An Ounce of Cure Essay

There comes a time in every person’s life when they reach the point where they are no longer a child, but an adult. â€Å"coming of age† is not something that usually happens in one exact moment but a gradual experience. In Alice Munro’s â€Å"An Ounce of Cure†, the narrator recalls her past as a teenager. During these years, she experiences heart-wrenching situations that no one her age should ever have to experience. Though, this leads to her â€Å"crossing the bridge of innocence†. Although â€Å"coming of age† is a positive turn, it requires negative experiences to be complete. The narrator endeavors the â€Å"coming of age† through her poor relationship choices, depression and irresponsibility. The narrator’s complicated relationship with her previous boyfriend, Martin Collingwood, triggers a lot of complex situations, which ultimately leads to her rapid maturity. This becomes evident in the story when she reflects on her relationship and realizes all its faults. â€Å"It doesn’t really surprise me- to remember all the stupid, sad, half-ashamed things I did, that people in love always do† (Munro 79). It becomes clear that the narrator realizes that the poor relationship, she was involved in is all a mistake. Being able to realize the mistake, indicates her maturity. She now understands that it is not worth spending her life in regret for her previous actions and moves on. Similarly, the narrator explains her feelings towards Martin after her breakup, â€Å"But there was a positive, a splendidly unexpected result†¦I got completely over Martin Collingwood† (84). Although Martin, being the narrator’s first boyfriend, she is quickly able to overcome her sorrow, misery and self-inflicted pain that she went through during the past days. This would seem difficult for her considering it was her first love, as well as her constantly recalling back to the moment they kissed, â€Å"I would torture myself with the exact recollection of Martin kissing my throat† (80). All the problems and situations caused by her past relationship has resulted in a deep depression that the narrator suffers for days to come. The narrator’s inability to get over her previous relationship, leads to her downfall that she encounters. Accordingly, when the narrator sees her previous boyfriend in a school play, she begins to reflect on her past. â€Å"The beginning of months of real, if more or less self inflicted misery for me† (77). The narrator experiences suicidal thoughts, being the true reason that she becomes an adult. However, there is a silver lining to her depression. Experiencing such feelings at a young age helps her to mature and grow quicker than most. She is able to come to terms with herself and accept that what happened, happened for reasons that are beyond her control. One would never be able to admit that they cause themselves misery, as the narrator did. Likewise, when the narrator comes home after babysitting the night of the incident, she explains what happened to her mother. â€Å"I told her everything from the start, not omitting even the name of Martin Collingwood and my flirtation with the aspirin bottle, which was a mistake† (80). It becomes evident that the narrator has gone through serious depression and ultimately suicide in a desperate escape to end her misery. Having the ability to come out in the open during her conversation with her mother and explaining the situations that she has been through demonstrates without a reasonable doubt that she grew not only mentally, but psychologically as an adult. Her immense courage is revealed when she comes to terms with her situation in the conversation between her and her mother. The depression that the narrator experiences contributes to her experiencing the â€Å"coming of age† and leads to her irresponsibility, being the final reason for the narrator to experience â€Å"coming of age† â€Å"Coming of age† exists through the narrator’s irresponsibility. While babysitting at the Berrymans alcohol seems to be her escape. â€Å"I poured a little whisky from each bottle†¦I drank it off as quickly as possible† (79). This demonstrates lack of discipline. This situation has allowed the narrator to mature, it allows her to be able to recognize that she was completely responsible for everything that happened that day. Similarity, after Mr. and Mrs. Berryman came home, the narrator realizes why she is unable to hear them at the driveway. â€Å"With the noise we were making, they have no doubt heard us as soon as they got out of the car† (80). The narrator experienced the coming of age because she is able to understand her friends and her irresponsibility that night, by realizing that the reason they had not heard the Berrymans was because of the loud noises they were making. Being able to understand one’s own irresponsibility takes a good amount of knowledge and understanding, that a child would not be able to process, demonstrating the narrator is experiencing the â€Å"coming of age†. Relationships, depression and irresponsibility has shaped the way that the narrator experiences â€Å"coming of age†. All the events that occurred in her life shape the way she lives today. Her rough relationship taught her how to deal with depression situations and overcome them herself. It also showed the narrator things about her self that she may not have known. Lastly, the narrators’ irresponsibility while babysitting was a subliminal cry for help, but truly it was the one step for her towards experiencing â€Å"coming of age†. Ultimately, without the narrator experiencing the negative experiences in her life, her â€Å"coming of age† would not have been complete.

How Values Affect Decisions in Personal and Professional Life Essay

Abstract Many people have a set of core values, either personal, organizational, or cultural, that help guide his or her life, and that assist him or her in making decisions in their everyday existence. Most of my decisions are based on how they will affect my family, me, and my career. My family is the key factor in any decision I make. I have to consider what influence my choices will have on my family before I act on them. My success in my career choice of Information Systems is also an important value to me. I strive to improve my knowledge of information systems to the best of ability in order to further my career. This value has brought me to be results oriented, a hard worker, and a team player. Companies are now doing business with other companies in different countries. Organizations are now set up to where employees have to interact with different people to get the job done. If someone desires a long, prosperous career, they have to learn to work with diverse people of different cultures. Everyone has a set of core values that assist him or her in making decisions in their daily existence, and many people expect these values to lead them to live a wonderful life. Many people have a set of core values, either personal, organizational, or cultural, that help guide his or her life, and that assist him or her in making decisions in their everyday existence Values such as my family, friendships, and personal growth contribute to the choices that I make in my personal life. Values such as being results-oriented, a hard worker, a team player, and the desire to be successful guide me in making decisions in an organizational environment. I evaluate my core values before making any decisions that will influence them in anyway. According to author David Peters (2003): Personal ethics have been defined as principles of good behavior, a moral code of conduct, or a system to decide between competing options. But simply stated, personal ethics are nothing more than the rules impose on ourselves that govern our daily actions. (p. 30) For many people different factors and beliefs shape their values but, I believe that everyone shares one goal of living the best life possible not just physically but spiritually and mentally. Many of my decisions are based on how they will affect my family, me, and my career. My family is the key factor in any decision I make. I have to consider what influence my choices will have on my family before I follow through with them. For example, my returning to school keeps me from spending as much time as I would like with my loved ones. I thought about returning back to school long and hard and came to the conclusion that I need to return to school now before I have more children, my daughter gets to an age were I have to run her all over town for things that she wants to participate in, or any other life-changing event takes place. I came to the conclusion that I need to go now because it will only take between a year and half or two years to complete. By the time I am done with school, my daughter will be four and starting kindergarten, and that is a good time to also think about having another child. So I decided to go ahead and return to school and get my master’s degree in information systems. If I know that a decision will drastically affect my family, I will go to them to get their input on the situation. My success in my career choice of Information Systems is also an important value to me. Roy Posner states, â€Å"One of the interesting values in life is one’s innate desire for continuous improvement. † (Roy Posner 2006). I strive to improve my knowledge of information systems to the best of my ability in order to further my career. This value has brought me to be results oriented, a hard worker, and a team player. In the environment of information technology, everyone has to be team player because most of the positions require people to interact with each other. Whether the person is a systems analyst or a mail clerk, he or she will be part of a diverse group of people who have to work together effectively and efficiently to meet the goals of the organization as a whole. â€Å"Culture is the key to people’s way of living, accepting changes and doing business is rapidly loosing geographical borders. † (Kanungo, 2006, p. 23). Companies are now doing business with other companies in different countries. Organizations are now set up to where employees have to interact with different people to fulfill his or her job duties. If someone desires a long, prosperous career, they have to learn to work with diverse people of different cultures. At one time or another, everyone has had life experiences that help guide his or her decision making process. Nancy Haught (2006) states the following: For many people, from many different belief systems, their faith is the only factor that they see shaping their personal ethics. But most Americans would admit that other factors do play a part: parents or other relatives;? experiences such as a stint in the Peace Corps or a brush with the law. The factors that shape our ethics are varied, but it religion that often gets the credit, or the blame† (p.C1) Many people have come to the realization that they don’t have to have the world to live a good life. Although, someone may want a successful career, they shouldn’t have to sacrifice other aspects of their life to obtain it. Other aspects of life are more fulfilling, such as a wonderful relationship with God, family, and friends. Many people have a set of core values that assist him or her in making decisions in their daily existence, and many people expect these values to lead them to live a wonderful life References Haught, N. (2006, March 11). Ethics & values | definitions ethics, morals, values. The Oregonian, C1. Kanungo, R. P. (2006). Cross culture and business practice: are they coterminous or cross-verging? Cross Cultural Management, 13(1), 23. Peters, David. (2003) Your Personal Ethics ? is it time for a check up? National Jeweler, 97 (7), 30. Posner, Roy. (2006). The Power of Personal Values. Retrieved July 05, 2007 from http://www. gurusoftware. com/GuruNet/Personal/Topics/Values. htm.

