Sociology of Emotion

The sociology of emotions is the article of Katherine Walker from the EBSOHost. The sociology of emotions’ article is based on the study of the  sociology  of  emotions  in which defines  emotions  as socially constructed and culturally variable labels attached to physiological responses to stimuli. Studies have questioned the universality of  emotions, their variation across cultures, rules about feelings and emotional displays, and the necessity of  emotions  to maintaining the social bond.The article was a previously researched article, because the author makes references to Sociology scholars that have established themselves in the field of Sociology, like Emile Durkhem and Erving Goffman (by Katherine Walker, 2010) The  sociology  of  emotions  is a relatively new subfield of  sociology, which first gained prominence in the 1970's. Prior to this time, the field of  sociology  concentrated more on cognition than  emotions, although  emot ions  have often remained a subtext in important works.Emotions  were seen as the turf of psychologists and biologists. However, sociologists began to systematically study  emotions because they realized first, that  emotions  are fundamentally social, and second, that  emotions  have always figured as causal mechanisms in sociological theory. Emotions  are of sociological interest because they are a primary human motivation, they help in rational decision-making, and they link the biology of the body with classic sociological (John J. Macoinis, 2009) questions about social construction and social control. Feature Article –  Sociology TestThe authors of the article try to make clear the concept of emotion, asking specifically, what is emotion? Which they explained as a sort of phenomenon that goes through the body, or mentally. For example, that thing that people usually have while watching a horror movie, scare or fear, that makes your heart beat faster. Walker step in the concept that people develop their emotion in seven Stages that start from childhood and goes all the way to the stage in which people are able to control their emotions, and learn how to adapt them to the new situation.The article about sociology of emotions provides us many points about the importance of emotion in a society, how our emotions are connected to the society that live, explained that the society plays an important role in people’s emotions, as well as the roles that the same society imposed on people so that they can behave in certain way, and the circumstances in which they may express emotions or feelings.This sociological article is similar to the chapter 6 of our text book, that explain some sociologists scholars theories about the everyday life interaction with emotions, the biological side of emotions, cultural side of emotions, as well as emotions in the work place, and we can observe the society influence in this matter.We can see that this article is a clear collection of information from other famous sociologist scholars, and that the authors of this article have actually written about what she found as more explicit in the sociology field about the subject of emotions, and that makes it different from what we can see from some magazine. References Strayer University EBSCO- Host Academic database: Author Katherine Walker, Ph. D, June 1, 2010, Sociology of Emotions. Introduction to Sociology, by john J. Maccionis, Twelve Edition, 2009

Childhood Obesity Annotated Bib

English 100/009 Annotated bibliography- Child Obesity in America Taras, H. , Potts-Datema, W. (2005) Obesity and student performance at school. Journal of School Health, 75, 291-295. Retrieved October 4, 2005 from EBSCO (8) This Journal talks about obesity among school-aged children and academic outcomes. The authors reviewed published studies investigating obesity, school performance, and rates of student absenteeism. The book is recent (2005) so I feel that the information provided will still be the similar to today.I feel this is relevant to my research as it proves that obesity can cause problems in other important aspects of life. It also provides very satisfying facts that will back my research very well. Okie, Susan. Fed Up! : Winning the War against Childhood Obesity. Washington, D. C: Joseph Henry Press, 2005. Print. This book examines some of the factors contributing to childhood obesity, such as poor diet, lack of exercise, suburban sprawl, and TV, and provides advice on h ow parents can make positive changes. It primarily focuses on these issues within America.It covers a wide variety of topics with the main topic of obesity, which I think I will find beneficial to my research as all these factors contribute. Dalton, Sharron. Our Overweight Children: What Parents, Schools, and Communities Can Do to Control the Fatness Epidemic. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. Print. This book looks at what's behind the statistics and diagnoses, and considers what can be done about the major health crisis threatening American children. Dalton begins with the basics: what obesity is, what causes it, and why it matters.Integrating information from scientific and popular sources, she reviews current diet and exercise recommendations for healthy living, comparing these recommendations with everyday realities experienced by American families. I feel this book will be good for all general understanding as it starts basic and then gets more in depth. I believ e this will contribute well to my research as it covers a wide basis and focus on main points that could be causing this epidemic i. e parents. Smith, J C. Understanding Childhood Obesity.Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Internet resource. Dr. J Clinton Smith tries to cover nearly every field of obesity research. The book deals with methods of control, the body’s physical and chemical makeup, prevention strategies, new treatments and behavior modifications and future research. Again, this will be very beneficial to my research but even more so as it focuses a lot on the psychological side of obesity, where as the others and focusing more on the food itself and the contributing factors. Hills, Andrew P, Neil A.King, and Nuala M. Byrne. Children, Obesity and Exercise: Prevention, Treatment, and Management of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity. London: Routledge, 2007. Print. This book covers 3 major topics of obesity: the prevention, treatment and the management . Even though this not specifically for American children, I feel that it will still be beneficial as obesity is a global epidemic. I believe this will be a good aspect for my research as it covers how obesity in children can be prevented and I feel this is what America needs to know.

In the Devil’s Snare Essay

There have been several interpretations of the Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. Like every issue that has come up, everyone has their own take on it. Mary Beth Norton chose to lay out her version of the witchcraft trials in her book, In the Devil’s Snare. It is a tremendously ambitious book. Throughout the book, Norton is trying to lay out connections between the experiences of settlers in Maine, the accusations of the afflicted in Salem, and the actions and decisions of the colony leaders. I’ll admit, I don’t know much about the Salem Witchcraft Trials, if anything at all. I had the choice of reading The Crucible in high school, but I turned it down and chose to read a different book. Therefore, I really had not choice but to believe Norton when she said that her approach to examining the witchcraft crisis was a new one. Instead of looking at events case-by-case, she starts at the very beginning (the first whisper of an accusation) and moves chronologically through the entire episode. When it was needed, Norton would pause to add background information. Mary Beth’s point of view of the Salem Witchcraft Crisis is that it all was triggered by from the results of the Indian Wars. She believes that the only way this crisis could be understood, is if you looked at the military conflict between the English settlers and the Native Americans from that region. By the specific attention paid to Tituba, Martha Corey, and Abigail Hobbs, Norton shows how these individuals contributed to the linkage between the witchcraft crisis and the military conflict with the natives. In my opinion, I think Norton’s conclusion should have been put at the start. This is where she explains her thesis, which was that witchcraft crisis of 1692 was in large part a reaction to King Philip’s War and King William’s War, clearly and concisely. Mary Beth does a good job at connecting the participants to the Wars; however I don’t think she’s very convincing when it came to showing how the lack of military and leadership in the w ar was a driving force to the creation of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Mary Beth Norton’s, In The Devil’s Snare, was very well written piece of literature. I commend her on stepping outside of what other authors had written about and creating her own version of the Salem WitchCraft Crisis of 1692. Norton has a substantial amount of supporting material that she’s gotten from other sources. The amount of the research involved to write her 304 page book is quite impressive and is ultimately breathtaking. I can only imagination how time consuming it was to lay out all the researched material and piece it together with her side of things. Just the thought of management needed to piece this book together gives me a headache. However, all this information did make the book less interesting to me. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever picked up a book that had 86 pages of endnotes! It made the book a drag because I had to continuously keep flipping back and forth between the story itself, and the side notes. Sometimes a reader can get away with skipping the end notes; however, I felt it was necessary to going back and forth because if I didn’t, I don’t think I would have understood most of it. Sometimes Norton’s side notes helped clarify what I was reading. All in all, In The Devil’s Snare was a decent book. I don’t think I ever found it really interesting at any point, nor was there a place that made me want to keep reading and not push the book aside for a little. My recommendation to others would be limited. This isn’t a book I would recommend to those that want something to read in their free time. I feel like all of her background information, and the tedious amount of flipping back and forth would put many people to sleep. I had a hard time reading more than 30 pages at a time! I think the only people I would recommend this book to would be those who take certain interest in this time frame of history. I think this would be a book they’d like, just because it’s given at a different angle.

Piracy

Piracy and Copyright Infringement are major issues that have developed through the use of the Internet and file transfer servers. Developments and advances in these areas over past two decades have my generation within a mouse click of their destination. However, these opened doors have been overrun with a large exchange of pirated material. The present issue involves the nations excessive illegal downloading of unlicensed products.The trend of previous litigations involving piracy and copyright cases in federal courts has ruled against the consumer, and has involved the rewriting of many laws, yet it becomes harder to pinpoint copyright violators as decryption advancement mimics closely the timeline of security encryption. I feel that it is imperative for all software products to receive a restrictive license tag, enabling software companies and music artists to maintain a living and economic interests. I disagree with the form/process in which these files are distributed, allowing for piracy of files, rerecording and redistribution.The use of patents began in the early 19th century, and would ultimately lead to the current system of licensing and copyright of products that can be reproduced. These initial patents were intended to allow artists to make a living and survive off their pieces of artwork. The year 1880 marked an important year for the patent in the case Diamond versus Chark Barty who were disputing the patent of a single-cell bacterium used in breaking down crude oil. The Supreme Court ruled that patents could be granted for this purpose.The main purpose of a patent is to promote and encourage investors in society to make new ways to assist society and economy and provide the inventor with royalties. Patenting is a system that involves product branding or other signs of ownership to provide the public with reliability in new forms of intellectual property, while still protecting the owner/ inventor. Copyrights give authors complete ownership and r ights to their creations during extended period of time, and in most cases fall the under the rights of a solo beneficiary. Today the act of sharing files promotes global exchange between users.This global networking between countries provides business solutions that not only reduces prices on sales and purchases, but also allows large companies to make more accurate marketing decisions with documented transactions. For the home user programs like Kazaa and Limewire, implement these large ‘peer to peer’ networks that are hosted on FTP servers, and share files. In developing cases where music files and software are being illegally copied, there are always disagreements on what exactly is protected and what is an original work.For example, the website Priceline. com has attempted to make patents on their ideas that would seem to be common belief and not unique, such as trying to patent an auction site with auctions that have reserve prices. Therefore, one of the more prec edent matters is the issue regarding what exactly is ‘intellectual property’, and how does music fall under that stance of copyright. Intellectual property can be defined as any creation of human intelligence that is new, unique, and has market value. Copyright places limits on use of speech, print, and performance.This idea of intellectual property is not common knowledge to most people who compile large networks. It is evident that not all people realize the implications of stealing files and copying music. Many defend piracy as a form of promotion of software, which would have otherwise been ignored by certain consumers that never buy certain software in the first place. Most software copies are shared because their users don’t think of lending software or lending music as a crime, or at least not one taken seriously. Of course the elimination of digital songs/sources would not hold up.On a business level online trade, exchange, and purchase lowers transaction costs significantly, and for the music business actually makes up a big part of their remaining buyers. One of the main differences between piracy of music and software is the fact that newly available technology today is more advanced and friendly to forms of copying, which allow top quality music between each copy and user. In the past, qualities of copied cassettes were not as good or of equal quality and didn’t involve the Internet, whereas online and digitized songs are more readily available and easier to simply copy, and then e-mail to a friend. Copying music from a CD to a cassette or to your computer is legal and accepted only because you own the original copy of the CD and the music files are not being used for commercial purposes†. The first attempt by a person who uploaded an album of songs online was not at first a major problem as it was easier to trace/locate the source since early networks were primitive and did not involve as many users. In 1999, a 19- year-old, Shawn Fanning, invented a program called Napster, which users could download and exchange musical recordings for free over the Internet.This program was considered a gateway to loss government control and launched multiple similar uncontrolled networks. There have been many steps taken in response to Internet piracy, however, it seems as though most have been lackluster and are not sufficient to produce visible and significant results. The music industry has turned to making formatting music files that can only be copied or reproduced in certain prescribed circumstances like . m4p. This defensive technology sometimes takes away from a user’s number of legitimate uses and transfers, however it seems to be on the road to improving safe transfers.Unfortunately, with each announcement of new protective software, a counter program almost instantly is created, matched, and supported through counter hacking technology that makes files available to these large copying netwo rks. Any person with knowledgeable code in computers is capable of decoding these files. This desire to ‘liberate’ files by many hackers is only a sign to show that the industry should be developing ways to work with the technology and not against it. The Recording Industry Association of America recently filed lawsuits against four college students, running ftp servers on campus networks.A federal judge in California settled the case quickly, and despite the fact that the students never actually accepted responsibility, they settled to pay $12,000 to $17,500 in fines. A case that ended without a clearly defined verdict proves that it is difficult to have a true scapegoat for responsibility of piracy violations and copyright infringement. â€Å"The internet is like one gigantic copying machine,† says David Nimmer, a lawyer who spends most of his time with disputes in Intellectual property. â€Å"Once on the internet, copying becomes effortless, costless, widespr ead, and immediate. Nimmer is an experienced lawyer who is well aware of the easy access to the copied files and has trouble himself challenging illegality in certain situations. Copyright law does not make a distinction between public use and private use, such as buying a book from a store like Borders, versus borrowing it from a library and copying. More recently the United States congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which updated copyright laws to include these widespread international servers and allow the set up of a system to control the Internet. Unfortunately, only 22 countries are on oard for the ratification process and make it increasingly difficult for any visible change. Many countries consider these laws would impede on the freedom of the Internet in its original creation, if forced under a universal control involving the U. S. However, at this point copyright-based industries generate more revenues internationally than any other U. S. industry, more t han the aircraft, agriculture, and automobile industries. Without global support, a server can be created in any country to house large FTP sites, like Kazaa which is has a large base in Singapore.For an artist, the main purpose of a copyright is to protect. A majority of artists feel that the free song-sharing epidemic is affecting their careers and profits as artists. Many artists and songwriters who write original music and have only the music to directly profit from. Downloading off these sites affects them negatively; specifically songwriters, record labels, producers, managers, and any others involved in production of music, who cannot rely on performance profits. Artists can sell and profit off merchandise, whereas songwriters lack that ability.Generally the belief is that the pirating music solely affects the artists, when in reality it affects the industry as a whole, including all the people who have jobs connected to these artists. The process in which a record company ga ins complete control of a band has shortened the length of an artist’s career, again ultimately hurting economy. Music industry should try and not dishearten online music consumers that promote artists, but rather develop new ways to work with the evolving technology.Software companies make money through businesses, because instead of copying a CD, a business must register each computer or client separately so that each has its own separate license. It is suggested that despite counter acting efforts, 90% of all computer software is counterfeit similar to most music. There are many solutions to existing problems involving copyright infringement and illegal piracy of music. Despite these problems I do not support the copyright laws full intention and I feel that there is a need for reform of distribution.Interesting enough, it is assumed that the issue is clear and obvious to all people who steal music. While the music industry does see music sharing as piracy, the youth major ity does not see this topic on quite the same black and white level. The record company’s actual costs are low, and yet a CD’s cost to a consumer is not. The reasoning of the average teenager is that why would they want to spend $20 on a CD with one good song on it, $200 dollars on software that they must have for academic requirement, when they can upload it for free.Lack of communication in a time where everyone is connected seems like a waste and stunt to new advancing technology. Piracy is not right, and a corrective measure can only come from recognizing that the problem originates from not recognizing more than just the new ease of file transfer. Piracy is of course a wide addressing issue, including a rapidly increasing amount of people from a conglomeration of age groups. There needs to be a redistribution of wealth within in the music industry and software industries. Once issues like these are addressed, a solution can be found.

