International Diversification and the Market Value of New Product

Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of International Management International diversi? cation and the market value of new product introduction Chi-Feng Wang a,1, Li-Yu Chen b,? , Shao-Chi Chang c,2 a b c Department of Business Administration, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Department of Management, Fo Guang University, Taiwan Institute of International Business, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan article info Article history: Received 11 January 2011Received in revised form 31 March 2011 Accepted 31 March 2011 Available online 2 May 2011 Keywords: International diversi? cation New product introduction Technological capability Marketing capability Event study abstract Although previous studies on international diversification are plentiful, they mainly focus on the effect of international diversification on overall firm performance, and the results are mixed. This study extends this line of research and explores the impact of international diversification on new product performance.Specifically, we ask if international diversification explains the stock market reactions to new product introduction (NPI) announcements. We find an inverted-U-shaped relationship between international diversification and the announcement returns of NPIs, revealing that the market value of NPIs initially improves and then declines with increasing international diversification. The results also show that intangible assets, such as technological and marketing capabilities, positively moderate the relationship between international diversification and the market value of NPIs.Our study not only highlights the importance of considering both sides of international diversification in affecting investors' assessments of corporate new product strategies, but also shows the possibility of internal capabilities in changing the fixed relationship between international diversification and the market value of new products.  © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction According to the theory of foreign direct investment (FDI) (Caves, 1996; Dunning, 1988; Hymer, 1976) and portfolio theory (Jacquillat and Solnik, 1978; Lessard, 1973, 1976; Solnik, 1974), international diversi? ation will lead to higher ? rm value. However, existing studies examining the impact of international diversi? cation on ? rm performance have yielded inconclusive results. The results on the relationship between international diversi? cation and ? rm performance has been found to be positive (Delios and Beamish, 1999; Grant, 1987; Rugman et al. , 2008), negative (Collins, 1990; Zaheer and Mosakowski, 1997), U-shaped (Capar and Kotabe, 2003; Gaur and Kumar, 2009; Lu and Beamish, 2001), inverted-U-shaped (Brock et al. , 2006; Garbe and Richter, 2009; Gomes and Ramaswamy, 1999; Hitt et al. 1997) and horizontal-S-shaped (Contractor et al. , 2003; Lu and Beamish, 2004; Ruigrok et al. , 2007). To better understand the in? uence of international diversi? cation, we extend this line of research by studying the impact of international diversi? cation on new product performance. Speci? cally, we test if international diversi? cation explains the stock ? Corresponding author at: Present address: Department of Management, Fo Guang University, No. 160, Linwei Rd. , Jiaosi, Yilan County 26247, Taiwan. Tel. : + 886 3 9871000 23816. E-mail addresses: [email  protected] net. tw (C. -F. Wang), [email  protected] fgu. edu. w (L. -Y. Chen), [email  protected] ncku. edu. tw (S. -C. Chang). 1 Present address: Department of Business Administration, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, No. 123, University Road, Section 3, Douliou, Yunlin 64002, Taiwan. Tel. : + 886 5 5342601Ãâ€"5245. 2 Present address: Institute of International Business, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, University Road, 701, Tainan, Taiwan. Tel. : + 886 6 2757575Ãâ€"53506. 1075-4253/ $ – see front matter  © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10. 1016/j. intman. 2011. 03. 002 334 C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 arket responses to new product introduction (NPI) announcements. NPIs are an important dimension of innovation output. 3 Firms with the ability to introduce new products are signaled as those with the opportunity for differentiation and future earnings (Chaney et al. , 1991; Kleinschmidt and Cooper, 1991; Subramaniam and Venkatraman, 2001). In order to improve the performance of NPIs, many ? rms are engaged in international diversi? cation activities (Kogut and Zander, 1993; Peng and Wang, 2000). Previous studies have documented that international diversi? cation comes with both bene? s and costs (Contractor et al. , 2003; Lu and Beamish, 2004; Ruigrok et al. , 2007). We suggest that these bene? ts and costs might create both opportunities and challenges for ? rms to develop new products, and hence in? uence investors' assessment of the new products introduced by ? rms. International diversi? cation may have positive effects on NPIs. For example, it allows ? rms to reach outside their domestic boundaries, providing them with more opportunities to gain new ideas in terms of the types of new products that can be developed (Hitt et al. , 1997). Internationally diversi? ed ? ms also have better access to the resources resident in foreign countries that may be necessary for producing these new products (Craig and Douglas, 2000; Peng and Wang, 2000). Furthermore, international diversi? cation creates the bene? t of economies of scale by ef? ciently leveraging the initial investments on new products over a broader market base (Subramaniam and Venkatraman, 2001). In spite of the bene? cial effects of international diversi? cation, we suggest that international diversi? cation may also entail disadvantages when it comes to introducing new products. For instance, cross-nationa l distances increase the dif? ulty for internationally diversi? ed ? rms to transfer technological knowledge between countries. Differential environmental settings among countries might also constrain the ? rm's ability to absorb and apply resources towards new product development. In such cases, new products are expected to be less worthwhile for introducing ? rms with international diversi? cation activities. In addition to investigating the direct impact of international diversi? cation on the stock market reactions to NPI announcements, we postulate that investors' assessments of the value of new products may depend on a ? m's internal capabilities. Extending previous research documenting the importance of technological and marketing capabilities in determining new product success (e. g. , Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1987; Yeoh and Roth, 1999), we argue that both marketing and technological capabilities assist in enhancing the bene? ts of international diversi? cation while simulta neously restricting its drawbacks with regard to the introduction of new products. We test our hypotheses by measuring the stock market responses to NPI announcements using the event-study methodology framework.The events of NPI announcements are collected for the period 1997–2005. Under the assumption of the ef? cient markets hypothesis (Fama, 1970), NPI announcements bring unanticipated information into ? nancial markets that may change the market value assessments of the announcing ? rms. In response to the new information, changes in stock prices occur, which represent investors' revision of their expectation with regard to the net present value of a ? rm's risk-adjusted expected cash ? ow generated by the new products, or stated differently, the investors' expectation of the wealth impact of NPIs.This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 provides the theoretical background and develops the hypotheses. Section 3 introduces the sample and methodology. The empirical res ults are presented in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 contains the discussion and concluding remarks of this study. 2. Theoretical background and hypotheses International diversi? cation has been suggested by FDI theory and portfolio theory to provide ? rms with bene? ts ranging from the ability to realize scale economies (Grant, 1987; Porter, 1986), the possibility to spread investment risks over different countries (Kim et al. 1993), the potential to arbitrage factor cost differentials across multiple locations (Kogut, 1985) and the opportunity to access resources resident in foreign countries (Hitt et al. , 1997). However, there is considerable theoretical evidence that international diversi? cation comes with both bene? ts and costs. We suggest that that these bene? ts and costs that accompany foreign expansion may create both opportunities and challenges for ? rms in terms of developing new products, and thereby affect the stock market reactions to NPI announcements.In this secti on, we review various theoretical domains in order to identify the channels through which international diversi? cation might in? uence value creation for ? rms in the context of NPIs. 2. 1. Effects of international diversi? cation International diversi? cation provides several advantages towards developing new products. First, international diversi? cation offers opportunities for ? rms to gain new and diverse ideas from a variety of perspectives (Hitt et al. , 1997). Being exposed to heterogeneous customers, technology, cultures, and competitive practices, internationally diversi? d ? rms are able to learn from the experience in foreign operations to ? nd new solutions to bettering product design and improving the quality of manufacturing know-how (Craig and Douglas, 2000). For example, the launch of a new cordless telephone by Sanyo, which had been adjusted to better meet the phone use habits of American consumers (Barkema and Vermeulen, 1998), consequently expanded the company's sales in the U. S. market. 