose of a running record is a tool used to determine word recognition reading fluency reading strategies, self- corrections, and comprehension. It is an individually conducted formative assessment which is ongoing and curriculum based. It provides a graphic  representation of a students oral reading, identifying patterns of effective and ineffective strategy use. This method was developed by Marie Clay, the originator of Reading Recovery. Running records helps document reading progress over time. Help teachers decide what students need to learn and matches students to appropriate books. We want to capture all the behaviors to help interpret what the child was probably doing. Everything the child says and does tells us something: when the reading is correct, what his hands and eyes were doing, the comments he made and when he repeated a line of text. Setting for the Assessment Library setting, after school. This was the only time available. Description of the Assessment Administration Process Select a book that is the child’s reading level. Explain to the child that he or she will read out loud as you observe and record his or her reading behavior. Sit next to the child so that you can see the text and the child’s finger and eye movements as he or she reads the text. Use running record form. As the child reads, mark each word on the running record form by using the symbols on the chart that follows. Place a check mark above each word that is read correctly. If the child reads incorrectly, record above the word what the child reads. If the child is reading too fast for you to record the running record, ask him or her to pause until you catch up. Intervene as little as possible while the child is reading. If the child is stuck and unable to continue, wait 5 to10 seconds and tell him or her the word. If the child seems confused, indicate the point of confusion and say, â€Å"Try again.† Results of the Assessment Student read 156 words at 98% accuracy. She had 3 errors and 2 self corrects. She missed boredom, I told her the word. She changed plan for idea, setting, characters, and beginning. She had trouble with middle and end. She did know the main idea but could not list supporting details. I would move this student to a higher level text. This text was easy for the student. Analysis of the Assessment Results Student read 156 words at 98% accuracy. She had 3 errors and 2 self corrects. She missed boredom, I told her the word. She changed plan for idea, setting, characters, and beginning. She had trouble with middle and end. She did know the main idea but could not list supporting details. This student needs practice in retelling story in sequence. She had issues with middle and end. I think she was going for a fluency score and read too fast. She had problems orally retelling middle and end. This level is an appropriate level for this student. I will use the results to plan for this student. Teaching purposes for running records. To find a book level appropriate for a child. Check a child after a series of lessons. Evaluate whether a lift in text level is appropriate. Observe particular difficulties in particular children in order to modify instructional emphasis. Evaluate in order to place a child in an appropriate instructional group, class or school. Add to a record which is monitoring an individual’s progress over time. Reading Inventory Description and Purpose of the Assessment Setting for the Assessment Description of the Assessment Administration Process Results of the Assessment Analysis of the Assessment Results Additional Diagnostic Assessment: Learner Choice Description and Purpose of the Assessment Setting for the Assessment Description of the Assessment Administration Process Results of the Assessment Analysis of the Assessment Results Overall Analysis of Assessment Results PART 2: Recommendations for Interventions and Instruction Identifying Student Needs Recommendations for Interventions and Instruction Recommendations for Further Assessment References Appendices Appendix A: DIBELS Scoring Documents Appendix B: Running Records Scoring Documents Appendix C: Reading Inventory Documents Appendix D: Additional Assessment Documents

How Is Readability Important To Writability?

How Is Readability Important To Writability? User-defined operator overloading can harm the readability of a program if the user doesnt take into account differences in operands and possible confusion between the function of an operator. Consider if a user defined to mean the logical AND statement in Boolean logic. Someone else might believe to be the address of a variable such as the case in a language like C. It would make the code difficult to understand for a reader as well as make it difficult for a compiler to catch potential errors when the two functions of the get mixed up. What is aliasing? Aliasing is having two or more distinct names that can be used to access the same memory cell. It is useful in that it allows a programmer more freedom to access data but it also can be dangerous in that aliasing can lead to a lot of errors especially if a programmer doesnt do a good job of keeping track of these names or pointers to a memory cells. How is readability important to writability? Readability is important to writability because if a programming language is difficult to read and understand then it can be difficult for a programmer to create new code that might need to interact or use other code. Often times code needs to be modified and if a program is difficult to read then it is difficult to add new code to it. What are the three fundamental features of an object-oriented programming language? The three fundamental features of object-oriented programming are encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism. Encapsulation promotes the concept of information hiding, which is useful because it protects information from being changed or altered by other parts of a program. Inheritance allows one to reuse existing software so it allows significant improvement in productivity. Polymorphism allows data types and function to belong to more generic classes thus allowing for different data types to be processed in a uniform manner. What are three general methods of implementing a programming language? One method is compiler implementation in which programs are translated into machine language. Another method is called pure interpretation in which programs are interpreted by an interpreter. A third implementation method is called a hybrid