Real ID act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Real ID act - Essay Example The main advantage is security. The Department of Homeland Security gets the power to decide whether the drivers’ licenses and ID cards can be used for official purposes or not. If they are not complying with federal antiterrorist standards, the card holders will not have access to airplanes, public places, and the courthouse. This means that the security measures are on their way. Increasing incidents of terrorism these days have given rise to the need of such security so that citizens may be given full protection while they travel, work, or enjoy in the parks. Such a strict check would discourage terrorists and also illegal immigrants (Quinn, 2012). Proponents claim the new cards will not be another form of national ID cards because it is optional for a country to adopt them. They are only meant to benefit the country so that it can sort out illegal persons from its citizens. Hence, it is a matter of national security and privacy which makes the proponents of the Act state t hat it is much needed. We support this fact because a critical analysis makes us believe that American citizens have the right to be informed who lives around them claiming to be a citizen of the country, and that the drivers’ licenses contain correct information, and not some aliases, about the card holders. However, the number of critics is more than proponents. Critics claim that the Real ID Act of 2005 is invasive. The issuance of the said cards will make us a surveillance society in which everybody is doubted. The incidents of identity theft will also increase since terrorists and illegal immigrants will use their criminal ways to steal identities. The Act will also increase burden on the tax payers and the immigrants, because of such a high cost being spent on the issuance of these cards. Administrative burden will increase due to expenses. Privacy will be more at stake if drivers’ licenses

The Benefits of Recycling Essay Example for Free

The Benefits of Recycling Essay Recycling is a vital factor in the future of our beloved home, Earth. If we want to keep our land green, prevent pollution, conserve natural resources and save our plants and animals, recycling is a key factor in doing so. Recycling reduces the amount of pollution going into earth. When products are made from fresh material, there are more pollutants being released into the air due to the extraction and processing. Using recycled material produces fewer pollutants and is better for the environment (Weber, n. d.). Recycling helps to reduce the amount of garbage being made. This means we are decreasing the size of our landfills. The less garbage going into our landfills, the less garbage we have to burn to ash. (Onsola, 2017). Landfills also create a liquid called leachate which occurs when debris disintegrates in the landfill and leaks through the waste which can pollute the land, groundwater, and waterways (Environment Victoria, 2013). When recycling, we can lessen the amount of greenhouse gases going into our environment (Knowledgiate Team, 2017). This can create multiple environmental problems. In 2005, Pennsylvania DEP stated that by recycling, it reduced greenhouse gases by 9 million tons of carbon dioxide. By recycling we reduce the need to combust fossil fuels. (Sherman, n.d.). To make sure we want our future generation’s air to be breathable. Another benefit to recycling is that it creates a sustainable amount of resources. When we recycle, we are turning old, used material into new, usable material. By recycling we save more resources, for example when we use virgin materials, it is coming from natural resources. Around 40% of our waste comes from paper. If we recycled our paper instead, we could save millions of trees and also lessen the amount of waste going into our environment. (DLCSRecycling, n.d.).When we cut down trees, it is for fresh pulp which will be used for first-generation paper. Instead we could use recycled paper which can very well be used to make paper which is just a good quality as the paper made from virgin material (Schenker, 2017). Our future generations will also need these resources, so instead of wasting what we have we should recycle. Lastly, another pro to recycling is that it saves wildlife. When we don’t recycle we are ruining habitats. For example, when we cut down trees for a paper we are destroying homes of wildlife. By not recycling we are also polluting many homes of animals. Green SC states that more than one million seabirds, 100,000 sea mammals, and 50,000 fur seals die yearly because of plastic litter that we humans put into the water (Lake, 2015). Turtles that eat jellyfish confuse plastic bags for food and then choke and die on them (Tay, 2016). We are messing up the ecological balance of ecosystems. This will also affect our food sources in the future as it may cause the extinction of plants and animals. By doing something as simple as recycling, we reduce the need for new material, saving nature from harm (Missimer, n.d.).

Birth Of Communication Essay -- essays research papers fc

Outline I.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is important to reflect one’s own national and cultural identity to understand what is different among people of different nations. History teaches us that culture always changes because of internal or external influences, even our own cultures and values change over time. Our world today is a world in which people from different nations and cultures are getting closer and closer because of economical and political reasons. Because cultures are becoming closer, communication is the most important quality for anyone to work on if they want to work in the international society. The history of communication and the relationships that were formed in the early part of worldwide communication still reflect the relationships held between nations today. The question is how have cultural differences evolved as technology increased? Although many things have indeed changed in individual cultures and values, the knowledge of how communications work today can only be learned from studying communications of yesterday. II.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At the turn of the century, Asia seemed very close because of â€Å"great modern inventions. However, the close feeling was only on communication terms. Culturally the effect of communication was a very complicated process. III.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although international communication was non-existent between distant countries only a few hundred years ago, cultural differences are accentuated today as an effect of communication technology. III.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Development of International Communication A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  19th century Asian Culture B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  19th century American Culture V.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  America meets new countries A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Talking to Asia B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Thoughts of the world about the new player called America IV.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tensions A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Countries who became stronger or weaker (politically and economically) because of communication B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How did those who became stronger use communication to their advantage? (Politically) C.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How the weaker countries reacted, and exposed themselves to the world as a culture. (If they did) V.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ben... ...c: An Inner History of American-East Relations. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc, 1967. Koester, Jolene, and Myron Lustig. Intercultural Communication and Competence. Vol 17.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  California: Sage Publications, 1993 Mancall, Mark. China at the Center: 300 Years of Foreign Policy. New York: The Free Press, 1984. Pong, David, and Edmund S.K. Fung, eds. Ideal and Reality: Social and Political Change in Modern China. Lanham: University press of America, 1985. Bibliography Fogel, Joshua A. The Cultural Dimension of Sino-Japanese Relations: Essays on the nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. NewYork: M.E. Sharpe, 1995. Chang, Gordon H. Friends and Enemies: The United States, China, and the Soviet Union, 1948-1972. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990. Carbaugh, Donal, ed. Cultural Communication and Intercultural Contact. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 1990. Hart, Robert. The Eccentric Tradition: American Diplomacy in the Far East. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976. Fischer, Heinz-Dietrich, and John Calhoun Merrill, eds. International and Intercultural Communication. New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1970.

Why Wee Crave Horror Movie

Why we still crave in horror movie when we are scare? In Stephen King’s Article it mention three main points. The first one is showing our courage, that we are not afraid in horror movie. It doesn’t mean that we don’t scream. In contrast, we scream when the roller coaster twists through a complete 360. Horror movie just like roller coaster, if it can’t make us scream only means the movie is not excited enough. The second one is to ensure that we are normal. To confirm that although we are not as beauty as a star but we are still better than the character in the horror movieHowever, these two reasons are not the main reason why we crave horror movie. At the beginning of the article, he said â€Å"I think that we’re all mentally ill† The test has already proven this statement at least people in this classroom are all crazy. He believes that we are mentally ill and crazy but only in different level/degree. Our insanity leads us only talk to ours elves when we are under stress or squinch our faces into horrible grimaces when we believe no one is watching.As we are all insane, we have to practice our anticivilization emotion from time to time. What is anticivilization emotion? For example the excitement and hyper emotion when seeing others are killed or being menaced. However, in this civilized society, when we seeing someone was killed us should show our sympathy. Our teacher teaches us we should have love, loyalty, kindness etc. when we practice this emotion we applaud. For example, if we give a kiss to our sister, the adult will praise us.In contrast if we put her finger in the door hinge, scold would comes follow. Although we keep the anticivilization emotion from getting out, it demands a periodic exercise. Therefore we choose to watch horror movie, we can let loose to scream. We don’t need to care for the civilized emotion. We can laugh when we see someone was killed, because we know that it is only a movie, and all people in this theater are crazy, we are just reliving our emotion. We think that practicing the anticivilization emotion can also help us to relief our stress in our daily life.As we have said before horror is come from___________________ therefore these become the main component of horror movie. When we watch it we feel scare and fear, at the same time we project our pressure and stress in it. For example when the monster is chasing the actor, we feel tension. This tension also included the anxiety we experience in the real life. ______________________________________ Watching horror movie can also fulfill our curiosity. When our society told us what should be fear or what is dangerous, we alert from these thing. However we have a desire to know more.

Good vs Evil †English Essay Essay

There is neither a definite good nor evil, but only the grey area in-between. The Japanese proverb of Yin and Yang states that in all good there is some evil and in all evil there is dome good thus without good there can be no evil and without evil there can be no good. Evil was once described to me as ‘The inability to feel sympathy’ and at first I agreed with this analogy but upon further thought and deliberation I decided that it was not entirely true, for if evil is the inability to feel sympathy then that makes all acts of sympathy good. However, that analogy would make an act, one that almost the entire world agrees is purely evil, an act of good. The act in question is the destruction of the twin towers of 9/11, because the perpetrators were sympathetic. They were sympathetic towards their country and their people who, contrary to popular knowledge, had already been invaded and were being oppressed by the USA who were trying to secure their oil reserves. There is no way to moderate universally what is considered good and evil. Every man believes in some way that their own actions are just and righteous whilst also believing that their enemy’s actions are acts of evil purely because they oppose his own wishes thus making all man good in his own eyes yet evil in the eyes of those he opposes. Each and every one of us must decide for ourselves what is good and what is evil, and yet we must still conform to the â€Å"norms† of society. The definition of what is right and what is wrong may come from many different places. Some blindly accept what society tells then to where others question society and still others actively oppose society’s views. Some get their definition from the relative religious scripture and follow that without question whereas others merely see it as a general guideline whereupon to base their actions. I believe that the concepts of good and bad, righteousness and evil, just and unjust exist purely to justify man’s actions and that they have and will continue to change to fit the person whose action requires justifying. Alas, these unflinching opposing forces are bound to perpetually clash as they strive for a balance. For without either life as we know it could never exist, perhaps life at all could not exist.

Building surveying Essays

Building surveying Essays Building surveying Essay Building surveying Essay A chartered building surveyor can work in the commercial, private, and public sectors. Some chartered building surveyors work for property owning clients and contractors. Building surveyors provide professional technical advice on land, property and construction for commercial companies and consultants, central and local government, and private individuals. Surveyors provide a wide range of services including the following: (Kibblewhite and Wilkinson) Managing design and construction Undertaking building surveys and measured surveys Analysing design and building defects Preparing strategies for asset management and property maintenance Preparing insurance valuations and claims Preparing strategic property advice covering land (including easements, licences and covenants etc), and landlord and tenant legislation Project management and development monitoring Miscellaneous services including accessibility and energy audits, specialist surveys (asbestos, damp etc), conservation advice and sustainability advice. In early days a tape, a level and a theodolite were the main instruments used in surveying. Tape was used for distance measurement. Level was used for measuring the height. Theodolite is used for horizontal and vertical angle measurement. In present days there are many advanced instruments are used in this field. A â€Å"total station† is modern equipment which is used in surveying. A theodolite, which contains an electronic distance measurement device, is called total station. It is an electronic device. A computer is used in total station. Some soft wares are also used in total station. There is no need of prism in a total station. It is fully robotic. It automatically records the data. There is no need of extra work. In present scenario a total station is used with some other surveying instruments. (National Cooperative Highway Research Program 40) Automatic Levels, Compasses Dumpy, Levels, Electronic Distance Meter, Horizon Automatic Levels, Horizon Electronic Distance Meter, Horizon Electronic Theodolite, Horizon Optical Theodolite, Laser Levels,Levelling Staves, and Optical Square are the some other surveying instruments. (Survey Instruments, 1997) Surveying is an exciting career. It is the mixer of outdoor and indoor work. Surveyors can run their own business or they can be employed by large companies. Job opportunities abound offering good pay and promotional opportunities. Demand of the Surveyors is very high in current position. For example there is very shortage of surveyors in Australia. In future this demand will increase. (Enemark) To become a professional surveyor you must complete a four year undergraduate degree in Surveying. Graduates can start on $50 60,000 p. a. depending on where they work and the type of work. A graduate can work with any private company or run his own business. Hence there are a lot of jobs in this field. (Enemark) VEscarmelle. â€Å"Building surveying. † July 2006. 30 Nov. 2008. www. savills. com/graduate/pdf/RICS_APC_Building_Surveying. pdf Adams, Richard. â€Å"The Role of Building Surveyors in a Free Market Environment. Sep. 1997. 30 Nov. 2008. www. tefma. com/infoservices/publications/newsletter_issues/news97_09. pdf. Kibblewhite, Thomas and Wilkinson, Sara J. â€Å"Building Surveying: A UK Phenomenon or a Profession with Genuine Global Appeal? † 22 May 2004. 30 Nov. 2008.

