Octane Number Definition and Example

The octane number seen on pumps at gasoline stations is a value used to indicate the resistance of a motor fuel to knock—that is, to make pinging or ticking sounds in a cars engine when you step on the gas pedal. Octane number is also known as octane rating. Octane numbers are based on a scale on which isooctane is 100 (minimal knock) and heptane is 0 (bad knock). The higher the octane number, the more compression required for fuel ignition. Fuels with high octane numbers are used in high performance gasoline engines. Fuels with low octane number (or high cetane numbers) are used in diesel engines, where fuel is not compressed. Octane Number Example A gasoline with an octane number of 92 has the same knock as a mixture of 92% isooctane and 8% heptane. Why the Octane Number Matters In a spark-ignition engine, using a fuel with too low an octane rating can lead to pre-ignition and engine knock, which can cause engine damage. Basically, compressing the air-fuel mixture may cause fuel to detonate before the flame front from the spark plug reaches it. The detonation produces higher pressure than the engine may be able to withstand.

Economic Effects on College Students Essay - 1219 Words

The economy has affected so many people in so many ways. Over the years the economy has experienced numerous hardships from the real median household income to America’s gross debt. As time passes, not only is education suffering greatly because of the economy, through budget cutbacks and tuition and book increases but college students as well. The economy has affected college students most drastically through By way of decreased taxes and budget cuts schools unfortunately have had to decrease numerous amenities. The price of education has affected my life through the cost of tuition increasing nearly 24 percent over the last five years. Because the economy helped create these escalations, I made the chose to attend a two year college†¦show more content†¦It is unfortunate that college students are those who are affected by the economy when they are already facing many challenges. Commuter students, those who are not residents on college campuses, encounter many diff iculties because they have to travel back and forth from school to their homes. According to Amy M. Tenhouse in â€Å"Commuter Students† â€Å"[u]nlike many full-time residential students, commuter students may have competing responsibilities outside the academic classroom, such as family, home, and work interests.† Moreover, those who commute to school make up about 86 percent of college students who hardily spend any additional time on the campus. To make matters increasingly more demanding, commuter students don’t have as many opportunities to meet with their professors or the other staff members who are their to assist them. There has been an unquestionable number of cuts in programs such as the arts like Christopher Waterman states â€Å"You cant teach painting to 40 students or give that many students voice lessons in opera or jazz.† Because schools have become increasingly short on funds they have had to decrease not only arts programs but other c lasses that aren’t as popular, including Chinese and Geology. Unfortunately, these academic programs are being cut all across the U.S. At Washington State University the department of theater arts and dance has been eliminated. AtShow MoreRelatedFactors Affecting Academic Performance...1690 Words   |  7 PagesFACTORS AFFECTING ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF FIRST YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS OF THE DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF BANGUED FIRST SEMESTER 2010-2011 Mary B. Gallardo,MST-Math, Alfreinell S. Castillo, BSC, Jessie T. Sibayan, AB, Marianito T. Taeza, AB, and G. Regil D.Valera, BSCE Registrar’s Office, Divine Word College of Bangued June 1, 2011. 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Franklin Delano Roosevelt Free Essays

1. In 1932, voters still had not seen any improvement, and wanted a new president. President Herbert Hoover was nominated again by the Republicans and he campaigned saying that his policies prevented the Great Depression from being worse than it was. We will write a custom essay sample on Franklin Delano Roosevelt or any similar topic only for you Order Now The Democrats nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a tall, handsome man who was the fifth cousin of famous Theodore Roosevelt and had followed in his footsteps. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was suave and conciliatory and was stricken with polio in 1921. During this time, his wife, Eleanor, became his political partner and she influenced the policies of the national government. Roosevelt’s political appeal was great for he utilized his charm in private conversations and also relieved human suffering. He believed that money rather than humanity was expendable. Many Democrats speedily nominated Roosevelt. In the campaign of 1932, Franklin Roosevelt preached his New Deal to voters and Hoover lost votes. Roosevelt became president by an overwhelming defeat. 2. The early New Deal pursued the three R’s of relief recovery and reform by passing much legislation at this time. The first â€Å"R† called relief was accomplished by the passing of the Unemployment Relief Act which created the Civilian Conservation Corps, the passing of the Federal Emergency Relief Act which created the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the passing of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, and the Home Owner’s Refinancing Act. All these legislations were for immediate recovery and relief. The second â€Å"R† called recovery was accomplished in ways such as passing of the Emergency Banking Relief Act, the surrendering of gold and abandoning the gold standard. The last â€Å"R† called reform was pursued by the passing of the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, the Federal Securities Act, the Beer and Wine Revenue Act, and the Glass- Steagall Banking Reform that created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. 3. Unemployment in America increased and there needed remedial action quickly and the New Deal had a great effect on labor and labor organizations. The Civilian Conservation Corps was the most popular of the New Deal and this law provided employment for millions of men. Their work included reforestation fire fighting, flood control and swamp drainage. The actual first major effort of the new Congress to grapple with the unemployed adults was the Federal Emergency Relief Act which three billion dollars were granted to the states for direct dole payments or preferably for wages on work projects. Also, labor under the National Recovery Administration granted additional benefits. Workers were formally guaranteed the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing. Also there were maximum hours of labor and minimum wages. 4. To help the farmers, which had been suffering ever since the end of World War I, Congress established the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which paid farmers to reduce their crop acreage and would eliminate price-depressing surpluses. However, it got off to a rocky start when it killed lots of pigs for not good reason, and paying farmers not to farm actually increased unemployment. The Supreme Court killed it in 1936. The New Deal Congress hastened to pass the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936, which paid farmers to plant soil-conserving plants like soybeans or to let their land lie fallow. The Second Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 was a more comprehensive substitute that continued conservation payments but was accepted by the Supreme Court. 5. Franklin Roosevelt controlled Congress, but the Supreme Court kept on blocking his programs, so he proposed a shocking plan that would add a member to the Supreme Court for every existing member over the age of 70, for a maximum possible total of 15 total members. For once, Congress voted against him because it did not want to lose its power. Roosevelt was ripped for trying to be a dictator. FDR’s â€Å"court-packing scheme† failed, but he did get some of the justices to start to vote his way. However, his failure of the court-packing scheme also showed how Americans still did not wish to tamper with the sacred justice system. 6. The New Deal Coalition is a political coalition, which was created by Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s. It included Democratic Party organizations, big city machines, labor unions, minorities (racial, ethnic and religious, especially Blacks, Catholics and Jews), liberal farm groups, intellectuals, the Mountain West, and the white South. It was opposed by the Conservative Coalition of northern Republicans and southern Democrats. The New Deal Coalition dominated presidential elections in 1932 and lost control of Congress in 1937. The coalition fell apart after 1966 but it remains the model that Democratic Party activists seek to replicate. The coalition brought together liberal interest groups and voting blocks that supported the New Deal and voted for Democratic presidential candidates from 1932 until approximately 1966, which made the Democratic Party the majority party during the Fifth Party System. 7. There were many changes of the New Deal such as the â€Å"AAA† and NRA were replaced by other legislations because these legislations were unconstitutional. These legislations were replaced by the second Agricultural Adjustment Act and the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act. A Second New Deal in 1934-36 included the Wagner Act to promote labor unions, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief program, the Social Security Act, and new programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. The final major items of New Deal legislation were the creation of the United States Housing Authority and Farm Security Administration, both in 1937, then the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set maximum hours and minimum wages for most categories of workers. No other twentieth century president enjoyed the levels of popular admiration that Franklin D. Roosevelt did during his twelve years in office but the policies of his administration inevitably aroused opposition. The evolution of Roosevelt’s New Deal cannot be understood apart from the opposition that it aroused. In some cases Roosevelt skillfully borrowed ideas from his opponents and co-opted their followers. Some land mark legislation of the New Deal was the product of just such tactics. But eventually a coalition of conservative opponents emerged and systematically curtailed the most ambitious plans of the New Deal. By early 1935, the New Deal legislation of the previous two years had aroused growing voices of criticism on the left and right of the political spectrum, and by several important Supreme Court rulings. Persisting severe economic difficulties fueled the rise of powerful political leaders who offered immediate solutions to the nation’s economic problems. 8. Foes of the New Deal condemned its alleged waste, incompetence, confusion, contradictions and cross-purposes. Critics deplored the employment â€Å"crackpot† professors, leftist â€Å"pinkos† and out right Communists. Business people accused Roosevelt of confusing noise and movement with progress. Bureaucratic meddling and regimentation were also bitter complaints of the anti-New Dealers. Promises of budget balancing to say nothing of other promises had flown out the window and national debt skyrocketed. Critics accused the New Deal of fomenting class strife. New Dealers defended their record. They admitted that there was waste but they pointed out that relief had been the primary object of their multifront war on the depression. They also argued that it had been trivial in view of the immense sums spent and the obvious need for haste. They also declared that the New Deal had relieved the worst of the crisis in 1933. It promoted the philosophy of balancing the human budget. The collapse of America’s economy system was averted, a fairer distribution of the national income was achieved and the citizens were enabled to regain and retain their self respect. How to cite Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Essay examples

