Ethical reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ethical reflection - Essay Example For example, the case of physician-assisted suicide must be understood. Religious beliefs may go against this, but people must understand that sometimes it becomes crucial for the physicians to make the patient die with dignity and peace rather than leave him die in distress. People confuse negative rights with positive ones, as we see that the patient’s family insists upon occupying the waiting room on religious grounds. On the other hand, the importance of spiritual, religious and cultural beliefs can also not be denied, since these beliefs form the basis of a national or cultural identity which cannot be compromised upon. Hence, a middle path must be sorted out that satisfies both the medical considerations of the case and the spiritual/religious/cultural beliefs linked to it, just like Buryska (120) states, â€Å"The ethical principles that must be balanced are respect for autonomy (the wishes of the patient) and beneficence (the physician’s judgment of what is bes t for the

SWOT Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

SWOT Analysis - Research Paper Example The airline is known for embracing inventive technology to advance the client experience. The company traces its origins back to 1932; an amalgamation with Star Air service in the year 1934 established the biggest airline in Alaska, which ultimately became Alaska Airlines. Contrasting the rest of the economy, Alaska has been experiencing increasing important revenues from oil dealings and tourism. Air travel is Alaska’s largest type of transportation due to the natural features of the region and weather. Alaska has above one thousand airports along with 3000 avenues of landing. The airline immensely contributes to the state’s economy through air travel because Alaskan travels constitute a large percentage of overall air travelers in the United States. Alaska Airlines is committed towards offering convenient, quality and affordable air transport services to its clients as well as service to the state, nation and vast society. Values of commitment, ethics, integrity and q uality govern the operations of the airline company and are the reasons behind its huge successes. II. Organizational Strengths and Weaknesses Alaska Airlines has a strong and reliable customer base in Alaska State, where it is a dominant player. This is among the strengths that the airline company has in the sense that the company can rely on its vast customer base to expand and introduce new products, which will be readily acceptable in the market (Gates, 2006). A strong customer base is a distinctive strength because it positions a corporation so that it can operate in the market better. Customers are the essence of any company, and a reliable pool of customers who are loyal to a company is good for the firm. Therefore, Alaska airlines can benefit from its large customer base by expanding its operation to serve other regions and countries as well as introducing new services and products. In fact, the most credible significance of this strength is that Alaska airlines can utilize customer feedback to launch its strategies and products. Alaska Airlines is a huge contributor to the economy of Alaska State – this could be another major strength of the company in the sense that it endears the airline company to the government. As a result, the airline can obtain better services. It can be considered a distinctively competent strength because it can propel the company to greater heights in the market. For instance, the airline can benefit from government support in line with its great contribution to the economy. Alaska airline has several weaknesses, which ought to be addressed to avoid any inconveniences in the process of its business operations. The airline relies so much on the geographical and climate conditions, and a majority of its customers hail from the state of Alaska. This is considered as a weakness because should other airline companies venture into Alaska, the company may lose its market share, which is primarily based in Alaska. The organiz ation can minimize this weakness by expanding into other states and countries (Ritcher & Pahl, 2009). The strategy of Alaska Airlines is targeting the passenger traffic as an indicator of its corporate success. This is considered a weakness because it could trigger an organizational failure due to lack of broader strategic planning. In essence, passenger traffic is not

Load Balancing as an Optimization Problem: GSO Solution

Load Balancing as an Optimization Problem: GSO Solution METHODOLOGY INTRODUCTION In this chapter, we presented a novel methodology which considers load balancing as an optimization problem. A stochastic approach, Glowworm swarm optimization (GSO) is employed to solve the above mentioned optimization problem. In the proposed method, excellent features of various existing load balancing algorithms as discussed chapter 2 are also integrated. PROPOSED METHODOLOGY There are numerous cloud computing categories. This work mainly focuses on a public cloud. A public cloud is based on the typical cloud computing model, and its services provided by service provider [42]. A public cloud will comprises of several nodes and the nodes are in different physical locations. Cloud is partitioned to manage this large cloud. A cloud consists of several cloud partition with each partition having its own load balancer and there is a main controller which manage all these partition. 3.2.1 Job Assignment Strategy Algorithm for assigning the jobs to cloud partition as shown in Fig. 2 Step 1: jobs arrive at the main controller Step 2: choosing the cloud partition Step 3: if cloud partition state is idle or normal state then Step 4: jobs arrive at the cloud partition balancer. Step 5: assigning the jobs to particular nodes based on the strategy. Figure 3.1: Flowchart of Proposed Job Assignment Strategy. Load Balancing Strategy In cloud, Load Balancing is a technique to allocate workload over one or more servers, network boundary, hard drives, or other total resources. Representative datacenter implementations depends on massive, significant computing hardware and network communications, which are subject to the common risks linked with any physical device, including hardware failure, power interruptions and resource limits in case of high demand. High-quality of load balance will increase the performance of the entire cloud.Though, there is no general procedure that can work in all possible different conditions. There are several method have been employed to solve existing problem. Each specific method has its merit in a specific area but not in all circumstances. Hence, proposed model combines various methods and interchanges between appropriate load balance methods as per system status. Here, the idle status uses an Fuzzy Logic while the normal status uses a global swarm optimization based load balancing strategy. Load Balancing using Fuzzy Logic When the status of cloud partition is idle, several computing resources are free and comparatively few jobs are receiving. In these circumstances, this cloud partition has the capability to process jobs as fast as possible so an effortless load balancing method can be used. Zadeh [12] proposed a fuzzy set theory in which the set boundaries were not precisely defined, but in fact boundaries were gradational. Such a set is characterized by continuum of grades of membership function which allocates to each object a membership grade ranging from zero to one [12]. A new load balancing algorithm based on Fuzzy Logic in Virtualized environment of cloud computing is implemented to achieve better processing and response time. The load balancing algorithm is implemented before it outstretch the processing servers the job is programmed based on various input parameters like assigned load of Virtual Machine (VM) and processor speed. It contains the information in each Virtual machine (VM) and numbers of request currently assigned to VM of the system. Therefore, It recognize the least loaded machine, when a user request come to process its job then it identified the first least loaded machine and process user request but in case of more than one least loaded machine available, In that case, we tried to implement the new Fuzzy logic based load balancing technique, where the fuzzy logic is very natural like human language by which we can formulate the load balancing problem. The fuzzification process is carried out by fuzzifier that transforms two types of input data like assigned load and processor speed of Virtual Machine (VM) and one output as balanced load which are required in the inference system shown in figure 3.2, figure 3.3 and figure 3.4 respectively. By evaluating the load and processor speed in virtual machine in our proposed work like two input parameters to produce the better value to equalize the load in cloud environment, fuzzy logic is used. These parameters are taken for inputs to the fuzzifier, which are needed to estimate the balanced load as output as shown in figure 3.4. Figure 3.2: Membership input function of Processor Speed Figure 3.3: Membership input function of Assigned Load Figure 3.3: Membership output function of Balanced Load To affiliate the outputs of the inferential rules [13] , low-high inference method is employed. A number of IF-THEN rules are determined by making use of the rule-based fuzzy logic to get the output response with given input conditions, here the rule is comprised from a set of semantic control rules and the supporting control objectives in the system. If (processor_speed is low) and (assigned_load is least) then (balanced_load is medium) If (processor_speed is low) and (assigned_load is medium) then (balanced_load is low) If (processor_speed is low) and (assigned_load is high) then (balanced_load is low) If (processor_speed is Medium) and (assigned_load is least) then (balanced_load is high) If (processor_speed is Medium) and (assigned_load is medium) then (balanced_load is medium) If (processor_speed is Medium) and (assigned_load is high) then (balanced_load is low) If (processor_speed is high) and (assigned_load is least) then (balanced_load is high) If (processor_speed is high) and (assigned_load is medium) then (balanced_load is medium) If (processor_speed is high) and (assigned_load is high) then (balanced_load is medium) If (processor_speed is very_high) and (assigned_load is least) then (balanced_load is high) If (processor_speed is very_high) and (assigned_load is medium) then (balanced_load is high) If (processor_speed is very_high) and (assigned_load is high) then (balanced_load is medium) As shown above, there are 12 potential logical output response conclusions in our proposed work. The Defuzzification is the method of changing fuzzy output set into a single value and the smallest of minimum (SOM) procedure is employed for the defuzzification. The total sum of a fuzzy set comprises a range of output values that are defuzzified in order to decode a single output value. Defuzzifier embraces the accumulated semantic values from the latent fuzzy control action and produces a non-fuzzy control output, which enacts the balanced load associated to load conditions. The defuzzification process is used to evaluate the membership function for the accumulated output. The algorithm-1 is defined to manage the load in Virtual machine of cloud computing as follows: Begin Request_to_resource() L1 If (resource free) Begin Estimate connection_string() Select fuzzy_rulebase() Return resource End Else Begin