Theory Of Personality Development Essay Example for Free

Theory Of Personality Development EssayIntroductionPersonality development according to famous theorist Monique Laberge is the development of the nonionic pattern of behavior and attitudes that make a person distinctive. It includes the development of beliefs, moods an behavior that differentiate among the people. These unequa take attributes may result from a persons unique experiences or because of his experiences shared with others. The combined effect of heredity and environment causes these attributes (Sturt Mary, 1999). Identical twins brought up together are more likely to show resembling patterns of behavior than the identical twins reared apart. (Environment)However even twins reared apart are more similar than siblings who are not twins. (Heredity)Early Work by Sigmund FreudThe best known theory of personality development certain from the works of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Freud believed that personality has three basic components- the id, the eg o and the super-ego. Libido is the fundamental energy that provides the psychic energy for the achievements of goals. According to Freud sex and aggression are the only two drives and everything we do is motivated by one of them (Sturt Mary, 1999).Sex, also c eached Eros or spirit force drives people to live , prosper and produce transferspring Aggression, also called Thantos or death force, stresses on the need to stay alive and to stave off threats to our existence. Id is the devil on your shoulder. Super-ego is the angel on your shoulder Ego has to maintain a healthy balance between the two which it does with the help of defense mechanisms that is to say denial, displacement, Intellectualization, projection, rationalization , reaction formation, regression, repression, sublimation and suppression.Freud proposed that development of personality advanced through psycho-sexual spots.- the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the period of latency and genital stage The genital stage is reached through the onset of adolescence. This is the final stage of development. Libidinal energies are re-aroused and the man-to-man attempts to achieve adult sexuality. But if there have been difficulties in the earlier stages, the vainglorious and receiving of adult love may be difficult or impossible to achieve (Sturt Mary, 1999).Carl Jung Theory of Personality DevelopmentAfter Freud several other theories were developed by his associates or later psychologists. They are often referred to as Neo-Freudian theorists and prominent among them are Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and Eric Eriksson. Carl Jung differed with Freud in many aspects. Jung gave more importance to current events rather than to puerility experiences. In his opinion social motives are far more important than sexual drives. His Analytic Theory also emphasized on spiritual of necessity and thoughts of future. Jung also differed with Freud in the conception of the Unconscious(Sturt Mary, 1999).Carl Jun g focused on understanding the psyche of an man-to-man through the dreams, mythology, religion, arts and philosophy. Carl Jung is credited to be the pioneer of four mental concepts in personality development, which are widely taught in universities today(Sturt Mary, 1999).The ArchetypeThe collective UnconsciousThe ComplexIndividuationThe Archetype The hero archetype was first describe by Carl Jung and it straight away originated from his understanding of various cultures. According to Jung each culture have heroes those who have extra-ordinary powers to do extraordinary tasks(Sturt Mary, 1999). He further elucidated on it by explaining an individuals urge to be larger than life and he finds rest in those heroes archetype. It is no surprises that after these revelation, Super Man one of the biggest comic of all time published. The comic took clue from Jung study and captivated the hearts and minds of people from all cultures.The Collective UnconsciousThe collective unconscious mi nd is one of the first things which led the differences between Freud and Jung. Unlike Freud, Jung believed that unconscious is more complex than just sexual motivations and aggression(Sturt Mary, 1999). As per Jung there are fears, anxieties etc which are common across cultures and they hugely function the making of a personality.The ComplexThe complex self is best defined by Jung as the suppressed or repressed aspect of an individuals conscious self. He categorized them into Constructive and Destructive types(Sturt Mary, 1999) Constructive It represents hidden positive affect or influence on an individual.Destructive It represents the side an individual doesnt want to recognize in himself.IndividuationJung explained Individuation as a summons of growth and maturation which comes in an individual during the course of life. It is the process where he can detach from the inner self and find meaning in life.Process of Personality Development as per Carl JungAccording to Jung each individual have an introvert and extrovert side and which side dominates the other influences the personality of an individual. As per Jung the conscious side helps an individual to adapt and orient while the unconscious self help in reacting or behaving in the particular manner. Jung categorized the behavior into four categories sensation, thought, feeling and intuition(Sturt Mary, 1999). He further defined that feeling and thinking is rational and comes with conscious side while intuition and sensation are irrational and originates from the unconscious.BibliographySTURT, MARY OAKDEN, E C (1999) Modern Psychology and Education A Text-Book of Psychology for Students in Training Colleges and Adult Evening Classes. Published by Routlege ISBN 0-415-21009-7

The use of social networking in brand promotion

The use of amicable networking in commemorate promotionIntroduction neighborly Networking concept is new in the current business acquaintance domain however its emergence was started two decades ago when the internet was growing and becoming popular among the population. There is a latest trend of using tender networking sites for send promotion however the businesses atomic number 18 realizing slowly of using fond networking sites for set promotion. It has become a global phenomenon for the population as whiz third of the military personnel population visit neighborly networking sites and blog sites (Fatrhi, 2007). The way of swinging the time all over the internet by the population is changing daytime by day which has brought in the greater attention of grocery storeer to modification their brand promotion strategies accordingly. Using the social networking website for engaging the people into online communities and promoting the brand over these websites is the la test trend. Social network affect the purchase end making process of consumers which set the difference in the branding and marketing strategies. However social networking websites ar usable for the marketers to increase the brand aw argonness and product ken. As per the recent look into descry selected by i-prospect interrogation suggested that 48% of the enquiry marketers arouse successfully set the content on websites to make the brand cognisance among the tar check nodes (Holden, 2006). Social networking sites are also helpful for increasing the web traffic, increasing the customer commitment and the success of new product launch. However apart from much(prenominal)(prenominal) benefits, a major role played by social networking websites is promoting the brand.If considering the example of Skoda, it reelects the substantial results for much(prenominal) instance. Skoda has formd the community of about 2000 people through social media. This community was star ted when a female customer has beamed its comment about the after sales function of Skoda and a person has picked this comment and posted it on social networking site (Muncaster, 2007). It is non only the corporate biggies who sustain used social networking sites as a medium to promote their brand provided also a phenomena of retailing the designers label to increase the brand awareness among the target customers. Looking at the sizeableness of social networking, this inquiry aims to analyzing the impact of social networking sites on brand promotion. This chapter provides the brief opening about the seek study, including the aims and objectives of the seek, signifi burn downce of the seek and rationale pot conducting this research study.Aims and Objectives of the look forThe aim of this research is to analyze the impact of social networking sites on brand promotion. In order to fulfill the aim of the research, detective has laid vote out following research objectives which has been achieved in this research as a part of research aim.To understand the importance of social networking websites in branding strategyTo chink the advantage of using social media in marketing and brandingTo understand the current and future chain viability of social mediaTo identify the strategies of companies using social media as a medium for promoting their brandIn order to achieve the above research objectives, the research has addressed the following research questions in this study.RQ1 What is the importance of social networking sites in branding and marketing?RQ2 What are the advantages for a marketer in using social media for its marketing and branding strategy?RQ3 What is the current and future scope viability of social media?RQ4 What are the strategies used by companies for using social media in promoting their brands among the target customers?Signifi scum bagce of the interrogationThis research study is contributing significantly in the studies of market ing and brand management where the research worker has provided some key facts about the current usage of social networking sites in brand promotion and marketing. The research findings ordain help the marketers to understand the advantage of using social media as a medium for promoting their brands and they can integrate these findings in preparing their brand strategy. In addition to this, the research work provided the base for future academic researchers to conduct the research in the social networking space in relation to the marketing and branding management.Rationale behind the ResearchReason for conducting this research is to get the deeper insight about how the companies are using social networking websites for promoting their brand and in what ways they are making it efficient among the target customers. In this way researcher would be able to get greater learning in the field of marketing and brand management and can integrate these findings into its professional caree r.Chapter Scheme of the ResearchIt is essential to divide the complete research into sub sections or chapters to get the sequential understanding of e real(prenominal) rate taken by the research for completing the research. Therefore researcher has segregated the complete research into phoebe birdr chapters. First chapter of the research provide the brief introduction about the research. Second chapter provided the literature of the research. Third chapter includes the research methodology. Fourth chapter provided the discussion, analysis and findings of the research. Last and fifth chapter includes the conclusion drawn by the research from the key findings and provided the testimony to marketers.SummaryThere is a latest trend of using social networking sites for brand promotion however the businesses are realizing slowly of using social networking sites for brand promotion. The aim of this research is to analyze the impact of social networking sites on brand promotion. Social n etwork affect the purchase decision making process of consumers which make the difference in the branding and marketing strategies. However social networking websites are utilizable for the marketers to increase the brand awareness and product awareness. Reason for conducting this research is to get the deeper insight about how the companies are using social networking websites for promoting their brand. This chapter provided the brief introduction of the researcher to the reader.Chapter 2 Literature Review2.1 IntroductionSocial networking sites such as Facebook (400 million