The Primary Causes of Terrorist Political Violence

Introduction The past decade has seen terrorism emerge as a serious threat to global security. The events of September 11, 2011 where terrorists devastated the city of New York especially highlighted the devastating effects of terrorism on social life. Since then, governments and scholars alike have tried to discover the underlying causes of terrorism by non-state actors.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Primary Causes of Terrorist Political Violence specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The Norwegian Defense Research Establishment (NDRE) acknowledges that discussions on the causes of terrorism are controversial with different people seeing various underlying causes as the primary causes of terrorism (7). Trying to perceive the major motives of terrorist organizations is paramount to understanding and responding to terrorism (United Nations General Assembly 1). This paper sets out to determine what the primary reas ons for terrorist political violence in the modern world are. This paper asserts that terrorists carry out political violence primarily due to identity grievances of religion, culture, and ethnicity. I will show that identity grievances are the major causes of terrorism by analyzing some of the most prominent terrorist organizations in the world. Next, I will offer some counterarguments that claim that economic grievances are the primary motivators for terrorism and proceed to rebut these counterarguments through examples. The paper will conclude with a summary of the points made and a discussion of the implications of the arguments made. Identity Grievances as the Primary cause of Terrorism Religion Religion is the most important motivation for terrorists in our era. Brown notes that religion has emerged as â€Å"the predominant impetus for terrorist attacks† with present day terrorists demonstrating an increase in fanaticism (33). The fanaticism of the new terrorism has mad e it more dangerous and unpredictable with targets chosen in an indiscriminate fashion. Berman and David assert that religious terrorism has built on the already strong affiliations that individuals seek with their religion (1945). In a clash between the religious beliefs and those of the state or a foreign power, the religious beliefs are likely to triumph and garner the support of the majority. While religious grievances are not restricted to any one religion, Islam has stood out as the religion most inclined to use violence to highlight their grievances. Islamic Fundamentalism has led to the creation and proliferation of terror organizations such as Hamas and Al-Qaeda (Lutz and Brenda 132).Advertising Looking for essay on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More These organizations use an overt religiosity to justify and rationalize all forms of violence that they commit against innocent people. Brown reveals tha t by use of clerical guidance and Islamic scriptures, these groups are able to rationalize their acts of terror and elicit the support of the public (34). Because of their religious convictions, terrorists are able to carry out acts of religious violence such as suicide bombings. The most devastating act of terrorism, the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, were carried out by suicidal terrorists who were willing to kill themselves for an expressed religious duty (Sabucedo and Corte 557). The surge of Islamic terrorism in the Middle East aimed against the perceived theft of Arab resources by the Western world is justified through religious grounds where foreign companies are deemed to be defiling Muslim land (NDRE 26). The Taliban, which emerged as a liberating force in Afghanistan during the 1990s, emphasized on religion as the basis for its actions and authority. The first 12,000 recruits for this terrorist organization were â€Å"students from the religious schools of the radical Islamic Juma’at al Islamiya of Pakistan†. The Taliban case demonstrates the potency of religion since in this case, a group of less than 1000 religious students with little military experience were able to create an effective militia that at its peak controlled 90% of Afghanistan and caused trouble for Western forces (Berman and David 1946). Culture Cultural grievances have served as major causes of terrorism in the world. Culture plays a major role in the lives of individual since it influences the manner in which people behave, what they think and how they respond to what they encounter every day. A person’s understanding of life is greatly informed by his cultural influences since culture defines the rules by which the society lives by and the things that are considered important. Culture dictates the manner in which people view and relate with issues such as race, gender, sexuality, age, and religion. That is why individuals from a traditional Arabic culture might be offended by sexual conduct or orientations that are permissible in Western countries. Cultural homogenization, which aims at integrating different cultures into one whole, has been responsible for much strive among individuals of differing cultural backgrounds (Sherman and Terry 23). Kuran and Sandholm highlight that conflicts can develop when people are presented with and forced to conform to cultures they do not approve of (221). This is evident in most of the Arabic nations where some aspects of Western culture are viewed negatively.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Primary Causes of Terrorist Political Violence specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The prevalent culture contributes to the engagement in terrorism activities by community members. This observation is supported by the fact that terrorist behaviors are likely to be perpetuated in areas where political strife and actual terro rist activity are already commonplace. Victoroff documents that the culture of public glorification of terrorists in regions such as the Middle East has led to many youths seeking to engage in terrorism (18). It is hard to stop terrorism in a culture where songs celebrating the exploits of suicide terrorists who are hailed as heroes and martyrs of the people (18) are made. Hamas, arguably the deadliest terrorist organization in Palestine, engages in terrorism partly due to cultural grievances. Berman and David observe that this organization was formed to fight the â€Å"insidious force of assimilation into materialism Western culture† (1946). The organization emphasized on the supremacy of Islamic cultural practices and prohibited practices such as gambling, consuming of alcohol, and adultery. The group was able to gain significant public support due to this focus on cultural practices that are endorsed by the Muslim community. Ethnicity Ethnicity acts as a direct cause of te rrorism particularly when discontent and perceptions of injustice exist within an identifiable sub-group of the population. When such a group has no means of political participation, it might resort to terrorism as a means of airing its grievances. Engene observes that ethnicity is based on â€Å"distinctions between groups of people in terms of common ancestry or history, or shared linguistic, religious or even racial characteristics† (36). Research indicates that terrorism is more likely to take place in states that are experiencing ethnic tension. Ethnic polarization leads to a division among people based on their differences and peculiarities leading to a formation of bonds of loyalty between groups in society (Cohen 1). The probability of ethnicity serving as the basis for terrorism is high especially in societies where resources are divided inequitably amongst communities. Ethnic terrorism, if not effectively dealt with, might lead to full-scale civil war (Kirwin and Wo nbin 2).  Byman observes that Ethnic terrorists attempt to â€Å"influence rival groups and hostile governments by forging alliances based on some ethnic identity and fostering ethnic mobility† (150). The communal bonds created by ethnic terrorism make it very dangerous and hard to fight.Advertising Looking for essay on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More When governments take up action against the ethnic terrorists, the perceived persecution that follows gives the ethnic terrorists the much needed public attention and leads to increased support for their cause. Ethnic terrorism presents a major threat since any reaction to it by the government could heighten awareness of the terrorist’s cause and increase their support therefore making them even more dangerous than they were before (O’Boyle 27). The case of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lankan demonstrates the significance of ethnicity in terrorism. This group was created in 1976, engaged in terrorist activity with the aim of seceding from Sri Lanka and forming an independent state for the Tamil people. Hanley, Kongdan and Caroline document that the ethnic strife sparked by government policy led to the popularity of the LTTE (13). In a bid to create a monoethnic Tamil state, the LTTE engaged in acts of terror against civilian and ethnic cleansing o perations. In spite of the atrocities carried out by the Tamil population, this terror group continued to receive the support of Tamils in Sri Lanka and abroad, demonstrating the great role that ethnicity plays in political violence. Counterarguments Poverty Proponents of economic grievances as the primary cause of terrorism declare that rampant poverty predisposes people to engaging in terrorism. They argue that the income inequality experienced in some countries leads to political violence by the lower classes as a form of protest against their economic condition. This suggestion is supported by studies that indicate that there is a correlation between support for political violence, and personal economic well-being with individuals with lower GDP are likely to support a revolt compared to those with higher GDPs (NDRE 28). Solimano notes that the risk of terrorism incidents decreases as the level of economic development in a country increases (19). Such studies propose that econom ic deprivation makes it easy for people to turn to terrorism in order to protest their conditions or make a living.  The economic motivation of terrorists has also been called into question considering the fact that some of the most infamous terrorist organizations are very well funded and organized. Even individual terrorists sometimes come from affluent families. For example, the world’s most renowned terrorist, Osama Bin Laden did not come from a poor background but rather from a rich family that had connections to the Saudi royal family (Mamdani 770). Further negating poverty as a cause of terrorism, Benmelech, Claude and Esteban reveal that many suicide bombers in the Middle East come from privileges backgrounds and it is inconceivable that their terrorist activities are motivated by financial considerations (114). The incidents of terrorism in Latin America both during and after the Cold War years are also proof enough that economic conditions are not the main cause o f terrorism. Many Latin American countries were faced with multiple incidents of terrorism perpetrated against the state (Salimano 23). Scholars blamed these acts on the Cold War, which had led to poor economies and economic inequalities. However, terrorism incidents continued to prevail even after the end of the Cold War. Researchers therefore contend that there is no association between economic conditions and incidents of terrorism in Latin America (Feldmann and Maiju 101). Unemployment Some scholars suggest that high unemployment rates and a lack of job prospects even among the educated are the root causes of political terrorism rather than identity grievances. High unemployment leads to resentment of authority by the many people who are unable to make a living due to the poor economic conditions that exist. Enders and Hoover argue that unemployed people might perceive that others limit their economic prospects and therefore turn to terrorism as a way to protest this (267). Unem ployment also fosters terrorism by creating a large human pool from which terrorist organizations can recruit. Benmelech, Claude and Esteban document that when unemployment rates are high, there are more educated and mature people willing to take up terrorism and act as suicide terrorists (116). This argument is reinforced by revelations by Tawil that the crumbling economy in Yemen has led to high rates of unemployment, which has made it easier for Al-Qaeda elements to find sympathizers in the country. Even when unemployment is rife, it is ideological grievances that encourage acts of terrorism. This point can best be elaborated upon by comparing the terrorism rates in an impoverished country like Haiti and the Middle East. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world and the country’s economy has been in disarray due to the political instability suffered by the country for decades. The country has an unemployment rate of over 50% and even the employed few have very low -income levels. In spite of this rampant poverty and unemployment, the citizens of Haiti do not engage in terrorism to air their grievances. On the contrary, Palestinians engage in acts of terrorism against the Israelis. The religious component among the Palestinians explains their tendencies to resort to terrorism. Capella and Emile state that while tactics such as suicide terrorism are not confined to religious groups; religion offers significant motivation and increases the willingness of the terrorist to sacrifice themselves for their cause (277). Conclusion This essay addressed the primary reasons for terrorist political violence in the world and argued that terrorists carry out political violence primarily due to identity grievances of religion, culture, and ethnicity. Through this paper, I showed that religion is the major motivator for some of the most infamous terrorist organizations in the world. I also proved that cultural grievances serve as a major cause of terrorism, e specially in the Middle East where some Western cultural practices are abhorred. The essay demonstrated that ethnicity also contributes to terrorism since it divides people along some shared characteristics and leads to polarization. Preventing terrorism means dealing with the primary causes and for this to occur; these causes have to be articulated. Once the primary grievances are identified, it is possible for effective preventative measures to be adopted. The arguments made in this paper have important implications for the development of successful counterterrorism measures and policies by governments. Research needs to be pursued on measures through which this primary grievances can be alleviated and therefore mitigate the incidents of terrorism in the world. Works Cited Benmelech, Efraim, Claude Berrebi, and Esteban F. Klor. â€Å"Economic Conditions and the Quality of Suicide Terrorism.† The Journal of Politics 74.1 (2012): 113-28. Print. Berman, Eli, and David D. Laiti n. â€Å"Religion, Terrorism and Public Goods: Testing the Club Model.† Journal of Public Economics 92.10 (2008): 1942-67. Web. Brown, Cody. The New Terrorism Debate. Turkish Journal of International Relations 6.4 (2009): 28-43. Print. Byman, Daniel. The logic of ethnic terrorism. Studies in conflict Terrorism 21.1 (1998): 149-169. Web. Capella, Matthew B., and Emile Sahliyeh. â€Å"Suicide Terrorism: Is Religion the Critical Factor?† Security Journal 20.4 (2007): 267-83. Web. Cohen, David. The war on Terrorism. Mar. 2009. Web. Enders, W., and GA Hoover. â€Å"The Nonlinear Relationship between Terrorism and Poverty.† American Economic Review 102.3 (2012): 267-72. Print. Engene, Oskar. Terrorism In Western Europe: Explaining The Trends Since 1950. NY: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004. Print. Feldman, Andreas E., and Maiju Perà ¤là ¤. â€Å"Reassessing the Causes of Nongovernmental Terrorism in Latin America.† Latin American Politics and Society 46.2 (2004 ): 101-32. Print. Kirwin, Matthew and Wonbin Cho. Weak States and Political Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa. London: Afrobarometer publications, 2009. Print. Kuran, Timur and Sandholm William. â€Å"Cultural Integration and Its Discontents.† Review of Economic Studies 75.1 (2008): 201-228. Print Lutz, James and Brenda Joan. Global Terrorism. Routledge, 2004. Print. Mamdani, Mahmood. â€Å"- Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism.† American Anthropologist 104.3 (2002): 766-75. Print. Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (NDRE). Causes of Terrorism: An Expanded and Updated Review of the Literature. Kjeller, Norway: n.p., 2004. Web. O’Boyle, Garrett. â€Å"Theories of Justification and Political Violence: Examples from Four Groups.† Terrorism and Political Violence 14.2 (2002): 23-46. Web. Sabucedo, Blanco and Corte Luis. â€Å"Beliefs which Legitimize Political Violence against the Innocent.† Psicothema 15.4 (200 3): 550-555. Print. Sherman, Daniel and Terry Nardin. Terror, Culture, Politics: Rethinking 9/11. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2006. Print. Solimano, A. Political Violence and Economic Development in Latin America: Issues and Evidence. Geneva: United Nations Publication, 2004. Print. Tawil, Camille. â€Å"London conference on Yemen tackles root causes of terrorism.† Al Shorfa. N.p., 28 Jan. 2010. Web. United Nations General Assembly. As Debate Concludes, Delegates Urge Capacity-building Partnerships, Eradication of Root Causes in Fight against Terrorism. 9. Oct. 2012. Web. Victoroff, Jeff. â€Å"The Mind of the Terrorist: A Review and Critique of Psychological Approaches.† The Journal of Conflict Resolution 49.1 (2005): 3-42. Print. This essay on The Primary Causes of Terrorist Political Violence was written and submitted by user Trey Love to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. 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Information Security Essay

