The Influence of Globalization as Exampled through the Silk Road Essay

The Influence of Globalization as Exampled through the Silk Road - Essay Example The roads also provided routes for conquest and violence, reorganizing boundaries. While there was a brief period of conquest such as the Mongolian invasion, during the 13th century the majority of exchange along the Silk Road was peaceful. The Silk Road provided a pathway for journeys that can be compared to today’s globalization as the distribution of information and commerce becomes a part of a system of interactions between nations. The Silk Road was the method of creating international trade before the notion of sea travel took over as a means towards expanding resource opportunities. Through international trade, a population has the potential to acquire luxury items from a distance through trade with other centers of population. The Silk Road created a connection between nations, spanning Europe in the Mediterranean Sea area, through Persia and into China and Korea, and then down into the Java area, back through India, Arabia, down to Somalia, and then back up through Eg ypt, using water routes that were not too far from destinations and the shoreline. Christian discusses the vast number of roles, such as teachers, pilgrims as well as merchants that occurred through the existence of the large numbers of trade opportunities within the ancient and medieval worlds. The trade routes provided for a complete and complex world that interconnected the African and Asian worlds with Europe, creating a great deal of technological development and influence.1 Despite modern contexts of understanding about the divisions between the West and the East, with a disconnected idea about Africa as a part of the development of Western society, these trade routes created deep influences and a great amount of world development that would eventually affect the New World as it was developed in the second millennia. Palmyra and Petra, as an example, were centers of art which flowed into the lower regions of Europe, influencing the development of artistic motifs in the West. A s well, the concept of coins for trade was developed in Anatolia, which spread through the Silk Road worlds, including the Mediterranean. There were a great number of types of items that were traded along these routes of trade, but the reason that they were called the ‘Silk Road’ is because of the rich resources of silk that were available. Silk was developed at a very early time period within Asia and became a highly valued commodity for trade. Patterned silks are available from the regions of Persia and India from the 6th century, located in tombs that archaeologists have retrieved and been able to examine for the methods of weaving. Chinese silks are not readily available for modern study and are known primarily through literary referencing from that time period.2 Many of the problems with studying the ancient world is that so much is dependent upon reports, rather than through physical and tangible evidence. Because many nations appeared to have mastered the creatio n of silk fabric after the 6th century, it is likely that increases in trade occurred after that time, allowing samples and the technology to be transferred throughout the region.3 There are a great number of examples that explain the value of silk. There is little evidence that India held it as a valued commodity, but a great number of examples that show that China believed it to have great value. Xinru

Deliberate and Emergent Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Deliberate and Emergent Strategies - Essay Example he business, emergent strategies are formed with the inherent belief that things will change in an unexpected manner and therefore, any strategy formed is destined to fail. Comparing the two, emergent strategy is more realistic and conservative compared to the deliberate strategy, which is more optimistic and long-sighted. The fact that emergent strategy provides a relatively pessimistic view of realization of the plans does not mean that planning is inherently purposeless. Instead, emergent strategy encourages the parties involved in strategic planning to prioritize their efforts and focus upon achievement of the short-term goals rather than the long-term goals as the future is uncertain. Emergent strategies might help with a future planning process by identifying milestones in the near future, and working out ways to achieve them. The potential consequences of ignoring emergent strategies would be misuse and wastage of time, efforts, and resources. The strategic plans that took so much time and effort making might never realize and even worse, the short-term plans or intermediate milestones would not be

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Computer Science Essay

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Computer Science Essay Electronic mail as known as email is a function of sending and received message over the internet. Basically, protocol is a standard method use by sender or recipient to transmit information. It can also be explain by to deal with email, sender or recipient must access to mail server by a mail client to exchange information by using variety of protocol such as SMTP, POP and MIME. 1.2 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) SMTP is only use to send email, but not received email. SMTP provides a set of code that allow server to break up the email message to different parts of categories that can understand by the server and Its a kind of simplify the communication between server and email. For users, they can see the interface of their email software when writing an email message, but once the message has been send out on the internet, everything is change into string of text that can understand by the server. This string of text is separated by numbers and code words that used to identify the purpose of each section and SMTP provides these codes to let email server understand what they means. SMTP also can set up communication rules between the servers. For example, server can identify themselves and will