Does the current system of funding higher education support student Literature review

Does the current system of funding higher education support student academic learning - Literature review Example The authors have not shown the evidence of Universities that are struggling with issues of funding or the ones trying to cut their costs because of poor funding. One may not believe in the results of the study because the authors do not prove some of their claims such as the real reasons affecting universities funding and the level of investments other governments put in their universities (Connaway & Powell 2010, pp. 63-65). This may help in understanding whether indeed UK underinvests in their higher learning institutions compared to other countries. The data source is very reliable because the study has been carried out by a professional organization, Russell Group that entails several higher learning institutions. The group also contains academic professionals such as Professor Michael Arthur who is the chairman of the group (Russell Group 2010, pp. 45-50). There are also financial reports that have been used in carrying out the study. The sources used in the study are also relevant and are very reliable. The data used in the study are up to date because none of them is more than ten years old. Russell Group 2010, Staying on top: The challenge of sustaining world-class higher education in the UK, PP. 1-52, retrieved

Hedging Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hedging Strategies - Essay Example These payments must be made in Euros and hence, Virtual Books is exposed to potential exchange rate risk on these transactions. In order to mitigate and hedge this exchange rate risk, Virtual Books has various alternatives to eliminate this risk. The first alternative is that of Forward Contracts. A forward contract is an agreement between two parties to buy/sell a specified asset at a forward price at a specified date. Forward Contracts are just a commitment to deliver/take delivery of the said asset and at the time of agreement, there is no exchange. Hence the cost of entering into a forward contract is nothing. Other advantages of a forward contract include customization for the customer, and OTC trade. The major drawback is that this contract is an obligation which must be honored. In case it is not honored, the customer can go for or be taken to litigation. In the case of Virtual books, it can enter into a forward agreement with its bank to buy euros at a predetermined forward p rice. By doing so, they can eliminate the potential risk involved in taking a price on the day of the payment. There will obviously be an opportunity cost involved. Assuming that the market is above the forward price on the day of taking up the contract, the customer will be losing out on a potential gain.

Internationalization And Globalization Strategy Business Essay

Internationalization And Globalization Strategy Business Essay This paper attempts to explore the notion of regionalisation in the global context and critically analyse the theory and practice of regional strategy as a response to Osegowitsch and Sammartino analysis. Globalization, Regionalisation, Regional Strategy Theory. Executive Summary It is clear enough that in todays era it is extremely critical for firms to adopt global and regional business strategies in order to attain sustainable competitive advantage. But the question arises regarding classification of a MNE (Multinational Enterprise) as a global firm. This essay critically analyses the work on regional strategy as a response to Osegowitsch and Sammartino and attempts to cover the following aspects in detail. Notion of Globalization and Global Strategy This section highlights the notion of globalization and way organizations today establish a global presence by adoption of unique business strategies. This part also details the three different kind of global strategies. Regional Strategy Analysis This part analyzes the theory and practice of regional strategy concept of Globalization in particular as a response to Osegowitsch and Sammartino (2008). It aims to justify that in todays era very few global firms exists and secondly that sufficient amount of international business literature and theory is required to draw reflection on regional vs global MNEs (Multinational Enterprises) strategy. The Theory of the Regional Strategy This section explains the concept of regional strategy analysis and illustrates the various regional theories as explained by Osegowitsch and Sammartino. Introduction With the concept of globalization and internationalization gaining more and more momentum everyday, this essay attempts to critically analyse the work of Osegowitsch and Sammartino on regional strategy. It starts with explaining the concept of globalisation and global strategy and tries to justify that in todays era very few global firms exist. Secondly, it tries to establish that significant amount of international business literature and theory is demanded in order to draw conclusion on regional vs global MNEs strategy by exploring the theory of regional strategy. Notion of Globalization and Global Strategy Globalization can be defined as a complex concept which enables firms to operate in various continents and countries across the globe in order to improve and maximise their profit margins, sustainability, worldwide existence and economies of scale (Blyton et al., 2001, p446). Globalization provides platform not only to consumers but also to organizations to help them satisfy their needs globally. According to Marquardt Berger (2003, p286), Trade, Travel, Technology and Television are the four major developments that have resulted in Globalization. The four Ts of global development are the outcome of human brain and its creative innovations. These advancements have further encouraged and made possible continuous exchange of ideas, information and knowledge between human resources by breaking the barriers of distance. Moving ahead, Bratton Gold (2007, p92) state that Globalization is a global process of political convergence, social economies and national sentiments, in which space, time and Government are not given much importance. The paragraph below will now highlight the three different views on global strategy. The First view states that the global strategy is one of the particular and specific forms of Multinational Enterprise (MNE) Strategy. Further, it highlights the fact that Globalization considers all the countries of the world alike (Levitt, 1983, p97). The Second view considers global strategy as International Strategic Management (Bruton et al., 2004, p418) which is no doubt wider concept than global strategy mentioned in the first view. Lastly, the third view describes global strategy in even broader term; The strategy of the firms that exist all over the globe and this can be concluded as the firms theory of how to become a successful competitor (Peng, 2006). Having discussed the various forms of global strategies which are adopted by firms today, this essay now moves ahead to analyse the theory and practice of regional strategy concept of Globalization in particular as a response to Osegowitsch and Sammartino (2008). It aims to justify that in todays era very few global firms exists and secondly that sufficient amount of international business literature and theory is required to draw reflection on regional vs global MNEs (Multinational Enterprises) strategy. The Regional