implementation in which high-level language programs and translated to an intermediate language for easier interpretation. What arguments can you make for the idea of a single language for all programming domains? If there is only a single language for all programming domains this simplifies code and increases readability because everyone would learn the same language and have a common understanding of symbols and functions. There are no additional costs of having to train programmers in multiple languages and software would be easier to integrate since everything would be written in the same language. What arguments can you make against the idea of a single language for all programming domains? Different programming languages have different strengths and weaknesses and using a single language for all programming domains can make things more difficult especially when programming in a different language might be easier and more suitable. For example a functional programming language would be ideal for applying functions to given parameters but not a very good way of representing objects in the real world as opposed to object oriented programming. Some programs are more reliable in that they catch errors but at the cost of execution time and run time speed. Others run quickly and efficiently but are more prone to errors. Having a choice of languages makes accomplishing a certain task easier. What common programming language statement, in your opinion, is most detrimental to readability? One of the most common programming language statements that is detrimental to readability is the conditional statement such as an if, while, etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ especially if it involves compound statements and or nested conditionals. I believe this is detrimental because often times conditional statements involve the reader of a code having to scroll up and down to follow what goes next. This is especially true with older languages that use the goto statement or ones that use the break command to leap out of a given conditional statement to a line further down or up. I personally find it even more difficult with nested loop statements because one has to recognize layers of conditionals and even more so in languages like C or Java that use brace marks to end compound statements. Sometimes a reader will forget which loop is running or will have a difficult time debugging when forgets to use a brace mark and the conditional statements overlap. Java uses a right brace to mark the end of all compound statements. What are the arguments for and against this design? One of the arguments for the usage of a right brace mark to end all compound statements is that it keep the syntax simple for compound statements and it saves a programmer time for not having to write extra characters to denote the end of a compound statement. One of the arguments against using braces to end all compound statements in Java is that its more detrimental to readability. Its more difficult to determine which different compound statement (while loop, for loop, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) is ending if you use a right brace mark to end all of those statements. This can be especially troublesome if you use many different types of multiple compound statements. Languages like Ada dont use right brace marks to end compound statements and that language has greater readability in this case. For example in Ada end if determines the ending of an if statement, and end loop determines the end of a loop. Many languages distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters in user-defined names. What are the pros and cons of this design decision? One of the arguments in favor of distinguishing between upper and lowercase letters in user-defined names is that it helps maintain code readability. For example if POINTER, Pointer, and pointer were distinct names that denoted different entities, then it might confuse someone reading the code. One of the cons of languages distinguishing between uppercase and lowercase letters is that it could hurt writability by making it harder for a programmer to code. For example if a programmer used MyString as a user name, then that programmer would have to remember that special case usage since Mystring, and mystring would not be recognized. 10) What are the arguments for writing efficient programs even though hardware is relatively inexpensive? As hardware costs decreased the major cost of computing shifted to programmer costs in software. Programs were being used more and more for larger and more complex tasks and thus having efficiently written programs saved on computing costs. Companies found out that programming language deficiencies such as incomplete type checking and poorly designed control statements led to lower programmer productivity. Write an evaluation of some programming language you know, using the criteria described in this chapter. Readability In terms of readability, Java has some issues with simplicity with respect to readability. There is feature multiplicity in Java as shown in the textbook with the example of count = count + 1, count++, count +=1 and ++count being 4 different ways to increment an integer by 1. Another problem is operator overloading since java allows some operators such as the + sign to add integers, floats, and other number types. One of the good things about Javas overall simplicity is that the basic constructs follows that of the C and C++ family, thus its relatively similar for people who know those languages. Control statements in java have higher readability than old BASIC and Fortran programs because they can use more complex conditionals like for loops. There is no need for goto statements that have the reader leaping to other lines of code that could be far away or out of order. However, the use of braces to designate the starting and stopping points of all compound statements can lead to som e confusion. Java has 8 primitive data types: Boolean, char, byte, short, int, long, float and double and has no pointer types. Data types and structures can be specified to a high degree. Writablity Java has a fair bit of orthogonality in that its primitive constructs can be used in various different ways. Because Java is an imperative language that supports object oriented programming, it can be fairly complex. Java supports data abstraction so it would be easier to create a binary tree in java with its dynamic storage and pointers than in a language like