Response to Roderick Nash´s Essay Island Civilization A...

In Roderick R. Nash’s essay â€Å"Island civilization: A vision for human occupancy of earth in the fourth millenium† he quotes â€Å"Of course a change like this one [Island civilization] involves compromises with human freedom.† Nashs plan for the future is to make self-sustaining â€Å"islands† of civilization. These civilizations would be clusters of the population, and quite similar to cities. His plan also relies on advanced technology that would not harm the Earth and that the â€Å"islands† remain isolated from each other. All food production, manufacturing, sanitation, and other services would take place directly within the civilization. This would mean that we as humans would lose many rights that we have had for hundreds of years such as human†¦show more content†¦It would just all spiral out of control. Thats just the legal side of things, their is no doubt in my mind that people would break this law. Its if the government were to outlaw walking, we have been doing it for so long that it just wouldnt work. Nash explains that according to the terms of a new ecological contract â€Å"we would surrender some freedoms like birding cows on the open range or living in a sprawling ski resort.† He says that if you wanted to live in the snow you would have to live somewhere in the mountains but according to zoopla.com where they had a research project on 2000 British citizens it sowed that on average they move 8 times in their lives. So what would happen in Nashs Island civilization? Would are freedom to move be denied? Children would live in the same environment all their lives, personally on of the reasons I love California is if you want to you can go snowboarding in the morning and have a bone fire on the beach at night. People are not going to be ok with giving up a lot of our freedom in order to save wildlife. I honestly think that in another thousand years, society will be more high tech than we could ever imagine but little to no real wild life will be found. As unfortunate as th is may be, I think it is what our society

Accounting Information System - 1944 Words

Table of contents No. | Title | Page | 1 | Question 1 | 2-3 | 2 | Question 2 | 4-5 | 3 | Question 3 | 6-7 | 4 | Bibliography | 8 | 5 | CD | 9 | 6 | Turnitin report | 10 | Question 1 Mrs. Sally runs a bakery business, Sweet Delight which caters to both individuals and businesses. However, there are some flaws found in her current sales system that caused a loss of significant amount of money. Hoping that she’s able to improve her cash flow, there are some weaknesses highlighted in her current practice. i) Poor online ordering. Having an online catalogue is beneficial for businesses today. It gives the owner slight edge and greater opportunity against their competitors. Most customer nowadays prefer online†¦show more content†¦The need to settle off the overwhelming orders might affect the next orders in line as they are taking longer times to settle the current orders. They might not be able to finish the orders on the agreed date. iii) Credit collection practice. An invoice is a document that shows how much a buyer owes to the seller. Sales invoice indicates that the sale has been done but the company has not received the cash yet (Conjecture Corporation, 2013). Mrs. Sally prepared her customer invoices at the end of each month. This method is considered as inefficient as taking a longer time to issue invoice will result in poor cash flow. The income statements may show a high sales but the company cash flow is affected due to increase in debtors account. Furthermore, the company also might have risk of bad debts. For instance, when Mrs. Sally issues a customer an invoice at the end of this month, the customer might not pay her right away instead they pay at the end of the following month of invoice date. Question 2 By analyzing the weaknesses in Mrs. Sally current practices, there are several improvement that can be done to enhance the performance of the business. i) Set up e-payment processing network Connecting a business website to online payment processing network is no easy task and beyond the skill and technical resources of most business operating online. Instead, there is easy and inexpensive way for getting business transactions onlineShow MoreRelatedAccounting Information System1811 Words   |  8 PagesDiscussion I. I. Accounting information system is a combination of collecting, recording, storing, and processing data of a business. The advancement of technology initiates business firms to seek for new innovations that would greatly help in business functions. 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According to Emma Watkins (Demand Media 2014, para 1), â€Å"cloud accounting is the use of computer hardware and software applicationsRead MoreThe Adoption Of Cloud Based Accounting Information System2021 Words   |  9 Pagesreport is to critically analyze the adoption of cloud based accounting information system (AIS) in busin ess organizations and also its challenges and benefits of cloud based environment. Cloud accounting (SAASU 20124, para 3) is also called ‘online accounting’, which provides the same service as accounting software and data is securely stored on servers as known as the cloud. According to Emma Watkins (Demand Media 2014, para 1), â€Å"cloud accounting is the use of computer hardware and software applicationsRead MoreAccounting Information System 53570 Words   |  15 Pages1450-223X Issue 4 (2009), pp36-44  © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2009 http://www.eurojournals.com/ajsr.htm Accounting Information Systems (AIS) and Knowledge Management: A Case Study Zulkarnain Muhamad Sori Department of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Management Universiti Putra Malaysia Abstract This study seeks to examine the use of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) by ZBMS Sdn. Bhd., and it’s contribution to the knowledge management and strategic role of the organisationRead MorePayroll Fraud And Accounting Information Systems1391 Words   |  6 Pages Payroll Fraud and Accounting Information Systems Stephanie Ace and Nisha Selvam Payroll systems have evolved tremendously as software and computerized systems have spread throughout the workplace. While this has alleviated some of the hassle involved with processing payroll, it has also opened up a world of potential issues. Oftentimes, systems that appear both effective and efficient can become vulnerable if placed in the hands of dishonest employees or employers

