Discuss the stock market exchange crash of 1929 and its legacy in th Essay

Discuss the stock market exchange crash of 1929 and its legacy in th United States - Essay Example Economists however believe that this time round "a deep economic downturn is unlikely" (Bollag 2008). Since the Great Depression of 1929 there has been many researches to find out the real reason behind the sudden economic down turn (Calomiris 1993, 67). One fact that has come to the forefront very clearly is that rather than being just a single factor behind the whole crisis, there were a number of factors that had come together and induced the Great Depression. During the phase when the of the Great Depression, the President of United States of America was Herbert Hoover, who had accumulated great fame because of the reputation he had gained from the Versailles Treaty. Just before the Stock Markets crashed, which marked the initiation point of the Great Depression in October 1929, President Hoover had visited the Golden Anniversary of the Festival of Light that was organized by Henry Ford and in this celebration Hoover mentioned that the efforts of the scientists had made it possible for the common man to have a comfortable life (Foner, 690). At that point of time the President and the common men wee totally unaware of the crisis that was about to befall them. Within a span of three days the Americans were face to face with one of the most modern economic crisis, something which they had never encountered before. Black Thursday refers to the day when the American stock markets crashed to the nadir. Within a span of just five hours almost $10 billion vanished into thin air from the market. The main reason being the panic selling that had been induced by the drastic fall in the stock markets. However, it must be mentioned here that the crash in the stock market was not the only reason behind the Great Depression. There are economists who feel that the people did have the premonition of something going wrong but they could not prepare themselves to face the situation. Moreover, "the seriousness of the problem in the Great Depression was due not only to the extent of the deflation, but also to the large and broad-based expansion of inside debt in the 1920s" (Bernanke 2000, 47). The other factor that played a crucial role in the development of the crisis was the failure of the banks. According to statistics more than 9,000 banks had failed in the 1930s phase. Since most of the banks did not provide any insurance to the depositors so when the banks failed the depositors lost their savings along with it. Slowly the vicious circle was created as the banks that were unsure of their future refused to give loans and the common men have lesser money to spend. This in turn affected the number of goods produced and a drastic cut in the work force. As people lost their jobs they were unable to make payments even for their most basic requirements. Though there were times when the stock markets recovered for some time in the 1930s yet very soon it again began its bearish trend. In between the period of 1929 and 1932, the cost of Steel in America fell from $262 to $22 and those of the General Motors fell from $73 to $8 (Foner, 691). Even more astounding was the drastic fall in the gross national product, which fell by one third of its earlier value. The Great Depression also led to the sharp drop in the market for European imports. The situation became even more tense when the government insisted upon raising the tariffs and introducing a high tariff law (Saint-tienne 1984, 32). Though the

Robert Mondavi Company Essay Example for Free

Robert Mondavi Company Essay California wine-maker Robert Mondavi has been one of the worlds most innovative and high-quality producers of fine wine. The Mondavi family did significant effort on showing the Napa Valley region to the forefront of international winemaking. Robert Mondavi is an Italian migrant and started his winemaking business since 1960s. His intelligence and passion in wine lead him to be a legend in Californian premium wine industry and owned brands like Robert Mondavi Napa Valley, Robert Mondavi Coastal, Woodbridge, Vichon Mediterranean, Caliterra and Lucente. Since 1979, Mondavi has also produced, in joint partnership with the Baron Phillippe de Rothschild wine family, the ultra-premium Opus One label. The company sells about 10 million cases of wine per year, with Woodbridge as its top-selling label. In 2001, the company earned $481 million in revenues and distributed wine in more than 80 countries. The Robert Mondavi Corporation went public in 1993, although the Mondavi family controls 92 percent of voting stock. Problem Statement How can the Robert Mondavi Company strengthen their competitive advantages and thrive in the long run in the global wine industry with many established and consolidated competitors. External Analyses – Porter’s Five Forces †¢Buyers The bargaining power of buyers in the wine industry is fairly high due to their concentrated control of sales at both wholesale and retail levels. Several large distributors control a substantial share of the market and generate most of the revenue for wine producers such as Mondavi. At the retail level, supermarkets and discount chains have become more concentrated, often accounting for 70% or more of off-premise sales in Europe. In fact, Mondavi’s largest wholesaler, Southern Wine and Spirits, accounted for 29% of the firm’s sales. And Costco, the largest wine retailer in US, also accounted for 10% of Mondavi’s total sales volume. The  concentrated bargaining power of buyers gives the large wholesalers and retailers significant influence and power over wine producers’ business decisions. †¢Suppliers The bargaining power of suppliers is relatively low in the wine industry due to the large number of suppliers for raw materials such as corks, bottles, and grapes; and prices for these raw materials are relatively stable as a result of significant competition. This situation creates less bargaining power of suppliers. On the other hand, backward integration within the industry also weakens the bargaining power of suppliers because the companies can control their supply chain. For instance, Mondavi signs long-term contacts with its grape suppliers and works closely with growers to improve grape quality and availability. This practice increases the price stability and limits the suppliers’ bargaining power over the company. †¢Entrants The threat of new entrants in the wine industry is fairly low. Winemaking is a capital-intensive business that requires significant investments in working capital, as well as the cost of acquiring land. For luxury wine producers, an acre of land can sell for as much as $150,000 in California and $250,000 in France. There is also the fact that a new plot of land cannot produce revenue for several years, due to the maturity of the grapes. A new entrant must be able to sustain itself in the industry with no revenues or profits for a reasonably long start-up period. For these reasons, the threat of new entrants in the wine industry is fairly low. †¢Rivalry The threat of rivalry is very high in the premium wine business. Major focused competitors in the premium wine market include Kendall-Jackson, Trinchero Estates, Southcorp and Robert Mondavi. Large-volume producers such as EJ Gallo and Constellation Brands are also shifting toward the premium wine market. And even large alcoholic beverage firms such as Diageo, Foster’s Group, Brown-Forman and Allied Domecq are acquiring wineries to enter the premium wine business. The number of big competitors and  aggressive acquisitions within the industry makes the competition of rivalry exceedingly intense in the premium wine industry. †¢Substitutes The threat of substitution in the wine industry is high since there are many alternatives including both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The alcoholic beverages mainly include beer and distilled spirits, while the non-alcoholic beverages include soda, coffee, and water. According to Exhibit 18a, beer accounts for nearly 55% of the World Market Share between the top 5 firms of beer, spirits, and wine, whereas wine only accounts for roughly 3%. Other substitutions include cheaper and large volume producers of wine such as EJ Gallo and Constellation Brands, which are both Mondavi’s competitors. Internal Analyses – VIRO †¢Access to capital Mondavi (MOND) is a publicly traded company listed on NASDAQ, which enables the company to extensively finance its investments and expansion through its access to the capital market. Mondavi’s access to capital is valuable as the firm raised approximately $600 million in exchange for its stock shares. Mondavi’s access to capital market is also rare since many of its competitors are still privately held or independent. In addition, the huge expenses and complicated processes of an Initial Public Offering make Mondavi’s access to capital market costly to imitate. Finally, Mondavi is organized to benefit from this resource and the firm has utilized its capital to invest in several new production lines, new brands, land acquisition and winery acquisitions etc. †¢Path dependence on land One resource of Mondavi is its path dependence on land. Robert Mondavi bought his first winery in Napa Valley in 1943 for $75,000. Today that land is worth more than five times that amount. Since 1943, Mondavi has made many similar purchases, and the land is only increasing in value. For this reason, Mondavi’s path dependence on land creates value for the firm.  Mondavi’s path dependence on land is also rare in the industry. Not many of Mondavi’s competitors have the same history with purchasing real estate as Mondavi. Since path dependence on land results from past actions, and since real estate in the wine industry is always appreciating, it makes this resource very costly to imitate. Finally, the organization is benefiting from Mondavi’s path dependence on land. Without it, the company would be spending millions of dollars on purchasing land, and would most likely not have the same competitiveness that it has today. †¢Organizational structure Mondavi has reorganized its organization structure into three distinct business units: RMW, Woodbridge, and Joint Ventures Small Wineries. This structure is valuable to the firm as it helps to enhance the brand clarity within the company. Customized sales and marketing strategies help shape the distinct competitive positioning for each of the firm’s brands. Although Mondavi’s organizational structure is not common in the industry, it would not be very costly for its competitors to imitate this structure. †¢Variety of brands One capability of Mondavi is its variety of brands. A variety of brands creates value for the firm because they can sell to different customers in different markets, thus increasing their customer base. Many of Mondavi’s competitors also have a variety of brands, making it not rare in the industry. †¢Reputation Mondavi has 16 different wine brands through company-owned wineries and joint ventures. Each brand had a reputation for quality in its market segment and good relationships with the independent growers. It is definitely a valuable source of the company. However, a resource is rare simply if it is not widely possessed by other competitors. In this case, most of the competitors of Mondavi all have high quality reputation and well-known brand name, so it is not rare in the premium wine industry. †¢High quality Robert Mondavi Winery has been recognized as one of America’s highest-quality winemakers since 1960s. Mondavi consistently uses only high-quality fruit along with traditional winemaking and aging processes to produce premier wines. RMC wine’s high quality has attracted a good number of loyal customers and rewarded the company a decent market share. Nevertheless, high quality is not exceedingly rare in the segment, competitors such as Trinchero Estates, Kendall Jackson and many other traditional European wineries also produce quality wines. †¢History Robert Mondavi founded the iconic Robert Mondavi Winery in 1966. As early as the late 1960s, Robert Mondavi Winery helped introduce to California such fine winemaking techniques as the use of cold fermentation, stainless steel tanks, and French oak barrels. The history is the valuable and intangible source of the company. But since most of Mondavi’s competitor also have remarkable histories, it is not rare in comparison with others. †¢Process innovation Robert Mondavi became one of America’s most innovative winemakers by introducing many new methods and techniques. These techniques included cold fermentation, stainless steel tanks, and the use of small French oak barrels as a way to age fine wine. He also enhanced the company by working with NASA to apply remote-sensing and digital mapping techniques which in turn helped enhance the vineyard. The company also developed a capsule-free, flange-top bottle. Mondavis innovative process is very valuable, because it keeps his company at the top of the industry. For example, in 1972 his 1969 Cabernet Sauvignon was named the best wine produced in California. Assuming these techniques are firm specific, Mondavis process is very rare and costly to imitate. Overall, the new inventions and innovative processes have allowed the company to be successful and earn money throughout the years. Alternative Solutions †¢Merger Mondavi is currently competing in a market were consolidation has become the  new norm within the past decade. Many of Mondavi’s competitors have been aggressively consolidating, and the results have been profitable for them. An optimal merger partner would be with a well- established firm that already has a market presence in different geographic regions, such as Constellation. The advantages of this strategy would be the opportunities that would arise from entering new markets and regions, as well as the opportunity to become more cost effective. By consolidating like operations in both firms, such as accounting, the firm can reduce costs and increase the bottom line. Another advantage of merging would be that the new consolidated company would have a viable presence in more market segment. The disadvantages of this strategy are possible public disapproval, as well as loss of independent reputation. Another disadvantage would be the initial costs involved with consolidatin g like operations, and other predictable costs of merging. To stay competitive in the industry and to gain market share in new geographic regions, it would be beneficial for Mondavi to consider the consolidation strategy †¢Global expansion Mondavi sells 90.5% of its wine domestically, but the United States is only ranked ten in wine consumption worldwide. For this reason, Mondavi should consider a global expansion strategy. The advantage of a global expansion strategy is the increased market share, and exposure to a larger customer base. Only 12% of Mondavi’s customers consume 88% of their wine. Mondavi must increase their customer base to stay competitive in the long run. The disadvantage of this strategy is the risk and costs involved when entering new markets. It is very expensive to not only place a product in a new market, but to also market the product and build brand awareness. Global expansion also takes a major time commitment and investment in human capital. These costs make it a very risky venture with no guarantee for success, because early-mover competitors, such as Southcorp and EJ Gallo, already have significant market share and resource advantages in these foreign markets. For the necessary reaso n of increasing their customer base, Mondavi should consider a global expansion strategy. †¢Sale of the firm The entire Mondavi reputation and history are built around the legacy of Robert Mondavi. When Robert Mondavi is no longer active in the business, it may create financial distress for the company. Mondavi built his winery from the perspective of a family business that produces high quality products with innovative processes and environmentally friendly methods. Over the years, Mondavi introduced new techniques to the California wine industry, and he also hosted concerts, art exhibits, and other cultural events at the winery. Mondavi has built his reputation and customer loyalty by producing award winning products and being involved with the community. If Robert Mondavi is no longer here, then his reputation and history may die with him. For these reasons, Mondavi might want to consider selling the company as an exit strategy. Recommendation and Implementation Overall, we recommend Robert Mondavi Company to merge with another well-established firm such as Constellation that holds significant market shares in both domestic and international markets. The new consolidated company would have the opportunity to enter new market segments and geographic regions. Cost effectiveness would be another huge benefit when operations and processes are consolidated. This option of merger is superior to global expansion in term of cost and time efficiency. Merger is also better than sale of the firm because it will keep the core competencies of the company rather than abandon the entire business. Once all the formalities of the merger are complete, the new company must start an integration process. The company must decide what name to keep, as well as what to do about the shareholders. If the company that Mondavi merged with is a public company, they must decide on how to convert the shares. If the company is a private one, they must make a decision on issuing more shares or buying out the current shareholders. The newly merged company must also start consolidating like operations as soon as possible to benefit from the forecasted cost savings. Finally, the new company must decided which brands will sell in which market, along with the appropriate enter and exit strategies.