3 Prior studies have used several ways to measure the performance of innovation, which includes R intensity (Hill and Snell, 1988; Hitt et al. 1997), number of NPIs (Cardinal and Opler, 1995; Hitt et al. , 1996) and number of patents (Francis and Smith, 1995). Though they have provided valuable insights, the measures they developed have some limitations in capturing the true value of innovation (Chaney et al. , 1991; Schankerman and Pakes, 1986). For example, R intensity is more related to the input value of innovation but does not directly measure the output value of innovation. Furthermore, numbers of NPIs or patents only measure the quantity of inventive output without considering the quality of innovation.As well, patent counts often represent a very noisy measure of the underlying value of innovation because most patents are not worth anything. The measure used in our study allows us to directly measure the wealth effect of innovation, rather than on ly considering the quantity of inventive output as has been done in prior studies. C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 335 International diversi? cation also allows ? rms to gain access to resources that may only be available in foreign markets but not frequently obtainable in the home countries to develop new products (Peng and Wang, 2000).By tapping into the technological skills and knowledge that originates from other countries, multinational ? rms may be able to successfully increase their technological strength in developing new products (Hitt et al. , 1997; Kotabe, 1990; Peng and Wang, 2000; Subramaniam and Venkatraman, 2001). Moreover, international diversi? cation provides a ? rm with a wider national network, which helps increase its ability to effectively leverage technological resources and rationalize production processes. These economies of scale can enable the ? m to obtain higher returns from new product innovations (Bartl ett and Ghoshal, 1989; Kogut, 1985). Furthermore, the broader market outlets available to new products create higher returns on the sunk costs of innovative spending (Subramaniam and Venkatraman, 2001), while cash ? ows generated from large-scale foreign operations provide ? rms with the resources needed for extra investment in new product development (Kobrin, 1991; Kotabe, 1990). Notwithstanding the above bene? ts, international diversi? cation can bring challenges to the development of new products. The ? rst challenge comes from the dif? ulty in transferring technological knowledge between countries. The more countries within which the ? rm operates, the larger geographic distance the technological know-how has to be transferred, and the less effective the ? rm will be in developing new products. Furthermore, with increasing diversi? cation, the differences in cultural, economic and technological settings among the countries increase. These differences reduce the effectiveness in assimilating and applying the technological knowledge that is critical for new product development (Chang and Wang, 2007; Hitt et al. 1997); while knowledge diversity can create greater learning value (Inkpen, 2000), differences in knowledge does not guarantee successful learning (Bowman and Helfat, 2001; Chang and Singh, 2000; Szulanski and Winter, 2002). In addition, arguments from the economic law of diminishing returns suggest that the higher degree of international diversi? cation a ? rm is involved in, the more likely it is to be entering markets whose marginal contributions are relatively minor (Contractor et al. , 2003). Beyond a certain point, after already having expanded into the most advantageous markets, the ? m is left with minor or peripheral foreign markets whose resources for and cash ? ow from new product development will exhibit diminishing returns. By drawing on various theoretical perspectives, the above discussions suggest that international diversi? cation no t only create opportunities but also impose barriers to the value creation provided by new product innovation. With moderate levels of international diversi? cation, ? rms can capitalize on valuable bene? ts of knowledge learning, resource access and production ef? ciency in producing new products.At the same time, economic pro? ts rise as the ? xed costs of new product development are spread across more markets (Kogut, 1985; Porter, 1986). However, ? rms that expand internationally beyond an optimal level may ? nd that the costs of international diversi? cation eventually exceed the bene? ts. Firms at this stage often enter countries that are more geographically and culturally dissimilar, which increases the dif? culties of transferring technological knowledge between countries. The value of new product innovation may also exhibit diminishing returns when international diversi? ation is increased beyond the optimal level. Based on the above, this study proposes a non-linear and inv erted-U-shaped relationship between international diversi? cation and the stock market reactions to NPI announcements, suggesting that the market value of NPIs is expected to improve with increasing international diversi? cation at lower levels of international diversi? cation and then decline with increasing international diversi? cation at higher levels of international diversi? cation. For these reasons, we propose our ? rst hypothesis as follows: Hypothesis 1.The relationship between international diversi? cation and the stock market reactions to NPI announcements is inverted-U-shaped, with a positive slope at lower levels of international diversi? cation and negative at higher levels of international diversi? cation. We utilize event-study methodology to capture the valuation effect of corporate new product strategies. This approach not only permits direct investigation of changes in announcing ? rms' shareholder value, but is also suited to conduct cross-sectional analysis of the strategies underlying the value creation or destruction (Reuer, 2001).Applying event-study methodology to NPIs also facilitates comparisons with previous studies on other corporate major strategic events. 4 2. 2. Interaction effects of intangible assets and international diversi? cation Although our theoretical framework should hold for all ? rms, the effect of international diversi? cation on new product performance may depend on ? rms' intangible assets. Scholars in international business have shown that multinational ? rms with greater marketing and technological capabilities may receive higher returns from international expansion (Kotabe et al. , 2002; Lu andBeamish, 2004). Other researchers also document the importance of marketing and technological capabilities in the success of new products (e. g. , Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1987; Danneels, 2002; Krasnikov and Jayachandran, 2008; Moorman and Slotegraaf, 1999; Yeoh and Roth, 1999). We make advances in linking these two stre ams of study by investigating the moderating effect 4 Previous studies have used event-study methodology to test the wealth effect of major corporate events, such as diversi? cation (Doukas and Lang, 2003; Hoskisson et al. , 1991), divestitures (Benou et al. , 2008), alliances (Das et al. 1998; Kale et al. , 2002), regulatory change (Bowman and Navissi, 2003), NPIs (Chaney et al. , 1991; Chen, 2008; Kelm et al. , 1995), R expenditures (Szewczyk et al. , 1996), and patents (Austin, 1993). 336 C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 of internal capabilities on the association between international diversi? cation and the stock market reactions to NPI announcements. We suggest that internationally diversi? ed ? rms that have greater marketing and technological capabilities are more able to extract the bene? ts and reduce the costs of international diversi? ation, resulting in higher returns from NPI announcements. Each moderating effect is disc ussed independently below. Marketing capability is related to a ? rm's ability to acquire external knowledge through the processes of gathering, interpreting, and using market information (Day, 1994). Though international diversi? cation gives ? rms opportunities to access new knowledge, ? rms that do not have ability to identify customers' needs and to understand the factors that in? uence consumer choice behavior will not be able to achieve better targeting and positioning of its products.Therefore, ? rms that have invested in developing their marketing capability are more able to integrate the information on consumer needs in diverse markets into new product designs, and thus generate higher returns from the new products (Dutta et al. , 1999). In addition, marketing capability is re? ected in a ? rm's ability to differentiate its products from those of competitors (Kotabe et al. , 2002). A higher level of product differentiation allows a ? rm to charge higher prices for its new p roducts (Day, 1994; Yeoh and Roth, 1999). Furthermore, ? ms that spend more money on advertising and promoting their products are more likely to build successful brands, which are essential to building awareness, reducing the perceived risk that consumers associate with new products, and ? nally increasing the adoption rate of new products introduced (Chandy and Tellis, 2000; Dowling and Staelin, 1994; Sorescu et al. , 2003). This is particularly important for ? rms that are completely new to foreign customers (Helsen et al. , 1993; Srivastava et al. , 1998). Consequently, we expect that NPIs are expected to be more worthwhile for internationally diversi? d ? rms with greater marketing capabilities, leading to Hypothesis 2: Hypothesis 2. Marketing capability will positively moderate the relationship between international diversi? cation and the stock market reactions to NPI announcements. As mentioned, technological capability is also likely to moderate the effect of international d iversi? cation on new product development. Technology capability might represent a ? rm's ability to absorb external knowledge (Penner-Hahn and Shaver, 2005; Tsai, 2001). A ? rm may be able to access certain new knowledge through international diversi? ation, but without the capacity to absorb such knowledge a ? rm may not enhance its capabilities within new product innovation. Since knowledge gained from international markets is often tacit and socially complex (Zahra and Hayton, 2008), ? rms that have established a capability in a particular research skill are better able to interpret and assess the knowledge in that area. Technological capability also refers to a ? rm's ability to apply knowledge gained from foreign markets to commercial ends (Krasnikov and Jayachandran, 2008; Moorman and Slotegraaf, 1999).Kotabe et al. (2002) have stated that ? rms with greater technological capabilities are more capable of ? nding better product design solutions. The technical risks in developi ng new products are more likely to be reduced for such ? rms (Kelm et al. , 1995). Furthermore, ? rms with greater technological capability are more able to lower production costs by improving manufacturing processes. Moreover, technological capability helps ? rms to speed up the product development process and satisfy the market more quickly (Rabino and Moskowitz, 1981). Thus, ? ms that have greater technological capabilities are more likely to enhance their revenues in international markets by providing those markets with new products of better quality. Meanwhile, ? rms that leverage their technological capabilities in the greater scope of the global market may enjoy the bene? ts of economies of scale inherent in the innovation process. As a result, we expect that NPIs are more worthwhile for internationally diversi? ed ? rms with greater technological capabilities, leading to Hypothesis 3: Hypothesis 3. Technological capability will positively moderate the relationship between in ternational diversi? ation and the stock market reactions to NPI announcements. 3. Sample and methodology 3. 