Linguistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Etymology - Essay Example Single BMCC understudy. 4) Jun-ho (Male, 28) †Single City understudy 5) Jun-gil (Male, 28) †Married. LaGuardia Student, low maintenance laborer at a bar, 6) Hye-jung (Female, 27) †Single Culinary school understudy Throughout our discussion, we invested the majority of the energy discussing work and family, yet in addition about language. This appeared well and good since we were all Koreans and regularly needed to utilize English. Additionally, work and family are two of the most significant things for us all. In the event that we mindfully tune in to the interpretation, Choong-hoon talked the most. His colleague, Jun-gil, additionally talked frequently. The explanation behind such may be on the grounds that Choong-hoon is the oldest among the men in the gathering. In spite of the fact that everybody ridiculed Jun-gil for just addressing Choong-hoon, he really talked a great deal too. In addition, he most likely converses with Choong-hoon a ton since he is only a visit or who doesn't know everyone yet. In this way, we as a whole needed to find out about him to assist him with loosening up a piece. Then again, Hye-jung, who is the most youthful among the ladies at the gathering, talked the least. It may have been on the grounds that individuals regularly ridiculed her Korean elocution. From that point forward, she stayed silent for a long time. Likewise, on the off chance that we listen cautiously at the translation, at that point it becomes obvious that there are a few examples. For example, individuals were all obliging to Jun-gil, who was not an individual from the gathering previously. So they asked him amenable inquiries about his family and occupation. Between the majority of the others, the style of the conversation was much increasingly extraordinary. Discussions were regularly loaded up with jokes, for individuals were progressively acquainted with one another. Regardless of whether this was the situation, the respectful discussion markers like gracious bba, were now and then utilized. Strikingly, they frequently appeared to be accustomed to making jokes, for they weren’t taken by and by. Besides, there were a few standards for how to hinder or differ with somebody. Difference or interference as a rule obliges the sexual orientation of the individuals present. For example when, Hye-jung didn't talk unmistakably, another young lady said something regarding it first. Choong-hoon then said he suspected as much as well, yet he didn't state it so straight forward when contrasted with the girl’s remark. Likewise when Jun-gil was discussing whether he was working during his significant other's work, Jun-ho, another male, is the person who interferes with him. Be that as it may, there were no repaired rules for bringing another subject. It was simply done when we had all got done with looking at something, yet the most eminent element was that Choong-hoon and Jung-yeon, the oldest among the people in the gather ing, as a rule raised the new point. Given the previously mentioned situation, let’s investigate the phonetic standards and ideas in the talk. To begin with, we’ve took in the different properties of human language in class, and one of them is social transmission. Dialects are affected in by their way of life; subsequently these dialects are not all that straightforward without an adequate social foundation. In the talk, we utilized the words gracious bba, hyeong and nu-na, on the grounds that in Korean, dissimilar to in English, there are various methods of making statements like â€Å"you†, contingent upon how individuals are connected socially, for example, the age holes of individuals. There are even various action words for incredibly pleasant circumstances. In our discussion, Jung-yeon said to Jun-gil, â€Å"It’s extremely hard to address you in a casual manner, despite the fact that you are more youthful than me.† That’s on the ground s that it was the first run through Jun-gil and Jung-yeon met, so

Why was the Washington consensus irresistible in Latin America Essay

For what reason was the Washington agreement powerful in Latin America - Essay Example Inside the current globalized framework, the significance of worldwide political economy and the methods by which choices of monetary significance are locked in, the general degree of pertinence is expanded. As a component of this, the accompanying investigation will draw in the peruser with a comprehension of why the â€Å"Washington Consensus† became so generally acknowledged and settled upon by a reiteration of various Latin American nations. Albeit simply referencing the Washington Consensus, and the determinants that it fundamentally forces, would be a compelling beginning, the examination will likewise coordinate with an inside and out conversation of every one of the 10 focuses which incites the Washington agreement as a methods for understanding a definitive fascination that such a large number of Latin American nations had to this specific financial incorporation and approach (Marangos, 2008). Further, the remarkable downsides and implicit failures that the Washington Consensus will likewise be talked about concerning the manner by which partners inside this specific issue understand that it was to their greatest advantage to acknowledge the Washington agreement even with its inferred degree of disadvantages. ... cit level of comprehension as for world undertakings, global relations, and political hypothesis will fundamentally be locked in and ideally comprehended (Arestis, 2004). History/Background Firstly, before diving into a definitive reason behind why such a significant number of Latin American nations decided to coordinate so completely and totally with Washington accord, it must be comprehended that key large scale financial factors all through Latin America incited and summoned a degree of more noteworthy participation and ability to endeavor an unexpected methodology in comparison to might have been understood that some other point ever (Babb, 2013). When of the 1980s, Latin America, notwithstanding a significant part of the remainder of the world, was all the while reeling from the financial repercussions of the worldwide disquietude that had existed for very nearly 10 years during the 1970s. While the United States, and the remainder of the world so far as that is concerned, felt the effect of the extraordinary increment in fuel costs that occurred during the late 1970s and mid 1980s, the effect this had after creating countries were significantly progressively significant (Duncan, 2003). This makes sense because of the way that the United States and other created countries had a degree of riches that could be utilized against an unexpected value change as for an inelastic interest. What at last incited the oil emergency during the 1970s had to do with the rising degrees of obligation, detachment of outside credit, and a limitation in worldwide exchange (Ruckert, 2006). Though the fuel emergency of the 1970s and mid 1980s was obviously of importance, it should additionally be comprehended that this specific issue was a noteworthy contact concerning creating countries around the globe; particularly Latin American nations. The reason behind this is because of the way that Latin

Things I Learned From Freshman Year

Things I Learned From Freshman Year Sleep When Im feeling irritable and/or stressed, I dislike empty advice. I particularly loathe the phrase “work smarter not harder”, probably because it was said to me many times last year by half-hearted well-intentioners who wished to somehow alleviate my IHTFP feelings (then negative) but couldn’t think of better advice. I don’t blame them, certainly, they were just trying to be positive. Still, I don’t believe in blanket statements. I like details, caveats, and qualifications. I like taking a little bit of this and that and putting it together into what works for me. I hate those cliche commands”Work smarter not harder” “Be more focused” “Be more efficient”because they never tell you how to do any of that, and though the sentiments behind those goals are good, I’ve never found them actually very helpful. Summer is a good time for planning and reflection. My nerdy corner of Tumblr is where I put a lot of this reflection. In particular, I seem to have an obsession with productivity for the pure sake of productivity, analyzing and re-analyzing my personal behavior, and, as can happen anywhere on the internet, I was surprised in the last couple years to find an entire niche community of peoplecalled “studyblrs”, and consisting largely of college studentsthat had created a space for expressing this obsession, among other study and work-related pursuits. When summer began, I saw a lot of “Things I learned from college” posts from other college student studyblrs on tumblr, and I applaud them for being very specificI once saw a list of sixty-six individual items that were all pretty detailed. But that being said, we’re still all a little differentwhich is why you can never have too many of those posts, I think. This was my own little contribution, and I have since modified and added to it for the blogs. I hope that people might glean a new procrastination-combatting tactic or two from it, and learn from my own mistakes. (Note: Of course, there were many more important and personal revelations that occurred after freshman year of college that you might think should be included in this post, but what’s included here is simply an obsessive analysis of my habits and how I might change them. Indulge me.) Studying/Academic Work (^how to make studying for finals in December cozy) I have had ADHD since I was a small child. I’ve now (presumably) grown out of it, to the point that for a time I wondered if my diagnosis had been false. After a lot of personal reflection and research (and realizing I trusted my doctor immensely) I realized that it was definitely not false, and whats more, some of the effects still linger. I have tried, in the past year, to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate my work habits. Instead of fighting against my own strange idiosyncrasies with traditional studying or work techniques, I decided to allow them to exist, work around them, and hopefully take advantage of them. Most importantly, this involves realizing what they are. I noticed that the following occurs when I am very stressed/tired/etc., since it is the behavior I exhibited during the end of finals when I was already burnt out, but still needed to cram. Some of it is rather odd, but there you have it. Since this is the case at an extreme, I hope that if I take action in accordance with these behaviors even when I am not as worn out, my productivity levels will increase. I work best in 2-hour intervals, preferably there is a change of location between each interval (e.g., library?coffee shop?library?home) When I am feeling exceptionally tired and unproductive, I should just give in and sleep/nap. This will make me more productive later. I work best in the early morning or the evening, I work worst in the afternoon (around 2-6pm) If I have a whole day to work, regardless of when I go to bed I should just get up early and then take a nap in the afternoon, because getting up later than 7:30AM throws me off (in the spring time that is; this is probably a different time interval for the fall/winter when the sun rises later) Although I enjoy listening to music while studying, I work best when I do not listen to music. The best sound environment is the library, or a cafe when quiet, around other people working. Sometimes, music is good to start my work, because it makes me feel less stressed and more comfortable, but as my concentration mounts its best to turn it off. Other people working influences me to work. This is why libraries and cafes are good environments. I do not work well in my own room/home. The worst work environments are: 1. by myself in my own room anytime before 10pm. 2. around other people not working/only sort of working/talking/etc. Physical movement is the best break (walking from one location to another, stretching, taking a walk, doing ab exercises, etc.) Watching things/writing distracts me for too long a period of time. If I am feeling particularly lazy, it helps to find someone disciplined/equally worried about the next test or assignment/etc. to work with. We can then explain things to each other without distracting each other. In Hayden library, although I like the window seats, I work best at the long outlet tables, preferably when other people are working there. The best way for me to study/work is to first organize information and then problem solve/do examples. If I try to do this in reverse order I get easily discouraged when a problem is hard. Passive studying first, active studying second, but in short blocks of passive-active, passive-active, passive-active, by subject material. When I feel overwhelmed when studying (all the time) it is best to first make a study plan, whether I follow it or not. A study plan involves writing down all resources, practice exams or problems, available notes and relevant topics. I can organize these into what will help me most and/or what I should do first. Making a plan calms me down and allows me to focus. Sleep Ideally, I would always get 7 hours of sleep a night. More often I get about 6 hours of sleep a night. This is doable for the week, but I have to rest well on weekends. If there is a test the next day, I have to get at least 6 hours of sleep the night before. If I get 5 or fewer hours of sleep, I have to get 7+ hours the next night. I have to wake up before 8:00AM at the latest, or else I am significantly less productive the rest of the day. Classes after 3pm are hard to sit through; it is preferable to start early and end early. I usually cannot work efficiently after 2AM if I am problem solving or studying If I am writing a paper, I cannot work efficiently after 4AM. Naps are great. Take them, but not for more than an hour. Food (^my roommate and I killed the cooking game over IAP) Breakfast should be light and late. Eating too early makes me hungrier the rest of the day, and there’s no point in forcing my metabolism to start up before it’s ready. Lunch or dinner should also be light, and potentially split into twice a day or interspersed throughout the day. Eating less food but more frequently is most effective; I usually feel awfully tired or uncomfortable after a full meal. It’s important not to drink coffee too regularly. When there’s a less stressful week of work, take a detox (no coffee or even tea the whole week). This will also keep smaller amounts of caffeine more effective when you do drink it. If you’re hungry late at night, go ahead and eat to maintain your energy, but try to eat fruit or nuts or yogurt or something healthier. Drink lots of water with it. A Note on Food: college students (and most definitely MIT students) usually have a less regular schedule, and often longer days. We don’t wake up at 8 and sleep at 8 every dayif you do, you’re very on top of things, but it’s my belief that you don’t have to do that to be on top of things, especially if, like me, you know that’s never gonna happen. People say this irregular schedule contributes to the Freshman 15, but I don’t think it has to. Rather, pay close attention to when you get hungry. Throw away social norms, and just plan to eat whenever and how often you get hungryfrequently, but in smaller amounts of healthier food. If you always get hungry at midnight, consider splitting your dinner into two parts, or just eat later, or plan for healthy night snacks. If you are always hungry every four hours, bring granola bars or whatever to class. Drink lots of water, especially late at night and whenever you’re tired. Next year, I’m going completely off the meal plan and cooking for myself, so I’m trying to get a really good idea of exactly what my needs are, for my own health.and the health of my bank account. I hope to get on a path toward more self-sustainability. Here goes nothing!

