Domestic Politics and International Relations Essay

I. International relations as venerable subject. A. People were studying international relations before there were nations. B. Kautilya, Sun Tzu, Thucydides, and Herodotus were the first philosophers and scientists to write about international relations more than 2,500 years ago. C. The key fundamental law of international relations states that politics is rooted in domestic affairs. D. The moral law causes people to remain subjected to their ruler and moral law restrains the use of force. II. Methods to investigate the history of international relations are combining logic and evidence, mathematical method and statistical analysis. A. The method of combining logic and evidence or case studies. 1. Knowledge of international relations will be improved. 2. The path to insight is to analyze individual events or, in other words, to develop a case study. 3. Case studies are effective in evaluating the verisimilitude between the theory and practice (action). B. Statistical analysis suggests aims at investigating general patterns among the cases and examines large numbers of events. 1. Predicted patterns should include the probability distribution across the outcomes, not across deterministic results. 2. The method uncovers ideas and key points about the general orderliness of the origin of international relations. 3. In contrast to case study approach, statistical method probes the generality of the hypothesis under investigation, as well as its extreme validity. C. Mathematical analysis ensures internal consistency in arguments about complex relations about variables. 1. Mathematics is claimed to be the best tool for pursuing logical analysis of the complex problems as the alternative contains greater ambiguity and imprecision in meaning. 2. Still many scientists denounce the importance of mathematical method in learning international relations as they argue that ‘the interesting problems of politics are too complex to be reduced to mathematical equations’, but mathematics is exact when dealing with complex problems. 3. Mathematical approach is necessary for linking case study and archival techniques. III. Fundamental insight in the nature of international affairs through effectiveness and combination of key methods. A. Case studies should be facilitated because of their nature unique and not indicative of general laws. B. Productive collaboration with colleagues should be encouraged by combing mathematical, statistical and formal methods. C. The benefits of case studies are well-known, whereas the benefits of logical and mathematical methods are still under debate. D. Nowadays, all three methodologies are used for evaluation how international relations are shaped to domestic politics.

Employee Performance Evaluation Essay

Do you have any questions about what is expected of you on the job? Are there any areas that are unclear for you? Being in the practice for more than 13 years, I believe I am performing well as a Clinical Coordinator at _________________. I know well my primary duties not only to the doctors but to the patients as well. Patient flow is one of my main tasks. Therefore, doing it for more than a decade has really helped me learn by heart the task that I am supposed and not supposed to do. Extended duties, in addition, provide me with more skills development. Nonetheless, I still believe that committing to my work as a clinician, to the doctors, and to the patients is my key to being able to perform what is expected of me for this particular job. And I know I have worked hard for that. For me, the most unclear, and also lacking, is the salary increase. I have been in this job for more than 13 years and my salary has been pretty much the same. I love my job, that is why I always work hard for it, but taking into consideration practicality, the standard of living has been constantly increasing and I know I have to keep up with that.   It is quite disappointing that my co-employees and I are not getting fairly regular higher compensation grants. What do you consider to be your most important accomplishment in this review period? Being on the job itself and being able to practice what I love doing is one of the accomplishments that I have gained working here. Being able to be trained by professionals and get me going to my long-term goal of getting into Dental Hygiene program at this community college is a privileged appreciated for me. In addition, higher salary, maybe inasmuch as what I have received last year 2005, provides recognition for me as an employee for the decade or more that I have worked as a Clinical Coordinator. What areas would you like to improve on your performance and how do you plan to do it? What can the doctors or other team members do to help you improve? I have realized the joy and hardship of working as a clinician. At the same time, I get firsthand impressions of the satisfaction of the patients when they know that they are cured or will get better soon. This is one of the pleasures I get working here. That is why I want to be even more productive. However, of course, I, as well as my co-employees, want to be recognized and get rightfully compensative for the dedication we tender as clinical workers. It has always been known that additional compensation always boosts employee morale and encourages them to work better and become more productive and useful. Please tell us about any special accomplishments or projects that you have involved into to improve any aspect of the practice. As mentioned, I have been in the practice for over 13 years. More so I believe I have performed well enough indicated by being able to serve the same industry for more than a decade. As far as I know, I have accomplished what is expected of my performance. Otherwise, I would not have lasted long. In addition, to be able to improve my skills, I practice well at work and really put my heart into what I am doing.   The doctors are continuously training me. And eventually, if given more recognition to pay costs for my schooling, I am planning to delve into a Dental Hygiene program sponsored by this community college to be able to enhance more my skills and become a more productive clinician. Other comments? When an employee violates the rules in the practice repetitively in every category, what action do you take to make sure that the doctors get the respect they want out of the employees? I believe one of my strengths is that I know well what I am doing and that I am confident of what I do as a clinical coordinator. As I have said, being on this job for a lot of years has put me in a position where I am assured of my capabilities, and my potentials. With regards to respect, I believe in the clichà © â€Å"give respect to earn it†. Doctors and employees alike, no matter who is the boss of whom, deserves to be respected and properly treated. This involves complying with the proper and professional orders of the doctors, for the sake of their professional work. And the doctors in turn, give to the employees also high regard for the dedication they put on their works and give them rightful recognition. What are the areas that need improvement? I think, training the new employees, especially the new ones must be given proper attention. It has always been good to start working with much needed meaningful experience. This will definitely improve the clinical employees’ skills and practice them even more making them knowledgeable and more experience when it comes to first hand practice and on the job training. Where do you see yourself in the next year and what steps would you like to take to get there? Probably a year from now, I would be taking one or two classes a quarter, hopefully halfway done with pre-requisites. I will still be working fulltime and hopefully be a super treatment coordinator and become more trained and knowledgeable in diagnosing treatments. Two to three years from now, I hope to finish my pre-requisites and be able to prepare for dental hygiene examinations. But of course, I would not want to leave my work so I will still be working fulltime, probably 38 to 40 hours per week. And about five years from now, I may have completed by dental hygiene program having passed the examination. All these plans will help me not just boost my knowledge and skills, but also gain a higher degree of expertise about my chosen profession or career.

Automatic Stabilizers

The result is higher government spending and lower tax collections and the increased likelihood that the government will run a budget deficit. Similarly, when the economy grows rapidly, tax collections increase and government expenditures on transfer payments decrease, and the likelihood of the federal government running a surplus is greater. Now suppose an economy had a balanced federal budget neither deficit nor surplus. An external shock (such as a dramatic increase in oil prices or drought) then plunged the economy into a recession. Tax revenues fall and expenditures on transfer payments increase, resulting in a budget deficit. Believe it or not, the deficit actually serves a valuable role in stabilizing the economy. It works through three channels: †¢Increased transfer payments such as unemployment insurance, food stamps, and other welfare payments increase the income of some households, partly offsetting the fall in household income. †¢Other households whose incomes are falling pay less in taxes, which partly offsets the decline in their household income. Because incomes do not fall as much as they would have in the absence of the deficit, consumption spending does not decline as much. †¢Because the corporation tax depends upon corporate profits and profits fall in a recession, taxes on businesses also fall. Lower corporate taxes prevent businesses from cutting spending as much as they would otherwise during a recession. The government deficit itself, in effect, offsets part of the adverse effect of the recession and thus helps stabilize the economy. Similarly, during an economic boom, transfer payments fall and tax revenues increase. This dampens the increase in household income and also the increase in consumption and investment spending that would accompany higher household income and higher corporate profits. Stabilization policy is an action taken to move the economy closer to full employment or potential output. Transfer payments that stabilize GDP without requiring explicit actions by policymakers are called automatic stabilizers. The great virtue of automatic stabilizers is that they do not require explicit action from the president and Congress to change the law. Given the long inside lags caused by ideological battles in Washington, D. C. , over spending, taxes, and the deficit, it is fortunate that we have mechanisms in place to dampen economic fluctuations without requiring explicit and deliberative action. Reference link: http://classof1. com/homework-help/economics-homework-help

Organizational Communicating Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Organizational Communicating - Essay Example A participatory environment builds higher performance and motivation, which relies on the leader understanding concepts related to decoding messages for the receiver in a way that fits their psychological needs for self-esteem development. When presenting ideas in speech format, use of appropriate visuals allows for more interaction with the audience and avoids distraction from the topics being discussed. The key is to remain focused on individuals with constant eye contact to ensure that what is being presented is understood and will be considered valuable information by the receiving audience. This is true in an environment with a high political protocol system or one with more liberal, group-focused philosophy. This paper describes the nature of organizational communications and the role of a competent leader in delivering masterful discussions that fit the organizational culture principles that guide it. Communication styles vary depending on the structure which guides decision-making in the organization. In vertical structures, decision-making is top down, requiring a more formalized method of communications at the managerial level. However, a more progressive organization requires an informal, transformational style in a system that regards workers are more than just business components, but as integral and valued members of the environment. This is the common structure that guides most human resource-oriented organizations today. Communications in this type of horizontal hierarchy should include developmental elements that promote honesty, integrity and methods to build morale. This begins with modeling behaviors that build vision and establishing trust. â€Å"Participation leads to better performance and, thus, improves morale† (Ashcraft, 2004, p.2). In a horizontal hierarchy, there should be a communications style that

