# Introduction. # Gold was an especially common form of early money, as described in [http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/origins.html Origins of Money and of Banking] category:Business
-

Commerce (U.S. place)

Commerce, in addition to being a term in business, is the name of some places in the United States of America:
- Commerce, California
- Commerce, Georgia
- Commerce, Missouri
- Commerce, Oklahoma
- Commerce, Texas It is also part of the name of Commerce City, Colorado and Commerce Township, Michigan.

Value

Value is a term that expresses the concept of worth in general, and it is thought to be connected to reasons for certain practices, policies, or actions. Value is "that which one acts to gain and/or keep."

Economics

In general, the value of something is how much a product or service is worth to someone relative to other things (often measured in money). In neoclassical economics, the value of an object or service is often seen as nothing but the price it would bring in an open and competitive market. This is determined primarily by the demand for the object relative to supply. Other economists often simply equate the value of a commodity with its price, whether or not the market is competitive. In classical economics, price and value were not seen as equal. In this tradition, to Steve Keen "value" refers to "the innate worth of a commodity, which determines the normal ('equilibrium') ratio a which two commodities exchange." (Debunking Economics, p. 271, ISBN 1-86403-070-4.) To Keen and the tradition of David Ricardo, this corresponds to the classical concept of long-run cost-determined prices, what Adam Smith called "natural prices" and Karl Marx called "prices of production." It is part of a cost-of-production theory of value and price. Ricardo, but not Keen, used a "labor theory of price" in which a commodity's "innate worth" was the amount of labor needed to produce it. In another classical tradition, Marx distinguished between the "value in use" (use-value, what a commodity provides to its buyer), "value" (the socially-necessary labour time it embodies), and "exchange value" (how much labor-time the sale of the commodity can claim, Smith's "labor commanded" value). By most interpretations of his labor theory of value, Marx, like Ricardo, developed a "labor theory of price" where the point of analyzing value was to allow the calculation of relative prices. Others see values as part of his sociopolitical interpretation and critique of capitalism and other societies, and deny that it was intended to serve as a category of economics. According to a third interpretation, Marx aimed for a theory of the dynamics of price formation, but did not complete it. In 1860, the year after oil was first struck in Titusville, Pennsylvania, John Ruskin published a critique of the economic concept of value from a moral point of view. He entitled the volume Unto This Last, and his central point was this: "It is impossible to conclude, of any given mass of acquired wealth, merely by the fact of its existence, whether it signifies good or evil to the nation in the midst of which it exists. Its real value depends on the moral sign attached to it, just as sternly as that of a mathematical quantity depends on the algebraical sign attached to it. Any given accumulation of commercial wealth may be indicative, on the one hand, of faithful industries, progressive energies, and productive ingenuities: or, on the other, it may be indicative of mortal luxury, merciless tyranny, ruinous chicanery." Gandhi was greatly inspired by Ruskin's book and published a paraphrase of it in 1908. Economists such as Ludwig von Mises asserted that "value" was always a subjective quality. There was no value intrinsic to objects or things and value derived entirely from the psychology of market participants. Thus, it was false to say that the economic value of a good was equal to what it cost to produce or to its current replacement cost. The theory of value is closely related to that of allocative efficiency, the quality by which firms produce those goods and services most valued by society. The market value of a machine part, for example, will depend upon a variety of objective facts involving its efficiency versus the efficiency of other types of part or other types of machine to make the kind of products that consumers will value in turn. In such a case, market value has both objective and subjective components.

Personal and cultural values

Each individual has a core of underlying values that contribute to our system of beliefs, ideas and/or opinions (see value in semiotics). Integrity in the application of a "value" ensures its continuity and this continuity separates a value from beliefs, opinion and ideas. In this context a value (e.g. Truth or Equality or Greed) is the core from which we operate or react from. Societies have values that are shared among many of the participants in that culture. These beliefs can be grouped into four categories:
- Ethics (good, bad, moral, immoral, amoral, right, wrong, permissible, impermissible)
- Aesthetics (beautiful, ugly, unbalanced, pleasing)
- Doctrine (political, ideological, religious or social beliefs and values)
- Inborn (inborn values such as reproduction and survival, a controversial issue) A value system is in essence the ordering and prioritization of the values (usually of the ethical and ideological varieties described above) that an individual or society holds. Some cultural values recognized in the western world include:
- acceptance
- accountability
- adventure
- appreciation
- balance
- caring
- chastity
- compassion
- confidence
- cooperation
- courage
- courtesy
- creativity
- curiosity
- dependability
- determination
- effort
- endurance
- enthusiasm
- equality
- fairness
- fantasy
- fidelity
- focus
- foresight
- friendship
- generosity
- gentleness
- giving
- helping
- honesty
- hope
- humor
- imagination
- innocence
- integrity
- justice
- kindness
- learning
- love
- loyalty
- magnanimity
- mercy
- moderation
- modesty
- nurturing
- obedience
- optimism
- patience
- peace
- perfection
- perseverance
- potential
- purpose
- respect
- responsibility
- restraint
- self-awareness
- self-discipline
- self-reliance
- self-esteem
- self-respect
- sensitivity
- sharing
- sincerity
- tenacity
- thoughtfulness
- tolerance
- trust
- truth
- understanding
- unpretentious
- unselfishness

Marketing

In marketing, the value of a product is the consumer's expectations of product quality in relation to the actual amount paid for it. It is often expressed as the equation : ::Value = Benefits / Price :::or alternatively: ::Value = Quality received / Expectations There are parallels between cultural expectations and consumer expectations. Thus pizza in Japan might be topped with tuna rather than pepperoni, as pizza might be in the US; the value in the marketplace varies from place to place as well as from market to market.

