Natural child birth VS. Medicated child birth Essay Example for Free

Natural child birth VS. Medicated child birth Essay Abstract: Natural childbirth and medicated birth are the two options practiced all around the world by the gynecologists, these days. However there are some issues related to both the birth process. In this paper we will discuss the pros and cons of both the natural child birth and the medicated child birth. Introduction Natural childbirth: it is a natural process with minimum medical intervention, specifically the use of pain relives medications and surgical interventions (Vernon, D (2005) Medicated child birth: in this type of birth, doctor make use of pain killers and other instruments like episiotomies, forceps and ventouse deliveries and caesarean sections during the delivery process. Every woman during her delivery undergoes pain which is a normal physiological reaction. In a normal birth, pain makes the women to react against the pain by tensing and fighting it. Majority of women around the world prefers natural child births however in some cases the mother prefers to be medicated thus reliving pain. Birth pain is sudden and intense. However, with every contraction the pain gradually fades away resulting in birth of a child. (Sakala, C. , M. Corry, and H. Goer. (2004) So for a mother there are both the options available either to select natural birth or a medicated child birth. Natural child birth is a natural process and there is now side effect except the mother undergoes sever pain. However in case of medicated child birth is artificial process therefore it does have some side effects despite it’s practiced very frequently all around the world Here are some of the pros and cons of both natural and the medicated child birth: Benefits of Natural Childbirth Natural child birth is completely without any medication. Remember that medicine is a medicine and, and even the most secure medicines also have some side effects Mothers that go through natural child birth is able to move freely throughout labor and after as the new researches reveals that medicated birth makes it difficult to move during and after the birth. ( Anderson, G. , et al. (2000) In natural childbirth women feel their bodys reflex, there how they can respond better by pushing faster, as the medication does affect the reflexes thus prolonging the pushing time. (World Health Organization Department of Reproductive Health and Research. (1999) Unmediated birth is natural process and the pain during the birth is also natural that guides the mother to seek specific positions that might help the child to move easily to get into right position of delivery. In majority of cases Mothers has fast recovery after a natural childbirth since they can move freely and easily. Generally they eat immediately and their appetite is normal. In natural child birth Endorphins is secreted within placenta and umbilical cord of the mother. That secretion helps the baby to deliver easily and get adjusted to new environment comfortably. (Lieberman, E. and C. ODonoghue (2002) Naturally delivered babies are better responsive and show more interest in pre-breastfeeding behaviors such as sucking and massaging the mothers breasts, as well as the proper length of time they spend nursing during the first one and a half hour. Natural birth also increases the possibility of a healthier and fast recovery because of better hormonal balance. (Righard, L. and M. Alade. (1990). This is because a woman who has given birth with minimal intercession does not need to recover from major abdominal surgery, instrumental delivery, and cut of the perineum, any damage from IV lines, or severe stomach pain, headache backache caused by the use of medication. Natural childbirth increases the natural delivery physiology and laboring progress of healthy, well- feed women and increases interventions in the normal course of natural childbirth. Benefits of Medicated Birth Medicated Birth has a lot of benefits and is been adapted by the mothers all over the world. Some of the benefits are as follows: Women that experience a very long labor pain can benefit from using pain medication to get some relief prior to pushing stage. (Simkin, P. (1992) if the woman is finding the pain unbearable, it will definitely affect the delivery process, pain medication would definitely act as an aiding factor so that her body might not fight against the labor. (E. Jones, Pregnancy, Contraception, and Family Planning Services in Industrialized Countries (1989) similarly if the woman is experiencing some sort of fear, medication would help her by reliving her from severe pain and anxiety. However on the other hand it does have side effects depending upon person to person. Sometimes it is found that Medication has caused the baby sleepy as the anesthesia can penetrate through the placenta. (Ransjo-Arvidson A. B. , Matthiesen. (2001) Moreover pain guides the mother to adjust her position through which the child can adjust within if the child is posterior. However in case of medication the mother can not feel the pain to adjust herself thus may case certain complications in some cases. (Uvnas-Moberg, K. (1998) Conclusion Mothers have the ability to give birth naturally. Despite the women faces the pain but the pain goes away gradually. It is a fast process and has no side effects. The baby is normal and responsive. Pain medication is a great resource in very difficult and prolonged labors when the mother loses her patience to deliver the baby. In such cases epidural is very much effective. Anaesthetics may increase the likelihood of complications ( Knapp, L. (1996) We can find variety of pain killers out there in the market. If the right medicine is used I can help the delivery. Most pain killers do not take pain completely away. It makes pain bearable for the mother thus can concentrate on the birth. However in medicated birth mother always need continuous assistance all through the process.

Example Essay on CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Example Essay on CHANGE MANAGEMENT Q) What are the strengths and weakness of Kotters 8-stage model, Lewins Planned Change Model, and the Positivist Model? Change management is a planned process for changing a core function or organization of an enterprise. Interestingly, the process of developing taxonomy can result in the need for change. See Quality Assurance (www.twason.com/glossary.html) Change management is important in every project and this change management will help the project to be successful in any business or organization. There are three models which help change management to be successful in an organization or business and further help them to handle them carefully. The three models which explain about the change in an organization are: Lewins model. Kotters 8-stage model. Positive model. Lewins model There three steps of change management in the Lewins model. Unfreezing. Change. Refreezing Unfreezing is a starting process in an organization in which we determine the need of the change, understand and explain why the change is going on and communicate the vision in order to handle change in an organization. In this starting stage of change, the organization should explain the employees why the change is taking place. When this process starts there may be a crisis in the company and the company should balance everything and it is difficult to maintain it among the employees. The second stage is Change and this is a process in which the employee tries to look forward for new ways to do their work and try to accept the new change. This entire change cannot be done overnight and this is a long process. The third stage is Refreeze which helps to re-shape the organization and employees and also find new ways to work in the organization and it also help the organization to gain a change in every- day business life. There should be benefits to the employees who are trying to find new ways to work and the feedback should be taken from the employees regarding the change in the company. Strengths and Weaknesses of lewins model are. The main strength of the lewins model can be specified as easiest and simplest model to implement in any organization. It also helps employees to face new problems and to overcome those. When the change is taken place, the communication between every individual will increase and they work in teams in order to overcome the problems. The weaknesses of this model lead to the crisis in the company and the entire change cannot be done overnight and there may be lot of confusion in the employees and they need to find new ways to do their work. The weaknesses of this model are not in detail. Kotters 8- stage model The 8- stages of kotters model are Create urgency. Form a powerful coalition. Create a vision for change. Communicate the vision. Remove obstacles. Create short-term wins. Building on the change. Anchor the changes in corporate culture. These are 8-stages of kotters stage model. The first stage of kotters helps the organization to find out the changes to be taken place in the organization and helps to find the threats and defaults in the company and also rectify them and this stage shows the opportunities to overcome these. Finally this stage helps the organization in becoming strong. In the second stage, form a powerful coalition which helps to build teams or groups to lead the changes in the organization and also helps to encourage the teams. The third stage creates a vision of change. That is to Create a vision to help direct the change effort (MINDTOOLS, 2006). This also helps to develop the strategies for achieving the goals. The fourth stage is communicating the vision. This stage shows how to communicate the new strategies and new ways to every individual in