announce what communication they are trying to perform and the other server will authorize and identify the operation, if something went wrong, the receiving server may reply an error message. The greater advantages of SMTP are simplicity and trustworthy. SMTP provides the simplest form of sending an email address between various computer and network. Users only need to enter recipients email address and type in email message to send and the email will go through a simple process from the SMTP to exchange server for the recipients computer. Since the SMTP is simple, email message can be sent quickly and easily. In addition, SMTP is trustworthy because when the outgoing message is not successfully sent, SMTP will keep trying to re-send the same email message until its successful. Since SMTP was created in the early of 1980s. SMTP was build according to basic concept of server communication, because of that SMTP consists of several disadvantages. In those days, Internet was only use by very close community that generally trusted each other, that cause SMTP has lax security holes. For example, it is easy to send email message with fake sender address. This also cause many email-based viruses spread over the internet. Although there have been improve has been made, but it can still cause problems. Most servers these days actually use an updated version of SMTP called Extended Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (ESMTP) that allow to sends pictures or music file through their email program. 1.3 Post Office Protocol (POP) Post Office Protocol (POP) is used to retrieve email from a central base where the email stored and designed to support offline email processing. When the email is delivered to the server, a remote email client will periodically download the messages from the server and filter them into appropriate users folder. Once the email has been received from the client, the message will be permanently deleted from the email server. One of the advantages of POP is once the email message is sent to the client, the message can be read immediately whether user is connected to the internet or not. Furthermore, POP is a very popular email protocol that all email clients can support it. There is a disadvantage of POP is inadequate for the mobile user. Because of email message is downloaded to recipient PC, the user will only able to access the message from one PC. According to this, POP may cause hazel and inconvenient for user to read message only from one PC. Diagram 1: POP email system 1.4 Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) MIME allows user to transfer image, sound, and program as non-text email format attachment in email across the internet. MIME was introduced to improve SMTP in order to send message other than ASCII characters through web client and web server. Now, MIME provides the following extension to email: Non-text attachment such as video, images, audios and other multimedia messages. Send multiple objects within a single message. Write header information in non-ASCII character sets. Write text with unlimited length. Character sets other than US-ACSII. Nowadays, almost every mail is transmitted using MIME format through SMTP. Content type that defined by MIME also benefits Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and other communication protocol in email transmission function. As MIME can support character sets other than 7-bit ASCII, languages based on other alphabets can be display correctly presented in a basic email. In turn, SMTP that only support 7-bit ASCII has the limit of languages display that only suitable for writing in English and other small number of language. Moreover, MIME allows user to send other type of information such as images, sounds videos and software program which was not possible to do so in earlier time. In additional, to identify the true nature of a file that is being used in transmission, MIME provides header information to client who received the transmission and selects the protocol to transmit data according to the header. Furthermore, to ensure non-text attachments will be transferred successfully with maximum protection, MIME used Base64 encoding to encode the non-text information into text when email transfer. Overall, these all explain the advantages of MIME bring to email user nowadays. Not surprisingly, there have been a numbers or disadvantage of MIME. For example, the encoding process of MIME may somehow increase the complexity of gateways because a 7-bit world has to encode 8-bit message. Furthermore, a multipart message could lead to passing same data to decode several time. Nevertheless, it now has to pass only the lower-level parts to encode rather than whole message to reduce troublesome. 2.0 How to apply the SMTP and MIME with ASP.NET 2.1 Requirements to use SMTP and MIME The following is the requirements to develop ASP.NET applications. The .NET Framework 2.0 A code-authoring environment A web server, such as Internet Information Services (IIS), and permission to write files to web server. To send email using SMTP server, fsocketopen function need to be enabled. Furthermore, Outgoing Traffic to port 25 by default or whichever port that use to connect to SMTP server must be allowed. Lastly, there must be a valid SMTP server to send email. If one of the above is not successful, errors message such as No connection, Unauthorized and Timed Out will be displayed. REQUIREMENT OF MIME 2.2 Steps on how to create apply and configure SMTP and MIME in ASP.NET project. 2.2.1 SMTP Open up the default.aspx code window from the project, and examine the code used to send an email. Include three imports in default.aspx to run the project and send email message. The application uses the System.Net.Mail libraries to format and send STMP based email message. Declare the variables used to contain information used in sending email. Code send buttons Click event handler, this handler capture users inputs from the page and assign to related variables, then format the message using the variable content. Server and port setting are extracted from the AppSettings contain in web.config file.