Literature Review discussing British Petroleum’s environmental effects

Literature Review discussing British Petroleum’s environmental effects Societies today, more than ever, are faced with more complex and environmental problems with the proliferation of technological advancement as human populations mounts. It is paramount for large energy companies to balance the needs of stakeholders  [1]  and demonstrate their intent of environment stewardship. In BPs strategy on their corporate website, they state their goals for value creation while producing affordable energy that is secure and doesnt damage the environment  [2]  . In other words, this means progressing forward through the expansion of their energy production while bearing in mind the impact of their activities on the environment. This, in essence, illustrates BPs stance on sustainability and their environmental awareness. Policy of environmental awareness in British Petroleum Environmental awareness is defined as a broad philosophy and social movements with respect to the environmental conservation concerns and improvement in the state of the environment. It ties in with the responsible initiatives that demonstrate a corporations commitment to key environmental and safety issues. Recently, BP has came under the spotlight following the April 2010 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig which killed 11 people and caused one of the worst oil spills in history  [3]  . Given its status as one of the worlds largest energy providers, this catastrophe has brought about a lot of clout over BPs environmental and safety practices. Subsequently, this led to exhaustive investigation that revealed inadequate controls and incompliance with major aspects of offshore drilling safety. As a result, BP announced its commitment to continue working with government officials and other operators to identify and boost industry-wide safety measures  [4]  . Nevertheless, BP publicizes a sustainability report annually to demonstrate their sustainability efforts in action while aligning themselves to their environmental policy. BPs policy follows a fundamental belief that it can make a difference in the world  [5]  . It strives to be the local energy company by the production of energy with minimal impact on the environment. New initiatives have been launched to incorporate benefits to the local community and help in establishing its position as a responsibility energy provider. For example, BP has invested around $1billion  [6]  annually in low-carbon energy in the last 5 years, putting them well positioned in reaching their commitment of $8 billion  [7]  by 2015. In light of climate change, BP showed recognition to the significance of climate change. Its environmental policy embraces legislation changes and aligns the firms sustainability actions to ensure environmental stewardship. This includes stringent protocols imposed to ensure that all projects and operations are designed and conducted in accordance with legal and internal environmental standards  [8]  . For example, BPs major operating sites today are all certified under the international environment management system standard ISO 14001  [9]  , demonstrating the huge strides in minimizing their environmental impact. According to BPs sustainability review report 2009, it demonstrates BPs awareness of their responsibility as a major energy provider to manage the environmental impacts of energy production and consumption. They have led a programme of action that have since brought about reduction of 7.9 million  [10]  tones of greenhouse gas emissions from their operations. BP actively seeks out new environmental technologies and methods to reduce the environmental impact of providing energy  [11]  . For instance, it has developed technologies such as wide azimuth tower streamer (WATS)  [12]  that enables BP to discover reservoirs previously obscured and maximize recovery and efficiency of their exploration activity. Initiatives taken by BP to Sustainability Issues BP operates according to strict internal control systems that extend from board-level policies to operational process to ensure businesses conduct their business responsibly  [13]  . Over the years, they have progressed significantly in their environmental sustainability issues. Sustainability is defined as the capacity to endure. At BP, this definition is extended to include the renewal of assets, creation and delivery of better products and services that meet the ever-changing needs of society, attracting successive generation of employees, contribution to a sustainable environment and retain the trust and support of their customers, shareholders, and the communities in which they operate  [14]  . Initiatives for Climate Change With greenhouse gases rising at an ever increasing rate, governments are urged by the risk of climate change to introduce new measures to limit emissions. On this front, BP has outlined emissions assessments to enforce the most efficient environmental methods. This is executed through their proprietary framework for both developed and developing countries to commit to identify mitigating action and quantify emission targets  [15]  . In addition to that, the BP website  [16]  offers a myriad of environmental tools to provide transparency and insight into BPs environmental efforts and allow individuals to assess their own carbon footprint and lifestyle  [17]  . ISO 14001 and Environmental Sustainability BP follows the ISO 14001 environmental management standards and publishes a sustainability review to track its environmental sustainability issues. In the fiscal year of 2009, the organization has launched several initiatives in light of environmental sustainability. Notably, one of these initiatives is BPs stance and support on carbon pricing. They firmly believe that the provision of carbon price will make energy conservation a more attractive venture and encourage investments in alternative energy space to cut down the carbon usage in organizations. Moreover, BP has designed a plan of action in their environmental sustainability efforts by optimizing their own operations towards a more energy efficiency model and had led in the creation of new products to lower customers carbon footprint  [18]  . Their drive in the former has saw the inception of projects such as the reducing flaring and venting, process optimization projects and waste heat recovery. This initiative will bring about a total reduction of about 7.9 million tonnes of carbon usage. In the latter, BP has worked in collaboration with Ford to engineer advanced Castrol lubricants  [19]  that sole advantage bring improvement in fuel efficiency and reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Furthermore, BP has placed emphasis on building its low-carbon energy portfolio with substantial investments in biofuels, wind power and solar photovoltaic systems. Initiatives in the public domain Besides these programmes, BP is active in its participation of policy debate with its push to drive climate change at international and national levels. For example, they have signed the Copenhagen Communiquà © to demonstrate their support in the private sector call towards a long term ambitious, robust and equitable global deal on climate change  [20]  . These measures have paved the way in BPs efforts to measure the environmental sustainability issues. Last but not least, BP has been a generous contributor in research programmes in particularly on climate change and low-carbon options. These include several high profile research such as the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton University  [21]  , its collaboration with Chinese Academy of Science on the Clean Energy Facing the Future programme  [22]   as well as the Energy Initiatives launched at MIT and Caltech. BP Commitment to Health and safety measures BP is committed to seek out improvements in its safety performance through the implementation of procedures and processes in pursuit of their mission statement of no accidents and no harm to people  [23]  . In light of the 2010 Gulf oil spill disaster, BP has came down upon a lot of scrutiny with respect to its safety practices. As a result, the organization announced its commitment to continue working with government officials and other operators to identify and boost industry-wide safety measures  [24]  . Improvement and Initiatives made In wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, BP announced its decision for an overhauling reorganization that would give safety a higher priority. This first measure implemented saw the creation of a new safety division  [25]  that would preside over the companys operations. This division will use a systematic approach to seek improvements in safety performance through promoting safe operations and upping their efforts on process safety. BP is also shifting away from the use of contractors in light of the accident which caused 11 deaths of rig workers. Despite outsourcing certain functions to contractors, BP is still the company that is solely responsible for the accidental damages. On top of these changes, BP is currently assessing its executive bonus scheme that puts more weight to financial and operational targets. This new restructured bonus schemes would take into account more on key safety measure to align employees objectives to its safety practices. This will help improve the health and safety practice by perpetuating its safety culture to yield results. For example, BP reviews employee views on various dimension of safety with the Pulse plus survey  [26]   to achieve continued progress in integrating safety into their business. Furthermore, BP has launched an internal safety awards to foster pride in attaining BPs values. This recognition on the importance of safety across all aspects would further elevate BPs profile of safety  [27]  and help rebuild the trust in BP. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and British Petroleum Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is defined as a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis  [28]  . Today, CSR is more relevant than ever, in particularly for a large energy company such as BP that engages in the exploration and production of oil. CSR is often debated as the appropriate actions that companies should take that goes beyond its philanthropic efforts and delves further into the fundamental question of how companies produce their goods and provide their services  [29]  . At BP, CSR is recognized as the primary responsibility to maximize the value of the firm and operation of the company in accordance with the norms and values of its shareholders  [30]  . This broad notion as defined by BP reflects its concern about the operating environment, its license to operate within it, which provides the impetus for BP to undertake a broader role in societal affairs  [31]  . BPs CSR practice and Workforce Welfare BPs CSR involvement goes well beyond than just minimizing its emissions. According to the corporate website, BP is involved in their contribution to policy debate, supporting research and development for newer, cleaner technologies in power and transport  [32]  . Besides that, this also includes the consideration of building business skills of the local people through community based development programmes, supporting education and giving aid to local organization. In the instance of building business skills, BP has ran a range of programmes designed to build the skills and impart knowledge on supply chain management to geographical locations like Azerbaijian, Indonesia, Trinidad and Tobago. This programmes helps accomplish a win-win situation for both parties, providing local companies with the expertise and know-how while enabling BP to source goods and services locally. This sharing of technical expertise extends to local governments where BP draws from their expertise and glo bal reach to support local governments in the development of their economic sustainability. For example, BP funded an EU-based think tank, to consult the Azerbaijian Ministry of Economic Development on macroeconomics analysis, economic planning and policy formulation  [33]  . BP is also active on supporting education, investing in resources to build strengths in management education. A case in point is the post-graduate degree in energy law in Angola that BP played a vital role in the development and financing, while working alongside governments, state oil company and academia  [34]  . They have offered educational resources such as books, classrooms, teachers training and management training. BP have delivered immunization exercises for the Tangguh community and educated the local residents on reproductive health and personal hygiene. Their active involvement resulted in a plunge in malaria prevalence from 23% in 2000 to less than 1% in 2009  [35]  . As a result of BP CSR practices, many of these communities and villages have been provided with better facilities such as rainwater harvesting systems and villagers are able to substantial improvement in their workforce welfare. BP Building a sustainable talent pipeline BP has a clear understanding that people are fundamental to the success of business operation. Over the years, they have focused their efforts on building a sustainable talent pipeline  [36]   where they recruit graduates and trained them from the ground up to progress their career into roles that could help maximize their contribution to the business. Cross culture and Diversity Cross culture issues simply refers to the issues that involve dealing of two or more different cultures  [37]  . BPs understanding of cross culture issues can be reflected in their commitment to build a diverse organization, where people of different cultures are embraced to foster an environment that is collegial and respectful. They firmly value a multicultural workplace and embed diversity and inclusion across the organization. BP runs a global diversity council where diversity plans are established and tailored accordingly to each strategic performance unit (SPU). Here, the diversity plans sets specific targets and organizes networking events for affinity groups whereby certain sub-sets of employees can network and exchange experiences. For example, BP currently has the BP Womens International Network; the BP Pride group for homosexuals; BP Global Reach Group; BP Gray Matters and the US-based BP Asian, African-American and Latino networks  [38]  . The availability of such affinity groups demonstrates BPs understanding of cross cultural issues and practice of diversity. Within these affinity groups, members come together to discuss key issues and learn from each other. These groups would provide them with an informal setting to build their network and gather contacts. The BP Womens International Network, for example, is a global network with a sole purpose of connecting women and encourage women to stay with BP to fulfill their career goals  [39]  . This openness of BP with its core focus on diversity and inclusion is certainty a strategy that will enable its success in the 21st century global marketplace  [40]  . It leverages diversity exemplified by gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, sexual orientation and identity, religion, and tribe, among other things-while preparing itself for the future by continuing to diversify its employee base  [41]  . Ultimately, BPs diversity practice will inevitably help spur innovation, creativity and a deepened awareness of diversity and inclusion concepts  [42]  . Comparative analysis with key competitors In this task, I will seek to do a comparison of BPs equal opportunity and diversity practice with its key competitors such as Shell and Conoco Phillips. BP At BP, the equal opportunity and diversity practice consists of three basic tenets which are (i) fair treatment and equal employment opportunity; (ii) respectful, harassment-free workplace; and (iii) privacy and employee confidentiality  [43]  . These tenets strive to draw from BPs diversity as strength to create an environment that fosters mutual trust whereby diversity and inclusion are valued. BP follows a policy that fair treatment, courtesy and respect are entitlement given to every employee and would show no tolerance for offensive and belligerent behavior. The last tenet is a rule that protects the confidentially of their employees personal information. Royal Dutch Shell Similarly, Shells motto is to embed diversity and inclusion (DI). They firmly believe that this would help create a stronger future for Shell and help achieve their aspirations. Shell defines the management of DI to involve addressing the factors of difference and fully capitalizing on the potential contribution of all employees to continue to build their leadership in place. At Shell, DI is seen as a competitive advantage that will enable Shell to cultivate a competitive culture  [44]  . On the equal opportunity front, Shell also emphasizes their position as an equal opportunity employer that strives to recruit based on technical and competencies. ConocoPhillips At ConocoPhillips, a similar stance on diversity is taken where the company strives to represent and reflect the global communities in which we live and work  [45]  . They stand by the creation of an inclusive environment that respects contributions and differences of every individual  [46]  . Here, the same catchphrase of Diversity and Inclusion encompasses the creation of a multicultural work environment, together with an inclusive culture to ensure individuals contributions and differences are respected and valued  [47]  . In terms of equal opportunity aspect, ConocoPhilips wholly supports the principle of equally opportunity in employments and welcomes applications from all suitably qualified individuals  [48]  . Conclusion To conclude, this report examines the many responsibilities that falls on a large organization like British Petroleum (BP). Given its status as one of the worlds largest energy providers, BP has demonstrated their sustainability efforts in action while aligning themselves to their environmental policy. Over the years, they have launched several initiatives to tackle their sustainability issues and progressed significantly in their environmental awareness. This includes initiatives for climate change, imposition of ISO 14001 environmental management standards and initiatives in the public domain. In the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, a comprehensive overview of their safety practices and social responsibilities initiatives are examine. This details the contribution and improvements made in the improvement of workforce welfare in geographical locations such as Azerbaijian, Indonesia, Trinidad and Tobago. Finally, this segues to a discussion on the cross-culture issues at BP and its practice of diversity. The last bit of the report is a comparative analysis of the equal opportunity and diversity practices in BP and across its key competitors.

The Benefits of Medical Marijuana Essays -- Argumentative Essays

According to a report put out by the British Police Foundation in March 2000, cannabis has been shown to produce less harmful effects than its other legal counterparts such as alcohol and tobacco. This kind of information calls into sharper focus the question on the minds of many as to why such a plant that is not only less harmful than legal drugs but has significant health benefits has remained illegal. People all over the world, continue to be tendered prescription medication, which in many cases further complicate health issues with its myriad of side effects. In fact, statistics have shown that approximately 100,000 people around the world die as a result of prescription drugs annually (Smith, 2012). On the contrary, according to Smith (2012) there has, in 10,000 years only 1 death that has been blamed on cannabis use. It is no wonder why cannabis or marijuana continues to play such an integral role in the medical field, despite it being marginalized and frowned upon by many societies. Clark (2000) describes marijuana as an alternative medicine that is moving away from the conventional prescribed medications and is seen as a treatment for pain, nausea and vomiting incurred from chemotherapy and rapid weight loss associated with HIV/AIDS, which he says adds to the accolades levied at the feet of medical marijuana as it not only serves as treatment for several illnesses but it also helps with the many side effects associated with various ailments. Though, scientific evidence is limited in supporting the value of medical marijuana, several clinical studies have been carried out which supports its effectiveness in treating numerous conditions and aiding in quelling the side effects associated with several others. Throu... ...www.jabfm.org/content/24/4/452.lon McPartland, JM, and PL Pruitt. "Medical marijuana and its use by the immunocompromised." Diss. 1997. Abstract. Altern Ther Health Med. (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. . ‘Medical’ Marijuana: 10 Health Benefits That Legitimize Legalization. (n.d.).International Business Times. Retrieved November 12, 2013, from http://www.ibtimes.com/%E2%80%98medical%E2%80%99-marijuana-10-health-benefits-legitimize-legalization-742456 Seamon, M., Fass, J., Maniscalco-Feichtl, M., & Abu-Shraie, N. (2007). Medical marijuana and the developing role of the pharmacist . Am J Health-Syst Pharm, 64. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://axon.psyc.memphis.edu/~charlesblaha/770 The Daily Smoker. (n.d.). Cannabis Quotes. Retrieved November 12, 2013, from http://www.dailysmoker.com/various/cannabis-quotes

