Dunning’s Eclectic Paradigm Essay

Dunning’s Eclectic Paradigm Professor John Dunning proposed the eclectic paradigm as a framework for determining the extent and pattern of the value-chain operations that companies own abroad. Dunning draws from various theoretical perspectives, including the comparative advantage and the factor proportions, monopolistic advantage, and internalization advantage theories. Let’s use a real firm to illustrate the eclectic paradigm. The Aluminum Corporation of America (Alcoa) has over 130,000 employees in roughly 43 countries. The company’s integrated operations include bauxite mining and aluminum refining. Its products include primary aluminum (which it refines from bauxite), automotive components, and sheet aluminum for beverage cans and Reynolds Wrap ®. The eclectic paradigm specifies three conditions that determine whether or not a company will internationalize via FDI: ownership-specific advantages, location-specific advantages, and internalization advantages. To successfully enter and conduct business in a foreign market, the MNE must possess ownership-specific advantages (unique to the firm) relative to other firms already doing business in the market. These consist of the knowledge, skills, capabilities, processes, relationships, or physical assets held by the firm that allow it to compete effectively in the global marketplace. They amount to the firm’s competitive advantages. To ensure international success, the advantages must be substantial enough to offset the costs that the firm incurs in establishing and operating foreign operations. They also must be specific to the MNE that possesses them and not readily transferable to other firms. Examples of ownership-specific advantages include proprietary technology, managerial skills, trademarks or brand names, economies of scale, and access to substantial financial resources. The more valuable the firm’s ownership-specific advantages, the more likely it is to inter- nationalize via FDI. One of Alcoa’s most important ownership- specific advantages is the proprietary technology that it has acquired from R&D activities. Over time, Alcoa has also acquired special managerial and marketing skills in the production and marketing of refined aluminum. The firm has a well-known brand name in the aluminum industry, which helps increase sales. Because it is a large firm, Alcoa also profits from economies of scale and the ability to finance expensive projects. These advantages have allowed Alcoa to  maximize the performance of its international operations. Location-specific advantages refer to the comparative advantages that exist in individual foreign countries. Each country possesses a unique set of advantages from which companies can derive specific benefits. Examples include natural resources, skilled labor, low-cost labor, and inexpensive capital. Sophisticated managers recognize and seek to benefit from the host country advantages. Aloca- tion-specific advantage must be present for FDI to succeed. It must be profitable to the firm to locate abroad, that is, to utilize its ownership-specific advantages in conjunction with at least some location-specific advantages in the target country. Otherwise, the firm would use exporting to enter foreign markets.17 In terms of location-specific advantages, Alcoa located refineries in Brazil because of that country’s huge deposits of bauxite, a mineral found in relatively few other locations worldwide. The Amazon and other major rivers in Brazil generate huge amounts of hydroelectric power, a critical ingredient in electricity-intensive aluminum refining. Alcoa also benefits in Brazil from low-cost, relatively well-educated laborers, who work in the firm’s refineries. Internalization advantages are the advantages that the firm derives from internalizing foreign-based manufacturing, distribution, or other stages in its value chain. When profitable, the firm will transfer its ownership-specific advantages across national borders within its own organization, rather than dissipating them to independent, foreign entities. The FDI decision depends on which is the best option—internalization versus utilizing external partners—whether they are licensees, distributors, or suppliers. Internalization advantages include: the ability to control how the firm’s products are produced or marketed, the ability to control dissemination of the firm’s proprietary knowledge, and the ability to reduce buyer uncertainty about the value of products the firm offers. 18 Alcoa has internalized many of its operations instead of having them handled by outside independent suppliers for five reasons. First, Alcoa management wants to minimize dissemination of knowledge about its aluminum refining operations— knowledge the firm acquired at great expense. Second, compared to using outside suppliers, internalization provides the best net return to Alcoa, allowing it to minimize the costs of operations. Third, Alcoa needs to control sales of its aluminum products to avoid depressing world aluminum  prices by supplying too much aluminum into world markets. Fourth, Alcoa wants to be able to apply a differential pricing strategy, charging different prices to different customers. The firm could not differentiate its prices very effectively without the control over the distribution of its final products that internalization provides. Finally, aluminum refining is a complex business and Alcoa wants to control it to maintain the quality of its products.

Australian Aborigines †Short Essay Essay

The Australia Aborigine’s culture has always had my attention. From the places they lived to they way they where treated always amazed me. After reading about their rituals, social organization and settlement patterns for the textbook, they are a society of people who are all one. The type of kinship they practice is all is one. For example, if an outsider came to their tribe someone in the tribe would classify that outsider as their mother, and a name that is given to that tribe members real mother will be given to the outsider. According to Scheper-Hughes, N.in the 1993 article: Cephu’s choice: Is natural for human beings to want personal liberty? or is it a peculiarly western concern? some conclusions drawn from the indigenous cultures around the world. â€Å"Among Australian aborigines of the Western Desert, each new person comes into the world circumscribed by ancestral origin myths about ‘Dreamtime’ which structure the world and rigidly define the place of all aboriginal people within it. The myths determine each person’s position and the marriage strategies, kinship ties and friendship alliances that each must pursue in adherence to the sacred geography and its accompanying moral economy. ‘The Dreaming’, wrote William Stanner, ‘determines not only what life is, but also what it can be. Life, so to speak, is a one – possibility thing’. In this aboriginal society there is no sense of personal ‘agency’ fundamental to western notions of liberty and democracy. Nor is there any idea of an individual search for personal salvation which Christian missionaries have tried, but normally failed, to communicate. † The way Australia Aborigines use kinship affects the way they live, act and think. Since there system is â€Å"all is one† they live with the common understanding that they are all under one belief system. This can be compared to when someone in your family marries; the person they marry is now your family. This understanding creates a strong bond between people who are not technical blood related. The thought of people with such a bond helps in battles and growth within a society. In my own society the type of kinship seen in the aborigines can be seen with close family and friends. Our society tends to compare when we know the person or someone we trust knows the outside person. However, unlike the aborigines, our society has shown a way of turning away what is unfamiliar or unlike them. This brings a crack or weakness in our society because our bonds or circles are not as big because of it. I believe we can learn several things from foragers like the Australia Aborigines to make ourselves stronger. Reference: Scheper-Hughes, N. (1993, Cephu’s choice: Is natural for human beings to want personal liberty? or is it a peculiarly western concern? some conclusions drawn from the indigenous cultures around the world. New Internationalist, , 11-13. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/200094581? accountid=32521.

Retail Service Quality Scale Essay

To contextually fit the retail industry, Dabholkar et al. (1996) developed Retail Service Quality Model (RSQS). Based on SERVPERF, RSQS includes 28-item scale, of which 17 items are from SERVPERF and 11 items are developed by qualitative research. The Retail Service Quality Scale composes of 5 dimensions, namely: (1) Physical aspects (2) Reliability (3) Personal interaction (4) Problem-solving (5) Policy According to Dabholkar et al. (1996), retail service quality had a hierarchical factor structure which comprised of five basic dimensions (see Figure 4). Figure 4: The proposed hierarchical structure of retail service quality Source: Pratibha A. Dabholkar et al (1996), p. 6 26 The detail explanations of the dimensions are: 1. Physical aspects – includes functional elements like layout, comfort and privacy and also aesthetic elements such as the architecture, color, materials and style of the store. 2. Reliability – a combination of keeping promises and performing services right. 3. Personal interaction – the service personnel being courteous, helpful, inspiring confidence and trust in customers. 4. Problem-solving – the handling of returns and exchanges as well as complaints. 5. General Policy – a set of strategies, procedures and guiding principles which the store operates under such rules as high quality merchandise, convenient operating hours, availability of parking spaces and payment options. Physical aspects: Physical aspects of retailer include equipment and fixtures, physical facilities, materials associated with store’s service, convenience of physical facilities and layouts. In addition to the appearance of the facilities, it also takes into account the convenience offered the customer by the layout of physical facilities (Berry 2004) Bitner (1992) refers to physical/technical enablers using the term â€Å"servicescape† (a combination of service and landscape), including ambient conditions (temperature, air quality, and noise), space and function (layout, equipment, and furnishing), and signs and symbols (e.g. signage, style of decor, and personal artifacts). Thus, physical/technical products or attributes are necessary dimensions when creating the conditions for a service experience (Bitner, 1992, p.61). The retail store atmosphere also has been shown to have a positive influence on consumers’ patronage intentions (Baker et al., 1993). We expect this linkage in our study as well. Atmospheric cues consist of ambience, design, and social factors (Baker, 1986, p. 24). According to research of Arun Sharma and Thomas F. Stafford (2000) store atmospherics can enhance customers’ quality perceptions, which lead, in turn, to higher levels of persuasion. Thus, store environments have become an increasingly important method of retail positioning (Levy and Weitz, 1995, p 105). The environment of a store is an important part of the shopping experience. The environment is offered by a store can influence consumers’ decision to visit the store (Kotler, 1973, p.48), and the retail environment can guide consumers’ inferences about merchandise, service quality, and enjoyment at the store (Mehrabian, 1974; Zeithaml, 1988). Reliability: Reliability of retailers includes keeping promises to do something, providing right service, available merchandise and error-free sales transactions and records (Mehrabian, 1974; Zeithaml, 1988). 27 Personal interaction: The personal interaction dimension of retailers includes employees having knowledge to answer questions, inspiring confidence, providing prompt service, willing to respond to customer’s requests, giving customers individual attention, showing consistent courteously with customers and even treat customers properly on the phone (Mehrabian, 1976; Zeithaml, 1988). The role of interpersonal interaction in influencing customer satisfaction has been recognized in prior literature on services marketing (Ndubisi, 2007, p. 830). In contrast, for a business delivering service in interactive encounters with customers, â€Å"personalization† emerges as the most important determinant of perceived service quality, and of customer satisfaction and other patronage indicators (Lassar, 1995, p. 12). Thus, an important factor in retail store loyalty is interpersonal relationships between retail salespeople and customers (Macintosh and Lockshin, 1997, p.487-488). Problem-solving: Problem solving addresses handling of returns, exchanges and complaints. The problem solving dimension of retailers includes: willingness of retailers to handle returns and exchanges, sincere interest in problem and handling customer complaints directly and immediately (Mehrabian, 1974; Zeithaml, 1988). General policy: This dimension captures aspects of service quality that are directly influenced by retailers’ policy. It includes high quality merchandise, convenience of parking and operating hours as well as accepting major credit cards. Intangibles can also reflect the specific norms and values of a company, e.g. its codes of conduct and corporate narratives (Edvardsson and Enquist, 2002, p. 115). The importance of interactions between the service and its customers is well recognized within the s ervices marketing literature and they are known as ‘moments of truth’. Each moment of truth is an opportunity for the customer to evaluate the quality of the service that he or she is provided with (Duy Nhat at al, 2007, p.16). Processes that lie to the left of the line of visibility represent the back office mechanisms required to deliver the service to the customer. These processes also have an important effect on the perceived quality of the service (Lings, 1999, p. 454). RSQS has been used by some researchers in measuring service quality in certain types of retailers such as department stores, supermarkets and discount stores. Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS) had been successfully adapted and validated in a retail store environment. A retail store experience involves more than a non-retail service experience in terms of customers negotiating their way through the store, finding the merchandise they want, interacting with several store personnel along the way, and returning merchandise, all of which influence customers’ evaluations of service quality (Mehrabian, 1974; Zeithaml, 1988). . The Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS) scale provides information on how the customers (both internal and external) perceive the quality of the service with which they are provided. Where the customer is not satisfied with the service, information 28 from the Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS) measures can be used to create specific targets for the supplier (Lings, 1999, p. 456).

