The Bluest Eye :: essays research papers

THE BLUEST EYE The Bluest Eye is a complex book. Substance wise it is a disturbing yet relatively easy read, but Toni Morrison plays with the narrative structure in a way so that complexity is added to the hidden depth of the text. From the beginning to the end of the book, the author takes the reader through a series of point of views that take turns in narrating the story. But by the end of the book, the author leaves the reader unclear on who the actual main character of the book is. Pecola Breedlove, although never the narrator, seems to be the constant victim and equally the main character of the story. Many readers can see the book as a story about Claudia MacTeer, who is the main narrator of the book, but most everything she narrates has a direct tie to Pecola’s life. From the very start, Claudia describes the home environment in which she lives in. That home environment is linked to how Pecola comes to live with them and what affect the two had on each other. Pecola’s presence slightly foreshadows her future longing for blue eyes by showing the great interest she had in Shirley Temple, who was known for being a pretty white girl. Claudia then goes into a series of stories and descriptions of what type of environment Pecola must live in at her own home. She describes the abandoned store in which the Breedlove family lives in and the terrible condition of the furniture, which reflects the type of family the Breedloves are. Whether it was Claudia or another unknown third person narrator, a specific situation is described in a brutal manner of exactly what type of envir onment exists in Pecola’s home. The situation was where Cholly and Polly fight each other with little hesitation or thought, and the brief narration ends with how Pecola is affected by such actions. Claudia’s experiences are even more tied to Pecola’s life through the events that occurred with Maureen Peal. Claudia begins describing Maureen as her own enemy but soon enough Maureen is introduced into Pecola’s life along with the point of view she had upon the ugly child. Maureen was fascinated by Pecola, which represents one of the many characters who looked down upon her. Along with the narration of Claudia and the third person, Cholly and Polly have a significant representation in the story.

The Donora Death Fog :: Air Pollution Environmental Issues Essays

The Donora Death Fog â€Å"D-Town!† Back home in Canonsburg, a small suburb outside of Pittsburgh, this is how we refer to Donora. We joke that the only thing in Donora is the roller skating rink, but even this is inaccessible to anyone who’s not a D-town native because when you are at the age to want to go roller skating you aren’t brave enough to enter into the Donora city limits. Only dedicated roller-skaters are brave enough to dare the elements of Donora. Of course, one, particularly a girl, would never think of going to Donora alone. But for me, I was never really that scared of Donora because my grandparents live nearby and we used to have dinner at the Ponderosa that has since closed. But, I never missed the opportunity to poke fun at that â€Å"rough† territory. Recently, I drove through D-town. The shops are boarded up. There’s graffiti everywhere. In addition to the roller rink there are a few bars and decrepit restaurants. I always assumed that it was the gi gantic Wal-mart that had caused this once thriving town to fall to shambles. But, this town, as I recently learned, was the site of the â€Å"worst recorded industrial air pollution accident in US history† (The Donora Fluoride Fog). This disaster intrigued me, so I decided to do some research regarding what happened. My investigation first led me to find that twenty people died from October 26-31, 1948 (Pennsylvania DEP). According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation website, the town population was about 14,000 at the time of the disaster. Devastatingly, about half-7,000-of those people became ill or hospitalized. My investigation led me to discover that this disaster was â€Å"created by unchecked industrial emissions and stagnant air conditions† (Donora’s Killer Smog Noted at 50). These conditions led to a smog fog hanging around the area. The American Steel & Wire Co., a subsidiary of the US Steel Group, was the local plant responsible for producing these emissions and conditions. It is also widely accepted that the weather conditions were prominent in producing the disaster. In October of 1998, spokespeople for the industry agreed that the disaster was unfortunate and tragic, but did not fail to note that, at the time of the disaster, clean air acts did not exist. If any good could come from this disaster it was the funding for research about clean air and the eventual passing of clean air acts and legislation.

Financial Ratios and Stock Return: Evidence on selected Plantation Companies in Malaysia Essay

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK (UNIMAS) SEMESTER 2 2012/2013 FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS (FEB) EBF 3183 FINANCE SEMINAR (Group ASSIGNMENT) Financial Ratios and Stock Return: Evidence on selected Plantation Companies in Malaysia NAME:VICTORIA AK JUTI 28578 VENOSHNI A/P MANOGARAN 28577 PHUA WEE WEE 27952 TEOH CHIEN NI 28513 LING LING26752 GROUP:1 PROGRAMME:FINANCE Financial Ratio and Stock Return: Evidence on selected Plantation Companies in Malaysia Abstract This paper is to investigate the predictive ability of several financial ratios for stock return in Malaysia specifically in plantation industry. 23 listed plantation companies were analysed for the period from 2008 to 2012. Four of the common financial ratios were take into consideration in this study. These financial ratios include dividend yield (DY), book to market ratio (B/M), earning per share (EPS), and firm size. Pool ordinary least squares regression (OLS) method is adopted to estimate the predictive regression. The descriptive statistics indicate that there is a negative relationship between the dependent variable and the two independent variables include B/M and EPS. In contrast, the firm size and DY is positive correlated with the stock return. In addition, the empirical results indicate that dividend yield is the best predictor on stock return in the context of Malaysia’s plantation sector. Section 1 Introduction Introduction Research on predicting stock returns using various variables such as inflation, accuracy of disclosure of public information, discount rates are widely discussed in past studies. Return is something that investor expects to receive on their original investment in the future. Alternatively, financial ratios have provided investors another method in predicting the stock return. Previously, financial ratios are used to evaluate performance of a company. So far, numerous studies on stock return and financial ratios have conducted based on different sectors over the countries. However, the research on plantation sector is limited. Therefore, our main focus of this research is to determine the connection between financial ratio and stock return in the Malaysia stock market especially in the plantation industry. The reason plantation sector is chosen as our focus in this research is due to the growing of global demand in plantation. Presently, plantation is one of the major contributors in the economy of Malaysia amongst the sectors. In Malaysia, oil palm industry is currently the second largest export revenue earner for Malaysia after the electrical and electronics (E&E) sector. Meanwhile, Malaysia is also known as the world’s top exporter of palm oil which exported to several countries such as China, India, the European Union (EU) and Pakistan. Essentially, plantation sector is expected to rise in the future. In this study, we examine how the stock return can be predicted by using the financial ratio. 