Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was perhaps the boldest, most ambitious but at the same time most foolish and ill-timed operation executed by Nazi Germany during World War II. This operation committed Germany to war against the Soviet Union which it invaded on June 22, 1941 and terminated on March of 1942. In the early stages of the campaign, the Germans employed the same bilitzkrieg tactics that served them well in the western campaigns.They were hoping to duplicate that same victory against the Soviets and were lulled into a false sense of confidence when they covered a lot of ground and scored many victories which netted them scores of prisoners of war. When 1942 came along, German high command began to realize later on how wrong they were and thus began a protracted war in what they came to call the â€Å"eastern front. † This operation was intended to be the fulfillment of Hitler's vision of lebensraum (living space) in his work, Mein Kampf.â€Å"If land was desired in Europe, it c ould be obtained by and large only at the expense of Russia, and this meant that the new Reich must again set itself on the march along the road of the Teutonic Knights of old, to obtain by the German sword sod for the German plow and daily bread for the nation†¦ †¦ Destiny itself seems to wish to point out the way to us here†¦ This colossal empire in the East is ripe for dissolution, and the end of the Jewish domination in Russia will also be the end of Russia as a state. † (cited in Shirer 124, 1044; Riasanovsky 515; Hitler)Politically, the clashing extremist ideologies of both Germany and the Soviet Union gave the Nazis even more impetus to invade Russia, considering it as a new crusade against communism which they believed was the creation of the Jews for whom Hitler and the Nazis could see no good. Furthermore, Hitler envisioned the Slavic people as a race that would serve the purpose of the Aryan race by wither being their slaves or â€Å"sport† whe rein they would provide them with something to hunt or kill to maintain their virility (Hitler).This was an opportunity for the Nazis to eradicate these enemies in one fell swoop, once and for all. The Spanish civil war of 1936 gave the Germans a taste of war against the communist where they even went face to face against Soviet â€Å"volunteers† in this conflict (Riasanovsky 514-515). As Hitler's armies were annexing neighboring states as part of restoring Germany's glory and patrimony, Hitler began conducting diplomatic overtures as part of his strategy to keep potential adversaries at bay, even for just a while and the Soviet Union was one of them.Thus began secret dipomatic maneuvers which resulted in the non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union prior to the invasion of Poland where the latter was invited to take part in it. Furthermore, this pact served other purposes other than buying time for Germany to attack Russia. Strategically, Germany needed Russi an territory to be able to transport resources to them following the blockade of the sealanes by the Allies, especially oil which was vital to Germany's war economy and machinery (Shirer 821-822).Despite entering into these agreements, secret or otherwise, both Germany and the Soviet Union still harbored suspicions and animosities against each other, primarily due to irreconcilable differences in ideology where both sides represent the opposite of political extremes, fascism and communism. The Soviets too saw the pact as an alliance of convenience on their part as they began their own expansion by invading the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as well as Finland, which was an ally of Germany in 1940.For the sake of keeping the peace with the Soviets, the Germans remained silent as their minor ally was attacked by the Soviets. Germany also felt insecure when the Soviets occupied the Baltic states which they also felt was theirs owing to historical precedence and even mor e concerned when the Soviets were also moving into Romania, another German ally further heightening tensions between these two supposed allies but it was rather apparent that conflict between them would be inevitable as both sides were taking advantage of each other, with the Soviets being the first (Riasanovsky 517; Shirer 832-836, 883).The Nazis entered into a treaty with the Soviets as an alliance of convenience hoping to get more from the treaty. As the war was progressing in the west, the Germans were beginning to realize how difficult the Russians were as negotiators as the latter were driving very hard bargains, especially Stalin. It is revealed in captured German government documents that Stalin also took part in negotiations and was a very tough negotiator who could not be pushed into a compromise and always sought a better deal for Russia and was very demanding.No amount of persuasion and even threats could deter the Russian autocrat (Shirer 882). The German war plan calle d for a one-front war in order to conserve and husband their resources. Though most of western Europe was not occupied, Great Britain remained defiant and continued to hold out in a protracted aerial battle over their airspace where they were able to inflict heavy casualties on the German Luftwaffe (air force), thereby forestalling any plans for a seaborne invasion by the Germans well into 1941.By 1941, Hitler began to become impatient on how the campaign against the British was going. It also did not help that Germany was also suffering an acute shortage of resources and this was what prompted Hitler to jump the proverbial gun and attack Russia, thinking also that the British would not give him a problem as he decided to shelve the invasion of Britain and leave it to his U-Boats to strangle Britain economically.By December of 1940, Hitler already had plans for the invasion from his generals and it was hoped that the attack would commence in the spring of 1941. The plan was codename d â€Å"Barbarossa,† after the Holy Roman emperor who was one of the co-leaders of the Third Crusade; an apt name for the operation since Hitler regarded this planned offensive as a new crusade and it also came at a time when relations between Berlin and Moscow were starting to turn sour as both sides appear to sense that they were double-crossing each other (Shirer 1045, 1049).Another reason for Hitler's desire to attack Russia the soonest was to seal Britain's fate, leaving her with no ally when he said: â€Å"But if Russia is smashed, Britain's last hope will be shattered. Then Germany will be master of Europe and the Balkans†¦ In view of these considerations, Russia must be liquidated†¦ The sooner Russia is smashed, the better. † (cited in Shirer 1047) Furthermore, Hitler also said that â€Å"When Barbarossa commences, the world wil hold its breath and make no comment.† (cited in Shirer 1078) Hitler was apparently lulled into a false sense of confi dence following the victories of German forces in Poland and western Europe and he felt they could do it again in Russia which made him even more confident because he regarded the Russians as inferior despite their large population and their inferiority would make it easy for Germany to defeat and conquer them. He was confident that he would succeed where Napoleon had failed, by conquering Russia quickly and in the shortest span of time possible.The rationale for this was to avoid the harsh Russian winter which was one of the reasons why Napoleon failed and he would not want to make that same mistake Napoleon did. Furthermore, if the Russian campaign would drag on beyond winter, they also had to contend with the following spring where the snow-covered ground would turn muddy, which would play havoc on their powerful war machines which they had never encountered in the western front.He was so driven and obsessed in attacking Russia that he disregarded the advice of his commanders to commence campaigns elsewhere by constantly stating Russia had to be eliminated first and that everything else could wait. The plan called for a six-month time table but constant foot-dragging and waging campaigns in the Balkans and North Africa delayed plans well into June of 1941 (Shirer 1087-1088). Alongside the military planning, Hitler also spelled out his political plans for Russia once the invasion commenced in what became known as the â€Å"Commissar Order.† Hitler saw the war also as a battle of ideologies and he saw the need to eliminate those who propagate it when he stated: â€Å"The commissars are the bearers of ideologies directly opposed to National Socialism. Therefore the commissars will be liquidated. German soldiers guilty of breaking international law will be excused. Russia has not participated in the Hague Convention and therefore has no rights under it. † (cited in Shirer 1089) It can further be inferred here that Hitler was intent on deliberately committing murder by ordering the systematic execution of any political commissar captured by German forces.Most of Hitler's commanders objected to it. These were professional soldiers who knew that murder was not part of a soldier's duty and this would be something they would have to deal with when several of them would be brought to trial in Nuremberg in 1945 (Shirer 1089-1090). In an apparent display of overconfidence, Alfred Rosenberg, one of Hitler's lieutenants, prematurely made a proposal on how to divide Russia into political administrations, each with an given German name.The Baltic region and Belarus would be called Ostland; the Ukraine, along with its adjacent areas; Southern Russia running along the Caucasus mountains would be called Kaukasus; the areas surrounding Moscow, Moskau; and Turkestan for the central regions, each ruled by the modern-day German version of the ancient Roman prefect. Furthermore, plans were already in motion on how to best exploit Russia's resou rces. They intend to use it to feed Germany's industries and its people.They were acutely aware of the adverse consequences it would have on the Russian people in terms of hunger but the Nazis could not care less on what would happen even if millions of Russians would perish under their proposed policies (Shirwe 1091-1092). The forces Hitler arrayed against Russia was made up of 175 army divisions, supported by formidable artillery and armored divisions, both from the Wehrmacht (regular army) and his elite Waffen-SS. These were divided into three army groups, North, Center and South, each given specific objectives to capture.To the north, under the command of Field Marshal Wilhelmvon Leeb, the target was Leningrad. As the city's name implies, it was named after Lenin, the acknowledged father of the Russian Revolution which incidentally began in that city, then named Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and the Soviet Union and therefore, one of the symbolic targets of the German invasion forc es. Historially, Hitler believed Leningrad was once part of the territory conquered by the Teutonic Knights of the Middle Ages and he was simply trying to take back what belonged to Germany by virtue of conquest (Salisbury 37).The center group, under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, would head for the capital Moscow, reminiscent of Napoleon's actions. The southern forces under Field Marshal Gert von Rundstedt would head for Kiev and Rostov-on-Don in what is now part of the Ukraine which was the Soviet Union's agricultural heartland as well as the road to the oil-rich fields of the Caucasus and Black Sea area (Riasanovsky 518-519). Follow-on forces would come soon to do mop-up operations and to deal with any partisan or guerrilla activity in the occupied areas.All in all, the Nazi regime had already made grandiose plans on what to do with Russia, believing they would finally succeed where Napoleon had failed in addition to the fact that Russia's conquest would be the fulfillment of Hitl er's visions defined in Mein Kampf. On the part of the Soviets, they had the numerical superiority over the Germans with roughly 8 million men to the Germany's 4 million which also included its allies from Italy, Hungary, Finland and Romania.They even had ten times the number of artillery, armored vehicles and aircraft arrayed against the Germans as well. In terms of numbers, the Soviets were by no means weak. If there was one weakness of the Red Army, it was its diversity with men from the various Soviet republics and whose dispositions ranged from cooperative to hostile towards one another even before they faced the Germans.Furthermore, majority of the Soviet forces initially arrayed were made up primarily of conscripts coming mainly from the peasantry, a throwback of the Tsarist era. The commissars were the ones who primarily kept them in line, not just to preserve ideological purity but meting out discipline instead of the officers assigned to the units and even tried to lead th em, replacing the ones persecuted even though they lacked the qualifications. Communications and leadership was also poor.This was partly Stalin's fault during the Great Purge of the 1930's where several competent senior officers of the Red Army were victims of the purges, depriving their units of capable leaders. As a result, these units were routed with millions killed and taken prisoner (Parker 60). Overall command was under Field Marshal Georgi Zhukov who had distinguished himself in the far east in border clashes against the Japanese which gave him a reputation of being a successful commander.Countering the three German offensive groups are three â€Å"Directions† tasked with forming the defense of their assigned territory and launch a counteroffensive. They were the North-Western Direction under Colonel Generals Markian Popov and Fyodor Kuznetsov which covers the Baltic region; the Western Direction under General Dimitry Pavlov which covers the areas west of Moscow and the South-Western Direction under Generals Mikhail Kirponos and Ivan Tyulenev concentrating on the Ukraine (Parker 107; Riasanovsky 518).Despite having more war machines compared to the Germans, they were inferior in quality. The Soviets initially had the T-28 medium tanks which could not stand up to the supeior armor the Germans prepared the Panzer I-III series. Although the Soviets had quality armor like the T-34 and KV-1, they were not abundant in number and were reserved for first-line units, particularly the elite â€Å"Guards† units.For air assets, once more, the quality of Soviet combat aircraft was inferior to ther Germans as they fielded the Poikarpov I-16, Lavochkin-3 and Mig-3 which were mediocre compared to the superior Bf109 fighter planes of the Luftwaffe which made short work of the Red Air Force which were on peacetime status, with aircraft parked closely together in the airfields, making them easy targets for high-altitude bombers and the dreaded Stuka dive b ombers of the Luftwaffe (Batty).On the political front, even Stalin was aware of an imminent conflict with Germany and that the treaties they had would not last much longer as tensions between the two supposed allies were increasing as both sides began to sense the duplicity of the other. Yet, he refused to heed the warnings coming from intelligence agents in the field of an impending German attack and those who merely did their duty were branded as â€Å"provocateurs† and censured, if not arrested.He even ignored warnings from British and American emissaries who were aware of the dangers, thinking it was a ruse to make him show his hand prematurely and not wanting to make the mistake Nicholas II did in 1914. Stalin held absolute power and did not permit any autonomy nor initiative among his subordinates (Salisbury 37). Although German aircraft hadalready been intruding into Soviet airspace, Stalin gave orders not to meet or engage them.His hesitation proved costly as it sent a message to the Germans that the Soviets were complacent, making it the ripe time to attack. The first phase of the war began with air strikes on key military bases and cities to sow terror, panic and confusion as well as cripple and hinder Soviet forces. By the end of the opening phase, the Lufwaffe enjoyed total air superiority over Soviet territory, making them virtually unopposed as they managed to destroy a lot of Soviet aircraft on the ground and shoot down those that managed to take off but were inferior in quality.This was followed up by a simultaneous attack by all three German army groups in their respective fronts and they were able to catch the Soviets off guard, resulting in numerous Soviet casualties and prisoners. They would duplicate the same tactic they did in Poland wherein they would bypass heavier enemy units and encircle them, cutting them off from any support and crush them. They would apply the same tactic as well on major Soviet cities, besieging them and s tarving their people although in the case of Leningrad, Hitler wanted it destroyed (Riasanovsky 518; Salisbury 40).Surprisingly, they were happily welcomed by the civilian population in the Ukraine and the Baltic states who hated Stalin and his communist regime. For them, the Germans were liberators instead of invaders and this had helped the Germans gain a foothold into Soviet territory (Batty). However, by the fourth week of the campaign, the progress bogged down as the German forces were overextended and needed time to allow for support units to catch up. By the time they were able to resume again, winter had set in.Even though it provided mobility due to hardened ground, the conditions were do dismal and German forces were beginning to understand now why Napoleon failed as severe blizzards wrought havoc on the invaders who were unprepared for â€Å"General Winter,† the same foe Napoleon faced and had proven to be a far more formidable foe than any army the Germans had fou ght. At the same time, fresh Soviet troops from the east were deployed and they fought doggedly and with more determination, further slowing down the German advance.What had hoped to be finished in three to six months would run for four more years and would eventually bleed German resources dry. The Soviets may have been brought down initially but they were not out of the running as they managed to recover and become stronger in the latter phase of the campaign. In conclusion, Operation Barbarossa started off well but in the middle, it began to lose steam and thus forcing the Germans to fight a kind of war they did not want, especially against Russia which was a war of attrition.It was considered a failure because the Germans failed to meet their objectives of capturing the key cities and failed to meet their timetable, causing them to be caught up in a winter war they were ill-prepared for. This was attributed to the constant delay of the commencement of the attack. The delay cause d them to be caught up by the winter season and Hitler refused to heed his generals' advice for a pause to allow the winter to pass.Hitler's obsession for going on the offensive caused the German forces to be stretched too thin making the rear areas vulnerable to stay-behind forces and partisan attacks which tied down his forces. The dogged and tenacious resistance put up by the Soviets despite their inferior quality bought time for them to transfer their industries to the remote regions beyond the Urals where they were safe from attacks or capture and enabled the Soviets to reconstitute their forces. Finally, they underestimated the capabilities of the Red Army, especially the Nazi leadership who looked down on the Slavs.Finally, the Germans fought a war they did not want, a 3-front campaign: Western Europe, North Africa and Mediterranean and the Eastern Front which severely divided their forces and resources, not to mention fighting multiple enemies, especially with the entry of t he United States into the war. The Soviets too had their faults which nearly cost them the war, and Stalin was to blame for decimating his officer corps during the 1930 purges. His â€Å"iron will† of not permitting retreat also caused numerous casualties and prisoners as his commissars and loyal commanders blindly followed his orders.His saving grace was the leadership in the front provided by Zhukov who cleverly went around Stalin's orders to husband his forces that enabled them to recover and regain lost ground in the subsequent battles owing to the characteristic resilience of the Russian forces, interspersed with patriotic fervor. The Soviets ay have lost the initial battles but they eventually won the war because of this and eventually took the war to the Germans and visited upon them the same havoc they wrought upon them. Works Cited â€Å"Barbarossa (June-December 1941). † The World at War. Writ. Peter Batty. Thames. 1973.Hitler, Adolf. â€Å"Mein Kampf. † Hitler. Org. 1924. Retrieved 17 May 2010 . Parker, Robert Alexander Clarke. The Second World War: A Short History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Riasanovsky, Nicholas V. A History of Russia. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. Salisbury, Harrison E. â€Å"The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad. † True Stories of World War II . Ed. Nancy J. Sparks. Pleasantville, New York: The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. , 1969. 35-63. Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960.

