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Sample Research Paper on Government Regulations Impact To Organization in terms of delivering services and analysis on Syracuse Research Corporation

Government Regulations impact to Organization   Introduction             It is noted that different organizations operates in accordance with the policies and provisions provided by the government. Such institutions must adhere to the regulations set by the government of the host country. In the United States, the government has been able to formulate different corporate policy and employment policy. These policies have direct impact in the management of different organisations. Hence, the focus of this paper is to analyse a non-profit organisation which is operating in the United States. Herein the discussion will include details about the organisation and the services that it offers. Specifically, this paper will also describe the impact of the recent government policy in terms of delivering services among target market. This will also assess how new employment regulations affects the management of the organisation with its human resources. In this regard, the organisation that will be given emphasis is Syracuse Research Corporation.   Overview of the Organisation             Syracuse Research Corporation (SRC) is known to be an independent, not for profit research and development institutions which is chartered by the State of New York. The corporation was established in 1957 by the Syracuse University. However, in the early 1970s the management of the SRC decided to spin off from the University which make them become independent. For almost 50 years, the corporation has been able to support wide range of federal government institutions and agencies. In addition, the corporation has also created a national reputation in a broad level of technology areas. The employment of SRC has rises from 190 people to over 750 employees. It has offices in 10 different locations, along with numerous market support sites all over the United States.             The mission of the corporation is to keep the United States safe and strong by protecting its people, their environment and way of life. The company believed that in order to achieve such mission they will focus on the needs of their target market through the innovative uses of science, technology and information so as to solve problems of national significance.             The corporation is also known for providing quality products and services. Such superior quality has been attained using two-business strategies. First, the corporation has always maintained a policy of recruiting the best human resources and providing them with continuous development using more advanced training, mentoring and challenging task assignments. Secondly, Syracuse Research Corporation has been able to make significant investments in their operations which are used to develop both hardware and software products.             The organizational structure of Syracuse Research Corporation is composed of the Board of Trustees who is responsible for monitoring and managing the activities of the corporation. The Board of Trustees consists of senior executives and industry leaders. It is known that each members of the organization are distinguished members in diverse background which include insurance, government, banking, manufacturing, law and advances telecommunications services and systems. The highest position for the board is the Chairman of the Board. The role of this is to ensure that Syracuse Research Corporation adheres to its charter. They are also responsible for financial stability and for planning for the corporation’s future.             The main focus of the company is to provide solutions to programs in accordance with national significance through the innovative application and integration of science, technology and information. SRC was built to provide solutions for next generation challenges with their customers in terms of defense, environment and intelligence communities. SRC is responsible for finding solutions to problems encountered by different companies through the use of state of the arts information systems. The innovative IS of SRC is used to facilitate the best possible deliverables for their target market. With these systems, the employees of the company can access the internet or intranet, interact with other groups or corporate resources, test software and communicate through electronic mail.       Through the expertise of the corporation in different hardware platforms and operating systems enables the company to have a unique ability to select the most appropriate platforms for a specific situation. The IS employees of the company are experiences in all areas of client-server computing which includes:       v     Software and application development v     Database design, implementation, and administration v     Client-server administration and support v     Network configuration and management   Approach for Funding             Technically, the company efforts span from the basic theoretical and scientific studies, to sophisticated design and manufacturing abilities which result in fielded prototype hardware and software systems. Being a not-for profit organization, Syracuse Research Corporation believed that they must always do their best to satisfy their target market to ensure financial growth. Being an independent and development organization, SRC aims to serve an innovative technology development and transfer bridge among government, academia and industry sectors. The company remains committed to this organizational goal and constantly looks forward to the challenges and opportunities that the future will bring.             The company takes prided in the development and use of technology to significant issues of national interest. In order to sustain its financial needs, the corporation is currently being sponsored by more than 100 government and commercial industries for research and development investigations. Hence, the funds usually came from the clients who want to avail the products and services of the corporation.   Government Regulations impact on Organisation             Most countries have policies which regulate both the establishment and management system of non-profit organizations. These regulations require compliance with corporate governance regimes. Consequently, larger organizations are asked to publish their financial reports which included information about their income and expenditure for the public. Part of the government regulation, the non-profit organization must have board members, or trustees who owe the firm a fiduciary duty of both loyalty and trust.             In the United States, these kinds of organizations are usually formed by incorporating in the state in which they expect to do business. Like for example, SRC is incorporated with the government of New York. The act of incorporating creates a legal entity which enables the firm to be treated as a corporation under law and to have the right to enter business transactions, form contracts and own assets like any other profit organizations or individuals do.             The government policies sees to it that they provide appropriate regulations for non-profit organizations which is different from the regulations they provide for profit organizations. A primary difference between a non-profit and profit organization is that the former does not issue stock or pay dividends and may not enrich its directors. But, like any other corporations the non-profit organization may still hire employees and can compensated their members within reasonable bounds (Johnson & Scholes 1997). The government policies affect the SRC in a way that the company always tries to adhere to the regulations set by the federal government to avoid illegal actions and further complexities. Through this, the government is assured that the company will always provide quality products and services among its target market may it be government or commercial institutions.             Since SRC is a not for profit organization, the company is considered as exempted from income tax and other taxes. In this manner, the sponsors of the organisation may claim back any income tax paid on donations, or deduct from their own tax liability the amount of the funds given. Furthermore, SRC is also exempted from other taxes such as sales and property tax. This exemption is really helpful especially for a company like SRC which do not have enough sources for funding their research and development project. Their financial resources may only come from sponsors who will provide their financial needs during the project. Furthermore, SRC is also affected by this government policy in terms of assuring quality services among their target market. With the government regulations, there is no room for mistakes. One wrong move, the company may face legal problems which may affect their organizational performance.       