Paidea and Identity Essay -- Philosophy Hobbes Papers

Thomas Hobbes, like Francis Bacon before him, disliked Aristotle and scholasticism. They were both kinda familiar with the objects of their dislike, having encountered Aristotle and scholasticism first hand at Oxford University. Bacon later described his tutors as men of sharp wits, shut up in their cells of a hardly a(prenominal) authors, chiefly Aristotle, their Dictator. Bacon clearly saw the extent of new possibilities in thought. He held that Europeans of his time needed to sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the limits of ancient learning) into an ocean of new learning. Hobbes, for equal reasons described the universities as places for the production of insignificant speech. Locke likewise echoed this rejection of scholasticism and contempt for the universities. The purpose of this paper is to talk about this rejection and the ways in which the continuing turn ones stomach against university education by Hobbes and Locke has contributed to a new view of the self.Hobbes re jects the teleology of Aristotelian science. His view of man is shaped by Galileos new insights about motion. His translation of the revolutionary doctrines of natural doctrine into claims about man and politics is a most remarkable piece of creative thinking. Life is not aimed at the attainment of the mature state of the species as Aristotle claimed. Man, like other physical objects, keeps moving until something (death, in the case of man) stops him. Yet the reaction to Aristotle and scholasticism was not a matter of simply rejecting the philosophy of Aristotle wholesale. The relation which philosophers had to Aristotelian ideas is much more complex. Philosophers quite typically would reject one piece of Aristotelianism but keep another. Part of the reason for this is that it is not easy... ...ump of matter to another, when the matter changes, so necessarily do the accidents which depend on it. Thus the ship of Theseus case Hobbes claims fits this model of individuation and not t he first two. (10) Thus, Hobbes also can give an account of the trinity in terms of these definitions, and it is worth noting that most of the occurences of the term person in the Leviathan are in the context of a watchword of the trinity. But, presumably Hobbes still regards God as a material body, and the three persons of the trinity as different representations in speech and action of that body.(11) John Locke, An canvass Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Peter Nidditch, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1972. (II. xxvii. 6. 2-9) Pg. 332(12) Ibid.(13) Ibid. (18-20) Pg. 332(14) Ibid. (II. xxvii. 7. 23-24) Pg. 332(15) Locke, op. cit. (II. xxvii. 9 21-28) Pg. 335

Violence and Sexuality in Video Games Essay -- Video Games

Violence and Sexuality in word-painting Games Unlike popular belief, the first violent video risque was non person Kombat. The cleanup spot started with a secret plan called Death Race 2000 released in 1976 by Exidy Software. It was based on a B movie by the same human activity and features the master(prenominal) theme of the movie in the lame to run people over. You control the car to run over people, and the people you have got killed become a cross. free to say, the spunky was quick to draw attentions towards it. The criticism from Americans all over the nation eventually got the game pulled off the market. One would think that the game mustiness have been pretty intense and gruesome if it attracted such a response. Nopenot a bitin fact, this is how the game looks Things stay quiet until the 1980s in which the Atari 2600 debuts. stunned of the flood of titles being produced, some iodin decided that sex sells, even in videogames (geezwha t a concept). So a company by Mystique released Custers Revenge. The game had the player control a man named General George Custer going after a homegrown American maiden named Revenge, hence the title, Custers Revenge. Unfortunately, this game did not involve anyone saving a Native American princess instead, the player has to control Custer and help him cross the playing field safely, while dodging cactus and arrows from Native Americans. Awaiting Custer on the other side of the field is Revenge, and the reward was that Custer gets to have sex with Revenge, on the screen, depicted by a group of flesh colored pixels (as shown on the left). The game received heat from womens advocate groups and the Native American communities. Custers Revenge was so bad that many retailers refused to car... ...t that a 9 or 10 year old can have easy access to games such as Grand Theft Auto is just scary. I install excerption number 3 to be too extreme. Regulations are necessary, but option 3 would leave companies very restricted in terms of creative thinking and set up a sense of fear in the game developers. Also, option 3 will impede ones right to purchase the game one wants, without the eyes of big brother reflection. Overall, option 2 is the most balanced, it deals with the weakest part of the grade system, and that is the enforcement of the ratings. Most retails now do not enforce the ESRBs rating system almost anyone can buy whatever game they want without fail. With option 2, the retailers are now more responsible than before in watching what their customers buy. This way, we can keep Mature games out of the hands of young children, yet adults can buy them if they wish to. Violence and Sexuality in Video Games Essay -- Video GamesViolence and Sexuality in Video Games Unlike popular belief, the first violent video game was not Mortal Kombat. The killing started with a game called Death Race 2000 released in 1976 by Exidy Software. It was based on a B movie by the same title and features the main theme of the movie in the game to run people over. You control the car to run over people, and the people you have killed become a cross. Needless to say, the game was quick to draw attentions towards it. The criticism from Americans all over the nation eventually got the game pulled off the market. One would think that the game must have been pretty intense and gruesome if it attracted such a response. Nopenot a bitin fact, this is how the game looks Things stay quiet until the 1980s in which the Atari 2600 debuts. Out of the flood of titles being produced, someone decided that sex sells, even in videogames (geezwhat a concept). So a company by Mystique released Custers Revenge. The game had the player control a man named General George Custer going after a Native American maiden named Revenge, hence the title, Custers Revenge. Unfortunately, this game did not involve anyone sav ing a Native American princess instead, the player has to control Custer and help him cross the playing field safely, while dodging cactus and arrows from Native Americans. Awaiting Custer on the other side of the field is Revenge, and the reward was that Custer gets to have sex with Revenge, on the screen, depicted by a group of flesh colored pixels (as shown on the left). The game received heat from womens advocate groups and the Native American communities. Custers Revenge was so bad that many retailers refused to car... ...t that a 9 or 10 year old can have easy access to games such as Grand Theft Auto is just scary. I found option number 3 to be too extreme. Regulations are necessary, but option 3 would leave companies very restricted in terms of creativity and set a sense of fear in the game developers. Also, option 3 will impede ones right to purchase the game one wants, without the eyes of big brother watching. Overall, option 2 is the most balanced, it dea ls with the weakest part of the rating system, and that is the enforcement of the ratings. Most retails now do not enforce the ESRBs rating system almost anyone can buy whatever game they want without fail. With option 2, the retailers are now more responsible than before in watching what their customers buy. This way, we can keep Mature games out of the hands of young children, yet adults can buy them if they wish to.

The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass Essay -- Narrative Fred

The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick DouglassMetal clanks against metal as the irons rub on old scars issuing in another day of toil in the heat with head-down and blood streaming as each juvenile lash is inflicted. This is usually the picture envisi superstard when unmatchable thinks of slavery. While often this is an accurate depiction, there are also many other forms of slavery. The Websters dictionary describes slavery as, submission to a dominating influence. Everyone has influences that shape who they are and what they do, but a problem arises when a persons entire life is spend abiding under a certain, destructive influence. Often this is done willingly and a sort of addiction occurs in maintaining the hold the authority has in ones life. It gives the person identity all they need to do is live under the power they have created for themselves and make up the rules as they go along. until now in doing this, they rob themselves of true freedom in cheating right fr om wrong and choosing the right. In fact, in this regard Fredrick Douglass is one of the freest men in his narrative. In the life story of Fredrick Douglass we not only see an African American man struggling against the oppression of slavery, but also many white master struggling against their enslavement to reputation, power and religion. First we see what it is to be a slave to reputation. Throughout the Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass it is obvious that what others think matters a cracking deal to the slave holders. Although this may not make sense since they still do atrocious things to their slaves, there is a certain persona they want to occupy to others. Mr. Covey was a harsh, cruel man, and everyone knew and respected him for being such. C... ...nd his white masters as free, but that can only be true if using one definition of freedom. Although seemingly free these white men also struggle under oppression. It is not forced upon, conversely they w illingly and purposefully lock on the chains of slavery which dominate their lives. They conform their lives to something that gives them a sense of meaning and identity, using their freedom to choose slavery. Meanwhile, Douglass is free to live an entirely different lifestyle. possibly one of the most powerful quotes in his narrative is when Douglass states that I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, kind of than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence (28). He is not willfully bound under the dominion of anything he is free to be himself and thus know real right from wrong. In this he shows his true freedom.