the organization. The fifth stage is removing obstacles. This stage shows how to remove the obstacles when changes take place and helps to Change systems or structures that seriously undermine the vision. (MINDTOOLS, 2006). The sixth stage shows the Plan for visible performance improvements and creates those improvements (MINDTOOLS, 2006). There should be rewards and benefits to the employees who perform well in the organization. The seventh stage is same as the Change in lewins model. The eighth stage is same as the Refreezing in the lewins model. Strengths and weaknesses of the kotters 8-stages are Strengths: The strengths of the kotters 8-stage is model is very simplistic and easy to understand rather than lewins model. The strength of this model is, it can easily identify the problem and it also helps to clear the problem in very short period. This can be successful when all the employees are communicated well in all the stages. Weaknesses The major weakness of this model is that it may lead to wrong assumptions. Another weakness of this model is, the model itself. This model is not flexible once this model starts its process than it is difficult to change its way. This model is difficult to communicate to the employees and which may lead to frustration among the employees to find the new ways to handle the change occurring in the organization. POSITIVE MODEL Change models are not only having high success in implementing but also have the failures equally. They also have the negativism in planning their organizational change. The positive model helps to criticize the negativism in the organizational planning. This positive model also guides the organization whether it is going in a right way or not and helps the organization to develop. There are 5 stages in this positive model. (Thomas G. Cummings, Christopher G. Worley, 2009) Initiate the inquiry: In this phase the organization team finds out the issue which is going to be change in the organization. (Thomas G. Cummings, Christopher G. Worley, 2009) Inquire the best practices: In this phase the organization team gathers the information about which is the best policy to implement the change. The organization team members collect the information from every individual of the organization and choose the best one to do. (Thomas G. Cummings, Christopher G. Worley, 2009) Discover the themes: In this phase they gather information and stories from each and every employee about their experience this is done by interviews and meetings. This kind of information helps the organization to overcome all the obstacles. (Thomas G. Cummings, Christopher G. Worley, 2009) Envision a preferred future: In this phase the gathered information from the employees is taken into consideration and then the organization support these ideas into the program. (Thomas G. Cummings, Christopher G. Worley, 2009) Design and deliver to create the future: In this phase, the design and deliver for the future is processed. In this phase, slight changes can be made in order to achieve the goals of the organization. (Thomas G. Cummings, Christopher G. Worley, 2009) Strengths and weaknesses of the positive model: Strengths: The strength of this model is, it helps to find out the negativism in the organization when the change is taken place. The employee satisfaction is taken as a main theme in this model. This model is flexible and slight changes can be done during this process. Weaknesses: The weakness of this model is that it will not create urgency in the change process. There may be conflicts between the employees in decision making. There is no specialty in this model. It is same as the remaining models. Conclusion I finally conclude that all the models have their own strengths and weaknesses. The lewins model is the easiest model but it is not explained in detail and it is complicated. Positive model is same as the remaining models and it is slightly different when compared to remaining models. I strongly recommend that kotters 8-stage model is the best model among all the change models as it is explained in detail and it is flexible in changing process and the communication between the employees when compared with the other models. So I finally conclude that, though all are the best models according to my research, but I strongly say that kotters 8-stage model is the best model.

Factors Influencing Corporate Strategy: UK Supermarkets

Factors Influencing Corporate Strategy: UK Supermarkets Tesco Plc Corporate Strategy The definition of corporate strategy has changed over the years. In the past it was deemed to be a set of internal plans and policies designed to enable a business to succeed in the pursuit of its aims and objectives (Pettigrew et al 2002). Robert Grant (2004, p.7) in his study stated that the implementation of successful strategy could not happen until the business managers had appraised the available or required resources, have an in-depth knowledge of the competitive environment they operated within and the whole team had agreed upon the objectives. More recently, the understanding of corporate strategy has been extended to include external forces and thus it can rely upon the definition statement made by Collis and Montgomery (1997, p.5) which observes that: â€Å"Corporate strategy is the way a company creates value through the configuration and coordination of its multimarket activities.† The purpose of this paper is to promote further understanding of the factors that influence corporate strategy within a particularly competitive industry sector. For this purpose the supermarket retail sector has been chosen for analysis. To assess how these factors impact upon the market players, the Tesco organisation has been used a focus for a case study. The reasoning behind this particular choice is that Tesco Plc has maintained a position of industry dominance, despite strong competition from other players, including Asda and Sainsbury Retail Industry Supermarkets During the course of the past four or five decades the Supermarket has taken a progressively increasing share of the grocery retailing market, with their store size and low prices driving local and independent stores in increasing numbers. In 2005 the organisations had reached a position where collectively their revenue accounted for approaching two thirds of total UK grocery sales. in Supermarket sales now account for around nearly two thirds of total grocery sales in the UK and were having an increasing impact in other retail sectors. However, as can be seen from the breakdown of the supermarket sales in grocery products, there is a considerable amount of competition between the supermarket players (see table 1). Table 1: Supermarket grocery sales 2005 (Source: BBC News 2006 and company reports) As can be seen from the above Tesco’s leads the industry sector by a considerable margin in terms of percentage. Furthermore , despite the intensity of competition that is focused upon around a dozen competitors, in revenue terms Tesco’s sales are almost equivalent to the sum of their three closet rivals, which gives them a commanding lead in terms of the number of consumers that are attracted to their stores. Tesco operates a total of 3,262 stores internationally, including 1,988 located throughout the UK. Employing in excess of 450,000 people globally, the business has so far achieved a market leadership position in four other countries as well as the UK and is currently considering expanding its operations in the US. Similarly, in line with other retailing organisations, the business is expanding its home delivery and Internet presence through the development of its online retailing website. (www.tesco.com). As Hill and Jones (2007) identify in their research into the subject of strategic management, the key drivers change and the market players have to respond positively to these changes. The supermarket industry is no exception to this rule. Initially supermarket organisations were driven by the need to create a competitive advantage. In essence this is achieved when the business reaches a position â€Å" â€Å"whenever it outperforms its competitors† (Pettigrew et al 2002, p.55), but as Grant (2004) observes, ultimately it needs to build upon that advantage, thereby reducing the opportunities for others to compete. Grant (2004, p.30), Collis and Montgomery (1998, p.65) state that competitive advantage can be gained through cost or differentiation, either of which return greater value to the consumer. However, competitive advantage is also relevant to the business marketing process, where it is important for the organisation to â€Å"understand its consumers and the decision processes they go through (Kolter et al 2004, p.29). However, advantage in this area is also achieved by a better understanding than that of competitors Consumers also drive the industry as has been seen through recent years. Initially the consumer determinant was for lower prices, wide range of selection, convenience and to a lesser extent the ability to do a one-stop shop, hence the development of the supermarket and out of town hypermarket locations, where all the weekly shop could be performed at one time. They have achieved the objective on price through a strategy of low cost and strategy through a process of low cost and the offering of substitute products (Hill and Jones 2007), which as a side effect, has also enable d the businesses to achieve a level of power over suppliers that has forced such organisations to address their own internal issues in order to remain economically viable. However, more recently consumer demands have changed and the emphasis has now moved to other areas of importance. These include the need for quality, customer service and â€Å"organic† and environmentally friendly products. Similarly, w