Hospitals And Consent To Treatment Free Essays

string(132) " cumulative or not but it would seem that more recent authority has settled on the fact that the four elements are not cumulative \." Introduction The Law Commission in 1995 recommended an overhaul of the system for the admission to hospital, treatment and detention of those who lack the capacity to decide their own fate . Ten years later the Mental Capacity Act 2005 received royal assent and came into force in 2007 to right the balance between doctor and patient by, fundamentally, enabling individuals with mental disorders to make their own choices in the majority of cases and to place the onus and burden of proof on doctors and others who wish to invoke non-consensual treatment against their wishes . Alongside other notable acts which constitute the legal environment such as the Mental Health Act 2007 there are now strong legal safeguards in place to protect against the horrific abuses of the past. We will write a custom essay sample on Hospitals And Consent To Treatment or any similar topic only for you Order Now One aspect of the treatment of such individuals which proved to be the least contentious was the ‘functional’ test for determining capacity which survived the 2007 Act intact. The ‘functional’ test was discussed extensively in Re C , a case which drew together the strands of the test and indeed proved to be the foundations of the 2005 Act’s s.3 and the presumption that patients have capacity unless proved otherwise under s.1 . Thorpe J, in upholding a man who had been diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia’s right to refuse treatment for a gangrenous leg, found clear precedent in two powerful cases from 1993 and observed in his judgement his impressions of the man who, despite delusions of a stellar medical career, was deemed capable to refuse the proposed treatment: â€Å"C. himself (the patient) throughout the hours that he spent in the proceedings seemed ordinarily engaged and concerned. His answers to questions seemed measured and generally sensible. He was not always easy to understand and the grandiose delusions were manifest, but there was no sign of inappropriate emotional expression. His rejection of amputation seemed to result from sincerely held conviction. He had a certain dignity of manner that I respect.† From the influential judgements of Thorpe J in Re C and B v. Croydon District Health Authority a three-stage test was elicited by the Law Commission which found its way into the 2005 Act : Can the patient take in and retain the informationDoes he/she believe that informationCan he/she weigh that information and make a decisionThe functional test is a modern restatement of the test at common law and continues to be the foundation upon which a test of competency regarding the treatment of a mentally disordered patient is made with recent cases of capacity following the script of the Act strictly . But is this test necessarily the best despite the courts’ unanimous application and the lack of disputed cases since 2005This essay will critically discuss the above statement by analysing the functional test’s development both pre and post Mental Capacity Act 2005 in part 1 and identifying the key weaknesses in part 2. This essay will argue that the functional test to a signifi cant extent provides protection against arbitrary, non-consensual treatment and despite key weaknesses still surpasses the alternatives identified by the Law Commission . Part 1 1.1 The functional test As noted the functional test is nothing new to medical law and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 simply crystallised into statute what had been prevalent in case law for some years before with the cases of In re T. (Adult: Refusal of Treatment) and Re C proving to be particularly influential in shaping the functional test within the 2005 Act . Section 1 of the 2005 Act provides that a patient is presumed to have mental capacity unless proven otherwise. This is, in other words, a â€Å"rebuttable presumption† which arises and acts a safeguard: arguably a powerful disincentive against the â€Å"non-consensual, arbitrary treatment† the statement refers to. Under the Act any such decision to refuse to consent to medical treatment must be dealt with on a balance of probabilities which is the civil standard and indeed a high barrier to cross . The onus of proof is squarely on the complainant unlike the situation previously at common law . Section 2 makes it clear that a personal will lack capacity if â€Å"at the material time† he/she is unable to make a decision because of an â€Å"impairment of, or a disturbance in the functioning of, the mind or brain† . Thus a person’s superficial attributes such as age or appearance will not be considered under this section and it is important to note that the â€Å"impairment† or â€Å"disturbance† referred to in s.2(1) can be permanent or temporary. Interestingly the Law Commission report points out that this â€Å"diagnostic threshold†, which requires a person to have a recognised mental disability, comes before the functional element which essentially dilutes any notions of a pure functional test . A good example of such a temporary disorder was demonstrated in Re MB (An Adult: Refusal of Medical Treatment) where MB suffered from a phobia of needles which meant she refused any anaesthetic during a proposed caesarean section which was thought vital to deliver her baby. The Court of Appeal (Civil Division) dismissed the woman’s appeal after the hospital obtained a declaration that doctors could perform a caesarean . Their Lordships observed that such a condition as s he had disabled her from making the decision and, furthermore, other temporary factors such as â€Å"panic brought on by fear† could â€Å"erode† the capacity to make any decision regarding medical treatment . The Act goes on under section 3 to specify the circumstances under which a person would not be able to make a decision for the purposes of section 2. With four conditions which comprise the heart of the functional test, a person cannot make a decision for himself if he/she is unable to â€Å"(a) understand the information relevant to the decision, (b) to retain that information, (c) to use or weight that information as part of the process of making the decision, or (d) to communicate his decision (whether by talking, using sign language or any other means)† . There is conflicting dicta regarding whether these elements are cumulative or not but it would seem that more recent authority has settled on the fact that the four elements are not cumulative . You read "Hospitals And Consent To Treatment" in category "Essay examples" Margaret Brazier and Emma Cave sum up the force of these key provisions well: â€Å"The 2005 Act directs that what must be assessed is essentially the patient’s capacity to understand what is at stake and act on that information.† 1.2 Case law Since the Mental Capacity Act came into force in October 2007 there have not been, within the specific context of treatment and decision-making capacity under section 3 of the 2005 Act, any disputed cases at all which would seem to suggest that the functional test is being adopted and applied consistently and confirms observations that â€Å"capacity is unlikely to be disputed unless others disagree with the outcome† . It is no surprise that of the cases which do cite section 3, which comprises the essence of the functional test, are very diverse including applications by local authorities on where mentally disabled individuals should live , the capacity of mentally disabled individuals to conduct litigation , applications by local authorities to declare that mentally disabled individuals could not consent to sexual relations and even one case which invoked the Family Division’s inherent jurisdiction to prevent the broadcast of a film and the publication of an article a bout an individual who had dissociated identity disorder and had consented to the film . In the UK then at this present time the problems to be elicited from the functional test are still on a more theoretical rather than practical level. This is an unfortunate development as litigation is often needed to fully understand statutory rules but, as has been pointed out by Mary Donnelly, pre Mental Capacity Act cases remain relevant and will be utilised in the following section to understand the weaknesses of the functional test now enshrined within the 2005 Act . Part 2: Discussion of the functional test 2.1 Weaknesses and discussion of the test As pointed out above it is to pre-2005 Act case law and theoretical problems we must look to in order to map out the weaknesses of the functional test and provoke robust critical discussion. Few authors have discussed these problems but Mary Donnelly’s influential article in the journal ‘Legal Studies’ in 2009 as well as her book of 2010 have both started to expose the practical flaws and weaknesses which are evident in the 2005 Act’s adoption of the functional test. A pilot study has also been conducted in England and Wales using the experience of 52 consultants in old age psychiatry which contains some valuable discussion of the Act and its early implementation . These weaknesses will be presented and discussed separately: (a) The influence of outcomes It is almost impossible to ignore the fact that outcomes will continue to influence the application of the functional test . This osmosis comes about because only when the outcome of a decision by a mentally disabled individual is challenged will the test come into operation in the context of treatment. Thus, being the raison d’etre of the litigation, it is not surprising to find that many judges, assessors and doctors can succumb to the temptation of disagreeing with an outcome which is undesirable despite the fixed intention of an individual. Margaret Brazier and Emma Cave rightly point out that despite Butler Sloss P warning in B v An NHS Trust that â€Å"it is most important that those considering the issue should not confuse the question of mental capacity with the nature of the decision made by the patient, however grave the consequences,† the same judge then paradoxically stated in Re MB that: â€Å"the graver the consequences of a decision, the commensurately g reater the level of competence is required to take the decision† . It is clear that despite the Law Commission’s rejection of an outcome-based approach it is naive to pretend that outcomes can be excluded from the often biased minds of doctors, assessors and even, it would seem, judges. (b) Irrational decisions Both Margaret Brazier and Emma Cave rightly identify that the case of Re C suggests that despite an individual holding strange beliefs or exhibiting bizarre behaviour this should not automatically result in a finding of a lack of capacity to make a decision . As they go on to point out, however, there have been cases where the judge’s opinion of such bizarre beliefs has indicated a lack of capacity . One of the factors under s.3(c) maintains that the individual in question must be able to use and weigh information . Mary Donnelly points out that the ability to reason is an integral part of this factor and thus undermines the liberal account of capacity . Donnelly goes on to point out the case of South West Hertfordshire Health Authority v KB which provides a clear example of a case where a judge confused the ability to reason with the rationality of the decision itself. (c) Non-judicial assessment Donnelly also correctly points out that assessor’s, often individuals without legal training, are being delegated to carry out legally challenging assessments for capacity in a variety of circumstances . Furthermore, Donnelly concludes that assessors’ values and biases are influencing decisions being made which further reinforces the two points made above on outcomes-based decisions and rationality . (d) The role of undue influence The final weakness in the functional test which has been identified by Donnelly alone is that there is no satisfactory resolution of the influence of third parties on the will of the individual in respect of the functional test under section 3 of the 2005 Act . Despite there being a clear link between capacity and undue influence in other areas, for example testamentary dispositions, the 2005 Act does not properly address this issue. Conclusion In Conclusion the functional test, despite key weaknesses, protects mentally disordered people to a significant extent from arbitrary, non-consensual treatment. The test, now enshrined in the 2005 Act, has not been properly litigated yet: there have, in the four years in which the Act has been operational , been no cases which have invoked the functional test in the area of consent to medical treatment. This could be, as noted above, evidence that the presumption in favour of capacity is working or simply evidence that there have been fewer challenges to capacity in recent years. Further evidence is required to evaluate the lack of cases within this area. Furthermore, the test is also not a purely functional one as there operates a diagnostic threshold which comes into play before it and is an important obstacle for anyone to overcome and which inevitably limits the protection which the test provides . What is clear from the pre-2005 Act case law is that there are undeniable weaknesses within the ‘functional’ test which undermine the protection it undoubtedly offers to individuals with mental disorders. The obvious influence of outcomes upon decisions of capacity, the confusion of the ability to reason with the rationality of the decision itself by assessors and judges alike, the unsatisfactory undue influence situation and the non-judicial assessments being conducted by those without legal training all point to a system which is far from perfect but which is better than a purely status based or outcome based system. Bibliography 1.0 Books Brazier, Margaret Cave, Emma (2007) Medicine, Patients and the Law (4th ed) Penguin Books: London Donnelly, Mary (2010) Healthcare Decision-Making and the Law: Autonomy, Capacity and the Limits of Liberalism Cambridge Uni Press: Worldwide 2.0 Journals D. Carson, â€Å"Disabling Progress: The Law Commission’s Proposals on Mentally Incapacitated Adults’ Decision-Making† (1993) J.S.W.F.L. 304. Donnelly, Mary (2009) ‘Assessing Capacity under the Mental Capacity Act 2005: Delivering on the Functional Approach?’ Legal Studies 29 p.464 Fulford, Bill (2010) ‘A Pilot Study of the Early Implementation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in England and Wales’ Medicine, Science and the Law 50(3) pp131 – 135 Keywood, Kirsty (2010) ‘Vulnerable Adults, Mental Capacity and Social Care Refusal’ Medical Law Review 18(1) 103 – 110 at p.103 3.0 Reports Law Commission Report no.231 Mental Incapacity (1995) HMSO 4.0 Statutes Mental Capacity Act 2005 Mental Health Act 2007 5.0 Cases A London Local Authority v JH [2011] EWHC 2420 (Fam) Airedale N.H.S. Trust v. Bland [1993] A.C. 789 B v An NHS Trust [2002] All ER 449 B v. Croydon District Health Authority (1994) 2 2 B.M.L.R. 13; Banks v Goodfellow (1870) 5 QB 549 D Borough Council v B [2011] EWHC 101 (Fam) E v Channel Four Television Corp [2005] EWHC 1144 (Fam) F v West Berkshire Health Authority [1989] 2 All ER 545 F v Riverside Health Trust (1993) 20 BMLR 1 HL v UK (2005) 40 EHRR 32 In re T. (Adult: Refusal of Treatment) [1993] Fam. 95 NHS Trust v T (Adult Patient: Refusal of Medical Treatment) [2004] EWHC 1279 Re R (A Minor) (Wardship: Medical Treatment) [1991] 4 All ER 177; Re W (A Minor) (Wardship: Medical Treatment) [1992] 3 WLR 758 Re MB (An Adult: Refusal of Medical Treatment) [1997] 8 Med LR 217 Re C [1994] 1 All ER 819 per Thorpe J at p.294 Riverside NHS Mental Health Trust v Fox [1994] 1 FLR 614 South West Hertfordshire Health Authority v KB South West Hertforshire Health Authority v KB [1994] 2 FCR 1051 Tameside and Glossop Acute Services Trust v CH [1996] 1 FLR 762. T v T [1988] 1 All ER 613 and Re B (A Minor) (Wardship: Sterilization) [1987] 2 All ER 206, HL V v R [2011] EWHC 822 (QB) W (Children), Re [2008] EWHC 1188 (Fam) How to cite Hospitals And Consent To Treatment, Essay examples