users worldwide) and Orkut (100 million), or the micro-blogging site Twitter (which crossed 10 billion tweets recently) may outer engaging distractions to the average user. hardly the numbers add up to a dizzying truth for brands social networking sites (SNS) and sites kindred Twitter are prodigiously fertile spaces to harvest ad business. Adgully speaks to Indias leading brand nurturers and digital agencies to understand how they are leveraging the networking revolution. Social Networking soon became a way for brand Marketing and promotion on social sphere, whereby, the enterp go ons started using these online communities or websites for developing contacts and driving traffic to their respective websites. Today, these social networking websites form the main tool of social media marketing. The just about commonly used websites that have become drastically popular over finale couple of years are Twitter and Facebook. Following these two are some other sites such as LinkedIn, My Space, Digg and StumbleUpon (Adler Kwon, 2002). Facebook is a Social Networking Site which helps friends and colleagues to parcel out dialogues with each other through Wall Posts, Messages and Comments. Today, Facebook has more than 350 million members and still counting. This site experiences more than two million clicks per day. Statistics state that users spend an average of 20 minutes per day in Faceboo k. The advanced functionalities of Facebook allow the users a longer shelf life. A user can view your files which are more than five years old. With such wonderful features, Facebook soon became nonpareil of the lethal tools of SMM and SMO. Businesses, especially small scale business houses started using the medium of Facebook to promote their brands and services. Setting up a business page and initiating and regulating interactions with the visitors are some of the strategies that business houses adhere to, in Facebook (Alba, 2003).2.2 Popularity of Social Networking Sites in Developing CountriesThe online penetration is just 3-4 per cent, and less(prenominal) than 1 per cent of our total population has a Facebook account. And the percentage of people using Twitter is even smaller. Mehra said that despite the percentages, developing countries like India were already the 5th largest consumer of Twitter in the world, owing largely to Bollywoods enthusiasm for it. And we are in the T op 10 list of consumers of Facebook. Rahul Mehta, the business head of Chings Secret, said, There are approximately 5 crore Indians and 1 crore NRIs online. Facebook alone has 1.2 crore Indians and 40 lakh NRIs. Mehta said the RoI on social media was substantially higher than what was offered by traditional media (Albrecht Adelman, 2007). These numbers are comparable to most national newspapers, Mehta said. Facebook is best place to reach Sec A+, A and B+. With internet penetration deepening, the numbers exit rise in the beside three to four years, he said. Chings Secret has 98,826 (and counting) fans on Facebook.Khushboo Maheshwari, the head (digital) of OMD, said, Today, 5% of Indian population has an online presence and it is growing at a rate of 35% CAGR. In other words, 50 million users have a presence on social media. And the numbers were growing, Maheshwari said. With the government planning to spend Rs18,000 crore over the next three years to lay a 5 lakh km optic fibre c able network to reach e truly gram panchayat, the growth rate is going to touch 100% CAGR, Maheshwari said. Mobile, web, and broadband will be critical to the growth in the coming years, Maheshwari said.Mihir Ferrao, who looks into Social Media optimisation and ORM at Starcom IP feels that profit in India needs to grow by at least 20 to 25% year on year, to shake off the constant comparisons with TV and Print (Alkire, Collum, Kaswan, Love, 2008). He said, The only reason why we do not get a fare share of publicizing budgets is because, next to the reach penetration of TV or Print, we are very small. But if we look at the concentration of brand TGs on TV Internet, then sure the Internet will have higher traction. Sagar Dhoke, the founder of Fun Element said that the e-revolution had helped to bridge the gap between the product and the end consumer, be it for a movie or an FMCG product. As for the group universe targeted online by marketers, Ritesh Patel, the brand manager of C EAT, said, Social media has indeed proved to be a very profitable medium for a brand like CEAT. He said that CEAT aspired to be a youthful brand and it finds complete match of TG in this medium (Arabie, 2004).2.3 The accessSandeep Singh, the business head of Quasar, said that promotional activities designed for online platforms could be a campaign lead in which the target audience is engaged for a detailized purpose and for a short duration. Or, brands could choose a more strategic and long-term initiative. In a campaign lead, the idea is to use social media platforms to create a buzz and receive feedback from the community represented by the target audience, Singh said. Strategic initiatives involve the management of social presence from brands online-reputation standpoint, and the use of social platforms as a medium of continued dialogue with the prospects and customers. Singh said experience suggested that the one-size-fits-all mount did not work. either product and campaig n needs a different approach and activation strategy, he said (Bainbridge, Brent, Carley, Heise, Macy, Markovsky, Skvoretz, 1994).Maheshwari of OMD described one of the agencys typical media activities. Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited has been quite active on the social media, Maheshwari said. We have uploaded wealthiness Creation Study (WCS) Videos on You Tube and also created a Linked In event page for the WCS awards ceremony. Besides, we also have a scribed page where we have uploaded different annual WC Studies. The creation of Wikipedia pages on the Motilal Oswal Group, on Motilal Oswal and Raamdeo Agrawal had been completed, Maheshwari said. As a result of these activities, seven out of 10 results on Google are owned and controlled by Brand Motilal Oswal for the search Wealth Creation Study, Maheshwari said (Baker Hubert, 2001).Zapak has carried out several similar campaigns Axe, Ponds, and Mahindra campaigns which used a mix of available options are among the mo st successful Zapak works. Mehra listed the focus areas Fan pages and groups, gaming and other fun applications on platforms like Orkut and Facebook, an active handle on Twitter. Mehra said it was essential to link the APIs (application schedule inter present) like OpenID and Facebook Connect to ones site to promote easy communication and conversations (Barabasi, 2002). Chings Secret advertises regularly on Facebook and YouTube, the brands Mehta said. But a lot of traffic has been generated virally because of the content, quizzes, contests on Facebook. He said that in the end, social media was a long-term strategic investment. It is not brand building but genuine relationship creation and maintenance, he said. And like any relationship, it takes time to build.Describing the two aspects of promotion social applications and paid advertising -they use both options equally well. For Emotional Attyachar, social advertising was placed on Facebook and other sites. And we also released an application on Facebook, Mistry said. Applications turn on engagement to high levels, users get to communicate with the brand, and they understand the values of the shows. On the other hand, advertising draws people who are unexposed to the brand. So the two options serve different purposes and we use as much of both as they can (Barnlund Harland, 2005). Patel of CEAT said that any one people-engagement tactic would not work in isolation. If they create a fantastic social application and do not promote it, it will die a natural death owing to the lack of critical mass required to give it a viral effect. Similarly, only paid advertising will fracture to generate brand interaction with consumers which is the essence of social media. Such a tactic would evoke the feeling of a one-night stand and customer would probably not engage with the brand in question in the future. Starcom IPs Ferrao, also said that lots of their clients are slowly waking up to the fact that social media is a growing phenomena in India. Some of their clients whom they have brought onto the social space are Himalaya Herbal Tea and Foster, while they are enhancing the social presence of brands like Tata Teleservices and Pantaloons. The results they have got, in terms of fans on Facebook and followers on Twitter etc. have given the client reasons to be excited. And has initiated thoughts of how do they leverage these groups further (Bernard Killworth, 2003).2.4 Pros and ConsEvery platform has certain advantages and disadvantages, so its a question any longer of them wanting to be on it or not. The advantages are varied even off from being able to monetize certain things to being able to put your content out there to getting feedback from users. In the past, people could not connect to a brand on a one-on-one basis, but social media allowed that to happen. Most brands feel that going to SNS will put their brands up for public scrutiny, which is considered a disadvantage. But it is consider ing that to be an advantage because it gives them a good reality check to improve your product or service. But on this channel, Singh warned, one wrong step could sweet sand verbena into something highly detrimental to ones brand, in matter of minutes. So they should learn to do it well than not doing it at all, as you cant run away from such platforms if their consumers are flocking them (Bonacich, 2002). They will have to embrace them today or tomorrow. SNS can definitely contribute to making or breaking the brand image. Brands should be very cautious in venturing into SNS. While developing games for the brands, Dhoke suggests subtle branding techniques to his clients. Constant hammering of the product is a complete turn-off to the player and user, he said. Same applies to social applications and games. The app should highlight the main features of the app in a very exciting way rather than in the brochure style.Maheshwari endorsed Dhokes assertion about treading carefully. Yes, a single hard comment or rumor can severely damage the reputation that a brand like MOFSL has taken great pains to establish over the years, Maheshwari said. Also since SNS connect users from different parts of the world, it takes little to no time for bad news to spread.Patel strongly believes that a consumers negative feedback could be used to create customer delight. Today, more and more brands are engaging directly with consumers through various discussion forums, networking sites and forums to understand their expectations (Borgatti Everett, 1999)Ferrao of Starcom IP guesss the clear advantage of social networking sites in the entire brand experience which one can bring to the consumer. He said, With Facebook and Twitter, you can communicate so many brand properties to those people who want to learn he believes that by doing so, you know the effort is not going to waste and that your initiatives could actually lead to sales (Burt, 2008).2.5 The FuturePatel also highlighted the fact that only a select age group was active in social media. While Youngistan is spending more time online, the older age group is not very active yet. Also, online options are more popular in metro and tier-II cities. Internet penetration is still an issue in rural India. But Dhoke sees things differently. Things will change in the next five to six years. When 3G is operational, the number of internet users will grow by about 25-35%. It is estimated that by 2013, India will have the third largest Internet user base. Singh goes a step further and says that as in the West, the audience is now online. When you refer to the audience, these are the guys with high disposable incomes and spending power. These guys are online for sure. And most brands are eying their wallets. If you talk about numbers, we still have some way to go to before the medium reaches the masses. The Indian audience was enjoying the internet and its religious offerings. Gaming is an offering that has now beco me a passion among