If (Anymore resource found) Select_next_resource() Go to L1 Else Exit End End The proposed algorithm starts with request a connection to resource. It tests for availability of resource. It Calculate the connection strength if the resource found. Then select the connection, which is used to access the resource as per processor speed and load in virtual machine using fuzzy logic. Load Balancing using GSO (Glowworm Swarm Optimization) When the status of cloud partition is normal, tasks arrives with faster rate compare to idle state and the condition becomes more complex, thus a novel strategy is deployed for load balancing. Each user desired his job in the shortest time; as a result the public cloud requires a strategy that can finish the job of all users with adequate response. In this optimization algorithm, each glowworm i is distributed in the objective function definition space [14]. These glowworms transfer own luciferin values and have the respective scope called local-decision range . As the glow searches in the local-decision range for the neighbor set, in the neighbor set, glow attracted to the neighbor with brightest glow. That is glow selects neighbor whose luciferin value greater than its own, and the flight direction will change each time different will change with change in selected neighbor. Each glowworm encodes the object function value at its current location into luciferin value and advertises the same within its neighborhood. The neighbor’s set of glowworm comprises of those glowworms that have comparatively a higher luciferin value and that are situated within a dynamic decision range and their movements are updated by equation (8) at each iteration. Local-decision range update: (8) and is the glowworm local-decision range at the iteration, is the sensor range, is the neighbourhood threshold, the parameter generates the rate of change of the neighborhood range. Local-decision range consist of the following number of glow: (9) and, is the glowworm position at the t iteration, is the glowworm luciferin at the iteration.; the set of neighbours of glowworm comprises of those glowworms that have a comparatively higher luciferin value and that are situated within a dynamic decision range whose range is defined above by a circular sensor range Each glowworm as given in equation (10), i elects a neighbor j with a probability and process toward it as: Probability distribution used to select a neighbor: (10) Movement update: (11) Luciferin-update: (12) and is a luciferin value of glowworm at each iteration, leads to the reflection of the accumulative goodness of the path . This path is followed by the glowworms in their ongoing luciferin values, the parameter only ascends the function fitness values, is the value of test function. In this optimization algorithm, each glowworm is distributed in the objective function definition space [43]. These glowworms transfer own luciferin values and have the respective scope called local-decision range . As the glow searches in the local-decision range for the neighbor set, in the neighbor set, glow attracted to the neighbor with brightest glow. That is glow selects neighbor whose luciferin value greater than its own, and the flight direction will change each time different will change with change in selected neighbor. Figure 3.4 shows the flowchart of GSO algorithm. In the context of load balancing for cloud computing GSO algorithm check the status of the server simultaneously if it is free. For example a user wants to download a file size of 50 MB. It checks by iteration if user gets entered in server, it gets the message as achieve target. Figure 3.4: Flowchart of GSO Analysis of the Accrual Anomaly | Accounting Dissertation Analysis of the Accrual Anomaly | Accounting Dissertation Sloan (1996), in a determinative paper, added the accrual anomaly in the list of the market imperfections. Since then, academics have focused on the empirical investigation of the anomaly and the connection it has with other misspricing phenomena. The accrual anomaly is still at an embryonic stage and further research is needed to confirm the profitability of an accruals based strategy net of transaction costs. The current study investigates the accrual anomaly while taking into consideration a UK sample from 1991 to 2008. In addition, the predictive power of the Fama and French (1996) factors HML and SMB is being tested along with the industrial production growth, the dividend yield and the term structure of the interest rates. Chapter 1 Introduction Since the introduction of the random walk theory which formed the basis for the evolvement of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH hereafter) proposed by Fama (1965), the financial literature has made many advances but a piece of the puzzle that is still missing is whether the EMH holds. Undoubtedly, the aforementioned debate can be considered as one of the most fruitful and fast progressing financial debates of the last two decades. The Efficient Market Hypothesis has met many challenges regardless of which of its three forms are being investigated. However, the weak form and semi strong hypothesis have been the most controversial. A literally vast collection of academic papers discuss, explore and argue for phenomena that seem to reject that the financial markets are efficient. The famous label of â€Å"anomaly† has taken several forms. Many well-known anomalies such as the contrarian investment, the post announcement drift, the accruals anomaly and many others are just the beginning of an endless trip. There is absolutely no doubt that many more are going to be introduced and evidence for the ability for the investors to earn abnormal returns will be documented. Recently, academics try to expand their investigation on whether these well-documented anomalies are actually profitable due to several limitations (transaction costs etc) and whether the anomalies are connected. Many papers are exploring the connection of the anomalies with each other proposing the existence of a â€Å"principal† misspricing that is documented into several forms. The current study tries to look into the anomaly that was initially documented by Sloan (1996) and has been labelled as the â€Å"accrual anomaly†. The accrual anomaly can be characterised as being at an embryonic stage if the basis for comparison is the amount of publications and the dimensions of the anomaly that light has been shed on. The facts for the accrual anomaly suggest the existence of the opportunity for investors to earn abnormal returns by taking advantage of simple publicly available information. On the other hand, accruals comprising an accounting figure have been approached from different points of view with consequences visible in the results of the academic papers. Furthermore, Stark et al (2009) challenge the actual profitability of the accrual anomaly by simply taking transaction costs into consideration. The present paper employs an accrual strategy for a sample comprising of UK firms during 1991-2008. The aim is to empirically investigate the profitability of such strategies during the whole data sample. The methodology for the calculation of accruals is largely based on the paper of Hardouvelis et al (2009). Stark et al (2009) propose that the positive excess returns of the accruals’ strategy are based on the profitability of small stock. In order to investigate the aforementioned claim, the current study employs an additional strategy by constructing intersecting portfolios based on accruals and size. Finally, five variables are being investigating at the second part of the study for their predictive power on the excess returns of the constructed portfolios. The monumental paper of Fama and French (1996) documented an impressive performance of two constructed variables (the returns of portfolios named HML and SMB). In addition, the dividend yield of the FTSE all share index, the industrial production growth and the term structure of the interest rates will be investigated as they are considered as potential candidates for the prediction of stock returns. Chapter 2 Literature review 2.1. Introduction During the last century the financial world has offered many substantial advances. From the Portfolio Theory of Markowitz (1952) to the development of the Capital Asset Pricing Model of Sharpe (1964) and Lintner (1965), and from the market Efficient Market Hypothesis (hereafter EMH), developed by Fama (1965), to the recent literature that challenges both the CAPM and the EMH, they all seem to be a chain reaction.   The financial academic world aims to give difficult but important answers on whether markets are efficient and on how investors should allocate their funds. During the last two decades, many researchers have documented that there exist strategies that challenge the claim of the supporters of the efficient and complete markets. In this chapter, the effort will be focused on reviewing the financial literature from the birth of the idea of the EMH until the recent publications that confirm, reject or challenge it. In a determinative paper, Fama (1970) defined efficient markets and categorised them according to the type of information used by investors. Since then, the finance literature has offered a plethora of studies that aim to test or prove whether markets are indeed efficient or not. Well known anomalies such as the post announcement drift, the value-growth anomaly or the accruals anomaly have been the theme of many articles ever since. 2.2. Review of the value-growth anomaly We consider as helpful to review the literature for the value growth-anomaly since it was one of the first anomalies to be investigated in such an extent. In addition, the research for the value-growth anomaly has yielded a largely productive debate on whether the documented returns are due to higher risk or other source of mispricing. Basu (1970) concluded that stocks with high Earnings to Price ratio tend to outperform stocks with low E/P. Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) documented that stocks that appear to have low price to a fundamental (book value, earnings, dividends etc) can outperform stocks with high price to a fundamental measure of value. Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) initiated a productive period that aimed to settle the dispute on the EMH and investigate the causes of such â€Å"anomalies†. Thus, the aforementioned researchers sparked the debate not only on the market efficiency hypothesis but also on what are the sources for these phenomena. Fama and French (1992) supported the idea that certain stocks outperform their counterparts due to the larger risk that the investors bear. Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) supported the idea that investors fail to correctly react to information that is available to them. The same idea was supported by many researchers such as Piotroski (2001). The latter also constructed a score in order to categorise stocks with high B/M that can yield positive abnormal returns (namely, the F Score). Additionally, the â€Å"market efficiency debate â€Å"drove behavioural finance to rise in popularity. The value-growth phenomenon has yielded many articles that aim to find evidence that a profitable strategy is feasible or trace the sources of these profits but, at the same time, the main approach adopted in each study varies significantly. Asness (1997) and Daniel and Titman (1999) examine the price momentum, while Lakonishok, Sougiannis and Chan (2001) examine the impact of the value of intangible assets on security returns. In addition, researchers have found evidence that the value-growth strategies tend to be successful worldwide, as their results suggest. To name a few, Chan, Hamao and Lakonishok (1991) focused on the Japanese market, Put and Veld (1995) based their research on France, Germany and the Netherlands and Gregory, Harris and Michou (2001) examined the UK stock market. It is worth mentioning that solely the evidence of such profitable strategies could be sufficient to draw the attention of practitioners, but academics are additionally interested in exploring the main cause of these arising opportunities as well as the relationship between the aforementioned phenomena (namely, the value growth, post announcement drift and the accrual anomaly). In general, two schools of thought have been developed: the one that supports the risk based explanation or, in other words, that stocks yield higher returns simply because they are riskier, and the one that supports that investors fail to recognise the correct signs included in the available information. 2.3. The accruals anomaly 2.3.1. Introduction of the accrual anomaly. Sloan (1996) documented that firms with high (low) accruals tend to earn negative (positive) returns in the following year. Based on this strategy, a profitable portfolio that has a long position on stocks with low accruals and short position on stocks with high accruals yields approximately 10% abnormal returns. According to Sloan (1996) investors tend to overreact to information on current earnings. Sloan’s (1996) seminar paper has been characterised as a productive work that initiated an interesting to follow debate during the last decade. It is worth noting that even the very recent literature on the accrual anomaly has not reached reconciling conclusion about the main causes of this particular phenomenon and about whether a trading strategy (net of transaction costs) based solely on the mispricing of accruals can be systematically profitable. At this point it is worth mentioning that the accruals have been found to be statistically significant and negative to predict future stock returns. On the other hand, there are papers that examine the accruals and its relations with the aggregate market. A simple example is the paper published by Hirshleifer, Hou and Teoh (2007), who aim to identify the relation of the accruals, if any, with the aggregate stock market. Their findings support that while the operating accruals have been found to be a statistical significant and a negative predictor of the stock returns, the relation with the market portfolio is strong and positive. They support that the sign of the accruals coefficient varies from industry to industry reaching a peek when the High Tech industry is taken into account (1.15), and taking a negative value for the Communication and Beer/Liquor industry. 2.3.2 Evidence for the international presence of the phenomenon. Researchers that investigated the accruals anomaly followed different approaches. At this point, it is worth noting that the evidence shows the accrual anomaly (although it was first found to be present in the US market) to exist worldwide. Leippold and Lohre (2008) examine the accrual anomaly within an international framework. The researchers document that the accrual anomaly is a fact for a plethora of markets. The contribution of the paper though, is the large and â€Å"complete† number of tests used, so that the possibility of pure randomness would be eliminated. Although, similar tests showed that momentum strategies can be profitable, recent methodologies used by the researchers and proposed by Romano and Wolf (2005) and Romano, Shaikh and Wolf (2008), suggest that the accruals anomaly can be partially â€Å"random†. It is noteworthy that the additional tests make the â€Å"anomaly† to fade out for almost all the samples apart from the markets of US, Australia and Denmark. Kaserer and Klingler (2008) examine how the over-reaction of the accrual information is connected with the accounting standards applied. The researchers constructed their sample by solely German firms and their findings document that the anomaly is present in Germany too. We should mention at this point that, interestingly, prior to 2000, that is prior to the adoption of the international accounting standards by Germany, the evidence did not support the existence of the accrual anomaly. However, during 2000-2002, Kaserer and Klingler (2008) found that the market overreacted to accrual information. Hence, the authors support the idea that an additional cause of the anomaly is the lack of legal mechanisms to enforce the preparation of the financial statements according to the international accounting standards which might gave the opportunity to the firms to â€Å"manipulate† their earnings. Another paper that focuses on the worldwide presence of the accruals mispricing is that of Rajgopal and Venkatachalam (2007). Rajgopal and Venkatachalam examined a total of 19 markets and found that the particular market anomaly exists in Australia, UK, Canada and the US. The authors’ primal goal was to identify the key drivers that can distinguish the markets where the anomaly was documented. Their evidence supports the idea that an accrual strategy is favoured in countries where there is a common law tradition, an extensive accrual accounting and a low concentration of firms’ ownership combined with weak shareholders’ rights. LaFond (2005) also considers the existence of the phenomenon within a global framework. The author’s findings support the notion that the accrual anomaly is present worldwide. In addition, LaFond argues that there is not a unique driving factor responsible for the phenomenon across the markets. It is worth noting that LaFond (2005) documented that this particular market imperfection is present in markets with diverse methodology of accrual accounting. Findings are against the idea that the accrual anomaly has any relation with the level of the shareholders protection or a common law tradition, as suggested by Rajgopal and Venkatachalam (2007). Finally, the author suggests that, if any, it is not the different method of accrual accounting (measurement issues) that favours or eliminates the accrual anomaly, but the accrual accounting itself. 2.3.3. Further Evidence for the roots of the accruals anomaly. Additionally, papers such as those of Thomas and Zang (2002) or Hribar (2000) decompose accruals into changes in different items (such as inventory, accounts payable etc). The findings catholically suggest that extreme changes in inventory affect returns the most. On the other hand, many articles connect the accruals with information used by investors, such as the behaviour of insiders or analysts, as the latter can be considered a major signal to the investors for a potential manipulation of the firms’ figures. In particular, Beneish and Vargus (2002) documented that firms with high accruals and significant insider selling have substantial negative returns.  Bradshaw (2001) and Barth and Hutton (2001) examine the analysts’ reports and their relation with the accruals anomaly. Their findings support that the analysts’ forecasting error tends to be larger for firms with high accruals, while analysts do not revise their forecasts when new information for accruals is available. Gu and Jain (2006) decompose accruals into changes in inventory, changes in accounts receivable and payable and depreciation expenses and try to identify the impact of the individual components to the anomaly. Consistent with Sloan (1996), Gu and Jain (2006) document that the accrual anomaly exists at the components level. The findings are important since Desai et al (2004) supported the connection of the accrual anomaly with a single variable (cash flows from operations). The researchers suggest that the results yielded by Desai et al (2004) were highly dependent on the methodology used and thus, suggested that the accruals anomaly is â€Å"alive and well†. Moreover, other articles try to confirm whether the anomaly is mainly caused by the wrong interpretation of the information contained in accruals. Ali et al. (2000), investigate whether the naà ¯ve investors’ hypothesis holds. Following the methodology introduced by Hand (1990) and Walther (1997), they found that for smaller firms, which are more likely to be followed by sophisticated investors, the relation between accruals and negative future returns is weaker compared to larger firms, which are followed by many analysts. Therefore, the researchers suggest that, if anything, the naà ¯ve investors’ hypothesis does not hold. In contrast to other market anomalies where findings suggest that the naà ¯ve investors hypothesis holds, the accruals anomaly is suggested as unique. Shi and Zhang (2007) investigate the earnings fixation hypothesis suggesting that the accruals anomaly is based on the investors â€Å"fixation† or â€Å"obsession† on earnings. Their primal hypothesis is that if investors are highly based on the reports about earnings and misprice the value-relevant earnings, then the returns should be dependent not only on the accruals but also on how the stock’s price changes according to reported earnings.  The researchers’ hypothesis is confirmed and finding support that an accrual strategy for firms whose stocks’ price highly fluctuates according to earnings yields a 37% annual return. Sawicki and Shrestha (2009) aim to examine two possible explanations for the accruals anomaly. Sloan (1996) proposed the fixation theory under which investors fixate on earnings and thus overvalue or undervalue information for accruals. Kothari et al. (2006) proposed the â€Å"agency theory of overvalued equity† according to which managers of overvalued firms try to prolong the period of this overvaluation which causes accruals to increase.  The paper uses the insider trading and other firm characteristics and tries to compare and contrast the two major explanations. Evidence produces bd Sawicki and Shrestha (2009) support the Kothari et al. (2006) explanation for the accrual anomaly. In a relatively different in motif paper, Wu and Zhang (2008) examine the role that the discount rates play in the accrual anomaly. They argue that if anything, the anomaly is not caused by irrationality from the investors’side but by the rationality of firms as it is proposed by the q-theory of investment. They argue that since the discount rates fall and more projects become profitable (which makes accruals to increase) future stock returns should decline. In other words, if the capital investment correctly adjusts to the current discount rates, the accruals should be negatively correlated with the future returns and positively correlated with the current returns. The evidence of Wu and Zhang (2008) support that the accruals are negatively correlated with the future stock returns but the contribution of the paper is in that they document that current stock returns are positively correlated with the accruals. 