Student Essay Example for Free

Student Essay Art is one of many ways of communication. Art is used to express feelings or to deliver a message to a viewer. It is also used to leave a record of things that happened during the time the artwork was created. Ancient artwork usually talks about religious practices, spiritual beliefs or even their dependence on nature for survival whereas 21st century street artwork are usually personal opinions on something such as politics, action done by someone or new law. It also contains the artist’s feeling of the time the artwork was created. Every street artists of the 21st century has different styles whereas ancient artists used similar (close to same) styles. Creative Purpose†¦. Fig. 1, Elderly Woman, Street Art London, 2011 Fig. 1, Elderly Woman, Street Art London, 2011 The ancient artworks, in this case, ancient Egyptian art, were used to keep record of achievements, spiritual beliefs and spiritual practices. Most of the spiritual practices were practices of mummifying dead bodies, believing that the soul from the dead body will go to either heaven or hell. Ancient Egyptians believed in afterlife quite heavily. Most of the ancient Egyptian kings (Pharaohs) were mummified due to this belief. Furthermore, many of the ancient Egyptian artworks have Gods in them. There are Gods for certain things such as God of the Sun and God of Death. However, the 21st century street art is more of expressing the artist’s feelings and commenting on certain things such as politics. For example, there is a famous street artist who lives in Paris, France, who has a nickname called ‘C215’ (real name is Christian Guemy). His artworks usually have people involved in them. However, his artworks are not just about normal people but people like beggars, elderly people, refugees and street kids because he is ‘obsessed’ with making an artwork of them, artwork of people who grew up in streets and lived in streets. He said, â€Å"I paint mostly tramps, refugees and street kids, people who really live the experience of the street and to whom the  street art  is almost never intended. † Visual Character†¦. Fig. 2, Ancient Egyptian Art, Tutt’ Art, 2011 Fig. 2, Ancient Egyptian Art, Tutt’ Art, 2011 Ancient Egyptian artworks often have people and Gods with appearances with human in them. The people in the ancient Egyptian artworks have their arms and shoulders positioned facing the front while their faces are facing the side, along with their legs and hips. The artworks of ancient Egypt are very symbolic. They have many meanings in the artwork, especially when it talks about spiritual practices and beliefs. Sometimes, they also have writings around or in the artwork. It probably could be understood by many other cultures except for those cultures wit completely different beliefs. However, street arts are understood by nearly everyone in the world as they have similar beliefs and religions. When it Fig. 3, Smiling Refugee, Street Art London, 2011 Fig. 3, Smiling Refugee, Street Art London, 2011 comes to personal comments on politics, it may be hard for some people to understand. The 21st century street artworks are very stylized, having different themes and styles for every street artists, except for those street artists who only leave their names or nicknames on walls. Theses can be seen as mess on the wall because it has no meaning in it. A street artist called ‘C215’ has very colourful style. This artist is told to be realistic but stylized. C215 describes the facial expressions of the main characters in his artworks very precisely to deliver a hidden message behind the art piece. As shown Fig. 4, Street Kid, Street Art London, 2011. Fig. 4, Street Kid, Street Art London, 2011. in figure one, three and four, he describes the facial expressions of elderly woman, refugee and a ‘street kid’ very precisely. Also, famous street artists often leave their special ‘logo’ somewhere in the artwork. For instance in figure four, a ‘logo’ for C215 can be seen next to the face. Medium and Technique†¦. Most of the common ancient Egyptian artworks were painted with paints made of mixed pigments with gum, which were the basic colours. Before papyrus leaves were used as papers, the paintings were often done on walls, which were sometimes carved in. These kinds of techniques were used in ancient Egyptian times because the actual paints and paintbrushes weren’t properly developed. Today, many kinds of tools and styles can be used. For example, C215 usually used stencils to paint on street walls. He makes a background on the wall either free hand or painted using stencils, and then puts his main character in the background. He either uses spray paints or paints and paintbrushes, but mostly, spray paints. It shows his personal style and it helps him to paint precise parts of painting such as facial expressions. Personal Response†¦. I think that every kind of art has one thing common in them; the artist’s feeling and expression of the time he/she created the artwork. If there is a slight difference between ancient Egyptian art and the 21st century street art, I have go to say that the artworks from ancient Egypt do not have sense of depth and they were all dull whereas 21st century street art has wide range of colours being used and vibrant. Most people will find street art more attractive than ancient Egyptian art as street art has different styles and they are very vibrant. Conclusion†¦. To sum up, ancient Egyptian art has many meanings for spiritual beliefs and practices. It was very symbolic as it represented human by its body parts, so the head is facing the side, shoulders and arms are facing the front and shoulders and arms are facing the side. It is mostly painted with basic colours that are made of mixed pigments and gum. On the other hand, graffiti is more like expressing a personal opinion on certain thing. It has many themes and styles along with many choices of colours. Almost everyone can understand street art. Furthermore there are many ways to paint for street art and one of many ways is stencils and paints.

