The Link Between Greek And Western Civilization Essay Example for Free

The Link Between Greek And Western Civilization Essay The Greek progress is perceived to have been one of the premier supporters of Western Civilization. The way of life, governmental issues, science, and instructive frameworks of the antiquated Greeks are said to have affected the improvement of early Western Civilization and are in this way the establishments whereupon our current society is based. A wide range of students of history, specialists, and authors have attempted to give an exhaustive comprehension of old Greek and its effect on current society. Bruce Thornton is one of these specialists and he appears in his book that the Greeks did, truth be told, contribute a lot to our development. At the point when we talk about the Greek human advancement, the discussion perpetually goes into a conversation of their accomplishments. Greek thinkers were known for their utilization of reason and rationale. The discourse types of talk and exchange were created and consummated by the Greeks in huge agoras or open spaces where they were wont to have various open conversations about scholarly issues. The political arrangement of majority rule government created in antiquated Greece and is considered by numerous individuals to be their most significant commitment to present day society. The writing of the time keeps on amusing present day crowds. The Greek legends The Odyssey and The Iliad are as yet fit for motivating current works. The works of Plato are as yet the supported subjects of conversation by researchers. The effect of Greek science on Western human advancement is similarly extraordinary. In the field of medication, for instance, one won't be viewed as a specialist without first making the Hippocratic Vow. Greek craftsmanship has affected present society by being the harbingers of style. Indeed, even building works like the Parthenon have greatly affected the manner in which Western Civilization proceeds with today. By essentially taking a gander at crafted by the antiquated Greeks and looking at present-day Western culture, obviously the Greeks had the option to add to all parts of Western life today. Yet, Bruce Thornton states that there is a more profound and increasingly basic commitment by the Greeks. The aggregate of what different journalists and researchers have discussed as the commitments of Greek development to Western Civilization can be summarized as a commitment of basic awareness. What the Greeks genuinely enabled Western development was to break down, to ponder oneself and everything outside of oneself. It is maybe the situation that all the best achievements of the Greeks were resulting from this rehearsed capacity to be basic. Majority rule government, talk, even rationale all originate from a basic awareness. The Greeks, above everything else they did, gave Western human progress a model and the ways by which one could build up a basic cognizance. This commitment is bigger than the more solid, more discussed works of the Greeks. Since the Greek human progress imparted the heritage of basic awareness to the Western development, the last has had the option to think all alone. In light of basic awareness, we have had the option to bring forth equivalent rights, free discourse, state funded training. The Greeks didn't uphold similar thoughts with respect to the three ideas but since we have basic personalities of our own, in light of the fact that we have drenched ourselves in the inheritance of the Greeks, we can choose our own what might be best for our general public. We are not dependent on the procedures, ways of thinking, and chains of importance rehearsed by a past human progress. Since the Greeks gave us basic cognizance, we can take what they had and improve it into something a whole lot progressively fitting for our human progress, for the occasions we live in now.

Driving Through Sawmill Towns poem analysis free essay sample

This first verse from the sonnet, clarifies the excursion of a man passing through a sawmill town and his perceptions. Murray portrays his excursion through a little sawmill town in New South Wales while utilizing solid, distinctive symbolism and emotive language. As obvious by the title of this sonnet, symbolism is a solid strategy utilized in this sonnet as the creator portrays with extraordinary detail his excursion through a sawmill town. This method is utilized most in the accompanying expressions: â€Å"down a tilting street, into an inaccessible valley.† And â€Å"The sawmill towns, exposed villas worked of sheets with maybe a store†. This has the impact of making a picture in the reader’s psyche and making the sonnet much increasingly genuine. There is additionally metaphorical language utilized in expressions, for example, â€Å"Having originate from the clouds† and â€Å"tilting road†. This adds with the impact of symbolism and accentuation on the excursion to the sawmill town. We will compose a custom paper test on Passing Through Sawmill Towns sonnet examination or on the other hand any comparative subject explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page It additionally assists with making the refrain all the more intriguing to the peruser. Passing Through Sawmill Towns by Les Murray In the high cool nation, having originated starting from the clouds, a tilting street Into a far off valley, You drive without scurry. Your windscreen parts the timberland, Influencing and looking, and stuck early afternoon brightness Hunches in clearings At that point you run over them, The sawmill towns, exposed villas worked of sheets With maybe a store, Maybe an extension past What's more, a little sidelong spring bursting at the seams with rocks. This first verse from the sonnet, clarifies the excursion of a man passing through a sawmill town and his perceptions. Murray portrays his excursion through a little sawmill town in New South Wales while utilizing solid, distinctive symbolism and emotive language. As apparent by the title of this sonnet, symbolism is a solid procedure utilized in this sonnet as the creator depicts with incredible detail his excursion through a sawmill town. This method is utilized most in the accompanying expressions: â€Å"down a tilting street, into a removed valley.† And â€Å"The sawmill towns, exposed villas worked of sheets with maybe a store†. This has the impact of making a picture in the reader’s psyche and making the sonnet significantly progressively genuine. There is likewise allegorical language utilized in expressions, for example, â€Å"Having originate from the clouds† and â€Å"tilting road†. This adds with the impact of symbolism and accentuation on the excursion to the sawmill town. It likewise assists with making the refrain all the more intriguing to the peruser. Passing Through Sawmill Towns by Les Murray In the high cool nation, having originated starting from the clouds, a tilting street Into a removed valley,

Minimalism Happiness Through Scientific Eyes

Minimalism Happiness Through Scientific Eyes Minimalism and Happiness: Is there evidence of a connection? Can money and materialism bring happiness? Can minimalism bring happiness? P. Brickman in the 70s conducted a study in which he investigated the level of happiness of people whose financial dreams had come true. He found that those who had won millions on the lottery were no happier than his control group who meet their basic needs. Money can buy short term happiness but you will eventually turn to your level of happiness before financial gain. This puts you in a vicious materialistic circle in which you strive to achieve long term happiness through the constant purchase of material items. Not healthy. How can you beat this vicious cycle? First you must understand the roots of materialism. According to a study from Chaplin John (2007) there is a strong link between low self-esteem and materialism (usually derived early in childhood) and that low self-esteem causes materialistic tendencies. But its not just about buying material goods for yourself. A study from Dunn et al. (2008) showed that its how we spend the money that can determine how happy we feel. They go on to say: While much research has examined the effect of income on happiness, we suggest that how people spend their money may be at least as important as how much money they earn. Specifically, we hypothesized that spending money on other people may have a more positive impact on happiness than spending money on oneself. Providing converging evidence for this hypothesis, we found that spending more of ones income on others predicted greater happiness both cross-sectionally (in a nationally representative survey study) and longitudinally (in a field study of windfall spending). Finally, participants who were randomly assigned to spend money on others experienced greater happiness than those assigned to spend money on themselves. Okay, so what the hell does this have to do with minimalism? Well, to quote Colin Wright: What Minimalism is really all about is reassessment of your priorities so that you can strip away the excess stuffâ€"the possessions and ideas and relationships and activitiesâ€"that dont bring value to your life. With this stripping away you find yourself doing more with less. You find you no longer waste money on crap and potentially you can use this extra money or your extra time from stripping away draining relationships into more experiences. Boredom comfort are the enemy. So is there any actual evidence for this or is this just another bullshit blog post just chatting random shit? Yes, there is evidence. Van Boven Gilovich (2003) conducted a national survey asking people to rate according to how happy their purchase had been (one group had brought a product, the other an experience). The results clearly showed that the group who had described and rated the purchase of an experience had higher levels of mood. Do experiences make people happier than material possessions? In two surveys, respondents from various demographic groups indicated that experiential purchasesâ€"those made with the primary intention of acquiring a life experienceâ€"made them happier than material purchases. In a follow-up laboratory experiment, participants experienced more positive feelings after pondering an experiential purchase than after pondering a material purchase. In another experiment, participants were more likely to anticipate that experiences would make them happier than material possessions after adopting a temporally distant, versus a temporally proximate, perspective. The discussion focuses on evidence that experiences make people happier because they are more open to positive reinterpretations, are a more meaningful part of ones identity, and contribute more to successful social relationships. So the evidence points towards a strong link between happiness and social relationships. This comes of no surprise considering our evolution. During our evolution we stayed in social groups, R. Dunbar suggests that this group living coud have been one of the causes of the evolution of language, something that made us excel as a species. We need other people, this is what experiences give us, the opportunity to share experiences with other people while the purchase of material items can isolate you from others. What about the roles of neurotransmitters into experiences? Well, when we have new experiences we often have excitement as we have never done it before. Once we undergo excitement the brain releases endorphins which are endogenous opioid peptides that function as neurotransmitters. This chemical is well known for the well being state it creates in humans. Excitement caused by new experiences releases endorphins and creates a state of happiness which can be increased with minima lism by stripping away the fat and letting new worthwhile experiences in. So, does minimalism create happiness? Does it improve your life? I never said that. Minimalism is subjective for a lot of people and it would be foolish to try and pinpoint something as broad and vast as happiness into one cause. Rather, minimalism is a tool. What minimalism can do though is strip away the fat and leave you with a new found financial freedom that you can use for new experiences. Experiences that you can share and enjoy with other people. Visit The Ephemeral Project for more insights from Lee Hughes.

A Crucial Regarding To The Holocaust - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 602 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2019/04/22 Category History Essay Level High school Tags: Anne Frank Essay Holocaust Essay Did you like this example? On July 6, 1942, Annelies Marie Frank left the comfort of her home, she and her family were forced into hiding to live in an attic with the Van Pels family. Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the German Reich, had forced the relocation of jews to concentration camps and encouraged his fellow Germans to kill all jewish people. Anne Frank and her family remained in hiding to 2 years until 1944 when they were discovered, apprehended and sent to concentration camps. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "A Crucial Regarding To The Holocaust" essay for you Create order Unfortunately, Anne, her mother, and sister didnt survive what came to be known as the Holocaust. But Anne Frank did not go unknown, she left one of the most important and crucial documentsher diary. Annes diary gives us a first hand account of what it was like to be Jewish during the Holocaust. Even though Anne Frank was going through one of the most violent situations in the history of the world, she was still a typical teenage girl. Her diary not only included the horrors of war but everyday problems of being a teenager. She wrote about a boy she liked named Hello, she talked about problems at school and how she disliked some of her teachers. She described her everyday life, her fathers joban ordinary life. That was soon about to completely change. Thanks to her diary, we are able to understand the tension and anguish the jewish felt on the days leading up to their capture or hiding. For Annes family it was July 4, 1942 when their life changed. Margot, Annes 16 year old sister received a letter ordering her to report to a work camp in Germany. Anne knew this meant that everything her dad said to her about going into hiding was about to happen so that night the Frank family had layered themselves in as much clothing as possible and headed to Amsterdam where they stayed in hiding. Annes life in hiding was anything normal, she didnt get to experience the life a regular teenager would experience. For example, she wasnt even allowed to open a window or even stand by a window, in fear of being seen by someone. Anne wasnt allowed to get up until after 7 am and on most nights had to be in her room by 6 pm. Anne had written in her diary that there was conflict between the 8 people living in the attic due to shortage of space. During the time in hiding, Anne had felt very misunderstood by the people around her, so she tried to better herself. Although it was hard for Anne to stay positive considering her living situation, she still wrote about herself as a normal teenager. She wrote about her fears, her hopes, and her character. After 2 years of hiding, unfortunately on August 4, 1944 the Frank familys hiding place was searched by the Gestapo and Dutch police. All 8 people living in the secret annex were captured and sent to concentration camps including the Frank family, the Van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeffer. Anne and her sister were both sent Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where they later died of Typhus fever. After the war was over Annes father, Otto Frank, soon discovered that he was the only member of his family to come out of the concentration camps alive. Otto Frank returned to the Secret Annex where he discovered Annes diary; it took him a couple months to be able to find the courage to read it. He later published the diary as a book called The Diary of a Young Girl that has been seen by millions of people. This diary has later become one of the most important and crucial regarding the Holocaust.