2.3.4. The relation of the accrual anomaly with other market imperfections. Many papers examine the relation between the accruals anomaly and other well-known anomalies such as the post announcement drift or the value-growth phenomenon. Desai et al. (2002), suggest that the â€Å"value-growth† anomaly and the accruals anomaly basically interact and conclude that the  ¨accruals strategy and the C/P reflect the same underlying phenomena†. Collins and Hribar (2000) suggest that there in no link between the accruals anomaly and the â€Å"PAD†, while Fairfield et al. (2001) support that the accruals anomaly is a sub-category of an anomaly caused by the mistaken interpretation of the information about growth by the investors. Cheng and Thomas (2006) examine the claim that the accrual anomaly is a part of a broader anomaly (and more specifically, the value-glamour anomaly). Prior literature suggested that the operating cash flows to price ratio subordinates accruals in explaining future stock returns (Deshai et al (2004)). Their evidence suggests that the Operating CF to price ratio does not subsume neither abnormal nor total accruals in future announcement returns. This particular result does not confirm the claim that the accrual anomaly is a part of a broad value-glamour anomaly. Atwood and Xie (2005) focus on the relation of the accrual anomaly and the mispricing of the special items first documented by Burgstahler, Jiambalvo and Shevlin (2002). Their hypothesis that the two phenomena are highly related is confirmed since the researchers found that special items and accruals are positively correlated. Additionally, further tests yielded results that suggest that the two imperfections are not distinct, while the special items have an impact on how the market misprices the accruals. Louis and Sun (2008) aim to assess the relation between the abnormal accrual anomaly and the post earnings announcement drift anomaly. The authors hypothesize that both anomalies are related to the management of the earnings and thus, they aim to find whether the two are closely connected. The findings are consistent with the primal hypothesis, as they found that â€Å"firms with large positive change of earnings that were least likely to have manipulated earning downwards† did not suffer from PEAD, while the same result was yielded for firms that had large negative change of earnings that were least likely to have managed their earnings upwards. As supported by many researchers the value-growth anomaly and accruals anomaly might be closely related or they might even be caused by the similar or even identical roots.  Fama and French (1996) support that the book to market factor captures the risk of default, while Khan (2008) suggests that in a similar pattern firms with low accruals have a larger possibility to bankrupt. Therefore, many researchers try to connect the two phenomena or to answer whether a strategy based on the accruals can offer more than what the value growth strategy offers. Hardouvelis, Papanastopoulos, Thomakos and Wang (2009) connect the two anomalies by assessing the profitability of interacting portfolios based on the accruals and value-growth measures. Their findings support that positive returns are obtainable and magnified when a long position is held for a portfolio with low accruals while combined with stocks that are characterised as high market to book. The difference of a risked-based explanation or an imperfection of the markets is considered to be a major debate, as it can challenge the market efficiency hypothesis. Many researchers, such as Fama and French (1996) noted that any potential profitable strategy is simply due to the higher risk that the investors have to bear by holding such portfolios. In a similar way, the profitable accruals strategies are considered as a compensation for a higher risk. Stocks that yield larger returns are compared or labelled as stocks of firms that are close to a financial distress. Khan (2000) aims to confirm or reject the risk-based explanation of the accruals anomaly. The researcher uses the ICAPM in order to test if the risk captured by the model can explain the anomaly first documented by Sloan (1996). It is worth noting that the descriptive statistics results for the sample used showed that firms that had low accruals also had high bankruptcy risk.  The contribution of the paper is that, by proposing a four factor model enhanced by recent asset pricing advances, it showed that a great portion of the mispricing that results in the accrual anomaly can be explained within a risk-based framework. Furthermore, Jeffrey Ng (2005) examines the risk based explanation for the accrual anomaly which proposes that accruals include information for financial distress. As proposed by many papers, the accrual anomaly is simply based on the fact that investors bare more risk and thus low accrual firms have positive abnormal returns. The researcher tries to examine how and if the abnormal returns of a portfolio which is short on low accruals stocks and long on high accrual firms changes when controlling for distress risk. Evidence supports that at least a part of the abnormal returns are a compensation for bearing additional risk. Finally, the results support that the big portion of the high abnormal returns of the accrual strategy used in the particular paper is due to stocks that have high distress risk. 2.3.5. The accruals anomaly and its relation with firms’ characteristics. A noteworthy part of the academic literature examines the existence of some key characteristics or drivers that are highly correlated with the accruals anomaly. Many researchers have published papers that aim to identify the impact of firm characteristics such as the size of the firm, characteristics that belong to the broader environment of the firms such as the accounting standards or the power of the minority shareholders. Zhang (2007) investigates whether the accrual anomaly varies cross-sectionally while being related with firms’ specific characteristics. The researcher primarily aims to explain which the main reason for the accrual anomaly is. As Zhang (2007) mentions, Sloan (1996) attributes the accrual anomaly to the overestimation of the persistence of accruals by investors, while Fairfield (2003) argues that the accrual anomaly is a â€Å"special case of a wider anomaly based on growth†. The evidence supports the researcher’s hypothesis that characteristics such as the covariance of the employee growth with the accruals have an impact on the future stock returns. Finally, Zhang (2007) documents that that accruals co-vary with investment in fixed assets and external financing. Louis, Robinson and Sbaraglia (2006) examine whether the non-disclosure of accruals information can have an impact on the accruals anomaly. The researchers, dividing their sample into firms that disclose accruals information on the earnings announcement and firms that do not, investigate whether there exists accruals’ mispricing. The evidence supports that for firms that disclose accruals information, the market manages to correctly understand the discretionary part of the change of the earnings. On the contrary, firms that do not disclose accruals information are found to experience â€Å"a correction† on their stock price. Chambers and Payne’s (2008) primal aim is to examine the relation of the accrual anomaly and the auditing quality. The researchers’ hypothesis is that the accruals mispricing is related with the quality of auditing.  Additionally, their findings support that the stock prices do not reflect the accruals persistence characterising the lower-quality audit firms. Finally, their empirical work finds that the returns are greater for the lower-quality audit portfolio of firms. Palmon, Sudit and Yezegel (2008) examine the relation of the accruals mispricing and the company size. Evidence shows that company size affects the returns and, as the researchers documented, the negative abnormal returns are mostly due to larger firms while the positive abnormal returns come from the relatively small firms. Particularly, as the strategy with the highest profits they found the one that had a short position in the largest-top-accrual decile and a long position in the smallest-low-accrual decile. Bjojraj, Sengupta and Zhang (2009) examine the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the FAS 146 and how these two changes affected the accrual anomaly. FAS 146 (liabilities are recognized only when they are incurred) reduced the company’s ability to â€Å"manipulate† earnings while the SOX aims to enhance the credibility of the financial statements. The evidence recognises a change on how the market conceives information about restructurings charges. The authors propose that a possible explanation is that before the introduction of SOX and the FAS 146, the market was reluctant due to the ability of the firms to manage earnings. Finally, Bjojraj, Sengupta and Zhang (2009) document that post to the FAS 146 and the SOX act, low accrual portfolios do not generate positive abnormal returns. 2.4. The applications of the accruals phenomenon and reasons why it is not arbitraged away. The importance of the analysis of the anomalies is substantial for two reasons. Firstly, the profitability of a costless strategy challenges the EMH, especially if the strategy is based on bearing no additional risk. Secondly, managers’ incentives to manipulate the financial statements and consequently the accruals would be obvious if a profitable strategy based on such widely available information existed. Chen and Cheng (2002) find that the managers’ incentive to record abnormal accruals is highly correlated with the accrual anomaly. The hypothesis of the researchers, which their findings support, was that the investors fail to detect when the managers aim to record abnormal accruals and that may contribute to the accruals anomaly. Richardson’s (2000) main objective is to examine whether the information contained in the accruals is utilized by short sellers. As the researcher mentions, previous articles such as that of Teoh and Wong (1999) found that sell side analysts were unable to correctly â€Å"exploit† the information contained in accruals for future returns. Richardson suggests that short sellers are considered as sophisticated enough to utilize the accruals information. Findings confirm previous work, such as that of Sloan (2000), who suggests that even short sellers do not correctly utilize the information contained into accruals. Ali, Chen, Yao and Yu (2007) examine whether and how equity funds benefit from the accrual anomaly by taking long position into low accruals firms. The researchers aim to identify how exposed are the equity firms to such a well known anomaly and what characteristics these funds share. By constructing a measure called â€Å"accruals investing measure† (AIM), they try to document the portion of the low accruals firms into the actively managed funds. The evidence shows that generally funds are not widely exposed to low accruals firms but when they do so, they have an average of 2.83% annual return. It is worth noting that the annual return is net of transaction costs. Finally, the side-effects of high volatility in returns and in fund flows of the equity funds that are partially based on the accrual anomaly might be the reason behind the reluctance of the managers. Soares and Stark (2009) used UK firms to test whether a profitable accrual strategy is feasible net of transactions costs. Their findings support that indeed the accrual anomaly is present in the UK market. The authors suggest that for such a strategy to be profitable, someone is required to trade on firms with small market capitalization. They also suggest that although the accruals’ mispricing seems to exist also in the UK, the transaction costs limit the profits to such an extent that the accrual anomaly could be difficult characterised as a challenge to the semi strong form of the efficient market hypothesis. Finally, we should not neglect to mention two papers that discourse on why the markets do not simply correct the accruals anomaly. According to the classical theory, markets are so imperfect that can produce the incentive to the market to correct the â€Å"anomalies† at any point of time. Mashruwala, Rajgopal and Shevlin (2006) examined the transactions costs and the idiosyncratic risk as possible reasons of why the accrual anomaly is not arbitraged away. The researchers aimed to investigate why the market does not correct the anomaly, but also to identify whether the low accruals firms are riskier. The paper poses the question of what stops the informed investors from taking long positions into profitable stocks according to the accrual anomaly so that they can arbitrage it away. The paper examines the practical difficulty of finding substitutes so that the risk can be minimized and its relation with the accrual anomaly. Additionally, the paper investigates the transaction co sts and findings support that according to the accrual anomaly, the profitable stocks tend to be the ones with low stock prices and low trading volume. Lev and Nissim (2004) focus on the persistence of the accr