Processes involved in the human kidney Essay

-Blood enters each kidney via renal artery and leaves each kidney via renal vein -Urine exists the kidney through a duct called the ureter and the uruters of both kidneys drain into a common urinary bladder -Kidney consists of outer renal cortex and inner renal medulla -Nephron is functional unit of vertebrate kidney -Consists of single long tubule and ball of capillaries called the glomerulus -Bowman’s capsule surrounds the glomerulus -Kidney regulates the composition of the blood and produce urine -Filtration occurs as blood pressure forces water, urea, salts, and other small solutes from the blood in the glomerulus into the Bowman’s capsule -Nonselective -Filtrate goes into proximal tube, loop of Henle (a hairpin turn with a descending limb and ascending limb) and the distal tubule -Kidney consists of cortical nephrons and juxtamedullary nephrons (only in mammals and birds) -Most of filtrate is reabsorbed back into blood; the kidneys take out about 1% -Proximal and distal tubules are the most common sites of secretion -Very selective process with both passive and active transport of solutes -Proximal, distal tubules, and loop of Henle contribute to Reabsorption -Collecting duct also helps in Reabsorption -Mammalian’s kidney’s ability to conserve water is considered an important adaptation -Antidieretic hormone is important in osmoregulation -Made in hypothalamus and released when osmolarity in blood rises above certain point -ADH acts on the distal tubules and collecting ducts by increasing their permeability to water -Causes more water Reabsorption -Is turned off through negative feedback -Juxtaglomerulur apparatus located in the vicinity of the afferent arteriole, which supplies blood to the glomerulus -When blood pressure or blood volume in the afferent arteriole drops, the enzyme rennin causes chemical reactions that create a peptide called angiotensin II -Angiotensin II increases blood pressure and blood volume by constricting arterioles and decreasing blood flow to many capillaries like the kidney -Causes more salt and water reabsorption to increase blood volume -Causes release of aldosterone, which also acts on nephron’s distal tubules and helps, reabsorb more sodium and water -Negative feedback turns rennin production off -Called the rennin-angiotensin-aldosterone system -Atrial natriuretic factor opposes RAAS -Released by the heart in response to an increase in blood volume and pressure -Inhibits the release of rennin -Inhibits NaCl reabsorption and reduces aldosterone release from adren

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Frenand Braudel’s â€Å"Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism† offers very sharp insight on the birth and the growth of capitalism in the history of material civilization. His theory has been used as a theoretical tool explaining the globalization of modern capitalism. Yet, the value of his book is more than its utility in globalization studies. In this book, he criticizes the European point of view on the history of material civilization and extends his scope to non-European economy.Especially, he portrays economic history as a spontaneous, slowing evolution with long term equilibriums and disequilibriums, ignoring the history of economics as the successive transitions of big events such as the stages of slavery, feudalism, and capitalism. He thinks that the preindustrial economy is also characterized by the coexistence of inflexibility, inertia and slow motion. www. rpi. edu/~kime2/ehtm/myissues/braudel. htm Braudel notes that the exchanges from Europe across Siberia to China â€Å"formed a system of interdependence.† Moreover, â€Å"at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Russia's principal foreign market was Turkey† which Braudel also classifies as a separate â€Å"world-economy† â€Å"reminiscent of Russia. † Braudel terms the Turkish economy â€Å"a fortress,† but also a â€Å"source of wealth† and a â€Å"crossroads of trade, providing the Turkish Empire with the lifeblood that made it mighty. † The Turkish economy was not any more isolated from the rest of the world than the Russian economy: A long French report on the Levant trade confirms this impression: â€Å"[French] ships carry more goods to Constantinople than to all other ports in the Levant.The surplus funds are transferred to other ports by means of bills of exchange which the French merchants of Smyrna, Aleppo and [Port] Said provide for the Pashas. † Braudel then asserts that European trade in the Turkis h empire was minimal and â€Å"merely passed quickly through [because] money, the sinews of western trade, usually only made fleeting appearances in the Turkish Empire†: as part went to the sultan's treasury, part oiled the wheels of top-level trade, and â€Å"the rest drained away in massive quantities to the Indian Ocean.† In that case, Braudel should have asked what intermediary role the Turkish economy played between Europe and India. Then too, Braudel notes that caravan routes ran from Gibraltar to India and China â€Å"the whole movement-in-space which made up the Ottoman economy,† which â€Å"owed its suppleness and vigour to the tireless convoys which converged from every direction. † Far from having a self-contained â€Å"fortress† economy, then, the Ottoman empire drew its lifeblood from being a crossroads between other economies, none of which were independent of each other.Of course, the Turks tried to maintain their power, derive maxim um benefits from their intermediary position, and bar others from sharing in it as best they could. Turkish merchants, not content with their intermediary role at home, also â€Å"invaded Venice, Ferrara, Ancona, even Pesaro, Naples and the fairs of the Mezzogiorno† in Italy and â€Å"were soon found all over Europe, in Leipzig fairs, using the credit facilities provided by Amsterdam, and even in Russia or indeed Siberia as we have already seen. † The Turkish empire hardly sounds like a dosed economyBraudel calls Asia the â€Å"greatest of all world-economies,† which â€Å"taken as a whole, consisted of three gigantic world-economies,† Islam, India, and China. He even allows that â€Å"between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, it is perhaps permissible to talk of a single world-economy embracing all three. † Toward the end of this period he observes that the center of this single economy became stabilized in the East Indies (beyond the bounda ries of these three economies) in a network of maritime traffic comparable to that of the Mediterranean or the Atlantic coasts of Europe.Of India he writes that for centuries it had been â€Å"subject to a money economy, partly through her links with the Mediterranean world. † Gold and silver were â€Å"the indispensable mechanisms which made the whole great machine function, from its peasant base to the summit of society and the business world. † Braudel suggests that the foundation of Europe's trade with India was the low wages of the â€Å"foreign proletariat† there, which produced the cheap exports exchanged for the inflow of precious metals to India.As â€Å"a historian of the Mediterranean,† Braudel declares himself â€Å"astonished,† to find that Red Sea trade in the late eighteenth century was still the same â€Å"vital channel† in the outflow of Spanish-American silver to India and beyond as in the sixteenth century. He might have n oted how American silver reached this economy not only via the Red Sea and the Levant, but also around the South African cape, and with the Manila galleons. Braudel did observe that the â€Å"influx of precious metal was vital to the movements of the most active sector of the Indian, and no doubt Chinese economy.† According to one historian, the â€Å"series of interconnected regional markets dispersed and overlapping around the globe† were really a â€Å"world market for silver. † Perhaps as much Spanish-American silver crossed the Pacific to Asia, where it competed with Japanese silver, as crossed the Atlantic. Like exchanges elsewhere, trade in the Far East was based on goods, precious metals and credit instruments. European merchants could apply to the moneylenders in Japan or in India . . . and to every local source of precious metals afforded them by the Far East trade.Thus they used Chinese gold . . . silver from Japanese mines . . . Japanese gold coins . . . Japanese copper exports . . . gold produced in Sumatra and Malacca . . . [and] the gold and silver coins which the Levant trade continued to pour into Arabia (especially Mocha), Persia and north-west India. . . . [The Dutch East India Company] even made use of the silver which the Acapulco galleon regularly brought to Manila. (Dennis O. Flynn, 1991). Temporary shortages of silver had an impact on Asia that may have helped bring down China's Ming dynasty.Prior to 1630, the inflow of silver from Spanish America and Japan promoted the monetization of the Chinese economy. The abrupt decline in silver production during the world recession after 1630 caused economic turmoil and bankrupted the Ming government, making it an easier prey to the Manchus in 1644. One scholar argues that it was no coincidence that the British monarchy was overthrown in 1640, and the Turkish government nearly fell at about the same time. (Jack A. Goldstone, 1991) Moreover, Braudel also finds a de facto globa l if not a world economy beyond the monetary sphere.â€Å"Long-term control of the European world-economy evidently called for the capture of its long-distance trade, and therefore of American and Asian products. † Braudel wrote: Who could fail to be surprised that wheat grown at the Cape, in South Africa, was shipped to Amsterdam? . . . Or that sugar from China, Bengal, sometimes Siam, and, after 1637, Java, was alternately in demand or out of it in Amsterdam, depending on whether the price could compete in Europe with that of sugar from Brazil or the West Indies? When the market in the mother country was closed, sugar from the warehouses in Batavia was offered for sale in Persia, Surat, or Japan.Nothing better demonstrates how Holland in the Golden Age was already living on a world scale, engaged in a process of constant partition and exploitation of the globe. . . . One world-economy (Asia) . . . [and] another (Europe) . . . were constantly acting on one another, like two unequally laden trays on a scale: it only took an extra weight on one side to throw the whole construction out of balance. Few historians have tried to determine whether and how cycles coincided across the supposed boundaries of these economies, yet such evidence could reveal much about whether they formed a single world economy.Braudel himself offers only a few indications of simultaneity across the boundaries of his world-economies. He devotes a special section to conjunctures, considers fifty-year cycles, as well as others that are twice as long and more; of these he writes â€Å"four successive secular cycles can be identified, as far as Europe is concerned. † On the one hand Braudel claims that â€Å"the world-economy is the greatest possible vibrating surface. . . . It is the world-economy at all events which creates the uniformity of prices over a huge area, as an arterial system distributes blood throughout a living organism.