Study On The Effects Of Ipo Underpricing Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 17 Words: 5065 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Economics Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? Underpricing is the difference between the issue price of a new share and the first trading price on the secondary market. It is a worldwide phenomenon of almost each capital market that has been well documented in different markets. Numerous empirical studies find evidence that the first trading price is about 20 per cent higher than the issue price of the shares on average.This phenomenon has been experienced in almost every country with a stock market, although the degree of underpricing varies from country to country. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Study On The Effects Of Ipo Underpricing Finance Essay" essay for you Create order The study of Loughran, Ritter and Rydqvist (1994) confirmed this IPO underpricing phenomenon in 25 countries, with higher IPO underpricing in developing than in developed markets. For example, the level of underpricing in the US was 15.3% (for 10,626 IPOs during 1960-92), in France was 4.2% (for 187 IPOs during 1983-92) and in Malaysia was 80.3% (for 132 IPOs during 1980-91). Lowry and Schwert (2000) find that the number of IPOs and the average initial returns are highly auto correlated and that both price update and the initial return are predictable based on publicly available information. They suggest that these differences are highly significant and provide strong evidence favoring the asymmetric information theory. Su and Fleisher (1999) analyze Chinese IPOs during the period of 1985-1987 and find that the level of underpricing for a share is 948.6%. Arosio et al (2000) analyze a survey of Internet stock IPOs, listed on the Euros secondary Stock Exchanges and find an in itial average return equal to 76.43%. They document that this huge underpricing is strongly related to the information gathered during book-building activity in the pre-selling period, which drives the revision of the prospectus price range and signals the IPO quality to uninformed investors. Chowdhry and Sherman (1996) document that the average first-day return varies systematically with the mechanism used to price and distribute IPOs. Ritter (2001) points out that fixed price offerings are more underpriced than offerings built by the book. Ljungqvist et al (2000) analyze 2105 IPOs in 61 non-US markets during the period 1992-1999 and document that the direct costs of book-building are twice as large as direct costs for fixed-price offers, but the book-building leads to substantially less underpricing. On the other hand, Derrien and Womack (2000) analyze the French IPOs market during the period 1992-1998 and find that auctions IPOs are less underpriced (9.7%) than book-building I POs (16.9%). For Taiwan, Liaw et al (2000) find that the degree of underpricing for price-fixed IPOs is 34.6% and 7.8% for auctions IPOs. Kutsuna and Smith (2000) also point out that in Japan, auctions IPOs are less underpriced (11.50%) than book-building IPOs (70.81%). Several explanations are possible for these countrys differences. Institutional differences probably play an important role, as underwriters follow different price setting and allocation strategies across country. On the following table we can see a detailed list of different studies about this phenomenon in financial markets worldwide and the different levels of underpricing of the IPOs accordingly to country and period of time. Country Authors Sample size Period Underpricing Germany Ljungqvist 170 1978-92 10,9% Australia Lee, Taylor Walter 266 1976-89 11,9% Austria Aussenegg 67 1964-96 6,5% Brazil Aggarwal, Leal Hernandez 62 1980-90 78.5% Canada Jog 383 1971-948 43% Chilli Aggarwal, Leal Hernandez 19 1982-90 16,3% China Su and Fleisher 308 1987-95 948,5% United States Ritter 13,308 1960-96 15,8% Finland Keloharju 85 1984-92 9,6% France Derrien Womack 264 1992-98 13,2% Hong Kong McGuinness 334 1980-96 15,9% Italy Giudici Paleari 135 1985-98 23,9% Japan Hebner Hiraki 472 1970-91 32,5% Malaysia Paudyal, Saadouni Briston 95 1984-95 61,8% Mexico Aggarwal, Leal Hernandez 37 1987-90 33,0% New Zealand Firth 149 1979-87 25,8% Holland Eijgenhuijsen Buijs 72 1982-91 7,2% United Kingdom Levis 2,133 1959-90 12,0% Singapore Lee, Taylor Walter 128 1973-92 31,4% Suede Rydqvist 251 1980-94 34,1% Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) Formulated by Eugene Fama in 1970, the Efficient Market Hypothesis that suggests that at any given time price fully reflect all available information on a particular stock or market is highly controversial and often disputed theory concerning the market efficiency by the economists. Thus, accordingly to the EMH, no investor has an advantage in predicting a return on a stock price since no one has access to information not already available. A market is said to be efficient if prices adjust quickly and, on average, without bias, to new information. As a result, the current prices of securities reflect all available information at any given point in time. Consequently, there is no reason to believe that prices are too high or too low. For Fama, there are three primary conditions that must be true to validate the EMH: 1. There are no transaction costs in trading securities. 2. All available information is available to all market participants at no cost. 3. All actors on th e market fully agree on what the implications of current and future information has on the price of a security. The conditions above is a picture of the perfectly efficient market, but the capital markets worldwide today are so far away from the perfect market, which does not necessarily means that the securities traded on these market are wrongly priced. According to the kind of information available, we can distinguish three version of the EMH: The Weak Form The weak form is the degrees of efficient market hypothesis (EMH) that claims all past prices of a stock are reflected in todays stock price. Therefore, future prices cannot be predicted by analyzing price from the past. It is named weak form because prices are arguably the most public as well as the most easily available pieces of information. Thus, one should not be able to profit from using something that everybody else knows. However, while EMH predicts that all price movement in the absence of change in fun damental information is random many studies have shown a marked tendency for the stock markets to trend over time periods of weeks or longer. The Semi-Strong Form The Semi-Strong form suggest that only information that is not publicly available can benefit investors seeking to earn abnormal returns on investments; the current price fully incorporates all publicly available information (past prices, data reported in financial statements, earnings and dividend announcements, announced merger plans, the financial situation of companys competitors, expectations regarding macroeconomic factors as well as non-financial factors). Semi-strong efficiency of markets requires the existence of market analysts who are not only financial economists able to comprehend implications of vast financial information, but also macroeconomists, experts adept at understanding processes in product and input markets. The Strong Form In strong-form efficiency, share prices reflect all informati on, public and private, and no one can earn excess returns. Not even insider information could give an investor the advantage. This degree of market efficiency implies that profits exceeding normal returns cannot be made, regardless of the amount of research or information investors have access to. The main difference between the semi-strong and strong efficiency hypothesis is that in the latter case, nobody should be able to systematically generate profits even if trading on information not publicly known at the time. The rationale for strong-form market efficiency is that the market anticipates in unbiased manner future developments and therefore the stock price may have incorporated the information and evaluated in a much more objective and informative way than the insiders. However, the January effect, the weekend effect, the month effect, small firm effect and the IPO underpricing effect constitute some of the anomalies documented about the EMH. Some past events have feed arguments against the EMH; a look on the historical returns of some investment funds show that some investors, like Warren Buffet or Peter Lynch, have been beating the market year after year. The IPO underpricing anomaly shows that new shares appear to be issued with a discount on its true value. Ibbotson (1975) was the first to test this kind of anomaly, and after applying some test, he found that new issues were underpriced 16.8% in average. Later, this anomaly was also tested by Ibbotson and Jaffe (1975). This anomaly therefore constitutes the subject of this thesis; considering the Cyprus Stock Exchange. Valuation The valuation and pricing of an initial public offer is a difficult and contentious issue. Trying to gauge market sentiment and setting a price that does not spell disaster in terms of the desired objectives is a real challenge. IPOs will be valued using a variety of method. Studying 49 IPOs conducted in Brussels between 1993 and 2001, finance professors Marc Deloof and Wouter De Maeseneire and researcher Koen Inghelbrecht isolated the valuation models used to set initial share prices and determined which provide the most realistic snapshot of market prices. Underwriters in the study never employed just one valuation method. In all 49 of the IPOs studied, the underwriters used discounted free cash flow (DFCF); in 24, they also used the dividend discount model (DDM), and in 40, they added price-to-earnings, price-to-cash flow, or other multiples valuation methods. However, Kim and Ritter (1999) find only a modest ability to explain the pricing of IPOs using accounting multiple s, even when using earnings forecasts. Purnanandam and Swaminathan (2001) construct a measure of intrinsic value based on industry matched Price/Sales and Price/Ebitda from comparable publicly traded firms (comps) for a sample of over 2,000 IPOs from 1980-1997. They find that, when offer prices are used, IPO firms are priced about 50% above comparables, which is an enormous difference. The Capital Asset Pricing Model In 1964 William F. Sharpe published a theory that explains the relationship that exists between the risk and return expected. This model, the Capital Asset Pricing Model is applied to price securities that present risk. According to Investopedia, the CAPM says that the expected return of a security or a portfolio equals the rate on a risk-free security plus a risk premium. If this expected return does not meet or beat the required return, then the investment should not be undertaken. The security market line plots the results of the CAPM for all different risks (betas). In other words, it is an equilibrium model that explains how assets are priced in an efficient market, taking into consideration their risk, providing a benchmark for evaluating if securities are at a fair price given their level of risk, serving also as a tool for pricing new securities not traded before. The CAPM is one of the most used investment model to determine risk and return despite it is only valid unde r special set of assumptions; some being unrealistic, met or not valid (investor: are rational and risk-averse, are price takers; that means that it is impossible for them to influence prices, but they can lend and borrow unlimited amounts without interest rate risk, trade with no costs, perfect Competitive Markets). There are three steps to build an intuition for the CAPM model: We first consider an asset that has no volatility, no risk; with returns that do not vary with the market. As a result, the asset has a beta equal to zero, producing an expected return equal to the risk-free rate. Then, an asset with beta one should be considered. It has to move in lock-step with the market. The result of this perfect correlation with the market is a return on the asset equal to the return of the market. At the end, we think about an asset with a beta greater than one that experiences greater swings in periodic returns than the market. As a result, we would expect that this asse t will give returns superior to those of the market, as compensation for this extra risk. Investopedia present the following formula: Where: is the expected excess return on the capital asset is the risk-free rate of interest such as interest arising from government bonds (the beta coefficient) is the sensitivity of the expected excess asset returns to the expected excess market returns is the expected excess return of the market is sometimes known as the market premium or risk premium (the difference between the expected market rate of return and the risk-free rate of return). Using the Capital Asset Pricing Model  under the assumptions above it is possible to calculate the expected return of a stock. However, there are some concerns about the overall efficacy of the CAPM. Several academic researches in recent years have made the CAPM true predictive power questionable. When realized returns are compared to what the CAPM would have expected, the model is often incorrect. Many researchers believe that other risk factors have significant impact on expected returns in the market. Moreover, to correctly test how well the CAPM prices securities we must assume that the market is efficient, which means that we are testing two hypothesis simultaneously, which raise a doubt if the inconsistency is due to a bad asset-pricing asset model or due to a inefficient market. Furthermore, Richard Roll (1977) has claimed that the model cannot be tested since the market portfolio cannot be observed because it consists of all risky assets. He has said that the only way to test it is using a market index, what would be able to serve as a market portfolio, but the problem is that a market index does not include all risky assets. The Arbitrage Pricing Theory The Arbitrage Pricing Theory developed by Stephen Ross (1976) and based on the idea that identical assets in different market should be priced identically is often viewed as an alternative to the Capital Asset Pricing Model since the APT  has  more flexible assumption requirements. Tradetaxfree.com define the APT as an asset pricing  model  based on the idea  that an assets returns can be predicted using  the relationship between that same asset and many common risk factors;   it predicts a relationship between the returns of a  portfolio and the returns of a single asset through a linear combination of many independent macro-economic variables. Whereas the CAPM formula requires the markets expected return, APT uses the risky assets expected return and the risk premium of  a number of  macro-economic factors. Arbitrageurs use the APT  model to profit by taking advantage of mispriced securities. A mispri ced security will have a price that differs from the theoretical price predicted by the model. The economic factors in the model are not specified in the original APT model, but Roll and Ross (1980) have identified five factors that affect the price, as follow: changes in the expected inflation, unanticipated changes in inflation, unanticipated changes in industrial production, unanticipated changes in the default-risk premium and unanticipated changes in the term structure of interest rates. Since the anticipated factors are already reflected in the price of an asset, the unanticipated factors cause a change in the price of the asset. For example, if we consider a bond with a fixed coupon interest, which current price is the net present value of expected interest and principal payments, discounted at some rate that reflects the time value of the money, the uncertainty of these future cash flows and the expected inflation rate. If there is an unanticipated increase in inflatio n, what will happen to the price of the bond? It will go down, since the discount rate increases as inflation decreases. This mechanism is similar to all other economic factors in the determination of the price of an asset along the time. The APT Model is not without drawbacks. The sensitivities must be estimated, since the model is based on the sensitivities of expected returns to unanticipated changes in the factors; the best we can do is to look at historical relationships (like in the CAPM). Also, some financial researchers argue that a single factor, namely the