Fortran 77. Java also has a for statement which is easier than using a typical while statement. Java is a high level programming language so specifying details like memory allocation are unnecessary due to javas dynamic array system. Reliablity Java uses a type checker at compile time which virtually eliminates most of the type errors during run time. Its much improved over a program like C especially with respect to allocation and de-allocation of memory. It might be a little more cumbersome to get around the errors of Java but this insures that programmers dont screw up the code and possibly computer like what could happen with an inexperienced programmer in C. Java also has extensive exception handling and can check for and throw for several different documented exceptions. Java restricts the amount of aliasing from its predecessor C to allow for greater reliability. With respect to cost, Java has a fairly extensive library so it can be difficult for people to learn all the aspects of the language. Writing a simple program in Java is rather difficult due to the declaration of the public class and the execution statement public static void main (String[] args) {à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦}. However Javas support of encapsulation allo ws multiple programmers working on a project to collaborate without messing up each others code. Different parts can be designated as public, private, protectedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and thus access can be regulated. Java also has a free complier/interpreter system thus it is more widely used than an expensive compiler. Some programming languages, for example, Pascal have used the semicolon to separate statements, while Java uses it to terminate statement. Which of these, in your opinion, is most natural and least likely to result in syntax errors? Support your answer. Personally I feel that Pascals usage of the semicolon to separate statements is rather counterintuitive but possibly its because I learned the usage of the semicolon to terminate statements in C before I learned Pascal. In Pascal one needs to look ahead and identify whether or not the next line is a statement before putting a semicolon. This can be a hassle because requires a programmer to go back and change code before adding new code. For example if use had a program in Pascal that had a simple if statement If x = 0 then Answer:=1; Then in Pascal if you wanted to add an else clause you would have to go back and delete the semicolon because an else clause is not considered a new statement. If x = 0 then Answer:=1 Else Answer:=2; Some Pascal compilers will catch wrongly placed semicolons and declare them as errors. It also means that a programmer needs to be able to recognize what is and what is not a statement thus it hurts writablity. Of course, other requirements in Java such as the usage of parenthesis around the conditional or the usage of braces around the compound statements can also be confusing. However I think its easier to remember not to put a semi-colon after a right brace than it is to have to watch out for not putting it after each statement. The relative consistency of Java is more intuitive than the structure of Pascal.

The Legalization of Drugs: Just Say No Essay -- Con-Legalization of Dr

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The idea of legalizing drugs is as bad as the drugs itself. Some drugs are though to have positive medical use, but that's a though to be untrue considering the contradicting facts. How could drugs that are so addicitve be in any way helpful, specially in a medical manner. Every part of the world that has tried it only brought corruption to their country and made addiction rates even worse.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although rumors that some drugs can help treat certain diceases have been stated they are not true, the fact is that false beliefs don't accumulate to the real facts. The repeutic treatment of heroin is said to alleviate cancer pain, this drug can also create other problems increasing the risk of diversion. In other words, it would encourage patients to sell their heroin on the black market. Another example is Glaucoma, which is a fluid pressure dicease to the eye. The THC that is found in marijuana decreases intraocular pressure. However, while marijuana may decrease intraocular pressure, it also decreases blood pressure making blood flow to the eye. Marijuana is also thought to be useful with treating pain caused by AIDS. Unfortunately, marijuana actually exacerbates the health risks associated with AIDS. Drugs wouldn't only physically be negative, it can also give you mental problems regarding the control towards drugs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Legalizing would only increase the addiction rates of the already high standards and statistics regardless. For example, cocaine locks all of th...

Use of the Sun and the Moon in Rime of the Ancient Mariner Essay

Both Sun and Moon play significant roles in this old poem, in a symbolic and supernatural way, in order to reinforce the mood that Samuel Taylor Coleridge has attempted to create in his use of old legends and superstitions. The role that the sun and moon play in this tale of cursed sailors is an old one, retold over and over the years that Coleridge adapted for his own.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although mentioned several times before, the Sun makes its first significant appearance in the seventh stanza of the second part. Before then, one will find both Sun and Moon mentioned many times purely for the reader’s enrichment. The repeated mention leads the reader to believe that it will soon become important by foreshadowing without making it of any greater appearance than mentioning it to describe the scenery in the aforementioned place in the poem. Here Coleridge describes the Sun as â€Å"The bloody Sun, at noon†. This use of capitalizing such a common word as Sun only goes further to tell the reader to keep an eye out for something not quite right there. For those unfamiliar with old sailors’ traditions, they may either skip right over this passage, or read too much into it as a sign of impending doom. An old phrase arises from the history books to describe this perfectly that reads, â€Å"Red sky at night, sailor’s delight, Red sjy at morning, sailor take warning.† When one takes a closer look at this, they might see that it describes storm patterns, but when one realises that t...