Lenovo Case Analysis Essay

Competing at a global scale requires profound brand equity. Lenovo is a well-known brand in China (as Legend) but it cannot become a global technology giant like Dell or Hewlett-Packard, by merely acquiring the Personal Systems Division of IBM, whose products are popular across the world. Normally, the key challenge in establishing global brands lies in devising the manner in which a company can position its brands in customers’ mindsets, while taking into account global competition that comes from national and international suppliers (Wright, Millman & Martin, 2007, p. 139). Lenovo has to engage in intelligent marketing to attract consumers and make itself a force to reckon with in the global personal computer industry. According to the case study, the global PC industry is highly competitive with the leading performers being Dell, HP, Lenovo and its IBM acquisition, and Acer and Fujistu-Siemens among other corporations and vendors locked in tight competition (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 2-3). Therefore, Lenovo has a daunting task to create brand equity to thrive at a global scale. The Key Issues The issue that Lenovo is principally dealing with is how it can effectively enter into the global market, where it is not only struggling against the competition, but is also dogged by an incredulous market. On the surface, the deal between Lenovo and IBM seems to give the former a platform for success due to the complementary nature of the operations of the two firms and because the deal facilitates the expansion of Lenovo’s operations from China and Asia to over 138 countries in the world, where IBM is established (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 6). However, in a marketing research that the company conducts among 4,000 IBM customers, the concerns raised are that the innovation, quality, and service and support are going to be negatively impacted by the takeover of IBM brands by Lenovo (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 9). The grievances held by the consumers are a major undoing to Lenovo’s attempts to create strong brand equity. The criticism shows that the customers harbor negative brand knowledge about Lenovo. Brand knowledge consists of brand awareness and brand image (Wright et al., 2007, p. 140).  Normally, brand knowledge determines the directions that the brand takes and, in turn, this influences the decision that marketers take in creating a brand promise, which entails informing the public about the positive essence of the brand and its purpose (Kotler, 2012, p. 115). The competition must be addressed seriously through a brand promise, with strong product dimensions. A brand’s dimensions differentiate an offering from other offerings that are aimed at satisfying the same need by either emphasizing on product performance by introducing functional, rational, or tangible differences or by emphasizing the symbolic, emotional, or intangible factors (Kotler, 2012, p. 114). Lenovo has the chance to utilize the brand equity creation process that emphasizes on the product performance in the phase of introducing itself into the global market, while intending to rely on the latter dimension in the long run. Brand equity is created by thoroughly satisfying the presence, relevance, performance, advantage, and bonding dimensions, in an increasing order of importance (Kotler, 2012, p. 116). Profound consumer loyalty is achieved after the firm attains a market share. Companies acquire a share of the heart and a share of the mind of customers by being authentic and genuine, aspects, which lead to higher, market share and profitability (Kotler, 2012, p. 135). As much as the chief marketing officer of Lenovo states that branding is a business issue rather than a marketing issue, the brand is a matter of the perception created by product’s substance and marketers’ efforts. Alternative Courses of Action The courses of action that can be taken by Lenovo include establishing a master brand, a house of brands, synergy approach, or the strategy referred commonly as Lexus/Toyota. First, the master brand strategy can be useful for creating a brand equity for Lenovo on a worldwide scale, but there are fears that the ThinkPad influence may be lost if this strategy is adopted. Second, the house of brands approach can enable the firm to establish many brands at once, but it is expensive to market the different brands. Third, the synergy approach will let the company have Lenovo as a master brand, while the ThinkPad shall be regarded as a superior sub-brand. Fourth, under the Toyota/Lexus strategy, a premium line of ThinkPad brands are established alongside basic Lenovo brands (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 9). Evaluation of  the Alternative Courses of Action The course of action that the company should choose has to address the global market conditions, while also upholding Lenovo’s desire to compete internationally. To gauge the conditions in this market environment, the company engages in extensive marketing research. The research comes in handy in helping the company to make well-informed decisions, to understand the marketplace, and most importantly, to learn about customer satisfaction and the value of goods on offer. In addition, the advantages of the primary data collected are that the respondents pinpoint their challenges concerning the use of personal computers in business, give voice to current concerns, and enable the firm to gauge the needs in different nations. The