Total Quality Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Total Quality Management - Essay Example This approach to quality helps in sustenance of success and business profits in the long run. Moreover, adopting TQM approach is also a long-term commitment and cannot be achieved through simple practices. TQM is more of a philosophy and a culture that infuses focus on quality, improvement, as well as innovation. Hence, this approach uses a combination of different practices, tools and techniques. The present discourse explains application of one such technique at the accounting section of Al Faisaliah, in Saudi Arabia, which resulted in an overall improvement and sustenance of their performance in terms of key results; further this approach helped in identifying non-performing areas and in stabilizing new practices that replaced conventional methods of working in order to sustain high performance. Basically, application of TQM happens in two phases namely the human resources phase and application of tools and techniques phase. The process of TQM requires commitment from employees an d effective coordination and communication along with new methods of working. Both phases are closely linked to each other in the process of TQM application because achieving total quality is possible only through strong commitment, teamwork and application of various tools, techniques and practices produce high-quality and/or sustainable results. One such comprehensive approach, or tool, to achieving continuous improvement in all business areas is the Six Sigma methodology. About Six-Sigma, Tennant (2001) suggests that Six Sigma, as an approach to TQM, can be viewed as a vision and philosophy that can direct an organization, department, and team or function towards highest quality standards; as a metric, a symbol, a goal and a methodology to help an organization maintain highest quality standards. However, this approach cannot be considered as the end solution or guarantee of success; and is a complex mix of different tools and techniques. This methodology can be applied to manufac turing as well as service industries. Just as TQM is a measure of continuous improvement, Six Sigma methodology is most suitably applicable to achieve continuous improvement in quality, productivity, customer satisfaction, timeliness, and any other measurable business attribute; however, six sigma cannot be applied to situations or processes that lack historical data and tangible metrics. Intangible objectives such as employee motivation, commitment etc can also be improved by using Six Sigma methodology only if these subjective attributes can be converted to measurable objectives and can be measured to derive a quantifiable number that can describe the present status. Despite presence of proven and efficient quality tools and techniques in the market, some companies have embraced Six-Sigma methodology as their guiding force towards TQM. The pioneers of this technique are Motorola and General Electric (GE), both adopted this technique to improve their manufacturing quality and waste reduction. General Electric embraced Six Sigma much more rampantly than any other firm in their manufacturing as well as service sectors. They attribute cost reduction, customer satisfaction improvement, Wall Street recognition and corporate synergies to application of Six Sigma methodologies. Six Sigma is embedded into GE’s culture. This company employs over 4000 Black Belts and 10000 Green Belts across its businesses, and has set a benchmark for Six

Business management (innovating ) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business management (innovating ) - Essay Example Some of these concepts include agency or power, obligatory point of passage, actors, and the actor network theory among others. This paper shall delve in the significance of these concepts if applied to the case of the life and death of an aircraft, the masses analyses, and the Callon scallops paper. In this chapter, authors Law & Callon (1992) explore the consequences associated with the technical changes that happen during the duration of completing a technological innovation. They believe that even by starting technological innovation in a particular industry let alone an aircraft industry, changes can happen at some point during this duration. For instance, a technological project may require hundreds of thousands of ideas, thousands of workers, millions or even billions of money, highly intellectual specialists on sciences, engineering, and business, and, of course, the materials needed in the operation such as machines, designs, parts, etc. (Law & Callon 1992). The socio-technical context of technical change suggests the importance of having a global network, which harmoniously organizes everything in a sense that as consequences for every individual actor may become too significant to affect the overall outcome of the technological project, adjustments can be made accordi ngly. This network of actors makes the operation more manageable and easy to understand; it generates more time, space, and a set of resources in which innovation may take place (Law & Callon 1992). The strength of the global network depends on how strong its external connections, internal mobilization and obligatory point of passage are. For example, in building an aircraft, local network may have to come up with a design and develop production facilities; global network may serve as the securer of operations funding. In other words, the global network that is being talked about and employed in this context of the paper means

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Corporate Sustainability Reporting - Essay Example Some of the issues that concern CSR are discussed below. CSR are generally prepared by independent agencies based on the guidelines laid down in 1997 by the Global reporting Initiative (GRI). The GRI has tried to develop objective criteria that can become the basis for universally accepted reporting standards as in the case of audited financial statements. In 2006, a second set of guidelines was issued known as the G3 Reporting Framework. As of now however, companies are free to observe the GRI guidelines, as per their convenience and at different levels of accordance. As of July 2006, "just over 20 % of organizations issuing CSR reports using GRI guidelines did so at the [maximum] assurance level". Observance of GRI guidelines thus, though desirable is not enforceable and the discretion of following them in 'letter and spirit' rests with various organizations. The absence of any audit by an independent body reduces the value of a CSR, just as an un-audited financial statement of a company is of no value. However, there are many aspects of a CSR pertaining to non-financial aspects that are either, "qualitative statements about risk management and performance [or] quantitative measures that are not reliable enough to audit". Hence this aspect of a CSR is more of an opinion expressed by the company as well as the auditors, appealing more to emotion and based on individual perceptions. It is to remove this anomaly that the new G3 Reporting Framework has been compiled. Challenges of Providing Auditor Assurance The challenge of providing credibility to any CSR rests on firstly, the criteria that the management uses to prepare the CSR and secondly, the standards the auditor uses to assess the CSR. Adding to the difficulty of assessing a CSR is the fact that these reports are based on facts and figures that may be outside the area of expertise of the auditor(s). For any report to have credibility, it must be based on facts and figures and appeal to common sense. Quantitative aspects such as accident rates or amount of carbon dioxide emitted can be commented upon objectively and without bias. However, there are many other performance measures which cannot be audited, "with a high enough level of assurance to provide an opinion". In such cases, an element of subjectivity or bias in favour of the company being reported upon is likely. This probably stems from the fact that it is in the auditor's interests to seek the continued patronage of the company. More and more companies are disclosing their social and environmental performance as part of their annual financial reports. CPAs will increasingly play an important role both in preparing as well as analyzing such reports. Interestingly enough, a survey of investors and analysts revealed that as many as 90 % of the people wanted companies to include aspects such as environmental sustainability and corporate governance as part of their annual reports. This only underscores the importance of having objective criteria for measuring performance in non-financial fields in order to arrive at a true and fair view of a company based on facts and

Deforestation in the Amazon Rain Forest Research Paper

Deforestation in the Amazon Rain Forest - Research Paper Example The majority of the rainforest, just over 60 percent, is within Brazil, and the rest of the rainforest falls within the territory of countries such as Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and others (Senna, Costa, & Pires, p. 14). Rainforests once covered over 14 percent of the earth’s surface; however, the same percentage has now decreased to almost 6 percent and the most significant chunk of this deforestation has taken place in the biggest rain forest of Amazon. The deforestation of Amazon Rainforest is perhaps, the most significant concern for green movements, environmental activists, experts, governments, NGOs and various other stakeholders. Human activity and demand in the region has already destroyed a significant portion of rainforest and caused immeasurable damage to the animal species, ecosystem, and the current and future human generations (Rice, p. 25). This paper is an attempt to explore the dynamics of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest and most import antly, its impact on the soil with respect to soil degradation, soil erosion, and soil leaching. Discussion Prior to the second half of the 20th century, the access to the interior of the rainforest was highly restricted and in the absence of roads, railways and others forms of communication, it was almost irrational to conduct mass deforestation of the Amazon for any purposes (Marshall & Watson, p. 327). The costs of transportation were so high that people did not see deforestation as a profitable venture. However, during the 1960s, many farmers initiated deforestation with the slash and burn method for agricultural purposes. With the creation of roads and railways for transportation and the increasing demand for natural resources, deforestation of the Amazon began at massive rates. The rise on population and the aspirations to become a modern economy further increased the demand for wood and wood products and thus, year after year, rates of deforestation kept increasing. For many years, deforestation within Brazil did not catch the attention of the policymakers of the country as a significant environmental issue because they had evidence to believe that there is a strong link between deforestation and economic growth within the country (Senna, Costa & Pires, p. 14). During the period of 1988-1991, the figures revealed a strong correlation between the slowing down of the economic growth and the decline in the deforestation of the Amazon forest. This correlation was validated by the figures of the period of 1993-1998, when the boom in the economic growth appeared to parallel the increase in deforestation activity of Amazon. Many experts even started claiming this link is not merely a correlation but causation. More importantly, it is a unidirectional causation where deforestation activity within Brazil is causing economic growth and; therefore, it was indispensable (Gabler, Petersen, & Trapasso, p. 89). However, by the mid 2000s, it became apparent to the poli cymakers and the public that the link between deforestation and economic growth is not a significant one. Since then, there has been a significant decline in the deforestation of Amazon. In fact, the rate of deforestation of Amazon in the year 2011 was the lowest during the past couple of decades. Experts believe that many factors have caused this decline. First, during