The Pros And Cons Of Equity Financing Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 1030 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Compare and contrast essay Did you like this example? Equity financing and debt financing are two alternative ways which assisted us to start a business. In addition, equity financing and debt financing were the useful methods when a company lacking of funds for the expansion in order to open a new plant. Equity financing is one of the ways to increase the funds of the business. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Pros And Cons Of Equity Financing Finance Essay" essay for you Create order It means that more funds can be obtained by sell their ownership interest to the public in exchange for funds and normally it does not have to be repaid. Equity financing are not refers to the owner itself put in the money into the business but the third party investors. Generally, the third party investors included public shares and also preference share. Examples for public share are venture capitalists and angel investors whereas for preference share are friends and family, employee and so on can be uses equity financing as a source of funding. (Jose Valdez, July 2005) Pros and Cons of Equity Financing The advantage of using equity financing is the owner of the business is unnecessary to take out the money and invest to the company because the business already has enough sources of funds from the investors. For instance, such investors like venture capitalists, they do not expected to get an immediate return on their investment but they looking for the growing potential of business which may increasing the investment value in the future. For the angel investors, they are slightly different to the venture capitalists. Angel investors are less aggressive and tend to be one or more investors. Their investment to the business is in the form of loan that secured by the equity. (Thomas Ajaya, Dec 2010) The disadvantage of the equity financing is the owner of the business has to pay back the interest for the investors. It means that the profit of the business is being share among the owner and the investors. And the business owner may probably lose completely control and autonomy of the business because equity financing is depends on ratio of the investment between the owner and the investor. If the investment of the investor is more than the owner then the owner of the business may take risk to lose the autonomy of the business. (Rosemary Peavler) Debt Financing Debt financing, in the other words, is another type form of loan. In simple words, debt financing is some kind of borrowing action from a lender or investor that must be repaid with interest with certain fixed amount in the future and it does not dilute the ownership of the company. Instead of that, the charges of interest rate on the borrowed funds also proportionally reflect the level of risk that the lender might be face by provided funds. For instance, most of the lender or investor, they will charged a higher interest rate of a new start up company compared to the company which has shown a profit for several years. There are several types possible methods for debt financing are available for small business such as private placement of bonds, convertible debentures, industrial development bonds, and leveraged buyouts. Besides, Debt financing also can be classified in short-term which has a maturity shorter than two years, long-term which has a maturity longer than one year o r a credit line for more immediate borrowing needs. For most of the methods that have been mentioned above, they are admitted by the co-signers, guaranteed by the government, or secure by the collateral. Pros and Cons of Debt Financing Like the equity financing, debt financing also has both advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that a greater degree of financial freedom is provided for debt financing business owner if compared to the equity financing. When the borrower has no further claim on the business, the loan repayment period are limited for debt obligations. Whereas for the equity financing, the investorsacirc;â‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ claim does not end until their stock are completely sold off. In addition, a debt that paid on time can increase a businessacirc;â‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s credit rating and can be making it easier to obtain other types of financing in the future. Furthermore, debt financing tends to be more expensive over the short-term, and less expensive over the long-term when compared to equity financing. On the other hand, the main disadvantage of debt financing is that the regular monthly payment of principal and interest of the loan are required. It mean that, when a business is in shorta ge, meaning that the business are facing the cash flow problem which are could cause the business unable to making payment for loan to the borrower and the penalties for late or missed payment were charged due to the late or missed payment. When the business fails to making payment on time, it may adversely affect the businessacirc;â‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s credit rating and its ability to obtain future financing. Finally, the amount of fund for a small business may be obtain through debt financing is possible to be limited and it may caused them need to use other sources of financing at the same time as well. Recommendation For the business like IFCA Sdn Bhd which is a medium sized manufacturing company that is more suitable to use debt financing compared to the equity financing. Since the IFCA Company is in form of Sdn Bhd, because it cannot issue public shares to get the funds so that the easier way that could get fund from others is using debt financing. Besides, if the IFCA Sdn Bhd is using debt financing although it needs to repay loan for several years but it bring the benefit to the company which is tax deductible because of the payment of loan interest. In overall, debt financing is considered a valuable option for IFCA Sdn Bhd to begin their business. But if there is carrying too much debt for the company will affect the businessacirc;â‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s credit rating and its ability to obtain future financing and may cause the business to encounter severe cash flow problem. Therefore, it is best to use combination of different form of financing to spread out the risk and facilitate future fundin g efforts.

Break of Day in the Trenches by Isaac Rosenberg - 950 Words

This poem was written about and during the time of World War 1 from the perspective of Isaac Rosenberg. The poem is actually quite straightforward and simple despite its perplexing lines, and contains few allusions. One of the preeminent allusions was the one referring to the poppy. When he said, â€Å"As I pull the parapet’s poppy† (5), he was referencing the symbolism of the poppy which during the time of WW1 was the symbol of the war dead because it had a tendency to sprout up among the corpses of the fallen soldiers. By using the double meaning of the poppy Rosenberg was perhaps hinting at the inevitable death that awaited him and his comrades. The second allusion comes forth from the rat, which is observed throughout the poem. The poem†¦show more content†¦These tools help the flow of the poem. One tool he uses is long ‘e’ vowel sounds and internal rhyme, or slant rhyme. An example of slant rhyme in the poem can be found in line 12 due to th e pairing of the two words, â€Å"sleeping green† which is referring to the No Man’s Land that separated the opposing trenches of the English and the French during World War 1. These tools add on to the slow, drowsy feeling the poem emits. Rosenberg is a master of tone and creates a poem full of resignation, philosophical ideas, and death. This feeling is heightened by the words he uses, such as: crumbles, sardonic, droll, sleeping, torn, and still heavens. To create the overall feeling of the poem Rosenberg used personification to give humanistic qualities to the rat saying it to have, â€Å"cosmopolitan sympathies† (8). Personification is found numerous times between lines 4 and 19 regarding the rat and in line 17 the tool of personification is used to depict the graves of the dead soldiers as, â€Å"the bowels of the earth.† Personification is what the whole poem was based on because the base of the poem revolves around the rat and the characteristi cs that the poet muses it has. He also uses alliteration in line 5 when he wrote â€Å"parapet’s poppy†. The consonant sounds help add on to the slow pace of the poem. Then using metonymy in line 9 he references the entire English army by using one small part, â€Å"this EnglishShow MoreRelatedThe Murder Of Mankind By Isaac Rosenberg971 Words   |  4 Pagesand revealed the insanity and futility of war. Isaac Rosenberg was a recognised poet who revealed the hidden truth; he was a soldier who joined war in 1960, however, unlike others, he came from a Jewish, working class background which differed him from other well-known First World War poets. The perception of life and death, in which time is juxtaposed with setting, is reflected in Isaac Rosenberg’s unrhymed free verse poem, â€Å"Break of Day in the Trenches†. Through this anti-war poem, his inhuman experiencesRead MoreUniversity Of Oxford English Professor, Dr. Stuart Lee1318 Words   |  6 Pages as it has acted as an avenue to access the real emotions and difficulties faced by the people, including soldiers, caused by the cruelties of the war. The paper will explore O’Prey’s quotation through the poets Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Vera Brittain and Charlotte Mew. Their works of poetry not only shed light on the conditions and occurrences of the war but also touch upon the way in which gender relations are viewed during the time of the conflict, which will be explored inRead MoreDifferent Responses to War of Four Ww1 Poets.2490 Words   |  10 Pagespresented in the works of the three most famous protesting War PoetsÂâ€"Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Isaac RosenbergÂâ€"as well as to contrast their poetry with the work of one of the most popular Georgian poets, Rupert Brooke. In 1914, at the beginning of the Great War, Rupert Brooke was already a well-established poet, whose poetry the English people knew and loved, while Sassoon, Owen and Rosenberg had not acquired any fame yet. In December of that year he published five sonnets, which constitutedRead MoreW.B Yeats Great War Poets Symbolism2893 Words   |  12 Pagesreturn, and the verb â€Å"loosed† alludes to the unleashing of the sphinx later in the poem, and thus the Second Coming. The sphinx is spotted â€Å"somewhere in the sands of the desert†[9]. The desert is symbolic of the temptation of Christ during his forty days and forty nights fasting by the devil. Therefore the sphinx can be associated with the devil in heralding the second coming of Christ. The city of Bethlehem mentioned in the last line of the poem is symbolic of the entering into the world of powerfulRead MoreBreak of Day in the Trenches1049 Words   |  5 PagesCourtney Zamarione Mr. Neuber Pre-Ap English II 1st hour February 8, 2013 In life, everyone has a time where they question their chance of survival or their mortality. In Break of Day in the Trenches, by Isaac Rosenberg, he makes a reference that a rat has a better chance of surviving that he does. That even someone more worthless than him is going to survive this terrible thing called war. In this narrative poem, he is at war fighting in France during World War I, questioning his chance ofRead MoreThe Tragedy Of World War II By Siegfried Sassoon1130 Words   |  5 Pagesfrom within the trenches. These men saw their fellow soldiers bodies inside the walls of the trenches, which was caused by wounds that were too extravagant to heal on their own, toxic fumes from poisonous dust that enemies caused, and the exhaustion of the never-ending battle of the war. Also, throughout the walls of the trenches, many massive rats withered their way into the flesh of the dead corpse of a fellow soldier. During the poem, â€Å"Break of Day in The Trenches† by Isaa c Rosenberg, he explainedRead MoreAnalysis Of Siegfried Sassoon s They And Men 1129 Words   |  5 Pagesbattles from within trenches. These men saw their fellow soldiers bodies inside the walls of the trenches, which was caused by wounds that were to extravagant to heal on their own, toxic fumes from poisonous dust that enemies caused, and the exhaustion of the never-ending battle of the war. Also throughout the walls of the trenches, many massive rats withered their way to the flesh of the dead corps of a fellow soldier. During the poem, â€Å"Break of Day in The Trenches† by Isaac Rosenberg, he explained theRead MoreAnalysis Of Siegfried Sassoon s The Great War 936 Words   |  4 Pagesand muddy, and multiple firearms always pointing at each other. Before the men began their journey into booby-traps of the war, many individuals encouraged them that fighting in the war was fun. However, it was far from fun: many soldiers fought in trenches, many became shell shock, an d many saw the world in a much more horrific view when returning back home. A famous poet, Siegfried Sassoon, wrote an outstanding poem, which explained how soldier’s mindset before entering the war was encouraged byRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pageswhich through experimental testing and ‘piecemeal tinkering. . . combined with critical analysis’, would enable human intervention to manipulate social processes in accordance with their intentions in order to solve the ‘practical questions of the day’ (ibid, pp. 58–59). At first thought, such aims might seem harmless – surely, social progress can be achieved by deploying social scientific knowledge in such a manner, and is this not the whole purpose of social theory anyway? Popper, however, remainsRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesCyr, Northwestern University Evelyn Dadzie, Clark Atlanta University Joseph Daly, Appalachian Stat e University Denise Daniels, Seattle Pacific University Marie Dasborough, Oklahoma State University Nancy Da Silva, San Jose State University Christine Day, Eastern Michigan University Emmeline de Pillis, University of Hawaii, Hilo Kathy Lund Dean, Idaho State University Roger Dean, Washington Lee University Robert DelCampo, University of New Mexico Kristen Detienne, Brigham Young University Doug Dierking