† Yet, on the other hand, Braudel ob serves that â€Å"the influence of the world-economy centered in Europe must very soon have exceeded even the most ambitious frontiers ever attributed to it. . . . The really curious thing is that the rhythms of the European conjuncture transcend the strict boundaries of their own world-economy. † Furthermore, â€Å"Prices in Muscovy, in so far as they are known, lined up with those of the West in the sixteenth century, probably by the intermediary of American bullion, which here as elsewhere acted as a ‘transmission belt'.† Similarly, Ottoman prices followed the European pattern for the same reasons. Braudel then demonstrated how such exchange transcended the economic boundaries he describes since the system extends throughout the global economy. Indeed, he observes â€Å"knock-on effects† as far away as Macao, even beyond the Manila galleon route. He also remarks that â€Å"historians (Wallerstein included) have tended to underestimate this type of exch ange. † Yet, Braudel underestimates this exchange as well.After reproducing a graph of the yearly fluctuations of Russia's exports and its wade balance between 1742 and 1785, he only observes â€Å"two short lived drops in the [trade balance] surplus, in 1772 and 1782, probably as a result of arms purchases. † The graph also shows a third big drop in 1762-63. All three coincide with a sharp drop on the graph of Russian exports, whatever may have happened to imports of arms or anything else. These three short periods occurred in Russia in the same years as three world economic recessions, which Braudel discusses at some length in another chapter without making the connection.In still another chapter, Braudel reproduces a graph of Britain's trade balance with its North American colonies between 1745 and 1776 that shows sharp declines in British imports, and lesser declines of exports in the same years, 1761-63 and 1772-73. But again Braudel does not look for connections b etween these recessions. This omission is curious since about the first of these recessions he writes that â€Å"with the currency shortage, the crisis spread, leaving a trail of bankruptcies; it reached not only Amsterdam but Berlin, Hamburg, Altona, Bremen, Leipzig, Stockholm and hit hard in London.† Regarding the next recession Braudel observes catastrophic harvests in all of Europe in 1771-72 and famine conditions in Norway and Germany. According to Braudel â€Å"capitalism did not wait for the sixteenth century to make its appearance. We may therefore agree with Marx, who wrote (though he later went back on this) that European capitalism – indeed he even says capitalist production – began in thirteenth-century Italy. . . . I do not share Immanuel Wallerstein's fascination with the sixteenth century† as the time the world capitalist system emerged in Europe.Braudel is â€Å"inclined to see the European world-economy as having taken shape very early o n. † Indeed he observes â€Å"European expansion from the eleventh century† when it was â€Å"suddenly covered with towns – more than 3,000 in Germany alone. † â€Å"This age marked Europe's true Renaissance. † Furthermore, â€Å"the merchant cities of the Middle Ages all strained to make profits and were shaped by the strain. † Braudel concludes that â€Å"contemporary capitalism has invented nothing. . . . By at least the twelfth century . . . everything seems to have been there in embryo . . .bills of exchange, credit, minted coins, banks, forward selling, public finance, loans, capitalism, colonialism – as well as social disturbances, a sophisticated labour force, class struggles, social oppression, political atrocities. † Braudel also doubts that capitalism was invented in twelfth- or thirteenth-century Venice. â€Å"Genoa seems always to have been, in every age, the capitalist dry par excellence. † Several other Ita lian cities also had capitalist activities earlier than Venice. In all of them, â€Å"money was constantly being invested and reinvested,† and â€Å"ships were capitalist enterprises virtually from the start.† He further notes that â€Å"It is tempting too to give Antwerp the credit for the first steps in industrial capitalism, which was dearly developing here and in other thriving towns of the Low Countries† in the sixteenth century. Moreover, the term â€Å"capitalism† also seems to apply at the most macro-economic level, for â€Å"if today's cycles do in fact have some resemblance to those of the past . . . there is certain continuity between ancient regime and modern economies: rules similar to those governing our present experience may have operated in the past. â€Å"Braudel, however, also cast doubt on the idea that capitalism was invented in Western Europe and then exported to Asia: Everywhere from Egypt to Japan, we shall find genuine capitalis ts, wholesalers, rentiers of trade, and their thousands of auxiliaries, commission agents, brokers, money-changers, and bankers. As for the techniques, possibilities or guarantees of exchange, any of these groups of merchants would stand comparisons with its western equivalents. Braudel avers that â€Å"the rest of the world . . . went through economic experiences resembling those of Europe.† On the other hand, referring to North and West Africa before the Europeans arrived, he writes that â€Å"once more we can observe the profound identity of action between Islam's imperialism and that of the West. † Braudel wants to â€Å"challenge the traditional image† that describes Asiatic traders as â€Å"high-class peddlars. † Moreover, after Braudel writes of Asians taking turns in a monotonous repetition for a thousand years of shifts in economic dominance, he concludes that: â€Å"For all the changes, however, history followed essentially the same course. â⠂¬  If we asked what changes in or after 1500 as per Wallerstein, the answer would be not much.Braudel quotes a contemporary French sea captain writing from the Ganges River in India: â€Å"The high quality of merchandise made here . . . attracts and always will attract a great number of traders who send vessels to every part of the Indies from the Red Sea to China. Here one can see the assembly of nations of Europe and Asia . . . reach perfect agreement or perfect disunity, depending on the self-interest which alone is their guide. † No Europeans, including their Portuguese vanguard, added anything of their own, only the money they derived from the conquest of America.A standard work on Asian trade notes that â€Å"the Portuguese colonial regime, then, did not introduce a single new element into the commerce of southern Asia. . . . The Portuguese colonial regime, built upon war, coercion, and violence, did not at any point signify a stage of ‘higher development' econ omically for Asian trade. The traditional commercial structure continued to exist. † Even Wallerstein recognizes â€Å"an uncomfortable blurring of the distinctiveness of the patterns of the European medieval and modern world†: Many of these [previous] historical systems had what we might call proto-capitalist elements.That is, there often was extensive commodity production. There existed producers and traders who sought profit. There was investment of capital. There was wage-labor. There was Weltanschauungen consonant with capitalism. . . . â€Å"Proto-capitalism† was so widespread one might consider it to be a constitutive element of all the redistributive/tributary world-empires the world has known. . . . For they did have the money and energy at their disposition, and we have seen in the modern world how powerful these weapons can be.Wallerstein's proto-capitalism also negates the uniqueness of his â€Å"modern-world-capitalist-system. † He even acknow ledges â€Å"All the empirical work of the past 50 years on these other systems has tended to reveal that they had much more extensive commodification than previously suspected. † (Wallerstein, 586-87, 613, 575) Thus, Europe's incursion into Asia after 1500 succeeded only after about three centuries, when Ottoman, Moghul, and Qing rule was weakened for other reasons. In the global economy, these and other economies competed with each other until Europe won.Historians should concede that there was no dramatic, or even gradual, change to a capitalist economy, and certainly none beginning in Europe in the sixteenth century. In conclusion it is useful to cite an Indian historian who writes that â€Å"the ceaseless quest of modern historians looking for the ‘origins' and roots of capitalism is not much better than the alchemist's search for the philosopher's stone that transforms base metal into gold. † It is better for historians to abandon the chimera of a uniquely capitalist mode of production emerging in western Europe.It is far more accurate and important to recognize that the fall of the East preceded the rise of the West, and even that is only true if we date the rise of the West after 1800. The West and the East were only parts of a single, age-old, world economic system, within which all of these changes took place, then and now. The historian Leopold von Ranke is known for having pleaded for writing history â€Å"as it really was,† but he also wrote that there is no history but world history. (Andre Gunder Frank, 1994) Reference: Gunder Frank, 1994. The World Economic System in Asia before European Hegemony; The Historian, Vol.56 Dennis O. Flynn, 1991. â€Å"Comparing the Tokugawa Shogunate with Hapsburg Spain: Two Silver-based Empires in a Global Setting,† in The Political Economy of Merchant Empires: State Power and World Trade, 1350-1750, ed. James D. Tracy (Cambridge), 332-359. Jack A. Goldstone, 1991. Revolutions and Rebellions in the Early Modern World (Berkeley); William S. Atwell, â€Å"Some Observations on the ‘Seventeenth Century Crisis' in China and Japan,† Journal of Asian Studies 45, no. 2 Wallerstein, â€Å"The West, Capitalism, and the Modern World-System,† 586-87, 613, 575.