International Economics - Mexico Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International Economics - Mexico - Essay Example This means that the production continues to fall by close to 25% across the previous ten years (Sverdrup 123). Mexico recently built its infrastructure for purposes of enhancing trade. In 2012, the trade cartels in the Mexican telecommunications industry were among the individuals in the world. However, their undertakings are nearly monopolies as they control close to 70% mobile phones, 70% broadband and 80% home phone lines. There are recent concerns that the lack of competition which continues to hamper growth. The levels of mobile-phone penetration across Mexico are only 85% which are similar to Iraq while the fast broadband connection costs are double those in Chile. Mexico's culture and economy are continually changing. For many years the economy of Mexico under-performed that of Brazil, but it has grown faster in the past year. Most Americans keep worrying about the illegal immigration even though Mexico needs to actually gain immigrants by itself. By facts, the birth rate of t he country is trending downwards and could soon be way below that of the U.S. on this case, the violence linked to drug cartels is still upheld while Mexico is regarded to as a critical underground trade route for U.S. addicts (Leoce 29). In the last decade, Mexico’s priorities included upholding legal institutions, protecting the environment, providing better healthcare and improving the economic competitiveness of the country. This is also evidenced by the insuring of public security like military sweeps in cracking down the levels of organized crime as well as the corrupt local police. Part of these, the hunt for the drug cartels became most controversial. It also amounted to all-out war where there were increased levels of violence such as retaliation of the civilians by such cartels. Most Mexicans blamed the government for increasing violence and upsetting the cartels. There were a number of challenges facing Mexico's economy in the long run. The economy faced challenges such as the engraved need to modernize the labor and tax system laws, upgrade schools, health care services and roads as well as privatize the oil industry. These were expected to happen prior the foreign investors help in the extraction of more oil. However, it deprived the Mexican government more revenue (Sverdrup 73). Researchers have realized that Mexican research and development expenditure, skilled labor availability and the patents issued were radical indicators of various technological leadership ends that enabled the country to continue producing a comprehensive stretch of such technological innovations while still having found that such technology leaders focused on exporting hi-tech products and receiving imports of products of more standard. The Mexican peso crisis and international effects In the 1988 – 1994 term of the Salinas presidency in Mexico, the overall GDP growth was at an average of 3.3% annually which was a number exceeding the population growth rate (at 2%). However, it fell almost immediately for the other poor and developing countries. Even though the growth turned to be lagging behind at the pace of subsequent emerging markets, the Mexican politicians became even more willing to detail rapid economic expansion in terms of stability (Villareal 11). The new and almost stable element in this case had the Mexican economy entering 1994 with diverse

On a personal experience of cultural adaptation Essay Example for Free

On a personal experience of cultural adaptation Essay Adaptation, originally as a biological concept, is an alteration or adjustment in structure or habits, by which a species or individual improves its condition in relationship to its environment. Every creature on the earth, including human beings, has the essential and innate capacity of adapting to the outer environment. That is on the level of biological adaptation. The evolution of human beings makes them outmatch all the other creatures to develop their own language and culture, which is unique only among themselves. At this time, the adaptation of human beings could not only be confined in the scope of biological one. Cultural adaptation, at this point, is necessary and indispensable for the further development of human beings. The significance and importance can be represented especially when the cultural contexts or environments have changed no matter it is a change of international, intercultural, interethnic, inter-religion, or inter-region, etc. The term â€Å"microculture†, the counterpart of â€Å"macroculture†, can refer to a social group that shares distinctive traits, values, and behaviors that set it apart from the parent macroculture of which it is a part (Gollnick Chinn, 1998). The identity of microculture can be based on traits and values of different ethnic origin, religion, gender, age, socioeconomic status, geographic region, place of residence conditions, and so on, among which, geographic region and place of residence will be what I give my focus on in this paper. The change of geographic region and place of residence will evoke the change in psychology and behavior to adjust and adapt oneself to the new environments. 2. Cultural Adaptation 2. 1 Cultural Adaptation versus Biological Adaptation Human beings, like other living creatures in the world, also have biological and psychological needs. Other animals fill their needs primarily through biological adaptation, for example, a lion uses speed and sharp teeth and claws to capture and eat its prey. However, our human beings develop forms of knowledge and technologies that enable them to get the necessary energy from the environment and make life more secure. This knowledge and technology forms a core of culture that can be passed from generation to generation and group and group, so human beings adapt to their world culturally (Nanda Warms, 2002). Cultural adaptation has some distinct advantages over biological adaptation. Because human adapt through learned behavior, they can change their approach to solving problems more quickly and easily. However, creatures whose adaptations are primarily biological change slowly (Nanda Warms, 2002). Adaptation, coming being into one of the basic characteristics of culture, makes people develop to accommodate environmental conditions and available natural and technological resources (Gollnick Chinn, 1998). Culture, in fact, is the way human beings adapt to the world (Nanda Warms, 2002). 2. 2 The Definition of Cultural Adaptation From the aspect of sociology and anthropology, cultural adaptation is the long-term process of adjusting and finally feeling comfortable in a new environment (Kim Gudykunst, 1988). Immigrants who enter a culture more or less voluntarily and who at some point decide to adapt to the new cultural context experience cultural adaptation in a positive way. Cultural adaptation, especially intercultural adaptation is broadly used in the literature of intercultural communication studies, and according to Kim, it refers to the process of increasing the level of fitness of people to meet the demands of a new cultural environment. It deals with how sojourners or new immigrants experience the distress caused by mismatches or incompatibility between the host culture and the culture of birth (Fan, 2004). 2. 3 Models of Cultural Adaptation 2. 3. 1 The Anxiety and Uncertainty Management Model This model was put forward by communication theorist William Gudykunst. He stresses that the goal of effective intercultural communication can be reached by reducing anxiety and seeking information, the so-called uncertainty reduction (Gudykunst, 1995). The uncertainty can be classified into different types. Predictive uncertainty is the inability to predict what someone will say or do. Explanatory uncertainty is the inability to explain why people behave as they do (Martin Nakayama, 2000). In fact, some level of anxiety is optimal during an interaction. Too little anxiety may convey that we don’t care about the person. Too much anxiety causes us to focus only on the anxiety and not on the interaction. This model assumes that to communicate effectively we will gather information to help us reduce uncertainty and anxiety. The theory predicts that the most effective communicators are people who have a solid self-concept and self-esteem, have flexible attitudes (a tolerance for ambiguity, empathy) and behaviors and are complex and flexible in their categorization of others (Martin Nakayama, 2000). 2. 3. 2 The U-Curve Model This model, applied to many different migrant groups, is based on research conducted by a Norwegian sociologist, Sverre Lysgaard, who interviewed Norwegian students studying in the United States. The main idea is that migrants go through fairly predictable phases in adapting to a new cultural situation. The first phase is the anticipation or excitement phase. The second phase, culture shock, happens to almost everyone in intercultural transitions. During this phase, migrants experience disorientation and often a crisis of identity. Because identities are shaped and maintained by one’s own cultural context, experiences in new cultural contexts often raise questions about identities. The third phase is adaptation. In this phase, how much of the migrants should be changed and to what degree should he or she to adapt is what should be pay attention to (Martin Nakayama, 2000). 2. 3. 3 The Transition Model Culture shock and adaptation have been viewed as a normal part of human experience, as a subcategory of transition shock. Janet Bennett (1998), a communication scholar, says that culture shock and adaptation are just like any other transition, such as going away to college, getting married, or moving from one part of the country to another. Psychologists have found that in this model most individuals prefer either a â€Å"flight† or â€Å"fight† approach to unfamiliar situations. The first preference, the â€Å"flight† approach, is to hang back, get the lay of the land, and see how things work before taking the plunge and joining in. The second preference, the â€Å"fight† approach, is to get in there and participate. Migrants who take this approach use the trial-and-error method. Individual preference is a result of family, social, and cultural influences. An alternative to fight or flight is the flex approach, in which the migrant uses a combination of productive fight or flight behaviors (Martin Nakayama, 2000). 3. Microculture or Subculture Microculture, as a counterpart of macroculture, refers to these groups which exist within the context of a larger society and share political and social institutions as well as some of the traits and values of the microculture. It can also be called subsocieties or subcultures. These cultural groups are called microcultures to indicate that they have distinctive cultural patterns while sharing some cultural patterns with all members of the macroculture and their unique patterns will identity themselves as members of their particular group. Cultural identity is based on several traits and values learned as a part of the national or ethnic origin, religion, gender, age, socioeconomic status, geographic region, place of residence conditions and so on (Gollnick Chinn, 1998).