Mathematics

In mathematics, a value is a quantitative value - a constant (number), or a variable.

Computer science

In computer science, a value may be a number, literal string, array and anything else that can be represented by a finite sequence of symbols. The exact definition of a value varies across programming languages. For more, see value (computer science).

Law

In law, particularly with respect to contracts, value is a concept closely related, but not identical, to that of consideration. At common law, certain transferrable obligations were only enforceable if the transferee had acquired them for value. Under the rules of equity, the rights of a bona fide purchaser for value would not be interfered with. State courts of various jurisdictions in the US adopted varying definitions of what constituted "value". Under the Uniform Commercial Code, except with respect to Article 3, a person gives value for rights if he acquires them in exchange for: # a binding commitment to extend credit or for the extension of immediately available credit; # as security for or in total or partial satisfaction of a preexisting claim; # accepting delivery pursuant to a preexisting contract for purchase; # generally, any consideration sufficient to support a simple contract. Under Article 3 of the Code, a negotiable instrument is transferred for value if the transferee receives in exchange: # a promise of performance, to the extent the promise has been performed; # a security interest or other lien in the instrument other than a lien obtained by judicial proceeding; # the total or partial discharge of an antecedent claim against any person, whether or not the claim is due; # another negotiable instrument; or # an irrevocable obligation to a third party by the person taking the instrument. The setting forth in express terms of what is "value" in the context of commercial transactions was a bold step forward by the drafters of the UCC, since the jurisdictional distinctions as to value made certain transactions valid in one state and invalid in another.

External links

- [http://www.woodgreen.oxon.sch.uk/economics/allocative_efficiency.htm On Allocative Efficiency]
- [http://www.valuequotes.net Famous Quotations on Value and Values]
- [http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/resources/34307/values.html Scouting Values] Category:Core issues in ethics Category:Sociology Category:Social philosophy category:Marketing category:Value simple:Value

Service

:This article is about a term used in economics. For other uses, see service (disambiguation). In economics and marketing, a service is the non-material equivalent of a good. Service provision has been defined as an economic activity that does not result in ownership, and this is what differentiates it from providing physical goods. It is claimed to be a process that creates benefits by facilitating either a change in customers, a change in their physical possessions, or a change in their intangible assets. By supplying some level of skill, ingenuity, and experience, providers of a service participate in an economy without the restrictions of carrying stock (inventory) or the need to concern themselves with bulky raw materials. On the other hand, their investment in expertise does require marketing and upgrading in the face of competition which has equally few physical restrictions. Providers of services make up the Tertiary sector of industry.

Key attributes

Services can be described in terms of their main attributes.
- Intangibility - They cannot be seen, handled, smelled, etc. There is no need for storage. Because services are difficult to conceptualize, marketing them requires creative visualization to effectively evoke a concrete image in the customer's mind. From the customer's point of view, this attribute makes it difficult to evaluate or compare services prior to experiencing the service.
- Perishability - Unsold service time is "lost", that is, it cannot be regained. It is a lost economic opportunity. For example a doctor that is booked for only two hours a day cannot later work those hours— she has lost her economic opportunity. Other service examples are airplane seats (once the plane departs, those empty seats cannot be sold), and theatre seats (sales end at a certain point).
- Lack of transportability - Services must be consumed at the point of "production".
- Lack of homogeneity - Services are typically modified for each client or each new situation (customised). Mass production of services is very difficult. This can be seen as a problem of inconsistent quality. Both inputs and outputs to the processes involved providing services are highly variable, as are the relationships between these processes, making it difficult to maintain consistent quality.
- Labour intensity - Services usually involve considerable human activity, rather than precisely determined process. Human resource management is important. The human factor is often the key success factor in service industries. It is difficult to achieve economies of scale or gain dominant market share.
- Demand fluctuations - It is very difficult to estimate demand. Demand can vary by season, time of day, business cycle, etc.
- Buyer involvement - Most service provision requires a high degree of interaction between client and service provider.

Service delivery

The delivery of a service typically involves five factors:
- The service providers (e.g. the people)
- Equipment used to provide the service (e.g. vehicles, cash registers)
- The physical facilities (e.g. buildings, parking, waiting rooms)
- The client
- Other customers at the service delivery location The service encounter is defined as all activities involved in the service delivery process. Some service managers use the term "moment of truth" to indicate that defining point in a specific service encounter where interactions are most intense. Many business theorists view service provision as a performance or act (sometimes humorously referred to as dramalurgy, perhaps in reference to dramaturgy). The location of the service delivery is referred to as the stage and the objects that facilitate the service process are called props. A script is a sequence of behaviours followed by all those involved, including the client(s). Some service dramas are tightly scripted, others are more ad lib. Role congruence occurs when each actor follows a script that harmonizes with the roles played by the other actors. In some service industries, especially health care, dispute resolution, and social services, a popular concept is the idea of the caseload, which refers to the total number of patients, clients, litigants, or claimants that a given employee is presently responsible for. On a daily basis, in all those fields, employees must balance the needs of any individual case against the needs of all other current cases as well as their own personal needs.

alt text
Service-Goods continuum

The service-goods continuum

The dichotomy between physical goods and intangible services should not be given too much credence. These are not discrete categories. Most business theorists see a continuum with pure service on one terminal point and pure commodity good on the other terminal point. Most products fall between these two extremes. For example, a restaurant provides a physical good (the food), but also provides services in the form of ambience, the setting and clearing of the table, etc. And although some utilities actually deliver physical goods — like water utilities which actually deliver water — utilities are usually treated as services. In a narrower sense, service refers to quality of customer service: the measured appropriateness of assistance and support provided to a customer. This particular usage occurs frequently in retailing.