French and British Colonialism and Imperialism in Africa Essay examples

French and British Colonialism and Imperialism in Africa Africa is home to countless cultures that all have their own unique ideas and customs. During the past couple of centuries, these cultures were threatened to the point where they almost ceased to exist. The Berlin Conference was a very important occurrence in Africa and Europe's history. It legitimized what the European powers, mainly France and Britain, had been doing for the past hundred years, without the approval of any African country. During the late nineteenth century, France and Britain began imperialistic ventures into Africa, which eventually led Leopold II to conquer the Congo. It was Leopold's II presence in Africa that to led the Berlin Conference. The Berlin Conference took place first and foremost to legitimize what was already taking place in Africa (Berlin). Africa had recently experienced the European countries' greed. The British and the French, along with a few other European nations, had started to carve up Africa however they pleased. By 1880, about half of the coastal countries saw some type of European presence (Wessling cover). The French began to take control of Algeria and parts of Gabon and Senegal. The British occupied much of Southern Africa and parts of the western coast. Until 1884, no one could encroach upon inner Africa. Before this, the imposing countries had mainly concentrated on the coasts. By 1884 there was road connecting the Congo River to the coast, and the remaining European powers wanted in a piece of the action. The disagreements that resulted from this sudden urge to conquer Africa were what made the Berlin Conference so important (Part IV). Many reasons beyond the obvious also existed. The Berlin Conference was ... ... to an African nation. Works Cited Bennett, Norman. Africa and Europe: From Roman Times to National Independence. New York: Africana Publishing Co, 1984. "Berlin, Conference of." Vers. 3. 1994. The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 5 Mar. 2000 <http://www.encyclopeida.com>. "Bismarck, Otto Von." Vers. 3. 1994. The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.  Ã‚   5 Mar. 2000 <http://www.encyclopeida.com/>. Hugon, Anne. The Exploration of Africa: from Cairo to the Cape. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1991.   Ã‚  Ã‚   "Part IV Anti-Colonialism & Reconstruction." 5 Mar. 2000 <http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/timelines/htimeline4.htm>. Sempell, Charlotte. Otto Von Bismarck.New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc, 1972. Wessling, H. H., Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880-1914. Westport: Praeger, 1991. French and British Colonialism and Imperialism in Africa Essay examples French and British Colonialism and Imperialism in Africa Africa is home to countless cultures that all have their own unique ideas and customs. During the past couple of centuries, these cultures were threatened to the point where they almost ceased to exist. The Berlin Conference was a very important occurrence in Africa and Europe's history. It legitimized what the European powers, mainly France and Britain, had been doing for the past hundred years, without the approval of any African country. During the late nineteenth century, France and Britain began imperialistic ventures into Africa, which eventually led Leopold II to conquer the Congo. It was Leopold's II presence in Africa that to led the Berlin Conference. The Berlin Conference took place first and foremost to legitimize what was already taking place in Africa (Berlin). Africa had recently experienced the European countries' greed. The British and the French, along with a few other European nations, had started to carve up Africa however they pleased. By 1880, about half of the coastal countries saw some type of European presence (Wessling cover). The French began to take control of Algeria and parts of Gabon and Senegal. The British occupied much of Southern Africa and parts of the western coast. Until 1884, no one could encroach upon inner Africa. Before this, the imposing countries had mainly concentrated on the coasts. By 1884 there was road connecting the Congo River to the coast, and the remaining European powers wanted in a piece of the action. The disagreements that resulted from this sudden urge to conquer Africa were what made the Berlin Conference so important (Part IV). Many reasons beyond the obvious also existed. The Berlin Conference was ... ... to an African nation. Works Cited Bennett, Norman. Africa and Europe: From Roman Times to National Independence. New York: Africana Publishing Co, 1984. "Berlin, Conference of." Vers. 3. 1994. The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 5 Mar. 2000 <http://www.encyclopeida.com>. "Bismarck, Otto Von." Vers. 3. 1994. The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.  Ã‚   5 Mar. 2000 <http://www.encyclopeida.com/>. Hugon, Anne. The Exploration of Africa: from Cairo to the Cape. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1991.   Ã‚  Ã‚   "Part IV Anti-Colonialism & Reconstruction." 5 Mar. 2000 <http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/timelines/htimeline4.htm>. Sempell, Charlotte. Otto Von Bismarck.New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc, 1972. Wessling, H. H., Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880-1914. Westport: Praeger, 1991.

International Marketing Essay

Executive Summary The main purpose of the report will be to analyze Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation’s (HSBC) Premier proposition (PP). The author will be analyzing the product proposition using a SWOT analysis frame work on HSBC Premier. Based on the result of the analysis the author will highlight as to why HSBC has chosen to cater the high end society. The report also showcase as to why the PP is focused on this particular market segment. Followed by the author conducting a study on the requirements and expectations of Premier Customer (PC). Based on the identified factors the author will illustrate how the PP has being designed to address the client’s requirements by using the concept of relationship banking through their specialized employees. The report will also emphasis on the importance of HSBC being customer centric. Supported through changes done to the marketing mix in order to achieve the goal of customer care. In conclusion the author has conducted a research to track the total customer experience. Introduction HSBC is a leading multi-national organization which has been operating in the financial industry in Sri Lanka for over 120 years (Refer Appendix A.1). Being an organization which has both local and international expertize, HSBC has a competitive advantage in positioning their products and services in the market. HSBC caters both corporate and Retail Banking segments with a wide range of product propositions. As the newly appointed marketing consultant for HSBC Premier (Refer Appendix A.3), the author will be conducting a market research to find out the factors as to how HSBC PP can be improved. During the market study the author will be conducting a research on areas like working business culture and marketing concept, segmentation of the product in line with its customers, analyzing the customer’s needs wants and  value expectations of the proposition, creation of customer-based value propositions for each of the segments, developments through relationship marketing and customer care, the organizations branding strategies, research studies related to customer experience and the outcome of been an organization which is more customer centric. The working business culture and marketing concept Considering the business culture, HSBC is an organization exposed to many international trends and working environments. From retaining years of experiences in the financial industry HSBC has identified how the organization should adopt itself according to the local culture and trends. In order to localize the organization has invested in the areas such as product development, pricing, branding, market research and relationship marketing. Which eventually covers the marketing concepts of HSBC. These concepts are used by the top level management as strategic concepts in order to make decisions and processes to cater to customer requirements and expectations. Through these concepts HSBC has being able to align the Premier Proposition (PP) according to the current market conditions. Product development and Pricing In order to sustain their market share HSBC PP is been reviewed and developed annually by the marketing department. Product development has being focused based on the following market conditions. The emergence of local and international competition: In the recent past there have being many number of financial institutes starting to introduce similar product propositions as HSBC Premier. Eg :Nations Trust Bank : Private Banking Standard Chartered Bank: Priority Banking Fragmented markets and sophisticated customer needs, wants and demands: The emergence of sophisticated customers such as investors, directors of multinational companies, businessmen who each have diverse needs wants and demand expectations from the bank. Technological advances in the financial sector: HSBC has being successfully  been able to achieve this by offering the best consumer internet. The organization has being offered the award by Global Finance. HSBC uses a price premium strategy in the PP which has made the product to be exclusive and appealing to the high end society of Sri Lanka. By using this strategy HSBC has been able to acquire over 6000 Premier Customers (PCs) who each maintain over Rs 7,500,000 in a portfolio. This in return has given them to generate Rs 45 Billion in deposits. Branding Every product requires a strong branding technique. HSBC uses the following branding methods to showcase the benefits of PP. Online marketing Billboards Electronic Direct Mails New paper and magazine advertising Corporate sponsorships Consumer sales promotions As per the methods mentioned above HSBC has focus in showcasing the lifestyle of a PC and the benefits that could be achieved by being part of the growing PP. The next goal by branding would be to acquire potential customers through displaying benefits compared to the competitors. Market Research and Relationship Marketing HSBC invests a large proportion of resources on market research and development. Which eventually result HSBC a cutting edge among competitors. This market research and development is conducted through