ith the advent of concerns regarding the natural environment supermarkets are having to respond to these changes as well. To address consumer issues human resource management has also become an important driver in the industry development. The majority of researchers believe that the manner by which a business manages their HR resources has a significant impact on strategy (Collis and Montgomery 1998, p.163) and (Grant 2004, p.144). Thus the supermarket organisations have devoted a considerable amount of effort to increasing motivation and satisfaction within their workforce. The more successful organisations, such as Tesco’s and Asda have created the appropriate style of leadership and team building that has helped them achieve success in this area (Pettigrew et al 2002, p.285). As Hills and Jones (2007) have identified, the better the abilities of management and leaders in dealing with HR management, the easier it is to get a corporate strategy accepted and implemented. Technological developments have also brought about a change in the supermarket retailing industry. By incorporating these within all aspects of the supply chain, such as using new software and Internet systems that enable a closer control of stock, this has â€Å"set the overall context of competition for all firms in the industry (Porter 21004, p.142). It has also enabled organisations such as Tesco’s to continue to maintain their position within the industry. As the supermarkets have increased size and market share, so there have found themselves being increasing subject to the constraints of external forces being exerted upon them for the political and legislative stakeholders(Porter 2004, p.56 and Collis and Montgomery 1998, p.68). For example, the competition commission has often stepped in during the past few years to halt development of new stores on the grounds that it would be detrimental to fair competition. Similarly, as a result of the increasing concerns being expressed regarding health and environmental issues, the supermarket has be driven to introduce new â€Å"health† and â€Å"organic† brands and, as part of the brand management process, to increase the level of product knowledge in respect of these issues that appears upon the packaging. Therefore, all of these external issues are now having to be borne in mind during the planning of the strategy process.(Pettigrew et al 2002, p.190). In essence, at present the critical success factors for the industry can be identified as relating to three specific areas. The first of these is the efficient management of its supply chain, where the effective performance of each part is important to the smooth running of the whole (Porter 2004, p.311). Secondly, the quality of its products and customer services and effective marketing of the brand is important in order for the business to maintain both its market position and competitive advantage. Thirdly, is the effectiveness of its change management strategy. In this later respect it is essential that there is a â€Å"continuous interaction between strategy formulation and strategy implementation in which strategy is constantly being adjusted and revised in light of experience† Grant (2004, p.17). All of these factors are important to the industry players in that there form the vital elements that enable the maintenance of the business main objective, which is to continue to add value for the business stakeholders (Hills and Jones, 2007). The structure of an organisation, how it manages its resources and the relationship that it builds with employees and customers are key elements in a business that is seeking success and profitability. The level to which each organisation can achieve the harmonisation of all these factors will determine both the competitive advantage and the position that the organisation holds with the industry. As will be shown in the following section, Tesco’s has been consistently achieving a position of successfully incorporating all of these elements into their corporate strategy. Tesco Case Study During the past five years, and before this period, Tesco’s have based the main thrust of their corporate strategy on Porter’s â€Å"cost leadership.† By concentrating upon ensuring that all aspects of the supply chain were cost driven, thereby lowering unit price, the business has been able to maintain its policy of reduce prices to the consumer whilst at the same time ensuring that it has the funds and ability to invest in the new technology needed to maintain this advantage (Porter 2004, p36). In terms of the former, this can be evidenced by the fact that, as one of the current advertising campaigns states, there are able to maintain a price advantage over all of their competitors across a wide range of their products. Even given that, partially because of the business cycle, which can be said to have reached a level of some maturity (Hills and Jones 2007), together with the constraints that have been placed upon the industry by political, regulatory and legislative forces, the same low cost strategy is being maintained as the Tesco’s organisation seeks to enter and make an impact upon other market segments, for example fashion, home products and finance. For example, the current range of prices throughout all of these non-core products are still promoted using the organisation’s brand marketing message of â€Å"every little helps,† which indicates that the consumer will receive the same approach to low prices as has been offered within the grocery retail segment of the business revenue. However, as will be noted from their website[1], the business has taken info account the other factors that are important to the cusses of corporate strategy. For example, the human resources management policies are prominent in terms of the employee importance to the business, as is the relationship that the business is maintaining within both its suppliers and consumers, mainly through the increasing use of technology. Another import element of Tesco’s success has been its ability to manage change. As Porter (2004, p.21) suggests, different stages of the business life cycle can bring about change, as can the movement of the consumer demands and aspirations (Collis and Montgomery 1998, p.3). Tesco’s has respond quickly top both of these areas of change rapidly and in an efficient manner (Porter 2004, p.71 and Grant 2004, p.382). In the former instance, as indicated, it has moved into other market segments, and in terms of the latter, it has introduced new brands, including those that concentrate upon the environmental and health issues being raised by consumers and to address the issue of quality, where it now includes a â€Å"Tesco’s finest† range. However all of these moves have been performed whilst still maintaining a dedication to the core business strategy of cost leadership. As can be seen from the following graph, during the course of the past five years, as witness to the success of the Tesco corporate strategy, the business has consistently outperformed the FTSE 100 and the shares of its nearest UK quoted rival Sainsbury. The only time there was any near convergence of the two supermarket chains share value was earlier this year, and this was because of potential bidders showing an interest in Sainsbury, not related to their performance. Conclusion As has been shown during the course of this research, Tesco’s have consistently led the UK supermarket retailing sector of the business during the course of the past few years. This has been achieved by the implementation and maintenance of a successful corporate strategy, which has enabled the business to maintain a competitive advantage despite strong competition from other industry players. In reality this success, which has been evidenced from the financial performance, has been achieved by their turning this strategy into a unique business culture, which as Hofstede et al (2004) has created a situation where the business is seen to have, has resulted in the:- â€Å"†¦the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of the group or category of people from others† Anther major element of the organisation’s success is the effectiveness of the way in which they manage change, being able to respond appropriately and rapidly to anything that poses a threat to the business future. There is little doubt that as long as the management remain focus on these strategies, that the business will maintain its present marketplace position. References Collis, David J and Montgomery, Cynthia A (1998). Corporate Strategy: A resource Based Approach. McGraw Hill. US. BBC News (2006). Tesco’s market share still rising. Retrieved 19 November 2007 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4694974.stm Faulkner, David and Campbell, Andrew (2006). The Oxford Book of Strategy: A Strategy Overview and Competitive Strategy. New ed. Oxford University Press. Oxford, UK. Grant, Robert (2004). Contemporary Strategy Analysis. 5th Edition. Blackwell Publishers. Oxford, UK. Gregory, David (2005). Supermarkets and Standards. Presentation, UK. Retrieved 27 September 2007 from http://www.odi.org.uk/speeches/apgood/Agric_in_Africa_05/apgood_nov23/index.html Heavens, Andrew (2005). E-commerce soars by 88%. Times Online. Retrieved 25 September 2007 from http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article417278.ece Hill, C.W.L. Jones, G.R. (2007). Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach. (7th ed) Houghton Mifflin. Boston, US. Hofstede, G. Hofstede, G.J.(2004). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill. Kelly, Sean. (2005). Customer intelligence From Data to Dialogue. John Wiley Sons Ltd. Chichester, UK. Lucas, R. Lupton, B. Mathieson, H. (2007). Human Resources Management in an International Context. London: CIPD. Pettigrew, Andrew M. Thomas, Howard and Whittington, Richard (2002). The Handbook of Strategy and Management. Sage Publications Ltd. London, UK. Porter, Michael E (1985). Competitive Advantage. The Free Press. New York. US. Porter, Michael E (2004). Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysing Industries and Competitors. The Free Press. New ed. The Free Press. New York, US. Survey (2006). The UK’s Best Online Shopping Experience 2006. www.blastradius.com. Retrieved 26 September 2007 from http://www.blastradius.com/ukshopping2006.pdf Tesco (2007). Tesco at a glance. Retrieved 27 September from http://www.tescocorporate.com [1] http://www.tescocorporate.com/page.aspx?pointerid=3DB554FCAE344BD88EEEEFA63D71B831 Analysis of the Accrual Anomaly | Accounting Dissertation Analysis of the Accrual Anomaly | Accounting Dissertation Sloan (1996), in a determinative paper, added the accrual anomaly in the list of the market imperfections. Since then, academics have focused on the empirical investigation of the anomaly and the connection it has with other misspricing phenomena. The accrual anomaly is still at an embryonic stage and further research is needed to confirm the profitability of an accruals based strategy net of transaction costs. The current study investigates the accrual anomaly while taking into consideration a UK sample from 1991 to 2008. In addition, the predictive power of the Fama and French (1996) factors HML and SMB is being tested along with the industrial production growth, the dividend yield and the term structure of the interest rates. Chapter 1 Introduction Since the introduction of the random walk theory which formed the basis for the evolvement of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH hereafter) proposed by Fama (1965), the financial literature has made many advances but a piece of the puzzle that is still missing is whether the EMH holds. Undoubtedly, the aforementioned debate can be considered as one of the most fruitful and fast progressing financial debates of the last two decades. The Efficient Market Hypothesis has met many challenges regardless of which of its three forms are being investigated. However, the weak form and semi strong hypothesis have been the most controversial. A literally vast collection of academic papers discuss, explore and argue for phenomena that seem to reject that the financial markets are efficient. The famous label of â€Å"anomaly† has taken several forms. Many well-known anomalies such as the contrarian investment, the post announcement drift, the accruals anomaly and many others are just the beginning of an endless trip. There is absolutely no doubt that many more are going to be introduced and evidence for the ability for the investors to earn abnormal returns will be documented. Recently, academics try to expand their investigation on whether these well-documented anomalies are actually profitable due to several limitations (transaction costs etc) and whether the anomalies are connected. Many papers are exploring the connection of the anomalies with each other proposing the existence of a â€Å"principal† misspricing that is documented into several forms. The current study tries to look into the anomaly that was initially documented by Sloan (1996) and has been labelled as the â€Å"accrual anomaly†. The accrual anomaly can be characterised as being at an embryonic stage if the basis for comparison is the amount of publications and the dimensions of the anomaly that light has been shed on. The facts for the accrual anomaly suggest the existence of the opportunity for investors to earn abnormal returns by taking advantage of simple publicly available information. On the other hand, accruals comprising an accounting figure have been approached from different points of view with consequences visible in the results of the academic papers. Furthermore, Stark et al (2009) challenge the actual profitability of the accrual anomaly by simply taking transaction costs into consideration. The present paper employs an accrual strategy for a sample comprising of UK firms during 1991-2008. The aim is to empirically investigate the profitability of such strategies during the whole data sample. The methodology for the calculation of accruals is largely based on the paper of Hardouvelis et al (2009). Stark et al (2009) propose that the positive excess returns of the accruals’ strategy are based on the profitability of small stock. In order to investigate the aforementioned claim, the current study employs an additional strategy by constructing intersecting portfolios based on accruals and size. Finally, five variables are being investigating at the second part of the study for their predictive power on the excess returns of the constructed portfolios. The monumental paper of Fama and French (1996) documented an impressive performance of two constructed variables (the returns of portfolios named HML and SMB). In addition, the dividend yield of the FTSE all share index, the industrial production growth and the term structure of the interest rates will be investigated as they are considered as potential candidates for the prediction of stock returns. Chapter 2 Literature review 2.1. Introduction During the last century the financial world has offered many substantial advances. From the Portfolio Theory of Markowitz (1952) to the development of the Capital Asset Pricing Model of Sharpe (1964) and Lintner (1965), and from the market Efficient Market Hypothesis (hereafter EMH), developed by Fama (1965), to the recent literature that challenges both the CAPM and the EMH, they all seem to be a chain reaction.   The financial academic world aims to give difficult but important answers on whether markets are efficient and on how investors should allocate their funds. During the last two decades, many researchers have documented that there exist strategies that challenge the claim of the supporters of the efficient and complete markets. In this chapter, the effort will be focused on reviewing the financial literature from the birth of the idea of the EMH until the recent publications that confirm, reject or challenge it. In a determinative paper, Fama (1970) defined efficient markets and categorised them according to the type of information used by investors. Since then, the finance literature has offered a plethora of studies that aim to test or prove whether markets are indeed efficient or not. Well known anomalies such as the post announcement drift, the value-growth anomaly or the accruals anomaly have been the theme of many articles ever since. 2.2. Review of the value-growth anomaly We consider as helpful to review the literature for the value growth-anomaly since it was one of the first anomalies to be investigated in such an extent. In addition, the research for the value-growth anomaly has yielded a largely productive debate on whether the documented returns are due to higher risk or other source of mispricing. Basu (1970) concluded that stocks with high Earnings to Price ratio tend to outperform stocks with low E/P. Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) documented that stocks that appear to have low price to a fundamental (book value, earnings, dividends etc) can outperform stocks with high price to a fundamental measure of value. Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) initiated a productive period that aimed to settle the dispute on the EMH and investigate the causes of such â€Å"anomalies†. Thus, the aforementioned researchers sparked the debate not only on the market efficiency hypothesis but also on what are the sources for these phenomena. Fama and French (1992) supported the idea that certain stocks outperform their counterparts due to the larger risk that the investors bear. Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) supported the idea that investors fail to correctly react to information that is available to them. The same idea was supported by many researchers such as Piotroski (2001). The latter also constructed a score in order to categorise stocks with high B/M that can yield positive abnormal returns (namely, the F Score). Additionally, the â€Å"market efficiency debate â€Å"drove behavioural finance to rise in popularity. The value-growth phenomenon has yielded many articles that aim to find evidence that a profitable strategy is feasible or trace the sources of these profits but, at the same time, the main approach adopted in each study varies significantly. Asness (1997) and Daniel and Titman (1999) examine the price momentum, while Lakonishok, Sougiannis and Chan (2001) examine the impact of the value of intangible assets on security returns. In addition, researchers have found evidence that the value-growth strategies tend to be successful worldwide, as their results suggest. To name a few, Chan, Hamao and Lakonishok (1991) focused on the Japanese market, Put and Veld (1995) based their research on France, Germany and the Netherlands and Gregory, Harris and Michou (2001) examined the UK stock market. It is worth mentioning that solely the evidence of such profitable strategies could be sufficient to draw the attention of practitioners, but academics are additionally interested in exploring the main cause of these arising opportunities as well as the relationship between the aforementioned phenomena (namely, the value growth, post announcement drift and the accrual anomaly). In general, two schools of thought have been developed: the one that supports the risk based explanation or, in other words, that stocks yield higher returns simply because they are riskier, and the one that supports that investors fail to recognise the correct signs included in the available information. 