1. Sample design We test our hypotheses using a sample of NPI announcement events. We collect the sample data on ? rms listed on either the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) from the Dow Jones News Retrieval Service (DJNRS) database, which provides news-service articles and selected stories from the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones News Wire, and Barron's. We use the words and phrases commonly used to describe NPIs as keys for a database search routine.Examples are â€Å"introduce,† â€Å"new product,† â€Å"unveil,† â€Å"launch,† â€Å"received approval,† â€Å"to market,† â€Å"test market,† â€Å"begin selling,† along with other pertinent words and phrases. When a repeat NPI announcement from a ? rm is found in a different publication, the announcement that has the earliest date is ch osen as it is the earliest date when the information about the NPI is publicly available (Chaney et al. , 1991; Chen, 2008; Kelm et al. , 1995). The sample period is from January 1997 to December 2005. Four criteria are used when selecting ? rms for our sample: (1) the announcing ? rms should not have other announcements ? e days before and after the initial announcement date in order to avoid any confounding events that could distort the measurement of the valuation effects; (2) daily stock return information must be available from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP), with a minimum of 50 daily returns in the estimation period; (3) companies' ? nancial information must be available from the COMPUSTAT ? les; and (4) since we want to test the effect of international diversi? cation, only those ? rms with foreign sales data available from the COMPUSTAT ? les are included. C. -F. Wang et al. Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 337 Following these procedures, we collect a ? nal sample comprising 3061 new product announcements made by 531 ? rms in 57 industries based on the two-digit Standard Industrial Classi? cation (SIC) codes. 5 Table 1 reports the distribution of the sample by year and industry. Our data shows no obvious cluster by time period. In 2004, there are 530 announcements, accounting for 17. 32% of the total. Observations are nearly evenly distributed through the remaining years. However, our sample shows certain levels of concentration in speci? c industries.The largest concentration comes from electrical equipment (33. 61%), computer equipment (18. 09%), electro-medical instruments (9. 38%), and business services (e. g. , computer programming and the software industry) (7. 19%). These three broad categories constitute nearly 70% of the total sample. As suggested by Chaney et al. (1991), this result is expected since neither the investment opportunities nor their valuation should be random across industries. 3. 2. Measuring the stock market responses to new product announcements We employ the event study methodology to examine the stock price responses to the announcements of NPIs. This approach has been widely used in the management, accounting, economics and ? nance disciplines to examine the impact of ? rm-speci? c events on ? rm value. The event study approach suggests that, in an ef? cient capital market, the market will adjust and result in returns different from those that are normally expected if the NPI announcement has unexpected information content (Hoskisson et al. , 1991). We use the market model suggested by Brown and Warner (1985) to estimate the abnormal returns to NPI announcements. This model captures a ? rm's stock price change after adjusting for general market-wide factors and the ? m's systematic risk (Bowman, 1983; Brown, 1989; Brown and Warner, 1980, 1985). The abnormal return for ? rm i on day t, ARit, is computed by: ARit = Rit ? E? Rit = It ? 1 ? ; where Rit is ? rm i's actual returns on day t, and It ? 1 represents the information set available to the market about the ? rm at time t ? 1. The expected return for ? rm i on day t is estimated by: E? Rit = It ? 1 ? = ? i + ? i Rmt where Rmt is the return for the market portfolio on day t, ? i is the intercept, and ? i measures the risk or sensitivity of the ? rm's returns relative to the market portfolio. We de? e Day 0 (t = 0) as the initial announcement date. We use the value-weighted CRSP Index as the proxy for the market portfolio. The parameters ? i and ? i are estimated using data for the period of 200 to 60 days before the initial announcement date. The two-day cumulative abnormal returns, CAR (? 1, 0), are estimated by summing the daily abnormal returns over the window period of days ? 1 and 0. The equally weighted cross-sectional average abnormal returns on ? event day t, ARt , is further calculated by: 1N ? ARt = ? ARit ; N i=1 where N is the total number of sample NPIs. The cumulati ve average abnormal return over the period (? , 0) is similarly de? ned. 3. 3. Measuring international diversi? cation We use the entropy index to estimate international diversi? cation. 7 The entropy measure of international diversi? cation is de? ned as ? [Pi* ln(1/Pi)], where Pi is the percentage of sales in geographic segment i, and ln(1/Pi) is the weight of each geographic segment. This measure thus considers both the number of geographic segments in which a ? rm operates and the relative importance of sales contributed by each geographic segment. 5 For the industry classi? cation, we follow Hitt et al. (1997) and use the our-digit SIC codes as the indicator of the industry or business segment that a ? rm operates. Therefore, two variables in this study, namely product diversi? cation and industry R&D intensity, are estimated basing on the four-digit SIC codes. However, for the sake of brevity, we report the sample distribution by industry on the basis of the two-digit SIC code s. 6 Other performance measures of new product strategies that are most commonly used in previous studies include return on assets, return on sales, return on equity, return on investment and pro? t margin (e. g. , Li and Atuahene-Gima, 2001; Moorman, 1995).However, these accounting measures have several limitations in measuring new product performance (Chang and Wang, 2007; Kalyanaram et al. , 1995; Pauwels et al. , 2004). For example, the differences in accounting policies across ? rms make performance comparisons dif? cult. These measures are also not risk-adjusted as they do not consider business risks associated with individual ? rms when measuring performance, and they are based on historical accounting data and thus may not adequately re? ect future expected revenue streams resulting from the new products. More importantly, these measures re? ect aggregate ? m performance, making it more dif? cult to directly link them to the effect of speci? c new product introductions. Due to these limitations we employ an event study methodology in order to examine stock price responses to announcements of NPIs. This method captures the ? rm's stock price change after adjusting for the ? rm's systematic risk (Bowman, 1983; Brown, 1989; Brown and Warner, 1980, 1985), as well as re? ects investors' expectations of a ? rm's future cash ? ow related to this new product (Chaney et al. , 1991; Chen, 2008; Chen et al. , 2002; Kelm et al. , 1995). 7 Previous studies have used several proxies of international diversi? ation. The most commonly used measures are the ratio of foreign sales to total sales (Grant, 1987; Tallman and Li, 1996), the ratio of foreign assets to total assets (Daniels and Bracker, 1989; Ramaswamy, 1995), numbers of foreign countries in which a ? rm has subsidiaries (Delios and Beamish, 1999; Tallman and Li, 1996) or a composite index encompassing these three dimensions (Gomes and Ramaswamy, 1999; Sullivan, 1994). However, these measures only capture the extent but not the distribution of international diversi? cation. In this study, we follow Hitt et al. (1997) and use the entropy measure of international diversi? ation to account for the extent of sales in global markets and their weighting. C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 338 Table 1 Distribution of new product introduction. Panel A. Sample distribution by year Year Number of announcements Percent of sample (%) 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Total 354 279 370 313 232 247 391 530 345 3061 11. 56 9. 11 12. 08 10. 22 7. 58 8. 07 12. 77 17. 32 11. 30 100. 00 Panel B. Sample distribution by industry Two-digit SIC code Industry group 01 12 13 15 16 17 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 33 34 Agricultural production cropsCoal mining Oil and gas extraction Building construction: general contractors Heavy construction other than building construction contractors Construction: special trade contractors Food and kindred produc ts Tobacco products Textile mill products Apparel, ? nished prdcts from fabrics and similar materials Lumber and wood products, except furniture Furniture and ? xtures Paper and allied products Printing, publishing, and allied industries Chemicals and allied products Petroleum re? ning and related industries Rubber and miscellaneous plastics products Leather and leather products Primary metal industriesFabricated metal products, except machinery and transportation equipment Industrial and commercial machinery and computer equipment Electronic and other electrical equipment and components, except computer equipment Transportation equipment Measuring, analyzing, and controlling instruments; photographic, medical and optical goods Miscellaneous manufacturing industries Railroad transportation Motor freight transportation and warehousing Transportation by air Pipelines, except natural gas Transportation services Communications Electric, gas, and sanitary services Wholesale trade: durabl e goods Wholesale trade: non-durable goodsBuilding materials, hardware, garden supply, and mobile home dealers General merchandise stores Food stores Apparel and accessory stores Home furniture, furnishings, and equipment stores Eating and drinking places Miscellaneous retail Depository institutions Non-depository credit institutions Security and commodity brokers, dealers, exchanges, and services Insurance carriers Insurance agents, brokers, and service Real estate Holding and other investment of? ces Hotels, rooming houses, camps, and other lodging places Personal services 35 36 37 38 39 40 42 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 67 0 72 Number of announcements Percent of sample (%) 1 1 8 1 1 1 28 4 2 2 3 6 13 76 118 2 9 2 23 21 0. 03 0. 03 0. 26 0. 03 0. 03 0. 03 0. 91 0. 13 0. 07 0. 07 0. 10 0. 20 0. 42 2. 48 3. 85 0. 07 0. 29 0. 07 0. 75 0. 69 554 1029 18. 09 33. 61 72 287 2. 35 9. 38 41 4 2 144 1 1 120 20 19 10 2 3 3 8 6 14 13 2 18 17 34 5 3 9 6 6 1. 34 0. 13 0. 07 4. 70 0. 03 0. 03 3. 92 0. 65 0. 62 0. 33 0. 07 0. 10 0. 10 0. 26 0. 20 0. 46 0. 42 0. 07 0. 59 0. 56 1. 11 0. 16 0. 10 0. 29 0. 20 0. 20 C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 339 Table 1 (continued) Panel B. Sample distribution by industryTwo-digit SIC code Industry group 73 78 79 80 82 87 Business services Motion pictures Amusement and recreation services Health services Educational services Engineering, accounting, research, management, and related services Nonclassi? able establishments 99 Total Number of announcements Percent of sample (%) 220 13 4 2 1 10 7. 19 0. 42 0. 13 0. 07 0. 03 0. 33 36 3061 1. 18 100. 