Emirates NBD - Brand Auditing Free Sample

Question: Discuss about the Case Study for Brand Auditing on Emirates NBD. Answer: Brand auditing: Brand Auditing is a process of analyzing brands position in the market. It facilitates the organization to determine the strength of the brand in the market. Moreover, it identifies the weakness and opportunities for the particular brand for expanding into the large market space (Kapferer, 2012). Without auditing the brand, the organization cannot enhance its business opportunities in the global platform. For example, a powerful brand can enhance the customers base with its presence in the market (Wilson, 2012). Consequently, it enhances the profits of the business in an effectual manner. On the contrary, most of the business analysts have agreed with the fact that the strong brands also needs to conduct the reality check about their positioning in the market, so that they can review their brand (Plambeck, Taylor Zhang, 2012). It has been seen that the large brands do not need to spend adequate financial resources for the promotional activities (Rosenbaum-Elliott et al., 2015). It automatically engages the customers with the strong brand presence in the competitive market. Moreover, the brand values often facilitate the organization to raise their product pricing for generating a huge amount of revenue out of the business. The powerful brand always facilitates in the business enhancement in the global platform. On the contrary, a weak brand appearance would cause market shrinkage for the organization (Chen XU, 2013). Consequently, it would gradually decrease the sales of the business. With the involvement of the brand auditing, the organization would be able to identify several growth opportunities in the foreign and domestic market (Biedenbach, 2012). On the other hand, the brand auditing brings new ways for making the brand resonate with the existing and new customers in the market. The brand audit facilitates sin many segments such as brand resource strength, brand values, brand awareness in the competitive market, identification of new trends in the market, identifying the outside threats, effectiveness of the brand management efforts (Brand, 2013). In this context, the organization called Emirates NBD needs to focus on their brand auditing process for the enhancement of the business opportunities. The particular organization has a limited presence in the international market (Jacka Scott, 2013). Consequently, it reduces the profit margins in the business. With the involvement of the strong brand audit activities, the organization would be able to refocus on the brand management efforts and congruency. On the other hand, by implementing the brand auditing strategies in the business, the organization would be able to sharpen the marketing communications on both online and offline platforms (Xia, 2013). In this context, the particular organization is unable to develop its online communication (Emiratesnbd.com, 2016). Consequently, they are unable to spread product and services related information in the large market space. Moreover, the organization would obtain an insight into the brand architecture, brand structure, and brand p ortfolio by including the brand auditing process in the business (Greenstein Hunton, 2015). At the initial stage of the brand auditing process, the organization needs to identify the objectives of the audit in the business (Carson, 2013). The brand audit process depends on the depth of the audit. If the organization tries to conduct a general audit of the brand, the can instruct the management for accomplishing the same. On the other hand, the organization can hire an agency for conducting the brand audit of the business in an in-depth method. The brand auditing process includes several factors (Cheskis, 2012). The brand agency needs to evaluate whether the current brand strategy is working properly or not. Moreover, the strategic issues of the business need to be evaluated in a detailed manner. In this context, the organization called Emirates NBD needs to identify the strengths and weakness of the business while conducting the brand auditing (DeFond Zhang, 2014). On the other hand, the external opportunities and threats need to be evaluated in an effective manner, so tha t the organization can develop strategies according to them. There are several advantages of the brand auditing including brand awareness, and consistency in the marketplace. On the other hand, the organizations often face difficulties in conducting the brand auditing process in the business. For example, most of the small and medium enterprises face challenges in hiring brand-auditing agency due to lack of financial sources in the business (Pratoomsuwan, 2012). Consequently, they are unable to identify the key issues in the business. On the contrary, organizations need to follow the proper attribute in the brand auditing process so that it delivers the sustainable outcome. Due to the negative attributes, many brands have lost their potentiality in the existing market (King, Grace Funk, 2012). Hence, it can be assessed that the brand auditing needs to be executed in an effective manner. In this context, Emirates NBD has engaged a brand agency for auditing their brand in an effectua l manner. Moreover, by involving the brand auditing process, the organization would be aware of their potential risks in the business (Padayachee De Jager, 2015). Process of brand auditing: The organization would follow a certain process to audit their brand in an appropriate manner. These processes include creating a framework, questioning to the customers, reviewing the web analytics, review the social data, review the sales data, competitors analysis and taking action and monitoring the outcomes (Dauvergne Lister, 2012). The brand audit processes have been discussed below in a detailed manner. Preparing framework: The organization needs to analysis their mission and strategic objectives for preparing the framework in an efficient manner. On the other hand, the organization needs to identify the target customers of the business. Moreover, the management needs to prepare a layout of the business. Some companies prefer to consider their marketing strategies (Padayachee De Jager, 2015). By reviewing the marketing strategies, the organization would be able to enhance the business opportunities. Emirates NBD s Feedback from the customers: Accumulating feedbacks from the customers is one of the integral parts of the brand auditing, as it facilitates the management to understand the key issues in the business process management (Hassan Al-Tamimi, 2012). Without accumulating feedbacks from the existing and new customers of the business, the organization would not be able to build right strategy for the business. The feedback process can be a survey method, which allows the respondents to provide their individual feedbacks on the research. The particular process can be executed on the online platform for involving a large number of respondents. Review of web analytics: It has been seen that 81% of the customers prefer conducting research on the product before purchasing it (El-Bannany, 2013). Consequently, they rely on the product related data available on the online platform. Hence, it can be assessed that the online platform plays a major role in the business. The management needs to review their online activities so that the customers can obtain the valid information on the product easily. Moreover, they need to review their websites. Review of the Social data: The review of the social data can identify the flaws into the promotional activities. The demographic information can be accumulated from the social media (Kapferer, 2012). Hence, it would facilitate in enhancing the business opportunities in the large demographic areas. On the other hand, the demographic information allows the management to understand their audience. Consequently, it would facilitate in the brand auditing process. In this context, the particular organization does not engage adequate promotional activities on the online platform. Hence, the organization needs to enhance their social presence in the UAE. Moreover, the proper promotional activities would facilitate the organization to enhance their business opportunities in the foreign market (Wilson, 2012). In the competitive market, the particular banking organization needs to enhance their online promotion process so that they can spread their product information in both domestic and internal market. Sales data reviewing: The review of the sales data would facilitate the organization to identify the current situation of the business. Without reviewing the sales data, the organization would not be able to evaluate the progress of the business (Plambeck, Taylor Zhang, 2012). Moreover, the particular process facilitates in monitoring the growth of the business in an effectual manner. In this context, Emirates NBD has the total assets of $98.8 billion as of 2015, which is quite satisfactory in compared to other ventures in the UAE (Emiratesnbd.com, 2016). With the engagement of the sales data reviewing process, Emirates NBD would be able to track their progress within the certain time frame. Consequently, it would facilitate to understand the current situation of the business in the UAE and international platform. Competitor analysis: Competitor analysis is one of the key factors for identifying the issues in the business. In the competitive market, the organizations face several challenges from the existing companies and new entrants in the market. Hence, the competitor analysis would facilitate the organization in implementing new strategies for the enhancement of the business. In the competitive market, the Emirates NBD has strong competitors including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Bank of Sharjah and Mashreqbank psc (Chen XU, 2013). Hence, the competitor analysis would facilitate the particular organization to identify the key improvement areas in the business. Strategy implementation: At the final stage of the brand auditing process, the organization needs to implement strategies in the business for obtaining proper outcome. Without implementing unique strategies into the business, the organization would not be able to enhance their sales revenue in the competitive market. For example, in this context, the Emirates NBD needs to focus on their promotional activities for the enhancement of the business in the global platform (Mohamed Shahwan Mohammed Hassan, 2013). The particular organization has limited presence in the global market. Consequently, it creates barriers for the business to accumulate a huge amount of the sales revenue within a short timeframe. Monitoring the outcomes: After the implementation of the strategies into the business, the organization needs to include an enhanced monitoring system for identifying the outcome of the strategies. With the involvement of the monitoring system, the organization can understand the effectiveness of the strategy (El-Bannany, 2012). On the other hand, if there are any issues regarding the implemented strategies, the organization can change that accordingly. Hence, it can be assessed that the brand auditing is one of the key factors that facilitates in enhancing the business presence in both domestic and international platform (Mubarak, 2012). In this context, the Emirates NBD would apply an enhanced monitoring process in the business for identifying the outcome of the implemented strategies. Figure 1: Brand