Battle of Beaver Dams in the War of 1812

Battle of Beaver Dams in the War of 1812 The Battle of Beaver Dams was fought June 24, 1813, during the War of 1812 (1812-1815). In the aftermath of the failed campaigns of 1812, newly re-elected President James Madison was compelled to reassess the strategic situation along the Canadian border. As efforts in the Northwest were stalled pending an American fleet gaining control of Lake Erie, it was decided to center American operations for 1813 on achieving victory on Lake Ontario and the Niagara frontier. It was believed that victory in and around Lake Ontario would cut off Upper Canada and pave the way for an strike against Montreal. American Preparations In preparation for the main American push on Lake Ontario, Major General Henry Dearborn was directed to shift 3,000 men from Buffalo for assaults against Forts Erie and George as well as position 4,000 men at Sackets Harbor. This second force was to attack Kingston at the upper outlet of the lake. Success on both fronts would sever the lake from the Lake Erie and the St. Lawrence River. At Sackets Harbor, Captain Isaac Chauncey had rapidly built a fleet and had seized naval superiority from his British counterpart, Captain Sir James Yeo. Meeting at Sackets Harbor, Dearborn and Chauncey began to have concerns about the Kingston operation despite the fact that the town was only thirty miles away. While Chauncey worried about possible ice around Kingston, Dearborn was fretted about the size of the British garrison. Instead of striking at Kingston, the two commanders instead decided to conduct a raid against York, Ontario (present-day Toronto). Though of insignificant strategic value, York was the capital of Upper Canada and Chauncey had word that two brigs were under construction there. Attacking on April 27, American forces captured and burned the town. Following the York operation, Secretary of War John Armstrong chastised Dearborn for failing to accomplish anything of strategic value. Fort George In response, Dearborn and Chauncey began shifting troops south for an assault on Fort George in late May. Alerted to this, Yeo and the Governor General of Canada, Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost, immediately moved to attack Sackets Harbor while American forces were occupied along the Niagara. Departing Kingston, they landed outside of the town on May 29 and marched to destroy the shipyard and Fort Tompkins. These operations were quickly disrupted by a mixed regular and militia force led by Brigadier General Jacob Brown of the New York militia. Containing the British beachhead, his men poured intense fire into Prevosts troops and compelled them to withdraw. For his part in the defense, Brown was offered a brigadier generals commission in the regular army. To the southwest, Dearborn and Chauncey moved forward with their attack on Fort George. Delegating operational command to Colonel Winfield Scott, Dearborn observed as American forces conducted an early morning amphibious assault on May 27. This was aided by a force of dragoons crossing the Niagara River upstream at Queenston which was tasked with severing the British line of retreat to Fort Erie. Meeting Brigadier General John Vincents troops outside of the fort, the Americans succeeded in driving off the British with the aid of naval gunfire support from Chaunceys ships. Forced to surrender the fort and with the route south blocked, Vincent abandoned his posts on the Canadian side of the river and withdrew west. As a result, American forces crossed the river and took Fort Erie (Map). Dearborn Retreats Having lost the dynamic Scott to a broken collarbone, Dearborn ordered Brigadier Generals William Winder and John Chandler west to pursue Vincent. Political appointees, neither had meaningful military experience. On June 5, Vincent counterattacked at the Battle of Stoney Creek and succeeded in capturing both generals. On the lake, Chaunceys fleet had departed for Sackets Harbor only to be replaced by Yeos. Threatened from the lake, Dearborn lost his nerve and ordered a retreat to a perimeter around Fort George. Carefully following, the British moved east and occupied two outposts at Twelve Mile Creek and Beaver Dams. These positions allowed British and Native American forces to raid the area around Fort George and keep American troops contained. Armies Commanders: Americans Lieutenant Colonel Charles Boerstlerapproximately 600 men British Lieutenant James Fitzgibbon450 men Background In an effort to end these attacks, the American commander at Fort George, Brigadier General John Parker Boyd, ordered a force assembled to strike at Beaver Dams. Intended to be a secret attack, a column of around 600 men was assembled under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Charles G. Boerstler. A mixed force of infantry and dragoons, Boerstler also was assigned two cannon. At sunset on June 23, the Americans departed Fort George and moved south along the Niagara River to the village of Queenston. Occupying the town, Boerstler quartered his men with the inhabitants. Laura Secord A number of American officers stayed with James and Laura Secord. According to tradition, Laura Secord overheard their plans to attack Beaver Damns and slipped away from the town to warn the British garrison. Traveling through the woods, she was intercepted by Native Americans and taken to Lieutenant James Fitzgibbon who commanded the 50-man garrison at Beaver Dams. Alerted to American intentions, Native American scouts were deployed to identify their route and set up ambushes. Departing Queenston in late morning on June 24, Boerstler believed he retained the element of surprise. The Americans Beaten Advancing through wooded terrain, it soon became apparent that Native American warriors were moving on their flanks and rear. These were 300 Caughnawaga led by Captain Dominique Ducharme of the Indian Department and 100 Mohawks led by Captain William Johnson Kerr. Attacking the American column, the Native Americans initiated three-hour battle in the forest. Wounded early in the action, Boerstler was placed in a supply wagon. Fighting through the Native American lines, the Americans sought to reach open ground where their artillery could be brought into action. Arriving on the scene with his 50 regulars, Fitzgibbon approached the wounded Boerstler under a flag of truce. Telling the American commander that his men were surrounded, Fitzgibbon demanded his surrender stating that if they did not capitulate he could not guarantee that the Native Americans would not slaughter them. Wounded and seeing no other option, Boerstler surrendered with 484 of his men. Aftermath The fighting at the Battle of Beaver Dams cost the British approximately 25-50 killed and wounded, all from their Native American allies. American losses were around 100 killed and wounded, with the remainder being captured. The defeat badly demoralized the garrison at Fort George and American forces became reluctant to advance more than a mile from its walls. Despite the victory, the British were not strong enough to force the Americans from the fort and were forced to content themselves with interdicting its supplies. For his weak performance during the campaign, Dearborn was recalled on July 6 and replaced with Major General James Wilkinson.

The Role of Bells Theorem in Quantum Physics

The Role of Bells Theorem in Quantum Physics Bells Theorem was devised by Irish physicist John Stewart Bell (1928-1990) as a means of testing whether or not particles connected through quantum entanglement communicate information faster than the speed of light. Specifically, the theorem says that no theory of local hidden variables can account for all of the predictions of quantum mechanics. Bell proves this theorem through the creation of Bell inequalities, which are shown by experiment to be violated in quantum physics systems, thus proving that some idea at the heart of local hidden variables theories has to be false. The property which usually takes the fall is locality - the idea that no physical effects move faster than the ​speed of light. Quantum Entanglement In a situation where you have two particles, A and B, which are connected through quantum entanglement, then the properties of A and B are correlated. For example, the spin of A may be 1/2 and the spin of B may be -1/2, or vice versa. Quantum physics tells us that until a measurement is made, these particles are in a superposition of possible states. The spin of A is both 1/2 and -1/2. (See our article on the Schroedingers Cat thought experiment for more on this idea. This particular example with particles A and B is a variant of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, often called the EPR Paradox.) However, once you measure the spin of A, you know for sure the value of Bs spin without ever having to measure it directly. (If A has spin 1/2, then Bs spin has to be -1/2. If A has spin -1/2, then Bs spin has to be 1/2. There are no other alternatives.) The riddle at the heart of Bells Theorem is how that information gets communicated from particle A to particle B. Bells Theorem at Work John Stewart Bell originally proposed the idea for Bells Theorem in his 1964 paper On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen paradox. In his analysis, he derived formulas called the Bell inequalities, which are probabilistic statements about how often the spin of particle A and particle B should correlate with each other if normal probability (as opposed to quantum entanglement) were working. These Bell inequalities are violated by quantum physics experiments, which means that one of his basic assumptions had to be false, and there were only two assumptions that fit the bill - either physical reality or locality was failing. To understand what this means, go back to the experiment described above. You measure particle As spin. There are two situations that could be the result - either particle B immediately has the opposite spin, or particle B is still in a superposition of states. If particle B is affected immediately by the measurement of particle A, then this means that the assumption of locality is violated. In other words, somehow a message got from particle A to particle B instantaneously, even though they can be separated by a great distance. This would mean that quantum mechanics displays the property of non-locality. If this instantaneous message (i.e., non-locality) doesnt take place, then the only other option is that particle B is still in a superposition of states. The measurement of particle Bs spin should, therefore, be completely independent of the measurement of particle A, and the Bell inequalities represent the percent of the time when the spins of A and B should be correlated in this situation. Experiments have overwhelmingly shown that the Bell inequalities are violated. The most common interpretation of this result is that the message between A and B is instantaneous. (The alternative would be to invalidate the physical reality of Bs spin.) Therefore, quantum mechanics seems to display non-locality. Note: This non-locality in quantum mechanics only relates to the specific information that is entangled between the two particles - the spin in the above example. The measurement of A cannot be used to instantly transmit any sort of other information to B at great distances, and no one observing B will be able to tell independently whether or not A was measured. Under the vast majority of interpretations by respected physicists, this does not allow communication faster than the speed of light.

Central banks and monetary policy Research Paper - 1

Central banks and monetary policy - Research Paper Example The main purpose of a central bank is, briefly, to supervise a nation's currency. This is attained by setting monetary policy. Following are the five important objectives of central banks; Price Stability: The main objective of a central bank is price stability, or in other words, a stable and low rate of inflation. â€Å"Price stability is defined as a year-on-year increase in the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for the euro area of below 2%.The Governing Council has also clarified that, in the pursuit of price stability, it aims to maintain inflation rates below, but close to, 2% over the medium term† (The Definition of Price Stability n.d para 2). Conversely, the existing view between economists is that in the long run, given that inflation is stable and low, monetary policy only influences nominal aggregates, for instance inflation, the nominal exchange rate and nominal interest rates, and not only their long-term development levels in actual terms. In the long run monetary policy consequently controls its monetary value, which are general prices. Real Stable Growth: In the banking system of urbanized countries there is a stable connection between various interest rates. The lowest price is the one charged to banks by the central bank. â€Å"This rate is normally 1-2.5 percent higher than the rate of inflation, depending on the monetary policy stance.† (Trade and Development Report 2008 by United Nations Conference On Trade and Development 2008). In actual terms, all these rates stay close to the actual growth rate of the financial system. One of the most significant circumstances for successful growth is the growth of various sectors including, the financial sector, which cannot deviate enduringly from the growth of price added of the financial system as a whole. Financial Stability: Financial stability illustrates the situation where the financial intermediation method functions easily, and where there is assurance in the operatio n of important financial organizations and markets within the financial system. Central banks have traditionally played an important role in the management of economic crises, lending to solvent, other than illiquid organizations as a last resort, still if this role has rarely been buttressed or formalized by legal authorities. Central banks consequently have objectives that are reliable with a leading role in a special resolution regime. They can also organize tools that are already in their area (LOLR) to maintain financial stability. They can, additionally, draw on expertise in the study of financial stability, containing the significant ability to measure the crash in markets, payment methods, and the financial communications at large. Interest Rate Stability: Interest rates provide global savers a reason to transfer money from one country to another in search of the safest and the highest yields. The central bank must support interest rate stability in short term and long term maturities. The short term rates are simple enough to understand that a central bank controls the discount rate, and that it can strongly target the federal funds price. Long term rates can be straightly targeted by central banks, other than that the latter typically favor to let financial market participants perform the job and not to affect them directly by credible policies.

Formal Research-Based Persuasive Report Research Paper

Formal -Based Persuasive Report - Research Paper Example I reviewed seven empirical resources, which focused on the effects of workplace flexibility on employee welfare and general company performance and image. Attached is the result of my research and recommendations. My secondary research suggests that a compressed work week produces benefits of reduced work-life conflict and stress, better productivity, and improved health for employees, which translates to gains in productivity and morale in the workplace. Higher employee morale is related to employee satisfaction, which will draw future talented employees, while recruiting and retaining highly-engaged ones. Workplace flexibility is also related to corporate social responsibility and corporate image. Thus, reducing work days contributes to better employee welfare and corporate reputation and performance. The company must be prepared of parking and other logistics. Longer work hours for four days can have strains on company resources during that time. Without sufficient resources and other support, the positive effects of a compressed work week might be reduced or lost altogether. If Coastal Sunbelt would make a rotating 4-day work week, this can result to more maximized parking spaces. For example, half of the employees will work normal shift for one week, and then for the second week, they work only for 4 days. The second half of the employees will work 4 days in the week, where the first group worked 5 days. This system would free up parking, and it will save Coastal Sunbelt the cost of building a parking garage. 7 Some of the pressing issues common to many organizations are work-life conflict and the recruitment and retention of high-performing and dedicated employees. Coastal Sunbelt faces theses issues, among others, which affects its efficiency and effectiveness. To motivate employees, the organization must offer innovative solutions, one of which is shifting from a five-day to a four-day work week. This proposal argues that to motivate and engage

Management and Leadership in nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Management and Leadership in nursing - Essay Example As clinical nurse, in a leadership role, is involved in the provision of direct care to patients and works continuously to improve the quality of care provided by influencing others. It must be understood in this context that leadership cannot be considered to be simply a set of tasks or skills, but is rather the development of an attitude that relies extensively on informed behavior and remains consistent with enhancing performance and effectiveness on a long term basis along with benefit to everyone involved. This clearly means that leaders simply do not control others, but simply perform the role of visionaries, who encourage and guide their colleagues in planning, leading, organizing and controlling their tasks and responsibilities (Bernadette Melynk, 2005). Modern literature defines leadership in many different ways although the inherent traits possessed by a leader possess several common features that fit virtually every associated definition. For instance, leadership is often viewed as a process that exerts influence, acts on a group setting and is used as a way to attain a common goal. Leadership exists at all levels although the style used to deliver leadership varies from person to person. For instance, autocratic leadership is one form that facilitates the attainment of a goal without providing enough opportunities for others to be involved in the decision-making process. a leadership mechanism is termed to be bureaucratic when the person adheres strictly to rules and procedures when delivering decisions (Gladys Husted, 2001). In contrast, participative leadership provides for every member of the community or staff to be an intergral part of the decision making process and actively requires everyone to provide their contributions . This increased involvement among members increases the commitment of members towards the goals. A more liberal form of leadership is the laissez faire format that

Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies

Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies BACKGROUND OF STUDY 1.1 Introduction Disclosure of information in corporate annual reports has attracted a number of researchers in both developed and developing countries. The voluntary disclosure information in excess of mandatory disclosure, has been receiving an increasing amount of attention in recent accounting studies. Because of the inadequacy of compulsory information, the demand for voluntary disclosure provides investors with the necessary information to make more informed decisions (Alsaeed, 2006). Voluntary disclosure of decision-useful corporate information is considered to be the first step in solving the alleged problems of traditional financial reporting (Leadbetter, 2000). Its objectives are well defined: closing (or narrowing) the gap between a companys potential intrinsic market value and its current market value. Voluntary disclosure, in the context of globalization of the worlds financial markets, has received a great deal of attention in the accounting literature in recent years (Hossain, Berera and Rahman, 1995). This is due to the following reasons: Firstly, additional disclosures may help to attract new shareholders thereby helping to maintain a healthy demand for shares, and a share price that more fully reflects its intrinsic value. It is possible that poor disclosure could lead to an undervalued share making it attractive to a potential predator. Secondly, increased information may assist in reducing informational risk and thereby lower the cost of capital (Spero, 1979). A lower cost of capital should mean that marginal projects become profitable. Thirdly, in order to raise capital on the markets, companies will increase their voluntary disclosure. Consequently, listed companies are more likely to have a higher level of disclosure than unlisted companies and multiple listed companies those raising capital on the international markets will have a higher level of disclosure than domestically listed companies. Fourthly, multiple listed companies often have an interest in foreign capital markets since foreign operations are often financed by foreign capital (Choi and Mueller, 1984). Disclosure levels might be increased to adapt to local customs to meet the requirements of banks and other suppliers of capital; finally, listed and multiple listed companies might increase their social responsibility disclosures to demonstrate that they act responsibly (Watts and Zimmerman, 1979). Companies may have attained their status on the securities markets and be able to attract new funds, not least because they act responsibly. According to Healy and Palepu (2001) a companys disclosure decision could be a response to innovation, globalization or changes in business and capital market environments. Kuwait is the focus of this study for three reasons. First, Kuwait is a small rich country, relatively open economy with crude oil reserves of about 10% of world reserves. Second, over the last decade, the Kuwaiti government has initiated several far-reaching reforms at the Kuwait Stock Exchange to mobilize domestic savings and attract foreign capital investment. These measures include privatization of state corporations through the stock exchange and allowing foreign investors to own shares in the listed companies since 2000, tax free. Third, the Kuwait Stock Exchange is becoming an important capital market in the region. It is ranked the second largest market in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia) in terms of total market capitalization. Its total market capitalization was US$128,951 million as of December 2006 (Arab Monetary Fund 2006). These reasons could motivate investors to diversify their investment portfolios into that market. As a result, investors may be interested in the information disclosure practices of listed companies in Kuwait (Al-Shammari, 2008). 1-2 Problem Statement Many developing countries strive to mobilize financial resources from domestic as well as international sources with a view to attaining their economic and social development goals. Domestic and international investors utilize financial and non-financial information available on potential investment targets for assessing risk and making critical investment decisions. Thus, the availability of financial and non-financial information in sufficient quantity and of sufficient quality has an important bearing on efforts geared towards mobilizing investment for financing economic and social development. Adequate reporting and disclosure of financial and non-financial information will reduce asymmetric information problem, hence are likely to improve investor confidence and a lower cost of investment. According to Gray, Meeks and Roberts (1995) investors demand information to assess the timing and uncertainty of current and future cash flows so that they may value firms and make other investment decisions such as choosing a portfolio of securities. Companies satisfy this demand in part by supplying voluntary accounting information, thereby enabling them to raise capital on the best available terms (Gray et al., 1995). Given the faster pace of globalization, the growing interdependence of international financial markets and increased mobility of capital, developing countries need to attach greater importance to corporate transparency and disclosure. Policy makers, legislators and regulators, in recognition of the significant influence that corporate transparency has on decisions of investors, need to strengthen further the various components of corporate disclosure infrastructure so that domestic and international resources are mobilized more efficiently. Kuwait is one of the developing countries that face difficulties to attract foreign investments. Birgit Ebner at Germanys Frankfurt Trust, who helps manage a Middle Eastern stock fund, said Kuwait was not an attractive investment compared with others in the region (www.gulfnews.com). One of the main reasons that interpret this matter is the absence of voluntary disclosure as a result of sharp low supply of information by companies. According to Birgit Ebner, We are underweight in Kuwait because in Kuwait there are many holding firms dominating the market. And on top of it, the transparency is currently lower than in other Gulf States. In opinion of many analysts in Kuwait, the problem of gulf bank is related to absence of voluntary disclosure. Moreover, Kuwait stock exchange report that issued in (2007) revealed that 156 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange from among 177 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange are violating disclosure guidelines (www.alaswaq.net 2007). The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the influence of several firm characteristics on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait and whether disclosure level improves over the years given changes in the accounting environment of the country and globalization that have taken placed. There are many studies have examined the relationship between a company`s characteristics and the level of disclosure in both developed and developing countries such as Canada (Belkaoui and Kahl, 1978); United Kingdom (Firth, 1979, 1980); Nigeria (Wallace, 1987); Sweden (Cooke, 1989); Japan (Cooke, 1992); United States (Imhoff, 1992; and Lang and Lundholm, 1993); Bangladesh (Ahmed and Nicholls, 1994); Switzerland (Raffournier, 1995); Hong Kong (Wallace and Naser, 1995), Egypt (Mahmood, 1999); Jordan (Naser, Alkhatib and Karbhari, 2002); Saudi Arabia (Alsaeed, 2006b) and United Arab Emirates (Aljifri, 2007). However, to my knowledge, little attention has been devoted to the role of voluntary disclosure in the Middle East countries, more specifically Kuwait (see Al-Shammari, 2008). The aim of this study is to understand what motivate or demonstrate a companys disclosure by empirically investigate the association between a number of company characteristics and the extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of companies listed in the Kuwait Stock Exchange in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. In addition, the influence of the reporting year on voluntary disclosure will also be examined to assess the progress of disclosure activities in Kuwait. Given that Ashammaris study only cover the year of 2005, the execution of this study is fully justified. 1.3 Research Questions In general, this study seeks for explanation on voluntary disclosure behaviour of Kuwait companies. The followings are the research questions:- 1- What is the relationship between the firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and voluntary disclosure level? 2- Does reporting year influences voluntary disclosure? 3- To what extent do the above factors affect the voluntary disclosure? 1.4 Research Objectives To determine the influences of firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and reporting year on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait. 1.5 Significance of the Study The significance of study can be viewed from contributions given to Accounting academic discipline and to the practitioners and policymakers. Contribution to Accounting body of knowledge This study contributes to the literature on corporate financial reporting and disclosure practices in one of the important capital markets in the Middle East in which International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) are mandatory and the government controls the accounting and auditing profession. It also contributes to the corporate governance literature on whether the company characteristics found to be significant in companies operating in developed countries are similar to those a developing country like Kuwait. This study is important in enhancing our understanding of corporate financial reporting in Kuwait. It explores the determinants that help explain voluntary disclosure in Kuwait. Contribution to the practitioners and policy makers Knowledge on firms characteristics that influence voluntary disclosure would enable policy makers to target training and monitoring activities to suitable target companies in order to improve disclosure level in the country. This is important because higher disclosure among companies could improve investors confidence and help attracting more foreign investment into the country. The study is also able to show whether the external environment in Kuwait have improved the voluntary disclosure activities. 1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study This study investigates the relationship between firm characteristics and voluntary disclosure of non financial companies listed in Kuwait. Financial companies (banks and insurance companies) were eliminated as the characteristics of their financial reports are different from those of non financial firms (Alsaeed, 2006). A disclosure index was constructed as a yardstick to measure the level of disclosure by the listed firms. The construction of the disclosure index is based on the information that firms supply in their annual financial reports to shareholders. Albeit not as conclusive, financial reports serve as a widely accepted (Knutson, 1992). The disclosure index does not intend to be comprehensive, nor does it intend to specify what firms ought to disclose. Rather, the index is crafted solely for the purpose of capturing and measuring differences in disclosure practices among firms. The selection of items embedded into the index was entirely guided by Meek, Rober and Gray (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006) 1.7 Organization of the Study The reminder of this study is organized as follows: Chapter Two discusses the literature review related to the study; Chapter Three consists of research methodology including theoretical framework, hypothesis development and model specification for the study. The measurement, sampling and instrumentations are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter Four presents the empirical findings and results. Finally, Chapter Five provides the discussion, implications and recommendation of the study as well as suggestions for future research. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction This Chapter discusses and summarizes the literatures review, which looks at many aspects of voluntary disclosure and the factors which affect the degree of voluntary disclosure in a firm. The discussion is segmented into five sections. The first section presents an overview of disclosure requirements in Kuwait so as to provide foundation knowledge of the issue understudy. Section two discusses the concept and measurement of voluntary disclosure. This is followed by section three which presents the firm-related determinants of voluntary disclosure as found from prior theoretical and empirical literature. These variables include firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size. 2.2 Disclosure Requirement in Kuwait Mandatory disclosure refers to firms disclose information about their operations because of legal requirements. For the efficiency of markets and the protection of investors, mandatory disclosure of information concerning the firms operating in capital markets has important consequences (Shin, 1998). 2.3 Voluntary disclosure level More detailed disclosure by the firms beyond the level of information disclosed within the mandatory disclosure process is called voluntary disclosure. Voluntary disclosure means making public the financial and non-financial information regarding the firms operations without any legal requirement (Fishman and Hagerty (1997), Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006). Alsaeed has identified a more comprehensive items for voluntary disclosure based on Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003). These items are as in Table 2.1 Table 2.1: Voluntary disclosure items in Alsaeed (2006) No. Disclosure items 1 Strategic information 2 Brief history of company 3 Information on events affecting future years results 4 Board directors names 5 Top managements names 6 Majority shareholders 7 Information on different types of products 8 Information statistics for more than two years 9 Information on dividends policy 10 Information on future expansion projects 11 Percentage of foreign and national labor force 12 Information on training and workers development 13 Information on social and environmental activities 14 Statement of corporate goals and objectives 15 Principle markets 16 Average compensation per employee 17 Market share 18 Information on events affecting current years results 19 Competitive environment 20 Forecasted profits Many studies have examined the relationship between a companys characteristics and voluntary disclosure level. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that firm size, profitability and auditor firm size influence the level of voluntary disclosure. Naser et al., (2002), Jensen and Meckling, (1976); Fama and Jensen, (1983) Donnelly and Mulcahy, (2008), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), studied the association between companys firm size, debt ratio, owner ship and auditor firm size and the level of disclosure. 2.4 Determinants of Voluntary Disclosure 2.4.1 Firm size Most of the firm disclosure studies used firm size as a control variable (see for example, Alsaeed (2006); Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008); Brammer and Pavelin (2004); Meek et al, (1995), Mitchell et al, (1995), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Aitken et al. (1997), Bradbury, (1992), Zarzeski (1996), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000), Naser et al.,(2002), Wallace and Naser (1995), Firth, (1979), Eng and Mak (2003) and Hossain et al.(1994). Many studies found a positive relationship between firm size and disclosure level of companies. For example, Alsaeed (2006) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between firm characteristics of non-financial Saudi firms listed on the Saudi Stock Market in 2003 and voluntary disclosure level by those companies. He found that there was a positive relationship between the firm size and the level of disclosure. Alsaeed (2006) argues that agency costs are higher for larger companies because shareholders are widespread, therefore, additional disclosure might reduce these costs (Watts and Zimmerman, 1983). This finding is consistent with other studies such as Meek et al, (1995), Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008), Foster (1986), Hossain et al, (1995) and Al-Shammari, (2008). In addition to what Alsaeed (2006) has mentioned above, they argued that large companies might have sufficient resources to afford the cost of producing information or the user of annual reports. Secondly, small companies might suffer from a competitive disadvantage if they provide additional disclosure. Thirdly, large companies might be of interest to different users of annual reports including government agencies. 2.4.2 Debt ratio There is no consensus among researchers about the relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure. Most of studies found a significant positive relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure such as Naser (1998), Mitchell, Chia and Loh (1995); Hossain et al. (1995), Al-Shammari, (2008) and Bradbury, (1992). Jensen and Meckling, (1976) found the voluntary disclosure level can reduce the agency costs by facilitating debt ratio suppliers assessment of the firms to ability to meet its debts ratio. In relation to this, Al-Shimmiri, (2008) argued that the companies with higher debt in their structure of capital are prone to higher agency cost, hence they will be more likely to disclose additional information in order to reduce agency costs and information asymmetry with shareholders. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that when firms increase their level of leverage, they have to disclose more information in order to reduce asymmetric information between the firm and its creditors. Hence he argued that firms with high leverage will have high level of disclosure. In addition, Zarzeski (1996) argued that firms with higher debt ratio are more likely to share private information with their creditors. Thus, voluntary disclosures can be expected to increase with leverage. However, Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Hossain, Berera and Rahman (1994), Aitken, Hooper and Pickering (1997), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) and Eng and Mak (2003) studied the relationship between the voluntary disclosure and leverage found no relationship. While Meek et al (1995) mention that there is negative relationship between voluntary disclosure and leverage for US, UK, and European MNCs, Wallace, Naser and Mora (1994). 2.4.3 Profitability Many studies refer the profitability as the factor that affects voluntary disclosure level such as Singhvi and Desai (1971); Foster (1986), Richard (1992), Meek et al. (1995) and Naser et al. (2002) they argues that when the level of firms profitability increase, the firms have to disclose more information that can be an indicator to good management and also have incentives to show to the investors and the public that their profitability has increased. However, Ahmed and Courtis (1999) identified 12 studies that investigated the relationship between profitability and disclosure with mixed results. Akerlof (1970) argued that larger profitable companies may disclose more information to be distinguished from less profitable companies. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) argued the firms with larger profits are more interested in disclosing detailed information in their annual reports in order to justify their financial performance and to reduce political costs. However Wallace et al. (1994) found no significant relationship between the comprehensiveness of disclosure and the profit margin of listed and unlisted Spanish firms. Inchausti (1997) elaborated that agency theory suggests that managers of larger profitable companies may wish to disclose more information in order to obtain personal advantages like continuance of their management position and compensation. Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995) and Alsaeed, (2006) observed no significant relationship between the disclosure and the profitability, because none of the performance related variables provides an explanation of the disclosure level. Ho and Wong (2001), Barako, Hancock and Izan (2006) and Barako (2007) on the other hand found profitability to be positively and significantly related with two of the four disclosure categories, financial and forward looking disclosures, whereas other categories ware negative and significant with the disclosure of general and strategic. This result is similar with that of Eng and Mak (2002) study on Singapore listed companies. For example, companies in the manufacturing sector were found to disclose less of financial information, and instead disclosed more on general and strategic information to explain in detail factors affecting their poor financial performance. 2.4.4 Ownership dispersion The ownership dispersion represents the percentage of shares owned by outsider after subtracting shares owned by the insider. Many studies found positive relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership, as explained by the agency theory which suggests that difference in the proportion of the companys shares owned by outsider shareholders causes differences in the voluntary disclosure level. This is because the companies with more outsider ownership are more likely to disclose more information than companies with less outsider ownership and also the demand for publicly available information is likely to increase (Wallace and Naser 1995). Gelb (2000) and Barako et al. (2006) found significant relationship between outsider ownership and disclosure level. Leftwich, Watts and Zimmerman (1981), Fama and Jensen (1983), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) and Aitken et al. (1997) mentioned the detailed disclosure in annual reports that may allow outsider to monitor their interests more efficiently. Eng and Mak (2003) argued that voluntary disclosure is a substitute for outside monitoring and so is negatively related to managerial ownership. They found evidence consistent with this prediction. Many studies found negative relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership dispersion. Hossain et al. (1994) found evidence on Malaysian listed companies having significant negative association between voluntary disclosure and ownership dispersion. A later study by Haniffa and Cooke (2002) also found similar result. Naser et al. (2002) examined the affect of ownership on US companys disclosure and his results indicated that firms with a lower level of managerial ownership are more likely to receive higher ratings for the disclosure provided in their financial reports. Ho and Wong (2001) found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure. Chau and Gray (2002) also found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Hong Kong and Singapore but found positive associated with outside ownership. Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008) on the other hand found no evidence that ownership structure is related to disclosure level. 2.4.5 Audit firm size According to Jensen and Meckling (1976) large audit firms act as a mechanism to reduce agency costs and exert more of a monitoring role by limiting opportunistic behavior by managers and are less likely to be associated with clients that disclose lower levels of information in their annual reports. In terms of size, audit firms can be divided into two; large or small. Large audit firms are identified as being one of these Big Four (or Big Five or Six formerly) international auditing firms, and smaller audit firms are the rest; the firms are more likely to choose a Big Six auditing firm. Such choice of audit firms signals to investors that the contents of the annual reports are audited with high quality (Craswell and Taylor, 1992). Furthermore, the large audit firms are widely spread in the world while small firms are domestically; hence the large audit firms have more capability to disclosure of the information and have higher reputation and power to affect the voluntary disclosure level related to the smaller audit firm (Alsaeed, 2006). Several studies found that audit firm size have significant relationship with voluntary disclosure level. Firth (1979), Craswell and Taylor (1992), Wallace and Naser, (1995), Ahmed (1995), Raffournier (1995), Inchausti (1997), Mahmood (1999), S.M. Ho and Wong (2001), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), Nasser et al. (2002) and Al-Shammari, (2008) found significant relationship between the voluntary disclosure level and audit firm size. Forker (1992) and Wallace et al. (1994) claim there are positive relationship between voluntary disclosure and audit firm size but not significant, while Hossain et al. (1994), Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995), Depoers (2000) and Haniffa and Cooke (2002) they didnt fine significant association. 2.4.6 Industry sector According Cook (1989) disclosure level is more likely to vary from one industry to the other due to the likelihood that leading firms operating in a particularindustry could produce a bandwagon effect on the level ofdisclosure adopted by other firms working in the same industry. Cooke (1992) found evidence that Japanese manufacturing firms tend to provide more information than other non-manufacturing firms. Other studies that found significant effect of industry types are Wallace and Naser (1995) and Camfferman and Cooke (2002), while McNally et al.(1982); Wallace (1987): Wallace et al. (1994); Raffournier (1995); Inchausti, (1997); Patton and Zelenka (1997); Naser (1998); Owusu-Ansah (1998), Naser and Alkhatib (2000) and Alsaeed (2006) found insignificant effect. Table 2.2: Summary of independent variables influence on voluntary disclosure: Study Independent variable findings Akerlof (1970) Profitability Positive relationship Singhvi and Desai, (1971) Profitability Positive relationship Jensen and Meckling, (1976) Debt ratio and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Firth, (1979) Firm size and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Leftwich, Watts, and Zimmerman (1981) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion McNally et al.(1982) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector Fama and Jensen (1983) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion Watts and Zimmerman (1983). Firm size positive relationship with firm size Foster, (1986) Firm size, profitability Significant positive with firm size and found positive with profitability. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) Profitability positive with profitability Wallace (1987) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Cook (1989) Industry sector Positive with industry sector. Bradbury (1992) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Richard, (1992) Profitability Positive with profitability. Forker (1992) Audit firm size Positive but insignificant with audit firm size. Craswell and Taylor (1992) Audit firm size Positively significant with audit firm size. Cooke (1992) Industry sector positive with industry sector Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion and negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1994) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion but negatively with debt ratio and audit firm size. Wallace et al. (1994) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Meek et al, (1995) Firm size, debt ratio, profitability. Positive with firm size and profitability whereas significant, negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Mitchell et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Wallace and Naser (1995) Firm size, profitability, Ownership dispersion Positive with firm size, ownership dispersion and industry sector but- ,audit firm size and industry sector Negatively with profitability and audit firm size. Ahmed (1995) Firm size and audit firm size Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size. Raffournier (1995) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. No significant with profitability and industry sector, but significant positive with audit firm size Zarzeski (1996) Firm size and debt ratio Positive with firm size and debt ratio Aitken et al. (1997) Firm size, Debt ratio and owner ship dispersion Positive with the firm size and ownership dispersion but negative with debt ratio. Inchausti (1997) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. Positive with profitability and significant positive with audit firm size and insignificant with industry sector. Patton and Zelenka (1997) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Naser (1998) Debt ratio and industry sector. Significant positive with debt ratio but insignificant with industry sector. Owusu-Ansah (1998), Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Mahmood (1999) Audit firm size Significant with audit firm size. Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and significant negative with debt ratio. Gelb (2000) Ownership dispersion Negatively with Ownership dispersion Depoers (2000) Audit firm size No significant with audit firm size. Naser and Alkhatib (2000) industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Ho and Wong (2001) Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. No significant with profitability but negatively with ownership dispersion and positive significant with audit firm size. Naser et al. (2002). Firm size, Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size but positive with profitability and no significant with ownership dispersion. Eng and Mak (2002) Profitability No significant with profitability Chau and Gray (2002) Ownership dispersion Positively with outside ownership dispersion. Camfferman and Cooke (2002) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies BACKGROUND OF STUDY 1.1 Introduction Disclosure of information in corporate annual reports has attracted a number of researchers in both developed and developing countries. The voluntary disclosure information in excess of mandatory disclosure, has been receiving an increasing amount of attention in recent accounting studies. Because of the inadequacy of compulsory information, the demand for voluntary disclosure provides investors with the necessary information to make more informed decisions (Alsaeed, 2006). Voluntary disclosure of decision-useful corporate information is considered to be the first step in solving the alleged problems of traditional financial reporting (Leadbetter, 2000). Its objectives are well defined: closing (or narrowing) the gap between a companys potential intrinsic market value and its current market value. Voluntary disclosure, in the context of globalization of the worlds financial markets, has received a great deal of attention in the accounting literature in recent years (Hossain, Berera and Rahman, 1995). This is due to the following reasons: Firstly, additional disclosures may help to attract new shareholders thereby helping to maintain a healthy demand for shares, and a share price that more fully reflects its intrinsic value. It is possible that poor disclosure could lead to an undervalued share making it attractive to a potential predator. Secondly, increased information may assist in reducing informational risk and thereby lower the cost of capital (Spero, 1979). A lower cost of capital should mean that marginal projects become profitable. Thirdly, in order to raise capital on the markets, companies will increase their voluntary disclosure. Consequently, listed companies are more likely to have a higher level of disclosure than unlisted companies and multiple listed companies those raising capital on the international markets will have a higher level of disclosure than domestically listed companies. Fourthly, multiple listed companies often have an interest in foreign capital markets since foreign operations are often financed by foreign capital (Choi and Mueller, 1984). Disclosure levels might be increased to adapt to local customs to meet the requirements of banks and other suppliers of capital; finally, listed and multiple listed companies might increase their social responsibility disclosures to demonstrate that they act responsibly (Watts and Zimmerman, 1979). Companies may have attained their status on the securities markets and be able to attract new funds, not least because they act responsibly. According to Healy and Palepu (2001) a companys disclosure decision could be a response to innovation, globalization or changes in business and capital market environments. Kuwait is the focus of this study for three reasons. First, Kuwait is a small rich country, relatively open economy with crude oil reserves of about 10% of world reserves. Second, over the last decade, the Kuwaiti government has initiated several far-reaching reforms at the Kuwait Stock Exchange to mobilize domestic savings and attract foreign capital investment. These measures include privatization of state corporations through the stock exchange and allowing foreign investors to own shares in the listed companies since 2000, tax free. Third, the Kuwait Stock Exchange is becoming an important capital market in the region. It is ranked the second largest market in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia) in terms of total market capitalization. Its total market capitalization was US$128,951 million as of December 2006 (Arab Monetary Fund 2006). These reasons could motivate investors to diversify their investment portfolios into that market. As a result, investors may be interested in the information disclosure practices of listed companies in Kuwait (Al-Shammari, 2008). 1-2 Problem Statement Many developing countries strive to mobilize financial resources from domestic as well as international sources with a view to attaining their economic and social development goals. Domestic and international investors utilize financial and non-financial information available on potential investment targets for assessing risk and making critical investment decisions. Thus, the availability of financial and non-financial information in sufficient quantity and of sufficient quality has an important bearing on efforts geared towards mobilizing investment for financing economic and social development. Adequate reporting and disclosure of financial and non-financial information will reduce asymmetric information problem, hence are likely to improve investor confidence and a lower cost of investment. According to Gray, Meeks and Roberts (1995) investors demand information to assess the timing and uncertainty of current and future cash flows so that they may value firms and make other investment decisions such as choosing a portfolio of securities. Companies satisfy this demand in part by supplying voluntary accounting information, thereby enabling them to raise capital on the best available terms (Gray et al., 1995). Given the faster pace of globalization, the growing interdependence of international financial markets and increased mobility of capital, developing countries need to attach greater importance to corporate transparency and disclosure. Policy makers, legislators and regulators, in recognition of the significant influence that corporate transparency has on decisions of investors, need to strengthen further the various components of corporate disclosure infrastructure so that domestic and international resources are mobilized more efficiently. Kuwait is one of the developing countries that face difficulties to attract foreign investments. Birgit Ebner at Germanys Frankfurt Trust, who helps manage a Middle Eastern stock fund, said Kuwait was not an attractive investment compared with others in the region (www.gulfnews.com). One of the main reasons that interpret this matter is the absence of voluntary disclosure as a result of sharp low supply of information by companies. According to Birgit Ebner, We are underweight in Kuwait because in Kuwait there are many holding firms dominating the market. And on top of it, the transparency is currently lower than in other Gulf States. In opinion of many analysts in Kuwait, the problem of gulf bank is related to absence of voluntary disclosure. Moreover, Kuwait stock exchange report that issued in (2007) revealed that 156 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange from among 177 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange are violating disclosure guidelines (www.alaswaq.net 2007). The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the influence of several firm characteristics on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait and whether disclosure level improves over the years given changes in the accounting environment of the country and globalization that have taken placed. There are many studies have examined the relationship between a company`s characteristics and the level of disclosure in both developed and developing countries such as Canada (Belkaoui and Kahl, 1978); United Kingdom (Firth, 1979, 1980); Nigeria (Wallace, 1987); Sweden (Cooke, 1989); Japan (Cooke, 1992); United States (Imhoff, 1992; and Lang and Lundholm, 1993); Bangladesh (Ahmed and Nicholls, 1994); Switzerland (Raffournier, 1995); Hong Kong (Wallace and Naser, 1995), Egypt (Mahmood, 1999); Jordan (Naser, Alkhatib and Karbhari, 2002); Saudi Arabia (Alsaeed, 2006b) and United Arab Emirates (Aljifri, 2007). However, to my knowledge, little attention has been devoted to the role of voluntary disclosure in the Middle East countries, more specifically Kuwait (see Al-Shammari, 2008). The aim of this study is to understand what motivate or demonstrate a companys disclosure by empirically investigate the association between a number of company characteristics and the extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of companies listed in the Kuwait Stock Exchange in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. In addition, the influence of the reporting year on voluntary disclosure will also be examined to assess the progress of disclosure activities in Kuwait. Given that Ashammaris study only cover the year of 2005, the execution of this study is fully justified. 1.3 Research Questions In general, this study seeks for explanation on voluntary disclosure behaviour of Kuwait companies. The followings are the research questions:- 1- What is the relationship between the firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and voluntary disclosure level? 2- Does reporting year influences voluntary disclosure? 3- To what extent do the above factors affect the voluntary disclosure? 1.4 Research Objectives To determine the influences of firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and reporting year on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait. 1.5 Significance of the Study The significance of study can be viewed from contributions given to Accounting academic discipline and to the practitioners and policymakers. Contribution to Accounting body of knowledge This study contributes to the literature on corporate financial reporting and disclosure practices in one of the important capital markets in the Middle East in which International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) are mandatory and the government controls the accounting and auditing profession. It also contributes to the corporate governance literature on whether the company characteristics found to be significant in companies operating in developed countries are similar to those a developing country like Kuwait. This study is important in enhancing our understanding of corporate financial reporting in Kuwait. It explores the determinants that help explain voluntary disclosure in Kuwait. Contribution to the practitioners and policy makers Knowledge on firms characteristics that influence voluntary disclosure would enable policy makers to target training and monitoring activities to suitable target companies in order to improve disclosure level in the country. This is important because higher disclosure among companies could improve investors confidence and help attracting more foreign investment into the country. The study is also able to show whether the external environment in Kuwait have improved the voluntary disclosure activities. 1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study This study investigates the relationship between firm characteristics and voluntary disclosure of non financial companies listed in Kuwait. Financial companies (banks and insurance companies) were eliminated as the characteristics of their financial reports are different from those of non financial firms (Alsaeed, 2006). A disclosure index was constructed as a yardstick to measure the level of disclosure by the listed firms. The construction of the disclosure index is based on the information that firms supply in their annual financial reports to shareholders. Albeit not as conclusive, financial reports serve as a widely accepted (Knutson, 1992). The disclosure index does not intend to be comprehensive, nor does it intend to specify what firms ought to disclose. Rather, the index is crafted solely for the purpose of capturing and measuring differences in disclosure practices among firms. The selection of items embedded into the index was entirely guided by Meek, Rober and Gray (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006) 1.7 Organization of the Study The reminder of this study is organized as follows: Chapter Two discusses the literature review related to the study; Chapter Three consists of research methodology including theoretical framework, hypothesis development and model specification for the study. The measurement, sampling and instrumentations are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter Four presents the empirical findings and results. Finally, Chapter Five provides the discussion, implications and recommendation of the study as well as suggestions for future research. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction This Chapter discusses and summarizes the literatures review, which looks at many aspects of voluntary disclosure and the factors which affect the degree of voluntary disclosure in a firm. The discussion is segmented into five sections. The first section presents an overview of disclosure requirements in Kuwait so as to provide foundation knowledge of the issue understudy. Section two discusses the concept and measurement of voluntary disclosure. This is followed by section three which presents the firm-related determinants of voluntary disclosure as found from prior theoretical and empirical literature. These variables include firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size. 2.2 Disclosure Requirement in Kuwait Mandatory disclosure refers to firms disclose information about their operations because of legal requirements. For the efficiency of markets and the protection of investors, mandatory disclosure of information concerning the firms operating in capital markets has important consequences (Shin, 1998). 2.3 Voluntary disclosure level More detailed disclosure by the firms beyond the level of information disclosed within the mandatory disclosure process is called voluntary disclosure. Voluntary disclosure means making public the financial and non-financial information regarding the firms operations without any legal requirement (Fishman and Hagerty (1997), Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006). Alsaeed has identified a more comprehensive items for voluntary disclosure based on Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003). These items are as in Table 2.1 Table 2.1: Voluntary disclosure items in Alsaeed (2006) No. Disclosure items 1 Strategic information 2 Brief history of company 3 Information on events affecting future years results 4 Board directors names 5 Top managements names 6 Majority shareholders 7 Information on different types of products 8 Information statistics for more than two years 9 Information on dividends policy 10 Information on future expansion projects 11 Percentage of foreign and national labor force 12 Information on training and workers development 13 Information on social and environmental activities 14 Statement of corporate goals and objectives 15 Principle markets 16 Average compensation per employee 17 Market share 18 Information on events affecting current years results 19 Competitive environment 20 Forecasted profits Many studies have examined the relationship between a companys characteristics and voluntary disclosure level. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that firm size, profitability and auditor firm size influence the level of voluntary disclosure. Naser et al., (2002), Jensen and Meckling, (1976); Fama and Jensen, (1983) Donnelly and Mulcahy, (2008), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), studied the association between companys firm size, debt ratio, owner ship and auditor firm size and the level of disclosure. 2.4 Determinants of Voluntary Disclosure 2.4.1 Firm size Most of the firm disclosure studies used firm size as a control variable (see for example, Alsaeed (2006); Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008); Brammer and Pavelin (2004); Meek et al, (1995), Mitchell et al, (1995), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Aitken et al. (1997), Bradbury, (1992), Zarzeski (1996), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000), Naser et al.,(2002), Wallace and Naser (1995), Firth, (1979), Eng and Mak (2003) and Hossain et al.(1994). Many studies found a positive relationship between firm size and disclosure level of companies. For example, Alsaeed (2006) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between firm characteristics of non-financial Saudi firms listed on the Saudi Stock Market in 2003 and voluntary disclosure level by those companies. He found that there was a positive relationship between the firm size and the level of disclosure. Alsaeed (2006) argues that agency costs are higher for larger companies because shareholders are widespread, therefore, additional disclosure might reduce these costs (Watts and Zimmerman, 1983). This finding is consistent with other studies such as Meek et al, (1995), Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008), Foster (1986), Hossain et al, (1995) and Al-Shammari, (2008). In addition to what Alsaeed (2006) has mentioned above, they argued that large companies might have sufficient resources to afford the cost of producing information or the user of annual reports. Secondly, small companies might suffer from a competitive disadvantage if they provide additional disclosure. Thirdly, large companies might be of interest to different users of annual reports including government agencies. 2.4.2 Debt ratio There is no consensus among researchers about the relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure. Most of studies found a significant positive relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure such as Naser (1998), Mitchell, Chia and Loh (1995); Hossain et al. (1995), Al-Shammari, (2008) and Bradbury, (1992). Jensen and Meckling, (1976) found the voluntary disclosure level can reduce the agency costs by facilitating debt ratio suppliers assessment of the firms to ability to meet its debts ratio. In relation to this, Al-Shimmiri, (2008) argued that the companies with higher debt in their structure of capital are prone to higher agency cost, hence they will be more likely to disclose additional information in order to reduce agency costs and information asymmetry with shareholders. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that when firms increase their level of leverage, they have to disclose more information in order to reduce asymmetric information between the firm and its creditors. Hence he argued that firms with high leverage will have high level of disclosure. In addition, Zarzeski (1996) argued that firms with higher debt ratio are more likely to share private information with their creditors. Thus, voluntary disclosures can be expected to increase with leverage. However, Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Hossain, Berera and Rahman (1994), Aitken, Hooper and Pickering (1997), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) and Eng and Mak (2003) studied the relationship between the voluntary disclosure and leverage found no relationship. While Meek et al (1995) mention that there is negative relationship between voluntary disclosure and leverage for US, UK, and European MNCs, Wallace, Naser and Mora (1994). 2.4.3 Profitability Many studies refer the profitability as the factor that affects voluntary disclosure level such as Singhvi and Desai (1971); Foster (1986), Richard (1992), Meek et al. (1995) and Naser et al. (2002) they argues that when the level of firms profitability increase, the firms have to disclose more information that can be an indicator to good management and also have incentives to show to the investors and the public that their profitability has increased. However, Ahmed and Courtis (1999) identified 12 studies that investigated the relationship between profitability and disclosure with mixed results. Akerlof (1970) argued that larger profitable companies may disclose more information to be distinguished from less profitable companies. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) argued the firms with larger profits are more interested in disclosing detailed information in their annual reports in order to justify their financial performance and to reduce political costs. However Wallace et al. (1994) found no significant relationship between the comprehensiveness of disclosure and the profit margin of listed and unlisted Spanish firms. Inchausti (1997) elaborated that agency theory suggests that managers of larger profitable companies may wish to disclose more information in order to obtain personal advantages like continuance of their management position and compensation. Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995) and Alsaeed, (2006) observed no significant relationship between the disclosure and the profitability, because none of the performance related variables provides an explanation of the disclosure level. Ho and Wong (2001), Barako, Hancock and Izan (2006) and Barako (2007) on the other hand found profitability to be positively and significantly related with two of the four disclosure categories, financial and forward looking disclosures, whereas other categories ware negative and significant with the disclosure of general and strategic. This result is similar with that of Eng and Mak (2002) study on Singapore listed companies. For example, companies in the manufacturing sector were found to disclose less of financial information, and instead disclosed more on general and strategic information to explain in detail factors affecting their poor financial performance. 2.4.4 Ownership dispersion The ownership dispersion represents the percentage of shares owned by outsider after subtracting shares owned by the insider. Many studies found positive relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership, as explained by the agency theory which suggests that difference in the proportion of the companys shares owned by outsider shareholders causes differences in the voluntary disclosure level. This is because the companies with more outsider ownership are more likely to disclose more information than companies with less outsider ownership and also the demand for publicly available information is likely to increase (Wallace and Naser 1995). Gelb (2000) and Barako et al. (2006) found significant relationship between outsider ownership and disclosure level. Leftwich, Watts and Zimmerman (1981), Fama and Jensen (1983), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) and Aitken et al. (1997) mentioned the detailed disclosure in annual reports that may allow outsider to monitor their interests more efficiently. Eng and Mak (2003) argued that voluntary disclosure is a substitute for outside monitoring and so is negatively related to managerial ownership. They found evidence consistent with this prediction. Many studies found negative relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership dispersion. Hossain et al. (1994) found evidence on Malaysian listed companies having significant negative association between voluntary disclosure and ownership dispersion. A later study by Haniffa and Cooke (2002) also found similar result. Naser et al. (2002) examined the affect of ownership on US companys disclosure and his results indicated that firms with a lower level of managerial ownership are more likely to receive higher ratings for the disclosure provided in their financial reports. Ho and Wong (2001) found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure. Chau and Gray (2002) also found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Hong Kong and Singapore but found positive associated with outside ownership. Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008) on the other hand found no evidence that ownership structure is related to disclosure level. 2.4.5 Audit firm size According to Jensen and Meckling (1976) large audit firms act as a mechanism to reduce agency costs and exert more of a monitoring role by limiting opportunistic behavior by managers and are less likely to be associated with clients that disclose lower levels of information in their annual reports. In terms of size, audit firms can be divided into two; large or small. Large audit firms are identified as being one of these Big Four (or Big Five or Six formerly) international auditing firms, and smaller audit firms are the rest; the firms are more likely to choose a Big Six auditing firm. Such choice of audit firms signals to investors that the contents of the annual reports are audited with high quality (Craswell and Taylor, 1992). Furthermore, the large audit firms are widely spread in the world while small firms are domestically; hence the large audit firms have more capability to disclosure of the information and have higher reputation and power to affect the voluntary disclosure level related to the smaller audit firm (Alsaeed, 2006). Several studies found that audit firm size have significant relationship with voluntary disclosure level. Firth (1979), Craswell and Taylor (1992), Wallace and Naser, (1995), Ahmed (1995), Raffournier (1995), Inchausti (1997), Mahmood (1999), S.M. Ho and Wong (2001), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), Nasser et al. (2002) and Al-Shammari, (2008) found significant relationship between the voluntary disclosure level and audit firm size. Forker (1992) and Wallace et al. (1994) claim there are positive relationship between voluntary disclosure and audit firm size but not significant, while Hossain et al. (1994), Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995), Depoers (2000) and Haniffa and Cooke (2002) they didnt fine significant association. 2.4.6 Industry sector According Cook (1989) disclosure level is more likely to vary from one industry to the other due to the likelihood that leading firms operating in a particularindustry could produce a bandwagon effect on the level ofdisclosure adopted by other firms working in the same industry. Cooke (1992) found evidence that Japanese manufacturing firms tend to provide more information than other non-manufacturing firms. Other studies that found significant effect of industry types are Wallace and Naser (1995) and Camfferman and Cooke (2002), while McNally et al.(1982); Wallace (1987): Wallace et al. (1994); Raffournier (1995); Inchausti, (1997); Patton and Zelenka (1997); Naser (1998); Owusu-Ansah (1998), Naser and Alkhatib (2000) and Alsaeed (2006) found insignificant effect. Table 2.2: Summary of independent variables influence on voluntary disclosure: Study Independent variable findings Akerlof (1970) Profitability Positive relationship Singhvi and Desai, (1971) Profitability Positive relationship Jensen and Meckling, (1976) Debt ratio and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Firth, (1979) Firm size and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Leftwich, Watts, and Zimmerman (1981) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion McNally et al.(1982) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector Fama and Jensen (1983) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion Watts and Zimmerman (1983). Firm size positive relationship with firm size Foster, (1986) Firm size, profitability Significant positive with firm size and found positive with profitability. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) Profitability positive with profitability Wallace (1987) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Cook (1989) Industry sector Positive with industry sector. Bradbury (1992) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Richard, (1992) Profitability Positive with profitability. Forker (1992) Audit firm size Positive but insignificant with audit firm size. Craswell and Taylor (1992) Audit firm size Positively significant with audit firm size. Cooke (1992) Industry sector positive with industry sector Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion and negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1994) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion but negatively with debt ratio and audit firm size. Wallace et al. (1994) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Meek et al, (1995) Firm size, debt ratio, profitability. Positive with firm size and profitability whereas significant, negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Mitchell et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Wallace and Naser (1995) Firm size, profitability, Ownership dispersion Positive with firm size, ownership dispersion and industry sector but- ,audit firm size and industry sector Negatively with profitability and audit firm size. Ahmed (1995) Firm size and audit firm size Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size. Raffournier (1995) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. No significant with profitability and industry sector, but significant positive with audit firm size Zarzeski (1996) Firm size and debt ratio Positive with firm size and debt ratio Aitken et al. (1997) Firm size, Debt ratio and owner ship dispersion Positive with the firm size and ownership dispersion but negative with debt ratio. Inchausti (1997) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. Positive with profitability and significant positive with audit firm size and insignificant with industry sector. Patton and Zelenka (1997) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Naser (1998) Debt ratio and industry sector. Significant positive with debt ratio but insignificant with industry sector. Owusu-Ansah (1998), Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Mahmood (1999) Audit firm size Significant with audit firm size. Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and significant negative with debt ratio. Gelb (2000) Ownership dispersion Negatively with Ownership dispersion Depoers (2000) Audit firm size No significant with audit firm size. Naser and Alkhatib (2000) industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Ho and Wong (2001) Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. No significant with profitability but negatively with ownership dispersion and positive significant with audit firm size. Naser et al. (2002). Firm size, Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size but positive with profitability and no significant with ownership dispersion. Eng and Mak (2002) Profitability No significant with profitability Chau and Gray (2002) Ownership dispersion Positively with outside ownership dispersion. Camfferman and Cooke (2002) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector

Ruthlessness in Public Life by Thomas Nagel Essay -- Ruthlessness Life

Ruthlessness in Public Life by Thomas Nagel The issues discussed by Thomas Nagel in 'Ruthlessness in Public Life' are that continuities and discontinuities exist between the public and private morality. Public officials need to recognize that there are clear limitations on actions which conflict with morality concerns. Nagel explored how public and private sectors need to adhere to certain ordinary moral standards. To rectify these issues of construed morality, Nagel explores a few options. Nagel states that 'If one of them takes on a public role, he/she accepts certain obligations, certain restrictions, and certain limitations on what he/she accepts' This statement incurs that public officials have distinct authority over the public which maybe construed by personal interests. A plausible theory is to prevent impersonal forces created by institutions. The next option recognizes the discontinuity between individual mortality and public mortality, which will provide either an addition or restriction within varying institutions. Nagel indicated that in his own opinion is that morality should be based on acceptability to each individual responsible for the actions and not hold the whole institution or all parties liable. The conclusion presented by Nagel is that the theory of obligation can explain special features of public morality. Also those individuals can take steps to restrict certain choices. Nagel also concluded that the institutional structure shields indi...

Indian Economy: Adopting New Approach Essay

After independence, India chartered a path of economic development based on mixed economy, building a new industrial structure around the public sector and a closely monitored, regulated and controlled system where government played the role of licenser in the process of building industry. There were few hiccups in between. In the late 70s Mrs. Indira Gandhi brought in small doses of liberalization. In the mid 80? s Rajiv Gandhi did likewise but the real change came in 1991 when economic crises were looming large on the horizon. India’s economy could be termed as a developing economy which is characterized by the coexistence, in greater or lesser degree, of utilized or unutilized manpower on the one hand and of unexploited and exploited natural resources on the other. A developing economy bears the common features of technological backwardness at low per capita income coupled by widespread poverty, heavy population pressure, low grade productivity, high unemployment, low level utilization of country’s natural resources, rigid social structure, predominance of old beliefs, lack of opportunity for capital formation, pre-dominance of agriculture and scanty participation in international trade etc. But all this is amidst a possibility of economic development, small pockets of high rates of economic growth and affluence. It is gain saying truth what the world economy has experienced that colonization directly lead to the exploitation of the colonized country by the colonial rulers. Colonization is also a factor for the underdevelopment of a country’s economy. India was a victim of the colonial feature of economic exploitation for more than hundred years. The British colonial exploitation in India can be broadly divided in three periods. They are (i) the period of merchandised capital, (ii) the period of industrial capital which leads to the drain of Indian wealth for the interest of British industry and (iii) the period of financial capital. During British period foreign capital flowed into India. However in real terms those capitals were not according to the proper needs of Indians and directly helped the capital growth of Britishers. The overall impact of British rule in Indian economy can be summed up as stagnation of per capita income ever a long period of time, high priority to the traditional method of agricultural activities, repeated famines and acute poverty of handicrafts and traditional village industries defective land holding and erroneous implemen tation of zamindari practices etc. The basic aim of British administration in India was to transform Indian subcontinent as a consumer market for British furnished goods, Technological up gradation and development of infrastructure as well as social infrastructure were negligible. During the independence Indian economy had almost all the features of an underdeveloped economy. In the last fifty years of self-rule, a lot of policy initiative has been taken up by the government of India to upgrade the economic base of the country. Still Indian economy is gripped by poverty, population explosion, backwardness both in agriculture and industry, low grade technological development, high unemployment and wide difference between the high and low income levels. Now in India incidence of poverty is coexisting with sophisticated nuclear technology. The policy measures taken within the last five decades metamorphosed Indian economy to break the stagnant per capita income to achieve self sufficiency in food grain production. Indian economy is a unique blend of public and private sector otherwise known as a mixed economy. It is also a dualistic economy both modern industry and traditional agricultural activities exist side by side. The mandatory economic rights which the Constitution promises are (i) equality of opportunity unemployment or appointment to any office irrespective of race, caste and sex, (ii) all the citizens of India shall have property or carry on any occupation, trade or business, (iii) right to acquire private property by the state with compensation paid under the procedure established by law, iv) ban on begging, child labour and trafficking of human beings. The federal economic structure of India includes the central government and the state government within a unitary system. Demarcations of responsibilities are divided between the central and state governments. However, the residuary power is vested with the central government. Besides finance commission, other economic commissions are set up by the central government time to time to look after the parity of resources distribution among the states. Annual budgets (both general and railway) and five year plans aye the backbone of India’s economic policy initiatives. Indian Economy since Independence-After India’s independence long spell of stagnation was broken with the introduction of economic planning. Since 1950s net national product at factor cost had arisen from Rs. 40,454 crore to 11,224 crores in 1999-2000. The growth of national income was 3. 8 percent. India’s per capita income has been running since 1950-51. India’s per capita income at current price was Rs. 160, 47. Apart from the growth in quantitative terms, there have been significant changes in India’s economic structure since independence. During the second plan priority was acceded to capital intensive manufacturing units. These industries now account for more than fifty percent of the industrialproduction. The transport system in India over the past four decades has grown both in terms of capacity and modernization. Then road network is one of the largest in the world as a result of spectacular development of roads under various lanes. The total road length comprising national high ways state high ways and other road accounted for 24. 66 lakhs km in 1996-97 progress of shipping, railways and civil aviation has equally been impressive. Though the country is presently facing an energy crisis but this sector has also gained much in termsof production. Similarly irrigation facilities in the country have increased raising irrigated area. Since independence significant reformation has taken place in the banking and financial sector ofIndia. The process of nationalization was initiated after independence. First the Reserve Bank was nationalized in 1949, thereafter in 1995 the Imperial Bank of India, a leading commercial bank of that time, was nationalized and renamed the State Bank of India. In 1969 fourteen big commercial banks were nationalized. This act of government undermined thecontrol of big capitalists on the finance capital. From the above argument we can conclude that the Indian economy is no longer caught in low levelequilibrium trap.