Diversification within UK Private Real Estate Portfolios

Diversification within UK Private Real Estate Portfolios A Critical Appraisal of the Literature on Diversification within Private Real Estate Portfolios in the United Kingdom   Abstract One of the two major ways in which institutional investors can invest in real estate is private real estate. Private real estate is to purchase un-securitized real estate directly through property pools, commingled real estate funds (CREFs), syndications or separate accounts that are managed by professional real estate portfolio managers or investment advisors. This form of ownership will henceforth be referred to as private real estate. There are different drivers of investing within the private real estate portfolios, including markets, sectors, management, area/building specific, scale, diversification, liquidity, tax and governance risks. The private real estate has a low level of linear dependence on equity, so private real estate requires the diversification of its portfolios. This paper provides a critical appraisal of the literature on diversification within private real estate portfolios. Does a U.K. market need to do the diversification within private real estate portfolios when British people need it? Not really. Literature Review Investment in private real estate offers considerable advantages: it is a tangible asset with low volatility; and it generates an attractive income stream and long-term capital appreciation and particularly strong diversification benefits to stocks and bonds. Thus, there is extant literature showing that private real estate has a significant place in the U.S. mixed-asset portfolio: see Ziobrowski and Ziobrowski (1997); and Firstenberg, Ross Zisler (1998); among others. Researchers conducted several studies on real estates role as a component of asset-only portfolios, specifically focusing on real estates diversification benefits. These studies compensate for some of the issues with real estate data, in particular, that of valuation smoothing. Most of these studies conclude that the allocation to real estate should be from 10% upward. The results indicate that limited diversification benefits can be gained from international investments in pure office strategies, particularly for multi-asset investors seeking to reduce risk stemming from the capital markets. Existing empirical evidence is generally consistent with firm owners portfolio diversification having a positive impact on their firms risk taking (e.g., Amihud and Lev (1981) and Faccio, Marchica and Mura (2011)). The general theme in the existing literature is that firm riskiness can be reduced primarily by means of choosing safer investments, i.e. investments that result in lower cash flow volatility or stock return volatility (e.g., Lyandres, Marchica, Michaely, and Mura (2015) and Faccio, Marchica and Mura (2011)), or lower correlation with the rest of the firm decision makers cash flows (e.g., Amihud and Lev (1981) and Gormley, Matsa and Milbourn (2013)). The association between private (constrained) firm owners portfolio diversification and investment is negative and significant in most cases (Lyandres, Marchica, Michaely, and Mura, 2015). Lyandres, Marchica, Michaely, and Mura (2015) study possible endogeneity of firm owners portfolio diversification and of firms private status does not seem to drive their results. The inclusion of owner fixed effects does not impact the qualitative relation between owners portfolio diversification and private firms capital investment (Lyandres, Marchica, Michaely, and Mura, 2015). However, the fixed-effects results may still be affected by self-selection: better-diversified owners may select to invest in companies with higher investment rates, which better their risk preferences. Lyandres, Marchica, Michaely, and Mura (2015) suggest the firms capital investment depends on portfolio diversification of their controlling owners; the effect of owners portfolio diversification on firms investment levels depends crucially on firms financial constraints: the investment-diversification relation is positive for relatively unconstrained firms and is negatively for relatively constrained ones. Owner fixed-effects, a quasi-natural experiment, and instrumental variable analysis suggest that this result is not driven by potential endogeneity of owners diversification. A matched-sample analysis, selection model, and an alternative measure of financial constraints show that Lyandres, Marchica, Michaely, and Mura (2015)s findings are also not driven by the endogeneity of their proxy for financial constraints. The analysis builds on and extends that of Hoesli et al. (2004) but broadens the length of the time series and the depth of analysis as they pertain to the real estate portfolio. They concluded that both domestic and international real estate contribute with risk diversification, and therefore portfolio efficiency, to the multi-asset portfolio and that the data support an allocation to real estate of between 15 and 25%, depending on risk preferences and the investors country of domicile. The purpose is to investigate how the composition of a real estate portfolio affects the ability to achieve risk diversification when management costs are taken into account and after removing the assumption that investors can only by a real estate market portfolio. The analysis contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring how the type of underlying tenant demand type affects the portfolio composition problem for real estate investors and thus how real estate strategies should be fashioned to more effectively support overall portfolio objectives. Hoesli and Lizieri (2007) report correlations close to zero for private real estate in the UK. Lizieri (2013) finds that the correlation of the private real estate varies significantly over the market cycle, tending to increase in periods from 1995 to 2010 of poor stock market performance. Lizieri (2013) finds that the correlations of private real estate with equities and bonds changed in the last five years of the sample from around zero to 0.4 and -0.5 respectively. This would indicate that the diversification benefits from real estate disappear when they are most needed. However, it is also found that when the variance is decomposed, a high proportion of private real estate variance cannot be explained by wider capital market factors, which indicates substantial diversification benefits. Even though data construction issues for private real estate cannot be ruled out, Lizieri (2013) concludes that the results support the diversification role of the private real