market portfolio, does just as good a job in explaining security returns as the more complex multiple factor approach of the APT Model. Why Do Firms Go Public? A companys main motivation for going public is to raise funds. For a better understanding of the IPOs underpricing phenomenon, is important also to understand why firms go public. Basically there are two theories related to IPO underpricing that cover why do firm go public: Life Cycle Theories and Market Timing Theories. Life Cycle Theories According to the Life Cycle Theories, as a firm grows and become sufficiently large, it will reach the optimal conditions to go public. Some authors related this theory to the IPO underpricing. For Zingales (1995), for a potential acquirer, public targets are easier to spot than private targets. Entrepreneurs can facilitate the acquisition of their company for a higher value after the IPO. By going public, entrepreneurs can get a higher value for their company if it is acquired by diversified investors than if the company was privately owned and sold in an outright sale. For Chemmanur and Fulghieri (1999), Early in its lifecycle a fi rm will be private. As it grows and faces profitable investment opportunities, the costs of going public are worth incurring. It does so to allow for greater dispersion of ownership. Pre-IPO angel investors and VCs hold undiversified portfolios and, therefore, are not willing to pay as high a price as diversified public-market investors. The same subject is approached under another perspective by Maksimovic and Pichler (2001), providing another explanation. They point out that by going public, the owners of the company attract a market competition, generating an increased demand for the shares of the company, and consequently, increasing the value price of the company. By trading at a price under fair value for the company, it keeps competition at a low level. Market Timing Theories Lucas and McDonald (1990) while discussing about asymmetric information model state that firms postpone (seasoned) equity issue if they know they are currently undervalued. If there are common m isevaluations, aggregate issue volume will increase following bull markets. Welch and Ritter (2002) propose a semi-rational theory without asymmetric information to explain increased IPO volume following bull markets: Entrepreneurs sense of value derives more from their operations perspective and underlying business fundamentals than from public markets. Ljungqvist and Wilhelm (2002) also supported and confirmed it by measuring the underpricing of firms going public during the dot-com bubble. Explanations literature 3. Asymmetric Information Models 3.1 The Winners Curse The winners curse, developed by Rocks (1986) is probably the best-known asymmetric information model. The winners curse provides the explanation for the information asymmetry between the investors. In this model, some investors are assumed to be better informed about the shares real value than underwriter, issuing firm and other investors. Uninformed investors are the losers, as they do not know which issues will be underpriced and so they are allocated large fraction of overpriced shares while investors that possess information call only for good priced IPOs. Beatty and Ritter (1986), Barry and Jennings (1993) support this hypothesis by providing evidence from U.S. market. Rock assumes that all IPOs must be underpriced in expectation considering that the demand of informed investors is not enough to fill all shares on offer even at good price. He also assumes that firms going public benefit from underpricing. Underpricing ensure that uninformed investor will continue to partici pate and bring capital to the IPO market. However, underpricing is clearly costly to certain firm that going public; it results in a lost capital that could have been raised in the case if the offering price had been set higher. In wikipedia page about IPO, we have the example of theglobe.com IPO during the IPO mania of the late 90s internet era. Underwritten by Bear Stearns on November 13, 1998 the stock had been priced at $9 per share, and famously jumped 1000% at the opening of trading all the way up to $97, before deflating and closing at $63 after large sell offs from institutions flipping the stock . Although the company rise about $30 million from the offering it is estimated that with the level of demand for the offering and the volume of trading that took place the company might have left upwards of $200 million on the table. 3.2 Information Revelation Theories (or informational cascade (to check and choose)) Rocks (1986) winners curse has lead to book-building; method that give underwriters wide discretion over allocations. It refers to underwriters extracting indications of interest from investors. The formations collected are then used for set the offer price. Following the Rock assumption that some investors are better informed than the company and other investors, Benveniste and Spindt (1989), Benveniste and Wilhelm (1990), and Spatt and Srivastava (1991) demonstrate that underwriters now elicit information before setting the price of the share for company doing an IPO. They state that book-building can be such a technique under certain conditions. However, the underwriters have to manage to find a way to lead investors to reveal the truth information. Underwriters do not allocate shares or only few to any investor who bid conservatively after they have collected investors indications of interest. By doing so, they reduce the incentive for informed investor to misrepresent po sitive information. On the other hand, investors who reveal favorable information are rewarded with important allocations of shares. More investors bids, more the offer price goes up. However, to make sure to gather the truth from investor, the shares allocated need to be underpriced. Even though the shares are underpriced, the firm has benefit to take on these deals. By repeating this process, underwriters and investors achieve a reduced cost of information acquisition. Repetition also allows underwriters to bundle offerings across time. Some extension goes with the Benveniste and Spindt (1989) theory. Benveniste and Wilhelm (1990) examine the interaction of their theory with Rocks (1986) winners curse. They argued that if book-building succeeds in extracting the informed investors private information, the informational asymmetry among investors will be reduced. This, in turn, reduces the winners curse and thus the level of underpricing required to ensure the uninformed inves tors break even. Busaba et al(2001) demonstrate the level of required underpricing can be reduced by the underwriters in the case where reliable withdraw option is proposed on if the offering. Ljungqvist (2006) states, in the Benveniste and Spindt framework, investors incur no cost in becoming informed. If information production is costly, underwriters need to decide how much information production to induce. Sherman and Titman (2002) explore this question in a setting where more information increases the accuracy of price discovery, resulting in a trade-off between the benefit of greater pricing accuracy and the cost of more information production. In short, with book-building, a preliminary offer price range is set, and then underwriters and issuers go on a road show to market the company to prospective investors. This road show helps underwriters to gauge demand as they record indications of interest from potential investors. If there is strong demand, the underwriter wi ll offer a higher price. The information gathering perspective of book-building is certainly useful, but the theory also suggests that the information provided by one incremental investor is not very valuable when the investment banker can canvas hundreds of potential investors. Thus, it is not obvious that this framework is capable of explaining average underpricing of more than a few percent. 3.3 Principal-Agent Models Loughran and Ritter (2004) insist on the inconvenient of the book-building theories by examining the possibility of agency problems to occur between the underwriters and the issuing company. Early models linking agency conflict and initial public offering are more on the way that the informational advantage that underwriters have over issuing companies might allow them to not use the maximum of their capacity to promote and distribute the stock. Baron and Holmstrà ¶m (1980) and Baron (1982) build a model that focus on the banks benefit from underpricing. In that model, the issuer firms assign the pricing decision to the bank in order to generate efficient use of the banks superior information concerning the demand. Biais et al (2002) combine the agency cost setting of Baron (1982) with Benveniste and Spindts (1989) assumption that some investors hold pricing-relevant information worth extracting before the offer price is set. In such a setting, the investment banker could collu de with the informed investors, to the potential detriment of the issuing company. Biais et al (2002) derive an optimal IPO mechanism that maximizes the issuers proceeds. In this mechanism, the IPO price is set higher the fewer shares are allocated to (uninformed) retail investors. Allocating more to institutional investors when their private signals are positive (i.e. when the IPO price should be set higher) is consistent with Benveniste and Spindts information. 3.4 Signaling of Firm Quality Theory Allen and Faulhaber (1989), Welch (1989) et al (1989) consider underpricing of IPOs as a tool used by firms to signal their quality. Investors through underpricing become aware of the true value of firm so the market expects less money on the table in the future subscriptions. To distinguish themselves from the pool of low-quality issuers, high-quality issuers may attempt to signal their quality. In these models, better quality issuers deliberately sell their shares at a lower price than the market believes they are worth, which deters lower quality issuers from imitating. With some patience, these issuers can recoup their upfront sacrifice post-IPO, either in future issuing activity, favorable market responses to future dividend announcements, or analyst coverage. signaling models have in common that high quality firms demonstrate that they are high quality by throwing money away. One way to do this is to leave money on the table in the IPO. However, on theoretical grounds, it is unclear why underpricing is a more efficient signal than, say, committing to spend money on charitable donations or advertising. The evidence in favor of these signaling theories is, at best, mixed: there is evidence of substantial post-issuing market activity by IPO firms (Welch (1989)), and it is clear that some issuers approach the market with an intention to conduct future equity issues. However, there is reason to believe that any price appreciation would induce entrepreneurs to return to the market for more funding. Jegadeesh, Weinstein, and Welch (1993) find that returns after the first day are just as effective in inducing future issuing activity as the first-day returns are. Michaely and Shaw (1994) outright reject signaling: in a simultaneous equation model, they find no evidence of either a higher propensity to return to the market for a seasoned offering or of a higher propensity to pay dividends for IPOs that were more underpriced. Still, aside from the pers istence of the signaling explanation on the street, its most appealing feature is that some issuers voluntarily desire to leave money on the table to create a good taste in investors mouths. As such, it is relatively compatible with higher levels of IPO underpricing. If investors are more informed than the issuer, for example about the general market demand for shares, then the issuer faces a placement problem. The issuer does not know the price the market is willing to bear. In other words, an issuer faces an unknown demand for its stock. A number of theories model a specific demand curve. One can simply assume that all investors are equally informed, and thus purchase shares only if their price is below their common assessment. Observed (successful) IPOs thus are necessarily underpriced. There are, however, some overpriced IPOs going public, which would not be predicted because all investors are assumed to know that these would be overpriced. A more realistic assumption is that investors are differentially informed. Pricing too high might induce investors and issuers to fear a winners curse (Rock (1986)) or a negative cascade (Welch (1992)). 4. Institutional Explanations 4.1 Legal Liability Tinic (1988) states that IPOs are underpriced by firm in order to decrease the probability of lawsuit by investors. Indication of a legal liability can create negative impression for an IPO and can cause the failure of the issue. This idea goes back to Logue (1973) and Ibbotson (1975) whose believe companies intentionally sell their stock under the price to reduce the chance of lawsuits by future shareholders frustrated by the performance of their shares after the introduction. This theory concerns mostly the united state because differently to the IPOs underpricing, strict liability laws are not a worldwide phenomenon. Research have shown that law suit is not significant in some country. Tinic (1988), Hughes and Thakor (1992), and Hensler (1995) argue that intentional underpricing may act like insurance against securities litigation. Lawsuits are costly to the firms in term of legal fees, diversion of management time and potential damage to their reputation capital. Hughes and Thakor (1992) state that the change of law suit increases with offer price. 4.2 Price Stabilization Benveniste et al (1996) confirmed the price stabilization of Smith (1986) as a mechanism use by banks and investors. After a book-building, they could exaggerate the investors interest and overprice the IPO. For them, institutional investors who are active in book-building should be advantaged during the allocation. Chowdhry and Nanda (1996) instead consider retail investors as the principal beneficiaries of the price support. Schultz and Zaman (1994) and Hanley et al (1993) show evidence of general price support; and that price support seem to be accentuate for the weak IPOs. 5. Ownership and Control Two models analyze the link between underpricing of initial public offering and ownership and control. First, Booth and Chua (1996) and Brennan and Franks (1997) support the ownership dispersion hypothesis. They argue that firms are willing to underprice in order to have a diffuse ownership base and create a liquid market for their shares. Underpriced IPOs generate excess demand and create a large number of small shareholders. This is crucial for all IPOs as they aim for high participation of public in order to make difficult for outsiders to challenge management. They consider underpricing as a way to trespass managerial control by avoiding monitoring by an important outside shareholder. In contrary to the authors above, Stoughton and Zechners (1998) analysis suggests that underpricing is used to reduce agency costs by promoting monitoring. They observe in contrast to Booth, Chua, Brennan and Franks that the value can be ameliorate by allocating shares to a voluminous extern al investor that has the capacity to monitor managerial process. Stoughton and Zechner, model a book building regime with discretionary allocations; they assume managers keep intern the agency costs imposed to outside investors by lowering the price they are willing to pay for the shares. 6. Behavioral Explanations Loughran and Ritter (2002) suggest an explanation for IPO underpricing that emphasize on behavioral distortion between the decision-makers of the IPO Company, rather than between investors. They argue those issue firms accept the money left on the table during the large first-day returns because they summate the money loss due to underpricing with the wealth gain when prices rise in the after-market. They also assume that the decision-makers initial valuation beliefs are reflected in the mean of the indicative price range reported in the issuing firms IPO registration statement. This belief serves as a reference point against which the gain or loss from the outcome of the IPO can be assessed. The offer price for an IPO routinely differs from this reference point, either because the bank manipulated the decision makers expectations by low-balling the price range, or in reflection of information revealed during marketing efforts directed at institutional investors.