Jane Eyre?s Self-Discovery :: essays research papers

The novel Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte consists of continuous journey through Janes purport towards her final happiness and freedom. Janes physical journeys contribute significantly to dapple development and to the idea that the novel is a journey through Janes life. Each journey causes her to experience raw emotions and an eventual change of some kind. These tangible journeys help Jane on her four figurative journeys, as each one allows her to reflect and grow.Jane makes her journey from Gateshead to Lowood at the age of ten, finally freeing her from her restrictive life with her aunt, who hates her. Jane resented her harsh treatment by her aunt. Mrs. Reeds attitude towards Jane highlights on of the main themes of the novel, the social class. Janes aunt sees Jane as inferior, who is less than a servant. Jane is refulgent to be leaving her cruel aunt and of having the chance of going to school.At Lowood she wins the friendship of everyone there, but her life is difficult beca use conditions are poor at the school. She has rise to be respected by the teachers and students, largely due to the influence of her teacher, Miss Temple, who has taken a part as a mother, governess, and a companion. Jane has found in Miss temple what Mrs. Reed always denied her. Also at Lowood Jane confront another main theme of the novel, the natural violence, which is depicted by Bronte then typhus kills many of the students including Janes best friend, Helen Burns. This scene is especially important, because it makes Jane stronger, which is appropriate, as mentally strong people cope with violence in a more intellectual way.As Jane grows up and passes the age of eighteen, she advertises herself as a governess and is hired to a place called Thornfield. Although journeying into the completely unknown, Jane does not look back, only forward to her new life and her freedom at Thornfield. This particular journey marks a huge change in Janes life its a hot start for her.Another im portant journey Jane makes is from Gateshead back to Thornfield having visited her aunt Reed on her deathbed. By then Jane realizes that she loves Rochester. A key theme is raised here, Jane untrained desire to love and to be loved. She feels alone and isolated when she has no friends around her. This is a sharp contrast compared to other characters search for money and social position.

college essay :: essays research papers

College will be a major change for me in all likelihood, it will believably be the most significant transformation I will experience. It will be a time of growth and learning. In order to adapt to these many a(prenominal) changes I hope to mature both emotionally and educationally. In doing so, I will influence those around me and the community as a whole. I auspicate that my life experiences will prove to be valuable to me and to those I come into contact with.I have had many challenges to overcome thus far. Ive had problems with my aim work, but most significantly, problems with myself. I have made many wrong decisions and I have had trouble realizing what is important to me in the past. I now exist what steps I need to take in order to become a better person and to stay on the right path that I have chosen. I hope to continue this pattern of maturation by accomplishing my goal of academic excellence while attending New Jersey metropolis University. I have already promised my self that I will not participate in any activity that will lead me astray morally or academically. I am very good at meeting all of the challenges that I have to meet. I have already begun to take an initive on directive myself in the right direction, by taking my school work seriously, looking for a job that would benefit my major, and working harder to make my self happy. I am interested in majoring in Media Arts at New Jersey City University. I am taking a Media Arts curse in High School now and I am really interested in the aspects that go on in the field of Media. I like the blanket(a) verity of oppurtunities someone can get with an education in Media Arts. A major thing that attracted me to your university was your great school on Media. I also took a tour of your campus and feel in love at first site. I am currently participating in my high school peer ministry program. Which is a program in our school that gives specially selected seniors an opportunity to show their leader ship skills to the incoming freshman by giving them an opportunity to be comfortable at St. Mary High School. I stay active by playing sports such as basketball, baseball, & bowling. Im also interested in music.

college essay :: essays research papers

College allow be a major change for me in all likelihood, it will probably be the most significant transformation I will experience. It will be a time of growth and learning. In order to adapt to these many changes I hope to mature both emotionally and program lineally. In doing so, I will influence those around me and the community as a whole. I anticipate that my life experiences will prove to be worthful to me and to those I come into contact with.I have had many challenges to overcome thus far. Ive had problems with my civilise work, but most significantly, problems with myself. I have do many wrong decisions and I have had trouble realizing what is important to me in the past. I now know what steps I need to take in order to become a better person and to stay on the right path that I have chosen. I hope to continue this trope of maturation by accomplishing my goal of academic excellence while attending New Jersey City University. I have already promised myself that I will not participate in any activity that will lead me astray morally or academically. I am very good at meeting all of the challenges that I have to meet. I have already begun to take an initive on guiding myself in the right direction, by taking my school work seriously, looking for a job that would benefit my major, and working harder to make my self happy. I am interested in majoring in Media Arts at New Jersey City University. I am taking a Media Arts curse in High School now and I am really interested in the aspects that go on in the field of Media. I like the wide verity of oppurtunities someone can get with an education in Media Arts. A major thing that attracted me to your university was your great school on Media. I also took a tour of your campus and feel in love at first site. I am currently participating in my high school peer ministry program. Which is a program in our school that gives specially selected seniors an chance to show their leadership skills to the incoming fr eshman by giving them an opportunity to be comfortable at St. Mary High School. I stay active voice by playing sports such as basketball, baseball, & bowling. Im also interested in music.

Conscription in WW1 Essay

Were Australians against the introduction of conscription during WW1?As the war was happening people back home in Australia were starting to realise that the war was not as much about bravery and pride as they originally thought because very few workforce were returning, but the government needed young healthy men because of the amount of men on the front line dying and they needed to be replaced.Australian men werent volunteering so in November 1917 prime minister, Billy Hughes wanted to introduce conscription to Australia and ask the people are you in favour of the proposal of the country government for reinstating the Australian imperial forces overseas? Conscription was like the lottery, you would be randomly chosen to go to war because of the day that you were born. Australians were given the opportunity to voting for or against conscription and campaigns were made to support each point of view. Two referendums were held, the front on the 28th of October 1916 and the second on the 10th of December 1917, both(prenominal) referendums were lost, the second showed 1181747 voter turnouts against and 1015159 votes for conscription.Two referendums were held because men kept dying on the front line and the government were getting desperate. Both referendums ended with majority no votes, the first with 72446 votes against and the second with 1181747 votes against. Women were the main target for pro and anti conscription campaigns because they were seen as weak fragile and sensitive. Propaganda was largely aimed at women to intimidate women and target their emotions, either to nonplus them expression like they were sending their husbands and sons to die or that it was their duty to send them to fight for their country.It was a hard decision deciding whether or not to vote for conscription. Some people thought they should vote yes because of pride and defending and protecting their country and coming back as a war hero and similarly because of loyalty to Bri tain because they were still part of their empire, voting yes or no also targeted Christian women because killing is a serious sin. Songs and posters were made to persuade Australia to vote yes or no. large number were told that if you vote yes it is your fault they die but also that if you vote yes the country wont be taken over and that you could save Australiafrom the enemy. A white feather was sent to the people who voted no to represent and parade that they are cowards and to embarrass them publicly.Conscription broke people apart and divided the country, it sunk friendships and families because there is either yes or no and no in between. The way you voted reflected your character and the way you were thought of. Anti conscription appealed to woman and made them feel like killers but pro conscription also appealed to women making them feel like they were sacrificing men for the good of the country.Conscription divided Australia and turned their worlds upside down. People did nt want to be forced to go to war or force someone to go to war because they realised how bad it was. Australians voted no because they wanted liberty of choice and not to be conscripted as if it was just a game.bibliography-shannon mckinnon ww1- class sheets