auditing process (Source: Pratoomsuwan, 2012) Brand auditing for Emirates NBD 1) Introduction: Brand auditing is one of the key factors for identifying the major issues in the business. In this particular assignment, the brand auditing process of Emirates NBD has been highlighted in an effectual manner (Mehta, 2012). Emirates NBD has engaged the banking and financial services. In the UAE, the particular organization is a market leader across the core banking sectors. In the recent years, most of the banking organizations have been facing challenges in executing the business due to the volatility of the cost. However, the Emirates NBD has successfully maintained their growth in the competitive market. Emirates NBD provide services for the retail banking, corporate banking, treasury banking and investment and brokerage services (Abu Hussain Al-Ajmi, 2012). Although the organization has adequate financial strengths, it faces challenges in making strong brand image on the global platform. Due to the limited global presence, the organization has failed to accumulate adequate sales revenues from the business (Al-Tamimi, Hussein Jellali, 2013). EmiratesNBD is a merger between the Emirates Bank International (EBI) and the National Bank of Dubai (NBD). The organization was formed on 16th October 2007 when the shares of Emirates NBD were officially listed on Dubai financial market (DFM) (Al-Tamimi Hussein, 2014). Emirates NBD is a market leader in the banking and financial organization in UAE. The USP of the organization is that Emirates NBD is a socially responsible corporation in the UAE market. The position of the company indicates its strong presence in the domestic market. The particular organization has been recognized as one of the dynamic financial service providers in the Middle East (Cader et al., 2013). The target of the organization is small, medium and large organization seeking for the enhanced financial solutions. The organization has been providing the diverse financial solutions to the monetary organizations. Although the organization has huge financial resources, they show a lack of interest in expanding the ir brand in the foreign market (Randeree, Mahal Narwani, 2012). Due to the limited expansion of the business in the foreign market, the organization has a limited market share. Consequently, it creates challenges for the organization to experience better sales revenues in the business. In this particular assignment, brief analysis on the brand auditing of Emirates NBD has been provided. The particular brand auditing process includes internal and external analysis of the business. On the other hand, the situational analysis on the business has been discussed in an effectual manner. With the involvement of the situational analysis, the organization would be able to identify the current market situation. Moreover, the particular assignment has highlights the growth of the company. A brief history of the company has been sketched in the assignment under the companys background section. At the end part of the assignment, a brief conclusion has been drawn, which is a summarization of entire project. On the other hand, the provided recommendation would facilitate the organization to undertake the strategy implementation process in the business. Hence, it can be assessed that the particular assignment consists of adequate information on the organization and its brand audit ing analysis. 2) Company background: Emirates NBD is one of the largest banking groups in the Middle East by its total assets (Masood et al., 2012). The particular organization was established on 16th October 2007. The headquarter of the company is located in National Bank of Dubai Building in Dubai, UAE. The organization consists of different types of financial products including investment banking, commercial banking, retail banking, private Banking, Mortgage and Credit cards. Emirates NBD has total assets of $98.8 billion as of 2015 (Emiratesnbd.com, 2016). History of the Company: During the formation of the particular organization, the shares of Emirates NBD were officially listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM). The organization had enhanced their strength by merging between Emirates Bank International (EBI) and the National Bank of Dubai (NBD) (Said, 2012). It was merged with second and fourth largest banks in the UAE. Consequently, it provides adequate opportunities for the organization to experience the profitable outcome from the domestic and international market. The organization is a market leader in the banking sector in UAE. Emirates NBD has more than 220 branches and over 900 ATMs and Cash Deposit Machines (CDMs) across the country and the overseas market (Banerjee Anand). By providing the diverse financial solution to the monetary organizations, the organization has established a strong brand image in the domestic market. The particular banking group plays a major role in the corporate banking sector. It is the fastest growing Islamic bank wit h strong investment and private banking services (Al Suwaidi, 2013). The particular organization is a leader in the field of the asset management products and brokerage services. Most of the business analysts have discussed that the robust growth of the organization has indeed facilitated in engaging a huge number of shareholders in the business. Consequently, it facilitates them in enhancing their total assets of business. By analyzing the financial report of Emirates NBD, the total assets of the organization were AED 388.1 billion as of 30th June 2015 (Trabelsi Trabelsi, 2014). Emirates NBD banking group has the operations in different regions including UAE, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Egypt and the United Kingdom. Moreover, the organization has representative offices in some of the Asian countries including India, China, and Indonesia. Currently, the particular organization has more than 9000 people providing flawless services to their clients. The huge workforce eng agement has made the organization as the largest employers in UAE. Emirates NBD group of companies include 14 companies, 9 subsidiary companies, and 3 associated companies (Emiratesnbd.com, 2016). Brand architecture: The Emirates NBD brand architecture has been developed for upholding master brand integrity across all products, divisions of the bank. Consequently, it would facilitate in maximizing the brand value in an effective manner. The brand architecture depends on two factors including flexibility and usability and restructuring and simplicity (Kamal Hassan, 2012). The brand architecture is based on the core set of the standard elements. The organization believes that the business flexibility facilitates them in maintaining the consistency in the process (Miniaoui Gohou, 2013). On the other hand, the restructuring and simplicity of the product facilitates to engage a huge customers base in the business. As per the management of the organization, they have taken initiation for simplifying their products by removing the complexity. The architecture of the organization can be categorized into two sections including internally and externally. The architecture of the organization internally fac ilitates the organization to drive the business growth through several unique initiatives such as improved collaboration and higher sense of belonging (Rusu Shen, 2012). It makes easier for the customers to understand the products features in an effective manner. On the other hand, the external architecture would ensure the establishment of the brand in both domestic and global platform (Cherian Farouq, 2013). The brand structure of the organization has been included below: Figure 2: Brand Structure (Source: Almonayirie Dubey, 2014) ENBD maintains the largest branch in the UAE, which provides the infrastructure for attracting granular, low-cost, and stable current and saving account deposits from the small and retail business customers. This particular approach of the organization has facilitated them in experiencing 10% enhancement in the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2012 and 2015. On the other hand, during 2012 to 2015, near-zero cost current and savings accounts were increased by a CAGR of 21% (Nobanee Ellili, 2016). Consequently, it contributes to the enhancement of the total deposit to 56% by December 2015, whereas, the total deposit was estimated 43% in 2012. Due to the reduced liquidity, flows and economic slowdown has been observed in the banking sector in the UAE (Mobarek Kalonov, 2014). Consequently, the banks have faced challenges in enhancing the deposits in the business. On the contrary, the Emirates NBD was still able to manage in expanding its deposits base by 11%, while other bank s have only expanded their deposits on an average of 4% (Ibrahim Alqaydi, 2013). Consequently, this particular situation has facilitated the organization in growing its lending activities on the market rate. For being the fastest growing Islamic bank in UAE, the organization had to focus on their financial products so that it could attract a huge number of people in the large domestic areas. 99.8% of shares are owned by the Emirates NBD itself. By analyzing the history of the organization, it can be identified that the NBD investment bank was first incorporated on 31st May 2006 in the DIFC (King, 2012). The principal activity of the organization is to execute the investment banking. In 2001, the Emirates international security was established. By analyzing the assets graph of the organization, it can be identified that the business has experienced major growth in the last decade. Figure 3: Emirates NBD assets diagram (Source: Kumar Sujit, 2015) It can be assessed that Emirates NBD has the largest assets in GCC. With the engagement of the enhance distribution, the organization has obtained profitable outcome within a timeframe. By analyzing the above diagram, it can be assessed that the particular bank has the adequate strengths and opportunities for expanding the business in the large demographic market. Without having the strong presence on the global platform, Emirates NBD would not be able to enhance the market share (Agnihotri Bhavani, 2013). Hence, it can be assessed by analyzing the background of the company that Emirates NBD has experienced huge growth in the domestic arena. By adopting the merger and acquisition policy, the organization can improve their global presence within the short timeframe. 