International Management- Hunter Boots Ltd.

â€Å"Designed to be outstanding in any field, from city streets to music festivals and rugged countryside, Hunter footwear is recognized for its performance durability and comfort – achieved through a fusion of tradition and technology† (Hunter Boot Ltd. , 2013) Hunter Boot Ltd. was founded in 1856, styled as the North British Rubber Company, producing not only rubber boots but also tyres, conveyors and flooring. The famous ‘wellies’ or wellington boots rose to fame when they were mass-produced during World War I to supply the army.By the end of the war ‘wellies’ had become popular for use among the general population as well. After changing ownership several times Hunter Rubber Company became a standalone company in 2004, and was bought out of administration as Hunter Boot Ltd. in 2006. Now solely focusing on footwear, the company has since positioned itself firmly and both the UK and USA footwear markets. In 2008 Hunter closed its plant of 9 6 years and relocated its headquarters to Edinburgh (Scotland) and production to China.Striving for more efficiency and effectiveness in the production process Hunter boots are only still visually similar to its original design, whereas they have in fact become virtually identical to the boots produced by its competitors. Nevertheless Hunter has experienced a period of considerable growth and is now distributed internationally in over 30 countries (Hunter Boot Ltd. , 2013). The author feels that is important to make a clear distinction between the years up to 2006, which is the year Hunter Boot Ltd. was placed into admission, and the years 2007 and onwards to where Hunter Boot Ltd. s currently controlled by Searchlight Capital Partners LP (SCP). , which is a private investment firm operating in North America and Europe. First this paper will analyse the rise, and demise, of the company and then will shed some light on its resurgence in popularity and turn-around sales in recent year s (Paton 2011). According to Porter (1991) sustainable competitive advantage in international business is determined by the four factors that form the diamond of national advantage; factor conditions, demand conditions, related and supporting industries and firm strategy, structure and rivalry. The factors are nterdependent and all are essential for achieving (international) success. The application of this framework certainly holds true for Hunter Boot Ltd. ’s (international) success from its founding years to the early 2000’s. Diamond of National Advantage| Hunter Boot Ltd. 1856 – 2006| Relative level of Importance| Factor Conditions| ‘Dumfries’ production plant, skilled labor and sufficient infrastructure. | High Importance| Demand Conditions| Wet weather conditions make suitable footwear a necessity. Army supplier during both WWI and WWII. Loyal customer ranging from the British Royal Family to general population. High Importance| Related & Supp orting Industries| Close working relationships with suppliers and end-users within national boundary. | Medium Importance| Firm Strategy, Structure and Rivalry| Ability to manage vast growth in both production and labor force. Ambitious management strategy. | High Importance| Table 1: Porter’s Diamond of National Advantage applied to Hunter Boot Ltd. 1856-2006 The company’s decline became inevitably clear in the years 2003-2005 when it recorded a pre-tas loss of approximately ? 700,000 with a net debt that had grown to more than ? 2m. These perils can be explained by two of Porter’s factors.Firstly the company’s Factor Conditions, mainly its production plant, changed from major strength to major weakness. The location and facilities that helped bring to company to greatness during the war became hopelessly outdated in later years leading to relatively high costs of trying to continue its Scotland production. Lower production costs abroad, due to surges in gas, electricity and rubber prices in the UK, and the overall British manufacturing decline made Hunter Boot Ltd’s ambitions to remain an independent producer based in Scotland unsustainable (Financial Times 2006).Also blamed in the process was the company’s CEO Mark Sater, which relates to Porter’s factor on firm strategy, structure and rivalry, who chose to pursue a diversification strategy in that under his rule the product range was extended extensively in an effort to boost sales. The company even added a range of branded clothing and partnered with charities and fashion designers. With the previously mentioned financial situation the company was forced to consider external business proposals in an effort to keep the company afloat.Driving the following negotiations were the company’s demand conditions which were clearly articulated by an anonymous insider in the Financial Times (2006) as ‘anyone who hunts or fishes and has a few quid fancies themselves as the next owner. It is so close to the hearts of so many people it is almost owned by the nation. None of the offers gained sufficient support of the board and the company collapsed in the spring of 2006. In several consecutive constructions Hunter Boot Ltd. Generated sales of ? 56m in 2010 and ? 