Mechanism of Vitamin D Action The WritePass Journal

Mechanism of Vitamin D Action Introduction Mechanism of Vitamin D Action ) also retaliates that once peak bone mass is reached, adults lacking vitamin D in their system will annually loose approximately 0.5% of their skeletal mass if they lack sufficient vitamin D and calcium in their systems (p.18). In addition, vitamin D deficiency can also lead to osteomalacia (DeLuca Schnoes, 1976); a mineralization defect of the collagen matrix. This condition is often accompanied by throbbing bone pain and aching (DeLuca Schnoes, 1976). Holick (2010) points out another research at the University of Pittsburgh that also established a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and increased susceptibility to bone fractures. The study measured the vitamin D levels of 400 participants with hip fractures and compared the results with the vitamin D levels of 400 other healthy women. The outcome demonstrated that individuals with the lowest levels of Vitamin D were 71 percent susceptible to bone fractures compared to those with the highest levels of vitamin D. Consequently, the role played by vitamin D in sustaining bone health can never be overemphasized. Not only does it aid in mineral absorption and bone development in intrauterine growth and childhood, but is also responsible for strong bones in adults as well. References DeLuca, H, F., and Schnoes K.K., (1976). Metabolism and Mechanism of Action of Vitamin D. Annual Review of Biochemistry. Vol. 45: 631- 637 Holick, M.F., (2010). Vitamin D: Physiology, Molecular Biology, and Clinical Applications. New York: Springer Science Business Media Watson, R.S., (2013). Handbook of Vitamin D in Human Health: Prevention, Treatment and Toxicity, Chicago: Wageningen Academic Pub.