estate. Ang (2012) explores the characteristics of real estate in the context of its real asset characteristics along with real estates role in the asset allocation puzzle. Ang (2012) concludes that real estate is different from other asset classes in several respects: the idiosyncratic risk, the heterogeneity of the assets and requirement to actively mange real estate holdings. Ang (2012) also points out the difficulty of including real estate in any asset allocation model on par with stocks and bonds because direct real estate total returns are not returns in the same sense as are total returns for the other asset classes. This is because real estate total returns are not transaction based nor is there a way to measure the whole market. Ang (2012) does not say that real estate has no role to play but rather that the only return derived from real estate measured on the same frequency as the return on mature asset classes is the income return. Diversification of the Private Real Estate Portfolios with Equity REIT shares An examination of resulting efficient frontiers and their corresponding optimal portfolio weights across various levels of expected return reveals that the ability of public real estate to rebalance and diversify private real estate only portfolios, using either long or short positions, is very much in doubt (Seiler, Webb and Neil Mye, 2001). Private real estate helps reduce the risk of a portfolio because it has less than a perfect correlation with stocks, bonds and all other assets. Qualitative Analysis Standard Markowitz portfolio selection model assumes jointly normal and symmetric distributions. If that holds, then mean, variance and covariance are sufficient to define effective diversification strategy. Traditional diversification strategies no longer provide desired level of protection in bear markets. Portfolio risk and expected value fall in bear markets are systematically understated. Traditional notions of risk-return trade-off are systematically overstated. Frequent portfolio rebalancing needed to maintain target level of risk, leading to higher transaction costs. For example, Stichting Pensioenfonds X: Asset Mix is an archetypical private real estate portfolio. 9% property allocation is reasonable for a well funded and growing scheme if assume under-performs equities and out-performs bonds and adds some diversification. Higher portfolio diversification reduces the variance of owners portfolio return and its covariance with the firms cash flow. As a result, higher portfolio diversification of firm owner lowers the risk avoidance incentives and leads to increased risk taking by the firm. The direct effect of higher owners portfolio diversification on an unconstrained firms capital investment is through the reduction in the variance of owners wealth and the resulting decrease in his or her risk-avoidance incentives. A more diversified owner is less concerned with higher cash flow volatility resulting from higher operating leverage, and chooses a higher level of capital investment. The result is a positive relation between owners portfolio diversification and firm investment for unconstrained firms. The mechanism behind the negative relation between a constrained firms investment and its owners portfolio diversification is different. A constrained firm cannot increase its capital investment level in response to an increase in firm owners portfolio diversification, as its investment is determined by the investment capacity constraint. The only channel the constrained firm can use to alter its cash flow volatility is the riskiness of its investments. The scale/diversification of assets depends upon the genuine efficiency from scale, diversification and impact on equity rising and the decrease of the default. The portfolio of loans demands diversification during the debt and credit crisis. High correlation among portfolios means diversification across sectors relatively little impact on risk reduction in UK historically compared to specific risk. The degree of portfolio diversification of a firms controlling owner may influence its choice of riskiness of firm strategies. The reason is that an expected-utility-maximizing risk-averse owner takes into account the variance of the private real estates overall wealth when making decisions on behalf of the firm the CEO controls. Drivers of diversification from equities Drivers of rents Demand-GDP, business and financial services, consumer spending, distribution, general price inflation, technology, profitability and other investment sentiment drivers. Supply-Construction, planning, obsolescence Drivers of yields Interest rates/term structure, credit availability, credit sentiment (high grade versus low grade), property sentiment. Other factors Tax/political risks, property specific (e.g. lease structures) The earlier studies revealed real estate, with all its illiquidity, management intensity and information asymmetry, does exhibit characteristics that complement the multi-asset portfolio by contributing diversification (Lekander, 2015). But the findings go further to suggest that diversification objectives in low-risk overall strategies are best achieved via types of real estate in which the tenant demand is less affected by global factors, whereas diversification strategies for higher overall risk strategies are best supported by real estate strategies focusing on globally dependent real estate (Lekander, 2015). When accounting for the cost of liquidity, by defining the market value as the mean of the buyer reservation price distribution, a different return pattern emerges. This has implications on the correlation characteristics of real estate, reducing the real estates diversification potential. A similar bias affects investment indices through the population of transactions available to the appraiser to determine price evidence. As such, there is a risk that the return indices measuring private real estate performance are based on market evidence that suffers from selection bias and appraisal smoothing, thus skewing the characteristics of the private real estate returns. A form test of the superiority of economic-based diversification strategies for real estate portfolio diversification was undertaken by Mueller (1992). Mueller (1992) showed that a diversification strategy based on his own classification, which relies solely on economic base, provided even greater risk-adjusted return possibilities. Data and Quantitative Analysis Model The estimates produced and updated are based on a two-quadrant approach looking at private real estate (holdings of funds and other private investors) and private