Elements of a Crime Essays

Elements of a Crime Essays Elements of a Crime Essay Elements of a Crime Essay Essay Topic: 6th Grade Elements of a Crime (Actus Reus Mens Rea) Model Lesson Plan Source: Original lesson plan. Handout #2 from David Crump, Criminal Law: Cases, Statutes, And Lawyering Strategies, Lexis Nexis 2005 pg. 117-18. I. Goals: by the end of this class students should have a strong foundation for reading criminal statutes and differentiating similar crimes. II. Objectives a. Knowledge objectives: as a result of this class students will be better able to: i. define Actus Reus and Mens Rea ii. understand the different gradations of Mens Rea iii. nderstand the differences between Washington’s homicide statutes b. Skills objectives: as a result of this class students will be better able to: i. read a statute carefully and apply it to fact patterns ii. present and defend their interpretations of the law c. Attitude objectives: i. Students should understand that the severity of criminal punishments can vary greatly depending on the defendant’s mental state in a manner that is largely consistent with the general societal belief that intentionally wrongful acts are worse than unintentional, but still wrongful acts. ii.Students should carefully consider the potentially harsh results that occur when legislatures replace mens rea with strict liability. III. Methods (1)Distribute Handout #1 (Hypos) (2)Read the introductory hypothetical aloud as a class. Ask for volunteers to answer the questions. a. The class should come to the conclusion that Frank did cause Bill’s death in the sense that if he hadn’t moved the mirror in the particular way he did at that exact time, the window washer wouldn’t have been blinded and Bill wouldn’t have slipped. This is a good example of but for or actual causation as used in Handout #2.However, the law typically only imposes liability where the defendant’s conduct is the proximate cause of the harmful event/ crime. b. However, it seems like Frank didn’t do anything wrong. Try to elicit why this result seems wrong and write the class’s ideas on the whiteboard. (3)Distribute Handout #2 (Elements) (4)Handout #2 Walk through the Elements handout. Be careful to explain that not all of the elements are always present in a criminal statute. For example, attempted murder doesn’t have a harm element and parking violations don’t have a mens rea element, e. g. ne can receive a parking citation for parking in a handicapped spot even if it was unintentional or an accident. Furthermore, the elements aren’t perfectly discrete and there is some overlap. (5)Distribute Handout #3 (Statutes) a. Explain that the groups will be analyzing the hypos with respect to the statutes provided in Handout #3. The Grades of Homicide are meant to demonstrate the changes mens rea. b. Walk through the statutes and give a thumbnail sketch of i. First degree murder: 1. Premeditated killing. An intentional killing that was deliberate and contemplated prior to the killing. . Extreme Indifference. Covers the possibility that someone knows that what they are going to do will result in the death of another person, but at the same time doesn’t intend to kill. See the bomb hypo in handout # 1. ii. Second degree murder 1. Intentional killing without premeditation. The classic example is a passion killing where the homicide occurs in the heat of the moment. iii. First degree manslaughter 1. Recklessness. Conscious awareness of an unacceptable risk to human life. Recklessness is similar to extreme indifference, but the risk that human life will be lost is less. v. Second degree manslaughter 1. Criminal negligence. Gross deviation from standard of care. v. Statutory rape 1. No mens rea. Strict liability with a limited affirmative defense where minor misrepresents age. In an effort to protect minor children, state legislatures have placed an increased burden to ascertain age on the older party. (6)Break into groups of 3-5 to apply statutes to Hypos 1-5. Have groups designate a reporter and a recorder. The recorder should write each of the group members’ names on the top of handout #1 and also record the group’s answers on the space provided.The Reporter is responsible for explaining the group’s reasoning and conclusion when the class reconvenes. (7)Reconvene Class: call on each group to present their analysis of one hypo. Ask questions to push them in the right direction if you think they missed something or ask questions forcing them to defend their answers if you think they got it right. Note to teacher: suggested answers to the hypotheticals are on a separate sheet at the end of this lesson plan. (8)Take-away: mens rea standards vary widely from premeditated intent to strict liability.You need to read statutes carefully to determine the correct standard. IV. Evaluation a. Group performance on written responses to Hypos1-5 and class discussion. V. Assignment a. Write a one page response to the following question: Should Melvin be punished for his relationship with Laura? If not, please explain why. How do you think Washington’s statutory rape statute should be changed? If you think that Melvin should be punished, please explain why. Handout #1: Hypothetical Scenarios Introductory Hypo: Frank is helping his friend move into a downtown Seattle condo.While unloading a large mirror from the moving truck, the bright sunlight hits the mirror and reflects against the 40th floor of the skyscraper across the street which temporarily blinds a window washer and causes him to stumble. During this moment of temporary blindness, lasting about a second and a half, the window washer inadvertently kicks over his window washing bucket onto the street below. The water and soap from the bucket hit the sidewalk right in front of Bill the jogger. Bill was unable to stop before stepping on the slippery sidewalk, causing him to lose his balance and fall.When Bill fell, he hit his head on the sidewalk. Bill died two weeks later from his head injury. Suppose that Washington law provides: Anyone who causes the death of another person shall be guilty of murder. Would Frank be guilty of murder under this law? Should he be? Group Exercise Hypos Instructions: Nominate someone in your group to be the recorder and another person to be the class reporter. Read each hypothetical and determine which statute, if any, applies to the facts of the hypothetical and whether the defendant has violated the statute.Hypo #1: Sarah is held at gun point by Roger on a rooftop. Roger tells Sarah that she must shoot and kill Steven. Sarah pleads with Roger to let her go and that she does not want to kill Steven. Roger tells Sarah that unless she successfully shoots and kills Steven, he will kill Sarah and her entire family. Roger has a violent reputation and Sarah has no reason to believe that Roger will not follow through with his threat. Roger identifies Steven walking on the other side of the street and tells Sarah to take the shot.Fearing for the safety of her family and herself, Sarah takes careful aim at Steven, gauges the wind and change in elevation, and fires a precise shot penetrating Steven’s heart. What crimes if any has Sarah committed? Explain ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Hypo #2: Mildred comes home from work early only to discover her husband Robert in the midst of a lewd affair with their neighbor Gladys.In sudden fit of rage, Mildred grabs a flower vase and smashes it over Gladys’ head knocking her unconscious. With a broken shard of ceramic from the vase, Mildred stabs Robert in the neck. Robert dies from sudden blood loss within seconds. After killing Robert, Mildred drags Gladys’ unconscious, but still breathing, body into the garage where she ties Gladys to a folding chair and duct tapes her mouth shut to keep her from screaming. Mildred then returns to the house, prepares a cup of hot tea and takes a long bubble bath contemplating what she should do with Gladys.After finishing her bath, Mildred brainstorms in a note book for several hours about what she might do with Gladys. Ultimately, Mildred decides that Gladys must die for what she has done. Mildred then returns to the garage where she calmly shoots and kills Gladys with a pistol at point blank range. What crimes if any has Mildred committed? Explain __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Hypo #3: One day, George decides that he would like to see what would happ en if he were to drop several pounds of high explosives from a freeway overpass into busy fast-moving traffic. George purchases several pounds of high explosives over the internet and then goes to a nearby overpass overlooking I-5. He drops the explosives in front of a large semi-truck and mutters to himself, I sure hope nobody gets hurt. When the explosives hit the pavement below they instantly detonate and blow-up the semi-truck killing its two occupants. In addition, five more motorists are killed in the ensuing pile-up.What crimes if any has George committed? Explain __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hypo #4: Jim is driving down the freeway when he spills his bag of Skittles onto the front passenger floor. Not wanting to lose a single sugary morsel, Jim leans down to retrieve the handful of lost Skittles. In so doing, Jim takes his eyes completely off the road for 8 seconds.While reaching for the last Skittle, Jim inadvertently jerks the steering wheel which veers his car into the next lane. Jim’s car strikes another car forcing it into the ditch. Upon entering the ditch, the other car flips into the air and lands on its roof. All three occupants are crushed to death. What crimes if any has Jim committed? Explain. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Hypo #5: Melvin is 21 years old. He has been held back several grades and reads at approximately a 6th grade level. Laura is 15 ? years old. She is a very bright student and takes nearly all AP classes. Laura and Melvin live in the same neighborhood. Laura has always felt sorry for Melvin and was friendly to him even when the neighborhood kids teased and taunted him. As their friendship grew, their relationship, at Laura’s suggestion, became sexual. Melvin never asked Laura how old she was nor did Laura ever tell Melvin her age.When Laura’s father discovered the relationship, he turned Melvin into the police. What crimes if any has Melvin committed? Does he have any defenses? Explain __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Handout #2: Elements of a Crime 1. Actus Reus. Actus reus is often characterized as the physical part of a crime. In most cases, it describes what the offender must do.A murder statue will require the offender to kill, an arson law will punish people who set fire to a structure, and theft may require someone to take something a. Voluntary Act: The defendant’s act must be voluntary. b. Circumstances: Many Crimes occur only in a specifically described situation. For example, bribery of a juror requires that the person bribed have been a juror (not another official). c. Harm or result: Many criminal laws require a specific harm to have occurred before the statute applies. In murder, there must be a person killed, and in arson, there must be a burned structure. d.Causation: Often a statute requiring harm (such as death or an explosion) also requires that the defendant cause that harm. Causation links the defendant’s conduct to the result. i. But for, Cause in Fact, or Actual causation is the simplest form of causation. It simply provides that a particular result (such as death) would not have occurred without the defendant’s action. ii. Proximate causation is narrower than but for causation. Proximate causation is limited to the foreseeable consequences of the defendant’s actions. 2. Mens Rea. Mens Rea is often characte rized as the mental requirement in a criminal law.Modern statutes often use four categories of mens rea: intentionally (or purposefully or willfully), knowingly, recklessly, and with criminal negligence. Handout #3: Statutes First Degree Murder: RCW 9A. 32. 030 (1)A person is guilty of murder in the first degree when: (a)With a premeditated intent to cause the death of another person, he or she causes the death of such person or of a third person; or (b)Under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life, he or she engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to any person, and thereby causes the death of a person; or c) [Felony Murder- not covered in this exercise] Second Degree Murder: RCW 9A. 32. 050 (1)A person is guilty of murder in the second degree when: (a) With intent to cause the death of another person but without premeditation, he or she causes the death of such person or of a third person; or (b) [Felony Murder- not covered in this exercise] First Degree Manslaughter: RCW 9A. 32. 060 (1)A person is guilty of manslaughter in the first degree when: (a) He recklessly causes the death of another person; or (b) He intentionally and unlawfully kills an unborn quick child by inflicting any injury upon the mother of such child.Second Degree Manslaughter: (1)A person is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree when, with criminal negligence, he causes the death of another person. Rape of a Child in the third Degree (Statutory Rape): RCW 9A. 44. 079 (1)A person is guilty of rape of a child in the third degree when the person has sexual intercourse with another who is at least fourteen years old but less than sixteen years old and not married to the perpetrator and the perpetrator is at least forty-eight months older than the victim. Defenses: RCW 9A. 44. 030 2) In any prosecution under this chapter in which the offense or degree of the offense depends on the victims age, it is no defense that the perpetrator did not know the v ictims age, or that the perpetrator believed the victim to be older, as the case may be: PROVIDED, That it is a defense which the defendant must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that at the time of the offense the defendant reasonably believed the alleged victim to be the age identified in subsection (3) of this section based upon declarations as to age by the alleged victim [i. . over the age of 16 or less than 48 months apart in age] ? FOR THE TEACHER: Answer Key to Hypothetical Questions Introductory Hypo: The point of the introductory hypo is to realize that there are two types of causation. Simple causation or cause in fact might describe how a physicist would define causation. Under this type of causation, event A is a cause of the later event B, if B would not have occurred but for the occurrence of event A.Therefore, in the example, the event of Frank moving the mirror is a cause in fact of Bill’s death in this sense because if Frank hadn’t moved the mi rror in the way he did, the sequence of events that led to Bill’s slip would not have occurred and Bill would not have died. However, in a legal context, cause in fact is a necessary but not sufficient element. To be legally liable for a particular action, one’s conduct must be the proximate cause of the liability generating event. Proximate cause is a subsection of cause in fact and is limited to events that are foreseeable.Therefore, Frank would not be criminally liable for the death of Bill under existing criminal law frameworks because Bill’s death was not foreseeable. Hypo #1: The issue here is whether Sarah is liable for some level of homicide offense. Since Roger held Sarah at gunpoint and Sarah knew that Roger was a violent person one could argue that Sarah did not shoot Steven voluntarily even though she had the clear intent of shooting Steven because she took careful aim, adjusted for the wind, and placed a precise shot. Duress is a defense to most cri mes.However, duress is not a defense to homicide, so Sarah is potentially liable for either murder or manslaughter (duress can reduce a crime that would otherwise constitute murder to manslaughter under certain circumstances). You might ask students: How do you think a prosecutor would or should handle this case? Should he or she use his or her discretion to not file charges against Sarah? Hypo #2: There are two homicides in this case: Gladys and Robert. Mildred’s killing of Robert would be murder in the second degree because in a fit of sudden rage (no premeditation) she intended to kill her husband by stabbing im in the neck. Robert’s death is the classic passion killing. However, Mildred’s killing of Gladys would be murder in the first degree because after dragging her body to the garage, she took time and deliberated about what she was going to do and then killed Gladys. Gladys’s murder was premeditated. Hypo #3: Is George guilty of murder? George di d not have a clear intent to harm anyone when he dropped the bomb onto the interstate. However, under subsection (b) of Washington’s first degree murder statute, George manifested an extreme indifference to human life that created a grave risk of death to any person. Therefore, even though George didn’t intend to kill anyone, he could be found guilty of murder in the first degree. Hypo #4: One could argue that Jim should be guilty of murder in the first degree under the extreme indifference prong, but Jim’s conduct is not nearly as abhorrent as George dropping a bomb onto the interstate. Motorists do dangerous things in the car all the time that are distracting and cause accidents. Therefore, reaching over to pick up some Skittles is probably not extreme indifference. Jim is most likely guilty of first or second degree manslaughter.The difference between the two is that manslaughter one requires recklessness whereas manslaughter two requires only criminal negli gence. Negligence is the lower standard and asks only whether Jim should have known better than to reach for the skittles, whereas recklessness is a subjective standard which would require that Jim knew what he was doing was dangerous. From the facts of the case, it appears that Jim did not recognize the danger in what he was doing and would most likely only face a charge of manslaughter in the second degree.Note: Vehicular homicide might also be charged in this case. Hypo #5: Despite the sympathetic circumstances, Melvin is liable for statutory rape. Laura is younger than 16 (the age of consent in WA) and Melvin is more than 4 years older than her. The limited defense of misrepresentation of age by the minor does not apply because Laura never represented her age in the first place. There is no mens rea element to statutory rape. Rather, it is a strict liability offense in the same way