Week 3 Journal Reponse Professor Ramos Blog

Week 3 Journal Reponse Find an article that relates in some way to the things we have been talking about in class. Summarize the article, then respond to it in some way. Explain the argument you believe they are making? Why did you pick it? How does it connect to our class? One paragraph summary of source. One paragraph response to source. Include a link to the text. Should be about 250 words in length. Comment below with your response. Some of the things we have discussed in class this week: Critical Reading Bias MLA and citation The Danger of a Single Story Visuals Rhetoric Revision

Class work Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Class work - Research Paper Example organizations many rewards in several different levels, and well managed, the organizations can counterbalance the possible problematic aspects that exist, providing these organizations with an adjusted structure that can change the business into a prosperous enterprise operating in a worldwide stage (Mennis & Sauvant, 2006). Transnational organizations are flexible in many areas, such as business working hours, language of service, and market penetration among others. Given that the globe operate in different time zones, companies that function in other parts of the world service 24hours by tactically functioning in specific time zones thus increasing customer service levels. Personnel employed in the host country, know the language, and become part of the host culture. Consequently, the organization therefore gets an opportunity of extending its current market by selling its products and services in that host country (Moore, 2005). Diversity in the labor force equips the organizations with the experience and tools necessary to sell products internationally. This diversity not only brings in an enlargement in customer scope by growing the number of languages the company can service, but also equips it with experience in how to handle cultural variations among its client. Possessing this insight of managing diversity in language, provides firms with a competitive gain over industries that have only competed in home markets that cultural diversity may be absence. Finally, advancement in information technology in an organization gives it an upper hand to penetrate into international markets. Existence of global transnational corporations leads to a number of problems and shortcomings. Big corporations tend to pull wealth from establishing communities and localize it in localities where the corporation is centered. This can make the less central communities poor, mostly in unindustrialized nations. In contrast to small, local businesses, that recirculate both

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CT scan protoclos at RMC HOSPITAL - Essay Example Single-slice helical CT scanners were introduced in the 1980's and multislice CT scanners in the 1990's, which allows a larger section of the body to be scanned in a smaller period of time (Wesolowski, 2005). From the practical perspective, the benefits of CTs are immense. However, CT scans involve higher doses of radiation than the conventional x-ray procedure (Smith-Bindman et al, 2009). CT contributes a large dose towards medical radiation, and is the main source of man- made radiation excluding natural background radiation (Wiest, 2002). There is concern about the exposure of radiation in children and adult population and the subsequent long-term cancer risks. CT procedures cause high doses of radiation to be absorbed through the skin, in the range of 20-30 mGY (2-3 rads) (Wiest, 2002). There is greater concern for the pediatric population because they are more sensitive to radiation exposure than the adult population (Brenner, 2007). Children are more prone to exposure because they have a larger proportion of dividing cells and the tissues of children are up to 10 times more radiosensitive than adults (Brenner, 2007). Chwals et al., found that CT examinations of the head, abdomen an d pelvis routinely performed in pediatric trauma patients exposed them to 50 times the standard yearly dose of background ionizing radiation (Chwals, 2008). Radiation exposure in the adult population is low but still a concern. Broder suggests that in adults, it reaches its threshold in the 40's and then slowly decreases (Broder, 2006). Due to the repetitive radiation exposure and adverse effects associated with it, the operators of CT are expected to possess a concrete knowledge and practical understanding how to reduce the radiation dose patients receive to acceptable minimum (Manghat et al, 2005). Similar concerns regarding radiation exposure and cancer risks have propelled the medical community to implement protocols to lower the radiation dose in children, by adjusting the machine settings without compromising important information (Brenner, 2007). Other measures include reducing repeat CTs and decreasing unnecessary CTs by ensuring that any additional CTs ordered by a physician will only benefit the patient (Brenner, 2007). According to Manghat et al (2005), CT operators can utilize the variety of strategies to reduce radiation exposure such as the use of bismuth shields to protect organs sensitive to radiation, adjusting the machine settings using automatic exposure control (AEC), the tube voltage (kVp) reduc tion, decreasing the pitch and the tube current-time product (mAs). Practically, educating doctors regarding the risks associated with radiation is an important factor to allow physicians to make informed decisions when considering radiological tests (Thomas, 2006). Lee and colleagues highlighted this in a study that found 75% of Emergency Department (ED) physicians and radiologists underestimated the risks associated with radiation from CT examinations (Thomas, 2006). Recognition of the potential cancer risks by the medical community has pressed CT manufactures to implement programs to allow adjustment of the dose with respect to the child's body mass (Chwals, 2008). As of 2003, the majority of hospitals in developed countries reported implementing some programs to reduce radiation exposure in children, though still many hospitals have yet to implement these changes

Paragraph Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Paragraph - Essay Example The partnership is beneficial for Recycline in two basic ways; it gets easy access to raw material and a brand assistance to enter new markets. 2. Hudson has already played a good role in creating certain competitive advantages for his firm. However, as the new trends and changing business environments demand, he can initiate more interactive advertisements. Hudson can also deploy some celebrities for promoting his brand because celebrities are of great market value these days. Other marketing tactics he can initiate involves announcing price reduction, special offers, gifts etc. 3. As the company grows Hudson should heed more attention to marketing strategies. Greater emphasis must be given to making more innovative designs. In the same way, company has to shift its focus from domestic market to international markets too. As part of the business expansion, like any other international firm, personal style of business management must be substituted by more collaborated and integrated way of management. Since current trends give priority to consumer based marketing, Recycline can also rely on market segmentation strategies. In addition, company can launch regional outlets in order to become more interactive and consumer friendly.

Artifact Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Artifact - Essay Example The object has an approximate height of 5 inches; the widest portion of its body has a width of 4 inches, and the three legs have equal height of 3.5 inches. The object’s width is much bigger than its height and one can inscribe it within a form of a rectangle. The primary raw material used to produce the object is wood. The top part is in a circular shape and is firm since it is of a thick wood material. The thickness of this top part is of approximately 2 inches. The surface area of the top part is big enough to allow for anybody sit comfortably on the chair. The legs are firm enough and forms a u-shape to enable them support the weight of the top part firmly and therefore if anyone sits on the stool no matter how heavy he or she is chances of the stool breaking are limited. The wood materials used to construct the object are curved smooth. The object’s top part has two-fit horizontal lines at the part where the top rests and joins the three legs and the other line is at the surface where an individual sits. When one views this object from a side the stool seems to present some V-shapes formed by each two legs. The objects legs are separate from one another at an equal interval and points downwards supporting the top surface. The legs are thick enough to ensure maximum support of the weight of the top part, which seems to be heavy. When one looks at the object from its top, the stool’s top surface seems to present a disc-shape. This means that much of the weight exerted on the stool is supported by the core and the central part of the stool and that why the legs are joined at the outermost part of the top surface for the purpose of maintain balance when an individual sits on the object. This object however consists of four distinctive parts, which include the top body and the three legs. While the legs of the object are in the form of a long rod, its upper portion is in a disc-shape. The top of the object is in

Legal and Ethical Issues in the Workplace Essay

Legal and Ethical Issues in the Workplace - Essay Example Such an environment guarantees success of the goal. Leaders of an organization are expected to lead higher standards of morality in a workplace. It has been observed that companies that observe ethical decisions show more productivity by employee and turnover ratio is very low. It has also been observed that companies who observe ethical decisions just because they have to be complied to are usually hostile environments and human resources seldom wish to retain in such companies (â€Å"Ethics in the Workplace Training Helps Employees Understand their Personal Obligations  » Workplace Answers†, n.d.). In order to protect the moral standards of a work place and to ensure that people are happy to work together, laws are put in place. These laws comprise of explaining a code of conduct and some ethical policies. Consequences of violation of these laws are also elaborated in these laws. This check and balance ensures that people know their rights and decide to work in a way that will not put them into serious legal complications. The consumers benefit from an ethical environment as well. They become loyal customers of the brand when they realize that the company keeps its integrity intact by displaying a good sense of responsibility (â€Å"Ethics in the Workplace Training Helps Employees Understand their Personal Obligations  » Workplace Answers†, n.d.). Alcohol and drug usage is a concern at work places as its usage is synonymous to an irresponsible attitude. A serious attitude is required at workplace. It has been observed that people who use drugs or alcohol tend to take more leaves from office and hence are not regular employees. Another study reveals that the productivity declines with the usage of alcohol or drugs. It is estimated that people who use it are ten to sixty percent less likely to perform well as compared to people who do not indulge in it. It is also known that drug abuse and excessive alcohol usage calls for frequent accidents ( Raskin, 1993, p. 45-81). This may result in legal complications. Employees feel being accused if they are asked to get themselves checked at workplace. They find it a breach in their privacy and do not accept the test as socially important. They also feel being controlled. There is a need to make them understand that this measure is taken as a safety precaution majorly. They should be discouraged from discriminating people. They should be trained to encourage the impacted colleagues to stop its usage when coming to work and to lead a healthy life by controlling the abuse. Employees are usually monitored at work places by using cameras or even key loggers on their systems. Employers feel that they are gaining knowledge about their business this way. They think it will help them maintain this knowledge. It is suggested in research that the monitoring should be transparent and people should be made accountable to maintain knowledge effectively and not be secretly monitoring it. It has been estimated that a company that has 500 employees that spend time on internet for half an hour a day, the loss the company bears is approximately one million dollars (Yerby, 2013, p. 45-48). On the other hand labor unions claim that electronic monitoring induces stress in the work place and makes the organization use it in negative ways against the employers too. They use emails for communication

Jurisprudence Assignment Question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Jurisprudence Assignment Question - Essay Example Antigone decided to defy the proclamation that her brother not be buried properly, and gave him a burial against the state's wishes. After this she was imprisoned and hanged herself in her prison (Sophocles). Natural Law According to Stoner (1992),1 the story of Antigone is one in which the individual is entitled to break the law. He cites Thomas Hobbes as distinguishing between right and law (ius and lex) – right being the basis for liberty and law being the basis for obligation. ... be seen as unjust if it does not accord with God’s laws.   6 Hobbes, according to Stoner (1992) also states that there are limits to the law, or, rather, that there are limits as to what an individual is expected to obey. Hobbes believes, essentially, that man has liberty to decide for himself what is right for himself as an individual – â€Å"the Liberty each man hath, to use his own power, as he will himselfe, for the perservation of his own Nature; that is to say own Life; and consequently, or doing anything, which in his own Judgement, and Reason, hee shall conceive to be the aptest means thereunto.†7 Finnis (2001) would concur in this analysis, stating that governmental laws are limited, in that they must recognize certain universal, God-given rights – such as the right not be murdered, raped, enslaved or lie-to. 8 Further, Stoner (1992) states that Hobbes’ philosophical underpinnings of the law is moral, as opposed to civil or political, as it is directed at the individual, and what is right for every individual, as opposed to the collective. The preservation of the individual is at the heart of the Hobbes’ philosophy. Hobbes’ philosophy, according to Stoner, does not even take the mores and customs of a community into account, because custom is not necessarily anchored to morality or liberty.9   In one thinks about this, it makes sense   - just as slavery was a custom, it clearly was in contravention to natural law or liberty, therefore, the custom of slavery is one that is built upon uncertain ground, like sand.   That said, according to Cornish & Clark (1989), Hobbes recognized that man’s nature was prone to violent destruction, so society must keep a check on the individualistic natures.10   Because natural law is inevitably based upon some