78 in 2011 which is a strong financial improvement and turnaround from its pre-tax losses in 2005.Since early 2012 the company is under control of American-owned private equity group SCP which is pursuing global expansion. This makes Hunter Boot Ltd. one of many luxury brand buy-outs by private equity groups the like of SCP in recent times. SCP has announced that it will try to set up stores selling the Hunter brand exclusively across the globe in the coming years. This is a major change in its international strategy since Hunter products are currently sold exclusively via wholesale retail channels (Paton 2011&2012).Despite the many changes in ownership Hunter product are still clearly trying to hang on its British heritage in a dual effort to maintain its loyal UK customer base and to differentiate itself from its competitors. As an example the company has two different website interfaces, one for UK customers and one for USA customers. Both emphasize the exclusivity and craftsmanship of the product, but the UK website further emphasizes its heritage by portraying the British flag and colors clearly on every opportunity. From a theoretical perspective one could argue that Hunter Boot Ltd. s current (international) business strategy can no longer be sufficiently explained by Porter’s Diamond model, and now bears more resemblance to Barney’s VRIO model which is a resource-based view focused on the firm’s internal capabilities (Barney 1991). The resource-based view argues international success stems from the theory that some firms in one nation generate exports that are valuable (V), unique (R), hard to imitate (I) and supported by orga nizationally sound processes (O) which firms from other nations find beneficial to import.A valuable resource will lead to competitive parity, a valuable and rare resource to temporary competitive advantage, the addition of inimitability will lead to sustained (short-term) competitive advantage and meeting all VRIO-criteria will lead to (long-term) sustainable competitive advantage (Shahriari, M. & Ahmadi, A. , 2010). While companies may have many tangible and intangible resources only few of them are strategic in nature. Most strategic resources are of the created and intangible kind and often knowledge-based, yet they can only be facilitated with the help of tangible resources.This mix is what enables a company to move past competitive convergence and into competitive advantage (Shariari et al. 2010 and Barney 1991). Globalization has affected Hunter’s home-based competitive advantages in that in a global economy there has been a shift from natural assets (land and untraine d labor) to created assets (human capital). Many of these created assets are intangible and firm or ownership specific which mean they are often no longer controlled by specific countries or governments except within the constraints of the (national) law. Multinational firms (MNEs) like Hunter Boot Ltd. re free to move assets from a domestic to a foreign location which is often done when trying to pursue and generate new valuable assets (Dunning, J. H. , 1993). This opportunity is exactly what the company pursued when it moved its production plant to China while maintaining its HQ in Scotland. It is the company’s intangible or created asset of ‘reputation ‘that currently provides it with a long-term sustained competitive advantage over its competitors. Its constant customer focus and technological capabilities are a close second but do not withstand a long-term orientation to a similar extent.This is particularly true for Hunter Boot Ltd. ’s technological c apability since the recent move of its production facilities and cost-cutting strategy has made the company more vulnerable to imitation by competitors. Recently Hunter Boot Ltd. has been enjoying great success and it will have to prove if this is sustainable or not. It will come down to the following question: Is the company’s gaining in internal capabilities and resources enough to make up for the loss of its national advantages?The author states that it is vital for the company to uphold its reputation since this is currently the single sustainable source of competitive advantage and not one that cannot be affected. It might be that the company will lose some of its loyal (mainly UK) customers and gain a large number of mass-market global customers, but it is doubtful this will provide long-term success if the company is not able to differentiate itself sufficiently from its competitors in the near future. Bibliography BARNEY, J. , 1991.Firm resources and sustained competi tive advantage. Journal of management, 17(1), pp. 99-120. DUNNING, J. H. , 1993. Internationalizing Porter's Diamond. MIR: Management International Review, 33 (Extensions of the Porter Diamond Framework), pp. 7-15. FINANCIAL TIMES, 2006, Future far from bright for Britain’s wellies, viewed on 28th of February 2013 ;http://www. ft. com/intl/cms/s/0/628795c2-cbd4-11da-a7bf-0000779e2340. html#axzz2MYTEnuR ; HUNTER BOOT LTD, 2013, viewed on 4th of March 2013 ;http://www. hunter-boot. com/about-us; PATON, E. 2010, Luxury industry movers and shakers, Financial Times, viewed on 1st of March 2013 ;http://www. ft. com/cms/s/0/0f2e5894-1c62-11e2-ba75-00144feabdc0. html; PATON, E. , 2011, Hunter boots to pursue international growth, Financial Times, viewed on 28th of February 2013 ;http://www. ft. com/intl/cms/s/0/4846403a-2800-11e1-a4c4-00144feabdc0. html#axzz2MYTEnuRw; PORTER, M. E. , 1998,  Competitive advantage of nations,  Free press. SHAHRIARI, M. and AHMADI, A. , 2010, A Reso urce-Based Framework of Strategic Marketing Planning to achieve Sustainable Competitive Advantage, pp. 1-13.