Employee Policy             The federal government of the United States has been able to issue different employee policy to meet the needs of employees all over the states. One of the recently provisioned employee policies is the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA). The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) represents a potentially important reshaping of the federal government's approach to worker training as part of publicly funded workforce development services. WIA replaced and repealed the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) and amended the Wagner-Peyser Act in response to a variety of concerns about how the existing public workforce development system was designed and operated. Among these concerns, it was noted that a multitude of employment and training programs—by some counts over 150 separate programs, including, among others, those operating under JTPA, Vocational Rehabilitation, Vocational Education, the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, and the Wagner-Peyser Act—often operated without effective coordination or collaboration. The resulting system suffered from redundancies and inefficiencies and confronted customers with a confusing maze of programs through which they found it difficult to navigate (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2000). Second, JTPA services were limited to those who met narrowly prescribed eligibility criteria, thereby curtailing access to potentially valuable workforce services to the broader population in need of skills upgrading or retraining. In JTPA's adult program, participation was limited to those who were economically disadvantaged and (after the JTPA Amendments of 1992) at least 65 percent needed to be identified as hard to serve, by virtue of having at least one barrier to employment from a list of seven that were specified in the legislation. These stipulations arguably served to target services on those who needed them the most. However, as the U.S. workforce development system moved toward a model of one-stop service delivery over the several years before JTPA's repeal, these eligibility restrictions created awkward problems regarding funding and staffing support and hampered the ability of JTPA-supported programs to operate effectively with its partners (Kogan et al. 1997). Moreover, they hampered the ability of the public workforce investment system to be agile in upgrading workers' skills to meet evolving employers' needs in a rapidly changing economy.             WIA was enacted to address the concerns of having effective and efficient training program for all employees in all organizations in the United States Building on reforms that some states and the federal government had already begun (D'Amico et al. 2001), it does so by purportedly improving system integration and service coordination, providing universal access while rationing services to promote efficiency, promoting customer choice and system accountability, and bringing business to the fore as a key customer of the workforce system.  This new policy affects the human resource management (O’Shea, & King 2001) of Syracuse Research Corporation positively. In this policy, SRC has been able to provide training activities for their employees. Training is an attempt to improve employee performance on a currently held job or one related to it. This usually will lead to changes in specific knowledge, skills, attitudes, or behaviours.  These changes can result to long-term productivity which in return helps SRC in gaining competitive employees. However, it often the case that companies only consider training for new hires. The policy has been formulated to give opportunities for both new and old employees for continuous knowledge and skills enhancement. According to Allis (2003), the quality of the employees is determined by their development through training and education. In turn, quality employees are factors in defining the long-term stability and profitability of the company. It is a fact that the rigorous hiring process of many companies a ways of ensuring that they will only be hiring the best of the best. Knowing these principles, the human resource management of SRC has been able to provide adequate trainings programs needed for assuring quality products and services from their employees. Training of employees’ pertains to giving the employees the basic knowledge necessary for them to be able to perform their tasks. In addition, employee training will also enhance the inherent capacity of the employees. Development needs to be dealt with continuously enhancing employees’ abilities through training to match the changes in the business industry. With employee training, the performance of every employee in the company will naturally be improved to its maximum level. In addition, various skills may be absorbed by the employee being trained, which in turn makes them more independent, resourceful and flexible. There are various reasons why employee training must take place. These reasons are closely linked to the company’s sustainability and profitability. According to Graham and Salas (2002), training is being used to facilitate education.  In addition, training is also seen as a tool to retain employees, improve corporate culture and design incentive programs for employees (Graham & Salas, 2002).  Trainings are also being conducted so that the company will be able to create a pool of employees that can readily and adequately replace those who have left the company. Due to fats technological developments, employees must be continuously and/or regularly trained to be able to adapt to the developments that will affect the company. Training also motivates a team by allowing them to become more efficient.  If a company is able to train and develop highly-competent employees then they will be able to fill positions needed for expansion (Allis, 2003). Through this provision, Syracuse Research Corporation has been able to realise the value of training programs for their employees. Since training can develop efficient employees and create rooms for expansion, this means that training can also result to lower employee turnover rates for the organisation.  The results of training and development start a chain reaction.  When the company is able to produce effective employees then their profitability will increase.  When this happens, they will also be able to compensate their employees based on their contribution to the company’s growth.  In turn, it will create a feeling of satisfaction that will motivate them to improve further their efficiency and then the cycle will once again begin (Parker, 2005). Hence, the human resource management of SRC sees to it that they follow all the policies provided by the government to ensure quality business performance.

Sample Research Paper on Government Regulations Impact To Organization in terms of delivering services and analysis on Syracuse Research Corporation

Government Regulations impact to Organization Introduction It is noted that different organizations operates in ac...

Article Review on Peter F. Drucker, Discipline of innovation

This Peter Drucker’s article entitled Discipline of innovation obviously focuses on innovation. Drucker defines innovation as the heart of an entrepreneurial activity, that is, innovation is “he means by which the entrepreneur creates new wealth-producing resources or endows existing resources with enhanced potential for creating wealth” (Drucker, 2002). He also enumerates sources of innovation which serves as opportunity companies: unexpected occurrences; incongruities; process needs; industry and market changes; demographic changes’; changes in perception; and new knowledge. These sources of opportunities that resulted from innovations may exist either within a company or outside the company. In the article, Drucker (2002) stated that the foundation of a business or entrepreneurship as a practice is the practice of systematic innovation.             Innovation, based on the article is one factor that influences strategic planning, organizational behavior and management. Drucker (2002) emphasized that, although it resulted from opportunities, innovation may pose risks, difficulty and complexity and is needed to be managed well. Once innovation opens opportunity for a company, there should be strategic planning, giving focus on how such innovation can be most effectively implement.             Drucker mentioned that innovation is a means of creating or enhancing existing resources to create wealth. He did not elaborate what type of resources he was talking about but with his examples, he was talking about product innovation. He did not mentioned human resources: human resources that greatly contribute to the Research and Development of a company that leads to new product or service development which can create new market or provides the needs of the emerging market.  It is not necessary that innovation is a company’s new own idea. Innovation also means trying out different ideas, or to change or improve a product, a situation or an organization. A company may innovate by adopting other company’s strategy that might work better for them. Innovation may also imply innovation in the organizational structure of a company, which Drucker did not emphasize in his article. That is, the existing organizational structure may be further improve or be innovated which is also called organizational innovation. Organizational innovation is basically a new ways of organizing work in different areas such as in dealing with customers, knowledge management, value chain management, manufacturing, and others which involves all employees in order to make an organization a collective resource for innovation to improve competitiveness of the business (Kotelnikov, 2006).             Innovation usually creates changes in the company. For example, a publishing company wants to innovate to target the market of computer users thus they planned for electronic publishing of books. This creates changes in a company: a more capable CIO might be needed; employees must be well-versed with the use of computers which requires employee empowerment; and this innovation might need another department within the company whose focus will be on the e-books. This will also affect the existing company culture, from being traditional publisher to technology and knowledge-based publisher. All these changes requires careful strategic planning to address the changes the company is undergoing and to ensure that innovation brought positive changes rather than negative changes.             