Artifact Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Artifact - Essay Example The object has an approximate height of 5 inches; the widest portion of its body has a width of 4 inches, and the three legs have equal height of 3.5 inches. The object’s width is much bigger than its height and one can inscribe it within a form of a rectangle. The primary raw material used to produce the object is wood. The top part is in a circular shape and is firm since it is of a thick wood material. The thickness of this top part is of approximately 2 inches. The surface area of the top part is big enough to allow for anybody sit comfortably on the chair. The legs are firm enough and forms a u-shape to enable them support the weight of the top part firmly and therefore if anyone sits on the stool no matter how heavy he or she is chances of the stool breaking are limited. The wood materials used to construct the object are curved smooth. The object’s top part has two-fit horizontal lines at the part where the top rests and joins the three legs and the other line is at the surface where an individual sits. When one views this object from a side the stool seems to present some V-shapes formed by each two legs. The objects legs are separate from one another at an equal interval and points downwards supporting the top surface. The legs are thick enough to ensure maximum support of the weight of the top part, which seems to be heavy. When one looks at the object from its top, the stool’s top surface seems to present a disc-shape. This means that much of the weight exerted on the stool is supported by the core and the central part of the stool and that why the legs are joined at the outermost part of the top surface for the purpose of maintain balance when an individual sits on the object. This object however consists of four distinctive parts, which include the top body and the three legs. While the legs of the object are in the form of a long rod, its upper portion is in a disc-shape. The top of the object is in

Jurisprudence Assignment Question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Jurisprudence Assignment Question - Essay Example Antigone decided to defy the proclamation that her brother not be buried properly, and gave him a burial against the state's wishes. After this she was imprisoned and hanged herself in her prison (Sophocles). Natural Law According to Stoner (1992),1 the story of Antigone is one in which the individual is entitled to break the law. He cites Thomas Hobbes as distinguishing between right and law (ius and lex) – right being the basis for liberty and law being the basis for obligation. ... be seen as unjust if it does not accord with God’s laws.   6 Hobbes, according to Stoner (1992) also states that there are limits to the law, or, rather, that there are limits as to what an individual is expected to obey. Hobbes believes, essentially, that man has liberty to decide for himself what is right for himself as an individual – â€Å"the Liberty each man hath, to use his own power, as he will himselfe, for the perservation of his own Nature; that is to say own Life; and consequently, or doing anything, which in his own Judgement, and Reason, hee shall conceive to be the aptest means thereunto.†7 Finnis (2001) would concur in this analysis, stating that governmental laws are limited, in that they must recognize certain universal, God-given rights – such as the right not be murdered, raped, enslaved or lie-to. 8 Further, Stoner (1992) states that Hobbes’ philosophical underpinnings of the law is moral, as opposed to civil or political, as it is directed at the individual, and what is right for every individual, as opposed to the collective. The preservation of the individual is at the heart of the Hobbes’ philosophy. Hobbes’ philosophy, according to Stoner, does not even take the mores and customs of a community into account, because custom is not necessarily anchored to morality or liberty.9   In one thinks about this, it makes sense   - just as slavery was a custom, it clearly was in contravention to natural law or liberty, therefore, the custom of slavery is one that is built upon uncertain ground, like sand.   That said, according to Cornish & Clark (1989), Hobbes recognized that man’s nature was prone to violent destruction, so society must keep a check on the individualistic natures.10   Because natural law is inevitably based upon some

Carbonate and hydrochloric acid Essay Example for Free

Carbonate and hydrochloric acid Essay If you have a two fixed masses of hydrochloric acid, which have both been crushed up, the one with the smaller particles will have a higher rate of reaction, due to the fact that there is a higher surface area exposed to the hydrochloric acid. A good example to compare this to would be slicing a loaf of bread, then spreading butter on it. The more thinner you cut each slice of bread, the more you can get which means that you would be able to spread more butter. This type of theory is known as the bread and butter theory and is often used in biology. The higher surface area of marble chips there is that is in contact with the hydrochloric acid, the higher the rate of reaction, and the more products that are formed in a given amount of time. Light Some chemical reactions are affected by the presence of light. One example of a reaction that depends on the presence of sunlight is photosynthesis, which only takes place when sunlight falls on a plant, which contains green pigmentation called chlorophyll. Another example of a reaction that only takes place in the presence of light is that which occurs when a photograph is taken. Inside the camera is a transparent film, which a clear plastic film that is covered in an emulsion of a layer of gelatine which is filled with millions of tiny crystals of silver halides, especially silver bromide (AgBr). The emulsion that is used is similar for both colour and black and white film. The only difference is that the colour film contains three layers of emulsion which all contain different dyes. When light falls hits a silver bromide molecule, silver cations (Ag+) accepts an electron from the bromine ions (Br-) creating a silver atom. Ag+ + e- Ag Silver ion + Electron Silver atom The bromine atoms that are produced are then trapped in the gelatine. The more light that hits the photographic film the greater the amount of silver that is deposited. As you can see, most of the ways of increasing the rate of reactivity involve increasing the number of successful collisions within the reaction itself. Once you do this the rate of reaction should increase. However, just increasing the number of collisions doesnt necessarily mean that the rate of reaction is increased. This is because in order to increase the rate of reaction you need to increase the number of successful collisions. When collisions occur, if they do not have enough energy, which is in the form of kinetic energy, then they would repel each other. However if they do have enough energy, then they would combine, which is a successful collision. The way in which the rate of reaction is calculated is by using the following formula: Reaction rate= change in amount (or concentration) of a substance/products produced Time taken Therefore, in this case, I will be measuring the rate of reaction by measuring the quantity of products formed. The formula would then be: Reaction rate= carbon dioxide produced. Time taken Using this method you can work out the average rate of reaction between calcium carbonate and hydrochloric acid in the time given for the experiment. The rate at which it reacts would be measured in x grams/minute. Aim The aim of this experiment is to see how the rate of reaction can be affected by a factor [variable]. The variable that we chose was the concentration of the acid, so the aim is to see how the concentration of hydrochloric acid can affect the rate of reactivity. Prediction Substances are prone to burn much faster in the presence of oxygen. For example a charcoal in a barbeque would often be burning quite slowly with a red glow. However, when you blow on t, the coal would become even hotter as it gets more red, and my even burst into flames. This is as you are blowing a higher concentration of oxygen onto it. Another example is acetylene, which burns extremely rapidly in the presence of pure oxygen. The energy produced, in the form of heat, is enough to burn through metal, which is what it is used for: C2H2 + 2. 5O2 2CO2 + H2O + heat Acetylene + Oxygen Carbon dioxide + Water + heat energy. Chemical reactions occur when successful collisions occur between particles. This is when particles gain enough speed that when they collide with each other they join together. Successful collisions between acetylene molecules and oxygen molecules occur when pure oxygen is used instead of air. Therefore, the rate of reaction increases the rate of reaction as well as increasing the amount of heat given off. From this, I can therefore predict that as you increase the concentration of the hydrochloric acid, you would also be increasing the rate of reaction. I predict that the shape of the graph would look like so: This is as the rate of reaction at the beginning would be quite rapid. This would eventually slow down due to the fact that the calcium chloride and the hydrochloric acid are being used up. I therefore predict that the shape of the graph would eventually level off, and all of the lines (the concentrations) should end up at the same level in the end. Preliminary Investigation There are two methods that may be used to measure the rate of reaction, which are: * How fast the reactants are used up. How fast the products are formed The method we are using is to measure how fast the products are formed; in this case how fast the carbon dioxide is formed. Preliminary experiments were performed beforehand to understand how the actual experiment should be carried out, decide on the quantities of substances used as well as comprehend the observations in the experiment, i. e. effervescence, in order to acknowledge the reaction. First, we had to decide on the concentration of hydrochloric acid used. The fist concentration that was tried was 3 molar, which I decided was too fast. This was as the reading on the gas syringe went above the maximum level quite rapidly, which is not sufficient as it means that the results would not be adequate enough to identify a trend, which is the main aim of this investigation. The next concentration level that was tried was 2 molar, which I decided was adequate enough for the maximum concentration. Even though the reading in the gas syringe did go above the maximum, I did keep in mind that I was going to be using a larger gas syringe for the actual experiment. Therefore the maximum concentration of acid that is going to be used is 2 molar, which is the variable. We are then going to reduce this to 1. 8 molar, 1. 6 molar, 1. 4 molar, 1. 2 molar and then finally 1 molar. I believe that these sets of variables would be adequate enough in order to identify a trend. After deciding on the quantities used, I then had to decide what volume of acid I was going to be using. The first volume I tried was 0. 5ml, which was too slow. I then tired 10 ml, which was again proving to be quite a slow reaction. So I then doubled the volume of the acid, which I believed was satisfactory, as the rate of reaction was good, and the amount of co2 produced was satisfactory, as it did not go over the syringe limit. I then had to decide what mass of calcium carbonate chips I had to use. The first mass that I had tried was 0. 5grams, which produced a far too slow rate of reaction. I then tried 2 grams of calcium carbonate, which was too fast of a reaction, and the amount of CO2 produced was off the reading on the gas syringe, so I halved it to 1 gram, which was satisfactory. The amount of time I am going to use is 90 seconds (one and a half minutes) as I believe that this is a sufficient amount of time in which I will be able to identify any trend between the concentration of hydrochloric acid and the amount of carbon dioxide produced. Here are the results for the volume of acid: Concentration of acid: 1M Mass of marble chips: 1. 0 gram Volume of acid used: 5 ml. Time (s) Concentration of acid: 1M Mass of marble chips: 1. 0 gram Volume of acid: 10 ml Time (s). Concentration of acid: 1M Mass of marble chips: 1. 0 gram Volume of acid: 20ml TConcentration of acid: 1M Mass of marble chips: 1 gram Volume of acid: 20ml Time (s) + Here are the results for the concentration of hydrochloric acid: Concentration of acid: 2M Mass of marble chips:1 gram Volume of acid: 20ml Time (s) 2 produced (cm3) + Concentration of acid: 1M Mass of marble chips: 1 gram Volume of acid: 20ml Time (s)(cm3)Â   The overall result for the preliminary investigation using the correct quantities would be: Time (s) 1 produced (cm3) with 1MÂ   The graph for the preliminary investigation looked like this: Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Patterns of Behaviour section.