Greg Beato: Amusing Ourselves to Depth

GREG BEATO: Amusing Ourselves to Depth 1. Tim Keck started The Onion because â€Å"he wanted to create a compelling way to deliver advertising to his fellow students†. â€Å"Part of the first issue’s front page was devoted to a story about a monster running amok at a local lake; the rest was reserved for beer and pizza coupons. † (389) This shows that the newspaper’s direction towards â€Å"fake news† and advertisement. 2.The Onion is one successful newspaper because it prints 710,000 copies of each weekly edition, 6,000 more than the Denver post; have 3000 local advertisers; attract 2 million online readers a week and boast a 60% increase in their print circulation. (389-390) 3. Beato choose the title â€Å"Amusing Ourselves to Depth† because it warns the fate that would befall us if public discourse were allowed to become substantially more entertaining (390), which is the opposite to what The Onion is doing. This suggests Beato is against this idea, and supports The Onion, that entertainment in news is good. 4.Beato mentions â€Å"America’s most informed citizens simply prefer comedy over the stentorian drivel the network anchormannequins dispense,† (390) to argue against Neil Postman’s notion. 5. The Onion focused on expressing a worldview of any kind and delights in crapping on pieties and regularly publishes stories guaranteed to upset someone by being completely honest. 6. Beato is not suggesting that fake news is better than â€Å"real† news but implying that by being honest, expressing a worldview of any kind and not afraid of offending people with a pinch of entertainment is better way to convey news.