Cost of Equity and Capital Structure free essay sample

In January 2007 the UK adopted the globally successful real estate investment trust (REIT) regime, allowing real estate firms to adopt the REIT status with the benefit of immediate exemption from corporate tax. This study observes 14 UK REITs and 18 comparable conventional UK real estate firms during the years 2001-2011 to scrutinize in how far the corporate tax exemption affects cost of debt and equity and eventually capital structure itself. I employ a difference-in-differences (DiD) analysis, whereby I contrast changes in several variables of REITs and Non-REITs in the pre- and post-treatment phase. This setup enables me to establish empirical results of the given relationship in the absence of changes in exogenous determinants. I find that the cost of debt of REITs rises by just above 30 percent compared to that of Non-REITs. Moreover, the results show that whereas REITs financed a 21 percent increase in total assets with an almost 50/50 debt to equity ratio, Non-REITs financed a 41 percent increase in total assets with 70/30 debt to equity. This confirms the expectation that REITs use relatively less debt because of the missing tax incentive and higher implied costs of debt. However, I do not obtain significant results from the DiD analysis, that this is caused by this treatment. Key words: REITs, corporate tax exemption, security issuance decision Research theme: Cost of debt, cost of equity and capital structure Supervisor: Dr. Henk von Eije 1. Introduction Capital structure theory plays a decisive role in the corporate and financial world, and although it has been subject to a great amount of academic research, the relationship of cost of capital and capital structure remains an unsolved puzzle for financial economists (Howe, Shilling (1988), Maris, Elayan (1990)). Furthermore, most of the existing research results in abstract theories and concepts with empirical proof lagging behind the theoretical research, as the included variables are often difficult to isolate and to observe. (Titman and Wessels, 1988) This study aims to shed light on the impact of the exemption of corporate tax on the cost of debt relative to the cost of equity and eventually on capital structure by analyzing and comparing REITs to conventional real estate firms. REITs are chosen as the center of this study, as they allow a type of natural experiment. The essential aspect to this set-up is that once conventional real estate firms start to function under the REIT regime, they become tax-exempt, which is expected to cause a sudden increase of their cost of debt component due to the now missing tax shield, previously imposed by the debt. This is derived from the calculation for the weighted cost of capital (WACC). That is the sum of the cost of equity (Re) multiplied with total equity (E) over total assets (A) plus the cost of debt (Rd) multiplied with one minus the corporate tax rate (T) and the ratio total debt (D) over total assets. This study aims to examine whether and by how much the cost of debt and equity change after tax exemption and if so how this affects in turn the capital structure of a firm. This leads to the following research questions: 1. Does tax exemption affect the cost of debt and equity and if so, by how much? 2. Does the capital structure change due to a rise in the cost of debt relative to the cost of equity? As I elaborate in the literature review, I expect that the cost of debt of REITs rises by the size of the tax shield, whereas the cost of equity remains constant. Furthermore, I expect that REITs use relatively less debt for financing, because of the relatively higher cost of debt. Already in 1958, Modigliani and Miller have pointed the discussion of capital structure towards the cost of debt and equity. According to their first proposition, in a world of no corporate taxes and with perfect markets, financial leverage has no effect on a firm’s value. In their second proposition, they state that the cost of equity equals a linear function defined by the required return on assets and the cost of debt (Modigliani and Miller, 1958). As negative aspects of debt, e. g. ersonal tax loss and bankruptcy costs however do exist in reality, Miller (1977) elaborates that leverage will either have no or a negative effect on the firm’s value, hence untaxed firms should favor equity. Nevertheless, firms have used leverage even before corporate taxes have been introduced (Maris and Elayan, 1990). This implies the existence of some market imperfec tions, which benefit the use of debt financing, thus enable a trade-off of the cost and benefits of debt resulting in an optimal capital structure, where marginal cost equal marginal benefits. In general, the majority of existing research is set up by taking the ecurity issuance choice as the dependent variable and then tests empirically for determinants based on data from one type of companies. It needs to be taken into consideration that security issue decision and capital structure are not the same, but that the latter is the result of all previous security issue decisions. This study differs in two major ways from the existing research. First, by investigating the changes in capital structure, this study aims at explaining long-term changes imposed by a sustained change in the independent variable of capital structure. This contrasts to other studies that connect each individual security issuance to the relative conditions and determinants. Secondly, the study centers the analysis on the comparison of REITs to conventional, non-REIT real estate companies. Given the uncertainty of the impact of the various variables on capital structure, contrasting these two data sets with the only distinctive difference of having different relative costs of debt and equity, enables one to investigate the impact of the independent variable while excluding other exogenous factors. The sample includes two groups of companies with observations from 2001 until 2012. Group 1, the treatment group, consists of 19 REITs in England and group 2, the control group consists of 31 conventional real estate firms. The REIT regime was introduced in 2007, thus the observations consist of six years without and six years with the REIT status for group 1 and twelve years without the REIT status for group 2. With their almost unique characteristics of being tax-exempt as well as having to distribute at least 90% of their operating gains, REITs experience significantly different conditions concerning capital structure compared to their industrial counterparts. The regulatory structures impact the security issue decisions in two related and important ways. The tax incentive of issuing debt is eliminated, which increases the cost of debt, thus lowers the REITs access to cheap funds. Moreover, REITs actually depend more on raising funds via external markets, as they have to distribute 90 percent of internally generated funds. The remainder of this study is structured as follows. In the next section, I elaborate on the structural differences of REITs in comparison to conventional firms, which are seen as relevant for this study. The literature review providing a detailed overview of previous research on capital structure and the impact of cost of debt and equity follows. Subsequently, I will describe the applied difference-in-differences method, my sample as well as the data collection and the regression models. The results are discussed in the fifth section. The final section summarizes and concludes. 2. REITs The UK REIT regime was launched on January 1st, 2007 and is set out in Part 4 of the Finance Act 2006. REITs are globally known and understood as having highly tax efficient structures for investment in real estate. At the moment, 24 companies qualify as and have elected the REIT status in the UK. Due to the need to have a complete set of data for the range of 2000 until 2012 and especially six years of data as a REIT, only 14 out of the 24 companies are selected in this study. This section serves to review the for this study relevant structural characteristics of REITs. In general, the UK REIT regime consists of listed property rental companies that own and manage a portfolio of commercial and retail real estate with the goal to earn a profit for shareholders. Two important tests to assure this guideline are the profit and asset test. According to the profit test, at least 75 percent of total profits must arise from the tax-exempt business, the rent income from its properties. Total profits here is gross profit before taxes,excluding any gains and losses on disposal of assets outside of the ordinary REIT business. Furthermore, the value of this tax-exempt business needs to account for at least 75 percent of the firm’s total assets to fulfill the asset test. Several formal requirements exist and demand a firm to be solely resident in the UK for tax purposes, be neither an open-ended investment nor close company, have a listing on a recognized stock exchange and have no shareholder own more than 10 percent of shares. The ‘close company’ condition prevents companies with less than five different owners to become REITs, whereas the open-ended investment company simply possesses a different corporate structure (Deloitte, 2012). After a real estate firm officially adopts the REIT status, several effects come into place. The most important effect is that REITs are tax-exempt but have to distribute at least 90 percent of their income as calculated for tax purposes within 12 months after the end of the accounting period. This reduces the ability of financing via internal funds significantly. The intention of tax-exemption is to replicate the tax treatment of direct investment in property and eliminate double taxation, both on corporate and shareholder level. Moreover, REITs are only allowed to dispose of up to 50 percent of existing assets within a five year time frame, which further restricts financing possibilities. Whereas requirements for a maximum debt-to-equity ratio exist in several other countries to disable extreme leveraging, the UK REIT regime commands REITs to have a gross profit-financing costs ratio of at least 1. 