Author: Andre Coleman

Strategic analysis is a process which is based on three stages: analysis, planning and management. We can divide it into two types: function sense, and tool sense. In case of the function sense strategic analysis is a set of actions which diagnose both. the organisation and its environment, and thus enable build strategic plan and its development. When it comes to the tool sense, strategic analysis is a set of analysis methods which help examine, assess, and predict the future states of selected company’s elements and its environments in order to make it survive and develop on the market. Every manager in the corporation must think strategically. The idea of strategic thinking is to create a long-term plan and vision of the company, by understanding the situation, analyzing the chances, setting the goals and rules to use resources. What’s more, it requires the use of different techniques and analysis and synthesis methods which will help realise these goals and gain all the needed information. Strategic thinking is characterised by the constant need of changing areas and forms of the company’s actions in accordance with its vision and its environments condition.

There are different types of analysis in the company, however, what differs strategic analysis from the others are two characteristics:

Two ways of perceiving management and information resources: researching the environment and company at the same time, and then confronting all results. This way has its roots in the art of war, and is opposite to traditional company’s analysis
Use of the qualitative and quantitative methods, from the different fields: economy, finance, sociology, psychology, statistics, and marketing

Strategic management development had a strong influence on the strategic analysis. Since 50s and 60s there has been a rising instability and complexity of the world that surrounds the company, and thus caused scientists to create methods which could help it adapt to all changes by rational and planned manners. Long-term planning was the first issue that came into existence, but it was changed into the strategic planning term. Since 80s we can talk about the strategic management development. New concepts were made when the old ones did not work, and therefore helped companies be effective on the market.

While developing the strategic management idea, there was a big pressure put on the rules and techniques of formulating the strategy. After that scientists were focusing the empirical researches, and basing on them they were classifying. In the last stage, the final characteristics of the researches and analysis are as follows: organisation strategy multi-dimensional treatment, strategic thinking focus, and trying to create strategic management concept.

Strategic management development helps understand the evolution of methods and strategic analysis techniques, changes in the way of its use in the company’s management, and treating the moment of the strategic analysis creation as a separate analysis category. There is a big increase in demand for these types of practices, which help assess the current and future situation of the company and then predict the future conditions of its functioning. It’s connected with the increase of the environmental complexity, and then putting into practice long-term, and then strategic planning. Strategic planning, mainly in the global corporation, required more effort and thus analysis of the competitive environment, macro-environment, and measurement of the company’s strategic position.

The main factors that forced people get deeply into the strategic analysis and strategic planning were tough times of the sudden changes in the global economy, technology development, and worse economic factors. Companies improve their strategic analysis, because they face repeating organisation crises, worse internal development, lower market shares, or change of the target market. What’s interesting, these changes are very often influenced by the management board changes, or new strategy development and its implementation.

According to Richard Koch (1998) there are two consulting companies, which implemented the strategy analysis into their businesses and thus became successful in the early 50s: Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey.

Until the end of 70s, there were created seven school of the strategic thinking, which were connected with the two important management paradigms: strategic rationality ( Harvard School, Strategic Planning School, Matrix Positioning School, and Quantitative school ) and strategic behaviours ( Behavioural school, System School, Incrementalists school ) .

First paradigm describes ” strategy’s technical-economical dimension, normative approach, which create rational patterns of behaviours, assessments and way of acting” ( Gierszewska et al, 2007). The first group of schools is described below:

Harvard school – is characterised as a will to analyse the company and its competitive position against the environment, and to search for both positive and negative factors connected with functioning of the company in the different markets and its strengths and weaknesses. There are three best known strategic analysis models created by this school:
LCAG model ( developed by E.P. Learned, H.K. Christensen, K.R. Andrews, W.D. Guth ). The idea of this model is to describe the search and research of the influence on the strategic choices of the company’s strengths and weaknesses, and opportunities and threats that are connected with the environment. It has been used by the specialists in the field of management, until there were developed a better methods of the strategic analysis
Contingency model ( A.D. Chandler, P.R. Lawrence, J.W. Lorsch )

This model permits to implement different solutions to the strategic problems. These solutions differ according to the situation of the company

Industry analysis model ( M. Porter )

Michael Porter suggests to assess the company’s situation that concentrates on the competitive environment. Additionally, it leads to the assessment of the sector attractiveness extent, in which company would like to operate

Strategic Planning School – as a term says, it is about the strategic planning, however it doesn’t bring any models nor strategic analysis methods which help in the strategic management. It proves, that the rationality of the actions is a good plan.
Matrix positioning school – used qualitative and quantitative analysis tools, and helps gain precise techniques of the company’s competitive position measurement. Presents the company’s product portfolio and compares the dynamics of change between past and the future
Quantitative School – methods and techniques that are strongly connected with the multi-criteria and statistics analysis. It is based on the econometric modelling.

Second paradigm is defined as ” exposing of the socio-political strategy dimensions and strategic analysis ” ( Gierszewska et al, 2007 ). Basing on this paradigm, there were created three schools of the strategic thinking. They are as follows:

Behavioural.

It has four fathers: H.A. Simon, J.G. March, R.M. Cyert, and H. Mintzberg. The idea of this school are the real processes of formulating and implementing the company’s strategy, without any information background, how to make strategic decisions

System

D. Katz, R.L Kahn and M. Crozier are the founders of this school. This case describes the role of the person in the formulating strategy process, relations between participants, and ” highlights the social background of the organisation ”

Incrementalists school

C.E. Lindblom, T.J. Peters, and R.H. Waterman –

This school represents the pragmatic management approach. The only way to improve the quality of management is to follow already proved patterns implemented in the business by the successful companies. What’s more, motivation of the participants in the management process and example of the other successful corporations plays here a very important role. It is the basis of the further future success ( Giermaszewska, 2007 ).

As we can observe, these schools provide us with the different approaches to the analysis methods improvement and strategic management. According to Giermaszewska ( 2007 ), and……., schools based on the paradigm of the strategic rationality are more valuable than schools based on paradigm of the strategic behaviours. Harvard and positioning matrix schools bring more concretes and details, and thus bring and require more practical approach. The other schools focus the theoretical analysis methods and strategy creating.

French scientists divided the strategic analysis models and put them on the continuum. They begin from the sociological models ( which are general and synthetic ) to the microeconomic models ( more complex, and bring more concrete analysis tools and techniques ).

Sociologic models Macro-economic models

LCAG-ANSOFF-PORTER-McKINSEY-ADL-BCG

These classifications, schools evaluation, and strategic analysis models indicate the direction of the analysis evolution. New classifications ignore the latest schools and methodology propositions. M.F. Gouillart has chronologically ordered best known strategic analysis schools, and thus presented nine of them. He began from the early 60s, and ended on the 90s.

Strategic analysis development, according to M.F. Gouillart:

SWOT Analysis – 1965
Portfolio analysis – 1970
Japanese influence – the role of quality, production and technology – 1975
Shareholders benefits analysis – 1980
Porters Model ( Porter’s 5 forces ) – 1985
Price of perfection – 1990
TIme-based competition
Goal and strategic skills
Strategic change

Stage one presents LCAG analysis from the harvard school, portfolio analysis corresponds to the matrix positioning school, Porter model stands for the industry analysis model, and “price of perfection” stage represents the incrementalists school. However, M.F. Gouillart has enriched this group with two models more. They are as follows: analysis of the shareholders benefits, and Japanese influence. He adds also three issues that occurred in the early 90s: time-based competition, goal, strategic skills, and strategic changes.

Analysis of the shareholders benefits – type of the company’s position assessment. It comes together with the financial analysis signification increase, and capital market forecasts. Moreover, it focuses shares value increase as a main goal of the company, and implementation of the financial analysis into the strategy formulation

and its development

Japanese influence – this term was created in the 70s, when Japanese economy became very successful and was admired by the western companies. “Just-in-time” inventory strategy describes well the idea of this school, which puts pressure on the precision and punctuality, one of the main key success factors.

Time-based competition – time advanced companies have a serious advantage over the competition. Main tools used in this stage are techniques which help elaborate the “dynamics of the given phenomenon, processes, and organisation” ( Gierszewska, 2007 ).Time is one of the main factors which influence the result of the rivalry between companies.

Goal and strategic skills – the main role of the organisation is to define the mission and most important goals of the company. Basis of the success lays in the ability to use the company’s strategic skills.

Strategic change – it describes the problem of the company’s and executives adaptation to the changes in the environment and in the organisation. If there is too much attention put on the changes, the goal of the strategic management is lost from the horizon. This means, that “elaboration and implementation of the strategy development” are not taken into consideration ( Gierszewska, 2007 )

All these methods do not go out, while the more attractive ones are being implemented. “Useless methods are rejected, useful just improved and adjusted to the needs of the company, and technical and information capabilities ” ( Gierszewska, 2007 ). What’s more, the older methods from 50s and 60s are still being used in the consulting companies and business schools. LCAG method, product life-cycle, and BCG matrix are invaluable help for the beginning analysts.

There is one more classification of the strategic management schools that has to be mentioned. One of the best known polish economists, Krzysztof Obloj, has named and described them as follows:

Traditional ( planning ) – first thing to be considered is a detailed environment, and second creation of the formalized strategy
Evolutionary – more behavioural and politics-focused. Strategy “is an evolutionary seeking for the common pattern”. It is in the ” middle of the case and many organisational processes: tender for power, customer needs fulfilment, fixation of the activities routine “
Positional – idea of this school is achieving the competitive advantage. It assumes that the strategies are characterised by the product-market concept, and put the pressure on the situation of the company in the environmental sector
Resources and capabilities – company’s key capabilities and resources are the basis for its development strategies

Modern strategic analysis is partially based on the methodology of science, such as sociology, psychology, economy, and management. This connection helps in listing the following characteristics of the strategy analysis approach:

Use of the financial analysis

Technology development has simplified complex methods of the financial analysis, and therefore it is more understandable for the specialists and the managers. Strategic financial analysis is used both, in the assessment of the company’s financial condition and the structure of the capital, and in the assessment of the competitive position of the organisation. Additionally, it helps estimate sector entry and exit barriers, and became a basis for the production portfolio estimation. What’s more, strategic costs, price strategy, and strategic alliances planning are also very important issues to consider.

Quality factors

The idea of quality factors is to make company be aware of its soft elements, such as “culture, qualifications, and peoples motivations, strategic mission, ecological management aspect, and ethical side of the strategic analyses” ( Gierszewska, 2007 ). These elements relate especially to the information about the competition, which is used in making decision process.

Situational approach

Company focuses the correct approaching procedure, and capability to interpret the analysis results without already selected tools and imposing assessments. Analysis is a tool, used by the managers in their everyday job. Thus, strategic planning departments are liquidated, information is being decentralized, and moreover company creates special group which takes over this task.

O Complex character

Company takes into account both internal and external factors from all of it subsystems and environment. In this case it explores relationship between these two factors ( Gierszewska, 2007 ).

1.7.1 Strategic Planning Methodology

The purpose of this factor is to set information needs and methods of carrying on the strategic analysis in the company. First issue that must be considered is the analysis of the environment, in which company operates, and its internal background, such as strengths and weaknesses, staff development, and its potential to develop the process of the new strategy. Knowledge about the past, presence, and capability to predict the company’s future and its environment, helps in building the strategy that will adapt to the reality. A good strategic plan helps the company use its potential and strengths to fight the threat and not to loose any opportunity offered by the market. Managers can just set “the strategic goal and during implementing the chosen scenario change the ideas into the concrete plans” ( Gierszewska, 2007 ), but they may face some problems in the meantime, for example lack of precision in formulating the goals of the actions.

Strategic planning is based on determining the sequence of decisions that have been made earlier, but have to be put into practice.

Strategic management means, that the strategic decisions have to be put in the right order, “findings in the different areas must be coordinated, and on the different levels of the management” ( Gierszewska, 2007 ). The following methods, presented by Grazyna Gierszewska and Maria Romanowska ( Gierszewska et al, 2007 ), are very helpful in putting the company’s strategy on the right track, plan different types of operations, and management functions.

Levels of the strategic management ( Maria Romanowska, 2007 ) ( STR 32, Gierszewska )

Levels of the management Types of the strategy

Management Board Company development strategy

Section management

The most important decisions for the company come from the management board. Portfolio operations ” depend on the number and type of sectors of the future activity, type of technology, and geographical scope of sales ” ( Gierszewska et al, 2007 ). So, according to what is said the corporate strategy should be considered as a first step to the further internal solutions.

Strategy of the company is also responsible for the number of the ” different sectors, technologies, and markets, and investment priorities as well ” ( Gierszewska, 2007 ).

Sector strategy is divided into two sub-groups: suppliers strategy, and competition strategy. Strategy making process in all these cases is limited by the goals and hierarchy that was implemented in the company development process. If corporations that operate only in one sector, there are no two strategic planning levels. They are just treated by the management board as a one strategic plan. However, they appear only when company wants to enter a brand new sector

Last type of the strategy are the functional strategies. Their object is to ” evaluate the goals and ways of achieving them in the area of the financial management, marketing, personal policy, structure shaping, focusing the management procedures, and technology development” ( Gierszewska, 2007).

To conclude, the aim of the functional strategies is to oversee all strategic plans in the whole organisation.

1.7.2 Scope of the strategic analysis

Strategic management requires capability to differentiate internal and external events/phenomenons. Managers are able mainly to research internal problems of the company rather than external ( Gierszewska, 2007 ). External problems estimation needs help of the consultants, and thus managers fail to analyse the environment. Corporation which constantly observes the environment is prepared for the threat that may occur. Situation on the market helps the company prepare the good strategy and plan the future. tells what steps should be taken in order to therefore

The pioneering work of Sir Frank Whittle in developing the jet engine.

The pioneering work of Sir Frank Whittle in developing the jet engine helped transform the way civil aviation operates today. Indeed, it is probably true to say that without the jet airliner, there would be no package holiday business today and air travel would have remained an exclusive activity. However, the invention of the jet alone did not make these changes possible. Aircraft manufacturers too had their part to play in building aircraft types that were economic to operate for airlines. There are a variety of important aircraft models, all equally impressive in their own rights, which helped shape the air travel business. We shall focus on three of the most notable product lines: The Boeing 7?7 series, the McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 series, and the Airbus 300 series, all of which have utilized varying degrees of speed, fuel efficiency, service, and passenger capacity to make air travel accessible and attractive to the common person.

It is worth briefly mentioning here that the American aircraft manufacturers had a built-in advantage in the jet passenger craft market coming out of World War II, for a fairly straightforward reason: The American aircraft industry was completely undamaged, in contrast to the European and Asian companies which had been devastated. So aircraft manufacturer Boeing, makers of workhouse American bombers such as the B-17 and B-29, was well-poised to enter and dominate the commercial jet aircraft arena. The first commercially successful venture, unsurprisingly, was the Boeing ‘7X7’ Series, four-engine large-payload jets, the first of which was the 707. This remarkable craft was airborne within two years of the announcement of the project’s commencement, taking to the skies on May 14, 1954 on its first test flight, and carrying its first commercial passengers a relatively short time later (December 20 1957), thanks to Pan American Airways’ agreement with Boeing to purchase and operate a large number of 707s to form the backbone of Pan Am’s worldwide fleet. The first model, the 707-120 (medium-range jets), carried up to 181 passengers, and subsequent versions including the 707-320 (longer-range jets), carried up to 200 passengers. Cruising speeds for the 707 reached up to 1000 kilometers per hour, making even international travel a speedy, convenient, and more affordable process. In all, 1,010 707s in its various incarnations were produced in an astonishingly lengthy commercial production run from 1954 to 1978. (Boeing continued to produce 707s for the military until 1991.)

The American passenger airline business benefited greatly from government deregulation in the 1970s, opening the way for an explosion comprised of a perfect storm of more carriers, lower prices, and higher customer demand. The aging 707 series, venerable as it was, simply did not carry enough passengers or boast adequate fuel efficiency to remain economically feasible for production and continued use. Some airline industry analysts felt Boeing was slow to realize this, but the company responded with remarkable agility by announcing in 1966 that it would begin production of a line of so-called ‘jumbo jets’ within four years, spurred again by a huge order from Pan Am, who was gambling on twenty-five brand new jets, sight unseen. This was no minor undertaking – the development and production of this revolutionary new behemoth airplane nearly bankrupted Boeing. In 1970 — right on its announced schedule, yet against all outside predictions — Boeing introduced the 747, a colossal double-decker jet which will have held the record for largest size jet until late 2006, when it will be surpassed by the introduction of Airbus Industries’ A380 (more on the Airbus later). Like the 707, Boeing’s 747s were rolled out in a progression of improving and size-varied series, ranging from the 747-100 to the 747-400s. Though the 747’s cruising speed is a tad slower than the 707 (910 kilometers per hour), the latest models transport an astonishing amount of human cargo — between 415 and 525 passengers (up from the earliest models’ 374-passenger maximum). Its better fuel efficiency, compared to the 707s, allowed it to travel longer distances without refueling, as well, for example, from New York to Hong Kong nonstop. In addition to meeting the market demand of more people to fly for less money, the 747 also accommodated those who were willing and able to pay more to fly in style. Another clever feature of the 747 was the refinement of the idea of different ‘classes’ of passenger service. The original evolution of passenger air flight in general, not just the 747, was simply along the lines of making air travel affordable for the maximum number of people. Once this goal was achieved, the airlines modified their business plans to accommodate the fact that certain travelers, particularly those traveling for business purposes, would be willing to pay higher fares for added amenities such as larger seating, better food, free alcoholic beverages, priority boarding, etc. The 747’s upper deck was designed for such so-called ‘first-class’ passengers and Boeing produced, for various airlines, a variety of configurations that included such amenities as a piano lounge and standup cocktail bars for its more upscale clientele. In all, over 1,200 747s have been produced, and with the advent of the 747-8 series in late 2005, the line lives on.