the youth (Carley Krackhardt, 1996). The online gaming industry is growing and how Year-on-year, they are recording a rise in the number of gamers in the country. Zapak, which was started just three years ago, already had 7 million unique registered users, and continues to grow. Soon, there will be a day when the online Indian farmers on Farmville will outnumber all the real farmers of our country put together. Other than Twitter and Facebook, there are couples of other websites that have gained immense popularity. LinkdIn is a professional social media website where a stream of professional gets the chance to review and interact with their counterparts. With more than 50 lacs people registered with this site, LinkedIn offers a solid platform for establishing new business relationships. LinkdIn by facilitating more of a personal communication between the business professionals can help the business as a whole. MySpace also have a great impact in the social netwo rking world. Once registered with MySpace, a user can not only inform the entire networking circle about their likes and dislikes but can also submit videos. A lot of personal stuffs can also be added to the site, and an active mode of communication can be initiated. MySpace also helps in Social Media Marketing by enabling the businesses to create their own profile page and communities and develop interactive dialogues with targeted mass of people. This enables in building brand awareness and can be of immense help to small business houses. Social media and networking Sites have not only contributed to take inter-personal communication to a different level, but also have been a great marketing tool for the small businesses. Well planned approach to social media marketing via social networking sites can be of great help in promoting the business, create proper brand awareness and in the end, meet the ultimate business ends. A business house must(prenominal) have proper expertise and planning to approach in the network so as to reap the fruits of benefits to the very best (Cartwright Harary, 2007).2.6 Spreading brand awarenessWe all know word-of-mouth propagation is a great way of spreading your brand awareness. This is what social network can do. As soon as brand becomes recognizable to a large number of customers, they start discussion about the product. Maximum people who are satisfied with the product they often post their comments through these social networking, which encourage other customer to buy the product. Big companies create a blog in relation with the social network to give customer a wide area to discuss about product and give reviews. This way social network spread your brand awareness to millions of customer online (Cohen Prusak, 2001).2.7 Engage customer interestA social media website is ideally suited for product discussions, demonstrations, and showcasing of expertise and quality. Businesses can engage the interest of customers from a glo bal market and build a powerful brand image. People will become fans of your website, product or business because they choose to Make them feel comfortable with this decision by posting quality information.Talking about online business, social networking is a great opportunity to keep your site busy by attracting potential customer with well developed networking strategies. Organizations are already making use of new and creative way to utilize the massive popularity of various social media to promote their particular product. The additional benefit is the long-term impact on business revenue through brand management. Social media websites are just right for business marketers to get along potential customers (Eveland Bikson, 2007).But in order to get benefit from social networking, business owner should study to handle their social networking assets carefully. Most famous social networking sites like facebook, twitter and my space are the great for carrying your message to abroad . But new businesses must always remember that benefits from social networking solely include toilsome work (Crane, 2009).2.8 SummaryA social network is a social structure made up of individuals or organizations called nodes, which are connected by one or more specific types of mutuality, such as friendship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige. It was initially intended to make friendship and expect connected with colleagues, but now days every businessman would have known how important social networking is for their business. Mainly online business has made social networking a priority as well. Premier Websites have made it possible for businesses to develop their contact lists, handle their relationships and created the ideas of viral marketing. It is because Shopping and social networking Web sites gather a lot of information about online users, and has become tremendously useful for companies to track and model consumer behavior. Businesses are looking to companies like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook to help companies to sell more products and services. Lets see how it makes an impact on your business in reality (Fararo Skvoretz, 2004).Chapter 3 Research MethodologyIntroductionA research methodology enables the researcher to get the right direction in achieving the research aim and objectives. Therefore it is important for the researcher to understand the different research methods available and making the right selection of the remove research component to design the complete research methodology. This chapter provides the detailed explanation of the research methodology that has been used by the researcher for this particular research. The aim of this research is to analyze the impact of social networking website on brand promotion which requires a robust research methodology.Research MethodologyBefore moving further, a research first needs to understand the difference between exploratory and ex planatory research and make the appropriate selection between them. Exploratory research is useful where the research wants to conclude the research through in-depth and detailed discussion about the research objectives and findings of the research. On the other hand explanatory research is useful where the researcher conclude the research based on the key facts and using statistical measures without having in-depth discussions. Here the research wants to conduct the analyses to understand the impact of social networking websites on brand promotion therefore it requires statistical measures to conduct the impact analyses. Hence researcher has used explanatory research in this study.Research DesignThere are the various authors who have provided the approach to design the suitable research methodology. However the most relevant research methodology design is given by Saunders et al (2003) by developing the research onion. Each layer of this research onion provided the research compone nt and selecting the research components gives the complete design of the research. Research has used the research onion developed by Saunders et al (2003) for pattern the research methodology. Description of selecting the research components by using research onion is provided in the following section.Research ApproachResearch approach is chosen from the first layer of the research onion. A research can go for deductive, abductive or inductive research approach. In this research, researcher has used abductive research approach which enables the researcher to get the deeper understanding of research objective and need of correlating the literature with key findings of the research. Other research approaches such as inductive and deductive approach has been rejected by the research since both the approaches more focused towards the theoretical implications and less towards the practical implication of the research.Research PhilosophyResearch can select the research philosophy by rem oving the second layer of the research onion. There are the two research philosophies such as positivism and interpretivism research philosophy. Interpretivism research philosophy is useful where the researcher interpret the study results using literature and less focused towards the practical implications of the research study. Since the research approach used by the researcher is abductive which requires the practical implication hence interpretivism research philosophy is irrelevant. In positivism research philosophy researcher only considers the practical implication along with the use of literature to be linked with research findings. Hence in this research, researcher has used the positivism research philosophy.Research StrategyResearch strategy can be chosen by removing third layer of the research onion. Research strategy enables the researcher to conduct the analysis and presenting the key findings of the research. In addition to this research decides on methods of informa tion collection. A research can use survey questionnaire methods or face to face interview method to collect the data. It is essential to capture the views of marketing managers about the impact of social networking websites in brand promotion. Hence the research has used survey questionnaire method for collecting the data. Once the data is placid, a researcher needs to understand the way of conducting the analysis and presenting the data. In this research, research has used question by question analysis and drawn the conclusion. Research has used both the secondary coil and uncreated(a) data in this research and method for each of type of data is described below information Collection MethodologySecondary data is the data which is already existed in the published format. On the other hand primary data is the data which is not available and researcher collect the information using questionnaire method from the relevant respondents. In this study, researcher has collected both th e secondary and primary data. The methodology description of collecting each type of data is provided belowSecondary DataSecondary data in this research has been collected using various secondary sources such as academic journals which have been procured from the university library, books, news articles, web articles, company websites and general internet search. Secondary has been used to compose the literature in this research.Primary DataIn order to capture the view points of marketing managers towards the impact of social networking websites, the data has been collected using primary research. In primary research, researcher has prepared the quantitative questionnaire and administered the questionnaire using email. Others details of primary research is provided below.Target RespondentsTarget respondents were marketing managers who must have knowledge about the social networking concepts and websites and responsible for preparing branding strategy for their companies.Sample Size A total of 200 questionnaires were sent to the target respondents out of which 59 responses were authorized by the researcher. Therefore the total sample size of this study is 59.Sampling MethodologyConvenient sampling methodology has been used by the researcher for designing the samples in this study. In this research, the researcher already known to the screening and qualification criteria of the target respondents therefore the convenient sampling methodology is useful for this research study.Data AnalysisA researcher has used excel tool for analyzing the data. Each questionnaire responses are filled in Excel and developed a final data file. Researcher has used some basic statistical measures to analyze the data and key findings of the research has been presented using charts and graphs which have been prepared using Excel.Ethical love Research LimitationsThere are certain ethical issues that have been taken into consideration by the researcher. Researcher has followed the mar ket research guidelines to meet the ethical challenges in this research such as disclosing the respondents names contact information as per the respondents consent, acknowledging the information sources, use of authenticated data sources and websites and meeting the university guidelines to avoid plagiarism. Some limitations go about by the researcher are access to the company information, coverage of sample size and reach out to the target respondents.