Cyber bullying(Argumentative Paper) Research Paper

Cyber bullying(Argumentative ) - Research Paper Example Insecurity issues have in turn sparked far reaching implications to the users. In particularly, insecurity issues in information technology have been closely associated with internet usability. This comes when the usefulness of internet cannot be presently overemphasized. It is for this reason that information technology and security issues become critical. Important, though, have been the concerns on how to address these forms of insecurity. The aspect on information technology that is paramount to this discussion is cyber bullying. Cyberbullying has been known to affect mostly the youth especially of school going age and partly adults who often use internet and mobile phones for communication purposes. As research would have it, cyberbullying has been said to vary with age. However, one thing that remains unclear is whether gender affects cyberbullying. This paper seeks to find out if actually gender is a factor as far as cyberbulling is concerns. The paper approaches this topic si ng different points of views as pointed out by a number of researchers. It involves controversy and issues opposing viewpoints of different researchers to this topic. Background information Cyber bullying has emerged to be the newest platform on which the youths are increasingly abusing each other According to (Hopeline 73). The more concerning issue is that there are currently no appropriate techniques that intervene for cyber bullying despite large numbers of kids who access the information technologies. Internet and cell phone communications have been cited as tools for Cyber bullying. According to Hopline, what appalls even more is that Cyber bullying occurs during kids’ class time. Hopline cites that cyber bullying has far reaching implications on kids, so that the victims (kids) of cyber bullying only feel safe when in their bedrooms. According to Hopline, it does not under all circumstances hold that cyber bullying causes physical harm. However, cyber bullying is mostl y associated with causation of harmful emotional fallout which may cumulate to other gar reaching consequences. Hopeline cites an example of Megan Meier; the girl aged 13 who committed suicide after belittlement by a hacker (her mother’s friend) that posed on MySpace as a boy aged 16 years. Hopline acknowledges that peer to peer cyber bullying is the most rampant, but its implications are not so severe. Effective curbing of cyber bullying would entail instilling of ethical morals among the youth, which will help them suit to information technologies. Hopline argues that there can be no an over-reactive approach as parents barring their kids from accessing technology in attempt to curb cyber bullying. Hopline suggests that an appropriate ramification procedure would entail the parents convening to open meetings, where then the parents can share and appropriately advice their kids on cyber bullying. Parents should be tactical so to dispel rebellion from their kids. Parents shou ld not ignore the fact that all have under high risks of cyber bullying; terms such as ‘some kids are immune’ should not exist since all are sensitive to belittlement. Other intervention techniques should encompass teaching the kids on the importance of respect. In the case where kids are cyber-bullied, appropriate intervention procedures should be followed before the situation gets out of hand. It is factual that kids are major victims of cyber bullying. It is

Sedimentary Rocks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Sedimentary Rocks - Essay Example The key characteristic feature of sedimentary rocks is that they are layered. Although there cover of the earth’s crust is extensive (about 75 per cent), sedimentary rocks only constitute about five per cent of the total volume of the crust. The earth’s crust mainly consists of the igneous and metamorphic rocks. Sedimentary rocks are vital sources of the natural resources such as coal and drinking water (Stille and Fichter, 2008). Formation of Sedimentary Rocks Sedimentary rocks are usually formed in areas where there is water or water had existed in one particular time. The dead materials of animals, plants, and pieces of rocks or minerals are then transported to these areas (water bodies) by wind, water, ice, or gravity where they are often dropped off and sink to the bottom. At the bottom of the water bodies, they little by little begin to form layers which build on top of one another. This puts pressure on the lower layers thus the weight of all of the layers pushes down the lower layers until they harden into rock.   This process does not occur in few years but takes millions of years to happen.   During this process, the water body dries up and the sedimentary layer that used to be under water becomes a surface layer (Boggs, 1995). Categories of Sedimentary Rocks According to Stille and Fichter (2008), sedimentary rocks are categorized into three main groups based on sediment type. The three categories include: Clastic Sedimentary Rock: they are formed from mechanical weathering debris. Examples include sandstone, conglomerate and breccias. Organic Sedimentary Rocks: they are formed from accumulation of dead plant and animal materials. Examples include coal and some limestones. Chemical Sedimentary Rocks: they are formed by precipitation of dissolved materials from solutions. Examples include some limestones and rock salt. Distinguishing Characteristics between the Three Categories of Sedimentary Rocks Clastic Sedimentary Rocks These are the most common type of sedimentary rocks and are comprised of granular materials which occur in sediments. Clastic rocks largely consist of surface minerals such as clay, feldspar and quartz which are formed as a result of physical breakdown of rocks and alteration of rocks chemically. Clastic sedimentary rocks are classified according to the size of the particle which is dominant in the rock. For example, Breccia is composed of large angular fragment, sandstone is composed of sand size weathering debris and conglomerate is made up of large rounded particles. Clastic sedimentary rocks have clastic texture; they are made up of clasts (Stille and Fichter, 2008). Organic Sedimentary Rocks Organic sedimentary rocks are composed of organic matter: animal and plant fragments. This type of rock is usually formed in two ways. One type (which includes limestone and chest) forms in the sea due accumulation of dead plankton shells whereas as the other one (coal) is formed due accumulation of dead plant on the earth surface (Boggs, 1995). Chemical Sedimentary Rocks Chemical sedimentary rocks are formed by inorganic precipitation of supersaturated mineral constituents. They form within the depositional basin from components of chemicals dissolved in water. Unlike clastic sedimentary rocks, the direct origin of chemicals is not east to esteblish. The chemicals could originate from magma or from an

Critically discuss the role of users in Legos approach to innovation Essay

Critically discuss the role of users in Legos approach to innovation and consider whether the strategy could be put to use in other organisations - Essay Example Later the product range shifted to a set of interlocking bricks which was launched in the market in 1953 but failed because of the consumer’s perception towards plastic toys was strong. By 1959 the company shifted completely to manufacturing plastic bricks and related products and stopped producing wooden toys. The company adopted a series of change with product innovations, segmenting and targeting markets, figures, adding wheels, switching to acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic rather than cellulose acetate, and addition of instruction manuals. Such changes helped Lego for further development and by 1988 there exist almost 50 elements in the toy system of Lego. It manufactured Duplo with large bricks for younger children and for the older ones it had Lego Technic Builders. The growth of Lego increased throughout the 20th century and it ranked in top ten toymakers in the world. Their product range diversified through models cars, train sets and robotics and even the diver sification was seen in the architecture to include programmability and control in order to support these toys (Chesbrough , 2003, pp.76-77). In 1999 the fortune magazine stated that Lego is the ‘toy of century’. The Lego’s operations faced competition due to evolution of computer games which attracted the younger generation and even its costly toys in the high cost economy created pressure in its operations. The low cost toys caused a problem for Lego to remain competitive in the market. As the potential configuration of a small number bricks were huge which involved the users more in the Lego concept. The Lego toys has been bought by the people to make house and cars who then reassemble the bricks in the own user created approach. From the year 2000 Lego has been keeping at the centre of its strategy the user linked approach. The company in order to improve the efficiency of production started developing digital models of the bricks and

The methode of returning cash to company shareholder Essay

The methode of returning cash to company shareholder - Essay Example Non-core operating assets like long term investments and related assets are not critically relevant for a firm's current operations. When Marks & Spencer (M&S) finally disposed of some of its non-core operating assets in 2002 and began to restructure the company, the decision was obvious because it wanted to adopt an alternative technique for the more traditional method of repurchasing shares or that of the increased dividend pay-out. In other words there was a clear effort on the part of M&S management to redistribute revenue to shareholders though its negative implications would have invariably affected the success of the program (Davies, 1999). According to financial managers' own way of thinking such efforts would not be in the best interest of the long term company value creation process because when such cash returns to shareholders take place at regular intervals in the future as the stock prices appreciate and hectic deposal of shares takes place, the company would lose its investor confidence. The net result thus would be to jeopardize the very relationship between the manager and the shareholder. This in turn would lead to a much closer relationship between the manager and the debt-holder. ... Debt instruments often consist and includes restrictions on the company's all the activities. And thus it is preventing and disturbing top management from pursuing alternative financing options and core business opportunities. Large companies always consider debt-equity ratio as a risk because the company is more concern towards lenders and investors. And thus the business is limited as to the amount of debt it carries (Marks and Spencer annual report 2002). For the better and efficient financing companies are usually pledge assets of the company to the Lender as collateral. And the share holders and executives of the company are in some cases required to give guarantee by personally for the repayment of the loans (Devaney, & Lizieri, 2004). Because of this capital restructuring programme marks and Spences certain advantages to their managers can be expected. because of the less liability of the company the managers will enjoy a greater power in all the operational actives. Thus it brings less liabilities to their company so it will be a greater relief for the managers. (Finlan, 1992) But it would certainly demotivates their share holders because they will loose their voting power and the opportunity to take part in the decision making process. So this fact can leads to a morale problem of the share holders. In every company, the financial and real sectors cooperate with each other in order to maintain a sound and progressive balance between the two. This is important as a deficiency in one sector impairs developments in the other sector. So therefore it is important to have an optimal capital structure in the company to maintain the balance between equity and the debts. The value of corporate debt

Supply Chain Management as a Major Source of Competitive Advantage Essay

Supply Chain Management as a Major Source of Competitive Advantage - Essay Example This paper illustrates that a firm takes inputs from the external environment, processes them and sells it to consumers. The process of transferring the inputs into the firm and getting the outputs to consumers outside the firm is at the center of supply chain management. Supply chain encompasses all organizations and activities associated with the flow and transmission of goods from raw materials through to the end users as well as associated information and monetary flow. Another definition states that the supply chain is â€Å"a set of three or more companies directly linked by one or more of the upstream or downstream flows of products, services, finances and information from a source to a customer†. This implies that supply chain management has to do with how the connections and linkages between a firm, its suppliers and consumers is conducted, arranged and utilised. Ross views supply chain management as a set of tasks that are carried out by an organization in order to a ttain results. He states that the supply chain is a set of collective tasks centered around the optimization of transportation/logistic, processing and distribution channels that a firm employs and utilizes. It involves functions like warehousing, transportation and other objectives associated with the markets. It utilizes time and involves the transfer of possessions. The concept of supply chain management is presented by Horch as the process of procurement, materials logistics, and distribution. This involves the institutionalization of aspects of logistics and the distribution of these logistics through processes related to upstream and downstream flows of the supply chain.