23 of plantation listing firms in Bursa Malaysia are selected as our research data. Meanwhile, the period we take into consideration is over the period from 2008 to 2012. The purpose of this research is to determine the predictability of financial ratio to the stock returns specifically in the plantation sector. By this research, we intend to provide an analysis of forecasting stock return using financial ratio. Financial ratios that commonly used to forecast the stock return are the dividend yield (DY), book to market ratio (B/M), and firm size. However, we extend the study by adding another financial ratio in predicting the stock return which is the earning per share. The empirical findings of this study indicate that financial ratios do have the predicting power on stock return in Malaysia’s plantation industry. Meanwhile, the results also show that firm size has the strongest forecasting power amongst the four variables. Therefore, we can conclude that our findings are somehow in line with past studies conducted by Fama and French (1988) which revealed that dividend yield was a good forecasting tool in predicting stock return in China, Canada and U.S stock market. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In section 2, we discussed the previous studies and provide a review of existing literature regarding on predictive ability of financial ratios for stock return. Data and methodology for constructing stock return predictors is discussed in the third section. Section four reveals the empirical findings and lastly followed by conclusion. Objective of study Main: To predict stock return using financial ratios General: To reveal more information regarding financial ratio acts as the predictor of stock return. To investigate how significant is the selected variables in forecasting the stock return. To determine which independent variables has greater predictive power. Significance of study Investing in stock market is risky. Therefore, a predicting tool is important for a wise investor to estimate the appropriate return of an investment. This research is significance in revealing the use of financial ratio as a forecasting tool of stock return. Previously, studies on the determinant of stock return are widely discussed by many of the researchers from all over the world. This study also tends to test whether our empirical results are parallel with previous research. Financial ratio is one of the most common tools that act as a financial analysis to compare the performance between companies or between industries. Currently, financial ratio analysis is not only can be used to evaluate the performance of company but also a predictor tool of the stock return. Financial ratio is computed through the items presented in financial statement of the company. For instance, financial ratio can be divided into several categories such as market debt ratio, liquidity ratio, profitability ratio, investment ratio and others. In addition, this study also acts as guidance and reference for further  research on similar topic. By referring this study, interested investor and researcher can apply different indicator, and other relevant factors to do further research. Theoretical Framework Section 2 Literature Review In this section is described the results of some of the most important researches which conducted in the context of financial ratios and the stock return. The financial ratios as empirical predictors of stock returns in the selected 23 plantations companies listed on the Malaysian Stock Exchange during the period 2008 to 2012. For this research, we used stock price as a dependent variable while dividend yields, book market, earning per share and asset size as independent variables. Stock returns, dividend yield (DY), asset size, earning yield (EY) and book-to-market ratio (B/M) have a strong theoretical background based on the predictive models. Some of the studies such as Fama and French (1988), Stattman (1980), Kothari and Shanken (1997) has done research on predictive variables, including, dividend yield, book to market, earning per share and asset size forecast stock return. Hodrick (1992), Fama and French (1988) has been study that DY has the predictive power on stock returns, a s the relationship between DY and return are developed by the appealing patterns. Moreover, DY track variation in return and can predict future return in 36 international markets. To illustrate the predictive power of DY, they introduced an explosive new test to improve the predictive ability of financial ratios especially DY during 55 years. Therefore, DY is regarded as a good predictor of stock returns in China, Canada and U.S stock market. Consequently, the DY as a strong predictor can contribute to stock return predictability. Banze (1981) and Reinganum (1981) found out that relationship between sizes (market value) has a significant effect on stock return. Smaller companies have more return than bigger companies. It is because first, intentional or unintentional errors are less likely to happen because of installing strong internal controlling systems in big companies, consequently audits can rely more on the company internal controlling systems and decrease increasingly the amount of content test. Second, big companies can recruit more accountants with more expertise and  higher education, and more advanced informational systems. According to study done by Fama and French (1988), they presented a firm background for the relationship between market size and stock return. Fama and French using Running single and mul tiple tests, they found a positive relationship between markets size and stock return. In fact, they doubt on beta sensitivity in capital assets pricing model, and generally stock return. Stattman (1980) has done study on indicated the positive relationship between return and the book-to-market ratio (B/M). Considerable evidence they suggested that BM ratios are related to future returns, and denoted the predictive power of B/M ratio on stock returns caused by the relationship between book value and future earnings, and provided evidence that the B/M ratios predict negative expected returns and track variation in return. The results of recent survey confirmed previous results that the BM ratio is positively related to stock returns. According to Hakkio and Rush (1991) have study on the relationship between stock return and earnings per share. They found that the subdivision do not improve the test power. Besides, there exists a non-stationary problem for stock prices and EPS, the non-stationary may lead to the problem of spurious regression for previous studies. Auret and Sinclaire (2006) has been studied the relationship between the ratio of book value to market value (BTM) and stock return in the years 1990 to 2000 in the companies listed in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). In this study is used from the ratio of book value to market value (BTM), price to Earnings (P/E), dividend yield (DY), and firm size as independent and control variables. The results indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between the ratio of book value to market value and stock return. But there is no significant relationship between the ratio of price to earnings and stock returns. According to Kheradyar, Ibrahim and Mat (2011) has been study on investigated the role of financial ratios as empirical predictors of stock returns in the 100 companies listed on the Malaysian Stock Exchange during the period 2000 to 2009. In their study is used from the variables of dividend yield (DY), earnings yield (EY) and Book-to-market ratio (BTM) as financial ratios to predict stock returns. To estimate the regression model used from panel data and generalized least squares (GLS) methods. Research findings indicate that there is a significant and positive relationship between financial ratios  and stock return of next year. Also, the results showed that the ratio of book value to market value is superior against dividend yield and earning s yield in explaining stock return of next year. Lau, Lee and Mclnish (2002) has been study on the relationship between stock returns and systematic risk with firm size, the ratio of book value to market value of equity, price to earnings ratio, the ratio of cash flow to price and sale growth in both Malaysia and Singapore. Their studied sample is 82 companies listed in the Singapore Stock Exchange and 163 companies listed in the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange during the period 1988-1996. Results for Singaporean companies are indicating that there is no significant relationship between the ratio of book value to market value (BTM) and earnings to price ratio (E/P) with stock returns. The results for Malaysian companies show that there is significant and positive relationship between the ratio of earnings to price (E/P) and stock returns. But the relationship between the ratio of book value to market value (BTM) and stock returns is not significant. Kothari and Shanken (1997) has been study on the relationship between the ratio of book value to market value and dividend yield with the expected market return. Results have shown that there is a significant and positive relationship between the ratio of book value to market value (BTM) and the dividend yield with market returns of future year. Also, the results indicate the superiority of book value to market value ratio against dividend yield in explaining future market returns. According to study done by Fama and French (1988), Hodrick (1992) and Stambaugh (1999) have shown that the variables of earnings to price ratio, the ratio of dividends to the price and short-term interest rates can better predict stock returns. As a conclusion, financial theories lay great emphasis on the role of risk in stock returns so the relationship between stock returns and financial ratios is because the ratios captured information about the risk. Therefore, these three financial ratios are supported by financial theoretical basis. Section 3 Data and Methodology Data Collection Methods The data collected are mainly from secondary data. The secondary data that used in this paper are included the closing price, dividend yield, book to market, earning per share and asset size of each plantation company from  year 2008 to 2012. These closing prices will be collected from yahoo finance but for the dividend yield, book to market, earning per share and asset size will be collected from data stream. Target Population The secondary data will be used in this paper to test whether dividend yield, book to market, earning per share and asset size forecast stock return or not. Therefore, the 23 stocks listed on Bursa Malaysia will be obtained. They are included: 1ï ¼Å½ UNITED MALACCA 2ï ¼Å½ NPC RESOURCES 3ï ¼Å½ KWANTAS 4ï ¼Å½ SARAWAK OIL PALMS 5ï ¼Å½ TH PLANTATIONS 6ï ¼Å½ TSH RESOURCES 7ï ¼Å½ CEPATWAWASAN GROU 8ï ¼Å½ CHIN TECK PLANTATIONS 9ï ¼Å½ KIM LOONG RESOURCES 10ï ¼Å½ FAR EAST HOLDINGS 11ï ¼Å½ KLUANG RUBBER 12ï ¼Å½ NEGRI SEMBILAN OIL PALMS 13ï ¼Å½ SUNGEI BAGAN RUBBER 14ï ¼Å½ UNICO-DESA PLANTATIONS 15ï ¼Å½ GOLDEN LAND 16ï ¼Å½ RIVERVIEW RUBBER ESTS. 17ï ¼Å½ UNITED PLANTATIONS 18ï ¼Å½ TRADEWINDS PLANTATION 19ï ¼Å½ MHC PLANTATIONS 20ï ¼Å½ IJM PLANTATIONS 21ï ¼Å½ HAP SENG PLTNS.HDG 22ï ¼Å½ CHIN TECK PLANTATIONS 23ï ¼Å½ GENTING PLANTATIONS Data Analysis The collected data were analyzed by using Microsoft Excel and Eview. Microsoft Excel will be used to calculate the stock returns for each stock for a period of around 5 years which are the year from 2008 to 2012. Besides, pool ordinary least squares regression, descriptive statistic, correlation and Hausman test from Eview will be used to run the result of our research. Dependent variable a. Stock return The total stock return can be gain through the appreciation in the price plus any dividends paid and then divided by the original price of the stock. The dividends can include any of the income sources from a stock. Commonly, it is increase in value. Thus, the first portion of the numerator of the total stock return formula is looks at how much the value has increased (P1 – P0). Then, it needs to remind that the denominator of the formula which is use to calculate a stock’s total return is considered as the original price of the stock which is used due to being the original amount invested. Total stock return calculated as follow: Total stock return = where = Ending stock price (period 1) = Initial stock price D = Dividends Independent variable b. Dividend yield Usually, a financial ratio can be used to show how much a company pays out in dividends each year which is relative to its share price. Therefore, it can be said that the dividend yield is the return on investment for a stock in the absence of any capital gains. Dividend yield is calculated as follows: Dividend yield = Annual dividends per share / Price per share c. Book to market Sometimes, we also use a financial ratio to find the value of a company. It can be found by comparing the book value of a firm to its market value. Book  value can be calculated by looking at the firm’s historical cost or accounting value. On the other hand, market value is determined in the stock market through its market capitalization. Book value is calculated as follows: Book to market = Book value of firm / Market value of firm d. Earnings per share The earnings per share (EPS) can be defined as the portion of a company’s earnings, net of taxes and preferred stock dividends. Usually, all of them are allocated to each share of common stock. EPS is calculated as follows: EPS = Net earnings / Outstanding shares e. Asset size Asset size is defined as the total of the current assets and the non-current assets which is holding by a company. Asset size is calculated as follows: Asset size = total asset Pool OLS regression Stock return = + (dividend yield) + (book to market) + (earning per share) + (asset size) + Pool OLS is to measure whether there is positive or negative relationship between dependent variable (stock return) and independent variable (dividend yield, book to market, earning per share and asset size). R-squared is the total variation dependent Y is explained by the total variation of independent X. F-statistic is to test whether the overall goodness of fit is good or not. The significant level is set at 1%, 5% or 10%. Descriptive Statistic Descriptive statistic is to provide simple summarizes about the sample and the observation that have been made like mean and median. Correlation The correlation is called the correlation coefficient (or â€Å"r†). It ranges from -1.0 to +1.0. If r is close to 0, it means there is no relationship between the variables. If r is positive, it means that as one variable gets larger the other gets larger. If r is negative it means that as one gets larger, the other gets smaller (often called an â€Å"inverse† correlation). Hausman test Hausman test is usually applied to test for fixed versus random effects models. Ho: Cov (ÃŽ »i, xit) = 0 (Random Effect) H1: Cov (ÃŽ »i, xit) ≠  0 (Fixed Effect) If the p-value is lower than 0.01, we reject Ho. This indicated that the fixed effects model is preferred. If p-value greater than 0.01. We do not reject Ho. This means that the random effect is preferred. Random effect model is to utilize in meta-analysis. It is using both study sampling error and variances. The variations between studies are included in the assessment of the uncertainty or confidence interval of the results of a meta-analysis. In addition, random effects model is apply when there is no correlation between the regresses and the individual effects. On the other hand, fixed effect model stipulates the units under analysis such as people in a trial or study in a meta-analysis are the ones of interest. Thus, this model constitutes the entire population of units. The variation between the estimates of effect from each study name as heterogeneity. It does not affect the confidence interval. Besides, this model is applied when there is allow for arbitrary correlation between the regresses and the individual effects. Section 4 Data and Empirical Results Research Findings: Descriptive statistics Variables N Mean Maximum Minimum Standard Deviation Stock Return 115 0.069304 1.170000 -0.600000 0.308345 Dividend yield 115 3.356435 10.31000 0.370000 2.220661 Earnings per share 115 0.345304 1.800000 0.040000 0.300544 Book to market value 115 1.193478 2.950000 0.340000 0.542936 Firm Assets 115 13.64433 15.36144 12.01738 0.816106 From the table above, on average or the mean stock return level for firms is 0.07% with a maximum value of 1.17% from 2008 to 2012. As we can see, average dividend yield for the plantation firms in Malaysia is the highest which mean 3.36% return of plantation firms in Malaysia are generated by dividend yield. Looking for the earnings per share, it shows low earnings  per common share. On average Malaysian plantation firms only make earnings about 0.04% and the highest is 1.8%. This amount of earnings per share is very low compared to the dividend yield. Average book to market value is 1.19% with a maximum value of 2.95%. Firm asset is one of the most important bank specific variables that will affect stock return. Total assets value for Malaysian plantation firms ranges from 12.02% to 15.36%. The range is big and this may due to the sample firms having operated for different lengths of time. Correlation SR DY EPS LSIZE MVB SR 1.000000 DY 0.188256 1.000000 EPS -0.048140 