Strategy Theories According to Rugman and Verbeke (2007), recent literature on globalization suggests that a firm is categorised as global if maximum 50% of its total sales are in its home territory (EU) and minimum 20% of sales in each of the NAFTA zone and Asia. He adds to it by bringing to surface the outcome of survey based upon this theory that indicated only nine global firms in Fortune Global 500 and also the orientation of numerous firms towards the home-region. In response to the above mechanism for classifying the firm as global, Osegowitsch and Sammartino (OS) (2008) have provided three basic criteria and comments that can be helpful in future classification of firms according to their geographic sales dispersion. Firstly, OS suggest that it is not appropriate to classify statistical data straightaway. It should be realised that since this is a growing area of research, usage of any kind of classification tool is open to criticisms as it is not simply the categorization of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) following particular regional strategy theories. As an example, OS focus on building and having strong position in the region by illustrating that if the EU, NAFTA region and Asia represents 90% of the total world sales output, an absolute division would require all the three regional triads to have 30% sales each and not 33.3% in order to encourage the strategy of lower thresholds. In other words, a firm can be defined as global if it has at least 20% of the total sales in the two host-triad regions and without any kind of imposition on the maximum sales threshold in the home territory (Rugman and Verbeke, 2007, p2). Additionally, it should also be noted that it is not at all relevant to cat egorize a firm as having strong position in the market if its threshold is lower than 20% of the total sales. OS even conducted a simulation using threshold value as 10% of the net sales in order to identify a string position in the host region as it would result to USD $1 billion even for the smallest of the Fortune Global 500 firms. But unfortunately, it didnt present a strong position and can by no means be considered as an essence for strategic decision making in the worlds largest organizations. OS clearly argues that using various thresholds is helpful in assessing the sensitivity of firms positions in the classification system but the main function should always be to provide an assessment of the Future Global 500 and to easily track firms whose thresholds are continuously changing from one category of threshold to another. A clear example of this is Nokia which encountered a 4% decline in sales in the year 2002. However, this change in sales pattern reflected a short term fa ilure in inter-regional growth but OS criticizes that it cannot be simply neglected. Movement of Nokia from a global organization in 2001 towards a home based firm in 2001 was a remarkable concern. In one line, it can be stated that having threshold below 20% simply leads to generation of more bi-regional firms and which cant be regarded as truly global organizations. Moving ahead, the second regional strategy criterion which OS highlights is that the sales variations are highly industry specific. According to OS, industry plays a significant role and all future researched should aim at exploring the regional vs global strategies at the industry specific levels and try to establish the difference. It is truism that a majority of firms are not properly internationalized and their sizes varies across regions but then its some of the worlds biggest MNEs that have constantly been regarded as capable of compensating for the weaknesses of the other sectors in different regions of the world. The main point to be considered is that our analysis are independent of differential size of numerous industries that exist across the region, as MNEs are able to establish regional markets and to further develop insufficient markets. Lastly, in third comment it is argued that it would be irrelevant to prefer regional strategy over global strategy. Regional strategies come into existence when it becomes very difficult or impossible to adopt conventional global strategies efficiently, or when they fail to function, keeping in mind that global strategies cannot be evaluated in isolation. Further, it can be said that heterogeneous geographic space beyond the home country border is essential for most of the companies now if not all of them. Moving ahead, this section of the essay will now make an attempt to tackle the criticism formed by OS concerning the contribution of regional strategy to the international business theory. According to (Rugman and Verbeke, 2007, p3), the regional strategy is structured around three simple but fundamental empirical observations which demand international business theory to be extended and enhanced. First of all, only a small number of MNEs have a balanced geographical sales distribution pattern across the global market, although it counts towards the risk diversification at the downstream end of the value chain. OS illustrate that a balanced and structured distribution of sales geographically would contribute towards enhanced global acceptance by the customers of the companys products and services. With only the exception of resource-based industries, the triad comprising the EU, NAFTA region and Asia demonstrates a first cut though not certainly a fixed one mechanism to identify the extent to which an MNEs net sales are distributed worldwide. Further, this triad has gained so much importance as it is the home of worlds most large MNEs as well as the locus for a number of outstanding innovations in most industrial sectors. The triad also demonstrates the world demand pattern for most knowledge intensive services and goods. But its unfortunate to mention that only a small number of MNEs in the Fortune Global 500 are capable of performing equally well in each of the three regions of the triad. It is often observed that a strong position in the home-triad region is not supported with an equally strong position in both the other two remaining triad environments. Classification tools are now irrelevant as among the firms with international operations only a small percentage are truly global i.e. may be even less than 5% (Ghemawat and Ghadar, 2006). They further add to it and state that different firms rule in different parts of the world. Second wing of the regional strategy focuses on the fact that several MNEs have regional features in the organizational structure such as geographic divisions and having individual divisions for different regions is supported mainly by the concept of regional heterogeneity demanding idiosyncratic management. In this case, the intra-regional institutional and economic distance is not just smaller but also very different from that of the interregional. It has been observed that for most MNEs, managing operations and work system in EU is very different from functioning system of the NAFTA region or as compared with the work cultural of Asian environment. These differences may further be enhanced if the work unit is further subdivided into smaller units. Fratiannin (2006) states that these differences in work system signal the importance of regional level in the business strategy and structure of MNEs. Today, almost all big firms such as Toyota, General Electric (GE) have embedded region al elements in their business and operational strategies and