Sample Custom Research Papers

Greek Philosophers on Happiness

...The definition of happiness is pretty vague and subjective, when we consider the values and ethics of every person in particular. In Aristotle's view ethics is an attempt to find out our highest good or chief end: an end, which is ultimately final according to this philosopher. He states that many of our ends of life serve only as means to further ends, but there should be one final object of pursuit, which stands behind all of our desires and aspirations. I tend to agree with an opinion that happiness is this ultimate purpose of being and it is not the means to any further end, but it is the end in itself and the own goal that every person should strive to accomplish. Happiness, thus, comes with an achievement and symbolizes a celebration of this achievement with a joyful and radiant recognition...

Teenage Pregnancy

...Pregnancy produces many adverse consequences for the adolescent female and her partner, for the children born to teenagers and for society as a whole. Pregnant adolescents are at greater risk than older mothers for nutritional deficiencies, anemia, preeclampsia and cephalopelvic disproportion, partly due to inadequate prenatal care. In addition, pregnancy increases the teenager's risk of dropping out of school, leading to fewer career opportunities, chronic unemployment and societal dependence...

Organizational Efficiency vs. Organizational Effectiveness

...The controversy over efficiency vs. effectiveness within an organization has been around for quite a long time. To help distinct these two concepts, Peter Drucker has defined them as "do the things right" and "do the right things". When managers do the things right, it means they accomplish efficiency - get the most from available resources, which could be products or people. On contrary, when managers do the right things, they accomplish effectiveness - set objectives for their organization and ensure that these objectives are met. This paper aims to analyze the practical distinction between effective and efficient organizations and to suggest which type of organization will have more chances for success in the rapidly changing economy...

Fashion Industry Analysis: Louis Vuitton

...There are basically three age categories of Japanese customers, who may buy luxury goods from Louis Vuitton. The first one includes the young generation of ambitious and crazy for brands 18-25 year - olds. Their main motivation for buying luxury goods is to look cool and fashionable, to be different from others, and to show off their social status. The next category is aged from 25 to 30. Their parents were children of baby boom era after the World War II. The intention to buy pricey items usually comes from these parents' influence. The last category, so-called "banana generation", is aged from 30 to 35. Influenced by the popular Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto, they express recklessness for their future security and spend a lot of money on what they want rather than what they need.

Custom Business Plan: Executive Summary

Exclusive Gifts, Inc. (EGI) imports exclusively handmade souvenirs by artisans from Malaysia. The firm's main office is in Seattle, Washington. EGI quality products are unique and exclusive, and its target consumers are men and women with upper-middle to upper-end incomes, living in hotels or staying there during their visits to the U.S. EGI's competitive edge is that the products are 100% handmade, unlike competitor's products. By this fact, the firm hopes to attract people that value the artistry of producing handmade souvenirs.

EGI projected sales are approximately $1.1 million by the end of the first year of operation. Also during this year, EGI plans to open an exclusive gift shops throughout the Marriott Hotel Industry. For the following year, the company plans to expand to direct mail catalog sales by being in an established catalog, with a similar target market. EGI projects sales of $1.5 million in 2005. During the third year, EGI plans to do both selling through hotel industry and catalogs.

Definition of Marriage in the Historical Context

...Evolution is a powerful phenomenon if we look at it through the historical context. Whatever we enjoy and benefit from is the result of human progress in science, politics, economics and social life. The last pertains to the personal relationships between man and woman as well. One of the most fascinating things is that these relationships have been viewed from many different angles. Some defined these relationships as love and friendship without any official implications, others considered the relationships serious and complete, when the conjugal unit was formed. Consequently, the definition of marriage was changing dynamically over the time. This paper will analyze the definition of marriage and how it has changed over the time, as well as describe the current trends in social perception of marriage...

Movie Review: Fight Club

...One of the major topics addressed in the movie is the subject of consumerism. It is expressed by one of the many brilliant citations: "You are not how much money you have in the bank. You are not your job. You are not the car you drive or the contents of your wallet."

The message of the movie is that modern person today is nothing, if he doesn't have certain possessions. Thus, no longer one owns things, but these things own him. Fight Club heavily emphasizes the consequences of the consumer based culture of the 20th century imposed upon individual values...

Legalization of Prostitution

...With the status of "illegal" prostitution is not necessarily inaccessible. In our world the major thing that moves is money, and as long as prostitution will be a profitable business, it will not be extirpated. The legalization of prostitution is a step, that will take courage and efforts to achieve, but today we are responsible to decide whether we want prostitution to be "illegal" on paper, but accessible, or we want to legalize it and use more effective means to prevent it...

The Welfare State and Women's Perspective on Citizenship

...The conditions imposed by the welfare state policies have greatly affected women's issues. Women have always represented the largest vulnerable category exposed to poor relief. This was true for nineteenth-century England as well as it remains true today. Numerically, women dominate both in receipt and consumption of most welfare services. Moreover, women have always served as key agents in the interaction between state services (such as housing, health, social security) and family members: The protective role of the welfare state is now being questioned when it comes to the women-related issues. Any decrease of welfare state's responsibility for vulnerable groups in society immediately affect women's economic situation, increases the unpaid voluntary involvement and decreases citizenship rights and equal opportunities for women. Therefore, women are particularly vulnerable to social policies of welfare state...

The Grapes of Wrath

...With the story of the Joads family foreground, Steinbeck reveals the hardship and oppression experienced by the migrant farmers in times of the Great Depression in the background of the novel. In a way, this book is a political tract that criticizes the capitalist' pursue of self-interest and profit at price of starvation of poor farmers. The Grapes of Wrath is definitely a must-read source of information for those who want to study history not from the dry documentary perspective, but from the emotional side of exploring the people's tragedies and learning the important lesson from the history...