2.3. The accruals anomaly 2.3.1. Introduction of the accrual anomaly. Sloan (1996) documented that firms with high (low) accruals tend to earn negative (positive) returns in the following year. Based on this strategy, a profitable portfolio that has a long position on stocks with low accruals and short position on stocks with high accruals yields approximately 10% abnormal returns. According to Sloan (1996) investors tend to overreact to information on current earnings. Sloan’s (1996) seminar paper has been characterised as a productive work that initiated an interesting to follow debate during the last decade. It is worth noting that even the very recent literature on the accrual anomaly has not reached reconciling conclusion about the main causes of this particular phenomenon and about whether a trading strategy (net of transaction costs) based solely on the mispricing of accruals can be systematically profitable. At this point it is worth mentioning that the accruals have been found to be statistically significant and negative to predict future stock returns. On the other hand, there are papers that examine the accruals and its relations with the aggregate market. A simple example is the paper published by Hirshleifer, Hou and Teoh (2007), who aim to identify the relation of the accruals, if any, with the aggregate stock market. Their findings support that while the operating accruals have been found to be a statistical significant and a negative predictor of the stock returns, the relation with the market portfolio is strong and positive. They support that the sign of the accruals coefficient varies from industry to industry reaching a peek when the High Tech industry is taken into account (1.15), and taking a negative value for the Communication and Beer/Liquor industry. 2.3.2 Evidence for the international presence of the phenomenon. Researchers that investigated the accruals anomaly followed different approaches. At this point, it is worth noting that the evidence shows the accrual anomaly (although it was first found to be present in the US market) to exist worldwide. Leippold and Lohre (2008) examine the accrual anomaly within an international framework. The researchers document that the accrual anomaly is a fact for a plethora of markets. The contribution of the paper though, is the large and â€Å"complete† number of tests used, so that the possibility of pure randomness would be eliminated. Although, similar tests showed that momentum strategies can be profitable, recent methodologies used by the researchers and proposed by Romano and Wolf (2005) and Romano, Shaikh and Wolf (2008), suggest that the accruals anomaly can be partially â€Å"random†. It is noteworthy that the additional tests make the â€Å"anomaly† to fade out for almost all the samples apart from the markets of US, Australia and Denmark. Kaserer and Klingler (2008) examine how the over-reaction of the accrual information is connected with the accounting standards applied. The researchers constructed their sample by solely German firms and their findings document that the anomaly is present in Germany too. We should mention at this point that, interestingly, prior to 2000, that is prior to the adoption of the international accounting standards by Germany, the evidence did not support the existence of the accrual anomaly. However, during 2000-2002, Kaserer and Klingler (2008) found that the market overreacted to accrual information. Hence, the authors support the idea that an additional cause of the anomaly is the lack of legal mechanisms to enforce the preparation of the financial statements according to the international accounting standards which might gave the opportunity to the firms to â€Å"manipulate† their earnings. Another paper that focuses on the worldwide presence of the accruals mispricing is that of Rajgopal and Venkatachalam (2007). Rajgopal and Venkatachalam examined a total of 19 markets and found that the particular market anomaly exists in Australia, UK, Canada and the US. The authors’ primal goal was to identify the key drivers that can distinguish the markets where the anomaly was documented. Their evidence supports the idea that an accrual strategy is favoured in countries where there is a common law tradition, an extensive accrual accounting and a low concentration of firms’ ownership combined with weak shareholders’ rights. LaFond (2005) also considers the existence of the phenomenon within a global framework. The author’s findings support the notion that the accrual anomaly is present worldwide. In addition, LaFond argues that there is not a unique driving factor responsible for the phenomenon across the markets. It is worth noting that LaFond (2005) documented that this particular market imperfection is present in markets with diverse methodology of accrual accounting. Findings are against the idea that the accrual anomaly has any relation with the level of the shareholders protection or a common law tradition, as suggested by Rajgopal and Venkatachalam (2007). Finally, the author suggests that, if any, it is not the different method of accrual accounting (measurement issues) that favours or eliminates the accrual anomaly, but the accrual accounting itself. 2.3.3. Further Evidence for the roots of the accruals anomaly. Additionally, papers such as those of Thomas and Zang (2002) or Hribar (2000) decompose accruals into changes in different items (such as inventory, accounts payable etc). The findings catholically suggest that extreme changes in inventory affect returns the most. On the other hand, many articles connect the accruals with information used by investors, such as the behaviour of insiders or analysts, as the latter can be considered a major signal to the investors for a potential manipulation of the firms’ figures. In particular, Beneish and Vargus (2002) documented that firms with high accruals and significant insider selling have substantial negative returns.  Bradshaw (2001) and Barth and Hutton (2001) examine the analysts’ reports and their relation with the accruals anomaly. Their findings support that the analysts’ forecasting error tends to be larger for firms with high accruals, while analysts do not revise their forecasts when new information for accruals is available. Gu and Jain (2006) decompose accruals into changes in inventory, changes in accounts receivable and payable and depreciation expenses and try to identify the impact of the individual components to the anomaly. Consistent with Sloan (1996), Gu and Jain (2006) document that the accrual anomaly exists at the components level. The findings are important since Desai et al (2004) supported the connection of the accrual anomaly with a single variable (cash flows from operations). The researchers suggest that the results yielded by Desai et al (2004) were highly dependent on the methodology used and thus, suggested that the accruals anomaly is â€Å"alive and well†. Moreover, other articles try to confirm whether the anomaly is mainly caused by the wrong interpretation of the information contained in accruals. Ali et al. (2000), investigate whether the naà ¯ve investors’ hypothesis holds. Following the methodology introduced by Hand (1990) and Walther (1997), they found that for smaller firms, which are more likely to be followed by sophisticated investors, the relation between accruals and negative future returns is weaker compared to larger firms, which are followed by many analysts. Therefore, the researchers suggest that, if anything, the naà ¯ve investors’ hypothesis does not hold. In contrast to other market anomalies where findings suggest that the naà ¯ve investors hypothesis holds, the accruals anomaly is suggested as unique. Shi and Zhang (2007) investigate the earnings fixation hypothesis suggesting that the accruals anomaly is based on the investors â€Å"fixation† or â€Å"obsession† on earnings. Their primal hypothesis is that if investors are highly based on the reports about earnings and misprice the value-relevant earnings, then the returns should be dependent not only on the accruals but also on how the stock’s price changes according to reported earnings.  The researchers’ hypothesis is confirmed and finding support that an accrual strategy for firms whose stocks’ price highly fluctuates according to earnings yields a 37% annual return. Sawicki and Shrestha (2009) aim to examine two possible explanations for the accruals anomaly. Sloan (1996) proposed the fixation theory under which investors fixate on earnings and thus overvalue or undervalue information for accruals. Kothari et al. (2006) proposed the â€Å"agency theory of overvalued equity† according to which managers of overvalued firms try to prolong the period of this overvaluation which causes accruals to increase.  The paper uses the insider trading and other firm characteristics and tries to compare and contrast the two major explanations. Evidence produces bd Sawicki and Shrestha (2009) support the Kothari et al. (2006) explanation for the accrual anomaly. In a relatively different in motif paper, Wu and Zhang (2008) examine the role that the discount rates play in the accrual anomaly. They argue that if anything, the anomaly is not caused by irrationality from the investors’side but by the rationality of firms as it is proposed by the q-theory of investment. They argue that since the discount rates fall and more projects become profitable (which makes accruals to increase) future stock returns should decline. In other words, if the capital investment correctly adjusts to the current discount rates, the accruals should be negatively correlated with the future returns and positively correlated with the current returns. The evidence of Wu and Zhang (2008) support that the accruals are negatively correlated with the future stock returns but the contribution of the paper is in that they document that current stock returns are positively correlated with the accruals. 2.3.4. The relation of the accrual anomaly with other market imperfections. Many papers examine the relation between the accruals anomaly and other well-known anomalies such as the post announcement drift or the value-growth phenomenon. Desai et al. (2002), suggest that the â€Å"value-growth† anomaly and the accruals anomaly basically interact and conclude that the  ¨accruals strategy and the C/P reflect the same underlying phenomena†. Collins and Hribar (2000) suggest that there in no link between the accruals anomaly and the â€Å"PAD†, while Fairfield et al. (2001) support that the accruals anomaly is a sub-category of an anomaly caused by the mistaken interpretation of the information about growth by the investors. Cheng and Thomas (2006) examine the claim that the accrual anomaly is a part of a broader anomaly (and more specifically, the value-glamour anomaly). Prior literature suggested that the operating cash flows to price ratio subordinates accruals in explaining future stock returns (Deshai et al (2004)). Their evidence suggests that the Operating CF to price ratio does not subsume neither abnormal nor total accruals in future announcement returns. This particular result does not confirm the claim that the accrual anomaly is a part of a broad value-glamour anomaly. Atwood and Xie (2005) focus on the relation of the accrual anomaly and the mispricing of the special items first documented by Burgstahler, Jiambalvo and Shevlin (2002). Their hypothesis that the two phenomena are highly related is confirmed since the researchers found that special items and accruals are positively correlated. Additionally, further tests yielded results that suggest that the two imperfections are not distinct, while the special items have an impact on how the market misprices the accruals. Louis and Sun (2008) aim to assess the relation between the abnormal accrual anomaly and the post earnings announcement drift anomaly. The authors hypothesize that both anomalies are related to the management of the earnings and thus, they aim to find whether the two are closely connected. The findings are consistent with the primal hypothesis, as they found that â€Å"firms with large positive change of earnings that were least likely to have manipulated earning downwards† did not suffer from PEAD, while the same result was yielded for firms that had large negative change of earnings that were least likely to have managed their earnings upwards. As supported by many researchers the value-growth anomaly and accruals anomaly might be closely related or they might even be caused by the similar or even identical roots.  Fama and French (1996) support that the book to market factor captures the risk of default, while Khan (2008) suggests that in a similar pattern firms with low accruals have a larger possibility to bankrupt. Therefore, many researchers try to connect the two phenomena or to answer whether a strategy based on the accruals can offer more than what the value growth strategy offers. Hardouvelis, Papanastopoulos, Thomakos and Wang (2009) connect the two anomalies by assessing the profitability of interacting portfolios based on the accruals and value-growth measures. Their findings support that positive returns are obtainable and magnified when a long position is held for a portfolio with low accruals while combined with stocks that are characterised as high market to book. The difference of a risked-based explanation or an imperfection of the markets is considered to be a major debate, as it can challenge the market efficiency hypothesis. Many researchers, such as Fama and French (1996) noted that any potential profitable strategy is simply due to the higher risk that the investors have to bear by holding such portfolios. In a similar way, the profitable accruals strategies are considered as a compensation for a higher risk. Stocks that yield larger returns are compared or labelled as stocks of firms that are close to a financial distress. Khan (2000) aims to confirm or reject the risk-based explanation of the accruals anomaly. The researcher uses the ICAPM in order to test if the risk captured by the model can explain the anomaly first documented by Sloan (1996). It is worth noting that the descriptive statistics results for the sample used showed that firms that had low accruals also had high bankruptcy risk.  The contribution of the paper is that, by proposing a four factor model enhanced by recent asset pricing advances, it showed that a great portion of the mispricing that results in the accrual anomaly can be explained within a risk-based framework. Furthermore, Jeffrey Ng (2005) examines the risk based explanation for the accrual anomaly which proposes that accruals include information for financial distress. As proposed by many papers, the accrual anomaly is simply based on the fact that investors bare more risk and thus low accrual firms have positive abnormal returns. The researcher tries to examine how and if the abnormal returns of a portfolio which is short on low accruals stocks and long on high accrual firms changes when controlling for distress risk. Evidence supports that at least a part of the abnormal returns are a compensation for bearing additional risk. Finally, the results support that the big portion of the high abnormal returns of the accrual strategy used in the particular paper is due to stocks that have high distress risk. 2.3.5. The accruals anomaly and its relation with firms’ characteristics. A noteworthy part of the academic literature examines the existence of some key characteristics or drivers that are highly correlated with the accruals anomaly. Many researchers have published papers that aim to identify the impact of firm characteristics such as the size of the firm, characteristics that belong to the broader environment of the firms such as the accounting standards or the power of the minority shareholders. Zhang (2007) investigates whether the accrual anomaly varies cross-sectionally while being related with firms’ specific characteristics. The researcher primarily aims to explain which the main reason for the accrual anomaly is. As Zhang (2007) mentions, Sloan (1996) attributes the accrual anomaly to the overestimation of the persistence of accruals by investors, while Fairfield (2003) argues that the accrual anomaly is a â€Å"special case of a wider anomaly based on growth†. The evidence supports the researcher’s hypothesis that characteristics such as the covariance of the employee growth with the accruals have an impact on the future stock returns. Finally, Zhang (2007) documents that that accruals co-vary with investment in fixed assets and external financing. Louis, Robinson and Sbaraglia (2006) examine whether the non-disclosure of accruals information can have an impact on the accruals anomaly. The researchers, dividing their sample into firms that disclose accruals information on the earnings announcement and firms that do not, investigate whether there exists accruals’ mispricing. The evidence supports that for firms that disclose accruals information, the market manages to correctly understand the discretionary part of the change of the earnings. On the contrary, firms that do not disclose accruals information are found to experience â€Å"a correction† on their stock price. Chambers and Payne’s (2008) primal aim is to examine the relation of the accrual anomaly and the auditing quality. The researchers’ hypothesis is that the accruals mispricing is related with the quality of auditing.  Additionally, their findings support that the stock prices do not reflect the accruals persistence characterising the lower-quality audit firms. Finally, their empirical work finds that the returns are greater for the lower-quality audit portfolio of firms. Palmon, Sudit and Yezegel (2008) examine the relation of the accruals mispricing and the company size. Evidence shows that company size affects the returns and, as the researchers documented, the negative abnormal returns are mostly due to larger firms while the positive abnormal returns come from the relatively small firms. Particularly, as the strategy with the highest profits they found the one that had a short position in the largest-top-accrual decile and a long position in the smallest-low-accrual decile. Bjojraj, Sengupta and Zhang (2009) examine the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the FAS 146 and how these two changes affected the accrual anomaly. FAS 146 (liabilities are recognized only when they are incurred) reduced the company’s ability to â€Å"manipulate† earnings while the SOX aims to enhance the credibility of the financial statements. The evidence recognises a change on how the market conceives information about restructurings charges. The authors propose that a possible explanation is that before the introduction of SOX and the FAS 146, the market was reluctant due to the ability of the firms to manage earnings. Finally, Bjojraj, Sengupta and Zhang (2009) document that post to the FAS 146 and the SOX act, low accrual portfolios do not generate positive abnormal returns. 2.4. The applications of the accruals phenomenon and reasons why it is not arbitraged away. The importance of the analysis of the anomalies is substantial for two reasons. Firstly, the profitability of a costless strategy challenges the EMH, especially if the strategy is based on bearing no additional risk. Secondly, managers’ incentives to manipulate the financial statements and consequently the accruals would be obvious if a profitable strategy based on such widely available information existed. Chen and Cheng (2002) find that the managers’ incentive to record abnormal accruals is highly correlated with the accrual anomaly. The hypothesis of the researchers, which their findings support, was that the investors fail to detect when the managers aim to record abnormal accruals and that may contribute to the accruals anomaly. Richardson’s (2000) main objective is to examine whether the information contained in the accruals is utilized by short sellers. As the researcher mentions, previous articles such as that of Teoh and Wong (1999) found that sell side analysts were unable to correctly â€Å"exploit† the information contained in accruals for future returns. Richardson suggests that short sellers are considered as sophisticated enough to utilize the accruals information. Findings confirm previous work, such as that of Sloan (2000), who suggests that even short sellers do not correctly utilize the information contained into accruals. Ali, Chen, Yao and Yu (2007) examine whether and how equity funds benefit from the accrual anomaly by taking long position into low accruals firms. The researchers aim to identify how exposed are the equity firms to such a well known anomaly and what characteristics these funds share. By constructing a measure called â€Å"accruals investing measure† (AIM), they try to document the portion of the low accruals firms into the actively managed funds. The evidence shows that generally funds are not widely exposed to low accruals firms but when they do so, they have an average of 2.83% annual return. It is worth noting that the annual return is net of transaction costs. Finally, the side-effects of high volatility in returns and in fund flows of the equity funds that are partially based on the accrual anomaly might be the reason behind the reluctance of the managers. Soares and Stark (2009) used UK firms to test whether a profitable accrual strategy is feasible net of transactions costs. Their findings support that indeed the accrual anomaly is present in the UK market. The authors suggest that for such a strategy to be profitable, someone is required to trade on firms with small market capitalization. They also suggest that although the accruals’ mispricing seems to exist also in the UK, the transaction costs limit the profits to such an extent that the accrual anomaly could be difficult characterised as a challenge to the semi strong form of the efficient market hypothesis. Finally, we should not neglect to mention two papers that discourse on why the markets do not simply correct the accruals anomaly. According to the classical theory, markets are so imperfect that can produce the incentive to the market to correct the â€Å"anomalies† at any point of time. Mashruwala, Rajgopal and Shevlin (2006) examined the transactions costs and the idiosyncratic risk as possible reasons of why the accrual anomaly is not arbitraged away. The researchers aimed to investigate why the market does not correct the anomaly, but also to identify whether the low accruals firms are riskier. The paper poses the question of what stops the informed investors from taking long positions into profitable stocks according to the accrual anomaly so that they can arbitrage it away. The paper examines the practical difficulty of finding substitutes so that the risk can be minimized and its relation with the accrual anomaly. Additionally, the paper investigates the transaction co sts and findings support that according to the accrual anomaly, the profitable stocks tend to be the ones with low stock prices and low trading volume. Lev and Nissim (2004) focus on the persistence of the accr

Road Not Taken :: essays research papers

â€Å"The Road Not Taken† By: Robert Frost â€Å"The Road Not Taken† is a poem about Robert Frost reflecting on a personal experience. He talks about the time when he had to make a tough decision. With the evidence gathered up, it seems as if he regretted the outcome of his decision and he is curious as to see whether the other choice could have been better or not. This is a very intellectual poem that could leave people in suspense. For a first time reader, you would never be able to tell if Frost actually regretted taking the path he chose, or if he was actually grateful for it. It all depends on how a person reads Frost’s wording. The inspiration for this poem came from his walks with his friend, Edward Thomas, of England. In 1914, when Frost and Thomas lived in Gloucestershire, they frequently took long walks through the countryside. Thomas would choose the path which he thought might show his American friend a rare plant or any kind of special interest. However, by the end of the walk, Thomas would regret the choice he made. He would â€Å"sigh† over his decision because he thought he could have taken the â€Å"better† direction. Frost would always tease Thomas for all those regrets he would have. Frost takes a â€Å"sigh† in the poem. That could really throw people off. Frost might be implying that it was a sigh of relief, or possibly a sigh of regret. He could be completely happy about the path he chose, or he could be regretful for it. This poem could be analyzed in many different ways. From the research I did, I learned that Frost never really told anyone what the â€Å"sigh† at the end of the poem really meant. He said that it was a very tricky poem. This â€Å"sigh† came from those that Thomas would make after their walks through the countryside. When Frost returned to America as a successful discovered poet, he wrote â€Å"The Road Not Taken†. The manuscript copy of the poem was sent to Thomas immediately. Frost’s expectations were that Thomas would notice how the poem pivots ironically on the phrase, â€Å"I shall be telling this with a sigh†. Unfortunately, as it turned out, Frost’s expectations were disappointed. Thoma s didn’t notice the gentle jest because the irony was handled too subtly. If someone thinks in a positive manner, they will realize that is never really a right or wrong choice in your life. Road Not Taken :: essays research papers â€Å"The Road Not Taken† By: Robert Frost â€Å"The Road Not Taken† is a poem about Robert Frost reflecting on a personal experience. He talks about the time when he had to make a tough decision. With the evidence gathered up, it seems as if he regretted the outcome of his decision and he is curious as to see whether the other choice could have been better or not. This is a very intellectual poem that could leave people in suspense. For a first time reader, you would never be able to tell if Frost actually regretted taking the path he chose, or if he was actually grateful for it. It all depends on how a person reads Frost’s wording. The inspiration for this poem came from his walks with his friend, Edward Thomas, of England. In 1914, when Frost and Thomas lived in Gloucestershire, they frequently took long walks through the countryside. Thomas would choose the path which he thought might show his American friend a rare plant or any kind of special interest. However, by the end of the walk, Thomas would regret the choice he made. He would â€Å"sigh† over his decision because he thought he could have taken the â€Å"better† direction. Frost would always tease Thomas for all those regrets he would have. Frost takes a â€Å"sigh† in the poem. That could really throw people off. Frost might be implying that it was a sigh of relief, or possibly a sigh of regret. He could be completely happy about the path he chose, or he could be regretful for it. This poem could be analyzed in many different ways. From the research I did, I learned that Frost never really told anyone what the â€Å"sigh† at the end of the poem really meant. He said that it was a very tricky poem. This â€Å"sigh† came from those that Thomas would make after their walks through the countryside. When Frost returned to America as a successful discovered poet, he wrote â€Å"The Road Not Taken†. The manuscript copy of the poem was sent to Thomas immediately. Frost’s expectations were that Thomas would notice how the poem pivots ironically on the phrase, â€Å"I shall be telling this with a sigh†. Unfortunately, as it turned out, Frost’s expectations were disappointed. Thoma s didn’t notice the gentle jest because the irony was handled too subtly. If someone thinks in a positive manner, they will realize that is never really a right or wrong choice in your life.

Adjustment Essay -- essays research papers

My cousin Kara just got married recently. She is about six years older than I am and has graduated from college and is ready to settle down. She has been planning her wedding for almost a year. It took a lot of time and effort to make her wedding day perfect. Just finding the dress took six months. On the day of the wedding tons of things went wrong but in the end it all worked out and it was beautiful.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I got a chance to talk to her and ask her some questions about how she felt about everything. She told me that the biggest adjustment she had to make was knowing that she was all grown up. She felt like the real world had finally come along and she was no longer dependent on her parents. That scared her to death. She said that she loved David her fiancà © more than anything and she knew she was making the right decision, but the fact that she was going to be with him forever took some time to get used to also. Not only did she have to worry about the planning and spending, she was also becoming very emotional about everything as the day drew closer. Her parents are divorced so that made her planning process even more difficult. Each parent gave her a certain amount of money but neither would really get involved in helping her get everything together. She lives in St. Louis and both of her parents live more than a eight hundred miles away from her. So she felt bas ically on her own from her family.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another major adjust...

Becoming Mexican American Essay

Becoming Mexican American: A study into the cultural developments of Mexican immigrants to the United States The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss the inviting work of George Sanchez, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945. While reviewing this work of Sanchez, the essay will make use of an article written by Grace Pena Delgado relating to the immigration issues of the United States in the early twentieth century. Delgado`s article, ‘_At Exclusion’s Southern Gate: Changing Categories of Race and Class among Chinese Froterizos_’ discusses the Chinese immigrants in northern Mexico. To provide the reader with accurate and concise information the original works of the two authors will be used extensively, as the purpose of the essay is to criticize these works. The essay will also make use of a number of internet web-sites for general information on the Mexican and American historiesof the early twentieth century. A detailed list of books and resources used in writing this paper will be provided at the end, in the form of a bibliography. In conclusion, the essay’s purpose is to provide detailed and concise criticism of George Sanchez’s book, Becoming Mexican American, while supporting the criticism with Grace Delgado’s article. Ceren Keskin 207138579 BIBLIOGRAPHY Sanchez, George. Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945. Oxford University Press, 1995. Delgado, Grace Pena. â€Å"At Exclusion’s Southern Gate: Changing Categories of Race and Class among Chinese Froterizos_†__. _In the Continental Crossroads, 183-200. Duke University Press, 2004.

Finance and Business

Study Guide Test 1 Small Business BSMG 2410 TEST 1 REVIEW MULTIPLE CHOICE 1. How a business plan can be useful. A working blueprint outlining ? nances and direction for a new start-up or expansion. Gives you something you â€Å"see†. 2. The doorways to small business ownership. There are three doorways to small business ownership. 1. Buy an existing business. 2. Buy a franchise 3. Start a new business. 3. Not one of the ten killer factors. The Ten Killer Factors for Entrepreneurs 1. Weak personality 2. The loner syndrome 3. Nebulous business ideas 4. No plan 5. Too little financial backing 6.Cash-flow troubles 7. No marketing strategy 8. No controlling 9. The wrong people 10. Underestimating the competition 4. Not one of the ten success factors. The Ten Success Factors for Entrepreneurs 1. Willingness to succeed 2. Self-confidence 3. A clear business idea 4. The Business Plan 5. Exact control of finances 6. Targeted marketing 7. A step ahead of the competition 8. Management su pport 9. Cooperation 10. Clear company structure 5. Not good advice for a budding entrepreneur. When you are the boss, you can take it easy. 6. Not one of the key points for successful entrepreneurs.Entrepreneur A visionary self-starter who loves the adventure of a new enterprise and is willing to risk his or her own money 7. Characteristics of today’s changing family. 8. Impact facts about the baby boomer generation. Baby boomers Persons born between 1946 and 1963: Increase in population: Retirement age. They will probably be your customers. Pg. 33: Baby boomers make up 70% of the population. Have a steady income. 9. Not an example of the new living arrangements. Living arrangements are changing and evolving. 10. What is accomplished by the Opportunity Selection Funnel 11.Not one of the product life-cycle stagesThe Life Cycle Stages A. Embryo B. Growth C. Mature D. Decline 12. What is included in primary research? Secondary research Reading and using previously published (pr imary) research 13. Steps in opportunity selection. Pg. 56: 1. Keep personal and business objectives in mind through the filtering process 2. Learn more about your favorite industry. 3. Identify 3 to 5 promising segments 4. Through research, identify problems that need solutions. 5. Brainstorm for solutions 6. Mesh possible solutions with your objective 7. Concentrate on the most promising opportunities. 4. What is gained by doing primary and secondary research? From my understanding, Primary and Secondary research are the difference in conducting the research. In Primary research, there is no data available for the researcher; hence the researcher has to start from scratch. This means that the researcher needs to design questionnaires, collect data from respondents and then analyses the result. If you are doing secondary research, the researcher have the necessary data available. These data are made available through other publications or reports, like newspaper or annual reports o f companies.If the researcher is doing secondary research, there is no need to start from scratch; he or she uses the data or information done by other organizations or publications. The important thing is that there are advantages and disadvantages for both methods. Primary research is more time consuming and costly. While some secondary research may not suit the researcher's needs. 15. Consider industry breakthroughs. 16. Parts of the NAICS structure. Pg. 62: North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 1. Industry sector (20 major sectors) 2. Industry subsector 3. Industry group 4. Industry . U. S, Canadian, or Mexican national specific industry 17. How trade shows work. 18. How to conduct primary research. Interviews 19. How to use a matrix grid. Measurement tool with which ideas are screened and evaluated in order to ? nd solutions 20. What can be gain from market research. Collection and analysis of data pertinent to current or potential viability of a product or serv ice. Do the research up front will save you money in the long run. 21. What is included in a media kit. A media kit is a packet of information about your business that is created for use by the press.Its purpose is to provide media members with the necessary data to report on your business. Business Facts History Products/Services Bios Current News 22. Examples of target customers. Persons who have the highest likelihood of buying a product or service 23. Other things included in a media kit. Readership pro? les, and information, and market research developed by magazines for potential advertisers 24. Helpful websites in profiling target customers. www. newslink. org www. mediafinder. com www. brint. com www. sba. gov 25. What Claritas information is based on.A company providing a household segmentation tool that concisely describes and categorizes people by their age, income level, and social preferences. It is a sister company of National Decision Systems Psychographic: Descriptiv e information on values, attitudes, and lifestyles SHORT ANSWER Chapter 1: 26. Explain two (2) reasons why a business plan is critical to a small business. 27. Provide two (2) reasons for and two reasons against starting your own business. For: Job Security, in today’s economy this is one way of assure an income. You get to choose your schedule and work with flexibility- This has its benefits for sure.Being able to schedule around activities and practices and school is nice. However, it can also mean that you are working late into the evening. Just know that you have to be prepared for this! Against: It takes a lot of work. I’ve been dealing with entrepreneurs for more than 30 years now, and I’ve never seen even one of them who worked less while building a business than when he or she was an employee, or a student, or something else. Failure can cost you big time. Businesses do fail, and not always through the fault of the owner. Even good decisions have bad out comes. There are a lot of factors you can’t control.I know people whose business failure cost them their sense of self, plus their life relationships. If you can’t deal with the possibility, don’t go there. 28. Provide an advantage and a disadvantage of each of the three methods of getting into business. Starting from scratch, buying an existing business, franchise Chapter 2: 29. Explain through the use of an example what is meant by â€Å"new eyes† research. Trends, what people will be doing in the future. Helps provide feedback 30. What are the four (4) stages of a product life cycle and explain which one should be avoided. A. EmbryoB. Growth C. Mature D. Decline: you want to avoid because this means you an a downhill ride and there is no more opportunity for expanding. 31. Explain the concept of brainstorming. It refers to focusing on one subject and recording many ideas and different direction that idea takes you down so you can expand upon them in fu ture works you create. Don't be afraid to think and follow wandering thoughts. 32. Explain how the changing family could open up any two (2) possible small business opportunities. The number of grandparents raising their grandchildren has increased. Chapter 3: 3. Explain how the NASIC/SIC codes are set-up and how they can be used for gathering business information. (pg. 62) The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS, pronounced Nakes) was developed as the standard for use by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the collection, analysis, and publication of statistical data related to the business economy of the U. S. NAICS was developed under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and adopted in 1997 to replace the old Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system.It was also developed in cooperation with the statistical agencies of Canada and Mexico to establish a 3-country standard that allows for a high level o f comparability in business statistics among the three countries. NAICS is the first economic classification system to be constructed based on a single economic concept. The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) was originally developed in the 1930's to classify establishments by the type of activity in which they are primarily engaged and to promote the comparability of establishment data describing various facets of the U.S. economy. 34. Explain how a matrix to mesh desires with ideas works for the entrepreneur. Chapter 4: 35. Describe how an entrepreneur can use a mass- market magazine to generate a profile of its target customers. Handouts 36. Discuss any three (3) traits from â€Å"Successful Small Businesses Share Five Traits. † 37. Discuss any three (3) points from â€Å"Getting a business of the ground is hard work. † 38. Discuss the relationship between happiness, passion, and owning a small business.