Drucker’s article emphasized that innovation is a practice but he did not mentioned that this practice encompasses many other practices. Generally, innovation covers many aspects of a company that once put into practice, many changes will occur from the organizational structure to the organizational culture, this innovation should be practice in such a way that it is used as a defense of a company against its competitors. Frederick Herzberg, One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?             Herzberg’s article is basically about managing people through motivation. The article discussed about the different ways of motivating employees which includes the KITA or the ‘kick in the pants’ strategy and the 9 basic motivations to employees. The author put emphasis on the importance of motivation as an influencing factor on the organizational behavior.             Based on the article, the t motivations used by most companies are not that efficient. These motivations includes reducing time spent at work; increasing salary; benefits; human relations training; sensitivity training; communications; two-way communications; job participation; and employee counseling. A lot of management and organizational behavior articles discussed these motivations as effective and encouraging to employees to perform better at work. But Herzberg suggests that all these motivations are not enough in order to get employees satisfaction. He called these motivations as myths. However, some may argue that the above mentioned motivations are not myths. There are also studies that show that one or combinations of these motivations are effective in various situations depending on the attitude of the workers. There are workers that are motivated by benefits. For example, a worker that may retire 5 years from now may be motivated to work harder so that his benefits will be higher at the time of his retirement. Another example is that an employee can be motivated by reducing time spent at work: a working mother will like a work that can give him more time for her family so she will stick with this work.             He also used a study on the factors affecting job satisfaction and dissatisfaction and found out that the motivator factors that are intrinsic to the job provide satisfaction to employees while the what Herzberg called hygiene that are intrinsic to the job are the those that give employee dissatisfaction. This motivator factors and hygiene can be considered as the two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Precht, 2006). Intrinsic motivation are those that comes from within an employee such as achievement, recognition for achievement, the work itself, responsibility and growth (Herzberg, 2002) while the extrinsic motivations are those that are from outside oneself  (Precht, 2006) such as company policy and administration, supervision, interpersonal relationship, work conditions, salary, rewards, security and others. In his study, it was found out that the extrinsic motivators actually do not play as motivators but instead provide dissatisfaction.             This study then suggests that to really motivate employees, job should be organized in a manner that will result to favorable attitudes of employee, will lead to efficient operations, and will improve the organizational climate. Herzberg called this as motivation-hygiene theory which suggests that job enrichment is the key to improving both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.  Enriched job, according to Mohr & Zoghi (2006), job enrichment meet the psychological and social needs and increases the motivating potential of work, which simultaneously increases both worker satisfaction and effort. Mohr & Zoghi (2006) also called motivation-hygiene theory as “motivation hypothesis”.             The basic concept of motivation-hygiene theory is motivation through the work itself; that is to improve the intrinsic motivations because these are those that can provide satisfaction to employees by improving the extrinsic motivation. For example, for an engineer, growth and advancement provide satisfaction while work environment and relationship with subordinates give him dissatisfaction. In job enrichment, work environment can be improved by having a good relationship with subordinates. Good relationship with subordinates can be improved by conducting employee development which includes seminars on improving teamwork and interpersonal skills, leadership skills and knowledge sharing so that employees can work as a team. The engineer may increase accountabilities of his subordinates so that his subordinates will be motivated by responsibility and recognition.             In the motivation-hygiene theory, Herzberg has found the right and effective way of improving organizational behavior. However, there are some critics that disagree on job enrichment. These critics argue that workers may dislike enrichment because it is accompanied by “intensification of work” (Kelly 1982; Pollert 1991 on Mohr & Zoghi, 2006). That is, some workers may prefer narrowly defined jobs wherein performance standards are defined and workers are ensured not to be asked to do tasks outside of the job’s definition (Mohr & Zoghi, 2006).             This argument may be further investigated by human resource management of a company. That is, it is up to them to decide on how they should motivate their employees. Motivation is an important factor that influences the behavior of workers in an organization. The more the employees are motivated the better for a company because increased workforce motivation contributes to increased productivity an innovation, creative problem solving, reduced turnover and decreased absenteeism which are all very important to business success (Precht, 2006). As a cliché said, “people are the best asset of a company”. This could mean that a company’s way of motivating its employees are also one of its strategies thus employee motivation is one of the considerations in strategic planning. A well-managed and motivated workforce results to a well-managed organization and business.   Harry Levinson, Management by Whose Objectives?             In this article, Levinson critically assessed and investigates on the shortcomings of management by objectives (MBO) process. MBO was originally proposed by Peter Drucker in 1954 but in the 1990s, he himself stated that MBO is just another management tool but it is not the great cure for management inefficiency (Kotelnikov, 2006). MBO is guided by the principle that everybody within the organization should have a clear understanding of the aims, goals and objectives of the organization and must be aware of their responsibilities in achieving these aims (Kotelnikov, 2006). It focuses on the results and not on the activity.             In Levinson’s article, he did not criticize the MBO itself but the process involved with it. He identified the problems associated with the MBO process. First, he said an employee’s job description is irreducible to few sentences because there are times that job becomes more complex so the objectives set for this employee can not be merged to only few objectives. Second, as job becomes more complex, employees tend to perform job beyond what are indicated in his job description. The problem is that employee evaluation is based on the areas defined so employee evaluation is not very reliable.   Levinson also included failure to maximum integration of units that would lead to greater teamwork within the organization; and failure to incorporate the entire situation that the employee and superior are operating in. He also mentioned that qualitative measures are missing in the process such as measures on how well employees work with their co-employees and the quality of employees’ performance.             The first two problems laid by Levinson is agreeable but the problem that he mentioned that MBO process failed to integrate units and promote teamwork within an organization can be questionable if that is really a problem with MBO. Contrary to failure to promote teamwork, MBO actually create teamwork since the managers shared the objectives to his subordinates rather than just by giving their job description without telling them why should they perform such tasks. Setting objectives promotes a team looking for one direction and aiming at the same objectives.   In 1995, Drucker formulated the three basic parts of MBO Strategy. The firsts of which is that “all individuals within an organization are assigned a special set of objectives that they try to reach during a normal operating period; these objectives are mutually set upon and agreed upon by individuals and their managers”. If these objectives are mutually set and agreed upon, then teamwork does exist in an MBO process. But since created this article in 1970, the three basic parts of MBO Strategy was not yet formulated.             Levinson stated that MBO process failed to measure quality performance while according to Kotelnikov (2006), a review of the organization’s objectives enables leaders to measure the performance of the managers as well as employees in the key result areas such as marketing, innovation, human organization, financial resources, physical resources, productivity, social responsibilities and profit requirements.   