these companies are often wrongly referred to as global organizations not just because of lack of balanced geographic distribution but also because of their world wide global operations and manufacturing (Ghemawat, 2005, p102). Thirdly, it should be noted that more than fifty percent of the geographic area in terms of sales is normally the main source of the firms cash flows and the centre point of most of the firms both tangible and intangible assets. In the coming years, the concept of having more than 50% sales in the home territory would not be significant enough in EU and North America specifically but it would gain momentum in Asian region as intra-regional distance is minimizing and thereby driven by a reduction of investment barriers and trade. Competition among industries would be more prevalent at the regional level instead of the national level. OC highlight that attention should now be laid on the development of classification tool that will help bundle the home country sales with the sales in the remainder of the home territory rather than paying attention separately to the sales in the home region and remaining of the home region especially for MNEs based in Asia and EU. Moving ahead, the above discussed observations and theories clearly demonstrate the need for an extended international business theory. These observations are independent of specific categorization approaches to measure specific home-region vs rest-of-the-world market position of MNEs. A trend has always been seen that all the MNEs are much stronger in their home regions as compared to that in other triad regions. These top MNE firms have formulated their organizational structures around the regional component and a varying market position in each region raises call for a regional approach rather than a global strategy approach. The paragraph below now will bring to surface the three main components for the extension on mainstream international business theory (Rugman and Verbeke, 2007, p3). Firstly, it is noticed that impact of country border does not provide strong basis for distinguishing between non- location bound (or internationally deployable/exploitable) and location bound. In todays period of excess regionalization, it is very easy for some companies to exploit and deploy their strengths throughout the home country border. Further, proxies for internationally transferable FSAs such as firms level predictors of internationalization like firms level of RD do not hold much importance in explaining intra-regional expansion occurring in home region, given the distance gap between the home country and rest of the home region is very less. As a result of well-functioning trans-European transport and logistics networks enabling fast response and just in time strategies covering the whole continent, the significance of geographic distance has decreased in EU. The EU integration process itself has let to decrease in Institutional distance. Further, Economic distance has l ost its relevance because of many reasons such as development of new services and products at par with European level, possibility of cross border shopping made possible by web based searches, continuous attempts made by many companies to gain scale and scope efficiencies at the European level and lastly, increased importance of EU as a geographic space to ascertain companys conduct, structure and importance. Finally, decreased significance of conventional measures of cultural distance mainly in the business to business area as it is easy to get labour in Europe, considerable increase in use of English as the lingua franca inside the region. On sharp contrast between past and present position of conventional location bound FSAs it can be clearly stated that previously they allowed firm expansion only upto country borders but now it can be easily upgraded, and made deployable and exploitable even beyond the home country borders and also in other home region countries. Secondly, their is a need to reconsider the fact that non-location-bound FSAs like technological knowledge or brand can be easily exploited and deployed nationwide. Today also it is necessary to complement existing FSA bundles with an additional FSA bundle in high distance environments which implies distance still plays an important role. According to Ghemawat (2005, p104), there are several ways to differentiate between low and high distance environments, one major distinction being that between home regions and host regions in a triad context. Moreover, it is clear that extension and scope of mainstream international theory is free from any scholars disagreeing with the concept of the triad region as the best proxy to discriminate between low-distance environments (in this case the home-triad region) and high-distance environment (in this case the two host-triad regions). High distance implies to making more substantial investments in order to complement its present FSA bundles, al so enabling maximum and profitable exploitation in the host region environment. Here, the apparent trade off becomes obvious: further the efforts to expand the high-distance environment may not be proved to be as successful and profitable as the expansion of low distance environment, even if it is suggested by macro-level parameters which measure the attractiveness of the high-distance environment that they have strong location advantages. As stated by Nachum and Wymbs (2007, p240) in regard to global cities that FSAs and location advantages are dependent on each other. High distance bundles also has many risk factors along with it like melding the extant FSA bundles with newly developed or accessed resources in the high distance environment may lead to burdened with several operational problems, decreased or disappointing sales, as exemplified by the retreat of some of the worlds largest MNEs from high-distance contexts, for example, Wal-Marts exit from Germany and Korea. . Thirdly, the theoretical difference between the two FSAs namely location bound and non-location bound FSAs assume conventionally easy developments and profitable exploitation of FSAs (like brand names or technological knowledge of proprietary) across borders. Moreover, it is very essential to acclimatize the brief contents of these two concepts to the authenticity of regionalization. More particularly, the factors that determine the extent of FSAs are, its distance accompanied by its geographic, institutional, economic and cultural components. The level at which a FSA should be called location-bound vs non-location bound is estimated by decay in value across a space. On the basis of terms like region bound nature of FSAs and the liability of inter regional foreignness it has been highlighted that for international business other geographic borders hold more importance than conventional country borders in our previous study. After studying the concepts and theories of regional strategy, we now try to establish the extent to which Procter Gamble could be categorized as a global firm in terms of its business and operational strategies. The Case of Procter Gamble Procter Gamble Co. One of the worlds leading consumer goods manufacturer such as Tide, Pantene, Ariel etc was established in 1837 from an original candle and soap company. The firm now operates in 180 nations with more than 138,000 employees. According to Lafley, A. G., Chairman of the Board and chief Executive Officer, PG, the firm has over 171 years of history and has always