25, assuring overall positive operating profits. This shall prevent situations, where REITs distribute almost no taxable dividends because their operational profits are considerably reduced by high financing costs. However, breaching this requirement does not remove the REIT status but rather creates a tax charge on the relevant amount of debt to secure tax income for the government (Deloitte, 2012). In 2012, several changes to the REIT regime have been passed including the elimination of the entry charge, easing the profit-financing costs ratio as well as allowing the listing on more exchanges including AIM and Plus. Nevertheless, these changes came into effect after the last data observation and do not influence the current research. . Literature Review The aim of this study is to scrutinize the effect of tax exemption on the cost of debt and equity and in turn on capital structure. This section serves to provide a concise overview of the existing findings on capital structure, which are relevant for the comparison of REITs and their industrial counterparts. Eventually, I will demonstrate that despite the extensive amount of research, there is still a clear present need for empirical proof of the impact of cost of debt and equity on capital structure. This need results from the fact that REITs themselves and other tax-exempt corporation forms are still fairly new and hence under-researched. In addition, the unique setting of a sudden and drastic change in one determinant of capital structure allows a pre- and post-analysis of the significance of that variable that can offer new insights and can serve to confirm or reject existing models. The literature review is divided into two sections. First, the capital structure irrelevance introduced by Modigliani and Miller is discussed, as well as early research of Howe et al. (1988) and Maris et al. 1990), as both find that REITs are still highly leveraged contrary to their expectations. In the second part I will discuss the presently dominating theories describing the relevant determinants, the security issuance decision and their implications for the usage of debt by REITs. 3. 1 Capital Structure Irrelevance The first and second propositions from Modigliani and Miller are included into this analysis, because they form the basis of modern capital structure theory and are especially interesting as this study focuses on tax-exempt corporations, which is an essential aspect of their work. In general, Modigliani and Miller (1958) state that in a world of efficient markets with no taxes, bankruptcy costs, agency costs and asymmetric information, companies would experience capital structure irrelevance, implying that the value of the firm is not affected by the ratio of debt to equity. Examining REITs and their counterparts solely based on this work, one would expect a much lower leverage ratio for REITs, because the only difference appears to be the missing tax break. As demonstrated by Howe and Shilling (1988) and Maris and Elayan (1990), this is however not the case implying the existence of market imperfections beneficial to the use of debt. Howe and Shilling (1988) examine stock price reactions after announcements of new security issues. Whereas they expect a negative price reaction after debt issuance because of a net tax loss of corporate borrowing for untaxed firms, they find a positive, significant effect. Their conclusion is that signaling effects due to asymmetric information between managers and outsiders dominate over other determinants. The underlying idea is that information asymmetries exist between managers and outside market participants about the company’s prospects, which make it costly to issue equity. Overall, their findings suggest that relatively higher costs of debt do not necessarily hinder debt issuance. Maris and Elayan (1990) address the question of capital structure from a different perspective and scrutinize the effect of debt financing on a REIT’s cost of capital. Similar to Howe and Shilling (1988) they expect disadvantages in the use of debt due to personal taxes and the cost of financial distress. Nevertheless, they find that many REITs are highly leveraged. The authors argue that both agency costs and the leverage clientele effect might be reasons, but do not find significant results. The leverage clientele effect proposes that some firms use extreme leverage ratios to appeal to either highly risk-averse or risk-seeking investors and fully ignore the trade-off between the costs and benefits of debt. The effect will be addressed in the methodology again, because if it holds, the levels of cost of debt and equity are fully neglected and my assumptions will then not hold. The concept of agency costs, which is not solely a topic in corporate finance, was defined by Jensen and Meckling (1976). Agency costs occur due to an incomplete alignment of the agent’s and owner’s interest, in this case that of equity and bond holders. The authors argue that any firm that uses external finances will have an optimal capital structure with minimized agency costs. Maris and Elayan (1990) argue based on Jensen and Meckling’s findings, that there should be one optimal capital structure for REITs or other firms that are highly similar. 3. 2 Present Models Whenever a company is in need of financing, several decisions have to be made. In the following section, I will discuss the dominant theories influencing the security issuance decision, which are relevant for the comparison of REITs to their industrial counterparts. The trade-off theory introduces a very basic relation between bankruptcy costs and tax saving benefits. Kraus and Litzenberger (1972) explain that firms are financed via debt and equity. As the marginal costs of debt increase with higher debt levels, they suggest an optimal debt level where marginal benefit equals marginal costs. If this theory is valid, REITs will use far less leverage because the tax exemption significantly reduces the benefits of debt, whereas bankruptcy costs and hence the marginal costs of debt will remain at the previous level. The established pecking order model by Myers and Majluf (1984) describes that the costs of financing rise with increasing information asymmetries of in- and outsiders. Hence, internal financing is favored over debt, with equity financing only as a means of last resort. The pecking order model incorporates the essential characteristics of debt and equity. Whereas debt-holders have the right to money-fixed claims, equity holders only possess the right to a pro-rata share in the uncertain future of the company, hence they will require a risk premium compared to debt, implying that the cost of equity (Re) will always exceed the cost of debt (Rd). Several implications for REITs arise. First of all, internal financing is almost no option as REITs have to redistribute almost 90 percent of their operating income, which demands them to turn to external financing much more frequently. And although the cost of debt of REITs has risen, the pecking order model states that Rd will always be lower than Re, hence the use of debt might actually not change for REITs. Baker and Wurgler (2002) established the market timing hypothesis stating that capital structure is the result of continuous attempts by management to time the market. Companies would issue equity if market valuation of equity is high relative to book valuation and issue debt otherwise. This theory contradicts to some extent the general belief that an optimal capital structure exists per firm or at least per industry. According to Baker and Wurgler (2002) capital structure is simply driven by historic valuation and a firms’ market timing behavior, as firms merely seek the maximum market value possible from financing. Howton et al. (2003) find that the market timing model is far less evident for the case of REITs though, since the missing internal financing opportunities do not provide the luxury of being able to time the market. 4. Data and Methodology This study builds on contrasting REITs to conventional real estate firms in order to analyze the treatment effect in the absence of other variables by using the difference-in-differences method (DiD). DiD enables the researcher to estimate the difference between the pre-post, within-subject differences of the treatment and control group caused by the treatment. However, this is only possible if the treatment resembles the only different cause of change throughout the period, hence the groups need to be otherwise highly similar. On top of that, the group composition needs to stay constant. All empirical data was collected via Thomson Reuters Datastream. The data sample is constrained to the UK because of two reasons. First, there is no global standard for the REIT regime. Although they all function in the same way, there are still differences in the structural characteristics. As the parallel trend assumption is essential for a DiD analysis, it is therefore not possible to compare firms of different countries in one analysis. Moreover, the level of corporate taxation varies significantly between countries, which would complicate a precise analysis. The UK was chosen for practical reasons. On the one hand, the real estate market needs to be sizeable enough in order to have sufficient firms in both groups to obtain statistical significance. On the other hand, the treatment needs to be in a time range for which all data are is available. The original sample from the UK consists of 19 REITs and 31 conventional firms. However, because of missing and flawed data, the sample was reduced to 14 REITs and 18 conventional firms. Table 1 summarizes the original sample as well as the reasons for eliminating various firms from the sample. In order to have complete data, I only include the years 2001 until 2011. 4. 1 Regression This study strives to find the effect of the given treatment, exemption of corporate taxes, on several variables. If TB and TA are the average values of a dependent variable of the treatment group before and after the treatment and CB and CA the values for the control group respectively, I can estimate the difference as: (TA TB) – (CA – CB) | Treatment group| Control Group| Before| TB| CB| After| TA| CA| Table 3: Difference Estimator However, this estimator is not precise, as differences between the groups are not cancelled out. In order to achieve this, I set up a regression model with the two dummy variables ‘Treat’ and ‘Time’. Before Treatment After Treatment If in Treatment Group If in Control Group With the dummies: Hence, the difference estimator is: Table 4: Difference in Difference Model | Treatment Group| Control Group| Difference| Before| c + ? 1| c| ? 1| After| c + ? 1 + ? 2 + ? 3| c + ? 2| ? 1 + ? 3| Difference| ? 2 + ? 3| ? 2| ? 3| Here, it is visible that ? 