Lazy Americans

A college professor wrote an article aboyt how she thinks American student are lazy. Different people have different oppinions on this subject. Although many believe that american students are lazy and others believe they are not. I think it just depends on your background, and family life. You cant just judge someone by what they dowithout knowing where they come from. Students from different countries have great work ethics, they pay attention well in class, and do really good on their work. most of their effprt comes from relations with family. For foreign students they come to ameica to study because the education is better so their parents bring them here. Foreign students work really hard , because they came here to study and they think that its a great opportunity. But i have also met some foreign exchange students that are lazy and have really bad work ethics, and i have talked to them and they are having problems at home. Most people tink that american students are lazy, but i have met some really out going Americans. My friend Sarah Doud, she is American and she is a 3. student andshe is a hard working student. I know i kid, his name is lewis. He is a 4. 0 student and is taking way advanced classes and he is american. Those two examples i just gave are American and hard working. And they come from loving families and have loving friends. I have also met some lazy americans as well, but they come from bad families that dont care about their childs grades. There are also the middle students who are American and dont do bad, but dont do good. These students come from families who dont really care about their grades. And its mostly students whos parents travelor are rarely home because of their work. But the students know better than to let their grades slip. These students are self motivated but i dont think that is enough. I think that they need more motivation. There are many lazy students, and there are also many hard working students. I think it just depends on the students family problems if any. Sure habits are hard to break, but there is a reason in the first place why they have those habbits. American teenages need more motivation, because i dont think they get enough.