0.084159 1.000000 LSIZE 0.055228 -0.150209 0.239308 1.000000 MVB -0.313238 -0.014558 0.383026 0.509393 1.000000 The stock returns for two variable that is earning per share and market to book value are moving in totally opposite direction linearly. These are because the correlation between stock return and earning per share and also the correlation between stock return and market to book value are negative relationships which are -0.05 and -0.3. On the other hand, the correlation between stock return and total asset and also the correlation between stock return and dividend yield are positively correlated which are 0.05 and 0.19. As a conclusion, based on the result above the dividend yield recorded the strongest correlated to stock return. Pooled Ordinary Least Square Dependent Variable: Stock Return Variables Coefficient Std.Error t-Statistic Probability C -1.424024 0.492529 -2.891247 0.0046 DY 0.031544 0.011973 2.634631 0.0096 EPS 0.044259 0.094578 0.467969 0.6407 LSIZE 0.125167 0.037734 3.317073 0.0012 MVB -0.281240 0.058763 -4.786012 0.0000 R-squared 0.214105 Adjusted R-squared 0.185527 F-statistic 7.491945 Prob(F-statistic) 0.000022 SR= -1.4240 + 0.0315 DY + 0.0443 EPS + 0.1252 LSIZE – 0.2812 MVB where SR = Stock Return DY = Dividend Yield EPS = Earnings Per Share LSIZE =Log Firm Size MVB = Book to Market Value The intercept value of -1.4240 means that if the all independent variable are zero, the stock returns will expected to be -1.4240. the R-squared is 0.2141 means that about 21.4% of the total variation dependent Y is explained by the total variation of independent X. the F-statistic is 0.000022 means that  this regression model is statistically significant at 5% level of significant. Therefore, the overall goodness of fit is good. From this regression, dividend yield and firm size showed positive relationship to stock return as shown by the positive coefficient. Both variables of p-value are significant at 1% of significant level. There is negative relationship between book to market value as shown by negative coefficients and the p-value is significant at 1% of significant level. The relationship between stock return and earning per share is negative and the p-value is not significant at 10% of significant level. Fixed effect model Dependent Variable: Stock return Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Probability C -4.296162 2.324473 -1.848231 0.0679 DY 0.040577 0.020388 1.990207 0.0497 EPS -0.153195 0.222027 -0.689983 0.4920 LSIZE 0.361256 0.168448 2.144618 0.0347 MVB -0.542055 0.096166 -5.636630 0.0000 The table shows the dividend yield, earning per share, firm size and book to market value. The dividend yield, size and book to market value were found be significant, the p-value are 0.0497, 0.0347 and 0.0000 respectively which are significant at 5% of significant level. The earnings per share was found not be significant, since p-value is 0.4920 which is greater than 0.05. Thus, dividend yield, size and book to market value were impact on the stock return of Malaysian plantation sector. Random effect model Dependent Variable: Stock return Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Probability C -1.424024 0.450854 -3.158502 0.0020 DY 0.031544 0.010960 2.878165 0.0048 EPS 0.044259 0.086575 0.511226 0.6102 LSIZE 0.125167 0.034541 3.623689 0.0004 MVB -0.281240 0.053791 -5.228410 0.0000 The table shows the dividend yield, earning per share, firm size and book to market value. The dividend yield, firm size and book to market value were found be significant, the p-value are 0.0048, 0.0004 and 0.0000 respectively which are significant at 5% of significant level. The earnings per share was found not be significant, since p-value is 0.6102 which is greater than 0.05. Hausman test Test Summary Chi-Sq. Statistic Chi-Sq. d.f. Prob. Cross-section random 35.021193 4 0.0000 Hausman test is used to test hypotheses in terms of bias or inconsistency of an estimator. For this specification test, H0 and H1 are: H0: Cov(ÃŽ » , x ) = 0 H1: Cov(ÃŽ » , x ) ≠  0 The result of Hausman Test illustrated the p-value is 0.0000 which is smaller than 0.01. Therefore, it is statistically significant at 1% of significant level. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected and concludes that the fixed effect is preferred. Section 5 Summary and Conclusion The purpose of this study is to investigate the predictive ability of the selected financial ratios on stock return in Malaysia specifically in plantation sector over the period from 2008 to 2012. Among the financial ratios, three commonly used financial ratios are included which is the dividend yield, firm size, earning per share (EPS) and book to market ratio. As a result, this study has provided evidence that financial ratios played a significant role in predicting stock return. In addition, the empirical findings also revealed that dividend yield, book to market ratio and firm size have significant relationship on stock return of Malaysia plantation sector among the financial ratios. However, the research finding indicate that the dividend yield has the strongest forecasting ability on stock return and it is in line with the past studies by Fama and French (1988) who found out that there is a strong predictive power of dividend yield on stock return. In summary, this study might not applicable to other region or other industry. Nevertheless, it has provided better information regarding the forecasting power of financial ratio on stock return. Therefore, effort shall be made to explore for further research in order to improve on previous work. References: Abgineh, M. (2013). The Investigation of the Relation between Changes in Financial Ratios with Changes in Stock Returns on the Tehran Stock Exchange. Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research, 3(2), 473-479. Aono, K., & Iwaisako, T. (2010). Forecasting Japanese Stock Returns with Financial Ratios and Other Variables. Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, 18, 373–384. Auret. C.J., & Sinclaire R.A. (2006). Book-to-market ratio and returns on the JSE.Investment Analysts Journal, 19, 31-38. Banze, R. (1981). The relationship between return and market value of common stocks. Journal of Financial Economics , 9, 3-18. Emamgholipour, M., Pouraghajan, A., Yadollahzadeh, T., Haghparast, M., & Shirsavar, A. (2013). The Effects of Performance Evaluation Market Ratios on the Stock Return: Evidence from the Tehran Stock Exchange. International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences, 4 (3), 696-703. Fama, E. F., & French, K. (1988). Dividend yields and expected stock return. Journal of Financial Economics, 22, 3-25. Hodrick, R. (1992). Dividend yields and expected stock returns: alternative procedures for inference and measurement. Review of Financial Studies, 5, 357-386. Hakkio, C. & Rush, M. (1991), Cointegration: how short is the long run?, Journal of International Money and Finance, 10, 571-581. Kheradyar, S., Ibrahim, I., & Mat, N. F. (2011). Stock Return Predictability with Financial Ratios. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, 2 (5), 391-396. Kothari, S. P., & Shanken, J. (1997). Book-to-market, dividend yield, and expected market returns: a time series analysis. Journal of Financial Economics, 44, 169–203. Lau, S.T., Lee, T.C. & McInish, T. H. (2002).Stock Returns and Beta, Firms Size, E/P, CF/P, Book to Market, and Sales Growth: Evidence from Singapore and Malaysia. Journal of Multinational Financial Management, 12, 207-222. Lewellen, J. (2002). Predicting Returns with Financial Ratios. MIT Sloan School of Management. Working Paper 4374-02. Lewellen, J. (2004). Predicting Returns with Financial Ratios. Journal of Financial Economics, 74, 209–235. McManus, P.A. (2011). Introduction to regression models for panel data analysis. Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/~wim/docs/10_7_2011_slides.pdf Reinganum, M.R. (1981). Misspecification of Capital Asset Pricing: Empirical Anomalies based on earning yield and market values. Journal of Financial Economics, 9(1), 19-46. SAS Institute Inc. (2013). The model produce. Hausman specification test. Retrieved from http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/etsug/63348/HTML/default/viewer.htm#etsug_model_sect050.htm. Stambaugh, R. (1999). Predictive regressions. Journal of Financial Economics 54, 375–421. Stattman D. (1980). Book values and stock returns. The Chicago MBA: A Journal of Selected Papers, 4:25-45.