Philip Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment

Philip Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment Philip G. Zimbardo, born March 23, 1933, is an influential social psychologist.  He is best known for the influential- yet controversial- study known   as the â€Å"Stanford Prison Experiment,† a study in which research participants were â€Å"prisoners† and â€Å"guards† in a mock prison. In addition to the Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo has worked on a wide range of research topics and has written over 50 books and published over 300 articles. Currently, he is a professor emeritus at Stanford University and president of the Heroic Imagination Project, an organization aimed at increasing heroic behavior among everyday people. Early Life and Education Zimbardo was born in 1933 and grew up in the South Bronx in New York City. Zimbardo writes  that living in an impoverished neighborhood as a child influenced his interest in psychology: â€Å"My interest in understanding the dynamics of human aggression and violence stems from early personal experiences† of living in a rough, violent neighborhood. Zimbardo credits his teachers with helping to encourage his interest in school and motivating him to become successful. After graduating from high school, he attended Brooklyn College, where he graduated in 1954 with a triple major in psychology, anthropology, and sociology. He studied psychology in graduate school at Yale, where he earned his MA in 1955 and his PhD in 1959.  After graduating, Zimbardo taught at Yale, New York University, and Columbia, before moving to Stanford in 1968. The Stanford Prison Study In 1971, Zimbardo conducted his most famous and controversial study- the Stanford Prison Experiment. In this study, college-age men participated in a mock prison. Some  of the men were randomly chosen to be prisoners and even went through mock â€Å"arrests† at their homes by local police before being brought to the mock prison on the Stanford campus. The other participants were chosen to be prison guards. Zimbardo assigned himself the role of the superintendent of the prison. Although the study was originally planned to last two weeks, it was ended early- after just six days- because events at the prison took an unexpected turn. The guards began to act in cruel, abusive ways towards prisoners and forced them to engage in degrading and humiliating behaviors. Prisoners in the study began to show signs of depression, and some even experienced nervous breakdowns. On the fifth day of the study, Zimbardo’s girlfriend at the time, psychologist Christina Maslach, visited the mock prison and was shocked by what she saw.  Maslach (who is now Zimbardo’s wife) told him, â€Å"You know what, its terrible what youre doing to those boys.†Ã‚  After seeing the events of the prison from an outside perspective, Zimbardo stopped the study. The Prison Experiments Impact Why did people behave the way they did in the prison experiment? What was it about the experiment that made the prison guards behave so differently from how they did in everyday life? According to Zimbardo, the Stanford Prison Experiment speaks to the powerful way that social contexts can shape our actions and cause us to behave in ways that would have been unthinkable to us even a few short days before. Even Zimbardo himself found that his behavior changed when he took on the role of prison superintendent. Once he identified with his role, he found that he had trouble recognizing the abuses happening in his own prison: â€Å"I lost my sense of compassion,†Ã‚  he explains in an interview with Pacific Standard. Zimbardo explains that the prison experiment offers a surprising and unsettling finding about human nature. Because our behaviors are partially determined by the systems and situations we find ourselves in, we are capable of behaving in unexpected and alarming ways in extreme situations. He explains that, although people like to think of their behaviors as relatively stable and predictable, we sometimes act in ways that surprise even ourselves.  Writing about the prison experiment in The New Yorker, Maria Konnikova offers another possible explanation for the results: she suggests that the environment of the prison was a powerful situation, and that people often change their behavior to match what they think is expected of them in situations such as this. In other words, the prison experiment shows that our behavior can change drastically depending on the environment we find ourselves in. Critiques of the Prison Experiment Although the Stanford Prison Experiment has had a significant influence (it was even the inspiration for a film), some people have questioned the validity of the experiment. Instead of simply being an outside observer of the study, Zimbardo served as the prison superintendent and had one of his students serve as the prison warden. Zimbardo himself has admitted that he regrets being the prison superintendent and should have remained more objective. In a 2018 article for Medium, writer Ben Blum argues that the study suffers from several key flaws. First, he reports that several of the prisoners claimed being unable to leave the study (Zimbardo denies this allegation). Second, he suggests that Zimbardo’s student David Jaffe (the prison warden) may have influenced the behavior of the guards by encouraging them to treat prisoners more harshly. It’s been pointed out that the Stanford Prison Experiment demonstrates the importance of reviewing the ethics of each research project before the study goes forward, and for researchers to think carefully about the study methods that they use. However, despite the controversies, the Stanford Prison Experiment raises a fascinating question: how much does the social context influence our behavior? Other Work by Zimbardo After conducting the Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo went on to conduct research on several other topics, such as how we think about time  and how people can overcome shyness.   Zimbardo has also worked to share his research with audiences outside of academia. In 2007, he wrote The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, based on what he learned about human nature through his research in the Stanford Prison Experiment. In 2008, he wrote The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life about his research on time perspectives. He has also hosted a series of educational videos titled Discovering Psychology. After the humanitarian abuses at Abu Ghraib came to light, Zimbardo has also spoken about the causes of abuse in prisons. Zimbardo was an expert witness  for one of the guards at Abu Ghraib, and he explained that he believed the cause of events at the prison were systemic.  In other words, he argues that, rather than being due to the behavior of a â€Å"few bad apples,† the abuses at Abu Ghraib occurred because of the system organizing the prison.  In a 2008 TED talk, he explains why he believes the events occurred at Abu Ghraib: â€Å"If you give people power without oversight, its a prescription for abuse.†Ã‚  Zimbardo has also spoken about the need for prison reform in order to prevent future abuses at prisons: for example, in a 2015 interview with Newsweek, he explained the importance of having better oversight of prison guards in order to prevent abuses from happening at prisons. Recent Research: Understanding Heroes One of Zimbardo’s most recent projects involves researching the psychology of heroism.   Why is it that some people are willing to risk their own safety to help others, and how can we encourage more people to stand up to injustice? Although the prison experiment shows how situations can powerfully shape our behavior, Zimbardo’s current research suggests that challenging situations don’t always cause us to behave in antisocial ways. Based on  his research on heroes, Zimbardo writes that difficult situations can sometimes actually cause people to act as heroes:   Ã¢â‚¬Å"A key insight from research on heroism so far is that the very same situations that inflame the hostile imagination in some people, making them villains, can also instill the heroic imagination in other people, prompting them to perform heroic deeds.†Ã‚   Currently, Zimbardo is president of the Heroic Imagination Project, a program that works to study heroic behavior and train people in strategies to behave heroically. Recently, for example, he has studied the frequency of heroic behaviors and the factors that cause people to act heroically. Importantly, Zimbardo has found from this research that everyday people can behave in heroic ways. In other words, despite the results of the Stanford Prison Experiment, his research has shown that negative behavior isn’t inevitable- instead, we are also capable of using challenging experiences as an opportunity to behave in ways that help other people. Zimbardo writes, â€Å"Some people argue humans are born good or born bad; I think that’s nonsense. We are all born with this tremendous capacity to be anything.† References Bekiempis, Victoria.   â€Å"What Philip Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment Tell Us About the Abuse of Power.†Ã‚   Newsweek, 4 Aug. 2015, www.newsweek.com/stanford-prison-experiment-age-justice-reform-359247.Blum, Ben. â€Å"The Lifespan of a Lie.† Medium: Trust Issues. https://medium.com/s/trustissues/the-lifespan-of-a-lie-d869212b1f62.Kilkenny, Katie.   â€Å"‘It’s Painful’: Dr. Philip Zimbardo Revisits the Stanford Prison Experiment.†Ã‚   Pacific Standard, 20 Jul. 2015, psmag.com/social-justice/philip-zimbardo-revisits-the-stanford-prison-experiment.Konnikova, Maria.   â€Å"The Real Lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment.†Ã‚   The New Yorker, 12 June 2015, www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/the-real-lesson-of-the-stanford-prison-experiment.â€Å"Philip G. Zimbardo: Stanford Prison Experiment.†Ã‚   Stanford Libraries, exhibits.stanford.edu/spe/about/philip-g-zimbardo.Ratnesar, Romesh.   â€Å"The Men ace Within.†Ã‚   Stanford Alumni, July/Aug. 2011, alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id40741.Slavich, George M.   â€Å"On 50 Years of Giving Psychology Away: An Interview with Philip Zimbardo.†Ã‚   Teaching of Psychology, vol. 36, no. 4, 2009, pp. 278-284, DOI: 10.1080/00986280903175772, www.georgeslavich.com/pubs/Slavich_ToP_2009.pdf. Toppo, Greg. â€Å"Time to Dismiss the Stanford Prison Experiment?† Inside Higher Ed,  2018, June 20,  https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/06/20/new-stanford-prison-experiment-revelations-question-findings.Zimbardo, Philip G.   â€Å"Philip G. Zimbardo.†Ã‚   Social Psychology Network, 8 Sep. 2016, zimbardo.socialpsychology.org/.Zimbardo, Philip G.   â€Å"The Psychology of Evil.†Ã‚   TED, Feb. 2008, www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.Zimbardo, Philip G.   â€Å"The Psychology of Time.†Ã‚   TED, Feb. 2009, www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_prescribes_a_healthy_take_on_time.Zimbardo, Philip G.   â€Å"What Makes a Hero?†Ã‚   Greater Good Science Center, 18 Jan. 2011, greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_makes_a_hero.

STRATEGY EVALUATION AND REVISION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

STRATEGY EVALUATION AND REVISION - Essay Example Like all other aspects of life, sport has also been subject to certain modifications time and again. In modern times, sport has been subject to tremendous competition and rivalry. Sport England has come up with number of strategies to develop the community sport in England. The prime objective of the Sport England is to have a set of talented professionals by 2012 London Olympics. For this purpose various strategies like tapping young talents, recruiting expert coaches, maximising the number of volunteers, integrating the club framework are being adopted. Sport England has partnership with NGBs, Youth Sport Trust, local authorities. The analysis of the strategies of Sport England reveals that the steps are quite outstanding and has created a general interest among the mass for the development of community sport. The importance and relevance of sport in human life has long been understood and accepted. The best of the minds and talents, irrespective of their working spheres have acknowledged this fact. As the famous scientist Benjamin Franklin observed, â€Å"Games lubricate the body and the mind†, the relevance of sport can be related to the spectrum of daily or day-to-day life. In simple words, sport can be defined as an activity where the participating and competitive forces apply their physical and mental abilities to win over the competitor within a periphery of declared regulations. Though in United Kingdoms, the activity is known as ‘Sport,’ in United States, it is popularly called ‘Sports’. Today, sporting teams and their related activities with highly professional partners make an industry. Generally, we refer it as the sporting industry or fraternity.