00 As data is not available at the country level, we use sales of regional markets to measure international diversity (as used by e. g. , Hirsch and Lev, 1971; Hitt et al. , 1997; Miller and Pras, 1980). Following Hitt et al. 1997), we group foreign markets into four regions based on economic and political conditions: Africa, Asia and the Paci? c, Europe, and the Americas. Although not perfect, this approach allows us to focus on between-market heterogeneity (Kim et al. , 1989). The international market sales data are from the COMPUSTAT geographic segment tapes for the ? scal year preceding the announcements. 8 3. 4. Measuring intangible assets We measure marketing capability as the average marketing intensity (the ratio of advertisement expenditures to net sales) for the three ? scal years prior to the announcements. 9 We suggest that ? ms who invest more in marketing activities are considered to have superior marketing capabilities. We measure technological capability as the average R&D intensity (the ratio of R&D expenditures to net sales) for the three ? scal years prior to the announcements. We suggest that ? rms outspending their competitors in R&D are considered to have greater technological capabilities. We scale the measures of ? rm capabilities by ? rm size in order to ensure that the capability measure does not merely re? ect higher levels of ? nancial resources of large-scaled ? rms (following Moorman and Slotegraaf, 1999). 3. 5. Other variablesOther potential variables that could affect the value of NPIs are controlled. The ? rst is ? rm size, measured by the natural logarithm of total sales of the announcing ? rm for the ? scal year preceding the announcement (following Kotabe et al. , 2002; Lu and Beamish, 2004). We next control for a ? rm's leverage ratio, measured as the ratio of total debt to total assets for the ? scal year prior to the announcement (following Chen et al. , 2002; Chen, 2008). We also control for the degree of product diversi? cation for the ? scal year preceding the announcement. Product diversi? cation is measured by the entropy index (? Pi * ln(1/Pi)], where Pi is the percentage of ? rm sales in business segment i, and ln(1/Pi) is the weight of each segment). Following Hitt et al. (1997), we de? ne business segments as those having the same four-digit SIC codes. The product-speci? c effects are also controlled. This is necessary as some researchers have suggested that high-newness products are expected to create better opportunities for product differentiation and competitive advantage (Kleinschmidt and Cooper, 1991; Meyer and Roberts, 1986), and as such, high-newness products should receive a larger market value than updates of existing products.Furthermore, scholars have argued that ? rms introducing multiple products are more competitive in the product market and seize more market share than those announcing single products. This implies that ? rms announcing multipleproducts announcers may appropriate much of the bene? ts associated with new products, and are thus expected to experience a larger increase in market value than those announcing a single product (Acs and Audretsch, 1988; Hendricks and Singhal, 1997). Moreover, researchers have documented that the ? rst to introduce a new product in the marketplac e usually enjoys ? st-mover advantages stemming from the creation of entry barriers and switching costs, and from high consumer recognition and preference to the ? rst product (Jovanovic and MacDonald, 1994; Lee et al. , 2000). Therefore, ? rst-moving ? rms are predicted to gain a higher announcement return at the time of NPIs than followers do. The aforementioned ? rms that introduce high-newness and multiple products or ? rms that are the ? rst to introduce new products are suggested to obtain sustained competitive advantage. This argument corresponds to Williamson (1999) that ? ms getting ahead of their competitors by providing multiple and new technology, products and business solutions have more opportunities to ensure lasting sales growth. We identify these product announcement types by using structural content analysis on the news content (as in Chaney et al. , 1991; Lee et al. , 2000; Firth and Narayanan, 1996). Based on the analysis of the news content, we create three dumm y variables: NEWNESS, MULTIPLE and TIME. 8 The main reason for using data one year before the announcements is to capture the most recent impact of a ? m's attributes on the market reactions to new product introductions. Several independent variables are measured by the data one year preceding the announcements, including international diversi? cation, ? rm size, debt-to-asset ratio, product diversi? cation and two industry sector dummy variables. 9 Since the values of advertising and R&D expenditures tend to ? uctuate substantially from year to year, we use the 3-year average values of advertising intensity, R&D intensity and industry R&D intensity to reduce the chance that a random and extreme value in one year disproportionately in? ences our measure of intangible assets. 340 C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 NEWNESS equals one if the product is highly innovative, and zero if it is an update or an enhancement of an existing product (as in Chaney et al. , 1991; Chen, 2008). MULTIPLE equals one for multiple-products announced simultaneously by a ? rm, and zero for single announcements (as in Chaney et al. , 1991; Chen, et al. , 2002). TIME equals one if the announcing ? rm is the ? rst mover, and zero otherwise (as in Lee et al. , 2000; Chen, 2008).Finally, we consider two industry-related factors. The ? rst is the technological opportunity of the industry in which the announcing ? rms operate. Chaney et al. (1991) asserted that the valuation effect of NPIs is higher for ? rms in more technologically based industries, as they are considered to have more innovation opportunities and greater potential for future growth. In contrast, Kelm et al. (1995) found that investors respond positively to new product announcements by ? rms in less-technology-intensive industries because new product announcements by these ? rms are relatively nexpected by investors. Technological opportunities at the industry level are measure d by the average industry R&D intensity (the average values of R&D expenditures divided by net sales for all ? rms in the same four-digit SIC industry) for the three ? scal years prior to the announcements (following Chan et al. , 1990; Kelm et al. , 1995). In addition, we control for the industry-speci? c effect with two dummy variables: MANUFACTURING and SERVICE. MANUFACTURING equals one for announcing ? rms in manufacturing industries, and zero otherwise. SERVICE equals one for announcing ? ms in service industries, and zero otherwise. This is done as several studies have argued that the effect of internationality on performance for manufacturing ? rms is different from that for service ? rms (Capar and Kotabe, 2003; Contractor et al. , 2003). We therefore separate the sample ? rms into service, manufacturing and other industries according to 2-digit SIC codes and apply two industry dummies to control for the industry-speci? c effects. Table 2 presents the means, standard deviati ons, and correlations for all variables for the sample of NPI announcements. 4. Empirical resultsTable 3 provides estimates of abnormal returns around the announcement date and the surrounding days. The results show that innovations such as NPIs are perceived by investors as value-increasing activities. For the two-day announcement period cumulative abnormal returns, CAR (? 1, 0), the new product announcers experience a positive cumulative average abnormal return of 0. 194%, signi? cant at the 1% con? dence level. No signi? cant abnormal returns are observed preceding and following the announcement period. As a result, we use CAR (? 1, 0) as the dependent variable in the following regression analysis.Our results are consistent with prior studies (e. g. , Chaney et al. , 1991; Chen, 2008; Chen et al. , 2002; Kelm et al. , 1995). Table 4 reports the regression results with the dependent variable CAR (? 1, 0). We present the results without centering the variables in the ? rst ? ve mod els, and results with centering the variables on their means in the latter ? ve models. 10 Models 1 and 6 are baseline models that include only the control variables and two measures of intangible assets. Among the control variables, leverage ratio is found to be positively associated with CAR (? 1, 0), though insigni? cant in some models.This result suggests that higher levels of debt lower the expected costs of free cash ? ow (Jensen, 1986), and new products announced by ? rms with a higher leverage ratio are therefore perceived as more worthwhile. Of the two ? rm-speci? c assets variables, both R&D and advertising intensities have a signi? cant and positive impact in most models. Moreover, industry R&D intensity is found to be signi? cantly negatively associated with CAR (? 1, 0). This result suggests that investors respond positively to new product announcements by ? rms in less technology-intensive industries because new product announcements by these ? ms are relatively unexpe cted by investors (Kelm et al. , 1995). Other control variables are not found to have signi? cant explanatory power in terms of the variation in announcement abnormal returns. In model 2 (7), we test the impact of international diversi? cation on the stock market reactions to NPI announcements by including the linear and squared terms of international diversi? cation. We ? nd our Hypothesis 1 is strongly supported, as CAR (? 1, 0) is positively related to the linear term of international diversi? cation and then negatively associated to the squared term of international diversi? cation.This result suggests an inverted-U-shaped relationship between international diversi? cation and the market value of NPIs. Models 3 (8), 4 (9) and 5 (10) test the moderating effects of intangible assets by including the interaction term of international diversi? cation and advertising intensity and the interaction term of international diversi? cation and R&D intensity. 11 Model 3 (8) tests the intera ction effect between international diversi? cation and marketing capability. The statistically signi? cant and positive coef? cient of the interaction term suggests that the market value of NPIs increases when internationally diversi? d ? rms have greater marketing capacities. Thus, Hypothesis 2 is supported. Model 4 (9) tests the interaction effect between international diversi? cation and technological capability. We also ? nd a statistically signi? cant and positive coef? cient of the interaction term. Thus, Hypothesis 3 is supported. To test the robustness of these ? ndings, we simultaneously include the interaction of international diversi? cation and advertising intensity and the interaction of international diversi? cation and R&D intensity in model 5 (10). Results remain unchanged to those in models 3 (8) and 4 (9).It is noted that the â€Å"main effects† between international diversi? cation and the abnormal returns of NPIs remain robust in all models with the additi on of the interaction terms. To gain further insights into our ? ndings, we construct Figs. 1 and 2 by drawing on the results of models 3 and 4. We use CAR (? 