The Washington And Post Washington Consensus

The capital letter And Post capital of the United States ConsensusAbstractThe present line paper is an attempt to explore and put forth the theoretical exposition of the cardinal major exploitation paradigms the securities industry-oriented and the dry land-cum-market centric development positions, plausibly portrayed in terms of what is oft phrased as the Washington Consensus and the Post-Washington Consensus. These discourses must non be only analysed keeping in mind the benefits and costs of the implementing the policy prescriptions advocated by these two sets of development paradigms in different economies over the years, but at the same time its long-term effects on the individual economies, be at the nerve centre or periphery, and the repercussion effects of any alteration in frugal variables in ace country on the other as a core of openness of economies, while prosecute the universal policies, granted for the fact that today we guess the world no less than a pl anetary village where the formation concept has modified radic wholey over the last a few decades at the behest of the refer Bretton woodwind instrument institutions like the World Bank and the International pecuniary Fund. The development discourse must excessively account for the individual capability and capacity of countries to absorb the economic policies in the development order of business of individual countries in question, as put forth by these institutions. Natur all(prenominal)y enough, the failure of the sound theoretical programs would invite criticisms, at least because it has cash in ones chipsed unevenly in almost any country trying to employ these policies and unfortunately there argon no dearth of evidences from all corners of the globe to prove that the universal policy design uniformly for all countries, in order to bring ab turn extinct meaningful economic development globally has actually failed or at least been partly successful. The overall idea is to make an insight into the Washington Consensus and the Post-Washington Consensus and evaluating to what extent any scrutiny for these policies could be hence put previous.IntroductionThe economic development discourse of nations had been downstairs constant influence of the economic ideology prevailing in particular nations at any order in time. The economic history of nations itself suggests that how we have witnessed the ever-changing development paradigms have evolved after the Second World War in 1944-45, primarily seen as the deliberate developmental assistance to the war-affected nations. The focus used to be mainly the need to correct market failure through command and control mechanism through various state-oriented developmental strategies and economic programmes like the implication substitution industrialisation policy for the promotion of indigenous industries for bump comparative advantage in production and throw, fiscal repression etc. But the decade of 70s on the button late 70s, apparently proved the defects and malfunctioning of the centrally planned economies. The two major oil shocks, first in 1973 and the next in 1979 put the great challenge before the policy makers and development economists, which completely destabilised the global economy along with many other politico-economic developments around the world. This would be clear in the by-line excerpts.The 1980s were a hell of a decade. They began with the reverberations of the second OPEC oil shock. They ended with the fall of the Berlin wall. In between, we had the Reagan-Thatcher-Kohl economic policy era in North the States and Europe, the Volcker interest rate shock, the Latin American debt crisis, collapse in Africa, the start of rapid increment in China and in India, and on and on. Oh, and by the way, in 1989 John Williamson coined the term Washington Consensus (Williamson, 19903)It became a questionable affair to challenge the efficacy of how faraway government policie s can actually benefit or wrong the economic environment. This tendency of statist model inevitably led to emergence of an alternative theory of development vestigially rests on the givens of the neo-classical model of a idle-market enterprise economy. The Washington Consensus per se is primarily affiliated to this school of economic thought, which states for the minimal role of the state in carrying out economic activity. That is governments should limit their interferences in the economy, only to economise macroeconomic stability and to secure law and order and provision of public goods. In other address, the Washington Consensus is the market-centered strategy designed to counter the ill-effects of excessive state discussion in the economy, under the aegis of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which claimed to bear a universal mechanism for the efficient assignation of economic resources and promoter of economic growth world wide. However, the validity of Washington Consensus was under strict scrutiny for not fulfilling its much hyped economic policies and soon criticised for its failure. At this preliminary level, it is important to introduce the other parallel but pole opposite of Washington Consensus, that is, the emergence of the Post-Washington Consensus in mid-1990s, which advocates for a mixed-blend of interventionist and market strategy for better economic development of nations, granted a few conditions of the Washington Consensus like the trade liberalization to be continued along with deliberate state intervention in the economic affairs.The Pros and Cons of the Washington ConsensusThe Washington Consensus, sometimes synonymously used as the set of neo-liberal economic policies or a universal policy computer slowlyware was originally designed by the key Bretton Woods institutions like World Bank and IMF, to restore economic growth and to correct the balance of payments crises or the debt crises and hyper-inflation c onformation of stain facing the Latin American countries, such as Argentina and Mexico. The term Washington Consensus was coined and formulated by John Williamson in 1989 at the Peterson demonstrate of International Economics in the US.According to Nobel Laureate in Economics in the year 2001, Joseph E. Stiglitz,The Washington Consensus policies, however, were based on a simple model of market economy, the competitive equilibrium model, in which Adam Smiths invisible hand works, and works finishedly. Because in this model, there is no need for the government that is, free, unfettered, liberal markets work perfectly the Washington Consensus policies are sometimes referred to as neo-liberal based on market fundamentalism, a resuscitation of the laissez-faire policies that were popular in some circles in the 19th century (Stiglitz, 2002 74).This neo-liberal orthodoxy prevailed over the entire global economy from the beginning of the late 1970s to the mid of 1990s irrespective of the nature and extent of economic growth parameters in different countries. The set of policy prescription was purely of market-oriented model of economic growth. This policy package eventually effectuated in what is better known as the Structural Adjustment Policy (SAP) of the World Bank and the IMF to help countries get rid of debt-crises aftermath of the oil shock of 1979 from the sharp decrease in the autochthonic commodities prices and increasing interest rates, the World Bank and the IMF put forward conditionalities in order to receive credits or financial assistance from these institutions basically to the governments of the growth countries.Therefore, stable macroeconomic policies, outward orientation, and free-market capitalism became the central instruments of the Washington Consensus. In other words, the three big ideas underlying these reforms as Williamson asserts areThe macroeconomic discipline, a market economy, and openness to the world. The first three reforms ar e, so far as I am aware, widely accepted among economists (Williamson, 2000 251).Williamson also provided a much particular proposition list of ten policy areas or tenets of that could be used to characterize the consensus as listed below(1) fiscal discipline, (2) redirection of public expenditure toward the areas of education, health, and infrastructure, (3) tax reform, (4) interest-rate liberalization, (5) competitive exchange rates, (6) trade liberalization, (7) liberalization of inflows of foreign direct investment, (8) privatization, (9) deregulation, and (10) secure shoes right-hand(a)s (Williamson 1990).We can say that all these reforms fundamentally rest on the premises of the neo-classical paradigm that supports the laizzez-faire belief as panacea for all economic problems in a capitalist economy. Therefore, the whole appertain was through following these policy package, the markets could be freely allowed to light upon its own course in order to set the prices right, which comes from the essence of free trade as a major component of the Washington Consensus. The widespread and often excessive state intervention was being seen as the making the economy weak and therefore it was contended that imperfect markets are better than imperfect states. Giving the consistent corollary to prove this point, Lal (1983 63-64) at different occasions asserted thatThe cost of government failures arising from the rent-seeking and price distortions associated with excessive protectionism would always outweigh market failures associated mostly with imperfect emulation an under-provision of public goods. The Washington Consensus was thus increasingly based on the understanding that imperfect markets are always superior to imperfect states.Some scholars like Colclough and manor (2000 263) summarised the resurgence of the neo-liberal thinking in development discourse in following words.The emerging neoliberal orthodoxy advocated a new development model based on the primacy of individualism, market liberalism, outward-orientation, and state contraction. The organising principle of neo-liberal political economy was the notion of a minimal state, whose primary functions were to secure law and order, ensure macroeconomic stability and provide the necessary physical infrastructure.Further, according to Colclough and Manor (2000 263)Trade liberalisation and state contraction were necessary tools to curb the excessive powers enjoyed by politicians and bureaucrats, a process which was regarded as crucial for rapid and equitable economic growth.Originally the policy reforms as envisaged in the Washington Consensus was designed and intended to cover all the Latin American countries, later it was applied to almost all countries and was intentionally penetrated into the economic policy agenda of Third World Countries. Regarding the supremacy of the Washington Consensus on all the sooner prevalent economic thoughts, different opinions came into the pictu re. Say for instance, much before the arrival of such an economic ideological discourse, economists like J. M. Keynes (1936), who is considered to be a pioneer of the social welfare state, believed that a policy of fiscal discipline would neither reduce the current account crisis, nor it can lead to a fully employed economy where all the factors of production and economic resources are optimally employed. So J. M. Keynes basically challenged the classical axioms for the smooth functioning of the economy. Since the classical axioms are not very close to the reliable world phenomena of perfectly competitive markets, the essence of the Washington Consensus way of looking at the economy could be better described in the words of Keynes in the following linesIt happens not to be those of the economic society in which we actually live with the result that its teaching is misleading and disastrous if we attempt to apply it to the facts of fancy (Keynes, 193630).Infact, it is felt that t he last of the ten policy reforms, that is, securing property rights for efficient production in the economy however, cannot be refuted easily. If the state is capable to ensure that the production self-command should go in the hands of those who value it more, who has also the capability to augment resources, further there is no harm in transferring property rights to develop right entrepreneurship in the economy.What is important here is to note that the Washington Consensus was treated like a shock therapy for the countries suffering from debt-crises of any sporadic shock like the one oil shock of 1979, because it was assumed that trade liberalisation and privatisation will take care of the economic disturbances affecting the normal working of the economic system. However, the experiences of the last 20 years or so have shown that the reforms envisioned through the Washington Consensus have actually led to disaster in many countries. This understanding of the neo-liberal orthodo xy could be better explained in the following lines of John Williamson.I wrote a background paper in which I listed 10 policy reforms that I argued almost everyone in Washington thought were needed in Latin America as of that date. I labeled this reform agenda the Washington Consensus, never dreaming that I was coining a term that would become a war cry in ideological debates for more than a decade. Indeed, I thought the ideas I was laying out were consensual, which