This Project has been very useful to me because I learned how to prepare cash flow statements and ratio analysis. This has improved my knowledge on financial statements which is very useful in business and commerce ever day. The work I did in this project has helped me to understand the techniques, applications and usefulness of financial statements to understand the performance of a particular company or enterprise without much difficulty and also understand how to prepare them in future. I came to the following conclusion while preparing this project.
Purposes of Financial Analysis
Judging The Earning Capacity
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On the basis of the financial analysis, the earning capacity of the business concern may be computed. In addition to this, the future earning capacity of the concern may also be forecasted. All the external users of accounts, specially the investors and potential investors are interested in this.
Judging The Managerial Efficiency
The financial statement analysis helps to pinpoint the areas where in the managers have shown better efficiency and the areas of inefficiency. For example, using financial ratios, it is possible to analyze relative proportion of production, administrative and marketing expenses.
Any favorable or unfavorable variations can be identified and reasons thereof can be ascertained to pinpoint managerial efficiency and deficiency Judging The Short-term & Long-term Efficiency Of The Enterprise On the basis of financial analysis, long-term as well as short-term solvency of the concern may be judged.
Creditors or suppliers are interested to know the short-term solvency/liquidity of the concern i.e. ability to meet short-term liabilities. Debenture holders and lenders judge the ability of the company to pay the principal amount and interest on the basis of financial analysis
Inter-firm comparison becomes easy with the help of financial analysis. It helps in assessing own performance as well as that of others, if merges and acquisitions are to be considered. Past financial statement analysis helps a great deal in assessing developments in the future, especially the next year. For example, given a certain investment, it may be possible to forecast the next year’s profit on the basis of earning capacity shown in the past. Analysis thus helps in preparing the budgets.
Financial analysis helps the users of the financial statements to understand the complicated matter in simplified manner. Different date can be made more attractive by charts and diagrams which can be easily understood Uses of Financial Statement
Security Analysis
It is a process by which the investor comes to know whether the firm is fulfilling hi expectation with regard to payment of dividend, capital appreciation and security of money. Such analysis is done by a security analyst who is interested in cash-generating ability, dividend payout policy and the behavior of share prices
Credit Analysis
Such analysis is useful when a firm offers credit to a new customer or a dealer. The manager of the firm would like to know whether to extend credit to them or not. Such analysis is also useful for a bank before granting loan to the public.
Debt Analysis
Such analysis is done by the firm to know the borrowing capacity of a prospective borrower.
Financial analysis helps the firm in deciding about the rate of dividend. Management would have to decide about how much portion of earnings to distribute and how much to retain. Such decisions indicate the profitability of the firm and hence to some extent affect the behavior of share prices
Financial analysis can be used to identify the profit drivers and business risks in order to assess the profit potential of the firm. It helps in the future growth scenarios of the firm Limitations Of Financial Statement
Financial statement analysis is a historical analysis. It analysis what has happened till date. It does not reflect the future. Person like shareholders, investors, etc are more interested in knowing the likely position in the future.
Ignore Price Level Changes
Price level changes and purchasing power of money are inversely related. A change in the price level makes analysis of financial statements of different accounting years invalid because accounting records ignore change in the value of money
Qualitative Aspects Ignored
Since the financial statements are confined to the monetary matters alone, the qualitative aspects like the quality of management, quality of labor force, public relations are ignored while carrying out the analysis of financial statement
In many situations, the accountant has to make a choice out of alternative available, e.g. choice in the method of inventory valuation or choice in the method of depreciation. Since the subjectively is inherent in personal judgment, the financial statements are, therefore, not free from bias
For inter-firm comparison, it is necessary that accounting practices followed by the firms don’t vary significantly. As there may be variations in accounting practices followed by different firms, a meaningful comparison of their financial statements is not possible
American Dream Essay Conclusion Example
In the American dream, every individual regardless of nationality and social class, bears an equal opportunity of attaining success and prosperity in life. It is believed that anyone can achieve the dream through hard work, sacrifice, risk-taking rather than by chance. However, Asian Americans don't fit reality because of the stereotypes of wealth. Individuals from a low class can easily be differentiated from those coming from a high ranked social status.