Continental Airlines

exercise Study Continental Airline? s Tech dodging Takes Off Continental Airlines Tech Strategy Takes Off Amrita Ranchhod 152109103 Amrita Ranchhod Pagina 1 Case Study Continental Airline? s Tech Strategy Takes Off Company profile Continental Airlines is the worlds fifth largest air hose. Continental, together with Continental Express and Continental Connection, has more(prenominal) than 2,750 daily departures throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia, serving 133 domestic and 132 inter state of matteral destinations. more than 750 additional headings are served via current alliance partners. Continental has hubs serving New York, Houston, Cleveland and Guam, and together with its regional partners, carries approximately 63 million passengers per year. Based in Houston, Texas, the respiratory tract must provide an IT infrastructure to support its global reach. Its IT department delivers dishs for internal operations as well as for its node service and immaterial Web applicati ons. 0. Make a small description of the case pointing out the main direction issues.This case study demonstrates how Continental Airlines adopted new strategies and how they got lucky when most of the U. S. based airlines were in risk of bankruptcy after the 9/11. The company wasnt very highly regarded beca work of its organizational culture and its IT and plot. Strategy werent aligned. Continental slowly reinvented itself by using new strategies, Worst to First which made them one of the most admired global airline in the world. They used IT as a service centre and aligned Biz. with IT. 1.Describe the external environment and Continentals strategic goals After the 9/11, the nations airline fabrication struggled to regain altitude, because of the going of billion of dollars since a smaller number of sight wanted to fly which made thousands of people gentle their jobs. But it is believe that the U. S. airlines were already struggling before the attack due to broader economic and private-enterprise(a) issues. Also, economics problems in the U. S. and Japan and the weakening of the dollar has non helped for the recovery of the airline industry. See appendix 1) The legacy carriers American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United, Continental Northwest and US Airways had to face new lower-cost competitors entering their Amrita Ranchhod Pagina 2 Case Study Continental Airline? s Tech Strategy Takes Off markets, and all airlines had to face soaring fuel prices over the last years. harmonize to Phil Baggaley, the superior airlines credit analyst for rating agency Standard & Poors, The legacy carriers were forced to pull back their capacity and that opened a vacuum that the low-cost carriers could fill.I think 9/11 made a material difference in that way -it accelerated a trend that was already occurring. (www. money. cnn. com). This preface to an unused aircraft, demand for new planes went down which didnt help the manufacturers and their suppliers. To understa nd better Continental Airlines external environment I go away use SWOT analysis Strenghts ? Revenue Revenues increased of 17. 1% from 2005 to 2006 ? Profits run Profit during fiscal year 2006 operating profit was $468 million, compared to operating loss of $39 in 2005.Net Profit during fiscal year 2006, net profit was $343 million, compared to net loss of $68 in 2005. ? CEO The CEO of Continental Airlines played and important role in stimulating the company. The Go Forward Plan made possible to focus on every aspect of the organization. ? crisscross Market Having a well-defined target market, Continental provides services to upper-class and business travelers. ? IT Integration ? Clear Vision Amrita Ranchhod Pagina 3 Case Study Continental Airline? s Tech Strategy Takes OffWeaknesses ? Financial Difficulties The company had some financial problems with great amount of debts and operating at loss. ? High Operating Costs Continental had a high operating cost because they decided to attract consumers by pass in-flight meals preventing them from going to other airlines. Opportunities ? Reestablishing Customer Base The airline industry is becoming normal as in returning to pre-9/11 status. ? Align new marketing dodging, more consumer oriented, with low cost strategies. Threats ?September eleventh The public lost faith in the airline industry after the September 11th and for many companies this meant bankruptcy. Even after this, the majority of the airline industry had lower profits. ? Oil prices were getting high ? Increasing Rivalry As stated in the case study, Continental Airlines was ranked at the very foundation of the list of airlines and regularly received low marks for customer service. Its external environmental was very instable and each carrier was trying very hard to hold open the company from bankruptcy.The company had 45 different CRM systems and the carrier had no way to verify who the most important customers were. The companys strategy was ma inly to mark and increase the loyalty of continentals most important customer and also to find new customers even outside the U. S. keeping prices stable and increase routes. The way they implemented this strategy was basically creating and IT department which would improve customer services and operations. Bethunes Worst to First business strategy made organise the Amrita Ranchhod Pagina 4 Case Study Continental Airline? Tech Strategy Takes Off companys structure by launching new service routes. But according in Tera data (www. teradata. com), Bethunes Worst to First business strategy relied little on technology. Bethune began by reshaping the company with his Go Forward Plan, which motionlessness guides the business today. The Go Forward Plan has four interrelated parts, dealing with the airlines product, finances, market and people ? Fly to Win Understand what products customers want and what they are willing to pay for. ? Fund the Future Manage costs and cash flow so the airl ine can continue to operate. Make reliability a Reality Get customers to their destination safely, on time and with their luggage. ? Work Together Create a culture where people want to come to work. The endorse phase of Bethunes strategy, First to Favorite, the IT team decided to transform the airlines CRM systems into one which made possible to save around $6 million costs in operating costs. 2. What are the new management capabilities and business processes? Are they information-intensive? How they work? Continentals success was due to the use of innovative technologies to improve internal operations and customer service.The real-time data warehouse provided data from 25 internal operational systems and two external data sources loaded into the data warehouse. The source systems included schedules, inventory, employee and crew payroll, airline tickets, customer care, and others and it was applied to areas much(prenominal) as revenue management, customer relationship management, flight management dashboard and fraud detection. The CVM provided by Continentals database, allowed them to Amrita Ranchhod Pagina 5 Case Study Continental Airline? s Tech Strategy Takes Off k instanter the most profitable customers which helped the marketing department in customer segmentation.Management understood that good quality information was critical. According to Jane Beeby, Continentals elderberry bush Director, as part of its strategy to optimize service, Continental maintains unique 800 numbers for various types of customers. For example, international fliers dial a different number than do customers schedule domestic flights. Rewards Program members break their own toll-free line. To even more precisely identify individual customer needs, callers may also respond to a series of network-level prompts before being connected to an agent. (www. cisco. com).The new capabilities and business processes attained by the company made possible to know more about(predicate) t heir customers which hunt to more profit and consequently to a better customer service. 3. Does IT necessitate a strategic role at Continental? (Apply Porters 5 forces model) As an early adopter of new technology, Continental Airlines uses the latest information technology allowing the company to progress. I believe that IT was a brilliant opportunity to expend in the future providing real-time business intelligence which made possible to save $500 million in costs and revenues produced a ROI (Return on Investment) of more than 1. 00% (See Appendix 2). One thing worth mentioning is that one of the key resources at Continental were the employees. More productive employees lead to better margins. The ability to deal with problems efficiently, in turn, created job satisfaction, as employee see their efforts give way results. According to Porters analysis, The Five Forces determine the competitive intensity and therefore the attractiveness of a market. Amrita Ranchhod Pagina 6 Case S tudy Continental Airline? s Tech Strategy Takes Off Threat of New Entrants Continental is implementing a unique strategy making hard for new companies to enter the market and uncrease barriers. Therefore, there is a low threat of new entrants because the service they are offering is difficult to repeat ? Bargaining Power of Suppliers The negotiate power of suppliers will decrease because as Continental is controlling more information about customers therefore they are offering exactly what costumers need which makes possible to build brand awareness the bargaining power of the company increases. Threat of Substitutes The IS strategy gives to Continental Airline a competitive advantage because they control customers information therefore they are able to capture loyalty of them and minimize substitutes. ? Bargaining Power of Buyers Since there is a new IS the company is increasing barriers for customers switching costs. The buyers are becoming more loyal and establishing a bound t o the company services which makes difficult for them to change. Therefore the bargaining power of buyers is decreasing.Conclusion The information systems at Continental have a strategic partake in because they have a major positive impact in ? Increasing Industry Rivalry ? Lowering Customer Bargain Power 4. Regarding their business value analyse the IT systems mentioned positioning them in McFarlanss Matrix. According to the McFarlans Matrix listed bellow, for example CRM (Customer Relationship Management) plays a strategic role in Continentals Airline, because the existing and future expansion is vital to the inviolables success. CRM made possible the Amrita Ranchhod Pagina 7 Case Study Continental Airline? s Tech Strategy Takes Off lose relationship amongst the companys customers and each employee, giving these last ones better information about specific needs of their customers. Loyalty is very important for them, so by using the data warehouse with real time information ch eck offd higher customer retention. The CRM system also facilitated crossselling (offering customers complimentary products based on their previous purchases) and up-selling (offering customers premium products in the same category). Amrita Ranchhod Pagina 8 Case Study Continental Airline? s Tech Strategy Takes Off 5. How the process of Biz and IT alignment should be performed at Continental?Make 3 recommendations. Alignment is always going to be a moving target. Business objectives are in change, while IT tends to move in more stable patterns. From my point of view the key recommendation is to focus on what can the company achieve now and take one step at a time. For them to be aligned there should be a balanced in terms of communication. Business people speak in business linguistic process and IT people in technical terms. To solve this problem, we should put this two together and make them find their own language and this involves communication, process alignment and value demon stration.These people must have the right tools and skills to work together so they can arise the best strategies. In my point of view, creating a new department, in theory is easy but they are always full of obstacles and always busy. For example, employees profiles can be created to gather information about their competencies. Also within the organization make audit objective as ensuring a strong coupling between the business operations and the IT operations and to ensure that both the operations align with the overall business strategy. Amrita Ranchhod Pagina 9 Case Study Continental Airline? Tech Strategy Takes Off References Chris Isidore, (September 8th 2006), Airlines motionlessness in upheaval, 5 years after 9/11 www. money. cnn. com Acessed at 15th November, 2009 Teradata Corporation, Case-Study Data Warehousing www. teradata. com Assessed at 16th November, 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc, Soaring with skilful Contact Management www. cisco. com Assessed at 16th November, 2009 A mrita Ranchhod Pagina 10 Case Study Continental Airline? s Tech Strategy Takes Off Appendix 1 Amrita Ranchhod Pagina 11 Case Study Continental Airline? s Tech Strategy Takes Off Appendix 2 Amrita Ranchhod Pagina 12Continental AirlinesMeagan Young Chapter 10 I believe that Lorenzos confrontation with Continentals unions could have been conducted a different way. They could simply listen to each others point of view and not interrupt with one another is speaking. This way each other can hear their viewpoint and maybe understand one another better. If Lorenzo would have listened to what his employees were trying to say, he may have gotten melodic themes from them and used them for his company. twain these companies experienced commonalities and contrasts.Both Bethunes and Southwest Airlines experienced debt issues. Both companies were puzzled as how to deal with this situation. Both companies however had the similar approaches as how to deal with the debt situations. Bethune definit ely has a better management style than Lorenzos. this is because Bethune was willing to come up with solutions to come out of debt. He also made dramatic changes. In 1995, through a renewed focus on flight schedules and incentive pay, he greatly improved on-time performance, on with lost-baggage claims and customer complaints.Better communications was also a key element in improving employee relationships and the spirit of teamwork. Information was shared with employees through newsletters, updates on bulletin boards, email, voice-mail, and electronic signs over world wide of the mark places. As you can see Bethune really wanted to improve Continental Airlines because he wanted what was best for the company. Bethune proved a master at changing employees attitudes and their sense of pride. Few top executives ever faced such a negative workforce, reflecting the Lorenzo years. But Bethune changed all this, and in such a short time. is open-door policy and open houses to encourage empl oyees to interact with him and other top executives was a simple gesture, but so effective, as was his opening wide the channels of communication about company plans. The incentive plans for improving performance, and the freeing up of employee initiatives by abolishing the rigidity of formal policies, were further positives. He engendered an atmosphere of teamwork and a personal image of an appreciative CEO. This goes to show that Bethune is a trustworthy man and cares much about his company and the employees.The paint issue shouldnt be a big issue. It gave the company a new look I think. Giving employees some diverseness of reward such as a bonus or incentive seems ideal. When they reach a certain goal or percentage and show they are hardworking employees, they could receive one of these. Before doing this I would oversee how they are working to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to. After studying their work ethics I would then determine what kind of reward I would present to them. Lack of communication is one of the biggest issues with not only top executives but anyone in the company.Im sure not all of the upper management had the same ideas for Continental, and because of this some were left behind. This could be a downfall because one of them could have had a really good idea to present to the company. Because workers are not getting paid what they should, you can offer them something else. You can offer them better company benefits. This can help the employee tremendously, especially if they have a family. You could also tell the workers that if they reach a certain percentage that they can receive a raise. All of these ideas can motivate an employee to work harder at their job.