Computers †Invention of the Century Free Essays

string(80) " electronic computers to take advantage of these improvements appeared in 1947\." The History of Computers only once in a lifetime will a new invention come about to touch every aspect of our lives. Such devices changed the way we manage, work, and live. A machine that has done all this and more now exists in nearly every business in the United States. We will write a custom essay sample on Computers – Invention of the Century or any similar topic only for you Order Now This incredible invention is the computer. The electronic computer has been around for over a half-century, but its ancestors have been around for 2000 years. However, only in the last 40 years has the computer changed American management to its greatest extent. From the first wooden abacus to the latest high-speed microprocessor, the computer has changed nearly every aspect of management, and our lives for the better. The very earliest existence of the modern day computer’s ancestor is the abacus. These date back to almost 2000 years ago (Dolotta, 1985). It is simply a wooden rack holding parallel wires on which beads are strung. When these beads are moved along the wire according to programming rules that the user must memorize. All ordinary arithmetic operations can be performed on the abacus. This was one of the first management tools used. The next innovation in computers took place in 1694 when Blaise Pascal invented the first digital calculating machine. It could only add numbers and they had to be entered by turning dials. It was designed to help Pascal’s father, who was a tax collector, manage the town’s taxes (Beer, 1966). In the early 1800s, a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage designed an automatic calculation machine (Dolotta, 1985). It was steam powered and could store up to 1000 50-digit numbers. Built in to his machine were operations that included everything a modern general-purpose computer would need. It was programmed by and stored data on cards with holes punched in them, appropriately called punch cards. This machine was extremely useful to managers that delt with large volumes of good. With Babbage’s machine, managers could more easily calculate the large numbers accumulated by inventories. The only problem was that there was only one of these machines built, thus making it difficult for all managers to use (Beer, 1966). After Babbage, people began to lose interest in computers. However, between 1850 and 1900 there were great advances in mathematics and physics that began to rekindle the interest. Many of these new advances involved complex calculations and formulas that were very time consuming for human calculation. The first major use for a computer in the U. S. was during the 1890 census. Two men, Herman Hollerith and James Powers, developed a new punched-card system that could automatically read information on cards without human (Dolotta, 1985). Since the population of the U. S. was increasing so fast, the computer was an essential tool for managers in tabulating the totals (Hazewindus,1988). These advantages were noted by commercial industries and soon led to the development of improved punch-card business-machine systems by International Business Machines, Remington-Rand, Burroughs, and other corporations (Chposky, 1988). By modern standards the punched-card machines were slow, typically processing from 50 to 250 cards per minute, with each card holding up to 80 digits. At the time, however, punched cards were an enormous step forward; they provided a means of input, output, and memory storage on a massive scale. For more than 50 years following their first use, punched-card machines did the bulk of the world’s business computing (Jacobs, 1975). By the late 1930s punched-card machine techniques had become so well established and reliable that Howard Hathaway Aiken, in collaboration with engineers at IBM, undertook construction of a large automatic digital computer based on standard IBM electromechanical parts (Chposky, 1988). Aiken’s machine, called the Harvard Mark I, handled 23-digit numbers and could perform all four arithmetic operations (Dolotta, 1985). Also, it had special built-in programs to handled logarithms and trigonometric functions. The Mark I was controlled from prepunched paper tape. Output was by card punch and electric typewriter. It was slow, requiring 3 to 5 seconds for a multiplication, but it was fully automatic and could complete long computations without human intervention. The outbreak of World War II produced a desperate need for computing capability, especially for the military (Dolotta, 1985). New weapons systems were produced which needed trajectory tables and other essential data. In 1942, John P. Eckert, John W. Mauchley, and their associates at the University of Pennsylvania decided to build a high-speed electronic computer to do the job. This machine became known as ENIAC, for Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator (Chposky, 1988). It could multiply two numbers at the rate of 300 products per second, by finding the value of each product from a multiplication table stored in its memory. ENIAC was thus about 1,000 times faster than the previous generation of computers. ENIAC used 18,000 standard vacuum tubes, occupied 1800 square feet of floor space, and used about 180,000 watts of electricity. It used punched-card input and output. The ENIAC was very difficult to program because one had to essentially re-wire it to perform whatever task he wanted the computer to do. It was efficient in handling the particular programs for which it had been designed. ENIAC is generally accepted as the first successful high-speed electronic digital computer and was used in many applications from 1946 to 1955. However, the ENIAC was not accessible to managers of businesses (Beer, 1966). Mathematician John Von Neumann was very interested in the ENIAC. In 1945 he undertook a theoretical study of computation that demonstrated that a computer could have a very simple and yet be able to execute any kind of computation effectively by means of proper programmed control without the need for any changes in hardware. Von Neumann came up with incredible ideas for methods of building and organizing practical, fast computers. These ideas, which came to be referred to as the stored-program technique, became fundamental for future generations of high-speed digital computers and were universally adopted (Dolotta, 1985). The first wave of modern programmed electronic computers to take advantage of these improvements appeared in 1947. You read "Computers – Invention of the Century" in category "Essay examples" This group included computers using random access memory, RAM, which is a memory designed to give almost constant access to any particular piece of information (Dolotta, 1985). These machines had punched-card or punched-tape input and output devices and RAMs of 1000-word capacity. Physically, they were much more compact than ENIAC: some were about the size of a grand piano and required 2500 small electron tubes. This was quite an improvement over the earlier machines. The first-generation stored-program computers required considerable maintenance, usually attained 70% to 80% reliable operation, and were used for 8 to 12 years (Hazewindus,1988). Typically, they were programmed directly in machine language, although by the mid-1950s progress had been made in several aspects of advanced programming. This group of machines included EDVAC and UNIVAC, the first commercially available computers. With this invention, managers had even more power to perform calculations for such things as statistical demographic data (Beer, 1966). Before this time, it was very rare for a manager of a larger business to have the means to process large numbers in so little time. The UNIVAC was developed by John W. Mauchley and John Eckert, Jr. in the 1950s. Together they had formed the Mauchley-Eckert Computer Corporation, America’s first computer company in the 1940s. During the development of the UNIVAC, they began to run short on funds and sold their company to the larger Remington-Rand Corporation. Eventually they built a working UNIVAC computer. It was delivered to the U. S. Census Bureau in 1951 where it was used to help tabulate the U. S. population (Hazewindus,1988). Early in the 1950s two important engineering discoveries changed the electronic computer field. The first computers were made with vacuum tubes, but by the late 1950s computers were being made out of transistors, which were smaller, less expensive, more reliable, and more efficient (Dolotta, 1985). In 1959, Robert Noyce, a physicist at the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, invented the integrated circuit, a tiny chip of silicon that contained an entire electronic circuit. Gone was the bulky, unreliable, but fast machine; now computers began to become more compact, more reliable and have more capacity. These new technical discoveries rapidly found their way into new models of digital computers. Memory storage capacities increased 800% in commercially available machines by the early 1960s and speeds increased by an equally large margin (Jacobs, 1975). These machines were very expensive to purchase or to rent and were especially expensive to operate because of the cost of hiring programmers to perform the complex operations the computers ran. Such computers were typically found in large computer centers operated by industry, government, and private laboratories staffed with many programmers and support personnel. By 1956, 76 of IBM’s large computer mainframes were in use, compared with only 46 UNIVAC’s (Chposky, 1988). In the 1960s efforts to design and develop the fastest possible computers with the greatest capacity reached a turning point with the completion of the LARC machine for Livermore Radiation Laboratories by the Sperry-Rand Corporation, and the Stretch computer by IBM. The LARC had a core memory of 98,000 words and multiplied in 10 microseconds. Stretch was provided with several ranks of memory having slower access for the ranks of greater capacity, the fastest access time being less than 1 microseconds and the total capacity in the vicinity of 100 million words. During this time the major computer manufacturers began to offer a range of computer capabilities, as well as various computer-related equipment (Jacobs, 1975). These included input means such as consoles and card feeders; output means such as page printers, cathode-ray-tube displays, and graphing devices; and optional magnetic-tape and magnetic-disk file storage. These found wide use in management for such applications as accounting, payroll, inventory control, ordering supplies, and billing. Central processing units for such purposes did not need to be very fast arithmetically and were primarily used to access large amounts of records on file. The greatest number of computer systems were delivered for the larger applications, such as in hospitals for keeping track of patient records, medications, and treatments given. They were also used in automated library systems and in database systems such as the Chemical Abstracts system, where computer records now on file cover nearly all known chemical compounds (Dolotta, 1985). The trend during the 1970s was, to some extent, away from extremely powerful, centralized computational centers and toward a broader range of applications for less-costly computer systems (Jacobs, 1975). Most continuous-process manufacturing, such as petroleum refining and electrical-power distribution systems, began using computers of relatively modest capability for controlling and regulating their activities. In the 1960s the programming of applications problems was an obstacle to the self-sufficiency of moderate-sized on-site computer installations, but great advances in applications programming languages removed these obstacles. Applications languages became available for controlling a great range of manufacturing processes, for computer operation of machine tools, and for many other tasks. In 1971 Marcian E. Hoff, Jr. , an engineer at the Intel Corporation, invented the microprocessor and another stage in the development of the computer began. A new revolution in computer hardware was now well under way, involving miniaturization of computer-logic circuitry and of component manufacture by what are called large-scale integration techniques. In the 1950s it was realized that scaling down the size of electronic digital computer circuits and parts would increase speed and efficiency and improve performance. However, at that time the manufacturing methods were not good enough to accomplish such a task. About 1960, photoprinting of conductive circuit boards to eliminate wiring became highly developed. Then it became possible to build resistors and capacitors into the circuitry by photographic means. In the 1970s entire assemblies, such as adders, shifting registers, and counters, became available on tiny chips of silicon. In the 1980s very large scale integration, VLSI, in which hundreds of thousands of transistors are placed on a single chip, became increasingly common. Many companies, some new to the computer field, introduced in the 1970s programmable minicomputers supplied with software packages. The size-reduction trend continued with the introduction of personal computers, which are programmable machines small enough and inexpensive enough to be purchased and used by individuals. One of the first of such machines was introduced in January 1975. Popular Electronics magazine provided plans that would allow any electronics wizard to build his own small, programmable computer for about $380. The computer was called the Altair 8800. Its programming involved pushing buttons and flipping switches on the front of the box. It didn’t include a monitor or keyboard, and its applications were very limited. Even though, many orders came in for it and several famous owners of computer and software manufacturing companies got their start in computing through the Altair. For example, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, founders of Apple Computer, built a much cheaper, yet more productive version of the Altair and turned their hobby into a business. After the introduction of the Altair 8800, the personal computer industry became a fierce battleground of competition. IBM had been the computer industry standard for well over a half-century. They held their position as the standard when they introduced their first personal computer, the IBM Model 60 in 1975. However, the newly formed Apple Computer company was releasing its own personal computer, the Apple II. The Apple I was the first computer designed by Jobs and Wozniak in Wozniak’s garage, which was not produced on a wide scale. Software was needed to run the computers as well. Microsoft developed a Disk Operating System, MS-DOS, for the IBM computer while Apple developed its own software. Because Microsoft had now set the software standard for IBMs, every software manufacturer had to make their software compatible with Microsoft’s. This would lead to huge profits for Microsoft. The main goal of the computer manufacturers was to make the computer as affordable as possible while increasing speed, reliability, and capacity. Nearly every computer manufacturer accomplished this and computers popped up everywhere. Computers were in businesses keeping track of even more inventories for managers. Computers were in colleges aiding students in research. Computers were in laboratories making complex calculations at high speeds for scientists and physicists. The computer had made its mark everywhere in management and built up a huge industry. The future is promising for the computer industry and its technology. The speed of processors is expected to double every year and a half in the coming years. As manufacturing techniques are further perfected the prices of computer systems are expected to steadily fall. However, since the microprocessor technology will be increasing, it’s higher costs will offset the drop in price of older processors. In other words, the price of a new computer will stay about the same from year to year, but technology will steadily increase. Since the end of World War II, the computer industry has grown from a standing start into one of the biggest and most profitable industries in the United States. It now comprises thousands of companies, making everything from multi-million dollar high-speed supercomputers to printout paper and floppy disks. It employs millions of people and generates tens of billions of dollars in sales each year. Surely, the computer has impacted every aspect of people’s lives. It has affected the way people work and play. It has made everyone’s life easier by doing difficult work for people. The computer truly is one of the most incredible inventions in history to ever influence management, and life. How to cite Computers – Invention of the Century, Essay examples