been driven by creativity and innovation. Additionally, improved sales and long term success have always been the strategic goals of this corporation. And it understands the fact that these goals can be attained by constantly appreciating changing consumers needs, innovation, branding and market needs. Depending entirely on skunk work such as acquisitions, internal RD and selective innovations has proved to be inefficient and insufficient for attaining the business target of $4 billion business in a time period of one year. It can be clearly seen that invent- it-ourselves model along with global research facilities and recruiting and holding of the best talent nationwide attained success till the year 2000 but nowadays satisfying high levels of top line growth has become a big challenge for an organization The approach through which the radical strategy of open innovation helped an organization attain its business mission and goal can be typified in the following lines. To face the challenge, PG adopted a brand new technique of innovation: Develop and Connect model in the year 2000 which lays great importance on searching good and new ideas and information outside and bringing them in, in order to give internal capabilities a boost and make most out of them. With the perspective of manufacturing improved and relatively cheaper products faster the business strategy involved in this model was to leverage assets of people, products and property available externally and applying it to their respective RD labs, purchasing, market capabilities and production. The foremost work of this strategy is to recognize top ten preferences and needs of the consumer. Moreover, it is very essential that the customers are fully satisfied by the products manufactured and which will finally result in increased sales and profit. Moving ahead, alike products or related technologies which already exist in the market and occupy good position are recognized. Lastly, analysing the influence of technological acquisition of one area over the other areas. Networking is the backbone of this approach. Along with having business collaborations with open networking companies such as InnoCentive and Ninesigma, the PG group has long chain of suppliers and technological entrepreneurs worldwide. They play a crucial role by finding solutions to PG internal problems in the outside world. Thus, by constructing such type of infrastructure PG has been able to reduce its investment in technology along with achieving stable top line growth and required sustainability. According to Huston, L. Sakkab, N., 2000, p.3 by shifting to Connect and Develop model their has been a remarkable increment in our RD production by 60% and the progress rate of innovation has undoubtedly doubled. The Procter Gamble figures out how an organization can maximize its profitability levels by switching to new and annovative The Procter Gamble examples mirrors the way how switching to new and innovative approaches of using information and technology can help maximise profit margins. It is one of the organisations which has developed enabling infrastructure fabricated around innovation with a huge world wide network combining human capital, ideas and technology. Conclusion This essay has brought to surface a number of strategies which can help firms to establish strong positions globally like having a threshold of 20% etc. The main aim which was to justify that a firm cannot be simply categorized as global based upon statistical data has been justified. A number of measures have also been illustrated which can help differentiate the firms regional strategy from the global strategy.

Analysis of the Dar Es Salaam Stock Exchange

Analysis of the Dar Es Salaam Stock Exchange 3.0 Chapter Three 3.1 Research Methodology This chapter aims at explaining the methodology which has been adopted in this study. Research approaches or style have been categorized into mainly two groups, the phenomenological approach and positivist approach. The phenomenological approach studies the phenomenon through observation, no theory at outset while the positivist approach use an existing theory or develop a new theory and test its validity. Since this study has used the existing theory on market efficiency therefore positivist approach have been adopted with this study, the rationale behind the choice of this approach is due to the nature of the study. 3.2 Research Design Research design can be broadly classified as exploratory research and Conclusive research .This study is conclusive research design because it involves the testing of specific hypothesis and examination of relationships as well as the data analysis is quantitative and research process is formal. 3.3 Data types and sources Two types of data that has been used in this study, the daily closing stock of market index(Dar es salaam Stock Exchange Index-DSEI) and the weekly share prices for a sample of five listed companies from Dar es salaam Stock Exchange. The daily closing stock for market index has covered the period from July 2007 to August 2008 making total number of observation to be 280, excluding public holidays and non trading days. The daily data prior to July 2007 were not found therefore the study had to use the available data . The second type of data that has been used in this study are weekly share prices of the five companies/securities included in the study .The weekly data runs from Jan 2002 to August 2008, which makes the total number of observation to be between 90 and 266. The final date is the same for the all companies but the initial date differs depend on when the company joined the stock market. The weekly data refers to the Wednesdays closing stock price, however if Wednesdays data were not available then Thursday closing price were used, in absence of Thursday data , Tuesday was taken instead, but when both Tuesday and Thursday were not available as well , the data for that week was regarded as a missing data. The use of weekly data is appropriate for this kind of studies as Humphrey and Lont (2005) asserted that weekly data helped to mitigate any non-trading effects and also reduced the effects of noise trading. Even though the stock price was collected for the purpose of performing statistical tests, the actual test was conducted using natural logarithmic of the relative price. The stock return (denoted by R) was calculated by natural logarithmic difference of the weekly stock price given by the following equation = [- )] (1) Where: Rt = Return at time t P = Price at time t The reasons why change in log price was used instead of the normal change in price, has been explain by Fama (1965), he mentioned that logarithms neutralize price level effects as well as producing a series of continuously compounded returns. The daily closing stock for market index (DSEI) was used in performing the parametric serial correlation test and the weekly share prices for five listed companies was used to perform the non parametric runs test .In additional to the primary data (Stock prices) collected from Dar es salaam Stock Exchange, the study has also used the secondary source of data. The secondary data includes academic books, journals and other publications. 