3) SWOT analysis: EmiratesNBD is a leading and vibrant financial services provider in the Middle East. By conducting the internal analysis of the organization, different factors of the business can be evaluated in an effective manner. SWOT analysis facilitates to highlights the key issues and threat of the business. It indicates the strength, weakness, opportunity, and weakness of the organization. In this context, the internal environment analysis would highlight the opportunities of the organization for expanding the business into the foreign market. Although Emirates NBD has huge potentialities, it is often unable to take strategic decisions for the enhancement of the business. The particular internal analysis would facilitate to identify the risk factors of the business, which might create challenges for the particular organization to execute the business process management. By identifying the potential risk factors, the organization would be able to gain their profit margin in the business. Strengths The organization has the huge financial base in the Gulf Cooperation Council region conducting the operation in different regions including the UAE, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. Moreover, it has the representative office in both India and Iran (Saji, 2012). Emirates EBD is the leading retail banking franchise in the UAE. It has more than 140 branches and 750 ATMs or the cash deposit machines across the UAE (Emiratesnbd.com, 2016). EmiratesNBD has been recognized as the Best Bank in UAE. On the other hand, it also wins the award for being Best SME Internet Banking Service (Jham, 2012). The particular bank offers the retail services along with the private banking and credit card facilities. The prime strength of the business is that the particular organization has the experienced business units, which facilitates them in executing the process in the large domestic market. The organization has been experiencing the high profitability and revenue margin due to its effective business approaches. The skilled workforce has facilitated the organization in enhancing the productivity of the business in an effectual method. The management of the company has reduced its labor costs for experiencing the high growth in the business. Weaknesses Although the organization has successfully established its business in the large domestic area, the management has faced difficulties in enhancing the online activity of the business. Without improving the online presence, the organization would not be able to experience the adequate profits from the business (Chowdhury, 2015). The limited global presence has been a problem for the organization as it causes the limited market share of the particular business. The lack of brand portfolio has created difficulties of the organization to promote their effective products in the domestic market. The organization needs to enhance its investment in the research and development sections so that they can identify new and innovative strategies for the business expansion in the domestic and international platform. Due to the competitiveness in the market, the organization has been facing several challenges from the existing and new entrants. The tax structure needs to be developed for the better execution of the business in the large domestic market (Hightower, 2016). For obtaining the future profitability, the organization needs to develop its strategic approaches in the business (Bose Sampath, 2015). Opportunities The focus of the business lies within the growth to the benefits from the local government spending drive. The particular banking sector is lending to the private companies in the Saudi Arabia. However, the growth of the business is still 15% per year (Fernandez Kumar, 2013). By expanding the business over the international market, the organization could enhance its profitability in an effectual manner. Consequently, the business expansion would cause enhancement of the revenues. The particular organization must employ the online platforms for expanding its business within a short span of time. With the involvement of the online market, the organization would promote their products to the wider customers across the globe. By undertaking new venture into the new market, the organization can expand their business and diversify their portfolio of the products and services. Threats In the competitive market, the organization needs to enhance its market share to expand the business in an effectual manner. However, it is quite difficult and expensive for the organization to enhance the market share of the mature market. The lending situation in the UAE is very competitive. There are a small number of local banks in the location. The margins would be tight while the banks would book new assets (Tai, 2012). The increasing cost is one of the major threats to the business. In the competitive market, the organization face challenges due the existing competitors including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Bank of Sharjah, and Mashreqbank psc (Ghoul, 2012). Due to the volatile costs, Emirates NBD may face difficulties in business execution in the large demographic areas. Consequently, the organization needs to implement strategic approaches for avoiding such situation (Kashmoola, 2016). By discussing the internal analysis, it can be assessed that Emirates NBD has successfully established the business in the domestic market. However, the organization has not yet taken strong foot step into the international market. Consequently, the business opportunities are getting shriveled due to the small market size. The USP of the organization is that it is the market leader across the core business line, and it is quite responsible for the social engagement (Banerjee Rafiuddin, 2015). The prime targets of the organization are small, medium and large enterprises searching for the diversified financial solutions. The strength of Emirates NBD indicates its position in the market. The organization is globally recognized for being one of the dynamic and leading financial services providers in the Middle East (Saito, 2016). Although the organization has huge financial resources, it does not expand its business in the foreign market. Consequently, it decreases the profit margins in the business. By discussing the weakness of the organization, it can be assessed that the particular venture shows a lack of interest in involving the online market. Due to the lack of online activities, the organization is unable to spread the product related information in the market. Consequently, it creates huge impacts on the business. Due to the limited global establishment, the organization has a limited market share. The organization has several growth opportunities. However, the organization is unable to utilize its financial sources properly. Consequently, the growth rate of the business is only 1.5% per year (Thye Goh, Mohd Suki Fam, 2014). The financial analysts have discussed the fact that the international expansion would boost up the revenues in the business. In the mature market, the organization has been facing huge competitiveness from its rivals including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Bank of Sharjah, and Mashreqbank psc. By implementing the strategic approaches, the organization would be able to compete with these rivals in the market. In the recent years, the banking sector has been facing difficulties in the business execution due to the volatility of the cost (Altwijry Abduh, 2013). Hence, it can be assessed that the cost-reducing policy needs to be developed for enhancing the business opportunities in both domestic and international market. 4) PESTL analysis: Political: In the recent years, most of the banking sectors have been facing challenges in expanding their business into the foreign market due to several political factors. Although Emirates NBD has a strong presence in the domestic market, it has not succeeded in making a strong brand impact on the global platform. In the UAE, there are seven dependent emirates. The seven emirates have united since 1971 (Altwijry Abduh, 2013). Moreover, the president becomes the ruler of Abu Dhabi. Although there is no elected government in UAE, it has optional Federal National Council containing 40 members selected by the seven emirates. The UAE is also the member of GCC. The rising cost of the domestic deposits across the competitive market, and reduced access to the international debt capital market are the major challenges in fueling the banking sector. Hence, Emirates NBD had face challenges in enhancing the deposit cost in the business due to the several political dilemmas. However, it mainly affected the ailing banks in the UAE. With the merger and acquisition policy, Emirates NBD has been a successful bank in the Middle East (Kumar, 2015). Funding and liquidity pressures remain in the banking sector in UAE. Consequently, it creates the challenges in expanding the business in the foreign market. On the other hand, most of the business analysts have discussed the fact that most of the foreign banks show interest in opening a new venture in the UAE due to the stable political environment. On the other hand, it has very strong relation with some of the developing countries. Consequently, the particular organization would get adequate opportunities in expanding the business to the foreign market. Over the last few decades, many countries have implemented several rules and regulations on the exemption of citizens for investing funds in the foreign lands. In the recent years, the government has been focusing on the implementing new rules and regulations for the foreign investors, whic h can affect the banking sectors. Moreover, it would narrow the business process of the banking sector in the Middle East. Despite the presence of several political barriers, Emirates NBD has successfully enhanced its market share based on the both domestic and international market. Economical: The economic environment is based on the free trade. Moreover, it encourages the local and foreign investors to invest their money in the UAE. However, the banking sector in UAE has several growth opportunities due to the increased foreign traders. There are three different factors affecting the financial investment in the UAE such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), interest rates, Inflation, and a number of workers. During the economic crisis in 2008, foreign exchange rates were fallen, which creates the difficulties for the banking sector to execute the business in an effectual manner (Chang, 2013). During that particular time, most of the banking organizations were facing challenges in the business execution due to lack of funds. Most of the people have surrendered their bank accounts due to the global recession. Consequently, Emirates NBD had to face huge loss due to the recession in the industry. By analyzing the different factors of the financial investment, it can be assessed th at the GDP purchasing power parity has been increased. On the other hand, the GDP per capita was unstable though the last 6 years. For example, the GDP per capita was $18,839 in 1997, whereas it was increased to $19,173 in 2002 (Abu Hussain Al-Ajmi, 2012). With the implementation of the strategic approaches, the government could improve the economic strength of the nation. The government would decrease the interest rate so that the foreign investors could invest huge capital in the domestic market. Consequently, it would enhance the business opportunities for Emirates NBD. The inflation rate in the UAE is 1.5% in 2000 (Al-Tamimi, Hussein Jellali, 2013). However, the inflation rate was 3.1% in 1999. Although Emirates NBD has successfully enhanced their economic structure by maintaining a proper growth rate of the business, they have faced several challenges in executing the business in both domestic and international platforms. Socio-cultural: Socio-cultural factors had a great impact on the performance of Emirates NBD. The socio-cultural factors involve the demographic and the cultural aspects of the external environment. It facilitates the organization to take valid decision for the enhancement of the business in the large domestic market space. The banking sector must consider some of the essential forces during the planning for opening a new venture in the UAE (Cader et al., 2013). These essential forces include religion, language, population, ethnic groups, literacy etc. most of the UAE banks are aware of the fact that the corporate social responsibility is one of the major factors for enhancing the brand value on the global platform. Emirates NBD has focused on their social responsibilities. For conducting the social responsibilities, the particular bank consults with the stakeholders and participates in the program. By analyzing the World Bank data, the total unemployment rate in UAE is 3.80%. As of 2016, both male and female unemployment rate is 8.80%, whereas the youth unemployment rate is 9.90% (Randeree, Mahal Narwani, 2012). Consequently, the unemployment rate is a major factor affecting the business of Emirates NBD. However, the local government has taken initiatives for reducing the rate by inviting the foreign investors in the domestic market. The higher rate of employment would facilitate the banking industry in enhancing their business opportunities in an effectual manner. The particular