master brand option is challenging to Lenovo since the market regards it as untrustworthy. The high level of dishonesty with which Chinese firms are regarded in the rest of the world is a major detractor to the success of this strategy (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 8). If this approach is chosen, building favorable brand knowledge would not be an easy thing for Lenovo, in spite of having the reputable ThinkPad brand at its disposal. The ThinkPad acquisition doubtlessly makes Lenovo have a comparative advantage in the global scope. The ThinkPad has already won a lot of accolades for design and engineering innovations since it was introduced in 1992, with some of its superior qualities being power, portability, and wireless networking (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 6). The marketers in Lenovo must therefore create positive brand knowledge if they choose this option. Failure to achieve this means that even the premium ThinkPad brand shall be thought of as an inferior product by consumers. The house of brands option would make the company incur a lot of expenses in the marketing function, without necessarily achieving the desirable sales of any of the brands. The company’s CMO concedes that this strategy cannot succeed since the company had limited resources at the time (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 9). House-of-brands has brands that are independent, which are somewhat endorsed by the organizational brand (Rajagopal & Sanchez, 2004, p. 238). However, the reputation of the Lenovo as an organization in the international market is not favorable at this juncture hence it cannot promote brands effectively. The synergy approach, which entails a master brand getting recognition  partially due to a superior sub-brand, would require investments to jointly build the Lenovo and the ThinkPad brands (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 9). The ThinkPad sub-brand would be expected to be a co-driver in the success of Lenovo. The shortcoming of this approach is that the association might taint the image of the prestigious brand if the brands do not have comparable qualities (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000, p. 15). Clearly, ruining of the ThinkPad brand will certainly end up undoing the entry of Lenovo into the global market. The Toyota/Lexus strategy will force Lenovo to establish luxury and mass market brands separately. This strategy will entail implementation of dissociated brands, with each expected to perform well within its segment. However, under the global environment into which the firm is entering, creation of a mass product is not feasible. The use of PCs has become ubiquitous and consumers are looking for enhanced innovation, better quality and reliability, tighter security, and better design (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 10). To offer customers the desired product, the firm was supposed to invest in enhancing computer products, rather than producing low quality cheap products. As a result, this strategy can make the company lose its core business. After considering all the branding strategy options, Lenovo managers should appropriately consider the category membership under competitive frame of reference. Category membership refers to the products with which a brand competes and which are close substitutes to it (Kotler, 2012, p. 130). The managers should to establish points of differences that would make the company have a competitive edge. At the present, Lenovo pursues a legacy of customer focus, innovation, and dependability (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 7). These aspects have a potential of making make the products it offers distinctive and superior in comparison to competitors in the global market. The focus of the company should be on long-term holistic performance of its products. A well established brand value drives brand loyalty among customers, making the company to enjoy security of demand, making it hard for new competitors to enter the market, and making the customers willing to pay a higher prices for the offering (Kotler, 2012, p. 114). The Best Course of Action According to the facts presented in the case, the adoption of Lenovo as a master brand is the best course of action. Though this alternative is risky,  it is worthy because of the ultimate good image it would create for all the brands on offer at a global scale. Making Lenovo a master brand helps to make the core products of the company to the entire world. Master or family branding is where a family brand is associated with several brand extensions. The use of the company’s brand name across the entire products’ range lowers development costs and boosts sales if the corporate image is associated with innovativeness, expertise, and reliability, which are factors that influence consumer evaluations directly (Kotler, 2012, p. 123). The company actually chooses to use this strategy with great level of ingenuity. The first global advertising campaign is signed off with â€Å"ThinkPad,† the second campaign emphasizes that Lenovo is doing better than IBM by improving the ThinkPad, while the third campaign stresses that the Lenovo master brand represents innovation (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 10). Introduction of brand extension is facilitated under the master brand. New products that are introduced as brand extensions often succeed because the customers’ expectations of the new product are based on their knowledge about