Developing Your Empowering People (Delegating) Skill Essay

Ricky Lee is the manager of the contracts group of a large regional office supply distributor. His boss, Anne Zumwalt, has asked him to prepare by the end of the month the department’s new procedures manual that will outline the steps followed in negotiating contracts with office products manufacturers who supply the organization’s products. Because Ricky has another major project he’s working on, he went to Anne and asked her if it would be possible to assign the rewriting of the procedures manual to Bill Harmon, one of his employees who’s worked in the contracts group for about three years. Anne said she had no problems with Ricky reassigning the project as long as Bill knew the parameters and the expectations for the completion of the project. Ricky is preparing for his meeting in the morning with Bill regarding this assignment. (Robbins, 2012) Assignment. Prepare a 350- to 1,050-word paper detailing how your team would handle the situation described in the scenario The Facts. Presented here are what I consider to be the facts on this scenario. * Rick Lee is the regional manager for the contract group of a large office supply * Rick Lee Reports to Anne Zumwalt * Anne requested Rick to prepare the new department procedures manual * The deadline for the manual preparation is the end of the month * Bill Harmon works for Rick Lee * Bill Harmon has worked in the contract’s group for about three years * Rick asked Anne if he can delegate the preparing of the new manual to Bill * Anne agreed to have the project to Bill Chain of command Anne Zumwalt Rick Lee Bill Harmon Anne Zumwalt Rick Lee Bill Harmon Rick should consider the following five behaviors when he meets with Bill to discuss the delegation of the project (Robbins, 2012): 1. Clarify the assignment: a. Rick must present to Bill the requirements of the project. That is, to prepare the new department procedures manual that will outline the steps to be followed in negotiating contracts with office products suppliers who supply the organization’s products. b. Rick must specifically indicate to Bill he is delegating this responsibility onto him if Bill is willing to accept the project. c. The time constraint of the project has to be clearly stated. According to the scenario, the project hast to be completed by the end of the month. Rick is ultimate project responsibility for successful completion of the project so he needs time to review the manual the manual and incorporate changes before the manual is completed. d. Rick and Bill have to agree on what the end result should be before Bill accepts the task 2. Specify Employee’s range of discretion: e. Bill project is to prepare the new procedures manual, detailing the steps of the contract negotiation process. It is important Bill is aware to what extent he is authorized to make decisions on the steps to be taken, and the order. Rick must indicate he will have the final say regarding the procedures outlined in the manual, and Bill should consult with him if questions arise while defining the creating the procedures. f. Bill will be taking on responsibilities beyond his current role. Bill will be taking part of the Rick’s responsibilities, so he must be made aware he is only dealing with matters related to the preparation of new manual 3. Allow employee to participate: g. Rick and Anne should discuss with Bill the extent of Bill’s responsibility while working on this project. Rather than informing Bill of the extent of his authority, he must participate in making the agreement of the extent of the authority. If Bill is required to use other resources, to what extent is he authorized to set resource’s utilization priority. 4. Inform others that a delegation has occurred h. Bill is part of the contracts group. Rick must inform the rest of the office that Bill has accepted the responsibility of preparing the new manual. i. Also the suppliers have to be informed of this delegation. It is very likely that Bill will be contacting them in the process of generating the new manual. j. Rick must also notify other managers within the organization who may be involved in the preparation of the new manual. k. The communication to other has to indicate the project, and the extent of the authority Bill has been delegated in order to successfully complete the project. 5. Establish feedback channels: l. Rick must agree with Bill on how the progress of the project will be tracked. In addition to tracking the project progress, Bills performance has to be monitored as well. Periodic meetings should be held between Rick and Bill to discuss the progress of the meeting and Bill’s performance. It is not clear from the scenario how much time is available to complete the project. A brief 5 to 10 minute meeting in the morning every other day could be setup between Bill and Rick to discuss the project. m. At the end of the project Rick should have a close out session with Bill to discuss the entire project. In this session Rick should provide feedback to Bill on his performance, based on the parameters that were defined at the beginning of the project. Bill should be recognized for the success of his work, pointing out those areas where he did a great job. Also Bill should be informed of the areas he needs to improve. References Robbins, Stephen P., Mary Coulter. (2012) Management, 11th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, VitalBook file.

The effects of media on new generations Research Paper

The effects of media on new generations - Research Paper Example Digital media mainly comprises of television. Television is mostly used by young generation to spend most of their time. Watching violent programs can cause violent behavior in young generations; excessive use of digital media leads to decrease in academic performance, certain programs can result in unnatural sexual behavior among young generation. As per a data analysis it has been found that a youth on an average watches 12,000 violent acts annually in a television including acts of rape and murder. There have been about 1000 reports that confirm that watching heavy doses of violence in television leads to aggressive behavior in young generation. Extensive watching of television has adverse effect on nutrition. For an example the amount of advertisements shown for fast foods, presweetened cereals and candies is much more related to healthy food which advertises only 4% of the total advertisements. Due to extensive watching of sex related programs it has been recorded that sex between unmarried couples is 24 times more than married partners. It leads to unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. A report mentions huge increase in sex related interactions during family hours (NCBI 1). Alcohol and smoking consumption has increased a lot among young generation in a last couple of years solely due to advertisements and promotion of beer and other liquors in television and hoardings on street. Apart from television and hoardings there is music videos which causes equal impact now-a-days. More than 70% videos include sexually explicit items and more than 80% of videos contain violence. This affects mostly the male population to grow aggressive. Video games are equally responsible to cause mental and physical hazards in young generation, most youths prefer to sit back at home and play video games instead of going for out-door games. This results in physical imbalance and

Windowsshopping at Zara Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Windowsshopping at Zara - Case Study Example Zara is building on a vertically integrated demand and supply chain, while most other textile chains rely on outsourcing and cheap labour. Zara controls most of the steps on the supply-chain; it designs, produces, and distributes itself. (Rose 2001). Zara needs just two weeks to develop a new product get it to stores, compared with a nine-month industry average, and launches around 10,000 new designs each year. If a new design is not sold within a week, it is withdrawn from the shop and a new design is pursued. None of the designs stays on the shop for more than four weeks which encourages the shop's fans to make repeat visits. The business model for the company is based on offering the latest style in a high quality product at a good price. With a creative team of more than 200 professionals, Zara's design process is closely to the public. Zara pays special attention to the design of it stores, its shop windows and interior dcor, and locates them in the best sites of major shopping districts Zara's first outlet in Spain, the store was selling well designed clothes in a modern environment at a price anybody could afford. The in-store displays were kept minimal and the showroom was light and airy, with clean lines and white walls that act as a blank canvas for ad campaigns. Zara's window aimed at attracting the potential customers who will become the ultimate purchaser of the product. To induce them, the displays were made realistic in an expensive method to attract the onlookers. The consumers are made to repeat visits to look at the products displayed before they buy them, as few customers are impulsive buyers. As the customers have wide range of choice products with variable prices they prefer to go around the store to decide the purchase depending upon their budget. Window display and strategic positioning refers to performing different activities than the rivals or the same activities in a different way. While the display model used by Zara itself is often very easy to replicate, technology is essential to creating and enabling novel approaches to business that are defensibly different than rivals and which can be quite difficult for others to copy. Zara stores offer a compelling blend of fashion, quality and price offered in attractive stores in prime locations on premier commercial streets and in upscale shopping centers. The in-house design and production capabilities enable them to offer fresh designs at Zara stores twice a week throughout the year. In the early 1990's, Zara began formulating new type of design and distribution model. By that time it had opened up stores in countries like Europe and U.S.A. (Kotler 2008) Life like models dressed up in various costumes designed by leading fashion designers were kept in the window display. Zara's most unusual strategy was its policy of zero advertising; the company preferred to invest a percentage of revenues in opening new stores instead. The strategy has changed lately with yearly sales advertisements, together with targeted advertisements in papers. The latest technologies with innovations were used to lure the customer in the showrooms. (Barthes 1972). Figure 14 This picture shows the window display of the showroom in Oxford Street, London. It was taken in October 2009. The window display contains models wearing trendy clothes created by the leading fashion d

A Study of Factors which Influence Management Student's Career Choices Dissertation

A Study of Factors which Influence Management Student's Career Choices after Graduating from Master's Degree - Dissertation Example Items of the questionnaire. 28 Table 2. Frequency and percentage distribution by gender. 33 Table 3. Frequency and percentage distribution by age. 33 Table 4. Frequency and percentage distribution by number of years since graduation from Masters in Management degree. 34 Table 5. Frequency and percentage distribution by ethnicity. 34 Table 6. Descriptive statistics: Extrinsic Factors (Status Orientation) 34 Table 7. Descriptive statistics: Intrinsic Factors: Self-realisation. 35 Table 8. Descriptive statistics: Intrinsic Factors: Self-determination 36 Table 9. ... Coefficient of determination: Influences to career choice of Management graduates. 39 Table 15. One-way ANOVA: Influences to career choice of Management graduates. 39 Table 16. Beta coefficients: Influences to career choice of Management graduates. 40 List of Acronyms There were no acronyms used in the research. An Investigation of the Factors which Influence Post-Graduate Management Students’ Career Choices: An Empirical Study Nameand ID Module code: Structured Abstract Purpose Overall, the present research aims to determine the factors that significantly influence the career objectives of management graduates. It aims to ascertain if extrinsic, intrinsic and interpersonal factors, along with personal and situational attributes significantly predict the choice of a management-related job or career by management graduates. Career objectives are referred to as the drivers of the career choice selected by an individual. As motivators, career objectives play a fundamental role in determining the career path of the individual and are thus quite significant in setting the career course of the person. Career objectives underlie the specific career choice and path that the individual will trod, including the job prospects that will be available for him; his future needs in monetary and psychological terms; and other key themes that determine the individual’s present satisfaction and his future intentions related to his profession. Being a fundamental factor in the process of determining the career path of an individual, career objectives are influenced by numerous factors. Subsequently, career objectives influence the preferred career choices of an individual. The myriad of effects presented by career objectives makes it quite essential to identify its influencing