Another important jet was McDonnell-Douglas’ DC-10, which flew its first passenger flight in 1971. It was designed to compete directly with Boeing’s 747 and its creation, like the 747, was spurred in large part by the demand from a particular airline. In the DC-10’s case, American Airlines specifically asked McDonnell-Douglas if it could manufacture a plane capable of flying the same long routes as the 747 but which could accommodate shorter runways and standard gate sizes found at many airports. The result was a three-engine aircraft that could carry between 250 and 380 passengers in its various incarnations. Its speed was essentially comparable to the 747, at 982 kilometers per hour, with less fuel consumption, again making it more affordable. United Airlines, pleased with the results of McDonnell-Douglas’ fruits, also purchased a number of DC-10s. Unfortunately, the DC-10 was not to have as celebrated an era of service as the 747. In the 1970s, several horrific and well-publicized disasters occurred involving DC-10s that were traced to design flaws. The most noteworthy of these problems was the design of the cargo doors. Most passenger jets utilized designs in which the doors opened inward; the DC-10 cargo door opened outwards, requiring a complex and heavy locking mechanism to withstand the heavy outward-directed force of cabin pressurization. The locking mechanism was prone to a variety of dangerous pitfalls, ranging from human error to mechanical failure, any of which could cause a catastrophic blowout of the door. There were a few near-misses in the early 1970s in which a door failed, including a 1972 incident in Detroit, but no accidents transpired. Tragically, however, a complete and utter disaster befell a Turkish Airlines DC-10 on March 3, 1974. The plane took off from Orly airport in Paris; within seconds, its cargo door blew out and the resulting depressurization severed the control cables, rendering the aircraft unmanageable by the pilots. The plane crashed 77 seconds after takeoff into the dense Ermenonville forest outside of Paris, shredding the plane and its passengers to ribbons. All 364 people aboard were killed. Subsequent investigations by the French and American governments revealed that McDonnell-Douglas was well aware of defects in the cargo door design, but made inadequate efforts to correct it. Under legal pressure and rebellion from passengers who simply refused to fly on a DC-10, McDonnell-Douglas corrected the flaw. But after yet another catastrophic crash of a DC-10 in 1979 at Chicago O’Hare airport, the DC-10 never regained its footing and eventually, production was halted in 1988 after a comparably small production run of 446 planes, ending what could have been a healthier competition between the 747 and DC-10 that would have continued to benefit airlines in their fierce competition for passengers.

Lastly, Airbus Industries’ Airbus model is important to mention, both for its successful, albeit relatively short track record and the simple fact that it is not a product of American design and manufacturing. Airbus was formed in 1967 by a consortium of European aviation manufacturers with the express purpose to compete with Boeing’s overwhelming dominance in the passenger jet market. In the intervening 38 years, Airbus has fought a pitched battle with Boeing, both politically and commercially, and achieved remarkable parity. It narrowly edged out Boeing in total number of orders received in 2005, 1055 jets to 1002. Airbus did not get off to an auspicious beginning, however. Only 81 of its A300 model were in service by 1979 despite its entry into the world market in 1974. However, the introduction of the A320 model in 1981 was a smashing success, with Airbus having taken 400 orders from airlines before the first model even left the ground. Though the A320 typically only carried approximately 150 passengers, its reliability, speed (approximately as fast as a 747) and fuel efficiency made it an attractive choice that could compete with Boeing’s smaller jets including the 737, and Airbus wasted little time in expanding the passenger capacity of the A320 and subsequent models. In fall 2006, Airbus’ A380 will overtake the 747 in maximum passenger capacity – 555. The competition between Airbus and Boeing has become so fierce that it has escalated into conflict between the United States and European Union, with unfair subsidy accusations and threats of trade wars flying across the Atlantic Ocean as often as the jets.

Certainly, Boeing, McDonnell-Douglas, and Airbus were not the only major players in the passenger jet business since its advent. Other notables include American manufacturer Lockheed and a host of minor foreign manufacturers. None, however, have matched the dominance and industry-changing models of Boeing 7?7 series and Airbus 300 series, or the unfortunate inability of McDonnell-Douglas to live up to the potential of the maligned DC-10. Each of these planes played a key role in making long-distance air travel more competitive, more affordable, more international, more accessible, and safer (ironically, in the case of the DC-10) with each passing year.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/707family/

http://www.aviation-history.com/boeing/707.html

http://www.aircraft-info.net/aircraft/jet_aircraft/boeing/747-400/

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/index.html

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/chasingthesun/planes/747.html

http://www.aircraft-info.net/aircraft/jet_aircraft/mcdonnell_douglas/DC-10_MD10/

Johnston, Moira. The Last Nine Minutes: The Story of Flight 981, Avon Publishers, 1976.

http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/

Contrada, John Della. “Subsidy war could harm Boeing more than Airbus, UB researcher says,” The University of Buffalo Reporter, 24 June 2004.

Medical Translation: functionalist approaches

Translation is used in every day life and is used in multiple fields of work. Translation is defined in the Collins Dictionary as “a piece of writing or speech that has been translated into another action” and as “the act of translating something”. The two definitions point to the two different ways translation is explained, the first as being the product produced by the translator and the second as the actual process of translation. The dictionary of Translation Studies additionally introduces “sub types” of translation such as “literary translation, technical translation, subtitling and machine translation. . .interpreting” (Hatim, Munday: 2004). The sub type I shall be discussing is medical translation.

“At every milestone, translation was the key to scientific progress as it unlocked for each successive inventor and discoverer the minds of predecessors who expressed their innovative thoughts in another language” (Fischbach: Wright1993). Translation has been used since Hippocrates and Galen in Greek and was translated primarily into Latin and Arabic, Arabic especially in the Middle Ages. This spread knowledge to the Western world producing translations into Castilian and English. [1]

Whilst medical translation shares many features with other sub types in that it involves adapting to cultural differences, using technological tools and communicating through linguistic barriers, this sub type has many “specialties” of its own. When translating a medical text, one must be careful to communicate the specific knowledge correctly. “Factual complexity and accuracy” becomes a main priority for the translator. Medical terminology, communicative situations (among specialists, in the mass media, in education, to patients, in campaigns and internationally), medical genres and medical ethics also influence the way in which translation is produced. I shall be focusing on functional approaches to translation, introducing Vermeer’s Skopostheorie, Reiss’ theory of text types and functional equivalence and lexical equivalence, applying them to the aspects of specific audiences, Latin based terms, medical English standardisations and medical texts.

Functionalism is the broad term used for the many theories that approach translation using functionalist methods. It focuses on the importance of the function or functions of the target text rather than the linguistic equivalence to the source text.

“Texts are produced with a specific purpose or function in mind. The starting point for any translation is therefore not the linguistic surface structure of the ST, but the purpose of the TT” (Nord: 1997).

It also includes the notion of translation as communication. Translation is defined as a purposeful, transcultural activity whose linguistic form depends on the function or the purpose of the target text. Action, communication and cultural theories are included under the title of functionalism. Skopostheorie, translational action theory and Reiss and Vermeer’s general theory of translation will be discussed in further detail.

The main theory within functionalist approaches is Skopostheorie, (Skopos meaning purpose in Greek) by Hans J. Vermeer. Vermeer believes that linguistics alone is not enough for translation as he believes not all problems can be solved solely through language abilities but that “the prime principal determining any translation process is the purpose (Skopos) of the overall translational action” (Vermeer: Nord1997). He understands translation as a human action and that all actions are intentional and purposeful behaviours.

“Any form of translational action, including therefore translation itself, may be conceived as an action, as the name implies. Any action has an aim, a purpose. [. . . ] The word Skopos, then, is a technical term for the aim or purpose of a translation” (Vermeer1989).

He also adds that these behaviours take place in situations which happen in cultures which consequently leads to the Skopostheorie being culture specific as Holz-Manttari explains in further detail.

From this thought, Vermeer derives a general Skopos rule, which states:
“translate/interpret/speak/write in a way that enables your text/translation to function in a situation in which it is used and with the people who want to use it and precisely in the way they want it to function”. This rule is designed to solve dilemmas such as free vs. faithful translation or dynamic vs. formal equivalence.

Another general rule mentioned which will be discussed again later is the coherence rule which concerns the target text must be coherent to allow the intended users to understand it in their situational circumstances. Another important factor of Skopostheorie is that of the addressee which is the receiver or the audience. The translation must be directed towards them, which is why purpose and the coherence rule are so important. ***

Holz-Mantarri’s translational action theory goes further than the Vermeer in that she completely disregards the word “translation”, referring to it instead as message transmitters. She describes translation as “a complex action designed to achieve a particular purpose”. The purpose of this theory is to create the ability to send messages across culture and language barriers by experts (translators). She also highlights the actional aspects of the translation process such as the translator, initiator, message receiver and the situational conditions in which the action (of translation) takes place. She calls this intercultural cooperation.

The audience, as mentioned before, is one of the most important factors in Skopostheorie. Medic al translation requires the translator to be faithful to the client as well as the source text***

In the medical field, there are two main types of audiences: the lay audience and the expert audience. Often, when translating medical technical terms, which is very common and can cause problems, terms can be changed or borrowed in order to make sense in the target culture. Because Latin was once the lingua franca of medicine and Greek was the original language of medical text, there still exists today a great amount of Latin and Greek based words and the use of Latin and Greek suffixes and prefixes. This topic has proved difficult for translators as it challenges the Skopostheorie in that linguistic equivalence is not necessary. We see here that this is not always the case. The use of Latin words is extremely common in English; words such as pneumonia and appendicitis are very common amongst both types of audiences. When translating into romance languages and even into Germanic languages, the word tends to be equivalent to that of the English with minor spelling changes:

English Spanish German

Pneumonia Neumonia Pneumonie

Appendicitis Apendicitis Appendizitis

However, in some countries such as Germany and Denmark, Latin continues to act as the lingua franca in medicine and therefore is not understood by the lay audience. They are replaced by more popularized terms in order to reach out to a larger audience:

German Danish

Expert: appendizitis expert: Appendicitis

Non- expert: Blinddarmentzundung non-expert: blindtarmsbetoendelse

Expert: Pneumonie expert: pneumoni

Non- expert: Lungenentzundung non- expert: lungebetoendelse

MARKET AND COMPETITION ANALYSIS

Shareholders, employees with their families and collaborators with their families benefit from the beer business. According to the industry estimates this branch and cooperating industries employs almost 200 000 workers in Europe, and 600 000 is the number of employees who would like work for the brewing industry in the future. Polish brewery market employs about 15 000 people, and sectors that cooperate with it have higher employment rate ( 56,2 thousand employees ). People are hired in HORECA and trade and almost 186,000 of them make a living by working for the breweries. This makes 740,000 families altogether that owe their financial stability to this industry.

Investors

After the fall of the communism in 1989 polish brewery market has been dominated by the multiple foreign investors. They knew that this market has a potential, and needs money, technology, and experience in order to be successful. At the beginning of the 90s consumption of the beer was not exceeding 30 litres per person per year. It was of a poor quality and the beer consumption culture did not equal the western reality. This investment needed big money, and therefore investors decided to start the brewery business on the polish market from the scratch. For example SABMiller has spent almost 2 billions zloty ( PLN ) on the development of its four brands, and thus one of them, Tychy, became the largest in Europe.

Brewpole, an Australian company, was the first leading investor on the market. It created new production lines and introduced a new brand: EB. Then it gained almost 16% of the market shares. However, later on it had to merge with the Zywiec Group ( because of some of its advertisement failures ). Finally, production scale and good marketing were the most important issues that must have been considered. Big players were taking over smaller ones, and others were just closed down because were not profitable.

Foreign investors have helped the polish brewery market by putting into it $ 1 billion – and now it is the most modern in Europe. Almost 80% of the beer production is under their control. Therefore technology development in the brewery industry has been influenced by them, and this has led to increase of the beer production between 1990-1997.

Today polish brewery industry belongs mainly to the global corporations. They knew Poles are patriots, and therefore decided to take advantage of this attitude. Tyskie, Okocim, Lech, Zywiec, Warka, Lomza and Strzelec sound polish, and thus are the most popular on this market in Poland. This shows that the foreign investors respect polish tradition and decided to combine it with their corporate global culture.

External
Customers

Beer is one of the most popular global products. According to the data men are a vast majority when it comes to the beer consumption ( 65%). In case of women, 45% of them does drink beer. 76% of the beer drink consumers are in the age below 47, and what’s interesting, 35% of people between 18-29 declare to be the loyal beer purchasers and its consumers. When it comes to frequency of the consumed beer, 47% of the consumers are between 30-65.

What’s surprising, there is a huge difference in the education of the beer consumers. People with the Masters degree and over make up only 8% of the beer fans. Almost 26% of people with the basic education belong to this group, 34% with the vocational education does drink beer, and 37% with the secondary education are loyal beer consumers.

72% of the consumers usually drinks beer at home, 21% in pubs and the restaurants, and only 6% while enjoying the nature. They prefer light beer rather than dark. The reason for his choice lays not only In the taste, but also In its healthy properties. Light beer strengthens our bones, helps fight the osteoporosis, and bone tissue disease, which leads to the multiple fractures. For the last 10 years Poles have been drinking beer more than before. They treat beer as a substitute for wines and vodkas. According to the researches, 60% of the overall annual alcohol consumption goes to beer, 10% to vodka, and only 10% to wine. Poles are patriots and therefore almost 98% of them chooses polish beer. But when it comes to the quality of beer and its price, 45% definitely chooses German, Dutch or Czech products. . The price is usually too high In Poland, and thus the consumers are forced to buy the imported beers. However, the quality and taste of the beer are improved every year, and therefore beer consumption increases by a few percent.

Suppliers

Brewery industry requires specific type of suppliers. This sector is supplied by the hop, and metal and glass packaging producers. Moreover, brewery industry focuses also the printing plant services.

Brewery industry is supplied with the hop by the foreign importers and domestic suppliers. More than a half of the imported hop is used in the beer production, and suppliers are usually Hungary and Czech Republic, from the agri-food branch. Breweries sign with them the hop supply contracts in order to avoid the sudden price changes of the resource on the market.

Domestic producers are the second group of the hop suppliers. They do not strongly influence the breweries, which then do not fell threatened by them. The reason for such situation is that there is a low duty and low prices that encourage the breweries to import rather than use the services offered by the domestic suppliers, which subsequently focus only the brewery with the best parameters.

Next type of suppliers for the breweries are those who supply glass and/or metal packages. There is a strong competition, and each of them tries to make his offer more attractive for the customer than the others: low price, good quality, and possibly best parameters. Most of the producers have a very attractive offers, and thus the breweries feel free in the choice of the offers.

Printing plant services are in the same situation as glass and metal packages suppliers. Because of the strong competition on this market, they try to make their offers attractive as it is possible, and thus make the customer to choose them. Large breweries use mainly the services offered by the bigger plants.

PEST analysis

PEST Analysis is a combination of parts of the environment, that are put together in order to be easily researched by the company. It considers influence of the politics on the market, economy, social aspects, and technological development. Brewery industry challenges increase every time when European countries start to join the European Union, for example Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic in 2004, and decide to co-operate with the non-European countries. There are many opportunities and limitations which breweries have to challenge.

Governments policies which consider alcohol sales include price regulations, sales limitations ( such as age, unsober customers, time when alcohol can be sold, place of selling and consumption ), and license for sale. Governments try to influence the price rivalry by limiting the advertisements or licensing the alcohol sales. They also increase prices in order to increase states revenues, and prevent increase of the consumption ( and alcoholism problems of the society ), especially among young people. Government wants to minimise the negative effects of the alcohol consumption, such as car accidents or its overdose. Sales licensing helps control whether the alcohol companies adhere to the sales rules and pay taxes. State monopoly is the factor which does not apply to the brewery industry.

Economic and social environments are the most favourable factors for the industry’s development. There are different economic systems in the countries of operation, and therefore there needed different approaches. However, European Union rules are similar for all of its members: common trade policy and rules of the export trade policy. Exchange policy is another issue to consider. There are still some countries that haven’t changed their currency yet ( f.ex. Poland ). Effects of the global financial crisis in 2009 are still felt on the currency market, and therefore polish zloty varies every day. “Labour costs are on the employer’s (demand) side of the labour market framework”. The average hourly labour cost in 2006 in the European Union was 20,35 Euro. However, there was a 20% increase in 2008 in Czech Republic, Russia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Poland and Lithuania. Year 2009 was economically disadvantageous for every country, but the prognosis seem to be optimistic and look forward to improvements on the market. During the last years inflation has influenced GDP growth rate, and the following table shows how it was changing between years 2006-2010.

As we can conclude from this table, GDP growth rate varies every year by 0,1%, however, it declines until the year of the financial crisis in 2009, where it drastically fell down by 1%-2% ( -2,5% was the lowest and the worst moment ). Luckily GDP started to catch up on losses quickly in 2010, and seems to follow the statistics from year 2006. Financial crisis had also influenced the employment rate – almost 34 mln people have lost their jobs in Europe, and 212 mln all over the world. 13,4% of the young and 5,2% of the older people were among the unemployed.

Social and cultural influences in business are different in all countries. The dominant religion in the world is Christianity – 33% of respondents claim they do believe in God, Islam – 21%, Atheists – 16%, Hinduism – 14%. The following picture presents all known religions and their followers in percentage ( out of the whole humanity ):

Brewery industry will not find its potential consumers among Muslims, because their religion forbids them to drink any kind of alcohol.

Older generation is usually very traditional and therefore sticks to the domestic products, that are proven and are mostly with the tradition. Young people perceive foreign products as unique and attractive, therefore they have positive attitude towards innovation and modernity of the foreign products and services. But in order to get their loyalty and trust brewery companies must consider the cultural and linguistic differences. Moreover, society’s wealth influences the possible sale of the product. Western countries, such as France or Germany, unlike Poland, Lithuania or Estonia can afford expensive products, without violating much their budget ( for example German retirees going for a holidays abroad ).

Modern technology plays also important role in the production. It helps make products cheaply and with a good quality. Foam of the beer is more stable, and the taste is more adapted to the consumers needs. Moreover, technology can be implemented in order to save the natural environment. Adnams, the British brewery, has invested in such a technology, without influencing negatively the nature and taste of its ecological product – East Green. During the brewing process offset minimises CO2 emission to zero.

Porter’s 5 forces

This method helps analyse the sector by researching factors that make it attractive for the current and potential investors. There are four entry barriers in the brewery industry: scale of economy, no access to the distribution channel, lack of the capital, differentiation of products, and the state policy. Technology used by the brewery companies and their developed production allow them produce at the lowest unit costs. However, company which decides to enter the market cannot produce at a unit cost that is lower than the market price. Next problem company must challenge is lack of the distribution channels. Market belongs to the brewery corporations, and thus the new competitor has look for the other distributors. More over, it has also to invest in the beer producing technology, for the marketing and promotion, market research, and acquisition of the raw material. What’s more, government policy counters by the social insobriety ( anti alcohol legislation ), therefore alcohol sales are impeded. Last barrier is the product differentiation. Some brands, such as Heineken or Lomza have achieved high positions on the brewery market, and thus the new competition may have problems with gaining trust and loyalty of its target group.