organization has been providing diverse financial solutions to the monetary companies in the large domestic area (Masood et al., 2012). By providing the unbiased and fair solutions to the financial organization, Emirates NBD has been enhancing their business opportunities in an efficient manner. On the other hand, the non-national population in UAE is 48.1% as of 2015 (Said, 2012). Hence, it can be assessed that UAE has enhanced industrial growth. Consequently, it increases the job opportunity of th e foreigners and other people belonging to the GCC countries. It indicates a good opportunities for the banking industry in UAE. EmiratesNBD has encouraged the foreign investors for investing in UAE so that it can facilitate the particular organization in increasing the total assets (Al Suwaidi, 2013). Technological: In the recent years, the technological advancement has facilitated the banking industry to improve their business opportunities in an effectual manner. With the involvement of the technological growth, the banking industry can expand their business in both domestic and international market (Trabelsi Trabelsi, 2014). Emirates NBD has engaged enhanced technologies in the process for providing the diverse financial solutions to the monetary organizations located in the different parts of UAE. As per the management of the organization, technology influence in most parts of the business such as distribution channel, transaction processing, marketing, credit analysis and risk management. With the involvement of the technological advancement, the particular organization has spread the product related information to the large domestic market as well foreign market (Miniaoui Gohou, 2013). In the UAE, the utilization of internet is widely spread. Consequently, it enhances the business opport unities in many ways. In the recent years, the online banking of the Emirates NBD has enhanced in an effectual manner. The management believes that the online banking has a wide range of facilities that facilitates the clients in executing the baking works. The online banking facilitates the clients to transfer the money with few clicks. On the other hand, it also has several other facilities including application for the new credit card, adding beneficiary account, account transfer, enable or disable services on online, and providing history of all completed transfer transaction. Moreover, the organization has released their latest technological advancement. For example, the organization has released online mobile application that facilitates the customers in executing transaction from their mobile. Consequently, it becomes easier for the domestic and foreign customers to avail the banking services at any point time. This type of initiation facilitates the organization to enhance t heir business opportunities in both national and foreign market. In the UAE, the average monthly usage of the internet is 1.6 million hours for over 500,000 people (Rusu Shen, 2012). On the other hand, ETISALAT has identified that the average usage per users in 72 hours a month, which indicates that almost 20% of the population have the internet access (Cherian Farouq, 2013). Consequently, it would facilitate the organization to enhance their business process on the online platform. Although the organization has been dominating in the domestic market by providing flawless financial solution to the clients, lack of the promotional activities have created barriers to enhance their brand value in the international market. Legal: There are various legal authorities have been facilitating in auditing the functioning of the Emirates NBD. The UAE government has applied several legislation frameworks in the banking sectors for executing the process in a systematic manner. The UAE central bank has announced the liquidity management rules for all banks. As per the circular No 33/2015, issued on May 27, 2015 all banks should abide by the provisions of the new regulations and guidance manual (Almonayirie Dubey, 2014). With the involvement of the regulation, the government wants to reduce the liquidity risks from the banking sectors. Hence, it can be assessed that the legal frameworks have facilitated the organization to reduce the financial risks from the business. The Emirates NBD and other banks in UAE are required to follow the guidelines from the UAE Central Bank (Nobanee Ellili, 2016). On the other hand, the UAE offshore companies need to follow some guidelines for conducting business in the particular region. For selling their products, they need to be the official agents. However, the restrictions on the offshore, onshore or the free zone companies do not apply to the foreign subsidiaries. The foreign subsidiaries are not bounded by the UAE rules. Hence, they can conduct the business in the UAE without hesitating for legal legislations or regulations. 5) Situation Analysis Porter 5 forces analysis The present stature of the organization is very high, and it is continuing to increase in an effective manner. The merger of two banks has facilitated the organization to experience the profitable outcome from the large domestic market. By analyzing the current situation of the organization, it can be assessed that the particular company has an adequate source of financial sources to expand the business in the large domestic market. The prime strength of the particular bank is its capability of providing the diverse financial solutions to the different monetary organizations. Emirates NBD is the leading Bank in the UAE consist of over 140 branches and 750 ATMs or cash deposit machines (Mobarek Kalonov, 2014). The diversity of the bank has facilitated them in enhancing the business opportunities in an effectual manner. However, the particular bank has been facing some challenges in expanding the business in the foreign market. Due to the limited presence on the global platform, the o rganization has a limited market share. For enhancing the brand value, the organization needs to improve their global presence. They can enhance their position by including different promotional approaches. Without promoting the brand into the foreign market, the organization would not be able to gain their profitability in the business. There are several threats to the business. In the competitive market, the organization needs to enhance their market share for obtaining high growth in the business within a short period. The management of the organization has discussed that the volatility of cost often creates barriers to increasing the customers base in an effectual manner. On the other hand, the lending environment in Saudi Arabia has been competitive for some local banks (Ibrahim Alqaydi, 2013). Consequently, the profit margins would be tight while banks book new assets into the business. Porters five forces analysis: Threats of New Entrants: LOW In the competitive market, most of the existing banks have faced a challenge in business execution due to the threats of the new entrants. Although there are huge capital and regulatory requirement, 215 new banks were opened averagely from 1977 to 2002 as per FDIC. On the contrary, in the current scenario, the threat of new entrants in the UAE is low. There are different factors affecting the threat of new entrants. Due to the government licensing, most of the new organizations face challenges in opening the new ventures. On the other hand, in UAE, the lack of skilled professionals has created difficulties for the banking industry to open a new venture in the domestic market. Emirates NBD is a leading bank in the UAE. By providing the diverse financial solutions, the organization has successfully captured the domestic market. High initial investment is another issue for the new entrants in UAE (Kumar Sujit, 2015). Although the existing banking organizations have been successfully ex ecuting their business, the entry of foreign bank often creates difficulties for existing companies. However, most of the foreign banks avoid making business in the UAE due to the political legislations and governments regulations. Consequently, it facilitates the existing organizations in executing business in an effectual manner within the domestic market. Bargaining Power of Customers: HIGH The bargaining power of the suppliers is quite high due to several factors including customer deposits, mortgage loans, mortgage securities and loans from the financial institution. In the recent years, the investment revenues have risen in the banking sector in UAE. Consequently, it influences the customers for bargaining for a better option. On the other hand, the customers can bargain for the higher interest rates. Although the Emirates NBD has the higher brand value compared to other banks in the UAE, the customers have different other options also (Saji, 2012). Consequently, it indicates the high bargaining power of the customers. On the other hand, the switching cost is very low. Hence, the customers of Emirates NBD can switch to the other banks if they obtain low value in the business. During the recession, the Emirates NBD has also faced this kind of challenges when most of the customers have surrendered their accounts (Banerjee Rafiuddin, 2015). Consequently, it had hugely affected business. Another reason for high bargaining power of the consumer is that the undiversified services. However, the particular organization called Emirates NBD has a wide range of diverse products, which has facilitated them in upholding a high customers base in the business. In the era of technology, the customers can easily avail the information on different banks providing services in the UAE (Saito, 2016). Hence, it becomes easier for the UAE customers to identify their best banking options. Bargaining power of suppliers: LOW The banking industry in UAE needs to follow the rules and regulations of the UAE central bank. Due to the rules and legislation made by the UAE central bank, the suppliers are unable to bargain high. Suppliers of the bank are the depositors, who have excess money and prefer the regular income and safety (Thye Goh, Mohd Suki Fam, 2014). In the banking sectors in UAE, suppliers have low bargaining power due to the several factors including nature of the suppliers, few alternatives, UAE central bank legislations and non-concentrated suppliers. The brand value of Emirates NBD is quite high (Altwijry Abduh, 2013). Consequently, the suppliers avoid conflicts in the business making process. The suppliers in UAE prefer low risk in the business. On the other hand, the suppliers have very few alternatives, which can provide diverse financial solutions to them. Consequently, suppliers often bargain low to be engaged with the organization for a long timeframe. The most obvious reason for low b argaining power of the suppliers is that the banks in UAE are subjected to follow the regulations of the UAE central bank. Hence, the Central Bank UAE takes all decisions regarding the interest rates (Altwijry Abduh, 2013). Consequently, it reduces the bargaining power of suppliers. Hence, it can be assessed that the low bargaining power of the suppliers has facilitated Emirates NBD to enhance business opportunities in the domestic market. Availability of the Substitutes: LOW In the recent years, the financial sector has experienced robust growth due to the implementation of new policy. On the other hand, there is the invention of new product in the financial sector. The banks in UAE are not limited to the traditional business making process (Kumar, 2015). EmiratesNBD has a wide range of unique products and services for the clients. The management of the organization has focused on the substitute of the products. Substitutes of the products are those, which is different but provide satisfaction to the same set of customers. EmiratesNBD has several financial solutions for the monetary organizations. The top financial products in UAE are credit cards, personal finance, home finance, and