The Twilight Saga 4: Breaking Dawn 13. Good Thing I’ve Got A Strong Stomach

13. Good Thing I've Got A Strong Stomach Carlisle and Rosalie were off in a flash, darting upstairs. I could hear them debating whether they should warm it up for her. Ugh. i wondered what all house-of-horrors stuff they kept around here. Fridge full of blood, check. What else? Torture chamber? Coffin room? Edward stayed, holding Bella's hand. His face was dead again. He didn't seem to have the energy to keep up even that little hint of hope he'd had before. They stared into each other's eyes, but not in a gooey way. It was like they were having a conversation. Kind of reminded me of Sam and Emily. No, it wasn't gooey, but that only made it harder to watch. I knew what it was like for Leah, having to see that all the time. Having to hear it in Sam's head. Of course we all felt bad for her, we weren't monsters – in that sense, anyway. But I guess we'd blamed her for how she handled it. Lashing out at everyone, trying to make us all as miserable as she was. I would never blame her again. How could anyone help spreading this kind of misery around? How could anyone not try to ease some of the burden by shoving a little piece of it off on someone else? And if it meant that I had to have a pack, how could I blame her for taking my freedom? I would do the same. If there was a way to escape this pain, I'd take it, too. Rosalie darted downstairs after a second, flying through the room like a sharp breeze, stirring up the burning smell. She stopped inside the kitchen, and I heard the creak of a cupboard door. â€Å"Note ear, Rosalie,† Edward murmured. He rolled his eyes. Bella looked curious, but Edward just shook his head at her. Rosalie blew back through the room and disappeared again. â€Å"This was your idea?† Bella whispered, her voice rough as she strained to make it loud enough for me to hear. Forgetting that I could hear just fine. I kind of liked how, a lot of the time, she seemed to forget that I wasn't completely human. I moved closer, so that she wouldn't have to work so hard. â€Å"Don't blame me for this one. Your vampire was just picking snide comments out of my head.† She smiled a little. â€Å"I didn't expect to see you again.† â€Å"Yeah, me, either,† I said. It felt weird just standing here, but the vampires had shoved all the furniture out of the way for the medical setup. I imagined that it didn't bother them – sitting or standing didn't make much difference when you were stone. Wouldn't bother me much, either, except that I was so exhausted. â€Å"Edward told me what you had to do. I'm sorry.† â€Å"S'okay. It was probably only a matter of time till I snapped over something Sam wanted me to do,† I lied. â€Å"And Seth,† she whispered. â€Å"He's actually happy to help.† â€Å"I hate causing you trouble.† I laughed once – more a bark than a laugh. She breathed a faint sigh. â€Å"I guess that's nothing new, is it?† â€Å"No, not really.† â€Å"You don't have to stay and watch this,† she said, barely mouthing the words. I could leave. It was probably a good idea. But if I did, with the way she looked right now, I could be missing the last fifteen minutes of her life. â€Å"I don't really have anywhere else to go,† I told her, trying to keep the emotion out of my voice. â€Å"The wolf thing is a lot less appealing since Leah joined up.† â€Å"Leah?† she gasped. â€Å"You didn't tell her?† I asked Edward. He just shrugged without moving his eyes from her face. I could see it wasn't very exciting news to him, not something worth sharing with the more important events that were going down. Bella didn't take it so lightly. It looked like it was bad news to her. â€Å"Why?† she breathed. I didn't want to get into the whole novel-length version. â€Å"To keep an eye on Seth.† â€Å"But Leah hates us,† she whispered. Us.Nice. I could see that she was afraid, though. â€Å"Leah's not going to bug anyone.† But me. â€Å"She's in my pack† – I grimaced at the words – â€Å"so she follows my lead.† Ugh. Bella didn't look convinced. â€Å"You're scared of Leah, but you're best buds with the psychopath blonde?† There was a low hiss from the second floor. Cool, she'd heard me. Bella frowned at me. â€Å"Don't. Rose†¦ understands.† â€Å"Yeah,† i grunted. â€Å"She understands that you're gonna die and she doesn't care, s'long as she gets her mutant spawn out of the deal.† â€Å"Stop being a jerk, Jacob,† she whispered. She looked too weak to get mad at. I tried to smile instead. â€Å"You say that like it's possible.† Bella tried not to smile back for a second, but she couldn't help it in the end; her chalky lips pulled up at the corners. And then Carlisle and the psycho in question were there. Carlisle had a white plastic cup in his hand – the kind with a lid and a bendy straw. Oh – not clear,now I got it. Edward didn't want Bella to have to think about what she was doing any more than necessary. You couldn't see what was in the cup at all. But I could smell it. Carlisle hesitated, the hand with the cup half-extended. Bella eyed it, looking scared again. â€Å"We could try another method,† Carlisle said quietly. â€Å"No,† Bella whispered. â€Å"No,111 try this first. We don't have time†¦.† At first I thought she'd finally gotten a clue and was worried about herself, but then her hand fluttered feebly against her stomach. Bellareached out and took the cup from him. Her hand shook a little, and I could hear the sloshing from inside. She tried to prop herself up on one elbow, but she could barely lift her head. A whisper of heat brushed down my spine as I saw how frail she'd gotten in less than a day. Rosalie put her arm under Bella's shoulders, supporting her head, too, like you did with a newborn. Blondie was all about the babies. â€Å"Thanks,† Bella whispered. Her eyes flickered around at us. Still aware enough to feel self-conscious. If she wasn't so drained, I'd bet she'd've blushed. â€Å"Don't mind them,† Rosalie murmured. It made me feel awkward. I should've left when Bella'd offered the chance. I didn't belong here, being part of this. I thought about ducking out, but then I realized a move like that would only make this worse for Bella – make it harder for her to go through with it. She'd figure I was too disgusted to stay. Which was almost true. Still. While I wasn't going to claim responsibility for this idea, I didn't want to jinx it, either. Bella lifted the cup to her face and sniffed at the end of the straw. She flinched, and then made a face. â€Å"Bella, sweetheart, we can find an easier way,† Edward said, holding his hand out for the cup. â€Å"Plug your nose,† Rosalie suggested. She glared at Edward's hand like she might take a snap at it. I wished she would. I bet Edward wouldn't take that sitting down, and I'd love to see Blondie lose a limb. â€Å"No, that's not it. It's just that it – â€Å"Bella sucked in a deep breath. â€Å"It smells good,† she admitted in a tiny voice. I swallowed hard, fighting to keep the disgust off my face. â€Å"That's a good thing,† Rosalie told Bella eagerly. â€Å"That means we're on the right track. Give it a try.† Given Blondie's new expression, I was surprised she didn't break into a touchdown dance. Bella shoved the straw between her lips, squeezed her eyes shut, and wrinkled her nose. I could hear the blood slopping around in the cup again as her hand shook. She sipped at it for a second, and then moaned quietly with her eyes still closed. Edward and I stepped forward at the same time. He touched her face. I clenched my hands behind my back. â€Å"Bella, love – â€Å" Tm okay,† she whispered. She opened her eyes and stared up at him. Her expression was†¦ apologetic. Pleading. Scared. â€Å"It tastes good, too.† Acid churned in my stomach, threatening to overflow. I ground my teeth together. â€Å"That's good,† Blondie repeated, still jazzed. â€Å"A good sign.† Edward just pressed his hand to her cheek, curling his fingers around the shape of her fragile bones. Bella sighed and put her lips to the straw again. She took a real pull this time. The action wasn't as weak as everything else about her. Like some instinct was taking over. â€Å"How's your stomach? Do you feel nauseated?† Carlisle asked. Bella shook her head. â€Å"No, I don't feel sick,† she whispered. â€Å"There's a first, eh?† Rosalie beamed. â€Å"Excellent.† â€Å"I think it's a bit early for that, Rose,† Carlisle murmured. Bella gulped another mouthful of blood. Then she flashed a look at Edward. â€Å"Does this screw my total?† she whispered. â€Å"Or do we start counting after I'm a vampire?† â€Å"No one is counting, Bella. In any case, no one died for this.† He smiled a lifeless smile. â€Å"Your record is still clean.† They'd lost me. â€Å"I'll explain later,† Edward said, so low the words were just a breath. â€Å"What?† Bella whispered. â€Å"Just talking to myself,† he lied smoothly. If he succeeded with this, if Bella lived, Edward wasn't going to be able to get away with so much when her senses were as sharp as his. He'd have to work on the honesty thing. Edward's lips twitched, fighting a smile. Bella chugged a few more ounces, staring past us toward the window. Probably pretending we weren't here. Or maybe just me. No one else in this group would be disgusted by what she was doing. Just the opposite – they were probably having a tough time not ripping the cup away from her. Edward rolled his eyes. Jeez, how did anyone stand living with him? It was really too bad he couldn't hear Bella's thoughts. Then he'd annoy the crap out of her, too, and she'd get tired of him. Edward chuckled once. Bella's eyes flicked to him immediately, and she half-smiled at the humor in his face. I would guess that wasn't something she'd seen in a while. â€Å"Something funny?† she breathed. â€Å"Jacob,† he answered. She looked over with another weary smile for me. â€Å"Jake's a crack-up,† she agreed. Great, now I was the court jester. â€Å"Bada bing† I mumbled in weak rim-shot impression. She smiled again, and then took another swig from the cup. I flinched when the straw pulled at empty air, making a loud sucking sound. â€Å"I did it,† she said, sounding pleased. Her voice was clearer – rough, but not a whisper for the first time today. â€Å"If I keep this down, Carlisle, will you take the needles out of me?† â€Å"As soon as possible,† he promised. â€Å"Honestly, they aren't doing that much good where they are.† Rosalie patted Bella's forehead, and they exchanged a hopeful glance. And anyone could see it – the cup full of human blood had made an immediate difference. Her color was returning – there was a tiny hint of pink in her waxy cheeks. Already she didn't seem to need Rosalie's support so much anymore. Her breathing was easier, and I would swear her heartbeat was stronger, more even. Everything accelerated. That ghost of hope in Edward's eyes had turned into the real thing. â€Å"Would you like more?† Rosalie pressed. Bella's shoulders slumped. Edward flashed a glare at Rosalie before he spoke to Bella. â€Å"You don't have to drink more right away.† â€Å"Yeah, I know. But†¦ I want to† she admitted glumly. Rosalie pulled her thin, sharp fingers through Bella's lank hair. â€Å"You don't need to be embarrassed about that, Bella. Your body has cravings. We all understand that.† Her tone was soothing at first, but then she added harshly, â€Å"Anyone who doesn't understand shouldn't be here.† Meant for me, obviously, but I wasn't going to let Blondie get to me. I was glad Bella felt better. So what if the means grossed me out? It wasn't like I'd said anything. Carlisle took the cup from Bella's hand. â€Å"I'll be right back.† Bella stared at me while he disappeared. â€Å"Jake, you look awful,† she croaked. â€Å"Look who's talking.† â€Å"Seriously – when's the last time you slept?† I thought about that for a second. â€Å"Huh. I'm not actually sure.† â€Å"Aw, Jake. Now I'm messing with your health, too. Don't be stupid.† I gritted my teeth. She was allowed to kill herself for a monster, but I wasn't allowed to miss a few nights' sleep to watch her do it? â€Å"Get some rest, please,† she went on. â€Å"There're a few beds upstairs – you're welcome to any of them.† The look on Rosalie's face made it clear that I wasn't welcome to one of them. It made me wonder what Sleepless Beauty needed a bed for anyway. Was she that possessive of her props? â€Å"Thanks, Bells, but I'd rather sleep on the ground. Away from the stench, you know.† She grimaced. â€Å"Right.† Carlisle was back then, and Bella reached out for the blood, absentminded, like she was thinking of something else. With the same distracted expression, she started sucking it down. She really was looking better. She pulled herself forward, being careful of the tubes, and scooted into a sitting position. Rosalie hovered, her hands ready to catch Bella if she sagged. But Bella didn't need her. Taking deep breaths in between swallows, Bella finished the second cup quickly. â€Å"How do you feel now?† Carlisle asked. â€Å"Not sick. Sort of hungry†¦ only I'm not sure if I'm hungry or thirsty, you know?† â€Å"Carlisle, just look at her,† Rosalie murmured, so smug she should have canary feathers on her lips. â€Å"This is obviously what her body wants. She should drink more.† â€Å"She's still human, Rosalie. She needs food, too. Let's give her a little while to see how this affects her, and then maybe we can try some food again. Does anything sound particularly good to you, Bella?† â€Å"Eggs,† she said immediately, and then she exchanged a look and a smile with Edward. His smile was brittle, but there was more life on his face than before. I blinked then, and almost forgot how to open my eyes again. â€Å"Jacob,† Edward murmured. â€Å"You really should sleep. As Bella said, you're certainly welcome to the accommodations here, though you'd probably be more comfortable outside. Don't worry about anything – I promise 111 find you if there's a need.† â€Å"Sure, sure,† I mumbled. Now that it appeared Bella had a few more hours, I could escape. Go curl up under a tree somewhere†¦. Far enough away that the smell couldn't reach me. The bloodsucker would wake me up if something went wrong. He owed me. â€Å"I do,† Edward agreed. I nodded and then put my hand on Bella's. Hers was icy cold. â€Å"Feel better,† I said. â€Å"Thanks, Jacob.