real estate debt (lending by banks and other institutions). I consider a situation in which a firms controlling owner is entitled to a proportion of the firms cash flow. In addition, the firms owner is endowed with initial wealth x outside of the controlled firm, which is invested in an imperfectly diversified portfolio with a normally distributed return, whose mean is and whose standard deviation is . Our model abstracts from the reasons for imperfect diversification of the firms owner, which is a feature consistent with the data. The focus is on the effects of imperfect diversification of owners portfolios on controlled firms investment strategies. I assume that the firms controlling owner is risk-averse and that the CEO maximizes the expected utility of his or her terminal wealth, . This utility is given by , where is the firm owners Arrow-Pratt coefficient of absolute risk aversion. Assuming that the firms cash flow (discussed below) is normally distributed, investors expected utility maximization simplifies into the mean-variance criterion: . The model shows that in order to understand the impact of firm owners portfolio diversification on firms investment strategies, it is crucial to consider simultaneous choices of both the level and riskiness of firms investments. The analysis focuses on the relation between owners portfolio diversification and firms investment level, extends and complements the existing literature that focuses on the riskiness of firms investment. The interaction between these two decisions results in a non-trivial and somewhat surprising relation between owners portfolio diversification and the level of her or his firms capital investment. Comparative statics Lemma 1: If the investment capacity constraint is not binding in equilibrium, then the firms equilibrium level of capital investment and its riskiness, and respectively, are given by the following system of equations: , subject to . I am interested in the effects of controlling owners portfolio diversification on the choice of the level and riskiness of capital investment of constrained and unconstrained firms. In what follows, we present comparative statics of the firms investment level and its riskiness with respect to the standard deviation of the owners portfolio, . I also graphically illustrate these comparative statics using the numerical example to help explain the intuition. Totally differentiating the unconstrained equilibrium conditions in (3) and (4) with respect to owners portfolio standard deviation produces the following result: Proposition 1 For a firm whose capital investment is unconstrained in equilibrium, , equilibrium level of capital investment and its riskiness, and respectively, are decreasing in the standard deviation of firm owners portfolio, . The owners objective function is: subject to Maximizing the owners expected utility in (5) with respect to , while assuming that the investment capacity is binding, i.e., that , leads to the following result: Lemma 2 If the investment capacity constraint is binding, , then the firms equilibrium riskiness of investment, , is given by the following equation: Data The UK data are from the Investors Chronicle Hillier Parker (ICHP) Index and comprise 32 semi-annual observations from 1977 to 1993. The UK data are available disaggregated by three property types (offices; industrial; and retail) and by 11 regions (London, South East, South West, East Anglia, East Midlands, West Midlands, Wales, Yorkshire and Humberside, North, North West, Scotland). The data exclude shopping centres, mixed use buildings, and business space. Data for the U.K. 11 regions were also aggregated to produce three super regions as suggested by Key et al. (1994). These regions are London, South and North. Quantitative Analysis Results The estimated correlation matrices for the three UK property types and three UK regions are shown in Table I and II. As the number of regions differs from the number of property types, there is no test for the UK 11 region data comparable with the one undertaken above. It is, nonetheless, informative to analyse this data. This is done by calculating the correlations between all market segments, in which a market segment is defined as one property type in one region. The full matrix is given in Table III. In the UK it is a conventional wisdom that retail property offers least scope for regional diversification: retail sales tend not to have strong regional differences and the supply response of the retail property market does not differ significantly across regions. In contrast, in the office market, as the London market is driven by the financial sector has a strong international dimension; opportunities should exist for regional diversification within the office market. Table I. UK correlations based on semi-annual returns for 11 regions and three property types (1977-1993) In conclusion, the results show that the scope for diversification within a region varies from region to region and is greatest the further from London, while the diversification within property type is generally limited but is better for office and industrial property. Retail property is poorly correlated with either industrial or offices. Thus, full diversification by both property type and region is to be preferred. Table II Insignificant correlations between market segments by property type, based on semi-annual returns, UK, 1977-1993 IPD/MSCI Data to Explore the Most Important Characteristics of Diversification in Private Real Estate MSCI IPD is the only global provided of appraisal-based total return indices for private real estate across a number of different geographical markets. In this subsection, we look at the main factors affecting the performance of financial investments, i.e. economic growth, inflation and interest rates. These are the most important characteristics in driving differences in performance across the private real estate market over the past few decades. Also, the impact of these factors is partially overlaid with endogenous dynamics of real estate markets resulting from lagged responses of supply and demand. This subsection mainly suggests a specific real estate factor may exist that drives real estate returns but is not common with the drivers of equities or bonds, indicating the existence of long-term diversification benefits of private real estate. Table III: Comparison of key statistics for selected total return indices in the UK UK (1990-2014, monthly) Average return Standard deviation Sharpe ratio Private RE (smoothed) 7.46% 3.76% 0.69 Private RE (unsmoothed) 7.46% 7.49% 0.37 Private Re (trans.