List of economic services

The following is an incomplete list of service industries, grouped into rough sectors. Parenthetical notations indicate how specific occupations and organizations can be regarded as service industries to the extent they provide an intangible service, as opposed to a tangible good.
- business functions (that apply to all organizations in general)
- consulting
- customer service
- human resources administrators (providing services like ensuring that employees are paid accurately)
- child care
- cleaning, repair and maintenance services
- janitors (who provide cleaning services)
- gardeners
- mechanics
- construction
- carpentry
- electricians (offering the service of making wiring work properly)
- plumbing
- death care
- coroners (who provide the service of identifying corpses and determining time and cause of death)
- funeral homes (who prepare corpses for public display, cremation or burial)
- dispute resolution and prevention services
- arbitration
- courts of law (who perform the service of dispute resolution backed by the power of the state)
- diplomacy
- incarceration (provides the service of keeping criminals out of society)
- law enforcement (provides the service of identifying and apprehending criminals)
- lawyers (who perform the services of advocacy and decisionmaking in many dispute resolution and prevention processes)
- mediation
- military (performs the service of protecting states in disputes with other states)
- negotiation (not really a service unless someone is negotiating on behalf of another)
- education (institutions offering the services of teaching and access to information)
- library
- museum
- school
- entertainment (when provided live or within a highly specialized facility)
- gambling
- movie theatres (providing the service of showing a movie on a big screen)
- performing arts productions
- sexual services (where legal)
- sports
- television
- fabric care
- dry cleaning
- laundromat (offering the service of automated fabric cleaning)
- financial services
- accounting
- banks and building societies (offering lending services and safekeeping of money and valuables)
- real estate
- stock brokerages
- tax return preparation
- foodservice industry
- hairdressing
- health care (all health care professions provide services)
- information services
- data processing
- database services
- language interpretation
- language translation
- risk management
- insurance
- security
- social services
- social work
- transport
- utilities
- electric power
- natural gas
- telecommunications
- waste management
- water industry

Finding related topics

- list of marketing topics
- list of management topics
- list of economics topics
- list of finance topics
- list of human resource management topics
- list of accounting topics
- list of information technology management topics
- list of business law topics
- list of production topics
- list of business ethics, political economy, and philosophy of business topics
- list of business theorists
- list of economists
- list of corporate leaders
- list of companies Category:Economics Category:Services management and marketing Category:Marketing ja:サービス

Information

:"Info" redirects here; for other uses, see .info and NFO Information is a word which has many different meanings in everyday usage and in specialized contexts, but as a rule, the concept is closely related to others such as data, instruction, knowledge, meaning, communication, representation, and mental stimulus. Many people speak of the advent of the information age, the information society, and information technologies, and even though information science and computer science are often in the spotlight, the word "information" is often used without careful consideration of the various meanings it has acquired.

Information as a message

Information is a message, something to be communicated from the sender to the receiver. If information is viewed merely as a message, it does not have to be accurate. It may be a truth or a lie, or just a sound of a kiss. Strangely it may even be a disruptive noise used to inhibit the flow of communication and create misunderstanding. This model assumes a sender and a receiver, and does not attach any significance to the idea that information is something that can be extracted from an environment, e.g., through observation or measurement. Information in this sense is simply any message the sender chooses to create.

Measuring information

The view of information as a message came into prominence with the publication in 1948 of an influential paper by Claude Shannon, "A Mathematical Theory of Communication." This paper provides the foundations of information theory and endows the word information not only with a technical meaning but also a measure. If the sending device is equally likely to send any one of a set of

N

messages, then the preferred measure of "the information produced when one message is chosen from the set" is the base two logarithm of

N

(This measure is called self-information). In this paper, Shannon continues: :The choice of a logarithmic base corresponds to the choice of a unit for measuring information. If the base 2 is used the resulting units may be called binary digits, or more briefly bits, a word suggested by J. W. Tukey. A device with two stable positions, such as a relay or a flip-flop circuit, can store one bit of information. N such devices can store N bits ... [The Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 27, p. 379, (July 1948).] A complementary way of measuring information is provided by Algorithmic information theory. In brief, this measures the information content of a list of symbols based on how predictable they are, or more specifically how easy it is to generate the list. The sequence below would have a very low algorithmic information measurement since it is a very predictable pattern, and as the pattern continues the measurement would not change. Shannon information would give the same information measurement for each symbol, since they are statistically random, and each new symbol would increase the measurement. : 123456789101112131415161718192021 Also see: lexicographic information cost