car loans (Chang, 2013). By analyzing the current situation of the UAE banking industry, it can be assessed that the non-banking financial sectors have to grow in an effective manner, which indicates a risk factor for the existing organizations. On the other hand, the substi tute of the financial product is the stock market. Customers often invest a huge amount of money in the stock market for obtaining adequate outcomes. Although there are several threats of substitutes, the organization has successfully engaged a large customers base by delivering a unique range of financial solutions. Competitive Rivalry: HIGH In the recent years, Emirates NBD has been facing several challenges due to the increased threats from the competitors. Due to the high market growth, the particular bank has faced difficulties in the business execution (Altwijry Abduh, 2013). Most of the banks provide different offers to the new customers. Moreover, the switching cost for the customers is very low. Consequently, it is an imperative factor for decreasing customers base in the business. Sometimes, the high exit barriers have influenced the customers to avoid the particular organization. In the competitive market, Emirates NBD has several competitors including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Bank of Sharjah and Mashreqbank psc (Rusu Shen,). In the mature market, the organization has to implement several strategical approaches to enhancing the business opportunities in an effectual manner. The management of the organization has discussed that the volatility of the cost often creates challenges in retaining the customers for t he long period. Despite the threats of the competitors, the organization has maintained a strong domestic presence. Figure 4: Porters five forces on Emirates NBD (Source: Created by author) 6) Recommendations The banking sector in UAE has experienced the enormous growth in the recent years. EmiratesNBD has enhanced its business in the domestic market through its diverse financial solutions. With the involvement of the different strategic approaches, the organization could improve its foreign market. Business realignment: Business realignment is one of the major factors for enhancing the profits within a timeframe. The management needs to implement strategic approaches to engage customers in the business. By managing the performance and productivity, the organization can obtain long-term success in the market. Emirates NBD should focus on the product diversification so that they could engage a huge number of customers in the banks. On the other hand, the particular bank could minimize the restrictions for opening a new account. Moreover, the low switching cost would facilitate the bank to enhance their customers base in an effective manner. Channel optimization: EmiratesNBD has experienced huge success in the domestic market due to the merger and acquisition policy. At the initial stage, the organization has successfully merged with two large banks in the UAE. The organization could merge their business with other potential banks in the domestic market. It would facilitate them in enhancing the profitability of the business. On the other hand, the organization needs to merge their venture with the foreign companies for making strong footstep in the international market. Consequently, this particular process would facilitate them in enhancing the revenues of the business. Staff productivity: Without having the adequate workforce, the organization would not be able to expand their business in the large domestic market. In the banking sectors, the organization is required the skilled employees having adequate financial knowledge so that they could provide diverse financial solutions to the domestic and foreign clients. Emirates NBD has total 9000 people representing 70 nationalities. Although the particular organization is one of the largest employers in the UAE, they need to focus on retaining potential employees. Without retaining the potential and skilled employees for a long period, the organization would not be able to achieve its goals and objectives in an effective way. Technology and automation: Technological advancement has facilitated the banking sectors in achieving high growth in the domestic and international market. The particular organization has implemented different technologies in the business for providing flawless solutions to the customers. For instance, the organization has released its mobile application, which allows the customers to execute all banking activities without facing any difficulties. Hence, Emirates NBD needs to focus on inventing such type of technical advancement that facilitates in enhancing the business opportunities in both domestic and international platforms. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the Emirates NBD has been experiencing huge success in the domestic market. However, the particular organization has been trying to expand their business in the international platform by implementing different strategic approaches. By providing the diverse financial solutions to the monetary organizations, Emirates NBD has sustainable growth in the business. By analyzing the current situation of the particular organization, it can be assessed that the limited global presence of the company does not allow them to enhance their market share. Consequently, Emirates NBD is unable to achieve high-profit margin from the foreign market. In this context, the brand auditing process on Emirates NBD has been conducted in a detailed manner. By analyzing the internal and external environmental factors of Emirates NBD, different issues and growth opportunities have been highlighted. Moreover, the provided recommendations would facilitate in enhancing the business opportuni ties for Emirates NBD. References Abu Hussain, H., Al-Ajmi, J. (2012). Risk management practices of conventional and Islamic banks in Bahrain.The Journal of Risk Finance,13(3), 215-239. Agnihotri, M., Bhavani, M. G. (2013) Impact Of The Customer Relationship Management Practices On The Profitability Of UAE Banks. A Comparative Study. Al Suwaidi, T. (2013). 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StudentNow.com! Essays - Inorganic Solvents, Acid Rain,

StudentNow.com! INTRODUCTION Acid rain is a great problem in our world. It causes fish and plants to die in our waters. As well it causes harm to our own race as well, because we eat these fish, drink this water and eat these plants. It is a problem that we must all face together and try to get rid of. However acid rain on it's own is not the biggest problem. It cause many other problems such as aluminum poisoning. Acid Rain is deadly. WHAT IS ACID RAIN? Acid rain is all the rain, snow, mist etc that falls from the sky onto our planet that contains an unnatural acidic. It is not to be confused with uncontaminated rain that falls, for that rain is naturally slightly acidic. It is caused by today's industry. When products are manufactured many chemicals are used to create it. However because of the difficulty and cost of properly disposing of these products they are often emitted into the atmosphere with little or no treatment. The term was first considered to be important about 20 years ago when scientists in Sweden and Norway first believed that acidic rain may be causing great ecological damage to the planet. The problem was that by the time that the scientist found the problem it was already very large. Detecting an acid lake is often quite difficult. A lake does not become acid over night. It happens over a period of many years, some times decades. The changes are usually to gradual for them to be noticed early. At the beginning of the 20th century most rivers/lakes like the river Tovdal in Norway had not yet begun to die. However by 1926 local inspectors were noticing that many of the lakes were beginning to show signs of death. Fish were found dead along the banks of many rivers. As the winters ice began to melt off more and more hundreds upon hundreds more dead fish (trout in particular) were being found. It was at this time that scientist began to search for the reason. As the scientists continued to work they found many piles of dead fish, up to 5000 in one pile, further up the river. Divers were sent in to examine the bottom of the rivers. What they found were many more dead fish. Many live and dead specimens were taken back to labs across Norway. When the live specimens were examined they were found to have very little sodium in their blood. This is typical a typical symptom of acid poisoning. The acid had entered the gills of the fish and poisoned them so that they were unable to ext ract salt from the water to maintain their bodies sodium levels. Many scientist said that this acid poising was due to the fact that it was just after the winter and that all the snow and ice was running down into the streams and lakes. They believed that the snow had been exposed to many natural phenomena that gave the snow it's high acid content. Other scientists were not sure that this theory was correct because at the time that the snow was added to the lakes and streams the Ph levels would change from around 5.2 to 4.6. They believed that such a high jump could not be attributed to natural causes. They believed that it was due to air pollution. They were right. Since the beginning of the Industrial revolution in England pollution had been affecting all the trees,soil and rivers in Europe and North America. However until recently the loses of fish was contained to the southern parts of Europe. Because of the constant onslaught of acid rain lakes and rivers began to lose their ability to counter act their affects. Much of the alkaline elements; such as calcium and limestone; in the soil had been washed away. It is these lakes that we must be worried about for they will soon become extinct. A fact that may please fishermen is that in lakes/rivers they tend to catch older and larger fish. This may please them in the short run however they will soon have to change lakes for the fish supply will die quickly in these lakes. The problem is that acid causes

Essay on Japans Geisha

Essay on Japans Geisha Essay on Japans Geisha Essay on Japans GeishaOne of the most popular professions in Japan is Geisha. To be a geisha is not as easy as it may seem. It is not only a beautiful woman, who should entertain a man. She must have many skills, such as dancing, playing a classical music, she must to be a woman of art to attract a client’s attention.Geisha is a hereditary profession; it means that to get this work, you have to be a geisha’s daughter. The process of becoming geisha has several steps. First off all, the training must be started in childhood. Then, student starts the training as a â€Å"minarai†. It means that, girl learn all details only by watching â€Å"okiya’s† (teacher’s) work. Also â€Å"minarai† should have an older sister or an older geisha, in Japan it is onee-san. Her main function is to bring â€Å"minarai† to traditional Japanese place, teahouse, for example, where student has a possibility to observe â€Å"onee – san’sà ¢â‚¬  work. It is the main condition to find a potential client. Onee-san also must teach all the techniques such as conversation, gaming and serve of tea. This period runs for about a month.The next step starts when student moves from the status of â€Å"minarai† to the status of â€Å"maiko†. Maiko is a woman, who has already mastered the art of dance. This period runs for years. Maiko learn from her senior geisha mentor and follow to all her engagements. And the last, final step, when maiko becomes a professional geisha.Training is a very expensive process, so, then â€Å"maiko† after becoming a professional geisha should to pay back all her debts to the okiya, because she provides all necessary opportunities, such as food, kimonos etc., during maiko’s studing. It may happen, when geisha move out to live and work independently.