Accounting Sustainability and Reporting.

Sustainability refers to striking out a balance between present needs and the future needs and accordingly making out a decision for consumption of the resources. In the context of development or consumption of resources, the sustainability means consuming resources responsibly by taking the future needs into consideration (Schaltegger, Bennett, & Burritt, 2006). The business organizations consume scarce environmental resource, few of which are difficult to be restored. Therefore, these organizations should assume a sense of responsibility to use the scarce environmental resources in an effective and efficient manner. The regulators around the world are now being actively engaged in framing the rules and regulations to achieve sustainability in the developments. Major steps at the global level are being taken to enhance the sustainable business developments. In this regard, one of the major steps taken by the regulators is compelling the business organizations to adopt sustainability accounting and reporting practices (Schaltegger, Bennett, & Burritt, 2006). Sustainability accounting and reporting practices are directed to report the steps taken by the companies towards sustainability issues. The companies have been mandated by the government regulations to contribute towards the environment and society for promoting sustainability (Brockett & Rezaee, 2012). The concept of corporate social responsibility emerged which requires the companies to contribute towards the development of society and the environment. The sustainability accounting is a broad concept that provide for aligning the sustainability initiatives with the organizational strategies. Sustainability accounting not only involves reporting on the sustainability initiatives, but it also involves evaluation of the risks and threats to the environment and measurement of the company’s performance from environmental perspective. The issues of sustainability are being considered at the international level requiring the firms to adopt these practices. The adoption of sustaina ble business practices is considered beneficial not for a firm only but for the overall economic environment at the global level (Brockett & Rezaee, 2012). The report presented here is aimed at exploring the significance of sustainability accounting and reporting practices in the overall economic development of a country. In order to achieve this aim, the report will address the following objectives: This research report covers a comprehensive literature review to gather the views of existing literatures on sustainability accounting and reporting. Further, the report takes on data analysis on the subject matter of the research to find out actual impact on the corporations and economy. In this regard, the report precisely describes the methodology used to collect and analyze the data. Further, a discussion taking the view of existing literatures and the findings of the data analysis has been carried out followed by a concise conclusion being drawn.  Ã‚  Ã‚   The literature review section of the entire research report is very crucial. In this section, the researcher gets the knowledge of existing literatures on the subject matter of research, which is necessary to understand the foundation of the research (Jesson, 2011). Further, the review of literature also boosts up the confidence of the researcher by providing a strong foundation for data collection and analysis. The current research focuses on sustainability accounting and reporting, thus, the review of existing literatures focuses around this topic. In order to carry out the review of literatures appropriately, the entire subject matter has been bifurcated into different heads as discussed below. According to Soderstrom (2013), traditionally, the accounting and reporting practices in the firms could be found to be focusing on communicating the financial information and operational data to the stakeholders. However, the process of accounting and reporting has undergone a severe change to include the reporting on the sustainability issues. Over the last two decades, a drastic change in the approaches of reporting to the stakeholders has been witnessed (Soderstrom, 2013). The government regulations made it compulsory for the corporations to report on the corporate sustainability in their annual reports. The origin of sustainability reporting can be traced in way back 1960s and 1970s; however, the popularity was very less. As per the survey conducted by one of the world’s largest accounting firms, â€Å"Earns & Young†, only 1% of the 500 fortune companies were found to be reporting on the social and environmental sustainability in the mid 1970s in the United States (Soderstrom, 2013). According to Zu (2008), in the mid 1990s, triple bottom line reporting was introduced to promote sustainability (Zu, 2008). The triple bottom line model of reporting was primarily aimed at balancing the three crucial aspects of the business such as society, environment, and profitability. This model provided that the business should not only concentrate on the profits, but equal emphasis should also be given to the social and environmental aspects. Further, the triple bottom line reporting model also claims that the profitability of the company automatically increases when proper balance between the needs of shareholders, society, and the environment is maintained. This model greatly emphasized the role of society and environment in building the firm’s business and enhancing the firm’s value in the long run (Zu, 2008). Further, in the year 1997, the Global Reporting Initiative, a non-profit organization was founded, which provided for guidelines in regard to sustainability accounting and reporting by the firms (GRI, 2008). It was the increased need for sustainability that laid the establishment of Global Reporting Initiative in the last 1990s. According to Gupta & Mason (2014), the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) provides reporting frameworks which assist the corporations in complying with the legal reporting requirements in regard to sustainability. Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) has issued G3 guidelines which cover three core areas of sustainability such as economic, social, and environment. Gupta & Mason (2014), further state that reporting under the G3 guidelines helps the corporations enhance transparency and goodwill in the market which ultimately affects the worth of the company positively (Gupta & Mason, 2014).  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to Daizy & Das (2014), Sustainability reporting has become part of the strategic decision making in the firms. Both, management as well as other stakeholders such as shareholders, society, and the government are benefited in some or other way by the sustainability reporting practices. The primary reason for sustainability reporting is to ensure that the efforts made by the corporations towards sustainability are measured and communicated to the stakeholders (Daizy & Das, 2014). Further, in the views of Daizy & Das (2014), the companies can improve their operational efficiency and ensure growth in the shareholder’s value in the long run by implementing and maintaining the sustainability reporting practices. Thus, apart from being a regulatory requirement, the sustainability reporting is also crucial for the long term growth (Daizy & Das, 2014). Further, sustainability reporting assists the management in analyzing the non financial factors and finding out impact of those factors on the firm’s profitability. In the present scenario, it has been really pertinent to measure and evaluate the impact of non financial factors such as society and environment on the financial performance of the firm (Daizy & Das, 2014). It is compulsory for the firms to continually contribute towards the social and environmental sustainability and assess its impact on the firm’s financial performance. This assessment can be carried out with the help of structured data which is prepared through the sustainability accounting and reporting practices. Therefore, sustainability accounting and reporting plays a crucial role in analysis and decision making, whether it is being done by the management for internal purposes or by the shareholders (Daizy & Das, 2014).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The sustainability reporting has become part and parcel of financial reporting for most of the corporations in the 21 st century (CPA, 2013). The adoption of sustainability reporting has been promoted not only because regulators made is obligatory, but more due to its enduring advantages. The sustainability reporting provides benefits to all type of companies and in particular the large corporations are benefited in the form of enhanced shareholder’s confidence, improved goodwill in the market, and improved operational efficiency. Further, there are many other indirect advantages of adopting the sustainability reporting practices, for example, savings in resource consumption, cost reduction, waste reduction, and improved relationship with regulatory bodies (CPA, 2013).   As per Faisal, Tower, & Rusmin (2012), about 250 companies from all over the world have adopted the corporate sustainability reporting practices and providing a separate report on the social and environmental initiatives (Faisal, Tower, & Rusmin, 2012). The large corporations and particularly the companies listed on the stock exchanges are being more complaint in regard to sustainability reporting than the smaller companies. The authors further state that though the sustainability reporting is increasing at the global level, but it is still imbalanced. It is perceived that the adoption of sustainability reporting adds additional burden on the smaller firms and thus, it has not been made obligatory for them in most of the countries. However, the bigger firms (listed companies) are quite capable to bear that additional burden and also the fact that these firms consume the environmental and economic resources at the large scale and affect the bigger part of the society, leads to making the adoption of sustainability reporting practices compulsory for them (Faisal, Tower, & Rusmin, 2012). Though adoption of sustainability reporting practices is advantageous for the firms but at the same it is challenging also. According to Faisal, Tower, & Rusmin (2012), the first key challenge in implanting the sustainability reporting effectively is identification of the needs of target audience. The sustainability reports are prepared to provide information on the approach followed by the company towards the social and environmental issues. The key challenge is to decide a standard format so that the information is communicated to the target audience in the best manner. However, challenges in this area are to some extent lessened by the guidelines provided by GRI. Further, the firms also struggle in measuring and evaluating the impact of its activities on the society and the environment precisely. It is quite a subjective matter to measure and evaluate the impact of firm’s activities on the social lives and the environment Faisal, Tower, & Rusmin (2012). Despite these challenges, the firms are adopting the sustainability reporting practices all over the world. According to OECD (2008), 120 companies out of total 500 have adopted the sustainability reporting and these numbers are expected to increase further in future. However, the popularity of sustainability reporting is increasing rapidly in Australia, but comparing it at the global level, it seems that improvements are still needed (OECD, 2008). There is a need to make strong efforts by the regulators, government, and the corporations to make sustainability reporting widespread in the country. The regulator has to consider that making the sustainability reporting obligatory for only listed companies would not be enough. The small and medium sized firms should also be encouraged to come forward and adopt the best sustainability reporting practices (OECD, 2008).  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to Vasile et al. (2016), the sustainability reporting fixes responsibility on the companies to make legitimate efforts towards development of society, environment, and the overall economy. There are various aspects which could be put into discussion to assess the impact of sustainability reporting on the economy. These aspects are improvement in living standards of the people, savings in the consumption of scarce natural resources, and improvement in firm’s long term profitability. Vasile et al. (2016), further state that development of the society and environment are the elements of economy development, thus, if the efforts are made to improve the society or the environment, the economy will automatically be affected positively (Vasile et al., 2016). According to Higgins (2013), the sustainability and economic development are interdependent on each other. The gross domestic product indicates economic growth. If a country chases high growth in the GDP, it would require increasing the production quantities at a large scale (Higgins, 2013). The increase in production of goods would entail consumption of resources at the large scale. The consumption of resources at a rapid pace is dangerous for the sustainability. Therefore, the need to strike out a balance between the desired economic growth and the consumption of resources in a sustainable manner is essential. Further states that balancing the current economic growth and the consumption of the resources is crucial for long run survival of the economy (Higgins, 2013).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The reporting on sustainability issues has raised awareness in the business firms to save wastage of resources. The reduction in wastage of resources enhances the profitability of the firms which in turn increases the economic growth positively (Higgins, 2013). Further, as part of the sustainability efforts, the business firms are also contributing significantly for improving the societies. The contribution of the firms in this direction is critical to rise up the living standard of the people. Further, the improvement in the living standard is crucial for the overall economic growth. Thus, it could be said that the sustainability efforts made by the firms are essential for the overall improvement in the economic conditions of not only a country but at the global level (Higgins, 2013). In the views of Daly (2014), the economic development in the sustainable manner could be slow but it will be study and long last. The sustainability gives an impression that the resources are not to be used heedlessly (Daly, 2014). The firms are required to keep the needs of future in mind while consuming environmental resources. The consideration of future needs leads to consumption of the resources in a responsible manner which might lead to slow growth. However, the growth may be slow but it would be study. Consuming resources in this manner, the firm will be able to sustain its business for longer term which would ultimately affect its value positively (Daly, 2014).     Ã‚   The views of authors on sustainability accounting and reporting have been analyzed in this section. The literatures were reviewed with the objective of finding out the impact of sustainability accounting and reporting practices on the overall economic development of a country. In this regard, many authors provided their views on the reasons for evolution of the sustainability accounting and reporting practices. Some of the authors stated that it has become a mandatory requirement and few of them stated that sustainability accounting and reporting practices affects the value of the firm positively in the long run. Further, review of literatures reveal that though the adoption of sustainability reporting benefits the firm but it is quite a challenging task. However, the implantation of sustainability reporting could be vital for the overall economic development sustainability.  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   A systematic approach is adopted in conducting a research which involves application of appropriate methodology to collect the required data and apply the data analysis tools. The tools and techniques applied in the research for data collection could be scientific requiring application of principles of statics (Olsen, 2011). The selection of appropriate data collection methods and the analytical tools is critical for completing the research in an effective manner. There are two main categories of data collection methods such as primary and secondary. The primary data collection methods comprises of the methods such as survey and interview. Further, the secondary data collection methods comprises of the methods such as review of the documents and observations (Olsen, 2011). It has been observed that the secondary data collection methods are suited the best in the case of qualitative researches. The research carried out in this report aims at exploring the impact of accounting sustainability and reporting practices on the overall economic development (Lapan, Quartaroli, & Riemer, 2011). The research is qualitative in nature, thus, the secondary data collection methods have been applied. For the purpose of this research, the data has been collected through study of books, journal, reports of regulatory authorities and the government. In this regard, it has been ensured that the data collected is latest; therefore, the books, journals, and the reports of the regulatory authorities of the latest years have been referred for data collection (Lapan, Quartaroli, & Riemer, 2011). The data collection was organized in three categories such as reasons for adoption of sustainability accounting and reporting by the firms, impact on the firm’s value of sustainability reporting, and its impact on the overall economy (Lapan, Quartaroli, & Riemer, 2011). The data collected in regard to reasons for adoption of sustainability reporting practices relates to identification of the key drivers of sustainability. Further, the data collected in regard to impact on the firm’s value covers the profitability and net worth of the firm’s before and after the adoption of sustainability reporting. Further, in regard to evaluation of impact on the overall economy, the data relates to macro economic factors such as gross domestic product, standard of living, poverty levels, and reductions in the carbon emissions (Lapan, Quartaroli, & Riemer, 2011).     