† She turned her hand over and squeezed mine. I felt the thin band of her wedding ring riding loose on her skinny finger. â€Å"Get her a blanket or something,† I muttered as I turned for the door. Before I made it, two howls pierced the still morning air. There was no mistaking the urgency of the tone. No misunderstanding this time. â€Å"Dammit,† I snarled, and I threw myself through the door. I hurled my body off the porch, letting the fire rip me apart midair. There was a sharp tearing sound as my shorts shredded. Crap. Those were the only clothes I had. Didn't matter now. I landed on paws and took off toward the west. What is it?I shouted in my head. Incoming,Seth answered. At least three. Did they split up? I'm running the line back to Seth at the speed of lightLeah promised. I could feel the air huffing through her lungs as she pushed herself to an incredible velocity. The forest whipped around her. So far, no other point of attack. Seth, donot challenge them. Wait forme. They're slowing. Ugh – its sooff not being able to hear them. I think†¦ What? I think they've stopped. Waiting for the rest of the pack? Shh. Feel that? I absorbed his impressions. The faint, soundless shimmer in the air. Someone's phasing? Feels like it,Seth agreed. Leah flew into the small open space where Seth waited. She raked her claws into the dirt, spinning out like a race car. Got your back, bro. They're coming,Seth said nervously. Slow. Walking. Almost there,I told them. I tried to fly like Leah. It felt horrible being separated from Seth and Leah with potential danger closer to their end than mine. Wrong. I should be with them, between them and whatever was coming. Look who's getting all paternal,Leah thought wryly. Head in the game, Leah. Four,Seth decided. Kid had good ears. Three wolves, one man. I made the little clearing then, moving immediately to the point. Seth sighed with relief and then straightened up, already in place at my right shoulder. Leah fell in on my left with a little less enthusiasm. So now I rank under Seth,she grumbled to herself. First come, first served,Seth thought smugly. ‘Sides, you were never an Alpha's Third before. Still an upgrade. Under my baby brother is not an upgrade. Shh!I complained. don't care where you stand. Shut up and get ready. They came into view a few seconds later, walking, as Seth had thought. Jared in the front, human, hands up. Paul and Quil and Collin on four legs behind him. There was no aggression in their postures. They hung back behind Jared, ears up, alert but calm. But†¦ it was weird that Sam would send Collin rather than Embry. That wasn't what I would do if I were sending a diplomacy party into enemy territory. I wouldn't send a kid. I'd send the experienced fighter. A diversion?Leah thought. Were Sam, Embry, and Brady making a move alone? That didn't seem likely. Want me to check? I can run the line and be back in two minutes. Should I warn the Cullens?Seth wondered. What if the point was to divide us?I asked. The Cullens know something's up. They're ready. Sam wouldn't be so stupid†¦,Leah whispered, fear jagged in her mind. She was imagining Sam attacking the Cullens with only the two others beside him. No, he wouldn't,I assured her, though I felt a little sick at the image in her head, too. All the while, Jared and the three wolves stared at us, waiting. It was eerie not to hear what Quil and Paul and Collin were saying to one another. Their expressions were blank – unreadable. Jared cleared his throat, and then he nodded to me. â€Å"White flag of truce, Jake. We're here to talk.† Think it's true?Seth asked. Makes sense, but†¦ Yeah,Leah agreed. But. We didn't relax. Jared frowned. â€Å"It would be easier to talk if I could hear you, too.† I stared him down. I wasn't going to phase back until I felt better about this situation. Until it made sense. Why Collin? That was the part that had me most worried. â€Å"Okay. I guess I'll just talk, then,† Jared said. â€Å"Jake, we want you to come back.† Quil let out a soft whine behind him. Seconding the statement. â€Å"You've torn our family apart. It's not meant to be this way.† I wasn't exactly in disagreement with that, but it was hardly the point. There were a few unresolved differences of opinion between me and Sam at the moment. â€Å"We know that you feel†¦ strongly about the situation with the Cullens. We know that's a problem. But this is an overreaction.† Seth growled. Overreaction? And attacking our allies without warning isn't? Seth, you ever heard of a poker face? Cool it. Sorry. Jared's eyes flickered to Seth and back to me. â€Å"Sam is willing to take this slowly, Jacob. He's calmed down, talked to the other Elders. They've decided that immediate action is in no one's best interest at this point.† Translation: They've already lost the element of surprise,Leah thought. It was weird how distinct our joint thinking was. The pack was already Sam's pack, was already â€Å"them† to us. Something outside and other. It was especially weird to have Leah thinking that way – to have her be a solid part of the â€Å"us.† â€Å"Billy and Sue agree with you, Jacob, that we can wait for Bella†¦ to be separated from the problem. Killing her is not something any of us feel comfortable with.† Though I'd just given Seth crap for it, I couldn't hold back a small snarl of my own. So they didn't quite feel comfortablewith murder, huh? Jared raised his hands again. â€Å"Easy, Jake. You know what I mean. The point is, we're going to wait and reassess the situation. Decide later if there's a problem with the†¦ thing.† Ha,Leah thought. What a load. You don't buy it? I know what they're thinking, Jake. WhatSam's thinking. They're betting on Bella dying anyway. And then they figure you'll be so mad. . . That I'll lead the attack myself.My ears pressed against my skull. What Leah was guessing sounded pretty spot-on. And very possible, too. When†¦ if that thing killed Bella, it was going to be easy to forget how I felt about Carlisle's family right now. They would probably look like enemies – like no more than bloodsucking leeches – to me all over again. I'll remind you,Seth whispered. know you will, kid. Question is whether I'll listen to you. â€Å"Jake?† Jared asked. I huffed a sigh. Leah, make a circuit – just to be sure. I'm going to have to talk to him, and I want to bepositive there isn't anything else going on while I'm phased. Give me a break, Jacob. You can phase in front of me. Despite my best efforts, I've seen you naked before – doesn't do much forme, so no worries. I'm not trying to protect the innocence of your eyes, I'm trying to protect our backs. Get out of here. Leah snorted once and then launched herself into the forest. I could hear her claws cutting into the soil, pushing her faster. Nudity was an inconvenient but unavoidable part of pack life. We'd all thought nothing of it before Leah came along. Then it got awkward. Leah had average control when it came to her temper – it took her the usual length of time to stop exploding out of her clothes every time she got pissed. We'd all caught a glimpse. And it wasn't like she wasn't worth looking at; it was just that it was so not worth it when she caught you thinking about it later. Jared and the others were staring at the place where she'd disappeared into the brush with wary expressions. â€Å"Where's she going?† Jared asked. I ignored him, closing my eyes and pulling myself together again. It felt like the air was trembling around me, shaking out from me in small waves. I lifted myself up on my hind legs, catching the moment just right so that I was fully upright as I shimmered down into my human self. â€Å"Oh,† Jared said. â€Å"Hey, Jake.† â€Å"Hey, Jared.† â€Å"Thanks for talking to me.† â€Å"Yeah.† â€Å"We want you to come back, man.† Quil whined again. â€Å"I don't know if it's that easy, Jared.† â€Å"Come home,† he said, leaning forward. Pleading. â€Å"We can sort this out. You don't belong here. Let Seth and Leah come home, too.† I laughed. â€Å"Right. Like I haven't been begging them to do that from hour one.† Seth snorted behind me. Jared assessed that, his eyes cautious again. â€Å"So, what now, then?† I thought that over for a minute while he waited. â€Å"I don't know. But I'm not sure things could just go back to normal anyway, Jared. I don't know how it works – it doesn't feel like I can just turn this Alpha thing off and on as the mood strikes. It feels sort of permanent.† â€Å"You still belong with us.† I raised my eyebrows. â€Å"Two Alphas can't belong in the same place, Jared. Remember how close it got last night? The instinct is too competitive.† â€Å"So are you all just going to hang out with the parasites for the rest of your lives?† he demanded. â€Å"You don't have a home here. You're already out of clothes,† he pointed out. â€Å"You gonna stay wolf all the time? You know Leah doesn't like eating that way.† â€Å"Leah can do whatever she wants when she gets hungry. She's here by her own choice. I'm not telling anyone what to do.† Jared sighed. â€Å"Sam is sorry about what he did to you.† I nodded. â€Å"I'm not angry anymore.† â€Å"But?† â€Å"But I'm not coming back, not now. We're going to wait and see how it plays out, too. And we're going to watch out for the Cullens for as long as that seems necessary. Because, despite what you think, this isn't just about Bella. We're protecting those who should be protected. And that applies to the Cullens, too.† At least a fair number of them, anyway. Seth yelped softly in agreement. Jared frowned. â€Å"I guess there's nothing I can say to you, then.† â€Å"Not now. We'll see how things go.† Jared turned to face Seth, concentrating on him now, separate from me. â€Å"Sue asked me to tell you – no, to beg you – to come home. She's brokenhearted, Seth. All alone. I don't know how you and Leah can do this to her. Abandon her this way, when your dad just barely died – â€Å" Seth whimpered. â€Å"Ease up, Jared,† I warned. â€Å"Just letting him know how it is.† I snorted. â€Å"Right.† Sue was tougher than anyone I knew. Tougher than my dad, tougher than me. Tough enough to play on her kids' sympathies if that's what it took to get them home. But it wasn't fair to work Seth that way. â€Å"Sue's known about this for how many hours now? And most of that time spent with Billy and Old Quil and Sam? Yeah, I'm sure she's just perishing of loneliness. ‘Course you're free to go if you want, Seth. You know that.† Seth sniffed. Then, a second later, he cocked an ear to the north. Leah must be close. Jeez, she was fast. Two beats, and Leah skidded to a stop in the brush a few yards away. She trotted in, taking the point in front of Seth. She kept her nose in the air, very obviously not looking in my direction. I appreciated that. â€Å"Leah?† Jared asked. She met his gaze, her muzzle pulling back a little over her teeth. Jared didn't seem surprised by her hostility. â€Å"Leah, you know you don't want to be here.† She snarled at him. I gave her a warning glance she didn't see. Seth whined and nudged her with his shoulder. â€Å"Sorry,† Jared said. â€Å"Guess I shouldn't assume. But you don't have any ties to the bloodsuckers.† Leah very deliberately looked at her brother and then at me. â€Å"So you want to watch out for Seth, I get that,† Jared said. His eyes touched my face and then went back to hers. Probably wondering about that second look – just like I was. â€Å"But Jake's not going to let anything happen to him, and he's not afraid to be here.† Jared made a face. â€Å"Anyway, please, Leah. We want you back. Sam wants you back.† Leah's tail twitched. â€Å"Sam told me to beg. He told me to literally get down on my knees if I have to. He wants you home, Lee-lee, where you belong.† I saw Leah flinch when Jared used Sam's old nickname for her. And then, when he added those last three words, her hackles rose and she was yowling a long stream of snarls through her teeth. I didn't have to be in her head to hear the cussing-out she was giving him, and neither did he. You could almost hear the exact words she was using. I waited till she was done. â€Å"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Leah belongs wherever she wants to be.† Leah growled, but, as she was glaring at Jared, I figured it was in agreement. â€Å"Look, Jared, we're still family, okay? We'll get past the feud, but, until we do, you probably ought to stick to your land. Just so there aren't misunderstandings. Nobody wants a family brawl, right? Sam doesn't want that, either, does he?† â€Å"Of course, not,† Jared snapped. â€Å"We'll stick to our land. But where is your land, Jacob? Is it vampire land?† â€Å"No, Jared. Homeless at the moment. But don't worry – this isn't going to last forever.† I had to take a breath. â€Å"There's not that much time†¦ left. Okay? Then the Cullens will probably go, and Seth and Leah will come home.† Leah and Seth whined together, their noses turning my direction in synchronization. â€Å"And what about you, Jake?† â€Å"Back to the forest, I think. I can't really stick around La Push. Two Alphas means too much tension. ‘Sides, I was headed that way anyway. Before this mess.† â€Å"What if we need to talk?† Jared asked. â€Å"Howl – but watch the line, ‘kay? We'll come to you. And Sam doesn't need to send so many. We aren't looking for a fight.† Jared scowled, but nodded. He didn't like me setting conditions for Sam. â€Å"See you around, Jake. Or not.† He waved halfheartedly. â€Å"Wait, Jared. Is Embry okay?† Surprise crossed his face. â€Å"Embry? Sure, he's fine. Why?† â€Å"Just wondering why Sam sent Collin.† I watched his reaction, still suspicious that something was going on. I saw knowledge flash in his eyes, but it didn't look like the kind I was expecting. â€Å"That's not really your business anymore, Jake.† â€Å"Guess not. Just curious.† I saw a twitch from the corner of my eye, but I didn't acknowledge it, because I didn't want to give Quil away. He was reacting to the subject. â€Å"I'll let Sam know about your†¦ instructions. Goodbye, Jacob.† I sighed. â€Å"Yeah. Bye, Jared. Hey, tell my dad that I'm okay, will you? And that I'm sorry, and that I love him.† â€Å"I'll pass that along.† â€Å"Thanks.† â€Å"C'mon, guys,† Jared said. He turned away from us, heading out of sight to phase because Leah was here. Paul and Collin were right on his heels, but Quil hesitated. He yelped softly, and I took a step toward him. â€Å"Yeah, I miss you, too, bro.† Quil jogged over to me, his head hanging down morosely. I patted his shoulder. â€Å"It'll be okay.† He whined. â€Å"Tell Embry I miss having you two on my flanks.† He nodded and then pressed his nose to my forehead. Leah snorted. Quil looked up, but not at her. He looked back over his shoulder at where the others had gone. â€Å"Yeah, go home,† I told him. Quil yelped again and then took off after the others. I'd bet Jared wasn't waiting super-patiently. As soon as he was gone, I pulled the warmth from the center of my body and let it surge through my limbs. In a flash of heat, I was on four legs again. Thought you were going to make out with him,Leah snickered. I ignored her. Was that okay?I asked them. It worried me, speaking for them that way, when I couldn't hear exactly what they were thinking. I didn't want to assume anything. I didn't want to be like Jared that way. Did I say anything you didn't want me to? Did I not say something I should have? You did great, Jake!Seth encouraged. You could have hit Jared,Leah thought. wouldn't have minded that. I guess we know why Embry wasn't allowed to come,Seth thought. I didn't understand. Not allowed? Jake, didya see Quil? He's pretty torn up, right? I'd put ten to one that Embry's even more upset And Embry doesn't have a Claire. There's no way Quil can just pick up and walk away from La Push. Embry might So Sam's not going to take any chances on him getting convinced to jump ship. He doesn't want our pack any bigger than it is now. Really? You think? I doubt Embry would mind shredding some Cullens. But he's your best friend, Jake. He and Quil would rather stand behind you than face you in a fight. Well, I'm glad Sam kept him home, then. This pack is big enough.I sighed. Okay, then. So we're good, for now. Seth, you mind keeping an eye on things for a while? Leah and I both need to crash. This felt on the level, but who knows? Maybe it was a distraction. I wasn't always so paranoid, but I remembered the feel of Sam's commitment. The total one-track focus on destroying the danger he saw. Would he take advantage of the fact that he could lie to us now? No problem!Seth was only too eager to do whatever he could. You want me to explain to the Cullens? They're probably still kinda tense. I got it. I want to check things out anyway. They caught the whir of images from my fried brain. Seth whimpered in surprise. Ew. Leah whipped her head back and forth like she was trying to shake the image out of her mind. That is easily the freakin' grossest thing I've heard in my life. Yuck. If there was anything in my stomach, it would be coming back. Theyare vampires, I guess, Seth allowed after a minute, compensating for Leah's reaction. mean, it makes sense. And if it helps Bella, it's a good thing, right? Both Leah and I stared at him. What? Mom dropped him a lot when he was a baby,Leah told me. On his head, apparently. He used to gnaw on the crib bars, too. Lead paint? Looks like itshe thought. Seth snorted. Funny. Why don't you two shut up and sleep?