-based) 10.39% 8.84% 0.06 Source: IPD and EPRA. IPD data available since 1987 but presented since 1990 to align with other indices. Sharpe ratio calculated relative to three-month T-bills. Table IV: Overview of average annual returns and volatilities for selected international private real estate indices Table IV summarizes the risk-return statistics of the IPD and NCREIF indices across a number of countries. Whilst we are aware that the statistical significance of comparisons based on only few observations is low, it is striking that the UK market is among the most volatile ones. The broad market opinion that the UK real estate market observes tends to see stronger cyclical movements. On the other hand, the UK private real estate market offers higher liquidity and market depth. Changes in the levels and volatility of returns from commercial real estate investments in the UK over a rolling ten-year view is presented in Figure 1. Figure 1: Rolling ten-year average returns and return volatilities in the UK The risk-return profile of the UK market shows a regime shift following the financial crisis. Also, for the UK, unsmoothed real estate indices show Sharpe ratios comparable or slightly above the levels measured for equity and bond indices. However, one needs to consider that risk-return profiles may not be stable over time. Also, the risk-return profiles of investments may be different for long-term investors, although there is no conclusive evidence that the reduction of the effective volatility should be higher for real estate than for other types of assets. However, the fact that a high proportion of the return is derived from income may indeed favor real estate in the long term. Real estate factor The existence of a specific real estate factor is highly relevant for the construction of investment portfolios based on fundamental factors. Recent research supports the existence of such a factor for commercial private real estate. In order to verify the existence of a real estate factor, I ran a factor analysis for the UK following the reasoning of Mei and Lee (1994). Monthly data were used in the UK. A higher absolute value for a loading means that the factor has a higher impact, positive or negative, on the returns of the index, while a value close to zero indicates no significant impact. Table 5: Factor loading of stocks, bonds and alternative real estate index returns Source: my own calculations. The highest absolute loading for each index has been highlighted in bold in Table 5. While the levels of the loadings are not directly interpretable, the regularity in their relative values is striking. Factor F1 loads highly on stock market indices and on pubic real estate indices. In fact, it appears to represent mainly listed real estate, while pure stock indices are also influenced by F3. Factor F2 loads very highly on all private real estate indices, both smoothed and unsmoothed, as well as transaction-based indices. Factor F3 loads most strongly on bond indices and to a lower extent on stock indices. It appears justified to label F1 as a stock market factor and F2 as a real estate factor, while F3 could be associated with monetary factors such as interest rates. The above results represent a strong indication that the factor that drives direct real estate returns may indeed differ from the one that drives the returns of equities or bonds. While it is impossible to conclude on t he basis of this analysis what particular risks or drivers this factor might reflect, they seem to be different to the risks and drivers behind the equities or fixed income, which should create diversification potential. Conclusion The sections above have provided a critical appraisal of the literature on diversification within private real estate portfolios. For the UK, the opposite result was obtained for retail property and diversification across both property types and regions was to be preferred for the other two property types. The results offer some insights into real estate performance and may offer some input into the determination of a diversification ion strategy for a real estate portfolio. There are two major qualifications on the results. The first is that they are historical results and they may not be a good proxy for the future correlations. Historical returns are unlikely to be a good proxy for future returns and that probably also holds for the correlations calculated between real estate categories. The second qualification is that investors have objectives, which are more complex than just the trade-off between the level of period return and volatility of period return. Behind the analysis of regional economic base is the reasonable presumption that similarity in economic structure and performance should lead to similarity in real estate performance. However, such analyses, which focus on demand proxies, ignore supply or, at best, assume no differences in supply responses across property type or region. Testing the economic base ideas with highly disaggregated returns data is therefore very important. The UK data allow comparisons of the economic similarity of regions and the similarity of property performance. It would then be possible to infer from the UK results whether the proxying of real estate performance with economic performance is valid and perhaps at what spatial scale. Table III Real Estate Portfolio Diversification References Amihud, Y. and Lev, B., 1981. Risk reduction as a managerial motive for conglomerate mergers.   The bell journal of economics, pp.605-617. Ang, A., 2012. RealAssets. Columbia Business School Research Paper No. 12-60.   Faccio, M., Marchica, M.T. and Mura, R., 2011. Large shareholder diversification and corporate   risk-taking. Review of Financial Studies, 24(11), pp.3601-3641. Firstenberg, P.M., Ross, S.A. and Zisler, R.C., 1988. Real estate: the whole story. The Journal of  Portfolio Management, 14(3), pp.22-34. Gormley, T.A., Matsa, D.A. and Milbourn, T., 2013. CEO compensation and corporate risk:   Evidence from a natural experiment. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 56(2), pp.79-101. Hoesli, M., Lekander, J. and Witkiewicz, W., 2004. International evidence on real estate as a   portfolio diversifier. Journal of Real Estate Research, 26(2), pp.161-206. Hoesli, M. and Lizieri, C., 2007. Real estate in the investment portfolio. A report for the   Investment Strategy Council of the Royal Ministry of Finance. Key, T., Zarkesh, F., MacGregor, B. and Nanthakumaran, N., 1994. Understanding the property   cycle. Main report: Economic cycles and property cycles. London: RICS. Lekander, J.R., 2015. Real estate portfolio construction for a multi-asset portfolio. Journal ofProperty Investment Finance, 33(6), pp.548-573. Lizieri, C., 2013. After the fall: Real estate in the mixed-asset portfolio in the aftermath of the   global financial crisis. The Journal of Portfolio Management, 39(5), pp.43-59. Lyandres, E., Marchica, M.T., Michaely, R. and Mura, R., 2015. Owners Portfolio   Diversification and Firm Investment: Evidence from Private and Public Firms. Mueller, G. and Ziering, B., 1992. Real estate portfolio diversification using economic   diversification. Journal of Real Estate Research, 7(4), pp.375-386. Seiler, M., Webb, J. and Neil Mye, F., 2001. Can private real estate portfolios be   rebalanced/diversified using equity REIT shares?. Journal of R