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The data collection process has been carried out ethically and in an effective manner so that all the required information could be gathered. There certain limitations of the secondary data, which are required to be made explicit so as to assist the readers in drawing conclusions (Ary et al., 2013). The secondary data is prone to the risk of inappropriateness and there exists lack of control on preparation of the secondary data. Thus, effectiveness of the research carried out based on the secondary data depends upon the accuracy of the data. Further, the ethical concerns in regard to the use of secondary have been adhered to carefully. Proper referencing and citations have been given in the report wherever considered necessary to give credit to the authors whose data is used (Ary et al., 2013).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The research report presented here has main goal of finding out the impact of sustainability reporting on the economy of a country. In order to achieve this goal, it has been considered pertinent to find out the reasons for adoption of the sustainability reporting practices. The sustainability reporting provides value addition to the firm in various ways .There are countless parameters which can be used to assess the value added by sustainability reporting as shown in the figure given below: Figure 1: Value Added by Sustainability Reporting (EY, 2013) From the figure show above, it could be observed that there are various areas which are positively affected by adoption of sustainability reporting practices. It could be observed that more than 40% of the total surveyed companies consider that improved reputation is the major factor which drives the adoption of sustainability reporting practices (EY, 2013). The adoption of sustainability reporting practices enhances the confidence of investors and consumers which helps in building reputation in the market. Further, there were more than 35% companies which claimed that sustainability reporting is crucial in increasing the employee loyalty. Employee’s loyalty is very important for the firms to achieve the targets on time and succeed in the market. Further, few companies also found increase in the consumer loyalty due to adoption of the sustainability reporting (EY, 2013). Further, the sustainability reporting also helped the firms to make their strategies stronger in terms of long run business and refine their visions. Further, there were observed around 25% companies which claimed that achieving reduction in wastage of the natural resources was one of the primary reasons for promotion of sustainability reporting (EY, 2013). The other commonly accepted factors which laid the adoption of sustainability reporting were improved relationship with the regulatory bodies, reduced long term risk, enhanced long term profitability (EY, 2013). Due the above discussed factors, the sustainability reporting has been adopted by various firms world-wide. The following chart shows the growth in sustainability reporting adoption from to year 2000 to 2011: Figure 2: Growth in Sustainability Reporting (EY, 2013) From the chart presented above, it could be observed that there has been a complete transformation since the year 2008. The increase in the number of companies adopting sustainability reporting practices has been enormous from the year 2008 to 2011. Within a period of 3-4 years, the number of companies complying with the sustainability reporting guidelines (issued by GRI) has increased to a significant level (EY, 2013). Further, data has been collected and analyzed to find out the impact of sustainability reporting on the firm’s profitability and its value. The firms perceive that consuming resources optimally keeping the future needs in mind will help them build better tomorrow. Further, the reduction in cost and risk and increase in reputation and quality are expected to lead the firm on the path of high profitability in the long run. The implementation of the sustainability accounting and reporting practices increases the legal compliances and it also put additional burden on the firm in terms of new manpower. Further, the benefits of sustainability reporting accrue over the years in the long run. Therefore, in the short run, the impact on profitability of the firm employing sustainability reporting practices may be adverse, but it would be positive in the long run.  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The data analysis conducted NWOBU (2015) reveals that there exists a positive correlation between the profit after tax and sustainability reporting index. The profit after tax depicts profitability of the company while the score on sustainability index indicates the compliance level of the firm with sustainability reporting requirements. Thus, a positive correlation between profit after tax and sustainability index is the indicative of the fact that with the increased compliance of sustainability reporting, the firm’s experience increase in their profitability. The research of NWOBU (2015) reveals that correlation between profit after tax and the sustainability index is 0.281, which is low positive correlation. The correlation of 0.281 implies that increase in sustainability index would entail increase in the profit after tax, but the increase in profitability might at the low rate (NWOBU, 2015). Further, the correlation between shareholder’s fund and sustainability index was also analyzed. The correlation between these two factors was found to be 0.183, which can again be categorized as positive and low (NWOBU, 2015). Thus, the interpretation would remain as it was before in case of profit after tax. Therefore, the increase in sustainability index would entail increase in the shareholder’s fund. It is to be noted that the shareholder’s fund represents the value of a firm. Thus, it could be articulated that with the increase in sustainability index, the value of the firm increases. However, the increase might be at very slow rate (NWOBU, 2015). After analyzing the impact of sustainability reporting on the firm’s profitability and its value, it is essential to observe the changes in the macro economic factors due to adoption of sustainability reporting practices (Talberth, 2010). In this regard, it is considered crucial to analyze the gross domestic product, standards living of the people, and poverty level. It is argued that sustainable business practices may cause reduction in the overall gross domestic product of the country. The reduction in GDP may be caused due to reduction the production level caused by decrease in the consumption of the environmental resources. For example, if the mining companies decrease the exploration of minerals, the production level of commodities will go down affecting the gross domestic product adversely. However, due to recent shift in the economic and environmental conditions, the gross domestic product is no longer considered to be reliable measure of well being of an economy. The p erformance on sustainability indices is taking place of gross domestic product now a day (Talberth, 2010). Further, the improvement in the sustainability practices also implies contribution to the society at a large scale. The firms working in the economy make combined efforts to raise the living standard of the people. Further, with the rise in the living standard of the people, the poverty level automatically goes down. Therefore, it could be inferred that the improvements in the sustainability reporting enable the economy to stabilize and grow in a sustainable manner (Talberth, 2010).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The research carried out in this report addresses the crucial matter which relates to adoption of sustainability accounting and reporting practices by the firms operating in the economy. The aim of this research is to explore that whether the sustainability accounting and reporting is essential for the economy or not. In order to achieve the aim, the activities of the research are bounded by three objectives. The literature review has been carried out around these three objectives and the data analysis has also been conducted by keeping the three identified objectives in the centerfield. The articulation of the reviews of various authors reveals that promotion of sustainability accounting and reporting is really important for the well being of the overall economy (Daly, 2014). The authors state that there are various factors which make the firms to adopt the sustainability reporting. The improvement in the market reputation of the firm is one of the most crucial factors in that regard. The views of the authors reveal that firm’s reputation is improved to a great extent when it complies with the sustainability reporting guidelines. Further, the data analysis also supports this view of the authors. The analysis of data findings reveals that most of the companies consider the market reputation as one of the essential factor in adoption of the sustainability reporting practices (EY, 2013). Further, there have been identified few other factors as well such as customer loyalty, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliances. These factors also make the firm to comply with the sustainability accounting and reporting practices. In regard to the impact on firm’s financial performance, the authors state that the adoption of the sustainability reporting affects it positively in the long run. However, in the short run there may be adverse effect due to high compliance cost at the beginning. Further, the findings of the data analysis also support this view of the authors. The data analysis depicts that the sustainability reporting and the firm’s financial performance are positively correlated. This implies that the financial performance of the firms which comply with the sustainability reporting practices is found to be better than the firms not complying with it. Further, it has also been explored that the firm’s value (shareholder’s equity) is also affected positively by the adoption of sustainability reporting practices (EY, 2013). In regard to impact on the overall economy, the authors have stated that sustainability accounting and reporting is necessary to achieve economic development in a sustainable manner (Higgins, 2013). Further, the data gathered from the secondary sources also supports this view of the authors. The findings of the data analysis reveal that adoption of sustainability in the operations leads to contribution by the firms towards social and environmental causes. The firms contribute at the large scale to save the scarce environmental resources and to raise the living standard of the people. Further, the protection of the natural resources is very critical from the view point of sustainability.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The report presented here presents a research study on the sustainability accounting and reporting. The primary aim of the research is to explore the impact of sustainability accounting and reporting on the overall economy of a country. In this regard, it has been considered essential to find out the impact of sustainability reporting on a particular company and then on the overall economy. Based on the findings of the report, it can be concluded that the sustainability reporting is essential for the long term economic development. The articulations drawn from the literature review bring out the fact that sustainability reporting has become crucial for the firms to survive and thrive in the market. The recent developments in the areas of social and environmental sustainability are admirable. The regulators from all over the world are making collective efforts to make the business sustainable and futuristic. The survey report of EY discloses that there has been observed a significant increase in the number of firms adopting the sustainability reporting practices since the year 2008. From the findings of data analysis, it could be articulated that the increased awareness and the enduring advantages of sustainability is pushing the firms to opt for the best sustainability accounting and reporting practices. The major advantages of sustainability reporting have been identified as the improvements in the firm’s reputation, enhancement in the investor’s confidence, employee’s loyalty, and consumers trust. Further, the company is also able build a good rapport with the governmental regulatory authorities. However, there certain challenges which the firms have to while implementing the sustainability accounting and reporting practices. Among various such challenges, the high operating cost and administrative problems are the major ones. Though, there are challenges, but the benefits of sustainability accounting and reporting are enduring, therefore, the firms have to make effort to implement it. Further, it was observed that sustainability reporting is also essential to raise the standard of living of the society and the maintaining a proper balance between the present and future needs. From the findings of the research, it could be inferred that maintaining a proper balance is crucial for long term economic developments. The sustainability in operations not only improves the financial performance of the firm but it also enhances its value. Further, the overall economy is affected in a positive manner which is the center point of the sustainability accounting and reporting. Schaltegger, S., Bennett, M., & Burritt, R. 2006. Sustainability Accounting and Reporting. Springer Science & Business Media. Brockett, A. & Rezaee, Z. 2012. Corporate Sustainability: Integrating Performance and Reporting. John Wiley & Sons. Jesson, J. 2011. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques. London: SAGE. Soderstrom, N. 2013. Sustainability reporting: past, present, and trends for the future. Retrieved February 07, 2017, from https://www.insights.unimelb.edu.au/vol13/04_Soderstrom.html Zu, L. 2008. Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Restructuring and Firm's Performance: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Enterprises. Springer Science & Business Media. GRI. 2008. Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Report. Retrieved February 07, 2017, from https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/GRI-Sustainability-Report-2007-2008.pdf Gupta, A. & Mason, M. 2014. Transparency in Global Environmental Governance: Critical Perspectives. MIT Press. Daizy & Das, N. 2014. Sustainability reporting framework: comparative analysis of global reporting initiatives and Dow Jones sustainability index. International Journal of Science, Environment, 3(1), pp. 55-66. Faisal, F., Tower, G., & Rusmin, R. 2012. Legitimizing Corporate Sustainability Reporting Throughout the World. Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal, 6(2), pp. 19-34. CPA. 2013. Sustainability Reporting: Practices, Performance, and Potential. Retrieved February 08, 2017, from https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/~/media/corporate/allfiles/document/professional-resources/sustainability/sustainability-reporting-practice-performance-potential.pdf OECD. 2008. OECD Environmental Performance Reviews OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: Australia 2007. OECD Publishing. Vasile, J., Andrei, Nicolo, & Domenico. 2016. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Investments in the Green Economy. IGI Global. Higgins, K.L. 2013. Economic growth and sustainability – are they mutually exclusive? Retrieved February 08, 2017, from https://www.elsevier.com/connect/economic-growth-and-sustainability-are-they-mutually-exclusive Daly, H.E. 2014. Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development. Beacon Press. Olsen, W. 2011. Data collection: key debates and methods in social research. SAGE. Ary, D., Jacobs, L.C., Sorensen, C.K., and Walker, D. 2013. Introduction to research in education. Cengage Learning. Lapan, S.D., Quartaroli, M.T. &Riemer, F.J. 2011. Qualitative Research: An Introduction to Methods and Designs. John Wiley & Sons. NWOBU, O. 2015. The Relationship between Corporate Sustainability Reporting and Profitability and Shareholders Fund in Nigerian Banks. The Journal of Accounting and Management, 5(3). Talberth, J. 2010. Measuring What Matters: GDP, Ecosystems and the Environment. Retrieved February 08, 2017, from https://www.wri.org/blog/2010/04/measuring-what-matters-gdp-ecosystems-and-environment