the parent brand and how relevant they find the information (Kotler, 2012, p. 123). Any product sold under an umbrella of a brand name develops an identity out of the customers’ perceptions of the product, the marketing activity, word-of-mouth marketing, and the individual psychological set of customers (Wright, et al., 2007, p. 140). In effect, corporate brand endorsement in the international markets reassures consumers and is an integrating force, which unifies different brand identities on a global scale (Rajagopal & Sanchez, 2004, 246). Assurance that consumers benefit from the product is vital for successful marketing. Moreover, brand equity is leveraged in a new context if the master brand makes the product more appealing to customers and its positive associations are relevant and appropriate (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000, p. 18). With the master brand strategy in place, continuous success of the Lenovo brand and its extensions is guaranteed. References Aaker, D. A. & Joachimsthaler, E. (2000). The brand relationship spectrum: The key to the brand architecture challenge. California Management Review, 42(4), 8-23. Kotler, Philip. (2012). A Framework for Marketing Management, P. Kotler and K. L. Keller (Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson education Inc. Quelch, J. & Knoop, C. (2006). Lenovo: Building a global brand. Harvard Business School. Rajagopal & Sanchez, R. (2004). Conceptual analysis of brand architecture and relationships within product categories. Brand Management, 11(3), 233–247. Wright, L. T. Millman, C. & Martin, L. M. (2007). Research issues in building brand equity and global brands in the pc market. Journal of Marketing Management, 23(1-2), 137-155.

Objectives And General Principles Of Mergers Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2345 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? The panel of mergers and takeovers was established in 1968, in U.K, and since then has worked as an administrating body of the city code on mergers and takeovers. The fundamental objective of this body is to ensure that all the shareholders are treated fairly, on an equal basis, in cases of mergers and takeovers. The panel of takeovers and mergers is a chief body in U.K who acts as a regulator on these issues. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Objectives And General Principles Of Mergers Finance Essay" essay for you Create order The pillars/ proposition on which the code rests are: Equal treatment of all the shareholders belonging to the same class of shares. Basically, this proposition ensures the fair treatment of all the shareholders involved To enable the shareholders to make the best decision for themselves, the code ensures that they have timely information which is accurate and relevant, and may influence shareholder decision for their best interest The code also ensures that true market mechanisms are the only reflective of the prices of the security and no artificial factor affects them i.e. no false markets The board will not take any decision without prior knowledge of the shareholders. General principles The six general principles are the pillars on which the code rests upon. These general principles are basically the statements of good standards of commercial behavior. Besides, the general principles are further branched out into 38 rules, which are elaborated by their respective notes. The notes serve both to expand and explain the respective rule. The following figure highlights some of the vital rules of the code: rrrr.bmp  [1]  Adapted from General principles and rules, the Takeover Panel. Economic reasons for acquisitions and mergers Reasons There may be many motives behind the merger or acquisitions of companies. Each company may have its own set of unique reasons for going for either merger or acquisition. However, the reasons that may be common to all cases include: One possible reason behind merger or acquisition may be the consolidation of markets. The products most firms today are similar in nature, differentiated only to slight extents. The merger or acquisition may be a possible option in face of competing markets that would reduce the number of firms competing in the market and make them more consolidated. Merger or acquisition is a quick way of increasing the capacity of the firm. In addition, the acquired or merged firm both is from the same industry, and therefore would have similar expertise. No costs are incurred on training or obtaining machinery etc. Mergers and acquisitions also present the advantage of decreasing long run average cost as it begins to realize the economies of scale due to larg e scale production. A firm may feel that a gap exists in its existing portfolio and it is not catering fully to the market needs. A firm may sometimes want to counter a decline in sales of one industry by acquiring a firm in another industry. A firm may also wish to counter seasonal trends. All this can be achieved through mergers and acquisitions. A firm may merge with, or acquire another firm in a different industry, or selling products that the firms existing portfolio lacks. Another motive behind mergers and acquisitions is the forward and backward integration, towards the distribution channels, or backwards towards the sources of raw materials. In both cases, the motive is to have a stronger hold on the stages of the value chain, and may also be to restrict the supply to competing firms. Firms may also wish to have a greater access to technology, skills