Information as a pattern

Information is any represented pattern. This view assumes neither accuracy nor directly communicating parties, but instead assumes a separation between an object and its representation, as well as the involvement of someone capable of understanding this relationship. This view seems therefore to require a conscious mind. Consider the following example: economic statistics represent an economy, however inaccurately. What are commonly referred to as data in computing, statistics, and other fields, are forms of information in this sense. The electro-magnetic patterns in a computer network and connected devices are related to something other than the pattern itself, such as text to be displayed and keyboard input. Signals, signs, and symbols are also in this category. On the other hand, according to semiotics, data is symbols with certain syntax and information is data with a certain semantic. Painting and drawing contain information to the extent that they represent something such as an assortment of objects on a table, a profile, or a landscape. In other words, when a pattern of something is transposed to a pattern of something else, the latter is information. This type of information still assumes some involvement of conscious mind, of either the entity constructing the representation, or the entity interpreting it. When one constructs a representation of an object, one can selectively extract from the object (sampling) or use a system of signs to replace (encoding), or both. The sampling and encoding result in representation. An example of the former is a "sample" of a product; an example of the latter is "verbal description" of a product. Both contain information of the product, however inaccurate. When one interprets representation, one can predict a broader pattern from a limited number of observations (inference) or understand the relation between patterns of two different things (decoding). One example of the former is to sip a soup to know if it is spoiled; an example of the latter is examining footprints to determine the animal and its condition. In both cases, information sources are not constructed or presented by some "sender" of information. To repeat, information in this sense does not assume direct communication, but it assumes involvement of some conscious mind. Regardless, information is dependent upon, but usually unrelated to and separate from, the medium or media used to express it. In other words, the position of a theoretical series of bits, or even the output once interpreted by a computer or similar device, is unimportant, except when someone or something is present to interpret the information. Therefore, a quantity of information is totally distinct from its medium.

Information as sensory input

Often information is viewed as a type of input to an organism or designed device. Inputs are of two kinds. Some inputs are important to the function of the organism (for example, food) or device (energy) by themselves. In his book Sensory Ecology, Dusenbery called these causal inputs. Other inputs (information) are important only because they are associated with causal inputs and can be used to predict the occurrence of a causal input at a later time (and perhaps another place). Some information is important because of association with other information but eventually there must be a connection to a causal input. In practice, information is usually carried by weak stimuli that must be detected by specialized sensory systems and amplified by energy inputs before they can be functional to the organism or device. For example, light is often a causal input to plants but provides information to animals. The colored light reflected from a flower is too weak to do much photosynthetic work but the visual system of the bee detects it and the bee's nervous system uses the information to guide the bee to the flower, where the bee often finds nectar or pollen, which are causal inputs, serving a nutritional function. Information is any type of sensory input. When an organism with a nervous system receives an input, it transforms the input into an electrical signal. This is regarded information by some. The idea of representation is still relevant, but in a slightly different manner. That is, while abstract painting does not represent anything concretely, when the viewer sees the painting, it is nevertheless transformed into electrical signals that create a representation of the painting. Defined this way, information does not have to be related to truth, communication, or representation of an object. Entertainment in general is not intended to be informative. Music, the performing arts, amusement parks, works of fiction and so on are thus forms of information in this sense, but they are not forms of information according to the previous definitions above. Consider another example: food supplies both nutrition and taste for those who eat it. If information is equated to sensory input, then nutrition is not information but taste is.

Information as an influence which leads to a transformation

Information is any type of pattern that influences the formation or transformation of other patterns. In this sense, there is no need for a conscious mind to perceive, much less appreciate, the pattern. Consider, for example, DNA. The sequence of nucleotides is a pattern that influences the formation and development of an organism without any need for a conscious mind. Systems theory at times seems to refer to information in this sense, assuming information does not necessarily involve any conscious mind, and patterns circulating (due to feedback) in the system can be called information. In other words, it can be said that information in this sense is something potentially perceived as representation, though not created or presented for that purpose. When Marshall McLuhan speaks of media and their effects on human cultures, he refers to the structure of artifacts that in turn shape our behaviors and mindsets. Also, pheromones are often said to be "information" in this sense. In 2003, J. D. Bekenstein claimed there is a growing trend in physics to define the physical world as being made of information itself (and thus information is defined in this way). See the section below on information as a property in physics. (Also see Gregory Bateson.)

Information as a property in physics

Main article: Physical information Information has a well defined meaning in physics. Examples of this include the phenomenon of quantum entanglement where particles can interact without reference to their separation or the speed of light. Information itself cannot travel faster than light even if the information is transmitted indirectly. This could lead to the fact that all attempts at physically observing a particle with an "entangled" relationship to another are slowed down, even though the particles not connected in any other way other than by the information they carry. Another link is demonstrated by the Maxwell's demon thought experiment. In this experiment, a direct relationship between information and another physical property, entropy, is demonstrated. A consequence is that it is impossible to destroy information without increasing the entropy of a system; in practical terms this often means generating heat. Thus, in the study of logic gates, the theoretical lower bound of thermal energy released by an AND gate is more than for the NOT gate (because information is destroyed in an AND gate and simply converted in an NOT gate). Physical information is of particular importance in the theory of quantum computers.

Etymology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest historical meaning of the word information in English was the act of informing, or giving form or shape to the mind, as in education, instruction, or training. A quote from 1387: "Five books come down from heaven for information of mankind." It was also used for an item of training, e.g. a particular instruction. "Melibee had heard the great skills and reasons of Dame Prudence, and her wise informations and techniques." (1386) The English word was apparently derived by adding the common "noun of action" ending "-ation" (descended through French from Latin "-tio") to the earlier verb to inform, in the sense of to give form to the mind, to discipline, instruct, teach: "Men so wise should go and inform their kings." (1330) Inform itself comes (via French) from the Latin verb informare, to give form to, to form an idea of. Furthermore, Latin itself already even contained the word informatio meaning concept or idea, but the extent to which this may have influenced the development of the word information in English is unclear. As a final note, the ancient Greek word for form was eidos, and this word was famously used in a technical philosophical sense by Plato (and later Aristotle) to denote the ideal identity or essence of something (see The Forms).