Human Rights in the European Union Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Rights in the European Union - Essay Example If human rights are not respected, there will be no peace or development, and there would be peace and stability in countries that respect human rights. Modern constitutions have a responsibility of protecting human rights. In most constitutional arrangements, the task of protecting human rights is given to the judiciary and it involves the evaluation of actions of the government. Human rights protection may be restricted to the reviewing of laws by the judiciary. Nonetheless, independently, human rights set essential boundaries where democratic administrations must work. The European Union pursues this convention. The Union deems itself to be developed on the basis of democracy, freedom, equality, respect for human worthiness, law, and appreciation of human rights. Therefore, the European Union gives a basis for Human rights. The foundation of Human rights in the European legal order includes: distilling general principles protecting fundamental rights from the common constitutional traditions of the Member States by the European court; the  bill of rights was facilitated by another bill of rights: the European Convention on Human Rights. This  bill of rights was later complemented by an inner  bill of rights, written distinctively for the European Union: the Charter of Fundamental Rights.   Understanding the development of European amalgamation as a progression of mounting critical role of human rights in the legal order of Europe is particularly alluring: human rights as being extremely crucial for the union. It has been said a lot of times: human rights were not included in the initial Treaties. They have been considered as indispensable since the late 1960s till now. The acceptance of human rights as a pivotal part of any society that wants to develop has appeared to have gained momentum in the recent times. An outstanding evidence of this is the European Councils’ resolution at a summit in Cologne (Andreangeli, 111). It stated that a human rights charter should be made for the Union because it is its basis for being legitimate. This paper will look at how  Human Rights are focal to the legal order of the European Union. The treaties made by the European Union in the 1950s were concerned with people as a whole rather than individuals. During that time, the main objective of the Union was to create a foundation for the coming together of European people who were for a long period divided by disagreements and war through earlier incorporation of their economy. On the other hand, two fundamental rights preserved in Europe, and conference for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and Universal Declaration of Human Rights were included in the treaties and gave elements that were central to the process of integration. These included: ban on discrimination based on sex or nationality and freedom of movement by the self-employed or ant worker. The treaty requirements acted as the foundation for vital case-l aw and legislation in areas of equality, employment opportunities and the encouragement of equality in gender in all walks of life. In addition, the European took a tremendous move in combining democratic ideas and human rights into its policies that were external with implementation of the Treaty on the European Union in November 1993. The implementation of the Treaty of Amsterdam in May 1999 is a sign of another noteworthy step towards adding human rights into the legal order