3.3.1 Thin Trading As discussed earlier in literature review section, infrequency trading or thin trading is big problem in most of emerging stock market and failure to take into account can results into serious biasness of statistical results. In this study this problem has been taken into account and the weekly data were collected from infrequency trading. The first step taken in controlling the infrequency trading was to eliminate the mostly thin traded securities / companies as Shanken (1987) depicted that some of researchers controls the thin trading problem by eliminating some of thin traded stocks. Initially the study was meant to include all ten companies listed in Dar es salaam Stock Exchange, however five companies were found to be very much affected by infrequency trading therefore were eliminated from the study. The actual correction of weekly data from thin trading for the five companies included in this study was based on approach by Atchison et al (1987) as adjusted by Milambo et al (2003;cited in Mabhunu 2004). They suggested correcting thin trading problem by adjusting approach by Atchison at el (1987) who used uniform process which allocates returns equally over the days in multi -days interval where security not traded. According to Mlambo et al (2003 ;cited in Mabhunu 2004), if a stock is not traded for example after 14 days of non trading, then a single entry given by the following equation (2) should be used as an oppose to 15 entries of equal value. Where: = Length of time between a trade in a period t and previous successive trade = Price of stock at time t = Dividend at time t Therefore the infrequency problem in this study have been controlled by applying equation 2 without taking into account the dividend adjustment as it has been suggested that adjustments of dividend does not have much effects.Also the use of weekly data instead of daily data for individual companies has helped to control this problem. 3.3.1 Test of goodness -of-fit One of the hypothesis in which the random walk has based on is about price changes to conform to some probability distribution. Therefore in testing the efficiency of stock market it is essential to identify the pattern and determine which known statistical distribution the pattern follows. In this study the Jarque-Bera test has beeen employed to test the normality of the stock return. This techniques has been used in several studies, includes the recent study of Market Return and Weak Form Efficiency: The case of Ghana by Frimpong and Oteng (2007). The Jarque-Bera test statistic is given by JB = T(+ ) (3) Where: JB = Test Statistic T = Number of observation S = Sample Skewness K = Sample Kurtosis. Kurtosis which denoted by (K) in equation (3) measures the sharpness / peakness or flatness of the distribution of a series and is given by the following equation K = (4) A normal distributed series has kurtosis of 3, therefore whenever kurtosis of a series exceeds 3, the distribution of that series is regarded as leptokurtic relative to normal and if the kurtosis is less than 3, then the distribution is regarded as platykurtic(flat) relative to normal. The skewness which denoted by (S) and computed by the following equation S = (5) Measures the asymmetric distribution of the series from its mean. A normal distributed series has skewness of zero, therefore if the skewness of the series is positive then the series is concluded to have a heavier right tail and if the skewness is negative the distribution is regarded as having a heavier left tail relative to normal. The results of the Jarque-Bera test together with the skewness and kurtosis of the return series employed in this study have been reported in table 1. 3.4 Methods employed As mentioned earlier this study aimed at achieving three main objectives, first to find empirical evidence of weak form efficiency hypothesis for Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, secondly to identify the main barriers for the development of the Dar es salaam Stock Exchange i.e. the factors that hampers the growth of DSE and lastly to identify the quality of information available to investors at Dar es salaam Stock Exchange. Therefore in this chapter the methods used in achieving each objective have been explained in detail, starting with the first objective. 3.4.1 Objective 1: Empirical evidence for weak form efficiency hypothesis. In achieving the first objective, the study intended to answer the following two specific questions Is the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange weak-form efficient? Do the stock prices in Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange follow the random walk? The study was guided by the following hypothesis Dar es salaam Stock Exchange is weak form market efficient. Stock price follows a random walk Various techniques have been used so far in testing for weak form hypothesis by different researcher as depicted in literature review section, the techniques includes the statistical test of independence and trading rules. In determining whether a stock market is a weak form or not using statistical test, the correlation / relationship between stock price and return over the successive time interval is identified. If no significant correlation found then the market is regarded as weak form market as past return can not be used to determine future return. The market will be regarded as weak form inefficient if significant correlation will be found. In testing our first null hypothesis, one statistical test of independence have been employed, the serial correlation test . The non parametric runs test was employed to test our second null hypothesis, the random walk hypothesis. The following is the explanation of each statistical test employed in this study. Serial correlation test It is among the widely used test of independence .The serial correlation test measures the correlation of a variable over consecutive time interval e.g. at time t and time t-1.The reasons why this approach have been chosen to be used in this study is because of its familiarity in this kind of study. Several studies have employed this technique for example Vaidyanathan (1994) in the study of efficiency of the Indian capital market employed this approach. Similarly, Baral and Shrestha (2006) studying the daily stock behavior of commercial banks in Nepal, used the same approach. In testing the weak form efficiency of the stock market using this approach, the correlation of log price/return series is determined, if autocorrelation is found the assumptions will be that the series does not follow the random walk, meaning that the stock price are not independent, past return can be used to determine the future return and hence the market is weak form inefficient. The test statistic for the serial correlation coefficient for lag p can be express as p = (5) Similarly written as P = (6) In determining the autocorrelation of the return in this study, the Ljung-Box test was used. This is a portmanteau test which measures the autocorrelation of the variable. The Ljung-Box test statistic is given by =T(T+2) (7) Where by: = Test Statistic T = Number of observations = Is the jth autocorrelation or autocorrelation coefficient (for lag j) K = Number of coefficients to test autocorrelation, in other words the number of lag to be Tested. Given the value of obtained from the test, the conclusion on the randomness of the log price/return can be reached if > , K at significance level ÃŽ ±, where by , K means the ÃŽ ±-quantile of the Chi-square distribution with K degrees of freedom. Alternatively if the p-value obtained from the statistical test is less than 0.05,then the test is significant at 95% level of confidence and therefore