Scorpio Case Study Analysis Free Essays

Case Analysis Brand promise: â€Å"Luxury of a car. Thrill of an SUV. † Emotional benefits Thrill Excitement Power Rational benefits World Class Vehicle Good Looks Car-like comforts Great value Relational Benefits Young Modern Premium City companion Infrastructure Showrooms were redone Decor depicted imageries of sportiness, movement and technology movement Showroom Experience Uniform customer experience Unique experience and not just the product Exclusive sales people Selected people from current employees and trained them Advertising and promotions strategy Car plus positioning Premium imagery of SUV in city context â€Å"Hero† in advertisements – Product International feel Communication Strategy â€Å"Big Brand feeling† Role of media High impact launch- 15th August High visibility Television: Emotional benefits and international imagery Print: Functional Benefits Phase 1: Metro Cities Phase 2: 20 cities Coved 50 cities within an year BRANDZ Bonding Thrill of driving SUV while enjoying comfort and luxury of a car. We will write a custom essay sample on Scorpio Case Study Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now Advantage Style added to UV. â€Å"Car plus†more comfort +mileage +space Performance Relevance Presence Power and pickup. Ease of gear shifting. Smoothness of clutch. Quietness of the vehicle Luxury + Sophistication + Value for money Advertisements , Launch on independence day with wide press coverage, Public events. Expand to global markets Devise strategies to counter the players entering the UV and B and C segment 1. 2. 3. High share of category expenditure in bonding stage: 109 Scorpios sold daily. 4 lakh units sold globally since launch. Within 4 months of launch MM achieved 22% market share in premium hard top SUV. (Source: http://articles. economictimes. indiatimes. com/2012-06-17/news/32270172_1_alan-durante-projectscorpio-pawan-goenka) How to cite Scorpio Case Study Analysis, Free Case study samples