strategy :: essays research papers

The Net Comments In The Light Of The Course Concepts Angela Bennett like all of us, lives in the age of information. Every trace of her existence is computerized. Everything about her is encoded somewhere on a complex network of information. It's something Angela never thought about... until the day she was deleted. With the explosion of technological advances in the last few years, "The Net" is a story from today's headlines. It takes place in a world in which anything, from ordering a pizza to retrieving records from half-way across the planet, can be accomplished through the vast and complicated map of phone lines and computers known as the Internet; a world in which, with the right knowledge and the right program, a good cracker can log into remote computers and alter any information they choose: flight plans, medical and criminal records, top secret government information, even someone's identity. Angela Bennett, is an introverted top system analyst at Cathedral Systems. She sits at her keyboard, doing all her work by phone and modem. When she needs to eat, she uses the Internet to order a pizza. As a well-paid freelancer, she spends her days working out of her home finding flaws in and debugging new programs sent to her on disc by her employer, or tracking down viruses hacked into unsuspecting systems. At nights she is "chatting" with other friends from the cyberspace on the 'Net'. She's quite happy with her somewhat lonely routine, until the very life she's made for herself, her whole life, in fact is snatched away from her with the stroke of a single key. This pushes her headlong into the middle of a murderous web of corruption and conspiracy. The only time Angela gets out of the house is when she goes on a vacation to Mexico, and even then, she has her laptop with her. However, right before heading south of the border, Angela comes into possession of a disk containing information vital to the successful criminal activity of a group of cyber-bad guys, the Praetorians. They know she has it, and will stop at nothing to get it back. Angela discovers secret information on the disk she has received only hours before she leaves for vacation. While relaxing on a Mexican beach, Angela meets a dashing fellow hacker with the style and charisma of James Bond. Unfortunately for Angela, he also has a gun, which he plans to use on her.

Juanita Plateros Chees Daughter: Characters Environment Reveals A Gr

Juanita Platero's "Chee's Daughter": Character's Environment Reveals A Great Deal About Personality A characters environment reveals a great deal about his personality. In Chee's Daughter by Juanita Platero and Siyowin Miller this theory is displayed. In this story a young Navajo Indian girl is taken from her home by her deceased mother's parents. Two different environments which reflect values and personalities are conflicting. A young traditional Navajo,Chee , and a non- traditional Navajo businessman, Old Man Fat , fight over Chee's daughter, Little One. The two distinctly different settings in this story reflect the personalities of the protagonist,Chee , and the antagonist Old Man Fat.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chee's setting reflects his caring nature. He shows this by caring for the la...

First Day of School Essay

The first thing I remember about this day was my mother; she woke me up early and started dressing me and combing my hair. I remember I was so excited that I got in the car while singing and dancing. I sat in the front seat and we drove off to the beginning of my life. My mom walked me in while holding my hand and just then I remember not wanting her to let go, I felt so safe with her by my side. Just then the class teacher comes up to us, and I remember her asking me my name, but I was too shy to answer. Then my mom explains to me that she had to go and that I’m going to have so much fun here and make a huge amount of friends. I stood there watching my mom walk away with tears falling down my face; I have never felt so alone. But the teacher turned out to be so nice she immediately started to calm me down. That’s when she took me to this room filled with toys and beautiful pictures on the wall, I remember how noisy it was because kids my age were running around everywh ere playing and laughing. see more:first day of school essay At the moment the feeling of missing my mom was completely gone and all I wanted to do is join the kids with whatever they were doing. I was shy at first, but then a group of little kids came up to me and asked me if I would count for them while they would all go and hide. I immediately agreed and just like that I was a part of the best hide and seek game in my 4 year old life. I remember how easy it was to make friends but how hard it was to memorize their names. It was an extreme problem for me then because I didn’t know how to call out to them while playing. The best activity of the day was when the teacher took us outside and we played on the swings and slides. The best of all was the sandbox, we would run to the back of the school yard where the water taps were, and fill our little buckets with water and spill it on the sand so this way it would be wet and perfect to make sand castles with. As the day came to end I remember not wanting to go home. But that all changed when I saw my mom in the front door of the class room ready to take me home, I was so glad to see her, as I had so many things to tell. I went on and on about what I had experienced, telling my story with a smile on my face. And when I got back home I repeated the whole thing to dad, everyone was glad I had such a wonderful day. I was looking forward on going back there again tomorrow, but this time with a mission, I was determined on memorizing all of their names, so I would know how to answer when someone asked about the names of my friends. I was officially the happiest kindergartner of all times.