Development in the Democratic Republic of Congo Essay

Development in the Democratic Republic of Congo - Essay Example The major areas pointed out the country’s administration to be requiring major attention include health, creation of jobs, infrastructure, education as well as electricity and water problem. The government has not been able to do much in the listed areas largely due to the intermittent sliding back to armed conflicts and the wanting insecurity levels witnessed in the many provinces in the Eastern region. Religion, ritual, and violence have served an appreciable role, both depressingly and positively, in the development progression of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in both the social scenario aspect, political and economic development aspects. In crisis, religion has served as an intermediary for ensuring emergency relief and safety for the victims of violence in the DRC. It has also played a significant role in being instrumental in the peacemaking process, encouraging the warring factors to embrace dialogue in resolving their misunderstanding. This intermediary role of pla yer par excellence has been articulated both informally and officially. Religion has also stood out as the key engine of the institutional building, democratization process, and popular participation. One of the important pillars for the realization of democracy is conceived in the DRC through the many outreach programs initiated by the various faiths such as the Catholic Church (Herderschee, Han, Kai-Alexander and Samba, 78). The competence of the religious bodies reaching out to the farthest communities in every remote corner of DRC has been applied in the continued mobilization of the famous participation in the continuing process of democratization. Such a case was witnessed in the Catholic Church strong influential contribution in the process of electoral. Religion continues to play a considerable function in the encouragement of reverence for the rule of law, promotion of respect for the rights of human, as well as the promotion of the values and principles democracy, carried out through such initiatives as civic education programs. In the consolidation of the present peace milestone achieved through the process of reconciliation, religion has been an important factor in this role, playing it more efficiently and effectively than any other body. Through the impact of religion, the present arrangement politically in the DRC has allowed for a consensus on the control of power, in spite of not being able to address the deep lying causes of the violent conflicts that are connected to concerns related to historical prejudices and the unhealed traumas that result in the negative ethnicity (Kouvouama). Women and children have been the severely affected by the corollary violence, leaving deep psychological wounds in the major populace of the DRC (Moffet). The communal tensions as well as the ethnic fears are still vivid in some areas in spite of the government’s machinery presence. There is still engagement of religion in the psychosocial processes such a s coming up with reconciliatory programs initiated especially from the community level whereby the deep seated hatred between the diverse ethnic communities is addressed and also through joining victims through the listening centers. Religion, through the various bodies, articulates for the increased capacity and awareness among the people in the peace building process through using extensive training centers and institutions. Religious bodies have become better equipped at handling, analyzing and comprehending the underlying dynamics and causes of conflict. Religion therefore, has built the

Operations and Information Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Operations and Information Management - Essay Example This was a significant and big expansion by the retail shop moving towards becoming a huge retail chain in the country having its stores across in all the main places. MobUlike also had its two stores in Italy which gave the chance to Smartz to spread its business even in Europe. Through this report using various theories and aspects the importance of usage of new IT strategies like ecommerce in the business expansion and its benefits are been seen and understood. Along with this the importance of information management system for a company in its process improvement is been studied which gives a clear understanding over what and how IT system helps in growth of a particular company. The particular retail chain Smartz sells smartphones and its accessories. This company is looking to grow its chain widely across the country and trying to reach every customer by providing the best facility and good products and a good price. The company owner has looked to take up packaged software’s from commercial vendors to interconnect the whole process of Smatrz, MobUlike and also the end consumers in all aspects. The acquisition of MobUlike by Smartz is a big change in the business process for the company. The company is looking to take up the process of ecommerce to reach the end consumer which is a big step towards the growth as the ecommerce usage in the country has grown a lot and that to at a rapid pace (Doyle, 2001, pp.34-45). Business process management is basically the process involved in management of the overall business in an efficient way as per the requirements of the client or the customer to achieve the customer satisfaction by fulfilling their needs and wants. In this case the owner Imran needs to manage the process of both Smartz and MobUlike and integrate them along with launching the ecommerce process (Golden, 2005, pp. 65-72). The It systems in both the companies are different as a result the integration of

Rquiem por un campesino espaol Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Rquiem por un campesino espaol - Essay Example With his portrayal of the novel's two main characters Senders clearly shows us that while society does have a substantial role in influencing how we choose to live our lives, there are certain human traits that are inherent from birth. While the novel's characters are clearly symbolic of various social archetypes in Spain at the time, a novel of purely social critique could not reach the depths of human behaviour as this novel does, most specifically as the novel's two main characters, Msen Milln and Paco el del Molino, do. 'Rquiem por un campesino espaol' is in part a reflection of experiences lived by Senders during childhood and young adulthood in Spain. On various opportunities the novelist claimed that he was greatly affected by a visit in childhood to a cave much like the one in the novel (Mgica, E, p. 2). Senders was as captivated by historical influences as human existence and he claimed that, "'Lo que hay que hacer [. . .] no es actuar como hombres de una clase social sino como ser humano elemental y genrico.'" (qtd in Ramn J. Sender novelista y crtico 1901-1982) Which leads us to conclude that, "a Sender le interesaba un proceso de inversin metafsica a travs del cual subrayaba las fuerzas elementales que subyacen en las acciones humanas." (Ramn J. Sender novelista y crtico 1901-1982) It is important to note that this small masterpiece is not written in the heat of the moment but rather some fifteen years later. This would provide time enough for Senders to think on the terrible moments he passed during the civil war, including the executions without trial of his wife and his brother. While Senders was in exile he claimed that he would not return to Spain until all of his works were published, a promise he made good upon. When he did return to Spain he surprised the anxious Spanish populace and his admirers "por su anticomunismo, su defense del 'american way of life', su autodefinicion como anarquista cristiano y su rechazo a pronunciarse sobre la situacion poltica espaol." (Betriu, F 2001) Social Structure in Spain Set in early twentieth century Spain 'Rquiem por un campesino espaol' is a testimony of the process leading up to the advent of the Second Republic and subsequently the Spanish revolution. It is a time when the semi feudal practice of los bienes de seorio are still firmly entrenched and Paco el del Molino is fated to enter into a struggle for the land with a duke he has never seen and will never see. "Vamos a sacar la hierba al duque (p. 18)." This proclamation sums up the plot of Sender's most acclaimed work. Here we see the struggle between two sectors of society, those who wished for change in Spain and those conservative elements of society who greatly feared change, most specifically with regard to agrarian reform. In Sender's novel we see a Spain dominated by the old order and great inequalities. The rise to power of the Republicans would result in the short-lived redistribution of lands and rebellion against practices that dated back to medieval times. It is a time when Paco optimistically claims, "parece que a los duques les ha llegado su San Martin (p. 19)." Yet, Paco's optimism soon finds its end when the landholding class, the church and the military unite alongside the rise in facism. Probably the scene that best represents the deep social divisions takes place during Paco's wedding. In the midst of festivity and under the

Social Media Essay Example for Free

Social Media Essay A few years ago I jumped on the social media bandwagon after being introduced to it by my husband. I was always a little skeptical about social media because of all negative that I had heard about it. Now, I love it because there is a lot of positive about social media as far as I am concerned. Social media is an asset to marketing, and it is fun for personal use as well. I am fan of Facebook so I will discuss how it can direct consumers to a better source of purchasing. A Legally Astute Marketing Manager  According to our text a legally astute manger has four components; a set of value-laden attitudes about the importance of law to the firm’s success; a proactive approach to regulation and legal issues; the ability to exercise informed judgment when managing the legal aspects of business; the appropriate use of legal tools and context specific knowledge of the law (Bagley, 2013, p. 11). The legally astute social media marketing manager has to take those components a step further. The legally astute social media marketing manager must embrace social media and its networking power to drive sustainable change in the business world. In his book, We First: How Brands Consumers Use Social Media To Build A Better World, Simon Mainwaring shows how brands can leverage social media to build consumer goodwill, loyalty, and profit. One of the components of the legally astute manager stresses the importance of values. The We First value of accountability is what builds trust between institutions and the public and between brands and their consumers. Building trust helps the marketing manager take a proactive approach to regulation and legal issues. Trust is declining daily in today’s economy rapidly. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, trust in American companies fell to an all-time low of 36 percent in 2009, but it rose to an unimpressive 54 percent in 2010. Companies must understand that they cannot by trust, but it must be earned and renewed. They can be easily exposed these days through social media if they fail to live up their promises. Goodwill is another component of accountability. Trust makes people want to buy from your company, and goodwill makes them want to recommend your company to others. The last element of accountability is transparency. Transparency means that individuals and companies must operate with honesty, credibility, and congruency between their words and deed. Transparency helps the manager stay focused on the law and the use of legal tools. It works against backroom deals, hidden agendas, false pretenses, and unethical conduct. All of these values of accountability help the legally astute social media marketing manager mitigate the risks involved in doing business in cyberspace (Mainwaring, 2011, pp. 82-83). Alternative Dispute Resolution Negotiation, mediation, and arbitration are methods of alternative dispute resolution procedures that can help companies maintain keep a relationship with an opposing party. Negotiation happens when the two opposing parties engage in give-and take to come to an agreement. Negotiation can be seen along different dimensions. It can be concerned for future or desired relationships or it can be seen to address past events that have caused disagreements. Mediation happens when parties agree to a solution with the help of a neutral third party. It is a cheaper alternative to a lawsuit, it costs less, and resolutions are speedy. Arbitration is the resolution of a dispute by an arbitrator, the neutral third party. It is the most formal alternative dispute resolution, and it is more like a trial. I think that mediation is most effective for resolving issues that arise with consumer who make purchases from businesses that provide links to social media. One reason why I chose mediation is because it is a flexible process, and it allows for different procedures, rules and structures. Mediation is an appropriate option when parties have a desire to settle their dispute, and they want to preserve their relationship. I think that Facebook would want to continue to grow as it is by the millions so mediation would a beneficial ADR for the company to use. The company’s need for privacy would also be a reason for it to use mediation to resolve any genuine disputes that may come about (Bagley, 2013, p. 67-71). Social Media Across State Lines State governments have general powers, also known as police power. These powers include the powers to protect the health, safety, welfare, and morals of state residents. The Eleventh Amendment immunizes states from lawsuits brought by individuals from another state or nation. There is a Supremacy Clause that makes federal laws supreme over state laws. The federal government should allow the states to have more control over how transactions that occur across state lines are handled. Managers can pursue change through political action committees and direct lobbying (Bagley, 2013, p. 92). Three Branches of Government There is a separation of powers within the federal government. The judicial branch, (the courts), the executive branch (the President and cabinet departments), and the legislative branch (the Congress) all make up the federal government. The Constitution provides the judiciary its power through Article I and Article III. Congress has the authority to establish federal courts through Article I and Article III provides the basis for federal courts judicial power. The President’s executive power is defined in Article II. The President has the power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, and he has extensive power over foreign affairs. He can also appoint Justices of the U. S. Supreme Court with the advice and consent of the Senate. He also has the power to approve or disapprove acts of Congress. The Legislative Branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. They have the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among other states, spend to provide for the common defense and general welfare, coin money, establish post offices, levy and collect taxes, issue patents and copyrights, declare war, and raise and support armies. Congress can also make laws as necessary (Bagley, 2013, pp89-91). In m any ways, peaceful change is the ultimate benefit that social media can offer. Social media can reach millions of people with enough leverage to create change without any violence. Consumers do not have to beat down the doors of an irresponsible company. They can use Facebook to gain its cooperation. It is so important to look at the positive role that technology can play and to see how its uses will be increasingly oriented toward meaningful ends. The tools of social media are allowing consumers to shop more consciously. Dozens of websites help weed out wasteful or poorly made products. It is easier to get information about companies that are exposed for having unhealthy, unsustainable, or unethical practices (Mainwaring, 2011, pp. 59-160). Campaigns on Facebook work well because its viral communications tools enable large numbers to become aware of an issue and join together quickly. Facebook has been called digital democracy. Jared Cohen, a former student of Condoleeza Rice said, â€Å"Facebook is one of the most organic tools for democracy promotion the world has ever seen. † As Facebook began to grow globally, it was also being discussed in the White House Situation Room, where President Bush and his National Security Council staff gathered during crises. Because President Obama mastered digital tools in 2008, it was called the â€Å"Facebook election† (Kirkpatrick, 2010. p. 290). Even though the President is known for his use of social media, mainly Facebook, I think that the legislative branch can effectuate the most significant impact on regulating consumer transactions via social media outlets. One of the powers that it has is to regulate commerce with the foreign nations and the states. Because consumer transactions are an element of commerce, I would say that this branch would have the greatest impact. The legislative branch also has another important power that could benefit social media, and that is its ability to make laws as necessary (Bagley, 2013, p. 91). Agency Relationships Agency is considered an important legal relationship in today’s business world. Corporations could not function without the law of agency. Facebook introduced engagement ads as a form of advertisement. In its first year engagement ads generated close to a hundred million dollars of revenue. Facebook charges at least $5 per thousand views for those ads. Facebook gives advertisers more targeting options than most websites. Facebook is an awesome marketing tool for many businesses. For a well-known company like McDonald’s the number of mentions on the site is in the millions. Facebook is an agent for many businesses as well. Mazda asked its fans on Facebook to help it design a car for 2018. They received contributions from all over the world. Some consumer-oriented companies now put less emphasis on their website and more on their Facebook page. The relationship between people and companies will continue to evolve rapidly on Facebook and yield some startling developments. It is the perfect platform for building customer loyalty (Kirkpatrick, 2010, pp. 263-265)