Information Security Essay Information Security Essay Network Security Past Present and Future ISSC340: Local Area Network Technologies Smith American Military University Introduction to Network Security Since the development of computer networks there have been weaknesses and those seeking to exploit them. Initially the reasons make have been non malicious and academic in nature, but later became ways to steal valuable data in cyberspace. Those who break into networks aka hackers have many different reasons for their network breaches and could range from stealing corporate secrets and national security information to those just getting a thrill and earning bragging rights to other hackers. Whatever the reason hackers have those seeking to protect themselves from these breaches will need to rely on Information Security professionals to keep network breaches to a minimum and ensure data remains protected. As more and more entities build networks of their own and put more and more data in cyberspace incidents of breaches will continue to increase as will the need to defend from them. Beginning of a Need for Network Security The history of network security can trace its roots to much earlier times and has roots in cryptography. People have used certain types of encryption to secure messages, information, communications and data for as long as opposing militaries and countries have wanted to get that information. During WW2 the famous enigma machine was developed and used to encrypt German communications. Today’s computers and networks utilize encryption and authentication techniques in order to prevent unauthorized users from accessing the network and stealing information, secrets and other important data. (Marion, 2011) In the late 60s the origins of today’s internet the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was commissioned by the Department of Defense (DOD) for the purpose of researching networking. As we know by the large use of the internet ARPANET was a huge success, although it was originally intended for the sharing of data bet ween scientists and research. An Inter-Networking Working Group was developed to set standards in order to govern the network. Vinton Cerf was elected chairman of that working group. Cerf along with Bob Kahn and a team of others develop TCP/IP so computers using the internet can have a common language. One problem with TCP/IP is there are no security protocols within the communication stack. (Dava) While originally a limited number of computers were on the internet, the mid 80s saw a huge increase in personal computers and network ready servers which allow many companies and users to utilize the internet for the first time. In the 90s the World Wide Web was made available to the public. Before long massive numbers of people across the world are conducting e-business, communication, commerce, shopping, education, research and numerous other uses for the information super highway. Historical Threats to Computer Networks and Demand for Security A few of the more memorable network breaches in history exposed numerous flaws in networks and motivations for why some hackers expound large effort to breach these networks. Below are some of the more notable and show an example of different strategies for the same outcome, which is breaching a network. *In 1978 Gary Thuerk made the first mass email now known as SPAM on ARPANET advertising for a new model of computers. (Messmer, 2008) *On 2 NOV 1988 Cornell graduate student Robert Morris made an experimental self-replicating and self-propagating program and put it on the internet. The damage was much more than intended and computers at universities, military sites, medical facilities and others were infected. (Messmer, 2008) *In 2006 Jeanson James Ancheta who turned numerous computers on the Naval Warfare Center and the Defense Information Systems Agency into botnets to send spam was arrested. (Messmer, 2008) *In Information security Essay Information security Essay No4 Briefing update Regulating the Internet Will the Internet be allowed to develop as a completely unfettered medium, or will telecom and content regulators from government and industry play a major role in overseeing what happens? Opinion is divided. Almost three-quaters of the population would like to see some form of regulation but most people are unsure how it can be done. Whichever way the dust settles on this issue, the tension between free and regulated flow of online information will continue to spark heated debates amongst academics, policymakers, entrepreneurs and activists across the globe. Early in the new year, the Commission is to arrange a seminar to discuss the issue of Internet content regulation, as its contribution to the debate. Within the review of broadcasting regulation in the UK, the rapidly expanding use of the Internet plays a critical part. In its response to the Government’s green paper on the regulation of the communications industry, the Broadcasting Standards Commission called the Internet â€Å"a cross between a tribal notice board, an information exchange, a library, a chat line, an entertainment centre, a shopping and banking hall, and a post box..† In the Commission’s view it would be impractical to seek to apply the same regulatory requirements to what are essentially private applications as opposed to those which are public. With its experience in the regulation of content, the Commission is frequently asked to contribute to conferences and seminars on Internet issues. This edition of Briefing Update seeks to outline some of the issues for both the present and the future. A review written for the Commission by Madan Rao takes a broad view and this is followed by a consideration of regulatory issues with respect to the protection of children. Surfing the issues by Madan Rao National policy Perhaps the biggest challenge for national policymakers dealing with the Internet comes from the convergence it makes possible. Issues relating to the Internet economy necessarily involve inputs from the departments of trade or commerce, broadcast and print media, the telecommunications and electronics industries, education departments, national security and policing, consumer groups, and the private sector. Incorporating and addressing all their concerns within a comprehensive economic framework is a major challenge for many societies, particularly when faced with pressures of investing in more basic citizen and social services. However, free-speech advocates in the US and elsewhere argue that a global ratings system could invite action by governments that goes beyond this harmful or illegal content and would include restrictive laws to force publishers to rate themselves, punishment for those who misrated their content, or indeed censorship. Key decision areas facing policy makers include intellectual property rights on the Net, cyberlaw (eg. Internet taxation, digital certificate authorities, online crime), universal access to the Net, Internet telephony, and online content. This article focuses on three key areas pertaining to online content regulation: concerns for children, national culture, and on-line publishing models. The challenge from abroad Concerns for children Despite the vast educational potential of the Net, fears persist regarding the presence of content which could have a harmful effect on children using the Internet, especially sex, nudity, violence and language. These concerns have led to a number of international initiatives to co-ordinate hotlines for reporting illegal or harmful material. In Europe the Internet Watch Foundation is leading some of this work. Multilateral organisations like the United Nations and Interpol have held numerous international conferences to track and counter the use of the Internet for child pornography and child prostitution. One practical response has been the U.S. based