This can be likened to benchmarking or setting standards: objectives are the standards to be met and the performance of each employee will be measured in relation to the standards. For example, the set objective of the R & D department of a company is to develop 2 products this year to improve their performance last year when they developed only one product. This means that if the department is able to develop 2 products this year, the department’s performance is good but if it is able to develop more than two products, the department’s performance is excellent. Levinson also commented that personal goals of the employee should be incorporated into MBO process, considering questions such as “what are the managers’ personal objectives?’ and “what do they need and want to get out of their work?” (Levinson, 2003). He suggests that organization’s objectives should also be aligned with the employees’ personal goals because employees are more motivated when while working at the company’s goals, he is at the same time also working towards his personal goals. This problem can be addressed by participative decision making when setting objectives. In the article, Levinson proposed steps and considerations to improve the MBO process. He suggested motivational assessment, group actions, appraisal of appraisers, and employee self-evaluation and introspection as additional steps in the MBO process. Levinson was very focused on employee motivation and satisfaction. He was not against MBO but he just wanted employee motivation to be incorporated in the MBO process. The article implies that objective setting also an influencing factor in organizational behavior. That is, a company’s objectives have impact on the organizational behavior at the same time that organizational behavior impacts the company’s achievement of its objectives: dissatisfied employees can be hindrance to company’s achieving of goals since employees are the actuators of such goals. Thus in setting objectives, a company must consider and incorporate motivation on its objectives such as mutual prosperity or mutual development. Bennis, Warren & Thomas, Robert: Crucibles of Leadership             The article entitled Crucibles of Leadership discusses about the lives of different leaders that have been developed as strong and effective leaders by the hardships or what is called in the articles crucibles that they experienced. Bennis and Thomas interviewed and reviewed the lives of extraordinary leaders from different industries and institutions that had experienced trials and hardships before they have acquired or developed the skills of a true leader.             In the article, different kinds of crucibles that were experienced by different leaders are presented. There was as story of a company executive that has found a practice called participative management when he noticed rebellion among his workers. There was also a story of a woman engineer that has learned how to cope up and deal with company issues such a cultural and gender differences. There was also a leader who had emerged as a strong leader out of religious issue in a company; a leader that has become more professional, more educated and more refined because of a strict and almost perfectionist mentor; and a leader that emerged out of racial discrimination and criticism.             Included also in the article is a story of a leader named Sidney Rittenberg who chose to experience more hardships and trials in order to let his hidden capabilities and skills surfaced. In the prison, he learned how to develop relationship that had made him adapt to his confinement and how to have a different outlook in life; learning that happiness is not a function of circumstance but a function of outlook in life (Bennis & Thomas, 2002 p. 8).             Basically, the article emphasized that great leaders emerged in times of hardship and ordeal. That is, a good leader has the ability to find meaning in negative events and learn from even the most difficult circumstances (Bennis & Thomas, 2002 p. 5). True leadership can be seen and tested in times of difficulties. This implies that a good leader is not pessimistic rather optimistic who has a good outlook in life. A good leader has the ability to turn bad experience into a learning experience with an expectation that something good will come out of bad ones.             According to Bennis and Thomas (p. 10-11), there are four essential characteristics that great leaders possess. The first characteristic is the ability to engage other is shared meaning. This is true with participative management that encourages employees to take part and become involved in the company. A good leader has the ability to motivate his employees, making them an effective part of a company.             The second characteristic is a distinctive and compelling voice. A good leader has an authoritative but convincing and motivating voice that whatever he said will be respected and followed. Third is having a sense of integrity including a strong set of values. Leaders should be well-respected not because of his position but because of his personality and values. Good leaders are honest and reliable, just and upright.             The fourth characteristic of a good leader is adaptive capacity or the ability to transcend adversity and to emerge stronger than before (Bennis & Thomas, 2002 p.11). This is the ability of leader to be still and strong even in difficult circumstances. Leadership involves giving strength to employees and assuring them that everything will be fine. Adaptive capacity is further categorized into two qualities: ability to grasp context and hardiness. The ability to grasp context is also the ability to weigh factors and to decide which is the most important, which is fair and which is not, to put people and situations in perspective. This ability helps a leader to become decisive. Hardiness can be defined as being hopeful, tough, courageous, and full of perseverance even if the situation is difficult and demanding. All these attributes make up a good leader, a tried and tested leader that can turn ordeals into opportunities and can make a company survive even in the most challenging environment. References: Bennis, W & Thomas, R (2002) Crucibles of Leadership, Harvard Business Review, September Drucker, P. (1995) Managing in Time of Great Change on Kotelnikov, V. Management by Objectives accessed online on June 30, 2006 < http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/mgmt_mbo_main.html> Drucker, P. (2002) Discipline of innovation, Harvard Business Review. Volume 80, No,8 August Herzberg, F. (2003) One more time: How do you motivate employees? Harvard Business Review (January): 87-96. Kotelnikov, V., Organizational Innovation: How to Manage the Complex Process  of Organizational Change. Accessed Online on June 29, 2006 <http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/change_organizational.html> Levinson, H. (2003). Management by whose objectives? Harvard Business Review (January): 107-116 Mohr, R. & Zoghi, C. (2006) Is Job Enrichment Really Enriching? BLS Working Papers Working Paper 389 Precht, A. Motivating Employees accessed at ThinkAvenue online Date: June 30, 2006             <http://www.thinkavenue.com/articles/hr/article14.htm>

Article Review on Peter F. Drucker, Discipline of innovation

This Peter Drucker’s article entitled Discipline of innovation obviously focuses on innovation. Drucker defines innovati...

Chapter 1-3 Tourism Development in Hong Kong

Table of Contents     Chapter 1 Introduction. 3 1.1  Background. 3 1.1.1  Tourism Development in Hong Kong. 3 1.1.2        Hong Kong Shopping Tourism.. 5 1.1.3        Mainland Chinese Tourists. 6 1.2  Problem Statement 8 1.3  Research Objectives. 9 1.4 Significance of the Study. 10 Chapter 2 Literature Review.. 11 2.1 Tourism in Hong Kong. 11 2.2 Shopping tourism.. 13 2.3 Service Quality. 15 2.4 Tourists Satisfaction. 18 2.5 Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) 21 2.6 Summary. 22 Chapter 3  Research Methodology. 24 3.1 Research Design. 24 3.2 Sampling. 25 3.3 Questionnaire Development 25 3.4  Measurement 27 3.5 Data Collection. 28 3.6 Data Analysis. 29 3.7 Limitations. 30 APPENDICES. 31 APPENDIX 1. 31 APPENDIX II. 32 References. 36     Table of Figures   Figure 1 Comparison of Actual Number of Visitors (Extract from Appendix I) 4 Figure 2 The Service Process Matrix (Schemenner 1993) 13 Figure 3 Importance-Performance Matrix (Martilla & James, 1977, p.78) 21   Table of Tables   Table 1 Spending Activities of Tourists in Hong Kong. 6         Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1  Background         1.1.1  Tourism Development in Hong Kong               Hong Kong is considered as one of the most successful regions in terms of tourism industry in the world. The city received a total of 25.25 million tourists’ visits in 2006, including the visitors from mainland China. It helped to generate a total of HK$117.3 billion or US$15 billion in income. Therefore it made the tourism industry as the second largest generator of foreign currency (Cochrane 2008, p. 260). In 2007, the industry showed a continuous increase in terms of the number of visitors. In September of the year, there are some 2,120,350 visitors that have arrived in Hong Kong, showing a great increase of 15.9% from previous rate, while the from January 1 up to present arrivals have reached 20,363,764, showing an increase of 9.6% year-on-year (Business Monitor International, 2008).             Hong Kong is known as the Shopping Paradise, attracting thousands of travellers from all over the world. It is one of the most important pillars of the economy of the city. The situation had improved due to the implementation of Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) of the government of China, which allows the citizen of mainland China, to visit Hong Kong in individual basis. Prior to that, people of mainland China, traveled by group or business visa. Since then, Hong Kong has become the favourite destination of Mainland Chinese tourists (Hong Kong Economic Times, 2006). The situation has created a tremendous business opportunities to the tourism industry of the city. In 2004, there are about 2.6 million of individual document holders from Chinese mainland that have visited the city since the implementation of the IVS. Furthermore, the scheme had already brought a total of HK$15.6 billon worth of revenues (People, 2004). According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board (2006), Mainland China reached 58.8% out of the total tourists in the city by the end of 2006 (see Appendix I).             