The Development Of Accounting In Malaysia Accounting Essay

The Development Of Accounting In Malaysia Accounting Essay A tendency towards adopting the style of accounting institutions and practices of western developed countries that colonized the developing countries has been dominated in the latter countries (Ali, Lee West, 2008). Apparently, the Malaysian accounting development is strongly influenced by the accounting framework that the United Kingdom (UK) applied. The British colonial presence can be considered as a key phrase that brought about the noteworthy influences and changes on the Malaysias history. Such influences and changes can be traced back to the 1785, the time that the approval of occupying island of Penang and building fort in there is granted to the Francis Light, a former British naval officer and private trader, from the sultan of Kedah. In 1786, Light established the settlement of George Town on the island of Penang. The contribution of turning Penang Island into a state with free-trade policy that Light made helps the Malacca to be the premier trader center in the Malay Peninsula. Presence of British colonial is continuously expanded by the official of British East India Company, Thomas Stanford Raffles, and Tengku Hussein, a contender for the throne of Malacca, on the Malay Peninsula in 1819. An agreement of consenting the British settles and establishes trading port in Singapore is reached between Stanford Raffles and H ussein in exchange for the formal recognition of Hussein as the sultan of Malacca. The advantageous geographic location and free-trade policy that Singapore possesses assist in attaining the astonished financial success. In 1945, British resumed its control for the purpose of establishing themselves as a durable administrative power. Because of the ethnic tensions often influence political arrangements, therefore, British proposed and implemented the Malayan Union plan in 1946. However, the problem of ethnic tensions still exists even though the British has taken action to promote the national unity among different ethnic groups. An Alliance partnership is established and which comprises United Malays National Organization (UMNO), Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) from 1952 to 1955. In fact, the Alliance won the municipal, local and the federal elections and thus emerged as an agent for unified Malayan interests. Malaya gained independence from Br itish in 1957 (Library of Congress, 2006). The independence of Malayan State since 1957 has transformed the Malayan economy into a new era of development. History of accounting system in Malaysia marks its opening of the use of accounting standards and practices after the pullout of Britain with subsequent accounting development significantly influenced by the after-effect of British colonization. The Malaysian Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA) has became the first accounting bodies to be established in the Malayan State in 1958 with the aim of advancing accounting professions in all aspects and to educate the appropriate accounting practices and standards to businesses in Malaysia. Subsequent efforts have also been made in line with the British colonial effect as the government has passed the Companies Act 1965 and Accounting Act 1967 that are both based on the laws and regulations developed in the UK during the 1960s. Apart from this, compromise of the non-Malay rights could not be hindered by prejudicial legislation or governmental intervention is reached because of the British colonization. As a member of the Commonwealth, it is almost inevitable that Malaysia is highly influenced by any changes in the legal, economy, culture and politics environment of UK. This is especially true as the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board (MASB) constantly reviews and updates the Malaysian accounting standards if the accounting standards in UK have made any amendments. The cultural-based theory of the Hofstede-Gray framework is applied for the aim of explaining the differences or deficiencies in accounting practices. In fact, the Hofstede-Gray theory is widely used by a number researcher as the accounting values and the cultural dimension is associated with the theory. Based on the surveys that the researchers conducted, it is noted that the Grays approach is probably the most well-known exponent of the cultural approach to understand the nature of accounting practices, while the Hofstedes approach is just one of a number of ways to study culture. The use of the Hofstede-Gray theory helps the researchers to understand the way the national accounting practices are formed (Parera, 1989) (Gerhardy, 1990) and to determine normatively whether the accounting techniques are appropriate to the particular countries (Baydoun Willet, 1995). According to Figure 1, it can be seen that the Hofstede-Gray theory is a combination of, Grays accounting values which include professionalism, uniformity, conservatism and secrecy with the Hofstedes cultural values which comprise power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and masculinity. Basically, there are two different perspectives to determine the culture and classification, to be precise, one from the Gray perspective and another from Hofstede. From the perspective of Gray, Malaysia is a country with high statutory control and uniformity in terms of authority and enforcement. While from the view of measurement and disclosure, Malaysia is a state with high secrecy and conservatism and which can be evidenced from Figure 2 and Figure 3 respectively. However, Malaysia scored high on the power distance and masculinity, yet scored low on the uncertainty avoidance and individualism on the Hofstedes standpoint. According to the survey conducted by Itim (2012), Malaysia scored 104 on the dimension of power distance. It can be explained that hierarchical order is acceptable for the Malaysian and hence inherent inequalities as well as centralization are possible to be reflected, but leadership and gaps of authority are challenging if there is hierarchy in the organization. Furthermore, with a score of 50, Malaysia can be considered as a masculine society, a highly success-oriented and driven. Generally, equity, competition and performance are the main concern in the masculine society. For instance, attitude of ferocious and no holds barred battles might happen between candidates during the election. Moreover, Malaysia is a low preference for uncertainty avoidance as it scored only 36. In such dimension, there is no any ambiguous or unknown situations exist due to the culture of relaxed attitude permeates. Besides, a mark of 26 is scored and it means that Malaysia is a collectivistic society. T herefore, a low degree of interdependence manifests that there is a close long-term commitment among members and the culture of loyalty is the uppermost concern and overrides most of the societal rules and regulations. Regulatory framework of accounting is established for the purpose of providing high quality and reliable information to satisfy the needs of external users. In fact, it plays a major role to ensure that the financial statements are prepared by the organizations in accordance with the rules and regulations (Collis Hussey, 2007). In Malaysia, existing companies are required to comply with the rules and regulations such as Companies Act 1965, Financial Reporting Act 1997, Accounting Standards, Income Tax Act 1967, the Securities Commission Guidelines 1995, Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) Listing Requirement and Bank Negara Malaysia Guidelines, etc during the process of preparing and presenting financial statements. Thus, it is obvious that regulatory framework is developed in the field of accounting profession, company law, auditing, taxation as well as stock exchange and implementation is taken in order to provide a true and fair view. It is known that there are four professional accounting bodies in Malaysia, namely, Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA), The Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA), Malaysian Accounting Standards Board (MASB) and Financial Reporting Foundation (FRF). Fundamentally, MIA is a statutory accounting profession which is established according to the Accountants Act 1967. The establishment of such accounting body is to regulate and develop the accountancy profession in Malaysia. Hence, MIA is responsible to meet and maintain the education, quality assurance as well as enforcement for the aim of ensuring that credibility of the profession is maintained and the public interest is continuously upheld. In addition, MIA also has the ability of monitoring the international and local accounting trends and developments as well as consulting regularly with the government and regulatory bodies. According to the MIA Official Website, it is noted that MIA not only plays a signi ficant role in the Malaysia, but also international and regional arena. Evidence of the involvement in ASEAN Federation of Accountants (AFA) and International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) to develop and advance the global accounting professional bodies can be proved. Furthermore, such involvement also enables MIA to work for the betterment by bringing home to the latest developments in the overseas. Indeed, there is a requirement provided under the provisions of the Act and stated that the person who is registered as a member of MIA only can be recognized as an accountant. Because of being as a member of International Auditing Practices Committee (IAPC), therefore, MIA is responsible to support the IFRCs work and also determine International Accounting Standards (IAS) as the basis of approved standards in the auditing field of Malaysia (MIA Official Website). On the other hand, MICPA is the accounting profession who is established in 1958 according to the Companies Ordinances and is formally called as The Malayan Association of Certified Public Accountants; while MASB is established as an independent authority according to the Financial Reporting Act 1997. The MASB and the FRF make up the new framework of financial reporting in Malaysia. Basically, FRF has no direct influence on standard setting as such duty is solely rest on MASB. Therefore, FRF is responsible for the oversight of, such as MASBs performance and initial source of view for proposed standards. Moreover, there is also a professional body for company secretary and administration, that is, Malaysian Association of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries Administrators (MAICSA). Besides, the Malaysian Association of Accounting Administrators is the profession who is formed to recognize the two-tiered of professional accountant and is sponsored by MIA. Companies Act 1965 (CA 1965) is published by the Commissioner of Law Revision yet the Company Commission of Malaysia enforces and administers it. Basically, it is the principle legislation developed to govern the formation and procedure of companies existing in Malaysia. The CA 1965 not only provides formal rules on accounting such as presenting financial statements in a true and fair view, but also enacts a provision to protect the rights and interests of shareholders and investors. For example, according to the section 167 of CA 1965, all of the Malaysian existing companies are required to keep and maintain proper accounting records so as to have the ability to explain companies transactions and financial position sufficiently and subsequently enables the true and fair view from all of the accounting information. Apart from this, the requirement of preparing accounts and reports based on the Approved Accounting Standards (AAP) that MASB issued as well as complying with the disclosu re requirements of the Ninth Schedule of CA 1965 are developed for every company for the purpose of delivering the companies affairs with a true and fair view. According to the CA Malaysia, there is a need for the appointment of approved auditors to audit the companies accounts and present true and fair view as well as stress on the auditors independence for companies that are operating in Malaysia and registered under the Companies Commissioner of Malaysia. A standard setting body with the ability of functionally independent is established by MIA and which is operating under the assistance of the latter accounting profession and is called the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AASB). AASB plays an important role in the development of accounting and auditing field in Malaysia. It can be evidenced from the need of promoting and ensuring high quality professional standards to be adhered and subsequently lead to the international convergence of standards. In addition, AASB also has the responsibility of the consideration for the new or revised International Auditing and Assurance Standards that International Auditing and Assurance Standar ds Board (IAASB) issued for Malaysia to adopt. Furthermore, AASB is required to review and deliberate any issues and developments that are derived from other jurisdictions that is relating to auditing practices in Malaysia. Moreover, the Audit Act 1957 also states that there is a close link between accounting and auditing, for instance, auditors are responsible to audit accounts that are prepared by professional bodies. It is generally known that types of tax in Malaysia include personal and corporate income tax, goods and service tax (GST) real property gains tax (RPGT), etc. In fact, Malaysia is a self-assessment tax regime (SAS) as it is shown in the Year of Assessment 2010 (YA 2010) that different classes of people is subject to different percentage of tax rate. Basically, the establishment of Income Tax Act 1967 (ITA 1967) is to determine the chargeable income and the tax payable and ascertain whether it is reasonable to the tax payers. The imputation system is used by companies to compute the tax. In fact, taxes paid by the companies on its profits are used to frank dividends paid to shareholders. In Malaysia, the RPGT is re-introduced and which is stated in the Real Property Gains Tax (Exemption) (No. 2) Order 2007, only for the disposal of real property held for five years or below is subjected to the RPGT of 5% and it is only applicable to the capital land transaction In terms of the GST, i t is the indirect tax or value added tax (VAT) that imposed on both local and imported goods and services. It is proposed by government for the purpose of replacing sales and service tax, but implementation has not been taken. It is noted that taxation is considered as parts of the business expenditure. Thus, it is important for the companies to comply with the ITA 1967 during the process of preparing and presenting the financial statements as well as the statement of computation of chargeable income. Companies are required to prepare both statements due to the double deduction, non-taxable, non-deductible and deductible issues. KLSE is the stock exchange holding company in Malaysia and is developed in accordance with the section 15 of the Capital Markets and Service Act 2007. In 2004, it is renamed and is currently called as Bursa Malaysia Berhad. The establishment of Bursa Malaysia Berhad is to allow the activity of trading of shares can be provided in the market and subsequently assists in enhancing competitive position as well as responding to global trends. There is no authority and legal power for the Bursa Malaysia Berhad to execute compliance. Hence, penalty of reprimanding, suspending and de-listing in the stock exchange would be imposed to the errant companies. For example, listing companies have to follow the rules and regulations of the clause 335 of the listing manual during the process of preparing and presenting companies annual audited accounts and making sure that all of the companies accounts are prepared based on the CA 1965 as well as the AAS. The listing requirements are set by the Bursa Malaysia Berhad in order to regulate the public limited companies (PLC) in terms of the submission of reports and additional disclosure. Apart from this, there is also another requirements which established