or sources of finances. The amalgamated firms of course have more vistas of opportunity when they operate as a single entity. Tax aversion may be another motive. Most countries laws levy more tax on idle cash than on operating businesses/assets. A merger or acquisition would not only enhance the operations of a firm and provide more sources of income, but would also provide tax exemptions. Reasons why expected economic benefits may not be achieved The potential advantages of mergers and acquisitions presented above may not offer the same benefits to all the stakeholders, and therefore a conflict of interest may not lead to benefit of all. The mergers and acquisitions are mostly from the organizations perspective, seeing only its economic gain, and therefore may overlook other stakeholders such as the customers and employees. One issue that must be addressed is that whether the management will be able to run both businesses simultaneously. Also, there remains a question whether the combined entity will be a as efficient as the two businesses operating independently. The clash of organizational cultures, structure and design further aggravate the problem and the economic benefits may not materialize. The change in the work environment, management and employee behavior might stop the firm from gaining the desired benefits. The firm must, therefore, try to arrive at a compromise which addresses the interests of all stakeholders. To sum up, the probable reasons which might stop the merger or acquisition to deliver the economic benefits that the firm may be expecting are: Human factor Difference in cultures Lack of integration Transition carried out without regarding employees sensitivity Lack of productivity due to unhappy workforce The company must have an integration plan in place for the post-merger or post- acquisition situation, to smoothly lead the transition from being a single entity to a combined one. Failure to incorporate an integration plan may cause the potential benefits of the amalgamation to transform into drawbacks and losses. To say in a nut shell, any decision to carry out a merger or acquisition should consider not only the legal and financial implications, but also the human consequences the effect of the deal upon the two companies managers and employees. It is upon them, ultimately, that the fate of the newly-merged company will depend. Part II Long term funding options available for unquoted Small and Medium Business Enterprises, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these funding options The following figure shows the long term funding options available to small and medium business enterprises: Type of funding Advantages Disadvantages Internal funds No accountability to third party Flexibility since there are no payment terms Credit score ratings are not affected Limited sources of finance Unlimited liability Loans bigger amounts can be borrowed Lower interest rates than overdrafts Regular repayments help to forecast cashflow Less flexible than compared to overdraft Inability to pay during designated time leads to further financial problems Overdrafts Borrowed amounts is flexible within limits Interest paid only on borrowed amounts Easy availability in time of need Quick and good source of cash backup Cannot be used for large borrowing Higher interest rates than loans Bank can ask for repayment anytime Overdrafts are secured against assets, and therefore put assets at stake in case of non payment Leasing and hire purchase arrangements Medium term funding regular nature helps plan cash flows payments are fixed, and therefore easy to plan payments Hire purchase and leasing agreements are long term commitments Variable rate payments makes it difficult to plan Stock market equity and corporate bond issues Source of cash flows finances can usually be kept for an indefinite period A Company can raise more capital than it could borrow. No repayment of principle amount Loss of Control Responsibility to shareholders for dividend payments Asset Disclosure Risk of takeover by rivals Dilution of value Venture capital or private equity Funding is restricted to the business project Venture capitalists can bring important skills, links and knowledge to your business. Venture capitalist can aid with secisionmaking and strategy In case of growth and profitability, further funding can be provided by the same investors Raising equity finance is time consuming and costly Have to provide info to potential investors Loss of decision making power Asset-based finance such as factoring and invoice discounting Small companies can usually get more cash more quickly than they could from a traditional bank loan. Asset-based lenders and factors offer a variety of services that encompass accounts receivable processing, collections and invoicing. Using assets to raise money causes profits cut. Part III Arguments for and against foregoing distribution of dividends and investing the funds saved The dividend policy always has some tradeoffs. Sometimes paying dividends means retaining little from the income. Conversely, as proposed by the director, not paying the dividends means that the profit is retained and invested. This means a lesser reliance on externally generated funds. The tradeoff should be made keeping in mind the firms objectives, whether paying dividends to the shareholders is more important, or whether investment would be more beneficial in long run.The two cases are a tradeoff between shareholders receiving dividend in short run, and the value of their stock