Evaluation of Voluntourism Essay

A trend has started in the recent years, where people participate in organizations that commonly claim to be helping developing countries. This trend is fuelled by the gap year phenomenon, which is defined as â€Å"a period of time between 3 and 24 months taken out of education or a work career.† (Jones, 2004) With enthusiasm of â€Å"making a difference†, more and more people choose voluntourism, combination of tourism and volunteer projects, as their gap year holiday option. Despite the well-intended enthusiasm, opinions regarding the contribution of voluntourism on local community are divided. The primary issue of debate is whether voluntourism provide help to the local communities. While some researchers using surveys find local people satisfied with volunteer tourists, other research investigating quality, tasks, motivation and local need of voluntourism have found it doing more harm than good. Such a harmful trend has made the UK director of VSO, one of the baggie st and earliest international development charity, warn â€Å"Young people want to make difference through volunteering, but they would better off travelling†¦rather than wasting time on projects that have no impact†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Ward, 2007) In this paper, we will evaluate both side of the debate and carefully assess the value of voluntourism for local community. In order to assess the benefit given by volunteer tourists, it is essential to look at the quality of the helpers. Unskilled volunteers may be a burden to local communities that have to take care of them. As Stephan peck, operations director at the Scout Association, puts it â€Å"[bad volunteers] are like a cancer† (Ainsworth, 2012). Therefore, the volunteer selection process is critical in recruiting needed and appropriate volunteers that benefit local communities. While supporters of voluntourism claims those volunteers as satisfying, looking into their selection experience shall make it clear that these tourists are hardly qualified as helpful volunteers. Research done by Richard Forsythe in Ghana vlountourism showed that only 36% of all studied volunteer applicants in various fields went through application process more complicated than filling appli cation forms, and â€Å"no individuals remarked upon the selection process as a particularly challenging experience, and indeed several of the organizations interviewed admitted to accepting ‘almost all volunteers’ having ‘very few requirements, and taking ‘anyone who is interested’†(Forsythe, 2011). Recruitment through application forms or basic information can only depend on the self-evaluation of applicants, who probably had no volunteering experience, as to whether they will be helpful to the local community. With such a lenient selection, the volunteers selected are much more likely to be burden than help to local volunteers and community who cry out: â€Å"A lot of people have very unrealistic expectations about overseas volunteering, and they want to be there for only a month or less and have no skills that are critically needed in the developing world† (Huang, 2012). People may expect those unqualified volunteers to receive some training before starting work, but research has also showed that volunteer tourists receive almost no training. When they do receive information, much of it is about the culture and language, safety and packing with little attention toward the skills and duties involved within the volunteer placements (Forsythe, 2011). Furthermore, no more than half the volunteers received supervision or guidance during the placement (Forsythe, 2011). The organization’s local presence is indispensible for placements’ appropriate, long-term effectiveness and safety of volunteers. With the growing number of teenagers participating in volunteer tours, supervision and protection by organization are vital. However, some volunteers set out with enthusiastic motivation ends up in a awkward situation as Hannah Saunders, a gap year volunteer: â€Å"When I arrived†¦they didn’t know I was coming or what to do with me.† (Ward, 2007) Although the volunteers’ intention maybe beneficial, they are unqualified, untrained and unguided. Such groups of volunteers can hardly provide any high-quality help that is needed by local communities. Supporters of voluntourism may cling onto the motivation behind voluntourism to justify the trend. Indeed, motivation is also a factor often discussed when talking about the benefits of voluntourism. Supporters of voluntourism argue actions that come from altruistic intension to help, although may not provide substantial help, are at least better than nothing. The supporters say that by just participating and showing concern, it is already helping the people in dispair. It is literally, â€Å"you are the difference!† With the belief in altruism, people advertise voluntourism, â€Å"in which enthusiasm and good intentions are allowed to prevail† (Simpson, 2004). However, it seems the good intension behind voluntourism is not enough to be allowed to â€Å"prevail†. While many people wish to believe that motivation behind volunteering abroad is purely altruistic, research using evolutionally, social psychological, organizational and game theoretic literature as fram ework, has found that, in general, people volunteered most often when personal benefits are high (Murnighan, Kim, & Metzger, 1993). Consistent with this result, almost all authors of articles about voluntourism, even the supporters, agree that voluntourism does not come from purely altruistic motivation. Despite the difference in motivational factors concluded by different authors, all of them agree that these motivations outweigh altruism (Forsythe, 2011;Corti, Marola, & Castro, 2010;Wearing 2001; Brown, 2005; Cohen, Reichel, Shwartz, & Uriely, 2002; Tosun, 2000; Unstead-Jones, 2008). It is commonly agreed that volunteer tourists plan to satisfy the needs of communities through meeting their own needs such as â€Å"experiencing cultures†. If actions from altruism intention are the ones that give hope and â€Å"prevail†, voluntourism with self-centered motivation is not one. Furthermore, less concern in local community than in self-gain may result in idealized, incorrect assumption about local needs. Reflecting this worry about incorrect assumption, Sacha Brown, Program Manager of World Youth Intern ational, a NGO taking volunteers