How Dickens uses language Essay Example for Free

How Dickens uses language Essay There is a variety of repetition in the passage. Phrases like ‘Dead and Buried’ are repeated to remind us, as readers, that most of Pip’s family is dead. The word ‘buried’, suggests that it happened some time ago and that he never knew them, which makes us feel pity and sympathy for the character. Pip talks about his life in the marsh country, where he resided by the river and near the sea. This could possibly highlight how Pip (small like a river), may be connected to something greater than he could’ve ever imagined (like the sea). Dickens also uses some interesting vocabulary, with fascinating imagery in this passage. For example he describes the sea as a ‘distant savage lair’. The word ‘distant’ tells the reader that there is an unknown, oncoming threat. The word ‘savage’ suggests it was over powerful and violent. Finally, the word ‘lair’ implies a dangerous place, where victims are taken to be devoured. This shows the reader that Pip is not safe, and seems to be in grave danger. Alliteration is another technique which Dickens has input in the passage. The phrase ‘low leaden line’, (which describes the river), is a good example of this. Rivers are supposed to be an aquatic blue colour, but Dickens describes it as ‘leaden’, which is a depressing grey colour, suggesting a bleak setting. Finally, Dickens uses third person in the passage, although this is questionable. In one sentence, Pip goes from narrating as an adult in the 1st person and then switches to the 3rd person, where he looks back at himself as a small child. This is because he is in utter disbelief at how lost he was, which is effective as the reader feels confused, just as Pip would have as a small child.

External And Internal Determinants Of Capital Structure Finance Essay

External And Internal Determinants Of Capital Structure Finance Essay 1: Introduction 1.0 Introduction The literature on capital structure theory has made significant progress after the trend setting publications of Modigliani and Miller in1958. After the publication of Modigliani and Miller research work, various researchers have developed theoretical models based on the balancing of tax effect and inefficient distribution of information. Recently, there are many models that focus on the relationship between product and market or the effect of a particular ownership structure on the capital financing decisions of a firm (Bhaduri 2002). These models have been developed pertaining to many different sectors of economy such as manufacturing by Long and Malitz (1985) and Titman and Wessels (1988). Miller and Modigliani (1966) tested these models in the context of power generating and electric companies, while Jensen and Langemeier (1996) have focused on the agricultural firms. Among the noteworthy models proposed by researchers, the static trade off theory carries the primary importance. Modigliani and Miller (1958) contended that the static trade off theory is based on the assumption of friction and information-wise perfect markets. They also proposed the irrelevance theorem which implies that the financing decisions of firms have nothing to do with the value of organisation and their cost of financing. Titman and Wessels (1988), Rajan and Zingales (1995) and Graham (1996) have conducted their empirical research to investigate the important determinants of capital structure proposed in the theoretical models by finance commentators. In the majority of research, they found that firms decisions to achieve the target capital structure are spontaneous. In the imperfect market, these target ratios are not instantaneous and incomplete while in perfect market, these financial decisions are perfect and spontaneous. It means that firms try to adjust their optimal capital structure spontaneously as the cost of capital varies in the market. Marsh (1982), Jalilvand and Harris (1984) found that the main impediments in the way of adjusting capital structure are the adjustments and transaction cost associated to market imperfections. These imperfections arise due to the inefficiencies in financial market such asymmetric distribution of information and transaction cost etc. These researchers have found that the firms financial decisions usually taken in a two step process. Marsh (1982) and Jalilvand and Harris (1984) explained that in the first step, a firm decide its target capital structure and in the next phase, it strives to attain that target. Spies (1974), Taggart (1977), Jalilvand and Harris (1984) and Ozkan (2001) stated that financial behaviour of a firm can be best described by the partial adjustment model. In this partial target adjustment model, it is assumed that a firm adjusts to the target capital structure spontaneously. One common attribute in the research is that the capital structure of a firm varies with the change in industry type. Even after the efforts of numerous researchers, no single universally accepted capital structure theory exists. There are also a comparatively small number of empirical researches conducted up till now on this topic. One possible reason for the small number of empirical research is the intangible and conceptual nature of determinants proposed by the authors (Titman and Wessels 1988). However, the available empirical research has focused on certain factors such as the size of firms; profitability and volatility of earnings before interest, tax and depreciations etc. These determinants came out after the studies conducted in the developed countries such as the United States (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK). After the integration of markets, it is becoming increasingly more important to study these markets to test the validity of these determinants. Because of the confl icting ideas pertaining to the financial behaviour of firms, it is important to have practical research based on theoretical foundations to establish a valid capital structure determinant model. 1.1 Objective This research paper will endeavour to determine the factors which serve as an impetuous for changing the capital structure of firms across the different industries operating in the United States of America (USA). The main objective of this research will be achieved investigating the relationship between following determinants; Capital structure and profitability Capital structure and tangibility Capital structure and economic growth of the country Capital structure and rate of inflation Another objective is to find and evaluate the impact of internal forces which play an important role in changing the capital structure of a firm. Literature Review: 2.0 Introduction This chapter attempts to establish the theoretical foundation of determinants of capital structure. First of all, the effect of different industry types on the capital structure has been given. Then the different capital structure theories have been described. After that, all the possible external and internal determinates of capital structure has been discussed. Lastly, the latest development in the macro and micro environment, which have significant bearing on the capital structure of a film, are discussed 2.1 External and Internal Determinants of Capital Structure In this time of financial distress, where many companies are facing impending bankruptcy because of the liquidity crunch and mismanagement of resources, it is imperative for financial managers to use the optimal mix of debt and equity in order to drive down the cost of capital and thereby increasing the profitability of their firms. Another impetuous for using optimal mix is that the financial analysts, investment houses, common stock buyers and bond rating bureaus usually compare the financial leverage of a firm with industry average figures before taking investment decisions (Moyer et al. 2009). Hence, it is in the very interest of a firm to decide its optimal capital structure in order to make its financial health more conducive to further investment by yielding handsome returns (DeAngelo and Masulis 1980). As per definition, capital structure of a firm is the mix of the total long and short term debt plus the total amount of equity (both preferred and common) which is raised by a company to finance its total capital requirements (Investopedia 2009). According to Brigham and Ehrhardt (2001), there are many internal and external factors which a financial manager has to be mindful of before chalking out business plans and policies. Similarly, decisions of capital structure are the outcome of many internal and external variables (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). External variables consist of many macroeconomic factors such Gross Domestic Product (GDP), unemployment, inflation, interest rates and tax policies etc (Besley and Brigham 2007). GDP is the accumulated market worth of finished goods and services produced within the boundaries of a country during a particular period of time, usually one year (Investopedia 2010). Nominal GDP (inflation not adjusted) should not be confused with real GDP (inflation adjusted) as the increase in nominal GDP (merely increase in prices) doesnt mean that country has made more money during a certain period (Investopedia 2010). Inflation means the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services over a period of time, usually measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and GDP deflator (a ratio of nominal and real GDP) (Investopedia 2010). Some other important variables of macro economy are the economic growth, budget deficit and poverty. These macroeconomic factors indicate the aggregate economic performance of an economy (Investopedia 2009). As these macroeconomic factors are the result of many sub factors which collectively make a very complex economic system (Campbell, McConnell and Brue 2008). These factors, by nature, are out of the control of a firms manager so he/she cannot influence the determinants. They instead have to adjust the proportion of debt and equity according to their respective costs. Some other important external variables which affect a specific capital structure are the taxation, profitability, the interest expense, the effect of agency cost and the level of business risk faced by the company (Moyer, McGuigan and Kretlow 2009). Besides these external variables, there are many internal factors which a business manager has to consider before selecting a particular mix of debt and equity. These internal variables can be the industry specific variables such