Problems And Prospects Of Venture Capital

Problems And Prospects Of Venture Capital Venture capital is a type of private equity which provides funding for businesses which are newly started with high potential growth. Venture capital is very important to countries; this is because it creates job opportunities, advance technology, which in turn increases economic growth of the country. (Mason, C. Pierrakis, Y. 2009) What distinguishes between venture capital and private equity is that private equity is usually involved in investing in large company where as venture capital invest in small start up companies. These small and young businesses generally have high level of uncertainty, thus making them more risky. In additional, these businesses generally dont have many tangible assets making it extremely difficult for them to secure bank loans, therefore making venture capital a very good option for them. VC firms are not interested in companies that are trying to create a market, or companies that are in a mature market, instead they look for markets that have a large number of potential users. (Mason, C. Pierrakis, Y. 2009) A typical venture capital investment usually lasts from 3 to 7 years, and the standard sequences of venture capital investment are the following: The founder of an idea or product will try and persuade the venture capital firm that their idea/ product is sensible and profitable. If the venture capital firm is happy with the founders proposal, it will provide funding for the founder to set-up; this includes management team, development of a fully functional prototype, marketing research. In return the VC firm will get an equity stake of the invested company. Once the setting-up is finished, the VC firm will provide funding and support on promoting and selling the product. If the product is successful, reaching the targeted market shares, the VC firm will exit cashing in its investment. (The Smart Set-Up 2008) The first VC firm was found in 1946 by MIT President Karl Compton and General Georges F. Doriot named American Research and Development (ARD) which was structured as a close ended fund. ARD was extremely successful since it turned an investment of $70,000 in Digital Equipment Corporation to a value of $355 million after the companys initial public offering. A number of VC firms which was structured as close ended fund was established after ARD, but it wasnt until 1958 the first VC limited partnership was established by Draper, Gaither and Anderson. Limited partnership became more common in the 1960s and 1970s; however the majority of VC firms are still structured as close ended fund. (Gompers, P. Lerner, J. 2001) Today, Venture Capital has been affected by the recession. Not as much money is being invested as 5 years ago during the height of the technology bubble. Currently Venture Capitalists are decreasing there overall amounts invested but are moving towards allocating more to later-stage investments. Currently there are fewer young entrepreneurs with great new ideas who are willing to risk building and sustaining a business. However this downturn is not expected to continue forever and it is China that will lead the way as the new most exciting venture market with 1.3 billion potential consumers. Yet, it is not only China who will rise from this downturn, UK along with other traditionally strong venture markets will re-emerge, but the question remains whether or not it will attract as much venture capital as it once demanded. Although China is set to become the biggest venture capital market, it can without a doubt learn an awful lot from past experiences of the UK market to assist its de velopment. (Deloitte. 2009) UK Venture Capital Industry Overview Introduction: importance of the UK venture capital industry Although the private equity industry in the UK founded its roots back in 1940s, it started to take off and grow rapidly from the mid 1980s, and now is second only in importance globally to the USA. In Europe the UK private equity market is regarded as the most mature (Tannon et al. 2005 cited in Soderblom 2005). 40% of the European PE industry is shared by the UK funds. As of % of GDP, the UK is the most significant private equity investor in Europe at a level of 1.10% (Figure 1), but out of this only 0.21% goes into venture capital financing while the rest is invested in the buyout sector (EVCA, 2005b cited in Soderblom 2005). It is important to note that in Europe the terms venture capital and private equity or risk capital are often used interchangeably, as European private equity funds typically include three main sub-categories: venture capital for start-up businesses and early stage companies; later stage expansion capital; and management buy-outs and management buy-ins. This t erminology differs from the one in the US, where private equity funds are considered as separate institutions from those managing venture funds (European commission 2006). That is why in UK venture capital is regarded as an integral part of private equity, but as the riskier part of the whole portfolio of PE funds. The UK VC Industry has been always compared to the US VC Industry in its performance and main development drivers. However, Richard, chairman of Library House (2007), argued that instead of benchmarking each European country against the whole US, it is more reasonable to explore the difference in VC performance between separate states, and then compare them with countries in Europe. Thus, Library House has produced a league table, which put the UK a third in this ranking in 2006 with 515 minority stakes worth à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1.78bn. California was first with 1,367 deals worth à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬9.1bn, followed by Massachusetts with 338 deals worth à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬2.1bn. Development of Venture Capital Industry in UK and recent trends VC Industry in the UK started from 1945, when Industrial and Commercial Financial Corporation (ICFC) was created (Clarysse et.al. 2009) to provide capital to growing independent businesses, which later became a global private equity firm, with à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬8bn of assets under management (3i 2009). However, in 1970s availability of experienced VC managers proved to play an important role in taking-off the industry and developing it to the most successful in Europe. From early times of the development, the UK VCs were concentrated on leveraged buyouts and expansion type deals, as start-up opportunities were weak and not promising (Clarysse et.al. 2009). This is still the case in a current VC industry in UK making investments in established companies traditionally more attractive. Nevertheless, the UK VC Industry has shown a radical increase from  £26m invested in 1983 to  £1,048 in 2008. High-technology companies made more than 50% of those investments (Clarysse et.al. 2009). Over the last decade, the UK has been maintaining the average level of VC investment in early stage development of new ventures between 20% and 30% of total VC (BVCA 2009). VC Industry in recession Business XL (2009) reports that investments in ventures have decreased since 2006: 2 billion compared to estimated 750 million in this year. This suggests that venture capital industry was affected by the financial crisis. In the face of the recession that has challenged their existing portfolio companies, VCs are trying to secure more money to support those companies. Thus, most of the emerging opportunities are passing by without being considered by venture capitalists. Even though lower valuations of ventures seem to be a good deal for opportunistic VCs, according to Deloitte Research (2009), global trends indicate that large VC firms ($ 500million or more) have cut their investments more than small investment firms ($99 million or less). As the figure shows after the â€Å"dot-com† bubble in early 2000s the value of VC investments was falling gradually. But then, according to BVCA (cited by Mason et al. 2009) private equity and venture capital investments tripled in value between 2003 and 2007 from  £4bn to almost  £12bn. However, the value of investments fell by 28% in 2008 as the financial crisis took place. These trends indicate thatinvestment activities in Venture Capital Industry are very cyclical and fairly dependent on the general state of the economy. Source: BVCA Report on Investment Activity (various years) Importance of VC industry for growth of the UK economy According to BVCA (2009), companies backed by venture capital are more efficient and grow faster: VC-backed firms compared to those that do not receive venture capital backing are more innovative and produce more patents (Kortum et al. 2000), they develop and launch their products to the market faster (Hellmann et al. 2000), and have faster managerial professionalization (Bruton et al. 2005). In the UK during the time 2002-2007, the annual growth in number of people employed in VC-backed companies was 6%, sales growth was 12% annually, and exports were 14% annually (BVCA, 2009). Research undertaken by IE Consulting (2008) implies that venture capital funding plays a crucial role in making the whole UK economy more productive and competitive. VCs provide seed capital for new businesses helping them to develop the new high-tech products, market them, and to grow further to set-up their manufacturing and sales operations. Even though VCs contribution to growth of national economy is indirect, through funding new venture companies, this role is indeed the cornerstone of increasing innovation activities and development of advanced high-technology based firms in the country. The survey among 1013 VC-backed businesses (IE Consulting 2008) in UK identified that 86% of respondents have grown their businesses â€Å"organically† since receiving venture capital funding. 91% of the surveyed venture companies confirm that â€Å"venture capital was responsible for the existence/survival of their businesses and allowed them to grow more rapidly† (IE Consulting 2008). Moreover, there are also tax implications from the growth of VC-backed firms: public revenues increase as a result of growth in sales of those firms, and consequently more taxes are received by the government (including not only corporate taxes, but some other taxes resulting from growing venture firms operations). All these facts underlie the positive impact of venture capital industry on the overall economically important factors of the country such as job creation, growth of small and medium-sized businesses, investments in innovation and high-technology firms. Problems of Venture Capital industry in the UK Although UK is considered to be a world leader in Private Equity and Venture capital sector, second only to the US (IE Consulting 2008), still there are problems to be resolved as there are concerns that UK lags behind in the growing of ‘new high-tech based economy and innovation activities. The figure below taken from the report by Think Play Do Group (2009) prepared for BVCA, comparing VC industry development to US and Israel, the world-leaders in VC, shows that VC investments in the UK as a % of GDP are much lower than those in the US and Israel (Figure 3). This confirms the concerns that underinvestment in VC industry should be resolved and underlying problems identified and treated appropriately. Supply and Demand drivers for Venture Capital in the UK Since Venture Capital is so important for the economic development of the country, it is necessary to gain insight into how VC Industry is driven by supply and demand determinants. Moreover, the problems in the development of this industry can be identified through the closer look into both sides of it. Main demand side determinants of VC performance in the UK The demand for venture capital is drawn by the quantity and quality of innovative companies looking for funding and that are able to produce particular rates of return on those investments (Clarysse et.al. 2009). So, first of all, demand for VC is highly driven by early-stage entrepreneurial activities in the country. According to GEM Global report (2008), which explores the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic development, and particularly investigates â€Å"Entrepreneurial Attitudes, Activities and Aspirations† across 43 countries worldwide, in the UK 41% of adult population agreed that there are good opportunities to start a business in the next half of the year, and 52% considered entrepreneurship as a desirable career choice. However, only 5% expected to start a business in the next three years. All of these resulted in a very low rate of entrepreneurial activity, especially at the early stage which is just 5.9% of the whole population. Compared to the US (10.8%), this entrepreneurial activity is quite low, and might be a result of high percentage of respondents (38%), who believe that fear of failure would prevent starting a business. Clarysse et.al. (2009) explain that with bankruptcy laws that are more entrepreneur-friendly in the US compared to the UK, where there is high correlation between company and personal bankruptcies. One of the most important factors affecting the demand of VC is a stock of knowledge, which can be gathered through universities or national laboratories. Strong RD culture and easier spin-outs from those universities proved to have very positive effect on formation of new companies. It is also commonly considered that due to the lack of a culture of commercialising research in most of the European Universities (including the UK), these conditions are less effective in facilitating the commercialization of business ideas compared to countries where universities are normally private and dependent on commercialising research in order to increase revenues. Thus, indications of technological opportunities, such as growth rate of RD investments, availability of patents and access to university spin-outs seem to have a great impact on the demand for venture capital funding mainly through increasing number of new start-up firms exploiting those available opportunities. Statistical data (Worldbank 2008) indicate that between 1996 and 2006 RD expenditure in the UK as a percentage of GDP was stable between 1.5% and 2%. Fairly low capital gains taxes in the UK have had favourable effect on demand for VC in the UK, as it makes more people willing to start their own company. CGT rate has been reduced since 1988 from 40% to 10% for higher-rate tax payers for long-term investments. Though in 2008 this rate increased again from 10% to 18% in 2008, it is still low enough to encourage new business start-ups. (Clarysse et.al. 2009) According to statistical analysis conducted by Clarysse et.al. (2009) entrepreneurial activity is an important determinant of VC investments in the UK, so in order to enhance VC activities in thecountry policy makers should work on increasing entrepreneurial activity. Main Supply side determinants of VC performance in the UK There are different factors identifying the level of supply of VC, such as the situation on the exit markets, regulation policies, the fiscal environment and wider economic situation. The main problem is that the amount invested in early stage company is still low in the UK. The investors in the country are more interested in established businesses rather than in new innovative small companies, which is evidenced by the dominating buyout sector. According to Martin et al. (2003) and EVCA (2005) cited by Soderblom (2006), over 70% of all private equity goes into buyouts. For the last few years the early stage investments have substantially decreased in the UK, where VC allocations to seed and start-up phases account for only around 5% out of total PE investments (EVCA, 2005b cited by Soderblom 2006 ). Even with the fact that between the early 1990s and 2001 the