The Asian Americans, Chinese and white Americans have different perceptions of the rich and poor, thereby not fitting into the American dream. Moreover, the aspect of social class is significantly displayed in prime-time television, which is in contradiction to the American dream. For the most Asia film about American dream, the characters hold occupation according to the rank of their class. Also, various characters’ personality traits are portrayed about their social status, and they thereby communicate a lot on the social level, the American dream of today, and the economic situation.
American dream not like people thought in their mind and it much harder for Asia people to become successful. “There was a stereotype about Asians being rich because they live here in San-Francisco; like we must be made of money” (Wessler 361). Also, based on the aspect of class position, education, and income, people think that Asian Americans are at the top, and they earn more than any other group, including the whites, and many of them graduate from colleges.
However, this is not the case since, as the different parts of the country, they greatly suffer income inequality, and they are also divided into the rich and the poor. Despite having a significant class advantage, a large number of them experience high poverty levels and disparities. Also, just as traditional beliefs, the majority of individuals believe that private institutions are made for the rich. There are cities like San-Francisco that are believed to be for the rich, thereby making the cost of living higher for a low or middle-class individual. People who want to live in the city need to work much harder to stay in the city.
The scenario is similar to the television Show called A native of Beijing in New York. It’s about a man and wife want to chase their American dream in the New York city, but they didn’t success in the end (Zheng). Many Chinese people choose to come to the US, and they believe their American dream come true, but almost all of them will believe them in the right place at the wrong time. “Everyone has an equal chance to succeed. Success in the United States requires no more than hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance: ‘In American, anyone can become a billionaire; it’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time” (Mantsios 145).
People think they have equal opportunity to be successful in the US. In the television show, every person brings their American dream arrive in the US at first time. In the beginning of the episode, the main character first come to the US with his American dream. People who want to be success require not only for his hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance; it also needs the person to understand laws in the country. One of the reasons for the main character’s business failed is he didn’t understand bankruptcy protection law. In the American society, people never have equal chance to be succeed.
Furthermore, the national figures will always be pulled by specific communities with high income. “In the 1970s and 1980s for example, many south Asian immigrants came to the United States with high levels of education to study in graduate programs and were able to enter into middle class professions that provided the basis for upward mobility. But others, including Cambodian and other southern Asian communities, often migrated as refugees, arriving in the US with little in the way of financial resources or skills immediately transferable to high paying jobs” (Wessler 362). In the television show, the main character is a cellist without high education in China.
In the other words, this main character with talented with cello and he is middle class in China. The cellist believe he can have better life in the US because they believe they can find a high pay job. However, the cellist doesn’t have high education since he can’t understand and speak English. The cellist realize he can only live like lower class because there is limited opportunity for him to find a job.
In America, there is a high rise in the level of inequalities, and they are presented in existing realities. They include the low shares held by the middle class in the nation’s wealth, low wages earned by the middle and lower class, all Americans not having an equal chance to succeed, and the relationship between wealth and power. The cellist start thinks is more complicated to be success in the US.
Lastly, by not giving all individuals from all over the world an equal chance to education and opportunities, it isn't straightforward to attain the American dream. Many personality traits are associated with their level of income, just as San-Francisco and private schools are associated with wealthy individuals. With all the divisions held between the rich and the poor, it is tough to create equality amongst the two groups, and the rich will always be in power, thereby leaving the poor with no say.
Many drama episodes show a distinction of characters about social class and power, thus shaping our thinking and perceptions of the American dream. The episode showed that American dream can’t bring equal chance to everyone, and high education might give people chance to help their American dream come true. But those stereotype and laws can be the blocked for Asian people’s success with their American dream. Therefore, American dream remain as a dream for most people, even they work hard on the job. People can only have limited chance to be successful with their American dream.