as the effect of seasonal levels of sales or these can be the internal to the firms such as the style and attitude of management. Entrepreneurial organisations, for example, have the tendency of taking bolder and riskier business decisions as compared to bureaucratic ones which shows more risk-averse behaviour. Among the most prominent internal variables are the level of profitability, degree of risk appetite of business managers and the tangibility of fixed assets etc. 2.2 Effect of industry type on the capital structure of a firm There are a lot of variations in the capital structure of firms across the different industries all over the world (Scott and Martin 1975). Capital structure of firms varies with the change in type of industries and even within the same industries (S. Titman 1984). It is evident from the Table 1 that the firms which are operating in the drugs and industrial machinery sector do not use a large amount of debt as compared to firms which are in the retail and utilities business (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). Some possible reasons are the uncertainties inherent in the research projects carried out by these firms or the chances of product liability law suits (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). Due to the low level of debt financing, these firms are also experiencing low level of financial distress (i.e. the times interest earned ratios are high) as compared to the other sectors as shown in table 1 (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). However, the firms which belong to the utilities sector usually rely heavily on debt financing which is evident from their common equity ratio as shown in table 1 (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). The major portion of total debt comprises of long term debt which they usually raise by issuing securities and mortgage bonds against their huge fixed assets (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). Another rational behind this phenomenon is the stable sales figures as compared to the other firms which have volatile sales (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). This factor enables these types of firms to use more debt financing because they can easily forecast the expected level of future sales and can have an optimal business risk (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). 2.3 Theoretical Foundations of Capital Structure Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller (famous as MM) (1958) are pioneers, having studied the impact of internal and external determinants on the capital structure of an organisation (cited in Bhaduri 2002). In the years since, there has been a large volume of research by many researchers to determine the individual effect of these environmental factors on the capital structure of a firm in different countries of the world (Al-Najjar and Taylor, 2008). Modigliani and Miller proposed that in a supposed no-competition world, the value of a firm is independent of its capital structure (cited in Bhaduri, 2002). Further they also assumed that their theory is valid under the assumptions of perfect competition, no taxation cost, not transaction cost. They also stated that the productivity of firms is not dependent on mode of financing (cited in Bhaduri, 2002). In the above mentioned scenario, internally generated sources of funds are almost the perfect substitute of external funds (Bhaduri, 20 02). Hence, companies are indifferent to the sources of financing. After the publication of their work, researchers have found some imperfections such as Kim (1978) introduced the idea of bankruptcy cost. The idea of facility of tax shield was introduced by DeAngelo and Masulis (1980) and the agency cost by Jensen and Meckling (1976). All these researchers agreed that the optimal capital structure is the most realistic solution to the capital structure dilemma faced by the todays firms. As the cost and benefits of leverage changes from one industry to the other, many previous researchers are of the opinion that industry must have significant impact on the capital structure of firms (Scott and Martin 1975). Every firm tries to chase the average industry ratios (Tucker and Stoja, 2007). Ang (1976) said that firms can only have an optimal gearing ratio rather an ideal universal ratio for all in the real world scenario. Remmers et al. (1974) agreed with the Ang (1976) by stating the gea ring ratio of firms varies with industries. They also said that firms that belong to the same industries face same environmental conditions which lead them toward common earning and sales patterns (Remmers, Wright and Beekhuisen 1974). Scott (1972) and Scott and Martin (1975) said that most of the firms tries to choose the gearing ratio that is appropriate to their risk/return profile and their inherent business risks. Antoniou et al. (2002) found that the UK, German and French firms continuously adjust their debt ratios according to the target ratio, but at their own rates which is contingent to whether they belong to the manufacturing or services sector. Bradley, Jarrel and Kim (1984) said that the agency cost and bankruptcy cost are just the partial determinants of leverage. It means that these factors also have impact on the capital structure of firm but in a less likely fashion. Many researchers endeavoured to tackle the issue of optimal capital structure (Bhaduri 2002). All these works have collectively contributed in the development of financial theory (Bhaduri 2002). In spite of all these efforts, there is no one comprehensive solution to the capital structure dilemma (Titman 1984). Moreover there have been very little practical evidence regarding determinants of capital structure till recently (Harris and Raviv 1991).The main reason behind this limited number of empirical research evidence on this topic is the abstract nature of determinant such as size of firms, their growth rates, intensity of capital, gross profits, volatility of future sales and free cash flows and the impact of taxation on changes in the capital structure of a firm (Harris and Raviv 1991). Another important issue is pertaining to the geographical locations that most of the available research works have focused on the United States of America (USA) market (Bhaduri 2002). Less economically developed countries (LEDCs) lag behind due to the neglected role of the private sector in the economic development of country and the limited sources of funds for the companies belonging to the LEDCs (Bhaduri 2002). 2.4 Main Factors Influencing the Capital Structure of a Firm The chief determinants of capital structure are the attributes and factors that have very significant impact on the leverage ratio of a firm. The following is the detail of the most relevant determinants of capital structure of a company. Asset Structure According to the agency cost and asymmetric information theories, the composition of tangible assets owned by a company greatly affects its capital structure (Jensen and Solberg 1992). Agency cost theory states that shareholders of a firm, which has high proportion of debt in its capital structure, have the intention to invest sub-optimally (Galai and Masulis 1976; Jensen, Solberg and Zorn 1992). A positive relationship has also been found between the collateralisable assets and debt structure of a firm. Another factor is the over consumption habit of business managers which ultimately reduces the value of a firm (Bhaduri 2002). Financial Distress If a firm is using a huge amount of debt and it has to pay heavy payments periodically, there is very high probability that it will go bankrupt in the case of falling revenues or future free cash flows (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). This implies that the firms, which are having volatile sales figures, usually use less debt financing in order to avoid probable financial distress (Ensen and Meckling 1976). Fear of bankruptcy forbade the firms to rely heavily on the debt financing (Bhaduri, 2002). Non-Debt Tax Shield DeAngelo and Masulis (1980) said that one of the firms objectives of using debt financing, is to avail the benefit of a tax shield because interest expense reduces the taxable income of a firm. So the firms which have a large non-debt tax shield are likely to use less debt financing. Size There are is large number of evidences that the firms which are large in size and well diversified are less likely to experience financial distress (Demsetz and Lehn 1985, Remmers, Wright and Beekhuisen 1974). This encouraged them to use relatively large amount of debt financing (Warner 1977; Ang and McConnell 1982). Age The age of firm is also a very pertinent factor that influences the firms decision about having a specific of capital structure (Scott 1972). Young firms are more intended to use debt financing because of the high appetite for risk taking and limited amount of information at hand (Scott 1972). So they find borrowing from banks a cheaper and convenient way as compared to use equity financing. Growth Fast growing firms experience a higher cost of agency problem as compared to the firms which not growing very fast. Bhaduri (2002) said that fast growing firms have more chances of adjustments in the coming years. Hence there is a negative correlation between the longer term debt and the future growth of a firm. Myers (1977) said that the short term debt is the remedy to this problem. By doing this, fast growing firms dont need to enter into long term debt contrast and can easily adjust their capital structure according to the requirements of growth and financial conditions (S. Myers 1977). Profitability If managers of a company are not capable and credible enough to convince venture capitalists to lend capital, they will preferentially rely on the internal sources of revenue (e.g. retained earnings) (Myers and Majluf 1984). Myers and Majluf (1984) noted that profitable firms usually have more money as retimed earning in order to invest in the growth projects. Hence there must be negative relationship between debt proportion and historical profitability of the company (Myers and Majluf 1984). Uniqueness It is found that the firms which are producing unique kind of products usually have low leverage ratio (Bhaduri 2002, Antoniou, Guney and Paudyal 2002). These firms face great difficulty in borrowing debt from the financial institutions because in case of liquidation, their assets cant be used for some other substitute purposes (Auerbach 1985). Industry effect It is one of the most important variables that affect the capital structure of firms (Harris and Raviv 1991). The companies which belong to those industries where there is greater degree of uncertainty in the research projects and expected future sales, they rely less on debt financing (Remmers, Wright and Beekhuisen 1974). Contrary to this, the firms which have more level of certainty in their future cash flows and huge amount of fixed assets, they intended towards more debt financing (Remmers, Wright and Beekhuisen 1974). Maksimovic and Zechner (1991) said that the diversity of technologies used by firms is also the key determinant of using their capital structure. They argued that the firms which are using multiple technologies have the facility of sourcing capital from various sources of financing (Maksimovic and Zechner 1991). Where these firms can raise their funds from multiple sources, they can also reduce their risk by spreading over the wide range of technologies (Maksimovi c and Zechner 1991). 