Science and policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Science and policy - Essay Example Selecting an appropriate ambassador may also bring forward some form of challenge as this selected individual is the one to carry the face of the firm that carries out the activities of a knowledge broker. The selection should be flawless as any form of undue process in selection may pose a challenge to the firms. Some other challenges that can come in the way of the knowledge brokers include such challenges as managing interactions with stakeholders within acceptable limits. Some stakeholders may be difficult in a way to handle and hence this may be a major challenge that other brokers may crumble as they tend to check a way forward in dealing with such cases (â€Å"Knowledge Exchange†). The knowledge brokers may be working on a flat plan without settling down to lay the objectives. This may also pose a threat in achievement of desired results if they are not fully planned for and hence this too may end up countering the development agenda that these knowledge brokers have in mind (Hargadon 48). The knowledge brokers and their firms should also have a plan on a systematic way of availing results and outcomes through acceptable networks that are practitioner oriented. Doing anything else to this effect may have to backfire and end up being a challenge that will bring the firms down. The firms should also lay the strategies that will work towards distilling results and their strategies for maintaining long lasting legacies. However most of these firms lack the expertise to carry out such distilling processes and that means that a challenge will be witnessed as soon as the legacy flops (Brown 486). So some of the solutions that can be facilitated to curb such challenges can involve such remedies as: as for the challenge of trying to keep up with the stakeholders by trying to encourage them to invest ideally in the broker’s firm through time, resources and effort. The solution to this challenge is to try as much as possible to involve the stakeholder s and to give them the need to place their trust for you. If the relationship at the beginning is a good one, then the engagement should be fair throughout the period of the project. This approach needs much attention and hence the firm should conduct a good sense to determine the road taken by the research. After establishing that, then many more stakeholders will show interest and hence feel free to work with you. – SUE Researchers (Tsui L et al) For the challenge that comes from finding it hard to engage the stakeholders in the definition of various important aspects of the research. It should not still be debatable whether to involve the stakeholders, as the firms should go ahead and incorporate them in decision making on the kinds of design the research should have. The stakeholders should be allowed to assist in determining whether an approach is feasible or not. Serious members of the stakeholders’ board should be able to tell what befits the firm and what doesn ’t. With this approach, the problem of having to determine the level of indulgence of the stakeholders would be fully answered (Hargadon 50). One other challenge that is faced by the knowledge brokers may be that of that their research findings reach the desired audience and that the said findings are found to be

Global Tourism and Sustainability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Global Tourism and Sustainability - Essay Example The stakeholders who are involved in the entire phenomenon of sustainable tourism are the governments of the countries, the NGOs, the tourists, the native people and their communities. Sustainable Tourism is most popular in the third world countries, where this would lead to the economic development and intellectual cum social progress for the nation while retaining their original culture and heritage. The main strategies of development that most of the third world nations undertake is to establish tourism in their countries at the international level (Theobald, 2005, pp. 352-408). This would lead to economic development in forms of employment generation, growth of the micro, small and medium scale enterprises as well as rise in the inflow of foreign exchange in the country. The development of eco friendly locations and coastal tourism have ensured that there is no harm caused to the environment and the problems of climatic imbalances and global warming are minimised through such efforts (Mcleod, 2004, pp.

Islam Today Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Islam Today - Essay Example With the destruction and chaos that came with the end of the colonial rule after World War 2, much of the Islamic world became the victim of corrupt regimes, religious extremism, and foreign intervention. As Edward Said put it: â€Å"In part, of course, that is because the Middle East, the Arabs, and Islam have continued to fuel enormous change, struggle, controversy, and, as I write these lines, war†. The political instability so much a part of much of the Islamic world stems from the instable atmosphere of many of these countries (especially the Arab ones) and the fact that they are home to most of the world’s oil supply. The oil brings the interest of many Western governments to do things that, if the oil was not there, they would probably not do. To that of course must be added that most people have the negative image of Muslims as terrorists and extremists largely due to their negative depiction in the media. There is â€Å"a striking lack of clarity and an atmosphere of incomprehension that can only generate suspicion and fear† (Ramadan 2007, p. 23). This situation is not helped by the fact that so many scholars in the West believe that Muslims are by nature â€Å"radical† and that Islam in general is incompatible with the West and/or globalization. In order combat these images and the potential conflict there is a lot people in Muslim countries could do. First and foremost Muslim governments should attempt to have their voice heard more clearly and more often in Western media. It is clear that Muslims have an image problem in the world’s media. There should be an organized effort to reach out to people to show them that Islam has much more to it than radicals and terrorists.

An Analysis of the Woolcock Street Investments Case Assignment

An Analysis of the Woolcock Street Investments Case - Assignment Example This case began in 1987 when the Eagle Star Nominees, Inc., designated as trustees for the BSL Growth Trust Company, engaged a company doing engineering work to design foundations for a warehouse and offices in Townsville. When the building’s construction had been finished, the trustee Eagle Star then decided to sell the property to the plaintiff. In the contract of sale, there was no warranty indicating that the building had no defects. Likewise, the buyer did not conduct any building inspection, survey before purchase, or any sort of appraisal to determine whether or not the building had been constructed in an optimal manner. Also, there was no assignment in contract by the vendor of the rights to proceed against others in case of defects. Just more than a year after the property had been turned over, the defects become apparent. The building had unmistakable structural distress and this was because of how the foundations were arranged, as well as the material below the foundations. The buyer filed a case against the engineering company and its employee, stating that the company owed a duty of reasonable care in designing the foundations of the building and ensuring the safety of the premises. In response, the company said that they owed no such duty of care to the buyer and that they were not at fault, because they in fact had asked the trustee to allow them to do soil tests, however they were told that such soil tests were not necessary and to simply use structural footing sizes. A lawsuit for damages was then filed, and the main question that the courts were tasked to respond to was: â€Å"Whether or not a subsequent buyer of commercial property had the right to sue the builder for design malfunctions?† The court ruled against the buyer and ruled that the duty of care owed to a subsequent or remote purchaser by the engineer that built the foundation of the building in question does not hold when the defective building is used for commercial purposes. This means that there is no case that can be filed against the engineer by the subsequent buyer because the building was not used as a dwelling, but rather as a commercial establishment. Previous Jurisprudence It is difficult to talk about Woolcock without talking about the progenitor case, Bryan v. Maloney. [(1995) 182 CLR 609, 616–17, 623 (Mason CJ, Deane and Gaudron  JJ) (‘Bryan’)]. In that case, the plaintiff was able to successfully claim damages against the builder, despite the fact that she was a subsequent buyer of a residential property and the sale was concluded seven years after the property had been built. The plaintiff had inspected the house many times before purchasing it, with no observations made that there were any defects. However, after six months, it was discovered that there were cracks on the wall and this was because the builder had constructed footings that were inadequate to withstand the changes in the

LANGUAGE, POWER & IDENTITY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

LANGUAGE, POWER & IDENTITY - Essay Example However, countries having English as their first language, owe to protect and preserve it from foreign influences, displaying minor differences at large. Since the dominancy of English with the British World dominance in the 19th Century, the English Language not only progressed but became the language of International Business, Diplomacy and Science. Being the official Language of United Nations and International Olympics Committee, English seems to be the common medium of communication between countries, owing to its effectiveness as a global language. It is estimated to be spoken by 750 million people around the world as their first language. However, the public debate about the English Language’s notion of standards has come into view since the 1980’s. The concern had resulted in the devising of a National Curriculum for English. But the drive for national individuality and integrity has failed to achieve the target as arthrography of every language is dependent on its context, pronunciation and structure. Standard English is notoriously hard to define. The concept and notion of Standard English lacks reference and base. Standard English is associated with authority, discipline and traditional, moral and social order (THOMAS & WAREING, 1999).   It is a form of a dialect, with no local base of reference as to where it is from. Historically, English emerged from the combination of Celtic Language of the Britain inhabitants, which was mixed with the language of the emigrating Angles, Saxons and the Jutes. Hence, it is often taken as the different combinations of the linguistic features. In correct or more conceptual sense, it is taken as a written per formative. Orthography, grammar and vocabulary are chiefly what matter, or they in fact can be the definition of Standard English as different countries where English is chiefly used like U.S, U.K, New Zealand,