the null hypothesis of zero auto correction can be rejected. The results for this test have been reported in figure 1in the next chapter. Runs test This is the second test that had been employed in this study to test for the second null hypothesis. Unlike parametric tests such as serial correlation, a runs test is a non-parametric test which means that it does not require the normal distribution of the series. This is one of the advantage of using this approach and it is also the reason why this technique has been adopted in our study. A run can be define as a set of identical (or related) symbols contained between two different symbols or no symbol (such as at the beginning or end of the sequence)Spiegel et al (2000.p366). In performing this test, each change in return/price is classified as positive (+), negative (-) and zero change (0). Alternatively change in return could be classified alphabetically for example A ,could be each return that equal or exceeds the mean value and B could be each return that are below mean value. The test can be executed to obtained the actual number of runs (denoted by V), and then the actual number of runs (V) can be compared with the expected number of runs () which is given by the following equation = (8) Where = Expected number of runs N = Total number of return observations = Sample size of each category of price change If actual number of runs will be greater than expected runs, it will be indications of negative serial correlation and if actual runs fall below expected return it will indicate the positive serial correlation of the return. Alternatively the p-value obtained can be used to conclude on the results of this test, if p-value is less than 0.05, then the test is significant at 95% level of confidence and therefore the null hypothesis of randomness can be rejected. For a large sample i.e (N>30), the sampling distribution of V is approximately corresponds to a normal distribution and thus Z = (9) Where: Z = Z-Test Statistic V = Actual return = Expected return = Standard deviation given by the following equation = [{+ N (N+1)} 2N (10) Therefore at appropriate level of significance, the Z-statistic can be used to test for independence of return series. The reason why the randomness tests such as non parametric runs test are used to test for the efficiency of the stock market is because efficiency of the stock market is determined by the way information are incorporated in current stock price. For a well efficient market , new information is incorporated instantaneously and spontaneously and therefore no arbitrage opportunity can exist. Since new information is incorporated instantaneously and spontaneously in current stock price then stock price/returns will be generated in random fashion i.e there will be no any pattern. In relation to the weak form efficient market all past information is expected to be incorporated in current stock price in such a way that a positive change in returns is not expected to be followed by positive change in return or negative to be followed by negative as the returns generated randomly. However, for the weak inefficient market all past information are not incorporated instantaneously and spontaneously as the results the change in returns is generated in a pattern which can lead to opportunity of making fortune. Therefore testing of randomness helps to reveal the how new information is incorporated in current stock price and the way returns are generated, if its in a random fashion or with pattern. This helps in drawing conclusion regarding the efficiency of a stock market. The results for this non parametric runs test are shown in table 2 3 and discussed in the next chapter. Objective 2:Factors affecting the growth/ development of Dar es salaam Stock Exchange Despite aim of finding empirical evidence of weak form hypothesis, also the second objective of this study was to identify and discuss major factors/ challenges that have been affecting the development and progress of Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange. April 2008, the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange celebrated its tenth years anniversary, however for the period of its ten years of operations; we have witness the slow growth / development of the stock market, only few companies have been listed so far. But what are the main causes of this slow growth? in terms of listing of companies?, what are the challenges faced by the stock market?. Further more the numbers of individuals participating in the market as investors is not so impressive, in a speech by the minister of finance and economic affairs on 10th anniversary of DSE , he said the market so far DSE has enable more than 116,651 Tanzanians to own shares. This is small figure to be as a minimum figure for the country with population of approximately 39.4 million people, we would expect a good number of individual to be aware of operations of the stock market and hence participating and a minimum figure could have been a million and above, however the situation is different then what is the real problem?, are there any efforts by the market authority to ensure the general public is aware of the stock market operations and hence increase the number of investors in the market?. Despite of the barriers and challenges for its growth, what measures have been and will be taken to ensure the stock market is growing? .What are the future prospects of the market? . In achieving our second objective the above mentioned questions will be addressed and discussed. This was done through reviewing and studying of the existing literature and publications regarding Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and African stock markets in general, since most of the emerging African stock markets share the same kind of the obstacle/ challenges. The findings and discussion of these issues have been presented the following chapter. Objective 3: The quality of information to investor and other stakeholders at DSE. The last objective was to determine the quality of information available to investors and other stakeholders at Dar es Salaam Stock Market. There various sources of information for investors in any stock market and one of the sources is financial statements. Even though financial statements are sometimes subjective to the manipulation of management and by the time financial statements are published some changes might have already happen, yet financial statements remains to be crucial source of information for investors and analysts. Normally the existing investors as well as potential investors would like to know how the investment have been well managed as this will give them the overall picture on how safe investing in the company has been or will be. Using the published financial statements, investors and analysts can acquire valuable information which can help in their decision making. However, investors will be deprived from using this type of source of information, if the information provided with the financial statements are not of good quality and required standard. According to Benston (2003), if the information provided by financial statements is not useful and accurate then its reception will not give investors the kind of insight they wanted and as the results investors will incur costs to find information somewhere else. Therefore with this objective, the quality of information available to investors in DSE was determined and discussed. This was achieved through a comparison of financial statement of Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL)- a company listed in Dar es salaam Stock Exchange and Sanisbury PLC a company listed in London Stock Exchange. The aim of the comparison was to determine if an investor in DSE using financial statement will get the same quality of information similar to an investor in London Stock Exchange. In this comparison in additional of looking the contents and standards in which these annual report have been prepared also the study looked at the general accessibility of the annual report and other companys information which might be helpful to investors between these company .Also the general overview of corporate governance between these two companies was analyzed and discussed. The results and discussions of this comparison have been presented in the following chapter. 