Innovation and Creativity in Organizational Improvement †Free Samples

Question: Talk about the Innovation and Creativity in Organizational Improvement. Answer: Presentation Inventiveness and advancement are critical pieces of hierarchical turn of events. It is considered as significant mainstay of development. In spite of the fact that imagination and development are regularly misconstrued as a similar part of authoritative culture yet the thing that matters is imperative. A powerful association is controlled by appearing certain thoughts and imagination goes about as the key driver for creative thoughts. Through imagination powerful thoughts are produced and the use of such thoughts is alluded as the development. In the worldwide serious market, for any association, the development and inventiveness become key elements for accomplishing the ideal fruitful exhibition. For any association to be fruitful in the serious market the development and imagination ought to be inserted in the presentation techniques. Netflix is an effective worldwide organization that has been adjusting the imagination and development as their authoritative arrangements. This bro ught about extraordinary hierarchical accomplishment for the organization. In this manner the exploration on Netflix will investigate the commitment of advancement and imagination in hierarchical achievement. As of late the associations have been regarding development and inventiveness as compelling abilities for their business. The issues and authoritative methodologies require progressively inventive contributions from the administration so as to accomplish the exhibition objectives. Imagination is the key power behind the advancement that drives the administration to take a gander at the tasks from alternate points of view (Goodman and Dingli 2017). It is unquestionable that for any authoritative achievement the usage of innovativeness and development is a compelling way. The imagination drives the association to dive into new business and market domains. On the off chance that it is overseen well, it brings about expanded hierarchical efficiency. The administration authority assumes critical job in the process as he puts away cash to give the organization assets with the goal that it can investigate new regions or consolidate inventive thoughts (?erne, Jakli? also, kerlavaj 2013). The critical thinking is to a great extent improved by inventiveness. The organization creates inventive thoughts that place the organization in front of the opposition. Netflix, Inc. is an association that has actualized different changes and techniques that have helped the organization to make incredible progress. Without development and imagination it would not have been workable for the organization to make due in the computerized time of quick changes. In 1999 Reed Hastings, the originator CEO of Netflix began this film rental administrations (Media.netflix.com 2017). In spite of the fact that it has experienced different changes yet the essential membership based plan of action is as yet proceeding. The organization initially gave DVD via mail administration however in 2007 the organization created gushing administrations (Ani et al. 2016). Starting Innovative Business Strategies of Netflix that set up the ground are: From the absolute initial step Netflix has been applying sure business techniques that are imaginative and bolstered by advancement. Reed Hastings expected to furnish the customers with the best film rental administrations and for that he thought of the accompanying industry procedures. The organization gave wide number of DVD titles to the watchers. The organization consistently keeps up incredible connection with the diversion suppliers and industry specialists that helped them to gain new substance ceaselessly. The clients are given the most need as they could profit whatever administrations they require (Chopra and Veeraiyan 2017). The creator group of the organization utilized advancements that were simple and easy to use. It gave the clients both the choices of mailing and spilling. Put a great deal of cash in the advertising so as to keep up the brand attention to Netflix. The organization extended quickly in the global market. The initiative effectively spoke with the representatives in regards to how the cash is being made by the organization and how they could add to proceed with the achievement. The administration and representatives at Netflix were going through immense measure of cash to purchase DVDs, creating circulating focuses even before getting any cash once again from the new supporters. The authority made the workers understands that however income was developing yet it was extremely imperative to deal with the costs. The pioneer at Netflix built up a compelling society as well as esteemed the subculture. The account group of Netflix likewise wanted to change the installment framework to coordinate store checks (McCord 2014). Anyway there were hourly laborers who didn't have ledgers so the administration chose not to go with it. The authority recognized the issues, the changes, and the need of time and wanted to join new innovations and change so as to make a feasible business for what's to co me. The advancement is estimated effectively for Netflix, the membership rates, progress look at information among its rivals and acknowledgments are getting expanded each year. Recognizable proof of the necessity of shortfall by the initiative The CEO and prime supporter of Netflix, Reed Hastings was driven by the longing to grow new items and new activities. The vital pioneer distinguished the up and coming pattern and used the maximum capacity of computerized transformation. He comprehended the film viewing encountering of American purchasers was changing and the conventional business structure of digital TV was requesting a change (Snyder 2014). So as to watch a film of their decision, the American purchasers needed to visit a film leasing store, lease it and return. Blockbuster was administering the film rental market with 6000 stores. Anyway Hastings recognized the additional exertion the purchasers needed to place so as to gather a DVD or VHS. He understood that the circle could convey a great deal of information and the weight is less. In this manner he actualized leasing films through mail which picked up progress quick. With the web blast he saw another chance to take the business to the following level. The greatest resource of Netflix is its adjustment power. In different stages the organization has demonstrated that it can adjust fundamental changes so as to upgrade its business execution. They encountered the mechanical developments and applied the vital advances in the business administrations (Jackson et al. 2015). Reed Hastings put a great deal in the innovative work area and a huge portion of the yearly benefit was put resources into the exploration for likely arrangements. Anyway the greatest test was to dump all the DVDs that they had purchased and gathered for such a large number of years. Outcompeting Rivals through imaginative systems Netflix occupied with a hierarchical culture that is esteem included administrations, creation choice and inventive styling. The organization used all appropriate innovative headway that occurred in the contemporary time. Just in 2012 there were in excess of 120000 video titles accessible that were more than some other existing organization around then (Arthur and Thompson 2017). The administration under the direction of Hastings consistently centered around growing new substance to give the endorsers. Netflix made agreements with numerous studios through benefit sharing to stream their substance through Netflix. Before the predominance of the Netflix on the video rental business Blockbuster was the greatest name in the market. Netflix was maintaining the DVD rental business through mail which was a costly help. Reed Hastings moved toward Blockbuster to become accomplices and they could by Netflix and they would have the option to grow the business enormously as he accepted that the stores would be pertinent in not so distant future, as it really occurred in the truth. Blockbuster would not put Netflix in the arrangement. Blockbuster was an old innovation based administrations where essentially the clients needed to go to the stores and lease the movies or shows. The clients needed to encounter that a large portion of the top movies are unavailable and they needed to leave the stores unsatisfied. On the opposite side Netflix was building up a business culture where the clients can get anything they desire and at whatever point they need. Blockbuster didn't broaden their business on the web an d didn't use their assets for the online business (Voigt, Buliga and Michl 2017). The authority neglected to break down the future market and didn't go through any cash in the development. Blockbuster experienced the great trailblazers situation which the problem most settled association experience the ill effects of at certain purpose of time. Blockbuster felt that they had fruitful business with nation wide video stores hence they didn't have to face the challenge of entering in the online business world. Inventive Business Model Netflix began as a video rental assistance through mail where the clients could keep the video as long s they needed and afterward returned it before eth next buy. Be that as it may, during 2005 the opposition from Walmart caused them to update their administrations. Netflix promptly drew in with Walmart in an association course of action where all the clients of DVD rental in Walmart were alluded back to Netflix (Wells and Ellsworth 2016). The Streaming video framework was first imaginative business thought that cleared its method of achievement. The organization began conveying motion pictures straightforwardly to the clients private PCs as gushing recordings however the clients couldn't spare them in the PCs memory (Voigt, Buliga and Michl 2017). This helped the organization to go into the huge serious market where goliath companies like Apple promotion Amazon were at that point administering. There were at that point on request administration organizations like CinemaNow and MovieLink that were the contenders also (Brodersen et al. 2016). Anyway Netflix figured out how to get incredible help from the nearby link organizations that made their serious position string. Watch Now Service: In 2007 Netflix changed its client gushing administrations with the Watch Now ser

Discourse Critique and Evaluation

Question: Examine about theDiscourse for Critique and Evaluation. Answer: Presentation: The demonstration of making aggravations on somebody elses property is certifiably not something worth being thankful for. There are likewise sure special cases, for example, in the event that earlier consent has been taken by the proprietor of the structure, at that point spray painting is certifiably not an awful thing. It is concurred that spray painting energizes ability and supports workmanship in the general public (Watzlawik, 2014). This is likewise a wellspring of occupation for certain individuals. On the off chance that there is a typical message that should be conveyed to an enormous crowd, at that point spray painting is the best medium to do as such (Watzlawik, 2014). It can likewise be utilized as a vehicle for social turn of events. There are road craftsmen everywhere throughout the world who support craftsmanship focuses in monetarily in reverse neighborhoods. The issue emerges when it is totally unapproved. At the point when it crushes the structures, at that point it is equal to a wrongdoing. The proprietors of the properties reserve the option to keep up a perfect and pleasant appearance of their structures (Ashurst, 2016). The spray painting gives the structure a grimy appearance (Ashurst, 2016). There are outwardly unsavory works of art that are in some cases hostile to explicit segments of the general public. At the point when they are shown on the dividers, it makes an awful air in the areas. The expenses of fixes of the structures are likewise high, which makes a negative picture of spray painting. It additionally lessens the resale estimation of the structures. There are three contradictions to the announcement of the creator. He has expressed that spray painting is satisfactory everywhere throughout the world, however there is extensive uncertainty with respect to the real number of supporters of spray painting. Individuals are yet to acknowledge spray painting. This is a direct result of the current discolored picture of the equivalent. There is a pre-considered idea that spray painting is identical to vandalism and consequently it is awful (Frabetti, 2015). It makes a terrible impact on the earth and thus it can't be acknowledged by the individuals. Besides, the creator expresses that vandalism is a craftsmanship, which is by no means evident. An annihilation to the open property can't be a workmanship. The spray painting can be considered as a work of art, be that as it may, the mode of craftsmanship conveyance, isn't exactly good. The vandalism can be compared with brutality, which isn't satisfactory by the cutting edge society. Thirdl y, the creator contends that a reasonable enactment is required to help spray painting; nonetheless, the law can't offer authorization to trespass. Actually, the law thinks about spray painting as a genuine offense, which is regularly punished (Davies, 2012). End The facts demonstrate that craftsmanship needs open articulation to demonstrate its actual worth. The creator is right in expressing that the individuals are changing their discernment towards spray painting. The spray painting is helpful in a few different ways, in any case, it is considered as a savage demonstration, by a significant area of individuals. The attack of ones security without his/her assent can't be a decent thought. It debases the cutting edge condition. The craftsmanship can be communicated in different structures as well. It isn't obligatory to communicate craftsmanship through spray painting. This is the reason why there are not adequate laws ensuring the road craftsmen. References Ashurst, N. (2016).Cleaning Historic Buildings: V. 1: Substrates, Soiling and Investigation. Routledge. Davies, J. (2012). Workmanship Crimes: Theoretical Perspectives on Copyright Protection for Illegally-Created Graffiti Art.Me. L. Rev.,65, 27. Frabetti, A. C. (2015). Youth spray painting vandalism: liminal viewpoints in the light of manliness, implicit understanding hypothesis and transformative procedure. Watzlawik, M. (2014). The craft of personality developmentGraffiti painters traveling through time and space.Culture Psychology,20(3), 404-415.