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The emergency management plan Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Voluntary disclosure and corporate governance

Voluntary disclosure and corporate governance Introduction: Theforces that give rise in demand of information disclosure in modern capital market stems from the information asymmetry and agency conflicts existing between the management and the stockholders. Therefore, the solution to agency conflicts lies in the ownership structure and the function of board of directors. (Jensen and Meckling 1976) found that the Ownership structure is assessed by the proportion of shares held by managers and blockholders.So managerial ownership which is (the proportion of shares held by the CEO and executive directors) and blockholder ownership which is (the proportion of ordinary shares held by substantial shareholders) are two major governance mechanisms that help control agency problem. In addition, [Fama 1980] argues that the board of directors is the central internal control mechanism for monitoring managers. Financial reporting and disclosure are important resources for management to communicate firms performance and success of efficient capital market (ECM).Fama (1991) defined ECM as a market in which new information is accurately and quickly reflected in share prices. The incentive to voluntarily reveal information still under interest to both analytical and the empirical researchers.Analytical research concerned and verified issues as how competition affects disclosure, (Darrough and Stoughton 1990). Empirical researchers documented the influence of firm characteristics like size, leverage, listing and managerial ownership on disclosure. Firms provide disclosure by financial statements, management discussion and analysis, footnotes, furthermore some firms involved in voluntary supply such as internet sites, press releases, conference calls, management forecasts. Corporate disclosure is proxied by an aggregate discloser score of annual report, including background information, summary of historical results, non financial statistics, projected information and management decision and analyses. (Botosan 1997])and (Endg and Mak 2003). Voluntary disclosure is measured by the amount and detail of non mandatory information that is contained in the management decision and analyses in the annual report. Research problem: Corporate governance mechanism that is well practiced could benefit shareholder financially by exercising more control in the companies management. Moreover, the corporate governance characteristic can be seen as proxies for independents and the alignment of interest between management and the shareholder in minimizing the agency conflict. Many researches have been done among different countries to find out which factors could contribute to more disclosure by companies in their financial annual reports.Accordingly this research examines the impact of ownership structure, the profitability and board composition on corporate disclosure, in other words examining the relationship between corporate governance and voluntary disclosure, because the disclosure of information helps to reduce the cost of agency problems when there is an information asymmetry between management and shareholders . The efficiency gab has been narrowed in the worlds major economies but there remain important gabs in what we know. In particular, we lack a sufficient understanding of the complicated ways in which the various corporate governance mechanisms interact with each other and with other characteristics of firms and economies. Research Questions: Is there any relationship betweenlevel of profitability and the extent of voluntary disclosure? Is there any relationship between managerial ownership and the extent of voluntary disclosure? Is there any relationship betweenthe family member sitting on the board and the extent of voluntary disclosure? Research Objectives: The main objective of this study is to examine whichamong the variables contribute to voluntary disclosure and which attributes drive management toward increase disclosure levels. Specifically, the objectives of this study are listed below: To examine whether level of profitability affect the extent of voluntary disclosure of companies in Jordan. To examine whether managerial ownership structure affects the extent of voluntary disclosure of companies in Jordan. To examine whether the family member sitting on the board affect the extent of voluntary disclosure of companies in Jordan. Significance of Study: There are many parties will get benefits from this study, corporations, regulators, policy makers, the analytical, andempirical researches.This research will improve their understanding on which corporate governance factors affect the extant of voluntary disclosure and will increase their information about this area via providing additional evidence on corporate governance and disclosure. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Since separation of ownership and control is the predominant form of corporate governance, previous studies have investigated the relationship between the corporate governance mechanisms and firms disclosure behaviors. Many different theoretical perspectives and research methods have been employed by a wide range of research questions covering different countries and time periods. For example studies have been done by Chow and Wong-Boren (1987); Penmann (1988), Cooke (1991), Hossain et al. (1994) and Balachandran (2004). 2.1 Corporate governance The prior study mentions that the corporate governance refers to the way companies are directed and controlled. A primary concern is the likelihood of a deviation in the objectives of corporate managers from those of shareholders due to the agency costs involved in monitoring managerial behavior (Berle and Means 1932). Another study also mentions that the quality of corporate disclosures is associated with corporate governance characteristics. According to Bujaki and McConomy (2002), corporate governance has been described as the process and structure used to direct and manage business and affairs of the corporation with the objective of enhancing shareholder value†. Corporate governance has also been defined by the Finance Committee Report (1999) as â€Å"the manner in which firms top officers are being monitored and discipline accordingly with the objective ofenhancing shareholders value†. It is also claimed that â€Å"Corporate governance is the process and structure used to direct and manage the business and affairs of the company towards enhancing business prosperity and corporate accountability with the ultimate objective of realizing long term shareholder value†. Dey (1994) stated that proper corporate governance system can help ensure an effective division of authority among shareholders, the board of directors, and the management. According to recent reports by Newby (2001), investors are increasingly basing their investment decisions on companies corporate governance records and are willing to pay more for shares of well-governed companies compared to those of poorly governed companies. This premium for well-governed companies is explained by the role of corporate governance in a companys overall risk management strategy. 2.2 The agency theory Jensen Meckling (1976) in the agency theory provides a framework linking disclosure behavior to corporate governance. Corporate governance mechanisms are introduced to control the agency problem and ensure that managers act in the interests of shareholders. Theoretically, the impact of internal governance mechanisms on corporate disclosures may be complementary or substitutive. If it is complementary, agency theory predicts that a greater extent of disclosures is expected since the adoption of more governance mechanisms will strengthen the internal control of companies. Further, agency theory provides a framework for analyzing financial reporting incentive between managers and owners. Signaling theory explains why firms have an incentive to report voluntarily to the capital market even if there were no mandatory reporting requirements,and voluntary disclosure is necessary in order to come successfully in the market for risk capital,the ability of the firm to raise capital will be improved if the firm has a good reputation with respect to financial reporting. 2.3 Voluntary disclosure Penmann (1988) stated that financial disclosure could be divided into mandatory and voluntary disclosures. Mandatory disclosure is defined as any financial item disclosed in companies annual reports that are prescribed by accounting standards and or the stock exchange regulations. However, voluntary disclosure is defined as any financial item or data disclosed in annual reports of companies that are not prescribed by the companies act and or accounting standards, and, in addition, for public-listed companies, the stock exchange regulations. Further, Meek, Roberts Gray (1995) defined voluntary disclosures as disclosures in excess of requirements, representing free choices on the part of company managements to provide accounting and other information that deemed relevant to the decision needs of users of annual reports. Many studies have been carried out to explain voluntary information disclosure such as Chow and Wong-Boren (1987); Cooke (1991) Hossain et al. (1994) and so forth in their attempt to determine different levels of disclosures and the association between firms characteristics such as firms size and industry type and the levels of disclosure. In addition, good reporting is expected to lower firms cost of capital because there is less uncertainty in firms that reporting extensively and reliably. Therefore, there is less investments risk and lower required rate of return. According to Welker (1995), managers are not likely to withhold information for their own benefits under an intensive-monitoring environment, because this could lead to improvement in disclosure comprehensiveness and quality of financial statements. On the other hand, if the relationship is substitutive, companies will not provide more disclosures for more governance mechanisms since one corporate governance mechanism may substitute one another. If information asymmetry in a firm can be reduced because of the existing internal monitoring packages, the need for having additional governance devices is considered smaller. These apparently conflicting viewpoints on the impact of corporate governance have not been totally resolved, in spite of this theoretical ambiguity. Companies that perform well have a strong incentive to report their operating results. Competitive pressures would also force companies to report even though they did not have good results. Silence of a failure to report would be reinterpreted it as bad news. Companies with bad news would be motivated to report their results in order to avoid being suspected of having poor result. Such a situation would also force bad news firms to disclose results in order to maintain credibility in the capital market. 2.4 The reasons for voluntary disclosure Management of companies provides voluntary items in their annual reports because they perceived those items as important to be disclosed. Management wants to give information to users through annual reports in such a way that they are capable of meeting various needs of users for decision-making. There are various user groups of annual reports and each group has different perception regarding the voluntary items. One group may perceive item A as more important than item B. These differing perceptions among groups might be caused by different information needs to fulfill their specific purposes. Through annual reports, users can obtain more firms information relating to their decision-making. Although there are many sources of information regarding business entity, an annual report is considered the most important and valued source of information Vergoosen (1993). With regard to reasons why companies disclose voluntary items, theory suggests that many of the reasons why managements disclose items voluntarily to users are centered on the need to raise capital at the lowest possible cost (Cooke 1989). The following explanations may support reasons why companies disclose information voluntarily: Additional disclosures may help to attract new shareholders thereby helping to maintain a healthy demand for shares. Additional disclosure by providing more information relating to the present and future condition of firms wealth in order to build an image that may generate goodwill for future benefits (Iqbal et al 1997) Increased information may assist in reducing informational risk, which could lower the cost of capital. For the purpose of raising capital on the market, companies may increase their voluntary disclosure in annual reports. Consequently, listed companies are more likely to have a higher level of disclosure than unlisted companies Multiple listed companies often have an interest in foreign capital markets since foreign operations are often financed by capital (Choi Mueller 1992). Disclosure level might be increased to adapt to local customs to meet the requirements of banks and other suppliers of capital. Listed and multiple listed companies might increase their social responsibility disclosure to demonstrate that they act responsibly (Watts Zimerman 1979). Companies may have attained their status on the securities markets and are able to attract new shareholders for raising fund because they act responsibly (Cooke 1989) Under the capital markets transactions hypothesis, managers who plan on making capital market transactions (i.e., issuing public debt or equity) have incentives to provide voluntary disclosures to reduce information asymmetry between the managers and investors (Healy and Palepu 1995). According to the litigation cost hypothesis, the threat of litigation can encourage firms to increase voluntary disclosure (Skinner 1994). Table 1: Summary of previous studies examining Firm characteristics and the level of voluntary disclosure Year of study Author Country Variables used Result 1987 Chow and Wong Boren Mexico Firm size, financial leverage, and assets in place. The extent of voluntary disclosure is significantly related to firm size but not to firm leverage and assets in place. 