HSBC head office in Hong Kong at regular intervals. By doing so HSBC has being able to identify new global trends and investment opportunities which they have being able to include within the PP. In order to customize and align the global trends and investments according to the Sri Lankan market, the local marketing department conduct research. These researches are conducted through client survey calls, mystery shopper programs and customer feedback forms. This has provided the opportunity for the management to gain a descriptive insight of the service pros and cons offered to the PC. Customer being treated as king in today’s business world HSBC believes customer centric relationship marketing is the critical selling factor of the PP. In  order to complement this factor Relationship Managers (RMs) have being groomed to be customer oriented, which will enable to provide a personalized service package. Based on the study carried on HSBC Premier the author will explain the current position of the organization and explain the desired position to be in through his suggestions. Understanding customers and segmentation A PC is an individual who banks at HSBC for the purpose of receiving exclusive customized service, global recognition, safety of their funds and investment advice. By performing a SWOT analysis on HSBC Premier the author has being able to highlight why HSBC has selected the particular segment of high income earner both locally and internationally. Strengths HSBC is a brand which provides their clients a global recognition through HSBC Premier. Expertise in the financial industry both locally and internationally. Including modern technology into their services. Priority services for all international banking services through Global Premier Centre’s. Customizing the products and services according to the local culture. Dedicated RMs who would manage the clients financial requirements 24 hour Premier Call Centre (PCC) Emergency credit facilities. Exclusive promotions for PCs both locally and internationally. Weaknesses Limited bank branches around Sri Lanka. Offering low interest rates on fixed deposits and savings accounts. Being an International brand the organization is vulnerable for strict government rules policies. Having only 2 Premier Centre’s in Sri Lanka to cater to over 6000 PCs. Unavailability in developing new wealth management products for clients with high investment appetites. Having a low workforce to attend to each PC’s requests. Limiting the eligibility criteria for HSBC Premier. Having only one PCC to attend to over 6000 PC calls. Opportunities By growing the premier portfolio the organization will be able grow the HSBC brand Value. Developing newer technological advances in line with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka would assist in making the product more attractive. HSBCs Global recognition which would attract clients. Constant R&D provides new dimensions to a growth. Individuals who aspire to become a PC. Global international support through the HSBC group. Threats Competitor banks starting to offer similar propositions. Central Bank regulations which limits cross border transactions. Losing customers who are rate sensitive Reputational risks from miss selling HSBC Premier. Vulnerability to attract money launderers who would tarnish the HSBC Premier brand name. Global recession impacts on HSBC High priorities given to local banks. Table -SWOT Analysis Different PC individuals have diverse expectations from HSBC. In order to meet these high client expectation levels HSBC conduct thorough staff trainings, workshops and knowledge sharing sessions. Based on the product exclusivity it shows that HSBC has segmented in clients who seek global recognition and quality service even though they do not offer competitive return on investments. Further the client base can also be segment according to the below listed eligibility PC criteria. 1. Clients maintaining a portfolio balance of Rs7,500,000 In Sri Lanka 2. Overseas PCs maintaining the required balance in their home country All though this protects the products exclusivity it has limited the organization expanding their market share. In order to overcome this limitation the author suggests that HSBC to introduce new entry criteria to become a PC. Market research shows competitors also offering similar products under the following entry criteria. Nations Trust Bank (Private Banking eligibility) -Rs 5 million or  equivalent in foreign currency, in deposits Total relationship of Rs 10 million in both deposits and loans Repurchase Agreements (REPO’s) and/or investments of Rs 20 million. Standard Chartered Bank (Priority banking eligibility)-Total relationship in Fixed deposits Rs5, 000,000/- Commercial Bank (Elite Banking eligibility)-Total deposit relationship in excess of Rs 7.5 Million in a savings or fixed deposit account. In order to gain the completive advantage and grow the profit margins for the business sustainability the author’s suggestion is to remake entry criteria’s to become a PC. This will also open doors for potential customer segments and new business opportunities where competitors have still not approached on. Authors entry criteria suggestions: Maintaining Rs5,000,000/- in a non-interest bearing current account and granting of an interest free overdraft facility of Rs2,500,000/- which would attract Islamic Banking clients. Maintaining Rs5, 000,000/- in a fixed deposit and granting an overdraft facility against in which will attract clients who like to invest in the Stock market and other instruments. Offering Premier for top Directors of Companies such as MAS, Nestles, Fonterra, MIT so that they would be brand ambassadors for the Product. Introducing Premier for clients with large credit facilities which are more than Rs10, 000,000/- these clients would give a high income to grow the premier portfolio. Analyzing needs, wants, values and Expectations of Customers As indicated above a HSBC PC contains diverse set of expectations and requirement through this package. This requirements and expectations vary from individual to individual. HSBC has being able to identify these client expectations based on the research performed by their research and development team. Analyzing needs and wants The success of HSBC PP is based on how the organization meets the customers’ expectations. Based on the market studies performed on the client base the author has being able to identify what are the needs and wants of the clients. Needs Wants Easy access to their funds. Ability to withdraw funds at any given time. Reliability on the invested money at HSBC. To have the assurance that the invested money is secured at HSBC. Return on investment. Preferential interest rate for savings accounts and fixed deposits. 24 hour assistance in financial needs. 24X7 customer support. Commendable customer relationship. To receive a tailor made service from HSBC. Ability to obtain credit facilities. Ability to request for credit cards, loan facilities and overdraft facilities on demand. Priority services in transferring funds globally and assistance in opening accounts overseas. Global assistance. Hassle free money transfers with global accounts Table – Analyzing needs and wants Values and Expectations of a HSBC Premier customer The relationship between a HSBC PC and the bank is built around the values presented by the organization. In order to achieve clients expectations HSBC works hard along with their set values. The below list contains the relationship between the PC’s values and expectations. Values Expectations Fairness Offering a fair Interest rate on the Fixed deposits within the bank. Honesty and integrity. To create transparency on the fees and rates of the bank. Ability to understand and address the client’s requirements. Excellent two way communication with the RM and client for a better service. Assurance Assurance for the client’s financial safety. Service. Customized clients service package. Dependability High dependability on their personal and official financial matters. Recognition. To be recognized as a valued Premier client. Table -Value and Expectations of a HSBC Premier Customer Creating Customer-based Value Propositions for Customer segments Creating customer-based value propositions is a widely used strategy to create awareness on different customer segments. Having looked at the researchers conducted from inception of HSBC Premier the author believes the most significant factor is to address PCs expectations. Also the author believes, through catering these requirements will influence the client’s decision making ability. This will result to grow the market share and generate business incomes. Relationship Marketing & Customer Care Relationship marketing has become one of the current important concepts of today’s business environment. Relationship marketing is mainly dependent on organization policies employee skill and capabilities. Each employee plays a vital role in the process of delivering an exceptional customer service. Starting from the front level customer support to the back office support the same service level should be maintained. Factors that influence Relationship Marketing for HSBC Premier: Convenience in accessing the Premier Centre’s. Efficiency of the RMs. Strong bond between the client and the RMs. Consistent service delivery. The luxurious Premier Centre facilities. Extensive Friendly support provided by the employees. Understanding the customer requirements. Playing honestly and winning customer trust. Assurance of investments. Management of customer care Knowledge : The employees should always maintain high knowledge level regarding customer portfolios, requirements and up to date with organizations processes. Service Level : All staff engaged directly or indirectly with clients should always provide same service standards. Operations : Maintaining consistent operations according to the set guidelines in order avoid any service lapses. Customer Care : Providing the best customer experience through exceptional customer care. At HSBC the management believes in building strong relationships between the business and its clients is vital. In order to full fill the above influences HSBC has built the PP around customer relationship marketing and exceptional customer care. A PC of HSBC is entitled to a RM who caters to their every financial requirement. The RMs are often closely engaged with their clients, this allows them to win the trust and understand the client. It enables the RMs to provide a better service to their clients. A satisfied customer will always improve their portfolios and recommend the product and service to others. However during the research conducted it is evident the concept of relationship banking is blossomed from the point a client becomes a PC. Although the author strongly believes regardless weather the customer is Premier or not the bank should provide customer relationship banking. HSBC should extend their focus towards all segments and expand their exceptional customer relationship. Through conducting the above mentioned new concept the organization will be able to identify the potential clients and grow them to become aspiring qualitative PCs. Reinforcing the organization’s Identity through changes to the Marketing Mix Variables What is a Marketing Mix? A marketing mix is traditionally referred to as the 4P’s, which consists of Product, Price, Place and Promotion. With market evolution 4Ps has grown itself towards adding 3 more concepts like People, Process, and Physical Environment. The combination of