2.5 Most Important Capital Structure Theories 2.5.1 Static trade-off theory This theory of capital structure assumes that company should pursue a financing mix where tax shield advantage should be equal to the interest rate expense, keeping the other factors constant such as credit crunch and probability of bankruptcy costs (Jensen and Meckling 1976). This theory mainly deals with the pros and cons of issuing fixed asset securities like debt (S. Myers 1977). It assumes that there exists an optimal point under which the value of the firm is maximized. This optimal point is achieved by balancing the benefits and cost of issuing more debt (Myers 2001). One of the main advantages of issuing more debt is to take the benefit of tax deductable. This simple benefit can be more complicated when manages and owners have to pay personal tax and the issue of an absence of tax shield (Myers 2001). Debt financing also reduces the chances of agency conflict (Maksimovic and Zechner 1991). The rational is that the use of debt reduces the amount of free cash flows at the dispo sal of managers and there reducing the chances of conflict between managers and shareholders (Jensen and Meckling 1976). 2.5.2 The Trade-Off Theory of Capital Structure The basic idea behind this theory is that a firm normally conducts the cost-benefits analysis before taking any decision regarding its capital structure (Tucker and Stoja 2007). It means that company will just rule out the possibility of convenience in this important financial aspect as stated by the pecking order theory (Jensen and Meckling 1976). In spite of criticism by Miller (who called it a comparison of horse and rabbit), the advanced dynamic model of this theory is very robust and practical (Tucker and Stoja 2007). 2.5.3 Pecking order theory The pecking order theory talks about the cost of asymmetric information (Myers and Majluf, 1984). It says that firms choose their sources of financing according to the rule of least effort or least resistance (Myers and Majluf 1984). This implies that the firms will choose the equity financing as a financing mode of last resort (Myers and Majluf 1984). According to this theory, firms will prefer debt financing as long as it is feasible and when it is no longer possible, then they will opt for equity financing (Myers and Majluf 1984). 2.6 Capital Structure and Financial Risk The Financial risk of a firm is the risk associated with a lack of a sufficient amount of future free cash flows in order to meet its short term obligations (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). In other words, financial risk also increases as the use of fixed income securities increases like preferred stock increases in the total financing of the firm (Harris and Raviv 1991). Brigham Ehrhardt (2001) asserted that as the amount of debt increases in the overall mix of capital structure, the degree of financial leverage increases. Financial leverage means that the total amount of debt that is used in the capital structure of a firm (Harris and Raviv 1991). Another related concept is that of operating leverage which means that the portion of fixed cost used in the total cost of production of a particular product or range of products (Moyer, McGuigan and Kretlow 2009). Investors are very much concerned about the financial risk of firms because this is the kind of additional risk which they have to bear because of debt financing besides equity, in the firms total capital structure (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). It is the main objective before the financial managers to design the capital structure so that the value of the firm is maximized and at the same time mitigate the risk at hand (Harris and Raviv 1991). To gauge the financial risk of a firm, Times Interest Earned (TIE) ratio carries special importance in the eyes of these investors (Besley and Brigham 2007). Times interest ratio is of immense importance to analyse the true interest cost coverage ability of a firm (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). TIE depends upon three important factors: the amount of debt in the total capital structure, the cost of debt and the profitability of the firm (Haugen 1995). Usually the industries which are less leveraged such as Drugs and electronics etc. have a very high TIE ratio (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). However, the firms which are in the business of retailing or utilities which rely more on debt financing, have low interest coverage ratios (see table1) (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001).There are also variations in the capital structure of individual firms operating in the same industry due to the different attitude of managers and their particular risk/return profiles (S. Myers 1977). The firms where manger s are more aggressive and have high risk appetite usually use more debt financing than those firms where managers are risk-averse (Hull 2008). The tools used to find the optimal capital structure are EBIT/EPS Analysis and EPS indifference Analysis (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). 2.6.1 EBIT/EPS Analysis Earnings Per Share (EPS) of a firm vary with changes in the amount of debt in the capital structure of a firm (Warner 1977). Theoretically, as the amount of debt increases in the capital structure, the financial risk increases (Warner 1977). Because of this high financial risk, investment houses change higher interest rates for the further debt which ultimate increases the cost of capital for a firm (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). Surely extra amount of financial leverage increases the capability of a firm to earn higher earnings per share in the coming years (Jensen and Solberg 1992). Brigham Ehrhardt (2001), however, suggested that EBIT/EPS ratio should range from 0 to 5%. To find the exact point in this range, financial managers have to conduct an EPS indifference analysis. 2.6.2 EPS indifference analysis The purpose of this analysis is to find out the point where a firm is insouciant as to whether it uses debt or equity for the same ratio of EPS (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). Brigham and Ehrhardt (2001) found that a firm will report higher EPS at a low level of sales and firm is using the more equity than debt. On the other hand, an organization will experience faster increase in EPS with the increase in sales if a firm is using more debt than equity (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). The point worth noting is that if business managers are confident about a certain level of sales of their firm, they should go for debt financing and vice versa (Besley and Brigham 2007). Financial risk of a firm is usually measured by interest coverage ratio, fixed charge coverage ratio and longer debt ratios (Moyer, McGuigan and Kretlow 2009). These ratios are usually compared with industry average ratios to gauge the true financial health of a firm (Moyer, McGuigan and Kretlow 2009). These ratios are also compared to the previous years ratio of the same firm to determine the trend of firms performance over a period of time (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2001). The Financial risk of a firm depends upon a number of factors such as financial leverage, Operating leverage, expected future free cash flows and so on. Because of the intense competition and uncertainty in the market, it becomes essential for the finance executives of companies to manage the risk of their organisations by either diversification, adopting an optimal capital structure, or using the sophisticated derivative securities (Hull 2008). An optimal capital structure is to arrange the financial structure of the firm in such a way that minimises the weighted-average cost of capital and thereby maximises the value of the firms stock (DeAngelo and Masulis 1980). The dilemma here is that when a firm is trying to maximise its EPS by increasing the amount of debt, its financial risk also increases at the same time (DeAngelo and Masulis 1980). On the other hand, if a firm tries to minimise its financial distress, it has to reduce its financial leverage which ultimately hurts the EPS of the firm (Bhaduri 2002). Hence there arises the need of an optimal financial structure which increases the EPS of a firm and reduces its overall finan cial distress simultaneously (Bhaduri 2002). This choice of the optimal capital structure depends upon a number of factors such as the size of firm, its growth rate, cash flow projections and product and industry characteristics. (Bhaduri 2002). There is a school of thought advocating that derivatives are the most useful tool to hedge financial risks at the firms level (Jalilvand, Tang and Switzer 2000). Yet there is another group who believe that there are some alternative (i.e. using less debt financing) as compared to the typical hedging techniques available which can be used to reduce the financial risk at corporate level (Berkman, Bradbury and Magan 1997). From these studies, it is evident that managing the financial risk of firms is very important for firms in order to be competitive in the market place. Some companies have made internal risk management policies as part of their corporate business strategy (Maksimovic and Zechner 1991). Smith and Stulz (1985) commented on the goal of risk management in these words: The primary goal of risk management is to eliminate the probability of costly lower-tail outcomes those that would cause financial distress or make a company unable to carry out its investment strategy(p. 3 95). It is clear from the words of Smith and Stulz (1985) that the main goal of companies is to manage risk by either means. During the last decade, there has been a lot of research on the impact of industry in deciding the capital structure of firms (Booth, et al. 2001). Booth et al. (2001) studied whether the factors affecting the capital structure of firms are country specific or not. For this purpose, their study focussed on ten developing countries: India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Jordan and Korea. They reported that: In general, debt ratios in developing countries seem to be affected in the same way and by the same types of variables that are significant in developed countries. However, there are systematic differences in the way these ratios are affected by country factors, such as GDP growth rates, inflation rates and development of capital market (Booth et al. 2001 p. 118). The institutional owners who hold large amount of shares of a firm also play a very significant role in deciding the capital structure of these firms (Al-Najjar and Taylor 2008). As these owners have the right to elect the board of directors, they can influence the mangers of their firms to adopt specific risk management policies and finance capital in a certain and specific manner (Al-Najjar and Taylor 2008). 