Evangelism Vision Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Evangelism Vision - Research Paper Example These words were a direct command from Jesus to the then disciples and all those who would come into the Kingdom later, in order to mobilize His followers into all parts of the world in fulfillment of His promise when He called His first disciples to follow Him and He would make them fishers of men, Mark 1:17. Wherever I am, I have realized that it is a command from Christ who I have accepted as my Lord, to make Him known to the people around me, a duty that Jesus has delegated to all members of the church which is His body.2 As can be noted from the Bible, Jesus started His mission on earth with evangelism, Mark 1:38b where once He told disciples,’ that I may preach there also, for therefore came I forth’, and ended it with evangelism when He gave His followers the great commission. This shows the great importance that He attaches to the redemption of man, also saying in Luke 19:10 that He came to seek and to save that which was lost. I have also learnt that my changed life as a Christian is very crucial to the success of my evangelistic endeavor. Many Christians undertake the call to make disciples or evangelize just like passing on information, but a dying world will like to witness the change that has taken place in a Christian’s life after embracing the gospel.3 Jesus was confident enough to tell His followers to learn of Him, Mathew 11:29 and so was Paul the Apostle who said, â€Å"Be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example.† A changed lifestyle will have much greater effect than a sermon of many words because the impact can be clearly seen. Paul talked about a time when people will have’ a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof’, when their lives, which will not have been changed by what they profess, 2Timothy 3:5. While it is very vital to share the correct message of the gospel which is in line with the word of God, it is very crucial that the information passed on is validated by my changed and consistent way of life. Evangelism has been taken by many Christians to be a Spiritual gift that has been given to a few select individuals, contrary to what the Bible teaches. While some people may be endowed with gifts that may help them to evangelize in a better way, the evangelistic call is for all members of the church. As Christians realize that evangelism is not just about sharing the good news, but about an aspect to be embraced as a lifestyle by every believer, there were be much more effective witnessing. It is not also an aspect that is to be done by a certain kind of personality, but is one that God has assigned to every member of the body of Christ, since as we share the message of redemption in the power of the Holy Ghost, the results are left to God according to John 6; 44, which states that no man can come to God unless drawn by God Himself. As we also study Ephesians 4 verse 11-12, the five fold ministry has been given by Christ to prepare the Church for the works of service. Christians are equipped by those endowed with these ministry

What is Confucius' concept of good government and the ideal state Essay

What is Confucius' concept of good government and the ideal state - Essay Example It mainly aimed at assisting leaders maintain local order, keep tradition, and maintaining a steady living standard for peasants. Those who adhered to this school got training in loyalty, traditional rituals, and generosity 1(Bell, 2008). In addition, the school taught respect for the old and superiors. Confucius honored the ancient ways of life, which he encouraged his students to master. For example, he urged them to read the Book of Documents as well as the Book of changes. His philosophy included embracing Chinese values, which included proper performance of traditional rituals 1(Bell, 2008). Confucius proposed that proper governance could be established by embracing virtue and benevolence. He emphasized that the leader had to be good; this way, people would follow what is right. Therefore, he taught that leaders should be excellent examples to the subjects to enhance the creating of a true empire. The Confucius concept advanced that all the posts in the government had to be 1based on righteousness and virtue. As a result, the ruled class, seeing their leaders as upright and benevolent, would also become upright. Therefore, this concept states that an ideal state should have leaders whose virtues can be emulated by those they rule. 2(Bell, 2008) In his book, Bell argues that the Confucius concept of good governance and the ideal state has three essential doctrines. The first doctrine of this concept is benevolence, which Confucius regarded as something people have to cultivate in themselves. Enlightened self interest plays a key role in approaching benevolence. For governance to succeed, leaders have to put themselves in the position of those they rule. State leaders should treat other people accordingly. To this concept, benevolence entails doing unto others what one would like them to do to him or herself. Thus, this concept places emphasis on the need for benevolence and treating

Has the Criminal Justice Act 2003 effectively removed the rule against Essay

Has the Criminal Justice Act 2003 effectively removed the rule against the admission of hearsay evidence - Essay Example Discussion The Criminal Justice Act 2003 states, as a general rule, that hearsay inadmissible. Section 114 (1) states that â€Å"in criminal proceedings a statement not made in oral in evidence is admissible as evidence of any matter stated if, but only if,† then it goes on to outline four different exceptions.1 One exception is for when any provision, whether in this chapter or in any other statute makes the statement admissible.2 Another exception is when â€Å"any rule of law preserved by section 118 makes it admissible.3 The other exception is when the parties agree to the admissibility of the statement.4 The fourth and final exception is when â€Å"the court is satisfied that it is in the best interest of justice for it to be admissible.†5 Further, the Act carves out exceptions for when a witness is unavailable. In this case, hearsay is admissible if the statement that the unavailable witness would give would be deemed admissible as evidence;6 the person who made the statement has been identified to the satisfaction of the court;7 and that the witness is unavailable according to five different criteria.8 The criteria are that the witness must either be dead, unfit, outside the UK, cannot be found, or is in fear.9 More problematic are the categories that state that a judge can use his or her discretion in deciding whether to admit the statement, and when the witness is unavailable. When the witness is unavailable, then the defendant cannot cross-examine the witness. This would be fundamentally unfair to the defendant. A prosecutor should make every effort to bring witnesses into court so that he or she may be cross-examined, and the statutory provisions that are used for determining whether a witness is unavailable seem too broad. One of the provisions states that a witness may be unavailable because of fear. â€Å"Fear†in this case may either be fear for that person’s life or another person’s life, or it may be fear of f inancial loss. It seems that it would be too simple for a witness to use this excuse. Most witnesses have jobs, and these jobs are not always understanding about having to take off of word to testify. Therefore, the witness can state that he or she is unavailable because of fear of financial loss, and then that witness’ statement can be introduced as evidence against the defendant, without the defendant being able to cross-examine. This rule seems to be weighted in favor of the prosecution, because it seems that virtually any witness can be unavailable under this particular section of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. Further, if the witness cannot be on the stand because the trial occurs on a workday, and that person could be fired, then it should be the prosecutor’s responsibility to have secured the statement, through a deposition, on a date that was convenient for the witness. This exception does not put the responsibility on the prosecutor to secure the statement, so this is another flaw. Moreover, although the court has guidelines as to when it can accept a statement under these conditions, these guidelines are rather vague. The judge may accept the statement if the statement should be â€Å"admitted in the interests of justice,†

Trouble With The Terrorist Watch List Database Case Study

Trouble With The Terrorist Watch List Database - Case Study Example For example, airlines utilize information provided by the system of TSA in their lists of selectee and NoFly for passengers prescreening, whereas the customs of U.S and protection systems of borders utilize the watch list data to aid passengers entering the US. Efficient and effective management of data resources is increasingly crucial in this case. Similarly, no policy information has been created to demonstrate the rules of spreading, obtaining, standardizing, categorizing, and sharing information as well as information inventorying, (United States, 2008). Administration of data tends to be poor, and governance of data that would assist companies manages data availability, utility, security and integrity are poor. Government regulations would assist enhances privacy, quality of data, government compliance, and security of data. Additionally, quality of data audits and cleansing are extremely required to reduce the irregularities of number of records counts, number of duplicated r ecords, and number of records without data fields and clear origins. 2. Reasons for creation of consolidated terror watch list and the advantages of the list It was established in reaction to criticisms that various agencies of government were keeping separate lists and that such sectors had no consistent process of crucial information sharing about their people on each list of agency.

Branding of a City in the 21st Century Coursework - 1

Branding of a City in the 21st Century - Coursework Example While the consumer's awareness of a brand, and the reasons for choosing an associated product may depend on various factors including peer reference, peer approval, or other social factors beyond the direct control of the brand's investor, the brand's marketing mix is definitely within the investor's control, and something that demands big budget investment. Therefore, investor's and researchers are always concerned about the actual effects and results of marketing components including advertisement, sales promotions, and company emblems - upon the consumer's perception and their consequence upon brand equity. In the last decade, a lot of research has been dedicated to conceptualizing and measuring customer-based brand equity. However, apart from putting forth various influencing factors, no integrative framework has so far been developed to account for the complex psychological processes underlying the formation of customer-based brand equity. This has strong implications as far as message processing and persuasion in tourism and city image is concerned. The modern day consumers' decision making as far a choice of a brand remains widely unquestioned as far as practical observations and research go. This is especially true of city branding whether it is for tourists or for possible settlers. There are a variety of models to conceptualize and measure "brand equity" in order to explain how brand equity is generated in the consumer's mind in terms of images of cities. These models consist of a thorough analysis of each factor that influences the decision making process as well as several synoptic approaches examining the influence of different variables on brand equity are available (Kotler, 1997 , p. 443). This promotes a deeper understanding of the elements of brand identity for cities as this is a fairly new phenomenon that has sprung from the advent of globalization. The elements of the brand equity in this regard have been studied from the perspective of case studies so as to understand the perception management elements that go in to creating an image for a city. (Kaplanidou et al, 2003) Brand Identity is that element of perception management and awareness in a city's image, which has its focus in the results of a