volume of investments in high-technology companies in the UK increased tenfold (Martin et al., 2003) the VC investments in high- tech firms as a percentage of GDP was only 0.21% in 2005 (EVCA, 2005b cited by Soderblom 2006). The Figure 4 below illustrates these trends during the last decade. These low investments in early stage firms can be explained by the notion of â€Å"short terminism† which is the prevalent attitude towards returns on investments in the Capital market in the UK (Oakey 1995). It is evident that new high-tech based firms (NTBFs) have had a bad reputation among investors for being unreliable due to their inability to meet â€Å"fast return† demand and other â€Å"milestones† predicted in their business plans (Oakey 1995). Even more recent studies (Lockett et al. 2001) on â€Å"whether or not the UK VC industry has become less biased against investment in new technology-based firms† conclude that, although, investment in new high-tech based firms have increased by 2000s, the investors do not appear to be lowering their target rates of return for technology-based investments compared to non-technology-based investments at the same stage. So, even with higher acceptance rates for NTBFs, technology still proves to be a more important risk factor than stage of investment. Especially, the survey by Lockett et al. (2001) indicates that venture capitalists believe that many of NTBF proposals continue to be riskier than non-technology projects due to issues in management quality, intellectual property protection and potential market size. So there comes the problem of equity gap for the NTBFs. These firms are unable to get investments from either business angels or venture capitalists. The reason is that the small private Investors have limited financial resources and generally invest relatively small amounts of equity that is not enough for the new ventures and at the same time venture capitalists invest in bigger projects and the minimum sum they provide is higher than that the company asks for. According to the 2004 Bridging the Finance Gap report, the equity gap affects businesses seeking to raise between approximately  £250,000 and  £2 million of equity finance, and that this gap is most severe for sub- £1 million investments and for innovative businesses at an early stage of their development. Exit strategy for investor. On the supply side, stock market activity and the availability of trade sale opportunities were found to be important elements. VCs think in milestones but dream of exits. Visible exits such as stock market introductions are important for VCs to raise funds. It does not really matter whether these companies are introduced on local or international public markets as long as the stock market is liquid.(source) Ideally, investments are realised through an IPO, an industrial trade sale, or a secondary sale (Sà ¶derblom 2006). However, deep and liquid stock markets and favourable conditions to realize trade sales tend to be the most important factors for VC industry to flourish. Bringing a company to IPO indicates the quality of the VC and is important for investors in considering subsequent funding rounds, even though IPOs only account for less than 5% of total exits. A secondary market in for stock exchanges in the UK was created with AIM (Alternative Investment Market founded in 1995, and has grown significantly, from having a capitalisation of  £82.2 million in 1995 to nearly  £40 billion at the time in 2008. Furthermore, the London Stock Exchange launched techMARK to help promote existing quoted technology stocks and attract new ones to the exchange. However, according to BVCA there is a slow development of early stage VC in Britain and the whole Europe because of the absence of a f unctioning pan-European stock exchange for early stage ventures. The problem is that the European second-tier markets are fragmented (as several second-tier markets were launched) which resulted in limited capitalisation and liquidity of individual markets. Thus, reforms in capital market regulations may be needed to allow the creation of a single stock market for growth companies (including the UK markets) promoting economies of scale (Clarysse et.al. 2009). The sizes of public funds in the UK have not enabled the industry to reach a sufficient critical mass and the limited availability of follow-on financing has resulted in a â€Å"second equity gap†. To address this, the government could cornerstone an investment into a fund-of-funds that would attract private capital from institutional investors which would invest in venture capital funds able to demonstrate a track record of strong performance. (source) The Importance of balance between private sector and public sector investors in VC industry Since the early development of venture capital industry till late 1990s venture funds were primarily publicly-funded and supported by Business Expansion Scheme, which was replaced in 1994 by the Enterprise Investment Scheme (Mason et al. 2009). At the beginning of 20th century Many of these funds became ‘hybrids, involving a combination of public money and private investors, with incentives which enhance the risk-reward profile to attract private investors. Although free-standing private sector investments increased in numerical terms from 2002 until 2006, they have declined as a proportion of total investment activity from 81% in 2001 to 56% in 2008. In the UK the increased involvement of the public sector is even more apparent in the early stage venture capital market (Mason et al. 2009) accounting for the majority of such investments. In 2001 public sector funds were involved in 36% of investments. By 2003, as the various funds established by the Labour Government came on st ream, this had risen to 51% and by 2008 accounted for 68% of all investments. The proportion of public sector investments in the form of co-investment schemes has grown from 28% in 2001 to peak at 56% in 2007, falling back to 45% in 2008. (source) Nonetheless, emerging evidence from a NESTA/BVCA study (Nightingale et al, 2009 cited by Mason et al. 2009) indicates that companies that have received funding from public sector venture capital funds have not performed significantly better than those firms that did not receive funding from such sources. One interpretation is that public sector venture capital funds may not be able to add value to the companies they manage, because there is a â€Å"necessity to attract, reward and hold together experienced and committed venture capital executives to manage public funds.† In other words, the individuals running public sector funds are highly rewarded and incentivised to make the best possible returns. On the other hand, public sector venture capital funds may not be able to attract capable investment managers, and consequently they are unable to make good investments (quality of deal flow, domain knowledge, effectiveness of their due diligence). Thus, dominating position of pub licly funded VC funds especially in economically lagging regions resulted in inefficient performance of regionally based funds in the Midlands and north of England, along with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland due to lack of entrepreneurial eco-system and necessary networks with expert VC managers and external investors, and this in turn resulted in the VC industry in UK being concentrated and limited in traditionally active centres as London and Cambridge. Analysis Such a market would have two crucial benefits; first, it would greatly improve the ability VC-backed companies to raise large sums of capital required for global expansion and secondly, it would help to increase the average valuations of MA transactions. Further research should be conducted to fill the gaps and update the existing literature on the feasibility of a Pan-European stock exchange. A briefly description of development of VC industry in China How it originated and developed? Chinas venture capital business started from the middle of 1980s. For about twenty five years development, Chinas venture capital has made a great improvement, especially in the recent four or five years. However, there are still a lot of difficulties and problems facing China venture capital. For example, lack of appropriate regulations and policies, inflexible venture capital investment mechanism, lack of diversity of funding sources or lack of effective exit mechanism and so on. In 1983, the State Science Technology Commission (SSTC) (now the Ministry of Science Technology or MOST) set up a Research Group of Countermeasures to the Influence of the New Technology Revolution in order to carefully study the international technology situation. (This was the first time for China to truly face the implications that were taking place in the development of the global economy. After that from 1985 to 1995, the Central Government and some local governments financed and set-up investment institutions that intended to pursue the venture capital business. (Jack C. Fensterstock, Aimin Li 2001) In the year 1999, lots of government funding were lost, because of not deeply and really understand VC. After that both government and private started to change, for example, make some polices and gave better conditions for those who is good at VC. Since 2006, VC is on its boom in china, with the government supplying majority of it, however the amount of both private funding and the funding from abroad has developed significantly, More, VC in china is paying more and more attentions on new technologies. (Jack C. Fensterstock, Aimin Li 2001) Policy support in China Venture capital as a risk investment, it is highly risky but also highly profitable. More integrated laws or regulations are needed for Chinas venture capital development. In China, to protect and regulate the VC markets, Chinese government had made some National laws and some local laws duo to its own background. (As the graph shows below) In China, there are several different business activities of Venture capital. However, it is not permitted for VC enterprises to invest in guarantee services or real property business activities. Venture capital investment business; Venture capital investment business carried out on behalf of other organizations such as VC enterprises or individuals; Venture capital investment consulting business; Venture capital investment management services provided to VC enterprises; Participations in VC enterprises and venture capital management consultancies. (China: Venture Capital Regulations Published January 6, 2006 Hong Kong) With the development of policy, technological and understanding of VC, both organizational and institutional elements in China are becoming more and more complex. The system that has emerged so far is highly complex in terms of variety and number of organizational actors. Although the result has been dramatic, the series of changes are best seen as evolutionary and primarily driven by Chinas larger objective of national technological and economic development. As such, key changes in Chinas science and technology policy and business system structure during the transition era can be linked to the emergence and nature of Chinas venture capital industry. In this context, venture capital is simultaneously an extension of prior policy trajectories, as well as a potential answer to problems that other policy initiatives have not been able to solve. Balance between private and public For the venture capital industry in China, unlike other countries, it has been promoted not as a means to private gain; it is a critical mechanism to connect among scientific, technological capabilities and output. one hand, with national and regional economic and social development on the other which includes the total set of related actors and institutions, has undergone a dramatic transformation over the last two decades. The source for fund is very single, most of them are from government, or mixed by both private and government. Also, for Chinese government, it is always believed that both science and technology are the most significant parts of its search for economic development. (Steven WHITE, 2008) Most venture capital funds have a fixed life of 10 years, with the possibility of a few years of extensions to allow for private companies still seeking liquidity. The source for fund is very single, most of them are from government, or fixed by both private and government, and government takes the risky, compared with others, this kinds of fund do not want to take high risk investment. The national and local governments may establish venture capital investment guidance funds. The funds are to support the establishment and development of VC enterprises by taking equity participations and providing financial guarantees, etc. The state shall use beneficial tax policies to support the development of VC enterprises and to encourage them to invest in small and medium size enterprises, in particular in the high tech sector. The foregoing preferential policies shall be set forth in regulations to be drafted by the relevant authorities. Exit mechanism of Venture capital in China Chinas venture capital business started from the middle of 1980s (2). For about twenty five years development, Chinas venture capital has made a great improvement, especially in the recent years. Yet there are still a lot of difficulties and problems facing China venture capital. Compare to developed countries, China venture capital still lagging far behind. Exit mechanism as the major process of making profit from investment, it is very important to Venture capital. However, Because of the lack of appropriate laws, regulations or market structures and so on, exit become extremely difficult for China venture capital industry. Exit mechanism of venture capital mainly including four methods, initial public offering (IPO), mergers and acquisitions ¼Ã…’repurchase ¼Ã…’write- off (10). In China, about 15% of venture capital exit mechanism is by IPO in recent years, this is higher than in developed countries, this is not good because over half of listed companies are overseas-listed; over 37% of venture capital exit from mergers and acquisitions which is the highest compare to the other exit mechanisms (Qisong Wang, 2004), and this is still increasing. Both numbers are proving that chinas venture capital exit mechanism lacks of flexibility, the reasons lead to exit inflexibility can be described as follow: lack of appropriate laws, policies or regulations; inadequacy of a well organized market structure; absence of a efficient intermediate service system; limitation on enterprise ownership structure, and so on. One big very important element should be taken into consideration is that the Chinese government involvement. Most domestic venture capital institutions in China carry a government background or were once state owned enterprises, this deprive them of the capability of adapting to the high marketization, ardent competition, high intelligence, and high-responsiveness of the venture capital industry (Gongmeng Chen, 2005). The inflexibility of venture capital investment mechanism and lack of competitiveness is another problem to China venture capital development. If they do not thoroughly press forward with the marketization and globalization reform, even though they can have some development it will not be a long-term intrinsic development. No matter the market or policy environment in China, both have limited the adjustment of venture capital development. What the government can do is to build a more specific regulation system to rule the whole venture capital market. The Chinese marke t is attractive to foreign venture capitalists because of large domestic demand, rapid economic development (Chang Sun, 2006). Government itself can do investing but the more important thing is to encourage private equity and other forms of capital to involve into venture