The fun drive company Essay Example for Free

The fun drive company Essay Once all the required data has been collected and verified and also approved by the manager of the Fun Drive Company, the changes would be put into action. Firstly, the data would be sorted into tables. I would create a Main Menu to access forms, reports and queries. The tables that would be created in order to organize the data are as follows: Dealers Table: The fields in this table would be Dealers Id, Dealers Name, Address, Contact Number and Email. And the Primary Key is the Dealers Id. FIELD NAME DATA TYPE Dealers Id Number Name Text Address Text Contact Number Number Email Text The use of validation would be necessary in the Dealers Id and Contact Number. The Validation Rule for the Dealers Id would be 0 and the Validation Text would be Entry Must Be A Nonzero Value. The Validation Rule for the Contact Number would be 0 and the Validation Text would be Entry Must Be A Nonzero Value. Input Mask: Name -Dealers Id   999 Suppliers Table: The fields in this table would be Suppliers Id, Name, Address, Contact Number, Item Name, Quantity and Email. The Primary Key in this table would be the Suppliers Id. FIELD NAME DATA TYPE Suppliers Id Number Name Text Address Text Contact Number Number Item Name Text Quantity Number Email Text The Validation Rule for Suppliers Id would be 0 and the Validation text would be Entry Must be A Nonzero Value. The Validation Rule for Contact Number would be   0 and the Validation Text would be Entry Must Be A Nonzero Value. Input Mask: Name. Suppliers Id   999 Quantity 999 Employees Table: The fields in the employees table are Employees Id, Name, Telephone Number, Wage Rate, Hours Worked, Basic Salary and Address. The Primary Key in the table would be the Employees Id. FIELD NAME DATA TYPE Employees Id Number Name Text Telephone Number Number Address Text Wage Rate Currency Hours Worked Number Basic Salary Currency The Validation Rule for the Employees Id would be 0 and the Validation Text would be Entry Must Be A Nonzero Value. The Validation Rule for Telephone Number would be 0 and the Validation Text would be Entry Must Be A Nonzero Value. Validation would also be used for wage rate, hours worked and basic salary. The validation Rule for Wage Rate would be 0 and the Validation Text would be Entry Must be A Nonzero Value. The Validation Rule for Hours Worked would be 52 and the Validation text would be Less than 52. The Validation Rule for Basic Salary would be 0 and the Validation Text would be Greater than 0. Input Mask: Employees I999. 99 Purchases Table: This table would contain fields such as Dealers Id, Name, Item required, Quantity, Date Of Purchase, Price, Discount Allowed and Item Code. The Primary Key would be the Dealers Id. The Dealers Id would be looked up from the Dealers Table. FIELD NAME DATA TYPE Dealers Id Number Name Text Item Required Text Quantity Number Date Of Purchase Date/Time Price Currency Discount Allowed Currency Item Code Number Validation would be used for Dealers Id, Date of Purchase and Price . The Validation Rule for Dealers Id would be 0 and the Validation Text would be Entry Must be A Nonzero value. The Validation Rule for Price would be 60 or 1000 and the Validation Text would be Not Less Than 60 And Not Greater Than 1000. TStock Table: The Fields in this table would be the Item Code, Quantity-in-hand, Item Name and Suppliers Name. The Primary Key would be the Item Code. And the Suppliers Name would be looked up from the Suppliers Table. FIELD NAME DATA TYPE Item Code Text Quantity In Hand Text Item Name Number Suppliers Name Number The Validation Rule for Item Code would be0 and the Validation text would be Entry Must Be A Nonzero value. Input Mask: Item Codtables. I would create a form from the Employees Table. This form would store Employees Id, Name, Wage Rate, Hours Worked and Basic Salary. Other form created would be from the Purchases Table, Dealers Table and the Suppliers table. The form created from the Purchases Table would store Fields such as the Dealers ID, Item Required, item Code, price, Discount Allowed, Date Of purchase, Quantity. The Form created from the Suppliers table would contain fields such as Suppliers Id, Name, Quantity, Item Name, Address and Contact Number. The form created from the Dealers Table would store information such as Dealers Id, Name, Address, Contact Number and Email. A sub from would be created so that the user can update the Dealers Table and the Purchases Table simultaneously. Switchboard Manager The Switchboard Manager is a user interface to access the different options available for example repots, queries and forms. It is easier to search for any option. It is very convenient as you can view the queries, forms and reports quickly. The purpose of a Switchboard Manager is to make-work Funer and to save time. The switchboard Manager would benefit my company, as it would save a lot of time. Reports would be generated from the Employees form, Dealers Table, Stock table. In the Employees Report the data would be classified, as the Employees Id would be in ascending order and the Employees Name would be in Alphabetical order. The Data in the Dealers Form would be classified as the Dealers Id would be in ascending order and the Dealers Name would be in Alphabetical Order. The data in the Stock Table would be tabulated, as the Item Code would be in ascending order and the Suppliers Name and Item Name would be in Alphabetical Order. Graphs and charts can be generated from the data provided in the table. This makes the data more presentable. Graphs could be implemented for more clarity of data. Queries would be originated from the Dealers Form, Item Table and Purchases form. These queries would sort the data in alphabetical order in an organized manner. Queries are used to display certain information on tables depending upon a certain criteria specified. Command Buttons would also be implemented for each of the forms. The command Buttons would be: PRINT ADD NEW RECORD Go TO NEXT FORM DELETE EXIT Some of this data would be screen-based such as the employee information. But other data such as the Dealers Form and the stock reports could be printed out for convenience. The user could do this by applying the print feature in MS ACCESS. Mail Merge This feature will require the need of Microsoft Word. In Word we will first go to the Mail Merge Feature in the Tools Menu. This is very simple, to carry out Mail Merge by opening an existing Data Source in Word. The only difference is that when the Open dialogue appears I will change the File Type to Microsoft Access Database. The Mail Merge Feature helps to print out a vast majority of letters. For example the company if wants to print out notices to the dealers if closed on a weekday etc. it may use the help of the Mail Merge Feature. All this data would need backup and security. The different possible backups would be storing data on floppies on weekly bases and monthly on CDs. Storing data on CDs would be more appropriate for databases. Data would be stored on floppies as its a cheap medium. The Security Strategies would be password protected files and a power on password. Security Strategies would also include Anti hacking programs, which would be prevent files from being hacked. The Anti Virus Program would protect the data from any virus. Read-only passwords could be put on certain files so that a person would be able to view the file but wont be able to make any changes to it. Interview An Interview was conducted with John Ibrahim, the manager of The Fun Drive Company. Q. What is your job description? Ans. My job requires a lot of attention. There is a lot of paper work to do. I have to make sure there is enough staff to satisfy dealers requirements. I have to see whether my company stands out in terms of quality. Q. How is information Received? Ans. I receive information about all the dealers from the questionnaires handed to them at the beginning of the transaction. I also receive information by conducting a general survey every 2 months. Through these surveys we find out the status of the company in the market and the level of customer satisfaction and popularity. Q. What accounts do you prepare? Ans. A Trading And Profit And Loss Account is prepared and also a Balance Sheet is prepared. These Accounts are primed in order to find out the profit of the company. Q. What outputs are generated and where are they stored? Ans. Reports are generated from the data stored on the stock, dealers and employees files. These reports are then stored in cabinets. The Dealers report is generated from the Dealers File and it contains the Dealers personal information. The Stock Report is originated from the Stock File and it contains detailed information about the products in stock. The Employees Report is procreated from the Employees File and it contains meticulous information about the employees salary, wage rate, hours worked etc. Q. What are the problems encountered? Ans. The data entered might not be accurate. Its time consuming and the reports generated may not be clear and professional.