Pre and Post M&a Performance in Accounting Ratio Essay Example for Free

Pre and Post Ma Performance in Accounting Ratio Essay There are loads of tools to measure the performance of a financial performance of an entity but financial ratios is probably the best known tool which is mainly to analyze the performance of an entity by comparing the present to the past relative figures taken or composed from the financial statement . The few categories of ratios are liquidity ratios, profitability ratios, efficiency ratios, debt ratios and market ratios which will be able to describe the entity’s characteristics. Ratios show the true performance and position of the entity. In order for investors to determine their choices of entity to invest in, financial ratios play an important role in providing sufficient information to users about the entity’s characteristic. We predict that companies are performing better after merger and acquisition and there will be an increase in profit of companies pre merger and acquisition compare to post merger and acquisition activities. However, the global merger and acquisition (MA) market is expected to experience a modest increase this year following significant revisions in earnings expectation for 2009. Studies relatively prove that ratios are important but which ratios, among the loads of ratios which can be computed easily from the available financial statement, should be used to analyze to obtain a wise decision (Kung Thomas, 1981); (Maretno Howard, 1996). Problem statement Accounting ratios usage in merger acquisition are not understood very well as to whether companies or investors are using accounting ratios to analyze performance pre and post decision making for MA. Therefore, this study will try to find out as to whether merger and acquisition activities are caused by the use of accounting ratio when management tries to expand a company’s operation. Accounting ratios is wide in variety and is known for its diversities in calculating different ratios, which makes selecting the right ratio to do analysis on is difficult. Every company when making merger and acquisition decisions will have to go through different decision making process in their organization and not based solely on accounting ratios when taking actions. Things such as relationship of merging companies, financing matter or management efficiency are often overlooked in previous studies, therefore, apart from addressing the use of accounting ratio in making merger and acquisition , we will also address on other matters that are affecting merger and acquisition decision making. Companies that have made merger and acquisition in the few years will be analyzed whether merger and acquisition has benefitted the company. This analysis will have to be based on companies that have made merger and acquisition for few years so that analysis could be made to ascertain whether merger and acquisition has improved the company’s performance. The data that is collected could be redundant as the data collected could only be analyzed from the past. Apart from that, companies that are engaged in merger and acquisition will tend to keep their methods in acquiring companies as a secret; therefore, there is no information that will be disclosed to us when we are doing research. We will only be able to get information based on announcement on the Bursa Saham Malaysia and also annual report analysis on the companies that we will base our study on. Based solely on the annual report, we will have to analyze companies that have been engaged in merger and acquisition is perfor ming better as a company before merger and acquisition or after merger and acquisition. Studies that have addressed the problem Several past studies have shown several findings. There were significant improvements in the liquidity, leverage and profitability position of most studied companies. Normally, total assets consist of equity, debt and retained earnings to finance the corporation. In the study, it was found that total assets were always less than the debt plus equity for pre acquisition period, but after acquisition, it is positive. All the units selected for the study were sick, but after takeover five out of eight revived (Rao Sanker, 1997). The acquiring firms had performed above the industry average and the acquired firms were below the industry average in term of size and profitability (Cosh et al., 1998). The firms recorded meaningful increase in their net earnings, and those with the successful merger of the firms, the return on capital employed and return on total assets, increased substantially with a significant percentage. The variability in the earnings (risk) of the pre-merger firms was significantly higher than that of post-merger firms (Agundu Karibo, 1999). Pilloff (1996) finds no significant change in post merger ROE, however, when he utilizes operating income before provision instead of net income to calculate ROE, there is a significant increase in post-merger returns. Deficiencies in studies Unfortunately, most studies do not distinguish between healthy and troubled companies due to the relative scarcity of outright failures as an indicator of the latter. Data are not readily available to every person and critical data is only available to top level management, which causes analysis on company performance not accurate. Accounting ratios usage in studies are not standardized for number of ratios used and types of ratios used, making comparisons of this study to previous studies almost impossible. Some of the studies only find out accounting ratio performance before and after merger and acquisition, but they did not take into account the management performance improvement. Importance of the study Basically, the compelling reason for merger and acquisition is to make more money. This study analyses the pre and post performance in accounting ratio of various entities in Malaysia which involved in merger and acquisition. Therefore, it seeks to contribute to entities which look forward to expand their businesses by merging and acquiring entities in order to broaden their sources and to increase their performance as well as position of the entity. This study also justifies the importance of financial ratios as a tool in decision making for most users to merge and acquire entities. Besides that, this study further proves that financial ratios could be used to speculate and estimate the future of the entity’s development and growth by developing ratio values to be compared with the normal or regular value. Furthermore, the global merger and acquisition market is expected to experience a modest increase this year following significant revisions in earnings expectation for 2009. According to KPMG International’s Global merger and acquisition Predictor, modest increases are expected in both deal-making appetite and capacity globally. Therefore, it is hoped that the result of this study is valuable to entities for the purpose of merging and acquiring. Purpose statement The purpose of this study is to determine whether financial ratios contribute to the decision in merging and acquiring another entity. For this purpose, we analyze the performance of the entity before and after merging or acquisition of the holding or parent entity across industries to identify the status of the performance and position of the entity currently. We would have to identify the entity’s characteristics in terms of their operating and accounting performance by comparing to their values before the merger and acquisition. In our analysis, we also focus on the use financial ratios as a mechanism to compare the pre and post-acquisition performance. Furthermore, we also use financial ratio to predict the performance of the acquired entity as well as the growth of the entity. Organization of the study The rest of the research is organized into chapters as follows. Chapter 2 review about the literature regarding the accounting ratio performance before and after merger and acquisition would be provided. The topic and the arguments from researchers will be discussed. Justification of the research objectives would be provided with all the relevant literatures. Chapter 3 describes and provides detailed explanation on the method used in collecting the relevant data, the desired sample design, appropriate methodology employed in this study and also the data analysis method. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction In this chapter, further discussion on the topic will be done based on prior empirical studies and a derivation of hypothesis will be done. To be able to evaluate the post and pre merger and acquisition deal by companies in Malaysia, a concept is to be conceived with prior literature that is related to the performance of firms that has been acquiring other firms. 2.1 Theory/Concept Foundation Shareholders of a corporation that is involved in Merger Acquisition activity would like to see their value of stock in the acquiring corporation to rise post-MA compared to pre-MA. Therefore, it is important that an MA transaction done with the shareholders in mind, this theory of maximizing shareholder value is fairly new as it is introduced by William Lazonick and Mary O’Sullivan in year 2000. Shareholder value should be used regularly when decisions are made to be able to regulate how a company operates for the sake of the shareholders. For a shareholder to have his value increased, all the activities from the factory workers to top level management should work together to find the best way to increase the value of the company. To increase shareholder value, restructuring of companies are needed to be able to sustain the changing economic climate according to time development. Evaluation of companies performance will be done to ensure shareholders value do increase post-M A. From the theory we could derive that performance of a company depends on the value that they would like to preserve for their shareholders. For every shareholder that would like to expand the company operation and size, they will have to be able to provide funds for the company in the form of investment. Apart from that, trend evolution plays a part in a merging or acquisition decision. An acquirer may look at the performance of the company that they are trying to takeover. The acquirers look at the financial feasibility of acquiring the company on the share price and value for money. If a value is low, they will be able to takeover the company at a lower price. And it is known that MA deals are done so that a company could expand into a new market segment or improve their current segment. Apart from that, it should be noted that there are several types of mergers and acquisition. It should be noted that firms that are acquiring are larger if not significantly larger than the acquired firms. 