2.7 Financial market Dysfunction In developing countries, banks and other financial institutions are main sources that provide liquidity to the economic system by advancing credit to the films (Demsetz and Lehn 1985). In repressed financial system, banks provide short and medium term loans to the young and established entrepreneurs; while big and developed financial institution provide long term loans to the big corporation (Kester 1986). These loans are mostly given to the particular sectors of national economies such as agriculture and transport and housing (Antoniou, Guney and Paudyal 2002). Governments used to influence these commercial institutions to favour certain sectors and advance soft credit to the small industry (Leech 1987). Regularity agencies mostly restrict the banks from advancing credit to certain limits (DeAngelo and Masulis 1980). Antoniou, Guney and Paudyal (2002) said that the limitation on the financial institutions by the authorities result in the form of credit rationing. Another hu

Analysis of the E-brokerage Industry

Analysis of the E-brokerage Industry Executive Summary The financial brokerage industry has undergone dramatic changes worldwide in the last decade, due to the rise of the Internet. E-brokerage brought huge opportunity to the industry as it introduces enormous amount of on-line traders but at the same time posted serious threat as it open up the market to new competitors. In this thesis, we investigate past and current challenges the brokerage industry faced. From our literature review, we studied the impact of online trading to the brokerage industry and the online traders, and proposed solutions pinpointed to the facts we found. We studied the challenge the brokerage industry faced from the perspectives of strategy, marketing and technology and carried out strategic analysis using value chain and framework of five forces by Michael E. Porter. A small scale survey was conducted to collect local people attitude towards online/mobile trading and we used the data collected to justify the information we found during our literature review. F inally, we proposed a basket of suggestions for the brokerage industry in various aspects including product enhancement, customer education, partnership, differentiation, customer segmentation and more. An in-depth interview with a local broker firm was organized to value our suggestions, their feedback are positive. Introduction The tough challenge among e-brokerage industry is still going on and in fact, it is getting even more furious. The situation was more rigorous during bearish market after the burst of IT foams, SAR outbreak and the recent financial tsunami. The strategy the brokerage firms adopted to handle the challenges they faced determine who will survive the competition and stay in the market. Losers will soon be squeezed out of the market. This is especially true for small to median size local brokerage firms who are now facing new competitors like direct banks and oversea online trade provider like E-Trade. Confronted with growing competition, old-guard brokers are being forced to restructure and re-focus their market offerings. Various strategies were adopted, some brokerage firms seek to maintain their lead in value-added services through a focus on knowledge/advise more financial planning and investment advice rather than transactions -processing trades. Other firms attempted to comprehen d how to offer on-line services without alienating their brokers, to minimize channel conflict. The purpose of this article is to analysis the current e-brokerage practices and device new service directions and enhancement to existing products to increase competence of our local brokerage industry. We will first present the evolution of security trading in Hong Kong and characteristic of different types of brokerage firms and customers. From our literature review, we found that online trading exerted great impact on both brokerage industry and online traders. For brokerage firms, they faced vigorous competition due to new competitors, reduced customer loyalty and market fragmentation due to low entry barrier. While illusion of knowledge and control, lack of personal advice and overwhelmed by information were the hurdle online traders faced. We have presented the strategic challenge faced by the brokerage industry and analysis their strategy using value chain and framework of five forces algorithm. We have devised a basket of suggestions and discussed with a brokerage firm the f easibility to comprehend our research. Financial Broker Industry In Hong Kong Evolution of security trading in Hong Kong The ultimate goal of a well-functioning stock market is to bring together all possible buyers and sellers, so that the market price reflects the combined preferences of all participants. The history of securities trading in Hong Kong can be traced back to 1866. The present Sock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEx) was established as a result of the unification of four exchanges during the big market boom in 1986, while the first stock exchange began its operation in 1891. Exchange System Architecture Computerized trading system was first introduced on 2 April 1986 and in 1993 the exchange launched the Automatic Order Matching and Execution System (AMS), which was replaced by the third generation system (AMS/3) in October 2000. AMS/3 is the core system used to serve securities trading which has significant enhancements in central market functions, open connectivity and system capacity as compared with AMS/2. AMS/3 supports multiple trading facilities for market access. Most of the participants developed their own Broker Supplied System (BSS) which interfacing with AMS/3 via the Open Gateway (OG) facility for greater control to the front-end solutions instead of the Multi-workstation System (MWS) by HKEx. The open connectivity of OG has made possible the large-scale automation of Participants operations, enabling Participants to offer new investor services and experience efficiency gains. In 2002, a new generation of the system, CCASS/3, was launched for clearing and settlement. MD S (Market Data Feed System) is the key system used for delivery of securities price data to about 60 local and international information vendors. HKATS (Hong Kong Futures Automated Trading System) is the electronic order matching system operated for the derivatives market. Advancement in information technology, especially the Internet, is revolutionizing traditional commerce. Obviously the securities industry, and in particular the on-line brokerage, is at the forefront of this revolution. Here in Hong Kong, retail online trading as a proportion of total retail investor trading continued to grow in 2008/09, reaching 43 per cent from 39 per cent in 2007/08. Its contribution to total market turnover was 10 per cent, up from 7 per cent in 2007/08. For stock options, retail online trading contributed 23 per cent of total retail investor trading (up significantly from 15 per cent in 2007/08) and 2 per cent of product turnover (1 per cent in 2007/08). For other derivatives, retail online trading contributed 49 per cent of total retail investor trading and 18 per cent of total product turnover (up from 44 per cent and 15 per cent respectively in 2007/08). Types of Brokerage Firm The basic function of a brokerage firm is to execute buy and sell orders for clients. Traditionally these firms have offered the investigation of the quality and the possibilities of investing in a variety of investment products. It is still accustomed for brokerage firms to offer information about possible investments free of charge. This activity of bringing free of charge stock investment reports is one of the main tools that are utilized by brokerage houses to compete against other firms. To investors, it continues to be an important service. However, with the bloom of communication technology, especially the Internet, more and more investors rated that investment reports as less important service. Instead, those investors preferred other types of services that charged less commission and service fee, by forfeiting those investment reports. In order to capture this vast diverse clientele, the brokerage industry segmented itself. After the restrictions in commissions were eliminat ed, several brokerages began to open up their doors as discount brokerage firms. At that time, brokerage firms were classified into two types: full service brokers and discount brokers. Full service brokerage firms continued to offer informative stock reports and a level of service much higher than other brokerage houses. They looked for purchasing and selling opportunities for clients and offering more customer and portfolio advisory service than was available from discount brokers. Discount brokerage houses, on the other hand, only dedicated themselves to execute orders for clients with minimal services. These differences in services and philosophies led to great differences in commission costs. It was evident that these differences were an important factor in the return of an investment. Type of customers in brokerage industry In Hong Kong customers of brokerage firm can