these elements will contribute towards providing successful of the products and services. Figure -7 P’s Concept The Product It can be a tangible good or an intangible service. The successfulness of a  product or service is based on how it is developed and how it will cater the customer needs. HSBC has developed HSBC Premier to cater to the high end niche market. The product offers exclusivity, recognition and a wide range of benefits to its clients. Although the PP appeals to the specific pricing category it restricts HSBC in acquiring new clients. The author belief is to create a sub category under HSBC Premier to grab the clients who cannot meet the HSBC Premier requirement and not allowing them to move towards other competitors. Price The price is the amount a customer is willing to pay for the product or service. It will also determine the organizations profit or loss as a product or service is only worth for the price that the chosen segment of customers is willing to pay. The price should be competitive when compared with competitors. In the end customers would choose the service which offers the best value for their money. HSBC uses a price premium strategy for the eligibility of becoming a PC. The product offers exclusivity for clients who seek global recognition and quality service. The eligibility in becoming a PC has being set at Rs7, 500,000.00. This will restrict majority of new clients in enrolling for HSBC Premier. The reason being for the author to state that HSBC uses a price premium strategy is because HSBC historically has not offered high return on interest rates on their fixed deposits or investments, but compensates it with a superior service which retains the client from moving to competitors. However in order to grow the Premier portfolio held at HSBC the author suggests that HSBC increases the interest rates paid on the fixed deposits in order to retain the existing client base and also be able to attract the rate conscious clients from competitors. Place Place is the physical location where a product or service will be offered or distributed to the customer. It should be easily accessible by the customers. HSBC Premier is offered to the clients through the HSBC Premier Centre’s, HSBC PCC’s, the HSBC retail branch network and also through HSBC Internet Banking. Since HSBC has only 2 Premier Centre’s and 15 retail branches it has limited the accessibility to the public. The authors suggestion is introduce new retail branches in new locations where HSBC will  be able acquire new PCs and grow their market share. Promotion Promotion is the method used by marketers to communicate information on products or services. It includes elements such as advertising, sales campaigns and awareness programs. HSBC uses the following modes to do their promotions. Branding Advertising Special Offers Electronic direct mailers Brochures Most of the promotional methods used at HSBC are prepared based on the market studies performed by research teams. However at times the in accuracy of the market study and poor promotional communication methods would fail to meet the customer needs. Based on the authors experience he advises that HSBC use a two way communication method when setting up their promotions. This will enable to get the clients feedback on the promotion as well as to answer any of the queries that the client has regarding the promotion. People People play a vital role in the service industry. They create a positive or negative impression toward the client which will eventually impact the organization. It is always important that the staffs are well groomed and motivated when they deliver their service to client. HSBC Premier is built around addressing the client’s requirements through relationship banking. Therefore it is important that HSBC recruits the right people with right skills and attitude to carry out their processes. The level of support and service granted by the RMs will determine whether the clients will retain at HSBC or weather the will move to other financial institutes. Process The processes set within the organization contribute to the end result of customer satisfaction. A PC is not interested on how the set systems work at HSBC, but what they are interested is only to get their job done. It is important that HSBC evolves their system up to date with high efficiency and  productivity. This will lead toward satisfied customers. This is the ultimate goal of HSBC Premier. Physical Evidence The physical evidence is what a Premier client would experience from the moment they step in to a Premier Centre. During the stay at the Premier centre the customers would experience luxurious facilities. These comforts and benefits will capture potential customers through branding and through word mouth. The combination of each of the above elements will contribute to the success of the HSBC PP. Research Requirements for the organization to track the total customer experience What is Marketing Research? It is a systematic module which is used to collect data for analysis and reporting purpose on a specific marketing situation faced in an organization. Companies use these research results in various situations. This helps the organization to measure the customer experience. The research results will enable the marketers to improve their products or services. Commonly organizations have their own in house R&D team and however some companies tend to conduct this market research through 3rd party specialized organizations. Importance of Marketing Research for HSBC As the time past banks have gradually evolved themselves to introduce new products and services. This has increased the competition amongst financial institutes who are striving to be the best. While each bank offers similar products and service packages. The differentiation is dependent on the services and after sales. While HSBC understands the importance of marketing research they have sub contracted high level research studies for specialist such as AC Nielsen Corporation. At the inception of HSBC Premier the organization used research studies from the Primary data acquired through Surveys, data collections, focus groups and interview. Based on these research studies carried out HSBC was able to develop the global proposition. For further development and changes to HSBC Premier the organization carries out secondary data research studies by purchasing research studies done by specialists, collecting data of customer courtesy calls, mystery shopper programs, branch observations, suggestion boxes and  testimonials left by other PCs. Once the information is collected HSBC uses it to understand the lapses that they have in terms of service, competitor interest rates, product features and benefits which affect the total customer experience. Based on the experience at HSBC the author suggests that the research should be carried out by using the Primary research studies in order to track the total customer experience. Although collecting of data can be costly through primary research methods it is accurate and easy to understand the customer as listed below. Primary research can be obtained by research performed on existing PCs. The research can be tailored according to the requirement of the organization. It helps you understand the type of client which does business with you. Since it is an in-depth research done the data would not be available for competitors. The organization has the freedom the set the parameters of the areas they wish to perform the research studies on. Collected data would be qualitative and quantitative. Figure – Research frame work Defining Objectives: The objective of the research is to identify the total customer experience that a HSBC PC under go. Research Design: At the research design stage, the marketer or the organization would follow a set of guidelines carried out the research. The different stages of a research are as followed. Figure -Research Design Data Collection: Data collection to be done according to the above research design using the existing client based and the potential client base. Data Analysis: Data analysis is a process of transforming acquired data in to qualitative and quantitative information for the use of the marketers. Research Report: The research report will be the end result of the research process. The report would highlight the areas which require development and the areas which have service lapses. This will enable HSBC to develop them self as an organization. The author believes it is vital that HSBC continues and  improves their research methods in order to be on top of the financial industry. Through performing and tracking the total customer experience which a PC goes through HSBC will be able to adjust and make changes to the processes which are in use. The outcomes of becoming more customer centric In every organization the customer is treated as the king or queen. Therefore each organization wishes to be customer centric. They build their businesses around the expectations of the targeted customer segments. At HSBC the working business culture and marketing concepts are aimed and designed according to its target market. The process of choosing the segment of high end customer and to cater them with the product HSBC Premier was done under the customer segmentation process. Once the segmentation was done HSBC choose to analyze the needs, wants, values and expectations of a PC. This enable the organization to tailor make the benefits for a PC at HSBC. This in return creates a global value proposition for each PC. A key area in being a customer centric organization is the capability of building strong relationships with the clients. At HSBC Premier the concept of using a RM has enable the organization to identify in-depth information regarding their base of PCs. It has also enabled HSBC to discover the clients hidden needs and also create needs within them in order to grow the Premier portfolio. By addressing these requirements HSBC has being able to enhance the customer experience derived through HSBC Premier. The author suggests that HSBC continues to conduct primary research which gives the organization in-depth information regarding how and where the organization is heading towards. The conducted research would stand as an indicator to identify on the changes that the organization could do to its marketing mix variables to achieve customer satisfaction. Becoming an organization which is customer centric would contribute to the sustainability of the company. It will act as a guide in the company’s long term vision to enable them to align the business and its processes accordingly. By doing so the organization would be able to increase the customer experience levels and values. Conclusion The overall report is a critical analysis on HSBC’s PP. The author has identified the working business culture and marketing concepts used at HSBC.  