Global Marketing Strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Global Marketing Strategy - Assignment Example The second part of the study will be discussing the experience of 24/7 Stop as the primary provider of non-food commodities in the country. This part of the study will be covering the existing strategies that 24/7 Stop is engages in, such that they stay on top of the non-food retail industry. The paper will compose of the analysis of the company itself as well as the industry that it thrives in, particularly the non-food sector of the retail industry. The tools to be used in this examination include the analysis; analysis of its PEST and Porter's Diamond Model . The last part of the study will consist of a set of recommendations formulated by the researcher based on the results of the tools used in the analysis of the industry and the company. Thailand has done remarkably well since the beginning of the economic reform movement in 1978 (Wu, 1996). Between 1979 and 1995, Thailand's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 9.5 percent. Thailand's exports grew even faster and Thailand now ranks among the world's top 10 exporting economies. Moreover, Thailand's entry into the WTO will make Thailand's door even more open. Both foreign investment and foreign trade are expected to increase (Chow, 2000). Foreign firms will begin to penetrate Thailand's financial and telecommunication sectors. Trade will increase in both directions and Thai tariffs will be lowered and Thai goods will have better access to world markets open to members of the WTO. Using foreign competition to stimulate the domestic economy is a major objective in seeking to join WTO, as explicitly stated by the government Bangladesh has become a pioneer in the international garments industry as she is a major exporter of garments in the world which is very helpful in the country because it contributes not only to the country's GNP but also for a number of reasons like for example it had created a number of jobs. The country had created many new jobs of about 1.5 million, mostly for women - have been created by the country's dynamic private ready-made garment industry, which grew at double-digit rates through most of the 1990s. Despite the country's politically motivated general strikes, poor infrastructure, and weak financial system, Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have shown themselves adept at competing in the global garments marketplace. Bangladesh's exports to the U.S. surpassed $1.9 billion in 1999. Bangladesh also exports significant amounts of garments and knitwear to the EU market. The country has done less well, however, in expanding its export base-garments account for more than three-fourths of a ll exports, dwarfing the country's historic cash crop, jute, along with leather, shrimp, pharmaceuticals and ceramics (Bangladesh Garment and Exporters Association, 1997). Bangladesh' overview in their economy has made significant strides in that sector since her independence in 1971. Although the economy has improved vastly in the 1990s, Bangladesh still suffers an image crisis due to her civil war period of early 1970s. Despite major impediments to growth like the inefficiency of state-owned enterprises, a rapidly growing labor force that cannot be absorbed by agriculture, inadequate power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms, Prime Minister Sheikh HASINA Wajed's Awami League government has made some headway improving the climate for foreign investors and liberalizing the capital markets; for example, it has negotiated with foreign firms

Canadian Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Canadian Society - Essay Example Being Canadian means realizing that one's forefathers were the original anti-Americans. Our ancestors rejected the American revolution and they favored Great Britain. Canada faces the onslaught of Americanization. The late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau one time likened Canada to a mouse sleeping with an elephant, who fears that the tiniest move of the elephant may crush him. (Adms, 26). Being Canadian means being cognizant of the American dominance in the economy and politics. About 85 per cent of exports and imports are to and from the United States. The US is Canada's largest foreign investor in Canada. In the area of culture, Canadians are eager consumers of American television, cinema, popular music, magazines, books, fashions, and fast food. The common theme is evidently "birthright," or national sovereignty. The debate over the utilization of Canadian natural resources was spurred by fears of an insatiable American appetite for Canada's water, oil, timber. There are efforts to preserve the Canadian wheat, dairy, and poultry marketing board monopolies from competition by cheaper U.S. products. Most importantly, serious concerns over American cultural domination of Canada led to a series of exemptions for cultural industries were written into the CUFTA and then to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In particular, the CUFTA and NAFTA agreements had enshrined Canada's right to impose "Canadian content" requirements on radio and television, restrict foreign investment and ownership, and to permit government subsidies of cultural industries such as publishing, music, and cinema. Evidently, there was a fear that, in an unfettered market, Canada would be swamped by cheaper, more popular, American music, film, and the rest.There is an economic argument for the cultural protection of the Canadian film industry. Hollywood movies can easily enter the Canadian market. Hence, it is important that the local films are protected. Two arguments are relevant: either the aspects of Canadian culture that are represented in Canadian film would not flourish if Canadian film did n ot exist, or that Canadian film itself is worth protecting for its own sake. These arguments provide a rationale for a subsidy for the Canadian film industry. These efforts are essential for the preservation of an economically fragile national culture and with fewer impediments to individual choice, by using direct subsidies. In short, Canada would be better advised to foster its culture via subsidies than by restricting or taxing cultural imports.The purpose of this cultural subsidy is to help producers and consumers. In other words, national culture is meant to engender a common and unique experience within the "territory," The most important motivation for Canadian cultural protection policies: the widely shared sense of fragility of national identity itself. The Anglo-Canadians are metaphorically "90 percent" Americanized. This of course heightens the urgency of preserving the remaining "10 percent" of difference. A significant dimesion of Canadian cultural protection is restric tion of foreign ownership in the print and broadcast media, such as newspapers and television.Canada has been met with remarkable successful in engendering its cultural industrie

Charolett Murder Case Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Charolett Murder Case - Assignment Example The couple has no children. They kept to themselves and did not have a social life. There is nothing relevant in their past that can be a reason for Tina Smith’s killing. The incident was reported to the police by the victim’s husband. He saw his wife lying on the floor when he came home from work. A search of the victim’s car came up negative for evidence regarding the crime. There was no information gathered from the couple’s computer/s as well. An interview with the husband revealed that he works as a Maintenance Supervisor for the local municipal airport. On the day of the murder, cell phone records show that the husband was in his area of work. Moreover, there was no entry recorded on his time sheet that he had left his workplace. A scan of his truck did not come up with any significant legal evidence. There are also no witnesses to verify if he had left work and had returned at any time. A check of his co-workers shows that none has a criminal background. No one from his place of work has ever been convicted of a felony. That he had killed his wife for the insurance money has been ruled out. Research has gathered that there is no significant amount of life insurance between husband and wife. Since there is also no evidence to place blame on the husband, I am not considering him as a suspect as of this time. A common reason for spouses to kill their partner is to claim insurance. With Tina and Tony, there is no large amount of insurance money waiting for Tony in the event of Tina’s death. Interviews with the apartment complex maintenance staff resulted in nothing significant. There are no issues tying them to the victim or her husband. A background check on the couple shows they did not have any problems with anyone before moving in the apartment complex. Because there is no evidence incriminating the maintenance staff, I do not believe any one of them killed Tina. If any one of the maintenance people wanted to kill

Biomass Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Biomass Questions - Essay Example However, the technology for such venture is still in its infancy. It will take some more time before breakthrough in technology is achieved for viable energy production for commercial use from plastics and other combustible contents (Plastics and the environment). A herd of 2000 pigs can produce 400 ft3 of waste. This, in turn, can help produce 3120 ft3 of biogas per day. This figure of 3120 ft3 is arrived at assuming each pig produces 0.2 ft3 waste from which 7.8 ft3/day biogas is produced. (The Economics of Biogas in the Hog Industry, p7). The cogen must have the capacity of 1 x 75 kW and 1 x 110 kW to utilize the gas (The Economics of Biogas in the Hog Industry, p13). The landowner will have to cultivate 2500 hectares of land if eucalypt trees are planted and 10,000 hectares of land if short rotation irrigated forestry crops are planted to produce 10 MW power. This figure is arrived at calculating the requirement of 250 hectares of land if eucalypt trees are planted and 1000 hectares of land if short rotation irrigated forestry crops are planted to product 1 MW power. For irrigated forestry crops, the land availability depends on the type of the crops planted. 10,000 hectares of land will be required for forestry crops if the crop in question is Prosopis which is a thorny plant that already grows wild on extensive areas of wasteland and serves as fence (Garry Jacobs, p20). Lecture 2 - Answer 1 It is in the proportion of 10% ethanol to 100% petrol. The equation stems from the simple fact that the proportion of ethanol is about ten percent of the total quantity of petrol. This figure is arrived at on the basis of volume where 10% ethanol is required for 100% petrol. After the mix up, the equation becomes 10% ethanol and 90% petrol. As regards the second part of the question, the answer is based on answer 3 in lecture 1. The quantity of biomass for sugar beet is 100,000 tons for 10 MW power. 10,000 hectares of cereal residues will be sufficient to produce 10 MW power for one year. This figure is arrived at after calculating 10,000 tons of sugar beet for 1 MW power and 1000 hectares of cereal residues for 1 MW power (Garry Jacobs, p20). Answer 2 Australia has plenty of land resource. The issue is basically environmental. Australia consumes much power got from fossil fuel. This is responsible for pollution. Economy and job creation are also factors to consider for production of biomass. The Great Reef Barrier is impacted due to global warming. Hence, it is necessary for Australia to clean up its backyard. Australia also has tremendous reserves of water for use in creation of power. It also has land resource for any land salination requirement. Answer 3 The research for biomass 'crop' is at a nascent stage. Hence it is difficult to pinpoint with conviction any particular plant as the most suitable potential for biodiesel in Australia. The research is going on with several crops or their components such as algae, lignocellulose (woody or fibrous part of plants), wheat stubble, bagasse, plantation residues, urban waste wood and organic wastes (Sustainable biomass production). Of course, there are also sugar beet and cereal residues that are being researched

Answers for 5 discussion questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Answers for 5 discussion questions - Essay Example Jackson’s â€Å"The Haunting of Hill House† is a book whose plot revolves round haunting sessions in a hill house. â€Å"Eleanor did not sleep during the afternoon, although she would have liked to; instead, she lay on Theodoras bed in the green room and watched Theodora do her nails, chatting lazily, unwilling to let herself perceive that she had followed Theodora into the green room because she had not dared to be alone† (pg 40). This quote portrays horror in the hill house as everybody feels fear yet they refuse to admit. Horror in the hill house make characters incline to believe in redemption from religion. â€Å"Hell House† depicts haunting sessions and doom that befalls non-believers. This movie is unethical as a method of persuasion as it instills fear in characters leaving them with no other option but believe in religion. Cults and organizations exhibit pledge to their leaders regarding organizational beliefs, ideas and obligations. Leaders of cults and organizations command actions of members and resistance to these actions is unacceptable. Cults and organization serve to acquire financial benefits. Encouraging team spirit within cults and organizations forms a unique feature. However, cults differ from organizations in various aspects. Actions of leaders of organization are subject to review by relevant authorities marred with such duties. Cults are not answerable to any authorities and their activities are non-religious. Unlike cults, organizations condemn members from cutting links with their families or friends. Organizations are not necessarily formed on religious beliefs and ideologies. "It is also possible that part of our test of faith is our loving of this world, even our flesh body, to the extent to be willing to leave it without any proof of the Next Levels existence" (Davis pp. 123). The intriguing aspect of Davis’s analysis is the

Biomass Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Biomass Questions - Essay Example However, the technology for such venture is still in its infancy. It will take some more time before breakthrough in technology is achieved for viable energy production for commercial use from plastics and other combustible contents (Plastics and the environment). A herd of 2000 pigs can produce 400 ft3 of waste. This, in turn, can help produce 3120 ft3 of biogas per day. This figure of 3120 ft3 is arrived at assuming each pig produces 0.2 ft3 waste from which 7.8 ft3/day biogas is produced. (The Economics of Biogas in the Hog Industry, p7). The cogen must have the capacity of 1 x 75 kW and 1 x 110 kW to utilize the gas (The Economics of Biogas in the Hog Industry, p13). The landowner will have to cultivate 2500 hectares of land if eucalypt trees are planted and 10,000 hectares of land if short rotation irrigated forestry crops are planted to produce 10 MW power. This figure is arrived at calculating the requirement of 250 hectares of land if eucalypt trees are planted and 1000 hectares of land if short rotation irrigated forestry crops are planted to product 1 MW power. For irrigated forestry crops, the land availability depends on the type of the crops planted. 10,000 hectares of land will be required for forestry crops if the crop in question is Prosopis which is a thorny plant that already grows wild on extensive areas of wasteland and serves as fence (Garry Jacobs, p20). Lecture 2 - Answer 1 It is in the proportion of 10% ethanol to 100% petrol. The equation stems from the simple fact that the proportion of ethanol is about ten percent of the total quantity of petrol. This figure is arrived at on the basis of volume where 10% ethanol is required for 100% petrol. After the mix up, the equation becomes 10% ethanol and 90% petrol. As regards the second part of the question, the answer is based on answer 3 in lecture 1. The quantity of biomass for sugar beet is 100,000 tons for 10 MW power. 10,000 hectares of cereal residues will be sufficient to produce 10 MW power for one year. This figure is arrived at after calculating 10,000 tons of sugar beet for 1 MW power and 1000 hectares of cereal residues for 1 MW power (Garry Jacobs, p20). Answer 2 Australia has plenty of land resource. The issue is basically environmental. Australia consumes much power got from fossil fuel. This is responsible for pollution. Economy and job creation are also factors to consider for production of biomass. The Great Reef Barrier is impacted due to global warming. Hence, it is necessary for Australia to clean up its backyard. Australia also has tremendous reserves of water for use in creation of power. It also has land resource for any land salination requirement. Answer 3 The research for biomass 'crop' is at a nascent stage. Hence it is difficult to pinpoint with conviction any particular plant as the most suitable potential for biodiesel in Australia. The research is going on with several crops or their components such as algae, lignocellulose (woody or fibrous part of plants), wheat stubble, bagasse, plantation residues, urban waste wood and organic wastes (Sustainable biomass production). Of course, there are also sugar beet and cereal residues that are being researched