Mandatory MIT Mid Year Report

Mandatory MIT Mid Year Report Hi Everyone, The MIT Midyear Report is now available on MyMIT. Wait! Dont fill it out yet you need to read some important info below. What is it? The MIT Midyear Report is an online form that is required of all students (including those admitted or deferred in Early Action), and is to be completed by you, the applicant. The MYR serves two purposes: to share your newest grades, and give you an opportunity to mention other updates since you submitted your application. Biggest issue we have? Students often get excited and fill out the form before their grades are released, which defeats at least half the purpose of the whole form. And, since you only get to submit this form ONCE, this causes problems. So what we really want is to get the MYR as soon as possible when your grades are released, OR by February 15th, whichever is earlier. We absolutely need it no later that February 15th. Who should fill it out? Everyone! Even those already accepted in Early Action. When should I fill it out? As soon as possible after completion of the fall semester or second quarter. (If your school uses a trimester schedule, please use your first trimester grades, even if we already have them.) Wait?! I wont have any grades before February 15th and Labs said MIT needs it by February 15th! We do. Even if you have no midyear grades to report, you should still complete the Midyear Report. Your school should then submit your midyear grades to us as soon as theyre available. Note that there is also an option in the Report for students whose schools do not provide any midyear grades, homeschooled students, and students already out of school. I think my counselor already did that. Nope. Your counselor probably filled out your Common App MYR for schools that follow the common application. The MIT MYR is different, its in your MyMIT tracking and youre the one that needs to submit it. Even if your school has its own MYR process, you still need to submit the MIT Midyear Report. Got it. Ok, how do I fill this thing out? The form has fields for you to report your coursework and grades. This is similar to the Self-Reported Coursework Form from the Part 2 of the application, except that were only looking for current-year courses and grades. And were only looking for this from students with something to report so if youre in a school that doesnt have midyear grades, or youve already graduated, dont worry, youre all set just skip this section. Next, there is a simple text box. This is the best place for any new updates you want us to know about. Feel free to write in bullet points or more casual language. Were really not looking for another essay here. The Midyear Update has a maximum of 250 words. I know thats not a lot, but do your best. We like brevity. Remember, the final date to submit the MYR is February 15th. How do I fill out the grades section? Make it clean please. Like this: Biology A+ AP Calculus A- Or if you have quarter grades English A, B+ Japanese 95,88 Or.. if you feel like you need to explain something put it only in the subject section like this: Java I (taken at B.C.C.) A+ Multivariable Calc (Online) Pass In the Grades box, please list only grades, no text. For example, it is sufficient to write B+ rather than B+ (Final grade) or B+ (online course). If your transcript provides quarter grades and a midterm exam grade but no semester grade, you should list the quarter grades and the midterm exam grade. Dont create your own average, or report some expected grade. If your school uses a trimester schedule, please use your first trimester grades. Other special circumstances? Some schools including many international schools have no concept of midyear grades. This is okay. You can ignore the text boxes and simply choose the option, I attend a school that does not provide midyear grades. Report your grades just the way they would appear on your transcript. No need to convert them to a letter system for example. If you need to explain your schools grading system, just put it in the updates section. Some schools will not release midyear grades until after the Midyear Report deadline of February 15th. This is okay. You should choose the option Semester grades will be available on ______________________ and I will mail or fax them to you at that time. (Dont forget to actually do that once theyre available too.) Some of you have graduated already and have no new grades to report. You should choose the option, Im not currently attending school; MIT has all of my grades. Great, thanks for reading through that. Whenever you have your mid-year grades you will now be prepared to complete your Midyear Update. Like I said before, some students wont have grades released, but still need to submit the form before February 15th. Just login to your MyMIT account when youre ready. One more thing. If you still see something missing on your MyMIT Application Tracking, dont worry were continuing to process thousands of documents coming in. Once were caught up, if were still missing something, well send you another email in the next week or so to let you know. Thanks!

Pakulski and Waters - 2272 Words

What do Pakulski and Waters mean when they say class is dead? In the chapter ‘The Shifting Sands of Structure’, Pakulski and Waters are talking about the declining relevance of Marxist class theory in the evaluation of modern capitalism. â€Å"Actual social developments have defined both predications of progressive polarisation and conflict and the emancipatory promise of social revolution† (Pakulski and Waters 1996:28). The perceived ‘death of class’ according to this chapter is due the economic reductionism of class theory in Political Economy, which was caused continual evolution of theories of class structure combined with by the capricious development of Liberal-Democratic societies. Together they have led to social theories, which†¦show more content†¦However, the struggles for such entitlements can be interpreted in class terms. Consumption Theorists: Weber, Veblen - Consumption, lifestyle, and taste is a basis for social division. For example Bogans vs Hipsters or Class vs Swag Theorist: Saunders - Social divisions are caused through relationships towards modes of consumption. - Saunders uses the example of privatised and collectivised housing. The stratifying capacity of educational qualifications, professional knowledge and skills - Rise of new classes: o Corporate elites o Managerial classes o Professional and white-collar classes o Under classes Theorist: Dahrendorf - Attempt to reconstruct class schemes in a quasi-Weberian model emphasising authority relations - Radical transformation of the capitalist class into owner-shareholder - Fragmentation of the working class into:Show MoreRelatedSocial Class And Its Relevance1702 Words   |  7 Pagestheory was relating to man and his access to the means of production. He stated there are two classes the bourgeoisie, those who own the means of the production and the proletariat who only possess their labour power to sell ( Ollman, 1976). Pakulski and Waters argued that social is dead, due to changes in economic and social structures along with adaptions in social identity and belonging (1996). Although there has been changes and transformations to social class over time, for example Bourdieu’sRead MoreSociology: Did Class Die?1760 Words   |  8 Pagesconsistency. Given the changes above, the concept of social class seems to become less practical in the modern society as the boundaries of division is getting more ambiguous, implying the death of class. Indeed, some sociologists, such as Pakulski and Waters, supporting to Postmodernism, didn’t believe that social class is still that important. They thought that social mobility and changes in property ownership turned former social class now into a mixture of variety of people who have less classRead MoreHow is identity formed, a look at some of the theories756 Words   |  3 Pagesidentity, but that it s far from the only factor involved. It has been said by many that class is becoming more diverse with wider reference points within the structures. Some sociologists have gone as far as to say that class is dead (Pakulski and Waters, 1996) although a survey in 1996 showed that two thirds of those interviewed felt that there is one law for the rich and one for the poor (Adonis and Pollard, 1998). One school of thought that is moving away from the original ideas ofRead MoreMarxist Theory And Social Class1238 Words   |  5 Pagesextremes of rich and poor.(Gane,N.2012) A more recent argument has been put forward by Paluski and Waters (1996) who believe that class is dead. This view is called Postmodernism, they do not claim that social inequality is disappearing, but they do argue that there are new cleavages that are emerging in post-class society which overshadow class differences In their book, Pakulski and Waters claim that it is now unfashionable to consider class as important. Consequently people now identify themselvesRead MoreSociology1681 Words   |  7 Pagesbe limited by the consumer. In Britain, a normal white collar may spend all of his salary to buy the iphone 5 so that he will be the upper class in appereance. Hence , the managerial class can no longer divided their consumer byclass.Pakulski and Waters(2009:448) point out contemporary societies are still stratified but not divided by class position instead of culture consumption. These changes indicate that the explanations of political and social behaviors by reference to class are also usefulnessRead MoreSocial class cannot be measured/determined2165 Words   |  9 Pagesinterpretation of a situation and the meaning they give it†. Micro sociologists also known as post modernists such as Malcolm waters and Pakulski believe that social class cannot be measured/determined and are dead. This is due to the fact that factors such as social connection, patterns of consumption and other trends are removing class structures in the society. According to Malcolm Waters lifestyle is not constant and therefore class cannot possibly be measured using this means; in some situations one mayRead MoreSocial Stratification According to Marx and Weber1163 Words   |  5 Pagesexploited by the ruling class, whether they realize it or not. Postmodernists would argue that class identity is no longer relevant as a collective group identity and has now fragmented into numerous separate and individualized identities. Pakulski and Waters (1996) argue that people now exercise more personal choice about what type of people they want to be, rather than have their identity shaped by their membership of a social class. They argue that gender, ethnicity, age, region and family roleRead MoreHomelessness Postmodernist and Feminist Perspective2985 Words   |  12 Pagesreform had not addressed homelessness as a cause for mental illness and substance abuse, and was not addressing primary care and prevention (Davidson, 2010) , in effect not opening the language of health to include homelessness. Crook., Pakulski., amp; Waters, 1992 in (Van Kreiken et al., 2006, p. 502) discuss â€Å"class decomposition† explaining that the members of a particular social class will become increasingly different to each other. Mathew Moore ( date ? ) in an article about regional homelessnessRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pagesbecause we rely on one another and this may be both a strength and a weakness. Imagine if you had to survive alone for a long period of time without the support of the various organizations that provide you with everything from food and clothing to water, fuel, shelter, health care, education, transport and so on. Could you cope, either physically or psychologically? Probably not! Certainly, your life would change drastically. Indeed, many activities in any society usually require people to socially

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ( Ocd ) - 905 Words

I decided to write my paper on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in children. OCD is a type of anxiety disorder where people feel the need to check things repeatedly. Kids with OCD become preoccupied with whether something could be harmful, dangerous, wrong, or dirty — or with thoughts that unpleasant stuff could happen. It can cause severe anxiety in those affected. Kids with OCD also might worry about things not being in order or just right. They may worry about losing things, constantly feeling the need to collect these items, even though they may seem useless to other people. It includes obsessions and compulsions that take up a great deal of time and affects your daily routine. Obsessions can be any repulsive thoughts, scary reflections, or anything that causes fear or worry. Obsessions are uncontrolled by the person who has OCD. Many people with this disorder understand their obsessions are unrealistic, but feel unable to control them. They come with feelings that things have to always be done the proper way. Some common obsessions are: 1. Dirt, germs, or contamination. 2. Making a mistake. 3. Hostile or violent thoughts. 4. Thoughts about unacceptable behavior. 5. Things that are asymmetrical or imperfect. Since the anxiety started by obsessions can be so troubling, people who suffer from OCD came up with ways to feel better. These ways are called compulsions which are attempts to lessen the torment caused byShow MoreRelatedObsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)1756 Words   |  8 Pages Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disorder that can affect children and adults. In order to fully understand OCD, many different areas of the disorder must be reviewed. First, OCD will be defined and the diagnosis criteria will be discussed. Secondly the prevalence of the disorder will be considered. The different symptoms, behaviors and means of treatment are also important aspects that will be discussed in order to develop a clearer understanding of the implications of obsessive compulsiveRead MoreEssay on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)875 Words   |  4 Pagessevere Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder that triggers people to have unwante d fixations and to repeat certain activities again and again. Everyone has habits or certain ways of doing something with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder these habits severely interrupt the way they live their lives (Familydoctor.org Editorial Staff). About one in 40 people suffer from some form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (ABRAMOWITZ). Obsessive Compulsive Disorder oftenRead MoreLiving With Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)1190 Words   |  5 Pagesdifferences between both symptoms and experiences of six different authors who have been personally affected by obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).   Since OCD is not very well understood by many members of the public (Escape), I hope that the experiences of the authors that I researched will be able to paint a vivid picture of what life with OCD is like. Obsessive-compulsive disorder involves a chemical imbalance in the brain. This chemical imbalance is thought to be the main reason for obsessionsRead MoreObsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Essay2901 Words   |  12 Pages   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, affects an average 1.7% of the population according to the Stanford University School of Medicine.  Ã‚  The recognition of this psychological disorder has grown in the recent years.  Ã‚  As the knowledge of this disorder becomes more prevalent, those suffering have become more willing to seek help (OCDA).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  OCD is a condition â€Å"in which people experience repetitive and upsetting thoughts and/or behaviors† (OCDA).  Ã‚  While there are many variationRead MoreObsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Essay800 Words   |  4 Pages Obsessive Compulsive Disorder And Its Effect On Life Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, involves anxious thoughts or rituals one feels and cant control. . For many years, OCD was thought to be rare. The actual number of people with OCD was hidden, because people would hide their problem to avoid embarrassment. Some recent studies show that as many as 3 million Americans ages 18 to 54 may have OCD at any one time. This is about 2.3% of the people in this age group. It strikes men and women inRead More Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Essays2616 Words   |  11 Pagesis a very powerful piece of structure; it is truly limitless when speaking about its potential. With a functional organ comes a dysfunctional possibility. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, (OCD), for instance, is nervousness in the mind. OCD is an anxiety disorder caused by repetitive intrusive thoughts and behaviors. It is a mental disorder marked by the involvement of a devotion to an idea or routine. Essentially, it is a false core belief which is believing that there is something wrong, causingRead MoreEssay on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)3370 Words   |  14 Pages Obsessive compulsive disorder is a disease that many people know of, but few people know about. Many people associate repeated washing of hands, or flicking of switches, and even cleanliness with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), however there are many more symptoms, and there are also explanations for those symptoms. In this paper, I will describe what obsessive compulsive disorder is, explain some of the effects of it, and explain why it happens. I will also attempt to prove that while medicationRead More Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Essay1758 Words   |  8 PagesOCD: Whats in Control? Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder that is the fourth most common mental illness in the U.S. (8). OCD affects five million Americans, or one in five people (3). This is a serious mental disorder that causes people to think and act certain things repetitively in order to calm the anxiety produced by a certain fear. Unlike compulsive drinking or gambling, OCD compulsions do not give the person pleasure; rather, the rituals are performed to obtainRead MoreObsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Essay examples1375 Words   |  6 PagesObsessive Compulsive Disorder â€Å"I know my hands are clean. I know that I have touched nothing dangerous. But†¦ I doubt my perception. Soon, if I do not wash, a mind numbing, searing anxiety will cripple me. A feeling of stickiness will begin to spread from the point of contamination and I will be lost in a place I do not want to go. So I wash until the feeling is gone, until the anxiety subsides. Then I feel defeated. So I do less and less, my world becomes smaller and smaller and more lonelyRead MoreEssay about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)474 Words   |  2 Pages Obsessive Compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental illness that effects nearly 5 million Americans, and half a million children. Its a disease that fills the brain with unwanted ideas, and worries. OCD is a diseases that effects the Cerebral frontal cortex. Unfortunately there is no cure for OCD. Obsessive compulsive disorder can start developing as early as age five. In most cases OCD controls your life. Through out the rest of this paper I hope to inform you on Obsessive compulsive Disorders