Mergers and Acquisitions | Literature Review

Mergers and Acquisitions | Literature Review Having read and analysed the various literature available on the topic of mergers and acquisitions it is clear there are many conclusions and views on the long term performance of both the target and acquirer post takeover. The first article I have analysed is Andrade, Mitchell and Staffords New evidence and perspectives on mergers which gives a general overview of mergers and how the pattern has changed over the years. The 1960s seen a large number of deals relative to the number of publicly available targets, therefore the proportion of deals to targets was large even if the actual number wasnt as big as in the succeeding years. The 1980s then led to more important levels of takeovers with multi-million pound deals taking place. Around this time almost half of all major US companies received a tender offer. Now at present day and from the 1990s we have seen a combination of the previous 30 years trends, with a large number of large value mergers taking place. [1] The next part of this journal then looks at the winners and losers in a merger deal both in the long and short term. In both cases the average abnormal stock market return is used to measure value creation or destruction. In the short term the stock prices quickly adjust following a merger announcement and the effect of the merger should be incorporated into the stock price by the time the merger is completed. The choice of event window then determines whether it is a short or long term study, with short term being the three days surrounding the merger ( i.e. one day either side and the day itself). A longer window would be several days before merger ending at the completion; the performance would then be looked at in the longer period after this window. The overall results from merger activity shows that target shareholders are clearly the winners in merger transactions, with research from this paper highlighting the 3-day abnormal return for targets to be 16% with this figure rising to 24% in longer windows. However the evidence for acquiring firms is not so easily analysed, with the average three day abnormal return being highlighted in the paper as being -0.7% and -3.8% over the longer window. However the difficulty comes when analysing these results as although the estimates are negative they are not reliably so as these figures will include the costs of making the bid and financing the takeover. Therefore it is unreliable to say that acquirers are losers in mergers, but it can be seen that they are not big winners in the same way as targets. [2] To summarise this it can be seen that mergers seem to be value creating for shareholders overall, but the target achieves all of the merger gains around the announcement. It has also been argued that acquiring firms in many instances have come close to matching these transactions in the opposite direction; however this is not always the case. The final section of Andrade, Mitchell and Staffords paper focuses on long term event studies and the long term abnormal returns which go with it. The paper mentions that some recent long term event studies measure the negative abnormal returns in the few years following a merger and find some interesting results. They state that some investors fail to properly notice the full effects of corporate announcements and as a result this casts doubt on our previous findings in relation to the announcement-period event window. This is therefore out of line with the Efficient Market Hypothesis where the market will respond quickly and efficiently to new information. Other literature mentions that there is the potential in the long term for both over and under reaction to information and this is something we will analyse in more depth later. Alan Gregorys 2005 journal entitled The Long Run Abnormal Performance of UK Acquirers and the Free Cash Flow Hypothesis mentions a potential drawback of long term event studies. He argues that if long term expected returns are only estimates of the true vale then as a result it follows that the long term abnormal returns will be incorrect. However this problem is seen to be less significant in short window event studies as the returns are seen to be accurate and therefore more reliable. The Andrade, Mitchell and Stafford journal gives a general overview of the topic of mergers, both in the past and present situation. Having established a general understanding I then looked at more precise literature which discusses certain aspects including the post merger performance of both acquiring and target firms. The conclusions gained will ultimately form the basis of my empirical investigation. The majority of texts I have researched base their results on the post takeover performance of the bidder, while some texts also look at the performance of the merged firm after the takeover. The most common conclusion from the various available texts on mergers is that in the short term target shareholders gain and bidders do not lose. However in the long term it is seen that many firms experience abnormal performance in the few years following a merger. One of the most commonly referred to journals based on this conclusion is by Jensen and Ruback and is called The Market for Corporate Control. It was one of the first pieces of literature to comment on the effects of corporate takeovers on shareholders and is therefore commonly used as a basis in later reviews as well as the Hubris Hypothesis which will be discussed later. The results from their analysis based on US companies are that mergers create positive gains, target shareholders benefit and the bidding firm shareholders do not lose. [3]However conclusions made later suggested there were still many controversial issues to be resolved regarding corporate control, for example all the findings in this research lead to positive results on shareholders however this may be as it is difficult to find actions made by managers which would actually harm shareholders. [4]The paper also comments that the long run post merger performance is a problem area as it yields results contrary to market efficiency, and in most texts this is described as a market anomaly. It is stated in the journal that negative abnormal returns suggest that deviations in the stock price are related to the overestimation of future gains from mergers. Although there has been a lot of research into the market for corporate control, there is still a lot more to be done in this area and Jensen and Rubackss forms the basis for future analysis. Firstly in Shareholder wealth effects of corporate takeovers by J.R Franks and R.S Harris they come to the same conclusion that targets benefit and bidders do not lose in relation to UK companies after basing their investigation on the results of Jensen and Ruback (1983) which came to this conclusions after using a data set of US companies. A small number of papers found differing results at this time, namely Firths articles in 1979 and 1980[5] which found that in the UK targets gain and bidders lose and in 1977 Franks, Broyles and Hecht[6] find that both parties gain. Franks and Harris found that a drawback of these results like many other studies was that either the sample size was too small or the sample was taken over too short a period. To combat this they made sure their sample was taken over a 30 year period from 1955-1985 and that it was a comprehensive study of a large number of companies involved in UK takeovers. The conclusion reached was that most mergers are value creati ng for shareholders, with the target achieving most of the gains and the bidder either breaks even or makes small gains. This was found by analysing the equity market price in the event window around the merger date. Franks and Harris however did find a potential problem relating to post merger performance as it is dependent on the benchmark returns against which bidders are evaluated; however this may lead to analysts finding false results depending on the timing of the merger. For example if a bidder times the merger event to coincide with a time were their own stock is doing well then it may produce false results as the good performance of this stock would cancel out and give an overall good performance no matter what.[7] Franks and Harris measure abnormal returns using three varying methods for the 24 months following the unconditional date. These are namely using a market alpha and beta combination, using a market model and using the CAPM asset pricing model. This can clearly b e seen from table 10 (page 245) in the journal and this should be looked at as an area which may require further research. Finally comparisons between the UK examination by Franks and Harris and Jensen and Rubacks US equivalent come to two main conclusions. Firstly target wealth gains in both the UK and US have increased since 1968, as a result of bidder wealth effects and secondly after the form of the original offer is controlled, targets gains are similar for both the UK and US. This may suggest that the wealth effects of takeover are comparable in the two countries. [8] One of the most widely recognised pieces of writing relating to corporate takeovers is by Richard Roll in 1986 and is entitled The Hubris Hypothesis of Corporate Takeovers. This journal was written in order to gain a different view to previously written articles and ultimately to disprove Jensen and Rubacks summary in their 1983 investigation on the market for corporate control. In Jensen and Rubacks conclusion they stated that corporate takeovers generate positive gains, and that the target benefits and bidders do not lose.[9] This result fits in with most other research on corporate takeovers; however Roll manages to give a different side to the argument by firstly looking at takeovers in general. He states that there are no gains from takeovers, however some bidders believe there are and such bidders are said to be infected by Hubris. This ultimately led to managers making poor decisions. Going back to the actual bid itself, the first step of a takeover is for the bidding firm to identify a potential target and value that target. This value is then compared to the current market price and if the value is greater than the price the bid is made and becomes public, otherwise the bid is abandoned. Roll comes to the conclusion that Decision makers in acquiring firms pay too much for their targets on average. [10]The Hubris Hypothesis also predicts that around a takeover the combined value of the target and bidder firms should slightly fall, and individually the bidding firm value should decrease, whilst the target value should increase. It is also stated that the overall gain to mergers, excluding costs is zero. Something which makes little sense as it would obviously seem to discourage takeovers. It should also be noted that the Hubris Hypothesis is consistent with semi-strong market efficiency.[11]Many academics believe that the Hubris Hypothesis is one of the most important pieces of writing in relation to takeovers. They say that if there really are no gains from takeovers then the Hubris Hypothesis is important in order to explain why the managers would not abandon such bids. The hypothesis finds some problems when interpreting the bidding firms returns as a bid can obviously be anticipated and therefore at announcement the return value does not give an entirely true value as it is anticipated. There are also however a few arguments against the use of the Hubris Hypothesis and its results. Firstly it has been suggested that Rolls hypothesis implies that managers act against shareholders interests. This is suggested in several recent papers and the conclusion reached is that the evidence is consistent with conscious management actions against the best interests of shareholders[12]. However the Hubris hypothesis on the other hand doesnt rely on this result and states that it is sufficient evidence that managers act against shareholder interests when they issue bids based upon false valuations of the target firm. Another argument against Hubris is that it is said to imply inefficiency in the market for corporate control. However if all takeovers were to be prompted by Hubris as has been suggested then shareholders could stop the practice by stopping managers to make bids. Therefore since this is not the case then Hubris alone cannot explain the takeover phenomenon. Overall the re are many arguments both for and against Richard Rolls Hubris Hypothesis however most of the arguments against fail to be fully supported and as a result the Hubris Hypothesis remains as one of the most important pieces of literature on the subject of corporate takeovers. In 1974 a pioneering study taken by Gershon Mandelker in his journal entitled Risk and Return: The case of merging firms found that there were gains from takeovers and found results were consistent with two hypotheses. Namely, the perfectly competitive acquisitions market (PCAM) and the efficient capital market hypotheses[13]. His study examines the market for takeovers and analyses the impact that mergers have on the returns of the shareholders involved. Previous studies state that acquiring firm shareholders earn abnormal returns following a merger and some of which actually state that most mergers tend to be unsuccessful. This relates to a study by Hogarty[14] who stated that mergers actually have a negative effect on the merged firm value. However based on this assumption it would seem odd that firms would enter into mergers, though Hogarty states that this is because mergers suit risk taking managers and although the majority of these takeovers lead to losses for the acquiring f irm, a small portion lead to extraordinary profits which is why they are still so common. There are however certain problems which exist in these previously undertaken studies. The majority of which use small samples which can lead to biased or untrue results, and the second problem is that the studies tend to use primitive models which fail to take into consideration any risk or changes in risk. As a result this provided the motivation of Mandelkers study as he tried to include these factors and come to a new conclusion. The principle aim of Mandelkers study was therefore to investigate the acquisitions market using empirical methods to examine the returns of both the acquired and acquiring firm shareholders. In order to do this the author tested two main assumptions. Firstly he analysed the perfectly competitive acquisitions market hypothesis which based its testing on previous literature which stated that acquiring firm shareholders gain abnormal returns following a takeover. However the problem with this result was that it lacked significant empirical support, in fact in a majority of previous studies it was actually found that the acquiring shareholders experienced negative abnormal returns following a merger. These findings therefore fit in with the hypothesis that acquiring firms operate in a perfectly competitive market. Even though it is found that the acquirers experience negative abnormal returns following a merger there is no evidence that they overpay and therefore they do not lose from m ergers. In relation to the acquired firm shareholders it is found that they achieve most of the gains from takeovers and therefore in relation to the perfectly competitive acquisitions market Mandelker finds that there are zero gains achieved by the bidding firm shareholders and that the target firm shareholders obtain the gains from the takeover before the firm disappears. The second hypothesis tested was the Efficient Stock Market hypothesis. Mandelker investigates how the stock market reacts to the announcement of takeover information, with many previous hypotheses stating that the stock market fails to properly react to the announcement of merger information. However in his study Mandelker finds results which are consistent with the Efficient Market Hypotheses and therefore stock prices of the involved firm at the time of merger already reflect all available