References

- Bekenstein, Jacob D. (2003, August). Information in the holographic universe. Scientific American. Retrieved from http://www.referencenter.com

External links

- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/information-semantic/ Semantic Conceptions of Information] Review by Luciano Floridi for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/NEGENTROPY.html Principia Cybernetica entry on negentropy]
- [http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/IU.pdf Information & Uncertainty in Remote Perception Research]
- [http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/JahnATpages.pdf Information, Consciousness & Health] Category:Communication Category:Cybernetics Category:Information technology
- ko:정보 ja:情報 simple:Information

Communication

Communication is the process of exchanging information, usually via a common system of symbols. "Communication studies" is the academic discipline focused on communication forms, processes and meanings, including speech, interpersonal and organizational communication. "Mass communication" is a more specialized academic discipline focused on the institutions, practice and effects of journalism, broadcasting, advertising, public relations and related mediated communication directed at a large, undifferentiated or segmented audience.

Forms and components of human communication

Humans communicate in order to share knowledge and experiences, give or receive orders, or cooperate. Common forms of human communication include sign language, speaking, writing, gestures, and broadcasting. Communication can be interactive, transactive, intentional, or unintentional; it can also be verbal or nonverbal. Communication varies considerably in form and style when considering scale. Internal communication, within oneself, is intrapersonal while communication between two individuals is interpersonal. At larger scales of communication both the system of communication and media of communication change. Small group communication takes place in settings of between three and 12 individuals creating a different set of interactions than large groups such as organizational communication in settings like companies or communities. At the largest scales mass communication describes communication to huge numbers of individuals through mass media. Communication also has a time component, being either synchronous or asynchronous. There are a number of theories of communication that attempt to explain human communication. However, various theories relating to human communication have the same core philosophy. Communication follows a five-step process which begins with the creation of a message and then sending it to another individual, organization or a group of people. This message is received and then interpreted. Finally this message is responded to, which completes the process of communication.

Communication technology

In telecommunications, the first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast occurred on July 25 1920. As the technology evolved, communication protocol also had to evolve; for example, Thomas Edison had to discover that hello was the least ambiguous greeting by voice over a distance; previous greetings such as hail tended to be lost or garbled in the transmission. As regards human communication these diverse fields can be divided into those which cultivate a thoughtful exchange between a small number of people (debate, talk radio, e-mail, personal letters) on the one hand; and those which disseminate broadly a simple message (Public relations, television, cinema). Our indebtedness to the Ancient Romans in the field of communication does not end with the Latin root "communicare". They devised what might be described as the first real mail or postal system in order to centralize control of the empire from Rome. This allowed Rome to gather knowledge about events in its many widespread provinces. As the Romans well knew, communication is as much about taking in towards the centre as it is about putting out towards the extremes. In virtual management an important issue is computer-mediated communication. The view people take toward communication is changing, as new technologies change the way they communicate and organize. In fact, it is the changing technology of communication that tends to make the most frequent and widespread changes in a society - take for example the rise of web cam chat and other network-based visual communications between distant parties. The latest trend in communication, decentralized personal networking, is termed smartmobbing.

Communication barriers

Anxiety associated with communication is known as communication apprehension. Such anxiety tends to be influenced by one's self-concept. Besides apprehension, communication can be impaired via bypassing, indiscrimination, and polarization. Failing to share a common language is also an important barrier in many parts of the world. Apart from that there may be following barriers in communication # Language # Time lag # Politics

Examples of communication

- jungle drums
- smoke signals
- Non Verbal Acts: hand signals and Body Language
- semaphores (use of devices to increase the distance "hand" signals can be seen from by increasing the size of the movable object)
- vocalization
- territorial marking (animals such as dogs - stay away from my territory)
- Pheromones communicate (amongst other things) "I'm ready to mate" - well known example is moths where the pheromones are put into traps to attract them
- Gold-plated disk (sent on Voyager 1 into interstellar space)
- writing
- telecommunications - use of technology to aid and enhance distance communications
- Digital telecommunications
- encoding and decoding
- compression and encryption (as they relate to enhancing or specifying communications) for example the use of encryption to turn a one to many into a one to one communication.
- Digital Transmission Media including telegraphy and computer network
- analog telecommunications
- telephone
- radio
- TV
- Photography
- Art (including Theatre Arts)

References

[1] Dance, Frank. "The 'concept' of communication. Journal of Communication, 20, 201-210 (1970).

External links

- [http://www.stikom-bdg.com School of Communication]
- [http://www.onethousandandone.com.au Unique and memorable communications]
- [http://www.hains.net/communication/studying.html Studying Communication: An introduction to the field, by R.C. Hains]
- [http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php?cat=32 Innovative Communication Technologies]
- [http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/ University of Iowa - Communication Studies Resources]
- [http://www.bizcom-pro.info A Weblog about Business Communication]
- [http://www.unm.edu/~emmons/communications.html UNM General Library Communication Studies] Category:Cybernetics Category:Technology ko:통신 ms:Komunikasi ja:コミュニケーション simple:Communication th:การสื่อสาร

Trade

Trade is the voluntary exchange of goods, services, or both. Trade is also called commerce. A mechanism that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and services. Modern traders instead generally negotiate through a medium of exchange, such as money. As a result, buying can be separated from selling, or earning. The invention of money (and later credit, paper money and non-physical money) greatly simplified and promoted trade. Trade between two traders is called bilateral trade, while trade between more than two traders is called multilateral trade. Trade exists for many reasons. Due to specialization and division of labor, most people concentrate on a small aspect of production, trading for other products. Trade exists between regions because different regions have a comparative advantage in the production of some tradable commodity, or because different regions' size allows for the benefits of mass production. As such, trade at market prices between locations benefits both locations.