Legal Risk and Opportunity in Employment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Legal Risk and Opportunity in Employment - Essay Example (Morris, 2008). If Paul had been fired for being black, he would definitely have a case against Newcorp. However, if he was fired for his voiced opinion at the school board meeting, this would not be protected. While the First Amendment protects freedom of speech, it makes no note that employers have to â€Å"put up with it.† (Morris, 2008). Pat is wrong in his belief that his employee manual’s described process of the corrective action plan means that he cannot be fired without warning. In the case of Toussaint v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield, the employee handbook stated that employees could only be fired after warning, notice, and hearing; Toussaint had been fired without warning. The court ruled in favor of Toussaint, and declared that an employee handbook creates contract. (Samuelson, 2007). However, since then, employers have been very careful in taking steps to protect themselves from this sort of liability. (Morris, 2008). Newcorp having Pat sign the statement of at-will employment was a proper way to prevent liability. And if Pat had looked carefully at his handbook, he probably would have discovered some sort of language within it expressing that it was not to be relied upon as a contract. (Morris, 2008). Paula is correct in believing that it is illegal for her not to be transferred to wire-coating based on her sex. Sex discrimination in the workplace involves the different treatment of an employee based on sex that negatively affects things like pay, employment, and advancement or training opportunities. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace and applies to â€Å"private employers, state and local government employers, labor organizations, employment agencies, and joint employer-union apprenticeship programs with 15 or more employees.† (Equal Rights Advocates, 2008). Although Paula is young and could

Lord Byron Essay Example for Free

Lord Byron Essay Lord Byron is considered to be one of the most important poet in his time. He was as famous for his personality as he was for his poetry. The way his life affected what he wrote made his poems even better. His works, life, and writing style are what made Lord Byron one of the most important poets of the Romantic Movement. George Gordon Noel Byron (Lord Byron) was born on January 22, 1788 in London, England. His dad, Captain â€Å"Mad Jack† Byron married his mother, Catherine Gordon, for her money. Throughout their marriage he spent away most of her fortune before he died in 1791. When Lord Byron’s father died he was left with nothing. After his father died he seemed to have a long life ahead of him. He had a birth defect that made him walk on his toes for his entire life and his mother was unstable. Lord Byron took out his stress by writing poetry. When he was only eight years old he fell in love. When he turned sixteen years old he was told that the woman he loved was engaged. He became very depressed and felt very ill. In 1798 his granduncle died and Lord Byron inherited his uncles estate. Now that he had some money, he went to Trinity College after spending his time from 1801 to 1805 at Harrow. In 1808, he planned to spend the year with his cousin, George Bettesworth. He was the captain of his own ship and in May of 1808 he died in the Battle of Alvon. So, from 1809 to 1811 Lord Byron spent the years cruising the Mediterranean. The Napoleonic Wars were going on in Europe at this time so he had to avoid most of Europe. During this time Lord Byron’s first book of poetry, Hours of Idleness, was published in 1809. The two-year Mediterranean trip gave him most of the material he wrote about in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. These two cantos were the first great successes he had. In 1813 Lord Byron apparently had more than a brother-sister relationship with his half sister Augusta Leigh. She was already the mother of three children. She gave birth to Elizabeth Medora in 1814. Elizabeth was thought by many people to be Lord Byron’s child, but in 1815 he married Anne Isabella Milbanke. They had a child named Ada in the same year, but the marriage did not last and they separated the next year. In 1816 Byron left England when rumors started of his debts. He was never to return back to England in his life. The only virtue they honor in England is hypocrisy, (Liukkonen, Petri) he wrote in a letter to his friend when he left England. He settled in Geneva, where he meant Claire Clairmont. She became his mistress, but at the end of summer he moved again. He spent two years working and writing in Italy. I was struck by his eyes I have never in my life seen anything more beautiful or more expressive, (Liukkonen, Petri) is a quote from a French writer that saw Lord Byron at an opera in Italy. While in Italy he, wrote several poems including Lament of Tasso, Mazeppa, and The Prophecy of Dante. During his stays in Italy he became very interested in drama. He wrote several dramas including The Two Foscari, Sardanapalaus, and many others. In January of 1817, Claire Clairmont gave birth to his daughter Clara Allegra. Lord Byron abandoned his daughter and she died in 1822 with a bad case of typhus fever. In Italy, he risked his life helping a secret group called the Italian Carbonari in 1820 and 1821. In 1824 he decided to take action and move to Greece. He joined a group called the Greek freedom fighters. By this time he was in Missolonghi, Greece. He unfortunately died here on April 19, 1824 of a fever. Lord Byron is the most well known of the famous romantic poets. His poetry had a recurring theme of being romantic. Lord Byron wrote many long romantic poems and some shorter ones in a traditional satirical style of poetry. His poems all varied in their subject matter. A lot of his romantic poems were about the many women he was involved with. An example would be the poem She Walks in Beauty, it is a poem about how beautiful he thought the woman he was in love with was. His poems also were about things he believed in. The poem, The Destruction of Sennacherib, shows that Lord Byron shared his religious views in his poetry. Throughout his travels he went to many places that were inspiration for his poetry. The Lament of Tasso was written when he was in Rome. He visited Tassos cell, which inspired him to right the poem. His vary in types of poetry and subject matter helped his poetry stay popular. Lord Byron’s poetry has many connections with what was going on in his life. He first started writing poetry to release the stress of the birth defect that he was born with. His different kinds of poetry were all connected with his life. He was most known for his romantic poetry. In these poems, he wrote about the relationships he had with woman. The places he travelled also influenced his poetry. His travels in Italy got him into drama and that was result of many of his best poems. How religious he was and how much he cared about what was going on around him showed in his life and in his poetry. He wrote about and it was also the reason he chose to move to Greece to help them rise over their rulers by joining the Greek freedom fighters. The connection between his life and his poetry is what made him as popular as he was. Lord Byron was one of the most famous and talented writers of his time. His life, poetry, and the way they were connected are what made him one of the most famous poets of his time. His poetry was an influence on the writing of other poets in his time and continues to influence poets today.