Bargaining power of suppliers in the beer market has been strongly influenced by the reduce of the aluminium costs control, and therefore this has led to the increase of the packaging materials costs. In order to avoid being dependent on these materials some breweries started to run recycling programmes.

Brewery target group are the beer consumers. They choose whether they want to buy the product or not, and therefore influence sales of the company. Thus breweries care about the quality of their products, packaging, add some gadgets, and consider the way the product is served to the customer. He has a wide range of beers to choose and is given an information about each of them. Therefore he can choose the brand that mostly fits his taste. The functioning of the company depends largely on his beer choice.

There are no substitutes for the beer, because there are no substitutes for hop. Brewery industry is very specific, because new products from this area are rarely launched to the market. However, they don’t influence the beers consumption. Even non-alcohol beers haven’t increased its volume sales.

Competition within the brewery industry is very active. Success of the brewery companies depend on the good advertisement, economies of scale benefits, costs minimisation and attractive packaging. Leaders on the global beer market are Heineken and Carlsberg. Smaller breweries try to reach their position and claim to have 40% increase in sales, and therefore bigger corporation try to save their position by comparing their successes to the weaker competition. Smaller players on the market increase their shares by selling the low quality products, and thus encourage potential investor to take over the brewery. Breweries try to reach their customers by selling them cheaper products. Customer looking at the low price resigns from the quality. Middle breweries dominate the segments with the low price products. Bigger corporations promote their brands by investing big capital in the marketing and promotion campaigns. Smaller companies can’t afford such a big investment, and thus they just encourage and motivate their salesmen to be more effective.

SWOT analysis

Brewery industry is one of the most developing industries in the world. Its internal ( strengths, weaknesses ) and external ( opportunities, threats ) factors can be audited by using the strategic environment analysis called SWOT analysis. It is presented below:

All these factors relate individually to each of the companies operating in the brewery industry. Strengths shown in the table are their resources and capabilities that are used in order to develop their competitive advantage on the market ( Garbarski et al, 2000 ). There will be always a high demand for beer, and developed technology will be the background for the products improvement and making it more attractive for the customers. This creates a relationship between both, product and its consumer.

Strengths prevail over the weaknesses, however they strongly influence the market operations of the companies. High advertising costs are a main financial burden for the smaller and medium players. Moreover, because of the low budget they have to deal with the narrow product line, and thus the weak and slow distribution. However, If the industry considers its opportunities that appear during the analysis of the environment, it may observe some growth and generate more profits. Demographic increase and smaller range of age for drinking alcohol help reach a wider range of customers. However, tax increases, changing customers tastes, or anti-alcohol campaigns may threaten actions taken to improve the financial situation within the industry.

INTERNET WEBSITES:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/about-statistics/user-guidance/lm-guide/concepts/costs/index.html

http://ecodzien.pl/2010/01/07/najbardziej-ekologiczne-piwo-swiata/

http://unia.realnet.pl/panstwa_czlonkowskie.php

http://wyborcza.biz/biznes/1,101562,7526063,Przez_kryzys_34_mln_ludzi_stracilo_prace.html

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Economics/GDP-Growth.aspx?Symbol=EUR ).

http://www.newsweek.pl/artykuly/sekcje/nauka/jasne-piwo-zdrowe-dla-kosci,53372,1

inwestor.msp.gov.pl/download.php?s=4&id=4146

http://agro.e-bmp.pl/index.php?art=1742

INTRODUCTION

The emergence of functionalist approaches to translation in the 1970s and 1980s was quite revolutionary in that it marked the move from what Munday (2001: 72) describes as ‘the static linguistic typologies of translation shift’, a term defined by Catford (1965: 73) as ‘departures from formal correspondence in the process of going from the SL to the TL’, to a consideration of the overall function of the Target Text (TT) in the Target Culture (TC). However, these approaches have been criticised on various grounds. This paper investigates one of these criticisms and whether Chritiane Nord’s notion of ‘function plus loyalty’ adequately addresses the issue.

SKOPOSTHEORIE

As a term, functionalism is used to refer to the aggregate of approaches to translation that focus on the overall function(s) of a text or translation (Nord 1997:1). In other words, functionalism has been expressed or practised differently by different scholars and translators. However, they all appear to have drawn inspiration from what Vermeer has called skopostheorie, the birth of which apparently marked the beginning of functionalism (Honig 1997: 6).

According to Vermeer (2004), ‘[t]he skopos of a translation is … the goal or purpose , defined by the commission and if necessary adjusted by the translator’ (236) and this notion of skopos can be applied in the translation process, the translation result as well as the translation mode (230). This skopos determines whether a text should be translated word for word or paraphrased or even adapted. As Nord (1997) puts it, the ‘Skopos of a particular translation task may require a ”free” or a ”faithful” translation, or anything between these two extremes, depending on the purpose for which the translation is needed’ (29). Thus a single text can beget different translations according to the different translation briefs provided.

This approach was quite novel in that it, to a large extent, addressed the ‘eternal dilemmas of free vs faithful translations, dynamic vs formal equivalence, good interpreters vs slavish translators, and so on’ (Nord 1997: 29). However, it has also received quite a number of criticisms. One of such attacks came from Pym (1996) who questions the ability of functionalism to provide a basis for a professional ethics of translation. He then asks:

Can such a theory generate a way of discerning between good and bad purposes, between good and bad translation strategies? Or is its aim merely to produce mercenary experts, able to fight under the flag of any purpose able to pay them? (2)

Pym questions the apparent neglect of the ST, undue emphasis on the TT and the ‘freedom’ skopostheorie gives the translator to produce any kind of text as dictated by the translation brief, whether or not the said brief is a far cry from the intentions of the author of the source text. In response to such criticisms, Nord added the concept of ‘loyalty’ to functionalism.

FUNCTION PLUS LOYALTY

Chritiane Nord maintains that the loyalty principle is meant to ‘account for the culture-specificity of translation concepts, setting an ethical limitation to the otherwise unlimited range of possible skopoi for the translation of one particular source text’ (2007:2-3). Loyalty is used to refer to the responsibility of translators, as mediators between two cultures, towards their partners namely, the source-text author, the client or commissioner of the translation, and the target-text receivers (Nord 2001: 185). It may also be seen as ‘taking into account the intentions and expectations of all the partners in the communicative interaction named translation’ (195). Though the client’s brief determines the skopos of the translation, it is not the only determining factor for the translation. The translator should be loyal to the ST author by ensuring that he not produce a TT that falsifies the author’s intentions (Nord 2005:32). In other words, loyalty ensures some compatibility between the ST and the TT. The translator should also be loyal to the target audience, who have some expectations of what the translations should be like, by explaining in a footnote or preface how they arrived at a particular meaning, the thought-process involved.

Nord distinguishes loyalty from fidelity or equivalence. While she sees the former as an interpersonal relationship between the translator and his partners, the latter she sees as concepts used to refer to the linguistic or stylistic similarity between the source and the target texts, regardless of the communicative intentions involved’ (2001: 185)

HOW ADEQUATE?

This section looks at the adequacy of Nord’s function plus loyalty principle to translation, especially in relation to Pym’s accusation of skopostheorie producing only mercenary experts.

In the first place, it checks the apparent freedom of the translator to produce any kind of translation in accordance with the client’s brief. While function requires that the translation be modelled to fit into the brief provided by the commissioner, loyalty requires the translator to justify their choice of translation method by considering the interests of all the participants involved in the translation, not just that of the client. A translator should not produce a translation that goes contrary to the brief; they also should satisfy the expectations of the target audience as well as not falsify the intentions of the author. So if the brief betrays the communicative intentions of the author, it is then the translator’s duty to draw the attention of the client to this apparent anomaly. Pym (2007: 132) quotes Nord as saying that ‘If the client asks for a translation that would mean being disloyal to either the author or the target readership or both, the translator should argue this point with the client or perhaps even refuse to produce the translation on ethical grounds’. So the translator is not a mere mercenary since they do not accept whatever skopos is given them. Downie puts it this way: ‘With the addition of the notion of ”loyalty” the translator is now ethically and professionally responsible to either observe the expectations their partners have of their work or to tell them why these expectations have not been met’ (2), This principle reduces the number of skopoi that could be generated for a single translation text.

Two questions may be raised against the loyalty principle, one of which has been partly answered in Downie’s quote above namely: is it always possible for every party to be made happy by the translator? According to Nord, the translator has the moral obligation not to translate on a brief that will falsify the author’s intention. If after explaining the situation to the client and the client insists on not modifying the brief to make up for the defect, the translator has the moral responsibility to refuse to do the translation. Downie has already highlighted what the translator should do if the translation goes contrary to the expectations of the receiving audience. In Nord’s words, ‘if the target culture expects the translation to be a literal reproduction of the original, translators cannot simply translate in a non-literal way without telling the target audience what they have done and why’ (1997: 125). This increases the level of confidence the audience has on the translator and makes them more ready to accept the translation as of a good quality even if their (the audience’s) expectations are not met.

This raises the second question: will the adoption of the documentary translation in situations where the source culture is markedly different from the target culture, seen in the additional explanations the translator has to make for the reader, not affect the reception of the work since the audience is aware that the text is not the original, but a translation? Though the reader might be affected by the realisation, the style shows that the translator has some respect for the reader and will help build their confidence in the translator for taking the pains to explain their strategy and choices.

One other issue the loyalty principle addresses is the supposed ‘dethronement’ of the source text. This is also one of the bases for Pym accusation of translators as being mere mercenary experts since the ST may result in TTs with which it shares a very tenuous relationship. Loyalty insists that the communicative intentions of the author be reproduced in the TT. And this can only be achieved when a detailed analysis of the ST is done to appreciate its place in the source culture, temporally and spatially. Nord insists that the interpretation of a text goes beyond the linguistic, that it ‘is a product of the many variables of the situation (time, place, addresses) in which it originated’ (1997: 119), and that ‘the analysis of extratextual factors such as author, time, place, or medium may shed some light on what may have been the sender’s intentions’ (125-6). The translator then does a similar extratextual study of the target situation to identify the expression that best reflects the author’s intentions in the target situation. So in the main, the TT intentions are hinged on those of the ST.

CONCLUSION

It is axiomatic that a text is open to multiple interpretations, and translations. But Nord’s notion of function plus loyalty has indeed restricted the otherwise arbitrary production of translation briefs and translations that are a far cry from the message of the ST. It also weakens the criticism that functionalism advocates a ‘dethronement’ of the ST. However, the satisfaction of every party involved in the translation process is only but an ideal, not always practicable. But loyalty has made the translator more responsible and conscious of their translations and increased the confidence of other participants on the translator. Indeed if translators will adhere to this charge of being loyal, the problems of mistranslations will be greatly reduced.

REFERENCES

Catford, J. C. 1965. A Linguistic Theory of Translation. London: Oxford.

Downie, Jonathan. ‘The End of an Era? Does skopos theory spell the end of the free vs literal paradigm?’ online: Pneuma Foundation: In depth resources: http://www.pneumafoundation.org/resources/in_depth.jsp

Homig, Hans G. 1997. ‘Position, power and practice: Functionalist approaches and translation quality assessment.’ In Current Issues in Language and Society. Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 7 – 34.

Munday, J. 2008. Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.

Nord, Chritiane. 1997. Translation as a Purposeful Activity. Manchester: St Jerome.

Nord, Chritiane. 2001. ‘Loyalty revisited: Bible translation as a case in point.’The Translator. Vol. 7 No 2, pp. 185 – 202..

Nord, Chritiane. 2005. Text Analysis in Translation: Theory, Methodology, and Didactic Application of a Model for Translation-Oriented Text Analysis. 2nd ed. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Nord, Chritiane. 2007. ‘Function plus Loyalty: Ethics in Professional Translation. In Genesis Revista Cientifica do ISAG. Vol 6, pp. 7 – 17.

Pym, Anthony. 1996. Material text transfer as a key to the purposes of translation. In Albrecht Neubert, Gregory Shreve and Klaus Gommlich (eds.) 1996, Basic Issues in Translation Studies. Proceedings of the Fifth international Conference Kent Forum on Translation Studies II, Kent/Ohio: Institute of Applied Linguistics, 337-346.

Pym, Anthony. 2001. ‘Introduction: The return to ethics in translation studies’. The Translator. Vol. 7 No 2, pp. 129 – 138.

Vermeer, Hans J. ‘Skopos and commission in translational action.’ In L.Venuti (ed) The Translation Studies Reader. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, pp. 227 – 238.

INTRODUCTION

The 1980s saw the birth of a number of approaches to Translation Studies (TS henceforth) collectively termed functionalist, which brought about a paradigm shift in the system. This essay examines the strengths and weaknesses as well as the contributions of these functionalist approaches to the field of TS. Structurally, the essay starts with a brief historical overview of the approaches to translation before the advent of functionalist approaches. Then it discusses the major functionalist approaches, highlighting their major postulations and the criticisms against them, which will then be followed by a general summary of the various contributions of the various strands of functionalism.

TRANSLATION STUDIES BEFORE FUNCTIONALISM

Over the years, scholars have approached the discipline of Translation Studies from various angles largely depending on ‘the dominant philosophy of the time and/or underlying conceptions of the nature of translation and how the translated text will be used’ (Schaeffner 2001: c5). However, one dilemma that has prevailed over the centuries is the decision on the best method of translating a text. This dilemma of the best method of translating is an age-old one. Jerome (395/2004: 24) expresses this dilemma thus:

It is difficult, when following the lines of another, not to overshoot somewhere and arduous, when something is well put in another language, to preserve this same beauty in translation…if I translate word by word, it sounds absurd; it out of necessity I alter something in the order or diction, I will seem to have abandoned the task of a translator.

However, Jerome and indeed many other translator of his time end up not translating ‘word by word. He quotes Cicero as observing that in his translation of Plato’s Protagoras and Xenophone’s Oeconomicus, that he kept their ‘meanings but with their forms – their figures, so to speak – in words adapted to our idiom’ (395/2004: 23). He adds that ‘except for the case of Sacred Scriptures, where the very order of the words is a mystery – I render not word for word, but sense for sense’ (395/2004: 25) so as not to sound absurd in the target language.

These scholars, including others like Nicolas Perrot D’Ablancourt (1640/2004), Martin Luther (1530) and John Dryden (1680/2004), may not be seen as translations scholars per se since they all had their respective vocations and translation was what they did in the passing. However, their views and comments formed the bedrock on which the field of translation studies was to be built.

Linguistic-based approaches

The argument over word by word or sense for sense translation prevailed over the centuries up till the 20th century when Jakobson (1959/2004) introduced the term ‘equivalence’ in the literature and Nida (1964/2004) expands it by distinguishing between formal and dynamic equivalence. While formal equivalence aims at matching the message in the receptor language as closely as possible to the different elements in the source language, including the form and content, dynamic equivalence ‘aims at complete naturalness of expression, and tries to relate the receptor to modes of behaviour relevant within the context of his own culture’ (Nida 1964/2004: 156). According to Nida, the purposes of the translator to a large extent determine whether the translator should aim at formal equivalence or dynamic equivalence.

One observes that these scholars are concerned with the correspondence between the target language and the source language and these approaches were thus collectively called ‘linguistic approaches’ to translation. According to Saldanha (2009: 148), the term linguistic approaches to translation studies is used to refer to ‘theoretical models that represent translation and/ or interpreting as a (primarily) linguistic process and are therefore informed mainly by linguistic theory’. Translation studies was subsumed under applied linguistics and thus studied with methods developed in linguistics (Schaeffner 2001: 6). Other scholars that contributed to research in this area are Catford (1965) and House (1977/1981). Translation was seen as a transfer of information from one language to another, as an activity that affects just the two languages involved. Thus scholars were concerned with prescribing methods of translating from one language to the other in order to reproduce in the target language a message that is equivalent to that of the source text. One such prescription was Vinay and Dabelnet’s (1958/2994) seven methods or procedures for translation: borrowing, calque, literal translation, transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation. The first three they call direct translations as they involve transposing the source language message element by element, while the last four they call oblique because they involve an upsetting of the syntactic order of the source language.

One major shortcoming of linguistic approaches is that they do not take cognisance of the contribution of the context in which an expression is used to the understanding of the whole message or text. Schaeffner (2001: 8 – 9) observes that

Studies conducted within a linguistic-based approach to translation concentrated on the systematic relations between units of the language systems, but often abstracted from aspects of their contextual use. A chosen TL-form may well be correct according to the rules of the language system, but this does not necessarily mean that the text as a whole appropriately fulfils its communicative function in the TL situation and culture.

Working on the translation of the Bible, Nida’s distinction between formal and dynamic equivalence introduced aspects of sociolinguistics and culture into translation studies. He says that any discussion of equivalence, whether formal or dynamic, must consider types of relatedness ‘determined by the linguistic and cultural distance between the codes used to convey the message’ (1964/2004: 157). He declares that a natural translation or dynamic equivalence ‘involves two principal areas of adaptation, namely, grammar and lexicon’ (2004: 163). However, his theory has been criticised for being restricted in application and scope as it appears to be meant mainly for Bible translations and to focus on just lexical and syntactic correspondence. A few years later, Koller (1979: 215f) proposes five categorisation of the concept of equivalence namely: textralinguistic facts/state of affairs (denotative equivalence); form of verbalisation, including connotations, style and (connotative equivalence); text norms and language norms (text-normative equivalence); TL-text audience (pragmatic equivalence); and specific aesthetic, formal , characteristic features of text (formal-aesthetic equivalence) (quoted in Schaeffner 2001: 9)

This too receives a lot of criticisms which apparently inform its review by the author over the years. Pym (1997: 1) observes that four editions of Koller’s book Einfuhrung in die Ubersetzungswissenschaft (Introduction to Translation Studies/Science) has been published as at 1995, with an article summarising the main points appearing in English in Target. Indeed the concept of equivalence was (and still is) highly controversial even to this day.