information. Therefore as a result it is impossible to earn abnormal returns once a takeover becomes public as the stock price will have reacted immediately. Overall Mandelker finds that the acquiring firm shareholders earn normal returns following a merger and that any gains from mergers are entirely of the acquired firm shareholders. Another key piece of literature I have summarised is Dodd and Rubacks Tender offers and shareholder returns. This journal looks at the stock market reaction to both successful and unsuccessful tender offers. The findings show that bidding shareholders earn significant positive abnormal returns in the twelve months prior to takeover, whereas only successful bidders earn significant positive abnormal returns in the month of the offer. The main section of the paper is based on these results and the paper investigates two alternative hypotheses, namely the positive and zero impact hypotheses. Firstly we look at the positive impact hypothesis, where it is stated that the announcement of a merger will lead to positive information about the two involved firms and as a result will cause the stock prices of these firms to rise. There are many reasons for a positive impact and the main reasons are firstly increased market power. Empirically Dodd and Ruback find that for successful bids the tar get and/or the bidder benefit from the takeover, however with regards to unsuccessful bids neither the bidder nor target will gain from the process. A problem with unsuccessful bids is that they cost both the bidder and target during the process of the bid and this is why they can experience negative abnormal returns. An alternative hypothesis is that the gains arising from takeovers can be attributed to the increased product efficiency which is namely synergy. Therefore the synergy hypothesis states that the combined value of the merged firm will increase as a result of the merger. This will therefore again yield positive abnormal returns for a successful takeover and either zero or negative abnormal returns for an unsuccessful takeover. As a result of this it can be seen that the monopolistic market power and synergy hypothesis are very similar and carry similar results. Finally the third hypothesis is the internal efficiency hypothesis. It states that the target was underperformi ng as a result of poor management of assets and also states that this is something the bidder feels can be rectified. Therefore it is believed that a takeover can be used to discipline inept management. As a result an announcement would be seen as positive news by target as it is stated that shareholder wealth will increase with removal of inefficiencies. However the impact on the bidding firm depends on whether the bid is successful or not. Successful bidders will experience positive abnormal returns following the takeover; however unsuccessful bidders will experience zero abnormal returns following the bid. Secondly, we analyse the zero impact hypothesis which states that corporate takeovers have no impact on the value of firms involved. This therefore implies that there are no net gains as a result of merging with another firm. The empirical implications of this are that in successful tender offers the shareholders of both the bidder and target earn normal returns. However Mandelker, as we have just mentioned, disagrees with this statement and states that acquired firms are seen to have positive returns for the twelve months before and 85% of gains occur in the five months post merger. Earlier studies report that stockholders involved in completed mergers earn abnormal returns before the date of merger. However these studies dont look at the first public announcement of the acquisition therefore we cant determine whether gains observed before the acquisition date reflect the market reaction to announcement of acquisition or to prior good performance unrelated to the merger. Therefore D odd and Ruback isolate the market reaction to the announcement of the takeover in order to gain a true conclusion of shareholder performance. It is seen from calculations in the journal that in the month of announcement target shareholders earn large and significant returns of 20.58% for successful offers and 18.96% for unsuccessful offers. Whereas successful bidding shareholders also earn positive abnormal returns however these are a lot smaller (2.83%), and unsuccessful bidders earn normal returns. It should be noted that Dodd and Ruback find that if a firm experiences abnormal returns in the month of the announcement that both the positive and zero impact hypotheses can be rejected. Therefore in conclusion to the above Dodd and Rubacks paper had a big impact on the information available on mergers as they were one of the first academics to assess the market reaction to unsuccessful takeover attempts. Finding that stockholders of unsuccessful bidding firms earn normal returns following the bid and that unsuccessful targets earn significant abnormal returns in the month following the bid. From all the analysis it can be found that the primary motive for takeovers is the removal of inefficiencies, with the target seen to become more efficient as a result of both a successful and unsuccessful bids. These results are actually similar to those experienced by Mandelker as most of the takeover gains accrue to the target shareholders. The journal I have looked at next is Healy and Palepus, Does corporate performance improve after mergers? and analyses the corporate performance of the merged firm post takeover. This article looks at the post merger performance for the fifty largest US mergers between 1979 and 1984. The academics motivation in producing the journal as they have was the inability of previous stock price performance studies to determine exactly whether takeovers create economic gains and if they do what is the cause of such gains. The findings show that merged firms show improved cash flow returns post merger and they are seen to be generated by an increase in asset productivity in their relative industries as a result of the combined firms size. It should also be noted that the improvements in cash flow immediately following the merger are not at the expense of long term performance, as the firms will maintain both capital expenditure and RD rates relative to their industries post merger. The final c onclusion that Healy and Palepu draw is that there is evidence of a strong positive relationship between the post merger increase in cash flows and the abnormal returns at the merger announcement. Overall then Healy, Palepu and Ruback find in their investigation that merged firms overall have shown significant improvements in cash flow returns following merger. It should also be noted that improved performance is strong for firms in highly overlapping business. Some pieces of literature analyse the long term performances of both the acquiring and bidding shareholders in the years following the merger. One such example is Agrawal, Jaffe and Mandelkers 1992 article entitled The Post Merger performance of acquiring firms: A Re-examination of an Anomaly. They comment that existing articles on the post-merger performance of acquiring firms give conflicting opinions and therefore their motivation is to come to a definitive conclusion on what actually happens. They state that although not all previous literature has resulted in post-merger underperformance this could be attributed to biased results through firms not properly adjusting for size or shifts in beta. There are many implications in relation to consistent post-merger underperformance with the main implications being the following; firstly poor performance following a merger is not consistent with the Efficient Market Hypothesis and would suggest that the market is failing to fully react to the merger announcement. This then leads to a problem regarding the second implication which finds that in majority or literature regarding post-merger performance finds that performance is based on the key assumption of an efficient market, which as we have just found is not entirely true. The implication is more in line and suggests that poor post-merger performance fits in with other information which suggests poor economic performance following a merger, with Caves et al being cited as a key writer on this subject. This therefore provides the motivation for Agrawal, Jaffe and Mandelker to undertake a thorough analysis of the post-merger performance of acquiring firms using a near exhaustive sample of mergers between targets in the period of 1955 to 1987. The results of this indicate that acquiring stockholders experience a loss of around 10% over the five years following the merger, and this leads Agrawal, Jaffe and Mandelker to analyse the reasons for this. One possible explanation may be that the market is slow to react to the merger and therefore takes a longer time for the impact of the merger to set in, i.e. the loss in shareholder value. This therefore provides the question as to whether this result is time specific and in order to evaluate this Agrawal, Jaffe and Mandelker analyse the post-merger performance of acquiring firms over the last 3 decades. The results of table 2 in the journal show that the anomaly does not change over time and as a result does not appear to be time specific. Therefore this does not support the view that negative abnormal performance is a result of market inefficiency. In order to try to explain the post-merger performance the academics drew up two hypotheses to obtain a conclusion. Firstly, the market adjusts fully to the announcement of a takeover and any underperformance is due to other factors. And secondly, the market may be slow to react to any takeover information and therefore any post-takeover underperformance is reflected in the negative NPV, therefore market inefficiency is present. The alternative hypotheses are then tested by regressions of the post-merger abnormal returns and the announcement period abnormal returns. From this it is seen that there is a significant negative relationship over the full sample and as a result it can be seen that the post-merger returns and announcement period returns are both related. Therefore in conclusion to all of this analysis Agrawal et al find that acquiring shareholders experience negative abnormal returns in the 5 years following a merger. It is also clearly seen that the market has failed to become more efficient over time as the anomaly holds for all of the previous 3 decades apart from the 1970s. Overall it is found that the results are not consistent with the hypothesis that suggests the poor performance is attributed to slow reaction to information. To conclude Agrawal, Jaffe and Mandelker find that the efficient market anomaly of negative post-merger performance is not resolved. Eugene Fama made key arguments when he introduced the Bad Model Problem in his 1998 journal Market Efficiency, long-term returns, and behavioural finance. In this journal Fama states that we should not abandon market efficiency as he argues that long term return anomalies are basically only chance results, with overreaction of stock prices just as common as under reaction. In the article he states, Most important, the long-term return anomalies are fragile. They tend to disappear with reasonable changes in the way they are measured. Basically Fama says that the anomalies are either chance results or results of a bad model. However following this argument it is difficult to decide how to interpret post-takeover performance. This is a confusing area and one which yields differing results. Many of the previous long term event studies seem to suggest market efficiency, especially under and overreaction to information. This therefore poses the question as to whether market efficiency shou ld be discarded, with Famas response being a definitive no. The reasoning behind this is that an efficient market generates events which seem to suggest an over-reaction in prices following an announcement. However, in an efficient market over and under-reaction are both equally likely. Therefore if the aforementioned anomalies are shared randomly amongst the two then it is consistent with market efficiency. Analysis of previous studies suggests this to be the case. It has also been suggested that these anomalies are sensitive to the methodology selected and can vary or even disappear when a different model of expected returns is employed. Overall, with regards over and under-reaction, long-term return literature does not highlight one or the other to be more dominant. Thus a random split is always likely and as such market efficiency is maintained. With regards the methodology employed, Fama argues against the use of the buy and hold abnormal return (BHAR) as the systematic errors that arise with imperfect expected return proxies (the bad model problem) are compounded with long horizon returns. He also states that the use of methodology that ignores cross sectional dependence of event firm abnormal returns that are overlapping in calendar time is likely to produce overstated test-statistics. Fama then goes on to support the use of a monthly calendar time approach to measure abnormal returns in the long term. The reasoning given is that the use of monthly returns makes the study less affected by the bad model problem. Also, forming calendar time portfolios ensures that the cross correlation of event firm abnormal returns are taken as part of the portfolio variance. Despite Famas preference of the calendar time approach, Lyon, Barber and Tsai (1999) and Loughran and Ritter (1999) prefer the BHAR approach as it accurately represen ts investor experience. Another study which analyses both the bidders and acquirers post takeover performance is Glamour, value and post-acquisition performance of acquiring firms by Rau and Vermaelen, which uses a long horizon event study to analyse the shareholder performance in the three years following a merger. They find that bidders in mergers underperform, while bidders in tender offers over perform post merger. The main motivation in undertaking this study is to try gain a definite conclusion on the long run performance of bidders in both mergers and tender offers. This is done by looking mainly at bidders underperformance in the long run following a merger, and also what causes underperformance, if any. The paper compares results from the study by Jensen and Ruback (1983) which analyses six studies examining bidders returns in the year following a takeover. This study finds that following a tender offer bidders earn positive abnormal returns, whereas bidders underperform post merger. From the acqui rers point of view Rau and Vermaelen find that acquirers in tender offers earn small but statistically significant positive abnormal returns, however the long term underperformance of acquiring firms in mergers is not uniform across all firms. These findings go on to help support the hypothesis that the market overexpolates the past performance of the bidder and therefore as a result the market, management and shareholders overestimate a glamour bidders (bidder with good past performance) ability to do such a good job in managing similar companies. In a similar way the market seems to be pessimistic regarding a value bidders potential to manage other companies. (where a value firm is a firm with poor past performance). However value firms bidders are not affected by hubris in the same way as glamour firms, and therefore as a result are likely to be thoroughly scrutinised by directors and majority shareholders before a transaction is initiated. The biggest problem is that is appears the market fails to realise that past performance is not a good indicator of future performance. To conclude this paper helps to add to a large sample of evidence suggesting that short term event studies fail to fully capture the market reaction to an event. Therefore it is suggested that future studies must try to explain why markets tend to react sluggishly to corporate finance and strategic decisions. Analysis of post takeover performance has be