Post-traumatic stress disorder in Kuwait :: Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD

REPAIRING A NATION POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN KUWAIT THESIS: Studies made by experts found after the liberation of Kuwait following the Gulf War of 1991 that most children who were inside the country experienced undesirable emotions simultaneously which brought out more abnormal behaviors. INTRODUCTION In the oppressively hot summer of 1990 the second of August to be exact, people were sleeping peacefully in their homes. It was a Thursday morning and most Kuwaitis had left the country on holiday. No one ever suspected or believed that a neighboring country of the same religion would invade such a small innocent country. Most of the Kuwaiti citizens who were inside the country or outside were in shock. This Iraqi occupation that Kuwait suffered for seven months was dramatically experienced by both adults and children. They were exposed to such brutal atrocities as executing anyone who had a typewriter or a camera so that no one in the outside world would know how indecently they were treating a neighboring country. Plus any interference in Sadaam's military actions resulted in hundreds of patriots who fought bravely for the freedom of their country. The Iraqi soldiers tried to terrorize the Kuwaiti people by subjecting them to different types of torture techniques like raping virgin females and mothers in front of their children. Rape was practiced not only on females but young males too. Many Kuwaiti civilian men, women and children were taken from their homes and never returned to their families. There are still 625 Kuwaiti hostages in Iraq. This number means much to a small community where every family is related to a POW. The people who suffered less are those who lost their homes, money and other valuables. All those terrors of war have now caused what is called Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Second International Conference, Mental Health in the State of Kuwait). People suffered from this brutal and fateful period when the country was under occupation, either by being forced to start over from scratch or by working in a new job, building a new house. Many people fell into poverty. Also the thought that their country no longer existed during the invasion had a very difficult mental effect on the people. They could not believe the reality that their country was being occupied. This idea was especially traumatic for older people. The behaviors and emotions of Kuwaitis under such war-like circumstances are not new to psychology.

Gangs Essay -- Gang Essays

When was the last time you were able to turn on the news and not hear about some sort of violent act? Crime is a growing concern amongst most cities, and street gangs are behind a lot of the trouble. Street gangs have plagued the streets for centuries and there is no stopping the urge to commit such hideous crimes. Gangs grow from recruiting young kids but what makes a kid decide to join a crime filled lifestyle. The gang life contains many negative aspects including the most notorious reason for violence, drugs. Getting high seems appealing to many students but with the excitement of getting high comes the responsibility of buying and selling the drugs. The biggest reason for a gang to start would be drugs. Marijuana might seem like a harmless drug but it can be the most dangerous drug to start doing. When someone smokes marijuana it attracts them to use other drugs and these addictions need gang support. Addictions attract young kids to this lifestyle to keep themselves supplied with drugs. With the drug lifestyle comes the violent aspect of it. Violence is important to gangs because it draws fear in the eyes of those who try to stand up to them. Violence is the worst aspect of gang life because it keeps getting worse as gangs keep growing larger. Violent acts are the biggest reason society has a negative outlook on gang life. But young gang members don’t start out using violent acts to get attention but by simple crimes like shoplifting. Even though shoplifting is a crime that puts people in jail, it seems like an easy way for attention for young kids. Shoplifting is also a very addicting activity because it’s a rush for the people that do it. Shoplifting can start out with something small like a keychain but then it keeps getting worse as one keeps stealing bigger things like money and electronics. When a young kid gets involved with gang activity their personality changes in a bad way. Now that the young gang member is part of some kind of illegal crimes their personality changes because they feel unstoppable. These young kids feel invincible, almost as if nobody can stand in their way, which can be a big problem to the people who stand in their way. These kids act as though they have no fear so this leads to more crime, which further leads to jail time. So why would young kids want to join a life of crime? The answers are numerous. Some kids a... ...f supplied and to make your profit. The next step up from being a drug dealer is to perform acts of violence to keep your gang feared. These are the kids who nobody dare mess with because rumors and stories spread quickly which makes them seem more popular. When the gang kids hear about them they instantly try to recruit them bribing them with drugs and money. These kids then have to be ready to fight the gang’s battles if anything ever gets bad. Then there are the ones who are on the top of the gang life ladder who gives out all the orders, which the others will follow. These are the kids that normally don’t deal drugs or use violence to scare people but are very smart. I consider them to be the most dangerous because they are the ones who control all the other gang members and use their powerful minds to bring fear to those who try to defy them. Gangs will forever be in the media and as long as crime still plagues the streets gangs will be recruiting young kids for there evil deeds. Family and friends need to stop ignoring the younger generation because their lives aren’t as simple as everyone thinks. Growing up isn’t easy and to find comfort in this lifestyle is very easy.