Workplace Climate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Workplace Climate - Essay Example However, professionalism also sets in since one must manage his/her temper when under stress. My co-workers were supportive and during break time, they would give practical tips in how to deal with an angry client or rebook a missed flight. Another characteristic of that workplace is that we were like a family. As a Chinese, we believe in team work and unity. Fortunately, my co-workers tolerate individual and cultural differences. Recognizing diversity in a company really contributes to a positive workplace. Employees do not feel discriminated and they work more productively since they are free to be themselves. Every morning, our boss calls in for a quick 15-minute meeting that reports the transactions done yesterday. We were constructively criticized and accepted the need to improve our behavior. This has greatly helped in creating a positive environment. If there was one department that needed some data or extra hand we immediately collaborated so that we can reach our goal for a certain day. I think that is the essence of team work. Because of the premise of recognizing individual differences, we tried to adjust our expectations from one another. One co-worker would state† this is not my forte, crunching numbers so If you need more clarification, just ask me†. In this manner, we admit our limitations and even find co-workers who would mentor us. Even our boss is not controlling. Perhaps, he really knows the true meaning of empowerment. There is a high degree of trust and responsibility bestowed on us which we try to achieve. If we need help, we do voice out our help by asking immediate superior so a concern can be addressed. Like any other organization, problems and conflicts arise. When there is a mistake committed, we evaluate on our meetings what went wrong. We identify people who are responsible with the task and analyze if procedures have been followed. It is

E-waste Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

E-waste - Essay Example Regardless of the efforts by some individuals in reducing the level of e-wastes, it is unlikely that such efforts will solve the problem. E-waste, described as electronic products nearing their useful life is one of the biggest concerns for the environmentalists. Although the term e-waste describes electronic products near their useful life, some of the environmentalists use the term to describe a number of by-products and wastes dumped in the environment. According to Leonard (film), e-waste is any material dumped into the environment and has a negative effect to the environment or negatively affects the health of the people. Any by-product of the manufacturing process such as toxic fumes and wastes dumped into rivers and the soil as well as the unwanted products that consumers dispose of, whether obsolete or useless, according to Leonard (film) is e-waste. This generalization thus encompasses a number of by-products regarded as e-wastes to the environment. Since e-wastes do not dec ompose, they contribute to the biggest crisis facing human beings in this era  (Reinhardt web). Although there are efforts to recycle them, not all of these wastes are recyclable. As such, the only way that people can solve the problem is by reducing the amount of wastes produced and dumped into the environment. ... Different factors contribute to the increased amount of e-wastes in the environment. Although most of the studies concentrate on the effects of dumped e-wastes as the main contributing factors to the e-wastes, Leonard (film) includes all the stages involved in the product life cycle. As Leonard argues, â€Å"in the past decade, the world has used at least one third of the total natural resources†, which portrays a danger in waiting. While the third world countries do not take part in the high level of manufacturing, developed countries such as the united states, after extensively using their natural resources have resulted to the developing countries for raw materials. This balances the level of resources consumption in the world. The manufacturing process is yet another stage that significantly contributes to the high level of e-wastes in the environment. As the process involves the use of toxics, these contribute to the high number of toxic wastes released to the environment . The manufacturing process waste people too as they work in the highly toxic environments. They inhale the fumes from the production process, which contributes to the high levels of cancer diseases. Moreover, the production process releases fumes into the environment as well as effluents that are by-products of the manufacturing process. However, the increased culture of consumerism the world has adopted in the recent past contributes to the high level of e-wastes dumped in the environment. According to Leonard, â€Å"an average us person consumes twice as much as they consumed 50 years ago,† yet there is no way of changing this culture of consumerism in the society. the designing of

Marketing plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing plan - Essay Example The Nokia Company and products focus on providing an up-to-date and affordable mobile experience to people globally. With the rapidly increasing smart phone market, this company faces a challenge to accomplish better quality, superior and innovative mobile devices in a highly dynamic market. According to the Q1 Interim Report on Nokia, "Net sales for the devices and services got decreased 25% quarter-on-quarter to EUR 2.9 billion†. Also, the volume for the mobile phones decreased 30% quarter-on-quarter to 55.8 million units, which is higher than the estimated value by mobile phones". Hence, observing just the beginning quarter of 2013, it can be analyzed that Nokia, the once top seller in the mobile market has fallen badly. The factor responsible for this downfall is the poor and inert marketing strategy of the company. The company and its leaders failed to understand that the mobile market is one of the fastest growing in the world and when it had the largest share in the mark et, the company stopped innovation. Moreover, the company somehow managed to overlook the competition from Apple and Samsung and when the rivals were introducing astounding new products, Nokia continued doing what it was doing and did not introduce something as fresh as the others. The current issue in hand for the company is in the booming smart phone business. The strategy of market flooding has no clear picture and confusion exists. The company needs to comprehend and address the problem to deal with Nokia Lumia phones marketing and implement a smart plan to extend this line of products. The distribution of Nokia phones is done globally at outlets which are Nokia concept stores as well as multi-brand stores. It is significant to note that Nokia has stayed on the top as the largest global vendor of mobile phones from 1998 to 2012(BBC News, 2012). During recent years, Nokia has been a successful seller of low and medium end mobile phones. However, at the moment the smart phone is t he leading and commonly used mobile device and the company could not keep pace with that technology. The decline has been stunning. The stock traded at over $40 per share in 2007. It has now fallen to under $2 (Ogg, 2012). It once had a market share of over 30% and now it has less than 4% (Calkins, 2013). The market share fell as a consequence of the speedy use of touch screen smart phones from competitor companies. Since that downfall, Nokia tried to recover through the Microsoft partnership in 2011, changing the operating system of the its' smart phones from Symbian to Windows but sales of the Nokia smart phones dived extensively (Dediu, 2013). Nokia launched its first full fledge touch screen smart phone Nokia 5800 followed by N97 in 2009. The phones did not compete well in the smart phone market. The latest range of Nokia products are the phones from the Nokia Lumia series. On the market currently, are the Lumia 925, the  Lumia 920, the  Lumia 820, the  Lumia 720, the  L umia 620  and the  Lumia 520 and the  Lumia 1020. The dominant company is on its road to failure because of major competition by Samsung, Blackberry and Apple. Even though it has so many products from the Lumia series, Nokia is still facing major competition from principally the iPhone and devices running on Android. Users still have not seen anything as remarkable from Nokia as the Samsung Galaxy S3 or the iPhone 5. The iPhone has taken over the market due to its

The Catcher in the Rye Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Catcher in the Rye - Essay Example Antolini. Holden alluded about being in a mental hospital. The whole novel revolves around rebellion, alienation and aggression in youth. This is why this book has been one of the most challenged books in all times. This paper discusses opposing ideas on whether the Catcher in the Rye should be banned in schools. Critics state that the narration includes offensive style, inappropriate language and sexual content at many places (Whitfield 1997). Despite the fact that the sexual content is not very explicit, still parents and critics support the fact that the book should be banned. The writer shows Holden thinking, talking and imagining about sex. These imaginations are a part of typical physical development of a teenager; still, it is inappropriate to teach such concepts in schools and relating them with such a sensitive phase as teenage so explicitly. Graham (2007: xi) states that â€Å"the novel was condemned by some readers for its use of expletives and for presenting as a hero an adolescent who drinks, smokes and engages a prostitute†, and parents think that children should not be taught that such concepts are an integral part of teenage. The sexual content accompanies obscene and offensive language. Again, despite the fact that the obscene language is very moderate, still parents would never want that their children should be taught such literature in school which contains even hints of such language. According to Jones (2007), â€Å"There are 224 instances where obscene language has been used in the book, with a few occurrences being the "F-word."† To mention some scholars, Agee (1999) and Frangedis (1988) also talked about how objections from teachers, parents and administrators came regarding â€Å"language or sexual content† (Agee 1999: 61) in the book. Another reason that makes us say that The Catcher in the Rye should be banned is that it contains occurrences where mild violence is shown. For example, Holden is shown being punched and attacked a couple of times. There are two indications of suicidal attempts as well. At one occurrence, Holden is shown overhearing somebody who was talking about a person trying to commit suicide through taking aspirin. At another place, Holden is shown talking about a boy who had jumped out of the window as suicidal attempt. John Lennon’s assassination was an incident that further gave this book a bad reputation (Rosenthal 1999). His murderer, Chapman, had asked him to sign a copy of the novel on the morning when he was assassinated. When the police caught Chapman and accused him of the murder, a copy of the novel was found in his pocket. Although there was no clear evidence that it was the novel that had inspired Chapman to commit the crime, yet the implicit connection was enough to make people argue about banning the book. Parents and teachers have always been concerned and looking for answers regarding what effects violence in literature can imprint on young developi ng brains. The Catcher in the Rye arrives with concerns relating to anxiety, dejection, brutality and aggression that develop in young minds. Critics are of the view that children tend to have less-developed ability of decision-making or critical thinking so they cannot realize what is wrong with what they are reading and their minds learn or absorb every act they read. Now, we look at the opposing ideas and see why some people think that the novel should not be banned. Banning a book means banning freedom of expression. The

Personal and Professional Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Personal and Professional Development - Essay Example Based on my personality and self-assessment test result, a personal career action plan was presented in this report. Table of Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................... 2 Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... 3 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 4 2. Application of Theoretical Frameworks to Learning Experiences ............................ 5 2.1 Myers-Brigg’s Test ..................................................................................... 5 2.2 Johari’s Window ......................................................................................... 6 2.3 SWOT analysis ........................................................................................... 7 3. Career Action Pl an .................................................................................................... 7 4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ ... ...................................................................... 16 Appendix IV – SWOT Analysis Framework ........................................................................ 17 1. Introduction The act of getting to know oneself is important in both personal and professional development. Basically, my future career goal is to become a successful and effective HR manager. To make my future career goal a reality, I take it as a challenge to continuously improve my leadership skills at all times. Managing people is one of the most difficult jobs a person can have. Aside from keeping each employee motivated at work, it is part of the HR managers’ responsibility to handle each corporate employee effectively. By doing so, the HR manager can help the company save a lot of time, money, and effort in training and retaining a large number of highly competitive employees (Jackson, Schuler and Werner, 2012, p. 194). A company is usually composed of a group of diverse empl oyees. The fact that each employee has a unique set of cultural background, religious beliefs, educational attainment, work attitude and behaviour makes the task of HR managers even more complicated than it seems. For this reason, I assume that there is a strong need for HR managers to further improve their leadership skills. Leadership is strongly relevant to my preferred professional career and development. By focusing on the need to improve my leadership skills, I will be able to strongly â€Å"influence, select, equip, and train† employees without the need to use strong force on them (Winston and Patterson, 2006, p. 7). Furthermore, I strongly believe that through the use of a strong charismatic technique, I could easily win the attention and support of each employee. This will make me able to

Exploring Services Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Exploring Services Management - Assignment Example By 2005, the organization had more than 400 Subway stores all within the UK and the company was expanding and aims at attaining 800 stores within the next two years. Within an extensively competitive market, qualitative study indicated that Subway was misinterpret and went to being harassed by non-users. Further to the present  £1.99 ‘Daily Special’, sandwich offer, required to boost tryout and develop frequency, was decaying. Marketing was required to propel modern clients and develop trust (Milford, 2011). The transition that was implemented within the organization, nonetheless, changed and brought tremendous success to the organization that was at the edge of collapsing. A local text turned into a national awareness, offering phenomenal numbers and move forward to international proposition. The real product traded by the firm did not change – rather it was re-branded repositioned, and re-launched. Within the initial local examination, a venture of  £400,000 within 11 weeks produced a boost up of similar store sales of 12% yearly and 12% return on investment. For three consecutive flying and a year later, the trial region income rose to 30% (Liutu, 2010). Such successes are attributed to the Subway chain owner Fred Deluca who opened the initial store in 1965. He went ahead to built a multi-billion dollar franchisee business. Varied with its main competitor McDonald, there are no â€Å"firm possessed stores.† The notion of modernly produced Subs drove the chain to its grade as a real market leader within the largely competitive US market mainly on fast-food industry. In 2006, the company had more than 25,000 stores and the sole proprietor Fred was on a list and positioned 242 out of the 400 richest Americans. The initial store in UK was introduced in 1996, and by 2004, a mean of fifteen fresh stores were launch monthly and existence along Top Street was planned to double within the next two years. Regardless of