3 is the difference estimator. There are ten variables used in this study. Table 2 provides an overview of these variables along with definitions. The focus of this study lies on the Re, Rdt2, Re/Rdt2 and D/E. Rdt2 is chosen to scrutinize whether the treatment actually increases the cost of debt by the size of the tax shield. Re is included to examine whether the cost of equity also changes, which would be contrary to my expectations. Re/Rdt2 and D/E are chosen to examine whether the capital structure of REITs changes due to the treatment. The remaining variables are in parts highly similar and are included to investigate if there are eventually other or higher correlations, which might help to explain certain outcomes. For that reason, I chose Rdt1 and Rdt2 as two estimators of the cost of debt. Rdt2 can be seen as the most basic estimator, as it is simply the total interest expense of outstanding debt over total debt. Next to this basic estimator, I use Rdt1, which includes the valuation gains and losses of derivatives used for interest hedging in accordance to IFRS 9. According to this regulation, each hedging instrument is directly connected to a particular debt and hence, it should be included in the costs of debt (KPMG, 2012). It is not generally defined, whether Rdt1 or Rdt2 is the better estimator of the cost of debt. The results differ in fact significantly and will be discussed later on. Furthermore, I use the ratio D/A as an alternative expression of the leverage ratio. It is necessary to state that I use book values obtained via Thomson Reuters Datastream for debt and equity because of the complexity of using market rates. Whereas the impact of book values for debt will be insignificant, the impact of book values for equity should be seen more critically (Maris and Elayan, 1990). The cost of equity (Re) was calculated according to the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and is explained in table 2 in the appendix. Next to the weekly return data of all companies, I chose the FTSE 350 and the UK Interbank 3-month rate as estimators of the market return and risk free rate respectively. The FTSE 350 combines the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 and provides an industry-spanning overview of the British market. The corporation tax rates were obtained from HM Revenue amp; Customs, the UK tax authority. From 2000 onwards, the corporation tax rate in England was 30 percent. From 2008 until 2010 it was 28 percent, in 2011 26 percent and in 2012 24 percent. There are some problems associated with a DiD analysis, which need to be discussed. First of all, the composition of the treatment group needs to be random. That means in the context of this study, that out of the entire population of real estate firms eligible for the REIT status, those firms who actually elected the REIT status cannot have previously possessed a certain criterion that the firms in the control group did not have. Otherwise, the treatment effect cannot be attributed to the treatment only, but this criterion as well. The research did not reveal any aspect how REITs and conventional firms may have been different in advance to the REIT regime, hence this condition is not hurt. Moreover, the parallel trend assumption is the cornerstone of the DiD analysis. Titman and Wessels (1988) examined eight attributes towards their impact on the costs and benefits associated with debt and equity financing. Only the four determinants uniqueness, industry classification, size and profitability are found to have a significant effect. Size may be of an issue here, because several authors suggest that bankruptcy costs increase as size decreases. The REIT group has a far bigger average size than the Non-REITs. Nevertheless, as the cost of debt of Non-REITs actually decreases, it is not expected to have an impact in this sample. The remaining three determinants are considered to be the same for both groups and are not assumed to be affected by a company’s election of the REIT status. 5. Findings and Discussion The following table provides an overview of the averages of all included variables for the time ranges before and after 2007. The variables are explained in table 2 in the appendix. Table 5: Averages pre- and post-treatment REITs Non-REITs | N| 2001-2006| 2007-2011| % -Change| Â  | N| 2001-2006| 2007-2011| % -Change| | | | | | | | | | | T| | 0. 3| 0| | | | 0. 3| 0. 2733| | Re| 154| 0. 0401| 0. 0542| 34. 99| | 198| 0. 388| 0. 0464| 19. 52| Rdt1| 154| 0. 0384| 0. 0561| 46. 24| | 197| 0. 0383| 0. 0394| 2. 92| Rdt2| 154| 0. 0385| 0. 0471| 22. 31| | 197| 0. 0384| 0. 0333| -13. 28| Re/Rdt1| 154| 1. 1742| 1. 1232| -4. 34| | 197| 1. 1280| 1. 4664| 29. 99| Re/Rdt2| 154| 1. 1053| 1. 2100| 9. 48| | 197| 1. 1212| 1. 6444| 46. 66| | | | | | | | | | | A| 154| 2,944,589| 3,635,561| 23. 47| | 197| 416,083| 577 ,974| 38. 91| E| 154| 1,568,056| 1,911,587| 21. 91| | 197| 192,164| 232,028| 20. 74| D| 154| 1,376,533| 1,723,974| 25. 24| | 197| 223,919| 345,946| 54. 50| D/A| 154| 0. 4552| 0. 4627| 1. 66| | 197| 0. 4643| 0. 4982| 7. 8| D/E| 154| 0. 9046| 0. 9920| 9. 66| Â  | 197| 1. 1154| 1. 5509| 39. 04| This table supports a number of interesting findings. First of all, the debt shield seems to have the expected effect on cost of debt. Both Rdt1 and Rdt2 of REITs rose by more than 30 percent relative to those of Non-REITs. Rdt1 of REITs almost doubled with a 46. 2 percent increase, while that of Non-REITs stayed almost constant with a 2. 9 percent increase. And although Rdt2 of REITs increased by only 22. 3 percent, the Rdt2 of Non-REITs fell by 13. 3 percent, thus resulting in a 36. 6 difference in their relative development. Interestingly Rdt1 has risen in relation to Rdt2 for both groups. This can be explained by the rather low 3-month interbank rates, which have experienced a significant drop in the last quarter of 2008 after the beginning of the financial crisis, and have stayed at that level until now. This has led to devaluations of the derivatives used for hedge accounting in accordance to IFRS 9. Moreover, the descriptive statistics of Rdt1 and Rdt2 in table 7 show, that Rdt2 is the more reliable variable. Rdt1 has more than twice the standard deviation as well as negative values, which do not portray useful information. Overall, Rdt1, as a value for cost of debt, may be the more precise value to use from a theoretic point of view, as it includes the costs of hedging, however it turns out to produce inconclusive results. This is due to the fact that high valuation gains or losses distort the total interest expense for that year, showing even negative values in some cases. Moreover, the correlation between Rdt1 and the leverage ratios is weaker than the correlation between Rdt2 and the same. A reason for this might be, that management considers hedging choices only after a security has been selected and not beforehand. Rather unexpected is the raise of Re for both groups. The 16 percent increase in Re for Non-REITs is in accordance to the literature as it may result from the 32. 1 percent increase in financial leverage. The higher amount of debt implies higher betas which in turn increase the Re. However, the Re of REITs rose by 29. 2 percent, whereas there was only an 8 percent rise in financial leverage. This study does not find any evidence how the REIT status may have caused this significant increase in Re. Both REITs and Non-REITs have experienced rises in total assets accompanied by rises in total equity and debt. The expectation that REITs use less debt for financing growth than Non-REITs is confirmed by the results. In detail, the total assets of REITs increased by 23. 5 percent with a 21. 9 percent increase of equity and a 25. 2 percent increase of debt. Non-REITs financed a 38. 9 percent increase of total assets with 20. 7 percent increase in equity and 54. 5 percent increase in debt. Moreover, the D/E ratio of Non-REITs rose by 39 percent whereas the D/E ratio of REIT rose by less than 10 percent. This is seen to be in accordance with the literature, especially with the trade-off and pecking order model. REITs did not become less leveraged in the post-treatment phase compared to the previous state, however they did use far less leverage than Non-REITs. The fact that they are not less leveraged is likely explained by the favorable debt conditions of the general economy as a response to the financial crisis. The regression model confirms some but not all of these results. Table 6 provides an overview of the c, ? 1, ? 2 and the difference estimator ? 3 for all dependent variables. The values in parentheses are the corresponding t-values, marked with an * if significant at the 1 percent level and ** at the 5 percent level. This could be examined by further research. The ratios Re/Rdt1 and Re/Rdt2 are also essential as they demonstrate that cost of debt has become much more expensive relative to cost of equity for REITs in comparison to Non-REITs, which confirms my expectations. The results for the remaining five variables are all insignificant, hence I cannot provide conclusive results to answer the second research question of whether capital structure changes due to a significant rise in the cost of debt relative to the cost of equity. Table 6 is in accordance with my expectations and the changes indicated by the descriptive statistics. The ? 3 value for both variables D/A and D/E is negative. This means that the leverage ratios of REITs decreased in comparison to those of Non-REITs. However, I do not obtain significant results to demonstrate that this has been caused by the treatment. In order to analyze whether a rise in the cost of debt relative to the cost of equity causes capital structure to change, I would have to run a subsequent regression model with Re/Rdt2 as the independent and D/A or D/E as the dependent variable. Unfortunately however, this is not possible with my statistical means, since the independent variable would be influenced by the treatment for the REIT group and has a time shift at 2006/2007, hurting the underlying statistical assumptions. Nevertheless, I can build a regression for the control group to examine the relationship of Re/Rdt2 and the leverage ratios for that group in order to derive some insights. Although I recognize that the explanatory power of this approach is highly limited, since I use a far smaller sample and neglect the entire treatment group, this approach can still trigger some first insights and hence timulate further research. The following regression model was used: I used the percentage change of absolute values for Yi and Xi, indicated via the denotation ‘CH’ in table 8 in the appendix. Other than for Rdt1, all expected relationships can be observed at a high significance level. There is a strong positive correlation between the cost of equity and the leverage ratios. Higher cost of equity favors the use of debt, hence the leverage ratios rise. Vice versa, there is a negative correlation of cost of debt and the leverage ratios. In general, the effects on the independent variables are higher for the leverage ratio D/E, which is similar to the previous results. 6. Conclusion As the literature review depicted, there are at best mixed results on how a significant rise in the cost of debt relative to the cost of equity will impact the capital structure in the long run. The pecking order model proposes that the cost of debt will still be lower than the cost of equity despite any increase from the missing tax shield, and thus there will still be similar benefits to the use of debt as before becoming a REIT. This study finds, that companies, who select the REIT status and thus become exempt from corporate taxes, experience a rise in their cost of debt, which almost equals the size of the tax shield. Both the descriptive statistics as well as the regression model confirm this. I cannot find significant results that the leverage ratio is affected by the treatment. The descriptive statistics do confirm my expectations, as well as the second regression model run for the control group. The coefficients from the difference in difference analysis are also in accordance with my expectations, however I do not obtain significant values.