History of trade

Trade originated with the start of communication in prehistoric times. Trading was the main facility of prehistoric people, who bartered goods and services from each other. Peter Watson dates the history of long-distance commerce from circa 150,000 years ago. Trade is believed to have taken place throughout much of recorded human history. There is evidence of the exchange of obsidian and flint during the stone age. Materials used for creating jewelry were traded with Egypt since 3000 BCE. The Phoenicians were noted sea traders, travelling across the Mediterranean Sea, and as far north as Britain for sources of tin to manufacture bronze. For this purpose they established trade colonies the Greeks called emporia. From the beginning of Greek civilization until the fall of the Roman empire in the 5th century, a financially lucrative trade brought valuable spice to Europe from the far east, including China. Roman commerce allowed their empire to flourish and endure. Their widespread empire produced a stable and secure transportation network that enabled the shipment of trade goods without fear of significant piracy. The fall of the Roman empire, and the succeeding dark ages brought instability to western europe and a near collapse of the trade network. Nevertheless some trade did occur. The Radhanites were a medieval guild of Jewish merchants who allowed trade between the Christians in Europe and the Muslims of the near east. From the 8th century to the 11th century centuries, the Vikings and Varangians traded as they sailed from and to Scandinavia. Vikings sailed to Western Europe, while Varangians to Russia. The Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading cities that maintained a trade monopoly over most of Northern Europe and the Baltic, between the 13th and 17th centuries. Baltic Vasco da Gama started the Spice trade in 1498. The spice trade was of major economic importance and helped spur the Age of Exploration. Spices brought to Europe from distant lands were some of the most valuable commodities for their weight, sometimes rivaling gold. In the 16th century, Holland was the centre of free trade, imposing no exchange controls, and advocating the free movement of goods. Trade in the East Indies was dominated by Portugal in the 16th century, the Netherlands in the 17th century, and the British in the 18th century. In 1776, Adam Smith published the paper An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. It criticised Mercantilism, and argued that economic specialization could benefit nations just as much as firms. Since the division of labour was restricted by the size of the market, he said that countries having access to larger markets would be able to divide labour more efficiently and thereby become more productive. Smith said that he considered all rationalizations of import and export controls "dupery", which hurt the trading nation at the expense of specific industries. In 1799, the Dutch East India Company, formerly the world's largest company, became bankrupt, partly due to the rise of competitive free trade. In 1817, David Ricardo, James Mill and Robert Torrens showed that free trade might benefit the industrially weak as well as the strong, in the famous theory of comparative advantage. In Principles of Political Economy Ricardo advanced the doctrine still considered the most counterintuitive in economics: : When an inefficient producer sends the merchandise it produces best to a country able to produce it more efficiently, both countries benefit. The ascendancy of free trade was primarily based on national advantage in the mid 19th century. That is, the calculation made was whether it was in any particular country's self-interest to open its borders to imports. John Stuart Mill proved that a country with monopoly pricing power on the international market could manipulate the terms of trade through maintaining tariffs, and that the response to this might be reciprocity in trade policy. Ricardo and others had suggested this earlier. This was taken as evidence against the universal doctrine of free trade, as it was believed that more of the economic surplus of trade would accrue to a country following reciprocal, rather than completely free, trade policies. This was followed within a few years by the infant industry scenario developed by Mill anticipated New Trade Theory by promoting the theory that government had the "duty" to protect young industries, although only for a time necessary for them to develop full capacity. This became the policy in many countries attempting to industrialize and out-compete English exporters. The Great Depression was a major economic recession that ran from 1929 to 1941. During this period, there was a great drop in trade and other economic indicators. The lack of free trade was considered by many as a principal cause of the depression, and World War II. During the war, in 1944, 44 countries signed the Bretton Woods Agreement, intended to prevent national trade barriers, to avoid depressions. It set up rules and institutions to regulate the international political economy: the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (later divided into the World Bank and Bank for International Settlements). These organizations became operational in 1946 after a enough countries ratified the agreement. In 1947, 23 countries agreed to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to promote free trade. Free trade advanced further in the late 20th century and early 2000s:
- 1992 European Union lifted barriers to internal trade in goods and labour.
- January 1 1994 NAFTA took effect
- 1994 The GATT Marrakech Agreement specified formation of the WTO.
- January 1 1995 World Trade Organization was created to facilitate free trade, by mandating mutual most favoured nation trading status between all signatories.
- As of mid-2005, there is a proposal for a Central American Free Trade Agreement, which would also include the United States and the Domincan Republic.

Development of money

Main article: History of money The first instances of money were objects with intrinsic value. This is called commodity money and includes any commonly-available commodity that has intrinsic value; historical examples include pigs, rare seashells, whale's teeth, and (often) cattle. In medieval Iraq, bread was used as an early form of money. In Mexico under Montezuma cocoa beans were money. [http://www.foodrevolution.org/slavery_chocolate.htm] Montezuma]] Currency was introduced as a standardized money to facilitate a wider exchange of goods and services. This first stage of currency, where metals were used to represent stored value, and symbols to represent commodities, formed the basis of trade in the Fertile Crescent for over 1500 years. Numismatists have examples of coins from the earliest large-scale societies, although these were initially unmarked lumps of precious metal. Ancient Sparta minted coins from iron to discourage its citizens from engaging in foreign trade. The system of commodity money in many instances evolved into a system of representative money. In this system, the material that constitutes the money itself had very little intrinsic value, but none the less such money achieves significant market value through being scarce as an artifact.