The growing influence of the Mainland Chinese visitors is the primary reason why different players in the tourism industry is focusing on the behaviours, demands and desires of the Mainland Chinese visitors in the process of their decision-making. Figure 1 Comparison of Actual Number of Visitors (Extract from Appendix I)       1.1.2       Hong Kong Shopping Tourism               Shopping is considered as the most common and enjoyable activities undertaken by people during holidays. Due to the current growth and development of efficient transportation systems, the Internet, and widespread use of credit cards, people have been able to travel different places in order to go shopping (Timothy, 2005).             Shopping plays an important role in the field of tourism. This is due to the fact that for many tourists, an integral part or even the entire purpose of their travel or visit is shopping (Jansen-Verbeke,1998). In addition, shopping is a major time-use for many of the tourists, despite of their primary motivation for travel (as cited from Theobald, 1998).             Hong Kong’s primary attractions are its shopping industry and the scenery (Hudman & Jackson, 2002). The city is a duty-free port, it means that the imported goods are not taxed in the Special Administrative Region or SAR with exception of only few luxury products such as tobacco and alcohol. As the result, people can buy products in the SAR at a cheaper price compared with the price in other countries (Reiber, 2007). Hong Kong is considered as one of the most fascinating, product-diverse, and accommodating shopping destinations in the world. These are the reasons why the city has been dubbed as a shopper’s paradise and Hong Kong is synonym for shopping (Timothy, 2005; Hudman & Jackson, 2002). Every year thousands of people travel in the city in order to avail the most valued items for sale such as electronic equipment, cameras, watches, furniture, Chinese antiquities, and jewellery. The popularity of the items usually reflects the lower price tag in Hong Kong compare in other places in the world like Europe and North America. According to the study of the Department of Hotel and Tourism Management in 2001, 68% of the shoppers purchased clothing and footwear, 50% bought jewellery, accessories and gifts and 22% bought electronic gadgets. It is important to consider that the primary reason why the products dominated the market is due to the attractive price. On the other hand, the consumers are also considering the variety of goods, quality, fashion and even novelty in their buying behaviour (Timothy, 2005). 1.1.3        Mainland Chinese Tourists             Due to the closeness of mainland China and Hong Kong in terms of geography and even culture, the number of en route tourists from China is higher compare to other countries in the world (Qui Zhang, Pine & Lam, 2005). Thus, the increasing number of mainland Chinese tourists in the city can be identified as one of the most important factors contributing to the success and continuing growth of the Hong Kong tourism and entire economy.             Shopping in Hong Kong is one of the most important activities for the Mainland Chinese due to the fact that luxury goods in the city are about 10% to 20% cheaper compare to its selling price in Chin. The reason behind it is that the city is not implementing sales tax, compare to China that raised its taxes to the cosmetic products from 20% to 50% (Chan, 2008).             The fact can be seen from the statistics that have been released and reported by the Hong Kong Tourism Board that during the first half of 2008, the same-day visitors made up close to half of all the arrivals from the Mainland China from 41% of the last year (Chan, 2008). Furthermore, people from Mainland China believe that Hong Kong is a major trend setter in terms of fashion and style.             Tourists from mainland China, spend most of their money on shopping when they come to Hong Kong. During 1996, shopping took the 63% of the total expenditures. From 1996 to 2001, visitors in the city is spending more and more on shopping, that had increased to 64% during 2001 (Zhang & Pine, 2005, p. 74). This shows that shopping is considered as one of the most important motivation of the Mainland Chinese visitors in the city. Table 1 shows other important spending activities of tourists in Hong Kong. Table 1 Spending Activities of Tourists in Hong Kong   Activities Spending Percentage (1996) Spending Percentage (2001) Shopping 63% 64% Hotel 17% 15% Meals Outside Hotel 11% 13% Source: (Zhang & Pine, 2005, p. 74) Chinese visitors are likely to stay in less expensive hotels and devote more of their money in spending for different luxury goods, dedicating a large 73% of their outlay to shopping (Chan, 2008). It shows that shopping has a strong influence and motivation towards the mainland Chinese travellers in Hong Kong. It is obvious that that shopping travel has become one of the most important activities by tourists in the city. Since the culture, consumer behaviour, and expenditure patterns of Mainland Chinese might be different from those from other countries, it is critical for the retail shops to provide tailor-made service in order to attract them to buy the products and services. It would be the primary concern of the Hong Kong tourism industry. Therefore, service quality plays an important role in increasing Hong Kong s’ tourism industry and attracting the largest inbound tourist market – Mainland Chinese. Previous observations indicated that customer satisfaction will lead to changes of decision-makers in the tourism industry (Zhang & Chow, 2004). It is necessary to analyse if this group of tourists are satisfied with the service quality experience in Hong Kong, and make recommendations to the retail shops on how to modify or improve their service quality in order to attract them. 1.2  Problem Statement             Due to the fact that there are many retail shops in the city, and there are vast number of tourists that are from different nationalities and regions, it can affect the quality of service that the stores are offering to their consumer. Some service providers might be especially trained to deal with different nationalities of tourists, while some others do not focus in serving tourists. All of them are facing the same situation: tourists from Mainland China can walk in shops randomly and select whatever they want if they are satisfied with the products and services. Therefore service quality in this research will apply to all retail shop service providers in Hong Kong whether their target customers are tourists or not. Although there have been a few studies exploring service quality of many service sectors in Hong Kong, such as tour guide (Zhang & Chow, 2004), travel agents (Lam & Zhang, 1999), and the hotel industry (Qu &Sit, 2007), little attention has been paid to shopping service. As shopping has become one of the most important motivations for Mainland Chinese to travel Hong Kong, it is therefore critical to examine tourists’ satisfaction with shopping service and enrich the knowledge in this field. 1.3  Research Objectives The aim of this research is to examine whether Mainland China tourists are satisfied with their shopping experience, and whether they are satisfied with the service quality in the retail shops of Hong Kong. The research is expected to achieve the following objectives.  1)      To identify the critical success factors for retail service providers in servicing Mainland China tourists; 2)      To examine Mainland China tourists satisfaction with the service quality in the retail shops; 3)      To identify ways for the retail shops to build customer satisfaction for Mainland China tourists; 4)      To provide implications to decision-makers in the retail shops on how to enhance service quality to attract Mainland China tourists.   1.4 Significance of the Study This study conducts a comprehensive approach in order to examine the Chinese tourists’ satisfaction with the quality of shopping service in Hong Kong. The findings of this study will provide both academic and empirical contributions. Academically, the result of this study will help to generate information on the concept that customer satisfaction. Empirically, this study serves as a valuable source of information on how the Hong Kong retail shops may change its service quality in order to cater the culture and consumer behaviour of the Mainland China tourists. With regard to the student, this research will enhance his knowledge and understanding regarding the service quality and tourism that will serve as a preparation for better career prospects in the future.   