Textlinguistic approaches

In reaction to the apparent rather restricted linguistic scope of these approaches, some scholars then argue for a text-linguistic or pragmatic approach to translation, whereby the whole text is seen as the unit of meaning and translation, as against the lexicon and grammar which was the focus of linguistic approaches. Katharina Reiss’s (1971/2004) text-typology is seminal in this respect, being about the first to introduce into TS a ‘consideration of the communicative purpose of translation’ (Munday 2008: 74). According to Reiss, the communicative function of a text in its source culture determines its function in the target culture and how it will be translated. She classifies text-type into informative (communicates content), expressive (communicates artistically organised content) and operative (communicates content with a persuasive character) (Reiss 1971/2004: 171). In her view, a text that is adjudged ‘informative’ should be translated in such a way that the same content in the source text is transferred into the target text; an expressive text should retain the ‘artistic and creative’ features of the source text in the target text; while an operative source text should inform a target text with a similar or analogous effect on the target audience. In situations where a text exhibits features of more than one text-type, the translator should concern themselves with foregrounding the overriding text-type and back-grounding the rest if the need so arises. Reiss does a lot to stress the importance of text-variety or genre in translation studies. She observes that genre conventions are culture specific and the translator should consider the distinctions in genre conventions across culture ‘so as not to endanger the functional equivalence of the TL text by naively adopting SL conventions’ (1971/2004: 173). Neubert (1985) and its sequel co-authored with Gregory Shreve (1992) have done a lot to emphasise the importance of genre analysis in translation studies. In the preface to Translation as Text, they observe the decline in influence of linguistics in translation studies and the movement towards interdisciplinarity:

Translation studies has abandoned its single-minded concern with strictly linguistic issues. It has been invigorated by new ideas from other disciplines. Translation scholars no longer hesitate to adopt new ideas from information science, cognitive science, and psychology. (Neubert and Shreve 1992: vii)

Scholars that favour this approach focus a lot on setting up prototypes of genres, or as Corbett (2009: 291) puts it, these scholars ‘focused on the descriptions of highly predictable, ritual, transactional texts, many of which seem banal in nature’ like Swales (1990) on reprint requests and Eggins (1994) on recipes. Thus scholars tried to identify parallel texts across languages and cultures by doing a systematic comparison of genre exemplars in both the source culture and the target culture (Schaeffner 2001: 11). Schaeffner also notes elsewhere that ‘[g[enre conventions are determined by culture and, thus, prone to constant change’ (2000: 222). This enables the translator to adapt the text to the conventions of the receptor or target culture. Thus scholars operating within a text-linguistic approach to translation believe that a translation goes beyond language to cultural considerations.

FUNCTIONALIST APPROACHES

The second half of the 20th century witnessed some paradigm shift in translation studies, especially with the publication in German of Katharina Reiss and Hans Vermeer’s Foundation for a General Theory of Translation and Justa Holz-Manttari’s Translatorial Action: Theory and Method, both in 1984. These set the pace for what is later known as functionalist approaches to translation, approaches that see translation as ‘a communicative action carried out by an expert in intercultural communication (the translator), playing the role of a text producer and aiming at some communicative purpose’ (Nord 2001: 151). Functionalist approaches generally believe that the function of a text in the target culture determines the method of translation. They are said to have developed in opposition to the equivalence paradigm of the linguistic-based approaches which see the source text as what determines the nature of the target text. Using the communication scheme of SOURCE-PATH-GOAL, they accentuate the importance of the target text as the goal of the translational process. One of the major proponents, Vermeer (1987: 29) declares that linguistics alone is not effective because translation itself is not merely nor primarily a linguistic process, and that linguistics ‘has not yet formulated the right questions to tackle our problems’ (cited in Nord 1997: 10). Quite a good number of translation scholars subscribe to functionalism like Vermeer (1978, 1989, 1996; Reiss and Vermeer 1984, 1991; Nord 1997, 2005; Holz-Manttari 1984, 1993; Honig 1997; Honig and Kussmaul 1982, 1996; among many others. Following are some of the major strands of functionalism.

Skopostheorie

The most popular among the functionalist approaches, skopos theory was developed in Germany by Hans Vermeer in 1978 in dissatisfaction with the linguistic-based approaches to translation. He sees translation as an action governed by a skopos from Greek meaning purpose or aim. This purpose now determines how the translation is done. Vermeer argues that the source text is produced for a situation in the source culture which may not be the same in the target culture. It then follows that the translation should be produced to suit the purpose for which it is needed in the target culture: ‘the source text is oriented towards, and is in any case bound to, the source culture. The target text…is oriented towards the target culture, and it is this which ultimately defines its adequacy’ (Vermeer 1989/2004: 229). Reiss and Vermeer jointly published Translatorial Action: Theory and Method in 1984 to give what has been described as the general translation theory, ‘sufficiently general…, and sufficiently complex, to cover a multitude of individual cases’ (Schaeffner 1998: 236). They see a text as an offer of information and translation as an offer of information existing in a particular language and culture to members of another culture in their language. They hold that the needs of the target text receivers determine the specification of the skopos and the selection made from information offered in the source text (Schaeffner 1998: 236). Thus translation goes beyond linguistic considerations to also encompass cultural issues.

The question then arises: Who determines the skopos? According to Vermeer (1989/2004: 236), the skopos is ‘defined by the commission and if necessary adjusted by the translator’. Nord (1997:30) adds that the skopos is embedded in the translation brief, which means that the person initiating the translation invariably decides what the skopos is. She agrees with Vermeer that the skopos is often negotiated between the client and the translator.

The skopos of a text in the source culture might be the same as the skopos of the translation in the target culture, but that is just one of the different purposes for which a text might be needed in a different culture as the purpose in the target culture might be different. Reiss and Vermeer (1984) call the situation where the source text function is the same as the target text function functional constancy, while for the other situation where both texts have different functions they say the text has undergone a change of function.

Vermeer also gives two further rules: coherence rule and fidelity rule. Coherence rule stipulates that the target text must be sufficiently coherent for the target audience to understand given their assumed background knowledge and situational circumstances while the fidelity rule focuses on the intertextual relationship between the source text and the target text (Schaeffner 1998: 236). The nature of this intertextual coherence between the source text and target is however determined by the skopos.

The theory of translatorial action

This theory, proposed by Holz-Manttari, draws a lot from action theory and communication theory. An action is generally seen as doing something intentionally, and communication basically means transferring information from one entity to another. Holz-Mantarri’s theory then sees translation as transferring information embedded in one culture to receivers in another culture, and the translator is the expert saddled with the responsibility of this information transfer. Using concepts from communication theory, Holz-Mantarri identifies the players in the translatorial process: the initiator, the person in need of the translation; the commissioner, the person that contacts the translator; the source text producer or author; the target text producer, the translator or translation agency; the target text user, teachers for example; and the target text recipient, for example students in a target user’s class. She does a lot to emphasise the role played by these participants in the translational process.

The need for a translation arises in situations where there is information in a particular culture that members of another culture do not have access to as a result of the cultural differences among the communities, or as Nord (1997: 17) puts it,

situations where differences in verbal and non-verbal behaviour, expectations, knowledge and perspectives are such that there is not enough common ground for the sender and receiver to communicate effectively by themselves.

Translation then is a process of intercultural communication aimed at producing a text ‘capable of functioning appropriately in specific situations and contexts of use’ (Schaeffner 1998: 3). And since the focus is on producing functionally adequate texts, the target text should then conform to the genre conventions of the target culture. This makes the translator the expert in translatorial action, who determines what is suitable for the translatorial text operation and ensures the information is transmitted satisfactorily.

One interesting aspect of this theory is the introduction of new terminologies into the literature. For example, instead of text, Holz-Mantarri prefers Botschaftstrager, message carrier, a concept that broadens the traditional concept of text to include non-verbal aspects of communication thereby ‘doing justice to the complexity of communicative processes’ (Martin de Leon 2008: 7). Other changes include Botschaftstragerproduktion for text production and translatorisches Handeln for translate or translation.

The principle of the necessary degree of precision

This principle was developed by Honig and Kusmaul to provide a more detailed account of translation relevant decision-making processes as against the ‘framework’ theory’ of translation (Honig 1997: 10). One of the outcomes of functionalist approaches is that the translator can give more information in the translation if the skopos requires that. An instance is making clear in a target text what is not so clear in the source text. However, it is not clear to what extent the translator can exercise this liberty. To this end, the principle stipulates that ‘what is necessary depends on the function of the translation’ (Honig 1997: 10). Honig illustrates this in this rather long quote:

the term ‘public school’ implies such a large amount of culture-specific knowledge that it is impossible to render its meaning ‘completely’ in a translation. Within a functionalist approach, however, the function of a word in its specific context determines to what degree the cultural meaning should be made explicit. In a sentence such as (my emphasis):

(2a) In Parliament he fought for equality, but he sent his son to Eton.

the translation will have to be different from translating the identical term ‘Eton’ in the sentence:

(3a) When his father died his mother could not afford to sent him to Eton any more.

The following translations would be sufficiently detailed:

(2b) Im Parlament kampfte er fur Chancengleichheit, aber seinen eigenen Sohn schickte er auf eine der englischen Eliteschulen. (one of the English elite schools)

(3b) Als sein Vater starb, konnte seine Mutter es sich nicht mehr leisten, ihn auf eine der teuren Privatschulen zu schicken (one of the expensive private schools).

Of course, there is more factual knowledge implied in the terms ‘Eton’ or ‘public school’ than expressed in the translation, but the translation mentions everything that is important within the context of the sentence, in other words, the translation is semantically precise enough. (1997: 11)

Here the translator does not aim at an exact or perfect target text, but a text that is sufficiently good enough for the situation. The translator provides as much (or less) information as the readers need as determined by the skopos.

Christiane Nord

Christiane Nord is one of the major proponents of functionalism. She agrees with Vermeer that the situation under which a target text is produced is different from that of the source text in terms of time, place (except for simultaneous interpreting), and sometimes medium. Thus the meaning of a text is found beyond the linguistic code, in the extratextual situation. In fact, she even stresses that meaning interpretation depends a lot on the personal experience of the text user:

A text is made meaningful by its receiver for its receiver. Different receivers (or even the same receiver at different times) find different meanings in the same linguistic material offered by the text. We might even say that a ‘text’ is as many texts as there are receivers of it. (2001: 152)

Nord however has some reservations for the unrestricted freedom Reiss and Vermeer, and Holz-Manttari have given the translator to produce a target text of whatever form so long as it conforms to the skopos as directed by the client. To check this, she introduces the concept of loyalty which she defines as the responsibility translators have towards their partners:

translators, in their role as mediators between two cultures, have a special responsibility with regard to their partners, i.e. the source text author, the client or commissioner of the translation, and the target text receivers, and towards themselves, precisely in those cases where there are differing views as to what a ‘good’ translation is or should be. (Nord 2006: 33).

Nord thus contends that the skopos is not the only determining factor in translation, that loyalty is necessary. Loyalty commits the translator bilaterally to the source text and target text situations: not to falsify the source text author’s intentions (Nord 2005:32) and fulfilling the expectations of the target audience or explaining in a footnote or preface how they arrived at a particular meaning. Loyalty is different from fidelity or equivalence in that the latter refer to the linguistic or stylistic similarity between the source and the target texts, regardless of the communicative intentions involved while the former refers to an interpersonal relationship between the translator and their partners (2001: 185).

Christiane Nord also elaborates on the possible range of functions a target text may have, different from that or those of the source text. She first distinguishes between documentary translation and instrumental translation. Documentary translation is such that ‘aims at producing in the target language a kind of document of (certain aspects of) a communicative interaction in which a source-culture sender communicates with a source-culture audience via the source text under source-culture conditions’ (1997: 138); instrumental translation, on the other hand, aims at producing in the target language an instrument for a new communicative interaction between the source-culture sender and the target-culture audience. A documentary translation usually results in a target text with a meta-textual function or ‘secondary level’ function according to House (1977). An instrumental translation may have the same range of functions as the source text, whereby it is said to be equifunctional; but if there are differences in the functions of both texts, the case is said to be heterofunctional. Nord also talks about homologous translation, also called ‘creative transposition’ (Bassnet 2002: 24), where the target text represent the same degree of originality as the original in relation to the respective culture-specific corpora of texts.

One other seminal input of Nord’s into functionalism is her call for an elaborate analysis of the source text before translation proper. Unlike Vermeer and Holz-Manttari who almost make the source text so invisible, Nord rather gives some attention to it since it is the provider of the offer of information that forms the basis for the offer of information formulated in the target text. She argues that the pre-translation analysis of the source text helps in deciding on whether the translation project is feasible in the first place, which source text units are relevant to a functional translation, and which strategy will best produce a target text that meets the requirements of the brief (Nord 1997: 62). Nord goes further to identify and categorise the kind of problems a translator might encounter – pragmatic, convention-related, interlingual and text-specific – and also steps to follow in the translational process. Schaeffner (2001) has done a critical review of Nord’s postulations (and indeed other functionalist approaches) and their applicability in practical translation.

CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING FUNCTIONALIST APPROACHES TO TRANSLATION

Expectedly, functionalist approaches have received a lot of criticism, especially from scholars of the linguistic-based approaches, one of which is the definition of translation. Critics of skopos theory argue that not all target texts based on a source text can be called translations, that skopos theory makes no distinction between a real translation and adaptation or what Koller (1995) calls nontranslation. They argue that the supposed dethronement of the source text and focus on the target text (Newmark 1991; Schreitmuller 1994) subverts the intrinsic meaning of the translation. Pym (1997) argues in this light and supports Koller (1995) in upholding equivalence and calling on functionalists to distinguish between translation and nontranslation. However, functionalists view translation from a broader perspective, as ‘any translational action where a source text is transferred into a target culture and language’ Nord 1997: 141). They see the linguistic-based definition as being restrictive and in need of expansion.

Linked to this is the supposed dethronement of the source text and emphasis on the skopos as the determining factor of how the translation is done. It is then argued that functionalism gives translators the freedom to produce any kind of target text and call it a translation. Pym (1991), for instance, accuses functionalists of producing ‘mercenary experts able to fight under the flag of any purpose able to pay them’ (1991: 2). Nord responds to this by introducing the concept of loyalty, which restricts the liberty of the translator as they are now expected to be loyal to the source text author as well as other partners in the translational process. She also insists on an elaborate source text analysis before translation for a better understanding of both the source text and source culture which will then engender some high level coherence between the source text and the target text.

One other controversy surrounding functionalism is the myriad of terminologies introduced and used differently, especially those by Holz-Manttarri. Indeed many of these criticisms still go on to this day. However, despite the various controversies surrounding the development and thrust of functionalist approaches, their contributions to the study of translation are remarkable.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF FUNCTIONALIST APPROACHES TO TRANSALTION STUDIES

One major contribution of this approach is that, according to Nord (1997: 29), it addresses the ‘eternal dilemmas of free vs faithful translations, dynamic vs formal equivalence, good interpreters vs slavish translators, and so on’. Thus a translation may be free of faithful or ‘anything between these two extremes’ depending on its skopos or the purpose for which it is needed. The translator no longer has to always go back to the source text to solve translational problems, rather they base their translation on the function of the text in the target culture.

Functionalist approaches liberate translation from theories that impose linguistic rules upon every decision (Pym 2010: 56). They recognise that the translation process involves more than languages involved and requires the consideration of these extra-textual and extra-linguistic factors for its actualisation. Thus they introduce the cultural dimension to translation studies and break the unnecessary recourse to the ‘authority’ of the source text. While linguistics-based approaches may be said to be retrospective in that they look back at the source text as the model for the target text, functionalist approaches are seen as prospective in that they look forward to the function of the text in the target culture as the major determining factor for how the translation will be done. A retrospective translation operates a bottom-up process, works from source language elements and transfers the text sentence by sentence, or phrase by phrase. But a prospective translation operates a top-down process, starting on the pragmatic level by deciding on the intended function of the translation and asking for specific text-typological conventions, and for addressees’ background knowledge and their communicative needs ( Ouyang 2009: 104).

Functionalist approaches are flexible and general enough to account for a wide range of translational situations. Talking about the theory of skopos theory for example, Schaeffner (2001: 15) observes that ‘[t]his theory is presented as being sufficiently general to cover a multitude of individual cases, i.e. to be independent of individual languages, cultures, subject domains, text types and genres’. Interestingly, the consideration of extra-textual factors in the translational process accentuates the multidisciplinary nature of translation studies. The introduction of text-typology and considerations of genre-conventions introduces elements of pragmatics, text-linguistics and culture studies into the discourse. So also is the belief that a text does not have a stable intrinsic meaning, but that meaning is affected by the subjective translator as well as by the cultural, historical, ideological and historical circumstances surrounding the production of the text (Schaeffner 2001: 12).

Tied to the quality of flexibility mentioned above is functionalism’s apparent accommodation of the shortcomings of some other translation theories. For example, Baker (2007) criticises the polysystem theory (Even-Zohar 1990) and Toury’s (1995) theory of norms for encouraging analysts to focus on repeated, abstract, systematic behaviour and privileging strong patterns of socialization into that behaviour and for glossing over the numerous individual and group attempts at undermining dominant patterns and prevailing political and social dogma (Baker 2007: 152). She also expressed some dissatisfaction with Venuti’s dichotomies of foreignizing and domesticating strategies (Venuti 1993, 1995), also called minoritizing and majoritizing strategies (Venuti 1998), for, inter alia, reducing ‘the intricate means by which a translator negotiates his or her way around various aspects of a text into a more-or-less straightforward choice of foreignizing versus domesticating strategy’ (Baker 2007: 152). However, these criticisms have been adequately taken care of by functionalist approaches whose methodology would not be seen as been that straitjacketed, with no room for flexibility. By their very nature, functionalist approaches bridge the gap between mere theorising and the practice of translation, as they suggest practical ways of going about translational problems.

Before the advent of functionalist approaches, the translator is rarely noticed. Emphasis was on the source text and its supposed equivalent, the target text. No attention is paid to the identity or status of the translator in the translational process. On the one hand, the translator is seen as not being original, as merely performing a ‘technical stunt’ (Honig 1985: 13) of transferring an original author’s ideas into a different language. On the other hand, the translator’s identity is hidden when they produce texts that sound so fluent in the target culture as it they wer

Introduction

Text “Banker’s bonuses: Caps on pay are no way to restore the financial system to health” (text 1) and text “Labour conference: Talking to itself” (text 2) are quite different and at the same time share some common features. The title of text 1 suggests that the text is about cutting top-bankers’ salaries and its overall effect on the financial system of the country. Whereas, judging by the title, the subject matter of the second text is the results of the Labour party conference.