Analysing The Concept Of Karma

Analysing The Concept Of Karma The Hindu and Buddhist religions both believe in karma. In the Hindu religion karma influences how you are born in your next life. You can be born in lower life forms such as an animal, plant, or insect. You could even be born into a lower caste system. It works the opposite way as well and can cause you to be reborn in a higher form even as a demigod or superhuman. Buddhists have a different take on karma. The Buddha rejected the notion of a soul but accepted some notion of rebirth. Buddha says that even though there is no soul the personalities of a being could recombine and continue from one life time to another. He uses the example of a flame going from one candle to another or the wind on blades of grass. To understand karma first it needs to be defined. Karma can be described as a form of cause and effect. The dictionary defines karma as sum of person’s actions in one of his successive states of existence, viewed as deciding his fate for the next. In Sanskrit karma is d efined as volitional action that is undertaken deliberately or knowingly. This also fits together as self-determination and a strong will power to abstain from inactivity. Karma also separates human beings from other creatures in the world. Karma is a notion that constantly proves the Newton theory of every action creates an equal and opposite reaction. Every time we do something we create a cause and in time will produce its corresponding reaction. It is the personality of the human that causes either negative or positive karma. Karma could be caused by both the physical and mental aspects of the body regardless of if it brings achievement now or in the future. Karma cannot be affected by the natural reflexes of the body. â€Å"A person is responsible for his or her own karma†(Karma and Reincarnation, 2010). In other words it is up to a person to give themselves good karma and move to a higher form in the next life or their doing for bad karma and devolving to a lower form. There are three types of karma savtik karma, rajasik karma, tamasik karma. Savtik karma is without attachment, selfless and for the benefit of others. Rajasik karma is selfish where ones focus is on ones gains to oneself. Tamasik karma is undertaken without regard to consequences and is supremely selfish and savage. The ancient yogis have assigned three categories to karma. These are sanchita, prarabdha, and kriyamana. The first category, sanchita, is the sum total of past karma yet to be resolved. Prarabdha, the second category, is the portion of sanchita being experienced in the present life. The third category, kriyamana, is the karma you are currently creating. It is important to understand that past negative karma can be altered into a smoother, easier state through the loving, heart-chakra nature, through dharma and sadhana. If you live religiously well you will create positive karma for the future and soften negative karma of the past.

Bushs Ideas of New World Order Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Bushs Ideas of New World Order - Essay Example While the Gulf War is a manifestation of the development of new World Order, it is clear that the idea is still at conception stage and that the rationale for its application is still debatable. Gorbachev's idea of New World order seems much similar to the ideas that Bush advanced at this point in time and converges to the development of peaceful world void of imperialistic aggression. To a large extent, the Gulf war signified the role of international bodies and powerful nations in safeguarding weak nations from ill political aggression towards a peaceful new world era. The Gulf war in 1991 refers to the historic war that emerged shortly after Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded Kuwait. Over the world, history, Iraq is a country that has always ignited numerous wars against different nations. The Iraq war against Kuwait started shortly after Iraq was given up on its war with Iran. In July 1990, Saddam Hussein gave up on the conflict he had held for a long time with Iran. At this time, Iraq had greatly invested in its military and the country was in an economic crisis. As a matter of fact, Iraq owed Kuwait 30 billion dollars and was unwilling to pay. To counter the demand of Kuwait that Iraq pays this debt, Saddam Hussein launched a counter claim that Kuwait had cost Iran a great fortune by reducing the price of Oil, hurting the business operations in Iraq (Finlan, 2003, P. 30). Consequently, Saddam Hussein demanded compensation and refused to pay the debt they owed this country. To make matters worse, Saddam Hussein launched claims that he had held earli er that Kuwait is a country that belongs to Iraq. In an effort to control Kuwait, Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to monitor the borders of Kuwait and counter any resistance from the government of this country. The feeling of this letter was that Kuwait being a small country, he could easily capture it to his economic advantage as this country was rich in Oil wells. From this perspective, the Gulf war was an expansionism strategy in which a powerful state abused its power to its own political and economic advantage.

Businesses and International Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Businesses and International Strategy - Essay Example This has made it necessary to conduct research across boundaries as it helps to identify regional and global market segments. As firms need to collect information from a broader and more diverse range of markets conducting research in developing countries has become essential. However, conducting market research in developed countries poses certain challenges. These challenges range from collecting accurate and updated data on existing behavior patterns in a cost-effective manner. Collection of data has become easier due to technological advancement but also complex at the same time. The communications infrastructure enables data collection on a much broader and diverse scale. The removal of barriers between countries, the growth of regional and global market infrastructure and the increased mobility of consumers have exerted pressure to have an integrated international marketing strategy. The emerging economies are promising in terms of sales and expansion of the multinationals and hence conducting international market research in these countries is of paramount importance. Before entering these markets, firms have to collect information to assess potential opportunities and determine how to position, price, promote and place their product. International Marketing Research (IMR) has been defined as market research conducted either simultaneously or sequentially to facilitate marketing decisions in more than one country (Kumar, 2000). The process entails taking into account various market characteristics for facilitating marketing decisions. The various components that are responsible for marketing the product can be traced. Marketing research is an important part of the marketing intelligence system as it helps to improve management decision making by providing relevant, accurate and timely (RAT) information (Aaker, Kumar & Day, 2001).

Gordon Bennett Essay Example for Free

Gordon Bennett Essay The following contemporary artists both represent their works in a post-modern frame. Post-modern can include irony and paradox, appropriation and pastiche and intersexuality. Gordon Bennett and Fiona Hall fit into one of these categories. Bennett’s painting Outsider, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 1988 is a violent painting using appropriation of Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork, and the treatment of aboriginals in today’s society. Fiona Hall’s sculpture of the Nelumbo nucisera, lotus, elum, thamarei, aluminium and steel, 1999 is made up of a sardine tin rolled down revealing a bare stomach, and plant leaves. Bennett’s work can be seen as post-modern as Bennett takes Van Gogh’s famous images and recreates them in his own manner. Bennett’s painting Outsider, is a violent painting using appropriation of Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles, 1888 and Starry Night, 1889, and the treatment of aboriginals in today’s society. He fits into the category of appropriation where he uses another’s work in a new context, with the intention of altering its meaning. He seizes copies and replaces the original imagery of Gough, by interpreting it in his own way. He uses cultural aspects of aboriginal art and is in search for meaning and identity. Bennett identifies with the world through people, events and issues involving the aboriginal people. His work is political about both Aboriginal and European-Australian history. It helps him and his people to redress the disparity between the two cultures. Many of his views about Aboriginal culture have been understandably formulated from a European perspective. His shocking, violent and traumatic work was painted while Bennett was still at art school. The painting raises many issues from Aboriginal deaths in custody to Bennett’s feeling of isolation. Frustration is also evident with the suggestion that it can lead people to suicide or self-mutilation, as in the case of both Van Gogh and the figure in the picture. The Aboriginal figure complete with ceremonial paint is frustrated and confused, that his head explodes, with blood whirling into Van Gogh’s turbulent sky. The classical heads with eyes closed, may relate to Europe, or the famous Greek marbled heads, blind to the consequences of its actions and unwilling to acknowledge the blood on its hands. They are humming or dreaming to block out the exploding head. Bennett figuratively displays his own dilemma of violently contested genealogies. The hands on the figure reach towards or draw away from the closed eyed heads on the bed. The red hands on the wall represent the hands of the ‘white’ people. It may suggest that the ‘white’ people are caught red handed by the way they react to the mutilated figure. The red in the painting is strong and contrasting with the other natural tones; the same red is taken from the bed cover, and used in the handprints on the wall and the blood on the wrists and neck of the figure. The window seems to be a window to the dark swirls of the night, which may represent death. The figure’s head is almost exploding into the dark metaphysical zone, here drawn from Starry Night. For Van Gogh the starry night was a forbidding of death and return to an ultimate peace for which he longed. Bennet seems to deliberately take on this same theme. The dots, dashes and roundels in Bennett’s starry night may suggest Western Desert Aboriginal paintings.