Chapter 2 Literature Review 2.1 Tourism in Hong Kong In 2007, the tourism industry of Hong Kong set new record with more than 28 million visitors’ arrival of up to 11% compare to the record last year. Most of the long haul and short haul markets such as the Americans, Europeans, Australians, and Southeast Asians have recorded a steady growth. On the other hand, the Mainland China was still the largest source market with the total arrivals that have increased by 13.9% or more than 15.4 million (Tourism Commission 2008). The result show that about 54% of the total number of the inbound tourists in the year is from Mainland China (Hong Kong Government 2008). Due to the growing number of tourists, there is no doubt that tourism is still one of the most important economic pillars of the city. This is due to the fact that it has a great impact over the employment rate and other economic and financial aspect of the city. Based on the figures and numbers regarding the growing number of Mainland Chinese visitors in the city, it concluded that visitors from the Mainland China has a great influence and roles in the development of the entire Hong Kong tourism industry. The decision of the tourists, primarily the Mainland Chinese tourists regarding visiting or revisiting the city may be depended largely and influenced by their satisfaction with the city’s attractions, facilities and the quality of the services in the industry during their trips. In addition to that, their experiences can be shared to their friends that might affect their decisions to visit the city. Based on the analysis summarized above, the tourists have a strong control over the flow of development and growth, it is important for the different service providers and tourism-based companies and organizations to bring revolutions and innovations in the service quality to sustain their individual as well as nation’s competitive advantage (Seybold, 2001). Tourists satisfaction in the tourism sector depends largely on the service providers in the destinations. Satisfied customers are likely to have higher expenditure and revisit the destination (Ryan, 1995). The more the tourist revisits the place, the more he/she would continue to purchase from those that have rendered satisfaction to the tourist in the previous trip. It is obvious that service quality has major impact on the success of the tourism industry of a destination. That is why every company in the tourism including retail shops, hotels, restaurants, travel agents, coach companies, and excursions, should try their best to provide the best service quality to tourists.     2.2 Shopping tourism             The entire retail market is showing a continuous growth due to the increasing number of tourists that are coming from the Mainland, China. The ever increasing purchasing power of the mainlanders, results to the continuous appreciation of retailing and it helps to motivate as well as encourage the demand for retail shops. Customers have more knowledge in making purchasing decisions due to the efficient access to information. Retailers are facing a group of knowledgeable and more sophisticated customers than before. Apart from the products pricing and quality, Tourists are also concerned on how they are being served and treated. They are more affluent, more mobile, and less loyal to the retailers unless they can provide the products and services that they expect to receive by paying the price (Morgenstein & Strongin, 1992). The benefits that customers like to seek differ dramatically by the type of retailers. Some shoppers look to mass shops for low prices, convenient locations, and a good returns/exchange policy. Others look for up-to-date designs, high quality products, and the best service. McDonald (1993) classified shoppers into six categories based on their decision-making style, which are loyalist, value, fashionable, diverse, recreational, and emotional shoppers. Figure 1 illustrates the service process matrix by Schemnner, it is a classification matrix of the service industry firms that is based on the characteristics of the individual service processes of service (Helms 2006). Figure 2 The Service Process Matrix (Schemenner 1993)                   Adapted from: (Greasley 1998, p. 66)             The classification characteristics include the degree of labor intensity and a jointly measured degree of the customer interaction as well as equipment. The labor intensity can be defined as the ratio of labor cost to the plant and equipment. On the other hand, the customer interaction pertains on the degree where in the customer can intervene in the processes of the service.             The figure shows that retailing belongs to the lower left quadrant that tackles on the different firms that have a high degree of labor intensity. However, it has a low degree of interaction and customization. It shows that retailing business or retail shops requires a high content of time as well as effort with comparatively little plant as well as equipment cost, it can be said to be labor intense. Thus it shows that customers of retailing business will receive low degree of interaction, meaning that there will be an undifferentiated service provided in the labour-intensive environment. 2.3 Service Quality There may be different perceptions to quality and quality assurance. Crosby (1995) summarized his quality management philosophy as: 1) the definition of quality is conformance to requirements; 2) the system of quality is prevention; 3) the performance standard is zero defects; and 4) the measurement of quality is to price of non-conformance. On the other hand, Deming (Walton, 1986) defined quality in terms of customer satisfaction. He developed the concept of quality as a management activity using fourteen points for management to seek commitment and stewardship of quality, which can be regarded in terms of three broad philosophical categories - constancy of purpose, continual improvement, and cooperation between functions. Juran (2000) expressed his approach to quality in the form of Quality Trilogy that involves three basic processes – quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement. He identifies ten steps to quality: 1) build awareness of opportunities to improve; 2) set goals for improvement; 3) organize to reach goals; 4) provide training; 5) carry out projects to solve problems; 6) report progress; 7) give recognition; 8) communicate results; 9) keep scores; and 10) maintain momentum by making annual improvement part of the regular systems and processes. As the business environment evolves and competition becomes more acute, quality also takes on a broader perspective. Basically, the overall goal of quality is the achievement of customer satisfaction and market success leading to business excellence. As stated in the ISO 900 quality standards: 1) Business is a team work, in which everyone should know their part and play their part; 2) Management should establish a policy for quality attainment that is understood by all; 3) Activities need to be carried out in ways which are as effective and as efficient as possible for the business concerned; 4) Any management system must be dynamic, updated and monitored to cope with changes in business scopes and technologies (Peach, 1997). Quality system is not something imposed on top of other business systems; it is the system of the business (Juran, 2000). Quality is being seen as an increasingly important element in defining a service provision. It is an important basis that customers use for differentiating between competing services. The service quality can normally only be assessed once the service has been consumed, which is unlike a tangible good that can usually be assessed by examination (Palmer, 1998). Therefore, the purchase decision process for a service usually involves more risk than in the case of tangible goods.  It is not sufficient for a service provider to set quality standards according to assumptions of customer expectations. Customers often attach the quality of the service provider with the service being provided (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2003). This makes consistency in service quality even more complex and difficult. Many analysis of service quality has attempted to distinguish between objective measures of quality and measures, which are based on the more subjective perceptions of customers. Analysis of service quality is further complicated by the affect that production and consumption of a service generally occur simultaneously (Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman, 1996). It is important to meet the expectations of the customers in order to gain competitive advantage due to the fact that it can help to gain loyalty from the customers. That is why it is important for any firm and industry to focus on the different activities and plans that will help to understand and analyze the customer expectations. It can be done by conducting different researches that will focus on the quality service such as customer continuous customer surveys, formation of customer panels, transaction analysis, perception surveys, complaint analysis, employee research as well as industry research (Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman, 1993). This will enable the firm to know about what will motivates them to buy and avail of specific product and service.     