by the Bursa Malaysia Berhad for the purpose of enhancing the disclosure of information on corporate governance via the promotion of greater transparency and accountability. In 19th November 2011, MASB established the Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards (MFRS) for the purpose of bringing the Malaysian accounting standards to be fully International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) compliant. Basically, MFRS framework make up of the existing as well as the new and revised accounting standards that are issued by International Accounting Standard Board (IASB). The primary objective of such convergence is to reduce the gap between Financial Reporting Standards (FRS) between the IFRS and subsequently facilitate the transparency and the comparability of the companies financial statements. However, there is several inconsistency exist such as IAS 41 Agriculture and IFRS 9 Financial Instruments and hence are not adopted by the MASN during the process of narrowing the gap between FRS and IFRS. In terms of the presentation of financial statements, MFRS 101 or FRS 101 stated that PLC that operating in Malaysia is required to prepare and disclose the financial statements including, statement of financial position, statement of comprehensive income, statement of changes in equity, statement of cash flows and the notes to account. In fact, the MFRS 101 or FRS 101 is the same with the IAS 1, which is the presentation of financial statements. Basically, MFRS 127 or FRS 127 is established for the purpose of enhancing the relevance, reliability and comparability of the information in the parents separate financial statements as well as the groups consolidated financial statements. In Malaysia, a requirement of using uniform accounting policies for reporting is set for the group to follow. Furthermore, there is a need for entity to follow the IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement if it is required to present separate financial statements or investments in subsidiaries by the local regulations. The MFRS 127 or FRS 127 is consistent with the IAS 27, Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements. In 1974, Malaysias top 80 firms in the KLSE have half of it shares owned by foreigners while the other half is mostly controlled the Malaysian Chinese. However, government has gradually transformed these firms into stated owned enterprises which have almost 40% of the Malaysias market shares owned by the government. Major changes came in during the 1990s where most of these state owned companies have went into privatization. Till now, companies have been developed into several forms mainly the sole proprietor that business is solely owned by an individual, partnership where two or more persons jointly owned the business with unlimited liability, private limited company that must at least have 2 and maximum of 50 members, public limited company that is able to be listed in KLSE to offer subscription of shares to public. Foreign currency translation has been one of the uprising factors that companies in Malaysia are needed to take note of because of the increase and extensiveness of globalization in the business context. Foreign currency translation can be defined as the conversion of currency accounting figures from one country to another due to differences financial reporting requirements. This means that different countries would have different functional currency and multinational companies are required to translate its foreign operations or transactions that use functional currency into the required presentation currency for its financial statement. Malaysia needs to pay extra attention to the accounting development in relation to the aspect because Malaysia is one of the largest palm oil and crude oil producer which both are mainly transacted in USD around the world. Most of these companies would use USD as their functional currency which induces translation risk when it is converted into the p resentation currency. Thus, the accounting standard of foreign currency translation which is MFRS 121 will take into account the effect of the currency translation changes or risk that the companies faced with the use of appropriate recognition and measurement method developed by IFRS. It is a known fact that the accounting development in Malaysia over the last 15 years has been based on the accounting principles that MASB adopted while recent accounting practices has seen accounting profession exercising its responsibilities that are comply with MFRS. MFRS is nevertheless the latest accounting principles that Malaysia accounting is accounted for which equivalents with IFRS and apply in any accounting period from or after 1 January 2012. This marks the first time adoption of MFRS for annual periods in Malaysia and is an effort by MASB to implement Malaysias accounting policy to be in line with the convergence project initiated and developed by IASB and FASB. The previous FRS is then replaced by MFRS to place full convergence on Malaysia accounting standard in order to cope with globalisation and to ensure Malaysias business is on the same field at international level. Some major elements of MFRS have been listed below. MFRS 8 is adopted from IFRS 8 that has replaced IAS 14 of Segment Reporting. The main change made is on its requirement of segment identification and the measurement and disclosure of operating segment information. Any company in Malaysia that adopted MFRS 8 will automatically be considered as adopting the international accounting standard of IFRS 8. This particular standard has provide the definition of an operating segment that qualifies in the financial statement and its identification is required to be based on the company internal report that assessed and reviewed the allocation of resources and performance of that segment as according to the latest changes. Besides, the standard also provides the measurement purpose of the amount of operating segment recorded which is for resources allocation and performance measurement purposes of the operating segment. Lastly, the disclosure of operating segment information must be based on the core principles that requires information disclo sed to enable users to make informed decision on the nature and financial effect and its economic environment that the company is operating in order to aid Malaysian companies with operating segments operating in different locations or management. MFRS 118 Revenue is one of the major elements that MASB has included by the adoption of IAS 18 that the IASB has issued and amended but is still under the development of the convergence project. Companies in Malaysia are considered adopting the international accounting standard of IAS 18 if MRS 118 is applied in its financial statement. The MFRS 118 mainly adopted from IAS 18 has included important guidance on accounting practices for revenue by stating the objectives, scope and definition of revenue. These are described in relation to the definition of income in the Framework of Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements that stated revenue as an income that is in the ordinary course of business activities. The measurement and identification of revenue is also included while different type of revenue from sales of goods, rendering a service, royalties, interests and dividends are also provided with guidance and disclosure requirements where Malaysian companies mostly posse ssed of. The MFRS 120 Accounting for Government Grant and Disclosure of Government Assistance is developed to aid business in Malaysia that needs to account for its grant or assistance provided by Government. It is equivalent to IAS 20 with the issuance and amendments made by IASB and Malaysian companies that adopt MFRS 120 will simultaneously comply with IAS 20. Basically, this standard provides guidance on the definition of government grant and government assistance and its disclosure on the presentation of grants that is relating to asset or income as well as its repayment method. The approaches and reasons for accounting of government grant using income approach or capital approach are also given in order for users to clearly identify the government intention on providing grant or assistance to any Malaysian companies. However, this standard does not apply to government grants covered by MFRS 141 Agriculture and other exceptions such as the participation of government in the ownership of business. The MFRS 141 Agriculture apply on its own as evidenced in MFRS 120 that excludes this sector because agriculture is consider an essential sector for the Malaysia economy and accounting must placed its emphasis on it. MFRS 141 is adopted from IAS 41 and will be simultaneously applied to any Malaysia companies that adopt MFRS 141. This standard mainly prescribe how should the agriculture activities and biological assets should be accounted for, measured, presented, and disclosed by the management of the company. The measurement for biological assets is complicated and required specific guidance provided by the standards such as the initial recognition that requires the use of reliably measured fair value and any changes in fair value less costs to sell is included in profit and loss. Nevertheless, agricultural activities land is not covered under this standard but in IAS 16 while government grant for biological activities is included. MFRS 121 is adopted from IAS 21 has that has made changes to replace SIC-11, SIC-19 and SIC-30 that mainly focuses on the definition and changes of reporting currency, functional currency and presentation currency. The adoption of MFRS 121 by any Malaysian companies would also means it is adopting IAS 21 in accordance to international standards. This is an important standard especially for companies that operates internationally or have dealings in different currency. Mainly, the standard applies its accounting treatment on any transaction and balances of foreign currencies but not derivative transaction and the translation of foreign operation into reporting currency or consolidation purposes. The method of reporting and disclosing the changes of foreign exchange transaction, balances or operations is also included. The MFRS 123 is an equivalent standard to IAS 23 issued by the IASB while any Malaysian company that applies MFRS 123 is also considered as adopting the IAS 23. This standard has its scope limited mainly to borrowing costs that is relating to capital expenditure such as the acquisition, construction and production of an asset to expand business that is considered part of the cost to obtain the relevant assets. The standard has prescribed the definition of a qualifying assets and the eligibility of borrowing costs as capitalisation. The recognition and measurement for borrowing costs is also provided as well as the disclosure requirement relates to the borrowing costs amount and its capitalisation rate. This relevant standard that relates to investment property is of importance to the Malaysia accounting practices due to the booming of property house prices that induces substantial increase in property for investment. MFRS 140 is developed in accordance to IAS 40 and many changes have been made to IAS 40 such as lease related property, the measurement approach of investment property and its disclosure requirement. Nevertheless, MFRS 140 provides guidance on the treatment for accounting of investment property in Malaysia and its disclosure method excluding accounting for lease property. Definition to include property as investment nature has been provided while measurement method of fair value model or cost model for investment property is prescribed clearly with distinction between initial recognition and post recognition. The MFRS 112 is developed by the MASB based on IAS 12 with several revisions made on the recognition and disclosure of income taxes especially deferred tax assets and liabilities. Any Malaysian company that adopts MFRS 112 is equivalent to adopting IAS 12. The income tax in Malaysia is important especially in its treatment for tax consequences as tax evasion is considerably high while tax law is not stringently enforced. The standard provides guidance for accounting treatment of income taxes in Malaysia by prescribing the definition, recognition and measurement for current tax expenses, assets and liabilities with emphasis on future settlement of deferred tax assets and liabilities. Examples of income taxes accounting treatment has been provided in detail to assist users in understanding the complexity of income taxes while presentation and disclosure requirements are also included. MFRS 124 mainly relates to the disclosure requirement of party that is related to the ordinary course of business which is adopted from IAS 24 that is issued and revised by IASB. Revisions has been made in 2009 to simplify the definitions and meanings of related party and allowed certain exceptions of related parties for disclosure especially when it is government-related. Basically, the standard requires the disclosure of transaction between the company and any related parties or any transaction between parents and subsidiaries. Most importantly, this would enable user to pay attention on the financial effect of related party transaction on the companys financial position and profitability. The accounting development in Malaysia has never been lacking of frauds and embezzlements due to related party and this standard would provide enhanced transparency to prevent related party unauthorised transactions. The MFRS 119 is an adoption of IAS 19 that is issued by IASB and Companies in Malaysia that uses MFRS 119 would automatically be considered to adopt the international standard of IAS 19. The purpose of MFRS 119 is to provide guidance for entity to be able to recognise appropriately the liability and expenses in relation to employee benefits provided by the entity. The accounting treatment provided by this standard encompasses recognition and measurement of short term and long term employee benefits, termination benefits and post employment benefits that includes defined contribution plan and defined benefits plan. Example illustrating accounting treatment has been provided clearly and the difference of recognition and measurement for the post employment benefits is also clearly stated. Undeniably, it is important to the Malaysia economy as the culture of Malaysia is considers to be emphasizing on the employee benefits that the company is able to provide recently. It is undeniably that the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 not only introduces the importance of CG but also exposes the weaknesses of Malaysian CG practice to the public attention. Since then, Malaysia has taken initiative to implement schemes such as High Level Finance Committee on CG (HLFC) which have published the Report on Corporate Governance that provides definition of CG in the Malaysia context and laid the basis for the establishment of Code of Corporate Governance in 2000. Although the code itself is not mandatory, it further became a consequence of the listing requirement in Malaysia to include statement of corporate governance to attract more foreign investment due to globalisation and enhance the Malaysia economic growth. Basically, the code has enacted a series of principles and best practices of CG to improve the regulatory framework of the CG in Malaysia. Nevertheless, the reforms of corporate governance in Malaysia still exist to enhance shareholders value and protect the interests of all stakeholders especially the minorities by improving the corporate ethics and accountability. The Security Commission Malaysia has launched a five year CG Blueprint to provide a platform for CG in Malaysia to be enhanced through market and self discipline of company while promoting the standard of CG by instilling the essence of CG into the culture of company rather than a mere compliance requirement. AS a result, the Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance 2012 is developed with further recommendation on duties and responsibilities of board of directors, the management of shareholder expectation