The Compromise Of 1850

At the close of the Mexican War, in 1848, the United States have a lot of territory without local government ( every(prenominal) the land now included in New Mexico, Arizona, and California was then unsettled). Then in 1848 bills was found in California. Thousands of people joined the gold rush and in a few months more or less 80,000 of them had settled in California to hunt for gold.To clench control of these settlements, an government was needed, so California asked to be admitted to the Union as a free area, but the South would not allow this, the North was excessively not going to allow California into the Union as a slave state, so Senator Henry Clay decided that he would make a compromise both sides could live with, he said each side should give in to something the other side wanted. Eventually by and by Clay s Omnibus Bill failed to pass, five separate acts were passed. These acts would become known as the Compromise of 1850.Basically, the North should allow New Mexico and Utah to organize as territories with general sovereignty and give the South a stronger fugitive slave law. The South should accept California as a free state and allow the terminal of slave trade in Washington DC. For most of 1850, intercourse debated. Clay had the support of the North, including Stephen Douglas and Daniel Webster. In Websters famous Seventh of March speech, he state that slave labor could never be profitable in New Mexico and that the North would lose nothing by granting this concession.He felt that it was not necessary to bar slavery by law of Congress it was already excluded by the law of nature. The North was opposed by the gray states, led by jakes C. Calhoun, who at the time was dying and was so sick that his speeches had to be read by some wiz else. The Compromise of 1850. There were five vocalisations to the Compromise of 1850. The commencement exercise was the Texas-New Mexico Act. It was the most important of the five. It made New Mexico a t erritory, gave some of Texas (the Santa Fe region) to New Mexico, and allowed for popular sovereignty there.This bill was passed on kinfolk 9, 1850. The second part allowed California into the Union as a free state. This bill was also passed on September 9, 1850. The third part was the Utah Act, which was also passed on September 9, 1850. It made Utah a territory and allowed popular sovereignty to decide the slavery issue. On September 18, the New fleer Slave Act was passed, forcing all law enforcement officers in the North and South, to help return fugitive slaves. There were penalties for helping fugitive slaves. The last act passed on September 20, abolishes slave trade in Washington DC.Clay had intended to give each act separately to Congress and had only made the Omnibus Bill (combining all of the acts into one bill) because he wanted to make sure there would be no veto by President Taylor. The Omnibus Bill could not make it passed Congress because the Northerners wouldn t ac cept the Fugitive Slave Act, or allow for popular sovereignty, and the Southerners wouldn t allow California in as a free state or allow the size of Texas to be reduced. After the Omnibus Bill failed, Clay went on vacation in Newport, Rhode Island and Stephen Douglas took over control of the compromise.When Douglas broke up Clay s plan into five separate bills, all of them passed. Although Clay originally wrote the acts, it was really Douglas, not Clay, who made the laws acceptable to both sides. The different separate needed different areas of the United States to give in. Northerners from both parties, and Whigs from boarder states approved the rise to power of California, the abolition of the slave trade in Washington, and the adjustment of the Texas boarder. Southerners and Northern Democrats passed the Fugitive Slave Law and organized Utah and New Mexico without restrictions on slavery (Brown, 192-193).Neither side really gave in, but people hoped it would end the dispute on s lavery. Northern Reactions. The North had not paid much attention to the Fugitive Slave Act when it was being put through Congress. Their main concern had been the admission of California, popular sovereignty, and the Texas boarder. But when the Northerners heard about the new things they would have to do to prevent runaway slaves from escaping, they were very angry. It created resistance and as a result Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle tom s Cabin.When Fillmore became president the government began to put down local resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law. Controversy also declined because the number of African Americans returned to the South criminal by two-thirds in the second year under the law, in part because so many blacks had resettled in Canada. The Free Soil Party, which had received about 10 percent of the vote in the presidential election of 1848, received only about half as much in 1852 (Brown, 193). Southern Reactions. The Southern reaction was not as well known, but i t was more dangerous to the Union.The radicals in the south held the Nashville Convention in June of 1850 decided to meet after the compromise to discuss policy, but in November of 1850 when they met the second time, only a few people attended. Unionists still had a lot of control in the South. The governors in Georgia and Mississippi were Unionists, and fourteen of the nineteen congressmen from Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama were Unionists. Even in South Carolina (the state that had the strongest disunionist population) the voters voted to stay in the union by a broad amount.Some states accepted the Georgia Platform of 1850, saying that they would give resistance and secede if Congress made more Antislavery Acts. The compromise also left semipolitical parties fighting one another. The Southern Whigs were separated from the rest of the Whigs because the Northern Whigs led the fight against slavery in the Mexican cession and controlled Whig president Zachary Taylor. Repairing th e intersectional bonds of party political sympathies would be crucial to cementing loyalty to the Union (Brown, 193).

Polaroid Corporations Essay

In late bunt 1996, Ralph Norwood was faced with the task of restructuring Polaroids chapiter structure. In the past, Polaroid had a monopoly in the instant-photography segment. However, with upcoming threats in the emerging digital photography industry and Polaroid experiencing recent losses in their market shargon due to Kodaks competition, Gary T. DiCamillo, recently ap pourboireed CEO of Polaroid, headed a restructuring plan to stimulate the firms performance.The firms new plan has goals such as to crisply exploit the existing Polaroid brand, introduce product extensions, and enter new emerging markets such as Russia in lay to secure Polaroids future. In summation to the plan, DiCamillo has included certain core objectives that Norwood would need to consider in his recommendation. These values include goals of value creation, support flexibility, and staying with the investment-grade rating for bonds. His plan would have to afford Polaroid mortified be and continued entra nceway to capital under alternative debt policies.Norwood would need to access the right optimal strategy with these restrictions that is to say that even if the most optimal capital structure was to force Polaroids bond rating under BBB-rated, Norwood would need to settle for some middle ground. Financing Requirements Polaroid faces several business risks in March of 1996 that provide affect its pecuniary policy. The company must consider foreign risk exposure, demand variability, and the ability to develop new products in measure and compete in a developing, innovative market.Polaroid is still essentially a one-product line company, deriving 90% of its revenues from photographic products. Polaroid must also consider the threat that digital imaging technologies pose towards the companys future. With the start up development of these new technologies, it is clear that Polaroid exit not have a monopoly in these markets. In addition, Polaroid experiences business risk with their change magnitude revenues coming from developing countries. Approximately 9% of Polaroids sales in 1995 came from Russia.Exhibit 2 (Information on supranational Revenues) destines the percent of total international sales is on the rise, while U. S sales are on the decline. Even though, Polaroid does have international lines of credit and probably other strategies to reduce currency risk, their business in these developing international markets does pose increasing market risk. The business risk from competitors and international markets does signify that Polaroid will need additional funding to keep up. The company must maintain a strong and flexible balance sheet to accommodate for future financing needs.Another area of concern is Polaroids earnings coverage ratios. While Polaroid has a comparatively dispirited debt ratios that are comfortably in the AA-BBB range, the company is assay to maintain safe earnings coverage multiples on its interest payments. The issue is magnifie d in the future as market uprightness grows thus increasing WACC. Without better earnings, Polaroid will not be able make interest payments on the additional debt required to balance the companys optimal capital structure.The use of debt and the resulting additional financial risk is a decision that Norwood must ultimately make. Norwood is also concerned with developing a long term financial strategy for Polaroid that will enable the company to grow according to DiCamillos plan. Virtually all of Polaroids debt is maturing within the next six years. The major components are listed below. $150 million in notes at 7. 25%. which mature on January 15, 1997 $200 million in notes at 8%, which mature on March 15, 1997. Employee Stock Option Plan Loan with scheduled semiannual principal payments through 1997. Interest rate has varied over time, but is very low due to tax benefits to ESOP lenders. $140 million in convertible subordinated debentures at 8%, which mature in 2001. They are conve rtible to common personal line of credit at $32. 50 per share. They are not redeemable until September 30, 1998 unless the stock price exceeds $48. 75 for 20 of 30 consecutive trading days. Norwood wants to restructure Polaroids debt and rightfulness to maximize the companys future potential.During this restructuring, Norwood wants to keep the speak to of capital low, create value, and preserve Polaroids investment grade in order to allow for future borrowing at investment grade status. Polaroids Current Position The current capital structure is not appropriate for Polaroid, and it will inhibit the companys ability to meet future financial demands. After analyzing Polaroids current debt maturity structure, the group concluded an eventual range of the companys BBB bond rating by the end of 1996 according to the coverage ratios.The cost of debt drastically increases when a company enters the non-investment-grade status, while the switch amongst investment-grade ratings is relative ly marginal. Exhibit 1 shows the maximum amount of debt Polaroid could have for each credit rating. Polaroids current investment-grade rating must be maintained to keep costs low and protect the Polaroid brand name. To maintain this rating, Polaroid needs to stop repurchasing stock and have an issuance of equity in 1996 to avoid a downgrade to put away status.Polaroid needs to make these changes to its capital structure to have flexibility and preserve its bond rating. Any persisting needs can be funded through debt financing. Our good word We recommend issuing $200 million in equity initially to pay off the $150M and $37. 7M debts. This will not only allow the firm access to much needed capital, but will also decrease the leverage ratio and minimize financing risk. Also, the ESOP program will be temporarily suspended to reduce leverage. Currently, Polaroids D/E is far too high at . 4. This additional equity brings it to a more manageable . 22. By analyzing the coverage ratios, we predicted that if equity was not issued by 1996, the company would lose its BBB rating. Our recommendation first and foremost considers the preservation of Polaroids BBB status. The advantage to a new equity issuance is that it will provide needed capital without damaging the companys financial statements. This will provide flexibility for further borrowing in the future and make it easier for Polaroid to maintain its debt rating.Furthermore, when capital is needed in 1998, we will issue $425M in 5-year bonds. This gives Polaroid the lowest WACC and maximum leverage while maintaining BBB status. At this point the ESOP program will resume with the company re-levering. With a somewhat flat yield curve, longer term bonds are not significantly cheaper to outbalance the flexibility that 5-year bonds offer. If earnings improve in 5 years, a capital structure with more leverage may be preferable. Having 5-year bonds gives Polaroid this flexibility.Exhibits 2 and 3 show that a capital str ucture with a D/E between . 22 and . 26 is optimal. Given the consistent growth in market equity capital, additional borrowing and possible share repurchases will be necessary in the future to stay in this range. This strategy would open the door for Polaroid to baring the optimal capital structure while still adhering to the values of the new CEO. The objective would be to choose the option with the lowest weighted average cost of capital, thus creating the most value, maintaining a minimum of a BBB rating, and also allowing flexibility.