is why I gave them the label I did (Williamson, 1990).The evidences we have clearly indicate that Washington Consensus as a universal policy package became a soft target of severe criticisms in recent years primarily from the countries at the periphery. The consistent episodes of criticisms labeled against the Washington Consensus pave the way for the future insights in the economic development discourse.Whats wrong with the Washington ConsensusA wide range of criticisms had been put forward as a result of the practical problems faced by the countries pursuing the reforms as recommended by the Washington Consensus since the year of its introduction. One of the criticisms which is generally labelled against the Washington Consensus is regarding the fundamental assumptions of the neo-classical model of free market ideology. In this connection, Stiglitz (200273-74) maintains thatBehind the free market ideology there is a model, often attributed to Adam Smith, which argues that market forces the profit motive drives the economy to efficient outcomes as if by an invisible hand. It turns out that these conditions are highly restrictive. Ironically occurring precisely during the period of relentless pursuit of the Washington Consensus have shown that whenever information is imperfect and markets incomplete, which is to say always, and especially in exploitation countries, then the invisible hand works most imperfectly. Significantly, there are desirable government interventions which, in principle, can improve upon the efficiency of the market.So in this way the basic premises on which the Washington Consensus rests itself became questionable in the academia. Furthermore, Stiglitz (2002 74) went on to criticise the theoretical validity of the neo-classical model in his following wordsEven if Adam Smiths invisible hand theory were relevant for advanced industrialised countries, the required conditions are not satisfied in developing countries. The market system requires clearly established property rights and the courts to enforce them but these often these are absent in developing countries. The market system requires competition and perfect information. But competition is limited and information is far from perfect and well-functioning competitive markets cannot be established overnight. The theory says that an efficient market economy requires that all of the assumption be satisfied. In some cases, reforms in one area, without accompanying reforms in others may actually make m atters worse. This is issue of sequencing. Ideology ignores this matters it says simply move as quickly to a market economy as you can. But economic theory and history show how disastrous it can be to ignore sequencing. isolated from the theoretical loopholes in overall framework of the Washington Consensus, many other empirical evidences can be put forth for its failures. These are listed belowThe fundamental claim of the Washington Consensus that full-scale liberalisation, at all costs, is associated with superior economic performance was doubtful. For instance, it has been maintained that the highly successful story of the Newly Industrialised Countries (NICs) in East Asia such as Japan and Taiwan better known as the East Asian miracle, gave a reason for the resurgence of the neo-liberal policies. These NICs, no doubt, performed appreciably not only in making rapid and high economic growth but also elevateed in terms of key social indicators pave a strong supporting pillar for t he neo-liberal paradigm constituting the Washington Consensus. Many believed that these NICs are very close to the norms of the free-market economy. However, this story is partly true. What is significant at this point is to know that the institutions pertaining to industrialization and export growth were performing robustly well and these were the factors which were at the heart of success of these countries. Onis (1998 197-216) has tried to give the valid argument in following wordsStrong growth and diversification of industrial output and exports could not be accounted for simply for the logic of the free market interventionist strategies and an active industrial policy, dictated by considerations relating to longer-term competitiveness and dynamic comparative advantage, constituted the central elements contributing their success.If we see the world economic growth rate, it had infact strikingly lowered, and become more unstable during the neo-liberal era. Not only this, the degr ee of inequality in the global economy appeared to have increased during this period of neo-liberal economic restricting (UNCTAD 1997). Even the chess opening between the developed and the developing countries had widened and there had been increased divergence within the Third World. For example, as compare to the hyper-growth in Asian NICs, the Latin American countries in 1980s and sub-Saharan Africa lagged far behind over the same period of time (Rock, 1993 1787-1801). Moreover, excluding China, there is an increase of poor people and the poverty rate had declined from 28.5 portion to 25 percent (Fischer, 20038).According to Stiglitz (200276),There is a more fundamental criticism of the IMF/Washington Consensus approach It does not take acknowledge that development requires a transformation of society. Even it completely ignored the fairness concept.A few more instances could be put forward to support the argument that the collapse of Washington Consensus was inevitable such as the success of Argentina in the first few years of accepting the policies and later how its economy collapsed. The case of Turkey is other example where the Washington Consensus policies totally failed.Exposure of many middle income countries to the vagaries of financial globalization actually proved costly for them because opening of their capital accounts before victorious into account the macroeconomic stability fell in the trap of the World Bank and the IMF. These high volatile capital flows and frequent financial crises, because of unregulated financial markets led to repercussion effect of one country could be easily felt in another, which we have thoroughly witnessed in the Asian Crisis of 1997 and the Russian Crisis of 1998, which had myriad socio-economic-politico impacts on different economies.Last but not the least in the series of criticisms that had been labelled against the popular programmes of the Washington Consensus is of course a paradoxical situation when the Washington Consensus talks about minimising the bureaucratic inefficiency, rent-seeking, and other forms corruption and pervasive state failure, it had come to our observation that it had actually happened the other way round these all social and economic evils had actually aggravated during the neo-liberal regime.Keeping these issues in mind, during the mid-1990s there emerged a new and thought provoking policy focus of the key Bretton Woods institutions away from the hard-core neo-liberalism to a new synthesis of states and markets as emerging Post- Washington Consensus.The Post-Washington Consensus Is it inevitable?The Post-Washington Consensus goes further in detailing the nature of the failures of the Washington consensus (Stiglitz, 199817). Joseph E. Stiglitz who is divinatory to provide the intellectual backbone to the emerging Post-Washington Consensus maintains that there was lack of understanding between the policies put forth by Washington Consensus and the contextual framework of developing countries. In the following words, Stiglitz tries to state his positionThere was a failure in understanding economic structures within developing countries, in focusing on too narrow a set of objectives, and on too limited a set of instruments. For instance, markets by themselves do not produce efficient outcomes when engineering science is changing or when there is learning about markets such dynamic processes are at the heart of development and there are important externalities in such dynamic processes, giving rise to an important role for government. The successful East Asian countries recognized this role the Washington consensus policies did not (Stiglitz, 199817-18).Stiglitz and Greenwald (2003) further believe that the Post-Washington Consensus recognizes thatThere is a role for a market the question is to what extent the neoliberals recognize that there is a role for the state, beyond the minimal role of enforcing contracts and property rights. Ther e is no theoretical underpinning to believe that in early stages of development, markets by themselves will lead to efficient outcomes.Moreover, the Asian crisis of 1997 proved to be an important turning point for the rethinking about the Washington Consensus for the reason that for the first time in its history, the IMF was confronted with serious criticisms from all over. It was criticised not only for failing to predict the crisis but also to make the situation worse aftermath the crisis. To describe it more clearly in words of Stanley Fischer,The Asian Crisis was also important in terms in producing a serious rift between the two Bretton Woods institutions again for the first time for many decades. Following the rethinking process that has occurred, the IMF now tends to pay far more attention to regulatory reforms, notably in the context of the banking and financial system, and recognises far more than on the past the importance of strong institutions and good brass (Fischer, 2002385).Stiglitz (2002155) further added that the IMF until the Asian Crisis used to be crititicised by the countries at the periphery or the Third World countries, but now the criticisms were also put forward by the countries at the centre or the developed countries. He maintains thatWith the onset of the Asian Crisis, the IMF especially became the object of serious criticism from the centre within the key Bretton Woods institutions themselves (Stiglitz, 2002155-156).One of the key ingredients of the Post-Washington Consensus is the recognition that states have a great role to play in the economic development process. However, the Post-Washington Consensus favours the market liberalisation, the twin concepts of states and markets are considered as of complementing rather than substituting in nature. Greater role for the state institutions has been prescribed for better and efficient working of the economy. There is a clear mark about the regulation of financial markets in order to avoid any un authenticty arising out global flows of capital between countries. And the most important, it is thought that certain areas like human development, equality and to alleviate poverty, states can replace the market failures in accomplishing these issues. The question remains how to improve the state efficiency or to avoid state failure. In this regard, Stiglitz (200117) highlights thatThe goodness of states can be improved by using market-like mechanisms. An interesting symmetry is established by noting that states are important for the effective functioning of markets but also that markets or market-like mechanisms are important for the effective functioning of states.ConclusionWhile analyzing the whole set of ideas and instruments put forward by each of these different line of thinking about the development discourse it is certain that the policies advocated by them may work in some countries and may not in others. What is important is the debate over the sufficienc y conditions put forth for the pervasive development of countries primarily the Third World countries. So far zero point appreciable has been achieved since the introduction of either Washington or the Post-Washington Consensus in developing countries. What is apparent here is the fact that all policies whether its neo-liberal or structuralist in from and nature has not benefitted much from the development assistance programmes initiated by the World Bank and the IMF Post-Second World War period. While the role of the state cannot be undermined in economic progress of any country, it is also important to scrutinise its position and capability in the global scenario marked by excessive dominance of the global governance agenda before it. The irresistible wave of globalisation to a large extent undermines the possible intervention in formulating policies at least at the domestic levels for the countries. The concern in the developing countries is how to bring growth with equity. The balanced approach of the Post-Washington Consensus between states and markets along with reforming the governing institutions is far more impressible strategy than that of believing the machine-controlled working of the economy exposed to liberalisation of markets and openness of economy. At least the gains and losses can be mutually appropriated between these two institutions of markets and states. Relying heavily on the free trade and the consequent trickle-down effect to happen automatically has become a far fetched dream for majority of the countries in the larger paradigm of global governance with varied socio, economic and political implications. What is sure is the trade-off between states and markets would to a large extent provide a new outlook for the development discourse for individual countries presuming institutions of governance are at their best of their capacity, capability and efficiency fronts.