Business Management free essay sample

Risks that are common today include: barriers to repatriation of funds, forced sale of equity to host-county national usually at or below depreciated book value, expropriation of corporate assets without prompt and adequate compensation, and Discriminatory treatment against foreign firms in the application of regulations or laws. Terrorism poses a severe and random political risk to company personnel and assets and can, obviously, interrupt the conduct of business. Terrorism is the use, or threat of use, of anxiety-inducing violence for ideological or political purposes. The increasing incidence of terrorism, especially in Latin America is a big concern. Also, the kidnapping of business executives has become quite common. Those events that affect one industry or company or only a few companies are called micro political risk events. 2. What means can managers use to assess political risk? What do you think is the relative effectiveness of these different methods? At the time you are reading this, what countries or areas do you feel have political risk sufficient to discourage you from doing business there? After assessing the political risk of maintaining or investing current operation in a country, managers face hard decisions on how to manage that risk. We will write a custom essay sample on Business Management or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They can decide to suspend their firms dealing with a certain country at a given point either by the avoidance or by the withdrawal of current investment. If they decide that the risk is relatively low in a particular country of that a high-risk environment is worth the potential returns, they may choose to start operations there and to accommodate that risk through adaptation to the political regulatory environment that adaptation can take many forms each designed to respond to the concerns of a given local area. 4. Explain what is meant by the economic risk of a nation. Use a specific country as an example. Can economic risk in this country be anticipated? How? A country level of economic development generally determines it economic stability and therefore its relative risk to a foreign firm. Most industrialized nations pose little risk of economic instability; less developed nations pose more risk. An example is when Argentinas economic woes, expected to result in the country’s economy shrinking up to 15 percent in 2002, negatively affected foreign firms doing business there. A country’s ability or intention to meet its financial obligations determines its economic risk. The economic risk incurred by a foreign corporation usually falls into one f two main categories; its subsidiary in a specific country may become unprofitable if the government abruptly changes it domestic monetary of fiscal policies or if the government decides to modify its foreign-investment policies. 5. Discuss the importance of contracts in international management. What steps must a manager take to ensure a valid and enforceable contract? Contract law p lay a major role in international business transactions because of the host in the contract complexities arising from the differences in the legal systems of participating countries. Common-law and civil law countries enforce contracts, although their means of resolving disputes differ out specifying the details in the contracts under common law, the details of promises must be written into the contract to be enforced. Astute international mangers recognize that they will have to draft contracts in legal contexts different from their own, and so they prepare themselves accordingly by consulting with experts in international law before going overseas. The risk is you could have a contract torn up or changed. . Discuss the risk of terrorism. What means can managers use to reduce the risk or the effects of terrorism? Where in the world, and from what likely sources, would you anticipate terrorism? The risk of terrorism for global businesses is only focused on in certain areas such as the Middle East and South America. That risk now has to be considered in countries such as the United States, which was once regarded as safe. Kidnappings are common in Latin American a s a mean of raising money for political activities. Business Management free essay sample Positioning: It applies the targeting plans in to business. Positioning of the HEM products are illustrated in details in UP analysis. Proposals For Each Of The ups Product rhea attributes of the product is very important. The product gets the main priority and if the marketer knows that the product is not up to standard, it will only make it more difficult for the marketer to make the product acceptable in the market. We know that HEM is already a very well established organization in I-J and they are specializing in music, movies and video games. We will write a custom essay sample on Business Management or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Therefore, a few things should always be kept in mind such as maintain their service quality and probably should priorities their loyal customers and offer special discounts. They have to ensure that the product is available at all costs and deliver the products to their consumer as scheduled. Everyone wants to stay up to date with the latest music, movies and video games. This is why they should never have their shelves empty and make sure all is Jp to date as well as maintain the quality of the product. Price Price is an important factor and should be handled very delicately.A certain group of people enjoys the deduction of price and on the other hand, others would doubt the quality of the product because of lower prices. Since HEM is already a well reputed ND one of the eldest stores in the I-J, the prices should not be any less then its competitors because of its brand image which should be maintained and after all, this will ensure their customers that HEM is providing them with the best quality of service and product in the market available. Promotion Promotion plays a major role in the perception of a particular segment.The promotion should be compatible with the positioning of the product which will lead to recognition of the brand and play as a proxy to evaluate quality of the product based by the prospective customers. HEM should come up with innovative rumination strategies and advertise through the medium of television networks, radio channels, leaflets, banners etc. They could always use a little promotional video before a movie starts at theaters or organize events such as unplugged concerts and games conventions with the latest trends which is very popular with the youngsters standard and one of its kind to complement the brand image.We certainly cannot forget the World Wide Web, where they can advertise through social networks such as Face book, etc. Place Place is Just as important. Its the location which should be convenient and easy to access for the customers. Distribution depends a lot on the place. Various strategies such as the intensive distribution, exclusive distribution and selective distribution should be considered to help other aspects of the marketing mix. HEM stores should be available at every corner of any commercialese area for consumer satisfaction and to create brand superiority. People People are important and crucial in service delivery.Intensive training program is required for store clerks and any human resources on how to handle and treat customers and also how to deal with difficult customers. They should be presentable ND their behavior should be at utmost best. Their salesmanship should be at level best and should have a wide range of knowledge about the current products, to ensure they can priorities and provide the best service as well as meet the customers demand at any given time. Process Its important to deliver a quality service which is why processes are crucial to ensure standards are met. HEM cannot have empty shelves.It is vital that they fill up those shelves as soon as possible by using Information System such as Enterprise resource planning (ERP). Commitments should be treated with utmost importance for e. . If a CD is not in display and the store clerk makes a commitment to the customer to have it by the next day, that commitment should be met with intense care. All the transaction processes should be easy to handle where customers would be able to pay through credit cards, debit cards, cash, Papal etc. Home delivery services should be made available specially if the customer is buying through E-store or online shopping.Physical Evidence Physical Evidence plays a vital part for the satisfaction of the customers. When a customer walks into a HEM store, it should be like no other experience. There should be huge card board cutouts of the latest blockbusters to welcome them to the store. HEM should have booths inside the stores placed at different corners with the latest LCD monitors, quality headphones with quality speakers option where the customers can check out and listen to the latest music and preview all the blockbuster trailers Including the current and upcoming games available at the store.They should also have a kids play area with adult supervision where the customers with children can leave their child to maximize and fully enjoy their ultimate HEM experience. No doubt the stores should amazing displays and lighting to make it look as trendy as possible. rhea customers will surely evaluate the quality of their experience through such proxies. HEM have been around a long time, and they are a familiar name across the globe among masses that refer to the brand as a trusted choice for getting their music, movies and video games.Such broad market coverage ensures HEM stays relevant and all the history that comes with the name itself makes the brand somewhat of a novelty as well; the image of a dog singing into a microphone is something that sticks o the memory over time and all the great artists they have been associated with throughout the past century gives the brand a mark of distinction that stands out among all the labels that operate in their wider business environment. Such a reputation comes with the responsibility to deliver consistently high standards.They must understand the changing nature of a market that is growing exponentially, and in order to appease a wider mass HEM must deliver products that are differentiated, Innovat ive and customized to the customers choice. Use of e-commerce to sell their reduces will negate piracy to a certain extent at least and keeping their name and striking images associated with them out and about in the electronic and print media Nil ensure they continue to be a familiar if not household name in this industry.Recommendations: HEM must avoid any semblance of complacence being communicated to their customer, both old and new, by ensuring their strategies factor in the changing tastes and preferences of the masses over the eras. An attempt to connect with their customers on a more personal level not only bodes well for consolidating brand loyalty, but an astute use of e-commerce for the sale of their products will shut a lot of doors on the piracy industry. Staying in touch with the people that buy their products will help them cater to their customers preferences.Across all the regions Inhere HEM operate, they need to use electronic and print media to make sure they are seen and talked about; word of mouth literally goes a long way. Hams video game merchandise needs to be bolstered; they need to observe the gaming industry more actively and throw their hat in the ring in terms of being one of the principal providers of a diverse range of video games. They must increase their operations on the internet, by making their virtual stores as accessible and relevant as their hysterical stores.

products of immigration essays

products of immigration essays A new venture to an unknown place evokes numerous emotions. When leaving ones country in hopes of a better economic and social condition, there exists an aura of excitement as well as hesitation of leaving the familiar. In the case of immigrating to the acclaimed melting pot of North America, the U.S., a notion of the other is developed. Many immigrants attempt to stick to their own ethnicity upon coming to the U.S. as opposed to immediately assimilating. Thus, immigrants are more likely to try to find those of their own ethnic background due to the comfort with the familiar and an uncertainty which breeds the notion of the other. A vivid example of sticking to the familiar occurs locally in the community of Glendale, California. The ethic subject group at hand is the Armenians. Armenians who immigrate to Glendale create a micro community in the midst of a macro society. Many Armenians who have just immigrated tend to interact mostly with other Armenians. For instance, one rarely sees Armenians mixing with different ethnic groups. The familiarity with the language and culture gives birth to bond within people of ones own culture as opposed to an intercultural connection. Moreover, the fact that Armenia is a country with a very minor percentile of foreigners intensifies the need for Armenians to be around other Armenians exemplifying the union amongst this culture. Thus, the sociological conception that familiarity is preferred over the new and other is made real in the case of immigration. The example of Armenians is not to pin point Armenians as an exclusivist people, yet it is to note a similar behavioral pattern of magnetization toward the familiar within different immigrant groups. One can agree that immigration to the U.S. can lead to a converse effect, creating the individual to immerse his/her self completely into the American culture. The example of ...