The texts are both specialised, but the specialist fields differ: text 1 belongs to the field of business and economics and text 2 is a national political text. The last part of this essay will look at this aspect in detail; the first two will aim at the comparative analysis in terms of text type and purpose, register and readership, lexis and syntax; the third part will deal with potential translation problems aroused by certain lexical items.

Abbreviations:

ST – source text

TT – target text

BT – back translation

Text type and purpose, genre, register and readership

As Hatim and Mason state, generally most texts are hybrid in their nature, but “text purposes may only be viewed in terms of ‘dominances’ of a given purpose or contextual focus” (1990: 146). Text 1 is purely argumentative, while text 2 can be also called hybrid, as it comprises some features of narration (report on the Labour party conference held in September of 2009), but mainly argumentation. According to Hatim and Mason’s text typology, text 2 belongs to the type of the “through-argument”, which is “citing the thesis and arguing it through” (1990: 152). Indeed, the author at the very beginning states that the leading political party is separated from the British people and it is unlikely to be re-elected, because the public trust was lost, and then he proves that idea in each paragraph, making a conclusion at the end that Labour is not loved by public, therefore there is not too much hope for them to win the future elections. As for text 1, it can be classified as the counter-argumentative. At first, the author cites John Kenneth Galbraith, a very famous economist of the second half of the 20th century, who expressed his negative attitude to the bonuses’ system. Then in each paragraph he opposes that thesis by various arguments, giving examples of how that problem is solved in other countries and in the UK. Finally, he expresses his own opinion that the problem is very acute but legislation to cut bankers’ salaries is all wrong and another way out should be found by the British government in order to restore the financial system of the country. So the texts belong to the same text type (with the hint of hybridisation in text 2), meaning that their main function is persuasive. It is known, that “the intention of the text represents the SL writer’s attitude to the subject matter” (Newmark P. 1988:12). The notion of the text type is closely connected with the purpose of the text. Thus the authors of both texts aim at appealing to their addressees by promoting acceptance or evaluation of some ideas or concepts. Moreover, the choice of lexis in both texts is strongly determined by the authors’ intentions, text type and purpose: the texts are marked by the use of connotative words which immediately indicates the argumentative text type. Lexical features of the texts will be looked at in detail later.

As a “conventional text type that is associated with a specific communicative function” (Munday J. 2001: 91-92) genres of the texts are also linked with their argumentative nature; especially text 2 which is an editorial from the online version of the Guardian newspaper (editorials usually have highly evaluative content and, as can be assumed, appellative purpose). Text 2, as a comment from www.timesonline.co.uk, is characterised by the persuasive function of the whole text with the little difference that it also performs, although not predominantly, an informative function, which is typical of the genre of a newspaper article.

Register, as a “variety of language that a language user considers appropriate to a specific function” (Baker M. 1992: 15), always depends on intention, text type, genre and purpose of the text. Text 1 and 2 can be also compared in this sense meaning that the first text, as stated before, deals with problems in banking sector, so it belongs to the field of economics, whereas text 2 is clearly political. There is also a difference between two texts in terms of tenor: text 1 has a higher level of formality than text 2 as it is more specialised, while text 2 is less formal. Although in both texts the register is semi-formal. The texts are similar in the mode – written to be read reflectively, because the authors’ aim at producing that kind of effect.

As it was stated before, text 1 and 2 are from the national English newspapers which are ranked as highly authoritative sources. That is why their intended readership is, obviously, an educated public, presumably of middle or upper class, who reads that kind of newspapers. Although the distinction can be made here in terms of different fields of these texts: text 1 is addressed to the people who are able to understand and evaluate economical issues, whereas text 2 is mostly aimed at those who are interested in politics. Overall, the readership for both texts is quite the same: it entitles a great deal of cultural background knowledge and assumes a substantial, but not very specialised, knowledge of political, economical, historical and social life on its national and international levels.

Lexis, grammar and syntax

Lexical and syntactic features of both texts are determined by several important factors which are certainly interdependent. Firstly, because they are argumentative they are marked by the extensive use of connotative words, mainly negative in meaning:

(text1) ‘heady rewards'(line 4), ‘public fury'(line 10), ‘full-blown financial panic'(line 18), ‘shed his troubles'(line 18), ‘ambitious plan'(line 19), ‘expresses dismay'(line 24), ‘introduce distortions'(line 33), ‘reform'(line 39), ‘hobble the City'(line 40), ‘landgrab'(line 42), ‘bloated'(line 45)

But in text 2 the connotative lexis is stronger than in the first one, again, because of its argumentative text type, editorial genre, author’s appellative intention and persuasive function.

(text 2) ‘dreary apparatus'(line 3), ‘speaking mournfully'(line 6), ‘retrospective regret'(line 8), ‘dogmatic enthusiasm'(line 13), ‘helium-voiced theatricality'(line 22), ‘cheeky self-referential game'(line 27), ‘populist crackdown'(line 36), ‘crusade'(line 39), ‘inject passion'(line 35)

The selection of words in terms of style is also different in two texts: text 2 is marked by the use of colloquialisms, together with more formal lexis:

(text 2) ‘smash down'(line 5), ‘backward-looking'(line 10), ‘what on earth…'(line 20), ‘boils down'(line 15), ‘keep leadership alive'(line 10), ‘drive the party further'(line 15), ‘awful idea'(line 41), ‘fell flat'(line 29), ‘messy'(line 37)

In this case such lexical choice depends a lot on highly persuasive effect the author aims at producing in the text.

There is no doubt that the field of specialisation has strong influence on the language of the texts. Text 1 is about banking and economics, that is why there are many terms from this field:

(text 1) ‘boardroom'(line 4), ‘chief executive'(line 5), ‘corporation'(line 5), ‘global economy'(line 11), ‘banking sector'(line 8), ‘recapitalise'(line 20), ‘traders'(line 27), ‘compensation schemes'(line 31), ‘tax liabilities'(line 36), ‘chairman'(line 43), ‘economic case'(line 44), ‘financial instability'(line 15)

The following example illustrates another feature of economical texts, – noun clusters, – which are “several nouns and adjectives to designate one single concept “(Guadalupe Acedo Dominguez and Patricia Edward Rokowski, Ph.D., available at http://accuparid/Journal/21clusters.htm, last updated on 05.03/2003):

(text 1) ‘short-term trading profits'(line 29), ‘risk-adjusted profits'(line 32)

As for text 2, it is similar to text 1 in terms of the use of terminology, but this time the terms belong to the field of politics:

(text 2) ‘political conference'(line 3), ‘ministers'(line 7), ‘strategy'(line 10), ‘electorate'(line 15), ‘polling day'(line 19), ‘speeches'(line 22), ‘technocratic instrument'(line 42)

The terms from other disciplines are widely used in both texts, again, because the fields of politics and economics are characterised by this feature:

(text 1) ‘policymakers'(line 11), ‘capitalism'(line 25), ‘code of conduct'(line 26), ‘legislation'(line 33)

(text 2) ‘apparatus'(line 4), ‘security state'(line 4), ‘economic crisis'(line 12), ‘recovery'(line 13), ‘secure zone'(line 17), ‘financial crisis'(line 35), ‘populist'(line 36)

“Political texts are a part and/or result of politics, they are historically and culturally determined” (Schaffner C.” Strategies of Translating Political Texts”, Text Typology and Translation, edited by Trosberg A., 1997: 119). This can also be said about economical texts. That is why both texts are abundant in culture-specific references (proper names, dates, personal, historical and geographical references):

(text 1) ‘John Kenneth Galbraith’ (line 4), ‘the G20’ (line 9), ‘the City'(line 40), ‘Mr Brown’ line 18), ‘Angela Merkel’ (line 26), ‘president Sarkozy’ (line 24), ‘the incomes policies of the 1970s’ (line 34), ‘Lord Turner Ecchinswell’ (line 43), ‘the Financial Services Authority’ (line 43)

(text 2) ‘Labour’ (line 10), ‘Gordon Brown’ (line 11), ‘the Conservatives’ (line 16), ‘Alistair Darling’ (line 21), ‘Peter Mandelson’ (line 21), ‘the City’ (line 36), ‘Progress rally’ (line 43), ’11 ministers’ (line 43), ‘chancellor’ (line 24), ‘business secretary’ (line 28)

Texts 1 and 2 are both rich in figurative language, mainly metaphors and metonyms (influenced by their text type, purpose and field). For example, Newmark says that “game metaphors” are frequent in political texts (1991: 158), which can be shown by the example:

(text 2) ‘Lord Mandelson played with the hall, a cheeky self-referential game…’ (line 26)

Here Mandelson’s speech is compared to a game, thus metaphorically establishing a comparison between one idea and another (Beard A. 2000: 19).

Synecdoche, as a type of metonymy when the part stands for the whole, is used in the second text (face stands for the person):

(text 2) ‘convincing face of a crusade against the City’ (about Alistair Darling) (line 39)

There are many other metaphors and metonyms in text 2:

(text 2) ‘age-old characteristic'(line 31), ‘chase the prime minister'(line 19), ‘left the country cold'(line 27), ‘conference speaking mournfully to itself'(line 6), etc.

Text 1 is not that rich in figurative language as text 2, because it deals with economical problems, still a few examples can be given:

(text 1) ‘bloated (financial sector)'(line 45), ‘market award'(line 5), ‘contaminating the wider economy'(line 16), ‘hobble the City'(line 40)

As far as grammar is concerned, in both texts such parts of speech as adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions and particles, emotive verbs are used extensively which is related to the argumentative text type conventions:

(text 1) ‘heady rewards'(line 4), ‘widespread belief'(line 8), ‘populist and fanciful schemes'(line 15), ‘competitively'(line 17), ‘likely'(line 10), ‘ambitious plan'(line 19), ‘commensurate penalty'(line 30), ‘shed his troubles'(line 18), ‘sought to rescue the global economy'(line 11), ‘inveigh against'(line 11), ‘expresses dismay'(line 24), ‘insists'(line 27), ‘are adept at inventing'(line 36), ‘devoted themselves'(line 35), ‘but'(line 21), ‘however'(line 23)

(text 2) ‘dreary apparatus'(line 3), ‘valedictory dispatches'(line 7), ‘wrong'(line 16), ‘feelgood therapy'(line 22), ‘mutual distrust'(line 45), ‘awful idea'(line 41), ‘speaking mournfully'(line 6), ‘helium-voiced'(line 22), ‘fighting for their future'(line 7), ‘cutting the party off'(line 5), ‘smash down'(line 5), ‘turned on the public'(line 18), ‘indulged in'(line 22), ‘fell flat'(line 29), ‘demean'(line 32), ‘certainly'(line 36), ‘but'(line 6), ‘still'(line 28), ‘if'(line 19), ‘only'(line 33), ‘at least'(line 10)

Both texts are marked by the use of active voice of verbs. It is linked to the authors’ intentions and the text purpose, when it is important to point out agents of the action (individuals, parties, groups, economies or countries) in order to appeal to the reader:

(text 1) ‘public fury…reflects'(line 8), ‘governments are outdoing'(line 13), ‘Mr brown shed his troubles and sought to rescue'(line 18), ‘Mr Brown’s notion never extended'(line 21), ‘governments seen the opportunity'(line 23), ‘search of profits generated large rewards'(line 29)

(text 2) ‘ministers are writing'(line 7), ‘party feels'(line 8), ‘the Conservatives would threaten recovery'(line 13), ‘party made no attempt'(line 18), ‘both men found it easier'(line 30)

To achieve emphasis in meaning modal verbs are often used in both texts:

(text 1) ‘Gordon Brown could perform….’ (line 14), ‘Mr Brown should not mistake…'(line 41)

(text 2) ‘they should be fighting…'(line 7), ‘no minister should talk…'(line 24), ‘the debate should be had in public…'(line 42)

Transitivity of verbs also adds to their emphatic meaning:

(text 1) ‘cap bankers’ pay'(line 13), ‘prevent financial instability'(line 15), ‘recapitalise the banks'(line 20), ‘seen the opportunity'(line 23)

(text 2) ‘smash down barriers'(line 5), ‘left the country cold'(line 27), ‘writing dispatches'(line 7), ‘demean your opponents'(line 32), ‘won an argument'(line 40)

Mostly present and future tenses are used in both texts to show either the real state of things, the authors’ statements expressing their negative attitude or not very promising predictions:

(text 1) And bankers are adept at inventing ways to minimize tax liabilities. (line 36)

But legislation to cap bankers’ pay is not the answer. (line 33)

(text 2) That is true, but only adds to the need to talk about the future. (line 33)

The disadvantage is that it will drive the party further from the electorate. (line 14)

Syntactic features of the text are certainly determined by the argumentative text type. Thus both text 1 and 2 do not have a very complex syntax. The average length of the sentences is medium. Text 2, being explicitly appellative, comprises more short sentences than text1:

(text 2) He is right. (line 24)

At least Labour now has a strategy. (line 10)

He still knows what is needed. (line 28)

There is certainly much to do. (line 36)

The sentences are relatively simple. In those which are complex the main clauses and the subordinate clauses are connected with conjunctions or temporal adverbs. Conditional clauses are typical of the argumentative text type: they are used to reflect the author’s opinion:

(text 1) If employers wished to reward staff, they would do it in benefits rather than in cash. (line 34)

(text 2) ‘…if you win the next election, what on earth do you want to do with the next four years?’ (line 19)

The types of the sentences are determined by the argumentative text type of the texts: there are statements, rhetorical question and even imperative used for emphasis:

(text 1) There is a problem in bankers’ pay. (line 29)

It is not to hinder the banking sector from operating competitively. (line 16)

Recall the incomes policies of the 1970s. (line 34)

(text 2) At least Labour now has a strategy. (line 10)

He is right. (line 24)

‘…if you win the next election, what on earth do you want to do with the next four years?’ (line 19)

The word order in both texts is fixed, although there is a slight deviation from the English norm (subject + predicator + object + adjunct), when the time adjunct precedes the subject (in purposes of emphasising its meaning in the sentence):

(text 2) Too late, Labour is trying to inject passion into its response to the financial crisis… (line 35)

On the textual level, both texts have much in common in terms of cohesive devices used for emphasis, opposition, contrast or reasoning, as they are markers of the argumentative text type. For example, adversative, temporal and continuative conjunctions used as connectors between sentences relate sentences, clauses and paragraphs to each other (Baker M. 1992: 190):

(text 1 ) But it is easier for policymakers to inveigh against highly paid bankers… (line 11)

Other European governments have, however, seen the opportunity to propose tough new regulation. (line 23)

And bankers are adept at inventing ways to minimise tax liabilities. (line 36)

(text 2) At least Labour now has a strategy. (line 10)

He spoke much of the time in the past tense, while Lord Mandelson played with the hall… (line 26)

That is true, but only adds to the need to talk about the future. (line 33)

In text 2 parallelism is used emphatically as a perfect cohesive device to stress out Labour’s separation from the public (the structure from the topic sentence of the first paragraph is repeated but filled with the new content in the last paragraph):

(text 2) ‘…still fences, scanners, identity badges and armed police.’ (line 4)

Sitting inside its steel fence, Labour is asking why it is no longer loved. (line 46)

Potential translation problems in text 1

Translating this text from English into Russian, a translator might experience some translation problems, connected with specialist and culture-bound terms and collocations used in the source text. For example:

(ST) ‘central bankers’ (line 9)

(BT) heads of central banks.

In Russian the constituents of this economic term cannot collocate and translated literally would sound wrong, thus the strategy of supplementation plus translation using related words is used.

Another example of the problem connected with specialist terms:

(ST) ‘capital reserves’ (line 37)

(BT) reserved capital

In Russian this economical term is represented in a different form from the grammatical point of view: the word order and the parts of speech are changed. The translator should be careful in rendering this term accurately.

In the following example the term is translated literally, because it represents an exact notion, suggested by Gordon Brown:

(ST) “new international financial architecture” (line 21)

In this case the potential translation problem of non-equivalence is solved but in order to do it the translator has to do some research on parallel texts in the target language.

The translation problem can be aroused while translating the following jargon expression:

(ST) ‘cap bankers’ pay’ (line 13)

(BT) limit bankers’ bonuses

The English colloquial expression is translated by the more neutral Russian equivalent. This choice is determined by style and register conventions of the target language; in English the use of colloquial language in newspaper articles on serious political or economical issues is common, whereas in Russian a more formal expression is stylistically more appropriate.

As Schaffner points out, “texts with references to a wide range of cultural patterns of the society in question, including aspects of its economic, political and legal life, require a lot of background knowledge for a coherent interpretation”(1997: 133). Consequently, the translating cultural words and collocations may pose difficulties for the translator.

(ST) ‘John Kenneth Galbraith’ (line 4)

(BT) a famous economist, John Kenneth Galbraith

It is necessary to use the strategy of supplementation plus explanation, because not all the readers in the target culture would be familiar with this European name.

(ST) ‘incomes policies of the 1970s’ (line 34)

(BT) unsuccessful incomes policies of the 1970s in Britain

Translating from English into Russian it is better to specify the result of the particular economic measures in Britain, as the term is clearly culture-specific and needs to be explained to the target reader.

(ST) ‘City bonuses’ (line 8)

(BT) bonuses of the City of London

Again, when this cultural reference is first met in the text it is necessary to explain which “City” the author refers to.

(ST) ‘Financial Services Authority’ (line 43)

(BT) Financial Services Office

The name of organisation will possibly cause a translation problem, especially if the translator is not an expert in the field of economics in the target language.

There might be problems at the above word level:

(ST) ‘financial sector that is bloated’ (line 45)

(BT) bloated financial sector

According to Larson, “the metaphor may be kept if the receptor language permits (that is, if it sounds natural and is understood by the readers)” (1998: 279). In Russian it is possible to keep this metaphorical image. But the word should be put in the inverted commas not to make it sound colloquial in Russian.

(ST) ‘hobble the City’ (line 40)

(BT) cause troubles for the City

In English the meaning of this expression is idiomatic (to cause to limp). In Russian there is no idiomatic equivalent with the same meaning, that is why the translation strategy of paraphrase is used here. Moreover, in Russian it would be stylistically inappropriate to use an idiom in the text of semi-formal register published in the national newspaper. Although the translator should take into account the text type conventions. Thus the colloquial word in the inverted commas would be an option in the same type of argumentative text in the target language.