be divided into three typical categories: l Prestige Group: These are customers with large amount of capital put in to the brokerage firm for investment. They have granted total authority to the brokerage firm to execute trading decision on behalf of them. Although they are minority in terms of the customer base of brokerage firm, they contribute a great portion of revenue to the brokerage firm. l Middle Group: Customer of this group usually trade through account agent of the brokerage firm. They utilities financial information, report and analyzing tools provided by the brokerage firm to make trading decision. Account agent will also actively contact these customers whenever they see an investment opportunity fit for them. l Basic Group: Customer mostly uses service of brokerage firm to maintain account balance and execute trading order on the own. Although multiple channels are supplied to them, they mostly adopt on-line trading as their first choice of trading media. Although the first two groups of customers contribute quite a large portion of the revenue of brokerage firm, we will concentrate our research on the third group for two reasons. First, there is a clear trend that this group of customer is increasing in a fast pace. Second, by investing and improving the on-line system, the other group will also be benefited. Literature Review Online-Brokerage Simply put, â€Å"On-line brokerage† can be defined as selling of securities which encompasses equity like stocks and warrants and derivatives like bonds, mutual funds etc, on the Internet. Although traditional banks and brokers also provided online trading after year 2000, new entrants like direct banks and new brokers offered a genuine e-commerce business model. Direct banks are internet-only banks or virtual banks. These banks were designed without a traditional banking infrastructure with physical branches. This cost-saving advantage enabled many of them to offer savings accounts with higher interest rates, loans with lower interest rates and minimal management fee and commissions than most traditional banks. More and more customer joined in as online trade and a peak was hit on year 2000. At the same time, new competitors like traditional brokers and virtual banks joined in proactively by acquiring existing brokerage firm or using their own business model. At that time, t hen customer base and knowledge of the traditional institutions was still advantages for online trading enhancement. The strategy online brokers adopted was customers segmentation and directed their offer to the most preferred customer group, the active private investors, which allowed them to swiftly catch up the market. Compared with banks, absence of physical branches thus low overhead costs gave these internet brokers an advantageous in cost structure. They competed with each other rigorously to achieve the biggest market share in the shortest time frame to reach the break even point. The strategy to conquer and develop loyalty of new customers was invested massively in marketing. They also adopted a cut-throat commission rate to attract private individuals who were more sensitive to this cost of investment. The position of banks and traditional brokers in the brokerage business was deeply undermined by the pressure caused by these new entrants. Bloom of on-line trading For the first time ever, investors could, from the comfort of their own homes, accessed a wealth of financial information including breaking news developments and market data on the same terms as market professionals did. In addition, on-line brokerage provided investors with tools to analyze this information, such as research reports, calculators, and portfolio analyzers. Finally, on-line brokerage enables investors to act quickly on this information. The technological and regulatory barriers that gave traditional brokerage and securities companies edges were rapidly becoming extinct. First, new provider quickly gained access to the market by leveraged on the use of Internet technology. Without expensive branch networks and labor-intensive advisory services, new competitor like direct banks and new online brokerage firms were able to process retail clients orders in relatively low cost. Second, the bull markets in year 2000 attracted large number of new online customers. For example , lot of local residents became online investors and started to hold security when frequent and gigantic scale IPO activity were taking place during 2006. These new customers welcomed the new internet investment style that encompassed vast amount of free of charge real time information, enhanced market transparency, convenience and low commission. Together with the rising share prices in bull market atmosphere, these new customer, in particular, heavy traders quickly got accustomed to doing online trade. The Internet also made other comparisons easier. For example, it increased price competition for products for which price comparison was previously more difficult. New information applications enabled investors to compare the quality of trade execution provided by different brokerages and thus extend the trading costs that investors consider beyond commissions. Companies scrambled to create viable strategies that balance many priorities. Typical considerations included: Should they defend their existing customer base or enter into new customer segments? Grow their existing business or expand into new products? Acquire, partner or go alone? Basically, companies were competing not only to offer different and better products and services, but to design robust, lucrative business models that took advantage of emerging forms of electronic commerce. Electronic commerce the facilitation of exchange of value over computer networks fundamentally changed the brokerage business in part by increasing the velocity of financial services [1]. Impact of on-line brokerage Hurdle on brokerage firm Rigorous competition With the advancing Internet technology, investors had became less reliant on stockbrokers for trade execution or obtaining research information as such services were readily available on the Internet. In addition, the Internet was a convenient and efficient channel for doing stock trade transactions and for providing information support to investors. Indeed, the trend of self-investing led to the proliferation of Internet brokerages around 2000, offering trading services on the Internet at very low commission rates compared to using traditional brokerages. Reduced customer loyalty Lower transaction costs online led many investors to e-brokerages and away from traditional brokers to place their trades Another concern was that since investors feel that they can distinguish between the good and bad advice that they find on the Internet, they therefore were not be willing to continue to pay a financial planner solely for their expert opinion. This was in part due to the information illusion discussed in next section: illusion of knowledge and control, where investors feel that since they have access to so much information that they had no need to pay for such service and can do it better on their own. Reduced customer-broker cohesiveness Before on-line trading is prevalent, a single stock trade typically involves multiple telephone conversations between a customer and a broker. The broker may take the opportunity to reinforce the personal relationship with the customer by discussing pros and cons of the trade or offer tailor-made investment package. On the contrary, on-line traders are more on their own. Together with the convenience to switch broker, the loyalty of the customer to the brokerage firm is largely weakened. Although transactions are the bread and butter of brokerage companies, brokerage firms were also strived to developing client relationships in order to provide total solution to their customers. The income by providing strategic planning, advisory services, financial advices, margin loan and other client services are also vital to brokerage companies.. Market fragmentation Market fragmentation occurs when too many competitive suppliers enter an active or new market. It happened starting from 1998 and peaked around 2001, when online trading started to take off and attracted many different competitors. They all aimed attract on-line investors and to achieve the largest possible market shares by all means, for example, by giving them some extra bonuses. However, the sudden downturn of the market quickly turned a lot of these new investors to passive customers, if not entirely retired, due to lack of knowledge and experience. This phenomenon was even more obvious after market started to plunge beginning at 2001. As a matter of fact, it is too risky for e-brokers to over-rely on commission as the main source of revenue. After all, the demand for brokerage services highly depends on investment atmosphere of stock market. The number of on-line executed orders during bullish and bearish market varies significantly. These large variation experts high risk for those who base their income on commission. In order to safeguard possession of active traders during both bullish and bearish market, it is very important to educate them and foster a correct investment culture. Lower entry barrier The Internet changed how information is delivered to investors and the ways in which investors can act on that information. On-line brokerage provide a effective and convenient access media between customers and the brokerage firm, the unit cost of operations is much reduced. It had lowered both the fixed and marginal costs of producing financial services, thus enabling newer, smaller companies to challenge established providers of these services. On-line brokerage firms, such as E*Trade, are among the most vivid and successful financial service firms to provide on-line financial advice, research tools, and financial information that emerged in the last decade. These e-commerce firms transformed the way traditional services were delivered and offered a vast assortment of new services. Hurdle on customer Investors in general and on-line investors in particular now make decisions in a very different environment than investors in the past. They have access to far more data. They often act without personal intermediaries. They can conduct extensive searches and comparisons on a wide variety of criteria. Although the quantity they can produce may be large, it is the quality that matter. As a consequence, they trade more actively, more speculatively but less profitably