Challenges in Cyber Security for Business in Australian IT Companies

Question: Discuss About the Cyber Security for Business in Australian IT? Answer: Introduction With the increasing use of technologies like Internet of Things, Cloud, and Big Data, even the critical infrastructure of companies is exposed to risks. The global internet penetration today is estimated to be 3.4 billion. The dependence on technology is increasing in Australian IT companies and so is increasing the risk of security threats that the systems of these companies face. These threats include identify theft, Botnet attacks, ransom ware attacks, data manipulation, cyber warfare, and more( Commonwealth of Australia, 2015). In this research, the security challenges that are faced by the Australian IT companies would be studied in order to understand their impacts on companies as well as to identify security solutions or mitigation strategies that can help overcome these challenges in IT companies. The research makes use of both secondary and primary investigation on the security threats and solutions. Aim and Motivation Cyber security incidences in Australian organizations including identity theft, data theft, and frauds have increased in past few years which have affected the image of the brands in the country. Thus, cyber security has become a national priority of Australian government. The national losses in Australia that have occurred due to cyber security threats make up 1% of its GDP which is over $17 billion dollars per year. The government has formulated a cyber security strategy to make Australia a safe place for business. The security strategy targets cleaning of cyber infrastructure, strong penalties for cyber criminals, and accountability of CEOs to security, reduced disruption it services due to cyber threats, and increased confidence of consumers in cyber space(Cisco, 2013). In the Australian IT organizations, maintaining security is the cyber space is a big area of concern. 6.2% of the data Espionage which is a targeted attack popular with cyber criminals have affected IT companies in 2015(Bakhtiari, et al., 2015). Social Engineering which is an attack launched on people are so sophisticated that they can penetrate been the most hardened system such that any level of network security cannot prevent the attack. As per the internet report of Akamai State, 4.18% of the DDoS attacks had originated from Australia in 2015(James, 2016). The aim of this research is to explore the challenges in cyber security in Australian IT companies and identify solutions to overcome these challenges such that security can be enhanced. Research Questions and Objectives To achieve the aim of this research, certain research questions are required to be answered including: What are the common cyber security challenges faced by IT companies in Australia? How cyber security challenges are overcome by Management worldwide? How can the cyber security of an IT organization be improved? Based on these research questions, certain objectives of the research can be formulated as follows: Understanding security threats that are faced by organizations in the cyber space Explore cyber security threats faced by IT companies in Australia Identify solutions to overcome identified security challenges Assess security protection methods, measure and strategies to understand their potential in enhancing security or preventing attacks on IT systems. Come up with the recommendations for improvement of cyber security in IT space(Barnett-Page Thomas, 2009) Research Design and Methodology In this research, the security challenges faced by IT companies in Australia would be explored using a mixed research methodology involving a Literature Review data analysis and snowball sampling, and a needs assessment survey method in which IT managers would be involved as respondents who would be answering a research questionnaire. The data analysis of the secondary data obtained from the literature study would be used for creating the questionnaire for the primary survey which would thus, help in testing the effectiveness of each solution identified in the snowball sampling of the past researches(Bendassolli, 2013). This section explores the process of sampling, data collection methods, variables to be used in primary survey, research model, and data analysis methods that would be used in this research. Sample Selection Researcher would take 30 respondents for the survey based on convenience and purposive quota sampling techniques. The sample would include IT Managers and Security professionals from Australian IT organizations. For identifying the challenges that would be explored in this research, a snowball sampling method is used in which past literature and research studies are explored to identify security challenges and their mitigation strategies. There would be seven types of security attacks that would be explored including Denial of Service, Insider Attacks, Phishing attacks, Web Application attacks, brute force attacks, social engineering, and malware attacks. For each of these attacks, the solutions would also be identified in the literature review and would be included in the survey questionnaire for testing their effectiveness in enhancing security of an organization(Bhattacherjee, 2012). Data Collection Method Some of the issues are already identified in previous researches and their mitigation strategies are also identified and thus, literature review would first form the basis for data collection on the security issues and solutions. Based on this literature review, a snow ball sampling would be used to collect data on security concerns and solution methods(Bickmore, 2012). The papers that would be used for snowball sampling would be published between 2006 and 2016. This would be done to primarily identify security issues faced by organizations as well as solutions that have been tried by various companies across the world(Wisdom Creswell, 2013). On the basis of this data, the questions for the survey would be presented to test if the same problems and solutions can be applied to the case of IT companies in Australia. A primary data would be collected for further exploration of the challenges and mitigation strategies used in IT companies. This data would be collected from respondents through an online survey that would be posted on Survey Monkey website. In case respondents do not reply, the researcher would make calls to them to ask them to fill the questionnaire or would take the responses and fill the questionnaire himself(HP Enterprise, 2015). Variables The research involves a primary data collection and analysis for which certain variables would be created based on the data collected and the questions asked in the survey(Bryman Bell, 2011). These variables would store data on security challenges, their impacts on business, and mitigation strategies. These three variables would be independent while there would also be dependent variables that would include security enhancements and security levels that would be studied and measured along the independent variables to understand if specific security mitigation or threat prevention methods were successful in enhancing security in respective organizations(Kumar Ahuja, 2014). Research Model This research uses a mixed research methodology that involves collection of secondary qualitative data that would be analysed using thematic analysis and the primary survey data that would be analyzed using statistical analysis methods. The choice of mixed methods is made as this research needs to explore the concept of security in IT companies to explain and make interpretations. As mixed research allows exploration of the idea from different perspectives and at different levels, a deeper understanding of phenomenon can be obtained(Cameron, 2009). A mixed research method can use any of the research design strategies from the following designs: Sequential explanatory: In the sequential explanatory research design, first the primary data is collected and analysed and then secondary data is collected and analysed in support. Sequential Exploratory: In the sequential exploratory research design, first the secondary data is collected and analysed and then primary data is collected and analysed in support. Sequential Transformative: In this method, primary and secondary data are collected and analysed separately but the collective results are then interpreted(Wisdom Creswell, 2013). Concurrent Triangulation: In this method, two methods are used for cross-validation of findings from each other. Concurrent Nested: In this method, one method may be nested inside the other method of investigation Concurrent Transformative: In this type of analyses both method are used for evaluation of a theoretical perspective. In this research, a sequential approach to mixed research would be used such that the secondary data on security threats and mitigation strategies would first be collected and analysed to identify themes of security concerns and solutions. These themes would then be used for developing a questionnaire for the primary data collection and analysis. This analysis would test the methods identified as solutions for security in the secondary research(DHS, 2009). Data analysis Method Data analysis would be conducted in two parts. In the first part, the literature data would be analyzed using snowball sampling to identify security threats and mitigation strategies from secondary research papers. One the basis of the results obtained in this investigation, a questionnaire would be prepared for the primary research and the data obtained from the survey would then be analyzed using statistical analysis on SPSS. Different variables would be explored and studied for correlation to understand if they have an impact on other variables. Correlation would be tested for understanding relationship between threats faced and security measures taken, security levels and security measures, and security measures and threat impacts. Upon finding the correlation between specific variables, a regression would be used to identify if they have a causal relationship between them. The research would involve a hypothesis testing where very mitigation strategy would be tested as causing s ecurity enhancements or preventing impacts of security threats on an organization(DHS, 2009). Expected Result from the research The results from the analysis of the literature review including previous research reports would be a set of security concerns and mitigation strategies that are identified by previous researchers or their respondents in their researchers. The data would result into emergence of certain themes that would be used for developing primary research questionnaire(Cameron, 2009). The result of the primary survey would be a statistical testing through which the identified mitigation strategies would be tested on specific security threats to understand if the strategies worked. The outcome would reveal the impacts of each type of threat on an organization as well as assess the effectiveness of the mitigation strategies behaving security in an IT company(Bulusu Sudia, 2011). The result of the primary analysis would reveal the security enhancement methods that have been effective in protecting systems of IT organization or help in mitigating impacts of security problem. Limitation of the research The research would have limited sample size and thus, the results cannot be generalized for a wider audience. Another limitation is that the survey is conducted online which can make it difficult for the respondents to understand the purpose of the research and thus, in some cases, respondents may not choose to respond to the questionnaire. Since the survey is conducted online without intervention from the researcher, the respondent would respond to questions as per their own understanding which may differed from the objectives of the researcher. Another limitation of this research is that it tests only 7 security threats for IT companies and thus, it does not present solution for all kinds of security threats that can be faced by an IT organization. Contribution and Conclusion The aim of this study is to explore the security challenges faced by IT companies in Australia and identify methods that can help overcome these challenges by these organizations for which the research would make use of a mixed methodology. It involves study of past literature on security threats and solutions which are used to identify threats and solutions that can be tested for the Australian IT companies through the primary survey to understand which methods have been effective for protecting IT systems of companies and overcoming specific security threats. This research can be useful for organizations that are operating in the Australian market and are into IT space to understand what could be the potential security challenges that they would face while operating in the country and how they can use specific protection or motivation methods to enhance their security systems. This would also contribute to the body of knowledge on the security research as it not only studies the ch allenges and explore possible solutions but also tests the solutions to understand their effectiveness in ensuring security in an IT organization References Commonwealth of Australia, 2015. AUSTRALIAS CYBERSECURITY STRATEGY: Enabling innovation, growth prosperity, s.l.: Commonwealth of Australia. Sogetis, 2014. DIGITAL USER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH, s.l.: Aberdeen International Airport. Bakhtiari, S. et al., 2015. Australian Industry Report, s.l.: Australian Governmetn. Barnett-Page, E. Thomas, J., 2009. Methods for the synthesis of qualitative research: A Critical Review, London: ESRC National Centre for Research Methods. Bendassolli, P. F., 2013. Theory Building in Qualitative Research: Reconsidering the Problem of Induction. Forum:Qualitative Social Research, 14(1), pp. 1-25. Bhattacherjee, A., 2012. Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices. Florida: Scholar Commons. Bickmore, T., 2012. Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collectors Field Guide, s.l.: FAMILY HEALTH INTERNATIONAL. Bryman, A. Bell, E., 2011. International Business Management Research. 3rd ed. s.l.: Oxford UniversiReferencesData Collection Method ty Press. Bulusu, S. Sudia, K., 2011. A Study on Cloud Computing Security Challenges, Sweden: Blekinge Institute of Technology. Cameron, R., 2009. A sequential mixed model research design: design, analytical and display issues, s.l.: Southern Cross University. Cisco, 2013. Australian Government Cyber Security Review, s.l.: Cisco. DHS, 2009. A Roadmap for Cybersecurity Research, s.l.: DHS. HP Enterprise, 2015. Cybersecurity Challenges, Risks, Trends, and Impacts: Survey Findings, s.l.: MIT. James, C., 2016. Cyber Security Threats, Challenges and Opportunities, s.l.: ACS. Kumar, A. Ahuja, C., 2014. Cyber Security Research Developments: Global and Indian Context, s.l.: NASSCOM. Wisdom, J. Creswell, J. W., 2013. Mixed Methods: Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis While Studying Patient-Centered Medical Home Models, s.l.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Smithfield Food’s Vertical Integration Strategy free essay sample

What are the most important elements of Smithfield Food’s strategy? 1. They chose the food industry – in particular the red meat sector. 2. Their core business focus was on mainly pork, and beef to a lesser extent. 3. The company opted for an aggressive growth strategy which is primarily based on amongst others a geographic expansion: oThey carried out 32 acquisitions since 1981. oThey expanded into foreign markets – Smithfield made acquisitions in Canada, France, Romania and Poland. Acquired meat processors in Poland and Romania; including a hog farming operation in the latter country. . They followed a product diversification strategy, in order to grow: 5. This resulted in diversification into new product segments – they marketed chops, roasts, lions, ground pork, bacon, hams, sausages, sliced deli meats 6. Most importantly, they followed a vertical integration strategy into the pork business: oThis entailed a full or partial integration (depending on location), with operations ranging from operations in hog farming, feed mill, meat packing plants and distribution. We will write a custom essay sample on Smithfield Food’s Vertical Integration Strategy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 7. They also carried out joint ventures 8. Established joint ventures in Spain, Mexico, and China . In addition to that they sought to become a low cost provider: 10. They employed the newest technology available, their plants were efficient, their wages were low and operating costs were relatively low. The pricing was as such very competitive. â€Å"Every effort was made to reduce costs† There was a concerted effort to lower costs and push up sales. Not withstanding the company’s financial performance, this strategy has facilitated the rapid adoption of new technology, improved quality control, assured markets for the hogs and provided a steady flow of hogs for processing. This essentially created economies of scale and lowered production costs. The customers benefited as the company was able to respond to their changing preferences for quality and convenience type products. 2. Is there a moral problem with Smithfield Food’s vertical integration strategy and its resulting concentration of thousands of hog farms and several meat-packing plants within a relatively small geographic area? Is it socially responsible for a company like Smithfield Foods to pursue a rapid growth strategy when that strategy poses environmental problems and adversely affects living conditions in the communities where it operates? Should the company be proud of its business model and strategy? oNo, there is no moral problem with this strategy. Neither the vertical integration strategy nor concentration of operations in small geographic areas poses a moral dilemma. â€Å"A company’s strategy relates broadly to competitive initiatives and action plan for running the business† Hough et al (2008: 7). In a free, capitalist society, this remains the prerogative of the individual firm on how to compete, to make profit and grow the business. Against this background, the company’s strategy is an attempt to contain volatile pricing in the market by controlling the every stage of production, thereby ensure the satisfaction of consumers’ changing preferences. The case study does not make reference to unfair competitive practices, but rather the focus is on ethics and social responsibility. oThe local communities where Smithfield ran its hog farming operation complained about its imposition on them, implying lack of consultation. More importantly, there were allegations of substantial adverse effects of low wages and environmental degradation. Lack of consultation in running business operation is neither paramount nor mandatory; however allegations of environmental damage and unfair labour practices infringe laws of any democratic country. They must therefore be seen in serious light and investigated by authorities. It must be borne in mind that prior to Smithfield’s introduction of the concept of factory farming; the prices of hogs were on the decline, resulting in closure of local packing plants. Smithfield stabilized the local economy and changed the distribution of income. They saved local farms and brought jobs to this region. They also shouldered the risk of hog prices, thereby protecting the farmers. Smithfield was also able to satisfy customer demands of better products at lower prices. The local farming community showed their tacit support by their eagerness to do business with Smithfield as there was a two year long waiting list in 1998 for farmers wishing to enter into contract farming! oThe company should be proud of its business model. A business model refers to how and why the business will generate revenues, cover costs, and produce profits and a positive ROE. Annual sales in 2006 of $11 billion from $1. 5 billion in 1995 and an average compound growth rate of 24% during the decade speak volumes. However attention is required in addressing the following: †¢Concerns from the industry observers on contract farming – more specifically their â€Å"debt laden† nature †¢Allegations of unfair labour practices- low pay/ low quality, in addition the recruitment of migrant labour from Central or South America that may be open to exploitation. Allegations of detrimental environmental practices – impact of concentrated cluster of hog farms on the environment. †¢Limited purchase of feed, machinery and fuel from local sources. †¢Although, trivial the issue of the â€Å"smell† in the air Essentially this business model was able to ensure profitability and sustainability of the com pany, because economies of scale in production and marketing. 3. Does Smithfield Food’s hog raising operation in North Carolina harm anyone? Yes, the following were affected: †¢Grain Farmers Feed grains were no longer purchased locally. At times, grains were imported at lower cost from Australia and Argentina †¢Milling companies – Grain was purchased and milled in the Midwest †¢Farm equipment dealers – Local farm equipment dealers were forced to close as Smithfield purchased equipment directly from the manufacturers. †¢Local fuel dealers – Diesel fuel was purchased directly from the refineries. †¢Local truck dealers – All truck purchases were made in Detroit from national dealers. †¢Local farmers – Inability to bargain and exposure to the risk of default on contract by Smithfield should it suit them to cancel the contract. Furthermore, they could hardly negotiate the terms and conditions of the loans received from Smithfield, as the demand for contracting farming was huge, they became price takers. †¢Workers – Working conditions were hard and unpleasant. Their wages were low. High labour turnover was prevalent as a result of the stressful work environment. †¢Local store butchers – Most grocery chains opted to buy fresh meat cuts, wrapped, packaged and ready for sale from Smithfield. †¢Environment – Allegations were abound that : a. Contaminants from hog lagoons were getting into ground water b. Industry is running out of places to spread the waste c. Emission of large amounts of ammonia gas from hog farms †¢Local community a. The quality of the air declined because of the sharp, pungent odour from hog farms. b. Decline in jobs despite a rise in hog production c. Decline in property prices, perceived to be aftermath of the â€Å"new† look and smell of the countryside. d. Decline in tourism – as a result of the poor image of environment damage, more discernibly the pungent smell. 4. Who is benefited by Smithfield Foods strategy in the hog raising business? It goes without saying that, primarily, the strategy would have benefited the company, its management, employees and shareholders. This is evident in the good financial performance that resulted in the last decade. However other stakeholders also benefited: oFarmers – they were guaranteed a set price per hog hence market access or freedom from market risk. Processors paid the hog producers their full cost of production on average over time or they would have no hogs supplied to them by the farmers. Access to funding in the form of loans was readily available for capital investment on the farms. Inputs, of the right quality were in constant supply. Smithfield also offered them a free veterinarian service. This essentially resulted in the survival of over 1000 family farms. This strategy reduced the risk and managerial demands on the farmers, while increasing availability of credit. oEmployment creation – This resulted in the creation of new agricultural jobs. A typical farm employed five people. Total number of employees by Smithfield increased from 9000 in 1995 to 46 400 in 2004. oConsumers – Increasing concentration of hog raising and ultimately processing, resulted in the decrease of the marketing margins because of economies of scale, and this benefit was passed onto to the consumer as lower food prices. Local economies – Increased efficiency of labour and other resources in agriculture over time accounted for the higher standard of living. Prior to Smithfield hog raising strategy, the local economies were on the decline. oShareholders – Earnings per share increased from $0. 40 in 1995 to $2. 03 in 2004. Net income increased by almost $200 million over the same period. 5. What is your assessment of Smithfield Foods’ environmental policy (as represented in case Exhibit 3)? What evidence indicates that the policy is merely window dressing?