The Accounting Systems of the United States and France free essay sample

Nowadays, because the world is becoming more globalized and harmonized, standard-setters feel the need to report their accounting in a uniform way. The International Accounting Standards Board [IASB] was formed as a non-for-profit corporation to incorporate, monitor and assess International Accounting Standards for all countries in the world, producing what we know as International Financial Reporting Standards [IFRS]. IASB provides insight on potential amendments to current accounting standards. Furthermore, this paper will provide a description of the accounting systems in the countries of the United States and France and provide a comparison of the two systems. United States â€Å"Britains American colonies broke with the mother country in 1776 and were recognized as the new nation of the United States of America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783. During the 19th and 20th centuries, 37 new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the North American continent and acquired a number of overseas possessions† (CIA World Fact Book, 2004). We will write a custom essay sample on The Accounting Systems of the United States and France or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The history and background of the United States serves as a basis to the way accounting is reported in the US. The earliest method of accounting in the United States includes the â€Å"Dutch style† and the â€Å"method of Venice† (Secord, PowerPoint, 2006). In addition, accounting in the US highly influenced by the United Kingdom (UK); thus, their accounting development and systems were originally exported from the UK system. This British influence initially brought professionalism to accounting in the United States. In addition, the founding fathers of US accounting and early accounting societies were of expatriate Britons, in particular, Arthur Young of Ernst Young and James Marwick of KPMG (Nobes, 2006, p143). â€Å"The United States is a federation of individual states, each of which has its own legislative body with extensive powers to control business activity and levy taxes within its own boundaries† (Nobes, 2006, p144). Due to this, the right to practice as a Public Accountant and the requirements of a PA differs from state to state. Furthermore, it is not a requirement for every state to be a member of the national body the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). By definition, the AICPA is a national association for all Certified Public Accountants (CPA) whose mission is to provide accounting professionals with uniform certification and licensing standards, establishing professional standards, and enforcing current requirements† (Definition of AICPA). Any firm that wishes to be audited by the AICPA must follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP will be discussed later in this paper). The AICPA served as a main standard-setter in the United States for several years. The AICPA’s history dates back to 1887 with the formation of American Association of Public Accountants (AAPA), also known as the American Institute of Accountants, with voluntary committees to help the Institute to maintain high quality standards of the PA profession, promote interest as a CPA, act as a spokesperson for the profession, and providing any necessary services to their members (AICPA, 2006-2007). Although the AICPA gave up its role as the main standard-setter, it still issues detailed guidance called Statements of Position, concentrating from 2003 on industry-specific guidance (Nobes, 2006, p148). The United States’ â€Å"federal securities established a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1934 to administer the securities regulations† (Nobes, 2006, p144). The accounting system in the US was strongly influenced by the SEC as opposed to a governmental influence. The SEC sells, exchanges and trades securities, protects investors while maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets and ultimately facilitates capital formation (Pereira, 1992, p17). The US has the largest and one of the most important, stock exchanges in the world the New York Stock Exchange located on Wall Street in New York City. This makes the US a huge market for investors world-wide. All investors would like to have access to certain facts about an investment before buying it and while holding it. In order to achieve this, the SEC requires all public firms and companies to disclose meaningful financial and other information to the public, to follow GAAP (SEC, 2007). Thus, any company that wishes to be a market in the SEC’s securities must register with the SEC. For those companies with foreign registrants, the SEC requires them to either report under US GAAP or to provide reconciliations to US GAAP (Nobes, p146, 2006). The SEC also requires public firms to follow GAAP in order to be audited. It is quite evident that most of American accounting is rule based, not government based. According to Nobes’ textbook, Comparative International Accounting, the commission since its inception has intended to limit the exercise of its accounting standard-setting authority to a supervisory role, permitting and encouraging the private sector, currently through the FASB, to maintain leadership in the standard-setting process (p145). The Financial Accounting Standards Board, in short, FASB, has been the ultimate standard-setter of financial accounting and reporting in the US since the early 1970’s. The FASB is entirely financed voluntarily by the sales and contributions from PA firms, investor and creditor organizations and contributions made to the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF). It consists of seven Board members; but for a proposed accounting standard to pass, it must obtain five out of seven votes of the members on the Board. â€Å"In drafting its standards, the FASB adopted a distinctive style: they are very detailed, prescriptive, and proscriptive. With definitions and examples, a FASB standard can be a few hundred pages long! † (Pereira, 1992, p21). The FASB established a conceptual framework regarding objectives and concepts that the FASB uses in developing standards of financial reporting that consists of four framework levels: 1. )objectives of financial reporting by business enterprises, 2. )qualitative characteristics of accounting information, 3. )recognition and measurement in financial statement of business enterprises, 4. )elements of financial statements. The framework acts as a fundamental guide to provide consistent standards, showing the function and limits of financial accounting and statements, and dentifies the goals and purposes of accounting (Nobes, 2006, p151). â€Å"Generally accepted accounting principles, commonly abbreviated as US GAAP or simply GAAP, are accounting rules used to prepare, present, and report financial statements for publicly-traded companies and many privately-held companies. Similar to many other countries practicing under the common law system, the United States government does not dire ctly set accounting standards, in the belief that the private sector has better knowledge and resources† (Wikipedia, US GAAP). The conceptual framework is a fundamental basis of accounting whereas GAAP are the rules that public companies use to prepare their financial statements. Companies’ financial information is presented in financial statements that are viewable by the public, mainly for the interest of investors. Accounting information is extremely important and thus, has to be understandable to the users, reliant and relevant. â€Å"Information is not worth presenting unless it has some minimal level of both relevance and reliability† (Nobes, 2006, p153). Relevance refers to the value and quality of the information and its timeliness availability to users; reliability means that the information is free from bias, represents what its purpose is, and should be verifiable. The consolidated financial statements were originated in the United States (as discussed in class). The statements consist of the Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Statement of Cash Flows. The elements of the financial statements are assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses, gains, losses, and other comprehensive income. In addition, conventions such as historical cost, revenue recognition, matching principle, and so forth are the fundamental basis for income measurement. Thus, US accounting focuses on the measurement of income. The income statement comprises of either income from continuing operations or income from the discontinued operations, including any gains or losses that may have happened during the accounting year. For the most part, if there is a disposal of one operation, there should be a [net of tax] gain or loss on that disposal recorded under the income from discontinued operations. The Statement of Other Comprehensive Income appears sometimes in the financial statements. It can be presented as a note, as a part of the income statement under ‘other comprehensive income’, or as a separate income statement. Also, any gains realized through the reevaluation of investments should be included in the other comprehensive income statement. (Nobes, 2006, p155) Moreover, as mentioned in the textbook, â€Å"a further difference from nearly all other countries is that three years of figures are presented; that is, the two preceding years’ comparative figures. This is the SEC requirement† (Nobes, 2006, p155). The US balance sheet is quite standard in North America. It has two sides the left side shows the assets and the liabilities and shareholders’ equity are shown on the right side. As learned in accounting courses, the total amount of assets should be equal to the sum of liabilities and shareholders’ equity. It is worth mentioning that under the United States balance sheet format, current assets precede the long-term assets (fixed assets). This order is different from the order under European national laws. Thus, the US formats are not usually well-adopted by non-technical shareholders for reading (Nobes, 2006, p154). See Appendix A for sample balance sheet. The final statement is the Cash Flow Statement. It is a more recent statement than the other two and it is a SEC requirement. It focuses on cash movements and needs the balance sheet and income statement to derive the movements in cash. Moreover, like the income statement, it is also required to show three years’ figures in the cash flow statement (Nobes, 2006, p156). The cash flow statement is comprised of three categories: cash from operating activities, cash from investing activities, and cash from financing activities. A comparison of, for example, two years’ figures from the balance sheet and income statement will provide an analysis on the sources and uses of cash, and ultimately showing the change in the beginning cash balance from the ending balance. All three statements, however, can become confusing between countries because of the variety of terminology used. Using the example used in Nobes’ textbook, the UK term ‘shareholders’ funds’ has several expressions in the US – shareholders’ equity, shareowners’ equity, or common stockholders’ equity to name a few. Another example would be the term inventory; â€Å"the most usual meanings of the UK terms ‘stock’ and ‘shares’are translated into the US term ‘inventory’ and ‘stock’ respectively† (Nobes, 2006, p156). This may lead to misunderstanding when other countries’ investors review US companies’ financial statement. Therefore, we need to recognize the terminology problem and try to translate some terms to the correct meanings. In addition to the consolidated financial statements, there are extensive notes and management discussion and analysis section. Furthermore, there is an Auditor’s Report that explains what the independent auditors have done to provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement and that the statements are in context of generally accepted accounting principles. One accounting firm is sufficient to perform the audit and sign off on the Auditor’s Report. In short, the US accounting rules are extensive and detailed. The financial statements are prepared under generally accepted accounting principles and are made extremely useful for investors to. However, there are indeed some weaknesses in the US accounting system. For example, there is no major body, like the Government, to control the accounting process; many boards can make decisions about the accounting rules that they set. Moreover, the accounting rules and principles are complicated and the accounting system lacks harmonization. A famous example of the lack of accounting system in the United States is the Enron scandal back in 2001. Enron lied about their profits, especially when they started to suddenly see a huge drop in their market share. Their accounting firm, Arthur Anderson covered up their loss and manipulated the financial statements. They ultimately destroyed any evidence with Enron, thus when the word got out, both companies’ reputation went