than before. On-line trader stress heavily on commission and management cost when choosing broker firm to use. However, there are other unobservable costs that are unaware by them: information-processing costs, information illusion, illusion of control, frequent trading behavior, and the lack of personal advice. Information-processing costs Information-processing costs are the costs that online investors sustain before they actually make a transaction and it is defined by the time and energy that the investor expands trying to reach an investment decision. Because of the huge volume of information found on the Internet that it can take investors a lot of extra time to find, sort, and analyze all of the relevant information. This in turn can out-weigh the benefits of online trading for some investors because they might not be able to afford the opportunity. In fact, the overwhelmingly huge amount of information available on the Internet scales many investors away, let alone their validity or intentional hoax. Illusion of knowledge The proposition that more information leads to better decision-making is intuitively appealing. But the truth of the proposition depends on the relevance of the information to the decision and on how well-equipped the decision maker is to use the information .The vast amount of on-line investment data available will enable investors to confirm their prior beliefs and may lead them to become overconfident in their ability to pick stocks and other securities. Faster feedback may focus investors attention on recent performance. Psychology shows that when people who initially disagree on a topic are given arguments on either side of the issue, they become further polarized in their beliefs. They are impressed by the arguments with which they already agree and they discount opposing views. Not only are people more impressed by arguments they favor, but they actively seek out confirming evidence. For this reason, investors are more likely to visit chatrooms or forum of like-minded investor s. If controversies ensue, they are likely to be convinced by those with whom they already agree. Investors who believe that additional information makes them better investors are unlikely to seek out or attend to evidence that indicates otherwise. Thus, on-line investors are likely to become overconfident. They may believe that they have more ability to perform tasks such as stock-picking than they actually do. In theoretical models, overconfident individual investors trade more actively and more speculatively than they otherwise would, hold under diversified portfolios, have lower expected utilities, and contribute to increased market volatility. In an empirical study of investors at a large discount brokerage who switched from phone-based to personal computer-based trading by Barber and Odean, they find that after going on-line, investors tend to trade both more actively and more speculatively. Illusion of control This illusion results when investors think that because they have access to so much information via the Internet that they have an advantage over the entire market and this can lead them to make bad investment decisions. These investors then have an exaggerated sense of control over the outcomes of their investments. Frequent trading is another cost associated with online investing. Low transaction costs can encourage frequent trading and day-trade strategy according to Konana, Menon and Balasubramanian. As an example, in Singapore, 71.1 per cent of online investors say that they trade more frequently than they did prior to online trading (Teo, Tan, Peck, 2004). Researches show that most of the on-line traders adopt short term trading strategy: a risky strategy rather than the believed buy and hold strategy. The Internet also seems likely to change what information investors focus on, because it reduces the cost of some kinds of information more than others. For instance, the Intern et especially facilitates comparisons of real time data, and thus has changed investors focus by emphasizing the importance of speed and immediacy. While the serious individual investor of a decade ago may have checked stock positions once a day in the morning paper, casual investors now may check theirs several times an hour. Many more investors pay attention to short term-even intraday- return trends than ever before. Worse still, many firms advertise their ability to deliver real time data or to execute investors orders rapidly, making the situation even worse. Lack of personal advice The downside of investing online is the lack of personal advice from those in the financial field (Vakil Lu, 2005). According to Phelan (2001), the Web will never be able to substitute for the judgment and expertise of financial planners, nor will it be able to protect investors from all of the scams that are abundant on the Internet. In reality, the news and new information people found on the internet might not be as new as they think. Moreover, many online traders only focus on the here and now and do not look at the whole picture or at the future as financial advisors are trained to do, thus jeopardizing their investment. Challenge Our research examines the pressures for change over the past decade that was overcoming the inertia in the brokerage industry. We viewed the challenge from the perspectives of traditional brokerage firm and electronic brokerage firm. Traditional brokerage firm To provide online trading, traditional brokerage firms were forced to decide on which of the two approaches to go, either establishes new subsidiary with a new brand name or provide under its own name. For the first case, brokerage firm suffer from overlapped company structure and considerable marketing expenditure to build the new name, which prolonged the period to reach break even point. The later case, though easier to setup, brokerage firm is putting their reputation at stake when the service do not meet customers expectation. The strategy adopted was to have differentiated brands serve the younger, more tech-savvy investors that gravitated to on-line trading without nibbling full-commission business. With the advent of the World Wide Web, discount brokerage firms face a comparable disintermediation dilemma. Commissions were suddenly under pressure, customers wanted to trade directly, and competition is coming from non-traditional sources like direct banks. To address the competitive threat, some entrenched firms adopted the supermarket approach by providing other supplementary services like providing financial information and news. However, such approach was in fact a typical re-intermediation path that directly competed with full service brokerage firm which offered a wider portfolio of products and services. Nevertheless, creating a financial services supermarket was a misguided strategic choice for three reasons: First, many successful 1990s businesses have rediscovered the virtues of adhering to their core competencies and the power of strategic outsourcing in order to gain agility. Most of the conglomerates which attempted to enter the financial services arena learned the hard way that adding unfamiliar lines of business can dilute their ability to compete, weaken shareholder and customer loyalty and multiply management complexity. The reason for failure was economic. Risk and cost sharing in the production or delivery process can enable better time to market and make providing a product/service bundle more efficient than integrating everything in-house. Second, offering additional products to an existing customer base does not prevent customers from leaving. Also, the decision to add new products to an existing portfolio is complicated by an uncertain environment such as the Internet. In an uncertain techno-marketplace, a firm is often making an informed guess about what it thinks is best for a customer without fully knowing what that customers preferences and goals are. Third, technology-enabled firms like ETrade were taking the â€Å"re- intermediation† path in a new way by providing customers with interactive and personalized services at little or no cost. This branding and trust-building approach enables the service providers to learn directly and accurately from each customer whats actually important to him or her. Armed with this intimate customer knowledge, these companies are better positioned to build loyalty and increase profits for the long term. Clearly, re-intermediation was a difficult strategy as sustainable competitive advantage was becoming rare in the on-line environment. High performers today look for a series of short-term advantages over a long period of time instead of attempting to plot a far-sighted course in an environment with too many unpredictable variables. Innovative Internet-based intermediaries were the real threat to the entrenched players. These firms were adopting dramatically more effective means of forging interactive relationships with customers added value, which was essentially the incremental benefit that the new in the middle firm brings to the customer. They were looking to exploit synergism across different product lines. They innovated more frequently and organized to seize opportunities much faster than their competitors. The reason was: concentrated focus on traditional sources of competitive advantage such as cost, technology, and differentiation was inadequate because competitors were quick to replicate advantages. They seek to identify and rapidly responded to subtle changes to the finest ingredient: the individual customer. To sustain competitive advantage, it was important to embrace business practices that encourage deep customer insight and thinking about how to materially improved the customers value proposition. Electronic brokerage firm Online brokers rushed to pour money to increase their capacity to absorb the fast growing demand during dot.com boom in 2000. The only way considered effective to increase market share at that time was advantageous offers and promotions, combined with enormous marketing expenses exposing them to a very high costs. The development of the online brokerage market was highly dominated by such marketing approach. Absence of physical branches and thus reduced operation cost entitle internet brokers the advantageous cost structure. Instead, they allocated this saving and invested on massive marketing campaign in order to achieve the biggest market share as soon as possible. By attracting and developing the loyalty of new customers, these brokerage firms