Chivalry Codes Free Essays

Is chivalry dead? Chivalry is a combinations of qualities expected from an â€Å"ideal† knight, in the contemporary times. Some ideas of chivalry include courage, honesty, loyalty, courtesy, and truth. Chivalry was the medieval principles governing knighthood and knightly conduct, if you were a knight; you were expected to follow these rules. We will write a custom essay sample on Chivalry Codes or any similar topic only for you Order Now But not all knights in the seventeenth century followed these rules honestly or courageously. Some knights dishonored the code, putting their pride above the people they were supposed to serve. If there were dishonest knights in the contemporary times, chivalry in the modern world is indefinitely dead. Generations of dishonesty of corrupted knights from the contemporary times to modern caused the neglection of chivalric duties to collapse. The nature of these fraudulent knights is to put themselves above others, their character influence the young and future knights to be. When Wictred fought with Prince Tristan in the literary work, Tristan Isolde, his true corrupted side showed as he cheated to defeat the prince. According to the chivalric code, honesty was absent, which shows lost of chivalric regards. Wictred’s way of play reflected off of the younger beings who probably will mock his way of traits and qualities, which begin the chain of deceitful knights and people, each losing more chivalric manners along the way. As more degraded knights ascend the line of modern time, they carry a burden on their shoulders, which is symbolized by chivalry. As careless features begin to arise within the generations of knights, the fewer burdens they want on their shoulders. As time passes on, chivalric codes are decreasing, and soon, dropped forever. How to cite Chivalry Codes, Essay examples

Creating Policy and Environmental Approaches MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Creating Policy and Environmental Approaches. Answer: Introduction Obesity can be defined as the presence of too much fat in the body. It is a global public health concern with occurrence having doubled since 1980, according to WHO, in 2014 there were 1.9 billion adults over the age of 18 years being overweight. Majority of the world population live in countries where obesity affects majority of the population than underweight. It is for this reason that several studies have been conducted to tray and establish the epidemiological pattern of the disease. Determinants of obesity outcomes are sought from the descriptive epidemiology associated in order for generation of hypothesis and then the application of analysis of data from sample of the populations and then comparing them to the groups to determine whether health outcomes differ in exposure. If there is greater outcome due to a given exposure then an association has occurred. Outcome measurements are assessed through self reporting on the type of food taken away by consumers using tools such questionnaires and cut offs like body mass index. The outcome relate to the population of adults aged between 29-62, in Cambridge, UK, who were participating in the study. The study findings on the outcome measure found that exposure was associated with increase in body mass and increase in odds for obesity; also consumption of take away foods across the study population in general was great, (Khoury, Gwinn Loannidis, 2010). The results obtain correlate with other studies on the population in there is a positive association between exposure to take away foods, exposure to takeaway foods was more prevalent in the work environment, where existence of dose response relationship was present, (Khoury, Gwinn Loannidis, 2010). Researchers conducted have concluded that there is a relationship between fast foods outlets especially in work place and at schools and obesity prevalence worldwide, (Arroyo, Cassandra Krista, 2016). In conducting these studies, clinical studies have employed the use of exposure group. Internal validity has been to measure the how the study is done in order to minimise confounding factors, the fewer occurrence of confounding factors, the higher and the internal validity of the study. In the study the causal effect was felt increase in body mass index and the food take away outlets, the relationship was established with significant difference of 0.92 p0.05 relative to those exposed. The groups associated with the most exposure was averagely having a body mass index of 1.21 (95% confidence) greater than those whom were least exposed, (Khoury, Gwinn Loannidis, 2010). According to this study, the proposed intervention to tackle take away harmful effects on food is the alteration of the geography of food availability in a move to promote healthier foods. This intervention has been adopted by other organisations and partners such as Takeaway Tool kit, document published by Greater London Authority. It fosters the uptake of the intervention at a higher levels of public health. The toolkit suggests that the policy initiative should be aimed at creating an understanding of the environment and individuals in charge. Study conducted by Aztsop Joy (2013), regarding the intervention of changing the food environments to access nutritious food to the general public, it outlines the principles of common good in application to understanding laws and public practices, social policies and market values that shape the factors of healthy food availability in public health care. In the study by Cohel, Kristen and Stanford, (2000), on the study population was 1,205 adults aged between 18-69 years, it used a randomised controlled trial; whereby there was self help education program in promoting lower fat and higher fruit consumption conducted in 1 year, targeting reduction in consumption of fat and increase in fruit intake and vegetables. The control variables of the study were gender, age, sex, ethnicity, BMI status among others, the outcome lead to decrease in BMI. In Djurie et al., (2002) study, on Nutrition and breast health, the population targeted included 97 women, family history of breast cancer aged between 21-50 years old. In Detroit Michigan, it adopted randomised controlled with individual counselling to reduce the risk of breast cancer, the target activities were reduction in fat, increased in fruit and vegetable, decrease in fat and increase in fruit with vegetables. It was conducted for one year. The target was decrease in intake of fat, increase in fruit and vegetable, intake of soda, deserts and breads and change in total calories. The reported changes from the study include decrease in fat and calories, increase in fruit and vegetable. The change direction to relative controls include, decrease in weight and body fat, and a decrease in group two and 0 weight in groups three and four. Using Muller, 2001 study, on Kiel Obesity prevention , Kile Germany, it targeted 297 children, aged 5-7 years , the designed utilised non-randomisation, combined school and family based programs aimed at preventing weight gain and reducing body weight, 3 month and 1 year trial measure. The results observed include increase in fruit and vegetable consumption, decrease intake of high fat foods and increase in physical activity. On the measure against the controls, there was significant weight change. Neff Roni et al., (2017), which talks on the healthy systems role in exacerbating health disparities in food. Study conducted by Hawkes, Jewel Allen, (2013), studies on the application of the intervention on food policies to promote healthy diets and domains of action of policy direction provided. On creating healthy food and eating environments targeting the policy environment and environment approaches in health aims at promoting the intervention use to tackle obesity issue in public health care, (Story, et al 2008). On access to food on socio economic individualism and public ethics on the intervention is aimed at improvement the environments on which these foods are produced, in addition to these The intervention effects have been found to be effective in targeting both diet and involving. use of behaviour change, mobilisation of social support and clear plan of maintaining behaviour change have been found to support the interventions. It further shows that programmes to effectively promote dietary change needs to involve practitioners and organizations in ensuring effectiveness. According to study by Rychetnik, Frommer, Hawe Shiell, (2002), on public health interventions, it suggest that important parameters should be utilised when observed while implementing g obesity based interventions in public health practice. These parameters include design, development of change strategies and characteristics of the population interventions applicable to the study. These factors have been found out to be determining on how the intervention strategies are going to be implemented. In initiating policy change, the application of the intervention has been used to understand the major factors in initiating shift in the application of the intervention. In this study it proposes sustainable diets as a form of altering the geographic composition of food. It builds it study on a web of factors which influence obesity and a factor among the policy makers. This includes on health, agriculture, socio cultural and environmental factors. It seeks to influence on policy makers to change focus and concentrate on the benefits and policy shift on to healthy behaviours and establishment of sustainable diets in the population, (Johnston, Jessica, Fanzo Bruce, 2014). Major shift has occurred in creating healthy environment through policy and environment approaches. Sahota et al., (2008), suggests that implementation of the intervention, it has set out places where healthy eating patterns need to be implemented, and they include places like homes, schools, and work sites among o ther places. It concludes that environmental intervention are beneficial are essential in health care reforms for healthy living. The role of international agencies in promoting healthy behaviour especially use of take away foods, has led to join of hands from the intergovernmental and civil society groups that brings together policy framework into action. It has taken the initiative to form a comprehensive package for promotion of public health. In UK for example the policy paper entitled ; 2010 to 2015 government obesity and healthy eating, in response to targeting the food environments, it proposed the reduction of various ingredients used in food , public health promotion on food, correcting labelling of food as pertaining to caloric foods and assisting people to eat fewer foods. It calls on different players to call for help in tackling obesity, (GovUK, 2015). In this study by the author, Netto et l., (2010), there barriers which hinder the progress of behaviour change towards obesity. This include culture and program, cultural and program accessibility barriers, low levels of food and health literacy, junk food advertisements and lack of regular weight measures. Obesity base interventions need to take into account the barriers like colour, race and business. (Bagwell, 2015). Other studies have described the barriers affecting obesity into four distinct levels (Fitzgerall and Spaccrotella, 2009). References Bagwell, S., 2015. Designing healthier catering interventions for takeaways in deprived areas. Journal of Environmental Health Research, 15(1), pp.38-56. Cohen, J.H., Kristal, A.R. and Stanford, J.L., 2000. Fruit and vegetable intakes and prostate cancer risk. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 92(1), pp.61-68. Cyril, S., Nicholson, J.M., Agho, K., Polonsky, M. and Renzaho, A.M., 2017. Barriers and facilitators to childhood obesity prevention among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Victoria, Australia. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health. Djuric, Z., Poore, K.M., Depper, J.B., Uhley, V.E., Lababidi, S., Covington, C., Klurfeld, D.M., Simon, M.S., Kucuk, O. and Heilbrun, L.K., 2002. Methods to increase fruit and vegetable intake with and without a decrease in fat intake: compliance and effects on body weight in the nutrition and breast health study. Nutrition and cancer, 43(2), pp.141-151. Fitzgerald, N. and Spaccarotella, K., 2009. Barriers to a healthy lifestyle: from individuals to public policyan ecological perspective. Journal of Extension, 47(1), pp.1-8. Hawkes, C., Jewell, J. and Allen, K. , 2013, A food policy package for healthy diets and the prevention of obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases: the NOURISHING framework. Obes Rev, 14: 159168. doi:10.1111/obr.12098 Johnston, J.L., Fanzo, J.C. and Cogill, B., 2014. Understanding sustainable diets: a descriptive analysis of the determinants and processes that influence diets and their impact on health, food security, and environmental sustainability. Advances in Nutrition: An International Review Journal, 5(4), pp.418-429. Mller, M.J., Asbeck, I., Mast, M., Langnse, K. and Grund, A., 2001. Prevention of obesity--more than an intention. Concept and first results of the Kiel Obesity Prevention Study (KOPS). International Journal of Obesity, 25(S1), p.S66. Neff, R. A., Palmer, A. M., Mckenzie, S. E., Lawrence, R. S., 2009. Food Systems and Public Health Disparities. Journal of Hunger Environmental Nutrition, 4(3-4), 282314. https://doi.org/10.1080/19320240903337041 Netto, G., Bhopal, R., Lederle, N., Khatoon, J. and Jackson, A., 2010. How can health promotion interventions be adapted for minority ethnic communities? Five principles for guiding the development of behavioural interventions. Health Promotion International, 25(2), pp.248-257. Policy paper, 2010 to 2015 government policy: obesity and healthy eating. Online Accesses on 20/05/2017. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-obesity-and-healthy-eating/2010-to-2015-government-policy-obesity-and-healthy-eating Rychetnik, L., Frommer, M., Hawe, P. and Shiell, A., 2002. Criteria for evaluating evidence on public health interventions. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 56(2), pp.119-127. Sahota, P., Rudolf, M.C., Dixey, R., Hill, A.J., Barth, J.H. and Cade, J., 2001. Evaluation of implementation and effect of primary school based intervention to reduce risk factors for obesity. Bmj, 323(7320), p.1027. Story, M., Kaphingst, K.M., Robinson-O'Brien, R. and Glanz, K., 2008. Creating healthy food and eating environments: policy and environmental approaches. Annu. Rev. Public Health, 29, pp.253-272. Story, M., Kaphingst, K.M., Robinson-O'Brien, R. and Glanz, K., 2008. Creating healthy food and eating environments: policy and environmental approaches. Annu. Rev. Public Health, 29, pp.253-272.