10 Conclusion Examples How to End an Essay
What is the mission of conclusion?
Most of us underestimate the role of conclusion. As a rule, each type of paper should comprise the finishing part that restates the thesis and draw a line of the most important results. Do you know how to make a winning conclusion? Below you can find the wise tips that will make the writing process easier. We invoke you to plunge into the deep context of this phenomenon and realize its role for your essay. The first thing that committee takes into consideration is the final part of the essay. Let us show you some hacks.
What is a conclusion?
The conclusion paragraph is the last but important and necessary part of the essay. It connects everything you’ve said in your paper and state the essay as an accomplished unite. It wraps up your composition and gives it the last strokes.
Essay conclusion isn’t just a summary of your essay as many people think. In this part, you show with the help of few sentences how you proved your thesis statements in the main body and give the reader a feeling of completeness. The main task of your conclusion is, to sum up, the discussion and force the reader to think about the problem a long time after reading your essay. Your conclusion is supposed to answer any unsolved question and majestically end the essay.
You can use the introduction as a directory and look through the whole paper to name in conclusion all the main ideas you’ve stated in your body paragraphs. There is no any strict rule how long the conclusion paragraph must be. However, the most common opinion states it should be 5 to 7 sentences long.
Conclusion paragraph structure
Conclusions can differ in structure, though there are specifics you should certainly take into consideration. Your conclusion should include the topic sentence, supporting sentences, and concluding sentence. A perfect conclusion should contain a passage from last body paragraph, an explanation how everything is connected, restated thesis statements and final words.
Writing a conclusion, don’t forget about the peculiarities of giving ideas. You should start with the specific and move to the general. It looks like something opposite to the introduction where you start with general opinions and move to the specific.
Conclusion outline
There can be different ways to end your essay, though all of them based on the particular template. Start with the topic sentence in which put your rephrasing thesis statements. Don’t just simply rewrite them, try to present them in other words. Omit the clichéd phrases such as “In conclusion,” “To summarize,” etc. They are surely overused and don’t make the conclusion effective.
In the next step, you should summarize the main ideas of your essay shortly. The task is to remind the readers what you were writing about. Give an explanation how your ideas connect. There are different ways to say in conclusion the main points thus be careful to put any additional information. Stick to the topic and state only those things, you were mentioned in the main body. Don’t include any quotations; there is enough space for them in the body paragraphs.
Write and be confident in what you are stating. Don’t give apologies for your opinions. You are writing your composition, and you have the right to present your ideas and consider them truthful. Don’t put the words such as “I think,” they make your opinion less authoritative. Imagine you are a professor who knows everything he is writing about and act like a master.
Good closure sentences should be written in the appropriate language. Be careful not to choose fluffy words. Remember that your conclusion leaves the influence of the whole paper. It’s supposed to be understandable and clear.
The concluding sentence contains the final words of your essay. It relates to your introduction. This is the last sentence, and you should write it polished, accurate and provocative. To make this process easier ask yourself a question “What is my essay about and what am I proving?”. You can place in the last sentence an irony, end by appealing to the reader’s emotions or place a call to action. All of these are the powerful tricks to make your readers think about the problem or topic.
There is one helpful way how to do the process of writing conclusion easier and smoother. It lies in constantly answering the question “So what?”. Your task is to persuade the reader he must care about your thoughts and ideas.
Create a feeling of closure and completeness for your audience. Let them receive only positive impressions from your paper by presenting a good conclusion. Think if you can tie your ideas to the different topic.
Conclusion examples
Analytical essay conclusion examples:
Topic 1: Analyze the Instagram’s influence on the youth
In spite of the fact that social media gives the opportunity to be in touch with many other people across the whole world, they also caused lots of difficulties. Beginning with the approach to imprecise information and ending with the increasing facts of cyberbullying, it becomes clear that the worse things too often overcome the good ones among the young people. Taking into consideration that more than half of young users 12-16 years old, it is the time to act and determine rules for providing a rational use of social media.