Market and Value Chain Analysis of Starbucks The WritePass Journal

Market and Value Chain Analysis of Starbucks 2.0 Research methodology: Market and Value Chain Analysis of Starbucks 1.0 Introduction:2.0 Research methodology:2.1 Primary Research:2.1.1 Questionnaire:  2.2 Secondary Research:3.0   Starbucks an Overview:3.1 The Performance:3.2 Competition and Market strategy:3.3 Value Chain at Starbucks:3.3.1 Inbound Logistics 3.3.2 Operations 3.3.3 Marketing and Sales 3.3.4 Outbound Logistics 3.3.5 Service3.3.6 Human Resources3.3.7 Technological4 ConclusionsReferences:Related 1.0 Introduction: Market research is often conducted by various companies in order to determine its niche market position as well as to determine the direction that it must take on order to remain competitive and succeed. Variety of methods is utilized while collecting date. Quantitative market research has historically been the territory of professional researchers with backgrounds in statistics, economics or mathematics. For any company producing various products, there may exist an almost infinite number of combinations of price, packaging, convenience and perceived value additions by its customers. Marketing research offers a set of well defined and generally accepted methods for identifying which combination may have the greatest likelihood of success. This report describes such market research endeavor undertaken to gauge the performance of the coffee giant Starbucks. The research obtains data by collecting primary data from the consumers using an interview questionnaire method and obtains secon dary data using various published research and reports. 2.0 Research methodology: 2.1 Primary Research: Large, established companies, typically expend considerable resources conducting marketing research, either through their own internal research departments or by contracting with outside research firms. There is always a need to develop ways to monitor customers and identify their needs and demands and this could be done by asking questions such as why a consumer chooses a particular purchase, or not purchase, a particular product. While qualitative data may be useful in assessing customers’ feelings about a product, offers little insight as to how many customers in a given marketing area might actually purchase it, unless of course, every potential customer is questioned about his or her intentions. 2.1.1 Questionnaire: A questionnaire could be developed by the company to identify these issues. Various questions that could be asked are as under: Consumer’s preference: The question can be designed to assess why consumers use this particular brand and what are their preferences. For example in case of coffee why people would prefer Starbuck coffee over other brands and if they chose to come to Starbuck then what could be their most preferred choice. The consumer may be asked about the variety of coffee at the outlets. The consumers may be asked about the price. The consumers may be asked about the availability of various sizes. If the consumers prefer some other addition to the variety It is important to know not only which attributes customers desire, or are repulsed by as in the milk example, but also to be able to estimate the cost of adding these attributes to the product. It is ultimately the difference in the cost of adding attributes, otherwise known as value, compared with what the customer is willing to pay these attributes, that determines whether to bring a product to market.      2.2 Secondary Research: The most obvious benefit of secondary data is that it already exists and does not require additional time and expense to collect. The disadvantage, of course, is that it is not likely to be tailored specifically to the questions that the producer wishes to answer. Nonetheless, it may be used to glean much useful information at very little cost. External secondary data may be available from a number of sources including government publications and industry trade groups. A third source, syndicated data, is available for purchase from private data collection agencies such as Morningstar, Hoover or Yahoo finance.    3.0   Starbucks an Overview: Starbucks was founded by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel, and Gordon Bowker as a small store called Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice in Pikes Place Market in Seattle in the year 1971. The mission of the corporation is perhaps one of the reasons for its success.   Starbucks seeks to maintain a balance between fiscal responsibility and social responsibility by growing its business in not only coffee, but also in â€Å"third-place environments† (places people can gather that aren’t work or home).   Their mission statement itself is relatively simple: â€Å"to establish Starbucks as the most recognized and respected brand in the world† (Starbucks.com). 3.1 The Performance: Starbucks is a public limited company operates from Seattle Washington and is traded at NASDAQ as SUBX. Ever since its inception the company has shown strong sales and growth record. According to Hoover (2010), there are more than 16600 Starbucks coffee shops in 40 countries across the globe. As of September 2009 Starbucks had notched up an impressive annual revenues of $ 9774.6 million with a net income of $ 3908 million (Yahoo Finance 2010). Starbucks had some 142,000 employees globally in year 2009 (Hoover, 2010). The Company has a wide variety of products to offer.   It provides tips on how to make good coffee at home. It offers biscotti, some salads, pastries, as well as sandwiches to go with the coffee. Majority of stores are modeled on Italian themes providing the customers an unmatched experience of Italian experience a little luxury. It also offers a variety of Italian products that may include lattes, cappuccinos and mochas.   (Fletcher Brown 2005) Customer care is most important for Starbucks towards and therefore employees are specially trained towards customer orientation and customer satisfaction. It is not unusual to see employees asking customers about their coffee preferences and taking feedback on customer’s experience at Starbucks. Starbucks has been successful owing to changing lifestyle and a high availability of Disposable Personal Income (DPI). The baby boomers have moved towards a healthy lifestyle. This phenomenon is further coupled with the fact that is more and more people world over are shifting towards non alcoholic drinks implying further demand of Starbucks products. (Borden 1978) 3.2 Competition and Market strategy: The success does not come easy: along with success come many competitors and that’s what has happened to Starbucks. There are many companies imitating Starbucks in terms of the store layouts and light furniture.   (Hoovers 2010) In addition to this, some competitors have copied Starbucks rapid expansion plan. The example being Seattles Best Coffee Company that has been waiting for Starbucks to engage in aggressive consumer education about the importance of coffee, and then it goes to those same locations and opens up stores there. This has caused a lot of competition for Starbucks as they have to keep watching their backs. Another major competitor is Second Cup with the distinction of expanding rapidly in the US retail market growing in numbers and eroding the market share of Starbucks. The company realizes that it has reached a saturation in the US coffee market with competition breathing down its neck and is thus gearing itself for new markets in hitherto unexplored and uninitiated international markets. Starbucks enjoys a well established brand name having a niche market; however off late they have been challenged by dwindling profit margins dues to increased coffee prices. All these factors prompt Starbucks to expand internationally. (Benter and Booms, 1981) 3.3 Value Chain at Starbucks: 3.3.1 Inbound Logistics In order to deliver on its promise to customers of offering products at everyday low prices at its stores, Starbucks utilizes economies of scale in its inbound logistics activities by having excellent supply chain methodology that involves negotiating globally with managers negotiating with and developing strategic alliances with vendor partners for products. 3.3.2 Operations Starbucks has global operations spread over 40 countries. These stores are set up in similar fashion and most offer a large variety of products. Operational efficiency is critical to the overall success of Starbucks as well as augurs well for a superior customer service. By setting up outlets in a similar fashion, Starbucks gains greater control that can be sustained at the corporate level however individual stores are allowed and encouraged to make modifications with justification. 3.3.3 Marketing and Sales Starbucks employs economies of scale in its overall national-level strategic marketing and advertising campaigns, at the same time providing some degree of autonomy and financial independence to execute seasonal or tactical sales promotional campaigns. Starbucks is able to generate cost savings in advertising because of economies of scale and at the same time, create customer value through local adaptation of promotional campaigns. 3.3.4 Outbound Logistics The nature of the business ensures that Starbucks has minimal shipping and distribution traffic, mainly. However, as an option for customers who prefer to have their goods delivered, Starbucks has carefully built up a distribution network, which has the capability to deliver products to customers homes 3.3.5 Service Starbucks places extra emphasis on its primary business goal i.e. to serve its customers needs by efficiently and with a personal touch. Its managers are expected to spend more time on the shop floors, listening to their customers and employees, thereby enabling them to make decisions that respond quickly to the unique needs of target customers. By taking a decentralized approach to its operations, Starbucks is able to deliver on what it sees is its core value proposition to its customers: superior service. 3.3.6 Human Resources Starbucks has a strong commitment to investing in their employees, which they feel is their greatest competitive advantage. The Company values its employees and considers them as important stakeholders in the business. Starbucks management believes that when all the needs of employees have been dealt with adequately then they will do their part in provision of quality services. On top of that, the Companys leaders like its CEO Schultz believe that all employees should feel appreciated. Compensation plans such as performance bonuses and employee stock ownership plans help in retention of employees as well as recognition programs and emphasizing an open-door policy with management. 3.3.7 Technological From a technological standpoint Starbucks have both internal and external issues to deal with. External issues pertaining to product development and improvement, patenting and RD can be looked as mainly a supplier based concern. Even though the majority of that burden is on the suppliers, there are many internal technological issues that especially in Information technology. Expansion in this area is definitely an area of growth opportunity and positioning within the overall industry. 4 Conclusions Marketing research almost invariably centers on collecting and analyzing the information necessary to make decisions about how to most effectively market a product. Quantitative data, unlike attitudes, perceptions or ideas, refers to information that can be measured, such as the quantity of a product that is sold during a specified time period, the sales price or the population of potential customers residing in a particular marketing area. Various aspects of Starbuck’s operations in the wake of its market position, current capabilities and various critical success factors make Starbucks Corporation an excellent model for success. References: Benter, J. and Booms, B. (1981): business development strategies and organizational structures for service firms, in Donnelly, J. and George, W. Marketing, American Marketing Association, Chicago. Borden, N. (1978): The Concept of the business development. Journal of Advertising Research, June, Vol. 2, (Available in Schwartz G. Science in Management, John Wiley Sons,)Crynes, Bryan.   â€Å"Starbucks Overview.†Ã‚   www.seasim.org/archive/sim102002b.pdf Fletcher, R Brown, L. (2005): International business development skills, 3rd edition, Pearson prentice hall, Frenchs Forest Starbucks Corporation, Company Description Hoovers (2010); hoovers.com/company/Starbucks_Corporation/rhkchi-1-1njdap.html Starbucks (SBUX) Income statement; Yahoo Finance Retrieved on 23rd April 2010, from  http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=SBUXannual