Secondhand Market And Its Future

Secondhand Market And Its Future Literature review is about the background information of my project. I will present the related online secondhand market items in the first part. The second part I will review of 3 existing secondhand systems to find inspiration of my project. At last I will talk about open source software and how they can help me in developing system. 2.2 Secondhand Items A secondhand or used good is one that is being purchased by or otherwise transferred to a second or later end user. In another word it can simply mean it is no longer in the same condition as it was when it was first transferred to the current end user. Secondhand items may be transfer between friends or family for free, or they can be sold at a lower price at garage sales. Many people prefer to buy new goods, since new goods can make them feel safer. A warranty is provided for new goods they can fix for free or simply change a new one, buy new goods also can avoid buying stolen goods. But buy secondhand goods has significant benefits such as prevent them becoming waste and saves costly production of equivalent new goods. It can conserving natural resources and protecting the environment, and may from part of a simple living plan. 2.3 E-commerce E-commerce (Electronic Commerce) is any form of business transaction in which the parties interact electronically over the internet rather than by physical exchange or conduct. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. The main business uses of the internet include: The ability to buy, sell and advertise goods and service to customers and consumers. To communicate with businesses and customers around the world To promote products and services by electronically publishing brochures, manuals, product updates etc To give business the competitive edge by researching information on specific industries. E-commerce can be divided into 4 categories which are business-to-business (B2B), business-to-customer (B2C), customer-to-business (C2B) and customer-to-customer (C2C). B2B is conducted between businesses. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Such as manufactures selling to distributors and wholesalers selling to retailers. Pricing is based on quantity of order and is often negotiable. B2C is conducted from businesses to consumers. Business selling to the general public typically through catalogs utilizing shopping cart software. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com. C2B is conducted from customer to business. A consumer posts his project with a set budget online and within hours companies review the consumers requirements and bid on the project. The consumer reviews the bids and selects the company that will complete the project. Elance empowers consumers around the world by providing the meeting ground and platform for such transactions. C2C conduct from customer to customer. There are many sites offering free classifieds, auctions, and forums where individuals can buy and sell. Thanks to online payment system like PayPal where people can send and receive money online with ease. eBays auction service is a great example of where person-to-person transactions take place every day since 1995. My Secondhand market system is belongs to C2C category. 2.4 Secondhand market and its future Secondhand markets are used for sell or exchange secondhand items. Secondhand items can often be found for sale in thrift stores and pawnshops, auctions, garage sales, and in more recent times online auctions. Some stores sell both new and used goods, while others only sell new goods but may take used items in exchange for credit toward the purchase of newer goods. These stores are all can be seen as secondhand market. The secondhand market is exciting developing now. Since global financial crisis hit, people turn to shopping in an economy way. So the secondhand trading market benefit from this struggling economy. (Lynn Ducey, 2008) Secondhand markets are busier than ever, it appears a bucking retail trends. (Elizabeth Millard, 2008). Report by CNN 2th January 2009, one of Buffalo (a Manhattan consignment shop) privately held company says it has $50 million in annual revenue and is concluding its third consecutive year of sales growth and also of the resale markets overall performance. Secondhand stores are profiting from the recession. (Maggie Overfelt, 2009) The second-hand trading market is booming as bargain-hunting consumers turn to buying quality second-hand items online, from the latest plasma screens to designer togs. Popular online trading sites like eBay and Trading Post both report a spike in trade of second-hand item. 2.5 Secondhand markets in campus The secondhand market has a huge potential in campus, there are many things can supply such as books, stationery, MP3, computer, etc. These items have the guaranteed quality and in a low price because the buyer and seller are both students easier to monitor. So people like to buy stuff from college students, giving them a high trust. In China annually last-year students spontaneously organize a secondhand market to exchange of second hand school materials. They place stalls along the college street, as long as 100 meters, and becomes a kind of tradition. Even some residents nearby the campus join this team. There is a great deal of graduate students in college every year and they have a lot of things hard to take away but still useful. For the sake of avoiding the waste and recycling, the secondhand market is a good way to solve this problem which can bring some economic benefits at the same time. 2.6 Pros and Cons of online secondhand markets Pros There many advantage to use online secondhand market. Selling and buying secondhand items both become easily. The website allows you to browse through different categories and see the ads posted by other sellers to buy or sell items easily. Use internet we can access more secondhand item resources than traditional shopping method. We can use search function to search product as much as we want without travel here and there. Online secondhand market also can help you save money since you can compare price easily and bargain with seller. Cons Use online secondhand market to search product, user may facing a problem that the quality cannot guarantee. User cannot see, touch and easily ask questions about a real product. Use online shopping decrease the frequency of people get out of the house. This may cause health issue to people. There are some people get cabin fevers in the winter since this situation. Another disadvantage of buy secondhand product online is that secondhand items do not have warranty, if got problem user cannot change a new one or fix for free. 2.7 Review existing system 2.7.1 2nd hand (http://www.2ndhand.com.my/index.php) Introduction 22nd hand is an online second hand market in Malaysia, it allow customer to sell or find request goods online. Key features Register/log in If user wants to post advertisements on this website, he/she need to register on this website. User need to fill up the personal information such as name, gender, contact information (which will display with advertisement together for others to contact with owner) Home page Home page displays the latest sales/request advertisement in sequence. Post sell/request item After user log in they can post a sell/request advertisement at this website. They can post goods photo, edit, update, delete goods information. Search Search function has three classifies: by catalog, by location, by user. User can choose any one of them to process search function. Goods catalog page The website use a whole page to display the entire catalog, user can find all goods classifies here. 2.7.2 Gumtree (http://sydney.gumtree.com.au/) Introduction Gumtree Sydney is a free local classifieds site. Look for items for sale, services, cars, jobs, housing, and more. This site has a large community of individual sellers who put up items for sale. You often can find garage sales here. Its search engine allows you to filter by products and price range. If youre looking for a specific item, you can also sign up to alerts via your email address. Key Features: Post sell/request item Gumtree offer free post advertisement for customer, customer can post an advertisement to sale something or find something they want to buy. Customer first need to select an category that the item they want to post then need to choose they want to buy or sell product then edit product information here, such as price, product name, description and also can post an image of product. Customer need to edit their contact information convenient for others to contact. Promote advertisement Website also provides promote advertisement method which include: highlight advertisement, top advertisement and show advertisement on home page. These functions are charge items. My Gumtree Customer register in Gumtree, they can have an own page for manage their posted advertisement, they can post, promote, edit, delete and have an personal Watch List Discuss area A forum used for user post articles to share their experience of Gumtree and make judgments of service. Help function This web page use a search function to allow user to search questions that they want to ask, see if the question already answered by others. It likes a guideline to guide user use the Gumtree. Other service: Profile, FAQ, search 2.7.3 mySimplifieds (http://www.mysimplifieds.com/) Introduction mySimplifieds is Malaysias Most Comprehensive Classified Listings, All In One Hassle Free Classified Portal To Reach Out Your Largest Buyer Seller Groups Effectively. Key features: Advertisement List your items on mySimplifieds and all our affiliated portals at no extra cost. Post personal classifies: Select a category, edit items information such as: item name, description, price and key word used for search function. Customer even can add an video for posted item to promote it; Fill the form about contact information for others to contact with you; Use the map offered by Malaysia Classifies to show the location of the item; Malaysia Classifies have an special function that report delivered daily or weekly to you email to find out key stats such as unique visitors, total view enquiries so that you can monitor your classifieds performance. Search Search by classifies, and type the key word to search needed items. Tips Buy and sell page got tips to guide customer use the webpage, customer can quickly learned how to use it. FAQ mySimplifieds offer an FAQ to solve frequent question that customer may be ask, if user still get problem, they can send email to mySimplifieds until get satisfied answer Comparison between 3 website website Advantage Disadvantage 2ndhand Simple, easy to use Poor features, not so much functions can choose by people Gumtree Free for post advertisement; Have promote function; Discussion function; Help function User need to charge promote function Web pages are very long need to roll down. mySimplifieds Advertisement function make the post items on its all affiliated portals at no extra cost Products do not display in sequence cannot see latest advertise post by users. Web pages are full of tips, difficult to find process function. 2.8 Overview development tools 2.8.1 HTML HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, HTML is not a programming language, but is a markup language. A markup language is a set of markup tags. HTML uses markup tags to describe web pages. It provide a means to creat structured documents by denoting structureral semantics for text such as headings, paragraphs, lists etc as well as for links, quotes, and other items. It allows images and objects to be embedded and can be used to create interactive forms. It can include or can load scripts in languages such as JavaScript which affect the behavior of HTML processors like Web browsers; and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to define the appearance and layout of text and other material. 2.8.2 PHP PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. As a general purpose programming language, PHP code is processes by an interpreter application in command-line mode performing desired operating system operations and producing program out put on its standard output channel. It may also function as a graphical application. PHP is available as a processor for most modern web servers and as standalone interpreter on most operating system and computing platform. It is free for use, PHP group provide the complete source code for users to build, customize and extend for their own use. PHP originally designed to create dynamic web page, now mainly focus on server-side scripting. It is similar to ASP and JSP which provide dynamic content from a web server to a client. PHP is a member of the popular LAMP architecture which in the web industry as a method of deploying web application. PHP is representing P in LAMP; other three alphabets represent Linux, Apache and MySQL. Significant website are written in PHP include Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo, MyYearbook, Digg and so on. According Wikipedia, April 2007, over 20 million Internet domains had web services hosted on servers with PHP installed and mod-php was recorded as the most popular Apache HTTP Server module. 2.8.3 MySQL MySQL is the most popular open source SQL database management system, is developed, distributed, and supported by Sun Microsystems, Inc. MySQL consistent fast performance, high reliability and ease of use. Its used on every continent, even Antarctica. Individual web developers or worlds largest and fastest-growing organizations both use MySQL to save time and money powering their high-volume Web site, business-critical system and packaged software including industry leaders such as Yahoo!, Alcatel-Lucent, Google, Nokia, YouTube, and Zappos.com. MySQL support most of the function youve come to expect in a commercial RDBMS. It ensures that transactions comply with the ACID Model, allows the building of indexes, supports standard data types, and allows for database replication, among other features. MySQL also provide flexibility put you in control since it can runs on more than 20 platforms including Linux, Windows, Mac OS, Solaris, HP-UX, IBM AIX. 2.8.4 Apache Apache is public-domain, open source Web server developed by a loosely-knit group of programmers. Apache is generally recognized as the worlds most popular Web server (HTTP server). The first vision of Apache, based on the NCSA http Web server, was developed in 1995. Originally designed for UNIX servers, the Apache Web server has been ported to Windows and other network operating system (NOS). The name Apache derives from the word patchy that the Apache developers used to describe early versions of their software. The Apache Web server provides a full range of Web server features, including CGI, SSL, and virtual domains. Apache also supports plug-in modules for extensibility. Apache is reliable, free, and relatively easy to configure. Apache is free software distributed by the Apache Software Foundation. The Apache Software Foundation promotes various free and open source advanced Web technologies. 2.8.5 Benefits of use open source There are many reason for us to choose open source, here just list several important reasons to review. First of all, the cost will be a very important reason. The open source software is free. You no need to charge anything for it. You just download and install then can do your stuff with the software. Second is open source offer a high level security. Open source software packages are almost always secure than proprietary options. If you read reports from the Dti and Pwc you will found that all known viruses are targeting proprietary software system. It is hard to find any real data on the number of Linux viruses that are in circulation. The last but not least reason I want to write is features, because most open source software is developed by people who use it, so it tends to have more advance features. If theres something you want to do you can either modify the product yourself or pay someone to do it for you. If you wish to, you are free to contribute your modifications back to the community so that the software continues to improve. Most open source licenses only require you to do this if you re-distribute your modified product to others. 2.9 Conclusion From the literature review it can be concluded that secondhand market is appears a bucking retail trends both in campus and society. The secondhand market has a bright future and more and more people turn to buy secondhand items online. The review of exist secondhand system shows that the secondhand system has these common functions: search, browse, post advertisement, category and manage function. I learned advantages and disadvantages from these systems. I can design my system better with this knowledge. I choose Open source software to develop my system since its economy and rich functionality. I can easily use and find help from internet if I get problem cannot solve. Open source software is a good system development tool for the person who wants to develop a system without much money and experience.