Topic 2: Analyze the theme of the men’s role in the society in Fight club
The theme of the men’s role in the society in Fight club is obvious from the first page. The main reason why Tyler organizes the club is to help every attending man to receive his instinct feelings and find himself as a man. Throughout the film, all the characters are struggling to forget the women’s influence and become the real men; they were supposed to be.
Expository essay conclusion examples:
Topic 3: How to write a five-paragraph essay
Writing an essay is extremely easy once you understand its structure. It always consists of three main parts: the introduction containing the hook and presenting the thesis statements. The main body is supporting the thesis statements and proving your ideas and the conclusion wrapping everything up. For everyone who knows this simple scheme, writing an essay becomes an easy thing.
Topic 4: What are the reasons for global warming?
Most scientists admit that the greatest cause of global warming is the rapid rise of greenhouse gases. Some may argue that the major cause is the traffic pollutions and others say it’s the factories, but all of them agree that the main cause is humanity.
Narrative essay conclusion examples:
Topic 5: Write about the day that changed you
It may be difficult sometimes to remind this event without any pain in the heart, but I’m sure I wouldn’t be the same person if I hadn’t gone through it. It wasn’t easy to recover, and there were outcomes, but I’ve become stronger because of this situation. I hope the others will keep in mind my example to be able to solve the problem if they meet the similar situation.
Topic 6: Tell about your happiest moment
Sitting beside my dad, I feel that nothing could give me a greater reason to be happy. We were reunited, and all the problems were in the past. I knew the life was unpredictable and could give us any test at any time but we are the family, and we are strong together.
Persuasive essay conclusion examples:
Topic 7: Why the high education is important?
The high education widely opens the door for the better future. None of the people who are arguing about useless of studying in the college or university can reject all the opportunities the high education can provide with: well-paid job, good special qualities and traveling around the world. Undoubtedly, it’s worth to spend the time and money on.
Topic 8: Is it necessary for kids to learn foreign languages?
Learning foreign language is extremely useful for children’s development. The psychologists proved that it improves kid’s memory, enriches their thinking and makes them more confident and flexible in their life. With all benefits the foreign language will give them in the future, it’s recommended to give the kid’s this chance to learn.
Argumentative essay conclusion examples:
Topic 9: Should phone use be banned while driving?
Although many people are arguing to allow the phone use while driving, this allowing will bring a lot of problems. While talking on the phone, the one distracts from the road ant this is the main reason which causes the accidents. Considering the fact that misadventures on the road are rapidly increasing, the phone use while driving should be forbidden.
Topic 10: Does social media create isolation?
Although social media were created to communicate with people all over the world they also give a sense of isolation. People live in the illusion of communication, and their relationships are only in the distance. Not spending enough time in the real communication they have a feeling of isolation.
Project Report on Coffee Behaviour
The following paper discusses the main determinants of coffee consumption at Westminster International University in Tashkent. Determinants such as income of respondent, ethnicity, religion, smoking habits and other factors are investigated. Data was collected using online methods of surveying and self-administrated questionnaires. Results proved to be significant and revealed a negative correlation between coffee consumption, active lifestyle and marital status. In contrast, positive correlation between coffee consumption income and age was found. Other factors as smoking, religion, education years proved to be insignificant.
Introduction Being the third most consumed beverage in the world after water and tea, coffee is valued for its distinct aroma, flavor and energizing effect. Found in Ethiopia in the 9th century, coffee first became popular in the Arab world, was then promoted in Europe and consequently developed into one of the most traded commodities in the world(John K. Francis, 2007). World annual per capita consumption was equal to 1. 3 kg/person in 2011.
America and Europe are the largest coffee consumers on per capita basis, accounting for 3. 9 and 3. 7 kg/person respectively, in comparison to Asian countries where the average constituted 0. kg/person (World Resources Institute, 2011). Nevertheless, the western coffee consumption habits are slowly starting to spread in Asia, especially in Uzbekistan, where coffee is considered as a fashionable hot drink rather than an everyday necessity.
