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TAX BENEFITS
STUDENT NAME
AFFILIATION
DATE
Mr. Macdem is taxed every year and does not understand the concept, because he gains little from what he earns. As a general manger he opts for more but his company does not offer the 401k, which is a retirement plan which is sponsored by an employer (Mamorsky, 2015).
To gain tax freedom one has to access ways to invest the money without losing it. In the case his company was tax compliant ,section 125 insures that an employer deduct premium pretax an set aside pretax funds towards heath assumability per the case he can open a health saving account that is tax free on medical expenses upon withdrawals.
In a health saving account (assuming his monthly earning), if he invest in health care he can be free from tax. Let’s say his gross per month is $4000,pretax is 280 ,this shows that his Taxable income will be $3720.State taxes will deduct an approximate of $1,103 making his net pay $2,617 but at the end of the month he will have $280 more as per heath care benefits as reimbursement(If he does not use his medical care service).Macdems income will be $2,897.Based on this health care plan ,he can increase his income by $1,711 as compared to, not having a HSA .Spendable income increases and ensures he saves more and reduces tax(Mamorsky, 2015).Pretax Contributions increase the chance to save and assist in pre-retirement. Increase in contribution reduces the tax burden and due to HSA being tax defer d this offers control in retirement assets. All this is based on the fact that Macdems Company does not have an elaborate plan for employee. Investment without being taxed could be in the form of exchange trade funds, index funds that have no tax liability. To increase his investment Macdem has to have an efficient plan to reduce tax through pretax health care system.
PS(The above calculations are based on assumptions,as we cannot asses his true income and deductible tax.)
Referenc
Mamorsky, J. (2015). Law Journal Press (Revised ed.).
Task One
Task One
The data set features 3 different data forms including a summary of lifestyle apps used by college students studying in the US, green apps for an eco-friendly lifestyle, and the motivation for searching for a lifestyle app.
In the graph 1 above, the main apps used by college students studying in the US include Headspace, Moodpath, and ShopWell with 40, 42, and 43 users respectively. The least used apps include MapMyRun, HabitBull, and Runtastic with 5, 4, 6 users respectively.
From the second graph above, the Grid Carbon and Good On You apps are the most preferred green apps for an eco-friendly lifestyle with 68% and 62% users respectively.
In the graph above, the motivation for searching for a lifestyle is summarized in a graph format. The information shows that 43% of students are motivated to search for a lifestyle app when they need information followed by when they need to be entertained by 38%. Additionally, students are least likely (18%) to search for a lifestyle app when it is mentioned in class.
The three tables show that there are several lifestyle apps that students in the US can choose from for various purposes. From the number of students using these apps, it is evident that some apps are more preferred than others. Out of the base of 560 respondents used, 296 users reveal their preference for ShopWell and the least preference for HabitBull. Green apps are also a consideration for students as they move more towards an eco-friendly lifestyle. Consequently, some eco-friendly apps including Grid Carbon and Good On You are preferred by 68% and 62% of respondents out of a base of 880 UK students. The data reveals no large variations in usage and almost every category of green apps has a notable percentage of students using the app. There are several statements that represent why students are motivated to search for lifestyle apps. A large percentage (43%) agree that they are motivated to search for an app when they need information followed by a need for entertainment, and following a recommendation from friends and family. When an app is linked to a website used regularly and when it is mentioned in class are the least motivations with 19% and 18% agreeing in a base of 416 respondents in the UK.