Field of specialisation

According to Desbalche’s communication pyramid, texts 1 and 2 can be positioned on the level 5, as they are produced by generalists in number of sciences and addressed to educated, interested general public (2001: 21).

What makes these texts specialised is that they belong to certain specialist fields and that they are marked by the use of terminology specific to those fields.

As it was stated before, the fields of specialisation in text 1 and 2 are different. Text 1 belongs to the field of banking which is a sub-field of business and economics. The language of the text, as in any text of economic discourse, is very specific: it relates to other fields such as politics and history, that is why not only specialist terms listed before are widely used but also many external terms can be found:

(text 1) ‘populist'(line 15) (historical), ‘policymakers'(line 11) (political), ‘code of conduct'(line 26) (legal), ‘statute'(line 38) (political and legal), etc.

An abundance of culture-bound references is an important feature of the language of economics. The cultural, personal, historical and geographical references occur frequently in the text:

(text 1) ‘Gordon Brown’ (line 14), ‘the City’ (line 40), ‘the Financial Services Authority’ (line 43), ‘the incomes policies of the 1970s’ (line 34)

Text 2 belongs to the field of politics. It is literary in style (as many other texts of the same field, especially those of the argumentative text type), that is why there are numerous examples of strong connotative and colloquial language:

(text 2) ‘bombast'(line 21), ‘smash down’ (line 5), ‘fell flat’ (line 29), ‘awful idea’ (line 41), ‘mutual distrust’ (line 45), ‘technocratic instrument’ (line 42), ‘messy’ (line 37), ‘ingratitude’ (line 18), ‘fighting for their future’ (line 7), ‘sly jibes’ (line 31)

Also the extensive use of figurative language is essential for political texts. The language in text 2 is marked by the use of metaphors and metonyms adding to the effect of emotiveness and evaluation:

(text 2) ‘two worlds in one town’ (line 3), ‘crusade against the City’ (line 39); ‘when it talks to people outside will it discover the answer’ (line 47) (about Labour); ‘Lord Mandelson played with the hall…’ (line 26); ‘sitting inside its steel fence’ (line 46) (about Labour)

Irony as a figure of speech, often found in political texts, is also used here:

(text 2) It boils down to telling voters that they are wrong not to thank the government for the good things it has done. (line 15)

Mr Darling enhances the government with a quiet reliability and he was well-mannered enough yesterday came not to point out that the prime minister came within hours of sacking him last June. (line 37)

Both texts, as they belong to language-specific fields of politics and economics, comprise some concepts of abstraction:

(text 1) ‘public fury’ (line 8), ‘individual’ (line 6), ‘widespread belief’ (line 8), ‘issue’ (line 10), ‘new regulation’ (line 23), ‘large rewards’ (line 30)

(text 2) ‘apparatus’ (line 4), ‘strategy’ (line 10), ‘separation’ (line 6), ‘enthusiasm’ (line 13), ‘decency’ (line 21)

At last, text 2 can be addressed not only to the source language community, meaning that it has a wider political audience in mind (Schaffner C. 1997: 127).

Bibliography
Baker, M. (1992) In Other words, A Coursebook on translation. London: Routledge
Beard, A. (2000) The Language of Politics. London: Routledge
Desblache L. (2001) Aspects of Specialised Translation. Paris: La Maison Dictionnaire
Guadalupe Acedo Domingez and Patricia Edward Rokowski, Ph.D, University of Extramadura, Spain (2002) “Implications in Translating Economic Texts” Translation Journal 6 (3). Available at http://accuparid/Journal/21clusters.htm, last updated on 05.03.2002
Hatim, B. and Mason, I. (1990) Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman
Larson M. L. (1998) Meaning-Based Translation: A Guide to Cross-Language Equivalence. New York: University Press of America Inc.
Munday, J. (2001) Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. London: Routledge
Newmark, P. (1991) About Translation. New York/London: Clevedon: Prentice Hall
Newmark, P. (1988) A Textbook of Translation. London: Prentice Hall Europe
Schaffner C. (1997) “Strategies of Translating Political Texts”, Text Typology and Translation [edited by Trousberg A.]. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 119-143

UiTM is Malaysias largest institution of higher learning in terms of size and population. It has experienced phenomenal growth since its origin in 1956 and it is still growing. The university has expanded nationwide with 12 branch campuses, three satellite campuses, 9 city campuses and 21 affiliated colleges. With this vast network and a workforce of 17,000, the university offers more than 300 academic programmes in a conducive and vibrant environment. It is also home to some 172,000 students.

Presently, Shah Alam is host to 45.5% of the total number of students, while the rest are distributed over the other campuses, with Perlis campus handling the biggest number (6.3%). These campuses provide excellent opportunities for Bumiputeras all over the country to pursue higher education and attain higher economic and social development. UiTM’s main campus started with the laying of its foundation stone on 14 October 1967 by Tun Abdul Razak and by mid 70s, the campus was already in full operation. It acts as the focal point of development and expansion to a network of 21 other campuses. In the year 2004, Shah Alam campus had approximately 36,000 full-time and 6,500 part-time students. There are 13 residential colleges within the campus that house no less than 16,800 students. Apart from that, many homes around the university also open their doors to off-campus students. About 25 numbers of faculties had in Shah Alam campus. This campus is very close to Shah Alam city centre and therefore public facilities and services are within easy reach. An added advantage is the fact that Shah Alam is the hub for information technology and multimedia applications. It is also easily accessible via the major highways that link the city to strategic locations in the country.

The university campus provides all staffs and students a place for their working, studying and even living. Parking is one of the important topics in urban transportation planning and traffic management. This is true too for the university campus. In recent years, Malaysia’s higher education has developed rapidly, which has led to a dramatic increase of students educated on campuses and thus severe shortage of land used for teaching and researching. The parking system that used in the Shah Alam campus were open-space parking for students or visitors and staff card entry and exit system.

Parking facilities and programs were also considerable importance in traffic engineering. Most urban and regional commercial centers were access primarily by automobiles. The viability of these areas depends in a large part on the availability of convenient parking facilities adjacent to or easily accessible to desired destinations. Thus, comprehensive parking programs involve planning, design, construction, operation and financing parking facilities, as well as placement and enforcement of parking regulations. Experts agree that, when it comes to on-campus parking, there is no such thing as a one-size fits-all approach. The parking problem can be different in each case to another and the parking problem solution also can be varies.

This study is about a study on the supply and demand car-parking facilities for engineering complex and Melati parking lots in UiTM main campus that associated with zonal parking or trend of pattern problem. The supply car parking facilities is for existing parking lots in UiTM main campus, whether it’s enough space for users demand. It also derived by assessing potential spaces for parking facilities, including the possibilities of utilize any on-street parking.

Problem Statement

In Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Shah Alam, among the most complaint from students, are the parking facilities problems. For students, UiTM had provided various parking area surround the building. As engineering students, they have choices to park at Melati, Mawar and near Dataran Cendekia parking (surrounding engineering complex building). Although they are several of parking facilities near engineering complex building, the students are still having the parking problem. There are only complaints from students about this parking problem in UiTM and no technical evidences to prove it.

The demand for university or public parking area has increased drastically in recent years by the increasing number of students especially for non-resident. An existing parking supply remained and it does not increase in proportion with demand parking. This will effect the lost of time by the users for limited parking space searching. Even though parking needs and parking issues have always been a major concern for institution organizations, it frequently fails to receive proper planning processes, including providing necessary security safeguards. Other than that, illegal parking causes traffic circulation problems. For example, one or more parking lots were used for park construction materials other than vehicles.

1.3 Objective

For providing students enough space for the land used for teaching and researching. The purpose of having an observation or empirical study is to measure the demand between supply parking facilities and parking pattern. Besides, other suggestion can be determine to improve the general features existing in the campus parking systems.

1.4 Scope of the Research

The locations for the zonal parking studies are at the faculty of engineering building and beside the college of Melati in UiTM Shah Alam campus. The campus inflow and outflow of vehicles, the location and use of parking lots also will be analyzed. The average parking duration and the use turnovers of 2 parking lots are computed from the survey data. Duration of the studies is on weekday (2days) from 7.30 am to 7.30 pm at engineering complex and Melati parking lots.

1.5 Significance of Research

The parking study important for determine parking pattern and trend demand for campus environment. It also essential to implement parking policy equate the demand and supply parking system in selected parking area in UiTM campus. From the observation, parking can be utilized more efficiently by the users.

CHAPTER 2.0: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction

In recent years, more and more university employees or students tend to have the transport for their facilities. As a result of this situation, the number of cars and motorcycles owned by them is increasing rapidly. In addition, the communication between universities and communities has become much closer than before. This leads to a shortage of campus parking capacity. Various researches and theories have been developed to determine the supply and demand of parking facilities. There are also many theories about the recommendation and solution of solving the parking problem.

Early in 1990, McIntyre made a survey in twenty-five community colleges in California and recommended some measures for improving the campus parking environment. Carl and David (2001) applied mathematical models to investigate the effects of various campus parking policies. In mainland China, Leng and Yan (2003) examined the university campus systems for taking account of the specific conditions. Song and Wang (2004) conducted several relevant surveys in Chinese universities. Overall, however, few systematic reports of the studies on campus parking problems can be found in literature. It can be stated that almost all university campus in other country than Malaysia have same problem dealing with the parking system.

2.2 Types of Parking

Public and private are the two broad categories of parking. Public parking describe as on streets and alleys (curb-side parking) or off-street. On the curb-street area, the parking may be free or not and it may regulate or unregulated which is no parking overnight. Curb-street in downtown area usually metered and regulated. For the off-street parking usually in lots, decks or exclusive parking structures operated by the private firms or public agencies to open to the public. The certain rule of some facilities may operated such as parking on a long term. (Papacostas, 2001).

Home or apartment building garages, stalls and driveways, or affiliate-specific parking (permit required or access card to enter home). Parking need stalls and pricing arrangement schemes characteristics that important to maximize revenue as well as to fulfill certain purposes for pricing schemes. For the stalls may be parallel or angled (20O-90 O).

2.3 Parking Studies

According to the Transportation Planning Handbook, published by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (p. 199-400) the 1992 edition, parking studies are used to evaluate the current supply of parking or to plan for future parking needs. Some parking studies are only concerned with the adequacy of parking for a particular need, such as a shopping mall, office building, or a sports facility. Other studies are designed to evaluate the parking conditions in an area to establish time limits, parking rates, and the need for additional parking. Some studies are used to aid operational analyses in relation to removal or modification of curb parking. Still others are required to evaluate residential parking impacted by encroachment from outside parkers. There are a wide variety of other specialized studies to meet specific needs. Studies must be conducted to collect the required information about the capacity and use of existing parking facilities. In addition, information about the demand for parking is needed. Parking studies may be restricted to a particular traffic producer or attractor, such as a store, or they may encompass an entire region, such as a central business district.

Before parking studies can be initiated, the study area must be defined. The survey area should also include any area that might be impacted by the parking modifications. The boundary should be drawn to counts by minimizing the number of entrance and exit points.

Parking studies include financial feasibility, functional design, structural design and demand studies. For this research, priority for demand studies and functional design studies only. Demand studies classified into three major types to determine the demand studies. There are comprehensive, limited and site specific.

Comprehensive demand studies cover an entire area, such as central business district. It also contains the prediction models which include population growth, demographic, social and economic trends as well as trends of using the transportation modes. Detailed information on utilization patterns from analytical and comprehensive inventories on and off street were collected too. From the information, the lack of supply and traffic circulation will be known. Then proposed scenario of for fulfilling anticipated demands are developed and evaluated for judgment by authorities. Inventories studies was included list of graphic display of existing information, geometric design, traffic characteristic, traffic operation and traffic control and regulation. (Papacostas, 2001)

Similar to comprehensive studies, the limited demand studies not contain the geographic element and some requirements. This type of demand studies will investigate one type of parking and the estimation for future demand not required for forecast. The result of survey involves field measurement, past case studies result and analysis and the data of the relevant information about the case study area. The limited parking studies will be covered on this research.

For site-specific demand studies, narrow in geographically but analytically or analysis extensive. Focus site may include existing, planned or expanding area for development. Then, information of existing supply and utilization are taken and future demand will predict. The information collected under operational conditions such as speed study, travel time and delay, traffic volume, parking, accidents and others.

2.4 Parking Policies

According to C. Jotin Khisty (1990), the planner has to contend or discuss the formulation of parking policies that is one of the more difficult tasks. The difficulty lies in coordinating parking policies with several other planning objectives. The following consideration of having parking policies may be taken into account:

To design parking lots that not effected by the entry and exit of vehicles.

To ensure that the interest of business organization along the street is enhanced by good parking arrangements.

To maintain or protect the character of the area by restricting parking and enforcing land-use controls.

Car park areas are spaces that are provided, planned as places to park cars or other vehicles. From the Town and Country Planning Department in Peninsular Malaysia, the policies and guideline standard has been stated to fulfill a better parking environment for urban development.

2.4.1 Implementation Policies
Provision of a Comprehensive Car Parking Plan at Urban Areas

Each local authority must provide a comprehensive car park area plan at the urban level for integration into the Local Plan for a period of 5 to 15 years.

Determination of Maximum Limit of Parking Lots

Determine the maximum number of parking lots within a city based on radial road capacity that leads to the city centre.

Details of Parking Lot Provision in Development Projects

Each developer must outline detailed plans concerning the provision of parking lots according to standards in the planning approval application. Development proposal report should outline the estimated parking lot requirement, quantity of lots that should be provided, and type of car park structure and payment collection methods.

Conditions Regarding Parking Facility in Issuing Certificate of Fitness (CF)

Interior space that is designed to show a structure that is orderly and clean has a mechanical and electrical system of quality, to create arrangement and signage that provides clear movement orientation for users.

The Provision of Shared Car Parks

Encourage the implementation of mixed or integrated development projects that combine three or more land uses and of different business activities within the same building / complex.

Joint Use Parking Concept

Separate development area does not exceed 400 meters and has peak parking hours that do not conflict.

Introduction of Parking Impression Scheme

Local authorities should enhance the quantity of car park areas in existing areas so that it is able to increase the number of cars as much as 30% – 60% from the original quantity without requiring additional land.

Payment Policy for Parking Area

Implement a payment rate that is higher to decrease the number of cars in the city centre.

2.4.2 General Parking Policies for University Campus:

Faculty/staff lot is identified by signs at the entrances and is for faculty/staff parking. A current faculty/staff permit is required.

Student lots are marked as non-residential student parking. A student permit is required to use these lots, including designated off-street parking associated with campus-owned houses.

Parking at the Engineering Complex parking lot is not permitted for students.

Park only in designated parking areas. Areas designated by yellow curbs, hash marks, or those with no lines designating a space are not available for parking.

Do not park in driveways.

Use only one parking space.

Do not park on the grass.

Do not park in disabled spaces without a disabled placard/ permit.

Do not park in fire lanes.

Do not park in the faculty/staff lot during reserved times.

Do not park in reserved spaces.

Do not drive on lawns or sidewalks.

Warnings will be given the first full week of each semester for cars parked without a valid permit, but all other policies will be enforced.

2.5 Guideline Standard by Town and Country Planning Department in Peninsular Malaysia
General Guideline

Standard Classification According to the City Population Size Requirement and usage of parking space depends upon the type, scale and concentration of activities and also the number of residents in a city.

Standard Based on Urban Traffic Modal Split

Standards for the provision of car parking space for various types of land uses should be formulated based on several values of the modal split of private transportation mode to the quantity of commuters who utilize public transportation modes.

Specific Guidelines

Guidelines Provided for Housing Area Car Park

Heavy vehicle parking area in low cost residential area (including lorry, trailer, bus and heavy machinery).

Housing development that is fronting the local road, access road or cul-de-sacs.

The provision of car park areas within condominium development equipped with mechanical equipment.

These car park guidelines are based on a modal split:

High cost condominium or apartment – city exceeding 1 million inhabitants.

High cost condominium or apartment – city of 300 thousand to 1 million inhabitants.

High cost condominium or apartment – city of 100 thousand to 300 thousand inhabitants.

Medium cost apartment – city exceeding 1 million inhabitants.

Medium cost apartment – city of 300 thousand to 1 million inhabitants.

Medium cost apartment – city of 100 thousand to 300 thousand inhabitants.

Low cost apartment – all cities.

Parking Standards for Housing Area Car Parks

Parking Guidelines and Standards for Commercial Area Car Parks

Parking Guidelines for Industrial Area Car Parks

The provision of clustered car parks.

The provision of car park in industrial plots.

The provision of car park for special industrial factories.

Parking Standard for Industrial Area Car Park

Parking Guidelines for Institution Area Car Park

Parking Standards of Institution Area Car Park

Parking Standards of Recreation Area Car Park

Parking Guidelines for Other Urban Activities

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY

Title

Objective

Scopes

Sites identification & selection

Parking studies data collection

Data statistical analysis & evaluation

Recommendation

Figure 3.1: Study Flow Process Chart

3.1 Title, Objective and Scopes

Before start any research, it is often necessary to know the title, objective and scopes of research. The need of having these materials is to know the preliminary understanding of zonal parking studies. Objective of this research is to determination of current parking for supply between demands and parking pattern was focused on parking inventory, parking usage survey. This entire works will give the parking characteristic (existing condition) and the total load of the current parking in the location during 2 days from 7.30am until 7.30pm.

3.2 Sites Identification and Selection

There are many parking lots within the Shah Alam campus area. The study area for the survey data is focus at the Engineering Complex and Melati parking area shown at Figure 3.2.1. The location was selected because of high population number of non-resident and staff. Although, it easy for numerator to count the survey data at this two parking lots and identify the parking supply and parking demand. The focus of the research was at car parking facilities for students and staff in engineering faculty.

C:UsersEcaPicturesedited.jpg

Figure 3.2.1: Locations of two parking lots to survey
3.3 Parking Studies Data Collection

The data collection can be determined from the survey. Since curb parking or off streets parking is an element of parking supply, it is often essential to estimate the demand for parking and check the balance between supply and demand. If demand exceeds supply, additional off-street parking may have to be provided. Type of parking in the Melati parking lot is public parking. While, private parking is on the Engineering Complex parking lot.

Firstly, collect the number of inflow and outflow vehicles especially cars to the study area. The surveyor must count the number of cars at entry and exit each parking lot from 7.30 am until 7.30 pm for a day. The length of interval time is I?=15 min. If a vehicle enters the parking lot at time interval t1 and exits at time interval t2, then its time span for parking on the campus is I”t = t2- t1 interval. Assume that the summation of the travel time spent on the campus and the time delay for searching for a parking lot is not more than 10 min.