The consumption of both instant and insoluble coffeein Uzbekistan is limited to urban areas and is generally increasing alongside with the rising living standards (Euromonitor, 2011). Furthermore, the rising number of coffee shops and the popularity of coffee houses such as Cafe Jum, Julius Meinl, Book Cafe, KafeKafe and Coffee Clubare good indicators of the growing popularity of coffee.
Literature Review Evidence from various studies identify that living standards are not the only determinant of coffee consumption behavior. Smoking, smoking cessation, alcohol, age, gender, level of physical activity and income also play a sufficient role in one’s consumption patterns. In their comprehensive research on coffee and associated lifestyle factors published in 2010 Hewlett and Wadsworth discovered a link between caffeinated drink consumption, smoking and alcohol. The findings revealed that those drinking coffee were more likely to be smokers aged between 30 and 70.
Another review on coffee consumption behavior in Karnataka, India published in 2008 by Varun indicated a positive correlation between education, family size and income on coffee demand in urban areas, whereas in the rural areas, the price was the main determinant influencing consumption. The rationale for the linkage of the determinants and coffee consumption is reviewedand discussed belowbased on a wide range of researches and surveys. The studies concerning coffee consumption behaviorwere obtained from EBSCO, JStor, Emerald and Google Scholar databases.
Those researches included in the literature review are published in English, report coffee consumption behavior; show correlation with at least some of the lifestyle factors and provide a detailed review of the applied methodology and statistical analysis. Coffee and Smoking Seven studies concluded that higher cigarette consumption among persistent smokers is linked to highercoffee consumption. The investigation on coffee consumption patterns among army personnel byZavela et al. (1990) revealed a positive correlation between female cigarette and alcohol consumption and male cigarette and coffee consumption.
Furthermore, the researchers identified that non-smokers tend to be abstemious to coffee and alcohol consumption. In contrast, Koksal et al. (2011) in their pseudo-panel analysis of US household data came to the conclusion that that coffee consumption and consumption of cigarettes and alcohol are not correlated due to the statistical insignificance of the cross price elasticities of coffee. However,even though there is no serial complementary relation in the observed population, the authors do not exclude the possibility that coffee and cigarettes are complements for some individuals.
Studies by Salazar et al. and Garcia et al. hat analyzed the responses from about 120’000 participants both, stated that more than 50% of female smokers drank at least 6 cups of coffeeper day, whereas only 30% of smoking men consumed at least 6 cups of coffee on a daily basis. Digging even further into the research of the relation of smoking and coffee, Klesges et al. conducted a large epidemiologic study with more than 7500 respondents. The researchers labeled those consuming from one to four cigarettes per day as light smokers, those smoking from five to twenty cigarettes as moderate smokers and those smoking at least twenty one cigarettes per day as heavy smokers.
Further analysis revealed that light and moderate smokers where 2. 34 and 2. 84 times more likely to drink coffee than non-smokers, whereas heavy smokers where 4. 23 times more likely to be coffee consumers. The comparison of the student sample with the general public sample by Brice et al. illustrated that smokers in both samples were likely to drink more coffee in comparison to non-smokers. In the student sample (121 respondent) smokers on average consumed 76 mg more caffeine than their fellow non-smokers. In the general public sample (122 respondent) smokers consumed 92 mg more than non-smokers.
The majority of the academic papers revealed a positive correlation between smoking and coffee consumption (except the Koksal et al. study). However, some of the mentioned above studies might be a subject to bias as most of the respondents were asked to self-report coffee consumption and smoking habits. Furthermore, studies by Zavela et al. and Brice et al. had small samples that did not completely represent the whole population and may therefore also be addressed as biased at some point.
Nevertheless, despite the presented results, none of the researches, except for Benowitz et al. 2003) addressed the actual reason for the coffee/smoking relation. According to the researchers smokers prefer coffee due to the fact that smoking increases caffeine metabolism and coffee contains the highest its highest dose among all other beverages. In order to confirm the positive correlation between the amount of cigarettes smoked and coffee consumed it is important to research the reverse side of the relation.