FDI Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

FDI Strategy - Essay Example It is running a thriving business almost in all major countries across the globe and conceivably that is the reason why it is known as the largest conglomerate retailer in the world. Wal-Mart is frequently known as a hypermarket, it works to sale diverse range of commodities and services to the buyers; like from pet shops to cellular phone stores, meat to dairy products. ‘Low price always’ is the catchphrase used by the famous retail organization commonly; it provides goods at the most viable and affordable prices (Stone, 1997). It is likely that majority of the clients of Wal-Mart have no bank accounts and their earnings are less than that of the general average income of the country (Stone, 1997).The company was established in 1962 and helped in serving a healthy contest for all the other small retailers in the economy. Wal-Mart stores are now making substantial amendment in their performances, measures and policies that would help to endorse the use of service animals by customers with disabilities (Lane, 2010). These animals play a chief role to serve independence to people with disabilities. The organization allows animals in their provisions that are well taught; to support people who are physically handicapped (Feed the Future, n.d.). Taking into consideration the world financial disaster the organization has currently changed its catch phrase to ‘Save Money Live Better’ and has efficiently reduced the price of many products sold by them. 2. Analyze the challenges and advantages of FDI for the MNE in the country you selected. The essay explains Wal-Mart’s business attempt in Egypt. The economy of Egypt is a growing economy. In 1990’s the country have received series of financial benefits from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The nation has received several debt reliefs due to its participation in the Gulf War. All these factors have been responsible for the nation’s considerable macroeconomic performan ces. From 2000 onwards the country has undertaken strict monetary and fiscal policies. These policies undertaken in the country have helped the nation to be liberal towards free market principles and made it open for prompt foreign investments. It is most advantageous for business firms like Wal-Mart to invest in emerging economies like Egypt. This is because these economies have infinite development potential within them. Investing in Egypt will help the company to dramatically improve its portfolios. On the other hand the political and economic conditions of an emerging economy are highly volatile thus it can give favorable or even unfavorable uncertainties to the foreign investors. Wal-Mart should not hesitate investing in Egypt because of the possibilities of unfavorable uncertainties, as this is common to any foreign investments made either in developed or in a developing economy. The markets of most of these economies are fast growing, thus foreign investors may diversify inve stments across several market segments. Moreover the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Egypt has been $527.6 billion in 2010, $536.9 billion in 2011 and $548.8 billion in 2012, shows a growing trend in the income level of the county (CIA, 2013). Thus if Wal-Mart invests in Egypt it would experience good market demand because along with the rising income level, the purchasing power of the consumers is improving. However there is a strong disadvantage that may arise as a challenge to Wal-Mart while investing in Egypt, the markets of emerging economies

Exam answer3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Exam answer3 - Essay Example e the following: local resource munificence, current and future competition for scarce resources, sectoral trends, social, legal and political conditions. Government regulation and taxation, interest rates and exchange rates are also examples of external forces that influence the growth of the firm. The stage models of development provide the best theories explaining the growth of the business and perhaps that’s why it is preferred by most practitioners. However, the stage models have a number of limitations which at times make discourage its use. Firstly, the model is too general, making its applicability a challenge to firm owners. For instance, it is difficult to determine what, how and why states change from one to another. Further, it is difficult to determine how the answers to the above questions are modified by a range of contextual variables. Research on external factors like demand and competition is done during the first stage of development, which is the existence stage. It does not provide answers as to what can be done if for example consumers change taste. For this reason, I can recommend the industrial organization model, which uses the game theory extensively. In this case, the industrial organization model focuses on competition in the market and variou s ways of countering firms that pause completion. The other setback for developmental model is that it depicts a linear pathway and it doesn’t consider branching away from this pathway. This means that the firm may not make changes to the model in the process of its growth should there be changes both in the internal and external environment. The company may as well become extinct at a given stage of development. This is unlike the organizational ecology theory, which emphasizes on understanding the conditions under which a company emerges, grows and dies (Tushman and Romanelli 2008, p.174). The theory focuses on various factors that may lead to organizational mortality, and thus the

How Life Can Be Changeable and Incredibly Frenzied Essay - 4

How Life Can Be Changeable and Incredibly Frenzied - Essay Example It was until his condition became worse that he qualified for palliative care and a number of nurses as well as social workers could attend to him. His conditions included pneumonia and caused his chest to grow wheezy. This disease was identifies as the best friend for my father since it offered an opportunity for slow death. Butler’s entire essay depicts a literal and emotional piece especially since it is about the slow death of her father. Bridget Potter in her essay ‘The lucky Girl’ describes her endeavors as she tries to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy during the eras when it was illegal. She uses her story to explain the dangers that women had to undergo prior to legalization of abortion in America. In her story, she points out most people especially women seeking for abortion lack any other option in mind even if realistically adoption is an option. This is the reason she has to beg the doctors to claim her condition as necrotic so that she would undergo t he process of abortion in a hospital. Performing illegal abortions can cause unnecessary deaths and for this reason, it would only be fair to let women choose affordable, safe and legal methods of abortions. In the essay ‘Topic of Cancer’, Christopher Hitchens provides information about his struggles with esophagus cancer. He confirms that a number of times, he had woken up feeling like death, but it did not feel as it did when it was confirmed that he had the cancer illness. In his description, he explains that he felt like he had manacled to his own corpse. In his essay, it is essential to identify the intellectual rather than the emotional bit since it actually dominates his entire writing. The theme of death and suffering that accompanies it are very evident in this essay as Hitchens describes the pain he felt from his thorax and chest. An individual listening to his description can picture the breathing struggles he had to endure, and as he explains how the above p arts appeared to have emptied out and then replenished with cement that was slowly drying. Breathing is the ideal meaning of life since difficulties in breathing result to much negativity such as excessive beating of the heart and strenuous efforts in doing simple things like breathing and walking. According to Hitchens, emergency individuals are kind hearted, engage professionalism and courtesy, and the ability to save lives. Those used in the essay that assisted Hitchens carefully worked on his heart and lungs guaranteeing that he did not have to put up with death. In the three essays, sickness and death are common themes although is one of the essay, the Lucky Girl, the condition is not really sickness. Hitchens’s and Butler’s essay provide a clear analysis of the differences of the employees in hospitals. The emergency crew in Hitchen’s essay is very humble and passionate and treats him with great care to the extent that his treatment is fruitful: resulting to his survival. On the other hand, the nurses providing medication for Butler’s father were ignorant and did not identify the causative disease for her father’s death. If they would have identified the initial signs of pneumonia, they would have had a reason to hospitalize him and offer him the required treatment. Similarly, Potter shows the kind of attitude that Doctors have towards assisting some of the patients who are in great need.

Effectiveness of a Direct Adaptive Control Algorithm

Effectiveness of a Direct Adaptive Control Algorithm In this research, the authors study the effectiveness of applying a direct adaptive control algorithm for both vibration suppression and damage detection. Combining vibration suppression and damage detection in civil engineering structures allows the implementation of a more effective control system since the model reference represents more accurately the real structure. The adaptive algorithm chosen in this study is the sliding mode and model reference control algorithm, with an online identification procedure based on tracking error. In order to test the effectiveness of the method, a numerical investigation is presented, performed to a MDOF shear building. The study successfully uses the adaptive control algorithm to damage detection and vibration suppression of the MDOF shear-type structure aforementioned. The study first presents the governing relations of a general structural system, such as the equations of motion and its state space representation. Then, it presents the control canonical forms and the transformations that are useful to the application of the model reference adaptive control. These canonical form allow the separation from assignable dynamics and internal dynamics that are not affected from control input, and are applicable to both SISO and MIMO cases. It shows that a correct selection of a reduced measure of the state variables can guarantee exact output reference tracking. After this, the control strategy via sliding mode control and model reference control are presented. The reference model is defined in a way that the system response approaches or tracks the desired reference response. The slide mode control objective is to make the output to track a desired behavior, which means that the output error zero. This goal is achieved by sliding along a line, defined b y a weighting parameter that defines the convergence rate. The control law is therefore defined in a way that the states in canonical form match the sliding line. In this study, the online identification procedure is based on the asymptotic convergence to zero of the tracking errors and the stability of the method is proved by showing asymptotic stability convergence based on Lyapunov function. The numerical investigation performed in a 3DOF shear type structure. The reference model and the actual model differ in damping ratio values. Not much detail is given regarding the tools used during the numerical investigation. In the numerical investigation it is evaluated the performance of collocated and noncollocated control cases. It is concluded that the model reference control is accurate in the output tracking and is successful in suppressing the excessive vibrations, and is effective in the identification of changes in the model, showing it can deal with changes in the plant due to damage. The numerical stability of the method is verified, and the on-line identification effectiveness is evaluated. It is concluded that large control efforts are required during abrupt changes in the plant parameters. The results are not compared to any other adaptive algorithm, so it is difficult to measure its effectiveness. The research is important in the sense that brings the concept of adaptive control by applying model reference adaptive algorithm with sliding mode control to civil engineering structures. It confirms the effectiveness of the method in tracking the system parameters, even after abrupt changes happen, and it is successful in controlling the response while remaining numerical stable. However, that are some weaknesses in this paper, such as: the loading type/duration/scheme applied to the structure is not presented. Therefore, the results of the research are difficult to be reproduced in order to expand the knowledge in the area. The results obtained by this algorithm implementation are not compared to others non-adaptive and adaptive methods. Consequently, it is difficult to assess the extent of the effectiveness of the method. The model reference adaptive control and the sliding mode control theoretical aspect is somehow confusing and lacking completeness, with too many direct citatio ns that introduce a fragmentation in the text.