AIRBUS BOEING free essay sample

For the lost plane, NYMPH, one of the theories was that it was hijacked and crashed. Unfortunately, there are a lot of rumors but none confirmed as the plane is et to be found. For MM 17, it was shot down by pro-Russian rebels over the Ukraine-Russia border. QUIZS crashed into the Java Sea due to bad weather. As for the most recent crash, Flight 9625 by Germinating, it was discovered that the co-pilot had a mental illness and was suicidal. With every crash, manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus work harder to improve standards regarding safety and upgrade in technology.Unfortunately, there are always risks that manufacturers cannot control: Human error. Despite the risks of flying, Boeing and Airbus sales remain high and both manufacturers are still competing in terms of sales figures. In 2014, Boeings net sales were worth $233 billion and Airbuss net sales were worth $175 billion (Gates, D. , 2015). Source: CAP. We will write a custom essay sample on AIRBUS BOEING or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Boeing Airbus share honors in 2013 orders/deliveries race- but its not about winners and losers, 2014. Recently, with oil prices dropping below $60/barrel, one major concern is that airlines might delay or even cancel their orders.It is still too early to tell if airlines would delay or cancel their orders as both Boeing and Airbus are backlogged for over eight years but it IS a lingering issue. The drop in fuel rice may aggravate the overcapacity problem, as airlines will lower their fare prices to increase market share. Cheaper fuel means that airlines can offer lower airfares to its customers and prolong their older, gas-guzzler airplanes to save money (Clark, N. , 2015). Source: The New York Times, Oil Prices: Whats Behind the Drop? Simple Economics, 2015. MAJOR PLAYERS Governments Governments play an important role in air transport regulation because it is a highly competitive and profitable industry that they want to control. They are often full or partial owners of airline companies and they eave the power to encourage competition to reduce oligopoly and monopoly. They can enforce a merger policy to save low performers from bankruptcy (www. Lempel. Com) as well as avoid job loss in the country. Besides, they are responsible for managing the environmental effects of carbon oxide emission as well as mitigating the high pollution risks associated with the airlines massive gas consumption.Moreover, governments empower civil aviation authorities and other similar bodies to oversee and regulate the airline industry, and they pay close attention to any issue or development in he sector, as this is a major source of revenue in international trade. Aviation Authorities The aviation authority (AAA), whether civil or national depending on the legislation of the country, is mainly responsible for licensing airports, pilots, and engineer; ensuring passengers safety; regulating air traffic; examining and testing equipment; and also investigate accidents and incidents (Federal Aviation Administration, 2015).The AAA is at the center of the heart of the aerospace industry because it plays a dual political and economical role, and it serves as an interface for all actors of the business. In certain countries, the Ass actions are equivalent to governmental decisions that need to be strictly enforced. In addition, the AAA is responsible for gathering and analyzing statistical data, which is used for monitoring and planning purposes, and to provide advice to the government on actions to take in the sector. The AAA also serves as a source agent collecting and disseminating news and information about events to the local and international pr ess.Airline Companies The 2014 Annual Review of the International Air Transport Association Airline reports that air transport supports $2. 4 trillion in economic activity and that here are approximately 1,400 airlines operating worldwide (www. Data. Org). In such a competitive environment, airlines constantly battle to have the largest share of the market. An important milestone is the Airline Deregulation Act passed in 1978, which partially deprived the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) from its controlling power over airline prices, mergers, traffic, and other related issues (Smith Cox, 2008).This marked a new era in the industry, which saw passengers number increase from 679 million in 1978 to 2. 8 billion in 2011 (www. Data. Org). Air tickets gradually decreased providing customers tit innumerable options to choose from. Airline companies are the major clients of aircraft manufacturers. Their specific needs and requirement shape the industry trends, and manufacturers strive to offer their best and most efficient aircrafts in order to secure more orders. Aircraft Manufacturers Boeing and Airbus are on the top Of a long list Of aircraft manufacturers worldwide.They built their reputation by offering several innovative models that their custom-made to fit every single need of their client. Being such important players in the industry, manufacturer not only represent their own rands and products at the local and international levels, but the success or failure of their business is also reflected on their country of origin. Thus, the fierce competition between Boeing and Airbus has not been a simple airline rivalry but it has escalated to a United States versus Europe challenge.On one hand, Europeans accuse the US government of heavily subsidizing Boeing with research and development funding as well as waivers for patents dues; on the other hand, Americans claim that Airbus benefits from preferential treatment, substantial loan, as well as exclusive infrastructure support European Commission, 2007). Several disputes between these two giants have been brought to the attention of the VOW jurisdiction, and the latest ruling occurred in 201 2 in favor of Boeing, which was complaining about subsidies from five different European countries to Airbus.ISSUES Boeing and Airbus have dominated the large civil aircraft industry (LLC) for decades so it was only a matter of time before issues from their intense competition made headlines. The biggest came in 2004 when Boeing filed a complaint with the WTFO regarding Airbuss receipt of large subsidies from EX. overspent. Likewise, this prompted Airbus to file a complaint with the Buffo accusing Boeing of doing the same with the U. S. Government.They each claimed that the other company abused the 1 992 ELK-SIS Agreement on Large Civil Aircraft, which limits the amount of government subsidies; each company could receive for both direct and indirect support. Under the 1992 EX.-SIS Agreement on Large Civil Aircraft, direct government support for new aircraft programs should not exceed 33% of total development costs (which had to be repaid over a 17 year period with set interest rates) and limit indirect support to 3% based on LLC turnover (ELI-SIS Agreement, 2004).Both stipulations were agreed upon in order to create a fair trade deal since the E had multiple governments that could contribute to Airbus (Direct Support) while the U. S. Government was providing a lot of funding in the form of indirect support for national defense and space programs. The overall goal of the agreement was to level the playing field so that one company could not gain a competitive advantage over the other, but with multiple governments and major defense/space contracts involved this would prove to be a tough ask for the WTFO in determining a proper outcome.Boeing accused Airbus of receiving large amounts of subsidies from various EX. governments, which exceeded the 33% ceiling for new jetliner programs. Boeing was under suspicion because of the amount of new jetliners that Airbus was able to produce within a short period of time and even if the funding was legitimate, how could Airbus afford to pay the loans back within the 1 7-year timeshare at the proper interest rate. Likewise, Airbus accused Boeing of taking subsidies from the U.S. Government that were either never going to be paid jack or above the ceiling limit, especially indirect support due to the technology used from NASA in new jetliner models. In March of 2012, about eight years later, the WTFO determined that Boeing had received approximately $5 billion in illegal subsidies for its development of the 787 Adrenaline and other aircraft models giving Boeing an unfair advantage over Airbus (Drew Clark, 2012).Within that same ruling, it was determined that Airbus received around $15 billion in loans at below market interest rates and that Airbus was likely receiving various amounts of loans for decades. They noted that Airbus could not have jumped passed Boeing within 35 years without the additional funding, but did not provide exact amounts or details of the funding (Drew Clark, 2012). Although both sides claimed victory, the complaints provided further insight to the lack of authoritative power the WTFO actually had.If payments or restitution were to b e paid by any party in this case, they would have to be worked out in good faith or by some other way such as the court systems. OPTIONS FOR RESOLUTION One of the glaring deficiencies of the WTFO is its lack of authoritative ewer, especially in attempting to resolve the long-time dispute between Boeing and Airbus. Although the WTFO ruled that both parties were not in compliance with international regulations and that they illegally accepted more subsidies than what they should have, the organization did not seem to be in a position to enforce its ruling.An option for resolving the subsidy dispute would be to establish a new trade agreement, which could be upheld in the international courts. It seems that there was sufficient evidence from the Wets investigation to provide a ruling but overall authoritative power as lacking. If the authoritative power is bestowed to a court system, the international trading system should not be greatly affected. 2. Since Boeing and Airbus are publicly listed, which means that they have to issue annual reports to their shareholders.Therefore, it is imperative that they disclose their financial reports as well as provide more details on their source of funding. Transparency is a key element that will play a major role in appeasing the tension and create a fairer competitive environment. With better-informed shareholders and stakeholders, both companies can focus n other issues such as building safer and better aircrafts rather than funding issues. 3. It is obvious that the Boeing and Airbus contention has as strong political root due to involvement of governments and other national bodies.

TOK- the ways of knowing Essays

TOK- the ways of knowing Essays TOK- the ways of knowing Paper TOK- the ways of knowing Paper The main reason why I positioned perception above the other four WOKs is because perception, among others, is the one tool that is absolutely necessary to gain knowledge. Regardless of how much knowledge of reasoning, emotion, or language you possess, it all revolves around the idea of perception. Perception, in my view, is the ability to understand various matters at ease, a skill which represents basis of the course. I believe it is perception that ultimately gives shape to ambiguous thoughts and develop them further as it allows you to more fully apprehend ideas. What is made out of perception, however, is strictly due to peoples pasts. People see things differently based on what theyve been through- The concept of the half filled/ emptied bottle is completely to do with perception. If a person has experienced hardship and struggled through it, that person will most likely say that it is half filled because he is gracious for everything he/she can get. In contrast, if a person who has enjoyed wealth throughout his/her life, he/she will more likely say that the bottle is half emptied because he/she can get whatever he/she wants without going through hardships. 2. Reason Reasoning, the ability to use logic to differentiate right or wrong, is another essential element of TOK. One of the main reasons for positioning the WOK of reasoning as the second most important is that reasoning allows people to piece together scattered ideas into one. Reasoning uses past experiences to decipher bits of thoughts and ideas into various ideas depending on personal experiences and what people are taught. In other words, different people come up with different results through the process of reasoning. Yet, the gap in the variation in the results is not as large as perceptions. Unlike perception, the results obtained through reasoning do not extend as far as that of perception as reasoning is more rational, which is one of the main reasons perception is ranked higher than reason. Real-. When presented numerous clues that lead to one another, you need reason to piece them together. For example, if given a math problem like x + 3 = 5, you can automatically know that x = 2 if you think logically as the answer is always rational regardless of your past experiences. 3. Emotion Emotion is a tool used for sharing thoughts. It tends to personalize transmitted information into the way people want it to be shared. This altered information then gets shared among people which influences the way the people perceive the ideas. While emotion helps people perceive matters personally, the extent to which emotion influence people has a limit that only reasoning and perception can exceed. Real- When talking to others, you may want to share an idea that possesses a positive connotation. However, due to emotion, you may alter the tone of the way you speak and therefore, slightly changing the implication of what you say, and possibly making it negative. 4. Language Putting language as the least important quality among the four WOKs is not to show that language is unimportant or unnecessary, in fact, quite the opposite. Language is another vital part of human understanding as well as the others. Without language, communication would be nowhere near as explicit and the exchange of thoughts would be hindered. Even if there are other ways of communication, such as gesturing, no other methods are more efficient than simply communicating through the use of language. However, compared to the other WOKs, the use of language is just a tool to exchange ideas derived from perception, reason, and emotion. Without the other WOKs, no thoughts can be shaped and subsequently shared through language. Yet, without language, thoughts can still be exchanged, just in a more restrained and less lucid matter, although, still doable. The more accessible substitutes for language are the main reasons why I positioned language as the least important WOK among reason, perception, and emotion. Expressions, movements, body language, and several more, for example, can all be reduced substitutes for language. Real- When talking to others, there are several ways of expression yourself, the most effective being the use of languages. For example, when you order for something in McDonalds, rather than pointing at the picture vaguely and unclearly, you can simply say the name of the food making it easier for the idea to be transferred. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge section. Download this essay Print Save Not the one? Search for

Current Congress Legislation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Current Congress Legislation - Essay Example Taxing small businesses fairly is a very important step in promoting them. American is strong due to the important role played by small businesses. Statistics indicate that more than 90 percent of all employers are small businesses. Therefore, if small businesses are not healthy, reducing unemployment in America is easy. Economists estimate that value of output from small businesses is 50% of non-farm GDP. With such a huge amount of output for the country, promoting small businesses is good for the American economy. The same companies are responsible for producing much of the knowledge that gives America competitive advantage over competitors. Small firms produce more patent per employee than large companies do. This suggests that without small firms, knowledge creation would take a beating. Small businesses in America are found everywhere. The numbers of small businesses are estimated at more than 22 million. A law that is beneficial to this huge number of small businesses will be felt in virtually every neighborhood in America. By virtue of their spread, they employ as much as 50% of all employees in private sector. Another important contribution of small businesses is exporting ("Office of Advocacy - Press Releases - Small Businesses Are Important Players in U.S. Business and Job Growth†). Currently, American is facing trade deficit because Americans import too much consumption goods more than export. By exporting, small business help, prevent the present trade imbalance from getting worse. Approximately 97% of American exporters are small businesses who export goods and services values as 27%of total export. Small businesses in America are started at a rate of half a million per year. This explains their capacity for creating jobs for Americans. If they are supported, more of these small businesses would succeed. Lastly, even the big Americans corporations that pay billions in tax every

Business Risk Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business Risk Management - Assignment Example 132). The average of three hundred and fifty dollars they receive is as too low to cater for the needs and demand of their families. Working hours and salaries: Within the last ten months, all the three Apple factories operating in China exceeded both the Chinese legal limits on working hours and the fair labor association standards. The fair labor association allows a maximum of sixty working hours per week, including both standard shifts and paid overtime. According to its survey, the Apple branches in China broke this rule by subjecting its employees to more than maximum working time per week. Though the workers are forced to work over the limits allowed by both the government and the fair labor association, Apple own investigation has shown that most of its facilities located in foreign countries broke legal limits by failing to pay proper overtime wages as stipulated by the law(Sad grove, 2005, p. 338). The fair labor associations found that almost a quarter of Foxconn’s workers do not get the compensation they are owed for unscheduled overtime. Health and safety: Almost half of the employees surveyed, by the fair labor federation, said that they were either experiencing or witnessing some kind of work related accident. Before FLA investigations, Foxconn recorded only accidents that resulted to production stoppages (Pickett, 2006, p. 275). This has for a long time led to torture of many of its workers, who had no one to return to their rescue. Prevention of underage labor: In its 2006 audit, Apple Company placed some of its findings on its website. Its current reports, on breach of labor and human rights including the use of underage workers, indicated that in more than hundred of its facilities, excessive work hours were a common thing and that most of those facilities failed to pay proper overtime wages (Froeb & McCann, 2009, p. 204).