Auditor’s Legal Liability to Third Parties

Increased liability of other professionals to nonprofits users of their services II. Lack of fairness of Imposing the burden of economic loss on Innocent financial statement users Ill. Assumption that expanded liability will cause auditors to improve their auditing procedures v. Auditors have the ability to obtain liability indemnity v. Increased audit and insurance premium costs lavatory be passed on to the client 4. Reasonably foreseeable third parties ( utilise by MS, NJ, WI) a. Ore expansive definition regarding the legal standing of who can sue the auditor I. Allows broader class of (stockholders or stockbrokers, for example) might say regarding accuracy of financial reports Reflection While WI, NJ and MS have a real expansive definition of who ought to be able to have legal standing to sue auditors for audit reports of financial statements if the auditor appears to have been negligent or affiliated deceit, there must be some balance struck to protect both auditors and thi rd parties that may rely on audit reports.The Restatement Standard, as used by most states, appears to strike that balance, holding auditors accountable for potential negligence or fraud, while still allowing them to obtain liability insurance to limit their film to legal claims. Chapter 20, problem 20-27 a. What elements must be established by Musk to support a cause of action based on negligence?Since state fair play applicable to this action follows the ultramarine blue decision, which sets the modular for auditor negligent liability by a third party according to priority, in which a ratify or specific agreement exists between the two parties, Musk would need to show that a contract existed between Apple and Musk to have legal standing to generate a suit against Apple. B. What elements must be established by Musk to support a cause of action based on a Rule lob-5 invasion?If Musk has established that it can sue under Section II(b), it must prove the following 1 . Apple made a material, factual misrepresentation or omission 2. Musk relied on the financial statements . Musk suffered damages as a result of reliance on the financial statements 4. Sciences (Apple acted with intent to deceive, defraud, or with knowledge of a erroneous representation) c.Is Apples assertion regarding lack of priority correct with regard to Musks causes of action for negligence or fraud? Regarding negligence, Apples assertion regarding Musks lack of priority is correct according to the standard set by the Ultramarine decision. There was no contract between Apple and Musk. However, regarding the fraud charge, the priority requirement does not apply. If the plaintiff an show clear negligence or fraud, the auditor can still be held liable for damages.As stated in the problem, Apple was aware that Astor was selling inventory at prices good less than cost, so it should have known that the inventory valuation provided by Astor should not have been trusted, and should have conduct ed its own valuation of inventory. While the application of the Ultramarine decision will make it difficult to hold Apple liable for negligence under common law, that decision does not hold weight when considering fraud or gross negligence. In that case, Musk may be able to collect damages on the basis of Rule bib-5.

Holt Case Essay

The Holt Case relates to the companys snapshot, case situation and key management issues pertaining to the Holt Renfrew which was being operated in Canada. Company Snapshot Holt Renfrew was conventional as a hat and fur shop in Quebec City in 1837. The company is recognized as one of the elite high-end retailers of Canada. Almost 10 stores were operated by the company in seven cities of Canada in which cosmetics and designer fashions were being sold such as Oscar de la Renta, Gucci, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Armani.These products were usually imported from Asia, europium and the United States. The top quality was the base of Holt Renfrew brand which included private-label and branded assortments and designers that were exclusively for men and women. The Holt Renfrew was then owned by Galen Weston who is a Canadian backing leader heading The Wittington Group. Case Situation During the observation of case situation, it was revealed that the staff used to spend much of the time in te lephonic communication for adjusting and corroborate previous orders.The stock of merchandise was quite high due to which staff remains busy on phone lines for orders tracking, delivery status, confirmation and shipment with conveyance of title service providers and suppliers. The goods were delivered to the distribution centre by suppliers without prior intimation which used to cause inconvenience in scheduling routine tasks. Even it was not attainable to determine whether right quality and quantity is being received.Warehouses were so much loaded that only in DC inventory was stored around $40 one thousand thousand worth which created a hindrance in tracking the shipment in a timely manner. Even the complaint was lodged by store managers regarding overstocks of merchandises which prove the worse condition of warehouses. Key Management Issues The key management issues could be the closure of secondary warehouse and the consolidation of operational warehouse into DC.It would be useful for DC if the addition of mezzanine floor up to 20,000 square feet with a cost of $1 million could be practiced. Additionally, the warehouse problems arose due to overloaded stock. The reason after part this fact was the less sales target being accomplished and improper system involving excessive merchandises which was ordered without prior requisition or sanction and the kindred was too seriously complained by the store managers.