Current trends

Doha rounds

The Doha round of World Trade Organization negotiations aims to lower barriers to trade around the world, with a focus on making trade fairer for developing countries. Talks have been hung over a divide between the rich, developed countries, and the major developing countries (represented by the G20). Agricultural subsidies are the most significant issue upon which agreement has been hardest to negotiate. The Doha round began in Doha, Qatar, and negotiations have subsequently continued in: Cancun, Mexico; Geneva, Switzerland; and Paris, France.

China

Beginning around 1978, the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) began an experiment in economic reform. Previously the Communist nation had employed the Soviet-style centrally planned economy, with limited results. They would now utilize a more market-oriented economy, particularly in the so-called Special Economic Zones located in the Guangdong, Fujian, and Hainan. The results of this reform has been spectacularly successful. By 2004, the GDP of the nation has quadrupled since 1978 and foreign trade exceeded $1 Trillion US. This occurred in spite of the backlash from the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The PRC maintains a $30 billion trade surplus, and is rapidly becoming a leader in industrial manufacturing. In 1991 the PRC joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group, a free-trade organization. More recently, in 1999 they also joined the World Trade Organization. See also: Economy of the People's Republic of China

International trade

International trade is the exchange of goods and services across national borders. In most countries, it represents a significant part of GDP. While international trade has been present throughout much of history (see Silk Road, Amber Road), its economic, social, and political importance have increased in recent centuries, mainly because of Industrialization, advanced transportation, globalization, multinational corporations, and outsourcing. In fact, it is probably the increasing prevalence of international trade that is usually meant by the term "globalization". Empirical evidence for the success of trade can be seen in the contrast between countries such as South Korea, which adopted a policy of export-oriented industrialization, and India, which historically had a more closed policy (although it has begun to open its economy, as of 2005). South Korea has done much better by economic criteria than India over the past fifty years, though its success also has to do with effective state institutions. Trade sanctions against specific country are sometimes imposed, in order to punish that country for some action. An embargo, a severe form of externally imposed isolation, is a blockade of all trade by one country on another. For example, the United States has had an embargo against Cuba for about 40 years. Although there are usually few trade restrictions within countries, international trade is usually regulated by governmental quotas and restrictions, and often taxed by tariffs. Tariffs are usually on imports, but sometimes countries may impose export tariffs or subsidies. All of these are called trade barriers. If a government removes all trade barriers, a condition of free trade exists. A government that implements a protectionist policy establishes trade barriers. The fair trade movement, also known as the trade justice movement, promotes the use of labour, environmental and social standards for the production of commodities, particularly those exported from the Third and Second World's to the First World. Standards may be voluntarily adhered to by importing firms, or enforced by governments through a combination of employment and commercial law. Proposed and practiced fair trade policies vary widely, ranging from the commonly adhered to prohibition of goods made using slave labour to minimum price support schemes such as those for coffee in the 1980s. Non-governmental organizations also play a role in promoting fair trade standards by serving as independent monitors of compliance with fairtrade labelling requirements.

Organisation of trade

Patterns of organising and administering trade include:
- State control - trade centrally controlled by government planning.
- Laws regulating Trade and establishing a framework such as Trade law, Tariffs, support for Intellectual property, opposition to Dumping.
- Guild control - trade controlled by private business associations holding either de facto or government-granted power to exclude new entrants.
- In contemporary times, the language has evolved to business and professional organizations, often controled by Academica. For example in many states, a person may not practice the professions of Engineering, Lawyer, Law Enforcement, Medicine, Teaching unless they have relevant College Degree and may need a License issued by a national association of that profession.
- Free enterprise - trade without significant central controls; market participants engage in trade based on their own individual assessments of risk and reward, and may enter or exit a given market relatively unimpeded.
- Infrastructure in support of Trade, such as Banking, Stock Market,
- Technology in support of Trade such as Electronic Commerce, Vending Machines.

Types of trade

- Commodities
- Staples
- Luxuries
- Slave trade
- International trade
- Arms trade
- Wholesaling
- Retailer
- Stock exchange

Support for trade

- Infrastructure
- computers and Internet
- e-commerce
- Search engine
- Critical infrastructure
- Accounting
- Banking
- Insurance
- Public services
- Police protection
- Postal service
- Public utilities
- Telephone
- Fax
- Telephone directory
- Translation
- Transport
- Highways
- Railroads
- Ship transport

Notes

Introduction. Gold was an especially common form of early money, as described in [http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/origins.html Origins of Money and of Banking]

References

- [http://epub.wu-wien.ac.at/dyn/virlib/wp/mediate/epub-wu-01_807.pdf?ID=epub-wu-01_807 Working Paper Vienna University of Business and Economics: Trade amd Productivity]
- [http://www.foodrevolution.org/slavery_chocolate.htm The Food Revolution]

External link

- [http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/TradeRelated.asp Trade-Related Issues]
- [http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/International_Business_and_Trade/Import_and_Export/Portals/Trade_Boards/ Dmoz Directory Trade Boards] Category:Commerce Category:International trade ja:貿易 simple:Trade