History of Tobacco Laws

History of Tobacco Laws Coffins of Black In 1775, Percivall Pott, a surgeon at St. Bartholomews Hospital in England, noticed a marked rise in cases of scrotal cancer in his clinic. His patients were mostly chimney sweeps, who spent a lot of time in contact with grime and ash. He noted that the minute invisible particle of soot could be found under their skin for days, and that scrotal cancer bust out of a superficial skin wound called a soot wart. Based on these observations, Pitt suspected that it was the chimney soot that caused the scrotal cancers. That would mean that the cancer was potentially preventable. But removing the carcinogen was perhaps difficult to achieve. But with the embarrassing plight of chimney sweeps exposed, social reformers sought to create laws to regulate the occupation. The Chimney Sweepers Act was passed in 1788 to prevent master sweeps from using children under eight. In 1834, the age was increased to fourteen. By 1875, the use of young climbing boys was forbidden. In 1761, an amateur scientist in London, John Hill, claimed that he had found one carcinogen tabacco could cause lip, mouth, and throat cancer. In England, tobacco was rapidly escalating into a national addiction. Cigarette smoking soon spread through Europe and across the Atlantic to the United States. As cigarette consumption became a national addiction, it would be difficult to discern an association with cancer. The Emperors Nylon Stockings In the United Kingdom, government statisticians alerted the Ministry of Health in January 1947 that an unexpected epidemic of lung cancer was emerging in the country: Lung cancer morbidity had increased fifteen-fold in the prior two decades. In February, the ministry asked the Medical Research Council to organize a conference of experts to study this inexplicable rise of lung cancer rates and to find the cause. The experts at the conference pointed to every breathable form of toxin except cigarette smoke. Without any consensus, the council appointed Austin Bradford Hill, an eminent biostatistician, to devise a systematic study to identify the risk factor for lung cancer. Hill recruited Richard Doll, a 36-year-old medical researcher who had no experience in performing a study of this scale. *** In the United States, a medical student name Ernst Wynder encountered a case of 42-year-old man who died of cancer of the airways of the lung. The man was a smoker with tar-stained bronchi and soot-blackened lungs. Wynder had never seen such a case before, so he applied to the medical school for money to study the connection between smoking and lung cancer. But he was bluntly told that the effort would be futile. He wrote to the U.S. Surgeon General, but was told that he could prove nothing. So Wynder approached his mentor Evarts Graham, the great heart surgeon in St Louis. Graham was a heavy smoker and didnt believe the connection between cancer and smoking. But he agreed to help Wynder with the study in part to disprove the link and lay the issue at rest. The Case-Control Studies In St Louis, Wynder and Graham followed a simple method. They recruited a group of lung cancer patients and a control group without cancer and asked them about their smoking habits. They used smokers to nonsmokers ratio within each group to determine the smoking-cancer connection. In the UK, Doll and Hill followed a similar method in their study. They asked social workers in the hospital to interview the two groups of patients in and around London. To counteract biases, they included other questions such as how often they eat fried fish into the survey. By May 1, 1948, the result of their study was: The one and only statistical association with lung cancer was cigarette smoking. They published their study in September 1956. Meanwhile, Wynder and Graham in St Louis had also arrived at the same conclusion. The published their studies a few months earlier. The Prospective Cohort Study It might appear that Doll, Hill, Wynder and Graham proved the link between lung cancer and smoking. But they had proved something else. In a case-control study, the risk is estimated post hoc by asking lung cancer patients whether they had smoked. The interviewer could have unconsciously probed lung cancer patients about their smoking habits more aggressively than control group. In the early 1940s, an Oxford geneticist named Edmund Ford faced a similar notion. The solution was to follow a cohort to capture the change over time. Doll and Hill followed Fords work with deep interest. There was a centralized registry of all doctors in Britain that could be used for a cohort study. Every time a doctor in the registry died, the registrar was noticed with a detail description of the cause of death. On October 31, 1951, Doll and Hill sent out survey letters to about 60,000 doctors. About 41,000 of them responded. Doll and Hill used the data to create a master list, dividing it into smokers and nonsmokers. Each time a death was reported, they found out the cause of death from the registrars office. Between October 1951 and March 1954, 789 deaths were reported, and 36 were attributed to lung cancer. All these 36 deaths had occurred in the smokers category, showing a strong correlation between lung cancer and cigarette smoking. A thief in the Night In 1956, the percentage of smokers in the US adult population had reached an all-time peak of 45 percent. Cigarette sales had climbed to stratospheric heights and the tobacco industry had transformed their advertising by targeting their advertising to selected segments of the population. By the early 1960s, an average American consumed eleven cigarettes per day, nearly one for each waking hour. In the mid-1950s, public health organizations in America were undisturbed by the link between tobacco and cancer. But the tobacco industry was worried that the link would scare consumers away. In 1953, three years before Dolls prospective study was public, the heads of several tobacco companies met in New York to prepare a counterattack. They saturated the news media in 1954 with an advertisement titled A Frank Statement, obfuscating facts and creating doubts about the connection between lung cancer and tobacco. They had already formed a committee called Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC) to act as an intermediary between the hostile academy, the embattled tobacco industry, and the confused consumer. The director of the committee was Clarence Cook Little, who the Laskerites had deposed as president of ASCC. Little was a strong proponent that lung cancer was hereditary. Studies had shown a strong correlation between smoking and lung cancer. But correlation, Little argued, could not be equated with cause. To counter that argument, Bradford Hill prepared a list of nine criteria that could prove a causal relationship. No single item in that list proved causality, but scientists could pick criteria from the list to strengthen or weaken the causal relationship. In the February 1957, Evart Graham died from bilateral bronchogenic carcinoma. Two weeks before he died, Graham wrote to his friend Alton Ochsner: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦bilateral bronchogenic carcinoma sneaked up on me like a thief in the nightà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦You know I quit smoking more than five years ago, but the trouble is that I smoked for 50 years. In 1954, in a book entitled Smoking and Cancer, Graham had wondered whether it was time for the US Public Health Service to at least issue a statement of warning. A Statement of Warning In the summer of 1963, a team of three men visited the laboratory of Oscar Auerbach in East Orange, New Jersey. Oscar Auerbach was a lung pathologist who believed that cancer grew from a precursor lesion precancer to its full-blown form slowly, and methodically, over a long period of time. Long before lung cancer became symptomatic, he found, the lung tissues contained layers of precancerous lesions in various stages of development. He had recently completed a monumental study comparing lung specimens of nonsmokers and smokers, which was considered a landmark in the understanding of the genesis of lung cancer. The three visitors were William Cochran, Peter Hamill, and Emmanuel Farber. They were three of the ten-member advisory committee appointed by the US surgeon general. The   mandate (of the committee) was to review the evidence connecting tobacco to cancer so that the surgeon general could issue an official report. US Surgeon Generals Report In 1961, the American Cancer Society, the National Tuberculosis Association and the American Heart Association had sent a joint letter to President Kennedy urging him to appoint a national commission to investigate the link between tobacco and cancer. Kennedy assigned it to his surgeon general, Luther Terry. Terry appointed ten members to his advisory committee. Each member brought insight to a unique piece of the puzzle. Piece by piece, a consistent picture emerged. The committee found the relationship between smoking and lung cancer was one of the strongest in history. Luther Terry released his 387-page report on January 11, 1964. The report was released on a Saturday in part to minimize its effect on the stock market. It was front page news and a leading story on every television and radio stations in the United States and abroad. The FTC Action The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was a federal agency whose mandate was to regulate advertisements and claims made by various products. Given the link between cigarettes and cancer, as acknowledged by the surgeon generals report, the FTC recommended that cigarette makers would need to acknowledge this directly in advertising their products. The FTC recommended to imprint the message into the product itself. Cigarette packages and all advertisements were to be labeled with Caution: Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Health. It May Cause Death from Cancer and Other Disease. The proposed action from the FTC spread panic through the tobacco industry. Rather than being regulated by the FTC, the tobacco industry voluntarily requested regulation by Congress. In Congress, the FTCs recommendation was diluted as it changed hands from hearing to hearing, leading to an amended bill called the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (FCLAA) of 1965. It changed the FTCs warning label to Caution: Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health. The words cancer, cause, and deaths were removed from the original label. Battle on Cigarette Advertising In late 1966, a young attorney named John Banzhaf asked a local television station to provide airtime for anti-smoking announcements. The station refused. In the summer of 1967, Banzhaf filed a complaint with the FCC. The FCCs fairness doctrine required public media to provide free air time to opposing viewpoints on controversial issues. The FCC announced responded that its fairness doctrine applied to the request for anti-smoking announcements. With the FTC consent, Banzhaf sued the TV station. The suit went to trial in 1968. The court ruled that proportional airtime had to be given to pro-tobacco and anti-tobacco advertising. In February 1969, the FCC announced that they would rigorously police the proportional air time clause.   A barrage of anti-smoking advertisements appeared on television. In late 1970, faced with the daily brunt of negative publicity, tobacco manufacturers voluntarily withdrew cigarette advertising from broadcast media. Lawsuits Against Tobacco Manufacturers Rose Cipollone started smoking when she was a teenager in 1942. She tried to quit, but relapsed later with greater dependency. In her quest for the safe cigarette, she had switched brands and tried new filters periodically. In 1981, Cipollone was diagnosed with lung cancer. By August 1983, the cancer metastasized all over her body. She started chemotherapy, but had a poor response. She died on October 21, 1984 at age 58. Marc Edell, a New Jersey attorney, heard of Cipollones diagnosis in the summer of 1983. He sued for the Cipollones against three tobacco manufacturers whose products Rose had used Liggette, Lorillard, and Philip Morris. In previous lawsuits against the tobacco companies, the tobacco industry had all declared victory. Edell acknowledged that Rose Cipollone had read the warning labels and knew of the risks of smoking. But what matter was what the cigarette manufacturers knew, and how much of the cancer risk they had revealed to consumers. Edell asked the courts for unprecedented access to the internal files of the three tobacco companies. These documents showed that the tobacco companies knew smoking was linked to cancer, and the struggles within the industry to conceal the risks. In 1987, after four long years, the court decided that Rose Cipollone was 80 percent at fault. Only Liggett was liable for the remaining 20 percent, as Rose Cipollone smoked their cigarettes before the 1966 warning labels. Lorillard and Philip Morris got off without punishment. The jury awarded $400,000 in damages to Antonio Cipollone. Lawsuits by the States In 1994, Mississippi was the first state to sue the tobacco industry to recover its public healthcare outlays linked to smoking. Several other states soon followed. Faced with the prospect of defending multiple actions nationwide, the four largest cigarette makers proposed a global agreement in June 1997. In 1998, 46 states signed the Master Settlement Agreement with the four companies. Since 1998, an additional 47 cigarette makers have joined the agreement, making it one of the largest liability settlements in the United States.