Prevention and Mitigation Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Prevention and Mitigation Analysis - Essay Example They include risk transfer, risk avoidance, risk reduction, and accepting the risk if everything else fails. All these strategies require the firm’s management to be ready to handle any risks since they happen when least expected and their effects can be devastating. The Arizona Department of Corrections operates 13 prison facilities, including the Arizona State Prison Complex – Lewis, which has six units, all named after correction officers killed in line of duty. The Dale Morey unit is one of these units where in early 2004, prisoners attempted to escape but ended up holding correction officers hostage. The standoff lasted for 15 days between January 18 and February 2, before the conclusion of negotiations and the release of hostages. This event exposed various loopholes in the management style of the Arizona Department of Corrections. The management could have prevented the long 15 days that the two officers went through had officials responsible foreseen and acted o n these weaknesses. Though the ordeal ended peacefully, it caused trauma to the officers involved, and the people lost faith in the institution. Therefore, the management had to work extra hard to remedy these. Strategies to Handle the Situation The management could have done several things to avoid the standoff, or at least reduce its effects. Since prevention is always better than cure, preventive strategies are usually more effective and less expensive as it is easy to predict an occurrence but not its effects. Therefore, of all the recommendations discussed, the management of any institution should always attempt preventive measures. Measures the prison management could adopt include; acquiring knowledge on disaster preparedness, self-defense training for officers, hiring professional crisis negotiators, employing adequate prison officers, humane treatment of prisoners, increasing officers’ pay, improvement of prison infrastructure, and providing officers with better weap ons (Greenstone, 2005). Education The Arizona Department of Corrections should take all its employees for training one aspect or the other of risk management. This means that all employees should have the guiding steps to take in case something out of the norm happens. In that case, their efforts would not conflict or waste in other manners, as they would all be geared towards achieving a common goal in an orderly manner. The management should make schedules such that employees go for training in disaster management on a rotational basic, so that the information would be up to date with the situation at their workplace. In addition, there should be maximum employee participation in making decisions that affect the conditions of the working environment. The management should perform an analysis to identify the effective portions of training and single out others for modification, improvement, or reinforcement. Employees should undergo an analysis too, to identify the most valuable on es, especially among the low ranking correction officers. The management should single out high performing low rank officers, recognize, and award them so that other officers may emulate them as ideal employees. This system should be successful considering that the only other people that these officers interact with are criminals (Hubbard, 2009). Self-Defense Training Though officers go for rigorous training before employment, the system

Enterprise resource planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Enterprise resource planning - Essay Example In the company’s model, the franchisees are provided with the concept of the stores which encompass coffee bars, retail store specialty, cafà © stores, and kiosks among others. The cafà © stores were introduced in 1997 where the menu was expanded to include products such as soups, bakery goods, sandwiches, and salads. These stores were quite distinct from the earlier operational stores due to increased requirements in terms of the space of the floor, equipment, staff, as well as location which was to be outside structures such as malls. Coffee Beanery offers products such as coffee that has been freshly brewed, tea, espresso, as well as specialty drinks. In fact, it has the globe’s highest quality standards in terms of coffee specialty. In addition to the above, the company also sells tea bags, goods that are baked, coffee beans that are gourmeted, soups, fresh salads, sandwiches, coffee machines, and branded mugs. Furthermore, the company also sells franchises relate d to coffee shops. It obtains its revenue and income from the sales of products and equipment to these franchisees (Bloomberg Para 1). The mission, vision and values of the company are geared towards providing the consumers with the best specialty coffee and related products. They illuminate the strategies and values of the company that guide their work, employees and relation to customers. Moreover, they are integral facets of growth and success of the company.