2.4 Tourists Satisfaction Customer satisfaction is regarded as a post-consumption evaluation that depends on perceived quality or value, expectations and confirmation or disconfirmation in the deviation between actual and expected quality (Anderson, Fornell & Lehmann, 1994). Customer satisfaction is a complex human process, which involves cognitive and affective process, besides other psychological influences (Oh & Parks, 1997). Customer satisfaction involves need fulfilment, pleasure, displeasure, expectation-performance interactions, evaluation of the purchase, consumption experience, and evaluation of the benefits of consumption (Hunt, 1997). Customer satisfaction with total retail experience is a goal most retailers should target. They can listen to criticisms and adapt appropriately by gearing the overall mission and goals to customer satisfaction. If shoppers are satisfied, other corporate goals are more easily achievable (Berman & Evans, 2006). No matter what product or service is provided, customer satisfaction is always one of the important criteria that businesses would consider in formulating their strategies. Any deviation between customer expectation and customer experience would cause dissatisfaction. If the perceived performance of the product is below customer expectations, it would cause negative disconfirmation of expectation thus leading to disappointment and dissatisfaction of the customer. On the contrary, if the performance matches customer’s expectations, it would lead to neutral feeling (Oliver, 1980). The extent of discrepancy between customer’s expectations or desires and their perceptions of the quality of service is generated through word-of-mouth, personal needs, experience and external communications that influence customers’ expectations (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1990). Expectation is the desire or wants of customers, and what they feel a service provider should offer rather than would offer (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1990). The term expectation has been used to represent what customers ideally want, which is termed as normative expectation (Cove, 2004). The expectations component is designed to measure customers’ normative expectations (Parasuraman et al., 1990). It is viewed as predictions made by customer about what is likely to happen during a coming transaction or exchange (Zeithaml et al., 1993). Satisfied customers demonstrate considerable customer loyalty in respect of a product or service that they have already purchased previously from the same supplier (Yeon et al., 2006). Repeated purchases build and broaden a solid customer base. Therefore, loyal customers are in fact assets of a company.  Increasing customer satisfaction is an effective and efficient way to improve company performance and image, which may increase sales and build better reputation. It is apparent that satisfaction rating has close relation to the degree of company success (Anderson & Sullivan, 1993). Basically, customers perceive their experience with the service in terms of all the different actions of the employees of the service provider, which include the behaviours, knowledge, response, personality, attitude, communication skills, attire, and other attributes (Peppers & Rogers, 2005). In addition, the attributes of the company are also important. A customer can create value for a company by purchasing its service or products today, or repeat further purchases in the future (Peppers & Rogers, 2005). With customer loyalty, the company can expect higher “return on customer”, which is tracked by how much business the customer has given to the company throughout his lifetime (Peppers & Rogers, 2005).  2.5 Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) Importance- Performance Analysis is one of the most useful forms in marketing research. The following figure illustrates a matrix demonstrating the combined information about customer perceptions and important ratings. It shows the gap between the customer expectations and perceptions.                       Figure 3 Importance-Performance Matrix (Martilla & James, 1977, p.78)       The top left quadrant indicates the area of highest leverage for service quality improvements, where importance is high while performance is low. The attributes in this quadrant have the most need for improvement. In the top right quadrant are the attributes to maintain. They are the ones that a company performs well and that are very important to customers. The low were two portraits contain attributes that are less important, some of which are performed well and others poorly. Neither of these quadrants merit as much attention in terms of service improvements as the upper two quadrants because customers are not as concerned about the attributes that are plotted in them as they are the attributes in upper two quadrants.     By identifying the attributes that are important to the customers from the quadrants and comparing with the experienced performance of the retail shops, it is possible to evaluate whether the customers have customer satisfaction with the retail or not. 2.6 Summary The above literatures reviewed the relationship between tourism and the businesses in Hong Kong. They further present the general situation in the retail shops, the importance of service quality and customer satisfaction to cooperate success. The chapter introduces a measurement tool – the importance-performance analysis, which can be used for evaluating and confirming the attributes and degree of customer satisfaction versus expectations in the retailing shops. The succeeding chapters will further explore the methodology and the findings attained based on the importance-performance analysis that will be adopted for this research.     Chapter 3  Research Methodology 3.1 Research Design This study is a descriptive research, which is a research that intends to show facts that concerns with the current status and situation, as it exists at the time of the study (Creswell, 1994). It also help to focus on the relationship and practices that exist, together with the beliefs and processes that are going on, thus affects things that are in demand or in trend. Furthermore, it can help to describe the current situation based on the impression and reactions of the respondents of the study (Creswell, 1994). Fundamentally, a descriptive research utilizes observations and surveys. That is the reason this approach was chosen by the researcher, whose intention is gather first hand data from respondents. Furthermore, it also allows flexible approach that when  new issues arise during the study, a further investigation can be conducted in order to fill the gap. Apart from this, the research will also be allowed to drop different unproductive areas of research from the original plan of the study. Above all, it will be fast and cost-effective. Primary data was collected directly from conveniently selected Mainland Chinese tourists through a set of questionnaire at various major tourist attraction spots where most Mainland China tourists like to visit. First of all, a pilot test was undertaken to test the wording, and time completing a questionnaire. Secondly, the final survey was conducted on a convenience sample. A total of 200 questionnaires was distributed and collected on the spot by the researcher. The questionnaire was designed in a way that was straightforward enough that respondents only needed to spend minimal time in the process (Creswell, 1994).  3.2 Sampling The target sample of this study is Mainland Chinese tourists. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed to the target sample by convenience sampling. Convenience sampling is picked over types of probability sampling because it will make the survey faster and easier. The criteria for the sampling are that the respondents should be Chinese and tourist from China. These specific demographic requirements have been put in the study so as to make the results more specific. 3.3 Questionnaire Development The entire questionnaire was constructed in Mandarin, due to the fact that it is the official language in mainland China. In addition, because the respondents were chosen in convenience sampling and the research was interrupt their activities for the day, close-format questions were used in order to make it easier and faster for the respondents to answer. A ranking approach will also be used to measure the degree of importance and satisfaction level of the respondents on several statements. A five-point Likert Scale will be used in this measure. In the Likert technique, the degree of importance and irrelevance or satisfaction and dissatisfaction is given a numerical value ranging from one to five, thus a total numerical value can be calculated from all the responses (Underwood, 2004). The equivalent weights for the answers will be: Range                                     Interpretation 4.50 – 5.00                              Very Important/Very Satisfied 3.50 – 4.00                  Important/Satisfied 2.50 – 3.49                              Not Sure 1.50 – 2.49                              Unimportant/Dissatisfied 0.00 – 1.49                              Very Unimportant/Very Dissatisfied A survey instrument was created in order to gather the perception of the tourist’s shoppers regarding the importance of attributes as well as performance of the retail shops. The questionnaire will contained 40 questions that will help to rate the level of importance of the customer satisfaction. A self-administered questionnaire was used and conducted on the spot by the researcher. The questionnaire includes two parts. The first part will contain a set of attitude statements while the other part will intend to acquire the demographic profile of the respondents. The purpose of the set of attitude statements is to determine the level of importance and satisfaction level using a five-point Likert scale. In the Likert scale, the degree of importance is given a numerical value ranging from one to five, thus a total numerical value can be calculated from all the responses. (Underwood, 2004). Furthermore, the question will also ask for the overall rating of the shoppers regarding their satisfaction in the retail shops that they have visited. The Likert scale will be used in order to measure the said aspect. 