Designing A House :: essays research papers

This report is being written as if you were to fully design my senior project. These are all the steps and procedures you would need to take to properly design it. First thing you would need to do would be identifying specific landmarks of surrounding land or lot. You would note down anything and roughly measure marks approximate to house location, this way you would have a general idea of where the house would be. If there are no big landmarks, such as nearby houses or roads - you should note small markings such as trees or pathways, anything to help you identify the location of the house. Also, you should note climate, that can be a factor. After you’ve surveyed the entire scene you should write down all ideas having to do with what the house will need to be habitable and reference surrounding buildings for notes. For example if a building near the house lot has a high angled roof, that could be because of heavy snow or rainfall. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or extensivly look up ideas. Next will come your rough draft, this is basically self explanatory. You will create preliminary sketches of floor plan with rough dimensions, and sketch a view of the house dimensioned from landmarks. The information on your rough sketch does not have to be exact, but it must be more informative then the notes you had taken earlier. After getting specifics from the consumer, you will begin to construct your floor plan. Day, 2 While it is your (our) job to create convinience and simplicity in the house design, you must consider the consumers ideas and needs. When you do this plan you must label all doors with Door tags, these will be used later. When putting dimensions in your floor plan make sure they are specific and detailed. Try not to over dimension, but do not underdimension, carefully check every dimension, to see if it was duplicated or noted beforehand. Now will come the basement plan, dimension everything accordingly and show all needed floor supports. The needs for this house are different because of it's large design, lolly columns are neccisary. Label everything. When your done with the basement and floor plans you should construct a electrical plan and plumbing plan, the electrical plan is necessary in this project, but the plumbing is not. "Now day's you count on a licenced plumer to come in, they are the experts and they'll know whats

United States Governments False Portrayal of Marijuana :: Government Marijuana weed Drugs Essays

United States Government's False Portrayal of Marijuana Abstract I believe that the government’s handling of marijuana has been unethical because they used propaganda and lies to misinform the American population about marijuana. In my casebook, I address how the government made propaganda films and other media to misinform the American population. Some powerful evidence that I used is from the book, On the Trail of Marijuana, in this book the authors illustrate their eight stages of marijuana intoxication: Stage One: Characteristic euphoria, or feelings of unnatural well-being and lightheadedness. Stage Two: Intellectual excitation, dissociation of ideas, and exaggeration of emotion. Stage Three: Illusion in regard to time and space. Stage Four: Intense auditory sensibility, where every musical sound is distorted. Stage Five: Fixation of ideas, which are derived by the suggestibility of near-by stimuli. Stage Six: Overbalancing emotional disturbances. Stage Seven: Culmination of the sixth stage, where the overexcited and distraught subject may commit violent irresponsible acts due to irresistible impulses of suggestive origin. Stage Eight: Hallucination, varied and often terrifying. The opposing argument is supported not by opinion, but by scientific proof. There have been many studies done on the effects of marijuana, but I chose On Being Stoned because the author realized that the effects are only â€Å"potential†. Marijuana is illegal in the United States and in the past, there have been many changes in legislation regarding marijuana possession, production, and use. The knowledge of marijuana usage has been warped and twisted by the American government beginning in the early 1900s. According to the Webster’s Dictionary definitions, ethics are principles of right conduct or a system of moral values, morals are the lesson or principle contained in or taught by a fable, a story, or an event, and government is the act or process of governing, especially the control and administration of public policy in a political unit. It bothers me that neither ethics nor morals were included in the definition of government.