A cross-sectional study by Fernandez et al. described a total sample of 2621 respondents and found that lower coffee consumption was associated with quitting smoking. However, the results might be effect-modified as the health reasons for quitting where not taken into consideration during data collection. The research on smoking relapse conducted by Krall et al. revealed that people who quit smoking but where drinking at least 6 cups of coffee daily where 2. 33 times more likely to start smoking again.
A similar study of 116 men by Kauffman et al. eviewed that those who don’t drink a lot of coffee where 12 times more likely to quit smoking successfully. Furthermore, education and age where identified as the factors positively affecting smoking cessation and where adjusted in order to make the effect of coffee consumption clearer. Coffee and alcohol Correlations between coffee consumption and alcohol consumption are mostly explained by ones attitude towards health. Therefore, usually alcohol drinkers are less concerned by their health and on average consume more coffee than non-drinkers.
Researches by Talcott et al. and Stevenson et al. prove this statement as according to their findings, alcohol drinkers were 1. 52 times more likely to drink coffee. Schwarz et al. investigated even further and researched the relation between different alcohol drinks with coffee and tea consumption in a sample of 2400 respondents aged from twenty five to sixty four. The findings of the authors revealed that among beer, wine and other beverages only wine had a positive correlation with coffee consumption.
Again the above studies have some limitations as some of them o not reveal the health conditions of the respondents. As mentioned above health is a serious determinant that can affect both alcohol intake and coffee consumption. Furthermore, self-administered means of collecting information were used. Therefore, the collected data might be prone to bias. Coffee and physical activity The majority of the reviewed surveys associated high coffee consumption with low physical activity. According to the research by Hewlett et al. less coffee consumption was associated with being younger and a less than healthy lifestyle.
Thune et al. onducted a survey with more than 10000 respondents that indicated that both males and females with sedentary jobs consumed more coffee than those that were physically more active. Therefore, coffee consumption may be associated with less leisure time activities and a sedentary job. It is important to mention the work of Mosdol et al. that researched how the changes in coffee consumption affected ones physical activity. The respondents were placed in three groups by coffee consumption. The first group didn’t drink coffee at all, the second consumed 1 to 3 cups per day and the third group drank at least 4 cups.
Furthermore, 3 physical activity level groups were established. The results revealed that those participants that increased the amount of cups consumed per day were less likely to do physical exercise. Therefore, the higher is the coffee intake, the less physically active an individual is. From the methodological point of view, the limitations of the mentioned above surveys where again connected to the fact that mostly the participants were asked to self-report their levels of physical activity and coffee consumption. Furthermore, the studies researched the relation between the two variables at a single point of time.
All of the limitations combined make it hard to identify the real connection between coffee consumption and physical activity. Coffee and Income It is evident that the relation between coffee consumption and income varies from region to region. Therefore, coffee consumption in some states comprises a significantly lower proportion of total consumption in comparison with other countries. Hewlett et al. (1990) identified that the income elasticity is positive and less than one for all of the goods investigated (coffee, tea, alcohol).
Interestingly, the study by Varun et al. evealed that urban households purchase a larger amount of coffee and tea in contrast to rural households. Furthermore, total family income plays a more significant role in consumer decisions in urban areas, whereas family size was the major factor in rural areas. Conclusion Based on the reviewed literature most important coffee consumption determinants were identified. Therefore, a significant correlation between smoking and coffee consumption was found. Additional research revealed that smokers on average consume more than non-smokers and those who quit smoking.
Furthermore, the probability of smoking relapse was higher for those ex-smokers that consumed a higher amount of caffeine. The biological relation between coffee metabolism and smoking was recognized as one of the factors to explain the correlation. Coffee consumption and alcohol intake were linked to an individual’s personal healthcare choices. Therefore, high consumption of alcohol was correlated with an unhealthy lifestyle and consequently, with a higher consumption of coffee. Unhealthy lifestyle was also proved to be the factor relating coffee intake with lower physical activity.