Nonviolent movement

There is a wide-spread conception in the theory of nation-building that violence is an ultimate way to express disagreement and overcome injustice as well as fight a dictatorship. But the last century has proven the fallaciousness of this conception. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Dalai Lama and many others have shown that nonviolence can be more powerful force in defeating oppressive rulers and laws. Their lives and actions are examples how oppressors or unjust legislation may be defied by the force of word and soul rather than by the force of weapons. Gene Sharp summarizes the effectiveness of nonviolent actions with such words: â€Å"nonviolent action is possible, and is capable of wielding great power even against ruthless rulers and military regimes, because it attacks the most vulnerable characteristic of all hierarchical institutions and governments: dependence on the governed† (p. 18).Nonviolent action is an application of a very simple t ruth: people do not always do what they are told to do, and sometimes they do that which has been forbidden. When people refuse their cooperation, withhold their help, and persist in their disobedience and defiance, they do this to deny their opponents the basic human assistance and cooperation which any government or hierarchical system requires. If they do this collectively through their established independent social institutions or newly improvised groupings for a sufficient period of time, the power of that government will weaken and potentially dissolve.The world history has witnessed the cases when nonviolent means have been chosen over violence for religious or ethical reasons. In some cases, even when pragmatic political considerations were dominant in the choice of nonviolent struggle, the movement has taken on certain religious or ethical overtones. This was the case in the campaigns of the Indian National Congress for independence from Britain in the 1920s, 1930s, and 19 40s. Those struggles, often under Gandhi’s leadership, and also the civil rights campaigns in the 1950s and 1960s in the Deep South of the United States, under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., are very important.Mohandas Karamchand  Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi, is the first name that comes to mind when one speaks of nonviolence in the 20th century. His charisma and his action not only had a profound effect on India’s modern history, but also provided firm basis for all future nonviolent struggles in the world. Gandhi’s political philosophy revolved around three key concepts: satyagraha (non-violence), sawaraj (home rule), and sarvodaya (welfare of all). Whereas satyagraha was essentially a tactic of achieving political ends by non-violent means, sawaraj and sarvodaya sought to encourage ideas of individual and collective improvement and regeneration. Such regeneration, Gandhi insisted, was necessary if India was to rediscover her enduring historical and religious self and throw off British rule. (Andrews, 1949)Perhaps Gandhi’s best-known act of civil disobedience, known as the second satyagraha (‘hold fast to the truth’) was Salt March that was taking place in 1930 from  12 March to 6 April. It expressed increasing frustration by Congress at its own impotence and, specifically, the British refusal to grant Dominion status to India. Gandhi chose the hated salt tax as the object of his campaign. At the time, the Indian government maintained a monopoly over the manufacture of salt, an essential basic commodity which was thus heavily taxed. Those using their own salt, e.g. if they were living close to the sea, were subject to heavy punishment.The 61-year-old Mahatma started the 240-mile-long march from Sabarmati to the coastal town of Dandi together with seventy-eight of his followers. He was joined by thousands along the way, in a march that received vast international and national attention. When the protesters marched on to a government salt depot, he was arrested, as were between 60,000 and 90,000 other Indians in subsequent months, as well as the entire Congress leadership. Gandhi was released and called off the campaign in March 1931 following the Gandhi–Irwin Pact, which allowed Gandhi to participate in the second Round Table Conference, and symbolically permitted the production of salt for domestic consumption.From the 1920s to early 1940s, he led a series of passive resistance campaigns in pursuit of Swaraj, which redefined the character of Indian nationalism. He sought tolerance between Hindus and Muslims and the eradication of caste untouchability. In January 1948 he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic for his pro-Muslim sympathies. Gandhi’s insistence that means were more important than the ends distinguished him from other great political leaders of the twentieth century.Since his death Gandhi has become the source of inspiration for non-violent poli tical movements such as the Civil Rights Movement in the USA. Desmond Tutu in the article A Force More Powerful a Century of Nonviolent Conflict rightfully points out: â€Å"The leaders who opted for nonviolent weapons often learned from resistance movements of the past. Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi was inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1905. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other African American leaders traveled to India to study Gandhi’s tactics.† (Tutu, 2000) Non-cooperation was a major tactic employed by Gandhi when he felt the state had become immoral or unjust. In the King movement, such action was called boycott, the most effective nonviolent tactic employed in the movement to abolish discrimination in public transportation in Montgomery, Alabama.The justification for such action lies in the fact that rejection is as much of an action as acceptance. Thus, King, like Gandhi, while emphasizing the necessity of courage, utilized the boycott to achieve rejection of unjust laws regulating public transportation and public lunch counters. The net effect of the various expressions of the nonviolent protest, especially the boycott, strike, demonstration and jail, was to draw one’s opponent off balance, hoping thereby to change his mind. (Smith, p.58) Nonviolence, therefore, was not a sign of weakness or of a lack of courage. Quite the contrary, King believed that only the strong and courageous person could be nonviolent. He advised persons not to get involved in the civil rights struggle unless they had the strength and the courage to stand before people full of hate and to break the cycle of violence by refusing to retaliate.King just as Gandhi emphasized the need to prepare for action. The Civil Rights Movement initiated by Martin Luther King, Jr. succeeded in mobilizing massive nonviolent direct action. Innovative tactics included economic boycotts, beginning with the yearlong boycott of a bus company in Montgomery, Alabama, begun in December 1955 and led by Martin Luther King, Jr.; sit-in demonstrations; and mass marches, including a massive mobilization of whites and blacks in the August 1963 March on Washington, which culminated in King’s â€Å"I have a dream† speech, and protest marches led by King that met with police violence in Selma, Alabama, in January 1965.The goal of these protests was to overthrow the entire system of racial segregation and to empower African Americans by seizing the franchise. Participants of the Civil Rights Movement were often beaten and brutalized by southern law enforcement officials, and thousands were arrested and jailed for their protest activities. Some leaders and participants were killed.Nevertheless, an endless stream of highly visible confrontations in the streets, which contrasted the brutality and the inhumanity of the white segregationists with the dignity and resolve of black protesters, made the cause of black civil rights the major i ssue in the United States for over a decade during the 1950s and 1960s. The nation and its leaders were forced to decide publicly whether to grant African Americans their citizenship rights or to side with white segregationists who advocated racial superiority and the undemocratic subjugation of black people.In conclusion it would be relevant to provide a brief revision of the similarity and differences the detection of which was purpose of this analysis. The parallels between Gandhi and Martin Luther King are self-evident. This preliminary look at Gandhi and King’s activity gives us the understanding that nonviolent movement cannot be limited by time frames or specific location. It rather needs a leader with strong character, resilience and ability to persuade people. The two leaders preferred nonviolence at a time when their people were being oppressed. Both struggled against the yoke of white oppression. Like Gandhi, King valued the power of nonviolent political action in keeping with the spirit of Gandhi’s satyagraha. King’s role in organizing the Montgomery bus boycott enabled him to emerge as the creator of a strategy of civil disobedience that earned for the civil-rights movement in the United States unprecedented media coverage, new forms of public recognition, and greater access to political power.Though both agreed that nonviolence is successful tactics on condition that every individual is committed to truth and justice, Gandhi tended to lay stress upon the necessity of personal suffering when participating in nonviolent movement, an attitude that to some extent was less aggressive than King’s emphasis on self-sacrifice. Moreover, Gandhi claimed that to achieve the goals through nonviolence one needs patience and non-cooperation and King believed that it is a certain degree of confrontation that is necessary to accomplish change. One more difference between Gandhi and King lies in the paradigm of their activity.While Gand hi was concerned about social injustice suffered by Indian people, King’s concerns bore upon racial discrimination of African Americans in the USA. And probably the most striking difference is the result of their struggle. While Martin Luther King’s ideas after his death were followed through by his followers and found an echo in common American’s heart, Gandhi was criticized that his tactics unnecessarily delayed the departure of the British, precipitated the partition of India, and led to the Hinduization of Congress because of his over-emphasis on religion. Few of Gandhi’s ideas were put into practice by independent India.While both of them deserve respect and admiration, it is possible to recognize that their approaches to the practice of nonviolence later grew strong one as opposition, the other as protest. Gandhi and King help us to believe that peaceful resolution of a conflict will live up to its promise.References:Andrews, C. F. Mahatma Gandhiâ⠂¬â„¢s Ideas.   London: Allen & Unwin, 1949McCarthy, R. and Sharp, G., eds., Nonviolent Action: A Research Guide. New York, 1997Sharp, G. The Role of Power in Nonviolent Struggle. Monograph Series, No. 3. The Albert Einstein Institution, 1990Smith, Kenneth and Zepp, Ira. Search for the Beloved Community: The Thinking of Martin Luther King. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1974.Tutu, Desmond. â€Å"A Force More Powerful a Century of Nonviolent Conflict†. Social Education. (64):5, 2000