International Movie Revenues: Determinants and Impact of the Financial Crisis

Institute of Economic Studies Faculty of Social Sciences Charles University in Prague Empirical Project Assignment Econometrics II repayable on Friday, 13 January 2012, 11. 00 planetary plastic film revenues determinants and impact of the financial crisis Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c international impression revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis plank of Contents Abstract Keywords incoming Literature survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data analysis variables implementd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . beat 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i mpersonate 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Results puzzle 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . determine 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusion References primary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . secondary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . selective information sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix Descriptive statistics for the seeent variables flummox 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Residuals versus ? tted set diagram . . . . . Breusch-Pagan render for heteroskedasticity . precedent 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Residuals versus ? tted set patch . . . . . . Breusch-Pagan rise for heteroskedasticity . The correlation matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 4 6 6 6 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 10 11 11 12 13 13 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 1 of 14 International picture show revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Abstract This empirical project examines the determinants of international encase o? ce revenues for cinemas produced in United States during 2006 2010. Our ingest consists of 424 ? lms released in this period. We also test the hypothesis if the world ? nancial crisis had any signi? cant impact on the international incase o? ce revenues. Keywords the ? ancial crisis, photo international box o? ce revenue, mental pictures produced in the United States, budget, rating, Academy Awards, conception When choosing a topic of our empirical story we were considering di? erent suggestions. As we both are pretty much interested in movies we ? nally decided to exit a viewer seat for a while and fulfil an empirical study on the movie industry. While being newcommers in sophisticated movie information analysis, we needed ? rst to get acquainted with important conjectural concepts and empirical topics concerning this topic. Literature survey When going down the history, Litman, 1983 was the ? st who has attempted to predict the ? nancial success of ? lms. He has transacted a multiple regression and found a clear evidence that various in wagerent variables cede a signi? cant and serious in? uence on the ? n al success of a movie. Litemans work has been gradually acquire developed, Faber & OGuinn, 1984 well-tried the in? uence of ? lm advertising. They proved, that movie critics and word-of-mouth are less important then movie previews and excerpts when explaininng movie succes after going on public. Eliashberg & Shugan, 1997 explored the impact of restricted-rating labeled movies on their box o? e performance. Terry, Butler & DeArmond, 2004 analysed the determinants of movie video rental revenue, ? nding Academy Award nominations as the dominant factor. King, 2007 fol humiliateded their research and intaked U. S. movie data to ? nd the connection between the criticism and box o? ce earnings Many an new(prenominal)(prenominal) authors has extended the sign work of Litman, 1983, but none of them has focused on the key factors of the international box o? ce revenues as we planned to. So we ? nally decided to use Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010 as our primary source. Their object of in terest is very much similar to our resarch. and so we studied their metodology the most and we use their results in the analytical part as a primary resource of comparison. Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 2 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Data We got quickly stucked realising that the strong majority of movie data on the internet are not free available. It was quite a surprise because there are many movie-oriented land sends with seemingly endless data access. But when there is a need of much than than profound, well structured and complete set of random data everything gets little bit tricky.After hours of searching, we luckily got to a 30 days free access to this kind of databases opusdata. com and got the core data for our analysis. Then we wanted to add some interesting or usefull variables just as the movie rating or the number of AcademyAwards to complete our dataset. It has been done using well known and free acce ssed databases imdb. com, numbers. com and boxo? cemojo. com. Thanks to our literature survey we discovered a model which we suck thought would be interesting to test on di? erent or new data. The most interesting would be to test it on our home(prenominal) data but these are quite di? ult to obtain (as explained before). Anyway, it would be feasible to get data for the highest grossing ? lms but that would violate the assumption of random strain. indeed we decided to use data from U. S. and Canada which we considered the most probable to obtain. We also wanted to test whether the ? nancial crisis have had an impact on movie box o? ce revenues and whether the world ? nancial crisis made people less probable to go to the cinema. Model We considered several models and in the end we used 2 models. The ? rst one is just the corresponding as the one used in paper Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010, but it is slightly modi? d by using di? erent data plus setting the crisis variable. W e considered it as a dummy variable, which was 1 if the movie was released during crisis (2008-2009), otherwise it is equal to zero. As it was proposed before, this model has been used as a comparison to the original model Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010 wihle we wanted to test whether their inference holds up with slightly di? erent and newer data. In the second model we tried to use a slightly di? erent approach. We used a time series model with year dummies and we also used all the variables which we obtained and were statistically signi? ant. Our ? rst model is basic linear regression with cross-sectional data. Our data are a random sample thanks to opusdata. com query which was capable of selecting a random sample of movies. We have well-tried all the variables for multicollinearity with the correlation matrix and there is no proof for multicollinearity in our used variables. The only high collinearity is between home(prenominal) and budget variables, which is almost 0. 75. Af ter running the regressions we have used the Breusch-Pagan test for heteroscedasticity and the chi squared was rightfully high therefore showing signs of strong heteroscedasticity.Even after looking at the graph of residuals against ? tted values it was clear that the heteroscedasticity is present. Therefore we had to run the regressions with the heteroscedasticity robust errors. We therefore tested in both models for presence of these the variables which have an impact on movie international box revenues any signi? cant impact of ? nancial crisis on these revenues Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 3 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Data analysis Here we list all the used variables in both models and their a description. ariables used academy awards . . . . . . . . . number of Academy Awards a ? lm earned action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . level variable for movies in action literary musical style animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . savorless variable for movies in animation production method budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the estimated production and promotion cost of a movie comedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . matt variable for movies in comedy genre crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dummy variable for movies released during crisis domestic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . omestic box o? ce earnings horror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . monotonous variable for movies in horror genre international . . . . . . . . . . . . international box o? ce earnings kids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies for children rating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . average user rating from the imdb. com source ratingR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . is a categorical variable for movies with a restricted rating amatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in wild-eyed genre sequel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies derived from a antecedently released ? lm y06 ? y10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dummy variable for movies released in a year The list of variables is fol execrableed by both model equations and reggression table comparism, while model 1 and model 2 mean the original Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010 model and our new model respectivelly. model 1 international = ? 0 + ? 1 domestic + ? 2 action + ? 3 kids + ? 4 ratingR+ + ? 5 sequel + ? 6 rating + ? 7 academy awards + ? 8 budget + ? 9 crisis model 2 international = + + ? 0 + ? 1 academy awards + ? 2 budget + ? 3 domestic + ? 4 sequel + ? horror + ? 6 romantic + ? 7 comedy + ? 8 action + ? 9 ratingR + ? 10 animation + ? 11 y06 + ? 12 y07 + ? 13 y08 + ? 14 y09 Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 4 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis knock back 1 Model comparison model 1 domestic action kids rating R sequel rating academy awards budget crisi s horror romantic comedy animation y 06 y 07 y 08 y 09 Constant Observations t statistics in parentheses ? model 2 1. 025 (13. 31) -18. 56? (-2. 29) 1. 028 (12. 70) -13. 43 (-1. 79) 48. 33? (2. 10) 5. 922 (1. 52) 26. 91? (2. 06) 0. 309 (1. 42) 6. 978? (2. 33) 0. 68 (5. 48) -5. 320 (-1. 01) 9. 259? (2. 36) 28. 74? (2. 16) 7. 097 (2. 59) 0. 508 (4. 73) -9. 867? (-2. 23) 13. 41 (1. 79) -17. 77 (-3. 31) 52. 02 (2. 87) -7. 962 (-1. 24) 1. 182 (0. 17) -6. 748 (-1. 01) -11. 79 (-1. 30) -43. 25 (-3. 05) 424 -15. 11? (-2. 41) 424 p 0. 05, p 0. 01, p 0. 001 Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 5 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Results model 1 After running the ? rst regression we get quite similar results as Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010, so their inference holds up even under our data.The similar results we get are that one dollar in revenues in US makes $1. 02 in international revenues, therefore succesful movie in US is likely to be similarly succesful in international theatres, if movie is a sequel it adds to revenues about(predicate) $26 mil. , every academy award adds about $7 mil. and every additional dollar spent on budget adds about $0. 57 so there is about 57% return on budget. We also have similarly insigni? cant variables which are whether is movie rated as restricted and how great or poorly is movie rated by critics or other people.That means that international audience is not in? uenced by age restrictions and critical movie ratings. When we look at our and theirs results regarding the genres then we get quite di? erent results. They recount that when a movie is of an action genre then it adds about $26 mil. whereas we obtained results that revenues for an action movie should be lower about $13 mil. and our result for children movies is ii times larger and it assigns that a children movie should make about $48 mil. more. It could be explained that movie genre preferences shifted in the last two years.But more likely explanation is the di? erence in our data in labeling the movies. In our data we have had more detailed labeling and movies which they had labeled as action movies, we had labeled adventure movies and so on Therefore the strictly action movie genre is not so probable to make money as it would seem. Action movies are usually of low quality and many of them could be labeled as B-movies which usually are not very likely to have high revenues. The children movies could be acquiring more popular and taking children to the movies could be getting more usual thing.Our last and new variable is the crisis dummy which is not signi? cant and therefore we have no proof that the ? nancial crisis had any e? ect on movie revenues. Our model has quite high R2 which is about 0. 83, that is even higher then Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010 have. But the briny reason behind this high R2 is that most of the variation in data is explained by US revenues. If we regress international revenues on domestic alone we hushed get high R2 which is about 0. 59. model 2 In our time series model we get quite similar results as in the ? rst one. We have there ? e new variables which are genres comedy, romantic and horror, animation dummy, which tells us whether the movie is animated or not and year dummies. Our model implies that when a movie is a comedy it will make about $17 mil. less in revenues, when horror about $10 mil. less, when romantic about $13 mil. more and when animated it will add about $52 mil to its revenues. The restricted rating is now also statistically signi? cant and it should add to the revenues about $9 mil. which is quite unexpected. Y ear dummies are statistically non-signi? cant and even when we test them for joint signi? ance they are jointly non-signi? cant. Therefore even in this model there appears no reason to believe that the ? nancial crisis or even year makes di? erence in the movie revenues. Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 6 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Conclusion The inferences from our models are quite like we expected. We expected that people are more likely to go to cinema to see movies that had won academy awards, that were succesful in U. S. theatres and that are some kind of sequel to previous succesful movies. The resulting e? cts of di? erent movie genres could be quite puzzling but these e? ects depend highly on quality of the movies released these years and on the mood and taste of current society. If we had had larger sample with data from many years then it is mathematical that we would have seen trends in the di? erent movie genres. The insigni? cance of the ? nancial crisis on movie revenues was also likely because the severity of the crisis and impact on regular citizen has not been so large that it would in? uence his attendence of movie theatres. Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 7 of 14International movie revenues Determinants an d impact of the ? nancial crisis Reference primary Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010 Terry, Neil, John W. Cooley, & Miles Zachary (2010). The Determinants of Foreign Box O? ce revenue enhancement for English Language Movies. Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies, 2 (1), 117-127. secondary Eliashberg & Shugan, 1997 Eliashberg, Jehoshua & Steven M. Shugan (1997). choose Critics In? uencers or Predictors? Journal of Marketing, 61, 68-78. Faber & OGuinn, 1984 Faber, Ronald & Thomas OGuinn (1984). E? ect of Media Advertising and Other Sources on Movie Selection.Journalism Quarterly, 61 (summer), 371-377. King, 2007 King, Timothy (2007). Does ? lm criticism a? ect box o? ce earnings? Evidence from movies released in the U. S. in 2003. Journal of Cultural Economics, 31, 171-186. Litman, 1983 Litman, Barry R. (1983). Predicting Success of Theatrical Movies An Empirical Study. Journal of Popular Culture, 16 (spring), 159-175. Ravid, 1999 Ravid, S. Abraham (1999). Information, Blockbusters, and Stars A Study of the claim Industry. Journal of Business, 72 (4), 463-492. Terry, Butler & DeArmond, 2004 Terry, Neil, Michael Butler & DeArno DeArmond (2004).The Economic Impact of Movie Critics on Box O? ce Performance. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 8 (1), summon 61-73. data sources opusdata. com Opus data movie data through a query interface. 30-days free trial. http//www. opusdata. com/ imdb. com The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The biggest, best, most award-winning movie site on the planet. http//www. imdb. com numbers. com The numbers. Box o? ce data, movies stars, idle speculation. http//www. the-numbers. com boxo? cemojo. com Box o? ce mojo. Movie web site with the most comprehensive box o? ce database on the Internet. ttp//www. boxofficemojo. com Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 8 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Appendix Descriptive statistics for the dependent variables Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 9 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis model 1 Regression of the original model published in Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010 Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 10 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Residuals versus ? tted values plotBreusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 11 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis model 2 Regression of our model Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 12 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Residuals versus ? tted values plot Breusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 13 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis The correlation matrix Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 14 of 14International Movie revenue enhancements Determ inants and Impact of the Financial CrisisInstitute of Economic Studies Faculty of Social Sciences Charles University in Prague Empirical Project Assignment Econometrics II callable on Friday, 13 January 2012, 11. 