The First Video Game :: essays research papers

While it is as far from the eventual commercial videogame systems that come later as a walk in the park is to a walk on the moon, a physicist trying to make the public tour of his lab a little more exciting to bored visitors designs what some consider as a precursor videogame system in 1958. Working at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a US nuclear research lab in Upton, New York, William A. Higinbotham notices that people attending the annual autumn open houses, which are held to show the public how safe the work going on there is, are bored with the displays of simple photographs and static equipment. Educated at Cornell University as a physics graduate, Higinbotham had come to BNL from Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project, and had actually been witness to the first detonation of the atomic bomb. A chain-smoking, fun-loving character and self-confessed pinball player, he wants to develop an open house exhibit at BNL that will entertain people as they learn. His idea is to use a small analog computer in the lab to graph and display the trajectory of a moving ball on an oscilloscope, with which users can interact. Missile trajectory plotting is one of the specialties of computers at this time, the other being cryptography. In fact, the first electronic computer was developed to plot the trajectory of the thousands of bombs to be dropped in WWII. As head of Brookhaven's Instrumentation Division, and being used to building such complicated electronic devices as radiation detectors, it's no problem for Higinbotham, along with Technical Specialist Robert V. Dvorak who actually assembles the device, to create in three weeks the game system they name Tennis for Two, and it debuts with other exhibits in the Brookhaven gymnasium at the next open house in October 1958. In the rudimentary side-view tennis game, the ball bounces off a long horizontal line at the bottom of the oscilloscope, and there is a small vertical line in the centre to represen t the net. Two boxes each with a dial and a button are the controllers...the dials affect the angle of the ball trajectory and the buttons "hit" the ball back to the other side of the screen. If the player doesn't curve the ball right it crashes into the net. A reset button is also available to make the ball reappear on either side of the screen ready to be sent into play again.

Friends and Family

Friends are biggest value in people’s lives. I have many friends. Most of them are my neighbors, but also I have schoolmates. I can go out somewhere with them and feel comfortable. I know that friends of mine will help me anytime and anywhere. I can trust them. I have one best friend. I may pin his faith. Friendship between a friend of mine and me is firm and intense. He always helps me solve problems and treats me with respect. A friend of mine has never lied to me. It is better to say home truth that sweet lie. If I am upset, my best friend will jolly up me. He is caring, cheerful, trustworthy, outgoing and good-tempered. He is younger than I am. I think that age is not important for a friendship if you can come to an understanding and respect each other. I have friends among people of a different generation. I like younger mates because I can be child . Older people are serious and calm. They care about their studies or jobs. They have less free time. However, I like them because they can teach me something and share their experience. Older friends may help me to do my homework and explain me what I cannot understand. Friends are one of life treasures so that we have to treasure our friendships. It is not easy to make friends nowadays. The true friend should be honest and trustworthy. Without these characteristics, you cannot have a friendship with anyone. Person must be sociable, tolerant, conscientious, and good-tempered if he wants make friends. Furthermore, he must understand other person’s feelings and moods and always help him. If person wants not to lose old friends, he should care about them. He should call them and ask how they are. We should safe our relationships. If we break friendship, it will be hard to recover it. I suppose that friendship is a state when you feel important and you know that you can do something helpful or needful to your friend. Sometimes you see somebody for the first time and that is strange when you feel you are friends for ages. My ideal friend has to be himself. I don’t think, I should name any of his/her (later on: he) character features. It’s even doesn’t matter when he has something, what doesn’t exist in rules of ideal man – e. g. unpolitness. It’s better when the social mask is not worn and you can talk to your friend and be absolutely ensured that he is not lying and he will help not every time, but only those times, when he could. I believe that’s very important. I don’t agree also to the idea that friends, having in common only external personalities are bad ones. I don’t think that it’s good to have a friend for a life. After some years you feel kind of exhausted and the light of the friendship begins to go out. People with external similarities can also be very good friends and the ones only with internal sometimes even can’t talk – e. . when he thinks right the same way, i think, it’s not interesting for me to talk with him, because i know how he thinks and i want to know more different people and to hear different oppinions. So, I must disappoint you, but I needless to say, having some internal common points. You don’t have to have a friend (like the po em, we read, says) but having one makes your life, your steps through the life much more easier and funnier. Nowadays often debated theme is the choice between a family and friends. For me a family is more important than friends. There are some thoughts about this lemma. Firstly, I think that a family is more important than friends, because when you are born you fall into a family not into your friends’ circle. First people with whom you get acquainted after your birth are your faSecondly, when we are teenagers for us it looks like that our family members are our enemies. We try to run from our family to our friends, but if it happens a really big problem, we come back to our family, because family is our most immediate and precious people. In our hearts we know that if nobody helps us, we can always rely on our family. But if we look at the another side of the coin, we can see that sometimes there are such problems in a family that parents can’t take care of their own children. In such situation we can trust just for our friends help, because family can’t help us. Finally, I think that not just family members have to help us. Sometimes we must help our family. Maybe then we will be able to say that our choice is family. In conclusion, I can say that we should never forget our nearest realatives. We should never forget and abandon our family. mily members. With no-one else, but just with your family help, you get known the world. Friends and family are important in our lifes, but the question is – which, friends or family, are more important for us? I believe that family is more significant then friends. In the first place, we can always trust our family’s members. When we have a trouble and we need some help, who will help us first? Of course, our family’s members. In addition, family supports you materrialy. Everything what you are wering, all notebooks, pens and other things you need at school and not just here are bought by your parents ( If you are still child ). Who else if not they buy you all these thinkgs abd help you tu survive? On the other hand, some people think, that friends are more important for their lifes. However, most of them forgot that friends are with you just while everything is good. Unfrotunately, when something bad occurs to you and you need their help, most of them turn their backs. Finally, I believe that family is the biggest support in our lifes, that’s why they are more imposrtant.