Income and coffee consumption were proven to change from region to region, with people in urban areas with higher incomes drinking more coffee in comparison with the people in rural areas. Most importantly, a research gap was found. As can be seen from the above review, none of the researchers investigated coffee consumption patterns in Uzbekistan and almost none of them investigated university student’s coffee consumption behavior. Therefore, it is important to fulfill this gap and conduct a survey of coffee consumption patterns among students in Uzbekistan.
However, due to the scarcity of resources this research will focus on the coffee consumption determinants in Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT). Research question What are the main coffee consumption determinants for the students of the Westminster International University in Tashkent?
Research objectives:
- To identify the main factors affecting coffee consumption behavior of WIUT students
- To discover whether the findings about the positive relation between smoking and coffee consumption are applicable to WIUT tudents
- To interpret the discovered relations between key determinants and coffee consumption Methodology Research approach and design During the research a quantitative approach was implemented.
Given (2008) describes a quantitative research as an empirical investigation of a social phenomenon by the use of statistical, mathematical or computational techniques. Usually a quantitative approach is applied when it is necessary to statistically describe and test relations between certain variables and examine cause effect relations.
A descriptive (correlational) survey was used to collect primary data to describe the population. The descriptive survey interprets the relationships among a set of variables to develop trends and patterns in the data. Variables in this kind of a survey are not manipulated and are studied as they occur. The survey obtains data from a population sample by means of self-report, when participants respond to a number of questions identified by the researcher. In the current research, information was gathered by the use of self-administered questionnaires distributed online and individually for each participant.
A descriptive quantitative approach was applied because it helps to identify the causes of the interrelations in the variables. The main advantage of the employed approach is precision that is achieved through reliable quantitative measurement, when the collected data is not manipulated. However, there are some limitations due to the objectivity of self-reports, as respondents may provide the researcher with unauthentic information that is not accurate. Research setting
The study was conducted at the Westminster International University in Tashkent that is located in the highly dense urban area in the center of the capital of Uzbekistan. Approximately 1700 students and 90 teachers attend the university. The majority of the students are locals aged from 17 to 25, most of which are a registered in the Facebook social network. Study population and sample A population is a set of all the elements that come within the study sample criteria. The sampling frame consisted of young adults aged 17 to 23 that are full-time bachelor’s degree students who study on levels 3, 4, 5 or 6 of the university.
Master’s degree students and teachers were not included in the frame as they represent an older age group that does not fit into the aim of the research to study consumption patterns among students. Due to the lack of time, resources and the impossibility of implementation, the census approach, when data is collected from everyone in the population,was excluded from the research. Instead, the simple random sampling approach was applied. Under this approach the sample is collected by randomly choosing the respondents from the sampling frame.
The simple random sampling approach was used because the research sample size was equal to 300, the sample frame was easily accessible via the computer database, and interactions with the respondents were not an issue. The sample size decisions were based on a 95% confidence level that the data represents the characteristics of the whole population and the 3-5% acceptable margin of error that expresses the amount of random sampling error in the results.
According to the optimal sample size calculations and the table adapted from Saunders et al. (2003, p. 56) and assuming a 100% response rate the optimal sample size was identified to be equal to 300. The collected sample was compared with the student statistics from the university and was provento represent the characteristics of the university population. Data Collection Data collection instrument A self-administered questionnaire was chosen as the data collection instrument for the research. A typical questionnaire is usually a mean of collecting primary data and consists of a series of questions that are aimed at gathering information from the respondents.