were expecting soon to reach the break-even point. The bull market during the dot.com boom had dusted the eye of these online brokers. They failed to anticipated adverse situation when significant downturn in capital investments occurred and stroke their over investment. The stock markets had proved its volatility in a year time, when the dot.com boom burst in 2001. The serious regression caused by global slump of economy and the later SAR outbreak during 2003 had made the situation even steeper for the industry. The depression lasted for a couple of years before reaching a rising track started on 2007. Stock market transaction was drastically dropped from hundreds of billion down to tens of billions and last for years. Investors were either scared away or suffered from great lost by the sudden market plunge and prolonged recession. The once admirable capacity had turned into the biggest burden for brokerage firm. Naturally, all of them suffered from great investment lost, if not bankrupted altogether. All the internet brokerage firms had paid a huge price for this costly experience. The lesson they learnt made them re-evaluated the challenges ahead and the goals to attain. They have learnt that low commission rates or excessive marketing expenses would not give them competitive advantages and made the break-even point harder to reach. Instead, they had to revise the services they offered and discover alternative source of revenue. Suffered from the great impact of market volatility, they were looking for a flexible enough business models that is able to cope with the huge capacity demand during a bull market while enable them to safely transit bearish market. We can classify the challenges facing online brokerage firms into three categories: strategy, marketing and technology. Strategic challenge The characteristic of online brokerage had fundamentally changed the brokerage industry. New competitors like insurance companies, banks and financial portal had entered the arena. With the competitive advantage in possessing technology, a large customer bases and knowledge of their customers, they posted great threat to traditional brokerage player who want to participant in online brokerage. The large customer bases not only significantly reduced marketing cost but also helped to minimize development and operation cost due to economy of scale. Coupled with the open standard characteristics, traditional brokerage players had an up hill battle to fight. The value chain of the brokerage was invaded by these new competitors, forcing traditional p

The Impact of Culture on the Function of Sound in Masala Essay

The Impact of Culture on the Function of Sound in Masala "I declare the National, uhh, sorry...the Canadian National Museum of Philately officially open." - Minister for Multi-Culturalism, Masala Although there are moments in Masala when the surface dialogue is loaded with irony and satire, the background or ambient sound of the film is also used to examine the central theme of the film, the search for personal and cultural identity. This theme of cultural representation and personal identity is additionally expressed through director Srinivas Krishna’s technical approach toward the function of sound in the film. In fact, the different approaches to life and art that distinguish one culture from another are evident in a brief comparison of the employment of sound in the Japanese films Gonza The Spearman and Fireworks and the Canadian production Masala. The influence of Western technical conventions upon Krishna’s use of sound, both through the narrative and sub-narrative (or background sound), is quite distinctive. Masala presents the viewer with an approach toward sound that is clearly influenced by the culture the film was created in, using dialogue and backgr ound sound to enhance the central theme of the search for cultural and personal identity. As a result of different cultural approaches to the art of film making, Japanese directors such as Masahiro Shinoda (Gonza) and Takeshi Kitano (Fireworks) typically employ sound in an effort to enhance the storytelling aspect of cinema. This ‘storytelling’ approach to film supports the gratuitous use of sound effects to emphasise punches, kicks, and the extreme violence and excessive amounts of blood that have come to signify fight scenes in Japan cinema (particularly to ... ..., just as the real estate agent states "Your momma gave you a bum steer when you were 4 years old. We need to clean that up right now. If we don’t clean that up right now, you will be emotionally prohibited from creating wealth." In short, the use of sound in Masala is the culmination of the life of Krishna - the character - as a minority struggling for both personal and cultural identity in an increasingly satirical world, and Krishna - the director - using film, specifically dialogue and background noise, to ask questions about social and cultural status. Krishna’s eventual death - a reaction against stereotypes - and his grandmother’s acceptance and desire for the technology (among other facets) of a foreign culture - a shattering of stereotypes - reveal that director Krishna’s intent is to raise questions, to provide a solid background for deeper discussion. The Impact of Culture on the Function of Sound in Masala Essay The Impact of Culture on the Function of Sound in Masala "I declare the National, uhh, sorry...the Canadian National Museum of Philately officially open." - Minister for Multi-Culturalism, Masala Although there are moments in Masala when the surface dialogue is loaded with irony and satire, the background or ambient sound of the film is also used to examine the central theme of the film, the search for personal and cultural identity. This theme of cultural representation and personal identity is additionally expressed through director Srinivas Krishna’s technical approach toward the function of sound in the film. In fact, the different approaches to life and art that distinguish one culture from another are evident in a brief comparison of the employment of sound in the Japanese films Gonza The Spearman and Fireworks and the Canadian production Masala. The influence of Western technical conventions upon Krishna’s use of sound, both through the narrative and sub-narrative (or background sound), is quite distinctive. Masala presents the viewer with an approach toward sound that is clearly influenced by the culture the film was created in, using dialogue and backgr ound sound to enhance the central theme of the search for cultural and personal identity. As a result of different cultural approaches to the art of film making, Japanese directors such as Masahiro Shinoda (Gonza) and Takeshi Kitano (Fireworks) typically employ sound in an effort to enhance the storytelling aspect of cinema. This ‘storytelling’ approach to film supports the gratuitous use of sound effects to emphasise punches, kicks, and the extreme violence and excessive amounts of blood that have come to signify fight scenes in Japan cinema (particularly to ... ..., just as the real estate agent states "Your momma gave you a bum steer when you were 4 years old. We need to clean that up right now. If we don’t clean that up right now, you will be emotionally prohibited from creating wealth." In short, the use of sound in Masala is the culmination of the life of Krishna - the character - as a minority struggling for both personal and cultural identity in an increasingly satirical world, and Krishna - the director - using film, specifically dialogue and background noise, to ask questions about social and cultural status. Krishna’s eventual death - a reaction against stereotypes - and his grandmother’s acceptance and desire for the technology (among other facets) of a foreign culture - a shattering of stereotypes - reveal that director Krishna’s intent is to raise questions, to provide a solid background for deeper discussion.

Pros and Cons of Home Schooling Essay -- Education Classroom Learning

Pros and Cons of Home Schooling In 1999, the US Department of Education estimated there were 850,000 home schooled children across America. According to the National Home Education Research Institute, between 1.5-1.9 million children are now being home schooled in grades K-12. Why are so many parents taking their children’s education into their own hands? Most parents say it is necessary because they want their children to learn at their own pace. Others say it is for safety concerns or that they want to tailor their child’s education to suit his/her needs. Whatever the reason, it is a growing trend in America.(Walsh, Mary (2001). Human Events. (57)) Many companies now sell home schooling curricula for parents to buy. The religious sect has made home schooling publications available. These include: A Beta Books, Alpha Omega Publications Inc., and Bob Jones University Press, which is affiliated with Christian University in Greenville, S.C. There are home schooling publications for almost any subject or philosophy. One upside is that 40-50% of home schooling families spend less than $400 per year. However, there are many different sources of home schooling curriculum, some with outrageous prices. (Walsh, Mark (2002). Home School Enrollment Surge fuels ‘Cottage’ Industry. Education Week (21)) Parents choose to home school their children for a variety of reasons. Most home schooling parents agree that letting their children learn at their own pace is very beneficial. Another reason that parents like to home school is for convenience. Parents who telecommute to work can stay at home at teach their children while also working. Parents get to spend more time one on one with their child... ... parents may feel that these new teachers are not going to be as effective as teachers of the past. The teachers union has made tenure easier to achieve and this has resulted in many teachers being solidified in their positions, unwilling to change their teaching methods because of their secured job. Teachers in the public school system go on strike to demand increases in salaries and benefits. These problems are not faced in the home schooling atmosphere. Whatever side you take with the debate over home schooling one thing is clear. The number of home schooled children is increasing. This trend may persist until enough pressure is brought to bear in the public education system so that parents have faith in it again. There are undeniable advantages and disadvantages to both styles of learning. In the end the child’s best intentions should be the goal.