1, 0) as the measurement of market value of NPIs. When illustrating the impact of advertising intensity (R&D intensity) and 10 Since some variables are constructed from other variables, we follow Aiken and West (1991) by subtracting each variable from its mean value in the sample to minimize their collinearity. 11To test the robustness of our conclusion, we re-examine the regression analysis by incorporating the interaction of quadratic terms of international diversi? cation and intangible asset proxies. Our conclusions remain unchanged. Variables a Mean s. d. Min Max 1. Two-day announcementperiod abnormal return(%)a 2. International diversi? cation 3. Advertising intensity 4. R&D intensity 5. Product diversi? cation 6. Firm size b 7. Debt-to-asset ratio 8. Newness 9. Multiple 10. Time 11. Industry R&D intensity 12. Service in dustry 13. Manufacturing industry 0. 194 0. 037 ? 0. 242 0. 230 0. 653 0. 012 0. 081 0. 816 8. 541 0. 00 0. 827 0. 302 0. 359 0. 236 0. 236 0. 748 0. 424 0. 022 0. 148 0. 659 1. 860 0. 149 0. 379 0. 459 0. 480 0. 390 0. 425 0. 434 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 ? 0. 781 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 1. 382 0. 317 4. 696 2. 533 12. 060 1. 099 1. 000 1. 000 1. 000 2. 334 1. 000 1. 000 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1. 000 ? 0. 033* 1. 000 0. 102*** ? 0. 071*** 1. 000 ? 0. 004 ? 0. 042** ? 0. 016 1. 000 0. 149*** 0. 092*** ? 0. 158*** 0. 399*** 1. 000 ? 0. 111*** 0. 001 ? 0. 090*** 0. 052*** 0. 075*** 1. 000 0. 036** ? 0. 002 0. 010 ? 0. 003 0. 027 ? 0. 021 1. 000 9 0. 076*** 0. 050*** 0. 015 ? 0. 024 0. 016 ? 0. 100*** 0. 33* 1. 000 The two-day period (? 1,0) abnormal return is estimated by summing up abnormal returns from the day before (day ? 1) to the announcement date (day 0). Firm size is measured by the natural logarithm of net sales. ***p b 0. 01, **pb0. 05, *pb0. 1. b 10 11 12 13 0. 045** ? 0. 022 0. 056*** 0. 039** 0. 024 ? 0. 050*** 0. 170*** ? 0. 040** 1. 000 0. 257*** ? 0. 083*** 0. 252*** ? 0. 042** ? 0. 188*** ? 0. 098*** 0. 031* 0. 039** 0. 055*** 1. 000 ? 0. 382*** 0. 000 ? 0. 137*** ? 0. 206*** ? 0. 020 0. 199*** ? 0. 007 ? 0. 147*** ? 0. 064*** ? 0. 151*** 1. 000 0. 342*** 0. 017 0. 143*** 0. 151*** ? 0. 017 ? 0. 222*** . 009 0. 147*** 0. 068*** 0. 166*** ? 0. 960*** 1. 000 C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 Table 2 Descriptive statistics and correlations. 341 342 C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 Table 3 Abnormal returns for new product introduction announcements. Event day Mean AR (%) t-statistic ? 10 ?9 ?8 ?7 ?6 ?5 ?4 ?3 ?2 ?1 0 [? 1,0] +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 + 10 ? 0. 023 ? 0. 005 0. 025 ? 0. 016 ? 0. 025 ? 0. 005 0. 047 0. 001 ? 0. 039 0. 093 0. 101 0. 194 ? 0. 038 0. 058 0. 081 ? 0. 056 0. 027 ? 0. 073 ? 0. 055 0. 053 ? 0. 025 ? 0. 054 ? 0. 4 50 0. 092 0. 471 ? 0. 309 ? 0. 477 ? 0. 099 0. 888 0. 003 ? 0. 731 1. 918* 2. 038** 2. 885*** ? 0. 756 1. 086 1. 329 ? 1. 138 0. 529 ? 1. 403 ? 1. 078 1. 118 ? 0. 471 ? 0. 972 (0. 653) (0. 927) (0. 638) (0. 758) (0. 633) (0. 921) (0. 375) (0. 998) (0. 465) (0. 055) (0. 042) (0. 004) (0. 450) (0. 278) (0. 184) (0. 255) (0. 597) (0. 161) (0. 281) (0. 264) (0. 638) (0. 331) ***p b 0. 01, **p b 0. 05. Values in parentheses are p-values. international diversi? cation on CAR (? 1, 0), we hold other control variables at the average level. If the control variables are dummy ones, we substitute these variables with their modes. 2 Both ? gures provide supportive evidence for our hypotheses. First, the relationship between international diversi? cation and the market value of NPIs is found to be inverted-U-shaped, with the slope positive at lower levels of international diversi? cation but negative at higher levels of international diversi? cation. For example, in Fig. 1, for ? rms with no mar keting capability, at the initial stage, there is a positive impact on the market value of NPIs with an increase of 0. 62% in CAR (? 1, 0) when the level of international diversi? cation increases from zero to 0. 8. Beyond this threshold of 0. , a higher level of international diversi? cation is associated with a decreasing CAR (? 1, 0). In Fig. 2, for ? rms with no technological capability, there is a positive impact on the market value of NPIs with an increase of 0. 63% in CAR (? 1, 0) when the level of international diversi? cation increases from zero to 0. 8. Beyond this point, more international diversi? cation results in lower market values of NPIs. In addition, these graphs illustrate the performance differences across ? rms with different levels of intangible assets. For example, in Fig. 1, for a ? rm with a degree of international diversi? cation of 0. and a level of marketing capability of 0. 3, there is an expected CAR (? 1, 0) that is almost 0. 89% higher than that for a ? rm at the same level of international diversi? cation but with the marketing capability of 0. 1; at a degree of international diversi? cation of 1. 2, there is an expected improvement in CAR (? 1, 0) of 3. 25% when the level of marketing capability increases from 0. 1 to 0. 3. The same procedure can be used to explain the moderating effect of technological capability. In Fig. 2, for a ? rm with a level of international diversi? cation of 0. 4 and a level of technology capability of 1. , there is an expected CAR (? 1, 0) that is 2. 09% higher than that for a ? rm at the same level of international diversi? cation but with the technological capability of 0. 4; at a degree of international diversi? cation of 1. 2, there is an expected improvement in CAR (? 1, 0) of 4. 92% when the technology capability of a ? rm increases from 0. 4 to 1. 6. 5. Discussion and conclusions This paper examines the importance of international diversi? cation in explaining the stock market reactions to NP I announcements. Using NPI announcements from the period 1997–2005, we found an inverted-U-shaped relationship between international diversi? ation and the market value of NPIs, with a slope positive at lower levels of international diversi? cation but negative at higher levels of international diversi? cation. This relationship is moderated by the intangible assets possessed by internationally diversi? ed ? rms. We ? nd that announcing ? rms with greater technological and/or marketing capabilities achieve higher abnormal returns from NPIs. The main effects of the international diversi? cation variables still hold after the inclusion of these moderating factors. In view of recent research having suggested a sigmoid performance effect of internationalization (Contractor et al. 2003; Lu and Beamish, 2004), we test our hypotheses in the framework of an S-shaped relationship by simultaneously adding linear, squared and cubed terms of international diversi? cation in the regressio n. However, our sample does not reveal the S-shaped association between international diversi? cation and the market value of NPI. 12 The equations for the graphs presented in Figs. 1 and 2 are as follows, respectively: CAR (? 1, 0) = ? 0. 0037 + 0. 0157 * ID ? 0. 0099 * ID2 ? 0. 0147 * AD + 0. 1476 * ID * AD and CAR (? 1, 0) = ? 0. 0049 + 0. 0168 * ID ? 0. 0112 * ID2 + 0. 0056 * RD + 0. 295 * ID * RD, where ID = international diversi? cation; ID2 = International diversi? cation squared; AD = advertising intensity; RD = R&D intensity. C. -F. Wang et al. / Journal of International Management 17 (2011) 333–347 343 Table 4 Regression analysis of new product introduction on international diversi? cation. Un-centered results Centered results Independent variables Model 1 Model 2 Intercept ? 0. 0005 (? 0. 072) ? 0. 0042 ? 0. 0017 ? 0. 0037 ? 0. 0009 (? 0. 591) (? 0. 233) (? 0. 525) (? 0. 122) 0. 0178 0. 0157 0. 0168 0. 0143 (3. 156)*** (2. 737)*** (2. 967)*** (2. 486)** ? 0. 0099 ? 0. 0099 ? 0. 0112 0. 0113 (? 2. 188)** (? 2. 175)** (? 2. 434)** (? 2. 455)** International diversi? cation International diversi? cation squared International diversi? cation ? Advertising intensity International diversi? cation ? R&D intensity Firm size a Debt-to-asset ratio Product diversi? cation Advertising intensity R&D intensity Newness Multiple Time Industry R&D intensity Service Manufacturing Adjusted R2 F value Number of observations a Model 3 Model 4 0. 1476 (2. 236)** ? 0. 0001 ? 0. 0002 (? 0. 336) (? 0. 484) 0. 0072 0. 0071 (1. 531) (1. 516) ? 0. 0001 0. 0000 (? 0. 069) (0. 037) 0. 0667 ? 0. 0147 (2. 100)** (? 0. 04) 0. 0090 0. 0087 (1. 878)* (1. 832)* ? 0. 0003 ? 0. 0002 (? 0. 182) (? 0. 138) 0. 0016 0. 0016 (1. 085) (1. 055) ? 0. 0007 ? 0. 0006 (? 0. 466) (? 0. 407) ? 0. 0034 ? 0. 0032 (? 1. 804)* (? 1. 686)* 0. 0020 ? 0. 0007 (0. 032) (? 1. 121) ? 0. 0005 ? 0. 0015 (? 0. 079) (? 0. 252) 0. 0051 0. 0064 2. 20*** 2. 41*** 3061 3061 Model 6 0. 0036 (0. 637) 0. 1629 (2. 458)** 0. 0295 0. 0003 (0. 676) 0. 0073 (1. 569) ? 0. 0009 (? 0. 744) 0. 0527 (1. 673)* 0. 0093 (1. 941)* ? 0. 0004 (? 0. 195) 0. 0017 (1. 141) ? 0. 0006 (? 0. 389) ? 0. 0018 (? 0. 977) ? 0. 0030 (? 0. 519) ? 0. 0012 (? 0. 218) 0. 0005 1. 15 3061 Model 5Model 7 Model 8 Model 9 0. 0022 0. 0032 0. 0030 0. 0042 (0. 392) (0. 567) (0. 517) (0. 726) 0. 0178 0. 0174 0. 0192 0. 0189 (3. 156)*** (3. 081)*** (3. 375)*** (3. 326)*** ? 0. 0099 ? 0. 0099 ? 0. 0112 ? 0. 0113 (? 2. 188)** (? 2. 175)** (? 2. 434)** (? 2. 455)** 0. 1476 (2. 236)** 0. 0333 (1. 978)** (2. 225)** ? 0. 0001 ? 0. 0002 (? 0. 257) (? 0. 410) 0. 0085 0. 0086 (1. 803)* (1. 824)* ? 0. 0001 0. 0000 (? 0. 102) (0. 012) 0. 0709 ? 0. 0185 (2. 226)** (? 0. 383) 0. 0056 0. 0049 (1. 107) (0. 971) ? 0. 0002 ? 0. 0001 (? 0. 109) (? 0. 051) 0. 0018 0. 0018 (1. 221) (1. 2061) ? 0. 0009 ? 0. 0009 (? 0. 641) (? 0. 99) ? 0. 0046 ? 0. 0046 (? 2. 341)** (? 2. 302)** ? 0. 0005 ? 0. 0016 (? 0. 082) (? 0. 265) ? 0. 0015 ? 0. 0027 (? 0. 252) (? 0. 463) 0. 0060 0. 0077 2. 33*** 2. 58*** 3061 3061 0. 1629 (2. 458)** 0. 0295 0. 0003 (0. 676) 0. 0073 (1. 569) ? 0. 0009 (? 0. 744) 0. 0527 (1. 673)* 0. 0093 (1. 941)* ? 0. 0004 (? 0. 195) 0. 0017 (1. 141) ? 0. 0006 (? 0. 389) ? 0. 0018 (? 0. 977) ? 0. 0003 (? 0. 519) ? 0. 0012 (? 0. 218) 0. 0005 1. 15 3061 Model 10 (1. 978)** ? 0. 0001 ? 0. 0002 ? 0. 0001 (? 0. 336) (? 0. 484) (? 0. 257) 0. 0072 0. 0071 0. 0085 (1. 531) (1. 516) (1. 803)* ? 0. 0001 0. 0000 ? 0. 0001 (? 0. 069) (0. 37) (? 0. 102) 0. 0667 0. 0817 0. 0709 (2. 100)** (2. 517)** (2. 226)** 0. 0090 0. 0087 0. 0249 (1. 878)* (1. 832)* (2. 659)*** ? 0. 0003 ? 0. 0002 ? 0. 0002 (? 0. 182) (? 0. 138) (? 0. 109) 0. 0016 0. 0016 0. 0018 (1. 085) (1. 055) (1. 221) ? 0. 0007 ? 0. 0006 ? 0. 0009 (? 0. 466) (? 0. 407) (? 0. 641) ? 0. 0034 ? 0. 0032 ? 0. 0046 (? 1. 804)* (? 1. 686)* (? 2. 341)** 0. 0020 ? 0. 0007 ? 0. 0005 (0. 032) (? 1. 121) (? 0. 082) ? 0. 0005 ? 0. 0015 ? 0. 0015 (? 0. 079) (? 0. 252) (? 0. 252) 0. 0051 0. 00 64 0. 0060 2. 20*** 2. 41*** 2. 33*** 3061 3061 3061 0. 0333 (2. 225)** ? 0. 0002 (? 0. 410) 0. 0086 (1. 824)*