overseas for their development projects says, â€Å" there is a lot of development that is useless and is based on erroneous assumptions around what is ‘best’ for the community or country† (Huang, 2012). Inexperienced volunteers’ erroneous expectations on local needs, together with their self-centered concerns, make them concentrate on their own enjoyment without examining what help is needed. Organizations that seek to profit from voluntourism may increase rather than reduce neglect of local need. The director of VSO is worried that competition between organizations may lead to more emphasis on volunteer enjoyment and â€Å"may not deliver the maximum benefits to the communities these people are working in†. (Huang, 2012) Indeed, one of the organizations interviewed by Forsythe implied that its placements were driven by preferences of volunteers rather than local needs. It is not only researchers who are concerned about whether volunteering tourists’ helps are actually needed. Some volunteers interviewed by Justine Tillon express their feeling of lack of acceptance by local government and citizens. Some of them felt that â€Å"the government and local citizens are forced to be helped by the participants†. When there is evidence that help is â€Å"forced† on local people, maybe we should really ask ourselves: â€Å"Does this kind of help make a peaceful word?† All has been said, some supporters may provide research that show local satisfaction toward volunteer tourists. One of such research about Moroccan students’ satisfaction toward foreign volunteer teachers of French and English showed 79% of appreciation (Corti et al., 2010). The rate is indeed high, but we should look closer into this study. The job of the volunteers studied is to give English and French classes during vacation of school year. Out of 253 students who enrolled, 32.41% left to travel with their parents in the middle of classes (Corti et al., 2010). Although the desistance rate already implies that local community regards the classes as unserious holiday childcare rather than structured learning experience, several other questions can be raised against results of this and similar other studies. First, does the rate actually reflect the work done by volunteer teachers? The improvement in student’s language skills is not measured in the study. Since it was students who answered those surveys, it is questionable whether they looked at bigger picture and thought the experience educating or they were just excited to see foreigners. Inferring from previous evaluation of quality, training and supervision of volunteers, these teachers are likely to be unqualified as teachers. Of course supporters may say that the satisfaction rate is indeed the proof that the volunteers are qualified. That raises a second question. Is it voluntourism per se that is benefiting? Do they have to be volunteer tourists or they can be anyone? Considering that English and French are both official language of Morocco, classes given by mixture of nonnative and native speakers of the languages may hardly made any difference from that by local Moroccans who speak both languages. It is not clear whether the 79% satisfaction was toward â€Å"volunteers from abroad† or â€Å"people who helped†. Questions about the tourists’ help per se have been studied in different contexts. Study in Gahanna showed that many volunteers are placed in daily tasks and traditional chores such as bathing, dressing, feeding and supervising of children, that can be done by anyone else (Fosythe, 2011). To justify voluntourism itself, studies about unique benefit of voluntourism need be carried out. Through this paper, we have evaluated the quality, motivation and local need of voluntourism. While there are some studies showing satisfactions toward voluntourism presented, several essential questions are raised. Through evaluation, it became clear that volunteer tourists are unskilled, authentically motivated, and to certain extent, unwelcomed. Although it may be a valuable experience for tourists, it seems that voluntourism carry few value, if not harm, to local community. Whether or not it is primary desire, the desire to volunteer is laudable. However, we need to tread more carefully, especially when dealing with people who are already suffering. Unless we have enough knowledge and transferrable skills, we might do better to travel and bring money into developing countries. Works Cited Ainsworth, D. (2012). Bad volunteers are like a cancer, says Scout Association director. Third Sector Online . Brown, S. (2005). Understanding the motives and benefits of voluntourists: What makes them tick? Retrieved from http://www.voluntourism.org/newsstudyandresearc h1005.htm Cohen, E., Reichel, A., Schwartz, Z., & Uriely, N. (2002). ). Rescuing hikers in Israel’s deserts: Community altruism or an extension of adventure tourism? . Journal of Leisure Research . Corti, I. N., Marola, P. N., & Castro, M. B. (2010). Social Inclusion and Local Development through European Voluntourism: A Case Study of the Project Realized in a Neighborhood of Morocco. merican Journal of Economics and Business Administration 2 . Forsythe, R. (2011). Helping or hindering? Volunteer tourism in Ghana and its critical role in development . Huang, A. (2008, 8 1). Voluntourism: Benifit or Harm? Retrieved from Yahoo! voices: http://voices.yahoo.com/voluntourism-benefit-harm-775403.html?cat=9 Jones, A. (2004). Review of Gap Year Provision. Murnighan, J. K., Kim, J. W., & Metzger, A. R. (1993). the Volunteer Dilemma. Administrative Science Quarterly . Simpson, K. (2004). ‘Doing Development’: The Gap Year, Volunteer Tourists and a Popular Practice of Development. Journal of International Development . Taillon, J. (2007). The Identification of Motivation in Voluntourists: Particularly Extrinsic Motivators in Vacation-Minded Volunteer Tourism Participants. Retrieved from http://justintaillon.com/FINAL% 20PAPER.doc Tosun, C. (2000). Limits to community participation in the tourism development process in developing countries. . Tourism Management . Unstead-Jones, R. (2008). An Analysis of Volunteer Motivation: Implications for International Development. The Journal of the Institute for Volunteering Research . Ward, L. (2007). You’re better off backpacking-VSO warns about perils of ‘voluntourism’. The Guardian . Wearing, S. (2001). Volunteer tourism: Experiences that Make a Difference. CABI Publishing.