Supply is much easier to quantify than is demand because it is a physical count. Demand, on the other hand, is an estimate of the number of drivers who wish to park in the study area at any given time. Supply is generally constant, although there can be some changes during the day (e.g., tow away zones during peak hours, part-time loading zones, etc.). Demand varies by time. In fact, one of the elements to be defined in the study is the time of peak demand. In some areas there may be multiple peaks because of the differing uses within the study area. A simple example is an office complex. The peak employee accumulation may be by 9.00 am; while the peak client or visitor accumulation may be 11.30 am or 2.30 pm. Deliveries or service personnel may peak at still different times.

Current demand may be estimated in those study areas where supply greatly exceeds demand by merely counting the accumulated vehicles at various times of the day. However, when the demand reaches 85 percent or more of the supply, it may not represent the true demand because there may be additional demand that is not present because of the lack of adequate parking.

3.4 Data Statistical Analysis and Evaluation

After got the data, the several statically analysis has to be shown to recognize the pattern of parking demand. Parking measurement and analysis consist of different graph analysis. The results can be determined by:

Total parking supply as calculate as parking could be parked in study area over the given period of the study. However, it does not mean that all vehicles could be parked at same time.

Number of vehicles per interval vs. time (inflow and outflow). It can be seen that there are peaks volume of cars corresponding to the periods.

Number of vehicles vs. realized parking demands in two lots. The realized parking demands associated with these lots for every fifteen minutes.

Number of vehicles vs. time shows the total parking demands of the campus for each time interval and compare between supply and demand of parking.

3.5 Recommendation

To solving the parking problem, there are two ways to solve the problem, either supply new parking spaces or reduce the parking demand if demand exceeds the supply parking.

CHAPTER 4.0: FINDINGS AND RESULTS
4.1 Parking Measurement and Analysis

Real time trend on parking demand

Variation of demand vs. supply over the period

Parking turn-over at the two parking lots

4.2 Expected Outcomes

On the basis of these statistical results, the problems have been explored and suggestions have been given for improving the campus parking system. It is expected that this case study can benefit the solving of similar problems existing in other UiTM branch campuses.

CHAPTER 5.0: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Conclusion
5.2 Limitations and Constraints
5.3 Recommendation

1.0 INTRODUCTION1.1 Background of the Zanzibar Commission for Tourism

Under that Act ZCT is responsible with many functions including licensing (operation) of all the tourist establishment in Zanzibar, Monitoring and supervision of the Zanzibar tourist, Assisting potential investors, etc (ZCT, 1992 )

1.2 Mission

Zanzibar Commission of Tourism (ZCT) on regarding the development tourism in Zanzibar has the mission to be the most interesting, miscellaneous island targeted in the Indian Ocean constituency that will be more interesting in the world.

According to that mission ZCT combines various types of tourism such as: Culture & Tradition, Performing Arts, History & Archaeology, Beaches, Culinary (spices), Medical (herbs) ,etc (ZTPS, n/d)

1.3 Introduction and background of the problem

In order to survive in today’s business environment,in small companies, particulaly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in tourism industry utilize innovative techniques as a basis of competitive advantage. At the moment globalized world, SMEs have turn out to be more imperative for developed and developing countries since they produced high percentages of overall production, employment and revenue collection to the government.

The most important and the greatest growing sectors of the overall economy, tourism in Zanzibar contains many SMEs that make an effort to be doing well in aggressive and quickly changing business situation. SMEs play a critical role not only in national trade but also in international trade. The previous information from different sources such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows SMEs in many countries account for a very substantial proportion on local and export market (Knight, 2001). Porter (1991) argues that in order for any industry to compete within the business environment, it has to adopt competitive advantage strategy, so the owners and stake holders should be able to identify their competitors.

The competitive advantages for any organization are superior skills and resources. Therefore any source of advantage is like a drivers of cost or differentiation advantages. (Porter, 1985). Like any SMEs, in order for tourism SMEs to survive in competitive business environment, SMEs should be more entrepreneur and innovative,it means that should perform well in dynamic locations and not in regulated markets.

SMEs could have low performance and unstable environments due to delay of product innovations, the working operation was not aggressives even throw the enterprenuership could be benefited in various ways but does not provide a sustainable competitive advantages. (Hult and Ketchen, 2001). Above all, the innovation, promotion, lowering of the price, differentiation, creativity, all these cannot be performed well without the adoption of ICT(Kotler and Armstrong ,2008). Indeed, the nature of any industry cannot compete with its competitor to bring the superior value to their customers without the appropriate adoption of ICT. ICT is regarded as the main force of sustainable competitive advantage and a strategic weapon especially in the tourism and hospitality industries (Poon, 1993). Generally, most of the tourism industry should be well equipped with ICT, which include radio, television, as well as newer digital technologies such as computers and the Internet, have been touted as potentially powerful enabling tools for tourism change and reform. These changes and reforms include services such as e-commerce, e-booking, e-reservation and not only that ICT facilitate the information processing system.

In order to survive strong competition and current economic crisis in the region, SMEs involved in hotel industry have to improve the quality of its services. What is the role of tourism SMEs in the process in order to gain customer’s satisfaction through service quality and business improvement? It is generally accepted that ICT is a modern instrumental tool that enables the SMEs entrepreneurs to modify their tourism methods. It is used in order to increase the tourist interest. The extended use of ICTs drove the society into a new knowledge based form where information plays an important role for the SMEs as well as tourist satisfaction.

In Zanzibar there is a significant research gap on small tourism business and failure to identify critical weakness of small and medium sized tourism enterprises. A number of studies on tourism have been conducted, however very little has been studied about tourism SMEs and particularly how these SMEs engaged in adopting ICTs for more productivity and overall total economic growth of the Zanzibar .The need to undertake a thorough tourism analysis in Zanzibar has been realized recently. For example, It is important to have a database on tourism development if, students, policy analysts, planners, decision makers and entrepreneurs to be up to date with drive of tourism industry .As a large number of tourism SME’s are involved in the delivery of tourism products and that they are also potential for future development of tourism is a need to carry out studies that might show how small and medium tourism business develop, function, conduct business and how they contribute to local and national economic development. Zanzibar has many tourist attractions and contributes high percentage of economy of the country and that the tourism sector is dominated by SME’s. However there is a continued absence of studies on small tourism firms, therefore it is important to do research on tourism SMEs.

1.4 Statement of the problem

There are different kinds of ICTs used in tourism activities such as e-reservation, tele- and video-conferencing and e-booking tools. The extent into how these products services are used by the SMEs involved in Zanzibar and their potential to improve the sector has not been explore enough. Challenges facing these SMEs in application of ICT are not known and areas for improvement have not been investigated. Given the mounting global demand on usage of ICTs in tourism, there is therefore a need to look at the impact of ICTs application on SMEs engaged in tourism sector in Zanzibar. This study is learning to address the issued.

1.5 Aim of the research

To examine /explore the role and use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in enhancing the competitiveness advantages of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) in Zanzibar Tourism operation.

1.6 Research objectives

The main objective of this study is significantly examined how ICT help to create competitive advantage in tourism sector in Zanzibar. Not only that but also to identify constraints facing SMEs using ICT.

Specific objectives:

To examine the awareness and the extent of ICT utilization in Zanzibar tourism SMEs sector

To identify constraints and opportunities of ICT usage in tourism sector in Zanzibar

To find out solution options to overcome the shortcoming of the ICT utilization in tourism SMEs in Zanzibar

1.7 Research questions

For the purpose of meeting the above objectives, the study comes up with the following questions:

How do Zanzibar tourism SMEs aware and utilize the ICT in their business?

How do Zanzibar SMEs perceive profitability and performance of their business in relation to use of ICT in their business?

What measures have been taken to solve the problems of lack of use of ICT?

1.8 Scope of the study

This study was conducted to investigate how usage of ICT and its application in sectors, involved in tourism industry could help the way business is run and hence contribute increased efficiency and effectiveness. Due to the time constraint this study covered the part of Zanzibar Islands which is Stone town and the portion of North East Coast zones which includes Kiwengwa village, Matemwe village and Nungwi village because this area is more active in tourism activities in Zanzibar.

1.9 Significance of the study

This study intends to disclose the influence of the ICT as a competitive advantage strategy that can be applied in SMEs in the tourism industry. The study is expected to be of much value to a number of peoples and organization as follows:-

The results obtained from this study will provide some recommendation to the Governing Authority, which is expected to bring insights into Zanzibar’s SMEs on how ICTs usage can bring competitive advantages against their competitors so as to accelerate economic growth of Zanzibar. It will help the policy makers of the country to appreciate the implications on ICT in SMEs in tourism to increase the quality of services in hospitality industry.

The research will provide sufficient information to be used as a reference on this area of the study and to fulfill the requirement for the Degree of Master of Business Administration in Information Technology Management in Coventry University.

1.10 Limitations of the study

Some data are confidential so it was difficult to get the current data.

Financial constraints, so it could be difficult for a researcher to cover all the Zanzibar regions due to financial constraints.

1.11 Summary of the chapter

This chapter was introduced the introduction of the study, the introduction of Zanzibar Commission for Tourism (ZCT) was done under this chapter where all services offered were summarized and the mission statement of ZCT were also started.

Also in this chapter the researcher discussed something about the aim of the research, research objectives, research question and statement of the problems. Not only that but also the researcher briefly discussed the significance of the study, scope of the study and limitation of the study.

CHAPTER TWO
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction

This part provides definition of the important terms and concepts which are used in this study including ICT in tourism sectors, the conceptual frame work of this study, the performance of tourism in SME’s, and the opportunity and challenges of tourism in Zanzibar.

2.2 Definitions of the terms and concepts
2.2.1 Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Morrison (1996) argues that it is difficult to define the term SMEs because there are no universal criteria that can be used to determine the size of the business, as a result, Olomi (2009) noted that although the SMEs all over the world contribute a major role in social development, its definition varies from one country to another and even from one institution to another in the same country. An enterprise may be perceived as small in terms of physical facilities, production/service capacity, market share, and number of employee. Olomi (2009) cited that ,the United States Agency for International Development-USAID (1993) ,suggested that SMEs can be defined by considering combination of both qualitative and quantitative criteria and should include one among the aspects such as number of employee, capital investment, share capital, number of share holders, number of stakeholders, total asset, turnover, market share, geographical market coverage, organizational complexity, composition of management and degree of formalization.

In Tanzania, the SMEs Development Policy (2002) classifies SMEs under the consideration of employment size and capital investment of the organization. A micro-enterprise is one with fewer than five employees, a small enterprise with 5-49 employees, a medium enterprise with 50-99 employees and a large enterprise with more than 100 employees. In contrast with the Capital investments the definition was based at the range from less than Tshs 5 million to over Tshs 800 million. For the purpose of this research, the Tanzania SMEs Development Policy of (2002) definition will be adopted because it is based on the local environment of Tanzania, where SMEs are characterized by family ownership and local area of operation, which is not the case to other countries. This illustrated in the table below:-

Table: 1 Category of SMEs in Tanzania

Category

Employees

Capital investment in machinery Tshs

Micro enterprise

1-4

Up to 5mil

Small enterprise

5-49

Above 5mil to 200mil

Medium enterprise

50-99

Above 200 to 800mil

Large enterprise

100+

Above 800mil

Source: SMEs development policy (2002)

Accordind to Zanzibar Youth Employment Action Plan.(2007), Zanzibar has a large informal sector operation where more than 80 percent of the workforce is believed to be engaged in. Majority of the establishments in the informal sector are micro, own account or employing less than 5 people. This situation is linked to low skills base as a result of limited opportunities for skills training, working capital and inadequate support for off-farm activities in rural areas. From a gender perspective,women have low participation rates and fewer skills than men. Women account for only 19 percent of total employees compared to 81 percent for men in this sector. This sector is dominated by private individuals through 1,541 registered businesses in 2002. Out of this number, only 6% employs more than 10 people while 79% of the industry employs less than 20 people and only 3% of registered industry employs more than 100 people (SME Policy, 2006). The potential is still there for more employment opportunities especially to out of school youths and those from different vocational training centers. The Zanzibar SME policy (2006) is aiming at developing and creating conducive environment through participation of public and private sector for the purpose of increasing employment provision, income generation and poverty reduction. The policy and the MKUZA aim at increasing job opportunities through SMEs. SMEs are important to the national economic, but they are facing a number of problems, both administrative and financial and thus fail to contribute fully in employment creation.

Apart from the SMEs sector, Zanzibar has a small manufacturing sector. Manufacturing sector in general is at infant stage and has not been fully exploited to its maximum potential to increase its contribution to the economy and welfare of the people. There is a wide potential for investors to come in, invest in big industries and thereby generates employment on the youth. The importance of manufacturing sector in terms of employment creation and development of linkages with the rest of economy is well understood. Employment opportunities that exist in manufacturing take into consideration its linkages with agriculture, tourism, and trade. Other opportunities that could be generated include those from agro-processing, production of souvenirs, transportation, and other new activities that will meet demands of tourism and trade.

2.2.2. Importance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s)

There are many benefits that obtained from SME’s in day to day operation forexample there will be about 1.7 millions business engaging, in micro enterprises operation which is about 3million persons that will be about 20% of Tanzanian labour force (URT,2003)

The SME’s was be the labour intensive by creating the employment opportunity at different level of investment.The estimation will be shown as about 700,000 new entrants in every year as a labour force, not only that about 500,000 of it are school leavers with few skills, while the employment trend in public sector will show about 40,000 are the new entrants and about 660,000 remained to be unemployed (URT,2003) as cited in Temba(n/d)

According to that the trend will be shown in Tanzania will be characterised by low rate of capital formation and normally the SME’s will tend to be more effective in the utilisation of employment situation in the country (URT,2003) as cited in Temba(n/d)

The development of SME’s will promote the distribution of economic activities within the country and boster the technology in easierst way,this is because due to lower overheads and fixed costs in their normally operation, therefore the owners of SME’s must be tend to show the greater resilience in the face of recession by holding their business (URT,2003)

2.2.3 Information Communication Technology (ICT)

The literature shows that there is no universally accepted definition of ICT, because the concepts, methods and applications involved in ICT are constantly evolving on an almost daily basis.

Blurton (2002) as cited in Badnjevic and Padukova (2006) defines ICT as a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information. Kumar (2001) claimed that ICT is the study, design, development, implementation, support, or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware. ICT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.

2.2.4 The adoption of ICT by SMEs:

Obviously, ICTs are more than computer or internet even though they focuse on business technology.Therefore ICTs include the software and hardware telecommunicaton and information management techniques, also the ICT can be used to creates,receive, retrives and distribute/ transform information in a wide range. (Porter and Millar, 1985, Brady et al,2002)

SME’s in tourism operation are important tools on contribution of the economy in the country in particulaly ICT has more effective use and better position of working performance and rapidly change the new technologies and creates the tourism organization in more competitive.(Hartigan, 2005)

In recent years, SMEs have acquired direct access to digital technologies for individual task development.In previous this opportunity only for large companies to use computing and communication capabilities to coordinate their work. On the other hand, ICT reduced the expenditure on cost consumption and improve the performance in organization due to certain kinds of communications and coordination can occur. (Summut-Bonnii and McGee, 2002).

(Ragaswamy and Lilien, 1997).On the business today their was certain changes that global interdependencies are becoming more critical thus, companies/organization realized they need to take advantage of ICT capabilities for improving their competitiveness and productivity.

2.2.5 ICT and SME competitiveness

The presence of ICT and use it could lead to increase the competitiveness of SME’s due the faster and more conscientious communication channel, it means the use of ICT has increase the competitiveness of SME’s also enables the establishment of litheness associated with different trading partners due to more consistency of channel of communication. In addition the increases of the biggest enterprises it comes through introduced of ICT in many organizations and adapt quicker to changing operational conditions. For that reason the aggressive compensation of SME’s possibly will turn down.

Normally well-built enterprises not relay comfortable information as SME’s; therefore the realistic decision is not costless if needed appropriate information. However SME’s contain the improvement of slighter interior harmonization expenditure as each and every one resolution is completed by a small number of assessment makers. (Raymond 1993, Muller-Falcke 2001)

The economies of extent can be condensed due to lowering the operational expenditure with the presences of ICT, particularly internet monitor the enterprises situation for appropriate information to obtain the exacting information concerning sellers, buyers and clients that was absent of accomplish. In addition delivery of goods, funds transmission and banking system facilities are reliable, this will enables SME’s to be expanded regionally and internationally.

Finally most of the SME’s are located in outside the town areas due to competition of larger enterprises,transportation and communication costs that, ICT might increases the competition for enterprises and becomes more effectivelly and productivity or the enterprises to be close down. (Annual Forum at Misty Hills, Muldersdrift (2001))

2.2.6 ICT as a business tools

The use of Information, Communication and Technology is very important in current business operations. Entrepreneurs need to understand the market situation before doing any business and the preferred types of products at particular time. This knowledge can be sought through ICT system. The use of media is important in advertising and promoting business inside and outside the country. The available public and private media institutions can be utilized to publicize the available potential of products and services undertaken by youth and others.(Zanzibar youth Employment Action Plan, 2007).

ICT is technology’s version of economic growth, to satisfy the needs and wants of the community over time. Organizations are forced to adjust and take advantage of the opportunities provided by ICT in order to stay competitive. Businesses that do not take advantage of the ICT will run the risk of losing customers and their competitive advantage (Sharma, 2002). Some of the functions that technology has impacted are information search, advertising, consumer buying patterns and behaviors (Hanson, 2000). On a global scale, all industries have been affected by the emergence and implementation of technological advances. All above, ICT can be employed to give users quick access to ideas and experiences from a wide range of people, communities and cultures. The positive impacts of ICT can be seen in the following aspects:

Economic impacts: ICT, in combination with globalization and the information uprising have reshaped the employees. By raising the momentum of international communication, ICT has enabled corporations to subcontract jobs, both in the industrialized as well as professional sector (Lippis, 2007).

Social impacts: ICT has influenced societies on numerous levels. They have comprehensive the contact of public administration, leading to a centralization of district administration into city centre. They have lead to new forms of employment in innovation and production of ICT and a stipulate for highly accomplished specialists. On the other hand, ICT has enabled professionals in certain industries to be replaced by unqualified human resources, or even completed exclusively redundant.

Lifting productivity: Investing in ICT can have a powerful effect on productivity in almost every industry, driving innovation, cutting costs, and opening up new opportunities. ICT can boost profits, help small firms overcome limitations of size, and enable even small enterprises to establish a global presence. Nevertheless, to take full advantage of the opportunities of ICT, we need to develop the skills of our workforce at every level, from front-line staff to senior management.

In summing up, ICT has the potential to change the tourism SMEs in improving the productivity at a lower cost and to raise the quality of information. It contributes to make the tourism penetration around the globe. In today’s world, people want to find the appropriate tourist destination, booking and buying airline ticket, check in and getting boarding pass when they are sited at their home or working place. All these can be done with the support of ICT.

2.2.7 Tourism

Holloway (2004) defines Tourism as the business of providing for different types of visitors; overnight or longer stay and day visitors and includes accommodation, car parking, entertainment and attractions, food and drinks. According to Beech and Chadwick (2006), the widely accepted modern definition of tourism is that given by the World Tourism organization (WTO) which describes as the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business or other purposes.

In tourism sector, various travel operators, hotels, restaurants and travel agencies have been active in development of Internet and e-commerce. The Internet allows travellers to access and recommend the tourism information directly as well as , reviews the local tourism information, this was done previously through the physical offices of large travel agencies. Therefore most of Information Communication Technology (ICT) capture the compensation of direct discounted sales of airline tickets and travel packages, due to both online/offline agencies have shifted on selling leisure products involve high operating expenses. Given that Internet and others travel agencies allow the customer to make comparisons in a price of air tickets and other services of the online travellers (OECD, 2004)

2.2.8 The competitive advantage

Porter (1985) views that a competitive advantage is an advantages over competitor gained by offering consumer greater value than competitors offer. His view on competitive advantages is at the heart of a firm’s performance in competitive market. He argued that a firm’s ability to outperform its competitors lay in its ability to translate its competitive strategy into competitive advantages.

Kotler and Armstrong (2008) suggested an advantage that firms has over its competitors, the way of building relationship with targeted customer, understanding their needs better than competitors do and deliver more customers value. That is it is the extent a company can differentiate and position itself as providing superior customer value.

The competitive advantage is a way of giving a company an edge over its rivals and an ability to generate greater value for the firm and its shareholders. The more sustainable the competitive advantage, the more difficult for competitors to neutralize the advantage (Walker et al, 2006)

2.3 Performance of Tourism SME’s
2.3.1 Trade, industry and tourism

Zanzibar Povery Reduction Policy Report (2003) has the broad objective of this sector in order to create a competitive manufacturing and trading sector, which is geared towards for economic diversification in order to ultimately alleviate poverty. The sector is aimed to provide opportunity for further participation of the private sector. The fundamental goal is to equip and facilitate this sector in building its capacity, create better working environment and institute legal and institutional framework for the enhancement and expansion of its activities. The tools to be used are the National Trade policy, Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Private Sector Involvement and Development. Zanzibar has a strong determination to develop tourism as an economic sector to provide foreign exchange earnings, creating employment opportunities, stimulate local economy and diversify the economy.

On the other side most of the tourist guides and/or RoGZ believes that on development of tourism factors, tourism is a vital socio economic that participate effectively and successfully in order to manage their life and to be more development. This can be implemented through the Zanzibar National Tourism Policy and the Indicative Tourism Master Plan.

Since the inception of the ZIPA in 1991, the investment process has been very positive and progressive. Statistics shows that by the end of 2002, ZIPA had approved about 242 projects with a total proposed investment value of USD 403 million. Tourism sector takes the lion share with 70% of total projects with proposed capital of USD 313.8 million. In 1985, the number of tourists who visited Zanzibar was 19,368; while the number of tourists has reached in the range between 85,000 and 100,000 annually. In 2001 Zanzibar earned approximately US$ 46 million in forex from international tourism, this accounts for approximately 15% of the GDP. This contribution is projected to increase to around $ 116 million and 21% of the GDP by 2012. (Zanzibar Povery Reduction Policy Report, 2003)

2.3.2 Contribution to GDP

Tourism already makes a significant contribution to the economy of Zanzibar. It is provisionally estimated that the sector accounted for about 14% of GDP in 2001, with 12% for Tanzania as a whole. This contribution is projected to increase to around 21% by 2012.(Indicative tourism master plan ,2003)

2.3.3 Foreign exchange earnings

According to the preliminary results of the International Visitor Exit Survey Zanzibar earned some $46 million from the spending of International tourists in 2001. To this must be added an allowance for the spending of tourists traveling to Zanzibar on internal flights (who are not presently covered by the official statistics). This raises total visitor expenditure to $55 million in 2001. Allowing for the imports from foreign countries that are utilized by the tourism sector, net foreign exchange earnings from tourism are estimated at $46 million in 2001. This figure is projected to increase to some $116 million by 2012. Even allowing for leakages on imports, it is clear that tourism is a most important sources of foreign exchange, and helps considerably to offset the trade deficit which widened from $51 million in 1997 to $86 million in 2000, reducing to an estimated $50 million in 2001.( Indicative tourism master plan final report,2003)

2.3.4 Contribution to employment

According to (Indicative tourism master plan final report,2003), there exists no official data on the employment generated by the tourism sector, it is estimated that currently some 5,800 persons are directly employed by the tourism industry in Zanzibar, of whom approximately 4,400 persons (76%) are employed in the hotel/guest houses sub-sector. The remainder is employed in tourist restaurants, tourist shops, ground tour operators, airlines (state-owned and private), the Commission for Tourism and other tourism-related government departments or as tour guides. In addition to those directly employed in the tourism sector, there are many more-perhaps, as many again, who derive part or all of their employment from supplying goods or services to hotels, restaurants, etc, or who otherwise benefit from the spending of persons who are directly or indirectly employed in tourism. Thus, total tourism-generated employment in Zanzibar could presently be in the order of 37,000 jobs or full-time job equivalents. This number should further increase to around 48,000 jobs by 2021, if, as is hoped, the tourism sector returns to a path of sustained growth. Indeed, Zanzibar Vision 2020 envisages that as much as 50% of all jobs in the modern sector could be provided in tourism and the free zones by 2020.

Zanzibar Growth Strategy (2007) has accorded tourism as one among the three lead sectors of the economy. In recent years the economic growth in Zanzibar has been driven by the increasing contribution and growth of the service sector, (including tourism) which represents up to 43 percent of GDP (2006).According to Zanzibar Youth Employment Action Plan(2007),arque the employment in tourism sector they believed to employ 56,000 people most of them in hotel operations of which 60% are Zanzibari youth. They are mostly engaged in building of the hotel and other infrastructure as well as in services such as tour guiding, transportation and hotel services. The potential is still there, and the government hopes more people especially youth with further be employed in this sector.

2.3.5 Contribution to government revenues

The tourism sector makes a substantial contribution to government revenues through the wide range of fees, licenses and taxes levied on the sector. While precise figures are not yet a

Introduction

“India was the 10th most preferred destination in 2004, the 4th in 2006 and is now at the top in 2007 and that is where we want to be,” Union Tourism Minister Ambika Soni said while receiving the award at a glittering ceremony Monday night in London.

(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/India_is_the_numero_uno_travel_destination_/articleshow/2337923.cms)

Literature Review

Tourism industry today is the fastest growing industry in the world. According to a report by WTTC (World Travel & Tourism Council) tour and travel industry is expected to grow at the rate of 4.3% per year over the next 10 years. Tourism industry today, on a global scale has become a US$662 billion industry. It generates around 10.3% of the global economic output, and provides employment to 234 million people. Also, a report by World tourism Organization states that more than 698 million people visited one or more foreign countries (in 2000), and spent more than US$478 billion. A recent report states that the number of international tourists have increased form 234 million in 1950 to 763 million till the last few years. Looking at the above facts one can very well conclude that tourism industry can impact the economy of a country to a very high extent.

How, and in what ways can tourism impact a countries economy?

Tourism impacts a countries economy by bringing in Foreign Exchange, contributing to government revenues, generating new jobs, demanding investment for new infrastructure or for the maintenance which in turn helps the country develop and cater to the tourists needs better.

Now let’s take each one of these one by one and see how deeply each of these aspects contributes to the economy of the country.

Foreign Exchange

Tourism invites a lot a foreign residents to come and bring with them foreign currency in the country. To accelerate growth and development, each economy needs these tourists to bring and spend this foreign currency in the country. All economies need this foreign exchange to maintain a positive balance of payments (“Balance of payment is defined as a record of all economic transactions between residents of a country and the residents of all other countries that trade with that nation.”) Theory and Practice by Mohammad Reza Vaghefi. Tourism marks to the top in export categories in around 83% of the countries and has become the main source of foreign exchange for as high as 38% of the countries all over the world. A Report by World Tourism Organisation (http://www.uneptie.org/pc/tourism/sust-tourism/economic.htm)

Government Revenues

There can be direct and indirect contributions towards the government revenues by the tourism sector. Direct contributions include the taxes on incomes generated by tourism employment and businesses, and by imposing direct taxes like departure taxes. Whereas indirect contributions come from taxes and duties paid by these tourists on goods and services consumed. “The world Travel and Tourism Council estimates that travel and tourism’s direct, indirect, and personal tax contribution worldwide was over US$ 800 billion in the 1998 – a figure it expects to double by 2010.”(WTTC/Michigan State University Tax Policy Centre)

Employment Generation

A report by WTO states that tourism sector worldwide provides employment to move than 7% of the total workforce. Over the years, tourism has created new jobs through hotels, pubs, restaurants, taxis, stalls etc. and through other tourism related service sectors.

Investment for Infrastructure

Tourism creates revenue for the economy so it demands development and improvement for the present systems and services available to serve the tourists better. This not only caters to the needs of the tourists and the native people but also improves the infrastructure, giving the place a new better look.

Types of tourism

Adventure Tourism

Pleasure Tourism

Cultural Tourism

Sports Tourism

Study Tourism

Research Tourism

Professional Tourism

This report talks about use of sports related mega-events as a tool of regeneration and development by various countries.

What is Sports Tourism?

“Sports tourism: A social, cultural and economic phenomenon arising from the unique interaction of activity, people and place.”(John Beech and Simon Chadwick (eds.), THE BUSINESS OF TOURISM MANAGEMENT)

There have been various arguments over the definition of sports tourist/ tourism. Some people described it as, ‘A sports tourist is an individual who participates in sports on holiday.’ (De Knop’s, 1987), ‘active participation of tourists in sport events is also a part of sport tourism’ (Glyptis and Jackson, 1993). “Sport tourist is a temporary visitor staying at least 24 hours in the event area and whose primary purpose is to participate in a sport event, with the area visited being a secondary attraction.” (Nogawa et al., 1996) There are reports that show 26% of the holidays planned all over the world are solely related to sports.

Sports tourism has a history going beyond 776BC, where we have descriptions of Romans and Greeks organising fabulous sport events to attract people from various places.(Coakley, 1990). The first ever Olympic, for which we have written records, was played in 776BC. It was started by the Romans, and is still organised every four years. Athletes, Organising Teams and Spectators travel from all over the world to make Olympics a successful event for over 1200 years.

What are the impacts?

Events like these (E.g. Olympics, Commonwealth Games, and World Cup Series etc.) attract millions of visitors from all over the world to the host country. This brings in a lot of revenue in local and foreign currency both. Moreover locations associated with these mega events gain a special charisma for themselves, attracting people from all over, not only to see the events but even before and after the events. Places like the Cricket Museum (Lords) , Basketball Hall of Fame (Massachusetts), Olympic Stadia (Atlanta and Barcelona) not only generate revenue by hosting events, but over a period of time have became places of great tourist interest.

Delpy (1992, 1997) surveyed English speaking spectators at the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympic Games in an attempt to understand the motivations of individual who attended the Games. She found that although the Olympic Games are orchestrated for television, for those attending the Games, nothing compared with the excitement of “being there”. Indeed, Baines (1996) likened sport tourism to the “leisure pursuit of being there.” Both Baines and Delpy addressed the market trends for event based tourism with a focus on the spectator. Chalip et al. (1998) also looked at the motivations of individuals from the United States and assessed the likelihood that they would travel to attend an Olympic Games. They focused their investigation on three polysemic variables (Chalip, 1992): narratives, genres, and symbols associated with the Olympics. They examined the effect these variables had on Americans’ interest and intent to travel to the Olympics. Chalip et al. (1998) found that the genres of sport and spectacle can be used to predict interest and intent to travel, while narratives about Olympic athletes used by the media to promote the Games seemed to increase interest in watching them on television, rather than travelling to actually “be there”.

Another study that is noteworthy from a methodological perspective is a longitudinal study of the British Columbia Games (Carmichael & Murphy, 1996). The researchers were particularly interested in identifying patterns and trends across several years of the Games so that future events could be planned more effectively. Carmichael and Murphy also focused on how best to measure the number of spectators at “open access” events and how to determine the economic impact of smaller scale short term sports events. They recommended that future studies separate sport tourists into two groups: spectators and participants, as the two groups differ in their length of stay and spending patterns. Moreover, in a study of sport tourists attending ten US collegiate national championships, Irwin and Sandler (1998) found that degree of team affiliation impacted tourist expenditure and length of stay in the host community, with the more avid fans tending to stay an average of a day longer at the event.

Other studies have taken a more comprehensive approach to measuring the economic impact on a community of hosting major sports events. Again methodological difficulties regarding how to accurately measure economic impacts have been encountered. In fact, Hall (1992a) warns of the possibility of “displacement effect” whereby tourists and locals alike avoid the event destination because of the inflated prices which may accompany such an event. Similarly, Crompton (1995) warns of the direct, indirect, and opportunity costs generated by large events. These can be quite considerable. Burgan and Mules (1992) suggest that it is best to err on the conservative side when estimating the economic impact of an event. They assessed the utility of using various economic models to measure the economic impact of hallmark sports events. The authors argue that many studies fail to deal adequately with the expenses incurred in organising and marketing the event. Also, they suggest that any estimate of economic impact should incorporate the “psychic income” experienced by members of the host community in addition to visitor expenditures and event organisation costs. In a study of the 1995 Northern Conference University Sports Association Games (Lismore, Australia), Walo, Bull, and Breen (1996) found that the Games did have a positive economic impact on the community and that the use of existing facilities and volunteer staff were important not only in defraying the costs of hosting the event, but also in getting the community involved. The authors found that the most significant difference between hosting a hallmark event and hosting a small scale local event was that a small scale event is more likely to enhance the way of life of the host community. In other words, small events may have a greater positive effect on the psychic income of the residents, as more community residents are likely to be involved in the event in some way.

The psychic income of hosting a sports event for a community is not always positive, however. Soutar and McLeod (1993) in a study of resident’s perceptions regarding the America’s Cup Defence (1986-87) hosted by Fremantle, Australia found that both the positive and the negative impacts of the event did not live up to expectations. Prior to the event, many believed that Fremantle would become a “boomtown,” while, residents feared that the event would also bring severe congestion to their city. Using a longitudinal approach, Soutar and McLeod found that residents’ expectations were more extreme than what actually occurred. While the economic benefits did not reach their predicted levels, the apriori fear of congestion was worse than that experienced during the event. In fact, Ritchie (1984), used an analysis of the (then) forthcoming Winter Olympic Games in Calgary (Canada) to develop a list of both the positive and negative impacts a community might expect to encounter from hosting a hallmark event. Moreover, even within one community the impacts of an event may not be distributed evenly. For example, in a New Zealand based study, Garnham (1996) found that in hosting the Ranfurly Shield (a national rugby tournament which takes place over a two week period), some segments of the community gained, while others lost. While restaurants, pubs, and clubs reported increased business, retail shops saw no increase in trade. Nevertheless, Garnham found that community morale was the highest it had been in 22 years. The event provided a central focus for the local population which inspired a sense of pride in their community. Thus, once gain the psychic income of hosting an event may have counterbalanced some of the negative impacts.

Another much touted benefit of hosting sports events is that they may promote tourism beyond the event itself. For example, people who attend the event may return for a vacation, or those who watch the event on television may decide to visit the destination later. Initially, as Collins (1997) writes, “sports events can provide a tourist focus where nature has failed to do so, or can spread the use of accommodation into off-peak periods or stimulate accommodation provision” (p. 199). Later, especially in the case of the televised events, it is hoped that the exposure afforded the town or city hosting the event will generate tourism in the form of individuals wishing to visit the community. This may include nostalgia sport tourists, who wish to visit the stadia and venues associated with an event. For example, in many Olympic cities, the stadium is open for tours on a daily basis. Even in the years leading up to hosting the Games, venues are open for visitors. In Park City, Utah (one of the venues for the Winter Olympic Games in 2002) visitors can take a bobsled or luge run down the chute, even before the Olympians themselves.

There is a growing body of literature which adopts a critical approach towards the impacts of hallmark events on communities. Dovey (1989) using Perth, Australia which hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1962 and the America’s Cup in 1987 as a case study charges that “the real value (and damage) of such events for cities is quite unpredictable” (p. 79) and frequently “… it is revealed, often all too late in the domain of the everyday experience of the inhabitants …” (p. 79). Likewise, Roche (1994) argues that too much emphasis is given to the economic benefits (events often do not live up to expectations) and the political and planning processes which underlie hallmark events are inadequately evaluated. Roche suggests that future research on the effects of hallmark events on urban communities needs to address the contextual forces at work in all major western cities. These would include unemployment and the decline of traditional industries, as well as the “situational rationality” of the policies and actions taken in the planning of the event, such as the effect of local politics on the planning process.

Sack and Johnson (1996) conducted a study very much along these lines. They investigated the policy processes which brought the Volvo International Tennis Tournament to New Haven Connecticut in 1989. As hosting sports events is becoming a common strategy for the economic regeneration of many urban communities, Sack and Johnson wanted to gain insight into the workings of the various political groups in attracting the tournament to New Haven. The authors found that the main policy decisions had been made long before the general public became involved. Further, the workings of the local elites had a powerful impact on decisions concerning how the event would be financed and how the event would be run. Public funds to the amount of US$15 million would be used to build the tennis stadium needed to host the event. Yet, despite this public investment, the facility would not be open to the general public except when “special events” were held.

Sports related tourism has geared up to a great extent in the last few years.