Coppola’s first feature film Essay

Similarly, the 1992 adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola has an equally complex representation of Dracula. Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, USA, but he grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father was a composer and musician, while his mother had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated with a degree in drama from Hofstra University, and did graduate work at UCLA in filmmaking. He was training as assistant with filmmaker Roger Corman, working in such capacities as soundman, dialogue director, associate producer and, eventually, director of Dementia 13 (1963), Coppola’s first feature film. In Francis Ford Coppola’s representation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, he chose to portray a typically evil creature as a complicated, ominous yet sensitive individual. In this interpretation, Dracula apparently has human emotions; he is feeling what humans feel. He tried to suck Jonathan Harker’s fianci e’s blood but is overcome by emotions and memories of his dead wife, and spares her for the time being. He also has human urges, both physically and mentally. But despite how humanlike Dracula may seem in this version of Dracula, he is still surrounded by the obvious evidence that point to the evil part of his person . He is dressed in red and black robes which connote blood and sinister-like things. But his polite voice is used as a withdrawal from his unnatural aura. He has weathered and very pale skin which emphasizes the connotations of blood, and ghostlike hair that match the colour of his skin. Also, his ability to take on any form facilitates the fact that he is a sinister character. Also, the mis-on-scene on various occasions make Dracula seem even more sinister than normal. The music alternates, the lighting is dim on a close up shot which creates a sense of concealment and makes the viewer use their imagination. Despite this, Dracula’s distressed emotional state might make the viewer sympathise with him. This interpretation of Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola would be suitable for an even more modern audience than Nosferatu and Hammer Horror’s version. The viewers of this film will respond to it with a variety of emotions. They might have been frightened of Dracula because of his ability to transform and take on any form which might spark a sense of paranoia within their minds and make them think that anyone around them could be Dracula himself. But they might also sympathise with Dracula because of his traumatic loss, and might feel a connection with him as they might know how he feels, loosing a loved one. They could view him as a strong-willed and self-controlling villain because it is unlikely for a vampire to resist the urge to bite into fresh skin, especially when it is offered to them on a plate just as Jonathan Harker’s wife was to Dracula. So why are those 3 representations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula so different? I think it’s due to the time when the movies were made. During the time when Nosferatu was made, the technology was terrible and nothing had been invented that could create a half-decent movie. But in Dracula (1952), technology had clearly developed which made it possible to create a movie including advanced special effects and costumes. Furthermore, in Francis Ford Coppola’s version in 1992, the technology had improved even more, making room for a movie that re-defines the quality and meaning of the movie: Dracula. Another reason why representations of Dracula changed overtime because people have come up with new ideas. I think this links in with the idea of what society are scared of, which is another reason why the representations of Dracula have changed overtime. This is because as society becomes scared of new things, then people have to come up with new ideas to satisfy the needs and wants of their audience. I think that Francis Ford Coppola’s representation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the most effective because he portrayed a typically evil being with characteristically no emotions, as a self-controlling and strong willed individual. He turned a villain that is most likely to be a hated icon amongst most people, to something that could draw the feeling of kindness and consideration from the viewers’ hearts, eradicating the fact that he is a blood-sucking villain that deserves to have a stake pushed through his seemingly heartless chest.