3.5 Data Analysis Since the study had involve the statistical tests, therefore data was analyzed with the help of statistical packages. The parametric serial correction test and parametric runs test was performed using SPSS (Statistical Package For Social Science) and the Jarque -Bera test was performed using EVIEWS .Both quantitative and qualitative approach have been used in interpreting the results of analysis 4.0 Chapter Four: Data Analysis, Presentation Discussion of Findings 4.1 Introduction The aim of this chapter is to present the analysis and discuss the findings of the study. The chapter have been divided in three main part (A, B, C). The first part (A), reports the results and the discussions from statistical tests relating to the first objective of this study. Part B and C report the findings and discussions relating to the second and third objectives respectively . 4.2 Part A : Empirical evidence for weak form efficiency hypothesis In finding the empirical evidence for weak form efficiency hypothesis in Dar es salaam Stock Exchange ,three main statistical tests were performed , firstly the normality test i.e the Jarque Bera test, parametric serial correlation test and non parametric runs test, the findings of these test are presented in that order. 4.2.1 Test of goodness of- fit Since it is essential to determine the probability distribution of the series when performing efficiency tests /statistical tests, therefore the returns for the stock market index(DSEI) as well as the returns for the five companies used in the study were firstly analyzed to determine if the return series follows the normal distribution. The result of nomality test are shown in table 1 Table 1: Jarque- Bera Test DAHACO DSEI SIMBA TBL TCC TWIGA Mean 0.002166 0.000227 0.006390 0.002727 0.000724 0.008349 Median 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 Maximum 0.141970 0.021668 0.277632 0.202941 0.074108 0.287682 Minimum -0.182322 -0.024520 -0.253781 -0.146093 -0.117783 -0.072759 Std. Dev. 0.028979 0.002794 0.045971 0.027860 0.021852 0.040065 Skewness -0.462822 -0.623957 0.863549 2.133508 -0.934278 4.314131 Kurtosis 15.81011 39.73707 17.61886 23.35083 11.19382 29.39428 Jarque-Bera 1216.549 15707.35 1751.608 4792.031 532.6697 2891.643 Probability 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 Sum 0.383447 0.063240 1.239581 0.725336 0.130979 0.751392 Sum Sq. Dev. 0.147799 0.002170 0.407877 0.205694 0.085951 0.142861 Observations 177 279 194 266 181 90 Source : Analyzed data As shown in the table 1, the p-value of the jarque -bera test for stock market index series(DSEI) and the p-value for the five individual companies is below 0.05 i.e p-value As depicted in the table 1 above, the return for the market index(DSEI), TCC Ltd and DAHACO/SWISSPORT Ltd are negatively skew(heavier left tail) as their skewness less than zero. I,e skewness 0) which means that their returns are positively skew( a heavier right tail) relative to normal. A perfectly symmetrical distribution such as normal distribution has skewness which equal to zero. Regarding the kurtosis which describe the flatness or peaknedness of the distribution the results shows that the returns of both market index and individual companies have kurtosis greater than three i.e kurtosis > 3, which implies that the distribution of the returns are sharply peaked (leptokurtic) relative to normal. The p-value from test statistic, kurtosis and skewness indicates the rejection of normality for the returns so the general conclusion which can be drawn from the test of goodness-of-fit is that the returns employed in this study are not normally distributed and therefore non parametric statistical tests are more appropriate to be used than parametric statistical tests. 4.2.2 Results of Serial Correlations/ Autocorrelation Test Though it has been suggested that when the series is not normally distributed then non parametric tests wo

Teaching the Client to Take a Radial Pulse Essay -- Teaching-Learning

I chose to write my teaching-learning paper on how to take a radial pulse. I knew â€Å"Nurses are involved in client education to promote wellness, prevent or diagnose illness early, restore optimal health & function if illness has occurred, and assist clients and families to cope with alterations in health status.† (Craven & Hirnle, 2008, p. 347) However, I had to come up with a reason for choosing how to take a radial pulse. I know in the field the client would already have the needs to learn, so I asked my client. I approached the client and asked him to give me a reason why he wanted to learn to take a radial pulse. His first reaction was â€Å"Can I use it to find out if someone is dead?† He said this smiling with a smirk of pure mischievous motives. Shaking my head, I told the client â€Å"Yes, but really, give me a reason.† He followed up with â€Å"Well, I can get information together to see how I can build an exercise regimen. Don’t I need t o know how to do that for exercising?† After explaining to him that yes, you need to reach a target heart rate where you know you are burning calories at best we both decided we discovered our goal for this project. â€Å"The teaching-learning process empowers client to achieve increased wellness or to manage specific healthcare needs.† (C raven & Hirnle, 2008, p.345) Knowing this, I had discovered my goal for the client as well. Before beginning the teaching progress I need to learn about my client’s learning needs. â€Å"Determine what the client needs to know or do to function more independently† (Craven & Hirnle, 2008, p. 348). The best ways to gather information about your client is to ask your client. Therefore, I had asked my client what he knew about taking a radial pulse. His reply was â€Å"I only k... ...necting to your client and understanding their needs before pressing your teaching upon them. No client is willing to learn from someone who is in a hurry and just passing information like it is a voting pamphlet. Every client must be reached on their level to meet their concerns and their needs. Works Cited Carpenito-Moyet, L.J. (2010). Handbook of Nursing Diagnosis 13th Edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Craven, R.F., & Hirnle, C.J. (2008). Fundamentals of Nursing: Human Health and Function 6th Edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. D’Amico, Med, RN, D, & Barbarito, EdD, RN, C. (2007). Health & Physical Assessment in Nursing. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.. Smith, L. (2003). Help! My patient's illiterate. Nursing, 33(11 Part 1), 32hn6. Retrieved from CINAHL Plus with Full Text database.