High Technology Semiconductor Company Acquisitions

High Technology Semiconductor Company Acquisitions The fast rate of technological change was one of the most important trends in the 1990s and this brought an increasing complexity and cost to the development of new technologies. Companies used their innovative assets as a major source of competitive advantage to quickly introduce new products and adopt new processes (Sen and Egelhoff, 2000). Acquisitions are completed in many industries for reasons that are aligned with the dominant competitive driving forces for that industry. In the area of high technology and seminconductors, the competitive drivers are short product life cycles and process advancement. Process advances are required to both support the incremental changes to existing products and to allow the creation of radically new one. The number of acquisitions rapidly increased through the decade for several reasons: the product life cycle was getting shorter; participating in the creation of industry and product standards was crucial; early entry helped capture market shar e; and R D risk could be reduced. Hagedoorn (1993) found the reduction in innovation time and acquisition of needed technologies as the most important reasons for one company to pursue another. Several researchers have written about the radical and incremental innovation capabilities, their distinguishing factors and the important consequences to the corporation. It has also been argued that large firms are effective with incremental innovations and small firms are better at radical innovations. (Ettlie, Bridges, and OKeefe, 1984; Dewar and Dutton, 1986; Christensen, 1992). Corporate decision to acquire or not acquire another company embodies a high level, serious management strategy decision toward repositioning a company in the competitive landscape. The decade from 1990 to 2000 was chosen as an important time for acquisition activity. There was frequent activity in acquisitions during a time of stable economic conditions creating good conditions for analysis. In 1990, the dollar value of all acquisitions and mergers in the United States was two percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2000, the value reached over 15% of the GDP (Mergerstat, 2003). In the first 10 months of 2000, in the technology sector alone, there were 2,019 acquisition and merger deals worth $573 billion (Reason, 2000). This occurred despite studies done in the 1980s and 1990s that found little positive effect financially for the acquiring company. The magnitude of the activity strongly suggests that some positive relationship could be found if examined in a different way o r using new metrics. This research uses a different methodology by exploring a single industry, selecting profitability growth as the metric from theoretical industry driving forces and analyzing profitability over time as a statistical repeated measures model using SPSS software. The results from this work may have strategic implications for remaining competitive in high technology, high-velocity industries. It should be noted here that the term acquisition, mergers and acquisitions and M A will be used interchangeably in this research and are defined in Appendix A along with other important terms. In high technology industries, such as semiconductors, a firm interested in new product innovation must aggressively invest to stay at the leading edge. Creating or acquiring new offerings can be dependent on a combination of efforts directed either internal or external to the company. Internal efforts include primarily Research and Development (R D) or newly formed affiliates, termed greenfields (Vermeulen Barkema, 2001; Sonenclar, 1984; Bradley Korn, 1981). External efforts can take the form of acquisition or mergers to best capture the intellectual property (IP) that is maintained in the categories of trade secret and proprietary know-how. Acquisitions, when done well, appear to have the advantage of capturing this kind of IP as compared to the other forms of external efforts. Acquisitions also potentially offer faster repositioning with less risk and lower cost than pursuing internal company endeavors (Singh Montgomery, 1987). A high technology companys success hinges on crea tion of innovative ideas, availability of creative personnel, speed of new product execution and cost effectiveness. Mergers and acquisitions are a highly favored management avenue for growth and competitive positioning. The importance of this management consideration and the impact of mergers and acquisitions continue to expand with billions of dollars involved. The importance in the technology sector becomes apparent when looking at the 724 firms that made their initial public offering (IPO) in 1992, but were not acquired or merged. Of these companies, 58% were selling at less than their IPO price six years later (Small Business Statistics, 2000). Product and service offering must constantly evolve and change (Thompson Strickland, 2001). High velocity innovation is fundamental to the growth and survival of high technology businesses. Organizations that are successful have a regular stream of unique products and services. Hewlett-Packard had over 50% of revenue in 1999 coming from products introduced in the previous two to four years. In high technology companies, the highest profit levels come from the newest products. Consequently, it is imperative to accelerate the innovation cycle, often through mergers and acquisitions, and this is critically important to remaining competitive. Entrepreneurial firms consistently outperform larger firms in both market and earnings growth on the Inc. 500 and Forbes 200 lists (Imparato Harari, 1994). There are several potential reasons for making an acquisition that have been identified and studied in the literature. In addition to the reasons for actually acquiring, there are a number of factors following the event that will influence the degree of success or failure that these efforts may experience. These elements that play a part in determining the outcome have been the focus of studies that are summarized in the Literature Review. WHAT MAKES HIGH-TECH COMPANIES AND THEIR ACQUISITIONS UNIQUE Both the popular business press as well as recent academic research seems to uniformly accept the unique nature of high-tech stocks. Kohers and Kohers (2000) state: The high-growth nature of technology-based industries distinguishes them from other types of industries. In addition to their high-growth potential, however, another distinctive feature of high-tech industries is the inherent uncertainty associated with companies whose values rely on future outcomes or developments is unproven, uncharted fields (p. 40). In fact, many pure technology stocks are young companies, underfunded and without prospects for generating any cash flows in the near future. Nevertheless, despite the inherent uncertainty of high-tech industries, investors seemed to disregard most equity fundamentals when valuing technology stocks, especially during the market upturn in the late 1990s. As a result, even though high-tech stocks were in general extremely volatile, many of them were trading at remarkable pre miums. The exploding rate of growth in M A activity that involved high-tech industries can be partly attributed to those overly optimistic valuations. Puranam (2001) argues: On the acquirers side, booming stock market valuations have made acquisitions for stock feasible for several relatively small (revenue wise) firms, as well as the more established larger ones. On the targets side, an increasing preference for the ready liquidity offered, by an acquisition, as opposed to the paper profits from an IPO have created an environment conducive to acquisitions of small start-ups. At the same time many of these acquisitions were also motivated by the acquirers need to obtain critical technologies and expertise in order to quickly enhance their own technological competence. Despite the burst of the high-tech market bubble and the failure of most of these acquisitions, investors continue to show an extreme faith on these stocks. Americans still believe that technology can create a better world. Each time the U.S. tech sector falls into a trough, new technologies and companies emerge to lead it forward again (Business Week, August 27, 2001). PROBLEM MOTIVATING THIS STUDY This research effort seeks to understand the relationship between acquisitions and profitability by looking at the industrial sector for high technology semiconductor companies. Many prior studies have shown little financial benefit to the acquiring company in research conducted beginning in the 1980s and extending to today using a variety of variables, measures and company sample selection. These studies will be discussed in more detail in the Literature Review. The researchers Rumelt (1984), Ravenscraft and Scherer (1987), Porter (1987) and Kaplan and Weisbach (1990) separately found that acquisitions that could be categorized as unrelated, or diversifications, did not lead to profitability improvements, but most of these studies obviously included a cross-section of divergent industries. The importance of innovation and new products in high velocity, competitive environments is discussed in literature and high velocity innovation is fundamental to the growth, profitability and sur vival of these businesses (Thompson and Strickland, 1999; Betz, 2001; Burgelman, Christensen and Wheelwright, 2004). The competitive advantage of capturing intellectual property through acquisition has also been discussed more recently. More clear evidence is beginning to emerge concerning the drive to acquire technology and the unique features of doing so (Prentice Fox, 2002). This research examines the correlation between the event of acquisition and subsequent company performance and growth of profitability in the decade of 1990-2000. Practicing managers in the area of management of technology are faced with the challenge of high velocity innovation being a requirement to maintain competitive positioning (Thompson Strickland, 2001). Two methods for constant innovation include internal efforts, such as Research Development (R D), and external efforts, such as acquisitions, on which this paper focuses. Prior studies have been cross-sectional across different industries and analyzed the benefits gained in terms of patents and R D (Bettis 1981), stock price (Matsusaka, 1990; Schleifer and Vishny, 1990; and Lubatkin, 1982) or increase in company size versus the cost of acquisitions. These studies have not captured one of the most unique features of the high technology industry where innovation and new products are dependent on intellectual property (IP) that is maintained in the categories of trade secret and proprietary know-how. Because of this characteristic, the high technology industry would be expected to yield different results. The importance of IP and know-how has been an area of academic focus working to clarify the concept of absorptive capacity in the 1990s, but empirical work to tie these concepts to firm performance was not pursued (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Barney, 1991; Prahalad and Hamel, 1990). The use of patents as a measure, as used in prior research (Acs and Aud retsch, 1988; Pakes and Griliches, 1980; Hitt, Hoskisson, Ireland and Harrison, 1991), does not capture the IP benefits in these categories or measure the success resulting from these external efforts. Acquisitions, when done well, should be expected to have an advantage on capturing this kind of IP. Acquisitions potentially offer faster positioning with less risk and lower cost than internal company endeavors which include primarily Research and Development (R D) (Gulati, 1995; Singh Montgomery, 1987). STUDY OVERVIEW This research effort focuses on one high technology industrial sector of semiconductors and studies the correlation between acquisitions, profitability, survivability and RD intensity over time. Many prior studies (Rumelt, 1984; Ravenscraft and Scherer, 1987; Porter, 1987; and Kaplan and Weisbach, 1990) have shown little financial benefit to the acquiring company, but most of these studies included a cross-section of divergent industries. The importance of innovation and new products in high velocity, competitive environments is widely discussed in literature. High velocity innovation is fundamental for the theory of growth, profitability and survival of these businesses. The competitive advantage of capturing intellectual property through acquisition has also been discussed more recently. More clear evidence is beginning to emerge concerning the drive to acquire technology and the unique features of doing so (Prentice Fox, 2002). This paper researches the correlation between the ev ent of acquisition and subsequent company performance, survivability, the growth of profitability and R D spending. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ON HIGH-TECH COMPANIES Most research on high-tech companies is relatively recent and has its origin in various business fields. Chaudhuri and Tabrizi (1999) study the practices of 24 high-tech companies involved in acquisitions, and try to identify the key factors in capturing the real value in high-tech acquisitions. They conclude that in order to make a successful acquisition managers need to move beyond the traditional model of acquisitions where the people acquired are secondary to physical assets and brands. High-tech acquisitions need to focus on the people since technological capabilities tied to skilled people are the key to long-term success in these industries. Arora, Fosfuri and Gambardella (2000) examine how the growth of markets for technology affected the corporate strategies of the leading companies, which can now sell technologies that they do not use in-house and increase their potential returns to R D. They argue that globalization, along with the low transportation costs of technologies, has made large R D intensive companies realize that they have the potential to exploit their technology on a very large scale by licensing. However, in deciding how to exploit their technology small firms and technology-based startups face a different set of challenges. According to the authors they need to trade off the costs of acquiring capital and building in-house production, distribution and marketing capability against the rents that would be lost or shared with their partners in a licensing deal. Also, the authors argue that integration may reduce the innovative potential of the firm, because the acquisition of the complementary assets in evitably increases the size of firms and induces important changes in the culture of the firm and in the speed and fluidity of information flows. Finally, they claim that evaluating technologies and being able to use them requires substantial in-house scientific and technological expertise and therefore internal and external R D can be reviewed as complements and not substitutes. Liu (2000) focuses on a different issue by examining the markets reaction to innovation news announcement made by the U.S. biotech firms during the 1983-1992 period. He finds that the average AR to the announcements is as high as 3.98 percent for a three-day event window and biotech stocks trading volumes almost double on the day of the news announcement. The announcement period ARs are negatively related to firm-size and underwriter reputation, while positively related to the firms technology depth as measured by R D intensity. However, during the months following the announcement the average three-month post announcement AR is 2.73 percent. The negative drift in stock prices appears to be mainly driven by the firms weak science and technology (less R D intensive), firms with high Book to Market (B/M) ratios and large firms. In explaining his findings the author proposes an expectation error hypothesis. According to this hypothesis it is hard for investors or even managers to prec isely evaluate the economic value of innovations which in turn leads to the possibility of forming erroneous expectations. In high-tech industries the erroneous expectation is reflected in the investors over-optimism towards high-tech firms innovation news. Eventually, the stock prices adjust itself to reflect the firms fundamentals, especially its technology depth. The author attributes the observed evidence to the costly information required to value a high-tech firms innovation. Prentice and Fox (2002) provide a comprehensive review of the merger and acquisition process while focusing on the distinctive characteristics of high-tech companies. They argue that technology mergers are different from traditional mergers because of the importance that must be placed on people and their ability to innovate. Targets must be evaluated on intangible assets such as intellectual property and human capital. At the same time managers need to consider the issues of retention, culture and integration strategy from the beginning of the merger process to ensure success. There are two studies that are most relevant to this research. The first one is by Kohers and Kohers (2000) who examine the value creation potential of 1,634 mergers in the various high-tech areas between 1987 and 1996. They find that acquirers of high-tech targets experience significantly positive Ars at the time of the merger announcement, regardless of whether the merger is financed with cash or stock. Othe r factors influencing bidder returns are the time period in which the merger occurs, the ownership structure of the acquirer, the ownership status of the target and the high-tech affiliation of acquirers. They conclude that the market appears to be optimistic about such mergers and expects that acquiring companies will enjoy future growth benefits. The second related study is also by Kohers and Kohers (2001) who examine the post-merger performance of acquirers that purchase high-tech targets in order to determine whether the high expectations regarding the future merits of these investments are actually justified. Their results indicate that compared to non acquirers, acquirers perform poorly over the three-year period following the high-tech takeover announcement. Furthermore, glamour bidders show significantly lower long-run ARs, while value bidders do not experience significant post-merger ARs. Also, glamour bidders with a higher risk of agency problems show even worse post-merger performance while institutional ownership in the acquiring firm has a positive influence on acquirer long run ARs. Overall, the authors conclude that the market tends to exhibit excessive enthusiasm toward the expected benefits of high-tech mergers but many of these benefits do not materialize. CHAPTER 3 HYPOTHESES, METHODOLOGY AND DATA SOURCES STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES Previous research in the literature has generally found little financial benefit for the acquiring companies that were associated with occurrence of the acquisition activity (Rumelt, 1974; Ravenscraft and Scherer, 1987; Porter, 1987; and Kaplan and Weisbach, 1990). Consequently, the first and second questions for this study are focused using the single industry of semiconductors, are stated in the null hypothesis format. First, firm profitability growth rates are compared in two groups, one that does acquire and one that does not. Secondly, individual firm profitability growth is examined before and after an acquisition event looking for a change in growth rate that is significant. Hypothesis 1 (H1): There will be no significant difference in profitability growth when firms making acquisitions are compared to firms not making acquisitions in the high-tech sector. Hypothesis 2 (H2): Acquiring firms making acquisitions are expected to have no significant change in profitability growth before and after the acquisition event. The literature yields less empirical work in analyzing the relationship between merger and acquisition actions and the longevity of a corporation. Theory certainly recognizes the close link between competitive capability and company survival. For the high technology industry of semiconductors, high velocity innovation is a requirement for remaining competitive. Research questions three and four are also stated in the null hypothesis format. Company longevity, or survival rate in number of year, is compared in two groups also, where one group does acquire and one does not. Lastly, an individual firms spending rate on R D is examined before and after an acquisition event looking for a significant change in the rate compared to the trend for the company. Hypothesis 3 (H3): Firms making acquisitions are expected to have no difference in survivability in this industry than firms who do not make acquisitions. Hypothesis 4 (H4): A companys R D intensity will show no significant change following the event of acquisition within this industry. SELECTION OF VARIABLES This research was conducted in a concentric approach by starting with one independent and one dependent variable initially to define the