Analysis of fast fashion

Analysis of fast fashion Fast Fashion has been explored within the context of supply chain management (Ko and Kincade, 1997; Fiorito et al., 1995,1998; Sohal et al., 1998; Perry and Sohal, 2000; Guercini,2001; Azuma, 2002; Mattila et al., 2002; Birtwistle et al., 2003; Lee and Kincade, 2003). According to Barnes, L. and Lea-Greenwood, G. (2006, p259) â€Å"fast fashion is a business strategy which aims to processes involved in the buying cycle and lead times for getting new fashion product into stores, in order to satisfy consumer demand at its peak.† Saren,M. (2006) points out fast fashion refers to the time scale that exists between the emergence of a new fashion trend and the time it takes for a company to respond to that trend by having the product available in the market for sale. A commitment to fast fashion puts considerable strain on an organization. It requires that they are totally up to date with consumer trends and developments as these emerge and that they be fully prepared to respond to these developments with new product ranges in advance of their competition (Saren, M, 2006). Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2010) states fast fashion is the company can recognize and respond to fashion trends very quickly, create products that mirror the trends, and get those products onto shelves much faster and more frequently than the industry norm. 2.1.1 The characteristics of Fast Fashion In recent years, the fast fashion rise rapidly to become the new bright spot in the world’s clothing market. Fast fashion is a term used to describe clothing collections which are based on the most recent fashion trends presented at Fashion Week in both the spring and the autumn of every year (Muran, L, 2007). One of the biggest retail success stories of the past decade has been the phenomenal rise of fast fashion, a shopping trend spurred by rapidly changing styles and the ready availability of cheap brands (Barrie, L, 2010). The characteristics of fast fashion are ‘fast’ and ‘fashion’, by capturing fashion quickly, launch new fashion design quickly, product updates quickly at a lower price to meet consumer’s demand for access to fashion. The growth in the fast fashion industry â€Å"seems to be phenomenal† (Arvind Singhal, 2010). The reason of the development of fast fashion increasing and soon occupied the market, the main characteristics are: compared with the traditional clothing brands, the product development of fast fashion to the market is short, with the flow and not create trends, seasonal design rather than to go further the design, focusing on breadth rather than depth of products and with frequently new product in the market. Fast fashion can also be treated as the inevitable backlash by consumers against the homogenization of the retail industry (Mya, F, 2006). Fast fashion, an evolving retail trend that has store chains filling their racks with new, gotta-have-it merchandise (Erin, W, 2004). The aim of fast f ashion is specifically at a culture of rapid purchasing and disposal (Fast Fashion, 2007). Fast fashion may be moving too fast for customers to keep up (Wilson, E and Barbaro, M, 2006). As everything is getting faster, which including fashion, but Robin Anson (2010) argues that there are still few things that influence fast fashion, he says that â€Å"fast fashion can’t happen without facilitators, while low prices might encourage more purchases, to get low prices you need low labour costs, low raw material costs, and high productivity – but the quality must still be good.† According to Lovejoy, J (2007), the characteristics of fast fashion are: Primary emphasis is speed with fashion

Archaeology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Archaeology - Essay Example In â€Å"Fishing from past to present: continuity and resilience of red abalone fisheries on the Channel Islands, California†, Braje et al. develop an 8000-year time-line employing archaeological data from the Holocene and historical data from the last century and a half â€Å"with the objective of integrating deep time into modern resource management.† (906) In 1997 emergency closure by the California Fish and Game Commission was instituted on the red abalone fishery in response to what was viewed as a catastrophic decline in the red abalone population. However, according to Braje et al., the archaeological record indicates that â€Å"anthropologic trophic cascades began some 8000-7500 years ago along the Santa Barbara Coast.† (917) In other words, the number of various prey and predator species has oscillated significantly over the last eight millennium along the Santa Barbara Coast. This optimistically indicates that the current decline in the red abalone popu lations is not necessarily permanent.

To what extent does the European Union policy of free movement of Essay

To what extent does the European Union policy of free movement of persons discriminate against the non-European 'others' - Essay Example The paper tells that the EU (European Union) policy concerning free movement within its member states has, in many quarters been taunted to be extremely discriminative in nature.This policy on free movement of persons tend to, in particular, discriminate against people from other parts of the world- the non Europeans, commonly referred to as â€Å"others†. The E.U’’s hostility towards immigrants has been discussed at length in various forums. A very important aspect of the said immigration policy that many find not friendly is in the treatment of people who are from troubled countries, for instance due to problems like wars, lawlessness and require humanitarian assistance like, for instance refugees. In most cases helpless and poor or stateless individuals who basically throw themselves around or on the mercy and sympathy of the state that they deem safe, seeking refuge from ill treatment in their country of origin have always had it rough upon attempting to gain entry in countries that subscribe to the European Union. For the sake of highlighting the xenophobic treatment and approach that immigrants face countries like France, United Kingdom and Italy will be used because they are believed to be very notorious for this kind of discriminative treatment. Majority of these member states always claim that with the steady rise of terrorism and related activities worldwide they have all the reasons to be discriminative against anybody coming into their country. Another commonly blamed excuse, which to them is a major concern, is the national and regional security of the various nations that allow people to cross over their borders. They have this mentality that terrorists and other people with ill intensions are very likely to come in from overseas2. These kinds of concerns and worries often lead to very thorough and intrusive security checks and scrutiny and stringent visa requirements and in the process discouraging immigration, short term and temporary visitors from other parts of the world and even the movement that people like having within their continent and countries. There has been frantic search to solutions to this tight regulations and even pressure from all over the world for European Union to loosen some of the aspects of the immigration policy and inspections to create an ample environment which can help promote tourism and other developmental aspects like relocation and transfer of businesses to other countries from, for instance, destabilized countries or better yet regions3. Since most of the member states of the European Union allow free movement of individuals within the union under an exemption commonly known as Schengen arrangement which many immigrant refers to as the discriminative extra communitarian movement of individuals i.e. non-European Union citizens4. This is, indeed an irony in the sense that the European Union allows movement of individuals freely within its various member states but unfor tunately takes a very tough and harsh approach towards immigrants from non European Union countries. This xenophobic treatment and approach of the European Union is basically rooted in very complex historical, political, social and economic contexts which this paper intends to intensively and extensively look and discuss in details. Historical Historically, even before the establishment of the European Union, most of the countries that are now in the union had a negative attitude towards people moving into their countries because they believed that such moves would create competition for the available resources .The historical perspective and aspects of the heinous xenophobic approach that EU had, greatly affected the ambitions and desires of many immigrants who really yearned to visit or even temporarily move into the EU

Book review 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Book review 3 - Essay Example The whole idea was conceptualized after a five year teaching of high ranked executives in the world’s best Harvard Entrepreneur program. From her observations, it became evident that majority of her students spent very little time in picturing and actualizing their own companies’ strategies. Leadership and strategy are inseparable. This is a point missed out by many leaders. Clearly as seen, strategies are not ‘how to’ functions in an organization. They cannot be executed on their own, and thus the need for a strong leadership background. There is a very little understanding of the intertwined intimate relationship between leadership and strategy. For this reason, managers keep seeking professional advice from external specialists to help in making company analysis and strategically position them for competitive advantage. This has made strategy a lucrative business for most experts. A question that every business leader must answer is, â€Å"Does your company matter?† (Montgomery pp. 13). For this reason, leaders should not only be willing and ready to learn on how best to be effective managers but also creatively think of possible ways through which their businesses can prosper. In real sense, vey many leaders find it extremely difficult to trace t he existence of their companies and thus cannot even describe or identify the needs in their individual companies. This causes lots of confusion at the lower levels of management because of the colliding decisions at the top. Since leadership and the strategy are inseparable, a question is posed to business leaders; â€Å"Are you a strategist?† (Montgomery pp. 20). A strategist is a leader who wholeheartedly guides the ongoing process from the conception of an idea, its execution, and post convincing results. A strategist carefully watches, identifies, makes decisions, and risks other opportunities for