under because of the fraud they committed. This example lead to a new, updated version of the independence standards for PA’s and had an overall affect to the way accounting was performed in the US. It is required that all firms world-wide accept and adopt IFRS within the next couple of years. Firms and companies are already preparing for the new change instead of waiting for the deadline date. France Financial reporting in France was influenced by the common law system in the late seventeenth century. As cited by Nobes, Howard says â€Å"Colbert’s Ordonnance de Commerce of 1673 during the reign of Louis XIV formed the basis for the Napoleonic Commercial Code of 1807, a Code which has spread throughout continental Europe† (Nobes, 1992, p217). During the past century, France has been increasingly impacted by global capital markets dominated by Anglo-Saxon countries, particularly the United States. Because of this, France has been able to produce a dualism in accounting on the basis of international and US standards between the financial statements of individual business enterprises and those of groups (Nobes, 1992, p217). The accounting system in France was influenced minutely by the French government but it was driven immensely by the tax law. According to Nobes, France’s rules originated from a variety of sources such as the French state, the European Union, the national accounting council (Conseil National de la Comptabilite, CNC), and the accounting regulation committee and are codified in a Commercial Code (Code de Commerce) and a national accounting plan (Plan Comptable General, PCG) (Nobes, 1992, p217). The PCG was established mainly with macroeconomic aims and little input from the accountancy profession. The French national accounting plan is the most distinctive part of French accounting regulation. â€Å"The PCG was amended and made mandatory for all companies in 1983, when France adopted the 4th and 7th Directives of the European Union† (As discussed in class, Secord, 2006). It was the start of French accounting standardization. The purpose of implementing PCG was to be the basis of the accounting legislation in France ( , 2005). It is administrated by the CNC (the national Accounting Council) that consists of a mix of public and private sector regulatory and standard-setting bodies. The PCG is not merely a chart or classified list of ledger accounts but a very detailed manual on financial accounting. Included within it are definitions of accounting terms, valuation and measurement rules, and model financial statements† (Nobes, 2006, p281). 1984 was a period of globalization, deregulation, and privatization in which the accounting profession in France was reorganized and international standards emerged as a strong opponent to national standards (Nobes, 1992, p216). In the 1990’s, more large listed French companies published their consolidated financial statements in accordance with IFRS because there were an increasing number of French companies entering international markets (Nobes, 1992, p225). Accounting laws in France apply to all public and private businesses with the primary focus to report to owners and creditors. France has a unified accounting system as opposed to a flexible system. Furthermore, their accountancy is based on tax and legal framework. Appendix 13. in the textbook shows the classification of expenses and revenues; they are classified by nature, not by function; thus enabling the PCG to be applied in a similar way regarding all business enterprises instead of just companies. The PCG mainly focuses on ‘inventory’ meaning that France accounting’s focal point is the balance sheet rather than the income statement [income measurement] (Discussed in class). As a result, the PCG asked to keep daily acco unting records such as a journal and a ledger in order to prepare the balance sheet in annual financial statements. The balance sheet is most often presented in two-sided form, with assets on one side and liabilities and capital on the other. It is noted that the capital section is broken into several different accounts, tax being the most common. There is more detail on the face of the balance sheet than there is disclosed in the notes. See Appendix B for sample balance sheet. Ultimately, the PCG’s goal is to provide a true and fair view of the financial statements (Discussed in class). The income statement becomes the product of changing in balance sheet accounts. It also asks to show the financial statements to the taxation authorities as well as reporting to owners and creditors (Discussed in class). The cash flow statement is recommended by the CNC but it is not mandatory for individual companies. In addition, notes to the financial statements were only required by law in 1983 (Nobes, 1992, p222). An Audit Report is provided in addition to the consolidated financial statements. All companies are audited by members of the CNCC (Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aux Comptes). An auditor is appointed for a six-year term and each audit is required to have two auditors from two separate firms to sign off on the financial statements (Nobes, 1992, p226). Accounting principles for the individual company level in France differ significantly than from the United States. Examples include the following: 1. ) Formation costs may be capitalized and amortized rather than being written off as incurred. 2. ) Depreciation rates are usually those laid down for tax purposes. French companies do not use residual values. 3. ) Weighted average cost and FIFO are used to value inventory. LIFO is not allowed because it provides too much of a tax benefit. 4. ) The percentage of completion method is the preferred method for long-term contracts according to the PCG, but the completed contract method id permissible and common (Extracted from Nobes, 1992, p224). These examples show the differences in accounting practices from one country to another. It is evident that terminology and the base of accounting, whether rule-based or government-based, affect the way countries report financial accounting. Unlike the US, tax rules in France generally take over accounting rules. Thus, tax law is compatible with the PCG. It is the most important influence on the financial statements of individual business enterprises. The Commercial Code and the Companies Act are also compatible with the PCG although they do not refer to it. Moreover, the French accountancy profession is increasingly influential but has never issued accounting standards (Nobes, 2006, p292). Because IASB has established IFRS to try and unify financial reporting across the globe, France will be reporting their financial statements in accordance with IFRS. In short, French accounting system is highly uniformed. French government can regulate and control the accounting system and government financing can go to the French companies. The focus on the country’s macroeconomic plan is one of the bases for setting up the accounting system. ( , 2005). Accounting in France is highly influenced by tax laws with financing generally provided by banks, government, and family interests. Comparison of United States and France The United States and France have different approaches as to financial reporting. The US accounting is rule based whereas the French accounting system is governmental based. The accounting rules in the US only apply to the public companies that are required to register with SEC. However, the accounting rules in France are highly uniformed and apply to all the companies. Moreover, the French accounting standards are highly influenced by tax and legal laws; in the US, accounting and tax have completely different method of reporting. In France, there is only one accounting regulation to be the basis of the accounting system the national accounting plan (PCG). Most companies in France obey the rules set in PCG. However, in the US, there are two regulations to guide the accounting work – the SEC, and is Generally Accepted Accounting Principle (GAAP). All the financial statements of the public companies in the US must follow the rules set in the conceptual framework and GAAP. Furthermore, the US accounting rules are more detailed whereas French rules tend to be more general. In short, the French accounting system is not only influenced by the government and tax law, but also related to the country’s macroeconomic plan. In contrast, the US accounting system is more related to the public companies and the US accounting rules always used to standardize the public companies’ financial accounting work (microeconomic). The financial statements in the US are prepared for the investors to aid in making investment decisions. However, the financial statements in the France are prepared for creditors, owners, and tax authorities. The US also has the largest stock exchange in the world. France has four stock exchanges but it is not nearly at the level of the US. After examining the financial statements of companies in the US and France, several differences exist. Overall, in the US, the accounting system focuses on income measurement reported on the income statement. Principles and elements, such as matching, revenue recognition, expense, and revenue are set in the conceptual framework to be the base of financial reporting. The word ‘inventory’ in the US refers to how much merchandise, raw materials and finished goods a company has in stock. On the other hand, in France, they focus on the balance sheet. They do not have many rules for the income measurement. Instead, the income statement is the product of changing in the balance sheet accounts. France focuses on inventory, which in contrast is a broader term for ‘everything’ the company has, and items on the balance sheet to provide their income. On a more detailed level, France capitalizes and amortizes its formation costs whereas the US writes them off as they are incurred. The US uses residual values for the calculation of depreciation whereas in France, residual values are not used. Moreover, for the treatment of inventories, LIFO is allowed and commonly practiced for inventory valuation in the US, as well as the weighted average cost method and FIFO. Because using of LIFO causes large reductions in balance sheet figures and the accounting in France need to obey the tax rules, LIFO is not allowed in France. As we know, the terminology for the financial reporting (for example, the term inventory or shareholder’s equity) may be a problem as a result of different language in different countries. Therefore, when looking at other countries’ financial statement, the reader should read up on the accounting system in the specific country to understand the underlying meanings of the terminologies. With respect to the auditors and the auditor’s report, there are two differences between the US and France. First, there is only one auditor required to audit the US financial statements, but in France, two auditors are required to audit the financial statements and sign off on the Auditor’s Report. Second, in the US, the key words the auditor use â€Å"in the opinion in the last paragraph are ‘present fairly†¦in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles’. Those words contrast with the words used in other countries, which note compliance with company law and that ‘the accounts give a true and fair view’†(Nobes, 2006). Furthermore, as we know, making rules is conceptually distinct from enforcing them but the roles may sometimes be combined in practice. (Nobes, 2006) The strictest and best-resourced enforcement regime in the US is the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US. Auditors in the US are supervised by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and thus follow suggested rule depicted by FASB, in accordance with US GAAP. In France, the enforcement body is the stock exchange regulator, the Aurorite des Marches Financiers, which is proactive and uses advance clearance as one its operating procedures. It has delegated review of audit quality to the Comie de l’Examen National des Activites of the Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aus Comptes. The latter body is responsible for the registration of auditors and is supervised by the Haut Conseil des Commissaires aus Comptes. (Nobes, 2006, ) In conclusion, the United States and France have different influences on accounting. Their history affects the way accounting is reported in each country. Rules within the country and governmental influences play a huge factor in the way accounting is performed. The United States is more individualistic where Public Accountants tend to display their professional ability to maintain occupational self-control in their accounting practice. France is more centralized where the accounting system is fully influenced by the government and tax laws. However, accounting is always changing. Accounting ideas move from one country to another through transfer of technology. Ultimately, in the next couple years, both countries will have adopted IFRS, along with other countries around the globe to aid in the uniformity of financial reporting. Appendix A