Strategies of Nokia and Nestle and their competitive advantage in the Essay

Strategies of Nokia and Nestle and their competitive advantage in the industry - Essay Example It is vital part of organizational success as it not only helps them to survive but also facilitates in maintaining competitive edge against their rivals in the industry. Business strategies are actions plans developed to achieve the vision, mission and objectives of the organizations over a long period of time. Porter (1996) says that competitive strategy is doing business differently to give value to the customers and maintain leverage. The strategic plans therefore, are vital ingredients that allow firms to be flexible and innovative so that they can absorb environmental changes and evolve to maintain one’s market position. The report is primarily an effort to analyze the business strategies of Nokia and Nestle which have made tremendous changes within their strategies to create niche market position in the domestic and global market. Outline of strategic issues of Nokia Nokia is a Finnish conglomerate that has incredible growth story. It has emerged as a flagship company mainly because it was able to anticipate and preempt environmental changes to evolve new strategies. The foresightedness of its managerial leadership was able to steer it to its present success. There were three major strategic issues with Nokia which needed to be creatively designed and developed to facilitate leadership position in the global market. The first one was to redefine its strategies towards its low performing business activities which did not offer long term sustainability of good profits or prospects. The second was to identify the business which had wide scope prospects vis-a-vis business opportunities across the globe. Third and the last one was to ensure that the products should be able to meet the changing demands of the global customers and should have futuristic scope to attract them. These were critical issues which needed to be addressed urgently by the compa ny so that its vision of becoming a successful global entity could be expedited and realized. 3.1.1 Situation analysis of Nokia Finland was a rich but small nation that was bogged down with geographical hardships that made it difficult to adopt traditional technology to improve its communication and other related development processes. It initially had diverse interests comprising of tire manufacturing, paper production, consumer electronics and telecommunication equipment. The disinvestment of many of its business activities helped it to focus on telecommunication. It was one of the companies that had pioneered wireless technology to overcome geographical constraints of near arctic conditions which made cable based telecommunication a difficult and expensive venture. Indeed, strategic planning is at the heart of business strategy. Bateman and Snell (2009:132) emphasize that planning is ‘the conscious, systematic process of making decisions about goals and activities that an i ndividual, group, work unit or organization will pursue in future’. Nokia had demonstrated its leadership initiative by disinvesting its low prospect business activities and correctly identifying potential in the telecommunication where wireless technology had offered huge scope for business expansion. It was focused on organization’s long term goals and objectives for its success and growth. It explicitly emphasized the unique activities and approaches of Nokia leadership for delivering its strategic goals and objectives. Kotler & Keller (2007) have stressed the need to be innovative and service oriented. Nokia was able to align its strategic action

Analysis Interpretation of Antigone by Sophocles Essay

Analysis Interpretation of Antigone by Sophocles - Essay Example In spite of this threat, Antigone is caught when she tries to bury her brother. Creon leaves Antigone to starve in a cave. And when her fianc, Haemon comes to save her, she has already hanged herself. Haemnon dies and his mother and Creon's wife, also kills herself in grief. The play Antigone is based on conflict between two laws, and forces the audience to decide whose law is greater: God's or man's Thesis Facing the characters with moral choice, Sophocles depicts that God's laws are more important for people because they reflect eternal truth and morality while man's laws are based on power and authority of the ruler only. At the beginning of the drama, Antigone breaks the law of her uncle, Creon, and decides to bury her dead brother against his orders. Sophocles portrays that characters of the play follow God's laws as a source of morality and traditions, norms and social values. In spite of the fact that every epoch creates its own values and moral rules changing our understanding about a self and life, there are some universal laws which cannot be broken. For instance, Antigone follows God's laws as the only authority of truth and moral obligations. This funeral rite had been followed for centuries and Antigone could not break this tradition.

Portfolio management Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Portfolio management - Term Paper Example Generally, it is believed that the beginning of portfolio construction started in 1952 after the Portfolio Selection hypothesis of Harry Markowitz was published. This is the theory that introduced Modern Portfolio Theory to the world and offered a framework intended to maximize returns at a certain volatility level, described as the standard deviation of returns. Currently, an amalgamation of various theories forms the foundation for the process of investment consulting. It is this process of investment consulting that formalizes investing and develops a blue print for constructing one’s portfolio. Thus, the investor’s Financial Advisor must develop a blueprint for the investor on the basis of his/her needs and objectives, investment parameters as well as long-term asset allocation approach (McMillan & Pinto, 2011). After the strategic asset allocation has been developed, then, portfolio construction can start. As an aspect of the process of portfolio construction, investment options should be assessed not in seclusion but as complements to one another and as important elements of a bigger whole. When constructed suitably, the entire portfolio must minimize single-manager risk while at the same time looking to make the most of portfolio-wide returns, which is facilitated by combining managers that display low historical correlation in addition to exhibiting different behaviors in various market environments. There are four vital steps in portfolio construction which include determination of objectives and goals, asset allocation, searching and selection of a manager and performance monitoring. The first step is determination of investment parameters and involves cash flow requirements, risk tolerance of the investor, performance objectives, investment restrictions and time horizon. The second s tep is definition of investment strategy and consists of formulation of policy statement, risk optimization/reward

Organisational behaviour and development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organisational behaviour and development - Essay Example This leads to new beliefs, assumptions and behaviors. In the last two decades companies have been subject to change in the external environment in which technology plays an important role. This paper will discuss how technology influences the use of language in organizations for the right communication. Language is an important influence on the way social reality is constructed. Language is the external expression of the internal mindsets that define an organization (Butcher & Atkinson, 2001). Language is also strongly associated with power. Language lies at the heart of managerial action. Thus language plays a role in organizational management and organizational change. Schein (n.d.) states that to manage internal integration and internal relationships, common language is a major issue. To function cohesively as a group it is important to understand a common language. Language can comprise of gestures, actions and words which are understood by all. Conflict arises when two parties assume about each without proper communication. Today organizations use different technologies in improving internal integration and communication. These include radio, television, email, chat messages and SMS. Technology definitely influences the language use but does not change everything. Technology influences language even in ways which may not be very obvious. A metaphor â€Å"all guns blazing† is often used in organizations which implies that an action has been performed with energy or aggression (Moore, 2002). Here the technology of weapons has been used to communicate. Both natural languages and technologies are important in performing any type of human activity. Aero planes fly people and cargo around the world and people strive to improve upon this technology for common good. Here again language and technology are used for mutual benefit. The technology of radio communication is used to support the language to transmit

Karges Coffee Inc Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Karges Coffee Inc - Case Study Example Assuming no changes to the Home Brewer or Office Deluxe unit sales and unit selling prices, and variable costs will remain same for each model with total fixed costs remaining unchanged. The Office Basic sales units if doubled will result in increase in the overall sales volume, contribution margin and profit of the company. Here we see that by just doubling the sales volume units we see a jump in sales value and contribution margin by more than 150% and the profit has grown by more than 200%. These drastic changes in the sales figure and profit is just because of the extra volumes of the Office Basic model. This means that if we sell 60,000 units of Office Basic we are in a profitable position. The sales volume of Office Basic is the highest among the other models which indicates that increasing the production of Office Basic model will generate far more revenues than if we double the other two models. This analysis helps us in analyzing the revenues and profits on changing a single factor such as sales volume units. If an advertising campaign is implemented costing $150,000 to raise overall consumer awareness of the product offerings and to increase sales, the company will have to attain a profit level of $1,530,000 to maintain the same profit percentage. This means that minimum of $500,000 sales is required to compensate for the advertising cost at the same profit level. In the same year maybe we do not receive the benefits in terms of sales revenue and profits but in the long run it may generate benefits. The new advertising campaign instead of being designed to increase total sales volume will focus on getting customers who would purchase the Office Basic model to buy the Office Deluxe model instead with an assumption of no impact on the sales of Home Brewer model. As per the calculations 1,250 customers should purchase Office Deluxe model instead of Office Basic model to cover the advertising costs incurred. The last option for evaluation is if the compan y chooses to add a new product (Office Plus) to its line of brewers targeted at the office use market, it would have to sell a minimum of 3,933 units approximately to justify its addition to the product line next year. This level of sales stated above is just a break-even point for the product. This product will generate additional profits over and above the units mentioned above. I would like to recommend going with the new product Office Plus in an optimistic view that it would start generating sales revenue higher than the current levels and thereby increase the profitability of the company in the long run. This product would also add to the current varieties of product and is a mid-priced product between the Office Basic model and the Office Deluxe model. I would also recommend another alternative of implementing an advertising campaign for initiating the sales of Office Premium model which is comparatively lower than Office Basic model which can result in more profitability as because the Profit/Volume ratio is higher than the other two models. The Profit/Volume ratio of Office Premium model is 0.40. The contribution per unit is also highest among the three products that is $120 which signifies that the variable costs are comparatively low

Critical Paper Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Critical Paper - Movie Review Example Through this, the complex conflict and relationship between modernity, tradition and human emotions between the western and eastern, aspects of the globe will be highlighted. The 1994 released movie â€Å"To live† directed by Gong Li and Zhang Yimou is a film that is basically about an experience of a family during a particularly challenging and hard time, it also helps bring out the journey of the Chinese people towards their revolutionary stage( Zhang, Wr and Lu Wei 2). The more pronounced theme is that of change and divergent ways of coping with it. This aspect is similar with the other two films like in Wedding Banquet the main character figured out a strategic way of sorting his problem and in the Eat Drink Man Woman Chef Chu, found alternatives to his problems through food as elaborately brought out. The change theme was introduced both on societal and individual level. The difference in the change is on the fact that on the individual level it was influenced by the indi vidual own doing namely Xu Fugui, which if compared by other two was not due to their own actions. The film also shows the changes on a societal level that were happening on the Chinese society and various ideologies and political systems that were initially imposed on the Chinese people. This is also seen in the film Eat Drink Man Woman where there had to be a specific order to marriage and in Wedding Banquet the society expects some things to be common like in choice of marriage partners. With the societal changes consequently happening, all the characters in the three films experience effects that correspond to their lives. In this context, the societal changes that are happening and the individuals involved no longer have, any control over the issues for it was already the external factors that influence and operate and affect their individuals lives (Chan 1). The 1993 film the Wedding Banquet, which is about a Taiwanese immigrant man that is gay and marries a mainland Chinese w oman to get her a green card and to placate his parents. Although with his parents arrival in the United States his plan backfires since they decided to help with the wedding banquets planning (Wu, and Lixing 1344). The story combines so many issues of today and it is a great example of modern day life namely; cross-cultural life, sexuality, modernity/tradition, younger generations vs. old school parents, gay couples and multi-racial couples, love and family values, immigrants and gay Asian Americans. This themes discussed above correspond well with the other two films, since they all discuss societal current issues since, they directly bringing out the very different and distinct cultures in the film concurrently namely; the 90’s representation of the gay couples and Asian American. The film also uses the theme of change to bring out and comment on groupings and social stereotypes without blatantly doing so (Bishop, John, Haiyong and Lester 4). There is a similarity in the t heme of change in the other two films since they all discuss societal change. They embrace of sexuality by discussing gay relationship, revelation and change from the traditional Chinese cultures and a more entailed analysis of family issues and solutions derived as the families find adequate solutions on how they break from traditional and societal norms. The films help bring out the change theme by adequately capturing

The street act 1 Essay Example for Free

The street act 1 Essay The main character in The Street, Ann Petry shows that even in the hardest of times, one should continue to push forward, even if the â€Å"wind [pushes]† them away. The wind is trying to prevent those outside, especially Lutie, from accomplishing their mission/goals. The wind blocks Lutie’s path, almost as if it were the difficult situation she is going through. The wind forced the Lutie to shiver as â€Å"its cold fingers†¦touched the back of her neck, explored the sides of her head†. Petry also shows that the wind is doing every possible thing to discourage the people walking on the street, by finding â€Å"chicken bones and pork-chop bones†, and â€Å"every scrap of paper along the street†. The â€Å"violent assault† of the wind forced not only Lutie, but also every other pedestrian on the street back to their homes as it grew â€Å"difficult to breathe†. also indicating that the wind is a hardship that one must face outside of their cozy, warm home. Looking at lutes’ situation/ troubles, the win seems almost like it has something’s against them and all the pedestrians as if the city was cursed up on. Most of the details are primarily aimed towards the win and what it is doing to the scenario, such as when it â€Å"sucked [the] window shades out through the top† of opened windows, and â€Å"stuck its fingers† inside of people’s coat collars. In other words, the wind is deliberately interfering with its surroundings, creating a stressful situation where one would need a sanctuary to avoid the sinister gusts. The â€Å"flapping† of the shades, â€Å"every scrap of paper† being thrown against the people on the streets, and â€Å"dirt and dust† being lifted into the air â€Å"making it difficult to breathe†, creating a chaotic atmosphere. In The Street, Petry creates the idea that in hard, stressful times, one needs a sanctuary to avoid â€Å"the wind† of life’s powerful gusts. Through three crucial, subtle components, personification, imagery, and selection of detail, the purpose of the story was perfectly conveyed. Petry intended for the wind to have a mind, as it was forcing people back to their sanctuaries.

The horror of war in Dulce et Decorum est Essay Example for Free

The horror of war in Dulce et Decorum est Essay How does Wilfred Owen portray the horror of war in Dulce et Decorem est? Owens Dulce et Decorem est is a painful, poignant and blunt depiction of the squalid conditions and distressing experiences which had a permanent effect on the soldiers of the 1st world war. He addresses the subject with absolute honesty and frankness as a soldier himself, which brings out the stark contrast of the reality of war to the propaganda which enticed young soldiers to fight to begin with; Owens use of language here shows his deep loathing towards war and misleading propaganda. Firstly I will address the idea in the poem that war is irreconcilable and contradictory to the notions displayed by propaganda posters of courage, bravery, honour, glory and patriotism. The first stanza of the poem is heavy with negative connotations- the men are beggars, weak, destitute and dejected, lacking in hope; they are coughing like hags due to living in the trenches- rife with illness, disease, gas attacks and dead bodies. The use of words like haunting, distant, asleep, lame and drunk create a feeling of inevitable doom; knock-kneed, coughing, limped, blood-shod and dropped indicate ill health and disease. The theme of loss is also significant here; many had lost their boots, all blind, deaf even, connoting the loss of sense organs as well as property, the small comfort of simply having boots. Through the sludge the men curse those who were the cause of their suffering, the Germans, war, propaganda. Nevertheless there is still the theme of duty, and/or a small light of hope amongst the disheartened men- Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots// But limped on, blood-shod. Even in shoes full of blood, the men march on, partly because they have to and they have been ordered to, partly because they have to protect themselves, but mainly towards that distant rest. This portrayal of dedication (to family, cause, life) is in contrast to the positive connotations of bravery or glory. There is nothing positive about the mens desire to push on, only desperation. This is heightened by the fact that this poem was written in 1917, 3 years after they were promised the war would end by Christmas 1914. The second stanza could be likened to wakening from a dream- the men are drunk with fatigue when a small but urgent voice calls Gas! then more urgently, as the danger is fully understood- GAS! following on from this is an avalanche of awkward words like fumbling, clumsy and stumbling which adds to the urgent, staccato feeling of the stanza structure. This feeling of awkwardness augments itself, then becomes relief (just in time) then turns into pity and excruciating empathy for the someone who is drowning under a green sea, as he is yelling out and floundring like a fish, wrenching at the emotions of the reader; and, it seems, of Owen himself. In the 3rd and shortest stanza, Owen seems to be saying to the reader that the things he had seen were so horrific that he wished he were blind himself. He does this by saying that his sight is helpless, that in his dreams, (one would imagine a sanctuary) even in his dreams he is haunted by the man he saw die as he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. The end of this stanza is so abrupt as to have a painful effect on the reader, as if this description is a flashback of Owens that he cannot stop his helpless subconscious mind from re-enacting in his dreams. The last stanza is really Owen addressing the reader directly, having described to them the graphic things he had encountered. How there were so many dead that they flung them in the wagon, how his dreams were so terrifying that they smothered him and how horribly he had to watch his friends die, gargling blood. He informs the reader that if they had seen what he had seen, they would not tell with such high zest// To children ardent for some desperate glory,// The old Lie; Dulce et Decorem est//Pro patria mori. That you, My friend, the reader, would not dream of speaking of the war with ardour, if to create a utopian fantasy for ones children; if at all. The fact that Owen capitalises the L in Lie along with the ending of the poem with the religiously indicative Latin phrase shows his sarcastic bitterness clearly- he wants the reader to empathise and feel as he feels when he thinks of how he was lied to about a place worse than hell, and even worse, how it was glorified. In conclusion, Owen portrays the horror of war, with an incredibly graphic nature, as at complete odds with popular considerations. He fills the poem with themes of loss, blindness, illness, fatigue, death, blood, uncleanliness and deafness and likens war to a place worse than hell, worse than the reader could even imagine. He displays war as rife with sickening and squalid substance, and the effects it has on the soldiers who survive as incurable, corrupted, horrific, destructive and vile.

Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies

Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies BACKGROUND OF STUDY 1.1 Introduction Disclosure of information in corporate annual reports has attracted a number of researchers in both developed and developing countries. The voluntary disclosure information in excess of mandatory disclosure, has been receiving an increasing amount of attention in recent accounting studies. Because of the inadequacy of compulsory information, the demand for voluntary disclosure provides investors with the necessary information to make more informed decisions (Alsaeed, 2006). Voluntary disclosure of decision-useful corporate information is considered to be the first step in solving the alleged problems of traditional financial reporting (Leadbetter, 2000). Its objectives are well defined: closing (or narrowing) the gap between a companys potential intrinsic market value and its current market value. Voluntary disclosure, in the context of globalization of the worlds financial markets, has received a great deal of attention in the accounting literature in recent years (Hossain, Berera and Rahman, 1995). This is due to the following reasons: Firstly, additional disclosures may help to attract new shareholders thereby helping to maintain a healthy demand for shares, and a share price that more fully reflects its intrinsic value. It is possible that poor disclosure could lead to an undervalued share making it attractive to a potential predator. Secondly, increased information may assist in reducing informational risk and thereby lower the cost of capital (Spero, 1979). A lower cost of capital should mean that marginal projects become profitable. Thirdly, in order to raise capital on the markets, companies will increase their voluntary disclosure. Consequently, listed companies are more likely to have a higher level of disclosure than unlisted companies and multiple listed companies those raising capital on the international markets will have a higher level of disclosure than domestically listed companies. Fourthly, multiple listed companies often have an interest in foreign capital markets since foreign operations are often financed by foreign capital (Choi and Mueller, 1984). Disclosure levels might be increased to adapt to local customs to meet the requirements of banks and other suppliers of capital; finally, listed and multiple listed companies might increase their social responsibility disclosures to demonstrate that they act responsibly (Watts and Zimmerman, 1979). Companies may have attained their status on the securities markets and be able to attract new funds, not least because they act responsibly. According to Healy and Palepu (2001) a companys disclosure decision could be a response to innovation, globalization or changes in business and capital market environments. Kuwait is the focus of this study for three reasons. First, Kuwait is a small rich country, relatively open economy with crude oil reserves of about 10% of world reserves. Second, over the last decade, the Kuwaiti government has initiated several far-reaching reforms at the Kuwait Stock Exchange to mobilize domestic savings and attract foreign capital investment. These measures include privatization of state corporations through the stock exchange and allowing foreign investors to own shares in the listed companies since 2000, tax free. Third, the Kuwait Stock Exchange is becoming an important capital market in the region. It is ranked the second largest market in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia) in terms of total market capitalization. Its total market capitalization was US$128,951 million as of December 2006 (Arab Monetary Fund 2006). These reasons could motivate investors to diversify their investment portfolios into that market. As a result, investors may be interested in the information disclosure practices of listed companies in Kuwait (Al-Shammari, 2008). 1-2 Problem Statement Many developing countries strive to mobilize financial resources from domestic as well as international sources with a view to attaining their economic and social development goals. Domestic and international investors utilize financial and non-financial information available on potential investment targets for assessing risk and making critical investment decisions. Thus, the availability of financial and non-financial information in sufficient quantity and of sufficient quality has an important bearing on efforts geared towards mobilizing investment for financing economic and social development. Adequate reporting and disclosure of financial and non-financial information will reduce asymmetric information problem, hence are likely to improve investor confidence and a lower cost of investment. According to Gray, Meeks and Roberts (1995) investors demand information to assess the timing and uncertainty of current and future cash flows so that they may value firms and make other investment decisions such as choosing a portfolio of securities. Companies satisfy this demand in part by supplying voluntary accounting information, thereby enabling them to raise capital on the best available terms (Gray et al., 1995). Given the faster pace of globalization, the growing interdependence of international financial markets and increased mobility of capital, developing countries need to attach greater importance to corporate transparency and disclosure. Policy makers, legislators and regulators, in recognition of the significant influence that corporate transparency has on decisions of investors, need to strengthen further the various components of corporate disclosure infrastructure so that domestic and international resources are mobilized more efficiently. Kuwait is one of the developing countries that face difficulties to attract foreign investments. Birgit Ebner at Germanys Frankfurt Trust, who helps manage a Middle Eastern stock fund, said Kuwait was not an attractive investment compared with others in the region (www.gulfnews.com). One of the main reasons that interpret this matter is the absence of voluntary disclosure as a result of sharp low supply of information by companies. According to Birgit Ebner, We are underweight in Kuwait because in Kuwait there are many holding firms dominating the market. And on top of it, the transparency is currently lower than in other Gulf States. In opinion of many analysts in Kuwait, the problem of gulf bank is related to absence of voluntary disclosure. Moreover, Kuwait stock exchange report that issued in (2007) revealed that 156 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange from among 177 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange are violating disclosure guidelines (www.alaswaq.net 2007). The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the influence of several firm characteristics on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait and whether disclosure level improves over the years given changes in the accounting environment of the country and globalization that have taken placed. There are many studies have examined the relationship between a company`s characteristics and the level of disclosure in both developed and developing countries such as Canada (Belkaoui and Kahl, 1978); United Kingdom (Firth, 1979, 1980); Nigeria (Wallace, 1987); Sweden (Cooke, 1989); Japan (Cooke, 1992); United States (Imhoff, 1992; and Lang and Lundholm, 1993); Bangladesh (Ahmed and Nicholls, 1994); Switzerland (Raffournier, 1995); Hong Kong (Wallace and Naser, 1995), Egypt (Mahmood, 1999); Jordan (Naser, Alkhatib and Karbhari, 2002); Saudi Arabia (Alsaeed, 2006b) and United Arab Emirates (Aljifri, 2007). However, to my knowledge, little attention has been devoted to the role of voluntary disclosure in the Middle East countries, more specifically Kuwait (see Al-Shammari, 2008). The aim of this study is to understand what motivate or demonstrate a companys disclosure by empirically investigate the association between a number of company characteristics and the extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of companies listed in the Kuwait Stock Exchange in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. In addition, the influence of the reporting year on voluntary disclosure will also be examined to assess the progress of disclosure activities in Kuwait. Given that Ashammaris study only cover the year of 2005, the execution of this study is fully justified. 1.3 Research Questions In general, this study seeks for explanation on voluntary disclosure behaviour of Kuwait companies. The followings are the research questions:- 1- What is the relationship between the firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and voluntary disclosure level? 2- Does reporting year influences voluntary disclosure? 3- To what extent do the above factors affect the voluntary disclosure? 1.4 Research Objectives To determine the influences of firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and reporting year on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait. 1.5 Significance of the Study The significance of study can be viewed from contributions given to Accounting academic discipline and to the practitioners and policymakers. Contribution to Accounting body of knowledge This study contributes to the literature on corporate financial reporting and disclosure practices in one of the important capital markets in the Middle East in which International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) are mandatory and the government controls the accounting and auditing profession. It also contributes to the corporate governance literature on whether the company characteristics found to be significant in companies operating in developed countries are similar to those a developing country like Kuwait. This study is important in enhancing our understanding of corporate financial reporting in Kuwait. It explores the determinants that help explain voluntary disclosure in Kuwait. Contribution to the practitioners and policy makers Knowledge on firms characteristics that influence voluntary disclosure would enable policy makers to target training and monitoring activities to suitable target companies in order to improve disclosure level in the country. This is important because higher disclosure among companies could improve investors confidence and help attracting more foreign investment into the country. The study is also able to show whether the external environment in Kuwait have improved the voluntary disclosure activities. 1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study This study investigates the relationship between firm characteristics and voluntary disclosure of non financial companies listed in Kuwait. Financial companies (banks and insurance companies) were eliminated as the characteristics of their financial reports are different from those of non financial firms (Alsaeed, 2006). A disclosure index was constructed as a yardstick to measure the level of disclosure by the listed firms. The construction of the disclosure index is based on the information that firms supply in their annual financial reports to shareholders. Albeit not as conclusive, financial reports serve as a widely accepted (Knutson, 1992). The disclosure index does not intend to be comprehensive, nor does it intend to specify what firms ought to disclose. Rather, the index is crafted solely for the purpose of capturing and measuring differences in disclosure practices among firms. The selection of items embedded into the index was entirely guided by Meek, Rober and Gray (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006) 1.7 Organization of the Study The reminder of this study is organized as follows: Chapter Two discusses the literature review related to the study; Chapter Three consists of research methodology including theoretical framework, hypothesis development and model specification for the study. The measurement, sampling and instrumentations are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter Four presents the empirical findings and results. Finally, Chapter Five provides the discussion, implications and recommendation of the study as well as suggestions for future research. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction This Chapter discusses and summarizes the literatures review, which looks at many aspects of voluntary disclosure and the factors which affect the degree of voluntary disclosure in a firm. The discussion is segmented into five sections. The first section presents an overview of disclosure requirements in Kuwait so as to provide foundation knowledge of the issue understudy. Section two discusses the concept and measurement of voluntary disclosure. This is followed by section three which presents the firm-related determinants of voluntary disclosure as found from prior theoretical and empirical literature. These variables include firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size. 2.2 Disclosure Requirement in Kuwait Mandatory disclosure refers to firms disclose information about their operations because of legal requirements. For the efficiency of markets and the protection of investors, mandatory disclosure of information concerning the firms operating in capital markets has important consequences (Shin, 1998). 2.3 Voluntary disclosure level More detailed disclosure by the firms beyond the level of information disclosed within the mandatory disclosure process is called voluntary disclosure. Voluntary disclosure means making public the financial and non-financial information regarding the firms operations without any legal requirement (Fishman and Hagerty (1997), Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006). Alsaeed has identified a more comprehensive items for voluntary disclosure based on Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003). These items are as in Table 2.1 Table 2.1: Voluntary disclosure items in Alsaeed (2006) No. Disclosure items 1 Strategic information 2 Brief history of company 3 Information on events affecting future years results 4 Board directors names 5 Top managements names 6 Majority shareholders 7 Information on different types of products 8 Information statistics for more than two years 9 Information on dividends policy 10 Information on future expansion projects 11 Percentage of foreign and national labor force 12 Information on training and workers development 13 Information on social and environmental activities 14 Statement of corporate goals and objectives 15 Principle markets 16 Average compensation per employee 17 Market share 18 Information on events affecting current years results 19 Competitive environment 20 Forecasted profits Many studies have examined the relationship between a companys characteristics and voluntary disclosure level. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that firm size, profitability and auditor firm size influence the level of voluntary disclosure. Naser et al., (2002), Jensen and Meckling, (1976); Fama and Jensen, (1983) Donnelly and Mulcahy, (2008), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), studied the association between companys firm size, debt ratio, owner ship and auditor firm size and the level of disclosure. 2.4 Determinants of Voluntary Disclosure 2.4.1 Firm size Most of the firm disclosure studies used firm size as a control variable (see for example, Alsaeed (2006); Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008); Brammer and Pavelin (2004); Meek et al, (1995), Mitchell et al, (1995), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Aitken et al. (1997), Bradbury, (1992), Zarzeski (1996), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000), Naser et al.,(2002), Wallace and Naser (1995), Firth, (1979), Eng and Mak (2003) and Hossain et al.(1994). Many studies found a positive relationship between firm size and disclosure level of companies. For example, Alsaeed (2006) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between firm characteristics of non-financial Saudi firms listed on the Saudi Stock Market in 2003 and voluntary disclosure level by those companies. He found that there was a positive relationship between the firm size and the level of disclosure. Alsaeed (2006) argues that agency costs are higher for larger companies because shareholders are widespread, therefore, additional disclosure might reduce these costs (Watts and Zimmerman, 1983). This finding is consistent with other studies such as Meek et al, (1995), Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008), Foster (1986), Hossain et al, (1995) and Al-Shammari, (2008). In addition to what Alsaeed (2006) has mentioned above, they argued that large companies might have sufficient resources to afford the cost of producing information or the user of annual reports. Secondly, small companies might suffer from a competitive disadvantage if they provide additional disclosure. Thirdly, large companies might be of interest to different users of annual reports including government agencies. 2.4.2 Debt ratio There is no consensus among researchers about the relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure. Most of studies found a significant positive relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure such as Naser (1998), Mitchell, Chia and Loh (1995); Hossain et al. (1995), Al-Shammari, (2008) and Bradbury, (1992). Jensen and Meckling, (1976) found the voluntary disclosure level can reduce the agency costs by facilitating debt ratio suppliers assessment of the firms to ability to meet its debts ratio. In relation to this, Al-Shimmiri, (2008) argued that the companies with higher debt in their structure of capital are prone to higher agency cost, hence they will be more likely to disclose additional information in order to reduce agency costs and information asymmetry with shareholders. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that when firms increase their level of leverage, they have to disclose more information in order to reduce asymmetric information between the firm and its creditors. Hence he argued that firms with high leverage will have high level of disclosure. In addition, Zarzeski (1996) argued that firms with higher debt ratio are more likely to share private information with their creditors. Thus, voluntary disclosures can be expected to increase with leverage. However, Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Hossain, Berera and Rahman (1994), Aitken, Hooper and Pickering (1997), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) and Eng and Mak (2003) studied the relationship between the voluntary disclosure and leverage found no relationship. While Meek et al (1995) mention that there is negative relationship between voluntary disclosure and leverage for US, UK, and European MNCs, Wallace, Naser and Mora (1994). 2.4.3 Profitability Many studies refer the profitability as the factor that affects voluntary disclosure level such as Singhvi and Desai (1971); Foster (1986), Richard (1992), Meek et al. (1995) and Naser et al. (2002) they argues that when the level of firms profitability increase, the firms have to disclose more information that can be an indicator to good management and also have incentives to show to the investors and the public that their profitability has increased. However, Ahmed and Courtis (1999) identified 12 studies that investigated the relationship between profitability and disclosure with mixed results. Akerlof (1970) argued that larger profitable companies may disclose more information to be distinguished from less profitable companies. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) argued the firms with larger profits are more interested in disclosing detailed information in their annual reports in order to justify their financial performance and to reduce political costs. However Wallace et al. (1994) found no significant relationship between the comprehensiveness of disclosure and the profit margin of listed and unlisted Spanish firms. Inchausti (1997) elaborated that agency theory suggests that managers of larger profitable companies may wish to disclose more information in order to obtain personal advantages like continuance of their management position and compensation. Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995) and Alsaeed, (2006) observed no significant relationship between the disclosure and the profitability, because none of the performance related variables provides an explanation of the disclosure level. Ho and Wong (2001), Barako, Hancock and Izan (2006) and Barako (2007) on the other hand found profitability to be positively and significantly related with two of the four disclosure categories, financial and forward looking disclosures, whereas other categories ware negative and significant with the disclosure of general and strategic. This result is similar with that of Eng and Mak (2002) study on Singapore listed companies. For example, companies in the manufacturing sector were found to disclose less of financial information, and instead disclosed more on general and strategic information to explain in detail factors affecting their poor financial performance. 2.4.4 Ownership dispersion The ownership dispersion represents the percentage of shares owned by outsider after subtracting shares owned by the insider. Many studies found positive relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership, as explained by the agency theory which suggests that difference in the proportion of the companys shares owned by outsider shareholders causes differences in the voluntary disclosure level. This is because the companies with more outsider ownership are more likely to disclose more information than companies with less outsider ownership and also the demand for publicly available information is likely to increase (Wallace and Naser 1995). Gelb (2000) and Barako et al. (2006) found significant relationship between outsider ownership and disclosure level. Leftwich, Watts and Zimmerman (1981), Fama and Jensen (1983), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) and Aitken et al. (1997) mentioned the detailed disclosure in annual reports that may allow outsider to monitor their interests more efficiently. Eng and Mak (2003) argued that voluntary disclosure is a substitute for outside monitoring and so is negatively related to managerial ownership. They found evidence consistent with this prediction. Many studies found negative relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership dispersion. Hossain et al. (1994) found evidence on Malaysian listed companies having significant negative association between voluntary disclosure and ownership dispersion. A later study by Haniffa and Cooke (2002) also found similar result. Naser et al. (2002) examined the affect of ownership on US companys disclosure and his results indicated that firms with a lower level of managerial ownership are more likely to receive higher ratings for the disclosure provided in their financial reports. Ho and Wong (2001) found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure. Chau and Gray (2002) also found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Hong Kong and Singapore but found positive associated with outside ownership. Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008) on the other hand found no evidence that ownership structure is related to disclosure level. 2.4.5 Audit firm size According to Jensen and Meckling (1976) large audit firms act as a mechanism to reduce agency costs and exert more of a monitoring role by limiting opportunistic behavior by managers and are less likely to be associated with clients that disclose lower levels of information in their annual reports. In terms of size, audit firms can be divided into two; large or small. Large audit firms are identified as being one of these Big Four (or Big Five or Six formerly) international auditing firms, and smaller audit firms are the rest; the firms are more likely to choose a Big Six auditing firm. Such choice of audit firms signals to investors that the contents of the annual reports are audited with high quality (Craswell and Taylor, 1992). Furthermore, the large audit firms are widely spread in the world while small firms are domestically; hence the large audit firms have more capability to disclosure of the information and have higher reputation and power to affect the voluntary disclosure level related to the smaller audit firm (Alsaeed, 2006). Several studies found that audit firm size have significant relationship with voluntary disclosure level. Firth (1979), Craswell and Taylor (1992), Wallace and Naser, (1995), Ahmed (1995), Raffournier (1995), Inchausti (1997), Mahmood (1999), S.M. Ho and Wong (2001), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), Nasser et al. (2002) and Al-Shammari, (2008) found significant relationship between the voluntary disclosure level and audit firm size. Forker (1992) and Wallace et al. (1994) claim there are positive relationship between voluntary disclosure and audit firm size but not significant, while Hossain et al. (1994), Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995), Depoers (2000) and Haniffa and Cooke (2002) they didnt fine significant association. 2.4.6 Industry sector According Cook (1989) disclosure level is more likely to vary from one industry to the other due to the likelihood that leading firms operating in a particularindustry could produce a bandwagon effect on the level ofdisclosure adopted by other firms working in the same industry. Cooke (1992) found evidence that Japanese manufacturing firms tend to provide more information than other non-manufacturing firms. Other studies that found significant effect of industry types are Wallace and Naser (1995) and Camfferman and Cooke (2002), while McNally et al.(1982); Wallace (1987): Wallace et al. (1994); Raffournier (1995); Inchausti, (1997); Patton and Zelenka (1997); Naser (1998); Owusu-Ansah (1998), Naser and Alkhatib (2000) and Alsaeed (2006) found insignificant effect. Table 2.2: Summary of independent variables influence on voluntary disclosure: Study Independent variable findings Akerlof (1970) Profitability Positive relationship Singhvi and Desai, (1971) Profitability Positive relationship Jensen and Meckling, (1976) Debt ratio and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Firth, (1979) Firm size and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Leftwich, Watts, and Zimmerman (1981) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion McNally et al.(1982) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector Fama and Jensen (1983) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion Watts and Zimmerman (1983). Firm size positive relationship with firm size Foster, (1986) Firm size, profitability Significant positive with firm size and found positive with profitability. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) Profitability positive with profitability Wallace (1987) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Cook (1989) Industry sector Positive with industry sector. Bradbury (1992) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Richard, (1992) Profitability Positive with profitability. Forker (1992) Audit firm size Positive but insignificant with audit firm size. Craswell and Taylor (1992) Audit firm size Positively significant with audit firm size. Cooke (1992) Industry sector positive with industry sector Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion and negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1994) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion but negatively with debt ratio and audit firm size. Wallace et al. (1994) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Meek et al, (1995) Firm size, debt ratio, profitability. Positive with firm size and profitability whereas significant, negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Mitchell et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Wallace and Naser (1995) Firm size, profitability, Ownership dispersion Positive with firm size, ownership dispersion and industry sector but- ,audit firm size and industry sector Negatively with profitability and audit firm size. Ahmed (1995) Firm size and audit firm size Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size. Raffournier (1995) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. No significant with profitability and industry sector, but significant positive with audit firm size Zarzeski (1996) Firm size and debt ratio Positive with firm size and debt ratio Aitken et al. (1997) Firm size, Debt ratio and owner ship dispersion Positive with the firm size and ownership dispersion but negative with debt ratio. Inchausti (1997) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. Positive with profitability and significant positive with audit firm size and insignificant with industry sector. Patton and Zelenka (1997) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Naser (1998) Debt ratio and industry sector. Significant positive with debt ratio but insignificant with industry sector. Owusu-Ansah (1998), Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Mahmood (1999) Audit firm size Significant with audit firm size. Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and significant negative with debt ratio. Gelb (2000) Ownership dispersion Negatively with Ownership dispersion Depoers (2000) Audit firm size No significant with audit firm size. Naser and Alkhatib (2000) industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Ho and Wong (2001) Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. No significant with profitability but negatively with ownership dispersion and positive significant with audit firm size. Naser et al. (2002). Firm size, Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size but positive with profitability and no significant with ownership dispersion. Eng and Mak (2002) Profitability No significant with profitability Chau and Gray (2002) Ownership dispersion Positively with outside ownership dispersion. Camfferman and Cooke (2002) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies BACKGROUND OF STUDY 1.1 Introduction Disclosure of information in corporate annual reports has attracted a number of researchers in both developed and developing countries. The voluntary disclosure information in excess of mandatory disclosure, has been receiving an increasing amount of attention in recent accounting studies. Because of the inadequacy of compulsory information, the demand for voluntary disclosure provides investors with the necessary information to make more informed decisions (Alsaeed, 2006). Voluntary disclosure of decision-useful corporate information is considered to be the first step in solving the alleged problems of traditional financial reporting (Leadbetter, 2000). Its objectives are well defined: closing (or narrowing) the gap between a companys potential intrinsic market value and its current market value. Voluntary disclosure, in the context of globalization of the worlds financial markets, has received a great deal of attention in the accounting literature in recent years (Hossain, Berera and Rahman, 1995). This is due to the following reasons: Firstly, additional disclosures may help to attract new shareholders thereby helping to maintain a healthy demand for shares, and a share price that more fully reflects its intrinsic value. It is possible that poor disclosure could lead to an undervalued share making it attractive to a potential predator. Secondly, increased information may assist in reducing informational risk and thereby lower the cost of capital (Spero, 1979). A lower cost of capital should mean that marginal projects become profitable. Thirdly, in order to raise capital on the markets, companies will increase their voluntary disclosure. Consequently, listed companies are more likely to have a higher level of disclosure than unlisted companies and multiple listed companies those raising capital on the international markets will have a higher level of disclosure than domestically listed companies. Fourthly, multiple listed companies often have an interest in foreign capital markets since foreign operations are often financed by foreign capital (Choi and Mueller, 1984). Disclosure levels might be increased to adapt to local customs to meet the requirements of banks and other suppliers of capital; finally, listed and multiple listed companies might increase their social responsibility disclosures to demonstrate that they act responsibly (Watts and Zimmerman, 1979). Companies may have attained their status on the securities markets and be able to attract new funds, not least because they act responsibly. According to Healy and Palepu (2001) a companys disclosure decision could be a response to innovation, globalization or changes in business and capital market environments. Kuwait is the focus of this study for three reasons. First, Kuwait is a small rich country, relatively open economy with crude oil reserves of about 10% of world reserves. Second, over the last decade, the Kuwaiti government has initiated several far-reaching reforms at the Kuwait Stock Exchange to mobilize domestic savings and attract foreign capital investment. These measures include privatization of state corporations through the stock exchange and allowing foreign investors to own shares in the listed companies since 2000, tax free. Third, the Kuwait Stock Exchange is becoming an important capital market in the region. It is ranked the second largest market in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia) in terms of total market capitalization. Its total market capitalization was US$128,951 million as of December 2006 (Arab Monetary Fund 2006). These reasons could motivate investors to diversify their investment portfolios into that market. As a result, investors may be interested in the information disclosure practices of listed companies in Kuwait (Al-Shammari, 2008). 1-2 Problem Statement Many developing countries strive to mobilize financial resources from domestic as well as international sources with a view to attaining their economic and social development goals. Domestic and international investors utilize financial and non-financial information available on potential investment targets for assessing risk and making critical investment decisions. Thus, the availability of financial and non-financial information in sufficient quantity and of sufficient quality has an important bearing on efforts geared towards mobilizing investment for financing economic and social development. Adequate reporting and disclosure of financial and non-financial information will reduce asymmetric information problem, hence are likely to improve investor confidence and a lower cost of investment. According to Gray, Meeks and Roberts (1995) investors demand information to assess the timing and uncertainty of current and future cash flows so that they may value firms and make other investment decisions such as choosing a portfolio of securities. Companies satisfy this demand in part by supplying voluntary accounting information, thereby enabling them to raise capital on the best available terms (Gray et al., 1995). Given the faster pace of globalization, the growing interdependence of international financial markets and increased mobility of capital, developing countries need to attach greater importance to corporate transparency and disclosure. Policy makers, legislators and regulators, in recognition of the significant influence that corporate transparency has on decisions of investors, need to strengthen further the various components of corporate disclosure infrastructure so that domestic and international resources are mobilized more efficiently. Kuwait is one of the developing countries that face difficulties to attract foreign investments. Birgit Ebner at Germanys Frankfurt Trust, who helps manage a Middle Eastern stock fund, said Kuwait was not an attractive investment compared with others in the region (www.gulfnews.com). One of the main reasons that interpret this matter is the absence of voluntary disclosure as a result of sharp low supply of information by companies. According to Birgit Ebner, We are underweight in Kuwait because in Kuwait there are many holding firms dominating the market. And on top of it, the transparency is currently lower than in other Gulf States. In opinion of many analysts in Kuwait, the problem of gulf bank is related to absence of voluntary disclosure. Moreover, Kuwait stock exchange report that issued in (2007) revealed that 156 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange from among 177 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange are violating disclosure guidelines (www.alaswaq.net 2007). The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the influence of several firm characteristics on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait and whether disclosure level improves over the years given changes in the accounting environment of the country and globalization that have taken placed. There are many studies have examined the relationship between a company`s characteristics and the level of disclosure in both developed and developing countries such as Canada (Belkaoui and Kahl, 1978); United Kingdom (Firth, 1979, 1980); Nigeria (Wallace, 1987); Sweden (Cooke, 1989); Japan (Cooke, 1992); United States (Imhoff, 1992; and Lang and Lundholm, 1993); Bangladesh (Ahmed and Nicholls, 1994); Switzerland (Raffournier, 1995); Hong Kong (Wallace and Naser, 1995), Egypt (Mahmood, 1999); Jordan (Naser, Alkhatib and Karbhari, 2002); Saudi Arabia (Alsaeed, 2006b) and United Arab Emirates (Aljifri, 2007). However, to my knowledge, little attention has been devoted to the role of voluntary disclosure in the Middle East countries, more specifically Kuwait (see Al-Shammari, 2008). The aim of this study is to understand what motivate or demonstrate a companys disclosure by empirically investigate the association between a number of company characteristics and the extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of companies listed in the Kuwait Stock Exchange in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. In addition, the influence of the reporting year on voluntary disclosure will also be examined to assess the progress of disclosure activities in Kuwait. Given that Ashammaris study only cover the year of 2005, the execution of this study is fully justified. 1.3 Research Questions In general, this study seeks for explanation on voluntary disclosure behaviour of Kuwait companies. The followings are the research questions:- 1- What is the relationship between the firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and voluntary disclosure level? 2- Does reporting year influences voluntary disclosure? 3- To what extent do the above factors affect the voluntary disclosure? 1.4 Research Objectives To determine the influences of firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and reporting year on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait. 1.5 Significance of the Study The significance of study can be viewed from contributions given to Accounting academic discipline and to the practitioners and policymakers. Contribution to Accounting body of knowledge This study contributes to the literature on corporate financial reporting and disclosure practices in one of the important capital markets in the Middle East in which International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) are mandatory and the government controls the accounting and auditing profession. It also contributes to the corporate governance literature on whether the company characteristics found to be significant in companies operating in developed countries are similar to those a developing country like Kuwait. This study is important in enhancing our understanding of corporate financial reporting in Kuwait. It explores the determinants that help explain voluntary disclosure in Kuwait. Contribution to the practitioners and policy makers Knowledge on firms characteristics that influence voluntary disclosure would enable policy makers to target training and monitoring activities to suitable target companies in order to improve disclosure level in the country. This is important because higher disclosure among companies could improve investors confidence and help attracting more foreign investment into the country. The study is also able to show whether the external environment in Kuwait have improved the voluntary disclosure activities. 1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study This study investigates the relationship between firm characteristics and voluntary disclosure of non financial companies listed in Kuwait. Financial companies (banks and insurance companies) were eliminated as the characteristics of their financial reports are different from those of non financial firms (Alsaeed, 2006). A disclosure index was constructed as a yardstick to measure the level of disclosure by the listed firms. The construction of the disclosure index is based on the information that firms supply in their annual financial reports to shareholders. Albeit not as conclusive, financial reports serve as a widely accepted (Knutson, 1992). The disclosure index does not intend to be comprehensive, nor does it intend to specify what firms ought to disclose. Rather, the index is crafted solely for the purpose of capturing and measuring differences in disclosure practices among firms. The selection of items embedded into the index was entirely guided by Meek, Rober and Gray (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006) 1.7 Organization of the Study The reminder of this study is organized as follows: Chapter Two discusses the literature review related to the study; Chapter Three consists of research methodology including theoretical framework, hypothesis development and model specification for the study. The measurement, sampling and instrumentations are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter Four presents the empirical findings and results. Finally, Chapter Five provides the discussion, implications and recommendation of the study as well as suggestions for future research. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction This Chapter discusses and summarizes the literatures review, which looks at many aspects of voluntary disclosure and the factors which affect the degree of voluntary disclosure in a firm. The discussion is segmented into five sections. The first section presents an overview of disclosure requirements in Kuwait so as to provide foundation knowledge of the issue understudy. Section two discusses the concept and measurement of voluntary disclosure. This is followed by section three which presents the firm-related determinants of voluntary disclosure as found from prior theoretical and empirical literature. These variables include firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size. 2.2 Disclosure Requirement in Kuwait Mandatory disclosure refers to firms disclose information about their operations because of legal requirements. For the efficiency of markets and the protection of investors, mandatory disclosure of information concerning the firms operating in capital markets has important consequences (Shin, 1998). 2.3 Voluntary disclosure level More detailed disclosure by the firms beyond the level of information disclosed within the mandatory disclosure process is called voluntary disclosure. Voluntary disclosure means making public the financial and non-financial information regarding the firms operations without any legal requirement (Fishman and Hagerty (1997), Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006). Alsaeed has identified a more comprehensive items for voluntary disclosure based on Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003). These items are as in Table 2.1 Table 2.1: Voluntary disclosure items in Alsaeed (2006) No. Disclosure items 1 Strategic information 2 Brief history of company 3 Information on events affecting future years results 4 Board directors names 5 Top managements names 6 Majority shareholders 7 Information on different types of products 8 Information statistics for more than two years 9 Information on dividends policy 10 Information on future expansion projects 11 Percentage of foreign and national labor force 12 Information on training and workers development 13 Information on social and environmental activities 14 Statement of corporate goals and objectives 15 Principle markets 16 Average compensation per employee 17 Market share 18 Information on events affecting current years results 19 Competitive environment 20 Forecasted profits Many studies have examined the relationship between a companys characteristics and voluntary disclosure level. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that firm size, profitability and auditor firm size influence the level of voluntary disclosure. Naser et al., (2002), Jensen and Meckling, (1976); Fama and Jensen, (1983) Donnelly and Mulcahy, (2008), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), studied the association between companys firm size, debt ratio, owner ship and auditor firm size and the level of disclosure. 2.4 Determinants of Voluntary Disclosure 2.4.1 Firm size Most of the firm disclosure studies used firm size as a control variable (see for example, Alsaeed (2006); Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008); Brammer and Pavelin (2004); Meek et al, (1995), Mitchell et al, (1995), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Aitken et al. (1997), Bradbury, (1992), Zarzeski (1996), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000), Naser et al.,(2002), Wallace and Naser (1995), Firth, (1979), Eng and Mak (2003) and Hossain et al.(1994). Many studies found a positive relationship between firm size and disclosure level of companies. For example, Alsaeed (2006) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between firm characteristics of non-financial Saudi firms listed on the Saudi Stock Market in 2003 and voluntary disclosure level by those companies. He found that there was a positive relationship between the firm size and the level of disclosure. Alsaeed (2006) argues that agency costs are higher for larger companies because shareholders are widespread, therefore, additional disclosure might reduce these costs (Watts and Zimmerman, 1983). This finding is consistent with other studies such as Meek et al, (1995), Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008), Foster (1986), Hossain et al, (1995) and Al-Shammari, (2008). In addition to what Alsaeed (2006) has mentioned above, they argued that large companies might have sufficient resources to afford the cost of producing information or the user of annual reports. Secondly, small companies might suffer from a competitive disadvantage if they provide additional disclosure. Thirdly, large companies might be of interest to different users of annual reports including government agencies. 2.4.2 Debt ratio There is no consensus among researchers about the relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure. Most of studies found a significant positive relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure such as Naser (1998), Mitchell, Chia and Loh (1995); Hossain et al. (1995), Al-Shammari, (2008) and Bradbury, (1992). Jensen and Meckling, (1976) found the voluntary disclosure level can reduce the agency costs by facilitating debt ratio suppliers assessment of the firms to ability to meet its debts ratio. In relation to this, Al-Shimmiri, (2008) argued that the companies with higher debt in their structure of capital are prone to higher agency cost, hence they will be more likely to disclose additional information in order to reduce agency costs and information asymmetry with shareholders. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that when firms increase their level of leverage, they have to disclose more information in order to reduce asymmetric information between the firm and its creditors. Hence he argued that firms with high leverage will have high level of disclosure. In addition, Zarzeski (1996) argued that firms with higher debt ratio are more likely to share private information with their creditors. Thus, voluntary disclosures can be expected to increase with leverage. However, Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Hossain, Berera and Rahman (1994), Aitken, Hooper and Pickering (1997), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) and Eng and Mak (2003) studied the relationship between the voluntary disclosure and leverage found no relationship. While Meek et al (1995) mention that there is negative relationship between voluntary disclosure and leverage for US, UK, and European MNCs, Wallace, Naser and Mora (1994). 2.4.3 Profitability Many studies refer the profitability as the factor that affects voluntary disclosure level such as Singhvi and Desai (1971); Foster (1986), Richard (1992), Meek et al. (1995) and Naser et al. (2002) they argues that when the level of firms profitability increase, the firms have to disclose more information that can be an indicator to good management and also have incentives to show to the investors and the public that their profitability has increased. However, Ahmed and Courtis (1999) identified 12 studies that investigated the relationship between profitability and disclosure with mixed results. Akerlof (1970) argued that larger profitable companies may disclose more information to be distinguished from less profitable companies. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) argued the firms with larger profits are more interested in disclosing detailed information in their annual reports in order to justify their financial performance and to reduce political costs. However Wallace et al. (1994) found no significant relationship between the comprehensiveness of disclosure and the profit margin of listed and unlisted Spanish firms. Inchausti (1997) elaborated that agency theory suggests that managers of larger profitable companies may wish to disclose more information in order to obtain personal advantages like continuance of their management position and compensation. Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995) and Alsaeed, (2006) observed no significant relationship between the disclosure and the profitability, because none of the performance related variables provides an explanation of the disclosure level. Ho and Wong (2001), Barako, Hancock and Izan (2006) and Barako (2007) on the other hand found profitability to be positively and significantly related with two of the four disclosure categories, financial and forward looking disclosures, whereas other categories ware negative and significant with the disclosure of general and strategic. This result is similar with that of Eng and Mak (2002) study on Singapore listed companies. For example, companies in the manufacturing sector were found to disclose less of financial information, and instead disclosed more on general and strategic information to explain in detail factors affecting their poor financial performance. 2.4.4 Ownership dispersion The ownership dispersion represents the percentage of shares owned by outsider after subtracting shares owned by the insider. Many studies found positive relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership, as explained by the agency theory which suggests that difference in the proportion of the companys shares owned by outsider shareholders causes differences in the voluntary disclosure level. This is because the companies with more outsider ownership are more likely to disclose more information than companies with less outsider ownership and also the demand for publicly available information is likely to increase (Wallace and Naser 1995). Gelb (2000) and Barako et al. (2006) found significant relationship between outsider ownership and disclosure level. Leftwich, Watts and Zimmerman (1981), Fama and Jensen (1983), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) and Aitken et al. (1997) mentioned the detailed disclosure in annual reports that may allow outsider to monitor their interests more efficiently. Eng and Mak (2003) argued that voluntary disclosure is a substitute for outside monitoring and so is negatively related to managerial ownership. They found evidence consistent with this prediction. Many studies found negative relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership dispersion. Hossain et al. (1994) found evidence on Malaysian listed companies having significant negative association between voluntary disclosure and ownership dispersion. A later study by Haniffa and Cooke (2002) also found similar result. Naser et al. (2002) examined the affect of ownership on US companys disclosure and his results indicated that firms with a lower level of managerial ownership are more likely to receive higher ratings for the disclosure provided in their financial reports. Ho and Wong (2001) found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure. Chau and Gray (2002) also found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Hong Kong and Singapore but found positive associated with outside ownership. Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008) on the other hand found no evidence that ownership structure is related to disclosure level. 2.4.5 Audit firm size According to Jensen and Meckling (1976) large audit firms act as a mechanism to reduce agency costs and exert more of a monitoring role by limiting opportunistic behavior by managers and are less likely to be associated with clients that disclose lower levels of information in their annual reports. In terms of size, audit firms can be divided into two; large or small. Large audit firms are identified as being one of these Big Four (or Big Five or Six formerly) international auditing firms, and smaller audit firms are the rest; the firms are more likely to choose a Big Six auditing firm. Such choice of audit firms signals to investors that the contents of the annual reports are audited with high quality (Craswell and Taylor, 1992). Furthermore, the large audit firms are widely spread in the world while small firms are domestically; hence the large audit firms have more capability to disclosure of the information and have higher reputation and power to affect the voluntary disclosure level related to the smaller audit firm (Alsaeed, 2006). Several studies found that audit firm size have significant relationship with voluntary disclosure level. Firth (1979), Craswell and Taylor (1992), Wallace and Naser, (1995), Ahmed (1995), Raffournier (1995), Inchausti (1997), Mahmood (1999), S.M. Ho and Wong (2001), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), Nasser et al. (2002) and Al-Shammari, (2008) found significant relationship between the voluntary disclosure level and audit firm size. Forker (1992) and Wallace et al. (1994) claim there are positive relationship between voluntary disclosure and audit firm size but not significant, while Hossain et al. (1994), Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995), Depoers (2000) and Haniffa and Cooke (2002) they didnt fine significant association. 2.4.6 Industry sector According Cook (1989) disclosure level is more likely to vary from one industry to the other due to the likelihood that leading firms operating in a particularindustry could produce a bandwagon effect on the level ofdisclosure adopted by other firms working in the same industry. Cooke (1992) found evidence that Japanese manufacturing firms tend to provide more information than other non-manufacturing firms. Other studies that found significant effect of industry types are Wallace and Naser (1995) and Camfferman and Cooke (2002), while McNally et al.(1982); Wallace (1987): Wallace et al. (1994); Raffournier (1995); Inchausti, (1997); Patton and Zelenka (1997); Naser (1998); Owusu-Ansah (1998), Naser and Alkhatib (2000) and Alsaeed (2006) found insignificant effect. Table 2.2: Summary of independent variables influence on voluntary disclosure: Study Independent variable findings Akerlof (1970) Profitability Positive relationship Singhvi and Desai, (1971) Profitability Positive relationship Jensen and Meckling, (1976) Debt ratio and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Firth, (1979) Firm size and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Leftwich, Watts, and Zimmerman (1981) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion McNally et al.(1982) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector Fama and Jensen (1983) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion Watts and Zimmerman (1983). Firm size positive relationship with firm size Foster, (1986) Firm size, profitability Significant positive with firm size and found positive with profitability. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) Profitability positive with profitability Wallace (1987) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Cook (1989) Industry sector Positive with industry sector. Bradbury (1992) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Richard, (1992) Profitability Positive with profitability. Forker (1992) Audit firm size Positive but insignificant with audit firm size. Craswell and Taylor (1992) Audit firm size Positively significant with audit firm size. Cooke (1992) Industry sector positive with industry sector Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion and negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1994) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion but negatively with debt ratio and audit firm size. Wallace et al. (1994) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Meek et al, (1995) Firm size, debt ratio, profitability. Positive with firm size and profitability whereas significant, negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Mitchell et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Wallace and Naser (1995) Firm size, profitability, Ownership dispersion Positive with firm size, ownership dispersion and industry sector but- ,audit firm size and industry sector Negatively with profitability and audit firm size. Ahmed (1995) Firm size and audit firm size Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size. Raffournier (1995) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. No significant with profitability and industry sector, but significant positive with audit firm size Zarzeski (1996) Firm size and debt ratio Positive with firm size and debt ratio Aitken et al. (1997) Firm size, Debt ratio and owner ship dispersion Positive with the firm size and ownership dispersion but negative with debt ratio. Inchausti (1997) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. Positive with profitability and significant positive with audit firm size and insignificant with industry sector. Patton and Zelenka (1997) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Naser (1998) Debt ratio and industry sector. Significant positive with debt ratio but insignificant with industry sector. Owusu-Ansah (1998), Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Mahmood (1999) Audit firm size Significant with audit firm size. Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and significant negative with debt ratio. Gelb (2000) Ownership dispersion Negatively with Ownership dispersion Depoers (2000) Audit firm size No significant with audit firm size. Naser and Alkhatib (2000) industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Ho and Wong (2001) Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. No significant with profitability but negatively with ownership dispersion and positive significant with audit firm size. Naser et al. (2002). Firm size, Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size but positive with profitability and no significant with ownership dispersion. Eng and Mak (2002) Profitability No significant with profitability Chau and Gray (2002) Ownership dispersion Positively with outside ownership dispersion. Camfferman and Cooke (2002) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector