Foreign Direct Investment Essay

Case Discussion Questions: 1. Why, historically, has the level of FDI in Japan been so low? The relatively low FDI stock in Japan is partly the result of a history of official inhibitions on FDI. In some industries, inward FDI penetration, as measured by the share of employment accounted for by foreign affiliates, in Japan in fact is on par with the United States. However, a large number of â€Å"sanctuaries† with almost no foreign involvement remain, so that FDI penetration overall is still very low. While to some extent, this can be explained by Japan’s relatively isolated geographic location, historical factors play an important role. Throughout the centuries and until quite recently, Japan’s rulers have viewed foreign involvement in the economy as a threat and consequently erected various barriers to FDI. 2. What are the potential benefits to the Japanese economy of greater FDI? The potential benefits to the Japanese economy of greater FDI are the ones listed below: †¢ Faster revenue growth than domestic firms; †¢ Significantly higher profitability and sales margins than domestic firms; †¢ Greater capital investment per employee than domestic firms; †¢ Higher total factor productivity than domestic firms; †¢ Higher spending on research and development per worker than domestic firms; and †¢ Higher average wages than domestic firms. 3. How did the entry of Wal-Mart into the Japanese retail sector benefit that sector? Who lost as a result of Wal-Mart’s entry? It helped restructure Japan’s retail sector- boosting productivity, gaining  market share, and profiting in the process. Wal-Mart implemented its cutting edge information systems, adopted tight inventory control, leveraging its global supply chain to bring low cost goods into Japan, restraining employees to improve customer service, and extending opening hours. It was more difficult than Wal-Mart had hoped. Wal-Mart’s entry prompted local rivals to change their strategies. 4. Why has it been so hard for Wal-Mart to make a profit in Japan? What might the company have done differently? The company’s global marketing strategy has many flaws. Wal-Mart failed to grasp the consumer and retail environment in Japan. With a population of 127 million, the highest per capita income and the second largest economy in the world, Japan is a very attractive market for retailers. Perhaps more research into their cultural values and patterns could have helped avoid some of these mishaps.

Corporal punishment in the home Essay

A 2013 study by Elizabeth Gershoff and her team (cited below) reviewed the previous two decades of research and confirmed that children who are spanked have less gray matter in their brains, and are more likely to exhibit depression, anxiety, drug use, and aggression as they get older. The only positive outcome that’s ever been shown from corporal punishment is immediate compliance; however, corporal punishment is associated with less long-term compliance. Corporal punishment has repeatedly been linked with nine other negative outcomes, including increased rates of aggression, delinquency, mental health problems, and problems in relationships with their parents. Large, peer-reviewed studies repeatedly show that the more children are hit, the more likely they are to hit others, including peers and siblings. As adults, they are more likely to hit their spouses. The more parents spank children for antisocial behavior, the more the antisocial behavior increases. All of the peer reviewed studies being published continue to confirm these findings. A major study at Tulane University, published in Pediatrics  controlled for other factors that have been found to contribute to aggressiveness in children, including the mother’s depression, alcohol and drug use, spousal abuse and even whether the mother considered abortion while pregnant with the child. Spanking remained a strong predictor of violent behavior in the child. As five-year-olds, the children who had been spanked were more likely than the non-spanked to be defiant, demand immediate satisfaction of their wants and needs, become frustrated easily, have temper tantrums and lash out physically against other people or animals. (http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2010/04/12/peds.2009-2678.abstract) Quite simply, spanking produces WORSE behavior, not better behavior. It also begets more violence, because hitting children teaches them that it is acceptable to hit others who are smaller and weaker. â€Å"I’m going to hit you  because you hit your sister† is a hypocrisy not lost on children. As every parent knows, kids do what we do, not what we say. I strongly believe that permissiveness without limits creates children who are unhappy, undisciplined, and impossible to live with. But discipline means â€Å"to teach.† If we’re serious about raising good kids, we need to use methods that teach kids to manage themselves. Spanking does not do that. Instead, it teaches kids to be afraid of us, which is no basis for love. It teaches them to be sneaky so they won’t be caught doing something wrong. It teaches kids that they are bad, so they are more likely to behave badly. It teaches kids to use violence when they want to solve a problem. And it keeps them from taking responsibility to improve their own behavior, because they â€Å"externalize the locus of control,† which means they only behave because an authority figure makes them, rather than behaving because they want to. I haven’t seen any research on this, but my anecdotal report is that if you talk to people in prison, you’ll find they wer e all spanked. The unfortunate thing is that spanking not only doesn’t work, it is totally unnecessary. When children are raised with age-appropriate expectations and limits accompanied by empathy, they tend to behave and cooperate. Those children don’t need much in the way of discipline at all, and they become self-disciplined adults. (Want more info on how to guide your kids without spanking?) What about Proverbs 23 (Do not withhold discipline from a child)? I’m no expert on the Bible, but here are two articles you’ll want to read. Crystal Lutton: http://crystallutton.com/you-keep-using-that-verse-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means/ Arms of Love Family Fellowship: http://aolff.org/spare-the-rod/proverbs2 So next time you get so angry you want to hit someone, tell your kids you’re taking a timeout and you’ll deal with them later. Then go into the  bathroom, run the water, and calm yourself down. Use the time to get calm, not to justify your anger. When you come out, tell them you need to think hard about what they did, but right now you need to fix dinner (do the laundry, whatever.) Tell them you need them to be little angels, and you will talk when you are all calm later. Then follow through. Your discipline and teaching will be so much more effective. They’ll learn a lot better when they aren’t in the flush of flight or flight hormones. And you will be so grateful to see yourself becoming the kind of parent every child deserves. (For more on this, see For Parents: How to Handle Your Own Anger.)Elizabeth Gershoff is recognized as the leading researcher on spanking in the United States today. Here’s her most recent report: Report on Physical Punishment in the United States: What Research Tells Us About Its Effects On Children. To Spank or Not to Spank? The idea behind parental discipline is to ultimately create self-discipline within your child. That means the kid has to learn something — your value system and the difference between right and wrong — that will guide him or her throughout life. So what do kids learn from being spanked? The hitting itself doesn’t teach them anything. Whether you believe in physical punishment or not, Dr. Phil has some disciplining tips and alternatives to spanking: To Spank or Not to Spank? Read Dr. Phil’s blog and weigh in! †¢Don’t take out your frustrations while spanking. Ask yourself if the spanking is truly warranted because of the child’s behavior, or whether it’s an excuse for you to have an adult temper tantrum? Are you more prone to spank when you are in a bad mood? †¢There needs to be a sense of calmness and order in the house. If you are spanking your kid for being physical and chaotic, aren’t you adding to the  physical chaos by being physical and violent with your child? What are you teaching them? †¢Make a commitment to your child’s discipline. You have to do what you say you’re going to do. Consequences should be highly predictable for your child. †¢Define your child’s currency. What does he/she value? You can withdraw a positive (take away a favorite toy) or introduce a negative (giving a time-out) event — but be consistent. †¢Develop a child-level logic. For example, kids know that you are less likely to discipline them in public, so that’s where they’ll act out. †¢When you have a confrontation with your kid — don’t ever lose! They will miss out on the opportunity to learn an important lesson if you cave in and let them get away with a behavior that is unacceptable. †¢Two things you should NEVER say to your child if you want him/her to behave are: â€Å"I’ll give you something to cry about,† and â€Å"Wait until your father gets home.† Children can see through idle threats and will eventually ignore them. They will also take advantage of the fact that one parent doesn’t want to deal with doling out the discipline and tries to hand it over to the other parent. †¢Negotiate a disciplinary plan with your spouse in calm waters. Calm parents make calm children.

Forces That Drives Growth in International Trade Research Paper

Forces That Drives Growth in International Trade - Research Paper Example Additionally, improvement of upcoming democracies in the realms of politics in most countries is a strong force for the growth of international trade. Primarily, according to Diaw & Lessoua (2013), the increased utilization of the internet has stirred international trade forward. More people can now access the internet today than any other time in the history of internet invention. The internet has comes with many prospect that has been of advantage to the connectivity and increased transaction of business. With internet, most of the products in overseas can be ordered online and paid online with services such as PayPal and other services hence giving international trade a force that takes into new levels. More so, internet has come up with websites that display products that oversees and in demand by a particular individual or company on other corners of the world. Websites such as Alibaba.com provide a good platform of increasing the international trade. Internet has also made communication between international traders cheaper and cheaper hence easier for them to be in commerce with each other. In overall, Internet has made thi s world smaller and smaller hence hyper-connectivity consequently increasing the international trade (Diaw & Lessoua 2013). The upcoming democracies according to Van & Lewer (2007) have also played a role in the surge in the international trade growth in the world at present. With democracy, most of these countries have had peace of late, which is an imperative component in having international trade growing and getting forward. Most important to note is that most of this countries that have come to embrace democracy are the hub of minerals and other products that are in demand internationally. Africa has been for long been torn by war and made it difficult to trade with other countries internationally hence becoming hurdle in stirring the international commerce forward. With the latest development and having peace in these countries,

Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 21

Questions - Essay Example Contingent liability is the company’s potential debts that arise from the past transactions. Company’s can only verify the existence of this liability by the occurrence of the expected event that the business cannot control. This liability should not be incorporated in the balance sheet. An example of this liability includes the product warranty. If a company promises to replace good with defects without charging the customers, the amount of the returned goods will be contingent liability. It is vital for businesses to distinguish the liabilities. This is because it will make it simple for investors and creditors to evaluate the risks the liabilities caused in the business in the future (Porter & Norton, 2011). The Time Value of Money is the sum of interest a certain amount of money earns within a definite time. According to the concept of time value of money, a certain amount of money one has today has more value than the same amount one expects to get in the future. This is because one can invest the money he has today and earn interests (Peavler, 2012). It is vital for accountants to comprehend the current and the future value concept. This is because it enables them to know the precise worth of the current business money. Furthermore, the concept enables accountants to know the value of the money the business is expecting (Lieuallen, 2008). The concept also enables them to differentiate between the values of savings opportunities that offer returns at varied durations. The accountants should also understand the concepts to advice the business on the amount of money the business should invest by calculating the values of the investments (Storer &Usinger, 2008). The present and future value concepts are applicable to business decisions in various ways. For instance, it is applicable in the business decision regarding the amount of the money the business should put in the

Leadership - Strategic Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Leadership - Strategic Communication - Essay Example Six years later, Bill Clinton, would come out with a book as if to explain to the world what it really was. My life is a 1024 pages autobiography of a former president named William Jefferson Clinton or Bill Clinton who left his office in the shadow of scandal. Clinton tells about his difficult childhood and his political accomplishments, painstakingly registering his greatest successes and failures, which are perceived by some quarters as "trying to face and banish his private demons." Clinton grew up with a second father, the abusive Roger Clinton. But it is said, Mr. Clinton never told any of his friends what was going on at home. As he writes in his book, he has lived "two parallel lives" -- the public one everyone knew about, and a dark secret one he says he never talked about. His mother and he had made the decision to carry on, and just go on and try to make a normal life. Clinton had a beautiful wife, Hilary, whom he adored but unfortunately cheated; and an only daughter, Chelsea who was his pride. He, too, had thousands of men and women in his life, whether in politics, in domestic life, or in whatever social circle they were found. They were all there in Clinton's book - either as a loving mother, a father he hadn't seen and who had provided the puzzles he had wanted all to solve, an aunt who gifted Clinton with short letters from strangers about a father he never saw and which letter he was to hug later on, a half-brother he found too late, a half-sister he never met, a barber, an author invited for dinner, politicians from all spheres, and news reporters and authors. Clinton was able to name them all in his book, and with his photographic memory, sketched the instances when they figured in his life. Why was he doing this with a thousand pages The giant of a book is full of interesting stories about the workings of government and an insight into the man behind the news. It is a riveting account of a president under systematic combined assaults from his enemies, and how he survived and prevailed. The book is heavily a history of Clinton's ascent in politics and the trials of his presidency. Clinton describes an almost day-by-day account of his time in the White House. Bill Clinton started with a quiet life that had allowed him to study and work and read the thoughts of great men. At the age of ten, Clinton observed politics unfold in the family's TV set. His interest in the political process manifested every on while he studied in college, worked as an intern for Senator William Fulbright; joined the Vietnam War protest movement at Oxford, campaigned for Democratic candidates at Yale Law School, and ran for Congress, attorney general, and governor. Clinton had become a leader. But a fallen leader alas! Some see him as able to survive seemingly contradictions and draw them in as one. The stories he related showed some pain he had to struggle with, especially with politics which he described as "a contact sport." The strategy, the fighter in him said, was to "take the first hit, then counterpunch as hard as I could". My Life showed what counterpunch that was in terms of answering his enemies. The good-looking one had the ladies swooning over him which he could not resist, while the men from the other side of the fence gave him the opportunity to show his being a fighter. In this book, Clinton provides a different view to the loads of press releases and news he had

Performance appraisal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Performance appraisal - Essay Example To make a worker realize his responsibility is the duty of that organization. One gets paid for one’s performance which is known as ‘pay for performance’ in a corporate world. An organization can decide the wages for an employee based on the performance appraisal, the ratings of which ranges from interpersonal skills, technical skills, and various other assets. While one of its functions being wage increment, the other is to determine if the tasks given for a team is being carried out in a timely fashion and appropriately. This has a positive impact on the growth of the organization and in finding out areas that require bigger improvement. Organizations prefer having a performance appraisal once in every 3 to 6 months to determine increments in wages. This illustrates how dominant a performance appraisal is in superior firms especially in Multinational Corporations where more than a million employees work with analogous qualifications. It is not essential that app raisals are meant to be positive. Rather a pessimistic feedback in an optimistic style can foster perfection in the employee. Different categories of performance appraisal include general, technological, manager, employee self-assessment, and Project evaluation appraisals of which general appraisal is an overall feedback about how far the team has completed an assigned project with all the requirements met properly. An outlook on technical proficiency of an employee with his specialization set right is what technological appraisal focuses on.

Politics and war in Afghanistan during the novel Kite Runner Essay

Politics and war in Afghanistan during the novel Kite Runner - Essay Example Touted as the first Afghan novel written in English, Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner makes up part of the growing branch of Muslim American immigrant literature (along with Diana Abu-Jaber's Crescent and Laila Halaby's West of the Jordan , both published in 2003). Loosely autobiographical, The Kite Runner begins in the same well-off Kabul neighborhood in which the author grew up with his diplomat father and schoolteacher mother. The action then shifts to California, where the family resettled in the early 1980's after fleeing Afghanistan. Hosseini, a practicing physician, began the novel in March, 2001, and, working in the early morning hours, had it half-completed by September 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks which occurred on that day left him and other Muslim Americans feeling anxious about their safety and also turned his unfinished novel into a hot property. After making a successful preemptive bid, Riverhead Books asked Hosseini to revise the manuscript (rather extensively, it turned out) in just four weeks in late 2002, in order to capitalize on interest in Afghanistan during the United States' military action against the Taliban. The well-publicized novel appeared in the summer of 2003, just after American and world interest had shifted from Afghanistan to Iraq. Employing a simple but effective three-part structure, framed by chapters set in December, 2001, The Kite Runner begins where Arundhati Roy's Booker Prize-winning novel The God of Small Things (1997) ends, with an act of betrayal. Part 1 focuses on the formative years of its narrator-protagonist, especially his relationship with Hassan, who is at once his servant and friend. The two boys are linked in several important ways: Born just a year apart, they live in the same household and have nursed at the same breast (following Amir's mother's death in childbirth and Hassan's mother's having run away). The two are also divided-by physical ability, by temperament, by class, and most deeply by ethnicity, one a member of the majority Pashtuns, the other a despised Hazara. Hassan's devotion to Amir is both a sign of his sweet disposition and, more troubling, the result of an ingrained servant-class mentality. Amir is, if not quite devoted to his playmate then certainly attached (including in a way that Amir could never have imagined, for Hassan turns out to be his half brother). Amir's relatively privileged life, however, coupled with Hassan's self-sacrificing devotion, makes Amir cruel, albeit in petty, even passive ways. Amir's cruelty and weakness of character are thrown into higher relief when a third boy, Assef, arrives on the scene. "On the surface, he was the embodiment of every parent's dream but his eyes betrayed him. Beyond the faade, madness." Beyond Amir's facade there is neither madness nor maliciousness, only anxiety that derives, in large measure, from his not being manly enough to earn the love of his father, Baba, a successful, decidedly secular businessman highly respected for his business savvy, physical prowess, and charitable acts. Amir's character is a typical Afghani character of the contemporary society. His character has been delineated by the writer very carefully and according to the norms and standing customs and conventions of Afghan society of that time. The crisis,

Practices or managerial competencies that you think all health care Essay

Practices or managerial competencies that you think all health care administrators should develop - Essay Example This is where conceptual skills come in. They provide an administrator with the perfect launching pad for conducting good research or making the right decisions. The preparation of financial reports requires an able and competent administrator who is technically proficient in using computers to create and manipulate spreadsheets among other documents associated with budgeting Budgeting/reimbursement may require one to interact with other people by asking questions in order to get the right information when in doubt of anything. This requires good interpersonal skills otherwise an administrator may not obtain accurate data/information Understanding whatever one is computing or preparing also requires good conceptual skills (Antony, 1981). An administrator should know which figures are supposed to be entered where, what they represent and how to interpret them in order to explain an organization’s financial position Planning cannot be carried out alone; it is a team effort that is better executed when different opinions and ideas are heard (Lytras, 2008). As a result, working well with different people calls for good human/interpersonal

Is Lyon's portrait of Aristotle accurate Does it match what Classics Research Paper

Is Lyon's portrait of Aristotle accurate Does it match what Classics scholars know about Aristotle - Research Paper Example Lyon’s Aristotle and Alexander are highly credible portrayals of a great thinker confined by the exacting discipline learned under Plato, and of the strong-willed and heedless young son of Phillip of Macedon. Lyon writes a telling exchange between the two that encapsulates the complex dynamic at work in one of history’s most engrossing relationships. Lyon addresses the fundamental difference between them. â€Å"You conflate pleasure and happiness, real enduring happiness,† Aristotle remonstrates. â€Å"A few thrills, a few sensations. Your first woman, your first elephant, your first spicy meal, your first hangover, your first ascent of a mountain no man’s ever climbed, and your first view from the top to the other side. You want to string together a life of thrills.† Name 2 With characteristic self-assuredness, Alexander responds, â€Å"Teach me better then. Come with my army. Come with me. You’ve been a father to me. Don’t orphan me twice† (Lyon, 278). It’s an affecting scene one might expect to take place between an older, wiser father and an impetuous son. It is unlikely that the headstrong Alexander would have yielded to his tutor, despite the great scholar’s renown, anywhere but in the classroom. ... History affords few such comparative character studies, few that exhibit such a fascinating contrast of personalities involved both emotionally and in conflict. â€Å"Here is a rare intellectual collision: the wintry hearted philosopher and the future military commander, whose own incipient depression is caused not by a lack of passion, but a surfeit† (MacDonald, 2009). Both men are dynamic in their own ways, but Alexander ultimately outstrips his brilliant but repressed tutor. â€Å"It is Alexander who ultimately wins the book-long joust with his tutor, since he is a man who not only feels but also acts† (MacDonald, 2009). Aristotle and Alexander appear to have comprised something of an â€Å"odd couple:† Alexander the â€Å"A-type† personality, non-reflective and dynamic; while Aristotle, who had seen military service, by comparison a bookish, non-physical, even effeminate type, according to Name 3 ancient accounts. The biographer Diogenes Laertius, draw ing on secondary and tertiary accounts, wrote that â€Å"He had a lisping voice, as is asserted by Timotheus the Athenian†¦He had also very thin legs, they say, and small eyes; but he used to indulge in very conspicuous dress, and rings, and used to dress his hair carefully† (Shields, 419-20). Lyon tells us that Alexander’s view of Aristotle’s golden mean was, at best, derisive, telling Aristotle that his â€Å"middle way† philosophy prizes mediocrity (Lyon, 193). In spite of such criticism, Lyon’s treatment of the complex relationship between Aristotle and Alexander serves as a kind of cautionary tale. Alexander fails to learn important lessons that are really about character and

C20th Century Drama English Coursework Essay Example for Free

C20th Century Drama English Coursework Essay This particular play is A view from a Bridge written by Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller was born on October 17th, 1915, in New York City. His parents were both Illegal Immigrants in the United States, which links to the background of the play. A view from the Bridge was first produced as a one-act play in verse 1955; Arthur divorces his wife to marry his co-star actress Marilyn Monroe Miller has now become Americas worlds popular playwrights. Most of his plays are about the society and the responsibilities of its relation. But also in all the plays they hide a deep considerate of how people act and behave with the situation of life around them. These obstacles they face which they have to successfully defeat over. A view from a Bridge has its roots in the late 1940s when Miller was interested in the work and lives of New York. Miller purposely wanted the play to be a modern version of a Greek Tragedy, which a main character is faced with trying, daring situations, which cannot be escaped from. In this play a tragic hero commits an offence unexpectedly. He then learns from his misdeed and therefore must die for his actions. Then as it is a Greek Mythology the Gods restores the Universe. In this play the Hero is inked onto a man named Eddie Carbone. He is uniquely and ordinary everyday man. Courteous, hard working and a man that people liked. This play is themed on the background of Italian origins, which relates to the dispute of Italians and Americans. This is introduced with Alifieris Speech; This is Red Hook not Sicily now we are civilised, quite American. Now we settle for half. In no longer keep a pistol in my filling cabinet This reflects with the context of the play and links with the storyline. It also reflects on the reason of the main cause concluding to the violence. The story is also based on the American Dream that any person can accomplish what and no matter what upbringing culture or race. He has added this, as in that period of time the American Dream was quite popular which was appropriate for it to relate the aspects of their life. Arthur Miller has produced the main character being the lead role of the play. Eddie Carbone is an Italian Longshoreman working on the New York docks. Eddie is a simple hard workingman who worked on the piers. When his wifes cousins were sent, Marco and Rodolfo, he agrees to refuge them as illegal immigrants from Sicily. First signs of disturbance are when Catherine starts to show attraction to Rodolfo, at this Eddie disapproves. This is because of Eddies over protectiveness towards Catherine. His possessive behaviour towards Catherine brings him to envy towards Rodolfo. Out of anger and rage at the end Eddie reported them to the Immigration Beaureu. In response of ferocity Marco decides to kill Eddie, but Eddie kills himself with the knife. In one section of evidence, which relates to his own downfall is the possessiveness of Catherine. Catherine is Eddies orphaned Niece. In the first scene the audience is immediately given the information that Eddie has a peculiar concern towards his niece. He mentions and details out of her dress sense and suggest it is too short. The evidence showing that he is overprotective is when he indicates that she is walking wavy. I dont like the looks theyre givin you in the candy store the heads are turnin like windmills. In this it is brought immediately to the audience attention of the over protectiveness for his own nice. His concern and obssesiveness of his actions may have a hidden feelings that Eddie has for Catherine. An uncertainty of more than relative love is present with the way he feels for Catherine. Toe Eddie Catherine represents to him as just a baby and therefore she does not understand these things but this is a cover up for his possessive behaviour. In Act 1 page6-10 I suggest his behaviour is both possessive and protective but more possessive. As the conversation of Beatrice, Eddie and Catherine it shows that Eddie treats Catherine like a child, and not the rightful age that she should be treated. The relationship between Eddie and Catherine changes with the arrival of Marco and Rodolfo. As they talk and get to known each other Catherine shows an interest to Rodolfo as she keeps gesturing to Beatrice Hes a real blond He then sings to her Paper Doll, but in a kindest way Eddie tells him to stop. Also that is when the changes of Eddies behaviour begin. He embarrasses Catherine by telling her to go ahead meaning get out. Eddie again tries to humiliate Catherine so that Rodolfo will lose interest by telling him that she wants to be an actress meaning shes a drama queen. But Rodolfo flirts back by saying

Differences Between Puritanism And Franklins Deist Views Religion Essay

Differences Between Puritanism And Franklins Deist Views Religion Essay In the mid to late 17th century, New England settlers were attempting to break away from Britain and begin a new society. They wanted to reinvent their own culture, govern themselves, and begin what they hoped would one day become a prosperous nation. One thing they wanted to have the liberty of practicing was religion, and having the choice of which particular religions they wished to follow. Puritanism and Deism were two different religions that were practiced in 17th century New England, and the differences between them sometimes were grounds for confrontations and conflict. The Puritan standpoint depicted in the works of John Winthrop, Michael Wigglesworth, John Dane, and Mary Rowlandson, and the Deist views of Benjamin Franklin differed in how they viewed their respective Gods, the way in which He created human beings, the view of life after death, and how God interacted in their everyday lives, while also holding the similar belief that God created everything in the universe wi th a purpose. The first difference between Puritanism and Franklins Deist views can be analyzed through their various views on how God created each individual human being. Puritans held the belief that all humans were inherently evil, so to speak, and that no one was worthy of eternal salvation from God. This view can also be called original sin, and the only way that Puritans could begin to fathom being rewarded through salvation was by living for the glory of God and serving Him in everything they do. In a word, Puritans held the belief that humans were not created equal, and certain individuals were destined for heaven, while others were not to be as fortunate. On the other hand, Deists were strong believers in the concept that every individual was created equal. In Benjamin Franklins piece entitled A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain he writes, If He is all-powerful, there can be nothing either existing or acting in the Universe against or without his Consent; and what H e consents to must be good, because He is good; therefore Evil doth not exist (Franklin, 26). This statement shows Franklins view of our Creator, which is the belief that no evil existed in the world, so humans were not created with the notion that they are unworthy and undeserving of Gods grace. Franklin goes on to say, And therefore every Creature must be equally esteemd by the Creator (Franklin, 27). According to Deists, their God was not a biased God, and every human was created equal, with no one having a better chance to make it to heaven than others. The Puritan and Deist views on afterlife are also an area where these two religions are not in sync with one another. Puritans believed in the concept of predestination, meaning that it was determined whether one was going to spend afterlife in heaven or hell at the time of their creation. In Day of Doom, Michael Wigglesworth, a minister in Massachusetts during the 17th century, explains how there will come a day when Christ returns to earth to judge who will be destined for heaven or doomed to hell. He writes that Christ explains to those who are being sent to hell deserve their eternal punishment, despite the fact that it was a foregone conclusion due to the fact that it had been predetermined. He also explains that in order to accept the offer of Gods salvation, one must be able to comprehend the meaning of such an offer. This puts certain members of society at an obvious advantage over others. For example, a middle-aged white male who has had some degree of education would surely have a greater understanding of the Bible than a new born baby would. A baby lacks the mental capacity to understand simple terms such as Mommy and Daddy, so attempting to gain an understanding of something as complex and powerful as the Bible would be far outside the realm of possibility. Due to this fact, babies fall into the category of those who are predestined to hell, an assumption that is sickening to think about. Deism is based on the grounds that the concept of afterlife does not exist. This view is mainly based on another belief that the Deist Franklin holds, which is pain and pleasure are always in perfect balance with each other throughout ones life. Every pleasure someone experiences will be followed by a pain of the same magnitude, and vice versa. Since there is no possibility of experiencing an excess of either pain or pleasure, then an afterlife would have no effect on a person because they would not be able to experience the immense joys of heaven or the pain and s uffering that is to be experienced in hell. Another difference among these two religions is the ways in how they view God interacting in everyday life. Both religions have stances on the role God plays in each persons life, however, they are quite different. On the Puritan side, their stands the belief that God tests individuals through trials and tribulations. By doing this, Puritans believe that God is showing that he loves them and cares for them. In a piece entitled A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Rowlandson writes, Affliction I wanted, and Affliction I had, full measure, (I thought) pressed down and running over; yet I see when God calls a person to any thing, and through never so many difficulties, yet he is fully able to carry them through, and make them see and say they have been gainers thereby (Rowlandson, 20). Rowlandson experienced many hardships in her life, such as enduring a raid by a group of Indians, and even having to deal with the deaths of her children. However, Rowland son knew that this was only happening because her tough love God was only testing her ability to cope with these tragic events. She believes if she puts all her trust in God, then she will have the strength to overcome these obstacles and be a stronger person by it. On the other side of the spectrum, Deists believe that no evil actions can be done by God, and that because of this, God will not test humans by making them suffer through pain and sorrow. An all-powerful God is also an all-good God, and whatever is done by Him must be good. Franklin writes, For whatever an infinitely good God hath wise Ends in suffering to be, must be good, is thereby made good, and cannot be otherwise (Franklin, 26-27). According to Franklin, it is not possible for God to put one through pain and suffering, because these are evil things, and whatever God does must be good. This point relates back to the pain versus pleasure concept. Since pain and pleasure are always in balance throughout ones life, th ere is no way that one would suffer through these so called trials and tribulations that the Puritans believe in. The excess of pain that is surely to result from this is something that the Deists simply do not believe in. One of the few similarities between Puritanism and Franklins Deism was the belief they shared in that God created the world and universe, and that everything that He put on this earth was here for a reason. Puritans believed that God created the universe, and he held a more active role in the day-to-day lives of humans. Franklin also believed God indeed created the universe and everything it encompasses, but God was more distant from his creatures and that He did not intervene with peoples lives. Both Puritans and Deists also believed God had a reason for creating everything and everyone that is on this earth. They learned not to question the actions of God, because they knew Him to be an all-powerful and all-knowing God. Puritanism and Deism were two of the main religions practiced in 17th century New England, yet they clearly had their differences in beliefs in how God interacted with His world. The Puritan views captured by the works of Winthrop, Wigglesworth, Dane, and Rowlandson emphasized a strict following of the Bible and serving Him in everything you do. On the other hand, Franklins Deist belief was that God was more distant from the goings on of the everyday lives of human beings. He held a more loosely interpreted understanding of the Bible, yet still believed that as humans, you were still dependent upon God. One belief that was common to Puritanism and Deism was that God had an intended purpose behind everything he put on earth, and followers of both of these religions learned not to question His actions. The freedom to practice religion was one of the principles this country was founded on, and the practice of Puritanism and Deism during 17th century New England was an influential period that eventually helped lead to declaring independence from Great Britain.

The Buddha, Two Lessons Essay -- essays research papers

Almost everybody I have ever met can recognize a Buddha statue, but few folks who I have ever associated with understand the meaning of the Buddha. Myself included was one of those folks blessed with such ignorance. When the term Buddha was brought up, all I thought about was the pudgy bellies of myself and fellow offensive lineman on my high school football team. Nirvana! Hey isn’t that one of the great rock bands of the early nineties? Right? In this paper, I will explain who the Buddha was and the deep meaning of the message that Prince Guatama preached. The Buddha defined the Middle Path as a way that leads to insight, which leads to wisdom, which conduces to calm, to knowledge, to the Sambodhi, to Nirvana (76). These words meant that all else was linked to some sort of suffering, that true peace and happiness could only be achieved through your mind and true pain and suffering could be achieved through reality. The Buddha illustrated this idea through his Four Noble Truths. The first of these is the Noble Truth of Suffering. These sufferings included natural situations of life, including birth, decay, death, presence of objects we hate not to obtain what we want, and finally, mere existence (76). There is a pattern that is developed in this order. Birth is the beginning of reality that has its good as well as bad times. The Buddha appears to focus on the hardships of reality that Prince Guatama knew of in this world. As life would carry onward, the hardships woul...

Different Types of Stress Essay -- Papers Essays

Stress Stress. Is there an effective way to cure stress? Stress is an integral part of everyday life, influencing, if not controlling happiness, productivity and health. The complete absence of any stress results in death. Stress is known to cause a variety of psychiatric disorders involving anxiert and depression. More common of which include posttraumatic stress disorder, amajor depression, generalized anxierty, and multiple personality disorders. Hopefully will attempt to explain ways to cure ones illness's caused by Stress. Stress is an adaptive response. The more stress one puts on themselves the weaker their immune system then becomes. A weakened immune system will become susceptible to disease and injury. Stress is the body's reaction to an even that is seen as emotionally disturbing or threatening. To prepare for such an event, the body increases its heart rate and blood pressure; more blood is then sent to your heart and muscles, and your respiration rate increases. There are a variety of steps that stress will take biologically on your body. To prepare for such an event that may be stressful, the body increases its heart rate and blood pressure; more blood is then sent to your heart and muscles, and your respiration rate increases. In the first stage of stress, alarm, the body mobilizes its "fight or flight" defenses, either to resist the stress-causing factor or adapt to it. In this stage, the pituitary-adrenocortical system pours hormones into the bloodstream. The pulse quickens, the lungs take in more oxygen to fuel the muscles, blood sugar increases to supply added energy, digestion slows, and perspiration increases. This is just the beginning of what happens. In the second stage of stress... ...n to other behavioral, dietary, and medical interventions for reducing the risks of heart disease. Stress has also been said to be related to blood pressure. You can have high blood pressure without feeling stressed or tense. However, continual stress may lead to permanently elevated blood pressure. Stress is also associated with the nervous system. Stress activates a group of neurons in the brainstem that project widely to other regions of the central nervous system. When these neurons are stimulated by stress, they release transmitter norepinephrine which, in addition to arousing the brain, causes the activation of the c-fos gene in the target cells. The c-fos protein, in turn, is known to activate other genes that may produce prolonged changes in the function of the brain to stress is a key event in causing persistent psychiatric disorders following stress.

Shylock in William Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice Essay -- Merch

Shylock in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice One of the most interesting and thought provoking characters in the Merchant of Venice is Shylock. Throughout his five scenes in the play he is looked down upon, betrayed, deserted, punished and humiliated by Christian society, his daughter and all those that will eventually need his money. His faith and his way of making a living are the Christians' only justification for this treatment, yet even in his alienation he is still, as we see later, constitute to Venetian Law. Shylock's first appearance in the Merchant of Venice is in Act 1 Scene 3, where Bassanio is talking about Antonio taking out a loan on his behalf. Shylock seems jovial in this first scene, before the Christians start to heap insults upon him. I believe that this scene may contain the only true indicator of Shylock's true demeanour, i.e. an agreeable businessman. This view is unfortunately shattered by the arrival of Antonio and his good credit rating. Shylock hates Antonio, not only on principle, as the Christians hate him, but also due to Antonio's own money lending activities and this, his cardinal sin, of charging no interest. As Shylock says, "I hate him for he is a Christian; but more, for in low simplicity he lends out money gratis, and brings down the rate of usance here with us in Venice." Even now, you can recognise Shylock's hatred, firstly upon principle of religion, and secondly hatred on behalf of his business, which may be the most important thing to Shylock apart from his beloved religion. The burden of his race gives Shylock both a sense of righteous indignation and an overwhelming sense of ... ... he ever want to marry Portia? By the end of the play, I had almost forgotten that the only reason was because he wanted a steady source of income without the hassle of working. I believe that Bassanio may have been just as devious as Shylock. He worked out that by showing his greed to Portia during the test, would spell the end of the relationship. Portia could even have been in it for greed. If not for money, then maybe different collateral, lust for Bassanio could be interpreted as greed, could it not? If you think about it, all the characters are driven by greed when you get down to it. As I stated earlier, Shylock's race had little or nothing to do with the outcome of the play. If he had been a Christian moneylender, the same would have happened. In the end, the saying is true: money is the root of all evil.

An Analysis of ISIS and its Relation to Traditional Islam

In today's world it is easy to assume that ISIS and traditional Islam are the same thing. The news often reports phrases like â€Å"radical Islamist terrorists† and â€Å"radical Islam.† Has society made a correct assumption? Are all people who follow Islam potential terrorists? Does Islam seek to promote such terrorist behaviors? This paper seeks to address these questions and uncover the differences between the two, if any. Traditional Islam Traditional Islam began over 1,500 years ago and currently has around 1.6 billion followers. The word â€Å"Islam† actually means â€Å"submission to God.† Therefore, a Muslim is someone who strives to submit to God. Islam has spread completely around the world. You can find Muslims in North and South America, Western Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Their principal homelands lie in the area commonly referred to as the â€Å"10/40 Window† (between 10 degrees latitudinal north and 40 degrees latitudinal north ranging from the eastern side of North Africa to the western side of Asia). Majority of Muslims are Asian (60%) and the rest are Arab (22%) sub-Sahara African (12%) and Eastern European (5%) . Islam was founded in 610 A.D. by a man named Mohammed. During Mohammed's time, polytheism reigned, and people were worshipping many gods at the same time. Mohammed had a vision from a being he thought to be an angel who told him, â€Å"There is only one God, and His name is Allah. Worship Him.† Islam, at its core, is a religion based on faith, life, piety, freedom, religion, peace, and morality. Researcher Sohaib Sultan states: â€Å"Islam believes in a God of mercy, a scripture of mercy, and a Prophet who was sent as a mercy to all the world.† ISIS ISIS began in 2003 as a â€Å"blowback† of the U.S. invasion and dysfunction of Iraq. In the earliest stage there were several Sunni extremist groups who were fighting back with the U.S. in hopes to provoke a civil war. The group, at that time, was called al Qaeda which was in Iraq with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in command pledging allegiance to Osama bin Laden. Zarqawi was killed during a 2006 U.S. airstrike, but the group continued . ISIS is a post-al Qaeda terrorist group. With over 30,000 fighters, ISIS holds territorial lands in both Syria and Iraq. It maintains an extensive military operation, controls communications, controls infrastructure, and funds itself. It can be said that ISIS is a pseudo-state which is led by their military. The goal of ISIS is to control certain territories thereby creating a â€Å"pure† Sunni Islamist state that is governed by a strict interpretation of Sharia Law. It also seeks to remove the political borders that the Western governments created in the Middle Eastern regions. ISIS seeks to become the sole political, military, and religious authority over all the Muslims in the world. ISIS core message is more about power and revenge than anything else. Differences Between ISIS and Traditional Islam In the first section of this paper we saw that traditional Islam is a relatively peaceful religion that stresses mercy and peace. This is significantly in conflict with the agenda of ISIS. Where do these two paths cross? What is the relationship between terrorist groups such as ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al Shabab in Somalia, the Taliban with traditional Islam? Many people believe that ISIS is a group that is based on the religious beliefs of Islam including following the examples of the Prophet Mohammed . This is where most of the confusion comes into play. ISIS uses Islam as a vehicle to carry out their political agenda by reinterpreting the fundamental meaning and purpose of Islam. In other words, they are twisting the Quran to say what they want it to by weaving lies in with the truth and preying on the ignorance of the people. The message of ISIS is vastly spread not only by social media, but through certain mosques as well. Researcher Ian Pelletier suggests the motivations of ISIS are:â€Å"Market and Reinforce: Emphasizes consistency of Islamic State's strategic objectives with mainstream Islamic Law.Obfuscation: Ignores/blurs contradictions between Islamic State's strategic objectives and mainstream Islamic Law.Leveraging: Connects areas in which Islamic State strategic objectives are consistent with mainstream Islamic Law to social movement catalysts in order to gain momentum.Reinterpretation: Justifies a radical reinterpretation of Islamic Law as essential to address past issues or current shortfalls within society and achieve the strategic objectives of the Islamic State. â€Å"ISIS interprets Islam from a very radical point of view that is rooted in the extremist fraction of Salafi/Wahhabi Islam within the Hanbali Sunni tradition . The strategic goals of ISIS are as follows:â€Å"Permanently break down political boundaries and cultivate conditions for government failure and regional sectarian civil war in Iraq and Syria.Establish the Islamic Caliphate by controlling terrain across Iraq and Syria, governing the population within, and defending against external threats.Bring like-minded people to fight alongside and settle within the Islamic Caliphate.  Expand the territory of the Caliphate to connect with the wider Muslim community. â€Å"Traditional Islamic Law (Sharia) is based on the Quran which follows the hadith or the teachings of Mohammad. It is traditionally viewed as a statement of relatively easy limits and not a source of rigid and inflexible rules to be imposed in any circumstance . It is supposed to be based on the premise of justice and equality for everyone . Historically it has been determined that Islamic Law had the most humane and liberal fundamental principles as it fostered peace with se lf and society. Groups such as ISIS use Islamic Law instead for harsh discipline and to control the people. Sharia, as it was originally intended, was used as a guideline for societal norms and values. It served as a model in which one could pattern their life after. Some of the many positive attributes of Sharia are: a belief in God, daily prayers, asking/receiving forgiveness, freedoms of choice, strong sense of community, love your neighbors, exercise self-control, do not abuse religion to exploit or abuse others, and must respect the rights of others. Conflicts Between ISIS and Mainstream Moderate Muslims There have been many practicing Muslims who do not agree with nor adhere to the beliefs of extremists' fringe groups such as ISIS. In an open letter from 120 Islamic scholars and clerics to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, they challenged ISIS's ways as being un-Islamic. They further claimed that ISIS routinely twists and perverts Islamic Law selfishly to achieve their own agenda. The letter went on to illustrate the contradictions between ISIS's theology and that of traditional Islamic Law. The scholars accused them of citing only portions of the Quran without taking the whole spirit of the Quran and Hadith into account. It was also noted that ISIS had a practice of killing innocent people and that jihad was only meant for defensive measures during a war. Offensive measures of Jihad, without proper cause, was equal to criminal conduct and was not acceptable in traditional Islam . The letter also went on to say that Islam forbids the mistreatment of Christians and no one can be forced to convert to Islam against their will. Author Wael Hallaq states that, â€Å"Sharia is not a rigid unchanging ‘Law of God' and when applied correctly, it is flexible. The way it is interpreted and implemented by ISIS makes it a little more than a list of fixed punishments, ritual requirements and oppressive rules that are enforced with coercion upon a marginalized group of people. In addition, it is increasingly clear that ISIS selectively interprets Sharia.† One may ask how ISIS is able to get away with using Islamic Law to achieve its objectives. They accomplish this by convincing people that their views are in fact inline with mainstream Islamic traditions. They have a knack for rationalizing any perceived contradictions that are found within their belief and the traditional teachings. Al-Baghdadi, while addressing his fighters said, â€Å"Beware, O lions, the state that they reach a Muslim woman or child or sheikh without you, for if this happens, then, by God, you have no excuse for yourselves before me. Look to yourselves and do not be a place of blame. Put their bodies before yours. Their blood before yours and their fortune before yours, and beware of being happy to live in a day when the honor of a Muslim woman is transgressed, or the blood of a child is spilled, or an elderly sheikh is insulted, for what deliciousness can there be in life if this is in it or even a part of it?† While his speech is complimentary with Islamic Law in principle, he is trying to energize his fighters to fight in a war that is not justified according to Islamic Law. He stresses that not only is the war just, but it is according to Islamic Law which it a bold lie. They may sincerely believe that their war is justified due to their extremist views, but according to traditional Islamic Law, they are not qualified to wage war with anyone unless it is a defensive measure. ISIS does not engage in defensive measures as a rule—they are very offensive in their tactics. Conclusion Extremists groups, such as ISIS, claim to be Islamic in their beliefs, but they do not adhere to the basic tenants of the faith. They twist and turn the Quran and Hadith to make it say whatever they need it to say that will further their agenda. ISIS is a violent terrorist group that has been attracting many young people. They seek out those who are vulnerable, who are seeking religious righteousness, adventure, power, and a sense of belonging. They are also known for producing sexual opportunities for the young men by keeping women as slaves. This is extremely contradictory to traditional teachings and philosophy of traditional Islam. It is certainly a disservice to the majority of Muslims to assume that all Muslims are somehow connected to terrorist activities. In America, ever since September 11th, 2001, there has been a remarkable increase of violence and hatred against Muslims from such assumptions. Extremists groups are not representative of what it means to be a Muslim in today's world. We need to see them for who they are and not for the vehicle they misuse which is Islam. Furthermore, it is very unhelpful when the media keeps reporting phrases like â€Å"radical Islam† and â€Å"Muslim extremists† as this further perpetuates the discrimination and hatred against innocent and peace-loving Muslims. There is no link between ISIS terrorism and traditional Islam. ISIS fundamentally changes the core beliefs of Islam and inserts their own interpretations to make it into something that is self-serving. Extremists can be found in most religions. The only way to combat this is to be very knowledgeable of your own religion and beliefs so that you will recognize a falsehood when you hear it. Sadly, many people simply believe what they are told and that is it. Such people can be easily caught up in extremist groups as they lack knowledge. The same can be said for Christianity. We are not exempt from those who have perverted God's Word to make it say something that it never was intended to say. This is how cults are formed, and again, is due to a lack of knowledge. The bible says that the people perish due to a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). ISIS operates via intimidation, fear, legalistic authority, assassinations, and bombings . This is nothing like what traditional Islam teaches. In fact, it is quite the opposite. It is not fair to classify all Muslims by such rouge fringe groups. For two years I worked and lived in an Islamic country. I never met anyone who was associated with ISIS nor any other extremist group. I found the Muslims there to be very friendly, eager to help, and welcoming. That experience really helped me to see them for who they really are and without the media bias that was projected to me. Many Muslims do not even consider groups such as ISIS to be true Muslims. They look at them in disdain as the perverters of Islam. Usually these are the more educated people who know what Islam is supposed to be. Sadly, a lot of Muslims have a lower educational level which would be very conducive to being led astray. Many modern Muslims are Muslim in name only and not in practice which makes them an easy target for extremists.

Precise Software Case Analysis

PRECISE SOFTWARE CASE ANALYSIS Problem: When and how to introduce an end-to-end new product to the market? Issues: 1. Should we (Precise) introduce a new product in Open World conference 2000? What could be the impact if we delay to offer an end-to-end solution in the performance management space? 2. What is the best selling strategy for the new product? 3. What is the best pricing strategy for the new product? 4. Should we maintain a single sale force or separate sale force dedicated to the new product? What kind of commissions and how much authority should we set up for the sales force regarding to the new product? 5.How can we deliver the value of the new product to meet our customer expectation and solve our customer problems? 6. How to grow and compete in order to be a leader in the market on a much broader level? Industry/Market Analysis: Database management software referred as performance management market where efficiency and effectiveness are really important. There are a l ot of opportunities due to the need of IT system from the companies. Nearly every company in the industrialized world spent a significant amount of money every year on software purchases ranged from $99 to $10million. The software market estimated to be $4. billion in 2003 compare with $2. 4billion in 1999. However, the market was fragmented. Products were differentiated principally in two ways. On one hand, products differed widely in terms of underlying resources and platforms with they are associated. On the other hand, available products also differed in terms of the functionality they offered. There are few major competitors in this market and the industry need high intensive labor cost. It usually takes long time to develop new product in this industry. Effective advanced technology and product, which can solve the problem for the companies, are very important to success in the industry.Time is another important key to determine whether business will success or fail. Companies in this industry should improve their technology quickly to catch up the ever-changing information technology trend as well as dig the problems of the companies to present the right problem-solve products. One of the largest segments of the market was for software to manage the performance of Oracle databases. A true end-to-end market seemed to be quite large and there was no current direct competition because none of the companies offered an end-to-end solution yet. Consumer Analysis:Database administrators (DBA) are the main targets for Precise. The former usually are well trained thus capable of recognizing the products value. Many DBA’s were authorized to purchase a product range under $25,000. Precise looked for companies had sales of at least 100million and had a business model that required database-intensive applications. DBA need to report to the CIO and need to improve the job performance in order to make performance application efficiently as well as satisfy the b usiness unit head. They are usually budget-limited when they purchase the product.IT Reliability and effectiveness are the other main factors to concern for users. Regarding to the end-to-end management tool service, business firms using enterprise-wide applications have a desired demand. They require the enterprise applications such as ERP and CRM, which were 10million and above. The applications were distributed across many locations and highly data intensive. Firms depended critically on the ability to deliver information quickly, will be the main targets for the new end-to-end product. Competitor Analysis: The three biggest competitors in the software market were Oracle, BMC Software, and Quest Software.Oracle is provides â€Å"Oracle Optimizer† as a part of its basic database package helped to execute SQL statement it received in the most efficient fashion and also offer an add-on package to help measure efficiency. BMC Software has a large range of products. Its revenue grew rapidly since 1998 and Patrol Product line, which target on performance management and availability market, provided timely and accurate data. Quest Software offered around 25 different products, with some of the functions offering products relevant to Precise. Marketing Mix Analysis: A) Product Analysis:Precise offered the software that helped its clients to manage the performance of their information technology (IT) systems. Precise is in the performance management and availability market. Its products are designed to manage the performance applications utilizing Oracle database. The company had focus on a small range of core products but provided users high quality that promised. Precise offered the software license and services. The main products were insight products, SQL and Presto. Precise/SQL accounted for 86% of all Precise’s software licensing fees.The company has strong trained account reps with very strong relationships with key clients. End-to-end response time is extremely important to ensure the system ran efficiently and effectively. All of the available products focused on the performance of each of the components of the system. The sales cycle is 6 to 12 months on average. Precise realized from the feedback of its consumers that they should provide right solutions to its clients rather than the products. However, a full-functionality end-to-end performance tool needs a long time to be developed.It’s going to take six and nine months to get a basic product with purely monitoring only. The fully functional product will accomplish in 2 years. B) Price Analysis: It has one-time license fee with annual maintains and service contracts, priced 15%-20% of the one-time licensing fee. Average price of Precise /SQL had been between $15,000 and $25,000. Precise often offered discounts around 25% which allowed sales force to sell the product easier as well as DBAs can make their decision easily to purchase without approve by the CIO. I n addition, price can be varied greatly depending on the customers and other factors.They charged more for higher-powered computing environments, which means the price is based on the value that the customers receive from the performance management. C) Distribution Analysis: There are three common channels for distributing commercial software applications such as direct sales, value-added resellers (VCRs), and systems integrators. VCRs and systems integrators earned a margin of about 30-35% on the software sales. And original equipment manufacture (OEM) agreement is popular in smaller niche areas. Precise sells its products through a duel-channel distribution system.Internationally, the company sells through both VARs and system integrators in most countries. 17 account executives are hired to do direct sell and also sell through distributors in most countries, and each is paid a salary of $75,000 and a 5%-9% rate high commission. The average sale of each rep is $800,000 annually an d earned $300,000 for the highest. Therefore, the operating expenses are extremely high (sales and marketing is 35% of the total operating expense) and made the operating loss since 1996. About 55% of its revenue comes from the direct channel and 45% come from the resellers.Precise had a client list of about 400 companies and each sale rep was well trained to sell the products. D) Promotion/ Advertising Analysis: Reps in Precise are the main factor in selling the products. Precise purchase industry lists with the names and phone numbers of key contacts in the target firms and give it to reps. Reps can call the main clients and meet them and try to keep a good relationship with the people who make decisions. Reps are high motivated and professional to sell the products because of related training and high commission strategy.They have an effective sales tool that reps can offer to put the product on the potential buyer client’s system to demonstrate what the product would do. In addition, Precise conducted a survey of ten Precise/SQL clients drawn from a range of different business to find main benefits of their products and able to generate an expected ROI for the purchase. Options: A) To launch a new product in 2000 ROI Analysis Pros: – To be the first one get into the end-to-end market and to be able to announce the new product in the conference with many motivated and qualified prospects gathered in the room at one time. Precise will become a much broader level brand. – Gain more revenue at the beginning with no competition so far in the market. Cons: – New products will attract competitors to get in the market. – There is not enough time for reps to be trained properly to sell the products. – If the new product cannot satisfy the clients, it will destroy the brand image as well as make competitors catch up and run over the Precise. – The new product can only be â€Å"generally available† at this time. There will be much more problem and risks.B) To launch after fully-functional Pros: – Have much more possibility to satisfy customers with fully functional product in term of effectively and efficiency – Its reps will be fully trained to get ready to contribute in selling the new products – If consumers satisfied with the products, Precise will be a leader in the market and increase its profits in the long-term. Cons: – Competitors may launch a similar new product in this market before Precise. – A small range of the products may slow down Precise to be a real broader level brand

Native Americans (Subordinate Group) Essay

One often wonders where the Native North Americans originated from. Some theories have been discussed about the peopling of the Americas. Early theories involving lost tribes and continents were based purely on speculation instead of actual scientific facts. Discoveries made during many archeological expeditions have helped shape the always changing interpretations by adding more questions and more theories. There have been genetic and linguistic studies which raised more understanding and brought new questions. It is theorized that during the latter part of the Cenozoic era, also known as the age of mammals that the Wisconsin glaciation caused enough of the planet’s water supply to turn into ice. This lowered the oceans and exposed now submerged land. This event created a stretch of land that the large mammals of the Ice Age era, along with the natives of that era, could very well have migrated across the newly formed land bridge, which now connected two continents. This land bridge is known as the Bering Strait, or Beringia. During the time that Beringia existed, the Wisconsin glaciers most likely prohibited migration to any southern or eastern regions. Another theory suggests that the early natives may have inhabited the now Alaskan region because it was ice-free due to low precipitation. Several melts over a period of time created passageways, and evidence from archeological site implies that there was an ice-free corridor for thousands of years. It was during another melt approximately ten thousand years ago, that a second corridor was most likely formed farther east along the borders of Saskatchewan and Canada plains. This points to the possibility that the ancient people could have traveled eastward along the rivers in the Great Plains, and down further south. The Indians known to history as the Sioux are also known as Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota, meaning allies. This is my heritage. I am a member of the largest division of Siouan family, otherwise known as Sioux. The name is from a term given to the largest and well- known of the tribal groups. At one time, my people stretched from the west banks of the Mississippi northward from Arkansas and the Rocky Mountains. The Dakotas also inhabited territory east of the river up to Wisconsin and Missouri. They were here to encounter DeSoto on his journey in 1541, when he reached the Indian villages in what is now eastern Arkansas. Another hundred years passed before any mention of Sioux existing, when in 1658 some Jesuit missionaries heard of the existence of about thirty Dakota villages just north of a Potawatomi mission. This was located at about the head of Green Bay, Wisconsin, in St. Michael. It was during the middle 1600’s when the Sioux, along with the Arapaho and Cheyenne had to migrate further westward towards the Great Plains to what is known as North Dakota, Minnesota, and South Dakota. This migration was mainly due to the O jibwa and Chippewa tribes pushing them out of the Great Lakes region. The Ojibwa and Chippewa had been pushed out of their own land that had been further east, by the European settlers of that time. In 1805 Lewis and Clark passed through the center of this region and made contact with the Sioux tribes. After this took place, several more expeditions brought traders that settled among the tribes, and in the course of some time, permanent settlers arrived. This made the area so small that eventually the people of my tribe were forced to live in Indian Territories or confined to Nebraska, the Dakotas, or Montana. This brought on a series of raids and counter raids that lasted from roughly 1850 through 1890 and were known as the Sioux Wars. In the first years of the twentieth century, the Dakotas also known as Tetons began the process of adapting to their new way of life. They still had strong faith in their own traditions, but realized that the old way was gone forever. Numerous changes with the economy and politics were forced on my people by the government. The people strived to establish a life for themselves that used both new changes, but still remained true to their values and beliefs. During the rest of the twentieth century, all of the reservations for the Dakotas, Lakotas, and Tetons lost more land due to ownership passes and inheritances. Division between rural dwellers and people who live in town have grown bigger. Rural residents tend to retain their use of native language, and be involved in cultural events, when townspeople adapt other aspects of the American culture. Most of the Sioux nation and other groups of American Indians live in South Dakota, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and North Dakota at present time on privatized land created by the government many years ago. Wendy Coghill ETH/125 Text Citations: Bonvillain, Nancy. â€Å"‘Seeking a New Way’. † Teton Sioux, Indians of North America, Heritage Edition. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2004. American Indian History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www. fofweb. com/activelink2. asp? ItemID=WE43&iPin=INATS06&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 22, 2011). Text Citations: Waldman, Carl. â€Å"arrival of humans in North America. † Atlas of the North American Indian, Third Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc. , 2009. American Indian History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www. fofweb. com/activelink2. asp? ItemID=WE43&iPin=ind5278&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 22, 2011). Text Citation: Waldman, Carl. â€Å"Assimilation. † Word Dance: The Language of Native American Culture. New York: Facts On File, Inc. , 1994. American Indian History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www. fofweb. com/activelink2. asp? ItemID=WE43&iPin=ind2991&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 22, 2011). Text Citation: Waldman, Carl. â€Å"Sioux. † Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, Third Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc. , 2006. American Indian History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www. fofweb. com/activelink2. asp? ItemID=WE43&iPin=ind2432&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 22, 2011).

An Introduction to Management and Cost Accounting

International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 1, No. 2, August, 2010 2010-023X Factors Influencing Activity-Based Costing Success: A Research Framework Zhang Yi Fei and Che Ruhana Isa becoming more and more popular [3-7] ABC aims to provide accurate costing information to managers to allocate activity costs to products and services by applying cost drivers [8].Academics who advocate ABC, such as, Cooper and Kaplan [9], and Swenson [10] argue that it provides more accurate cost data needed to make appropriate strategic decisions about product mix, sourcing, pricing, process improvement, and evaluation of business process performance. These claims have led many firms to adopt ABC systems [8]. The benefits of ABC and its positive impact on firm’s performance motivated a numerous studies which examined various aspects of ABC.Among such studies are McGowan [11] who assessed the integrity of ABC success, Innes and Mitchell [4, 12] and Yanren [13] who conducted research on factors affecting ABC adoption, and Shield [3], Shields and McEwen [14], Gosselin [15] and Baired et al. [16, 17]who concentrated on factors influencing ABC success especially at the implementation stage. However, there is mounting evidence that suggests most of firms are experiencing problems in implementing ABC and, in some extreme cases, ABC implementation is not successful [3], which later resulted in abandoning the ABC systems altogether [15].Questions arise as to why ABC implementation is successful in certain companies and fails in others. Based on the contingency theory, researchers have argued that the reasons for different degrees of ABC success could be due to the different contextual factors faced by each firm. These have led researchers to recognize assessing factors that influence ABC success implementation as an important research area.The following are among the research that have been carried out to examine factors that influence ABC success: Anderson [18]; Shie ld [3]; McGowan and Klammer [19]; Krumwiede [20]; and Anderson and Young [21] This article has two main objectives; the first objective is to identify research gaps based on the revision of previous research and the second objective is to propose theoretical research framework for current research.This article is organized as follows: Section II presents a discussion of selected articles related to factors influencing ABC implementation and gaps or limitations of previous studies and suggestions for current research are stated in the section III and IV. The framework for current research is provided in section V, Section VI defines each research variable and the final section presents the conclusion. II. PREVIOUS RESEARCH In this section, selected ABC implementation empirical 144Abstract—In today’s advanced manufacturing and competitive environment, accurate costing information is crucial for all the kinds of businesses, such as manufacturing firms, merchandizing firms , and service firms. Argued to be superior to the traditional volume-based costing system, Activity-Based Costing system (ABC) has increasingly attracted the attention of practitioners and researchers alike as one of the strategic tools to aid managers for better decision making.The benefits of ABC system and its impacts on companies’ performance have motivated numerous empirical studies on ABC system and it is considered as one of the most-researched management accounting areas in developed countries. Previous research on ABC have examined pertinent issues related to ABC implementation such as the levels of ABC adoption in various countries, the reasons for implementing ABC, the problems related to ABC and the critical success factors influencing ABC.This paper reviews the research on ABC carried out within the last decade, from 1995-2008, and from the review research gaps are identified. Specifically, this paper examines the selection of factors influencing successful ABC i mplementation, variables used by previous research and the definitions and operationalization of the variables. The review reveals that past research concentrated mainly on behavioral, organizational, and technical variables as the main determinants of ABC success but very little research have been done to examine the roles of organizational culture and structure.Based on the research gaps identified, a research framework for future research is provided. Index Terms—Advanced Manufacturing Activity-Based Costing, ABC Success Environment, I. INTRODUCTION In today’s competitive and continually changing business environment, firms need to be vigilant of the impacts of the changes in the business environment and devise appropriate strategies to survive and prosper. Advancements in manufacturing and communication technologies have drastically changed the ways businesses conduct their activities.Adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies such as robotics and computerized manufacturing have resulted in significant changes in the manufacturing cost structure which have led academics and practitioners to argue that the traditional costing methods are no longer sufficient within this new manufacturing environment [1] (Johnson and Kaplan, 1987). This had resulted in the change from the traditional volume-based cost model to new costing methods such as Activity Based Costing (ABC) [2].Due to its ability in providing more accurate costing information and enhancing firms’ performance, ABC is International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 1, No. 2, August, 2010 2010-023X studies, which spanned 1995-2008 periods, were collected from four prominent refereed accounting research journals, in management accounting field: Journal of Management Accounting Research, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Management Accounting Research and British Accounting Review.Factors used by previous research to investigate the effect on ABC success impleme ntation are summarized, and stage of ABC implementation also is outlined. A. Technical Variables Early studies of ABC adoption and implementation undertaken by previous researchers concentrated on technical factors, such as identification of main activities, selection of cost drivers, problem in accumulating cost data. Example of these research are Cooper [9], Morrow and Connelly [22].However, technical factors alone may not be adequate to explain the factors influencing ABC success implementation. Cooper et al. [23] argued that the key problem during ABC implementation stage is that companies only focus on technical factors. They suggested that to make ABC implementation more effective, non-technical factors such as involvement of non-accounting in ABC implementation process, top management championship, adequate training program to employees about the objectives and benefits of ABC should be emphasized as well.Similar opinions were expressed by Shield [3] and Shields and McEwen [1 4]. Shield (1995) found no significant relationship between technical factors and ABC success. Shields and McEwen [14] also highlighted that sole emphasis on the architectural and software design of ABC systems leads to the failure of ABC implementation. Therefore many researchers have suggested that new variables should be considered to investigate factors influencing ABC success. B.Contextual, Behavioral and Organizational Variables Recognizing the research gaps in identifying factors that may affect ABC success, academicians shifted their focuses from technical factors to other variables, such as contextual, behavioral and organizational, culture, as well as organizational structure. Anderson [18] conducted a longitudinal investigation of ABC process in General Motor (GM) from a period of 1986 to 1993. In his research, he examined the effects of organizational variables and contextual variables, and segmented ABC implementation into four major stages, initiation, adoption, adapta tion and acceptance.He found that organizational factors, such as top management support and training for the ABC system affected various stages of ABC significantly, while contextual variables, such as competition, relevance to managers’ decisions and compatibility with existing systems produced different degree of impact on different stages of ABC. Shield [3] examined the relationships between diversity of behavioral, organizational and technical factors and the success of ABC implementation.She employed Shield and Young’s [24] framework and summarized behavioral and organizational variables as top management support, adequate resources, training, link ABC system to performance evaluation and compensation, non-accounting ownership, link ABC to competitive strategies as well as clarity of ABC objectives. She found that top management support, linkage to quality initiatives and to personal performance measure (pay/appraisal), implementation of training and resource ade quacy were the significant predictors in explaining ABC success.She also found that technical variables were not associated with ABC success. Shield’s findings are supported by other researchers, such as Shield and McEwen [14], who argued that a significant cause for unsuccessful implementations of ABC of several companies could be due to the emphasis of architectural and software design of the ABC system and less attention given to behavioral and organizational issues, which were identified by Shield [3]. Krumwiede and Roth [25] also stated that barriers of ABC implementation can be overcome if firms could give importance to behavioral and rganizational variables identified by Shield [3]. Similarly, Norris [26] agreed with Shield’s [3] findings that the association between ABC success and behavioral and organizational variables is stronger than with technical variables. She further highlighted that the impact of behavioral, organizational and technical should be focus ed at individual level. McGowan and Klammer [19] conducted a survey of 53 employees from 4 targeted sites in the U. S. o examine whether employees’ satisfaction levels are associated with ABC implementation by They also measured their perceptions of the factors associated with the degree of satisfaction, such as top management support; the degree of involvement in the implementation process; objectives clearly stated; objectives shared; training; linkage to performance evaluation system; adequate resources; information quality and preparer over user. Their results indicated that employees’ satisfaction with ABC implementation was positively related with clarity of objectives and quality of ABC information.Gosselin [15] carried out a survey of 161 Canadian manufacturing companies to examine the effects of strategic posture and organizational structure on adoption and implementation of general forms of Activity-based costing. He segmented the ABC implementation stage int o adoption and implementation. The research findings showed that a prospector strategy was associated with manager decision to adopt ABC, while centralization and formalization were significantly associated with ABC success implementation. Krumwiede [20] surveyed U.S manufacturing firms to study how contextual factors, such as the potential for cost distortion or size of firms; organizational factors, such as top management support, training or non-accounting ownership, affect each stage of ABC implementation process. His findings showed that the different factors affected the various stages of implementation of ABC and the degree of importance of each factor varies according to the stage of implementation. Contextual factors, such as usefulness of cost information, IT existence, less task uncertainty and large organizations were related to ABC adoption.Moreover, organizational factors, such as top management support, non-accounting ownership, and implementation training affect ABC success implementation. 145 International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 1, No. 2, August, 2010 2010-023X In another study by Anderson and Young [21], the relationship between organizational and contextual variables, such as organizational structures, task characteristics, management support, information technology and ABC success was examined.The result confirmed the importance of organizational factors (top management support and adequacy resources) during the ABC implementation stage. In South Africa, Sartorius et al. [27] carried out a mail survey to investigate the effect of organizational factors such as top management, adequate resources, coherence with organizational goals and strategy on ABC success. They found top management support and resources were the crucial factors in explaining ABC success. In the UK, Innes and Mitchell [4] and [12] surveyed the extent of ABC adoption among largest firms.The study aimed to find out factors influencing ABC success by u sing behavioral and organizational variables, and it was found that top management influenced ABC success significantly. In another study conducted by Khalid [28] using a questionnaire survey among the largest 100 firms in Saudi Arabia, ABC adoption was found to be positively related to diversity of products. In Malaysia, Ruhanita et al. [29] conducted a mail survey and a case study to examine that factors influencing ABC success, especially at adoption stage.They found the significant factors were cost distortion, decision usefulness, information technology and organizational factors. In addition, the findings showed that decision usefulness, top management support, link ABC to performance measure and compensation influenced the ABC success adoption significantly. A case study of one Chinese manufacturing firm was carried by Lana and Fei [30] in China. Their research aimed to examine some key success factors pertinent to ABC implementation within Chinese organizational and cultural setting.The research findings showed that top management support, hierarchical and communication structure and high proportion of dedicated professionals were the significant factors in determining ABC success implementation. Majid et al. [7] used a case study approach to describe the process of ABC implementation in a Malaysian service company and a Malaysian manufacturing company. In this research, they categorized ABC implementation into initiation and adoption, design, implementation and use of information.The purpose of the research was to find out the problems faced during ABC implementation, He found that the factors determining ABC success were top management support, suitable ABC software, and finally, ensuring that all affected employees understand and participate in the ABC implementation stage. And they also found that at different stages of ABC, the dominant factors influencing ABC success were also different. Colin et al. [31] adopted behavioral and organizational fac tors summarized by Shield (1995) to examine factors influencing the adoption and degree of success of ABC systems and determinants of that success.In their research, the targeted research population was manufacturing and service firms in the UK. They found that top management support, non-accounting ownership, adequate training provided to ABC determined the ABC success. Besides behavioral, organizational and technical variable, some researchers also indicated that the dimensions of national cultures could affect the level of ABC success [32, 33]. Brewer [32] used Hofstede’s taxonomy of work-related cultural values to examine the relationship between national culture and Activity-Based Costing system.In the study, Hofstede [34]’s work was applied to the case of Harris Semiconductor (HS), which has implemented ABC at plants in Malaysia and the USA. The results showed that the level of ABC success in Malaysia was higher than that of U. S due to high-power-distance and co llectivist cultures in Malaysia. In addition, Supitcha and Frederick [33] also included national culture’s dimension into framework in a case study of one Thai state-owned enterprise’s budgeting system.They found that due to cultural differences, modifications were required when the organizations in Thailand tried to implement ABC system in Thai environment. Apart from national culture, corporate culture factors were also tested by prior research. Baird, Harrison and Reeve [17] conducted a study to investigate the relationship between the extent of ABC adoption and the organizational variables of size and decision usefulness of cost information and business unit culture. In their research, data were collected by a mail survey questionnaire and samples were randomly selected from business units in Australia.The research finding showed significant relationships between ABC adoption and decision usefulness, cultural dimensions of outcome orientation and tight verse loose control. Baird, Harrison and Reeve [16] examined the relationship between success of activity management practices and organizational factors (top management support, training, link to performance evaluation and compensation, and link to quality initiatives), and organizational culture (outcome orientation, team orientation, attention to detail, as well as innovation).They adopted a survey questionnaire method on randomly chosen business units in Australia. The findings showed that two organizational factors (top management support, link to quality initiatives) explained the variations in success of activity management practices, such as ABC, and outcome orientation and attention to detail of organizational culture were associated with ABC success. They also stressed that compared with organizational culture, organizational factors had stronger associations with the ABC.Table 2. 1 presents a summary of the previous research discussed in this section, which highlights the factors inf luencing ABC success and the research method adopted by each research. TABLE 2. 1: A SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS RESEARCH RELATED TO ABC SUCCESS IMPLEMENTATION Author Shield (1995) Method Survey Variable Behavioral, organizational, technical Individual, organizational factors, technical, task and so on Stage Not specify All the stages Anderson (1995) Case 146International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 1, No. 2, August, 2010 2010-023X technical variables Innes et al. (1995) Gosselin (1997) Survey Behavioral & organizational variables Structure & strategy Adoption implement ation Survey Adoption & Implemen tation Not specify Not specify Not specify Not specify All the stage Implemen tation Adapted from Lana and Fei [30] III. GAPS FROM PREVIOUS RESEARCH From the review of previous research, this section highlights the gaps from previous research.First, as highlighted by Lana and Fei (2007) a majority of ABC research still was done in developed countries and very little research has been done in developing country, especially in Asian context. Thus it is necessary to identify whether the Asian culture and way of doing business may have a different impact on the extent of ABC adoption and implementation. Second, a majority of ABC research reviewed adopted the behavioral and organizational variables identified by Shield [3] to investigate factors influencing ABC success. So far only one research. which was conducted by Gosselin [15] examinedthe effect of organizational structure on ABC success among Canadian business units. The importance of organizational structure effect on management accounting practices is stressed by many researchers. For example, Damanpour [35] stated that whether an innovation can be successfully adopted or implemented to some extent is determined by the type of structure the a firm adopts, so the current study also will consider organizational structure as one of the predictors of ABC success.Third, few research have examined the eff ect of corporate culture on ABC success empirically. Hence it is necessary to examine the association between ABC success and corporate culture, as well as how important cultural factors might be relative to organizational, non-cultural factors [16]. Forth, very few studies have investigated the effect of national cultural on ABC and so far, only two researchers, namely, Brewer [32] and Supitcha and Frederick [33], have included this variable in their studies.Supitcha and Frederick [33] argued that national culture differences often require successful accounting practices in one country to be modified for effective use in another country. So the influence of national culture should not be ignored [32]), especially in developing countries, and differences in term of perceived ABC success could be explained by national culture. The next research gap is that some previous research did not specify the ABC implementation stage for example, Shield [3] and Brewer [32].According to Krumwied e and Roth [25], ABC implementation has six different stages. They are initiation, Adoption, Adaption, Acceptance, Routinization, Infusion, the final two stages are considered as â€Å"mature stage† [25]) and it is argued that at different stage, the dominant factors that determine ABC success implementation are also different. In order to investigate the factors influencing ABC success more accurately, the current research will concentrate on one particular stage of ABC implementation that is mature stage.Finally, the selected articles show most of ABC implementation research were conducted using quantitative method such as questionnaire survey, and there are very few research used qualitative method (see Table 2. 1). According 147 Norris (1997) McGowan & Klammer (1997) Foster & Klammer (1997) Brewer (1998) Krumwiede (1998) Anderson & Young (1999) Case Survey Behavioral & Organizational Behavioral & organizational Non Survey Case Survey National culture Contextual & organiza tional Organizational & contextual variables Interview &survey Supitcha et al (2001) Case National cultureNot specify Innes et al. (2000) Sartorius et. al (2000) Cotton et. al (2003) Khalid (2003) Baird et. al (2004) Ruhanita et al. (2006) Lana & Fei (2007) Survey Behavioral & organizational variables Organizational variables Behavioral & organizational variables Size, production, overhead Size, decision usefulness of cost information, culture Cost distortion, decision usefulness, IT, organizational Technical, behavioral, organizational, contextual factors Organizational factors, culture Organizational, technical factors Behavioral & organizational Behavioral, organizational &Adoption Survey Survey Not specify Adoption Survey Survey Adoption Adoption Survey & Case Case Adoption All the stage Baird et al. (2007) Sartorius et al. (2007) Colin et al. (2008) Majid et al. (2008) Survey Survey Survey Case Implemen tation Adoption Implemen tation Adoption & International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 1, No. 2, August, 2010 2010-023X to Cavana et al. [36], questionnaire survey of data collection often encounters problems of low response rate and to counter this problem researchers are encouraged to use multiple methods to collect data. IV.PROPOSED FRAMEWORK FOR FUTURE RESEARCH As very few empirical research have been done in developing countries on ABC adoption and implementation, future research should be conducted in developing nations, especially, in Asian countries such as China. Since China is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it would be interesting to know if ABC success is affected by similar factors as in the western countries. Furthermore, since joining the WTO in the year of 2001, Chinese enterprises started adopting western management accounting techniques, thus it is necessary to know the impact of Chinese culture on the ABC success.Hence the current study will focus on ABC success among Chinese manufacturing companies. Kr umwiede and Roth [25] classified ABC implementation into different stages; initiation, adoption, adaption, acceptance, routinization, and infusion. It has been suggested in the literature that the dominant factors that determine ABC success implementation are also different at different stages [20]. A review of the literature shows that more research has been done to examine the determinant factors at the adoption and very few studies on implementation stage.Thus the current research will concentrate on one particular stage of ABC implementation, especially, the ‘mature’ stage (Routinization, Infusion). The current research will also examine the effect of structure on ABC success. It has been argued that in order to examine the effect of structure, the sample should come from only one industry. Gosselin [15] argued that different industries have different level of centralization, and formalization, and he suggested that a study should concentrate on one particular indus try.Similarly, Rotch [37] stated that compared with manufacturing firms, non-manufacturing firms are very different in terms of characteristics. For instance, hotels are different from manufacturing firms and output of non-manufacturing firms are extremely hard to determine. Moreover, activities in non-manufacturers, especially in service sectors are hard to be predicted, and also large proportion of total cost are joint costs, which often difficult to assign to output. Similarly, Clarke, Hill and Stevens [38] highlighted that significant differences exist in terms of cost structure between manufacturers and non-manufacturers.In non-manufacturing sector, direct labor and direct material cost are almost equal to zero, and fixed overhead costs are the dominant costs in the cost structure and this difference makes researching ABC application in this type of industry more problematic. Hence the current study will focus on manufacturing industry only and since ABC is more likely to be im plemented by larger firms [28], this research will also concentrate on large sized manufacturing business. As discussed in the earlier section, previous research has not systematically examined the effects of organizational structure and organizational culture on ABC success.This motivates the current research to investigate the effects of these variables on ABC success. V. RESEARCH FRAMEWORK A. Proposed theory The current research will adopt Contingency theory and organizational theory to develop the research framework. Contingency theory has been widely adopted to conduct research in management accounting field [39-41]. Contingency theory asserts that the design and application of control systems are contingent on the environment of the organizational setting in which these controls operate and function [39].It is widely used to explain the characteristics of management accounting system [42]. Waterhouse and Tiessen [43] stated that the design and structure of management control s ystem is contingent on number of factors; there are product diversity, cost structure, size, level of competition and degree of customization [44, 45]. Sartorius, Eitzen and Kamala [45] illustrated an example to explain the relationship between ABC and the contingency factors. They stated that increasing fixed costs leads to a need for more accurate cost allocation technique such as ABC.This is especially true for firms which produce more than one products as different product products use differential amounts of resources [17]. Competition is another contextual factor that leads to the emergence of more sophisticated costing system such as ABC. In addition, large sized firms are more likely to adopt ABC than smaller firms due to the size of overhead, number of activities needs to be coordinated, as well as limited resources[16, 45]. However, adoption and implementation of an innovation are totally different[41].Hence, Contingency theory alone may not be adequate to explain ABC impl ementation stage. Krumwiede [20] concluded from a survey among US firms that contextual factors may influence the ABC adoption stage while implementation stage is more associated with organizational factors. He also suggested that once a firm arrives at ABC implementation stage, it should pay attention to organizational factors. Hence, another theory should be applied to explain ABC implementation stage, which is organizational change theory [29].According to organizational change theory, changes in organizations could be classified into four categories: technology, products, structure, and culture [29]. Gosselin [15] categorized ABC implementation stage as the administrative procedure. Therefore, ABC could be considered as a structural change and its success is determined by top-down approach. Based on organizational change theory, Cooper and Zmud [46] divide IT innovation into six sequence stages; 1) initiation, 2) adoption, 3) adaptation, 4) acceptance, 5) routinization, as well as 6) infusion.They also stated that at various stages the dominant factors in determining IT innovation are also different. B. Research Framework In view of the discussion in the previous sections, the following framework is proposed, depicted by Figure 1, for this research. Prior research test the relationship between ABC success and behavioral, organizational variables, hence 148 International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 1, No. 2, August, 2010 2010-023X the current research will also base on Shield [3]’s model to examine the impact of behavioral, organizational variables on ABC success.In addition, it also will include two additional variables, organizational culture and structure as Gosselin [15] stated that effect of organizational culture and structure on ABC success should not be ignored. also will adopt those dimensions. As for ABC success, the current study will adopt McGowan ‘s [11] definition. 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Activity based costing implementation success in Australia. 2008 [cited 2008 26th August]; Available from: http://eprints. usq. edu. au/3719/1/Byrne_Stower_Torry. pdf. First Author: Mr. Zhang Yi Fei was born on Sept 9th, 1978. He obtained his bachelor degree in Accounting from Sichuan Normal University, Cheng Du City, Si Chuan province, China in the year of 2002. He obtained his Masters in Business Administration specializ ing in Accounting in 2005 from University Malaysia Sabah. Currently he is pursuing his PhD degree in Management Accounting at University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Second Author: Che Ruhana ISA (PhD) is currently an associate professor in accounting at the Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya (UM). She joined UM as a tutor in 1987 after obtaining the BBA (Accounting) from Oklahoma State University, USA. In 1990, she graduated from London School of Economics and Political Science with the degree MSc in Accounting and Finance. She obtained her PhD in Accounting from University Putra Malaysia in 2005. Her current research interests are management accounting change, management accounting and performance measurement systems in public sector organizations. 150