The Modigliani And Miller Theory Finance Essay

The Modigliani And miller Theory Finance EssayThe Modigliani Miller Theorem is a linchpin of modern incorpo score finance. At its core, the theorem is an irrelevance proposition The Modigliani Miller Theorem provides circumstances under which an enterp jump bulges fiscal ends ar independent on its cling to. Modigliani (1980, pxiii) explains the Theorem as follows with well-functioning merchandises (and neutral taxes) and symmetrynal investors, who rear undo the corporate financial structure by h obsoleteing positive or negative amounts of debt, the market value of the firm debt plus justness depends only on the income stream set outd by its assets. It follows, in particular, that the value of the firm should not be affected by the shargon of debt in its financial structure or by what willing be d adept with the returns give out as dividends or reinvested (profitably).There atomic number 18 four distinct results that ar understood from the Modigliani Miller Theorem a nd they argon as followThe debt- justice ratio does not affect its market value under certain conditions.The second proposition inculcates that a firms debt-equity ratio is unaffected by its weighted average hail of expectant that is the cost of equity cr cause is a linear function of supplement.Firms market value is sovereign of its dividend policy.Stock-holders are non-chalant to the highest degree the firms financial policy.The modern speculation of capital structure started with Modigliani Miller(1958) on the plight of capital structure irrelevance. The distinct results shown higher up were based on the following assumptionsMarket be cannot be influenced by scale of an individuals proceedings that is all(prenominal) investors are footing-takers.Firms and investors being market participants can lend or borrow at the same riskless(prenominal) rate.Income taxes are neither paid on the corporate level nor at a personalised level.There are no transaction charges or all owances.Investors are all rational wealth-suitors.Enterp elevations are assort into homogeneous risk classes much(prenominal) that all members of the group obtain the same return.Similar expectations about future company earnings are formulated by investors ( normal probability distribution).The assets of a company that can no longer carry out its business( insolvent) can be sold at full market values.Criticism of the Modigliani and Miller surmiseThere is a common argument that Modigliani Miller provides a means of finding reasons why finance may publication but does not provide a reasonable description of how firms finance their operations. This is supported by a number of researchers such as Hamada (1969) and Stigiltz (1974). The theorem has given rise to a lot of questions. How do firms choose their capital structure? Do firms eff target leverage? What are the determinants of firm capital structure finales? numerous researchers kick in tried to answer these questions in their studies but the results are still enigmatic. The most frequent hypotheses utilize to address capital structure are placid trade-off, pecking disposition and market timing theory and umpteen others.The criticism against this theorem can be grouped into two typesPapers that deal with the limitations of the arbitrage conditions.Arbitrage mathematical operation is the operational justification for Modigliani and Miller hypothesis. Arbitraging can be defined as the process of buying a certification in a market where the price is low and selling the security in another market where the price is higher. In so doing, an equilibrium is achieved and it implies that the security cannot be sold at disparate prices. jibe to the MM hypothesis, the total value of homogeneous firm that differ only in the debt-equity ratio will be similar collect to the artibraging condition. The afterwards is no longer smooth due to institutional restrictions and it is withal affected by transac tion cost due to the limitations of the MM hypothesis.The MM leverage irrelevance proposition bumped much controversy and criticism on the methodology section. Their proofs are based on a more appropriate and fundamental notion than a competitive equilibrium. This is where the arbitrage argument comes into play. When the arbitrage is absent, the economy fuck offs standard to price repetitive securities and Black Scholes (1973) depended on the MM- type arbitrage argument which was rather tactless as it was engaged with the comparision of firms whose cash full stops had similar risk characteristics. tally to Stiglitz ( 1969)1, firms do not issue much debt as there is the consequence of bankruptcy. The focus switched from the persuasion of risk class to the importance of bankruptcy.Studies that analyse the burden of market imperfections on the firms pickax of capital structure.Taxes, bankrypcy costs, transaction costs, adverse selection and deputation conflicts are all part of t he major explanation for the use of debt in corporate.Trade-off TheoryThe various costs and benefits of an alternative leverage plans are assessed by a decision maker who runs a firm. The trade-off theory is originated from a debate over the Modigliani and Miller theory. This is due to the addition of corporate taxes to the primitive irrelevance proposition. A debt benefit is seen to be created which serve as a shield before the takes. Bankruptcy is the offsetting cost of debt that is needed. The optimal debt-equity ratio mirrors a trade-off between the tax benefits of debt and deadweight costs of bankruptcy Myers (1984). A firm that anchors a target leverage ratio and gradually moves towards the target is a firm that follows the trade-off theory. The determination of the target is do by stabilizing the tax shields against the cost of bankruptcy Jensen and Meckling (1977) Harris and Raviv (1990) Taggart (1977). It also weighs up the advantages and disadvantages of using debt. As d iscussed earlier, there is a shield benefit that acts as a barrier to taxes DeAngelo and Masulis (1980). In addition, there is a reduction of the free cash flow problem Stulz (1990). However, the pitfalls of debt include the feasible cost of financial distress Kraus and Litzenberger (1973) Kim (1978) and the agency cost arising between the shareholders and the creditors. Frank and Goyal (20052) take the Myers earlier notion of trade-off to a new position namely the noneffervescent trade-off theory fit(p) within a single period and a target adjustment behavior.Agency Cost TheoryJensen and Meckling (1976) launched the agency cost of free cash flow theory. The theory is hinged on the conflict between managers, outside shareholders and bondholders. The conflicts can be either between the bondholders and shareholders which is a result of moral hazards or between managers and shareholders.. According to this theory, the managers do not always use the funds of the firm for the benefit of the company but rather for their own benefits. The managers exploit the powers they have and the abuse can be categorized in three different varieties. Foremost, managers possess ground on which they can enjoy the full value of anything they get from the firm such as private jets since they hold only a fraction of these allowances on the job consumption. Second, they qualification assay for the entire building as large firms have a unravelency to give managers prestige, power and compensation for the work they do just to encourage them. Lastly, they have the power to tyrannise the firm according to their own selectences and make themselves prerequisites by investing in projects which others cannot manage. This negates the wealth of the shareholders.. Harris and Raviv (1990) Bodie and Merton (2000)agency cost is seen to be more relevant to firms in mature industries. As these firms tend to generate cash which exceeds their investment needs. The availability of free cash in mature industries is higher and easily employ for the management of the firms. Nyborg (2010). Therefore, it is true to say that agency cost is more relevant to larger firms.Market Timing TheoryThe market timing theory is based on the fact that enterprises prefer to issue stocks when the prices of the stocks are high and repurchase the stocks when the prices are falling. The assumption they make is that the market can be convictiond and managers really try to time market. The issue of debt and new equity can be made based on past price movements Marsh (1982). In a survey of British firms, CFOs harbor that they try to time the equity market. Those who considered the issue of shares reported that the amount by which the stocks are undervalued and overvalued is an important factor Graham and Harvey (2001). The shocks of equity price have an inexhaustible effect on the corporate capital structure. Following increments in stock prices, firms tend to issue equity and repurchase shares when the stock prices decline which is actually the opposite of what one might expect if corporate tended to equalize their structures towards a target Welch (2004).Fischer, Heinkel and Zechner, (1989) observed that with new debt and equity issues over time, firms tend to return to their preferred leverage range. More specifically, firms are forced to march out from the preferred level of debt to equity ratio by embrassing more debt as a source of funding to new projects or as a way to self- defend themselves against take-overs show a transcendence to paying down debt to rebound to a more acceptable mix of leverage. Muscarella and vetsuypens, 1990.The Pecking edict TheoryDonaldson (1961) had been the starting time one to describe the prominent story based on a financing pecking localise. He monitored Management strongly favoured internal extension as a source of new funds even to the exclusion of outside funds except for occasional unavoidable bulges in the need for funds.3According to the picture that Donaldson framed, companies quietly complied contain earnings, becoming less tilted when they are lucrative and gather debt, becoming more uplifted when they are unprofitable. If companies are otherwise heedless about their capital structures as suggested by Miller (1977) then they will not make future capital structure selections which compensate the effect of their earnings history. But the common pecking rules of smart set theory branches out from Myers (1984). A firm pursues the pecking hallow if it prefers4internal financing and debt equity if the external financing is utilize.The pecking order theory is proposed by Myers and Maljuf (1984) and is an application of asymmetric culture theory. Following this theory, the managers of a firm who are considered as insiders are likely to posses private schooling about the firms quality and investment projects. Ergo, the choice of a firms capital structure strikes the outsiders who are actually the investors the information to managers. Because outsiders have less information than the managers regarding the value of the firm, the issued equity will be underpriced by the market. Financing the project through a security will prevent such a situation to crop up that is the security will not be undervalued by the market. The securities employ can be in the form of retained earnings as internal funds and risk-less debts. Hinged by the argument set by Myers and Maljuf (1984) , Myers (1984) suggested that the pecking order theory propose that firms finance their projects by firstly using internal funds in the form of retained earnings, secondly through the utility of debts ( risk-less debts are used first and when there is a shortage or there is no more of the risk-less debt, risky debts are used) and finally equity is issued. Pecking Oder Theory speculates that managers do not take into consideration an optimal capital structure when make financial decisions.5They unpretentiously choose wha t attend to be the low cost financing devices.Why do firms prefer debt to equity?In corporate finance, asymmetric information refers to the fact that firm insiders, routinely the managers have better information than market actors on the value of their firms asset and investment opportunities. The possibility that the market will wrongly price the firms claim is created by this asymmetry consequently providing a positive role for financing decisions of companies.Let us think of a firm who wants to make new investments by making use of its growth possibilities. Given that this firm solicits to supply