World trade organization essays

World trade organization essays One should probably start an argument on the issue of the Group of 21 proposals with a statement from Oxfam International's 2002 report Rigged Rules and Double Standards: "the problem is not that international trade is inherently opposed to the needs and interests of the poor, but that the rules that govern it are rigged in favor of the rich.' Starting from this, I aim to prove not only that WTO's role is almost exclusively in favor of the rich, but also that the important players in the WTO system do not abide by the very rules that they have created. The recent Cancun round of negotiations within the WTO, regarding especially agricultural subsidies, showed that finally the developing countries starting with giants such as India and Brazil, preponderantly agricultural countries with significant contribution to world trade, backed up by China, could finally make a common point and a stand still against the European Union and the United Stated. The strange and somewhat revolting point of discussion is that, while boasting liberalization and free trade, the EU and the United States spent an approximated $300 billion in subsidies, almost all of them going to agriculture. Isn't a subsidy a way to ignore the free trade boasted as the main program by the WTO' Of course, you do not use taxes to raise imported goods prices, but you follow a reverse pattern and use subsidies to lower national goods prices and make them more competitive on the foreign market. The agricultural problem is a first concern for the G-21 demands and it should be noted that these demands are not necessarily for lowering custom taxes or creating a privileged position for the developing countries in the group, but for respecting the conclusions of former WTO negotiations. If trade is to be liberalized, how can this be done in an environment of high subsidies from developed countries' How can the G-...

6 Disappeared LinkedIn® Partner Applications and What to Do About Them †Part IV TripIt and SlideShare

6 Disappeared LinkedIn ® Partner Applications and What to Do About Them – Part IV TripIt and SlideShare The saga of the disappeared LinkedIn Partner Applications continues with this weeks episode TripIt and SlideShare! For more LinkedIn tips please visit How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile e-book! TripIt TripIt was an application that allowed LinkedIn users to report easily on their travel plans. Disclaimer: I questions the wisdom of publicizing ones travel to LinkedIn, since I’ve heard stories of people who post this type of information and whose houses get robbed while they are away. However, if you do feel comfortable letting the world know when you will be traveling, you might wish to follow these steps which were provided directly from TripIt: Dear Traveler, A friendly reminder to link your TripIt and LinkedIn accounts in order to continue accessing and sharing trips with your LinkedIn network. As you may have heard from LinkedIn, they have redesigned the LinkedIn profile page, which will no longer include your TripIt My Travel app. Dont lose your access: Link my accounts. We hope you like the new and improved experience! Learn more about TripIt and how it can help you organize all your travel plans into one master mobile itinerary. By the traveler, for the traveler, The TripIt team The basic idea here is that you can log your travel in TripIt and easily share it to your LinkedIn profile. You can even sign in to TripIt using your LinkedIn username and password! Once logged in, enjoy the magic and convenience of keeping all your travel information in one place (I havent used it fully yet but am intrigued by the possibilities! Theyve got a great video you can watch at https://www.tripit.com/trip/show/id/64396342. Happy travels! SlideShare In May 2012, LinkedIn acquired SlideShare for $118.75 million. Although the SlideShare application no longer exists, you can bet LinkedIn wants you to keep using this resource! You can log in to SlideShare with your LinkedIn username and password and import your LinkedIn profile information to complete your SlideShare profile. With a single click, you can follow all your LinkedIn contacts through SlideShare, thus ensuring that you receive notifications of their updated content and comments. When you add a new presentation, document or video to SlideShare, it will *automatically* post as an Activity Update on your LinkedIn profile! Plus, if your settings allow it, you can automatically post to LinkedIn when you â€Å"favorite† a SlideShare presentation. Heres what your update might look like in LinkedIn Signal: For details on the above tips, see SlideShare Content Sharing with your Professional Network on LinkedIn, posted on the SlideShare blog on January 9, 2012. Finally, you can always post the link to a SlideShare presentation to your Summary or Experience sections by clicking on the box with the blue + sign. Once you click on that box you will be brought to a box where you can paste a link: How do you get the correct link for your presentation? In SlideShare, go to your list of presentations: Click on one of the images and you will be brought to the page with the presentation: Copy the URL from the upper left corner and paste it into the box on LinkedIn. The presentation or video will then be part of your permanent LinkedIn profile until you decide to remove or change it! Next week: How to accommodate for the disappearance of the WordPress application. See you then! Category:Archived ArticlesBy Brenda BernsteinFebruary 18, 2013

Challenges to Nonprofits Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Challenges to Nonprofits - Essay Example That is why resource-allocation decisions present nonprofit executives with their best opportunity to focus resources on activities that will efficiently achieve their organizations' objectives. (Swords, n.d, online) Considering the significance of these choices, it is worrying that the financial systems in many nonprofit organizations aren't designed to support either short-term or long-term strategic decision making. Particularly, most financial systems do not add to organizational knowledge about the true, total costs of providing services, running programs and otherwise running the organization. Working without this information, nonprofit executives frequently have to make vital resource-related decisions on the basis of instinct, the skills and knowledge of the program staff, or the priorities of the organization's funders. (Swords, 2002, pp 113-114) Consequently, they run the risk of weakening their organizations' missions by failing to assign resources to the programs and services that have the highest impact. To make resource-related decisions in a way that enhances an organization's effectiveness and promotes its mission, nonprofit leaders need to have a clear picture of the full costs of operating their programs and services. ... ata can provide valuable input to decisions about how to assign resources among programs, whether to expand into a new setting, and what level of funding is required to sustain the organization's operations (Lang, 2000, pp 57-58). That Programs to Support The most essential resource-allocation decisions concern dividing funds among numerous programs in a single department. For example, one of Bridgespan's clients provided a range of counseling, adult-education, youth, and economic development services to its clients to help them become more self-reliant. An investigation of this organization's costs revealed that within the economic-development department, the employment-services program and the resume-services program were incurring the same cost. To put it other way, it was costing the organization the same amount of money to put a client in a job as it was to help her prepare a resume. Because having a job provides a client with better economic self-reliance than simply having a resume on hand, the organization decided to center its resources on the employment-services program instead of mounting the resume-services program as it had initially planned. Full and precise cost data can be uniformly enlightening when an organization's leaders are wrestling with the best way to divide resources among numerous sites. This was the situation facing a countrywide educational organization with seven regional affiliates. (Lang, 2000, pp 67-69) Because the organization's current accounting system stated that all its financial information on a line-item basis, area cost data had never been collected. When these data were collected and examined, the organization learned that the cost of training teachers differed significantly by locality. These findings encouraged a

Quality of Work Life and Turnover Intention Coursework

Quality of Work Life and Turnover Intention - Coursework Example Though, we are in the middle of a recession period these days, but if we recollect the events unfolding couple of years back, it becomes abundantly clear that the policies of globalisation and liberalisation resulted in many more opportunities for the skilled workers around the world. This resulted in high levels of turnover ratios, particularly in the IT industry. The industry had to eventually think about innovative measures to reduce the turnover ratio and retain the employees. Quoting the figures from a study HR.com (2008) states that on account of economic pressures and an evolving workforce; the voluntary as well as total turnover intentions have seen consistent increase over the last four years. The study indicates that the voluntary turnover intention has seen a more prominent increase. Employee turnover results in multiple impacts for the organisation. When an employee all of a sudden decides to leave a company and join another one, offering better facilities, pay packages etc. then the parent stand to lose by way of; The generally held belief is that life at the working place leaves a big impact on the levels of motivation of the worker. Motivation in simplest terms can be defined as a means of providing motives. Motives can act towards doing a job more efficiently or for distorting the work environment. Quite often the lack of any positive motivation by the managers also results in an automatic provisioning of negative motivation. Mullins (2005) contends that organisations comprise 'people, objectives, structures' and 'management'. While objectives and structure depend upon the manner in which management wishes to work and do not require regular updating, the people require more attention on a regular basis. There are a number of determinants towards shaping the working environment within an organisation. The factors are both internal and external to the organisation. Internal factors will include the strengths of the organisation, in terms of its finances, human resources, management, strategies etc. These factors can be controlled well by the organisation. On the other hand the external factors like the legal and political scene prevailing within the state/ country of its operations, number and types of competitors, suppliers in the market, terms and conditions from financial institutions, alternative products available in the market, newer technological innovations etc. On these factors the organisation may not be able to exert much control. This study is therefore an attempt to take a look at all such factors which affects the quality of work life and how this quality of work life impacts the turnover intentions of the individual. 2. Preliminary Literature Review The search for better ways of retaining the employees to counter the increasing turnover intentions and dysfunctional consequences of job designs based on traditional principles began with the