Diversification and Firm Performance

DIVERSIFICATION AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION Anil M. Pandya and Narendar V. Rao Abstract Diversification is a strategic option that many managers use to improve their firms’ performance. This interdisciplinary research attempts to verify whether firm level diversification has any impact on performance. The study finds that on average, diversified firms show better performance compared to undiversified firms on both risk and return dimensions. It also tests the robustness of these results by classifying firms by performance class.The results show that among the best performing class of firms, undiversified firms have higher returns, but these returns are accompanied by high variance. Whereas, highly diversified firms show lower returns, and much lower variance. Results further show that diversified firms perform better than undiversified firms on risk and return dimensions, in the low and average performance classes. The paper concludes that a dominant undivers ified firm may perform better than a highly diversified firm in terms of return but its riskiness will be much greater.If managers of such firms opt for diversification, their returns will decrease, but their riskiness will reduce proportionately more than the reduction in their returns. In such firms, there will be a tradeoff between risk and return. INTRODUCTION Two seemingly irreconcilable facts motivate this study: one, diversification continues to be an important strategy for corporate growth; and two, while Management and Marketing disciplines favor related diversification, Finance makes a strong case against corporate diversification.With the help of a large sample, this interdisciplinary study tries to address this contradiction in the associative relationship between diversification and firm performance. Diversification is a means by which a firm expands from its core business into other product markets (Aaker 1980, Andrews 1980, Berry 1975, Chandler 1962, Gluck 1985). Rese arch shows corporate management to be actively engaged in diversifying activities.Rumelt (1986) found that by 1974 only 14 percent of the Fortune 500 firms operated as single businesses and 86 percent operated as diversified businesses. Many researchers note a rise in diversified firms (Datta, Rajagopalan and Rasheed 1991, Hoskisson and Hitt 1990). European corporate managers according to a survey, not only favor it but actively pursue diversification (Kerin, Mahajan and Varadarajan 1990). Firms spend considerable sums acquiring other firms or bet heavily on internal R&D to diversify away from their core product/markets.Of late U. S. firms are beginning to moderate their zeal for diversification and are consolidating around their core businesses. But this trend has not affected large Asian corporations which continue to remain highly diversified. As in any economic activity there are costs and benefits associated with diversification, and ultimately, a firm's performance must depend on how managers achieve a balance between costs and benefits in each concrete case. Moreover, these benefits and costs may not fall equally on managers and investors.Management researchers argue that diversification prolongs the life of a firm. Researchers in finance argue diversification benefits managers because it buys them insurance, and shareholders usually bear all the costs of such insurance. Diversification can improve debt capacity, reduce the chances of bankruptcy by going into new product/ markets (Higgins and Schall 1975, Lewellen 1971), and improve asset deployment and profitability (Teece 1982, Williamson 1975).Skills developed in one business transferred to other businesses, can increase labor and capital productivity. A diversified firm can transfer funds from a cash surplus unit to a cash deficit unit without taxes or transaction costs (Bhide 1993). Diversified firms pool unsystematic risk and reduce the variability of operating cash flow and enjoy comparative adva ntage in hiring because key employees may have a greater sense of job security (Bhide 1993).These are some of the major benefits of diversification strategy. Diversification, firm size, and executive compensations are highly correlated, which may suggest that diversification provides benefits to managers that are unavailable to investors (Hoskisson and Hitt 1990), creating what economists call the agency problem (Fama 1980) and managers stand to lose if they become unemployed, either through poor firm performance or bankruptcy (Bhide 1993, Dutta, Rajagopalan and Rasheed 1991, Hoskisson and Hitt 1990).Diversification can also lead to the problem of moral hazard, the chance that people will alter behavior after entering into a contract-as in a conflict of interest by providing insurance for managers who have invested in firm specific skills, and have an interest in diversifying away a certain amount of firm specific risk and may look upon diversification as a form of compensation (Ami hud and Lev 1981, Bhide 1993).Although it may be necessary for a firm to reduce firm specific risk to build relations with suppliers and employees, only top managers can decide what is the right amount of diversification as insurance (Bhide 1993). Diversification can be expensive (Jones and Hill 1988, Porter 1985) and place considerable stress on top management (McDougall and Round 1984). These are the costs of diversification.In the final analysis, this situational argument regarding balancing costs and benefits can only explain the performance of individual firms but it cannot address the theoretical question about the veracity of diversification as a valid corporate strategy. Consequently, following the benefit-cost agreement, whether in general, diversification enhances firm performance becomes an empirical question. Further, recent reviews of the rather extensive literature do not find agreement about the direction of association between firm diversification and firm performanc e.This lack of a clear answer in the literature motivates the present study. The paper is organized in four sections. The first section briefly reviews the empirical literature and presents the research hypotheses. Section two describes the research methodology and operationalizes the dependent and independent variables. Section three presents the results of the study. The concluding section discusses the results and summarizes the findings. REVIEW OF EMPIRICAL LITERATURE AND HYPOTHESIS The impact of diversification on firm performance is mixed.Three recent reviewers (Datta, Rajagopalan and Rasheed 1991, Hoskisson and Hitt 1990, Kerin, Mahajan and Varadarajan 1990), broadly conclude: (a) the empirical evidence is inconclusive; (b) models, perspectives and results differ based on the disciplinary perspective chosen by the researcher; and  © the relationship between diversification and performance is complex and is affected by intervening and contingent variables such as related ver sus unrelated diversification, type of relatedness, the capability of top managers, industry structure, and the mode of diversification.Some studies claim diversifying into related product-markets produces higher returns than diversifying into unrelated product-markets and less diversified firms perform better than highly diversified firms (Christensen and Montgomery 1981, Keats 1990, Michel and Shaked 1984, Rumelt 1974, 1982, 1986). Some claim that the economies in integrating operations and core skills obtained in related diversification outweigh the costs of internal capital markets and the smaller variances in sales revenues generated by unrelated diversification (see Datta, Rajagopalan ; Rasheed 1991).While agreeing that related strategy is better than unrelated, Prahalad and Bettis (1986), clarify that it is the insight and the vision of the top managers in choosing the right strategy (how much and what kind of relatedness), rather than diversification per se, which is the key to successful diversification. Accordingly, it is not product-market diversity but the strategic logic that managers use that links firm diversification to performance; which implies that diversified firms without such logic may not perform as well.Markides and Williamson (1994) show that strategic relatedness is superior to market relatedness in predicting when diversifiers related outperform unrelated ones. Others however argue, it is not management conduct so much, but industry structure that governs firm performance (Christensen and Montgomery 1981, Montgomery 1985). Besides diversification types and industry structure, researchers have also looked at the ways firms diversify. Simmonds (1990) examined the combined effects of breadth (related vs. nrelated) and mode (internal R ; D versus Mergers ; Acquisitions) and found that relatedly diversified firms are better performers than unrelatedly diversified firms, and R ; D based product development is better than mergers and acquis ition- led diversification (Simmonds 1990, Lamont and Anderson 1985). Among studies of acquisitions the results are mixed. Some report that related acquisitions are better performers than unrelated ones (Kusewitt 1985), or there is no real difference among them (Montgomery and Singh 1984).Some studies on breadth and performance find relatedly diversified firms perform better than firms that are unrelatedly diversified (Rumelt 1974, 1982, 1986). Others show confounding effects in firm performance because of diversification category and industry (Christiansen and Montgomery 1981, Montgomery 1985). Recent studies suggest service firms should not diversify (Normann 1984), whereas, Nayyar (1993), shows that in the service industry diversification ased on information asymmetry is positively associated with performance, whereas diversification based on economies of scope is negatively associated with performance. A contradiction of Johnson and Thomas' (1987) confirmation of Rumelt's findin g that the appropriateness of product diversity is judged by a balance between economies of scope and diseconomies of scale. It also appears there is a limit on how much a firm can diversify; if a firm goes beyond this point its market value suffers and reduction in diversification by refocusing is associated with value creation (Markides 1992).Apart from the empirical evidence, the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) holds that competition among investors for information ensures that current prices of widely traded securities are the unbiased predictors of their future value, and that current prices represent the net present value of its future cash flow. Evidence supports the existence of weak, semi- and near-strong forms of market efficiency (Fama 1970). If this view of the market is true, then investors have the information necessary to construct portfolios of stocks to maximize their risk/return strategies for a given amount of resource.Consequently, a firm's management cannot do better for the investor by diversifying into different product markets and create a portfolio that will improve returns or better manage risk than investor’s stock portfolio. Stockholders also do not pay a premium for diversified firms (Brealey and Myers 1996); the market does not value risk/return trade-off positively for unrelated diversification (Lubatkin and O'Neil 1987), and acquiring firms only earn normal returns (Lehn and Mitchell 1993), and not economic rents.Finally, corporate takeovers discipline managers who waste shareholder resources and bust-ups promote economic efficiency by reallocating assets to higher valued uses or more efficient uses (Jensen and Ruback 1983, Lehn and Mitchell 1993). The review of empirical literature from Management/Marketing disciplines and the theoretical and empirical literature from Finance show that the relationship between diversification and performance is complex and is affected by intervening and contingent variables. Taken toge ther, the evidence and arguments presented above seems to suggest that diversified firms (i. . highly unrelatedly diversified firms) as a class, should perform less well than an optimal securities portfolio, and thus for our study we propose the following null hypothesis. Our null hypothesis (H0) is that: Highly diversified firms should perform less well than moderately diversified and single product firms. There are numerous arguments and findings against the null hypothesis proposed above. In certain markets, an investor may face assets constraint in constructing a portfolio, restricting diversification opportunities (Levy 1978).Farrelly, and Reichenstein (1984) show that total risk rather than systematic risk alone, better explains the expertly assessed risk of stocks. Jahera, Lloyd and Page (1987), find well-diversified firms have higher returns regardless of size. DeBondt and Thaler (1985, 1987), argue that the market as a whole overreacts to major events. Prices shoot up on go od economic news and decline sharply on bad news. According to Brown and Harlow (1988, 1993), investors hedge their bets and over react or under react to important news by pricing securities below their expected values.As uncertainties decrease, stock prices adjust upwards, regardless of the direction of the impact of the initial event. The post-event adjustment in prices tends to be greater in the case of bad news than in the case of good news. Haugen (1995) also casts doubts on the validity of the EMH. Finally, Fama and French (1992), changing their earlier stance, argue that the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) is incapable of describing the last fifty years of stock returns, and the beta is not an appropriate measure of risk.This implies that a stockholder may not be better positioned to diversify his portfolio of stocks as compared to a corporate manager as implied by the null hypothesis. On the basis of this discussion, we could argue that market inefficiency may not allow i nvestors to optimally allocate their resources. It can put managers, especially good ones, in a more advantageous position to diversify their product market portfolios and thereby improve firm performance. Thus, our alternate hypothesis (H1) is: that diversified firms perform better in terms of return and risk measures compared to less diversified firms.Thus, on average, diversified firms as a class should perform better than moderately diversified or single-product firms. STUDY DESIGN The availability of the Compustat database has made it possible to study a larger sample of firms over several years and approach the problem of diversification from a more macro perspective. The approach used in this study is akin to that of military historians who examine past battles and in the context of operational tactics conclude that combatants with greater orce (material and manpower) tend to win more often. Those with insufficient force need the advantage of mobility and surprise to neutrali ze superior force in order to win. These insights, based on outcomes of many battles, allow historians to disengage from contingencies and specificities of stewardship and terrain. This does not imply that situational specifics should be ignored in planning military campaigns. The finding only points out the general truth of certain tactics.Similarly, in the context of the conduct of business strategy, we could also first examine the performance of diversified firms without regard to specifics of strategy, like type, breadth, modality and industry, and figure out if in general, the average performance of diversified firms is better than that of undiversified firms. The diversification literature is unable to demonstrate that diversification type, breadth, modality, and industry have consistent and predictable impact on performance. We therefore treat these as situational contingencies and do not take them into account.Earlier studies of diversification use cross sectional data, smal l samples and single measures of performance. We on the other hand, examine a large sample of firms with data over a seven year period. We use about two thousand firms, and multiple performance measures. The starting point of our main study is 1984, the earliest data point for segment information available on the Compustat database. Specialization Ratio (revenue from a firm's largest segment divided by its total revenue) as the dependent variable measures the extent of diversification.Accounting and market returns, their variability, coefficient of variation, and the Sharpe Index are the independent performance variables. The study also tests the robustness of classification of firms based on SR ratios. For this part of the study, the data is available from 1981. It also tests the robustness of results based on the extent of performance and the degree of diversification. MEASUREMENT OF CONCEPTS Diversification is treated as the independent variable in this study. As a policy variabl e, managers can control the extent of diversification desired, and performance is the dependent variable.This section defines and operationalizes these concepts. Diversification This study uses Specialization Ratio (SR) to classify firms into three classes of diversification. Its logic reflects the importance of the firm's core product market to that of the rest of the firm (Rumelt, 1974, 1982; Shaikh ; Varadarajan, 1984). After we started this work some researchers have argued that the entropy measure of diversification is probably a better one. We leave it to future research to test the robustness of SR versus other measures of diversification.Operationally, SR is a ratio of the firm's annual revenues from its largest discrete, product-market activity to its total revenues. In the diversification literature, SR has been one of the methods of choice for measuring diversification. It is easy to understand and calculate. TABLE 1 Values of Specialization Ratios in Rumelt's and Our Cla ssification Schemes SR Values in Rumelt’s Scheme SR Values in Our Scheme Undiversified, Single Product Firms SR ? . 95 SR ? 0. 95 Moderately Diversified Firms 0. 95 ; SR ? 0. 7 0. 95 ; SR ? 0. 5 Highly Diversified Firms SR ; 0. 7 SR ; 0. 5 Performance Management researchers prefer accounting variables as performance measures such as return on equity (ROE), return on investment (ROI), and return on assets (ROA), along with their variability as measures of risk.Earlier studies typically measure accounting rates of return. These include: (ROI), return on capital (ROC), return on assets (ROA) and return on sales (ROS). The idea behind these measures is perhaps to evaluate managerial performance-how well is a firm's management using the assets (as measured in dollars) to generate accounting returns per dollar of investment, assets or sales. The problems with these measures are well known. Accounting returns include depreciation and inventory costs and affect the accurate reporting of earnings.Asset values are also recorded historically. Since accounting conventions make these variables unreliable, financial economists prefer market returns or discounted cash flows as measures of performance. For the sake of consistency, we use two accounting measures: ROE and ROA; along with market return to measure performance. Return on equity (ROE) is a frequently used variable in judging top management performance, and for making executive compensation decisions.We use ROE as a measure to judge performance and calculate the average return on equity (AROE) across all sampled firms and time periods, its standard deviation and also the coefficient of variation for each of the three diversification groups. ROE is defined as net income (income available to common stockholders) divided by stockholders equity. The coefficient of variation (CV) gives us the risk per unit of average return. ROA is the most frequently used performance measure in previous studies. It is defined as net income (income available to common stockholders), divided by the book value of total assets.We also calculate the average return on assets (AROA) across all sampled firms and time periods calculate its standard deviation and also the coefficient of variation for each of the three diversification groups. Market return (MKTRET), is the third dependent variable we use. MKTRET is computed for a calendar year by taking the difference between the current year's ending stock price, and the previous year's ending price, adding to it the dividends paid out for the year, and then dividing the result by the previous year's ending price.This study includes companies for which complete data to calculate the variances used is available on Compustat PC- Plus for the period 1984 through 1990. In addition, we calculate the average market return (AMKTRET) for each of the three groups, the standard deviation of AMKTRET, and the Sharpe Index (Sharpe, 1966), a commonly used risk-adjusted performance measure. It measures the risk premium earned per unit of risk exposure. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION As mentioned earlier, Table 1 presents comparison of breaks between Rumelt’s classification and the modified version.Using the Compustat database we then classified 2637 firms using Rumelt’s classification scheme for the years 1981-1990. Table 2 presents the AROE and its standard deviation using Rumelt’s classification. While we intended to calculate AROA and MKTRT for this data set we were unsuccessful because of the problem of missing data. The 1984 – 90 data set proved to be better and was used for the alternate classification scheme for all the three performance variables. Using the same Compustat database, we classified 2188 firms in three groups: Single Product Firms (SR ; 0. 5), Moderately Diversified Firms (0. 5 ? SR ? 0. 95), and Highly Diversified Firms (SR ; 0. 5), for each of the seven years, from 1984 to 1990, for which complete segmental data was available. We kept only those firms in the sample that remained in the same SR category for the entire seven year period, and had all the data for computing the variables. After classification, we calculated each of the three performance variables: return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), and market return (MKTRET), for each firm in each of the three groups, for each year from 1984 to 1990.We also calculated the average ROE (AROE), average ROA (AROA), and average MKTRET (AMKTRET), first by averaging across the seven years for each firm, and then by averaging across firms by pooling across the years, along with their standard deviation, and coefficient of variation. Tables 3, 4 and 5 present the results. The number of firms in each performance group varies slightly because we had to ensure that the data was available for all variables, for all the seven years. Statistical ProcedureThe test of the null hypothesis requires a test of equality of means of each classification group , and for each performance variable. While the study may indicate one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), it is not a robust test. The application of ANOVA requires that the data set meet three critical assumptions: first, the test is extremely sensitive to departures from normality; second, the assumption of homogeneity of variance is necessary; and third, the errors should be independent of group mean.While for our study the first and the third assumptions checked out, the second assumption regarding the homogeneity of variance failed. We carried out Hartley's test of equality of variance for each performance variable. This test confirmed that variance of the three groups is unequal for each performance variable. We faced the Beherens-Fisher problem or checking for equality of means when variances of the underlying population are unequal. Such situations indicate Cochran's approximation test for hypotheses testing (Berenson and Levine 1992).This test requires us to test the null hyp othesis of equality of means, taken two at a time, and according to the test we must reject the null if the t (observed) exceeds t (critical) at chosen levels of significance. (Statistical information available from authors by request) TABLE 2 Performance Based on Rumelt's SR Classification Scheme: ROE-1981-1990 N AROE SD CV Undiversified Firms (SR ? 0. 95) 1663 3. 8 277. 73. 13 Moderately Diversified (. 95 < SR ? .7) 371 2. 3 181. 2 78. 78 Highly Diversified (SR < . 7) 603 9. 9 100. 9 10. 25 Results Classification Methods: Comparison and a Test of Robustness Table 1 compares the breaks in SR values. Table 2 reports the results using Rumelt's scheme with 1981-1990 data, and Table 3 reports the results using our scheme with 1984-1990 data.The first column in Table 2 shows the three categories of diversification based on SR values; N stands for the number of firms that remained in the same group for the period 1981-1990, and had performance data for the entire period under study; ARO E stands for the average of the ROE calculated over N firms; SD stands for the standard deviation of AROA; and CV represents the coefficient of variation, given by the ratio of SD divided by the AROE, representing the risk per unit average return. Tables 3 through 5 follow the same layout for ROE, TABLE 3 Performance As: Return On Equity (AROE)-1984-1990N AROE SD CV Undiversified 1844 -1. 6 323. 3 NA Moderately Diversified 315 32. 7 409. 4 12. 52 Highly Diversified 23 14. 6 9. 8 0. 67 N= Sample Size, AROE= Average Return on Equity, SD= Standard Deviation, CV= Coefficient of VariationROA and MKTRET. The highly diversified group in Table 2 has AROE of 9. , SD equal to 100. 9 and CV of 10. 25; the moderate group has AROE of 2. 3, SD equals 181. 2 and CV equals 78. 8. The Undiversified group AROE is 3. 8, SD 277. 9 and CV 73. 1. The highly diversified group has the highest AROE, the lowest Standard Deviation and the lowest Coefficient of variation. The results are in the expected direct ion. The results follow the expected path with the exception that AROE of the moderate group is less than that of the undiversified group but the mean values are not far apart and the difference is statistically insignificant.The result for the undiversified and the highly diversified groups are as expected. The SD values are also in the expected direction. Compare these results with results obtained in Table 3. Table 3 shows the relationship between the degree of diversification and group-wise performance measured by ROE. The sample consists of 1844 single product firms with SR greater or equal to 0. 95. The average ROE of these firms over the seven year period is -1. 6 percent, with a SD of 323. 3. The moderately diversified group with SR between 0. 95 and 0. , has 315 firms. The AROE of the group equals32. 7 percent and the SD equals 409. 4. While the AROE of this group is clearly superior to that of single productfirms, the group shows high ROE variability. Thus, the moderately diversified group shows an slightly improvedrisk-return profile. The third group with SR values of less than 0. 5, is the smallest, and includes only 23 firms. The average ROE of the group equals 14. 6 or about half that of the second group, with SD of 9. 8, which is much lower than the first and the second group.The CV is the lowest at 0. 67, which is about 1/20 of the moderate group. Table 3 shows that while highly diversified firms have lower risk than moderately diversified firms; moderately diversified firms have higher average ROE compared to highly diversified firms. It also shows that single product firms have lower risk than moderately diversified firms, but moderately diversified firms have much higher returns. When we combine the return and risk measures as given by the coefficient of variation CV, we do see consistent results, i. e. that highly diversified firms have better risk-return profile than moderately diversified firms; and moderately diversified firms perform be tter in risk-return terms when compared to single product firms. We find that the Tables 2 and 3 show results in expected direction. The highly diversified groups have higher AROE and lower SD compared to the other two groups. This comparison of the two classification schemes shows sufficient consistency especially in the two extreme groups to strongly suggest that performance tends to be invariant to classification breaks.The comparison also demonstrates the validity of using the more pronounced classification scheme used in this study. Performance as Return on Assets and its Variability Table 4 shows the relationship between the degree of diversification and group-wise performance based on ROA. The sample consists of 1848 single product firms with SR greater or equal to 0. 95. The AROA of these firms over the seven year period is – 1. 9 percent, with a SD of 38. 2. TABLE 4 Performance As: Return On Assets (AROA)-1984-1990 N AROA SD CV Undiversified 1848 -1. 38. 2 NA Moderat ely Diversified 316 4. 0 5. 0 1. 25 Highly Diversified 24 5. 8 2. 7 0. 47 N= Sample Size, AROA= Average Return on Assets, SD= Standard Deviation, CV= Coefficient of Variation The moderately diversified group with SR between 0. 95 and 0. 5 has 316 firms. Its AROA equals 4 percent with a5 percent SD. In absolute terms, the AROA of this group is higher than that of undiversified firms and has lower SDof 5. 0 percent, as compared to 38. percent of the first group. The CV is positive at 1. 25, which shows a much improved risk-return profile. The third group of the highly diversified firms includes 24 firms, with AROA of 5. 8 and SD of 2. 7. These values are lower than the first and the second group. The CV of this group is high at 0. 47, being 38 percent of the moderate group. Statistical results in Table 2 show that as we move from undiversified group of firms to the highly diversified group of firms, the average return on assets increases, and the variability of ROA as given by SD decr eases, and CV or the risk per unit return decreases.Statistically, according to Table 4, the above results are significant at the 1% level. Based on these findings reject the null hypothesis. Performance as Market Return Table 5 reports group-wise markets return performance. The sample consists of 1195 firms in the single product category, and 280 and 23 firms in the moderately and highly diversified groups. The sample for each group is smaller than it was for AROA and AROE because we eliminated firms that did not have complete information for the period under study.The average market return AMKTRET of the undiversified group over the study period is 8. 2 percent. The SD is 21. 1, the risk per unit of return as measured by the CV is 2. 57 and the Sharpe Index is 0. 0421. The moderately diversified group with SR between 0. 95 and 0. 5 has 280 firms. Their AMKTRET equals 13. 2 percent and the SD equals 40. 8 percent. Whereas, the average market return of this group is clearly superior to that of the single product firms, the group shows higher variability as compared to the first one. The CV, i. e. , the risk per unit return also is higher at 3. 8. The Sharpe Index of the moderate group is 0. 1443, about three times higher than the first group, and is in the expected direction. The third group includes 23 firms. Its AMKTRET equals 16. 3, with SD of 10. 1, which is much lower than the first and the second group. The CV is 0. 67, about a fourth of the first group. The Sharpe Index at 0. 89 is about six times higher than that of moderately diversified firms. Table 5 shows that the average market return for the highly diversified group is higher than the moderately diversified group, followed by the single product group.The variability of market returns of the highly diversified group is lower than firms in the single product group. Moderately diversified firms on average have a higher market return, but higher risk than single product firms. The Sharpe Index, the i nverse of which gives us risk per unit return, and is a better risk-return measure, shows that the performance of highly diversified firms is much better than the moderately diversified ones, and performance of moderately diversified firms is better than single product firms. TABLE 5 Performance As: Market Return (AMKTRET)-1984-1990N AMKTRET SD CV SI Undiversified 1195 8. 2 21. 1 2. 57 0. 0421 Moderately Diversified 280 13. 2 40. 8 3. 08 0. 1443 Highly Diversified 23 16. 3 10. 1 0. 67 0. 8900 N= Sample Size, AMKRET= Average Market Return, SD= Standard Deviation, CV= Coefficient of Variation, SI= Sharp’s Index Analysis of ResultsStatistical analysis of the results in Tables 3, 4 and 5 are reported in Table 6. These results look strong. They `show that performance of firms as measured by all the variables in the undiversified group is markedly below that of the firms in the highly diversified group and that these results are statistically significant. The results also show that the performance of firms in the moderately diversified group is better than that of the firms in the undiversified group. These results are also statistically significant.The performance difference between the moderate and highly diversified group however, is not always that clear. When measured on AROA, Sharpe Index and CV, the results are in the expected direction and significant, but when performance is measured by AROE and its SD, and AMKTRET and its SD, the results are not as clear. TABLE 6 Statistical Analysis of Performance Variables STATISTIC AROA AROE AMKTRET n 729. 33 727. 33 499. 3 F max (3,n) 20. 17* 1747. 78* 16. 32* F12 58. 37* 0. 67*+ 0. 27+ F23 3. 43* 1747. 78* 16. 32* F13 200. 17* 1088. 33* 4. 45* t’12 6. 29* 1. 41**** 1. 9** t’23 2. 91* 1. 86*** 0. 96*+ t’13 7. 38* 2. 08*** 3. 07* *Significant at 0. 01 or less; **Significant at 0. 025; ***Significant at 0. 05; ****Significant at 0. 1; *+Significant at 0. 25; +Not significant. The results sugge st that we can reject the null and accept the alternate hypothesis: that higher the degree of diversification, greater is the average performance, measured in risk-return terms.The following paragraphs analyze the results for each performance variable in greater detail. Analysis of Results by Performance Class We further massage our data by subdividing each diversification category: undiversified, moderately diversified, and highly diversified, into three performance classes by adding and subtracting one standard deviation from the average ROE. Thus, each category is divided into three performance subclasses: Average ROE + 1 Std. Dev. ; Average ROE; and Average ROE – 1 Std. Dev†¦ This gives rise to a total of nine performance classes, three for each level of diversification.If the hypothesis that the higher the degree of diversification, the higher the performance is robust, then we should expect it to hold when we compare performance across the performance sub-classes. That is; the high, average and below average ROE performance of highly diversified firms should be higher than the respective performance of the three moderately diversified groups, and each of the three moderate performance groups should have higher average ROE as compared to each of the three undiversified groups.If this relation holds then we can say with greater degree of confidence that diversification of firms leads to higher performance for all classes of firms. We, therefore, hypothesize that the best, the average and the medium performing groups demonstrate a consistent pattern of performance across the three diversification groups on both risk and return dimensions. Table 7 shows classification of firms based on degree of diversification and by performance class. These results are both in expected and unexpected directions.The performance for the low and average performing firms, both in terms of risk and return diversification is in expected directions. But the results fo r the high performance group is found to be in the expected direction only for risk, while for the return measure the performance is in the opposite direction. In the worst performance sub-class, the AROE of undiversified firms is -59. 53, and the SD is 103. 16. As we go toward increasing level of diversification, AROE performance increases to -5. 78 and SD drops down to 5. 58 for the moderate group. For the highly diversified group, AROE becomes +2 and SD falls to 0. 2. In the average performance sub-class, the AROE for the undiversified group is 2. 46, and SD is 6. 87. For the moderately diversified group, ROE increases to 4. 21 and SD falls to 2. 91. For the highly diversified group, AROE increases to 5. 27 and SD falls 1. 60. The results for these two performance sub-classes are consistent with the results obtained for the entire group as shown in Table 3. The results for the best performance sub-class show interesting results. The AROE for the undiversified group is 35. 28 and the SD is 36. 44. AROE for the moderately diversified group decreases to 12. 9. SD also decreases to 3. 3. For the highly diversified group, AROE drops to 9. 52, nearly a fourth of the undiversified group, and the SD decreases to 0. 87, one thirty sixth of the undiversified group. Clearly the results for the best performance class are contrary to earlier findings as far as ROE is concerned, but they are in expected direction as far as standard deviation is concerned. We are, however, able to reject the null hypothesis if we look at CV (Risk per unit return). The value of CV decreases as we move from undiversified to highly diversified group.These results suggest that dominant firms operating with core competencies and operating in less competitive environments are better off concentrating on one business segment. Our results show that such firms have superior returns but are unable to diversify away market risks. These firms may waste investor resources by diversifying into other bu sinesses. On the other hand, firms operating in markets where they face considerable competition and have fewer core competencies, or are unable to dominate their markets, they are likely to be better off diversifying, as it would reduce risk for such firms and increase average returns.SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS The study began with questions regarding discrepancies in empirical and theoretical investigations into the relationship between firm diversification and performance. Our results suggest that the average performance of diversified firms (especially highly diversified ones) perform well on a risk-return basis on accounting measures as well as market-based measures, when compared with group of firms that are not as highly diversified. Managers tend to judge performance using accounting measures such as ROE and ROA where as financial markets use market-based measures such as MKTRET.Our results show that on both types of performance measures, the group of diversified firms on avera ge tends to perform better. The data show that with an increasing degree of diversification, the average return on assets, average return on equity and average market return, increase and the average risk per average unit return decreases. The results are clearer when comparisons are made between the highly diversified and the undiversified group, and the moderate and undiversified groups. The results are not as sharp when we compare results between the moderately diversified and the highly diversified group.The implication of the finding is that in general diversification is helpful but it does not tell us how much of it is helpful. Additional research on economies of scope for these groups of firms may throw some light on this issue. The marginal ambiguity between the moderate and the highly diversified groups may also be the result of eliminating the contingent variables like type, modality and extent of diversification. Controlling these variables may provide greater insight and clarify the differences between the moderate and the highly diversified groups of firms and lend support to theory building.The most surprising finding of our study was about the class of â€Å"best performing† firms. The study found that AROE of undiversified firms was four times better than the highly diversified firms, but such firms had 36 times the volatility of the highly diversified firms. This result implies that the best performing firms, if they diversify, will reduce their earnings, but dampen the volatility of their returns. Managers of such firms therefore will be tempted to dampen the volatility of returns by diversification.Such actions, according to this study will lead to a reduction in returns, but the reduction in volatility of returns will be much greater. This is clearly beneficial to managers and employees of the firm, but a benefit of such insurance for the shareholders is not as clear. The implications for investors are that, if they risk such high pe rformance, they ought to stay in for the long haul, and have high tolerance for volatility. But even for this class of firms based on coefficient of variation, we feel that the average performance of highly diversified firms tends to be better than that of the undiversified firms.One must judge Jack Welch, the CEO of General Electric (GE) in this context. GE's top management group insists that each of their divisions must be either number one or number two in their specific product markets. Thus GE, a high performing conglomerate is trying to emulate characteristics of a dominant undiversified firm at the product market level in order to earn very high returns and concomitantly it practices the art of being an aggressive and active conglomerate at the corporate level to reduce the risk engendered by dominant firms.But not all high performing firms are as careful, well managed or lucky. The study echoes the belief of senior corporate executives who think diversification enhances firm value because it contributes to improvement of the firm's risk-return profile. The results also speak to the concerns of investors. Diversification, especially for the truly high performing firms reduces risk but at the cost of returns. There is undoubtedly a trade-off here between risk and return when managers of such single firms diversify from their core business.Thus diversification does buy insurance for the managers which may help managers and employees more than investors. But in the case of the average and the low performing single firms (most likely the non dominant firms), gain from diversification in return and risk terms, seem significant. The moderate and highly diversified groups also benefit from diversification on risk and return dimensions but their performance is not stellar by any stretch of the imagination. One can argue that diversification tends to reduce the already severe competitive threat faced by the majority of firms in these groups.The implications for investors follow suit. They are better off picking stocks of well-diversified firms as these deliver better returns over time as compared to moderately diversified or undiversified firms. The finding that on average, highly diversified firms, including conglomerates, show better performance than single product firms or moderately diversified firms, supports the belief of corporate executives but is contrary to the viewpoint of research in finance. A classification scheme by definition remains arbitrary, no matter how well we justify the scheme.The only safeguard against such arbitrariness is to demonstrate that the results of the study are invariant to changes in arbitrarily set classification boundaries. We were somewhat successful in showing that changing classification boundaries did not change the thrust of our results. Both methods showed that AROE of highly diversified group of firms was greater than that of the undiversified group. But this still is a fruitful direction for f uture research. We were able to examine ROE alone because of data limitations.The 1981-1990 data set was not consistent for all the variables and segments of businesses. Other variables need to be tested. Researchers may also want to know if, at what point, the results are no longer invariant to SR classification values. Our study has several other limitations. The research period (1984-1990) of this study does not match the time periods reported in earlier studies. If diversification matters as a strategy, then it ought to do so no matter what the time period. This study has examined pooled time series data and finds the results consistent with expectations.Subject to the availability of data, replication over different time periods will adequately address this issue. Economic arguments require that we measure performance in terms of cash flows. We do need to look at the net present value of cash flows to make strong statements about the usefulness of a diversification strategy in the capital budgeting sense. Market return may be a reasonable substitute but the examination of the net present value of cash flow may be necessary from the point of view of the stock market. This is left to future research.Although SR is an acceptable measure of diversification, the entropy measure (Hoskisson, et. al. , 1993) has become an important and probably a better measure of diversification. This study was extensive enough. Perhaps multiple measures of diversification in a future study will alleviate methodological concerns about the appropriateness of diversification measures. The research design of this study differs somewhat from similar earlier studies, and as stated at the outset, it does not address the question whether investor portfolios outperform diversified firms.Therefore, while addressing several possible objections, we urge caution in accepting these results, and suggest future research to verify the findings reported here. Finally, this study examines the ass ociation between corporate diversification and performance per se. It does not address the differences in performance caused by types of diversification, like related, or unrelated; nor does it use modifying variables like firm size and other firm-level factors, or modalities of diversification such as internal product development or mergers and acquisitions.The results of this study are interesting enough to warrant the inclusion of variables that control for industry structure and contingency variables such as interest rates or the state of the economy; or underlying managerial motivation like risk reduction, agency problem, or moral hazard. Such controls will provide greater insight into the diversification strategy, as a practice and as a phenomenon.