Barter

Barter is a type of trade where goods or services are exchanged for a certain amount of other goods or services, i.e. there is no money involved in the transaction. It can be bilateral or multilateral as trade. Barter trade was common in societies where no monetary system existed or in economies suffering from a very unstable currency (as when hyperinflation hits) or a lack of currency. The disadvantage of using bilateral barter in the past was that it depended on the mutual coincidence of wants. Before any transaction could be undertaken, the needs of one person must mirror the needs of another person. That is, if you have a surplus of goats and need more wheat, you must find someone who has a surplus of wheat and needs more goats. To overcome this mutual coincidence problem, intermediaries developed that would store, trade, and warehouse commodities. However, the intermediaries often suffered from extreme risk. The disadvantage of using multilateral barter is complexity, but software like [http://ebarter.online.fr ebarter], [http://www.barter-software.com XO Barter Software] and [http://www.bentleycommerce.com/software/overview.html VirtualBarter], could change this situation. Because barter is so expensive, it is very rare. To organize production and to distribute goods and services among their populations, many pre-capitalist or pre-market economies relied on tradition, top-down command, or community democracy instead of market exchange organized using barter. Relations of reciprocity and/or redistribution substituted for market exchange. Trade and barter were primarily reserved for trade between communities or countries. Barter becomes more and more difficult when more people become dispossesed of the means of production needed to produce products, including their subsistence. For example, if money were totally abolished in the United States, most people would have nothing of value to trade for food (since the farmer can only use so many cars, etc.) To overcome the mutual coincidence barrier, some people have proposed the creation of [http://www.barterfest.com barter exchange companies] that offer an alternative currency, the barter dollar. However, this is not true barter, because it involves currency. On the west coast of the United States one can find still another variation of barter, characterized by free sharing (without the use of barter dollars or credits), and further afield from strict barter, in that what a participant receives is not balanced against what that participant gives. This system has been used since 1975 by [http://www.geocities.com/theskillspool/index.html FREE FOR ALL The Skills Pool]. In finance, the word "barter" is used when two corporations trade with each other using non-money financial assets (such as U.S. Treasury bills). Alternatively, the standard definitions of money could be seen as being too narrow and needing to be expanded to increase near-money assets.

External links

- [http://www.barterzilla.com/ New Concept in Barter
- [http://www.tbex.com/ The Business Exchange]
- [http://barter-software.net BCI barter Software]
- [http://www.bartercenterinternational.com BCI barter Center International]
- [http://www.wtex.org/ The World Travel Exchange]
- [http://www.irta.com/ The International Reciprocal Trade Association]
- [http://www.barter-software.com XO Barter Software]
- [http://www.ozonebarter.com Ozone Barter]
- [http://www.bizx.com/ BizXchange - Improving Business With Trade]
- [http://www.bentleycommerce.com/ Bentley Commerce (OTC BB: BLYC)]
- [http://www.internationalmonetary.com/ International Monetary Systems, Ltd. (OTC BB: INLM)]
- [http://www.itex.com/ ITEX Corporation (OTC BB: ITEX)]
- [http://www.argenttrading.com/ Argent Trading, LLC]
- [http://www.icon-intl.com/ ICON International Inc]
- [http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=113437,00.html United States Internal Revenue Service]
- [http://www.barternews.com/ BarterNews]
- [http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&q=barter&btnG=Search+News Google News - Barter]
- [http://www.findarticles.com/p/search?qt=barter&tb=art&qf=all FindArticles - Article Search - Barter]
- [http://websearch.entrepreneur.com/cgi-bin/texis/webinator/newsearch/?pr=entrepreneur&query=barter&x=0&y=0 Entrepreneur.com - Article Search - Barter]
- [http://www.fortune.com/fortune/search?query=barter&publication_id=6&Search.x=0&Search.y=0&Search=Go Fortune.com - Article Search - Barter]
- [http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/barter.html Barter - Relevance and Relation to Money]
- [http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/ForSaleorTrade/ Yahoo! Groups : ForSaleorTrade]
- [http://www.u-exchange.com/barter101.asp How to Barter] Category:Business Category:Commerce Category:Trade category:Economics category:Pricing Category:Community currencies

Goods

Good may mean:
- Goodness and value theory, the moral concepts
- Good (accounting) or inventory, a physical object, used in accounting and commerce
- Good (economics), an object or service that increases utility
- Product (business), an object or service that can be offered for sale, in business and marketing simple:Good

Services

Key attributes

Service delivery

alt text
Service-Goods continuum

The service-goods continuum

List of economic services

The following is an incomplete list of service industries, grouped into rough sectors. Parenthetical notations indicate how specific

Commerce

History of Commerce

See also

Notes

Commerce (U.S. place)

Value

Economics

Personal and cultural values

Marketing

Mathematics

Computer science

Law

See also

External links

Service

Key attributes

Service delivery

The service-goods continuum

List of economic services

See also

Finding related topics

Information

Information as a message

Measuring information

Information as a pattern

Information as sensory input

Information as an influence which leads to a transformation

Information as a property in physics

Etymology

References

See also

External links

Communication

Forms and components of human communication

Communication technology

Communication barriers

Examples of communication

References

See also

External links

Trade

History of trade

Development of money

See also

Current trends

Doha rounds

China

International trade

Organisation of trade

International organizations

Free trade areas

United Nations umbrella

Types of trade

Support for trade

See also

Notes

References

External link

Barter

See also

External links

Goods

Services

Key attributes

Service delivery

The service-goods continuum

List of economic services