the resources, it needs to issue stocks. The stocks cannot be fully valued by the investors Myers (2001). Pecking order theory is born due to mispricing which comes to light as a consequence of not knowing the actual values of equity.The existence of asymmetric information lies in the middle of mispricing Halov N and Heider F (2005). As a result of the asymmetric information, the firms quality as good issue stock to find resources, the issued equity are undervalued by investors koupoulos (2006). Since a price cut is liked to be observed from the investors and to avoid this situation internal resources are preferred rather than issuing equity to finance investment without subject any cost that arises from asymmetric information. Fama and French (2002) establish that ulterior supply resources used in investment financing are debts as they bear a low risk.Due to the problems that are initiated by asymmetric information, firms hash external resources use as a cheaper policy as compared to the issuance of equity. There are several reasons why firms consider external financing as a better option to finance investment. One of them is the position of organizational sales. Enterprises with sturdy sales line gives the supremacy to finance through debt for their needs by availing form market trust towards them. These firms, therefore, have no trouble in repaying their d ebts due to the lasting sales and their earnings. They are also liable to having recourse to debt more easily.Additionally, size and structure of firms is another factor to be considered. Firms having more accessorized assets put borrowing first in line of their resources list since they will easily get debt. Tax advantage is as well a factor that can be added to the above list as it prioritize debt financing. A correction on the original model has been suggested by Modigliani and Miller (1963). In the new model, they clearly incorporate the corporate income tax, while the other assumptions were kept untouched. Assuming ceteris paribus, the value of the firm (VL) will be maximized as it is a function of the market value of debt. In theory when the levered firm reaches its maximum market value as it is financed entirely by debt. To finance their needs of financing, the firm should use as much debt as possible. To come along relax the Modigliani-Millers assumption, Miller (1977) int roduced personal taxes together with corporate taxes into the model assuming that all enterprises have similar tax rates. According to him, the relatively higher personal income tax paid on bonds by firms should be grossed up by any differential that bondholders will pay on their interest income otherwise, bonds will have no value and no one would want to hold bonds. Therefore, in equilibrium the debt advantage is negligible. De Angelo and Masulis (1980) brought in the recognition of the existence of a non- identical fringy tax rates among different firms and the outcome of tax-shield items in the financial statement other than interest expenses. As far as capital structure is concerned, they brought in two implications. First, in equilibrium a firm who is considered as a borrower benefits from a positive gain from leverage if the tax rate is higher than the marginal firm because of a low pre-paid interest rate they pay. Moreover, items such as depreciation, oil depletion allowance s and investment tax credits are defacto non cash charges. They predicted that there is a positive relationship between the level of debt and the effective tax rate and a negative relationship to the amount of non debt tax shields available to them. The interest rate of debt users is deductible from tax base which in turn relinquishes the importance to debt instead of equity.Equity financing confers rise to transaction costs and to avoid this problem financing through debt is viewed as another reason Fama and French (2004). In addition to that, uncertainty of control that might be experienced in enterprises is seen as a plausible factor. The presence of new shareholders confirms the fact that they will prefer stock financing as a lack of resources and will eventually give rise to risk of management control in firm whilst in financing via debt, there is no such risk of control loss.Lamont (1997) evaluates that more than three-quarter of corporate investments in US are made through in ternal financing. Further, Fazzari, Hubbard and Perterse6n (1988) has shown the delicacy of investment to internal cash flow, accenting the cost advantage of internal resources and thus explaining the fact why firms have recourse to external funds. Leary and Roberts (2005) also found that firms will not have recourse to external capital markets if they have fit internal funds but they are more likely to make use of the external funds when they have big investment needs. Event studies also provide a significant amount of evidence indicating that information is conveyed. Repurchases made through debt had larger announcement returns than those financed with cash thus representing larger increases in financial leverages Masulis (1980) and Vermaelen (1981) ).Heinkel and Zechner (1990) analysed an expanded catalogue of risky securities that include preferred stocks. Assuming a given capital structure and asymmetric information about investment quality, they showed that in an amalgamated equilibrium, all stock firms tend to overinvest and accepted some negative NPV projects. The overinvestment can be eliminated by issuing an initial debt which resulted in an optimal leverage ratio. Besides, an underinvestment problem is created if managers make use of more debts considering the tax advantage of debt. Nevertheless, a kindred issue of preferred stocks will enable the firm to issue a higher level of debt desired without creating the problem of underinvestment. Therefore, managers develop an optimal capital structure with debt, preferred stocks and common r which is consistent with the pecking order theory.There are also researchers that went through adjustments of capital structure around long run optima.7Marsh (1982) was one of them as he predicted that firms that have a leverage ratio below the average for the last 10 years are more likely to issue debt. Jalilvand and Harris (1984) is consistent with the results of Marsh (1982) as he shows that 108 of US manufacturin g firms tend to issue long term debt when the long term debts are below average.The Pecking order theory is tested on both large firms and small firms. well-nigh of the studies have been carried out on large firms. Few studies focused on small and medium sized firms. Since SMEs confront more information asymmetry problem, it is express that the financing decisions of SMEs are better explained by the pecking order theory. Consequently recent studies have attempted to explain the financing decisions of small firms in the context of the pecking order theory. They also argue that there is a lot of differences between large and small firms. It is not only a matter of size, this is why accurate models are used to study the decisions of the latter. The problem of information asymmetry is more persistent within small firms than in large firms. This is due to the scarcity and informality of information that is available.The financing structure of small firms is explained by using a financia l growth cycle by Berger and Udell (1998). () in which financial needs and option variety show as the business grows, gains further experience, and grows less informationally opaque. For the first two years namely the initial stage or the infant stage, companies face more information asymmetries as their main source of funds are from friends and relatives, trade credit and investors. As the age and size of companies become large enough, credit from financial institutions become more available. This is a typical view of pecking order where the degree of information asymmetry decreases as the firms grow in size and experience.Small firms find external equity costly due to the fixed costs of initial public offerings. Chittenden et al (1996).A SME pecking order was described by Zoppa and Mc Mahon (2002).8As pecking order theory prescribes, the internal funding is the first choice. In second position, the company uses short -term debt which includes trade credit and personal loans. Lon g-term debts are then used which include loans from owners, family and relatives. The last alternative is equity.The study of Gebru (2009) is found to be consistent with other studies as pecking order theory holds to be true for SMEs. The sample used is from Tigray and it is seen that the educational level of owners decreases and there is less intrusion in the form of ownership. Ownership type, acquisition type and owners level of education are found to be the major determinants of MSE financing preferences.However, Murray and Goyal (2003) demonstrated that pecking order theory fails where actually it should be liable and this applies for small firms where the main problem is information asymmetry.Various studies have been carried out to test the validity of pecking order theory. Evidences have shown that many researchers are for the theory and the others are against and they are as followShyam- Sunder and Myers (1999) proposed to investigate the pecking order theory in the US marke t. According to them, the pecking order was described as an excellent first order caption for financial behaviors of companies. The slope of a firms shortage is maintain to be equal to one and the coefficient of the intercept is zero if the pecking order holds. The regression is made to the change of debt in year t. Besides, results unveil that pecking order shows a great confidence when tested with the target adjustment model. However Chirinko and Singha (2000) examined the interpretation of Shyam- Sunder and Myers (1999) regression test as it showed that the hypothesis test used by the later suffered from statistical power problems. These problems mustered the questions about the validity of inferences hinged on their new testing strategy. The former found out that the assumption of the slope of the deficit being one was not a necessary assumption for pecking order theory to be valid. The slope coefficient would equal to one if pecking order holds and will fall short to consis tency if the pecking order is not valid.Coupled with the above, the importance of information asymmetry as a determinant of capital structure as proposed by pecking order theory is tested by Bharath, Pasquariello and Wu (2009). It is seen that for the period, the test was carried out, information asymmetry did actually affect the capital structure decisions of US firms. They estimated that for every dollar of financing deficit to cover, firms in highest adverse selection decile issue more debt than those in the lowest decile. They also found out that its only when information asymmetry is to its minimum that firms will prefer to issue equity. These evidences explain the partial relevance of pecking order theory.Besides, Lemmon and Zender (2006) tested the modified version of pecking order theory. The debt capacity of a firm is taken into consideration. They wrangled that the financing choice of firms may depend on its debt capacity. This is because they believe that to fulfill finan cing needs, some firms may save on the debt capacity. Internal funds remain first on the financing list for all firms. Firms that are flexible to debt capacity will chiefly use debt to fill their financing deficit. Hinged on these findings, they came to the conclusion that the firms debt capacity is a good descriptor of financial behavior and goes along with the modified version of pecking order theory.Tong et al (2011) tested the static trade off theory against the pecking order theory for US firms. According to them, pecking order theory produces issuance of debt until the debt capacity is attained. Their evidence indicated that pecking order is a better headline for US firms issue decisions than the static trade off theory.The Australian case was evaluated by Suchard and Singh ( 2006). The Australian market can be distinguished from typical US and European markets as it has many distinct characteristics. They found out that listed debt market was limited. This is mostly where fir ms obtained bank debt, debts that are convertible but not callable and stand alone warrants which are used to raise capital. They examined the determinants of security choice for hybrid issuers