relationship and guide the next treatment in the study. As work continued, variables were selected and the methodology expanded to assess both within-subject and between-subject effects. The variables used in this study for Hypothesis 1 (H1) include profitability growth rate and a dummy variable to represent the presence or absence of the event of acquisition. The event of acquisition is represented by a dummy variable with a zero (0) representing no acquisition and with a one (1) representing an acquisition event. An acquisition event is identified by using a firms reported cash flows attributed to acquisition as stated in the Compustat database. The profitability growth rate is calculated from the total gross profit margin reported by year and cumulated over three years, then averaged to reduce fluctuations and facilitate identification of trends. The variables used for H2 analysis of profitability growth rate before and after an acquisition were the dummy variable for the presence of acquisition, the gross profit margin percentage (GPM %) calculated as a three (3) year cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) to smooth fluctuations and better identify a trend. This relationship was studied for three (3) years prior to the actual acquisition and five (5) years following the action. As the study progressed, a second dummy variable was used for company size to separate the effect of this independent variable as well. A repeated measures matrix was designed with two dummy independent variable as well. A repeated measures matrix was designed with two dummy independent variables, each with two levels and one dependent variable with repeated measures over nine years for a 2 x 2 x 9 repeated measures analysis using the SPPS software. The variables used for H3 analysis of acquisition relation to firm longevity were the acquisition dummy variable and the data from Compustat for the number of years that the company did financial reporting during the period of this study. H4 looks for the effects between acquisition and RD spending or intensity by using the acquisition dummy independent variable and R D intensity as the dependent variable. R D intensity is calculated using the R D expense reported as such by the companies and in the Compustat database. This Compustat item represents all costs incurred during the year that relate to the development of new products or services. This amount is only the company`s contribution and includes software and amortization of software costs and complies with Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) standards. This item excludes customer or government-sponsored research and development (including reimbursable indirect costs) and ordinary engineering expenses for routine, ongoing efforts to define, enrich, or improve the qualities of existing products. Methodology This study encompasses the time period of ten years from 1990-2000, inclusive. Semiconductor companies were selected as an entire group according to their NAICS/SIC codes. Using the Standard Poors Compustat database, there are 153 semiconductor companies included that were identified as active companies at the end of the calendar year 2000 by Compustat. These companies are listed in Appendix B. Active reporting for one year. Companies are designated as inactive and reclassified in the Compustat database when it is no longer actively traded on a stock market exchange due to bankruptcy, becoming a private company, leveraged buyout or merging. The research effort started with analysis one independent variable and one dependent variable in order to initially establish what the relationship was that existed, if it was significant and how to proceed with analysis. Exploratory work on Hypothesis 1 showed that there was a statistically significant and positive correlation between acquisitions and gross profit margin (GMP) growth broadly over the decade which differs from prior research. Hypothesis 2 moves toward a more detailed analysis of this finding. Consequently, in this chronology of discovery, the next step presented in Section 4.2 look at one dependent variable of profit margin growth and two independent variables of company size and acquisition activity. 3-way ANNOVA and regression treatments of the data are conducted using the data analysis tool available under Microsoft Excel Software looking at individual years in the ten year study period. The results show significance again and suggest that other interactions betwe en variables would yield additional understanding. The next step in the research was set up to look at one dependent variable, again gross margin (GPM) growth, repeatedly measured over time for each subject or company was entered for the nine (9) years 1995-2000 inclusive to capture acquisition effects giving 2 x 2 x 9 repeated measures design. The two independent variables were used in the dummy format with non-acquires given a code zero 0 and acquires assigned at one (1). Company size was the second dummy variable with firms less than $100M in sales per year coded zero (0) and if greater than $100M in sales, assigned a one (1). The statistical analysis using a repeated measures design analyzed the variable interactions and their relationship to GPM growth using the SPSS software. These results are presented in Section 4.5 Repeated Measures Analysis that was done using SPSS software. Descriptive statistics were an important first treatment of the data sets created. This includes the values for the following parameters: mean, median, range variance, standard deviation, kurtosis, and skewness. This treatment looks at characteristics of the data and the degree of normal distribution. The 3-way ANOVA investigations and regression treatment of the data were initially done using the data analysis tool software available in Microsoft Excel. Generally, the data sets for this study vary somewhat from the classical normal distribution, but ANOVA and MANOVA (multivariate ANOVA) within a repeated measures analysis are considered robust to violations of the normal distribution assumption (Maxwell Dealney, 1990; Stevens, 1996) SPSS Advanced Models 11.0 software was used to create general linear models of the data and conduct analysis of variance (ANOVA), regression, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for the multiple variables in this model with repeated measures. The factors or independent variables were used to divide the population of 153 active semiconductor companies into groups. There were two independent variables used that were designated as dummy variables. The first variable of acquisition separated companies that did complete acquisitions from those that did not complete acquisitions during the decade of study. The second variable grouped the companies by size of sales at the end of the decade by either greater than $100 million or less than $100 million. Then the general linear model procedure was used to test the four null hypotheses, as stated above, regarding the effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable of gross profit margin growth as a repeated measure over the perio d 1992-2000. The investigation included looking at interactions between factors as well as the individual factors and the effects and interactions of covariates. This model specifies the independent variables as covariates for regression analysis. The SPSS repeated measures model creates a matrix for the sums of squares due to the model effects, gives the approximate F statistics and estimates parameters in addition to testing hypotheses. When an F test shows significance, SPSS performs post hoc tests to evaluate the differences between the means. This yields a predicted mean value for the cells of the model. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to named variables to study the portion of variance in the each variable that could be identified as explained and unexpected with regard to the event of acquisition. A covariance tool was also used when looking at the variables described above such as acquisition occurrence, company size and profitability growth changes. This compares whether the two ranges of data move together à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" that is, whether large values of one set were associated with large values of the other (positive covariance), whether small values of one set were associated with large values of the other (negative covariance), or whether values in both sets were unrelated (covariance near zero). DATA SOURCES Standard Poors Compustat database was used for data collection in this research. The database contains fundamental financial, statistical and market data derived from publicity traded companies trading on the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, OTC and Canadian stock exchanges. The calendar year for a company is the year in which the fiscal year ends and is the time period used as standard in this research. Companies with fiscal years ending in January through May are assigned by Compustant into the year in which the fiscal year begins. Companies with fiscal years that end in June through December are assigned to the year in which the fiscal year ends. The EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval) System database maintained by the United Stated Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) was also used. The EDGAR data is also collected from the same sources that are used to generate the Compustat database. Data from these controlled and verifiable sources were corroborated and augmented with information collected from semiconductor trade journals, company annual reports and the Mergers Acquisitions Journal that tracks statistics in this area. CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION HI à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" ACQUISITON AND PROFITABILITY RELATIONSHIP A strong positive relationship was found to exist between the presence of acquisition activity and the growth in gross profit margin (GPM) by the end of the ten year study period. The statistical analysis is detailed below and is a departure from previous findings. This finding addresses the central question of this research endeavor to look for a relationship between acquisition events and profitability growth within the one industry of semiconductors. A positive financial effect is found and opens the path for additional analysis in this direction. Consequently, this information forms the foundation for the additional work presented in this research. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON ANALYSIS GOING ON >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> High Technology Semiconductor Company Acquisitions High Technology Semiconductor Company Acquisitions The fast rate of technological change was one of the most important trends in the 1990s and this brought an increasing complexity and cost to the development of new technologies. Companies used their innovative assets as a major source of competitive advantage to quickly introduce new products and adopt new processes (Sen and Egelhoff, 2000). Acquisitions are completed in many industries for reasons that are aligned with the dominant competitive driving forces for that industry. In the area of high technology and seminconductors, the competitive drivers are short product life cycles and process advancement. Process advances are required to both support the incremental changes to existing products and to allow the creation of radically new one. The number of acquisitions rapidly increased through the decade for several reasons: the product life cycle was getting shorter; participating in the creation of industry and product standards was crucial; early entry helped capture market shar e; and R D risk could be reduced. Hagedoorn (1993) found the reduction in innovation time and acquisition of needed technologies as the most important reasons for one company to pursue another. Several researchers have written about the radical and incremental innovation capabilities, their distinguishing factors and the important consequences to the corporation. It has also been argued that large firms are effective with incremental innovations and small firms are better at radical innovations. (Ettlie, Bridges, and OKeefe, 1984; Dewar and Dutton, 1986; Christensen, 1992). Corporate decision to acquire or not acquire another company embodies a high level, serious management strategy decision toward repositioning a company in the competitive landscape. The decade from 1990 to 2000 was chosen as an important time for acquisition activity. There was frequent activity in acquisitions during a time of stable economic conditions creating good conditions for analysis. In 1990, the dollar value of all acquisitions and mergers in the United States was two percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2000, the value reached over 15% of the GDP (Mergerstat, 2003). In the first 10 months of 2000, in the technology sector alone, there were 2,019 acquisition and merger deals worth $573 billion (Reason, 2000). This occurred despite studies done in the 1980s and 1990s that found little positive effect financially for the acquiring company. The magnitude of the activity strongly suggests that some positive relationship could be found if examined in a different way o r using new metrics. This research uses a different methodology by exploring a single industry, selecting profitability growth as the metric from theoretical industry driving forces and analyzing profitability over time as a statistical repeated measures model using SPSS software. The results from this work may have strategic implications for remaining competitive in high technology, high-velocity industries. It should be noted here that the term acquisition, mergers and acquisitions and M A will be used interchangeably in this research and are defined in Appendix A along with other important terms. In high technology industries, such as semiconductors, a firm interested in new product innovation must aggressively invest to stay at the leading edge. Creating or acquiring new offerings can be dependent on a combination of efforts directed either internal or external to the company. Internal efforts include primarily Research and Development (R D) or newly formed affiliates, termed greenfields (Vermeulen Barkema, 2001; Sonenclar, 1984; Bradley Korn, 1981). External efforts can take the form of acquisition or mergers to best capture the intellectual property (IP) that is maintained in the categories of trade secret and proprietary know-how. Acquisitions, when done well, appear to have the advantage of capturing this kind of IP as compared to the other forms of external efforts. Acquisitions also potentially offer faster repositioning with less risk and lower cost than pursuing internal company endeavors (Singh Montgomery, 1987). A high technology companys success hinges on crea tion of innovative ideas, availability of creative personnel, speed of new product execution and cost effectiveness. Mergers and acquisitions are a highly favored management avenue for growth and competitive positioning. The importance of this management consideration and the impact of mergers and acquisitions continue to expand with billions of dollars involved. The importance in the technology sector becomes apparent when looking at the 724 firms that made their initial public offering (IPO) in 1992, but were not acquired or merged. Of these companies, 58% were selling at less than their IPO price six years later (Small Business Statistics, 2000). Product and service offering must constantly evolve and change (Thompson Strickland, 2001). High velocity innovation is fundamental to the growth and survival of high technology businesses. Organizations that are successful have a regular stream of unique products and services. Hewlett-Packard had over 50% of revenue in 1999 coming from products introduced in the previous two to four years. In high technology companies, the highest profit levels come from the newest products. Consequently, it is imperative to accelerate the innovation cycle, often through mergers and acquisitions, and this is critically important to remaining competitive. Entrepreneurial firms consistently outperform larger firms in both market and earnings growth on the Inc. 500 and Forbes 200 lists (Imparato Harari, 1994). There are several potential reasons for making an acquisition that have been identified and studied in the literature. In addition to the reasons for actually acquiring, there are a number of factors following the event that will influence the degree of success or failure that these efforts may experience. These elements that play a part in determining the outcome have been the focus of studies that are summarized in the Literature Review. WHAT MAKES HIGH-TECH COMPANIES AND THEIR ACQUISITIONS UNIQUE Both the popular business press as well as recent academic research seems to uniformly accept the unique nature of high-tech stocks. Kohers and Kohers (2000) state: The high-growth nature of technology-based industries distinguishes them from other types of industries. In addition to their high-growth potential, however, another distinctive feature of high-tech industries is the inherent uncertainty associated with companies whose values rely on future outcomes or developments is unproven, uncharted fields (p. 40). In fact, many pure technology stocks are young companies, underfunded and without prospects for generating any cash flows in the near future. Nevertheless, despite the inherent uncertainty of high-tech industries, investors seemed to disregard most equity fundamentals when valuing technology stocks, especially during the market upturn in the late 1990s. As a result, even though high-tech stocks were in general extremely volatile, many of them were trading at remarkable pre miums. The exploding rate of growth in M A activity that involved high-tech industries can be partly attributed to those overly optimistic valuations. Puranam (2001) argues: On the acquirers side, booming stock market valuations have made acquisitions for stock feasible for several relatively small (revenue wise) firms, as well as the more established larger ones. On the targets side, an increasing preference for the ready liquidity offered, by an acquisition, as opposed to the paper profits from an IPO have created an environment conducive to acquisitions of small start-ups. At the same time many of these acquisitions were also motivated by the acquirers need to obtain critical technologies and expertise in order to quickly enhance their own technological competence. Despite the burst of the high-tech market bubble and the failure of most of these acquisitions, investors continue to show an extreme faith on these stocks. Americans still believe that technology can create a better world. Each time the U.S. tech sector falls into a trough, new technologies and companies emerge to lead it forward again (Business Week, August 27, 2001). PROBLEM MOTIVATING THIS STUDY This research effort seeks to understand the relationship between acquisitions and profitability by looking at the industrial sector for high technology semiconductor companies. Many prior studies have shown little financial benefit to the acquiring company in research conducted beginning in the 1980s and extending to today using a variety of variables, measures and company sample selection. These studies will be discussed in more detail in the Literature Review. The researchers Rumelt (1984), Ravenscraft and Scherer (1987), Porter (1987) and Kaplan and Weisbach (1990) separately found that acquisitions that could be categorized as unrelated, or diversifications, did not lead to profitability improvements, but most of these studies obviously included a cross-section of divergent industries. The importance of innovation and new products in high velocity, competitive environments is discussed in literature and high velocity innovation is fundamental to the growth, profitability and sur vival of these businesses (Thompson and Strickland, 1999; Betz, 2001; Burgelman, Christensen and Wheelwright, 2004). The competitive advantage of capturing intellectual property through acquisition has also been discussed more recently. More clear evidence is beginning to emerge concerning the drive to acquire technology and the unique features of doing so (Prentice Fox, 2002). This research examines the correlation between the event of acquisition and subsequent company performance and growth of profitability in the decade of 1990-2000. Practicing managers in the area of management of technology are faced with the challenge of high velocity innovation being a requirement to maintain competitive positioning (Thompson Strickland, 2001). Two methods for constant innovation include internal efforts, such as Research Development (R D), and external efforts, such as acquisitions, on which this paper focuses. Prior studies have been cross-sectional across different industries and analyzed the benefits gained in terms of patents and R D (Bettis 1981), stock price (Matsusaka, 1990; Schleifer and Vishny, 1990; and Lubatkin, 1982) or increase in company size versus the cost of acquisitions. These studies have not captured one of the most unique features of the high technology industry where innovation and new products are dependent on intellectual property (IP) that is maintained in the categories of trade secret and proprietary know-how. Because of this characteristic, the high technology industry would be expected to yield different results. The importance of IP and know-how has been an area of academic focus working to clarify the concept of absorptive capacity in the 1990s, but empirical work to tie these concepts to firm performance was not pursued (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Barney, 1991; Prahalad and Hamel, 1990). The use of patents as a measure, as used in prior research (Acs and Aud retsch, 1988; Pakes and Griliches, 1980; Hitt, Hoskisson, Ireland and Harrison, 1991), does not capture the IP benefits in these categories or measure the success resulting from these external efforts. Acquisitions, when done well, should be expected to have an advantage on capturing this kind of IP. Acquisitions potentially offer faster positioning with less risk and lower cost than internal company endeavors which include primarily Research and Development (R D) (Gulati, 1995; Singh Montgomery, 1987). STUDY OVERVIEW This research effort focuses on one high technology industrial sector of semiconductors and studies the correlation between acquisitions, profitability, survivability and RD intensity over time. Many prior studies (Rumelt, 1984; Ravenscraft and Scherer, 1987; Porter, 1987; and Kaplan and Weisbach, 1990) have shown little financial benefit to the acquiring company, but most of these studies included a cross-section of divergent industries. The importance of innovation and new products in high velocity, competitive environments is widely discussed in literature. High velocity innovation is fundamental for the theory of growth, profitability and survival of these businesses. The competitive advantage of capturing intellectual property through acquisition has also been discussed more recently. More clear evidence is beginning to emerge concerning the drive to acquire technology and the unique features of doing so (Prentice Fox, 2002). This paper researches the correlation between the ev ent of acquisition and subsequent company performance, survivability, the growth of profitability and R D spending. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ON HIGH-TECH COMPANIES Most research on high-tech companies is relatively recent and has its origin in various business fields. Chaudhuri and Tabrizi (1999) study the practices of 24 high-tech companies involved in acquisitions, and try to identify the key factors in capturing the real value in high-tech acquisitions. They conclude that in order to make a successful acquisition managers need to move beyond the traditional model of acquisitions where the people acquired are secondary to physical assets and brands. High-tech acquisitions need to focus on the people since technological capabilities tied to skilled people are the key to long-term success in these industries. Arora, Fosfuri and Gambardella (2000) examine how the growth of markets for technology affected the corporate strategies of the leading companies, which can now sell technologies that they do not use in-house and increase their potential returns to R D. They argue that globalization, along with the low transportation costs of technologies, has made large R D intensive companies realize that they have the potential to exploit their technology on a very large scale by licensing. However, in deciding how to exploit their technology small firms and technology-based startups face a different set of challenges. According to the authors they need to trade off the costs of acquiring capital and building in-house production, distribution and marketing capability against the rents that would be lost or shared with their partners in a licensing deal. Also, the authors argue that integration may reduce the innovative potential of the firm, because the acquisition of the complementary assets in evitably increases the size of firms and induces important changes in the culture of the firm and in the speed and fluidity of information flows. Finally, they claim that evaluating technologies and being able to use them requires substantial in-house scientific and technological expertise and therefore internal and external R D can be reviewed as complements and not substitutes. Liu (2000) focuses on a different issue by examining the markets reaction to innovation news announcement made by the U.S. biotech firms during the 1983-1992 period. He finds that the average AR to the announcements is as high as 3.98 percent for a three-day event window and biotech stocks trading volumes almost double on the day of the news announcement. The announcement period ARs are negatively related to firm-size and underwriter reputation, while positively related to the firms technology depth as measured by R D intensity. However, during the months following the announcement the average three-month post announcement AR is 2.73 percent. The negative drift in stock prices appears to be mainly driven by the firms weak science and technology (less R D intensive), firms with high Book to Market (B/M) ratios and large firms. In explaining his findings the author proposes an expectation error hypothesis. According to this hypothesis it is hard for investors or even managers to prec isely evaluate the economic value of innovations which in turn leads to the possibility of forming erroneous expectations. In high-tech industries the erroneous expectation is reflected in the investors over-optimism towards high-tech firms innovation news. Eventually, the stock prices adjust itself to reflect the firms fundamentals, especially its technology depth. The author attributes the observed evidence to the costly information required to value a high-tech firms innovation. Prentice and Fox (2002) provide a comprehensive review of the merger and acquisition process while focusing on the distinctive characteristics of high-tech companies. They argue that technology mergers are different from traditional mergers because of the importance that must be placed on people and their ability to innovate. Targets must be evaluated on intangible assets such as intellectual property and human capital. At the same time managers need to consider the issues of retention, culture and integration strategy from the beginning of the merger process to ensure success. There are two studies that are most relevant to this research. The first one is by Kohers and Kohers (2000) who examine the value creation potential of 1,634 mergers in the various high-tech areas between 1987 and 1996. They find that acquirers of high-tech targets experience significantly positive Ars at the time of the merger announcement, regardless of whether the merger is financed with cash or stock. Othe r factors influencing bidder returns are the time period in which the merger occurs, the ownership structure of the acquirer, the ownership status of the target and the high-tech affiliation of acquirers. They conclude that the market appears to be optimistic about such mergers and expects that acquiring companies will enjoy future growth benefits. The second related study is also by Kohers and Kohers (2001) who examine the post-merger performance of acquirers that purchase high-tech targets in order to determine whether the high expectations regarding the future merits of these investments are actually justified. Their results indicate that compared to non acquirers, acquirers perform poorly over the three-year period following the high-tech takeover announcement. Furthermore, glamour bidders show significantly lower long-run ARs, while value bidders do not experience significant post-merger ARs. Also, glamour bidders with a higher risk of agency problems show even worse post-merger performance while institutional ownership in the acquiring firm has a positive influence on acquirer long run ARs. Overall, the authors conclude that the market tends to exhibit excessive enthusiasm toward the expected benefits of high-tech mergers but many of these benefits do not materialize. CHAPTER 3 HYPOTHESES, METHODOLOGY AND DATA SOURCES STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES Previous research in the literature has generally found little financial benefit for the acquiring companies that were associated with occurrence of the acquisition activity (Rumelt, 1974; Ravenscraft and Scherer, 1987; Porter, 1987; and Kaplan and Weisbach, 1990). Consequently, the first and second questions for this study are focused using the single industry of semiconductors, are stated in the null hypothesis format. First, firm profitability growth rates are compared in two groups, one that does acquire and one that does not. Secondly, individual firm profitability growth is examined before and after an acquisition event looking for a change in growth rate that is significant. Hypothesis 1 (H1): There will be no significant difference in profitability growth when firms making acquisitions are compared to firms not making acquisitions in the high-tech sector. Hypothesis 2 (H2): Acquiring firms making acquisitions are expected to have no significant change in profitability growth before and after the acquisition event. The literature yields less empirical work in analyzing the relationship between merger and acquisition actions and the longevity of a corporation. Theory certainly recognizes the close link between competitive capability and company survival. For the high technology industry of semiconductors, high velocity innovation is a requirement for remaining competitive. Research questions three and four are also stated in the null hypothesis format. Company longevity, or survival rate in number of year, is compared in two groups also, where one group does acquire and one does not. Lastly, an individual firms spending rate on R D is examined before and after an acquisition event looking for a significant change in the rate compared to the trend for the company. Hypothesis 3 (H3): Firms making acquisitions are expected to have no difference in survivability in this industry than firms who do not make acquisitions. Hypothesis 4 (H4): A companys R D intensity will show no significant change following the event of acquisition within this industry. SELECTION OF VARIABLES This research was conducted in a concentric approach by starting with one independent and one dependent variable initially to define the relationship and guide the next treatment in the study. As work continued, variables were selected and the methodology expanded to assess both within-subject and between-subject effects. The variables used in this study for Hypothesis 1 (H1) include profitability growth rate and a dummy variable to represent the presence or absence of the event of acquisition. The event of acquisition is represented by a dummy variable with a zero (0) representing no acquisition and with a one (1) representing an acquisition event. An acquisition event is identified by using a firms reported cash flows attributed to acquisition as stated in the Compustat database. The profitability growth rate is calculated from the total gross profit margin reported by year and cumulated over three years, then averaged to reduce fluctuations and facilitate identification of trends. The variables used for H2 analysis of profitability growth rate before and after an acquisition were the dummy variable for the presence of acquisition, the gross profit margin percentage (GPM %) calculated as a three (3) year cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) to smooth fluctuations and better identify a trend. This relationship was studied for three (3) years prior to the actual acquisition and five (5) years following the action. As the study progressed, a second dummy variable was used for company size to separate the effect of this independent variable as well. A repeated measures matrix was designed with two dummy independent variable as well. A repeated measures matrix was designed with two dummy independent variables, each with two levels and one dependent variable with repeated measures over nine years for a 2 x 2 x 9 repeated measures analysis using the SPPS software. The variables used for H3 analysis of acquisition relation to firm longevity were the acquisition dummy variable and the data from Compustat for the number of years that the company did financial reporting during the period of this study. H4 looks for the effects between acquisition and RD spending or intensity by using the acquisition dummy independent variable and R D intensity as the dependent variable. R D intensity is calculated using the R D expense reported as such by the companies and in the Compustat database. This Compustat item represents all costs incurred during the year that relate to the development of new products or services. This amount is only the company`s contribution and includes software and amortization of software costs and complies with Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) standards. This item excludes customer or government-sponsored research and development (including reimbursable indirect costs) and ordinary engineering expenses for routine, ongoing efforts to define, enrich, or improve the qualities of existing products. Methodology This study encompasses the time period of ten years from 1990-2000, inclusive. Semiconductor companies were selected as an entire group according to their NAICS/SIC codes. Using the Standard Poors Compustat database, there are 153 semiconductor companies included that were identified as active companies at the end of the calendar year 2000 by Compustat. These companies are listed in Appendix B. Active reporting for one year. Companies are designated as inactive and reclassified in the Compustat database when it is no longer actively traded on a stock market exchange due to bankruptcy, becoming a private company, leveraged buyout or merging. The research effort started with analysis one independent variable and one dependent variable in order to initially establish what the relationship was that existed, if it was significant and how to proceed with analysis. Exploratory work on Hypothesis 1 showed that there was a statistically significant and positive correlation between acquisitions and gross profit margin (GMP) growth broadly over the decade which differs from prior research. Hypothesis 2 moves toward a more detailed analysis of this finding. Consequently, in this chronology of discovery, the next step presented in Section 4.2 look at one dependent variable of profit margin growth and two independent variables of company size and acquisition activity. 3-way ANNOVA and regression treatments of the data are conducted using the data analysis tool available under Microsoft Excel Software looking at individual years in the ten year study period. The results show significance again and suggest that other interactions betwe en variables would yield additional understanding. The next step in the research was set up to look at one dependent variable, again gross margin (GPM) growth, repeatedly measured over time for each subject or company was entered for the nine (9) years 1995-2000 inclusive to capture acquisition effects giving 2 x 2 x 9 repeated measures design. The two independent variables were used in the dummy format with non-acquires given a code zero 0 and acquires assigned at one (1). Company size was the second dummy variable with firms less than $100M in sales per year coded zero (0) and if greater than $100M in sales, assigned a one (1). The statistical analysis using a repeated measures design analyzed the variable interactions and their relationship to GPM growth using the SPSS software. These results are presented in Section 4.5 Repeated Measures Analysis that was done using SPSS software. Descriptive statistics were an important first treatment of the data sets created. This includes the values for the following parameters: mean, median, range variance, standard deviation, kurtosis, and skewness. This treatment looks at characteristics of the data and the degree of normal distribution. The 3-way ANOVA investigations and regression treatment of the data were initially done using the data analysis tool software available in Microsoft Excel. Generally, the data sets for this study vary somewhat from the classical normal distribution, but ANOVA and MANOVA (multivariate ANOVA) within a repeated measures analysis are considered robust to violations of the normal distribution assumption (Maxwell Dealney, 1990; Stevens, 1996) SPSS Advanced Models 11.0 software was used to create general linear models of the data and conduct analysis of variance (ANOVA), regression, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for the multiple variables in this model with repeated measures. The factors or independent variables were used to divide the population of 153 active semiconductor companies into groups. There were two independent variables used that were designated as dummy variables. The first variable of acquisition separated companies that did complete acquisitions from those that did not complete acquisitions during the decade of study. The second variable grouped the companies by size of sales at the end of the decade by either greater than $100 million or less than $100 million. Then the general linear model procedure was used to test the four null hypotheses, as stated above, regarding the effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable of gross profit margin growth as a repeated measure over the perio d 1992-2000. The investigation included looking at interactions between factors as well as the individual factors and the effects and interactions of covariates. This model specifies the independent variables as covariates for regression analysis. The SPSS repeated measures model creates a matrix for the sums of squares due to the model effects, gives the approximate F statistics and estimates parameters in addition to testing hypotheses. When an F test shows significance, SPSS performs post hoc tests to evaluate the differences between the means. This yields a predicted mean value for the cells of the model. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to named variables to study the portion of variance in the each variable that could be identified as explained and unexpected with regard to the event of acquisition. A covariance tool was also used when looking at the variables described above such as acquisition occurrence, company size and profitability growth changes. This compares whether the two ranges of data move together à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" that is, whether large values of one set were associated with large values of the other (positive covariance), whether small values of one set were associated with large values of the other (negative covariance), or whether values in both sets were unrelated (covariance near zero). DATA SOURCES Standard Poors Compustat database was used for data collection in this research. The database contains fundamental financial, statistical and market data derived from publicity traded companies trading on the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, OTC and Canadian stock exchanges. The calendar year for a company is the year in which the fiscal year ends and is the time period used as standard in this research. Companies with fiscal years ending in January through May are assigned by Compustant into the year in which the fiscal year begins. Companies with fiscal years that end in June through December are assigned to the year in which the fiscal year ends. The EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval) System database maintained by the United Stated Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) was also used. The EDGAR data is also collected from the same sources that are used to generate the Compustat database. Data from these controlled and verifiable sources were corroborated and augmented with information collected from semiconductor trade journals, company annual reports and the Mergers Acquisitions Journal that tracks statistics in this area. CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION HI à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" ACQUISITON AND PROFITABILITY RELATIONSHIP A strong positive relationship was found to exist between the presence of acquisition activity and the growth in gross profit margin (GPM) by the end of the ten year study period. The statistical analysis is detailed below and is a departure from previous findings. This finding addresses the central question of this research endeavor to look for a relationship between acquisition events and profitability growth within the one industry of semiconductors. A positive financial effect is found and opens the path for additional analysis in this direction. 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