Use of Distributed Computing in Processing Big Data

Use of Distributed Computing in Processing Big Data Distributed Systems is an upcoming area in computer science and has the ability to have a large impact on the many aspects in[G1] the medical, scientific, financial and commercial sector. This document will provide an overview of distributed systems along with their current applications and application in big data. The most commonly used definition for a distributed system is, a system comprised of geographically dispersed computing components interacting on a hardware or software level [1].The rise in interest for distributed computing can be attributed to two major factors. The first factor is the creation and advancements in local and wide area networks which allow for large amounts of data to be transmitted over great distances in a short period of time [2]. The second factor is the new craze of the Internet of Things (IoT), where nearly every physical device manufacture having some sort of internet connectivity allowing for the possibility of tens of billions of devices that are able to interact. This large network of interconnected devices can be utilised to compute large amounts of data in a fraction of the time it would currently take to process. Characteristics of a Distributed System Heterogeneity Heterogeneity refers to the ability for the system to operate on a variety of different hardware and software components. This is achieved through the implementation of middleware in the software layer. The goal of the middleware is to abstract and interpret the programming procedural calls such that the distributed processing can be achieved on a variety of differing nodes [3]. Openness The openness of a distributed system is defined as the difficulty involved to extend or improve an existing system. This characteristic allows us to reuse a distributed system for multiple functions or to process varying sets of data. Concurrency Concurrency refers to the systems ability to handle the access and use of shared recourses. This is important because if there is no measure implemented it is possible for data to get corrupted or lost by two nodes making different changes to the same resource such that the system can carry this error through different processes causing an incorrect result. One way to counteract these errors is to implement a locking mechanism making a node unable to access a resource whilst it is being used by another node.[G2][G3] Scalability Scalability is one of the major characteristics that effectiveness of a distributed system, it refers to how easily the system can adapt to a changing size. This is due to the volatile nature of computers, such that a device is prone to leaving and joining the system at will. This volatility is caused by computers powering down, or unstable networks causing connectivity issues.[G4][G5] One factor that affects scalability is the degree at which the system is centralised. This is due to if a system relies on a centralised component or process (e.g. a central [G6]server), the more nodes that try to communicate or use this component, the more likely it is that there will be a bottleneck at this point in the system.[G7] Fault Tolerance Due to a distributed system having many computers comprised of different aged hardware, it is very likely for a part to fail in such a way that a node can no longer operate. Fault Tolerance is the ability for the system to handle such failures, this is achieved by using recovery and redundancy. Recovery is [G8]where a component will act in a predictable, controlled way if it relies on a component. Redundancy is where crucial systems and processes will have a backup that takes over if a system fails.[G9][G10] Transparency Transparency in a distributed system refers to the idea that the user perceives that they are interacting with a whole quantity rather than a collection of cooperating components. Transparency can be split into the following 8 sub-characteristics defined in Table 1. Table 1 Different forms of transparency in a distributed system [2]. Transparency Description Access Hide differences in data representation and how an object is accessed Location Hide where an object is located Relocation Hide that an object may be moved to another location while in use Migration Hide that an object may move to another location Replication Hide that an object is replicated Concurrency Hide that an object may be shared by several independent users Failure Hide the failure and recovery of an object The Internet The internet is the largest and most well-known decentralised distributed system ever created. It is currently comprised of millions of geographically distributed interconnected web servers that can communicate autonomously with each other and the billions of endpoint nodes [4]. The internet is constantly growing with more website and nodes added every day. One of the major factors contributing to the growth of nodes is the boost in IoT or smart devices. ATM Machines ATM machines are an example of a centralised distributed system that has been implemented globally. This is a centralised system because each ATM machine will [G11]only communicate with its bank central server. Centralisation is enforced as a measure to increase the security of the sensitive information stored on the banks databases[G12]. Each banks ATM network has the ability to communicate with another banks server [G13]such that a user can withdraw money from any ATM around the world. Botnets Botnets are an example of a malicious distributed system. They are can either be operated by a central server or based off a peer-[G14]to-peer network. A botnet is comprised of a collection of zombie machines which have been infected with malware allowing the bot master to control it and a command and control server whose role is to control the zombie computers allowing the zombie machines to execute any command that the botmaster desires. Data is any accumulation of facts and statistics to be analysed or referenced. Big data is most commonly defined as extremely large sets of data, both structured and unstructured, [G15]that can be analysed to reveal patterns and trends. This data is sufficiently complex or large enough that conventional data processing processes and applications are unable to deal with it [5]. Crowdsourcing is not a new idea in the software world, it is not an uncommon sight to see a developer pose a task to the masses and have someone else complete the task. This is mostly done free of charge. A similar concept is starting to be applied to big data, where researchers and institutes have started to crowdsource data for people to process[G16]. Currently, most data that has been crowdsourced is [G17]for scientific or medical research. A factor that contributes to the success of data processing on distributed systems is the relatively low cost of [G18]transferring data compared the cost incurred from doing the data processing internally [6].[G19] Play to Cure: Genes in Space Play to Cure: Genes in Space is a mobile gaming application developed by Cancer Research UK. Its main purpose is to allow the general public to process large amounts of data for the scientist at Cambridge University.[G20] The data is processed by the user controlling a spaceship to try and collect as much Element Alpha as possible. What the user is not aware that the placement of Element Alpha directly correlates to a singular piece of plotted data [7]. In the first month alone the application has managed to analyse 1.5 million data sample. To process a similar number of samples the research team achieve a similar amount of samples processed, it would take the research team 125,000 man hours [7]. Whilst it is a rudimentary implementation of a distributed system, Play to Cure: Genes in Space is a successful implementation and can show how important large distributed systems can processing big data. [emailprotected] [emailprotected] is currently the largest distributed computing program and was created by the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute and hosted out at UC Berkeley. It currently has approximately 3 million active users donating their computers[G21][G22] spare processing power to process data obtained from SETIs radio telescopes [8]. Since [emailprotected] is a voluntary program, each node needs to be able to process data in a way that the user is not negatively affected and choose to leave the program. This is achieved through the application processing data when it is detected that a machines CPU is [G23]idling [9]. As of the 10 March 2017, the [G24][emailprotected] program has come close to processing 18 years worth of data from the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope [10]. This achievement displays how easily large amounts of data can be processed by large distributed systems. There are endless possibilities when it comes to the potential applications[G25] for distributed systems. Processing big data is a lucrative market, this might cause a lot of large multinational organisation to try and utilise their own hardware to implement their own personal distributed system to process the terabytes of data that they can extrapolate from their Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and from data obtained from the media and other sources. Stock trading is a cut throat industry, and the ability to predict market trends faster than a competitor can allow a particular firm to make millions of dollars. It is plausible for large firms to implement their own distributed system to analyse previous market trends and current global and local affairs to predict the upcoming state of the market. In the future, distributed systems will allow for big data to be processed potentially at a near real-time timeframe. This document has outlined how distributed systems can assist in the faster and more effective processing of big data. References [1]H. Karatza and G. Theodoropoulos, Distributed Systems Simulation, Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 677-678, 2006. [2]M. van Steen and A. Tanenbaum, A brief introduction to distributed systems, Computing, vol. 98, no. 10, pp. 967-1009, 2016. [3]G. Coulouris, J. Dollimore, T. Kindberg and G. Blair, Distributed systems, 1st ed. Harlow, England: Addison-Wesley, 2012, pp. 16-25. [4]G. Coulouris, J. Dollimore, T. Kindberg and G. Blair, Distributed systems, 1st ed. Harlow, England: Addison-Wesley, 2012, pp. 8-9. [5]P. Grover and R. Johari, BCD: BigData, cloud computing and distributed computing, 2015 Global Conference on Communication Technologies (GCCT), 2015. [6]J. Gray, Distributed Computing Economics, Queue, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 63-68, 2008. [7]O. Childs, Download our revolutionary mobile game to help speed up cancer research, Cancer Research UK Science blog, 2017. [Online]. Available: http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/02/04/download-our-revolutionary-mobile-game-to-help-speed-up-cancer-research/. [Accessed: 24- Mar- 2017]. [8]B. Marr, Big Data: Using SMART Big Data; Analytics and Metrics To Make Better Decisions and Improve Performance, 1st ed. Wiley, 2015, pp. 208-209. [9]E. Korpela, D. Werthimer, D. Anderson, J. Cobb and M. Leboisky, [emailprotected] distributed computing for SETI, Computing in Science Engineering, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 78-83, 2001. [10][emailprotected], Setiathome.berkeley.edu, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/. [Accessed: 24- Mar- 2017]. [11]D. Anderson, J. Cobb, E. Korpela, M. Lebofsky and D. Werthimer, [emailprotected]: an experiment in public-resource computing, Communications of the ACM, vol. 45, no. 11, pp. 56-61, 2002. [12]S. Khan, The Curious Case of Distributed Systems and Continuous Computing, IT Professional, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 4-7, 2016. [13]E. Albert, J. Correas, G. Puebla and G. Romà ¡n-Dà ­ez, Quantified abstract configurations of distributed systems, Formal Aspects of Computing, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 665-699, 2014. [14]S. Vinoski, Rediscovering Distributed Systems, IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 3-6, 2014. [15]I. Foster, C. Kesselman, J. Nick and S. Tuecke, Grid services for distributed system integration, Computer, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 37-46, 2002. 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Explain the formation and the break down of the First Triumvirate :: Ancient Rome Roman History

Explain the formation and the break down of the First Triumvirate The formation of the First Triumvirate took place because of the political motives and the personal motives of the three ruthlessly ambitious power brokers in Rome. These men required the co-operation of the other two in order to further their political careers. During the time of the First Triumvirate many extraordinary powers where obtained and in some cases these where unprecedented. There are some key factors that have to be considered towards the break down of the Triumvirate. The most powerful and influential people, the Optimates became increasingly dis empowered, and a sense of desperation to regain power is felt with the use of Pompey in an a final attempt to restore power to the Senate. "By uncompromising refusal to meet the demands of Pompey, Caesar and Crassus the senate naturally drove them into each others arms. The three men agreed to form a political amicitia ....." Pompey upon return from his successful campaign in the East, disbanded his army probably to diffuse tension in Rome and prove to the Optimates in Rome he had no intention of over throwing the Government. This suggests Pompey's political naivety and the fact that Pompey thought he had done enough in order to get recognition and acceptance from the Optimates to gain land for his veterans and to have his innumerable arrangements in the East ratified. Cato also refused Pompey's offer of marriage to one of his nieces. According to Bradley "Cato was a staunch conservative, and distrusted Pompey's motives" Crassus had a problem with his supporters. He supported a request from a company of tax gatherers (Equites), that after realizing Asia had been economically raped, and virtually un-taxable due to the Mithradatic campaign, could not possibly make money from taxes, so the request he supported is that the Senate should adjust the bad bargain to on a third rebate which they had made in contracting for the taxes of Asia. This request according to Scullard was rejected under Cato's leadership which had led to the stagnation of Crassus' political career. Thus Crassus needed some support of Pompey and Caesar to kick start his career and eventually lead to the formation of the First Triumvirate. Caesar, who had been Propraetor in Spain during, 61BC, hoped to return to Rome in 60BC and stand for the consulship for the following year.