Internal and External Factors

Internal and External factors of an organization are effected everyday in many ways that could either make or break a company. The four functions of management are also a critical part of a business especially when talking about a well known company known as Verizon Wireless. The four functions of management include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Like Verizon Wireless and any other organization in such measurable size of production, it is important for any company to analyze and implement it’s own management concept. Management is the process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals (Bateman & Snell, 2011). Verizon Wireless has managed to establish the four functions of management very well and includes them within their internal and external functions of everyday productivity. Considering that Verizon Wireless has effectively used the four functions of management to their advantage the company currently employs 85,000 employees, is the largest mobile operator in the United States, and has announced earnings of well over 30. billion in revenue over the end of Q4 in 2012 (â€Å"Vzw Finance†, 2013). The effective strategies the company has enhanced over its competitors continues to make them the number 1 carrier and largest retailer for consumers and businesses. Verizon Wireless has incorporated the use of internal and external factors that involve globalization, technology, innovation, and ethics. These key factors are what make the core of the company establi sh it’s rules and regulations to maintain productivity at an all time high while continuing to meet its policies and procedures. Globalization has affected Verizon Wireless since the branching of Air Touch cellular in 1999, which increasingly established their network and customer base up to 450,000 customers. With certain mergers taken place around that time with approvals pending with the FCC for the carrier to merge and grow in size much of the four functions of management were taken into consideration within every step of it’s purchase of networks to insure the company was able to maintain it’s financial stability to enhance it’s network and move it’s way up to being the largest carrier out there. Unlike its competitor AT&T, Verizon Wireless has not found the need presently to sell any of it’s markets to make up for the lack of economic depression within the company’s finances. Presently Verizon Wireless’s effective use of its Globalization within the four functions of management has made the company’s success stories a reality. I believe it’s effective use of planning and leading have insured the companies success in being the number 1 seeked carrier by consumers and business’s today. Technology has evolved around Verizon Wireless’s success to help not only the regular consumer, but to help business’s stay productive and effective with its products and services. â€Å"Machine to Machine† products, which have also become the company’s core value have helped companies become more effective with the use of tablets, Apple, Android, and mobile internet devices and introduce them to any business’s tools. These devices insure that companies have point of sale products and are able to stay in business while keeping them simple to use and productive. Much planning and leading has been required by Verizon Wireless to align with other companies to introduce these certain products. According to â€Å"Machine To Machine† (2012), † No matter the industry, an M2M solution can make a big impact in your business. † Verizon Wireless has proved to do so with its increasing amount of business productivity. Verizon Wireless currently plans to innovate new ideas to help consumer’s everyday to insure them the best and fastest data networks. The launch of its 4G products or 4th generation products insures that every customer in a major city has access to this type of network. Much innovation and planning has leaded the company to effectively continue to launch its new markets within 4G and insure that every major city has this available to them. This new market has been readily available in major cities such as Los Angeles and in New York. This has lead the company to increase it’s productivity in ensuring each and every customer has a 4G smartphone device and download songs in seconds and videos within minutes. Last, but not least ethic’s is an important aspect to Verizon Wireless’s core values. Careful planning to ensure employees do not leak information to keep from effectively ensuring its products and services is within the company credo. Without these ethical values the company cannot protect it’s assets. Internal and External Factors Internal and External Factors Paper XXXXXXXXXXXX MGT/230 xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx Internal and External Factors Paper The purpose of this paper is to explain how internal and external factors affect the four functions of management in the Wal-Mart Corporation. For any organization to survive, irrespective of its size, it must develop and implement its own management concept. Management is the process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals (Bateman & Snell, 2011).The four traditional functions of management include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The Wal-Mart Corporation has managed to use the internal and external factors of these functions to their advantage. With their strategic goal of seriously and rapidly expanding, the company currently employs over 2. 2 million associates, owns 8,500 stores, and serves 200 million customers weekly(â€Å"www. corporate. walmart. com†, 2012). Their strategies have minimized competitors making thi s company the world’s largest retailer.The following paper will describe how the Wal-Mart Corporation has found a successful way to use the functions with internal and external factors influencing globalization, technology, innovation, ethics, and diversity in business. The globalization of Wal-Mart began in 1991 in Mexico. The economy was starting to affect Wal-Mart’s business and they had to figure out a way to bring the profit up before business was lost. They decided to branch out and open a store in Mexico and Wal-Mart currently has stores in eleven countries (Vijay Govindarajan and Anil K.Gupta 2002). By 1999, Wal-Mart had more than 130,000 employees working in 729 facilities outside the United States (Vijay Govindarajan and Anil K. Gupta 2002). There were many factors that played into Wal-Marts decision to globalize. The first being that it had already saturated most of the domestic markets, and the United States only accounts for just over four percent of the w orld’s population. Emerging markets with their lower levels of disposable income offered huge platforms for growth in discount retail (Vijay Govindarajan and Anil K.Gupta 2002). Since the globalization of this corporation, Wal-Mart currently ranks among the top five global retailers (Matthew Boyle 2009). Although there were bad results in some countries, there are now 3,805 stores operating under 53 distinct banners in 15 markets (Matthew Boyle 2009). Wal-Marts strategic decision to globalize has allowed a continual rise in sales and profits, and has allowed the corporation to remain successful. Wal-Mart has used the four functions of management to grow and maintain a successful company through innovation, as well.For example, as the largest retailer, Wal-Mart decided to go green and make the entire operation recyclable and reusable. In 2005, CEO Lee Scott announced the company would create zero waste and use renewable energy and products that sustain the environment. Wal-Mar t proposed that the stores and clubs would use greener light bulbs, alternative energy, and better store designs to reduce waste, and reusable bags to start what is called a supply chain.The company announced the sustainability initiative which was used to track the life cycle of every product it sells by measuring the water usage, greenhouse gas emissions and fair labor practices (â€Å"Www. todaro. posterous. com†, 2010). Wal-Mart is currently hosting industry by industry meetings to debate how this customer label appears. Wal-Mart can only continue to grow their company by coming up with a plan and using the management from the top to the frontline managers to make changes to their company and enforce new ideas and innovations.Similarly, technology is another factor that Wal-Mart seems to excel at and stay on top of concerning planning and implementing the four functions of management. The company continues to improve their electronic commerce site Walmart. com and has com e up with a search engine to help customers find the products they are looking for more quickly and with more ease. The new tool uses machine learning and text mining techniques that assist the customer. If they are searching for something in particular it can bring up products that are similar even if those particular words were not searched (Leber, 2012).This has caused eBay and Google to scramble to improve their e-commerce search results. The weakness for Wal-Mart is getting customers to start at their website as opposed to others like Amazon. The planning portion of Wal-Mart is particularly strong and is always coming up with new ways of competing and staying on top of what consumers want and need. Next, ethics is defined as the action of identifying the rules that should govern people’s behaviors and the â€Å"goods† that are worth seeking. With Business Ethics, corporations strive to uphold moral principles and standards that guide behavior in the business world (Bateman, 164).Many organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with the complexity of ethical issues hitting businesses today. As a large importer/exporter of foreign goods, Wal-Mart found itself dealing with an increasing issue of bad supplier ethics. From foreign owned to the United States outsourced companies, they needed to create a plan for setting up a standard for products that were received