The Significance of Cultural Differences for Foreign Companies

My essay is about significance of cultural differences for international companies which want to set up a business in China. To do a clearly demonstration, I break it down into 3 parts: First is an example that the culture differences affect international companies in China; Second is the significance of these cultural differences; Third is how the companies would overcome them. For the first part, there will be examples of international companies which set up a business in China. As we know, since China joined the WTO in 2001, many foreign companies were attracted by China’s huge market and lower labour cost. But some of them experienced hard times when they came into Chinese market. The unfamiliar of the cultural difference is a very important factor. From their experience, we can have a direct impression of how the culture differences would trouble for foreign companies in China. Second part is very important. As I choose China as the country. I will try to show some Chinese features, which are the Chinese cultural difference from others. I will to analysis why the cultural differences are significance and what effects they will cause. Real evidence will be given to support my idea. The third part is most critical, because it is not enough for us just know about the problems. We should find out ways to solve them. I will from four parts to demonstration, and try to cover the ways which can both improve the ability of foreign companies to deal with cultural difference in China as possible as I can. Example that the culture differences affect international companies in China: Looking back at past, we can find that China has been the first place of absorbing international capital in all developing countries for nearly 18 years. Since China joined the WTO in 2001, many international companies had been attracted by China’s huge market, lower labour cost, preferable government policies for foreign investors. But in fact, we can easily find some of them had come across a hard Why KFC had a better development than McDonalds? The reason is KFC was more careful to deal with culture difference in China. Before the year 2004, the McDonalds focus their customer group on children, and then parents and young people. Meanwhile, KFC focus on young people, then children and parents. We cannot say McDonalds strategy was wrong, because it brought great successful for it in USA. But it is not suitable in China. A survey made by China Chain Operation Association (CCFA) showed that no matter in the ratio of customers number or the ratio of money consume, the young people account for more than 60%. After 2005, McDonalds push-off its new series called â€Å"I just like it†, and changed their strategy to young people, the situation came better. This is an example of difference of the market positioning caused by the culture difference. [3] The McDonalds’ failure was not only because of this. It also ignored that people in different culture background may have different tastes. The GADLING website (2005) [4] showed that before 2005, while KFC began to create some news kinds of foods which were fit for Chinese people’s tastes, such as the Traditional Peking Chicken Loaf, Tomato and Egg Soup, the McDonalds still insisted on its western taste hamburger. In this period, the McDonalds had to cut half price to attract customers. And there was a thing which had a very bad influence about McDonalds. The Sina website [5] has some details about it. In June, 2005, McDonalds pushed a new advertisement. One scene of this advertisement is a man kneels down to beg the McDonalds lengthen the promotion period. This advertisement caused a very bad effect. Because in China, kneel down is very important and serious thing. Chinese people think kneel down to others is a sign of lost dignity. In some countries, people may regard it just as a funny advertisement. But in China, this kind of advertisement should be avoided. This is the difference of philosophy caused by different culture. It is also which the international company should be careful. The McDonalds’ example shows us how the cultural differences affect international companies in China. Then, in the following part, I will give a more clearly demonstration based on real evidence and shows what are the China’s specificity and why the culture differences is significance for international companies in China. Significance of cultural differences in China Culture is a very widely identity. For a company, we usually consider two main parts: the national culture, and the corporate culture. So when talk about Chinese culture’s influence to international firms, I will include both Chinese national culture and Chinese corporate culture. For Chinese national culture, we need to consider many parts, such as the philosophy. Because of the long history, China has formed very complete and complicated philosophy, which has a great different from western countries. Some traditional ideas are still kept in every Chinese people’s mind. A simple example is the advertisement of McDonalds mentioned above. Kneel down in China could never be a joke or used in an advertisement. Because of the influence of Confucianism, Chinese people in some parts are more conventional than western people. Some things which have a strong sex and violence implication may be forbidden by the government. The Techcn website (2009) [6] has showed that one of the reasons why Google suffer from a failure in China in 2007 is the Chinese most powerful media CCTV made it public that Google can link to some porn websites. It would be a common thing in some countries, but in China, this let Google at the disadvantage. â€Å"Abstract, Characteristics of national cultures have frequently been claimed to influence the selection of entry modes† (Bruce Kogut) [7]. After these years of developing, Chinese market has formed its own potential market culture. It means the sales models which are successful in other countries may not work in China. To take Best Buy for an example, as the world chain electronics giant, the Best Buy didn’t have a satisfactory performance in Chinese market. An report on Netease website (2010) [8] shows that after Best Buy opened the first shop in China in 2006, it only opened 7 shops in the following 4 years. And in the 2009, while the Best Buy had done a good job in global market, which has about 45 billion dollars sales, it didn’t make a profit in Chinese