Comparison Of 1984 By George Orwell To The Actual 1984 Essay -- Compar

Comparison Of 1984 By George Orwell To The Actual 1984 Since the onset of the United States, Americans have always viewed the future in two ways; one, as the perfect society with a perfect government, or two, as a communistic hell where free will no longer exists and no one is happy. The novel 1984 by George Orwell is a combination of both theories. On the "bad" side, a communist state exists which is enforced with surveillance technology and loyal patriots. On the "good" side, however, everyone in the society who was born after the hostile takeover, which converted the once democratic government into a communist government, isn't angry about their life, nor do they wish to change any aspect of their life. For the few infidels who exist, it is a maddening existence, of constant work and brainwashing. George Orwell's novel was definitely different from the actual 1984, but how different were they? They were different in 3 ways: government, society, and thought.1984 starts out with a so called "traitor to the party," Winston Smith, walking through the streets nervously observing the video cameras that are watching his every move. He makes his way into his apartment and produces a journal from his coat pocket. He thinks that even this simple act of attempting to keep track of time and history could get him vaporized. This scene portrays the strong grip the government has on its patrons. A person either obeys them, or is killed, or put into a forced labor camp. After Winston starts an illegal affair with a younger woman he gets careless and "the party" finds out that he has committed what they call "thought crimes". A thought crime is the intent to do something illegal but not actually doing it. In Winston's world a thought crime is just as severe as a physical crime. They arrest him and his girlfriend and torture them until they realize what they did was wrong and that they love "the party" and will never do anything to hurt it again.The two governmental systems were different in a very major way. The actual government of England in 1984 was a democracy. This democracy's foundation was made up of a parliament and a prime minister. Most other nations of the time had the same set up. In Orwell's novel an oligarchic state existed. Airstrip One, which is the area we call England, was home to Winston and the central government of Oceania (a large natio... ...omething without actually doing it. In Oceania a "thought crime" is just as bad as a physical crime.The penalty for such an offense is that you are taken to the "Ministry of Love", but not killed. You are now brainwashed until you love the "Party." O'brien, an inner party member, justifies this by stating that all great nations of the past fell because they killed all people who didn't like them. The "Party" will never fall because they don't create martyrs. All people they eliminate love the "Party" when they are finally killed. For example: Winston is captured and brought to the "Ministry of Love," he then is brainwashed and released to society when he truly liked the "Party." Once he lived in the community for a while longer he is shot in the back of the head. The trains of thought, government, and society of the year 1984 versus George Orwell's 1984 are clearly different. After looking at the differences I stated, the reason why most people who have read the book feel sorry f or Winston should be more apparent than ever. The creation of books with story lines like 1984 help to shape our opinions of how the world should be, and make our views stronger than they have ever been.