The decision to apply questionnaires as a data gathering tool was made largely due to the following factors:
- High response rates as the questionnaires were distributed online via social networks and distributed to the respondents to complete and were consequently collected personally by the researcher
- Less time and resources to administer, as all of the online replies where automatically monitored and both online and manual responses wereprocessed by computer software
- Anonymity, as the respondents personal identification details (e. g. ame, student ID, etc) were not required
- Less prone to bias as they were presented in a consistent manner
- Most of the questions were closed, which made further statistical analysis easier
However, the main disadvantage from the self-administered questionnaire is that it might not reflect the true state of the respondent and valuable information might be lost as the answers are usually brief. The questionnaire was conducted in English and consisted of two sections. Section 1 was aimed at getting demographic data such as age, gender, education years, religion, etc.
Section 2 mostly consisted of closed questions and was aimed at determining ones coffee consumption habits and related information. Therefore, the first group, consisting of level 5 and level 6 students was questioned online, whereas the level 3 and 4 students were asked to fill manual questionnaires. The data was collected in a one month period. Reliability and validity Reliability Reliability is a measure of consistency with which an instrument, in the case of the current research a questionnaire measures the attributes it was designed to measure. Therefore, a questionnaire may be assumed to be reliable if it will give the same results when applied to the same group of people.
The questionnaire was firstly pretested on a group of 50 people that answered the questionnaire twice in different environments, the results revealed consistency in responses. The two sets of responses can were compared statistically using weighted Kappa for categorical data and Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient for continuous data. However, it is important to minimize measurement errors related to reliability. Hence, data collector bias was reduced by allocating two researchers to be the only ones to manage the questionnaire.
The environment where data was gathered was made comfortable by ensuring silence, privacy and confidentiality for the respondents. Validity In contrast to reliability validity is a measure of how a questionnaire is employed and refers the extent to which the questionnaire represents studied variables. In order to ensure validity, the questionnaire was based on the review of literature. In addition, all questionnaires distributed manually were delivered by the appointed administering researchers.
Furthermore, the questions were formulated in a simple language to assure clarity, guidelines were provided in order to ensure the ease of understanding the questions. The manual questionnaires were completed in the presence of the researchers to make sure that the questionnaires were not filled by third parties. However, it was hard to administer this aspect of the online questionnaire as the researchers were unable to monitor the process of filling. Ethical considerations In order to protect the human rights of the respondents, ethical aspects of the research were taken into consideration.
Therefore, before handling in the questionnaire the researchers informed the participants about the aims of the study. Anonymity and confidentiality were maintained, as the personal information of the respondents was not disclosed, and the collected information was kept confidential. Self-determination was sustained by providing the respondents with a choice on whether to participate in the research or not. Scientific honesty, being an important ethical part of the research was also maintained as the researchers and analysts did not manipulate, change or alter the collected data.
The research implemented a descriptive, quantitative approach. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information from 300 respondents on the territory of the Westminster International University in Tashkent.
Active Lifestyle Estimation and Results Estimations were found using the method of weighted least squares and finding corresponding coefficients for respective variables. In order to avoid the problem of heteroscedascity, robust method of weighted least squares instead ordinary least squares method was applied. Nevertheless, in order to show the difference between ordinary least squares and weighted least squares methods both models were used in the results section.
Furthermore, due to the existence of zero-expenditures problem in some cases and not giving accurate information regarding income of students all income information was respectively changed to logarithmic scale. Moreover, since coffee consumption is discrete, it was also changed to logarithmic scale in order to avoid zero expenditure problems during estimation. Therefore, the final model of weighted least squares model can be shown by the following function.
The difference and usefulness of the results nevertheless might not be as good as it might have been in the case of a broader and better collected sample. First of all, collection of data not via survey, but corresponding actual spending on coffee and finding out total monthly expenditure would have been much more appropriate for the analysis. In that case, reliability of the data would be guaranteed and more precise results might be obtained. Also, quite limited and more or less similar population of WIUT population can’t be interpreted as proxy for any Uzbekistan university students, or even for Tashkent city students.
In order for the sample to be more representative data from each university should be collected using not a self-administered survey, but more fundamental methods. However, considering high cost and the lack of time, sufficient data collection might be a hard problem.
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