Word Choice Adapt vs Adopt - Proofeds Writing Tips Blog

Word Choice Adapt vs Adopt Word Choice: Adapt vs. Adopt There are many English words which are spelled similarly but have completely different meanings. The words adapt and adopt, for instance, are separated by a single vowel in terms of spelling but differ significantly in use. In cases like this, it is important to use each word properly. Doing so will help you to avoid easily preventable mistakes and ensure that you communicate your ideas clearly. As such, we’ve prepared the following guide to help you know when to adapt and when to adopt. Adapt (Change to Suit a Specific Purpose) The term â€Å"adapt† means to make something suitable for a specific situation or purpose. You might therefore want to â€Å"adapt† a novel into a film or a recipe to make it gluten-free. It can also refer to the ability to adjust to new circumstances: Being able to adapt was important for survival in the jungle. In either case, â€Å"adapt† refers to making an adjustment of some kind. Adopt (Make Ones Own) The word â€Å"adopt† means to take something on as one’s own. There are numerous contexts in which this can be used, including taking on the legal responsibilities of a parent: Jenny and Jane decided to adopt the orphan child. However, adopt can also be used more broadly to describe following a course of action or appropriating an idea. For example: After reading de Saussure, Kim adopted a structuralist approach. In both cases, the key to understanding â€Å"adopt† is that someone is choosing to make something their own. Adapt or Adopt? Since these words have very different meanings, the main thing is remembering how each one is spelled. If you are having trouble with this, you might want to focus on just one of the words: if you remember that â€Å"adapt† is spelled with an â€Å"a† and means â€Å"to change,† you will then know that â€Å"adopt† (with an â€Å"o†) means to appropriate something as one’s own. But it can be easy to overlook these things, so to make sure that your writing is free from unfortunate mistakes, you can send academic papers, business reports or any other document you might need checking to the expert proofreaders at Proofed. We’ll even check a 500-word sample for free! And if you need more guidance on vocabulary, don’t forget to check out the word choice archive in our academic blog.

Sacro-Occipital Technique (SOT) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sacro-Occipital Technique (SOT) - Essay Example Similarly, he attended the Nebraska College of Chiropractic where he obtained a degree in 1924. He studied the works of leaders in both osteopathic and chiropractic professions incorporating his engineering background because he felt that there were contradictions within the professions. He divided his time to both the practice and researching the principles of chiropractic techniques until his death in 1992.This technique was developed by Major DeJarnette during his years in patient care and research while seeking chiropractic treatment. This method was designed because of the need to assist the chiropractor to locate and correct a distortion in the primary pattern of the body. The procedures used in diagnosing Sacro occipital techniques are classified into three categories namely; category one, category two, and category three. Category one occurs due to subluxated or misalignment of sacro- iliac joint. This misalignment leads to titling the sacrum and rotation of the hip. Titling of sacrum eases the ability of pumping making cerobro- spinal fluid to circulate ineffectively. This inefficiency leads to increase in toxin in the nervous system and lack of nutrients. Category one indicators arise due to the reduction in functioning of nerve system and might affect numerous organs and tissues in the body. The other assessment procedure is done by diagnosing category two. This category occurs due to stretching of sacro-iliac joint leading to separation of joint surfaces. This disrupts the spine right up position, nervous system and body balance. There is a disc which is located between the spinal vertebrae and their main function is spacers between bones and shock absorption. In case the body is working ineffectively the spaces they lead to alteration of the discs, which might irritate the nerves. In correction of category one misalignment, chiropractor is supposed to use two blocks which he or she

Do you think high school students should be required to serve one year Essay

Do you think high school students should be required to serve one year of community service - Essay Example I feel students who volunteer may perform better in school. Looking at statistics I found that students who were required to do volunteer work in high school were twenty-two percent more likely to finish college. Twenty-two may seem a small number, but when it comes to being able to complete college I think it matters greatly. The same study also found these same students were able to improve their grades in several academic areas, such as reading, science and math. Being able to perform well in school is very important as it can affect a person’s future career (CIRCLE). The second reason I feel community service in high school is important is because it will bring about a good work ethic for students. Some students have part time jobs during school, while others do not. I would think it could give a student a sense of accomplishment. The student would be able to see firsthand what it is like to work and help others. Students would not be paid for their work, but it would help them appreciate payment all the more when they do someday have a job. I think it would be good if the schools would give students a wide range of choices regarding where they would volunteer. Students who are considering what careers they are interested in may have the opportunity to volunteer at a place that may be in relation to their career aspirations.