Corporate Governance and Financing Decisions by Saudi Companies

Corporate Governance and Financing Decisions by Saudi Companies Ali Al-Nodel College of Economy and Administration, Qassim University, P. O. Box 4667, Burydah 51412 Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia. Email: [email  protected] edu. sa Khaled Hussainey Ain Shams University, Egypt Accounting & Finance Division Stirling Management School Stirling University Stirling FK9 4LA United Kingdom Email: Khaled. [email  protected] ac. uk 1 Abstract Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to the corporate governance literature in emerging economies by examining the effect of some corporate governance mechanisms on financing decisions in Saudi Arabian listed companies.Methodology: A multiple regression model is used to examine the association between financing decisions and corporate governance mechanisms for a sample of 37 listed Saudi companies. In particular, we examine the effect of board size; ownership concentration and corporate governance reporting on the debt-to-equity ratio. Corporate governance reporting is measured by the content analysis approach. Findings: After controlling for companies’ profitability and their growth opportunities, we found that both board size and ownership concentration are positively associated with debt-to-equity ratio.Research limitations: We limit our analysis to a small sample of firms that use the internet to communicate corporate governance information between October 2005 and January 2006. Practical implications: The findings suggest that managers are likely to choose higher financial leverage when they have stronger corporate governance (large number of directors on the board and higher ownership concentration). However, we did not find any statistical association between corporate governance disclosure and debt-to-equity ratio.This suggests that firm’s asymmetric information is not an important driver of the financing decision of Saudi Arabian companies. This might be due to the nature of the Saudi business environment. Orig inality: We strongly believe that this paper provides a novel contribution to the existing literature as we are the first to examine this issue in Saudi Arabia. Keywords: Corporate governance, financing decisions, emerging economies, Saudi Arabia. Paper type: Research paper. 2 1. IntroductionThis paper aims to contribute to the corporate governance literature by examining the effect of corporate governance characteristics on financing decisions in Saudi Arabian listed companies. In particular, it examines the effect of board size; ownership concentration and corporate governance reporting on the debt-to-equity ratio. The investigation of these research issues in Saudi business environment could extend prior research and give different explanations to those carried out in more developed countries Research related to determinant of corporate capital structure is a well established part of the accounting and finance research.Modigliani and Miller (1958) is the first to study this area of research. They also provided another study in the same area of research after modifying some assumptions such as relaxing the prefect market assumptions and considering corporate tax into their models (Miller and Modigliani, 1963). In their later study, they suggested that firm value will be enhanced if the level of debt increases because interest rate is a tax deductible and consequently companies would enjoy debt tax shield when funding their activities by long-term debt. Further accounting and finance research studies were more expressive.Those researches were concentrated on examining some determinants of corporate capital structure. For example, the association between board size and capital structure decisions have been suggested by a number of empirical studies (see for example Mehran 1992, Berger et al. 1997, Wiwattanakantang 1999, Wen et al. 2002, Du and Dia 2005, Abor and Biekpe 2005 and Al-Najjar and Hussainey 2010a and 2010b). Another determinant of capital structure decision which received significant attention is the ownership concentration (see for example Wiwattanakantang 1999, and Al- 3 Najjar and Hussainey 2010a and 2010b).More recently, number of studies have, also, investigated the association between asymmetric information and corporate decisions (see for example Li and Zhao, 2006 and Bharath et al. 2009). The results of these research studies suggest that firm value will be enhanced if the level of debt increases, board size and ownership concentration are associated with capital structure decisions and firms with higher levels of information asymmetric are more likely to use debt in financing their activities than equity. Unfortunately, the results of these research studies cannot be generalized for number of reasons.First, these results provided mixed evidence. For example, Mehran (1992), Berger et al. (1997), and Abor and Biekpe (2005) found a significant negative association between the size of the board of directors and debt-to-eq uity ratios, while Jensen (1986) found a positive association between higher debt ratios and larger board size. Further, other researchers found that there is no significant association between board size and debt-to-equity ratios (i. e. Wiwattanakantang, 1999; Wen et al. , 2002; and Al-Najjar and Hussainey, 2010). A second reason for the difficulty behind generalizing the results of these esearch studies are that the majority of them were carried out in most developed countries such as U. S and European continental. More precisely, in developing countries the conclusions of this line of research are likely to be challenged due to the business environmental differences between those of developed and those of developing countries. In another words, in a different business environment such those of the Middle Eastern countries, there are significant environmental factors that may affect corporate capital structure decisions.Hove (1986 and 1990) asserted the importance of political, ec onomical, and social systems on corporate decisions. 4 Third reason for the difficulty of generalising the evidence of prior research examining determinants of corporate capital structure is that there are very limited numbers of studies that have examined determinants of capital structure in developing countries and even fewer such studies may be found in the Middle East countries, leaving significant doubt about the applicability of these evidence in the business environment of Middle east countriesAccordingly, a natural area of extending the lines of the accounting and finance research related to determinant of corporate capital structure decisions is to explore other drivers of corporate capital structure decisions and to consider suggested drivers within a different business environment. In the present paper, we aim to examine the degree to which corporate governance affect the financing decisions of Saudi Arabian listed companies. We focus only on three corporate governance me chanisms.These are board size; ownership concentration and corporate governance reporting. The main reasons for concentrating on these issues are the possibility of making comparison with other studies because these are the most studied issues in the literature, the availability of data regarding these issues1, and the importance of advising regulators whom are more concern about these issues in the process of regulating corporate governance in Saudi Arabia.To help us in focusing on a group of firms that report corporate governance information on their websites, we utilised a sample of 37 companies listed in Saudi Stock Market in January 2006. This was based on a recent paper by Hussainey and Al-Nodel (2008) who collected their sample from Saudi listed companies’ websites 1 Cost of capital is an important factor in corporate capital structure decisions; however data for capital structure was not available. 5 etween October 2005 and January 2006 representing a total number of 77 companies listed in the Saudi Stock Exchange at that time. We found that both board size and ownership concentration are positively associated with the debt-to-equity ratio. However, we did not find a significant association between corporate governance reporting and the debt-to-equity ratio. The findings seem to suggest that managers are likely to choose higher financial leverage when they have stronger corporate governance (large number of directors on the board and higher ownership concentration).However, firm’s asymmetric information seems to be not a driver of the financing decision of Saudi Arabian companies. A possible explanation is that decisions relate to capital structure are affected by the Islamic view of financing which prohibits interests and in turn to the public view who disrespects such practice. This is enhanced by the weakness of the business reporting practice in Saudi Arabia which could provide pave for a different mean of getting information by parti es related to loan agreements.The results of this paper may be of use to the Saudi Arabian Capital Market Authority (SACMA, thereafter) who issued a guidance in 2006 that recommends all listed companies to disclose corporate governance information to the public. This would help SACMA to explore the attitude of companies to voluntarily report corporate governance rather than being enforced to do so. The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 reviews prior research on the determinants of corporate capital structure. In Section 3, a description of the Saudi business environment is provided.Sections 4 and 5 discuss the development of the research hypotheses and the research model. Section 6 is the data description. The 6 main regression results are presented in Section 7. Section 8 concludes and suggests areas for future research. 2. Literature Review Although the relationship between corporate governance and capital structure has been the subject for an extensive research in developed co untries2, a limited research has been carried out to investigate the issue in business environment of developing countries.The association between board size and capital structure decisions have been well established in prior accounting and finance research. In particular, Mehran (1992), Berger et al. (1997), Wiwattanakantang (1999), Wen et al. (2002), Du and Dia (2005), Abor and Biekpe (2005) and Al-Najjar and Hussainey (2010a and 2010b) examined the association between board size and corporate capital structure decision, but the results are mixed. Mehran (1992), Berger et al. (1997), and Abor and Biekpe (2005) reported a significant negative association between the size of the board of directors and debt-toequity ratios.However, Jensen (1986) revealed a positive association between higher debt ratios and larger board size. Other researchers found that there is no significant association between board size and debt-to-equity ratios (Wiwattanakantang, 1999, Wen et al. , 2002, Al-Naj jar and Hussainey, 2010). 2 Examples include the UK (see, for example, Demirag 1998; Ezzamel and Willmott 1993; Writer 2001; Vinten 2001), The Netherlands (Groot, 1998), and Canada (Elloumi and Gueyie, 2001). Other researchers compared the corporate governance practice between developing countries.For instance, Vinten (2000) compared the corporate governance practice between the UK and the US. Another comparative study is Charkham (1994) which found significant differences in the corporate governance practices in five countries: Japan, Britain, France, the United States and Germany. 7 Ownership concentration is considered as one of the key determinants of capital structure decision. Wiwattanakantang (1999) reported that managerial shareholdings have consistent positive influence on family-owned firm leverage.In addition, Al-Najjar and Hussainey (2010a) found that insider ownership is positively and significantly associated with the debt-to-equity ratio. However, Al-Najjar and Hussai ney (2010b) did not find the expected significant results. A relatively recent and growing number of studies have investigated the association between asymmetric information and corporate decisions (see Li and Zhao, 2006 for more details). For example Bharath et al. (2009) used a novel information asymmetry index and examined the extent to which information asymmetry is a determinant of capital structure decisions.They found that information asymmetry affects capital structure decisions of US companies. In particular, they found a significant positive association between information asymmetry and debt-to-equity ratio. In other words, their results suggest that firms with higher levels of information asymmetric are more likely to use debt in financing their activities than equity. On the other hand, other research found that voluntary disclosure is negatively related to asymmetric information. For example, Hussainey et al. 2003) found higher levels of voluntary disclosure reduce info rmation asymmetry between the firm and investors and hence increase investors' ability to better anticipate future earnings. Research investigating corporate governance in developing countries is much beyond in considering the impact of issues of corporate governance on corporation capital structure. A review of research investigating issues of corporate governance revealed that most such research approach the issue whether to describe the state of 8 orporate governance from an official perspective or from the perspective of what should the practical applications of its principles be. For example, Al-Motairy (2003) explored the state of corporate governance practices in Saudi Arabia. He concluded that there is a vital need for (1) a review of these regulations to reflect the current practices of corporate governance, (2) the issuance of guidance for best practices for management and financial affair in corporations and (3) the establishment of an organisation to accelerate the adopt ion of best practices of corporate governance.Similarly, Fouzy (2003) evaluated the practices of corporate governance’s principles in Egypt. He recognised the development in Egyptian official regulations toward the application of best practices of corporate governance. He then argued that these developments are not met enough by Egyptian companies in their practical applications. Another example is the study which was carried out by Oyelere and Mohammed (2005) investigating the practices of corporate governance in Oman and how it is being communicated to stakeholders.They recommend enhanced regulation and communication for the Omani stock market to keep pace with the international developments. Finally, a research paper by the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE, 2003) examined the corporate governance practice in four Middle Eastern countries (Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Lebanon). It found that corporate governance practice is approached differently by each cou ntry depending on the sophistication of the financial market in each country. The research paper further provided several 9 ecommendations to improve the application of the principles of corporate governance in the region as a whole. The impact of the corporation attitude toward their corporate governance on their financing decisions needs further investigation giving the unique of the Saudi business environment and the mixed results of the accounting and finance research relating to the determinants of corporate capital structure. This is evident by the unique aspects of the business environment of Saudi Arabia which will be discussed in the following paragraph. 3.Saudi business environment This section provides a general description of the environment of the Saudi business practices. The discussion will be directed to the most important environmental factors, as suggested by the literature. The main aspects of the Saudi business practices that will be discussed are the social, eco nomical, and political systems. Also, some highlights will be given to the 1965 Company Law that regulates the practice of Saudi businesses and the guidance of corporate governance issued by SACMA in 2006 which regulates corporate governance reporting.As a conservative society, a significant number of Saudis are adherent to Islamic values such as avoiding loan interests. This does not mean there is no such type of transactions but to mean that the majority of Saudis do not openly accept such transactions. Saudi society is also characterized by the impact of the personality and power of particular individuals, the role of family and friend relationships over regulations, privilege given to personal relationships over tasks, and the existence of a high level of secrecy (Al-Rumaihi 1997; Al-Nodel 2004). 0 The economy of Saudi Arabia is an oil-based economy and government exercises strong controls over major economic activities. Since the discovery of oil in 1938, oil revenue represents the biggest contribution to the economy. In 1990s, it accounted for around 35% of nominal GDP, about 75% of government revenues, and 85% of export receipts (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2003). Table 1 presents the country’s budgetary revenues, expenditures and net surplus or (deficit) for the last three years.Insert Table 1 here Similar to most developing countries, Saudi businesses are characterized by the domination of family businesses, the deep involvement of the government in the private sector, and the existence of a number of foreign-owned and controlled companies based on joint venture agreements with domestic companies. Al-Nodel (2004) reported that joint-stock companies represent only 1. 14% of the total number, and account for less than 40% of the total capital of the registered businesses.Since the type of businesses is mostly small to medium size companies, there was an apparent need for more foreign investors and involvement of the government in the private sec tor to carry some important activities which cannot be carried out or provided by local companies. This has left the country with significant number of foreign-owned and controlled companies based on joint venture agreements with domestic companies and significant involvement of government in some major business activities (Presley, 1984; Aba-Alkhail, 2001).The political system of Saudi Arabia is a monarchy, headed by the King. Within the political system, there are three legislative bodies, which have the authority to initiate and/or approve policies, regulation or rules: the Council of 11 Ministers, the Consultative Council, and various individual Ministries (Al-Amari, 1989; Al-Rumaihi, 1997). The legal system of Saudi Arabia is derived from Islamic law (Shariah; Alqur’an Alkareem and Sunna Alsharifah3), and coded laws for a number of specific fields, such as commerce, tax and labour.Al-Amari (1989) reported that Islamic law prevails in legal disputes. Two of the most impor tant aspects of the Islamic values relating to corporate financing are that Islamic law prohibits loan interests whether giving or taking by individuals or business institutions and obligation of Zaket4 which should be giving, calculated based on the capital of the business or individual, and given to specific groups as mentioned by Alqur’an Alkareem and Sunna Alsharifah.Taxes duty is imposed on non-Saudi or Gulf States companies operate in Saudi Arabia. There are some differences between Zaket and Taxes whether on whom to impose, the manner of collection, or calculation. For example, Zaket is based on the wealth of the business with some specific deductions for specific items as indicated by Shariah; Alqur’an Alkareem and Sunna Alsharifah, while Tax is based on the net income with some deduction according to the law of Taxes. The 1965 Company Law regulates the practice of businesses in Saudi Arabia.It sets conditions for several aspects of businesses such as legal fra meworks through which business companies can be established, the registration requirements, minimum capital to be maintained, number of partners, number of directors, accounts, the 3 Alqur’an Alkareem is the Holly book of Islam and Sunna Alsharifah is the interpretations, speeches and actions of prophet Mohamed Peace be up on him. Alqur’an Alkareem and Sunna Alsharifah provide the main of Islamic instructions. 