How to Solve the Foreclosure Crisis Essay -- Economics

There should be a bifurcated targeting of the housing market. The first and main target of the housing recovery needs to be the cautious restructuring of the government sponsored entities—GSE’s—Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE) and to a lesser extent FHA. Recent news headlines put the combined total mortgage market share for the FNM, FRE and FHA at seventy-two percent (72%) [i] of the entire industry. The restructuring of those three entities will be a process of dividing their combined debt into at least ten smaller portfolios which individual investors can either incorporate into the existing businesses or form entirely new businesses made up of all or any part of the portfolio(s) they purchase. Each portfolio ideally will represent no more than a 5% to 7% share of the mortgage market so that we no longer have behemoths that are â€Å"too large to fail†. Further, the government will in all likelihood have to guarantee—for a limited period of time and with expectations of profit sharing similar to that of the banking bailouts and in fact the funds the banks are now paying back could be used for the purpose of guaranteeing so as not to offend the public—part of the initial funding that the private enterprises will need and want in order to get their respective pieces of the mortgage market launched. The breakup of these three GSE’s into numerous pieces will help manage the ability of success as it is not likely that all ten pieces will fail and as smaller players are easier to manage this will help increase the likelihood for success. In order for the government to get both the best price/value for each portfolio created from the breakup each of these portfolios should have different levels of mortgage debt risk. This will incr... ...o handle or avert another crisis should one come our way in the future and to return to the tax payer the monies it has already paid to bailing out these institutions. Works Cited [i] A combined market share of 72% for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA as indicated by Mortgage Market Note—CIRE Magazine: http://www.ciremagazine.com/article.php?article_id=307 (04/01/2009; 09/14/2009) also see the NPR report at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98285028 (12/17/2008; 09/14/2009) [ii] BretWhissel Mortgage Calculator http://www.bretwhissel.net/cgi-bin/amortize (09/14/2009) [iii] American Institute for Economic Research report http://www.aier.org/research/commentaries/583-update-on-the-house-price-trends (10/16/2008; 09/14/2009) also see the iTulip report http://www.itulip.com/housingbubblecorrection.htm (01/20/2005; 09/14/2009)

Assignment 4: Internet Technology, Marketing, and Security Essay

Assignment 4: Internet Technology, Marketing, and Security The purpose of this assignment is to â€Å"evaluate the reasons Social Media Marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media Marketing for business entrepreneurs. Assess how Social Media Marketing is helping Pepsi gain more customer insight than it would have otherwise. Research two (2) other businesses that have used Social Media Marketing to their advantage. Discuss how each of these businesses has utilized Social Media Marketing and provide examples with your discussion. Speculate what impact Social Media will have business over the next decade and identify what skills you need to improve to take advantage of the changes (Boone, Kurtz, 2012).† Evaluate the reasons Social Media Marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes. â€Å"The experimentation era in social media marketing is long over. Social media has proven to be a viable and potentially lucrative marketing channel for B2B and B2C companies of all sizes, across the globe. As more and more companies jump on the social media bandwagon, it is more important now than ever that you provide value, not add to the clutter already on the social web. The reigning champions of social media are the brands that listen to their community, and deliver worthwhile information based on what they hear (Top Rank, 2013).† Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media Marketing for business entrepreneurs. â€Å"Your online advertising strategy might include paid advertising on search networks such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo. Social ads on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn may also be effective tools for your messaging. Our first step is to determine your goals and where your audience lives, in order to place your brand in front of the right people, in the right place, at the right time (Top Rank, 2013).† â€Å"Through compelling, creative copy and imagery, our search, display and social ads inspire your audience to take your desired action, whether your intent is to: †¢ Attract new prospects and customers †¢ Engage consumers and build community around your brand †¢ Convert prospects to loyal customers (Top Rank, 2013).†. â€Å"Regular reporting and ongoing optimization ensures you receive maximum accountability and the best results possible from your online campaigns (Top Rank, 2013).† Assess how Social Media Marketing is helping Pepsi gain more customer insight than it would have otherwise. â€Å"The rise of social and mobile is rewriting the marketing playbook for even the most established companies. While many brands are still casting a wary eye at social media for business, Pepsi has embraced the technology, carving out an ambitious social strategy aimed at building relationships with the Millennial generation, soon to be the largest consumer group in US history (Social, 2012).† â€Å"A recent article by David Hatch of US News and World Report does a great job of breaking down Pepsi’s social strategy, the centerpiece of which is its â€Å"Live For Now† marketing campaign. The campaign, targeting 18-35 year olds, is a great example of an established brand effectively utilizing five critical aspects of social media marketing: consumer engagement, user-generated content, data aggregation, geo-local, and inbound marketing (Social, 2012).† DYNAMIC CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT â€Å"Pepsi’s new digital dashboard is the most recent iteration of an online strategy that included last year’s debut of Pepsi Pulse and Sound Off, online destinations that encouraged visitors to comment on The X-Factor, a Fox network reality television show whose sponsors include Pepsi (Social, 2012).† â€Å"To further engage its online community, the song selection and encores for a Pepsi concert series this summer featuring major artists will be chosen in part by tweets from the live audience and people watching online (Social, 2012).† â€Å"Pepsi is learning that if you want to remain relevant with this new type of consumer, you have to be where they are, you have to talk their language,† and you have to connect with them in a way that â€Å"keeps them feeling like they want to be part of your brand,† says Brian Solis, a principal analyst at the Altimeter Group. Connected consumers, he adds, are â€Å"getting groomed and conditioned to expect the world to come to them (Social, 2012).† â€Å"USER-GENERATED CONTENT ‘Social media marketing is becoming increasingly dependent on user-generated content, meaning reviews, comment, or any other input from customers. Peer influence has a measurable impact on consumer purchase decision, especially among Millennials (Social, 2012).† â€Å"Understanding this, Pepsi has created a new digital dashboard on their Pepsi.com place page to support the Live For Now campaign, highlighted by user-generated messages from Facebook and Twitter that include the #LiveForNow hashtag (Social, 2012).† â€Å"Moreover, with the help of SocialFlow, a tool that ranks the popularity of editorial content within audience segments, Pepsi is paying attention to what their target audience is interested in. â€Å"It’s all about that movement [online], and where people’s time is being spent,† says George Smith, senior manager, social strategy and execution, for Pepsi Beverages (Social, 2012).† â€Å"Actually listening to consumers in order to understand their wants and needs builds user loyalty, creating brand evangelists who will spread the word and act as online defenders of the company brand (Social, 2012).† â€Å"Moreover, by monitoring what people say online about its products, Pepsi is able to manage user complaints in real time, before they take on a life of their own (Social, 2012).† â€Å"DATA AGGREGATION â€Å"Unlike traditional, harder-to-track advertising methods such as TV and print, social media provides a wealth of statistics about the age, gender, demographics, interests, and reactions of consumers. As Smith notes, â€Å"With digital, you end up with a lot of extra data, and you end up with a lot more understanding of who your consumer is (Social, 2012).† â€Å"This consumer data helps Pepsi refine its consumer engagement model, the effect of which is to attract new fans, and thus more data (Social, 2012).† â€Å"GEO-LOCAL REACH â€Å"Pepsi is hopping on the newest trend in social: SoLoMo, or Social, Local, Mobile. Thanks to the massive consumer adaptation of smart phones, companies like Pepsi can integrate social media with location-based mobile marketing. (Social, 2012).† â€Å"Why do so? Because Pepsi can be more surgical about reaching populations in specific geographic areas. â€Å"We’re seeing good results from that,† Smith says, explaining that the company can target local audiences with specially tailored advertising messages fueled by location information provided in Facebook profiles (Social, 2012).† â€Å"This kind of micro-targeting allows brands to hunt consumers with a high-precision rifle instead of a shotgun (Social, 2012).† â€Å"INBOUND MARKETING Out with the push, in with the pull (Social, 2012).† â€Å"Pepsi has recognized that the tech-enabled power shift to the consumer has effectively neutralized many traditional forms of outbound, or push, marketing. Today’s savvy consumer wants to be listened to and courted by  marketers. They want direct channels of communication to brands. In short, consumers expect brands to employ inbound marketing best practices as an engagement model (Social, 2012).† â€Å"When done properly, this approach is a win-win for brands and consumers. Pepsi’s social strategist George Smith recognizes the mutual benefit of direct consumer interaction: â€Å"It’s nice to be able to have that direct conversation with them, and not have to rely on a specific media channel to push this, or buy TV constantly to push that message,† he says (Social, 2012).† â€Å"By last count, Pepsi’s 8,181,075 Facebook fans agree (Social, 2012).† Research two (2) other businesses that have used Social Media Marketing to their advantage. â€Å"At TopRank ® Online Marketing, we understand that your company’s success in social media requires a deep understanding of your customers’ needs and their journey throughout all stages of the buying cycle. We specialize in crafting targeted, high quality content that serves to attract, engage and even convert customers as they factor their social relationships into their purchasing decisions. Many companies offer social media marketing, yet we are one of the few with experience and proven results to consistently reach goals in branding, social PR, and even lead generation using social (Top Rank, 2013)† â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ BFM ® is a unique industrial pipe connector designed to provide safe, sanitary and efficient connections for the transportation and movement of powder within bulk powder processing plants (Top Rank, 2013).† Their objective was â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ develop a new website and launch a strategic online marketing program that would increase visitors as well as sales inquiries for the company†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Top Rank, 2013).† â€Å"The decision was made advertise their brand on the website utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) tactics: †¢ Website development and technical assessment †¢ Keyword research and content optimization †¢ Content promotion and link building †¢ Web analytics and conversion tracking (Top Rank, 2013).† These actions utilizing social media marketing resulted in, â€Å"†¦ website traffic increase more than 700% in its niche market. Additionally, with the launch of its creative campaign, The Powder Doctor, organic traffic to the company website has more than doubled. (Top Rank, 2013).† â€Å"Organic search, combined with the creative concept leveraged for online PR and email marketing campaigns, have helped to increase bottom line sales for the company by 83% (Top Rank, 2013).† Discuss how each of these businesses has utilized Social Media Marketing and provide examples with your discussion. â€Å"A success social media strategy ties outcomes to overarching business goals and connects you with the right prospects and customers on the proper platforms. It engages your loyal fans, friends, and followers through a combination of organic and paid media (Top Rank, 2013).† â€Å"Our social media marketing experience at TopRank spans all of the major social networks and a variety of niche sites, including Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, SlideShare, YouTube and more (Top Rank, 2013).† Speculate what impact Social Media will have business over the next decade and identify what skills you need to improve to take advantage of the changes. In closing, the purpose of this assignment is to â€Å"evaluate the reasons Social Media Marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media Marketing for business entrepreneurs. Assess how Social Media Marketing is helping Pepsi gain more customer insight than it would have otherwise. Research two (2) other businesses that have used Social Media Marketing to their advantage. Discuss how each of these businesses has utilized Social Media Marketing and provide examples with your discussion. Speculate what impact Social Media will have business over the next decade and identify what skills you need to improve to take advantage of the changes (Boone, Kurtz, 2012).† References Boone, L. E. & Kurtz, D. L. (2012 Update). Contemporary business (14th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John & Sons. Social Media Today (2012). 5 Ways Pepsi’s Use of Social Media is Right On. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/synecoretech/509355/5-ways-pepsis-use-social-media-right Top Rank (2013) Online Marketing. Retrieved from http://www.toprankmarketing.com /services/social-media-marketing// [pic][pic]