Information Systems and Organization Essay

This paper, and the special issue, address relationships between information systems and changes in the organization of modern enterprise, both within and across firms. The emerging organizational paradigm involves complementary changes in multiple dimensions. The revolution in information systems merits special attention as both cause and effect of the organizational transformation. This can be illustrated by considering two key variables: the location of information and the location of decision rights in organizations. Depending on the costs of information transmission and processing, either the â€Å"MIS solution† of transferring information, or the â€Å"organizational redesign solution† of moving decision rights, can be an effective approach toward achieving the necessary collocation of information and decision rights. When information systems change radically, one cannot expect the optimal organizational structure to be unaffected. Considering the interplay among information, incentives and decision rights in a unified fashion leads to new insights and a better organizational planning. The papers in the special issue address different facets of this interaction. Despite significant progress, our understanding of the economic role of information systems in organizations remains in its infancy. We conclude that successful design of modern enterprise will require further narrowing  of the historic gap between research in information systems and research in economics. The organization of work is in the midst of transformation. In many industries, mass production by large, vertically-integrated, hierarchically-organized firms is giving way to more flexible forms of both internal organization and industrial structure. Work is increasingly accomplished through networks of smaller, more focused enterprises. The resulting structure of loosely coupled sub-organizations blurs the boundaries of both firms and industries. A canonical case in point is the computer industry. In the past, the industry was dominated by large, vertically-integrated firms such as IBM and Digital Equipment which created products and services throughout the value chain — from the microprocessor level all the way up to the provision of solutions. The vertical structure is now being replaced by a series of layers, each of which is, in effect, a separate industry. Value is generated by ever-changing coalitions, where each member of a coalition specializes in its area of core competence and leverages it through the use of tactical or strategic partnerships. Internally, team structures are replacing the traditional hierarchical form, and the Silicon Valley model of internal organization is emerging as a clear winner.3 Internal incentives are increasingly based on performance, and this further blurs the differences between inter- and intra-firm contracts. In sum, modern enterprise is undergoing major restructuring. In this short paper we briefly discuss the newly emerging organizational paradigms and their relationship to the prevailing trends in information technology (IT). We argue that IT is an important driver of this transformation. Finally, we place the studies selected for this special issue of the Journal of Organizational Computing within this context. 1. Emerging Organizational Paradigms: Symptoms and Causes At the turn of the century, Frederick Taylor sought to put the nascent wisdom  for successful business organization on a scientific basis. His work guided a generation of managers towards success in meshing their organizations with the technologies, markets, labor and general environment of the era. By the 1920s, Henry Ford had applied the Taylorist approach with a vengeance and soon dominated the automobile market, driving dozens of competitors under. Ironically, these same principles are almost diametrically opposed to the prevailing wisdom of the 1990s. For example, consider the following guideline from The Science of Management [1] It is necessary in any activity to have a complete knowledge of what is to be done and to prepare instructions†¦ the laborer has only to follow instructions. He need not stop to think. The current emphasis on â€Å"empowerment†, â€Å"learning organizations†, and even â€Å"thriving on chaos† stands in sharp contrast to Meyers’ advice (cf. [2] , [3] ). Similar contrast can be found with many, if not most, of the other principles that lead to success even as late as the 1960s. Consider, for example, the growing calls for downsizing (vs. economies of scale), focus (vs. conglomerates), total quality (vs. cost leadership), project teams (vs. functional departments), supplier partnerships (vs. maximizing bargaining power), networked organization (vs. clear firm boundaries); performance-based pay (vs. fixed pay), and local autonomy (vs. rigid hierarchy). Milgrom and Roberts [4] make the point that the different characteristics of modern manufacturing, an important example of the emerging organizational paradigm, are often highly complementary. This complementarity, coupled with the natural tendency to change organizational attributes one at a time, makes the transition from one paradigm to another particularly difficult. Strong complementarity implies that in order to be successful, change must be implemented simultaneously along a number of related dimensions. Organizations that adopt only one or two key components of the new organizational paradigm may fail simply by virtue of this complementarity. For instance, Jaikumar’s [5] study of 95 US and Japanese companies found that the majority of US companies had failed to achieve productivity  increases despite switching to flexible manufacturing technology. The reason was that they had preserved dozens of manufacturing practices such as long production runs and high work-in-process inventory levels, which complemented the old technology but kept the new technology from fulfilling its potential. Thus, the transition from the old structure to the new one is overwhelmingly complex. The switch would be easier if we apply design guided by theory instead of piecemeal evolution. There are many possible explanations for the change in the prevailing wisdom regarding organizational design. For instance, it is common to justify calls for radical change with reference to heightened competitive pressures: although firms that applied the old principles were among the most successful competitors of their day, presumably the nature of competition has changed in some way. Others suggest that consumer tastes have changed, making customized items more appealing than they once were. While historians would argue that the taste for mass marketed items was itself something that had to be developed in the early days of mass production, increased wealth or social stratification may make this more difficult today. It can also be argued that some of the new principles were as applicable fifty years ago as they are today, but that they simply had not yet been discovered. Although the enablers of the current organizational transformation are undoubtedly numerous and far from mutually independent, we would like to single one out for special attention: the rise in IT. Brynjolfsson [6, p.6] argues that IT is an appropriate candidate for explaining these changes for three reasons: First, compared to other explanations, the advances in information technology have a particularly reasonable claim to being both novel and exogenous. Many of the fundamental technological breakthroughs that enable today’s vast information infrastructure were made less than a generation ago and were driven more by progress in physics and engineering than business demand. Second, the growth in information technology investment is of a large enough magnitude to be economically significant †¦ the result has been what is commonly referred to as the â€Å"information explosion†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Third, there is a  sound basis for expecting an association between the costs of technologies that manage information and the organization of economic activity. The firm and the market have each been frequently modeled as primarily information processing institutions (see Galbraith [7] and Hayek [8] , respectively). Miller [9] foresaw the key features of the new paradigm as a natural outcome of the information era and the associated â€Å"economy of choice†: The new technologies will allow managers to handle more functions and widen their span of control. Fewer levels of management hierarchy will be required, enabling companies to flatten the pyramid of today’s management structure. The new information technologies allow decentralization of decision-making without loss of management awareness; thus employees at all levels can be encouraged to be more creative and intrapreneurial. The key responsibility of the CEO will be leadership; to capture the light or energies of the organization — like a lens — and focus them on the key strategic objectives. The new organizational paradigm is indeed intertwined with the structure of an organization’s information systems. Under the old paradigm, the firm was governed by a relatively rigid functional structure. This separation into distinct and well-defined organizational units economizes on the information and communications requirements across functional units and reduces cost and complexity. There is a tradeoff, however: the old structure is less flexible, less responsive and ultimately results in lower quality. In our view, the growing use of IT and the trend towards networking and client-server computing are both a cause and an effect of the organizational transition. Lowering the costs of horizontal communications, facilitating teamwork, enabling flexible manufacturing and providing information support for time management and quality control are key enablers on the supply side. It is equally clear that the new organizational paradigm demands new information systems: nothing can be more devastating for cross-functional teamwork than a rigid information system that inhibits cross-functional information flows. We can unify these perspectives by noting that the structure of the organization’s information system is a key element of  organizational transformation. Changes in IT change the nature of organizations just as changes in organizational structure drive the development of new technologies. 2. Information Systems, Economics and Organizational Structure Jensen and Meckling [10] provide a useful framework for studying the complementarities between information systems, incentive structures and decision rights in organizations. In their framework, the structure of an organization is specified by three key elements: (i) The allocation of decision rights (i.e., who is responsible for what actions/decisions); (ii) the incentive system, which defines how decision makers are to be rewarded (or penalized) for the decisions they make; and (iii) a monitoring and measurement scheme used to evaluate these actions and their outcomes. According to Jensen and Meckling, informational variables are key to the structure of organizations because the quality of decisions is determined by the quality of information available to the decision maker. The co-location of information and decision rights enables the decision maker to make optimal decisions. The implementation of this co-location depends on the nature of the pertinent information. Jensen and Meckling distinguish between â€Å"specific knowledge† which is localized, difficult to represent and transfer, and depends on idiosyncratic circumstances, and â€Å"general knowledge† which can be easily summarized, communicated and shared by decision makers. Now, there are two ways to bring information and decision rights together: (i) â€Å"The MIS solution†: transfer the information required for the decision to the decision maker, using the organization’s (possibly non-automated) information systems; or (ii) â€Å"the organizational redesign solution†: redesign the organizational structure so that the decision making authority is where the pertinent information is. By definition, general knowledge which is useful for a decision calls for the â€Å"MIS solution† because it can be transferred at low cost. In contrast, when specific knowledge plays a key role in a decision, the best solution calls for restructuring decision  rights so as to provide the decision authority to the one who possesses or has access to the pertinent information (since the transfer of specific knowledge is too costly).4 Jensen and Meckling thus represent the structure of organizations as an efficient response to the structure of their information costs. But then, a change in information costs must induce a change in organizational structure. In particular, IT has changed the costs of processing and transferring certain types of information (e.g. quantitative data), but has done little for other types (e.g. implicit knowledge or skills). IT changes the structure of organizations by facilitating certain information flows as well as by turning knowledge that used to be specific into general knowledge. By developing a taxonomy of information types and identifying the differential impacts of new technologies on their transferability and importance, we can take a significant step towards applying the simple insight that information and authority should be co-located [11] . Intra-organizational networks and workgroup computing facilities reduce the information costs of teamwork and hence make it a more efficient solution to the organizational design problem. Client-server computing technology lowers cross-functional (as well as geographic) barriers. IT (when applied properly) streamlines the types of information that used to be the raison d’etre of middle management — quantitative control information — and turns it into general knowledge that can be readily transmitted to, and processed by, people other than those who originally gathered the data. A reduction in the number of management layers and the thinning out of middle management ranks is the predictable result. Similar considerations apply to enterprises that cross firm boundaries. As a simple example, consider the organization of trading activities [12, 13, 14] . Traditionally, trading took place on the floor of an exchange, which was the locus of numerous pieces of specific knowledge, ranging from the hand signals indicating bids and offers to buy and sell a security to traders’ facial expressions and the â€Å"atmosphere† on the floor of the exchange. Under that structure, much of the information pertinent to trading is specific and  localized to the floor. Thus, when an investor instructs her broker to sell 1,000 shares of a given stock, the broker transmits the order to the floor of the exchange and only the floor broker attempts to provide â€Å"best execution†. The decision rights (here, for the trading decisions) are naturally delegated to the decision maker who has the pertinent specific knowledge, and since that knowledge resides on the floor of the exchange, the floor broker is best suited to have the decision rights. Technology, and in particular â€Å"screen-based† systems, turns much of the specific knowledge on the floor (i.e., bids and offers) into general knowledge. This shifts decision rights up from the floor to the brokers’ screens. The inevitable result is the decline of the trading floor and the increased importance of brokers’ trading rooms. The demise of the trading floor in exchanges that turned to screen-based trading (such as London and Paris) is a natural outcome of the shift in the locus of knowledge. More generally, markets — in particular, electronic markets –transform specific knowledge into general knowledge [15] . Ironically, even as IT has sped up many links of the information processing chain and vastly increased the amount of information available to any one decision-maker, it has also led to the phenomenon of â€Å"information overload†. This can perhaps best be understood by a generalization of the Jensen and Meckling framework to include finite human information processing capacity. As more information moves from the â€Å"specific† category to the â€Å"general† category, the limiting factor becomes not what information is available but rather a matter of finding the human information processing capacity needed to attend to and process the information. Computers appear to have exacerbated the surfeit of information relative to processing capacity, perhaps because the greatest advances have occurred in the processing and storage of structured data, which is generally a complement, not a substitute, for human information processing. As computer and communications components increase their speed, the human bottleneck in the information processing chain becomes ever more apparent. Information overload, when interpreted in light of this framework, can provide an explanation for the increased autonomy and pay-for-performance  that characterize a number of descriptions of the â€Å"new managerial work† (cf. [6] ). Economizing on information costs means that more decision rights are delegated to line managers who possess the idiosyncratic, specific knowledge necessary to accomplish their tasks. Shifting responsibility from the overburdened top of the hierarchy to line personnel not only reduces the information processing load at the top of the hierarchy, but also cuts down unnecessary communications up and down the hierarchy. This blurs the traditional distinction between â€Å"conceptualization† and â€Å"execution† and broadens the scope of decision rights delegated to lower level managers. By the Jensen-Meckling [10] framework, any such shift in decision authority (and in the associated routing of information) must also be accompanied by a change in the structure of incentives. Disseminating information more broadly is ever easier with IT, allowing line workers to take into account information that goes well beyond the formerly-narrow definitions of their job. Meanwhile, providing the right incentives for the newly â€Å"empowered† work force is an equally crucial element of the current reorganization of work. Agency theory predicts that performance-based â€Å"pay† is necessary when decision rights are decentralized (otherwise, the agents may be induced to act in ways that are inconsistent with overall organizational goals). It therefore follows that incentive-based compensation is appropriate for better-informed workers [16].5 Thus, the confluence of better-informed workers, an empowered workforce and more incentive-based pay is consistent with our thesis that IT is a key driver of the new organizational paradigm. Furthermore, the theory of incomplete contracts suggests that the analysis can be extended to include interorganizational changes such as increased reliance on outsourcing and â€Å"networks† of other firms for key components [17] . Here again the shift can be explained in incentive terms: one ultimate incentive is ownership, so entrepreneurs are likely to be more innovative and aggressive than the same individuals working as â€Å"division† managers. Both within and across organizations, then, changes in information systems are accompanied by changes in incentives and in the organization of work. 3. The Special Issue The papers in this special issue attest to the role of information systems in the structure of modern enterprise and the blurring of the differences between inter- and intra-firm transactions. Starting from the firm’s level, Barron’s paper studies how a firm determines its internal organization and how IT affects this determination. Barron considers a traditional firm, with well-defined boundaries that are endogenously determined by considering flexibility and scope of control. Ching, Holsapple and Whinston broaden the scope of the enterprise to the â€Å"network organization† — a construct obtained by tying together a number of firms that cooperate through a well-defined communication mechanism. Specifically, they use a bidding protocol to manage the relationship between suppliers and producers. Beath and Ang examine another form of inter-firm cooperation, the relational contract, in the context of software-development outsourcing. They show how relational contracts embody a relationship that can be characterized as a network consisting of two organizations. Whang studies a more subtle form of networking — information sharing between buyers and suppliers. Bakos and Brynjolfsson examine the impact of incentives and information costs on the nature of buyer-supplier relationships. They show that committing to a partnership with a small number of suppliers can be an optimal strategy for a buyer because it will maximize the suppliers’ incentives for non-contractible investments such as information sharing, innovation or quality. The papers thus present a spectrum ranging from a study of the boundaries of the traditional firm through different forms of networking to explicit buyer-supplier relationships. A common theme is the organization of work so as to reduce overall information costs not only within an organization but across them as well. The surviving enterprise is often (though not always) the one that attempts to reduce information costs while capitalizing on the comparative advantage of the participating organizations. This calls for â€Å"opportunistic cooperation† that benefits the members of the network for as long as they cooperate. IT reduces the costs of such cooperation by  facilitating communication and increasing the flexibility of the participating organizations. Using the Jensen-Meckling terminology, different network participants can make more effective use of their specific knowledge when the costs of transferring and processing general knowledge are reduced. Further, technology enables the development of markets that, by their very nature, transform specific knowledge into general knowledge. Thus, the bidding and communications protocols proposed by Ching, Holsapple and Whinston in their paper â€Å"Modeling Network Organizations† effectively transform the specific knowledge inherent in the production technology of the competing suppliers into general knowledge that encompasses not only prices but also their reputations. From this perspective, IT is key to the development of network organizations. In his paper â€Å"Impacts of Information Technology on Organizational Size and Shape: Control and Flexibility Effects†, Barron builds a stylized quantitative model to study the impact of IT on the structure of organizations. Examining flexibility and scope of control, he identifies sixteen different cases with different patterns of the actual causality between IT and firm structure. Barron shows that simplistic statements regarding the impact of IT are not as straightforward as one might imagine due to the interaction of size, scope and flexibility. His results suggest that the impact of IT is rather complex, and that further specification is necessary prior to making predictions on the impact of IT on organizational size or shape. â€Å"Hierarchical Elements in Software Contracts† by Beath and Ang focuses on the contractual structure of outsourced software development. This is an interesting example of the new organizational paradigm because of the key role of information systems in any organization. Effective software development hinges on cooperation, communication and joint management which are at the heart of the new organizational paradigm. Beath and Ang examine the mechanisms used to govern outsourcing projects as specified in their outsourcing contracts. They suggest that the relational contract, which converts an arms-length transaction into a joint project with governance and resolution procedures that resemble those used by firms internally, is an  effective way to accomplish this. Thus, while Ching, Holsapple and Whinston view bidding and explicit reputation formation as the alphabet of the network organization, Beath and Ang view actual contract clauses as the key linguistic constructs. The paper shows how the structure of the contract is driven by the attributes of the project as well as those of the parties to the transaction. In â€Å"Analysis of Economic Incentives for Inter-Organizational Information Sharing†, Whang addresses the question of information sharing in non-cooperative buyer-supplier settings. Whang studies this question for two different models. He first shows that due to adverse incentives, suppliers will not be willing to share information regarding their costs. The situation is different when the information to be conveyed is regarding the expected delay or lead time. Whang shows that suppliers are better off disclosing lead-time information to buyers (when the demand curve for their product is convex). This result is consistent with our general thesis, whereas the former one introduces a note of caution: adverse incentives pose limits to the scope of information sharing among network organizations. In â€Å"From Vendors to Partners: Information Technology and Incomplete Contracts in Buyer-Supplier Relationships†, Bakos and Brynjolfsson start with the assumption that, in many cases, complete information exchange between two firms will be infeasible, so any contract between them will be â€Å"incomplete† in the sense that some contingencies will remain unspecified. They then explore how the interplay of IT and organizational structure can affect the role of non-contractible investments, such as innovation, quality and the exchange of information. For example, Bakos and Brynjolfsson show that when fewer suppliers are employed, they collectively capture a larger share of the benefits of the relationship, and this will increase their incentives to make non-contractible investments. As a result, even when search costs are very low, it may be desirable for the buyer to limit the number of employed suppliers, leading to a partnership-type of relationship, rather than aggressively bargaining for all the benefits by threatening to switch among numerous alternative suppliers. Like Whang, they show that the incentive effects of the applications of IT must be explicitly considered in any model  of their effect on inter-organizational cooperation. 4. Conclusion In this paper, we have stressed the joint determination of the location of information and decision rights. The default mechanism used to achieve this co-location depends on one’s point of reference. Information Systems researchers are likely to take the locus of decision authority for granted. They will typically focus their attention on devising schemes that will efficiently organize, retrieve, sort, filter, transmit and display information for designated decision makers. In contrast, the economist is likely to focus on the allocation of decision rights and the concomitant effect on incentives.6 As we discussed in Section 2, transferring information and transferring decision authority are two sides of the same question. Because economics and information systems research evolved to address different problems, this complementarity long went unnoticed. Each of the papers in the special issue addresses a different aspect of the interplay among information, incentives and the structure of economic enterprise. In every case, insights resulted when both information and incentives were explicitly considered. Each paper contributes an additional piece to an emerging mosaic that describes not only the features of the new organization, but also gives some insight into their theoretical underpinnings. The papers in this special issue also highlight the incomplete state of knowledge in the subject area and the dearth of empirical guidance to the formulation and testing of theoretical research. We started this paper with a discussion of the computer industry as the canonical example of the new paradigm as exercised in Silicon Valley, and continued by arguing that its products actually fuel the shift to this paradigm. It is only appropriate to close the loop by examining the dictum of that paradigm as it applies to the inner workings of firms in the computer industry. A major effort along these lines in being undertaken by one of the authors and his colleagues in Stanford University’s Computer Industry Project. Understanding these changes so that they can be harnessed for productive ends remains a central challenge for the next decade of research. The rapid progress in designing computers and communications systems contrasts starkly with the uncertainty clouding organizational design. Yet, new ways of organizing will be necessary before the potential of IT can be realized. Furthermore, because the new organizational paradigms involve numerous complementarities, the trial-and-error methods which were important in the rise of the organizational forms of the past century, such as large hierarchies and mass markets, may be unsuited for making the next transition. Understanding and implementing one aspect of a new organizational structure without regard to its interaction with other aspects can leave the make the organization worse off than if no modifications at all were made. Design, rather than evolution, is called for when significant changes must be made along multiple dimensions simultaneously. Successful organizational design, in turn, requires that we understand the flow of information among humans and their agents every bit as well as we understand the flow of electrons in chips and wires. 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