4 Zaket is a financial religious duty and represents the third pillar.Alqur’an Alkareem and Sunna Alsharifah explain to Muslim the compliance with the Zaket duty. 12 annual audit of the accounts, and so on. Shinawi and Crum (1971) asserted that the origin of the 1965 Saudi Company Law goes back to the British Companies Act of 1948. The similarity between the 1965 Saudi Company Law and the UK acts issued in 1948, 1967 and 1976 was also reported by Kahlid (1983). The reporting requirements which are imposed by the 1965 Company Law represent the only rules th at should be observed.It requires the issuance of a balance sheet, a profit and loss account, and a report on the company’s operations and financial position every fiscal year. It further stipulates that all corporations and limited liability companies must issue annual financial statements audited by an independent auditor licensed to practice by the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Similar to stock markets in developing countries, the Saudi stock market is new and small. In 1984, the Royal Decree No. 81230 was issued as an attempt to officially regulate the stock exchange (Abdeen and Dale, 1984; El-Sharkawy, 2006).Under this Royal Decree, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) was given actual control over the stock exchange through national commercial banks. The significant change was in 2003 when the Saudi Arabian Capital Market Authority (SACMA) was established to oversight the exchange of Saudi stocks (Ramady, 2005). This period observed significant increase o f the number of listed companies, regulations for the market in general and reporting in specific. Table 2 compares some key numbers of the Saudi stock market between 1996- 2005. Insert Table 2 here 13For example, in 2006 SACMA issued a draft for reporting requirements of corporate governance for listed companies. The draft provides recommendations of the criteria for the best corporate governance practice that should listed companies counsel. It has covered to some extent the main five principles issued by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): the rights of shareholders, the equitable treatment of shareholders, the role of stakeholders in corporate governance, disclosure and transparency, the responsibility of the board of directors.According to the recommendations of SACMA, listed companies are required to report to SACMA about their compliance with the criteria of corporate governance as issued by SACMA or reasons for uncompliance if any. The disclosu re contains, for example, the board of directors’ functions, responsibilities, formation, committees of board of directors; audit committee; Nomination and Remuneration Committee; Meetings of the Board and Remuneration and Indemnification of Board Members5.Finally, SACMA asserted that the criteria for the best corporate governance practice mostly constitutes the guiding principles for all listed companies unless any other regulations, laws or rules require such requirement. 4. Research hypotheses To examine the effect of corporate governance characteristics on financing decisions in Saudi Arabian listed companies we formulated three research hypotheses; 5Detailed information about these regulations is discussed in the following articles (SACMA, 2006): Article 9: Disclosure in the Board of Directors’ Report; Article 10: Main Functions of the Board of Directors; Article 11: Responsibilities of the Board; Article 12: Formation of the Board; Article 13: Committees of the B oard; Article 14: Audit Committee; Article 15: Nomination and Remuneration Committee; Article 16: Meetings of the Board; Article 17: Remuneration and Indemnification of Board Members. 14 he effect of board size; ownership concentration and corporate governance reporting on the debt-to-equity ratio as following. Board size hypothesis Given that prior research investigating the association between board size and debt-to-equity ratios gave mixed result (see section 2), we also revisited this research area and examined the association between board size and capital structure for Saudi Arabian companies. We set the following first research hypothesis for the impact of board size on capital structure:H1: Ceteris paribus, there is a relationship between board size and debt-to-equity ratio. Ownership concentration hypothesis Given the results of the prior research are – to some extent – mixed, we also revisited this research area and examined the association between ownership concentration and capital structure for Saudi Arabian companies. We set the following second research hypothesis for the impact of ownership concentration on capital structure: H2: Ceteris paribus, there is a relationship between ownership concentration and debt-to-equity ratio. Corporate governance reportingTo examine the role of the information environment on capital structure decision in Saudi Arabian companies, we used a corporate governance voluntary disclosure index as a measure of a firm’s information environment and set the 15 following third research hypothesis for the impact of corporate governance reporting on capital structure: H3: Ceteris paribus, there is a relationship between corporate governance reporting and debt-to-equity ratio. 5. Model Development In order to test the above hypotheses, we regress debt-to-equity ratio on some corporate governance characteristics and some control variables.The study will investigate the following model: Levit = ? + ? ? X it + ? it Where: Levit is defined as long term debt to equity ratio; ? is the intercept. ? ? is the slope coefficient estimates of regressors. X it is the corporate governance variables (and control variables) for firm i at time t. Dependent variable: The dependent variable ( Levit ) is defined as the long term debt to equity ratio. Independent variables: We have three independent variables and two control variables. We identified three types of corporate governance variables: 1) Board size (BOARD): This represents the number of executive and non executive directors on the board. (2) Ownership concentration (OWNERSHIP): This represents the total percentage of the company’s shares that owned by owners. 16 (3) Corporate governance reporting (DISCLOSURE): This is calculated as the number of sentences that include at least one corporate governance related information. Control variables: (1) Profitability (PROF): we used return on total assets as a measure for firms’ profitab ility. (2) Growth opportunity (MB): we used share price to book value ratio as a measure for firm’s growth opportunity. . Data Our data collection is based on a recent paper by Hussainey and Al-Nodel (2008). This helped us to focus on a group of firms that report corporate governance information on their websites. We focused on firms that disclose information through internet because prior research argued that internet reporting is one of the most important sources of voluntary disclosure and this source is more likely to complement published annual reports (Aly et al, 2010). Hussainey and Al-Nodel (2008) collected their sample from Saudi listed companies’ websites between October 2005 and January 2006.At that time, the total number of companies listed in the Saudi Stock Market was 77 representing eight sectors: agriculture, services, cement, industrial, banks, electrical, telecommunication and insurance. They used TADAWUL website (www. tdwl. net) and Google website (w ww. google. com) to access every company's website. They deleted some companies from their analysis for a number of reasons. These include 11 firms without websites; one firm with a website under construction and one firm with a restricted website. This reduced their sample to 64 companies. We also further excluded 27 firms because of missing corporate 7 governance and accounting information. This led to a sample of 37 listed firms for the current study. Data on debt-to-equity ratio, Board size, ownership concentration, profitability and price-to-book value ratio were collected from TADAWUL website. Following Hussainey and Al-Nodel (2008), we used the content analysis approach to measure the number of sentences that contain corporate governance information. Accordingly we used the corporate governance disclosure index developed by Hussainey and AlNodel (2008) to analyse the content of every company's website. 7.Empirical Results This section discusses the descriptive analysis, the c orrelation analysis and the empirical results. Descriptive analysis Table 3 shows the descriptive analysis (mean, minimum, maximum and the standard deviation). It shows that on average the number of directors on board in Saudi Arabia companies is around 8, with a minimum of 4 members and a maximum of 11 members. Mean ownership concentration is 35. 6 and the mean corporate governance disclosure is 5 sentences with a minimum of zero corporate governance sentence and a maximum of 21 corporate governance sentences.A broad range of variation in financial variables is also evident in our sample. The debt-to-equity ratio ranges from 0 to 97 with a mean of 24. 52 and a standard deviation of 32. 576. The return on total assets ratio ranges from -37. 3 to 71. 74 with a mean of 8. 8535 and a standard deviation of 13. 81767. The share price to book value ratio ranges from 0 to 21 with a mean of 5. 03 and a standard deviation of 5. 336. On 18 average, our sample covers large firms as the mean fi rm size is 23240077. 81.Finally, our sample covers nine sectors as follows: Banks (9 firms), Chemical (8 firms); Cement (6 firms); Retailers (2); Energy (I firm); Agriculture (7 firms); Telecommunication (2 firms); Advertising (1 firm) and Insurance (1 firm). Insert table 3 here Table 4 shows the correlation analysis. The correlation between each of the independent variables is not too high. The highest correlation found between corporate governance disclosure and share price to book value ratio (MB) is 43. 5, which is acceptable. This confirms that no multicollinearity problem exists between the independent variables. Insert table 4 hereTable 5 shows our empirical results. It shows that the coefficient estimate on board size is positive significant with a p-value of 0. 059 (see model 4). This is consistent with Jensen (1986) who also found a positive association between higher debt ratios and larger board size. Our finding indicates that larger board size puts Saudi Arabian firms i n a good position to finance their activities by using debt. This is consistent with the fact that higher quality of corporate governance improves companies’ financial performance (Bhagat and Bolton, 2008) and hence leads increase the ability of the company to obtain debt.Liang and Zheng (2005) provided an explanation for this positive sign. They argued that boards with a large board size are more likely to have a difficulty in getting an agreement because of different and conflict opinions and views. Accordingly, firms with large number of directors on board might not choose equity financing which requires high transaction cost to resolve communication and coordination dilemma. In addition, they argued that 19 directors would choose debt for financing their activities because this source of finance will not dilute the equity of current shareholders and change their current position.This leads us to accept hypothesis 1. Table 5 also shows that the coefficient estimate on owne rship concentration is positive significant with a p-value of 0. 005 (see model 4). This result is consistent with Wiwattanakantang (1999) Al-Najjar and Hussainey (2010a). This indicates that when the total percentage of the company’s shares is concentrated internally, managers will prefer to use debt to finance their companies’ activities. This is because – as mentioned in Liang and Zheng (2005) – debt will not dilute the equity of current shareholders and change their current position.This leads us to accept hypothesis 2. Insert table 5 here Finally, corporate governance disclosure as a proxy for asymmetric information between managers and investors is expected to be negative and statistically significant. However, Table 5 shows that the coefficient estimate of DISCLOSURE variable is positive, indicating that firms with higher levels of corporate governance disclosure (less information asymmetry) has higher debt-toequity ratio. This finding is statistic ally insignificant and not consistent with prior research. This leads us to reject hypothesis 3. . Conclusion The aim of this paper was to examine the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on capital structure for Saudi Arabian listed companies. Our results show that the corporate capital structure decisions in Saudi Arabia is driven by some of the same corporate governance determinates suggested in prior research. Based on 20 a sample of 37 Saudi Arabian listed companies, our results show that the number of directors on boards and ownership concentration are the main drivers of Saudi companies for capital structure decisions.Our results, however, show that corporate governance reporting was not an important driver of Saudi companies for capital structure decisions. This might be due in part to the nature of the Saudi business environment where there is a weak reporting requirement of the practice of corporate governance in the country. This fact could have encourage parties to loan agreements approach different means to get the needed information rather than the traditional reporting mechanisms which is likely to be practical in a small community of businesses.This is also likely to be affected by the characteristics of Saudi society whereas the impact of the personality and power of particular individuals, the role of family and friend relationships prevail over regulations, and tasks, and the existence of a high level of secrecy. The main limitation of the study is that it did not cover the whole market so the sample may not be representative of the population of Saudi companies. This, however, is justified by the nature of the study, which relied on the availability of data needed. Further recheck was carried for companies which are not included.We found that these companies are in general small and less likely to affect the results. 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OF TRANSACTIONS (THOUSAND)) 284 460 377 438 498 605 1,034 3,763 13,320 46,607 TRADED STOCK (MILLION) 138 314 295 528 555 692 1,736 5,566 10,298 12,281 Source: TADAWUL website accessed on 29th September 2006 26 MARKET VALUE ($MILLIAR ) 46 59 43 61 68 73 75 157 306 650 INDEX 1,531 1,958 1,413 2,029 2,258 2,430 2,518 4,438 8,206 16,713 Table (3) Descriptive Statistics ; Industry Classification a) Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Lev 37 0 97 24. 52 32. 576 Board 37 4 11 7. 89 1. 822 Ownership 36 .0 82. 7 35. 550 27. 7875 PROF 37 -37. 30 41. 74 8. 8535 13. 81767 MB 37 .00 66. 87 9. 9181 10. 56721 Total assets 37 0 Disclosure 37 0 136950480 23240077. 81 21 b) Industry Classification Sectors Number of firms Banks 9 Chemical 8 Cement 6 Retailers 2 Energy 1 Agriculture 7 Telecommunication 2Advertising 1 Insurance 1 27 5. 03 3. 888E7 5. 336 Table (4) Correlation analysis Disclosure Board Ownership Lev MB PROF 1. 000 .077 .246 .301 .435** -. 139 .649 .149 .070 .007 .410 37 37 36 37 37 37 Pearson Correlation .077 1. 000 .234 .395* .083 .212 Sig. (2-tailed) .649 .170 .016 .626 .207 Disclosure Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Board N 37 37 36 37 37 37 .246 .234 1. 000 .504** . 097 .064 .149 .170 .002 .574 .711 36 36 36 36 36 36 Pearson Correlation .301 .395* .504** 1. 000 .109 -. 062 Sig. (2-tailed) .070 .016 .002 .520 .716 37 37 36 37 37 37 .435** .083 .097 .109 1. 000 -. 019 .007 626 .574 .520 37 37 36 37 37 37 Pearson Correlation -. 139 .212 .064 -. 062 -. 019 1. 000 Sig. (2-tailed) .410 .207 .711 .716 .910 37 37 36 37 37 Ownership Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Lev N MB Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N PROF N **. Correlation is significant at the 0. 01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0. 05 level (2-tailed). 28 .910 37 Table (5) Regression analysis 5. 1 Model summary R Square Adjusted R Square 1 .617 a .380 .277 28. 002 2 .616b .379 .299 27. 565 3 .602c .363 .303 27. 492 4 .576d .332 .291 27. 726 Model R Std. Error of the Estimate a.Predictors: (Constant), PROF, MB, Ownership , Board , Disclosure b. Predictors: (Constant), PROF, Ownership , Board , Disclosure c. Predictors: (Constant), Ownership , Board , Disclosure d . Predictors: (Constant), Ownership , Board 29 5. 2 ANOVA analysis e ANOVA Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Regression 14436. 181 5 2887. 236 3. 682 .010a Residual 23524. 187 30 784. 140 Total 37960. 368 35 Regression 14405. 109 4 3601. 277 4. 739 .004b Residual 23555. 258 31 759. 847 Total 37960. 368 35 Regression 13774. 798 3 4591. 599 6. 075 .002c Residual 24185. 570 32 755. 799 Total 37960. 368 35 Regression 2592. 380 2 6296. 190 8. 190 .001d Residual 25367. 988 33 768. 727 Total 37960. 368 35 Model 1 2 3 4 a. Predictors: (Constant), PROF, MB, Ownership , Board , Disclosure b. Predictors: (Constant), PROF, Ownership , Board , Disclosure c. Predictors: (Constant), Ownership , Board , Disclosure d. Predictors: (Constant), Ownership , Board e. Dependent Variable: Lev 30 5. 3 Coefficient estimates Coefficients Unstandardized Coefficients Model a Standardized Coefficients t Sig. -1. 839 .076 .315 2. 079 .046 .181 .400 2. 619 .014 1. 064 1. 032 .174 1. 031 .311 MB -. 101 .507 -. 0 32 -. 199 .844 PROF -. 311 .352 . 132 -. 886 .383 -39. 272 20. 901 -1. 879 .070 Board 5. 669 2. 696 .312 2. 102 .044 Ownership .475 .178 .401 2. 672 .012 Disclosure .971 .906 .159 1. 072 .292 PROF -. 315 .346 -. 134 -. 911 .369 -38. 586 20. 831 -1. 852 .073 Board 5. 185 2. 637 .285 1. 967 .058 Ownership .466 .177 .393 2. 630 .013 Disclosure 1. 113 .890 .182 1. 251 .220 (Constant) -35. 046 20. 814 -1. 684 .102 Board 5. 196 2. 659 .286 1. 954 .059 Ownership 4 .519 .173 .438 2. 990 .005 21. 252 5. 721 2. 752 .474 Disclosure 3 -39. 090 Ownership 2 Std. Error Board 1 B (Constant) (Constant) (Constant) a. Dependent Variable: Lev 31 Beta