increasing due to the investment. The residual dividend theory states that dividends should only be paid when there are residual earnings after investment purpose. However, if the shareholders are not happy with the no-payment policy, they may sell their shares to obtain an income. The arguments against the nonpayment of dividend are that shareholders are not usually pleased when they are not pa id dividends. However, if it is communicated to them that the income would then be used to finance investments projects, they might as well support the nonpayment as the investment ultimately improves the value of the firm and its shares. According to the corporate document repository  [2]  , the major reasons for using retained earnings to finance new investments, rather than to pay higher dividends and then raise new equity for the new investments, are as follows: The management of many companies believes that retained earnings are funds which do not cost anything, although this is not true. However, it is true that the use of retained earnings as a source of funds does not lead to a payment of cash. (Basic finance for marketers, 1997) The dividend policy of the company is in practice determined by the directors. From their standpoint, retained earnings are an attractive source of finance because investment projects can be undertaken without involving either the share holders or any outsiders. (Basic finance for marketers, 1997) The use of retained earnings as opposed to new shares or debentures avoids issue costs. (Basic finance for marketers, 1997) The use of retained earnings avoids the possibility of a change in control resulting from an issue of new shares. (Basic finance for marketers, 1997) Alternatives to cash dividends Dividend may be paid out in the form of stocks, and therefore is not a true dividend as it is not paid out in cash. This has the effect of diluting the share value by increasing the number of outstanding shares. Dividend reinvestment policy, DRIP, is another alternative to cash dividends. DRIP gives shareholders a chance to reinvest the money they would receive as cash dividend into additional shares of stock. DRIP is attractive as shareholders do not have to pay brokerage commission on stock purchase. Spin off shares are also referred to as property dividends in which a corporation gives out some valuable property to shareholders instead of cash dividends. The spin off shares may be shares of a subsidiary that the company owns. Past trends show that mostly spin offs are better than the parent company in terms of performance, and hence shareholders are better off. Shareholders may go for a no-dividend or low-dividend policy when it is communicated to them that for companys health and stock price, they may have to forgo cash dividends. Advantages and disadvantages of share repurchases, i.e. a company purchasing its own shares. Share repurchases reduce the number of outstanding shares of a company, thereby giving the shares a larger ownership in the company. The advantages and disadvantages of share repurchases are as follows: Advantages There is no additional tax imposed on share repurchases, and therefore it is a good way to increase the capital of shareholders. The equity/ownership of the shareholders increases and this means a greater potential of profits and dividends on shares. The share repurchases basically reduce the number of outstanding shares of the company. This is favorable as it reduces the dilution of the shares. Share repurchases reduce the number of outstanding shares. This means that a greater proportion of companys retained earnings are attributable to each outstanding share. Therefore, the EPS(earning per share) increases. Share repurchases reduces the fear from the corporate raiders. Undervalued shares of a profitable company are very attractive to companies seeking to acquire that company. Share repurchases, in effect, reduces this risk as the company repurchases its own shares. Furthermore, the future profit from these shares also goes to the company itself. Share repurchase may give out a positive signal to the public, as they may think management is repurchasing the shares because it thinks it is undervalued. Income received from share repurchases is the capital gain for a company. The repurchased stock can be resold to raise money when needed. Stock repurchases provide an internal investment opportunity to the corporation. If a firm wants to alter its capital structure, stock repurchase is an available option. Buybacks also has the advantage of eliminating minority group of stockholders. Also, it reduces the costs incurred by the firms in servicing small stockholders. Disadvantages There is an opportunity cost for every decision made by businesses today. The money used in buying back of shares could have been invested to a more optimal use, which perhaps would generate return on assets. Different financial metrics have different results of share repurchases. A buy back could result in a higher debt ratio. If the stock buybacks are issued to the companys management, the number of outstanding shares would remain the same and therefore no positive impact on EPS. If the public perceives that company is buying back its shares because it does not have any investment opportunity, this may be unfavorable for the company. Firm may have to pay penalties if the regulatory authorities such as the IRS think that buyback was to avoid taxes. A firm may end up paying a higher price for its own share if it has to bid up the prices of the shares.