2.2 Review of Prior Empirical Studies Life cycle of a firm will accelerate the need for MA deals as firms grew older, they could be expanding their size and because of this, and MA will be done to be able to involve themselves into different segments of businesses. According to (Sian Owen Alfred Yawson, 2008), they propose that in certain life cycle of a company, they will engage in some kind of MA activities. This is because there is a need to grow their company or to decrease the involvement of the owner by giving up the power of the company to another firm. Therefore, it should be noted that companies will go through MA at different life cycle to develop their performance even further or simply to pull out of the company ownership. The data that they use to examine this is based in the US, therefore, it may be not practical to be used here, but this is an opportunity for us to examine the life cycle factor in the pre and post MA performance figure. The main objective for merger and acquisition activities is to increase the return of the equity shareholders who are considered real owners of the company. Shareholders are also takes the responsibilities to bear maximum risk of the company. Different impact (positive, negative and mix) either success or failure will occur for different MA deals. Since we cannot make any conclusion based on only one ratio. So, different ratio are using in this article to measure the company performance in term of liquidity position, operating efficiency, overall efficiency, return to equity shareholders and financial composition. By looking at single ratio, it is hard for researcher to determine whether acquirer company success or failure to make MA deals? Because a high rate of return showed on acquiree company such as consulting firms doesn’t means they make a good investments, since they require no assets. There are more than half of the 74 merger and acquisition cases showed an improvement in the financial performance in post time period of this article. However, 15% out of these cases had increase their working capital and debt to equity, which means that the company suffer long term financial burden of current assets and long terms funds which use to finance current assets. Small sample size was used by this researcher. Although there are 200 deals of MA in India but only 74 companies can provide the available financial data which require by researcher. So, there was reliable issue of this research outcome. Except ratio, there are many issues must be takes into consideration by making MA decision such as by predicting future prospects, company past performance, law and regulations of the country which can help to reach a better conclusion. So researcher can’t make exact and absolute conclusion by only interpret financial ratio of company (Kumar and Bansal, 2008). Those are significant difference between merger and acquisition. Misleading conclusions may be made by those researchers who combined these two different terms. Acquisitions is a more successful way to bring positive effects to the company compared with mergers in term of generate greater profitability, return on investment or equity, increased in operating performance, etc. This might due to the way the merger or acquire. Acquirer may acquire a small division, patent or the company which use for the purpose of strategic alliances and value added to current business. In contrary, merges activities become less attractive to the potential shareholder due to reduce return or shareholder wealth or even negative return and decrease in profitability or even suffer losses of the company (Hassan, Patro, Tuckman Wang, 2007). The theoretical models of liquidity stresses the degree of trading stock, adverse selection, stock volatility, and competitiveness of market making (Lipson Mortal, 2007). According to the prior review, the degree of trading interest in a stock has a positive relationship with the level of trading activity. Therefore, the fixed trading costs can be spread out over a larger number of trades. The adverse selection cost incurs when negative action is taken to counter an adverse situation of trades. For example, if stock traders have relatively more information compare to the liquidity providers, liquidity providers will recover their losses from trading with better informed counterparts by increasing their average revenue. Stock volatility affects the trading cost positively as well. When stocks are more volatile, the holding cost of the stock would be relatively higher and the cost would be passed on to buyers when being traded. The competitiveness of market making affects the trading cost negatively. When the market makers are less competitive, the increase in competition will reduce the trading cost. Besides that, the firm’s characteristics also affect the accounting ratio after MA. Prior studies noted that MA increases the liquidity of firms on average but the improvements are fully explained by the accompanying changes in firm characteristics (Lipson Mortal, 2007). Firm characteristics such as sizes of the firm, volume and number of shareholders are taken into consideration in prior studies. Relatively larger firms will have greater trading interest since more positions are offered in the firm. Benston and Hangerman (1974) also acknowledge the effect of firm size and volume to MA. Therefore, the sizes of the firm are expected to affect the decision MA of a firm. The increase in adverse selection can be seen in Heflin and Shaw (2000) where they argue that the effect of a blockholder ownership is a result of superior blockholder information. The results are consistent with the results in Lipson and Mortal (2007). Past studies document that larger firms tend to be followed by a greater number of market makers (Wahal, 1997), which he attributes to increased compe tition among market makers. Also derived in Lipson and Mortal (2007), the increased in market making reduces order processing cost, hence reducing trading cost. According to (Arturo Bris, Neil Brisley, Christos Cabolis 2008), MA is done following the corporate governance decision as legal rules or accounting standard. The countries difference in degree of investor protection as well as firm value, ownership structure. When we are merger and acquisition usually adopts the accounting standards. This implies that, the corporate in a country can adopt difference level of investor protect. If corporate governance have set the legal rules then the corporate follow it. Therefore, the corporate investments losses or change operation performance. The legal rule can protect shareholder and investors so that they will not have legal liabilities. The corporate governance quality is follow shareholder protection and accounting standard when we are merger and acquisition can test corporate worsening and preserving acquisitions. If we are test pre merger and acquisition performance not efficiency then corporate governance quality also will not good. The corporation will easy give large corporate takeover or the corporation will bankrupt. However, the corporation operation quality good will not let large corporate takeover the firm. The corporate governance quality well can enhance merger and acquisition value and good performance. According to Holger Breinlich (2008), merger and acquisition become industrial restructuring after trade liberalization. It is can increase merger and acquisition activities and merger and acquisition transferred resource from less to more productive firms. It is because pre corporation not efficiency performance source make it loss. Therefore, after merger and acquisition the corporate efficiency performance source make it earning profit and improvement the corporate. Merger and acquisition not just to transfer source, it is also can qualitatively difference from other adjust form. Before merger and acquisition is not well make the workers becoming unemployed and also will make economic recession. When new ownership takeover the corporate then worker has working already and economic also will slowly become good. However, the larger corporate takeovers corporate better the corporate bankrupt and as such no need face unnecessary legal restriction. From the past studies, Letho and Lehtoranta (2004) study that MA synergies can be realized by owing unique technology and knowledge and then transferring these intangibles to the target firm. The industrial organization (IO) literature states that both horizaontal and industry-diversifying acquisitions might affect RD. When firms are active in the line of business, economies of scale in RD input can be occurred because of MAs. Besides, value can created also by MAs from uniting complementary know-how (Cassiman B, Colombo M, Garrone P, Veugelers R, 2003). Similarly, intangibles could matter in domestic as well as cross-border takeover (Kang and Johansson, 2000). The ratio of intangible assets (goodwill paid in earlier MAs has to be minus first) to total assets is used to examine these ideas. The financial synergies are realized by looking at the capital structure of potential acquirers. The idea is that when firms relying heavily on bank loans, it is risky to the firm and also acquirers will have less interest on the firm. Therefore, firms that relying heavily on bank loans will quickly seek to reduce their overall risk and recognize a lower cost of capital by engaging in industry-diversifying and in cross-border MAs. Indeed, cost of capital can be reduced when cash flows from target and bidders are not highly correlated. Besides, additional borrowing capacity post-MA can be created and this is a good performance for a firm after MA. If stock prices of a firm are down, the takeover of a firm can constitute a bargain relative to investing in new facilities in order to recover from scratch. Furthermore, the valuation of private targets is lower once stock market sentiment is down, through the use of a lower multiples or higher risk premium when valuing target stock. This under-valuation hypothesis suggests that stock prices and MA decisions are negatively related. In contrast, soaring stock prices can facilitate the financing of MAs in which they using bidder stock to pay for these deals. When firms consider that their stock to be over-valued, they tend to issue new shares (Shleifer and Vishny, 2003). There will be positive relationship between stock prices and external growth. However, the positive relationship may be difficult to observe when a sample is dominated by private enterprises. This is also because of those non-listed bidder stock is unwilling to be accepted by target investors. The average market-wide price earnings (P/E) ratio at the MA announcement date is used to capture stock market conditions, given that private firms dominate the sample. 2.3 Hypothesis Development The first hypothesis comes from our own assumption to examine how does a company perform post-MA compared to pre-MA. The assumption is that a company could perform better in the form of ratios because their capital has increased due to increase in non current assets. If a company obtains another company through MA, it is expected that they have certain amount of capital available to expand their firm size; therefore, there will be increase in capital in the form of ROE and ROA ratios once a firm is engaged in MA activities. H º =After MA, there will be increase in ratios of ROE and ROA H ¹=Before MA, asset ROA and ROE are higher From previous study of (Moeller, Schlingemann Stulz, 2004), it is known that they examined for the below hypothesis in their research. And this hypothesis will be tested in Malaysia context so that we will be able to measure the level of performance compared to the size of the firm. H º=Small firm perform better after MA H ¹=Acquirer’s firm perform worse after MA 2.4 Model/Framework Negative relationship Positive Relationship As proposed, the relationship between pre-MA is a negative relationship to the ratio. And it should be lower than post-MA ratio as after MA activities, the ratio should increase and higher. Positive relationship Negative relationship As proposed, the larger firm will adapt less well after MA compared to smaller firm. Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Design The research will be carried out as an explanatory study. This study method is used for our research because this study will explain how MA affects performance of a company. The design will be carried out by using pair sample T-Test testing the relationship of the variables of performance of the company and the pre and post MA activities. The research will be carried out to test whether an MA activity does increase the performance of a company or it does not accelerate the activity of the company. Archival research will be used thoroughly to understand the improvement or deterioration in the firms post-MA compared to pre-MA. 3.2 Population, Sample and Sampling Procedure For our research for MA companies in Malaysia, a census will be conducted as it is expected that there are only several hundreds of companies that have conducted MA locally. The census data will be collected by using the Bursa Malaysia website via manual search and the usage of Osiris database. Therefore, the data will be collected through these 2 ways. 3.3 Data Collection Method As it is said, the data to be used will be secondary data. Documentary secondary data will be collected and used throughout this research. The data will be consisted of written materials which are companies’ annual reports. The annual report will be compiled based on the activities that are involved by the respective companies with a view that MA deals are conducted by the company within the years of investigation which range from year 2001 to 2005. References Rao, K.V., Sanker, K.R. (1997). Takeover as a Strategy of Turnaround. UTI edited book. Cosh, A., Hughes, A., Lee, K., Singh, A. (1998). â€Å"Takeovers, institutional investment and the persistence of profits†, in Begg, I. and Henry, S.G.B. (Eds), Applied Economics and Public Policy, Department of Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Agundu, P.C., Karibo, N.O. (1999). â€Å"Risk analysis in corporate mergers decisions in developing economies†. Journal of Financial Management and Analysis, 12(2), 13-17. Moeller, S.B., Schlingemann, F.P., Stulz, R.M. (2004). â€Å"Firm size and the gains from acquisitions†. Journal of Financial Economics, 73, 201-28. Pilloff, S.J. (1996). 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