Editing Essay Learning Service Writing

Editing Essay Learning Service Writing Editing Essay Learning Service Writing Editing Essay Learning Service Writing Is but Natural to Be Used A lot of interesting essays are spoiled because of the fact that they are full of grammar mistakes and all the other kinds of slips of the tongue. Even if the content of the essay is brilliant and captivating one, such notion as mistakes can greatly spoil the full impression from this very essay and badly influence upon the grade. If you do not want to endanger the grade for your own essay writing and if you do not want to spoil your labour, we recommend you to give your essay to the professionals in order they proffered and edit it in a proper way. Remember, essay, which contains grammar mistakes is low-quality essay that will never be able to claim for some high grade. Get A Work Free of Mistakes! Editing essay learning service writing is what you need in order to get a work free of mistakes. We offer this kind of service to all of our clients and it should be stressed that editing essay learning service writing is considered to be the most popular service our customers make use of. This fact is simple to be explained. Those students who prefer writing their essays on their own and do not want to buy ready-made essays still appeal to our servicing as they understand how it is important to present their essay free of mistakes. Of course, those students who write the essays without custom writing help want to get the highest grade for their writing in order to encourage their labour that is why they ask our professional editors to conduct editing essay learning service writing for them: Our Team of Editors and Writers is Professional! One of the greatest advantages our site offers to the customers is that we have a team of professional editors as well as a team of professional writers; that means that several people work on your order what gives an opportunity to deliver the best quality essay. This advantage gives an opportunity to our customers to be certain in the level of professionalism of our employees. Editing essay learning service writing, which you can find at our custom writing site is of premium quality thanks to this fact. Editing of grammar mistakes is not the only one servicing we offer to our customers in the measures of editing essay learning service writing. Our editors correct the structure of your essay, make it be logically connected and cohesive, rewrite the parts they consider to be poorly written. Where else you can find such top servicing for such a moderate price? Try our editing essay learning service writing and you are certain to be awarded A+ grade for your essay writing. Read also: Example Essay AP Biology Essays Analysis Case Studies Term Paper Editing Research Paper Editing

7 key resume tips from hiring managers

7 key resume tips from hiring managers Putting together a strong resume can be tricky. No one knows this better than hiring managers, who see job candidates make a lot of the same mistakes on their resumes over and over again. So who better to let you know what errors to avoid when making your own resume than the people in charge of hiring? Here are 7 tips from hiring managers that will ensure you avoid the biggest resume blunders. 1. Tell the truth.There’s an old assumption that everyone lies a little on their resumes. Don’t buy into that clichà ©, and rise above this silly misstep that’s sure to catch up with you. Lying about your experience on your resume can land you in a job that simply is not for you†¦or worse yet, lead to quite a bit of embarrassment if the hiring manager uncovers a lie. Don’t end up embarrassed or out of your depth because you stretched the truth on your resume.2. Take care of the details.Hiring managers pay close attention to the tiny little parts of every resume section. Misspellings or grammatical errors on a resume are red flags that a potential employee might also make sloppy mistakes on the job. Be equally careful when composing emails when following up on your resume and in your cover letter.3. Skip the objective.The objective is a classic resume element. It’s where you state your ultimate career goal. The thing is, your career goal will often have absolutely nothing to do with the particular position for which you’re actually applying. The resume space you set aside for your objective can be put to better use, so it’s probably wisest just to eliminate it altogether. It’s a bit outdated and no hiring manager is  ever going to miss it or knock you down a peg if it’s not there.4. Get (and list) relevant experience.Being well-educated may be crucial to get a particular job, but hiring managers also want to know that you’ve actually held down a job before. Recent graduates often make the error o f thinking their educational accomplishments are enough, and fail to include work experience on their resumes. Never leave out work experience, even if you have to list menial part-time jobs, unpaid internships, or volunteer work on your resume.5. Don’t forget your accomplishments.Hiring managers want to know where you’ve worked in the past, but that’s not enough to provide a clear picture of what you’ve accomplished. So for each work experience entry, also note what you accomplished or how you were outstanding in that particular job. Be brief, but specific.6. Don’t trumpet your strengths.Are you a strong leader or a â€Å"people person?† Good for you! But save descriptions of yourself for your interview. There shouldn’t be anything but your work experience, accomplishments, degrees earned, and contact information on your resume.7. Don’t forget the cover letter.Okay, so you have a ton of relevant work experience, you’ve earned a higher education degree, and your accomplishments are many and marvelous. Your resume is impeccable. But simply shipping off a resume in response to a job opportunity won’t get you the job- no matter how fabulous your resume is. You also need to submit a cover letter. This is where you can allow a bit more of your personality to shine through and explain why your experiences, education, and accomplishments are relevant to the particular job for which you are applying. Treat your cover letter with all the care you put into your resume, avoiding the misspellings, grammar errors, untruths, and other common mistakes that could make you seem like a less-than-ideal candidate.

China's Military Rise over the Long Term Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

China's Military Rise over the Long Term - Essay Example As a result of this modernization, many countries and leaders have promulgated their views, which express their opinions on such policies. Most countries argue that it has become hard to deny that, over the last two decades, tremendous economic growth has allowed China to involve itself in robust military modernization (Fisher 88). Nature of China’s Military Rise China’s economic growth has led to robust modernization of its military. Experts argue that the defense budget in China ranges over two percent of the entire country’s GDP. Through this rapid increase in its military, China has become a potential threat to regional as well as international peace and security. The chief focus of most countries in regard to the rising China’s military lies in two main developments of the military. These two developments in the military include increasing rapid growth in the military budget allocation and developments of nuclear arsenal (Kondapalli 29). The allocatio n of finances to the military department has risen; this has led to the growth in the military. The defense budget increases annually with approximately 12%, which has made China emerge as a massive military spender in the entire world. China has not given up investing with its military and has ensured the growth through constant increase in the amount allocated to the department. This is evident through China’s modernization of its air and naval forces and its nuclear and missile forces. The increasing use of finances to modernize its military has tremendously improved the military; this has made China rank top in the world since it has the largest army (Shambaugh 67). In terms of military strength, China ranks second in the entire world. The country has also improved its military through the acquisition of modern and advanced nuclear weapons. China’s Military Rise and its Impacts on Asia The military build up in China has caused an alarm to its neighbors in Asia. The Asian countries fear that the build up of military by China might draw to its sphere of influence. As a result of China’s military rise, countries in Asia have decided to spend more in their defense budget than they used to spend. Among the countries that have increased their military spending include South Korea, Japan and India. These countries have tried to modernize their military in order to reach that of China (Kondapalli 77). China has influenced these countries to acquire modern military equipments in fear that China might have a hidden plan of attacking them. Building up of China’s military has increased the military strength of Asia. The military of Asia was not regarded strong in the last two decades, but due to the increasing rise of China’s military, some Asian countries have strengthened the continent’s military. This has led to overall improvement in the strength of the Asian military. The increase in strength of the Asian military has mad e the international community view Asia as a security threat to the entire international community; however, this may not be the case (Fisher 89). Although the strengthening of China’s military has been viewed as frightening to the Asian countries, the build up of China’s military must not be carried with hysteria since China is less formidable to its neighbors. This is because China’s army has less than 30 years combat experience. Impact of

Technologies in media have the most potential for the future Essay

Technologies in media have the most potential for the future - Essay Example the television media, which made passing of information be appreciated substantially since it was capable of representing the news using both sound and video (Kumar 43). On the discovery of the internet, the media became transformed immensely. The internet was appreciated in the media field since it helped in effective representation of news and enabled the mass to have the satisfaction in reliability and access of information (Kumar 28). Developments in the digital technology have changed the way individuals get information. In this paper, the use of digital technology in the media for the future generation will be discussed. The use of digital technology has the most potential for the future in the media industry. Since the development of the digital technology, the media have changed in the way they present news. For instance, with the digital technology, the media have a different way of presenting news from analog to digital. This has made the media give information in an easier and effective way than before. With the emergence of the internet, there have been tremendous changes in the way people get news. People prefer using the internet to get information rather than watching the news on TV (Winston 5). Internet seems to be a development in technology in the media, which is essential for the future generation. Various reasons have been put forward supporting why the internet has huge potential in the expectations of the media industry. One of the reasons is that; the internet is a quicker way of getting information than all other forms. People are capable of getting information that they require in a single click of a mouse. The internet remains the fastest way of getting any information needed (Uwakwe 63). Hence, a vas number of individuals will rely on the internet now and in the upcoming days, in order to get a report that is needed urgently. The internet is preferred by most individuals since it is possible to research on an item and get a wide range