Jesus Christ and Functionalist and Conflict Theory Essay

Jesus Christ sought to improve the individual, the component of society, and as result, his teaching ideally aims to advance the well-being of society as a whole. The four Gospels and the book of Acts thoroughly demonstrate the extensive sociological knowledge that was present in Jesus’ teaching. His message facilitates personal reform, rather than change in the social structure alone. Although Jesus establishes the church as a social institution, he does so, only after a number of individuals become his followers. Jesus teaches that society should be orderly. In order to understand his approach, one must first understand the functionalist theory. He conveys his message with a common language that is appropriate to the situation,†¦show more content†¦Although one may claim Jesus was a strict functionalist, his focus was more on the divine order, expressed in unity, love, communion, and oneness, rather than a caste-like system. By eradicating the individual personal ills that damage society, Jesus helped increase the body of knowledge that promotes societal harmony. His main opposition was from the Pharisees, Sadducees, teachers of the Law of Moses, and the Chief Priests, who mistook his efforts of teaching the people as a threat to their prestigious social positions. The class disparity is evident pervasively throughout the four gospels and Acts, a vivid example being the death of John the Baptist whom Herod beheaded. When John spoke out against Herod’s immoral behavior, Herod used his higher social position and authority to suppress John’s voice and as a result murdered him. John’s limited social mobility and high status consistency forced him to suffer the consequences of his actions, while Herod’s murder went unpunished by the Roman officials. Social position therefore played a significant role in influencing the lives of ordinary individuals living in the New Testament times. The various symbols Jesus employs in his preaching reflect the common lives of most of his hearers. The agrarian and pastoral themes were especially popular, because many Israelites were farmers and shepherds. Most of Jesus’ parables andShow MoreRelatedBirmingham Jail Functional Theory1638 Words   |  7 PagesBirmingham Jail† shows the way of nonviolent adjustment of the social conflict and stages of this way: â€Å"collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist negotiation; self-purification; and direct action† (MLK np.). Martin Luther King was the first person in western history to show that you can achieve change without going into violent measures. While taking a sociological viewpoint and following two of its major theories. 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The Vocation of the Business Leader A Reflection

PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE VOCATION OF THE BUSINESS LEADER A REFLECTION FOREWORD From the 24th to 26th of February 2011 a seminar entitled â€Å"Caritas in Veritate: The Logic of Gift and the Meaning of Business† was held at the Pontiï ¬ cal Council for Justice and Peace (PCJP), in collaboration with the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought of the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas and the Ecophilos Foundation. The meeting followed the October 2010 conference â€Å"Caritas in Veritate and the USA†, which the PCJP held in partnership with the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies of Los Angeles, and continued its study of business organizations in light of Pope Benedict XVI’s social†¦show more content†¦The transformative developments of our era — globalisation, communications technologies, and ï ¬ nancialisation — produce problems alongside their beneï ¬ ts: inequality, economic dislocation, information overload, ï ¬ nancial instability and many other pressures leading aw ay from serving the common good. Business leaders who are guided by ethical social principles, lived through virtues and illuminated for Christians by the Gospel, can, nonetheless, succeed and contribute to the common good. Obstacles to serving the common good come in many forms — lack of rule of law, corruption, tendencies towards greed, poor stewardship of resources — but the most signiï ¬ cant for a business leader on a personal level is leading a â€Å"divided† life. This split between faith and daily business practice can lead to imbalances and misplaced devotion to worldly success. The alternative path of faith-based â€Å"servant leadership† provides business leaders with a larger perspective and helps to balance the demands of the business world with those of ethical social principles, illumined for Christians by the Gospel. This is explored through three stages: seeing, judging, and acting, even though it is clear that these three aspects are d eeply interconnected. 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