Why Walk

Why walk walking as a perfect form of exercise. There are definite benefits of walking to both your physical and mental wellness. the original zero-emission transport We all know the environment could do with a helping hand, and by swapping your car for your feet you’ll be doing just that. Walking, as well as being one of the cheapest ways of getting around, is also the smartest for our planet. You won’t leave a carbon footprint, just your own. did you know? If we all swapped one car journey a week for walking instead, car traffic levels would reduce by at least 10%;We all know we need to reduce our CO2 emissions. By changing some of our travel behaviour, we all have the power to contribute and act on climate change; Local shops are easy to reach on foot and using them helps to support local business and save food miles; Less busy roads will give us safer and quieter streets – who knows, we may even see more children playing outside just like we used to. It's fre e! There's no special skill, training, or equipment needed – all you need is the right footwear Walking is free. Walking doesn’t involve bulky and expensive vehicles or dangerous fuel.Walking doesn’t produce excess carbon dioxide or fumes or cause noise pollution Walking is a more efficient use of space: 20 times as many people can move in the same space by walking as in a car Walking and public transport are perfect partners. If we all swapped one car journey a week for walking instead, car traffic levels would reduce by at least 10%. If every car driver in the UK left their car at home once a month and walked for 20 minutes instead, we could save up to 320,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, the same amount produced by 50,000 homes.Car users regularly suffer up to three times as much pollution as pedestrians because they are sitting in traffic in the line of exhaust fumes from the car in front. Walking also has indirect environmental benefits. The more we walk, the more we take an interest in our surroundings. The more people use parks, green spaces, attractive urban public spaces and the countryside, the more likely it is that money will be spent to preserve, maintain and improve them. Walking helps create better and more prosperous places to live People on foot are likely to spend more at local shops and businesses.More people out walking on the streets helps deter crime and makes places feel safer. Before industrialisation took place there were some alternatives such as riding animals, horse drawn carriages and water transport, but walking must have been by far the most substantial transport mode. The Roman roads of 2000 years ago were predominantly used by pedestrians. Conflicts between pedestrians and wheeled traffic did occur, however, especially in urban areas. For example Hass-Klau (1990) mentions that Julius Caesar banned chariots from the streets in Rome between sunrise and sunset to offer space to the pedestrian.Since the nineteenth century the development of railway and highway systems have led to dramatic changes in travel behaviour towards motorised transport modes. In addition, the bicycle became available as a possible substitute for the pedestrian. Why Not Walk? We’re all good at thinking of reasons why not to get more active, but there are many more reasons why we should. Regular walking improves your general health and reduces your risk of heart disease, some cancers, and Type 2 diabetes. It’s also a great way to lose weight, improve your fitness and your mental health and wellbeing.Read more about the benefits of walking. For those who still aren’t convinced, here are some answers to the most common excuses! â€Å"I don’t have the time. † Walking is by far the easiest exercise to fit into a busy lifestyle since you can do it anywhere at a time that suits you. Every minute you spend walking is quality time, rather than sweating on a packed bus or train or fu ming in a traffic jam. You’ll still have to make a little effort to find time, but remember active people live longer and have a healthier old age – so think of your walking time as a good investment. â€Å"I don’t know any good places to walk. Sometimes main roads don’t feel pleasant and safe for walkers. But there are plenty of quieter streets, parks, watersides and green spaces even in busy urban areas if you know where to look for them. Read more about finding good places to walk and free walking routes for beginners. â€Å"I don’t feel safe on the streets. † It’s understandable that people are concerned for their personal safety and security – but it’s a great shame if this stops you enjoying the benefits of walking. If you can, walk with a companion, or read our advice on staying safe. Also, the more people walk, the safer the streets will be. I don’t have anyone to walk with. † Why not ask your famil y, friends and colleagues if they’re interested in walking with you? Or try an organised programme or led walk. Read more about walking in a group. Where people walk Walking is a common movement in urban transport, as nearly everyone is a pedestrian for part of their trips, but walking as a means of transport is often overlooked walking should not be neglected in these countries as it also is important in connection with other modes. for example, walking from the parking place to the final destination; biking to the railway station, etc.

Muslim views on medical and sexual questions Essay

Transsexuals are people who believe that their mind is trapped within the body of someone who is of the opposite sex. Many of them who are unable to have the necessary sex organ change operation end up committing suicide. However in the terms of shariah law, it is not allowed for men and women to change their gender to the opposite sex. If one goes against the Shariah law, then he/she will be violating the commandments of the Qur’an and Hadith. The Shariah has also gone to the extent where women are not allowed to dress as men, and men are not allowed to dress as women. It is noted in an Hadith that Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) cursed those men who imitated women and those men who imitated women. If one was to undergo a sex change, then he/she will be altering the natural features and organs that Allah had blessed them with. Many patients have problems with their sex lives, so they seek the help of a doctor or in such cases, they are recommended to go to sex counselling sessions. However it is not allowed for Muslim physicians to engage such conversations. If a husband and wife had problems in their sexual lives, then they would consult a doctor of their own sex. They should then give a broad outline of their problem and not go into such detail. The Muslim doctor would not be allowed to find out such explicit details or show the patient videos that demonstrate such sexual acts. However during sexual therapy lessons, explicit video films which demonstrate such explicit acts may be shown to the patient. It is totally against the Shariah Law for the patient to watch such explicit acts. Some people take advantage of mentally retarded people by having sex with them. So in order to reduce the chance of them falling pregnant, they can be sterilized. This is cause due to their mental state, they would be unable to care for the child. Methods of contraception such as the use of pills can be used instead of using the method of sterilisation as it would mean that all chances of a future hope of pregnancy will be lost. It is not allowed for the mental patient to be castrated but medicine can be administrated which would suppress their sexual urges. Recent studies show that homosexuality is genetically inclined. In Islam, homosexuality is forbidden so it is merely a plot from Shaytaan who’s aim is to make homosexuality more acceptable in our society. The main duty of a Muslim psychiatrist is dissuade his/her patient from indulging in such haram acts. The act of homosexuality has been condemned in the Qur’an and Hadith. Brain-stem death is accepted in the field of medicine as doctors have been entrusted in confirming that a person is dead. In Islam, a person is only considered dead when his soul has left its body. The body then becomes cold and stiff. If left for a long period of time, then the body begins to decompose. If these signs are visible, then the person is considered to be dead in terms of the Shariah. If these signs are not visible, then the person is not considered to be dead. In this case, whether a brain-stem dead person is dead or not is not relevant. In either case, the persons organs are not allowed to be removed from the body. The organs and limbs of a deceased person belongs to Allah, so the person has no right in deciding as to whom his organs are donated to. If a fellow human is dying and the only option of survival is of eating another humans limb and another human gladly offers the too, it will not be allowed.