Case Studies: Corporate Social Responsibility across world

Case Studies: Corporate Social Responsibility across world Introduction Over the past decade, Malaysia has witnessed tremendous economic and social changes. Hence, the business world is becoming more complex and demanding. Corporate social responsibility has emerged as one of the major issues in the modern-day businesses. However, developing countries are slower in reacting to this issue as the studies in this area are still scarce. Even though there is some increase in research and studies in corporate social responsibility (Abu-Baker Naser, 2000; Belal, 2001; Imam, 2000; Tsang, 1998), the results of these studies are not satisfying due to the scarcity of studies in the developing countries. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming more important for national and international businesses. Large corporations discovered and recognized the benefits of providing CSR programs in various locations, these multinational companies are serving as global providers. Now, CSR activities are being performed around the world. Customers nowadays believe that modern businesses have the obligations to serve them better or in a more responsible manner instead of just focusing on maximizing profits for its organizations stakeholders or shareholders. However, only large firms apply this concept compared to those small or middle-sized enterprises due to the power which large firms have. We also refer CSR as corporate or business responsibility, corporate or business citizenship or community relations. The environment that business organizations operate in is filled with dynamism, complexity and uncertainty. Thus, managers must take into consideration the interests of stakeholders and public in performing their respective duties. According to Wartick and Cochran (1985), the concept corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a philosophical orientation. Jones (1996) described CSR as an ideology which has been enhanced and advanced during the past 50 years with the business and research. CSR refers to corporate performance that is normatively correct with respect to all constituents of the firm (Epstein, 1987). How do we clarified the actions that certain firms took are related to corporate social responsibility? According to Carroll (1991), social expectations can be translated into four different stages of corporate social responsibility, viz: economic, legal, ethical and philanthropy. The first stage is economic responsibility. This stage is where the public and society expect corporate organizations to generate profit and at the same time producing goods and services that meet the customers needs. A firms prime social responsibility must be economic involving the production of goods and services at a reasonable profit. Second stage is legal responsibility. Businesses are expected to run within the legal boundaries in order to achieve their goals. However, not all ethical behaviour are codified, businesses should act in the manner that serve the society while meeting economic objectives. Hence, this is categorized as ethical responsibility. Last but not least, the philanthropy responsibi lity. A corporate organization should actively involve in programs promoting human welfare and goodwill. One common difference between philanthropy and ethical responsibilities is that the former are not expected in moral sense. Community expect firms to contribute their resources to social activities. However, they do not hold those firms unethical if they do not practice these social activities. Hence, philanthropy is more to voluntary part of business in conducting social activities. According to Palazzi (2006), there are an increasing number of companies in Western Europe, Japan and North America discovered that by fully integrate the self-interest and needs of customers, employees, communities and their beloved planet, they can make good business. Therefore, corporate social responsibility includes 6 elements where management of each organization should implement in order to enhance growth and profitability. CSR is about how to manage these 6 responsibilities: customers, employees, business partners, environment, communities and investors (Palazzi et al., 2006). Providing goods and services in a fair price so that the customers will get to enjoy the added value of the products provided by the firm and at the same time the firm will earn profits. By adopting CSR, a firms image is strong and well recognised; it provides good welfare for its employees. Business partners such as suppliers, suppliers will only build long term relationship with firms that are well-re spected and trusted. Firm must never conduct any operations that will harm the environment such as toxic dispersion; it will only bring damage to the environment and also the society. Health, stability and prosperity of the communities are the success factors of any businesses nowadays; businesses must involve themselves in social activities such as charity or donations. Practicing CSR in daily operations no doubt maximize profit in long-run which will benefit the investors. In contrast of co-founder of Hewlett Packard Company in 1939, Dave Packard, he thinks many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a companys existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being. As we investigate this, we inevitably come to the conclusion that a group of people get together and exist as an institution that we call a company so that they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not accomplish separately they make a contribution to society, a phrase which sounds trite but is fundamental. No doubt that people assume the purpose of a company is to generate profit, primary objective of a company is to continue its existence or to survive, followed by maintaining growth and development and then make a profit. Company is a structure of people where these people wish to achieve objectives that could not be achieved by the efforts of individuals on their own. CSR involves the responsibilities corporations have to the societies within which they are based and operate. CSR is about the organizations and businesses taking actions beyond their boundaries which will impact the environment and society even though doing so incur higher cost. Several concepts that are closely related to CSR: social and environmental auditing, stakeholder theory, business ethics, environmental sustainability, strategic philanthropy and corporate governance. Definition The issues of corporate social responsibility has been debated and argued since 1950s, latest analyses by Secchi (2007) and Lee (2008) reported that the definition has been changing in meaning and practice. In both corporate and academic world there is uncertainty as how to defined. According to Jackson and Hawker (2001), we have looked for a definition and basically there isnt one. However, this is not quite accurate because the truth is there is an abundance of definitions, which are, according to Van Marrewijk (2003), often biased toward specific interests and thus prevent the development and implementation of the concept. Five dimensions of CSR were identified through a content analysis of the definitions; these five dimensions are environmental dimension, social dimension, economic dimension, stakeholder dimension and voluntaries dimension. Jones (1980) defined CSR as the notion that corporations have an obligation to constituent groups in society other than stockholders and beyond that prescribed by law or union contract, indicating that a stake may go beyond mere ownership. Corporate social responsibility is defined as a principle stating that corporations should be accountable for the effects of any of their actions on their community and environment by Frederick (1992). CSR is defined as the degree of moral obligation that may be ascribed to corporations beyond simple obedience to the laws of the state by Kilcullen and Kooistra (1999). According to Foran (2001), CSR can be defined as the set of practices and behaviours that firms adopt towards their labour force, towards the environment in which their operations are embedded, towards authority and towards civil society. CSR is also defined as the integration of social and environmental concerns in business operations, including dealings with stakeholders (Lea, 2002) . According to Andersen (2003), he defined corporate social responsibility broadly to be about extending the immediate interest from oneself to include ones fellow citizens and the society one is living in and is a part of today, acting with respect for the future generation and nature. There are many available definitions of CSR and they are consistently linking to the five dimensions. From 1980s to 20th century, definitions of CSR must include the 5 dimensions, it is not a must to include all 5 but it is best to do so. Importance of CSR CSR has become increasingly important, now it is considered as a business strategy. Consumers prefer to purchase products or services from companies which they trust; suppliers want to form business partnerships with companies they can rely on; employees wish to work for companies they respect and being respected in return; and NGOs want to cooperate with companies seeking feasible solutions and innovations in areas of common interests. According to Carly Fiorina, Chairman and CEO of Hewlett Packard Company, winning companies of this century will be those who prove their actions that they can earn profit and increase social value at the same time. Shareowners, customers, partners and employees are going to vote with their feet in order to reward those companies that fuel social change through business. This has become the new reality of business, one that everyone should embrace and adopt. Arguments and debates about the importance of CSR, the main topic is why CSR became more import ant? Many factors and influences have led to increasing attention being devoted to the role of companies and CSR. These include: Sustainable development Paul Hawken has defined sustainability as an economic state where the demands placed upon the environment by people and commerce can be met without reducing the capacity of the environment to provide for future generations. Leave the world a little better than you found it, take no more than you need, try not to harm life or the environment, make amends if you do. According to Hohnen (2007), United Nations studies showed that humankind is using natural resources at an excessive rate, a rate where the used resources failed to be replaced in time. If this scenario continues, future generations will not have the resources they need for their development. According to Maurice Strong, Chairman of the Earth Council (1992), he said as we enter the next century, industry will be the most important engine for change in the drive for sustainable solutions to the worlds environmental problems. These issues alerted the world and required immediate actions. Organizations must play their parts in aiding the environmental problems. Corporate social responsibility is one of the solutions and organizations are advised to practice and implement social responsibility in their daily operations. Globalization Globalization is a complex process because it involves rapid social change that is occurring simultaneously across a number of dimensions in the world economy, in politics, in communications, in the physical environment and in culture and each other these transformations interact with the others (Tomlinson, 1999). Growing concerns on human resource management, environmental protection, health and safety due to the economic globalization, CSR can play a vital role in locating the impacts and effects that a business might have on labour, society and economy. CSR also provide certain steps that can assist the business to build and maintain the public welfare. Governance According to Hohnen (2007), governments and intergovernmental bodies such as the UN, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have developed several guidelines and declarations which companies can follow and apply in their future business conduct. Example, government in Penang restricted food sellers from using polystyrene for food packing every Monday. Finance Consumers and investors are more interested in supporting responsible business practices; they are seeking more information on how organizations going to react accordingly after defining risks and opportunities which related to social issues. What actions can the organization take so that it will best serve the society and meet the economic objectives? In the CSR context, a sound CSR approach can help build share and market value for an organization, lower the cost of capital and improve the responsiveness to markets (Hohnen, 2007) Protect the environment Some of the worlds largest companies have showed their commitment to CSR by showing initiatives at reducing their environmental footprint. These companies believe that financial and environmental performance can work together to drive company growth and social reputation. We green the earth slogan made by some multinational companies in Malaysia who own large golf courses within residential area is one of the CSR initiatives seems to protect the environment. According to Hohnen (2007), a CSR approach can improve corporate governance, transparency, accountability and ethical standards. Environment stewardship helps build and retain a companys value. In addition, undergraduates and postgraduates will expose to the importance of taking care of the environment through studying corporate social responsibility. Potential Benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility Being socially responsible is increasingly important for modern organizations. This is due to the public becoming more demanding towards firms in terms of being socially responsible. Einer Elhauge, a professor of law at the Harvard Law School, as part of his contribution on the Environmental Protection and the Social Responsibility of Firms, quoted that Corporate managers have the operational discretion to sacrifice corporate profits in the interest of the public. Lower Operating Cost Companies must view this as an opportunity and see the benefit it can obtain from giving back to the communities and employees (McKee, 2005). Lower operating cost may be the most immediate and dependable benefit for a corporation committed to high ethical standards and social responsibility (Ashforth, 1989). On environmental issues, a company who is striving to minimize its emission of greenhouse gasses will be looking at ways of minimizing fuel consumption. Initial investment in more energy efficient vehicles and appliances may incurred very high cost, it will eventually lead to cost saving. If a company is using less energy, then its energy bills will be lower. If a company is minimizing water usage, then its water bills will be lower. The same is true for maximizing the use of recycled materials. Recycled materials are much lower priced compared to raw materials. Employees: Recruitment, Retention and Productivity According to Ivy (2005), the other benefits of adopting corporate social responsibility practices include attracting the most talented and loyal workers. Their employees are more committed to their work because they are proud to be part of that organization. Employees value a corporation that is able to improve the life of the community. A Socially Responsible Corporation considers a workers dignity and offers good health care and retirement plan. Therefore, these employees are not keen to take lifts when opportunity is at hand. Bloemer (1992) found