Analysis Paper

Justice Waite Professor Cherry Eng 111 Analysis Final Draft Can squirrels really plot? Have you ever been driving down the road and have something bad happen to you that you have to slam on the breaks? If you have, then maybe you can relate to the following commercial. Even if you have never had this happen to you, you still might be able to relate to it. The basic idea of the commercial is that no matter what happens in life, that you should always be prepared for what to do next. GEICO is not just car insurance, but they can be your friend.First of all I would like to start of this essay by telling you what my commercial is about. The commercial that I chose to write my paper on was a GEICO commercial. There are lots of commercials out there for car insurance, but I think this one is the best. When we first see this commercial on the television, they start it off by showing you a squirrel sitting on a tree stump. This stump is by the side of the road near the woods. The squirrel is also eating a nut, while we hear the birds chirping. About half way into the commercial, the squirrel jumps down from the stump and tries to cross the road.As the squirrel crosses the road, he sees a station wagon coming down the road. He than stops in front of the car and just stands there and waits for the car to hit him. Instead of the car hitting him, it swerves off the side of the road. As we hear crashing sounds from the car, another squirrel comes onto the road next to the other squirrel. As the car is crashing the two squirrels start pounding their fists together as if he made the car crash on purpose. Then the narrator says â€Å"Accidents can happen anytime. That’s why GEICO is here 24 hours a day, every day. By looking closer at what this commercial is really saying, then we can understand it better. Because this commercial was on the USA channel, during the new episode of White Collar it can help us better to figure out who GEICO is really trying to target with it. Seeing as how all Americans watch the USA channel, it is best to assume that GEICO is trying to target people in their late twenties and above. We can assume this because a majority of American families watch this channel. By looking closer at what this commercial is really saying than we can understand it better.Because this commercial was on the USA channel, during the new episode of White Collar it can help us. By putting this commercial on during a well watched television series is a great way to promote a product. This commercial is also very funny to some people. By making it this way, GEICO hopes to attract people with great personalities, and that are rather funny to be around. Comedy is always a great way to promote a product. Because GEICO references that these two squirrels are buddies, they make this commercial very entertaining to watch.Everyone knows that squirrels run across the road into traffic all the time, that is why this commercial is so great to watch. GEIC O makes it seem like all that squirrels do all day is plot how to get cars into accidents. Even though what they really do is try to gather nuts all summer for winter time. Then GEICO makes it seem like once they actually achieve this scheme of making the cars go off the road, that they are happy and pound it with each other. This makes it fell like when two young kids are playing together.If they are both boys, then we can definitely assume that they are up to no good and trying to plot to do something very bad. When they achieve what they are up to, then they both are happy and pound each others fists. Even though we all know that squirrels cant really plot with each other, the idea of it just makes it simply funny and easier to sell car insurance. I've already told you what I think this essay is about, and who the targeted audience is, so now it's time to talk about the overall idea of this commercial.In my opinion the overall idea of this commercial is that, no matter where you are or what happens, you should always be prepared for the unexpected. You could be driving down the road just like the guy was in this commercial, and have the same thing happen to you. If you are not prepared though, something bad could very well happen to you. Like going off the side of the road (in this guys case) and crashing your car. If you don’t have car insurance in this case, then you are going to be screwed.Or take for example something else like, you are on your way home for work after a long night and your house is on fire. What do you do in this case? You can't run inside of this flaming building and expect to get all of your things back. That is why you need to always be prepared and ready in case anything like this would ever happen, like having home owners insurance. Not everything though in life is always about insurance. It is just better to prepared for the unexpected than be screwed when it happens.In conclusion, car insurance is not just another thing th at you need to buy just because it is the law. Car insurance can be helpful in the most unexpected situation that will ever happen. GEICO tries to tell us this by basically using a metaphor. That they can be your friend when you need them the most. Just like a real life friend, but they use squirrels and a station wagon to get this point across. I hope by the time that you read this last sentence that you will understand this commercial better now. The way that I do, maybe you might even laugh a little bit like I did.

Mice and Men and Great Expectations Essay

Of Mice and Men and Great Expectations, have many similarities. They both show the way certain characters are treated by society. These similarities may be strong but there are natural differences that come from the different times and places the stories are set in.-as well as the way the authors approach the topic.  Steinbeck begins Of Mice and Men by creating a tranquil scene where everything is seemingly at peace. Steinbeck creates with words images of paradise such as when he writes: â€Å"A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hill-side bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool.† A river, which is said to â€Å"run deep†, is calm and slow moving. Its water is clear too, â€Å"twinkling over yellow sands,† it has warm water too and seems perfect-almost too good to be true. Inevitably it is. Of Mice and men is set in the 1930s during America’s great depression. After the stock exchange crashed in New York, money and jobs became hard to find. There was poverty all over America and California, which affected everything. Like the American dream, paradise can only exist with money. Therefore only the wealthy can enjoy this and even then it is spoilt by the poverty surrounding it. The American Dream is a paradox, just like the paradise of Salinas River. They cannot exist because they contradict themselves. Paradise is bliss but how can this exist with so much poverty and suffering in the world? The Salinas River seems briefly to have escaped the paradox. There is no sign of poverty, just peace and tranquillity. Then human life enters the scene. Human life is introduced when a path is described; â€Å"There is a path through the willows and among the sycamores, a path beaten hard by boys coming down from the highway.† It’s the point that the track has been â€Å"beaten hard† that really emphasises what effect humans have had on the river. Other animals leave tracks that are temporary and blend into the scene. Humans have left their path permanently, like a scar it proves that not even the Salinas River can reach paradise. But it is not the only scar, â€Å"In front of the low horizontal limb of a giant sycamore there is an ash pile made by many fires; the limb is worn smooth by men who have sat on it.† Two more scars. The introduction of humans into the scene sees the end of the animal life in the scene. As the humans approach all the wildlife is scared of and the area is completely deserted. â€Å"For a moment the place was lifeless.† The peace is broken and with it any chance of the Salinas River truly becoming paradise.  The story is set in California where few people owned land. They had either lost it due to the financial problems the depression caused or were just too poor to afford any in the first place. The people needed to find work; one of the most common jobs was to work on a farm. These people became known as migrant farmers. They would drift from one farm to the next, rarely settling for long. The two characters that enter the scene are migrant farmers and are looking for work. This is the first introduction of human life into the scene. Great Expectations is set in Victorian England, where just like in 1930s California, the rich thrived and the poor suffered terribly. Even more distressing perhaps was the disease that swept through towns and killed many children as well as adults. This led to an increase in orphans, who have the same feelings of being alone and poor. They have the same problems as many others and weren’t much better off than the criminals in jail. Criminals were treated like animals, as were the poor community as a whole. Just like during the dust bowl, if you weren’t rich then you were a social outcast. After introducing the character Pip, Dickens begins describing his surroundings. Dickens goes into great detail to set the scene. He describes the area as â€Å"Marsh Country† which stretches for twenty miles up to the coast. Pip is in a secluded graveyard overgrown and derelict. Beyond the graveyard is a â€Å"dark flat wilderness,† â€Å"Intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes.† It is a â€Å"raw afternoon towards the evening.† The setting is dark and there is a sense of evil and death about the place. It seems to be building upto something sinister, and does so when the criminal enters the scene. He is described as a â€Å"fearful man, in all course grey with an iron on his leg.† He almost represents death in this scene, an evil presence trying to seize Pip.