1991 Cooke Japan Company size, Stock market listing, and industry types. Size was the single most important variable in explaining variation in voluntary disclosure. Stock market listing was also found to be a significant predictor, and manufacturing firms were found to disclose more information that other types. 1994 Hossain et al. Malaysia Firm size, ownership structure, foreign listing status, leverage, assets in place, and size of audit firm. Firm size, ownership structure, foreign listing status is statistically related to the level of information voluntarily disclosed by publicly traded companies. In contrast, leverage, assets in place and size of audit firm do not appear to be important factors in explaining voluntary disclosure by firms. 2001 Ho, Wong Hong Kong independent directors, voluntary audit committee, dominant personalities, family members on the board, voluntary disclosure The results indicate that the existence of an audit committee is significantly and positively related to the extent of voluntary disclosure, while the percentage of family members on the board is negatively related to the extent of voluntary disclosure. 2004 Balachandran Malaysia Voluntary disclosure, CEO duality and the proportion of independent directors on the board and on audit committees He found that CEO duality is associated with lower levels of voluntary corporate disclosures. It was also found a positive relationship between the proportion of independent non-executive directors on both the board and the audit committee to the extent of voluntary corporate disclosure. CHAPTER 3 HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT 3.0 Introduction Upon existing academic literature several determinants explain why a firm may provide more information voluntarily than mandatory. Different theories such as agency theory, signaling theory, political cost theory, capital needs theory and so forth have also been used to explain those voluntary disclosures This chapter covers the theoretical framework, the hypotheses, the model specification and measurements of variables, disclosure index development and finally this chapter presents the model of the study. 3.1 Variables and framework 3.1.1 Profitability (Foster 1986) suggests that profitable, will managed firms have incentives do distinguish themselves from less profitable firms in order to raise capital on the best available terms by providing voluntary disclosures. Managers are motivated to disclose more detailed information to support the continuities of their positions and remuneration. Therefore, more profitable firms can be expected to disclose more voluntary information. (Haniffa and cooke 2002) find a positive and significant association between the firms profitability and the extent of voluntary discloser. This means that when there is increase in the profitability the voluntary discloser of this firm will increase. Therefore, it is hypothesized that: H1: there is a relationship between companys profitability and the extant of the voluntary disclosure 3.1.2 Managerial ownership ( Jensen and Meckling 1976) mention that agency theory argues that in a diffused ownership environment, firms will disclose more information to reduce agency costs and information asymmetry. In a more concentrated ownership situation, the impact on voluntary disclosure is more complicated. The argument can be made in either direction indicate that since managers pursue their own interest, higher management shareholding would imply a larger sharing of the loss, and ultimately, a lower possibility that management would lower corporate value. Managerial ownership is the percentage of ordinary shares held by the CEO and executive directors, and includes their deemed interests. When managerial ownership falls, outside shareholders will increase monitoring of managers behavior (Jensen and Meckling 1976). To reduce monitoring costs by outside shareholders, the manager will provide voluntary disclosure. Thus, voluntary disclosure is a substitute for monitoring. In addition, a study by (McKinnon and Dalimunthe 1993) found a significant association between ownership structure in diversified Australian companies and voluntary segment disclosure. (Hossain et al 1994) found that the level of disclosure of Malaysian companies is inversely related to the percentage of shares held by the ten most important shareholders. Further, empirical evidence shows that managerial ownership is negatively related to disclosure (Ruland, Tung and George 1990). Hence it is expected that voluntary disclosure increases with decreases in managerial ownership. Therefore it is hypothesized that: H2: There is a relationship between managerial ownership and the extent of voluntary disclosures. 3.1.3 Family member on the board When members of the board own a large number of shares and at the same time they are relatives from one family or a number of families, this may affect the financial disclosure practice of the firm. (Haniffa and Cooke 2002) in their study reported that the percentage of family ownership in any firm may influence the disclosure practice of the firm. It has been suggested that in countries where certain families have equity holdings there should be a little physical separation between those who own and those who manage the capital. (Ho and Wong 2001) mention that, the family control phenomenon is still in existence nowadays. However, it is still not clear to what extent the unique corporate ownership structure would impact the effectiveness of other monitoring devices such as audit committee, independent non-executive directors and CEO duality in determining a firms financial disclosure. Further, they stress that in a family-controlled firm, members of the controlling family would directly participate in the daily management of the firm by appointing themselves as executives and board directors. It is also assumed that every family member owns and votes its shares collectively. In theory, there are potential conflicts between the controlling and non controlling shareholders of a firm due to the formers propensity to extract private benefits through their involvement in the firm and other insider dealings. (Nicholls and Ahmed 1994) argued that capital owners do not have to rely completely on voluntary disclosure to the public to monitor their investments because they have greater access to internal information rather than the general public and stakeholders. This conclusion and findings are based on the idea that since members on the board have more information than external users this will negatively affect the extent of voluntary disclosure. This means that when the family ownership is large the voluntary disclosure of this firm will be less. It is assumed that companies with a family member sitting on the board are more likely to have lower level of voluntary disclosure than otherwise. Therefore, it is hypothesized that: H3: There is relationship between the family member sitting on the board and the extent of voluntary disclosure. 3.1.4 Control Variables From a review of the prior literature on voluntary disclosure, it was decided to include three control variables in the regression model for testing the main hypotheses. The control variables are firm size, leverage, and assets in place. Firstly, Firm size (SIZE): as a view of the association with higher levels of disclosure and firms size, (Firth 1978) who examined the impact of firm size, stock market listing, and auditors presence on voluntary corporate disclosure found that firms size and stock market listing were positively associated with voluntary disclosure. (McNally et al 1982) found that the companys size has significant relationship with the level of voluntary disclosure items. (Hossain et al 1994) found that firm size and Ownership structure of foreign-listing status are statistically related to the level of information voluntarily disclosed by publicly traded companies. Secondly, Assets in place (AIP): In relation to assets in place, (Hossain and Mitraa 2004) in their study examine the assets-in-place in determining the level of voluntary disclosure of data on foreign operations made by US multinational companies. The results indicate that assets-in-place influence the level of voluntary disclosure of data of US multinational companies. In contrast, (Chow and Wong-Boren 1987) examined the effect of proportion of assets in place on the voluntary disclosure. The results have not demonstrated any convincing evidence of any relationships. Thirdly, Leverage (LEVERAGE): the definition of leverage is the degree to which an investor or business is utilizing borrowed money. For companies, leverage is measured by the debt-to-equity ratio, which is calculated by dividing total debt by shareholders equity. The more total debt there is, the greater the financial leverage and the greater the risk of the company falling on its face. For investors, leverage means buying on margin or using derivatives such as options, to enhance return on value without increasing investment. Leveraged investing can be extremely risky because you can lose not only your money but the money you borrowed as well. Voluntary disclosure of information concerning debt fund may allow shareholders and bondholders to make better predictions about the growth, risk and return prospects of companies. Therefore, firms with higher leverage tend to disclose more information than the lower ones. (Cadbury 1995) in his study found that there was a positive associatio n between leverage and the extent of voluntary segment disclosure among New Zealand firms. 3.1.5 Framework Considering all factors of the independents and dependent variables, the model of the study is depicted the following figure. 3.2 Measurement Dependant variable Definition Measurement DSCORE Discloser score Total number of points awarded for voluntary discloser, strategic, non-financial and financial information (coding one â€Å"1† if the company disclose and Zero â€Å"0† otherwise) Independent variables Definition Measurement ROA Profitability Return on Assets MOWN Managerial ownership The proportion of ordinary shares held by the CEO and executive directors ( dividing the directors shares on total shared issued and fully paid) FMB Family member in the board Coding one (1) if there is family ownership and zero (0) otherwise Control variables Size Firm size This variable is measured by the log (base ten) of total assets LEV leverage The ratio of total debt of total equity value of the firm AIP Asset in place The ratio of net book value of fixed assets to total assets 3.3 Disclosure Index There is no agreed theory on the number and selection of items that should be included in a disclosure index. (Cooke and Wallace 1989) argued that the measurement of accounting disclosure is a procedure that has some inherent limitations and subjectivity. To reduce the subjectivity, the literature suggests that the following steps should be taken into consideration when constructing the index (see for example in Hossain et al. 1994). * Review the previous literature to draw a list of voluntary disclosure items. * Check that these items are not required by regulations and eliminate or omit any mandatory items. * Refine the list and get the views of academics and professionals on the items. Disclosure level can be measured in a number of different ways. The commonly used approach has been adopted using a discretionary item scores â€Å"1† if it is disclosed, and â€Å"0† if it is not disclosed. This method of scoring is known as the un-weighted approach based on the assumption that each item of disclosure is equally important. An un-weighted approach has been used in several prior studies like (Wallace 1988) and (Cooke 1989) in their study employ un-weighted disclosure index. (Gul and Leung 2004) reported that the final disclosure list contained 44 discretionary items such as background information, financial performance information and non-financial performance information. The background information includes matters that cover corporate goals, competition, products and markets. On the other hand, performance information includes items such as changes in sales, gross profits and RD expenditures. Furthermore, Non-financial information includes number of employees, and staff training and products segment analysis. For each item in the disclosure index, the company receives a score of ‘‘1 if it voluntarily discloses information on the item and ‘‘0 if otherwise. Furthermore, In (Balachandran 2004) study, he measures the disclosure score index that comprises the consideration of 66 discretionary items. He mentions that the study used approximately 60% of the discretionary items as used in the previously detailed studies. Further, (HO and WONG 2001), in their study measured also the reported disclosure by using a relative disclosure index. It was derived by first compiling a comprehensive list of voluntary disclosure items that companies may provide in their annual reports in Hong Kong. The index consists of total 20 items of most important that disclosed in annual report. However, in the present study, the extent of voluntary disclosure was measured by using a disclosure index which contains of items that disclosed in the annual report.For each item in the disclosure index, a company receives a score of ‘‘1 if it is voluntarily disclosed information on the items and ‘‘0 for otherwise. 3.4 Data Collection This research will use secondary data obtained from the annual reports of all the Jordanian companies. 3.5 Sample Selection The sample for this thesis is all Jordanian companies which are listed on Amman Stock Exchange; therefore the sample includes ninety three companies and covers the period 2002-2007. 3.6 Data Analysis: 3.6.1 The Descriptive Statistics This descriptive study produced the mean, minimum, maximum and standard deviation for each variable for Jordanian companies during 2002-2007. 3.6.2 The Correlation of variables This study shows how one variable is related to another. The results of this analysis represent the nature, direction and significant of the correlation of the variables used in this study and the correlation between variables is analyzed by using