for sale in their stores. In 1992, Wal-Mart started their Ethical Standards Program (originally called Standards for Suppliers Program).The Ethical Standards Program was established and exists to verify suppliers’ compliance with global standards, to strengthen the implementation of positive labor and environmental practices in factories producing merchandise for sale by Wal-Mart, and to bring opportunities for a better life in the countries where merchandise for Wal-Mart is sourced. The program’s vision was redefined in 2002 to meet public image issues, be coming the statement â€Å"sourcing ethically through a socially responsible program† (â€Å"Ethical Standards Program†, 2006).The program works to train perspective suppliers in environmental, health, safety, and labor requirements to meet audit standards. Factories and companies on Wal-Mart’s supplier list are subject to unannounced audits to ensure they are meeting the standards set by the Ethic Committee. Through these organization and control measures, Wal-Mart has made great strides in correcting some of the worst conditions in many of the Asian countries they use as their suppliers. According to the â€Å"Ethical Standards Program† (2006) website the company also began the Factory Five Program in 2006.The program serves as a forum in which factory management (from five factories per region in China) regularly meet with suppliers and the Ethical Standards team. Time is spent identifying and resolving complex issues of noncompliance identified by aud its. They hope to share knowledge and changes that come out of this forum with others in the industry. Wal-Mart is working hard to show leadership in the ethics market and to pass knowledge and training onto others to encourage ethical practices in all heir stakeholder’s corporations. The ultimate company goal is to fully integrate labor compliance and social responsibility into all purchasing decisions done by Wal-Mart buyers. Finally, diversity is an equally tricky concept that comes into play in businesses today. As corporations expand to cover more global territory it is becoming increasingly important to have a strong diverse workforce and management team to work in this environment.In 2002, Wal-Mart was struggling heavily under a bad public image as a corporation engaged in unsatisfactory and unfair work policies, resisting diversity practices, demonstrated social irresponsibility, and eroded economic opportunities for small local business. By 2004, management had hired a PR firm to manage the onslaught of bad press, and later restructured the company and made key management changes (Alleyne, 2012). Wal-Mart formed a number of internal affiliate groups for women, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community as part of its diversity practices.According to Alleyne (2012), in recent years, Wal-Mart has been named among the BLACK ENTERPRISE 40 Best Companies for Diversity. By integrating a plan that showed support for diverse groups within their workforce, The company is making great progress in gaining new customer support and increasing consumer confidence in its corporation, people, and products through managers like, Rosalind Brewer, â€Å"Black Enterprise† 2012 Corporate Executive of the Year and the first African American woman chief executive officer (CEO) at Wal-Mart.As Alleyene (2012) says, Brewer is holding one of the most powerful positions in corporate America and making big changes i n the leadership of the Wal-Mart Corporation. In conclusion, this corporation has effectively used the four functions of management and the effects of globalization, technology, innovation, ethics, and diversity on these functions. Through adversity the top-level management has shown their ability to plan strategically and overcome obstacles.Wal-Mart’s key strategy is to dominate the retail market and with the proper implementation of these functions this organization continues to be one of the largest retailers in the world. References Alleyne, S. (2012, September). Second Act. Black Enterprise, 43(2), 82-88. Bateman, T. S. & Snell, S. A. (2011). Management: Leading & Collaborating in a Competitive World (9th ed. ). New York, NY: McGraw- Hill Irwin. Boyle,M. Bloomberg Business Week. 2009. www. businessweek. com/managing/content/ovt2009/ca20091 Ethical Standards Program. (2006). Retrieved from http://walmartfacts. om/reports/2006/ethical_standards/building. html Leber, J. (20 12, October). Wal-Mart dives into search technology. Retrieved from www. technologyreviews. com Salter, C. (2012, July). #9 Wal-Mart. www. fastcompany. com, (). Vijay Govindarajan and Anil K. Gupta. Strategy + Business. Global Perspective. 2002. Fourth Quarter 1999. Issue 17. www. strategy-business. com/article/13866? gko=e19cb www. corporate. walmart. com. (2012). Retrieved from http://corporate. walmart. com/our-story/our-stores www. todaro. posterous. com. (2010). Retrieved from http://http. //todaro. posterous. com

Management and Organizational Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Management and Organizational Ethics - Essay Example This is ethically right regardless of its costs and consequences. Actually, BBC, (2012) records that, â€Å"Deontological (duty-based) ethics are concerned with what people do, not with the consequences of their actions.† However, this has not been easy for me subject to the temptations resulting from the convenience and money-saving aspect that comes with downloading music from the prohibited websites. Indeed, despite the knowledge of the adverse effects of such unethical behaviors am always under pressure to do it. However, am aware that if I adhere to my responsibility of obliging to the legal proclamation of music copyright owners and consequently buy CDs from legal stores and outlets, that way I would be adding more benefits to the music industry and securing my nation from terrorism (Dan, 2006). Nevertheless, more than often, I find myself collaborating with a crime to infringe on others efforts thus benefiting myself at their expense. Hence, after failing to establish an effective and consistent commitment to ethical behavior, I feel that I should re-evaluate my policy in order to overcome the challenges on my way. Indeed, Hardin (2006) reckons that â€Å"commitment requires action or series of action and will often lead to success.† As such, since my conscience convinces me that what I am doing is ethically wrong despite the inherent benefits that I derive from it, I must, therefore, redefine my policy to ensure that I strictly abide with the set rules governing the music industry. Most importantly, I know that peer pressure affects my pursuit in this endeavor since all my friends feel nothing about this unethical behavior (Dordrecht, 1992; Arrington, 2009). As such, for me to succeed I must change my friends or at least avoid them during leisure times and holidays. This will reduce the pressure to download such music as my friends usually do it as a hobby.

Econonics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Econonics - Essay Example This phenomenon is called the income effect. Similarly, when the price of a particular product increases certain person opt to switch to any other low priced substitute goods. This is called the substitution effect. This clearly explains that there is a relation between income effect and substitution effect. That is, the substitution effect occurs as result of income effect. 2. Explain, using an income compensated demand curve, how a per unit tax on a good can reduce its consumption even if the government uses the tax revenue to make consumers as well off as they were before the tax was imposed. The tax impact should be met by the consumers themselves. If there are any changes in the price of a commodity, it will ultimately affect the demand of such a product, and finally the income of the buyer also. There is an inverse relation between the demand and supply, but the price factor is also playing a key role in this context. If there is an increase in the price of a commodity, the total income level of the consumer will be affected. "As shown in the Calculus of Hedonism, economists derive the individual demand curve from individual utility maps. Normally this results in the desired downward-sloping demand function, but there is a fly in the ointment to dispose of, since it is possible, though difficult, to draw a utility map which results in an upward sloping demand curve." Upward Sloping Demand Curve with Inferior goods. Separating the impact of a price change into the "income" and "substitution" effects Compensated demand curve slopes downwards (Keen 2000). Thus it becomes apparent that if any changes take place in the price pattern of a commodity, there should be a corresponding change in the income level of the consumer. 3. Explain, using consumer theory, why it might benefit companies (for example, mobile phone companies) to offer a menu of price and service options to consumers Every consumer has his or her own rights to select the goods according to his or her taste and preferences. Consumers should give emphasis for the quality of goods and the price affordability. The consumer theory gives more focus on the concept of effective utilization of purchased goods and thereby the attainment of satisfaction. Utility Function Optimization Model (Mylonakis 2004). The applicability of consumer theory is very beneficial in the case of cutthroat competition. Due to recent technological advancements, nowadays mobile phone companies are also functioning on the basis of modern economic principles. "Mobile commerce opportunities cover mobile initiatives that are designed to achieve strategic change in downstream activities through direct interaction with the customer. Customer knowledge must reach all the necessary parts of a mobile company to be useful, such as through an electronic knowledge repository. But mobile services involve more than just sending knowledge. They incorporate both technical and cultural challenges. To deliver superior service