International Trade Structure

International Trade Structure Examine the International Trade Structure. Do you accept Krasners Argument for an Open Trade Regime? Address his Desire for a Hegemon. Now that todays world is more of a global village, international trade has become institutionalized not only by economic factors, but also non-economic factors. Trade is not solely based on commercial objectives rather politics also plays a dominant role in it. ‘Much of the international trade system both drives and reacts to national, political, fiscal and monetary policies (Hanink 1989: 268). As a result, there are new emerging problems and concerns that have come up in the international trading structures (Boger 1958: 1753). ‘The international system is anarchical†¦sovereign states are rational self-seeking actors resolutely if not exclusively concerned with relative gains (Krasner 1992: 39). Trade usually takes place keeping in view the classical principles of opportunity cost, factor endowment theory and comparative advantage where, ‘each country specializes in those branches of production in which it has a comparative advantage, or in other words produce those goods whose costs are relatively lowest (Ellsworth 1940: 286-287). However, the international trade system can best be regarded as a situation of prisoners dilemma under which the best outcome for an individual player is for that player to cheat by for instance imposing an optimal tariff, while the other player cooperates. However, if both players cheat, they will be worse off than if both had cooperated (Goldstein, Krasner 1984: 284). Experimental findings suggest that the winning strategy for this sort of a situation is the Tit for Tat strategy ‘in which the player cooperates on the first move and then does whatever the other player did on the preceding move (Goldstein, Krasner: 1984: 284). In their views, such a strategy is not meant to start a trade war rather its aim is to promote cooperation and freer trade (1984: 284). The prisoners dilemma depiction also ‘claims that a stable system of international free trade involves the supply of a public good. Such goods are joint in supply and non-excludable (Gowa 1989: 1245). This public good may be one or numerous depending upon the case. These public goods include political stability, regional stability, liberal economies etc. After the second World War the emphasis of the trade regime was to regulate all trade distortions. ‘Liberal rules, norms and procedures were to be adopted by states and patrolled by international organizations (Goldstein, Krasner 1984: 282). But in todays world, ‘the bulk of international trade takes place between the industrialized or rich countries. This pattern of trade is in contradiction to the factor endowment theory because trade is taking place between countries with similar, rather than dissimilar, factor (capital) endowments (Hanink 1988: 323). The international trade structure is also characterized by the hegemonic stability theory which ‘asserts that an open international trading regime is most likely where there is a single dominant power (Krasner 1992: 40). This view is held by Krasner, Gilpin, Kindelberger and Hirschman. ‘A hegemonic power creates a stable international order and the hegemons decline leads to global instability (Stein 1984: 355). The assumptions of this theory are that the international system is anarchical with nation-states being the dominant actors, the international market is a non-homeostatic market and the nation-states seek to maximize their absolute and relative gains from trade (Lake 1984: 149). It asserts that the hegemon has an incentive to see if the collective good is provided even if the hegemon alone has to bear the full burden of providing it. ‘The hegemonic leader will place a greater, absolute value upon a liberal international economy than others and, as a result, w ill undertake to stabilize the international economy and construct a strong regime (Lake 1984: 146). Because of the provision of public goods, the element of free riders exist. ‘Kindleberger argues that the international political economy will be stable only if a single leader is willing to assume responsibility for maintaining a relatively open market for distress goods; providing counter-cyclical long-term lending; and discounting in a crisis†¦the leader must also undertake to manage in some degree the structure of foreign exchange rates and provide a degree of coordination of domestic monetary policies (Lake 1984: 145). This theory asserts that only large states have the power, capabilities and the responsibility to lead the international economy. ‘A hegemonic leader will place greater absolute value upon a liberal international economy than others and, as a result, will undertake to stabilize the international economy and construct a strong regime in order to ac hieve this goal (Lake 1984: 146). So the hegemon will provide the public good of stability and security because its own benefits far exceed the costs that it has to bear. For the large nation, the larger its size is, the more willing it will be to opt for international stability because of its large relative and absolute gains from trade. ‘The free functioning of the international market is therefore assumed to concentrate wealth in nations of high productivity. Under this assumption highly productive nations will give free play to the functioning of the international market and will favor free trade because they enjoy disproportionate benefits from such trade (Lake 1984: 149). In the case of middle and smaller nations, they too will be in favor of such a system because they too will gain from the trade, although relatively less. ‘The incentives to cheat and become a free rider are great enough that any international regime which depends on collective provision is inherently unstable. Stability can only be assured when a hegemon both bears the cost of providing the collective good and extracts the support of others (Stein 1984: 356). But this theory has some loopholes as well. First, Krasner is concerned with regime formation and trade but he does not take historical context into account while explaining how the free trade regime is established. He mentions ‘that a hegemon uses inducements and force to create or maintain open markets but does not provide a sense of how this occurs (Stein 1984: 357). A hegemon cannot bring about a free trading regime, it can unilaterally lower its own tariffs but this by no means assert that it can create an international trading system of lower tariffs. Tariff bargains only leads to trade liberalization among major trading states. This leads to similar sort of nations trading with each other, especially the powerful trading with one another and the poor nations are discriminated against. ‘It can impose an open trading regime on weak countries, but this too does not create an open regime (Stein 1984: 358). This is evident from the fact that both in the 19th and the 20t h centuries, the hegemonic power accepted compromises but itself deviated from the free trade ideal. ‘The liberal trade regimes that emerged in both the centuries were founded on asymmetric bargains that permitted discriminations, especially against the hegemon. The agreement that lowered tariff barriers led not to free trade, but freer trade. In the process, they legitimated a great deal of mercantilism and protectionism (Stein 1984: 359). Great Britain and the United States had important political motives behind their economic concessions. Also, such economic orders created by trade agreements have been sub systemic rather than global since only some states became parties to such agreements and many were actually excluded from them. They did not even provide collective goods because the non signatory states could be excluded. Thus ‘the systems allowed for discrimination and exclusion, and cannot be considered to have provided a collective good (Stein 1984: 360). ‘The periods dubbed ‘free trade eras certainly saw years of rapid trade expansion, but they were hardly periods of free trade. Rather, they were periods of freer trade (Stein 1984: 383). There was severe discrimination against those outside the system and these systems were based on asymmetric tariff bargains characterized by dumping. Also in the process of evolution, international trade has become institutionalized and non economic factors have become relatively important in evaluating the consequences of changes in the relevant variants (Boger 1958: 1753). ‘Krasner suggests nations may also be interested in additional goals of social stability, political power and economic growth (Lake 1984:145).It is this dramatic change in the structure of the international trading system that has led to the creation of new problems and at the same time, more and different concerns. Although the hegemon does provide collective goods, it only promotes and creates liberal internat ional economic orders because of their own vested interests in open markets and not because of altruism (Stein 1984: 357). ‘The hegemon effectively changes the policies of others to satisfy its own goals†¦the leverage exerted by the hegemon may take many different forms including negative sanctions (threats), positive sanctions (rewards), the reconstructing of market incentives, ideological leadership or simply success worthy of emulation (Lake 1993: 469). So it thus proves that the hegemon will go to any length just to satisfy its own self interests. Bibliography Boger, L.L 1958 Discussion:Trading Problems in International Markets Journal of Farm Economics, Vol. 40, No. 5, pp 1753-1755 http://links.jstor.org/ Ellsworth, P.T 1940 A Comparison of International Trading Theories The American Economic Review, Vol.30, No.2, pp 285-289 http://links.jstor.org/ Goldstein, Judith L. and Krasner, Stephen P 1984 Unfair Trade Practices:The Case for a Differential Response The American Economic Review, Vol. 74, No.2 pp 282-287 http://links.jstor.org/ Gowa, Joanne 1989 Bipolarity, Multipolarity and Free Trade The American Political Science Review, Vol. 83, No. 4, pp 1245-1256 http://links.jstor.org/ Hanink, Dean M. 1989 Introduction:Trade Theories Scale and Structure Economic Geography Vol. 65, No. 4, pp 267-270 http://links.jstor.org/ Hanink, Dean M. 1988 An Extended Linder Model of International Trade Economic Geography Vol. 64, No. 4, pp 322-334 http://links.jstor.org/ Krasner, Stephen P. 1992 Realism, Imperialism and Democracy: A Response to Gilbert Political Theory Vol. 20, No. 1, pp 38-52 http://links.jstor.org/ Lake, David A. 1993 Leadership, Hegemony and the International Economy: Naked Emperor or Tattered Monarch with Potential? International Studies Quarterly Vol. 37, No. 4, pp 459-489 http://links.jstor.org/ Lake, David A. 1984 Beneath the Commerce of Nations: A Theory of International Economic Structures International Studies Quarterly Vol. 28, No. 2, pp 143-170 http://links.jstor.org/ Stein, Arthur A. 1984 Great Britain, the United States, and the International Economic Order International Organization Vol. 38, No.2, pp 355-386 http://links.jstor.org/