Teen Pregnancy Essay -- Social Issues, Sexual Activity, Abstinence

Many adolescents are sexually active today. Whether it personal decision or being forced into it, teenagers are still involved. According to Sue Christensen and Ann Rosen, of those sexually active only one in five use contraception (Christensen). These teenagers who do not use contraception set their selves up for hardships in life. Being sexually active and using contraception as a teenager is a choice that may determine the rest of your life. Is â€Å"it† really worth it? One major outcome of those sexually active is pregnancy, which leads to many other choices: adoption, abortion, keeping the child, or even terminating the pregnancy. Pregnancy all begins with talk of sexual activity. According to Ilene Lelchuk, out of 618 California high school students, 44 engaged in some type of sexual activity during the years of 2002 – 2004. These 44 students were had sexual relations by the end of tenth grade (Lelchuk 1). Statistics from The Family Connection of St. Joseph County, Inc., stated that â€Å"56 percent of young women and 73 percent of young men today have had intercourse by age 18†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Christensen 3). Beginning in the 1950s, there are records of teenagers having intercourse and many unwanted pregnancies. Shocking pregnancy trends from the 1950s to present According to Christensen and Rosen, the teen birth rate in 1957 was higher than it is today (Christensen 1). In my opinion, although teenage pregnancy has become more socially acceptable in this day and age, so have pregnancy terminations and abortions. This meaning the birth rate may have gone down but the pregnancy rate has not. Yet, â€Å"In 1955†¦only six percent of white teenage childbearing occurred outside of marriage; today it is 42 percent† (Christensen 1). Altho... ... decision to become sexually active. â€Å"Then he asked me to have sex. I was scared and everything, and I was like, â€Å"What am I gonna do?† The first time I told him no and he understood. We watched some TV. And he brought me home. Then a couple of days after that he asked me again, I said okay. I guess I said so because I just wanted to show him I wasn’t scared to have sex. I was scared. But I guess I was playing a role. I wanted to show him that I’m not scared. So we had sex†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In my opinion, teen pregnancy is definitely not worth all the hardships. Teens should choose abstinence and completely reduce the risk of becoming pregnant. If pregnancy does occur, of those sexually active, adoption is the greatest choice a teenager can make. Providing the baby with a better life is the most important. Every teenager must ask themselves, is â€Å"it† really worth it?

Moral Fragments and Moral Community: A Proposal for Church in Society Essay

Devil’s Playground Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The film â€Å"Devil’s Playground† is considered as one of the films ever produced that is more of a psychological thriller that is developed in a church setting, schools as well as the upper levels of power which exist in the Catholic Church, specifically, Australian when there was change in late 1980s. The film has various stars including Simon Burke who plays the role of Tom Allen. The other characters in the film include Don Hany, Jack Thompson, Toni Collette, John Noble, Andrew McFarlane, Anna Lise Phillips, Leon Ford, UliLatukefu, Matt Levett, as well asJarinTowney (youtube.com).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Form this film, it can be noted that the Amish youths, when they reach the age of 16 years, they are allowed to make their personal decisions and take other ways apart from following the set Amish rules. The youths sample the outside life from the routine life of the Amish which is often under strict rules (Rasmussen, 9-20). The youths get to have modern life whereby they do things as they please and engage in all manner of activities that comes with modernism. In the year 1988, Tom Allen was still recuperating from the loss of his wife as well as the love affair that he had with Alice. One boy goes missing from a Catholic School and there are a lot of questions which are asked by the community. Desperate search by Andrassi as well as Brother Warner to find the boy that has gone missing. In the second episode of film, there is a body which is discovered as well as a note, cryptic, which gives the suggestion that the death of that has occur red is not a normal death or as a result of accident(Rasmussen, 9-20).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The film is quite clear on the lessons that it tries to pass through to the society at large. As it is depicted in the film, the youths are left to make their choices in life, whether to follow modernism or to follow the Amish rules(Beaty, Carlton, and Mark, 107). The film is all about freedom in the society to make choices and live according to what the world offers. From the film, the concept of change is eminent in the film whereby the youths, at the age of 16, are left to do what they want(Rasmussen, 9-20). The film depicts the society as weak and lacks the control that it needs to have on young people. For example, Faron, who is the son of a preacher, gets involved in drugs and leaves the teachings of his father.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is a lot of disrespect for authority that is depicted from the picture of Faron getting in to drugs and other social vices(David, n.p). The producer of the film tries to show the society that when people are left without any rules, there are high chances that things will definitely go wrong. However, it is ironical that the son of a preacher is ardent drugs user, something that the society greatly believes can only happen to those that do not go to church.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In this film, there are several characters that have been used, which includes students, clergymen, as well as person in authority. The use of the different characters helps in bringing out the themes in the film as well as the development of the film. The use of the clergy and having church settings as part of the film helps in bringing out the religious aspect that people have in the society (Beaty, Carlton, and Mark, 107). However, despite there being the aspect of religion and beliefs, the society is full of vices, some of which are associated with the church. The clergy are expected to perform the role of teaching morals to the followers and the society as well as offer the much needed support for the people. However, in the context of the film, the church is seen as one that is riddled with politics as well as social vices, although these are not outwardly displayed(Beaty, Carlton, and Mark, 107). The use of the clergy in the film he lps in supporting the theme of religion whereby people get hope from religion, as it is seen through the various youths that decided to get back to their communities instead of continuing with their reckless life(Rasmussen, 9-20). The church is the source of hope and future in the society. It is important that in society moral values should be supported by all the relevant authorities so that the young people can have some form of guidance since they are naà ¯ve and inexperienced.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Contrary to the moral values that are expected, the authorities have instead turned around and became symbols of immorality in the society, as this can be seen in the film. The clergymen fail in their responsibility which in turn leads to the death of a boy, and some form of note claiming that the death is not an accident(David, n.p). From the tile of the film, the Devil’s Playground†, it is symbolic since the events that take place in the film such as the way the youths have left the ways of the Amish and instead engaged in modernism, depicts the title of the film.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The producer of this film managed to bring out the title of the film since there are a lot of social vices which are depicted throughout the film. The vices cover up the religious beliefs that exits leaving in the film, and the church seems not be effective in carrying out its duty of ensuring that the moral values that are expected in the society are upheld by everyone. The schools are not left out as it is depicted in the film (Brooks, 125). The students are the victims that are greatly affected by the vices in the society. The film is a clear indication of what modernism has on a society that does not hold on to its cultural values. The students are presented as intelligent and are aware of what is happening in their surrounding and from observation, they try and practices what they see(Beaty, Carlton, and Mark, 107). The use of the students as part of the characters in the film the producer of this film were simply trying to show that there is no one in the society that is immune to vices which are in a society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is the responsibility of everyone in the society to ensure that moral values are upheld. Furthermore, it is not just the responsibility of the clergy, as they are not as perfect as they may be viewed to help maintain moral values in the society. Parents have the first responsibility of instilling moral values in their children. In the film, parents are seen to be strict to their children and want the children to follow what they want (David, n.p). However, as the children reach the age of 16 years, they are left to make their choices without the guidance of the parents. The effect of this laxity on the side of the parents result in the death of a boy, many of them getting involved in drug abuse as well as sexual relationships, things they are not supposed to do. The whole aspect of religion and parental guidance is lost as it is depicted in the film, and instead, evil is left to prevail(Rasmussen, 9-20). Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In conclusion, the use of the different characters in the film is quite accurate and matches the title of the film, bringing out the clear theme that was intended by the producers of the film. In addition to the characters, the use of different settings, that is, the church, schools and homes, helps to support the theme of the film and the development of the film, something that is a plus to the film. The whole aspect of the film is to help people understand the behavior of human beings when faced with changes, that is, the psychological impacts of different events in the life of an individual(Beaty, Carlton, and Mark, 107). In a society, there it is important that moral values should be maintained and young people should be taught how to live morally upright lives. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of everyone in the society to help and support each other in ensuring that cultural values are not lost. References Beaty, Michael D, Carlton D. Fisher, and Mark Nelson.Christian Theism and Moral Philosophy.Macon, Ga: Mercer University Press, 1998. Print. P.107 Brooks, Thom. Ethics and Moral Philosophy. Leiden: Brill, 2011. Print. P.125 David Dale, Catholic church is in the spotlight for Devil’s Playground TV series viewed from http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/catholic-church-is-in-the-spotlight-for-devils-playground-tv-series-20140902-10b5hx.html on 23rd November 2014 Rasmussen, Larry L. Moral Fragments and Moral Community: A Proposal for Church in Society. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993. Print. P.9-20 The Devils’ Playground viewed from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMmf-20w5IA on 23rdNovember 2014 Source document

4 Ways to Increase your Hireability as a Medical Coder and Biller

4 Ways to Increase your Hireability as a Medical Coder and Biller In order to remain marketable as a medical coder and biller, you must keep your skills sharp and your head in the game. Here are 5 steps that will keep your resume at the top of any hiring pile: 1. Stay on top of industry newsDo your best to be an informed professional. Read everything you can get your hands on about industry trends and changes, subscribe to any available newsletters, and attend local gatherings of peers.  Doing so will lead you to the next tip:2. Network–and not just onlineWhile you should definitely play an an active role on online industry boards and keep in touch via social media, there’s no substitute for face-to-face meetings. The more people who know and respect your skills, the higher the chances someone will remember your face and name and recommend you when there’s a position up for grabs.3. Increase your earning potentialThe more experience you have, the more industry credentials you’re able to earn (such as RHIT, HRHIA, and C PC-P). Adding certifications to your resume means you’re more attractive to potential hiring managers and are available to take on higher ranking positions.4. Prioritize ICD-10Don’t get left behind come this October, when the U.S. transitions to the ICD-10 coding system. If you haven’t started learning the new system’s coding and billing, start now.Treat maintenance of your coding and billing skills and industry contacts as a major part of your job to leave no doubt in employers’ minds that you’ll be a dedicated and knowledgeable hire.5 Ways to Keep Your Medical Billing and Coding Career CurrentRead More at www.careerstep.com