00 International movie revenues determinants and impact of the financial crisis Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Table of Contents Abstract Keywords Introduction Literature survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data analysis variables used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . model 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . model 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Results model 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . model 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusion References primary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . secondary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . data sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix Descriptive statistics for the dependent variables model 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Residuals versus ? tted values plot . . . . . Breusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity . model 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Residuals versus ? tted valu es plot . . . . . . Breusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity . The correlation matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 4 6 6 6 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 10 11 11 12 13 13 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 1 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Abstract This empirical project examines the determinants of international box o? ce revenues for movies produced in United States during 2006 2010. Our sample consists of 424 ? lms released in this period. We also test the hypothesis if the world ? nanc ial crisis had any signi? cant impact on the international box o? ce revenues. Keywords the ? ancial crisis, movie international box o? ce revenue, movies produced in the United States, budget, rating, Academy Awards, Introduction When choosing a topic of our empirical paper we were considering di? erent suggestions. As we both are pretty much interested in movies we ? nally decided to exit a viewer seat for a while and perform an empirical study on the movie industry. While being newcommers in sophisticated movie data analysis, we needed ? rst to get acquainted with important conjectural concepts and empirical papers concerning this topic. Literature survey When going down the history, Litman, 1983 was the ? st who has attempted to predict the ? nancial success of ? lms. He has performed a multiple regression and found a clear evidence that various independent variables have a signi? cant and serious in? uence on the ? nal success of a movie. Litemans work has been gradually getti ng developed, Faber & OGuinn, 1984 tested the in? uence of ? lm advertising. They proved, that movie critics and word-of-mouth are less important then movie previews and excerpts when explaininng movie succes after going on public. Eliashberg & Shugan, 1997 explored the impact of restricted-rating labeled movies on their box o? e performance. Terry, Butler & DeArmond, 2004 analysed the determinants of movie video rental revenue, ? nding Academy Award nominations as the dominant factor. King, 2007 followed their research and used U. S. movie data to ? nd the connection between the criticism and box o? ce earnings Many other authors has extended the sign work of Litman, 1983, but none of them has focused on the key factors of the international box o? ce revenues as we planned to. So we ? nally decided to use Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010 as our primary source. Their object of interest is very much similar to our resarch.Therefore we studied their metodology the most and we use their results in the analytical part as a primary resource of comparison. Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 2 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Data We got quickly stucked realising that the strong majority of movie data on the internet are not free available. It was quite a surprise because there are many movie-oriented sites with seemingly endless data access. But when there is a need of more profound, well structured and complete set of random data everything gets little bit tricky.After hours of searching, we luckily got to a 30 days free access to this kind of databases opusdata. com and got the core data for our analysis. Then we wanted to add some interesting or usefull variables just as the movie rating or the number of AcademyAwards to complete our dataset. It has been done using well known and free accessed databases imdb. com, numbers. com and boxo? cemojo. com. Thanks to our literature survey we discovered a model which we have thought would be interesting to test on di? erent or new data. The most interesting would be to test it on our domestic data but these are quite di? ult to obtain (as explained before). Anyway, it would be possible to get data for the highest grossing ? lms but that would violate the assumption of random sample. Therefore we decided to use data from U. S. and Canada which we considered the most likely to obtain. We also wanted to test whether the ? nancial crisis have had an impact on movie box o? ce revenues and whether the world ? nancial crisis made people less likely to go to the cinema. Model We considered several models and in the end we used two models. The ? rst one is just the said(prenominal) as the one used in paper Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010, but it is slightly modi? d by using di? erent data plus setting the crisis variable. We considered it as a dummy variable, which was 1 if the movie was released during crisis (2008-2009), otherwise it is equal to zero. As i t was proposed before, this model has been used as a comparison to the original model Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010 wihle we wanted to test whether their inference holds up with slightly di? erent and newer data. In the second model we tried to use a slightly di? erent approach. We used a time series model with year dummies and we also used all the variables which we obtained and were statistically signi? ant. Our ? rst model is basic linear regression with cross-sectional data. Our data are a random sample thanks to opusdata. com query which was capable of selecting a random sample of movies. We have tested all the variables for multicollinearity with the correlation matrix and there is no proof for multicollinearity in our used variables. The only high collinearity is between domestic and budget variables, which is about 0. 75. After running the regressions we have used the Breusch-Pagan test for heteroscedasticity and the chi squared was actually high therefore showing signs of strong heteroscedasticity.Even after looking at the graph of residuals against ? tted values it was clear that the heteroscedasticity is present. Therefore we had to run the regressions with the heteroscedasticity robust errors. We therefore tested in both models for presence of these the variables which have an impact on movie international box revenues any signi? cant impact of ? nancial crisis on these revenues Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 3 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Data analysis Here we list all the used variables in both models and their a description. ariables used academy awards . . . . . . . . . number of Academy Awards a ? lm earned action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in action genre animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in animation production method budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the estimated production and promotion c ost of a movie comedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in comedy genre crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dummy variable for movies released during crisis domestic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . omestic box o? ce earnings horror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in horror genre international . . . . . . . . . . . . international box o? ce earnings kids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies for children rating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . average user rating from the imdb. com source ratingR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . is a categorical variable for movies with a restricted rating romantic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in romantic genre sequel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies derived from a previously released ? lm y06 ? y10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dummy variable for movies released i n a year The list of variables is followed by both model equations and reggression table comparism, while model 1 and model 2 mean the original Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010 model and our new model respectivelly. model 1 international = ? 0 + ? 1 domestic + ? 2 action + ? 3 kids + ? 4 ratingR+ + ? 5 sequel + ? 6 rating + ? 7 academy awards + ? 8 budget + ? 9 crisis model 2 international = + + ? 0 + ? 1 academy awards + ? 2 budget + ? 3 domestic + ? 4 sequel + ? horror + ? 6 romantic + ? 7 comedy + ? 8 action + ? 9 ratingR + ? 10 animation + ? 11 y06 + ? 12 y07 + ? 13 y08 + ? 14 y09 Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 4 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Table 1 Model comparison model 1 domestic action kids rating R sequel rating academy awards budget crisis horror romantic comedy animation y 06 y 07 y 08 y 09 Constant Observations t statistics in parentheses ? model 2 1. 025 (13. 31) -18. 56? (-2. 29) 1. 028 (12. 70) -13. 43 (-1. 79 ) 48. 33? (2. 10) 5. 922 (1. 52) 26. 91? (2. 06) 0. 309 (1. 42) 6. 978? (2. 33) 0. 68 (5. 48) -5. 320 (-1. 01) 9. 259? (2. 36) 28. 74? (2. 16) 7. 097 (2. 59) 0. 508 (4. 73) -9. 867? (-2. 23) 13. 41 (1. 79) -17. 77 (-3. 31) 52. 02 (2. 87) -7. 962 (-1. 24) 1. 182 (0. 17) -6. 748 (-1. 01) -11. 79 (-1. 30) -43. 25 (-3. 05) 424 -15. 11? (-2. 41) 424 p 0. 05, p 0. 01, p 0. 001 Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 5 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Results model 1 After running the ? rst regression we get quite similar results as Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010, so their inference holds up even under our data.The similar results we get are that one dollar in revenues in US makes $1. 02 in international revenues, therefore succesful movie in US is likely to be similarly succesful in international theatres, if movie is a sequel it adds to revenues about $26 mil. , every academy award adds about $7 mil. and every additional dollar spent o n budget adds about $0. 57 so there is about 57% return on budget. We also have similarly insigni? cant variables which are whether is movie rated as restricted and how great or poorly is movie rated by critics or other people.That means that international audience is not in? uenced by age restrictions and critical movie ratings. When we look at our and theirs results regarding the genres then we get quite di? erent results. They say that when a movie is of an action genre then it adds about $26 mil. whereas we obtained results that revenues for an action movie should be lower about $13 mil. and our result for children movies is two times larger and it says that a children movie should make about $48 mil. more. It could be explained that movie genre preferences shifted in the last two years.But more likely explanation is the di? erence in our data in labeling the movies. In our data we have had more detailed labeling and movies which they had labeled as action movies, we had labeled adventure movies and so on Therefore the strictly action movie genre is not so probable to make money as it would seem. Action movies are usually of low quality and many of them could be labeled as B-movies which usually are not very likely to have high revenues. The children movies could be getting more popular and taking children to the movies could be getting more usual thing.Our last and new variable is the crisis dummy which is not signi? cant and therefore we have no proof that the ? nancial crisis had any e? ect on movie revenues. Our model has quite high R2 which is about 0. 83, that is even higher then Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010 have. But the main reason behind this high R2 is that most of the variation in data is explained by US revenues. If we regress international revenues on domestic alone we unsounded get high R2 which is about 0. 59. model 2 In our time series model we get quite similar results as in the ? rst one. We have there ? e new variables which are genre s comedy, romantic and horror, animation dummy, which tells us whether the movie is animated or not and year dummies. Our model implies that when a movie is a comedy it will make about $17 mil. less in revenues, when horror about $10 mil. less, when romantic about $13 mil. more and when animated it will add about $52 mil to its revenues. The restricted rating is now also statistically signi? cant and it should add to the revenues about $9 mil. which is quite unexpected. Y ear dummies are statistically non-signi? cant and even when we test them for joint signi? ance they are jointly non-signi? cant. Therefore even in this model there appears no reason to believe that the ? nancial crisis or even year makes di? erence in the movie revenues. Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 6 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Conclusion The inferences from our models are quite like we expected. We expected that people are more likely to go to cinem a to see movies that had won academy awards, that were succesful in U. S. theatres and that are some kind of sequel to previous succesful movies. The resulting e? cts of di? erent movie genres could be quite puzzling but these e? ects depend highly on quality of the movies released these years and on the mood and taste of current society. If we had had larger sample with data from many years then it is possible that we would have seen trends in the di? erent movie genres. The insigni? cance of the ? nancial crisis on movie revenues was also likely because the severity of the crisis and impact on regular citizen has not been so large that it would in? uence his attendence of movie theatres. Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 7 of 14International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Reference primary Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010 Terry, Neil, John W. Cooley, & Miles Zachary (2010). The Determinants of Foreign Box O? ce Revenue for English Language Movies. Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies, 2 (1), 117-127. secondary Eliashberg & Shugan, 1997 Eliashberg, Jehoshua & Steven M. Shugan (1997). Film Critics In? uencers or Predictors? Journal of Marketing, 61, 68-78. Faber & OGuinn, 1984 Faber, Ronald & Thomas OGuinn (1984). E? ect of Media Advertising and Other Sources on Movie Selection.Journalism Quarterly, 61 (summer), 371-377. King, 2007 King, Timothy (2007). Does ? lm criticism a? ect box o? ce earnings? Evidence from movies released in the U. S. in 2003. Journal of Cultural Economics, 31, 171-186. Litman, 1983 Litman, Barry R. (1983). Predicting Success of Theatrical Movies An Empirical Study. Journal of Popular Culture, 16 (spring), 159-175. Ravid, 1999 Ravid, S. Abraham (1999). Information, Blockbusters, and Stars A Study of the Film Industry. Journal of Business, 72 (4), 463-492. Terry, Butler & DeArmond, 2004 Terry, Neil, Michael Butler & DeArno DeArmond (2004).The Economic Impact of Movie Critics on Box O? c e Performance. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 8 (1), scallywag 61-73. data sources opusdata. com Opus data movie data through a query interface. 30-days free trial. http//www. opusdata. com/ imdb. com The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The biggest, best, most award-winning movie site on the planet. http//www. imdb. com numbers. com The numbers. Box o? ce data, movies stars, idle speculation. http//www. the-numbers. com boxo? cemojo. com Box o? ce mojo. Movie web site with the most comprehensive box o? ce database on the Internet. ttp//www. boxofficemojo. com Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 8 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Appendix Descriptive statistics for the dependent variables Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 9 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis model 1 Regression of the original model published in Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010 Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 10 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Residuals versus ? tted values plotBreusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 11 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis model 2 Regression of our model Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 12 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Residuals versus ? tted values plot Breusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 13 of 14 International movie revenues Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis The correlation matrix Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 14 of 14