Based on the study the report illustrates the importance of designing HSBC’s PP in line with the chosen customer segments expectations. Having being a customer centric organization, HSBC has being able to identify its customer requirements through market researches and adaptation of relationship banking. Having identifying a PC’s necessities the organization has being able to make changes to its marketing mix variables in order to increase the total customer experience. The PP in general, can be measured as one of the most consistent propositions which offer exclusive financial services. In order to sustain HSBC’s PP the author recommends that the organization develops its strategies and reduces the service lapses based on the suggestions made. References Acrwebsite.org. 2013. Applications of Marketing Concepts to Candidate Marketing by Avraham Shama. [online] Available at: http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=5803 [Accessed: 11 Nov 2013]. Antarcticglaciers.org. 2013. Untitled. [online] Available at: http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/10-steps-to-research-design.png [Accessed: 15 Nov 2013]. Chennaiconsultants.in. 2013. Chennai Consulting Group. [online] Available at: http://www.chennaiconsultants.in/marketing_research.html [Accessed: 14 Nov 2013]. Combank.net. 2013. Savings Sri Lanka | Internet Banking | Commercial Bank Sri Lanka. [online] Available at: http://www.combank.net/newweb/info?id=196&menu_type=mainmenu&selected=About%20Us&subitem=Social%20Responsibility&oid=230 [Accessed: 17 Nov 2013]. Google Books. 2013. Product Development Performance. [online] Available at: http://books.google.lk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=7cCAASTW6IQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=product+development+concept&ots=vuYX2 TiVnH&sig=ARVFe8GFf7- [Accessed: 11 Nov 2013]. Jstor.org. 2013. JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie. [online] Available at: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1248740?uid=3738456&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102819894071 [Accessed: 10 Nov 2013]. Kotler, P. 2005. Principles of marketing. Lbr.lk. 2013. Lanka Business Report. [online] Available at: http://www.lbr.lk/fullstory.php?nid=201101052013018515 [Accessed: 12 Nov 2013]. Nationstrust.com. 2013. Nations Trust Bank, Sri Lanka – Personal Banking, Corporate Banking, American Express, SME Banking. [online] Available at: http://www.nationstrust.com/personal_banking/private_banking [Accessed: 13 Nov 2013]. Unknown. 2013. [online] Available at: http://www.amsreview.org/articles/wiedmann07-2007.pdf?q=are-consumer-perceptions-of-brand-affected-by-materialism [Accessed: 13 Nov 2013]. Unknown. 2013. [online] Available at: http://www.cim.co.uk/files/7ps.pdf [Accessed: 15 Nov 2013]. APPENDICES A.1 About HSBC HSBC is a financial organization which opened in Sri Lanka on the 1st of July in 1892. The bank initially opened for business under the name of â€Å"Hongkongbank† thereafter was named as the â€Å"The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation† and in the more recent years operates under the name â€Å"HSBC†. HSBC currently has over 6,600 offices in over 80 countries and territories and assets of US$2,692 billion as at 30 June 2012 according to (HSBC, 2013) This Makes HSBC one of the largest Financial Organizations in the world. Since 1892 HSBC has supported and contributed to the Sri Lankan Economy and is currently one of the most Profitable Banks in Sri Lanka. A.2 Products and Services offered by HSBC HSBC uses the influences of their international expertise, their local knowledge and experience in order to build the Products and Services they offer. This puts HSBC in a good position to compete with the local financial organizations. HSBC offers propositions to its clients. They have come up with 2 main propositions which are called â€Å"HSBC Premier† and â€Å"HSBC Advance†. A.3 About HSBC Premier This product is offered to HSBCs top end clients who are the high income earning segment of society. It would be clients who are well established in life and lives a lavish lifestyle. HSBC Premier comes with a bundle of value additions and exceptional service standards. Such as a Relationship Manager who will look in to the clients every financial need, preferential rates,  fee waivers and preferential promotions positioned only for Premier Clients. HSBC has set the minimum eligibility of becoming a Premier Client at maintaining Rs7, 500,000/- in a client’s portfolio.

Dehaydration

DEHYDRATION Dehydration: Axia College SCI 241 Dehydration: How does it affect the Body? Primarily, water is essential to health maintenance because water is a imperative nutrient within the body. Water is needed for the body to carry out its many functions. The body consists of mainly water, which is why once our bodies are depleted of water, it is unfavorable for our health. Water moves inside the body by osmosis that carries up or down a concentration gradient, which is dependent on where the water is needed and where there needs to be a reduction if there is an too high of an amount of water. Water also helps aid with the function of many systems in body such as the digestive system, the lymphatic system, and the nervous system. In addition, water, in its many forms contributes to a number of functions in the human body. For instance, water is basically saliva that is used in the mouth and in the blood, which is comprised mostly of water, it â€Å"? ows through our bodies, delivering oxygen and nutrients to cells and returning waste products to the lungs and kidneys for excretion† (Grosvenor and Smolin, 2006, p. 283). Water also aids the body by producing sweat and â€Å"[regulating] body temperature by increasing or decreasing the amount of heat lost at the surface of the body† (Grosvenor and Smolin, 2006, p. 283). Sweat cools the body by producing water to lose heat in the body. Water also aids in digestive and excretory functioning. We lose a lot of water through the digestive system because it aids in breaking down the foods we eat and we lose a lot of water through urine and feces. Furthermore, when the body does not get the water it needs, it dehydrates. Dehydration can occur through sweating when someone is exercising and they have lost too much water. Dehydration leads to fatigue, vomiting, and feeling ill. Severe dehydration is a dangerous situation that can threaten one’s health. When people are severely dehydrated, they should seek immediate medical attention because dehydration can make the body go into shock and eventually lead to a fatality. The fatality would most likely be due to heart failure, because the heart is an important organ that needs water to survive, just like the rest of the body. Inadequate water also affects the heart because a lack of water increases the blood volume and the blood becomes dense, which places stress on the functioning of the heart. The pressure on the heart affects the supply of nutrients and oxygen that are transported to the cells in the body to perform their daily functions. Besides heart failure, water depletion creates many health problems such as hypertension, heart disease, asthma, pain in the joints and muscles, back pain, migraine headaches, and diabetes. These illnesses would occur because a lack of water causes a disruption in cell functions in the body. Also, dehydration affects our energy levels and how much we are able to grasp the processes that are occurring in our brain. Without sufficient amounts of water, we are unable to focus and will experience a collapse in concentration and judgment. Different electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, and chloride are similar because they provide different important functions for the body. Sodium and potassium ions are nerve conductors that help stimulate muscle contractions by generating electrical charges across the nerve cell membrane. Sodium is a positive ion located outside the cell membrane. Sodium travels back and forth entering and exiting cells, regulating water in the body. Sodium aids by generating electrical currents to parts of the brain, nerves, and muscles. Potassium is another positive ion, but unlike sodium, it is located inside cell membrane. Potassium helps in body functioning by monitoring the heart and aiding muscle functioning. Chloride is negatively charged particle known as an anion, which is located within cells. Chloride generally combines with other elements to create different products. For instance, chloride combines with sodium to create NaCl, also known as table salt. Too much salt has been indicated as major contributor to high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. The electrolytes sodium, potassium, and chloride, are all different because depletion or an excessive amount lead to different diseases or malfunctions in the body. According to Grosvenor and Smolin (2006), sodium, chloride, and potassium depletion can occur with heavy and persistent sweating, chronic diarrhea or vomiting, and kidney disorders that lead to excessive excretion. For instance, sodium inadequacy can lead to problems in cell function and potassium imbalances lead to irregularities in heart activity and impairment of the nervous system. Low or high levels of chloride can also produce nausea and kidney disease. Moreover, there are a plethora of foods and drinks that can affect hydration levels in the body. Two liquids that affect hydration levels are alcohol and caffeine. The consumption of both caffeine and alcohol promotes water loss in the body. In caffeinated beverages, high doses of caffeine create water loss â€Å"partly to increased blood flow to the kidneys and partly to reduced reabsorption of sodium by the body† (Hamilton, n. d). Also, alcohol reduces hydration â€Å"by depressing production of the antidiuretic hormone called vasopressin, which acts on the kidneys, concentrating the urine by promoting the reabsorption of water and salt into the body (Hamilton, n. ). Hamilton (n. d) suggests that Vasopressin aids in fluid stability within the body and an interruption in its function leads to decreased urine levels, which may be a contributor to dehydration in the body. Consequentially, water loss that is produced by alcohol may also contribute to the loss of other essential nutrients and minerals that are used for nerve and muscle sustainment. To avoid dehydration from alcohol and caffeine, more water should be consumed that will balance the amounts of alcohol or caffeine with the amount of water that is in the body. Ultimately, to avoid dehydration, people need to make sure that enough water is consumed as a daily part of their diet. It is easy to lose water from sweating or urinating too much, but replenishing water loss is vital for water balance in the body. A popular recommendation for getting enough water in the diet is to consume at least 8 glasses of water every day. Also, it is important for people to drink plenty of water if they are doing strenuous activity or exercising in extreme weather conditions. Also, we have to make sure that we are dressed appropriately for the weather. For instance, in summer, to avoid dehydration in extreme heat, we have to wear loose fitting clothes. Also, it is best to avoid the sun as much as possible if it is hot, but if someone does decide to stay outside in the heat, it is best to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. In essence, water is the fabric of life. It is given to us in plentiful amounts, but it should not be wasted. It is 60% of the human body and without it, we would cease to exist. The best method to make health an utmost priority is to consume the recommended amount of water and eat a healthy and nutritious diet that will compliment a healthy lifestyle. Water is not a gift, it is a right. Remember to drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration and to give the body the most important nutrient that it needs for survival. References Grosvenor, M. B. , & Smolin, L. A. (2006). Nutrition: Everyday choices. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hamilton, A. (n. d). Caffeine dehydration: Caffeine and alcohol – just how dehydrating are they? Retrieved December 7, 2008 from http://www. pponline. co. uk/encyc/caffeine-dehydration. htm