The aging problem of China

The aging problem of China Introduction Today, China is a hot item in the media because of its fast growing economy. Some people are even afraid of this because they think it is a threat to our own economy. This because of the differences in the political and economical system of china compared to our political and economical systems. The Peoples Republic of China, also known as China, was established in 1949. Its land covers a large part of centre Asia. In the 1950s, its population was estimated at around 30 percent of the total global population (Naughton, 2007). Because of this huge amount of people, the Chinese government came up with a plan to put a hold to this growing population. They set a law which prohibited each family to have more than one child, the so-called One-Child Policy. The population of China today is relatively young, with a low dependency rate. This is favorable for economic growth (Naughton, 2007). In the future this will lead to an imbalance of the population. This because each working citizen has two elder (parents), this means a working class which is far too small on the total population. Every year, the number of elderly people in China rises with approximately three percent. A way to describe this is calling this a Four-Two-One problem. Which means one child has to take care of two parents and four grand parents (Vandendriessche, 2008). The research question which I will try to answer is the following: How is china going to handle the aging problem of the population? To answer this question, I divided this question into several sub-question, namely: How has this aging problem risen? What are the difficulties which china is facing because of this problem? How do the Chinese old people deal with their longevity financially? Motivation of the subject: The subject of Chinese economy is interesting to me because I have little faith in the current economic system of the western society. I believe this economic system based on debts, is not what we would like in the future. And China is one of the few economies which is growing at the moment, despite the current Financial Crisis. Chinas economy will expand 7.2 percent in 2009 from a year earlier. (Bloomberg.com, 2009) But because many economists say capitalism is the best economic system at the moment, I am surprised to see that China does not apply this system. The reason the subject of the aging of Chinas population is important to the economy, is that will one of the greatest pitfalls in Chinas economic and societies future. A disproportionate ration of the population will retire in the future, therefore a much smaller group of working people will have to keep the society up and running. Is this possible, or are there many problems which China will have to face in the future? And if there will be problems, is China able to prevent or solve them? This is interesting because of the large number of citizens of China. This cannot be compared with any other country in the world, because it will happen on a much larger scale as for instance in the Netherlands. Methodology: First I will try to adumbrate an image of how the situation has developed to the state in which it is at this moment. With this image, certain problems will arise from this. I will try to give a broader view on these problems. These problems, when not solved, will have an impact on the economic environment of China. This I would like to formulate in the third chapter. Finally I am going to investigate whether these, in the future, elder people still have the means to survive on their own, or how the Chinese government is going to assist them with this. This with some kind of pension fund or will the Chinese government terugvallen on the social responsibility of family. With these sub-answers I would like to give an answer to the main question. How China is going to handle the problem of the aging of the population. The data which I need I will get from articles from the Chinese Economic Review, data from the Chinese Bureau of Statistics, Chinese Data Centre and the Chinese Statistical Yearbook. Furthermore I will search for books on the Chinese economy and the history of the Chinese economy and society. Structure The first chapter is about the introduction of the problem and each factor contributing will be explained. In chapter two I am going to give a literature review on five of the interesting papers I have found. Then I will try to find answers to the sub question of my problem statement. These will each cover a chapter. Chapter three: How has this aging problem risen? Chapter four: What are the difficulties which china is facing because of this problem? Chapter five: How do the Chinese old people deal with their longevity financially? After this I will draw a conclusion based on the previous chapters. With this I will try to give an answer to the main question. Chapter 2 Literature Review Population and economic development Gale Johnson tries to answer the question, what would happen to fertility and population growth if the present population policy were changed to one that emphasized family planning and permitted families to have the number of children that they wished? It seems reasonable to project that there would be an increase in fertility. This would be very small in urban areas and relatively small in higher income rural areas. There would be increased fertility in the lower income rural areas, but it seems unlikely that after two decades or so it could be more than ten percent. There is evidence to support the following changes in social and economic policies: Significantly improve the quality of rural secondary schools and increase the percentage of girls attending. Create an attractive pension program for rural areas. Give farm people the ownership or permanent rights to the use of the land they farm or, failing that, enforce the policy of no reallocation of farm land on the basis of demographic changes. Change policies and institutions so that families could migrate from rural to urban areas. Which would lead to adaption of the fertility patterns of urban areas, leading to decline in fertility. I believe the largest impact on the fertility rate, when present policy towards this is changed, will be in the poorer regions of the rural areas. But I do not think all changes give will work. The improvement of educational quality and increasing the percentage of girls will be the one of the most important measures to be taken. This will give an re-allocation of human capital. With this re-allocation, people will get other jobs and therefore a need for many children to work on the farms will decrease. Pension funds are in my opinion essential in order for elderly citizens of China to get by financially. This because the life expectancy rate is increasing. The right of ownership is a viewpoint which will be very sensitive. This because China still has a communistic government. But when pension funds are not one of the future measures which will be taken, this is one of the other options for Chinese citizens to make enough money in order to cope with their longevity financially. Sources of Chinas economic growth 1952-1999: incorporating human capital accumulation Wang and Yao, find that first, the accumulation of human capital in China, as measured by the average years of schooling in population aged 15-64 years, was quite rapid and it contributed significantly to growth and welfare. However, the rate of growth of human capital declined in the reform period in 1978-1999 and its contribution to GDP growth was smaller compared to the pre-reform period. In the industrial countries, the contributions to growth by the factor input have declined and the growth of TFP has become the driving force. In China, the potential to further increase factor inputs is limited especially after one considers the rapidly aging population, a decling labor force in the future, and the constraints in natural resources. China has to rely more on productivity growth. Futher productivity growth would depend very much on two factors: First whether or not China can improve allocative efficiency by continuing reforms in the state and financial sectors and by increasing regional integration, allowing freer factor mobility across sectoral devides, such as rural-urban and state- nonstate, and second whether or not China is able to transform itself from an imitation based economy to an innovation based knowledge economy and continue its progress in industrial upgrading. I agree with Wang and Yao on the fact that productivity has to grow in China. But in order to do this China has to open up more to other countries. Otherwise this would take too long. China is in need for knowledge, this can be seen in the imitation based economy. When China would have the knowledge, they would invent these products themselves. Chinas economic environment has its limitations to grow, this because of their ownership laws. China does not have to change into a Capitalistic society, but I think it does have to loosen up in order to cope with the problems it faces. Pension reform in China: preparing for the future According to Loraine West, a combination of pension plans, including defined benefit and defined contribution, are replacing the former single defined benefit plan. The specifics of each plan, including indexation for inflation, and the combination of plans available to workers vary across regions. By focusing only on the urban labor force, which presently comprises just 27 percent of Chinas total labor force, the reformed old age security system is unlikely to address the issue of growing rural-urban inequality. The proliferation of regional and industry-based pools diminishes the potential benefits of pooling, such as risk sharing, lower administrative costs, and enhanced labor mobility, and also makes it more difficult to achieve the goal of a national level pool. The key objectives of the new pension system is to move away from a pay-as-you-go system to partial funding in preparation of the aging of the population. However, to have a successful pension system in the future, the financing burden has to be shared by employees, employers and the government rather than being borne exclusively by the individual work unit. In the short run, it is critical that regulations and supervision catch up with the new system. In the long term, expansion of coverage and benefit adjustments need to be considered. I agree it will be hard to implement a new old age security system in China. However, I believe it will be key to implement a system which is the same in every part of China. Otherwise the differences between rural and urban areas will only expand, and thus create an even higher burden on the economy than it is at this moment. This will be difficult to fulfill because which groups have to contribute the most. This might even call for a similar system as in the Netherlands, where the government guarantees a minimal pension wage and where the rest is contributed by the companies and working force. How can China solve its old age security problem? The interaction between pension, soe and financial market reform. According to Estelle James, she suggests a plan which sets up individual accounts for each worker, with funds that are productively invested. This is similar to reforms that have been sweeping Latin America, Eastern Europe and are now being considered in the United States. Besides making the system more fiscally sustainable and avoiding peak contribution rates, prefunding can be used to increase saving that is committed for long term investments and pension funds can be used as engines to financial market development and corporate governance. This can be done with two mandatory pillars; one publically managed and tax or pay-as-you-go financed, the other privately managed, with the object of building and managing retirement savings. This to avoid high payroll taxes as the populations age, thereby making the system more sustainable, and to increase national savings that are committed to the long term. However, the part of the economy that is growing most rapidly, in part because it faces low taxes, liabilities and regulations, would suddenly be hit with a heavy legacy of the past. The challenge for China is to find a way to implement a more funded system, that includes decentralized competitive management of the funds, quickly, before coverage increases become a social necessity and makes the transition more difficult. Here I have the same critique as on the previous literature, namely about the rural and urban separation. When the pension system first only reforms the urban part and later expands its coverage towards the rural area, the cost will only increase more and more. But it will be complicated to implement a new system immediately for the entire country, this because it will give a huge burden on the current working class. Chapter 3: The history of China. The year 1949 can be viewed as the First major divide in Chinese history. Before this year, no rapid growth ever occurred in Chinese economy. This was completely different after 1949, when rapid growth was considerably normal. The government is also drastically different after 1949. In 1950 a new law was introduced which stated that: Parents have the duty to raise their children well and the children in their turn have the duty to support their parents. This was a good way for the Chinese government at that time, to not be directly responsible for the attendance of the elder citizens. This was an indication of the change from a harmonious civilization towards a more individualistic civilization. During the fifties, a five-guarantee program had launched for the rural areas. This program mend support from the government for elder who had no offspring or other people who took care of them in the form of food, clothing, shelter, medical care and a funeral. (Naughton, 2007) in 1951, the Chinese government came up with the act Labour Insurance Regulations of the Peoples Republic of China. These first pension regulations where only for citizens working at state enterprises. This mend that all employees of such enterprise have to give three percent of their salary to a mutual fund within this company, and when they reached the age of sixty and they had worked for more than twenty years they would receive a pension. (Frazier, 2004) This reality, this resulted in a relatively low percentage of people who received a pension, because until 1971 nobody could reach this twenty years of work experience. At the end of the seventies, two major new regulations were introduced. First in 1978 where China opened their borders a tiny bit for foreign companies to do business with Chinese companies, but still under heavy oversight by the Chinese government. This also led towards a higher independency of the state enterprises. These where allowed to keep their profit. But also the responsibility of pensions was now entirely for these companies. It was now also allowed for Chinese citizens to start up their own company. (KNAG, 2007) However, these new private owned companies were not able to give the same pension security as these former state enterprises. Therefore the Chinese government came up with a new experiment of pension funding in 1982. They tried to create pension funds not just per company, but pension funds for an entire city to create a higher safety net. These funds were filled by employees working in this city on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) basis. This means the pensions which are cu rrently paid, are funded by the taxes and contributions from the working people at the same moment. That means there are no assets being set aside. The rural area did not benefit from all these regulations. Because of this new kind of economy, the rural areas decentralized. This took a lot of security away for the elder in these areas, because they were still dependant on the help of family. The second regulation introduced in the late seventies was the One-Child Policy. This because the government of China began to see the great threat of the exponentially growing population. This phenomena I will explain in the next chapter. In the years 1991 and 1995 the government tried to reform the current PAYG system by creating a multi pillar system. (Vandendriessche, 2008) This system contained three pillars which all contributed to one overall pension fund. The first pillar was the basic pension for every employee of a company funded by the state. The second pillar was a individual fund which was filled during the years of work of each person. Frazier calls this Defined Contribution. The third pillar is optional, and is an additional payment made to the pension fund to increase the pension received later in the employees lives. But even with this new reformed pension funding, it is far from ideal. Chapter 4: How has this aging problem risen? Aging of population (also known as demographic aging, and population aging) is a summary term for shifts in the age distribution of a population toward older ages. Which is a direct consequence of the ongoing global fertility transition (decline) and of mortality decline at older ages. (Gavrilov and Heuveline,2003) These two factors can both be seen in the statistical yearbook of China. (Appendix 1) One of the factors, the mortality rate decline at older ages (See Appendix 1F), can be explained mainly by a better health care; more knowledge of the human body and better medicine (especially anti biotic). The New Rural Co-operative Medical Care System (NRCMCS) is an new project set up in the year two-thousand-five to improve the health care sector in China, especially to make it affordable for the rural area. (China daily, 2005) This NRCMCS covers around eighty percent of the total cost of the hospitals. Under the new policy, the central government, local governments, and individual farmers each invest 10 yuan (US$1.23) per year to establish a medical insurance account. The money accumulated is then used to fund hospital treatment. (China daily, 2005) Thought this initiative, many Chinese citizens are now covered for their medical insurance. Around eighty percent of all Chinese citizens living in the rural areas have signed up, which are approximately 685 million people. The second factor, the fertility rate is harder to explain. Deliberately decreasing the fertility rate has been an issue of the Chinese government since 1971. In 1970, the total fertility rate was 5.8. At the time of 1978, the fertility rate has decreased with fifty percent to 2.7. This due to the policy known as wan-xi-shao, meaning later marriages, longer spacing between children, and fewer children in total. Through 1979 the probability of a couple having a second child, given that they had already given birth to a first child, was 95 percent (Feeney and Yu, 1987). Chinas leaders where still worried because chinas baby-boomers where now reaching marriage age. These baby boomers where born in the years before this wan-xi-shao policy because of the Great Leap Forward. Chinas leaders thought these group of people would have to many children and this would outgrow the population carrying capacity. The One-Child policy was established as a law in 1980 by the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. He implemented this law to limit the birth rate of China. This policy was instantly controversial because of it was strictly enhanced in the first years. There was for example a policy for mandatory insertion of intrauterine devices for women with one child and sterilization for couples with two or more children. At 1984, resistance (both nationally and internationally) has risen to a crucial level. The Chinese government relinquished these strict policies and the overall law loosened up. This mend for example that regional governments, especially in rural areas, a policy which allowed couples to have a second child when their first child was a girl. In more urban areas the One-Child Policy was maintained more strictly. But not only due to the one-child policy fertility rates has gone down. There are significant similarities between China and other surrounding Asian countries in their fertility rates. (See Appendix 1E) However, this has not the same reason is these countries. In some countries, notably Japan and Korea, the low birth rate may be partly attributable to rising job opportunities and earning power for women. But that is not the case in Taiwan, Singapore or Hong Kong, where women have excellent work opportunities and access to low-paid domestic help from Southeast Asia. There is a reluctance to marry, particularly among the better educated women, as well as a preference for few, if any, children. (Bowring, 2007) But because the Great Leap Forward in China, their fertility rate has risen in the years between 1955 and 1970. This in contrast with the other Asian countries shown in this graph (See Appendix 1E). Chapter 5: What are the difficulties which china is facing because of this problem? The most obvious problem China will face is the increasing group of elder people. According to Estelle James, In 1990 only nine percent of Chinas population was over the age of 65, bu by 2030 this proportion will more than double, to twenty-two percent. This means that more than a quarter of the elder people of the entire world will live in China by 2030. As you can see in Appendix the dependency ratio of elderly people in rural areas will be approximately 0.34 in 2030, and 0.18 in urban areas. Zeng et al. (2008) suggest that, if urbanization reaches 75%, the dependency ratio is likely to continue to rise rapidly in rural areas and may exceed 0.6 by 2050, versus just over 0.3 in urban areas. With such a high dependency ratio, a high contribution rate is required from working people to cover the current bill. The second problem is the gender imbalance in China. There is a huge surplus of men. At this moment there is are thirty-two million more Chinese boys than girls under the age of twenty. (NYTimes, 2009) These surplus of boys are known in China as guang guan. Together with the fact that not everyone will marry or have a child when the sex-ratio is normal, there will be a lot of elderly in the future who do not have children to support them and must rely on some sort of pension. Lin Jiang believes there will be almost four million elderly citizens in the rural area by 2030 who do not have a single child. The third problem is that the growth of the working age population will drop off quickly and reach zero growth after 2015. (see appendix) He calculated this because of The persistence of fertility and mortality rates combines with the existing structure of the population to produce predictable patterns of change of the labor force. Also According to Naughton, The labor market is just now absorbing the last huge birth cohort (the baby boom echo born in the late 1980s) The GDP rate per capita (appendix 2) is still increasing. However the rate of increasing is declining in the last two years. This in accordance with the future growth/ decline of the working age population a conclusion can be drawn that the growth of GDP rate per capita will also decline, not taken into account the growth of the economy. Therefore it is important to stimulate this growth of economy. This has to be reacted on in order to stop the rising burden on the currently employed after 2015, because of the change in population structure. Chapter 6: How do the Chinese old people deal with their longevity financially? It is difficult to ascertain exactly how other countries have financed the transition because of the fungibility of money and the ambiguity of the counterfactual. Most reforming countries in Latin America and Eastern Europe have utilized parametric changes that downsized bloated benefit obligations, to reduce the IPD and the financing gap. Beyond that, the following revenue sources appear to be common: Keeping part of the system PAYG, so contributions continue flowing into the PAYG pillaras in Poland, Hungary, Uruguay and Sweden; Raising revenues from contributions by increasing the payroll tax or the compliance rate-an add-on was used in OECD countries and most other countries are trying to decrease evasion; Using other special revenue sources such as a lottery or a value added tax (Argentina); Using general revenues or social security surpluses that are available at the municipal, provincial or state level (Chile); Applying proceeds from the sale of SOE assets to cover pension liabilities (assetdebt swaps)-SOE and pension reform were linked in Peru, Bolivia and Poland; Borrowing in the short run and repaying with the surplus that the system would run in the longer run, as the individual accounts take on a greater portion of the total pension responsibility (most countries have used this method to smooth the burden of transition costs over many cohorts). Most of these methods would be appropriate for China. China is now using proceeds from a national lottery, a tax on interest income and, as already discussed, direct allocations from the MOF. We concentrate here on a source that has just been tapped proceeds from the sale of state assets-and another source that is essential but has yet to be seriously addressedbenefit reduction. These two sources, between them, could cover much of the transition costs. References: Homan, T. R. (2009, June 18). World Bank Raises China 2009 Growth Forecast to 7.2%. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087sid=aoNG311GdSSk Naughton, B. (2007). The Chinese Economy: Transitions and growth. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England Vandendriessche, A. (2008) Hoe worden ouderen verzorgd in China? The Netherlands Frazier, M.W., After Pension Reform: Navigating the Third Rail in China, Studies in Comparative International Development 39:2 (2004), p. 48. 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