British Management Theory and Practice the Impact of Fayol

Ian Smith, Trevor Boyns, (2005),British way theory and practice the impact of Fayol, Management Decision, Vol. 43 Iss 10 pp. 1317 1334 This paper re-examines the impact of Fayols wee on theory and practice of focal point in Britain, first, in the interwar period and second, in the post-war period of 1945 to the of late 1960s. Lyndall Urwick, a respected British care thinker and writer described Fayol as the most elevated figure which Europe contributed to the counsel movement up to the end of the first half of the present blow(Smith I, Boyns T, 2005) in Urwicks publishes and translated speeches.Urwick supported Fayols general principles of worry ensuring an influence on post-war British management theories known as the neoclassical school during the 1950s. Fayols principles took place among theories within scientific management slew which offered an intelligent inputs coupled to a genuine belief in industrial efficiency. Further research into British management practice du ring that era, Fayols influence proved problematic due to the emphasis of British management on pragmatism and narrow focus on control which allowed little, if any, accommodation for Fayols model.Twenty years or so after Second World War, Fayols impact, especially after Urwicks intervention, was on management theory however not management practice. Since 1970, the focus of management thinking had turned away from the functions of management towards to understanding management and managing through an examination of what managers do. This article concludes whether Henri Fayols contribution is relevant today. This suggests that the history academics complete his work had significantly contributed to the study in management today, and Fayols ideas continued to be more influential in the realm of theory than practice in Britain.

The Meaning of Holy Grail

The Tradition The divine grail was a vessel apply by Christ at the Last Supper. Given to his grand-uncle, St. Joseph of Arimathea, it was used by him to collect Christs blood and sweat while Joseph tended him on the Cross. After Christs death, Joseph was apparently impris bingled in a rock tomb similar to the one he had given for the body of his grand-nephew. Left to starve, he was sustained for several years by the power of the Grail which provided him with fresh food and drink every morning. Later, St. Joseph travelled to Britain with his family and several followers.He settled at Ynys Witrin (Glastonbury), only when the Grail was taken to Corbenic whither it was housed in a spectacular castle, guarded always by the Grail Kings, descendants of Josephs daughter, Anna (Enygeus) and her husband, Brons. Centuries later, the location of the Great Castle of Corbenic became forgotten. At the Court of King Arthur, however, it was prophesied that the Grail would one day be rediscovered b y a descendant of St. Joseph the top hat knight in the land, the only man capable of sitting in the mysterious Siege Perilous.When such a man arrived in the form of Galahad, the son of Lancelot, along with a miraculous, though brief, vision of the Grail itself, a quest to find this holiest of relics began. Through many adventures and many years, the Knights of the Round Table crossed Britain from one end to another in their search. Perceval (Peredyr) discovered the castle in a land that was sickly same its spear-wounded King. When entertained by this Fisher or Grail King, however, he failed to ask of the grail and unexpended empty-hand. Lancelot next reached Corbenic, but was prevented from entering because of he was an adulterer.Finally Galahad arrived. He was permitted entry to the Grail Chapel and allowed to gaze upon the with child(p) cup. His life became complete and together grail and man were lifted up to heaven. The Names The hallowed Grail first appears as simply a g rail in the works of Chretien de Troyes. The word is probably derived from the Old French word graal convey a broad and capacious dish or salver. though usually thought of as being a cup or chalice, the Grail has indeed been variously described as a platter, dish, a cornucopia, horn of plenty or even a playscript or a stone. The tell apart of the Castle of Corbenic has competing explanations.Old Welsh Cors, meaning Horn, the Horn of Plenty as the Grail is sometimes described may have become confused with the Old French Corps, producing Corps-Benoit meaning Holy Body, ie. the Body of Christ. More likely, however, is the suggestion that Corbenic stems from Corbin-Vicus. The ending is almost certainly derived from the Latin for Settlement, while Corben is a French translation of the word Crow or Raven Bran in Welsh. This was also a mans name and, as Brons, he appears as St. Josephs son-in-law, one of the first Grail Kings. Hence Corbenic was Brans Settlement.It may be identical to the home of Lancelots father, Caer-Benwick. Ancient Origins The quest for a divine vessel was a popular foundation in Arthurian legend long before medieval writers introduced the Holy Grail to British mythology. It appears in the Mabinogion tale of Culhwch and Olwen, but particularly well-known is the story of the Preiddeu Annwfn or Spoils of the Otherworld as recounted by Taliesin. Arthur and his warriors sail wrap up to the Gaelic Otherworld to capture the pearl-rimmed Cauldron of Annwfn like the grail it was a giver of plenty, but also of prophecy.It was at last discovered at Caer-Siddi (or Wydyr), an island bound castle of glass, where it was guarded by nine divine maidens but the ensuing perils were too much for even Arthurs men. The mission was abandoned and only cardinal of their number returned home. Celtic Cauldrons were used in ceremonial feasting as early as the Late Bronze Age. rite deposits in Llyn Fawr (Glamorgan) included such vessels, though the best known exam ple is the Gundestrup Cauldron found in the peat bogs of Jutland (Denmark). Highly decorated with portraits of many Celtic deities, this vessel would once have held up to 28 and a half gallons of liquid.These finds clearly point to the religious importance of caldrons, as found in the Arthurian stories and even older Celtic mythological parallels. The magic Otherworld vessel was the Cauldron of Ceridwen, the Celtic Goddess of Inspiration. She is remembered today in the archetypal hideous cauldron-stirring witch. She once set about brewing a drink of knowledge and comprehension for her hideous son, but her kitchen-boy, Gwion, accidentally tasted the concoction, preventing anyone else from benefitting from its affects. A great battle of wills ensued, for Gwion now held all the knowledge to get away the Goddess wrath.The two changed themselves into various animals in an attempt to outwit each other before Gwion was swallowed whole as a grain of wheat. He was eventually reborn as th e great bard, Taliesin The cauldron then reappears in the story of Bran Fendigaid (the Blessed), not only as a vessel of knowledge and plenty, but also of rebirth. The great Celtic warrior God, Bran, obtained his life-giving vessel from a giantess (or thinly veiled Ceridwen) who had been expelled from a Lake in Ireland. The Emerald Isle here personifies the Celtic Otherworld.The magic vessel would restore to life the body of any dead warrior placed inwardly it a scene apparently depicted on the Gundestrup Cauldron. Brans sister marries the King of Ireland and they are given the cauldron as a wedding gift. However, when hostilities between the two countries break out, Bran travels across the ocean to regain this hazardous prize. He is eventually successful, but is wounded by a poisoned spear and, like Arthur, only seven of his men return home. The name, the castle (already discussed), the wound, the mystic vessel, the journey Bran Fendigaid is clearly Brons, the Grail King, son-in- law of Joseph of Arimathea.