based on these differences and claimed that the results supported the pecking order theory.Coupled with the above, the linkage between managerial optimisim and corporate financial decisions was corroborate by Lin et al (2008)9. The evaluation was carried out by testing the Heatons (2002) model. Apart from information asymmetry, managerial optimism also contributes in the pecking order theory. Lin et al (2008) wanted to know if the pecking order preference was better when the managers were more optimistic. Listed Taiwanese companies were used in their sample and a stronger relationship was found between the issuance of debt and the financial deficit which is consistent with the model used by Lin et al (2008).In contrast, Faulkender and Wang (2006) provide restrained evidence for the pecking o rder theory. According to them, approximately a value of $1.43 is lay on companies cash holdings by investors of equity firms. This is done as it prevents a company from paying costs when raising capital in the market. Since, external financing becomes more difficult and costly to obtain, the cash value is higher for firms facing hindrance on additional financing. However, the cash value decreases as cash holdings become larger, high leverage, better cash to capital markets and larger cash distributions through dividends rather than the repurchase of shares.Next, many individual financing decisions of firms were screened by Fama and French (2005).10They found that these decisions were in contradiction with the important prognosis of pecking order theory. To give an example of the contradictions, pecking order theory states that equity issues should be the last option to be used but yet, it is observed that most firms issue some sort of stocks annually.Leary and Robert (2010) conten ded that pecking order theory was no way able to meticulously classify more than half of the observed financing decisions of US firms. They also suggested that the little pecking order behavior that was seen was due to incentive conflicts rather than information asymmetry.Further, Gonenc (2008) studied to verify the extent to which pecking order theory was incorporated in corporations in the US, the UK, Germany and Japan. They speculated that investors from the UK and US had an asymmetric information problem which was caused by the large spread of equity being owned. He proponed that in these countries, two managers and insiders have more information than outsider investors. German and Japanese investors faced the same asymmetric information problem mainly due to the less information flows. But evidences have shown that US, UK and Germany firms were not very supportive when it came to the pecking order theory while Japan supported the pecking order theory during the 1980s and 1990s .The collision of industry membership on the capital structure dynamics were scrutinized by Tucker and Stoja (2011) over the period from 1968 to 2006. They recommended that pecking order theory could explain only a few aspects of UK corporations capital structure policies, but it does not give an adequate explanation of their behaviours in the real world. More explicitly, they perceived that in the short run, old economy firms followed the standard pecking order theory but the new economy corporations prefer equity to debt when external funds are required.The incremental financing decision for 150 Dutch firms was estimated for the period of 1984 to 1997 by Haan and Hinloopen (2003). A distinction is made between internal financing and three types of external funds bank borrowing, debt issues and equity issues. They concluded that Dutch companies had ingrained financing preferences namely, internal financing was preferred in the first position, bank loans are used secondly, thirdly equity are issued and finally bonds are issued.In addition, an investigation was carried out by Delcore (2007)11as to whether capital structure determinants in emerging Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries followed the handed-down capital structure theory. The explanation of capital structures in CEE cannot be made by the pecking order theory. They came to the conclusion that there are factors that influenced the leverage decisions for CEE countries and they were the difference of banking systems, disagreement in legal systems governing corporate operations, shareholders and bondholders rights protection and corporate governance.

Tunnels used in War Zones :: essays research papers

TunnelsThe first characteristic of a turn over complex is normally superb camouflage. Entrances and exits are obscure, bunkers are camouflaged and hitherto inside the tunnel itself, side tunnels are concealed, hidden trapdoors, and dead-ends where used to confuse the attacker. Trapdoors were used extensively, both at entrances and exits and inside the tunnel complex itself. There where some(prenominal) different types of trapdoors, concrete covered by dirt, hard packed dirt reinforced by wire, or a basin type consisting of a hurtle filled with dirt. This latter type was particularly difficult to locate in that probing would not reveal the presence of the trapdoor unless the outer frame was actually smitten by the probe. Trapdoors covering entrances were primarily 100 meters apart. Booby traps were used both inside and outside entrance and exit trapdoors. Tunnels found in the War Zones were generally better constructed than those found in other areas. In some cases these complex es were multileveled, with storage and hiding rooms generally found on the lower levels. Entrance was often gained through concealed trapdoors and secondary tunnels. In the deeper complexes, foxholes were dug at intervals to provide water drainage. These were sometimes booby-trapped as well as containing punji-stakes for the unwary attacker. Average tunnel size was 2-feet wide and 2.5 to 3-feet high. They also used air or water locks that acted as firewalls, preventing blast, fragments or gas from passing from one section of the tunnel to another.A trained tunnel exploitation team was essential to the expeditions of VC tunnels since untrained people may have missed hidden tunnel entrances, taken unnecessary casualties from concealed mines and booby traps . To facilitate this, teams were trained, equipped and maintained in a ready status to provide immediate assistance when tunnels were discovered.HidingVC attempted to evade and forfend all contact with government forces for any on e of many reasons and this was the normal reaction for a VC unit when confronted with a superior government force.Frequently however, GVN simulated military operation or time/distance considerations made it necessary for the VC to evade by physically hiding in villages, or becoming one of the local population. This phrase is concerned with this one aspect of VC escape and evasion technique and is especially oriented to the situation presented when search operations were made more difficult because they were conducted in the presence of a friendly or passive populace.Protection of equipment was equally important, if not more so, than protection of personnel.

Stability for the Children Leaving the Foster Care System Essay

Twenty four thousand children each year age out of the foster c ar system (Fowler, Toro and Miles 1454). Of that number about half of them are African American, followed by Caucasian and then the other minorities. There are m whatever problems facing these children that are placed in the foster care system. Of wrinkle the obvious is that they need a place to live while they are under the age of eighteen also that they need love and support from the raft that are around them. Another little known problem is that these youths face once they leave the foster care system many find themselves without a permanent hold, housing that they can finally say that it is theres and no one is going to take away from them. This paper will check over why this is a problem for them and some ideas from which we can try to make some changes for the better. For years we have had a need to find housing for children that did not have any place to turn to. In recent years our country has take n up the slack for doing this very thing. In the ancient these children were seen after by mostly Catholic orphanages forced into hard labor and even had to beg for the money, also called alms, so that they could have necessities. These places were run by the non-Christian priest and nuns that lived on the premises. Often these children had little food schooling or clothing to call their own. The orphanage that was in Galveston in the early 1900s was run by 3 nuns and 2 priest to the 90 children that were housed their. Obviously these children received very little quality time with any adult figure. Now a days it has gotten a little better, while they do not have many orphanages any to a greater extent and they have been replaced with foster homes. Youths get to a greater extent one on on... ...ouses than any other race in America. This has to have contributed to the high numbers of African Americans in the penal system. There absolutely need to be some more cultural se nsitivity awareness training on the part of not only the Social Workers that make the determination to remove these children from their homes, but also on the part of the government that oversee these different agencies so that this overrepresentation of this certain population will be reduced. The steps needed are classes that will make these workers more aware of what to expect upon entering these homes and how the people that they encounter my be different and how to decipher with more accuracy if the children really are in life fleshy danger. All of these this will contribute to the overall mental and physical well being of these children entering and exiting the foster care system.

Essay on Colonialism: Comparisons Between Things Fall Apart and Histori

Nigerian Women and Colonialism Comparisons Between Things Fall Apart and Historical Accounts. Chinua Achebe is arguably the best known African writer of the twentieth century. And more than any new(prenominal) writer, he has shaped the worlds idea of what African literature is. As Rose Mezu states, Things Fall Apart is significant because it began the vogue of African novels of cultural contact and encounter (Mezu 1). This is a highly influential position for a single writer. So what was Achebes purpose in writing his novels? What does he hope to accomplish? According to Cora Agatuccis heavyset of Achebes essay, The Novelist as Teacher, she writes, Achebe describes a dual mission to educate both African and European readers, to reinstate a sense of pride in African cultures and to facilitate my society regain belief in itself and put away the complexes of years of denigration and self-abasement (Agatucci). So Achebes purpose for writing is to overcome the stereotypes of W estern readers that Africans are rough savages with no sense of culture or account statement, and to combat the internalization of these stereotypes by his fellow countrymen. So where does Achebes purpose for writing his novels leave women and are the gender roles as described in Things Fall Apart culturally accurate? Before this question can be accurately be answered gender roles both in history and in Achebes novel must be addressed. Specifically, what roles did men and women play in society in all three stages of Nigerias more recent history? In the last 200 years of Nigerias history, there have been basically three distinct phases in government pre-colonial rule overall by Muslims (there were rough tribes unaffected by this rule), colonial r... ...womanist/1995/mezu.html Nigeria. Encarta Encyclopedia. 3 July 2001. http//encarta.msn.com/find/concise.asp? mod=1&ti=761557915&page=2 Nigeria. U.S. Department of State, Human rights Reports for 1999. 30 June 2001. http//www.s tate.gov/www/ world-wide/human_rights/1999_hrp_report/nigeria.html Ogunsuyi, Austin. Women in Africa. African Cultures Page. 30 June 2001. http//africancultures.about.com/culture/african cultures/library/weekly/ aa011401a.htm Rojas, Maria. Women in Colonial Nigeria. African Postcolonial Literature in English in the Postcolonial weathervane Page. 30 June 2001. http//landow.stg.brown.edu/ post/nigeria/colonwom.html ----- Women in Pre-Colonial Nigeria. African Postcolonial Literature in English in the Postcolonial Web Page. 30 June 2001. http//landow.stg.brown.edu/ post/nigeria/precolwon.html