The Role of the Proof in Math Essay example -- Mathematics Mathematica

The Role of the Proof in Math The notion of proof has long played a key role in the study of mathematics. It is in my opinion the role of proof that separates mathematics from the sciences and other fields of study. It is the existence of proofs that give mathematicians the confidence that their work is credible and thus allows them to continue to build upon prior work without the need to second guess what has previously been accomplished. Based upon this observation, it becomes natural to ask the questions pertaining to the use of proof in learning and understanding mathematics. If the concept of proof is so important to the field of mathematics, then is it possible that by writing proofs and studying proofs that an individual will be better equipped to understand the mathematics for which the proofs pertain? And if this is possible then when should a person be first exposed to proofs and at what level? In this paper I will give my views pertaining to these questions, as well as, a few more of my views pertaining to some other topics related to these questions. Before discussing the virtues of proofs as a means of learning and understanding mathematics, I feel that it is first necessary to begin with a brief discussion of the functions of proof within mathematics. Following I will give a list of the functions of proof that I have comprised from three sources (Hanna [2], Knuth [3], Tucker [6]): 1.verification, the act of arguing that a statement is true 2.explanation,providing reasons for why a statement is true, which in turn may lead to understanding 3.systematization,organizing statements and definitions into a system of axioms, lemmas, theorems, etc. 4.discovery,creating knowledge and new results .. ...ducation, V178 N1, pp. 35-45 [2]Hanna, Gila (2000), â€Å"Proof, Explanation and Exploration: An Overview,† Educational Studies in Mathematics, V44, pp. 5-23 [3]Knuth, Eric (2002), â€Å"Secondary School Mathematics Teachers Conceptions of Proof,† Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, V33, pp.379-405 [4]Lester, Frank K. (1975), â€Å"Developmental Aspects of Children’s Ability to Understand Mathematical Proof,† Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, V6 N1, pp. 14-25 [5]Selden, Annie and Selden, John (2003), â€Å"Validations of Proofs Considered as Texts: Can Undergraduates Tell Whether an Argument Proves a Theorem?,† Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, V34 N1, pp. 4-36 [6]Tucker, Thomas (1999), â€Å"On the Role of Proof in Calculus Courses,† Contemporary Issues in Mathematics Education, MSRI Publications, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

Atlantis :: essays research papers

Atlantis Over 11,000 years ago there existed an island nation located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean populated by a noble and powerful race. The people of this land possessed great wealth thanks to the natural resources found throughout their island. The island was a center for trade and commerce. The rulers of this land held sway over the people and land of their own island and well into Europe and Africa. This was the island of Atlantis. Atlantis was the domain of Poseidon, god of the sea. When Poseidon fell in love with a mortal woman, Cleito, he created a dwelling at the top of a hill near the middle of the island and surrounded the dwelling with rings of water and land to protect her. Cleito gave birth to five sets of twin boys who became the first rulers of Atlantis. The island was divided among the brothers with the eldest, Atlas, first King of Atlantis, being given control over the central hill and surrounding areas. At the top of the central hill, a temple was built to honor Poseidon that housed a giant gold statue of Poseidon riding a chariot pulled by winged horses. It was here that the rulers of Atlantis would come to discuss laws, pass judgments, and pay tribute to Poseidon. To facilitate travel and trade, a water canal was cut through of the rings of land and water running south for 5.5 miles (~9 km) to the sea. The city of Atlantis sat just outside the outer ring of water and spread across the plain covering a circle of 11 miles (1.7 km). This was a densely populated area where the majority of the population lived.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Beyond the city lay a fertile plain 330 miles (530 km) long and 110 miles (190 km) wide surrounded by another canal used to collect water from the rivers and streams of the mountains. The climate was such that two harvests were possible each year. One in the winter fed by the rains and one in the summer fed by irrigation from the canal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Surrounding the plain to the north were mountains which soared to the skies. Villages, lakes, rivers, and meadows dotted the mountains. Besides the harvests, the island provided all kinds of herbs, fruits, and nuts. An abundance of animals, including elephants, roamed the island. For generations the Atlanteans lived simple, virtuous lives. But slowly they began to change. Greed and power began to corrupt them.