3.4  Measurement This research will make use of the Importance-Performance Analysis to evaluate customer satisfaction and perceptions of Mainland China tourists for decision-makers in the retailing industry (Martilla & James, 1977). We often wonder why customers stop purchasing a particular product or service after a while. This is because there are different factors that must be considered in order to fully understand how the customer satisfaction affects the entire buying behaviour and their interest on the given product. Despite favourable customer satisfaction survey results, some companies still lose customers. Many companies have made a variety of customer satisfaction measurements in order to understand the complex behaviours of customers and capture a larger market share. These measurements usually involve surveying customers about the rating of a company's products or services in terms of satisfaction dimensions using numerical scales. However, real customer satisfaction is based on much deeper values, which are developed by continual relationships and experiences between a company and its customers. Therefore, tracking and measuring real customer satisfaction is one of the most important objectives of companies.     The attributes of the questionnaire comes from the previous literature that have been gathered and review that tackles the same issue of subject. It also uses different online reactions, coming from blogs and forums that tackle the issue of shopping satisfaction (Yang, 1996; Tu, 2007). 3.5 Data Collection             Survey was chosen as the means to collect the primary data due to the fact that it can help to understand the audience as well as define the existence and magnitude of the problems. In addition the survey data can also help to determine the different issues that are related to the satisfaction of the tourists, together with the characteristics of the shopping tourism industry in Hong Kong (Commonwealth of Learning, 2000). The recruitment of respondents and the dissemination of the survey questionnaire will be conducted in four major shopping areas in the city, where most of the Mainland Chinese tourists often go. The four shopping areas are: Mongkok, Tokwawan, Sheung Wan and Causeway Bay.   3.6 Data Analysis All data will be evaluated using the latest SPSS software. The weighted mean and percentage of the responses will be calculated. The data results of the study will be analyzed by determining their corresponding frequency, percentage and weighted mean. The following statistical formulas will be used: 1.        Percentage – to determine the magnitude of the responses to the questionnaire. n % = -------- x 100         ;           n – number of responses                         N                                             N – total number of respondents 2.        Weighted Mean             f1x1 + f2x2  + f3x3 + f4x4  + f5x5 x = ---------------------------------------------  ;                                                   xt                                                                          where: f – weight given to each response                         x – number of responses                         xt – total number of responses   The importance and performance mean scores of each attribute in the questionnaire will be calculated and then plotted into two-dimensional grid with the vertical axis of importance values and a horizontal axis of the performances values. For positioning the crosshairs of the grid, the overall means of the importance as well as performance score were used. Thus, using the mean scores for the crosshair positioning is considered as more critical approach than using the middle point of the scale or some arbitrary point. The two-dimensional grid displayed the following four quadrants: Keep up the Good Work with high on importance scale and high on performance scale; Concentrate Here with high on importance scale and low on performance scale; Possible Overkill with low on importance scale and high on performance scale; and Low Priority with low on importance scale and high on performance (Okata, Lankford & Inui, n.d.). 3.7 Limitations The limitation of this study is that many potential sources of selection bias would occur as the interviewer has the full power to determine which respondent to interview. In addition, convenient samples can not represent any population, and this may limit the generalability of this study.     APPENDICES APPENDIX 1   COMPARISON OF TOTAL INBOUND VISITORS FROM CHINA AND ALL OTHER COUNTRIES TO HONG KONG   Year Visitors arriving from China Annual growth % Total visitors arriving from all other countries Annual growth % Share of China visitors % 1984 214,854 - 3,303,719 - 6.1 1985 308,978 43.8 3,656,717 10.0 7.8 1986 363,479 17.6 4,052,641 10.0 7.0 1987 484,592 33.3 4,917,044 17.5 9.0 1988 683,604 41.1 6,167,221 5.4 10.0 1989 730,408 6.8 5,984,501 -3.0 10.9 1990 754,376 3.3 6,580,850 10.0 10.3 1991 835,062 16.0 6,795,413 3.3 10.9 1992 1,149,002 31.3 8,010,524 17.9 12.5 1993 1,732,978 50.8 8,937,500 11.6 17.2 1994 1,943,678 12.2 9,331,156 4.4 17.2 1995 2,243,245 15.4 10,199,994 9.3 18.0 1996 2,311,184 3.0 10,662,580 4.5 17.8 1997 2,297,128 0.6 8,976,249 -15.8 20.4 1998 2,597,442 12.9 7,562,204 -15.8 25.6 1999 3,083,859 18.7 8,244,413 9.0 27.2 2000 3,785,845 22.8 9,273,632 12.5 29.0 2001 4,448,583 17.5 9,276,749 0.0 32.4 2002 6,825,200 53.4 9,741,182 5.0 41.2 2003 8,467,200 24.1 7,069,639 -27.4 54.5 2004 12,245,862 44.6 9,564,768 35.3 56.1 2005 12,541,400 2.4 10,818,017 13.1 53.7 2006 13,590,000 8.4 11,660,000 7.8 53.8 Compound growth/annum   20.7%   5.9%     Source     A Statistical Review of Tourism, 1984-2006, Hong Kong Tourism Board   APPENDIX II School of Hotel & Tourism Management The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 2008 Hong Kong Shopping Tourism  Questionnaire   The purpose of this survey is to assess Mainland Chinese tourists’ importance and satisfaction level towards Hong Kong retail shops. It is appreciated if you could spare 10 minutes of your time to participate in it. All provided information is used solely for academic purposes and your individual responses will be kept confidential.      Part I - Respondents’ Service Importance and Satisfaction of Hong Kong Retail’s Shop Overall Please rate the importance of each attribute in your service encounter with retail shops by encircling the appropriate number in the scale provided: 5 – Very Important 4 – Important 3 – Not Sure 2 – Unimportant 1 – Very Unimportant N/A – not applicable           Service Attributes Please rate the satisfaction of each attribute in your service encounter with retail shops by encircling  the appropriate number in the scale provided: 5 – Very Satisfied 4 – Satisfied 3 – Not Sure 2 – Dissatisfied 1 – Very Dissatisfied N/A – not applicable             Tangible Qualities of Shops             5 4 3 2 1 N/A 1. Longer Opening Hours 5 4 3 2 1 N/A   5   4   3   2   1   N/A 2. Visually appealing external appearance of the store   5   4   3   2   1   N/A   5   4   3   2   1   N/A 3. Cleanliness and safety of the places and facilities   5   4   3   2   1   N/A 5 4 3 2 1 N/A 4. Lighting and Ambiance 5 4 3 2 1 N/A   5   4   3   2   1   N/A 5. Accessibility (near the transportation system)   5   4   3   2   1   N/A   5   4   3   2   1   N/A 6. Offers many variety of products   5   4   3   2   1   N/A 5 4 3 2 1 N/A 7. Authenticity 5 4 3 2 1 N/A 5 4 3 2 1 N/A 8. Choice of payment methods 5 4 3 2 1 N/A 5 4 3 2 1 N/A 9. Good Location 5 4 3 2 1 N/A             Staff Service Quality               5   4     3   2   1   N/A 10. Visually appealing external appearance of the staff (Clean and Neat)   5   4   3   2   1   N/A 5 4 3 2 1 N/A 11. Reliability and dependability of staff 5 4 3 2 1 N/A 5 4 3 2 1 N/A 12. Consistency of service by the staff 5 4 3 2 1 N/A   5   4   3   2   1   N/A 13. Know of products and attentions to the details   5   4   3   2   1   N/A 5 4 3 2 1 N/A 14. Provide service in timely manner 5 4 3 2 1 N/A   5   4   3   2   1   N/A 15. Courtesy, politeness and respect received by the shopper from the staff   5   4   3   2   1   N/A 5 4 3 2 1 N/A 16. Language Ability 5 4 3 2 1 N/A     Part II– Demographic profile   1. Sex   ¨ Male            ¨ Female   2. Age group   ¨ 25 – Below ¨ 26 – 35 ¨ 36 – 45        ¨ 46 – Above   3. You’re province/hometown in Mainland China: ____________________________   4. Is this your first time visiting Hong Kong?   ¨ Yes            ¨ No     5. If answer to item 4 is no, how many times do you usually visit each year?   ¨ Once           ¨ 2 to 3 times            ¨ 4 to 5 times  ¨ more than 5 times               6. What are your reasons in shopping in Hong Kong? (You may tick more than one)   ¨ Quality        ¨ Low Price ¨ Accessibility           ¨ Others: Please specify: ____________________________                     7. Which items you usually shop for in Hong Kong? (You may tick more than one)   ¨ Clothes       ¨ Accessories ¨ Footwear ¨ Electronic Gadgets ¨ Jewelry ¨ Others: Please specify: ____________________________   8. How much do you usually spend in shopping? Please select the appropriate range.   ¨ Less than RMB 5000 ¨ RMB5001 - 10000 ¨ RMB10001 - 20000 ¨ RMB20001 - 30000 ¨ RMB30001 and above   Thank You Very Much for Your Time and Have a Nice Day! Enjoy Shopping!           References   Anderson, E.W., Fornel C. & Lehmann, J. (1994) A customer satisfaction research prospectus. In Rust, R.T., Oliver, R. (Eds.). Service quality: new directions in theory and practice. Sage Publication, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp.241-268.   Anderson, E.W. & Sullivan, M.W. (1993) ‘The antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction’, Marketing Science, 12(Spring), pp.215-227.   Berman, B. & Evans, J.R. (2006) Retail Management: A Strategic Approach, 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.   Bull, A. 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Chapter 1-3 Tourism Development in Hong Kong

Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction . 3 1.1 Background . 3 1.1.1 Tourism Development in Hong Kong . 3 1.1.2 ...