out that the corporation benefits from a stable workforce and reduced training costs. Evidence for this view are clearly stated in the Kelly survey in Crains Detroit Business report found that corporations that behave in socially and environmentally responsible manners attract the top talent and ninety percent of those interviewed would prefer to work for organizations are ethically and socially responsible. Brand Image and Customer Loyalty McKee (2005) suggested that the most significant business benefit of corporate social responsibility is the positive effect it can have on brand image and customer loyalty. If a company is known to be responsible and ethical, and if it markets itself as such, then it will be well positioned in a competitive market. Consumers, weary of the tales of ruthless corporations doing everything in their power to maximize profits, are becoming more and more interested in supporting companies who are socially responsible. Many firms which have such practices include Body Shop that uses all natural, non chemical substances to make their products. They emphasis on no animal testing and many customers are proud to be using their products that support the humanity values that the company share. Differentiated Products According to Klein and Dawar (2004), differentiated product is one of the benefits that enable an organization in order to remain competitive in todays marketplace. Through product differentiation, organizations aim at achieving a competitive advantage by increasing the perceived value of their products relative to the perceived value of the products of their competitors. Particularly, for organizations that implement socially responsible policies, product differentiation can satisfy the unmet needs of consumers offering both financial and business benefits to the firm. Firms that offer environmentally friendly products experience higher sales growth than firms that sell conventional products (Ramasamy Ting, 2004). Besides, firms that offer unique value propositions to consumers differentiate their products in consumers minds and contribute to building customer loyalty based solely on ethical values. Therefore, in the context of corporate social responsibility, organizations develop new products aiming, not only to become more competitive, but also to make a greater impact on society through their ethical practices. A CSR Europe MORI study in 2000 showed that 70 percent of European consumers say that a companys commitment to corporate social responsibility is important when buying a product and one in five would be willing to pay more for products that are socially and environmentally responsible. On the other hand, one in six shoppers frequently boycott or buy products because of the manufacturers reputation. Improved Risk Management Improved and proper management is one of the benefits gained when a corporation embarked in corporate social activities. Modern organizations implement risk management strategies to decrease or even eliminate the risk posed on the organization by a variety of practices associated to several potential threats (Porter Kramer, 2002). Organizations that have made countless efforts over the years to build a good reputation and have spent a lot of money to maintain it through product development and customer loyalty strategies. However it could be ruined is seconds (Tencati, Perrini, Pogutz, 2004). Such incidents include scandals, environmental accidents, foreign labour transgressions and internal corruptions draw the attention of the media and may cause irreversible damage to a firms reputation. The only way to anticipate such events are to embed social responsibility into organizational culture that contributes to a stable reputation for a form and in order to offset such risks. This c ould save cost and time in repairing and building firms reputation using the usual ways. Access to capital Financial institutions such as banks and private loan companies are increasingly incorporating social and environmental criteria into their assessment of projects. When making decisions about where to place their money, investors are looking for indicators of effective CSR management. Maignan, Tomas and Hult (1999) argued that a business plan incorporating a good CSR approach is often seen as a must for good management. When a company engage in corporate social activities shows that they care about their planet and it give a good impression towards to the investors. Hence both private and public investors are more willing to invest in such ventures because it will gain support from many parties and corporate social responsibility based companies tend to last longer. Arguments underpinning CSR Today many persons are discussing the social responsibilities of business; there are various reasons both for and against businesss assumption of social responsibilities. People in the business world argue and debate about social responsibility, some supporting this concept and some do not see it that way. Arguments for corporate social responsibility Long-run self interest Long-run self interest is one of the arguments which favour corporate social responsibility, this ideology makes the society expects the businesses to accomplish and conduct various social goods and actions. According to Davis (2001), a business must conduct social practices if it expects to achieve objectives and earn profits in long-run. The firm that responds fastest to the needs of the society hence will have a better community in for the firm to run its business. Recruiting employees will be easier, the employees hired are better in quality. Besides that, absenteeism and turnover will decrease. As the social of one society improved, crime rate will definitely go down and money can be saved up as the properties are well protected. The dispute can lead to several directions, for example a better society provides a better environment for business. It is hard to believe that incurring higher cost for social activities will result in higher profit for the business. However, it is the normal outcome that business can perform better when it runs in a better environment. Recent surveys confirm that the correlation between social and financial performance is their positive or neutral (Margolis Walsh, 2003). Public Image A firms main objective is to attain and retain more customers, desirable employees and various benefits through enhancing its public image. According to Davis (2001), it is easy to extend this public-image concept through the accomplishment of a variety of social goods. Public holds social goals as top priority, firms which has intention of achieving a benevolent public image must reinforce and prioritize these social goals. CSR has become a vital tool in promoting and improving the public image of some worlds largest corporations (Christian, 2004). Let Business Try Many institutions tried and failed in handling social issues, why not give business a chance to do so. Many comments were made due to the failures of other institutions, people are turning to business. Comments like the following: Give business a try. Maybe they can come up with some new ideas. Let business have a role. They couldnt do any worse! These comments were made out of frustration and desperation instead of reasoning; many people are expecting that business institution will fail in handling the social issues. The truth is that there is no evidence showing that we perform badly in handling and solving the social problems using businesss capabilities (Davis, 2001). Business Has the Resources Business is believed to have valuable resources which can be used in handling social problems; hence society should put the resources into good use. Sadly, many people wrongly assumed that business has all the money where the society need to do is to tap the till of business and the social problems will just fades away. In most cases, there is a reasoned assumption that business has a pool of management talent, functional expertise and capital resources (Davis et al., 2001). With this pool, business definitely has the requirements to solve social problems in the society. In addition, business is well known for its innovative ability. In some social problems, innovation is needed badly for application. Problems can be Profits While the creativity of business can contribute to social problems, it can also be an advantage at times when apply conventional business theories to these social problems. Although this idea cannot be applied to all of the social problems, it is encouraged that business should involve in social areas more effectively. According to Davis (2001), many problems can be solved and settled profitably according to traditional business concepts. Prevention is better than Curing It is argued that business should resolve social problems once encountered. This supports the idea of saving resources and the managements time and also preventing the social problem from developing into a disastrous situation to the business. Furthermore, the progress of producing goods and services can be affected when business is busy dealing with serious social problems that have yet to be resolved. Argument against Social responsibility Profit Maximization The most prevailing argument against business assumption of social responsibility is the classical that it challenges the traditional mindset of the companies is to focus on profit maximization (Friedman, 1971). According to the industrys point of view, the companys desire is to think in the best interest of the shareholder and satisfy them by maximizing profit and find all means to increase profit. One common practice in most industries to maximize profit is to minimize cost. Friedman (1971) mentioned that in a free enterprising firm system, employees responsibility is do what their superiors command them to do as long they do what their are told, they would survive in the economy provided their actions are abiding to the laws and ethical customs of the society. The employees desire is accord with the shareholders interest that is to maximize profit. However imposing a new concept of corporate social responsibility, the company dilutes the aim of profit maximization and makes the sh areholders unhappy. This is due to the managers spending their money on something that has no direct impact on their cash flow. Besides that, Friedman argued that the concept of corporate social responsibility may overthrow the old doctrine of the economy to maximize profit. Cost of Social Involvement Friedman (1962) found out that imposing the culture of corporate social responsibility in a firm takes away a lot of the firms financial resources though the outcome may not be as rewarding as predicted. The company must make wise decision to allocate their resources in the right causes for it is scarce. Most companies commit small resource to corporate social activities due to social pressure and obligation. However, the public tend to forget the firms effort towards corporate social activities after a period of time. Therefore it is very tiring for a company to keep renewing their commitment towards social acts since the customers cannot remember the organizations contribution towards society even it was just last month ago. When the business is pushed into social obligations, many additional costs will drive out marginal firms in all the industries (Friedman et al., 1971). In the chemical industry, many chemical firms shut down because they are unable to meet the requirement of pu rchasing the new pollution equipment that is highly priced. Lack of Social Skills Traditional companies do not have the skills to handle the social matters regarding the publics concern towards the companys effort in corporate social goals. As mentioned Friedman (1971), it is insane for a firm to give social related duty to technicians or accountants. They are unfit for the job because they are not trained to work in such way. The firm may need to hire sophisticated people which are public relation officers to create an image for the company and handle all the social matters. This may require the organization to create a new department just to achieve these goals. Problems may arise since the firm needs to incur new costs to the company. Dilution of Businesss Primary Purpose Friedman (1962) suggested that a firms involvement in social goals might hinder businesss emphasis on economic productivity, divert the interest if its leaders, and weaken business in the market places, with the result of the firm achieving poorly in both economic and social aspects. The effect of social goals in corporations is confusing the societys perception in the economic role of the business. If a company is inadequate to achieve its social goals, the society would suffer socially and economically (Friedman et al., 1962). Weakened International Balance of Payment Argument against business assumption social responsibility requires the international balance of payments thought it is frequently ignored. In normal practices, social programs are counted in business costs. In order to recover these costs, the business would usually add the cost into the price of the product. If social activities dilute businesss capacity for high productivity, then this lower efficiency is likely to lead to higher product cost (Friedman et al., 1962). A company would lose its competitive advantage in the international market if they comply with the social obligation. In the international market especially regarding raw material, the price is an essential criterion to consider. When a product is priced higher than its competitor due to social obligation, the clients will choose cheaper choices and outcome is the company loses out a lot of customers. Lack of Accountability From economic point of view, entrepreneurs have no accountability towards the public. Friedman quoted that Accountability always go with responsibility. A firm which embarks into social activities must be responsible towards the people. Until the firm is ready to be establish a proper line of social accountability from business to public, the business is preferable just focus on maximizing profit and not engage in any social activities. Lack of Broad Support One final point is that social involvement may lack a broad range of support from all groups of the society. Although many people support the idea of corporate social responsibility, many parties opposes it (Henderson Hazel, 2001). Unlike China, there are a lot of countries that does not give full support to firms that has social goals. The lack of agreements is among the general public, in government, even among the businessmen themselves. Many reasons are mentioned in the above statements. Such hostile oppositions will create disastrous effects on the company if it fails its social mission. Case Summary Burgerville USA is a family owned fast-food restaurant, founded by George Propstra in Vancouver, Washington 1922. Burgerville applies this mentality made fresh from local ingredients, this concept still stand strong up till today. Burgerville had never used frozen patties, used only the freshest ingredients. Besides that, onions rings sold in Burgerville are made from onions grown in nearby Walla Walla. Burgerville has expanded up to 39 locations in the northwest United States, currently run by Propstras son in law, Tom Mears. The key element in the companys strategy remains unchanged which is the fresh, local concept. Company is using fresh, local products in order to offer higher quality food. This strategy moves Burgerville out from the fast-food industry into fast-casual dining sector, a niche in the restaurant industry. Mears decided that the company will not play the chea