Task Two
There will be three Focus Groups. Each group will have 7 participants made up of undergraduate students from a range of business / marketing courses delivered at the Marylebone campus. Hence, there will be one Focus group with First Year Undergraduates; the second with Second Year Undergraduates; and the third with Final Year undergraduates. The selection criterion will use a purposive sampling approach. The categories of undergraduate students mentioned above will be selected on the basis of how best they are likely to provide the best information. The characteristics of the population of interest in the university and the objectives of the research to launch a Lifestyle App for Business and Marketing students require that a purposive sample be used. A focus group works as a market research approach (Nyumba, Wilson, Derrick, & Mukherjee, 2018). Therefore, convenience or purposive sampling is the most superior approach possible for the focus group. A purposive sample will allow the market research to acquire qualitative data on a number of topics and preferences drawn from different users over a short period (Speak, Escobedo, Russo, & Zerbe, 2018: Holden & Lynch, 2004). The interaction of respondents with the characteristics of university marketing students will enable the generation of new ideas and possible new insights, thereby adding depth to the existing concepts. Another major advantage of this approach is how a researcher will be able to follow up more on issues that require greater depth and exploration (Basias & Pollalis, 2018). The purposive sample, according to Ames, Glenton, and Lewin (2019), will enable the researcher to squeeze information out of data collected. The main idea is to allow the research to better describe the main impacts of findings on the population.
To ensure that the right participants are attending the groups, the following brief recruitment questionnaire will be used.
Recruitment Script and Screener
Greetings. Thank you for showing interest in this exercise. My name is _________ and I want to talk to you about the possibility of you participating in a focus group study that intends to conduct research before the University can launch a Lifestyle App for its Business and Marketing students. Participants will be required to share their feelings and thoughts about the use of different apps and the motivation behind this usage (Sim & Waterfield, 2019). Would you mind answering these few questions to see whether you are able to participate in the focus group study?
Screening Questions
Q1. Have you ever participated in any study before, individual or otherwise, for the last 6 months?
Q2. Do you use different forms of lifestyle apps?
Q3. Are you aware of the differences between various apps that you may or may not use?
Q4. Can you identify your favourite lifestyle app?
Q5. What is your major in the university?
Q6. What year of study are you in?
Q7. On a scale of 1-5, how comfortable are you expressing your views in English?
Q8. On a scale of 1-5, how comfortable are you participating in a focus group discussion with other adults (approximately 5-6) on a variety of topics that may not be in line with your own ideas?
Q9. Are you willing in participating in the focus group study?
Q10. Will you be available for this focus group in the next 1 month?
Discussion Themes
The topics and themes that will be discussed in the focus group include: general smartphone application and use, overview of personal understanding of lifestyle apps, general impression of lifestyle apps, usage and appreciation of various apps, preferences for features on lifestyle apps, social-support requirements for applications, means of knowing existing lifestyle apps, and sharing of lifestyle apps.
The focus group will begin by gathering information on the understanding of lifestyle apps. Data will be collected by the researcher with regard to personal definition of lifestyle apps. The modulator will provide an overview of lifestyle apps as an application meant to support or accelerate individual facets that are definitive of a lifestyle. Then, the topic of the most popular mobile apps and their usage will be discussed. Apps related to food, dating, and fitness will be explored, and the focus group will discuss their general impression of each of the three categories. The usage and appreciation of various apps will then be discussed asking viewers to rate their own best preferred apps. The reasons for the usage and preferences will be discussed in depth, looking to gather personal opinions, and preferences and the main reasons why an individual prefers an app over the next. The main themes to be discussed include self-management, need-based usage, personal decision making, service provision, healthy living, dating support, fitness and health, trendy life, and recommendation-based apps.
To advance these topics and themes, the focus group will employ a third person projective technique. In this approach, the participants will elicit deep seated opinions and feelings held by a respondent. These feelings or emotions regarding a lifestyle app might be perceived as poorly or negatively reflecting upon an individual. It is commonplace for people to attribute virtues to their own characteristics and vices only to others. For example, when asked why they may choose a dating app, the response may include the quality of the app and opportunity to meet interesting people and gain different perceptions on life. However, when the same question is posed as to why others might use a dating app, the responses could include the need to just hook-up or for easier dating process. By giving a respondent an opportunity to discuss someone else, the third person projective technique allows a respondent to freely discuss an attitude, an opinion, a reasoning, a logic, and other important motivations. Using the third person approach will enable respondents to freely discuss what they would otherwise avoid or hold back. In this focus group study, a third person projective technique will be made more dynamic through incorporation of rehearsal and role playing. The respondents will be asked to predict why other people prefer a certain app over the other.
The moderator will be required to pay particular attention to the views presented regarding why a respondent thinks other people use other apps or what other people would consider in a lifestyle app. Before the focus group, the moderator will pay attention to the individual preferences, noting down how people classify their favourite apps and the reasons given. During the group, the themes will be addressed. Afterwards, the third person technique will be applied for extra opinions that will be directed away from the individual. The qualitative data gathered will be analyzed using constant comparison analysis. This qualitative analysis will be used because of how it will bring out the personal feelings, opinions, and ideas of people in the collection method.
Task Three
USER GENERATED CONTENT IS NOT PART OF PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION
User-generated content refers to all manner of content including reviews, videos, text, and images that are created by people as opposed to organizations or brands (Timoshenko & Hauser, 2019). Brands often share the user-generated content on their platforms and marketing channels. Marketers use their audience to create content and do their work for them. This type of content is most trusted by individuals and the content is regarded as authentic and credible (Liu, Burns, & Hou, 2017). However, the user-generated content is not a part of the primary data collection. Primary data collection is a process of data gathering through experiments, surveys, and interviews. For example, a household survey would include information collecting for a purpose of research with the respondent being aware of their participation in a research. Therefore, user-generated content cannot be a part of primary data collection because despite the originality of the data source, the information collected is not done so first hand by a researcher for specific project or research purposes.
SAMPLES ARE NEVER ADJUSTED AFTER FIELDWORK BEGINS
The adjustment of samples cannot happen after fieldwork begins because then that would require a restart of the entire process including the sampling process. Sampling means that a researcher has already identified the important variables and the impact on the parameter being estimated (Etikan & Bala. 2017). By changing samples, the important values will be reduced or altered, creating a need to redo the entire process. After fieldwork has begun, changing a sample would mean changing the perceptions of the researcher (Acharya et al., 2013). For example, if a researcher had used a purposive or convenience sample, changing it would mean that the information collected would have to be declared null and void, and a new sample established, before restarting the entire research. Studies use samples because one cannot research an entire population. The conclusions and inferences made, would be used to generalize and entire population. The sample is a representation of the entire population and should not be adjusted after fieldwork begins.
References
Acharya, A. S., Prakash, A., Saxena, P., & Nigam, A. (2013). Sampling: Why and how of it. Indian Journal of Medical Specialties, 4(2), 330-333.
Ames, H., Glenton, C., & Lewin, S. (2019). Purposive sampling in a qualitative evidence synthesis: A worked example from a synthesis on parental perceptions of vaccination communication. BMC medical research methodology, 19(1), 1-9.
Basias, N., & Pollalis, Y. (2018). Quantitative and qualitative research in business & technology: Justifying a suitable research methodology. Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, 7, 91-105.
Etikan, I., & Bala, K. (2017). Sampling and sampling methods. Biometrics & Biostatistics International Journal, 5(6), 00149.
Holden, M. T., & Lynch, P. (2004). Choosing the appropriate methodology: Understanding research philosophy. The marketing review, 4(4), 397-409.
Liu, X., Burns, A. C., & Hou, Y. (2017). An investigation of brand-related user-generated content on Twitter. Journal of Advertising, 46(2), 236-247.
O. Nyumba, T., Wilson, K., Derrick, C. J., & Mukherjee, N. (2018). The use of focus group discussion methodology: Insights from two decades of application in conservation. Methods in Ecology and evolution, 9(1), 20-32.
Sim, J., & Waterfield, J. (2019). Focus group methodology: some ethical challenges. Quality & Quantity, 53(6), 3003-3022.
Speak, A., Escobedo, F. J., Russo, A., & Zerbe, S. (2018). Comparing convenience and probability sampling for urban ecology applications. Journal of applied ecology, 55(5), 2332-2342.
Timoshenko, A., & Hauser, J. R. (2019). Identifying customer needs from user-generated content. Marketing Science, 38(1), 1-20.
Task B Full Report on Innovative Project
Task B: Full Report on Innovative Project
Issue at Hand
Getting employees in Kash Money Logistics offices to subscribe to the idea of using only recyclable materials and to reduce the consumption of single use plastics both at home and in the office.
Initial Research from Observation, Desk and Field Research
The use of single-use plastics is increasing in popularity across the world. These plastics are toxic to the natural ecosystems that they damage, and they are a disagreeable sight to see. The use of these plastics, on the other hand, has a significant impact on global warming (Haward, 2018). Consumer demand for action on plastic pollution has reached previously unheard-of levels as a result of the disastrous impact of plastic waste on our seas and natural environments. Every day, fresh pledges to minimize plastic waste and enhance product design in order to address “end of life” issues are made by businesses in response to public outcry. Despite the efforts of companies to reduce trash and promote recycling (Jia, Evans, and Van der Linden, 2019), the contents of rubbish bins frequently reveal a different story. It is become an addiction for individuals from all walks of life to engage in plastic pollution, despite the fact that it is a terrible threat to the health of our world. Not only does it suffocate the marine life, but it also has a detrimental effect on human health. In light of this, single-use plastics should be a primary priority in both the workplace and the home.
There is no rubbish that does not degrade in the natural world. People are the ones who invented ‘unnatural’ materials such as plastic, and they are also the ones who use them. Plastic has a wide range of applications in addition to being a low-cost material to manufacture. Plastic contamination almost always occurs as a consequence of plastic trash, which is a result of the extensive usage of plastic. It is not simply because someone discards a piece of plastic on the street rather than in a trash can that this is happening. About 43% of the plastics consumed is discarded after only a single use, as per the findings of (Borrelle et al., 2020). Bags, bottles, trays, and food packaging are examples of items that we use on a regular basis. It’s readily available at supermarkets and other retail outlets. Certain individuals are prone to discarding their package as litter, which is a typical occurrence. Residents in some places are unable to do so due to a shortage of rubbish collection services. Although the great majority of individuals make their best efforts to avoid using single-use plastic, it remains a significant contributor to plastic pollution despite these efforts.
Initial Problem Description
One of the most pressing challenges of our day is plastic trash. There is a pressing need for change, but it must be implemented quickly, since it can no longer be ignored. With more than 300 million tons of plastic being created worldwide each year, a large portion of it is devoted to single-use items (Xu & Ren, 2021). Recycling only accounts for around 9% of all plastic ever produced (van Giezen & Wiegmans, 2020). Water bottles and food containers are among the many objects that find their way into the ocean. To put it another way, the World Economic Forum estimates that by the year 2050, marine plastic will outweigh fish (d’Ambrières, 2019). There is a lot of carbon in plastics, too. Greenhouse gases are released during the creation, usage, and disposal of plastic. Single-use plastics must be eliminated from our lives, our workplaces, and society as a whole as soon as possible, and consumers want businesses to innovate and adapt in order to do so.
From a personal experience, I noted that employees spend a lot of time in the office, within their different work spaces or stations. In the time spent there, a lot of plastic waste is produced. Of particular interest to me is the single use plastics that are labeled by Das et al. (2021) as one of the worst sources of pollution in the world at present. Some of the common single use plastic items leading to damage in the communities and the environment found in the workplace include: straws, plastic shopping bags, plastic bread bags and tags, plastic cutlery, masks, plastic bottles (water holders, soda cans, and so on), plastic food packaging materials, and Styrofoam containers. Studies and pollution campaigns focus on homes and production centers as the main sources of plastic waste leaving the workplace neglected. I have found my own organization at Kash Money Logistics to accumulate a lot of single use plastics.
Definition of Solution and Features
It is predicted that by 2050, the number of plastics in the ocean will far outnumber the fish unless significant efforts are made to avoid plastic pollution from the point of manufacturing to point of consumption (Clayton et al., 2021). Currently, there are rubbish islands covering significant portions of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean, and more are on their way. This is only one of the many reasons why it is important to limit the human reliance on single-use plastics and instead choose environmentally beneficial alternatives whenever possible, as described in the previous section. Single-use plastics use a large amount of fossil fuels, damaging the environment and contributing to global warming. As a result of their widespread usage, plastics continue to wreak havoc on the environment and pose a major threat to ecosystems, marine life, and human lives.
The obvious solution will be to have a plastic-free campaign in the workplace and introduce a culture that is focused on recycling and use of materials that can be reused. However, I found this to be impractical. Therefore, we propose the use of a dedicated single-use plastic monitor app (iRecycler), specially designed for the organization and its affiliates. The way this will work is that the iRecycler app will help reduce individual plastic consumption and give open-display results for members of the organization to see. The app will then provide calculations and estimates for the entire organization compared to global figures. It will also provide sustainable alternatives that factor in cost and effectiveness given each users individual usage statistics. The idea is to create a culture of recycling and consciousness around the issue of reducing every user’s personal plastic footprint.
Reflection of the Process
One of the recurrent themes in the entire process was the fact that the natural environment tis choking from all the single-use plastics that have become commonplace at home and especially in the workplace where a majority of people spend most of their time. While conducting the research on this topic, I was honestly astonished by how much damage humans are causing to the natural environment, through what I can confidently call carelessness and a lack of concern. Single-use plastic goods may be convenient, but the damage they do to the environment and human health during their manufacture, distribution, and disposal makes them a serious threat to both human and environmental health. It is past time to discontinue the use of single-use plastics for a variety of reasons, including littering, consuming polluted seafood, and the creation of hazardous microplastics. The problem is so severe that it is mentioned in the United Nation’s sustainable development goals. It is unfortunate that the whole world needs to be reminded of the future of other generations to come. At the current rate, it is likely that future generations will have severe health issues caused by the present actions in the manufacturing and consumption of single-use plastics. It is also likely that the natural environment will see changes that will lead to even greater consequences compared to the present climate change issues. all these issues opened my eyes to the real problem and the need to address it with haste.
I was able to take a simple every-day problem and convert it to an opportunity to make a difference through innovative designs. The mobile app aforementioned will help many people and organizations to realize a vision that many hold dear yet have not been able to achieve. In the entire process, my experience has shown me that if we put in the effort and inventiveness, everything may be converted into something beautiful. I came to the realization that every design has both strengths and weaknesses, and that engaging with experts may help us uncover these issues. The entire process, from identifying the problem to developing a solution, was exceedingly challenging. In the setting of a worldwide crisis, my assumptions about what would and would not work were challenged. I could also look at how a design’s performance was affected by changes made to it in the real world. For example, others who have had the same idea as mine before have not really focused on one organization or a sector. As such, their designs have not had the same effectiveness as they had hoped.
References
Borrelle, S. B., Ringma, J., Law, K. L., Monnahan, C. C., Lebreton, L., McGivern, A., … & Rochman, C. M. (2020). Predicted growth in plastic waste exceeds efforts to mitigate plastic pollution. Science, 369(6510), 1515-1518.
Clayton, C. A., Walker, T. R., Bezerra, J. C., & Adam, I. (2021). Policy responses to reduce single-use plastic marine pollution in the Caribbean. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 162, 111833.
d’Ambrières, W. (2019). Plastics recycling worldwide: current overview and desirable changes. Field Actions Science Reports. The journal of field actions, (Special Issue 19), 12-21.
Das, K. P., Sharma, D., Saha, S., & Satapathy, B. K. (2021). From outbreak of COVID-19 to launching of vaccination drive: invigorating single-use plastics, mitigation strategies, and way forward. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(40), 55811-55845.
Haward, M. (2018). Plastic pollution of the world’s seas and oceans as a contemporary challenge in ocean governance. Nature communications, 9(1), 1-3.
Jia, L., Evans, S., & van der Linden, S. (2019). Motivating actions to mitigate plastic pollution. Nature communications, 10(1), 1-3.
van Giezen, A., & Wiegmans, B. (2020). Spoilt-Ocean Cleanup: Alternative logistics chains to accommodate plastic waste recycling: An economic evaluation. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 5, 100115.
Xu, E. G., & Ren, Z. J. (2021). Preventing masks from becoming the next plastic problem. Frontiers of environmental science & engineering, 15(6), 125.