market. One important factor is Best Buy insisted on its traditional model, decorated the shop and hired the sales promotion person by themselves. But in China, these things are always hand to the suppliers. This cause high cost for Best Buy and also caused for discontent of the suppliers. The suppliers in China were not like the ways which Best Buy play down the publicity of product brands, while enhance the publicity of its own brand. If Best Buy can not get the support of Chinese suppliers, its failure is an understandable result. This kind of potential market rules are critical but easily to be ignored. How to overcome cultural differences After discussed the significance of cultural difference, and the bad effects they will make, we should try to find ways to overcome them. To deal with this, I will from 4 parts to analysis. First is the foreign companies should find a suitable management mode. The reason of some foreign companies failed in Chinese market was their management mode didn’t adapt to Chinese market to a large extend. Like Best Buy I had mentioned above, even though its management mode had been proved successful in North America. It didn’t work well in China. In my personal view, the main advantage of foreign companies is their tremendous capital and their foreign background. So when the foreign companies enter Chinese market, they can learn the management mode which Chinese native companies have. Then they can use their advantages to have a foothold in the Chinese market, and continuing complete their management mode based on their improved understanding about Chinese market. Second is the companies should do clearly and comprehensive market research before they come into Chinese market. The researches which are just about the market prospect are not nearly enough. They should investigate other things like Chinese culture, government policies, the operating mode of market. These kinds of research can provide the companies much more clearly understanding about Chinese market. At least they will not make some silly mistakes when they enter Chinese market. Third is about the employ of staff. To employ staff, the companies can give priority to overseas students and the people who had the experience of working in other foreign companies. These kinds of people are more easily to adapt to the different kinds of culture in the companies. Meanwhile, they can deal with things based on Chinese practical situation, which means more efficient in sometimes. And in my opinion, the top level of the company’s Chinese branch should have at least one Chinese people, it is not only because he or she has a deeply understand about China, but his or her personal networking with others can bring some help for the company. It is also kind of Chinese specific culture, networking with others sometimes are as important as own strength. The last one is staff training and internal management [10]. The foreign company should pay attention on the training of staffs. For the Chinese staffs, the training should include the part of training them to adapt the company’s culture and ways to deal with things. For the staffs from the home country, the company should train them about the Chinese culture, at least the part in relation to their professional business. And the internal management should consider about Chinese people’s value view and norms, it should be more humanization and can provide the staffs a more stable life, that’s what most of Chinese people desirous. Conclusion: To summarise, the cultural different is a very important problem which troubles most of foreign companies. For these companies, the incomprehension of Chinese people’s and market’s view about value and norms is one of the factors which limit their development in China. Things like the potential market culture of China; the cultural conflicts inside and outside the company; the different taste and tendency for Chinese people had brought a lot of problems for the foreign companies. That’s why some foreign companies which are very strength didn’t perform well in China. To overcome those problems caused by the cultural difference, the companies should do clearly and comprehensive researches for different parts of China and Chinese culture, and they should not overconfidence about their management mode even they are successful in other countries. Meanwhile, the companies should try to employ the people who are familiar about China. It can help the companies blend in Chinese society and market. The companies should also enhance the training of both Chinese staff and staff from home country. It will reduce the conflict between two cultures in the company. A humanize internal management mode and treatment which can provide staffs more stable life will also be helpful to attract Chinese people and reduce the rate of job-hopping.

Defining plagiarism in the digital age Annotated Bibliography

Defining plagiarism in the digital age - Annotated Bibliography Example The author strives to make it clear through several studies done before.Samples of what different students say in explanation of plagiarism issue give ground to think of the problem in a more global scope. The author states it clearly by asking himself as follows: â€Å"In this age of file-sharing, mashups, Wikipedia, and music sampling, has the practice of borrowing without asking become more pervasive†? In the course of time, plagiarism is said to change every now and then. The author brings it to a reader’s mind that plagiarism has been taken for granted, as students don’t think it is bad. In my opinion, the article fully supports my opinion that â€Å"plagiarism causes a lack of formation of intelligence.† It is a hazardous phenomenon in the age of high technologies and Web 2:0, in particular. Hence, the message by the author urges to break down any idea of counter attitude toward plagiarism as something needful for students. Digital innovations throug h the Internet prevent students from writing their papers alone, without any help of custom-writing services. This is why the article describes the core of the problem in detail. Thus, the formation of intelligence among students tends to get delayed, since Internet technologies grow quicker than ever before. This is why a gap in growing wiser is inevitable for students full of digital experience worldwide. This trend seems never ending for academic sustainability of universities today. Hence, it is about time to keep a strict eye on this issue.