What role does equality play in socialist ideology Essay - 1

What role does equality play in socialist ideology - Essay Example Under this ideology, social and economic surplus achieved through socialist philosophy is allocated to labourers in the working class equitably and where political and corporate systems become decentralised. Thus, under this practical definition of socialism, equality not only plays a powerful role in socialist doctrine, it is the foundational imperative of the ideology. Equality, both socially and economically, underpins the foundation of socialist thought. Under most socialist models, the philosophy is an evolution from attempts to block or otherwise emerge from capitalist ideology which, during the 19th Century, began to dominate many international economies experiencing economic growth born of the Industrial Revolution. Capitalism, by design, applauds the emergence of the profit-seeking corporation in which capital assets, including industrial machinery and factories, are controlled by either private citizens or private businesses (Degen 2008). Gains on capital assets and paid labour are then allowed to accrue to serve the utility of private ownership supported by various pricing mechanisms as the foundation of allocation of capital goods (products and services) which is unequal depending on economic resources of the consuming public. Socialist ideology, on the other hand, especially with the more revolutionary Marxist school of thought, considers capitalism to be extravagant and utterly inefficient as allocation of capital goods produced is disproportionate to satisfying the needs of a broader society and labourers are deemed to be exploited to ensure surplus of production is available for private owners. Socialists reject disparate allocation of produced and natural resources and prefer social ownership of capital assets to maximise the utility of majority society (Degen 2008). This is akin to a form of act utilitarianism in which maximising majority utility, even when requiring some self-sacrifice, are mandates (Hooker 2001; Kagan 1991). Thus,

Contract Law-PDPD Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Contract Law-PDPD - Assignment Example This paper illustrates that for most students, it is anticipated that the plan will have a substantial focus on identifying strategies to fill gaps and strengthen their study skills, as well as career planning, perhaps identifying skills and/or knowledge they need to acquire or further enhance, to enable them to achieve their career goals. Other steps identified as necessary to enhance employability are also likely to feature in the plan e.g. work experience and relevant extra curricular activities. The present research has identified that for those students already with an established career, your plan may feature less on employability and more on career progression and academic/or personal development. In formulating their plans and identifying goals, students must consider the key skills which our University expects its graduates to possess and which it is also likely that employers will require. The researcher states that the plan should not only set clear goals but also, to be e ffective, should identify how the goals will be achieved, a timescale for achievement and a means of knowing how the goal has been met. There is no set format for this work but you are encouraged to use the University’s SPARK template. It has been designed to be a practical means for you to document the skills in a format which can readily be transferred to application forms for employment or further study.

ROLES OF Contract Management Agency (DCMA) and Defense Contract Audit Research Paper

ROLES OF Contract Management Agency (DCMA) and Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) - Research Paper Example Property clearance as well as Plant clearance is part of the roles of the Defense Contract Management Agency. Property clearance refers to the role of selling and negotiating terms of sale of different products from the United States defense store. This may include disposing off old equipment or sell of military products. This agency caters for the negotiations. Plant clearance may refer to the selling of plants owned by the defense department. This may include production plants and facilities or warehouses. This is the role of this agency and it works efficiently to help reduce the government’s efforts of getting agents to dispose off its idle assets (Krahmann 2010). The contract management agency is also tasked with the responsibility of terminating contracts that do not meet the agreed stipulations. This helps the government work efficiently and in an organized manner by keeping track of well performing contractors and firing those that lag its operations. This is also pert of quality assurance that the agency is concerned with. The agency is responsible for ensuring the government gets the best of services that there is on the market (Calvaresi 2008). While dealing with acquisition and clearance, the agency also organizes transport for such activities. This transportation support is vital so as to reduce costs in contracting private firms especially where matters of security are a huge concern. The agency is also tasked with the responsibility of predicting the supply chain. This is necessary so as to enable the government to budget wisely on needed equipment and services at the best prices in the market. The defense contract management agency ensures that there are no counterfeit products that are used by the federal agencies of the United States (Calvaresi 2008). Where the government has made loses or unwise spending in its budget, it is the responsibility of the Defense

Exploring the Thematic Link Between the Epigraph and the Greasy Lake Essay Example for Free

Exploring the Thematic Link Between the Epigraph and the Greasy Lake Essay The Greasy Lake seems to be influence by Bruce Springsteen Spirit in the Night. It is like used an epigraph from his song even though its not about the characters of the story. The characters and actions are completely made up. The Greasy Lake seemed to just imitate the song and take on its a free spirit. The Bad boy image in the Greasy Lake was admired and planned as the boys days continued, it was not original. We can just think about when the Greasy Lake was set not only the epigraph but also the title of the story was inspired by Bruce Springsteen Spirit in the Night. Think about it, are these boys really bad? No, they are just acting out the kind of behavior they think is bad,cool or expected of them. They read books to learn the Bad boy ways, drink cheap non- bad boy drinks and came from high class families. The nature of life was shown through the bad things that took place such as beating the guy and disrespecting the girl and being bad in order to be looked at as bad or cool. This is the narrator learned his lesson all from his actiions. The narrator, in the beginning of the story, believed himself and his friends were these tough guys but the events trhoughout the night reveals to the narrator that there is a price to be paid when trying to be bad. It was the third night of summer vacation and the narrator and his two friends, Digby and Jeff, wanted to prove they were misfits. That they were ready to be reckless and became reck. On that night they wanted to be semi- rebels, their rebellion explodes in their faces. Their actions brings them into a tougher world than they had arranged for. They beat the goy up and was about to rape his girl friend. The guy friends pulled up and the tables had turned. They ran through the woods, dived and poluted waters and floated with the real tough guy who was dead in the waters. They hid from the real tough guys because they were scared and werent bad at all. The layed low till the early morning and then the three boys started to feel a bunch of hatred or repugnance for the Bad boy life. As the end it is clear that they have had enough of being â€Å"bad. † The narrator of â€Å"Greasy Lake† matures during his risky adventure because he has different views of nature. Earlier in the story they wanted to destroy the smell of possibility and interact in all these crazy moments such as watch the girl take their clothes off, drink, smoke and listen to Rock Roll. At the end of the story these cruel likings loses their request or want for these Bad guy qualities and aspects of life. When morning arrived the narrator experienced the beauty of the natural world like it was his first time. He has a epiphany or proclamation that this was nature and in the beginning it was just a dirty, rundown lake.? This was not just for him but for his friends also. When the girls approached them at the end his friend stepped up and trned down the girls offer. The three friends had the experience of a life time that changed thm for the better.

Properties of Urena lobata Linn (Caesar Weed)

Properties of Urena lobata Linn (Caesar Weed) PLANT PROFILE Urena lobata Linn. Botanical Name: Urena lobata Linn. Common Name: Caesar weed Parts Used: Leaves, Stem, Root and Whole plant      Fig 1. Urena lobata Linn Taxonomical Classification Kingdom: Plantae Unranked: Angiosperms Unranked: Rosids Order: Malvales Family: Malvaceae Subfamily:Malvoideae Tribe: Hibisceae Genus: Urena Species: U. lobata Synonyms :U. americana U. grandiflora, ,U. trilobataVell., Urena diversifolia Vernacular names Vernacular names are shown in Table Table Vernacular Names of Urena lobata SI. No. Languages Vernacular Names 1 Hindi Bachata, Bachit, Bachita, Bala Bhed, Brachta, Chatkura,Dudh-Khal, Kapasi, Kunjia, Lapetua, Lotloti, Unga, Vilaiti San 2. Malayalam Urppam Ottey Udiram, Uram, Uran, Uren, Vatti, Vatto 3. Kanada Baralu Kaddi Mara, Bekkina Hejje Gida Dodda Bende, Dooda Bende, Hamsapaadi, Kaadu Thutthi, Otte, Otte Mara, Vatta 4. Marathi Rantupkada,Rantupkuda, Tupkato, Vanabendha, Vana-Bhenda, Vanbhendi, Wagdau Bhendi 5. Sanskrit Vanabhenda, Nagabala, Bala, Atibala 6. Tamil Ottatti, Ottattutti, Ottu Thuththi, Ottukututti, Ottuttutti, Ottuttutti 7. Telegu Nalla Benda, Nallabenda, Padanikaada, Pedda Benda, Peddabena, Peddabenda, Piliyamankena, Vana Benda 8. English Aramina Fibre, Congo Jute, Cousin Mahoe, Guaxima General description of Urena lobata  Linn Caesar weed called as Bur Mallow, Aramina, Hibiscus Bur and Pink Chinese Burr. It is a sub shrub 60 cm to 300 cm in altitude and basal diameter is 7 cm. Bark is downy and is hard and gristly, within the bark is green in color and outside it is brown in color the wood is medium in density and pale yellow in color. The herb is sustain through lateral and tap root arrangement. The color of ivory or brown and root system is flexible and hard-hitting roots. The plant is typically have a solitary stem rising from the land however usually generate more than a few stems and main twigs small in the shoot and a lot of twigs the whole time. Dis-colorous, grayish-green, alternating leaves are pubertal on below and above the leaf. Leaves are angulated, oval in shape and lobbed as shallow of 1 to 12 cm. They have margins of indent shape.. The shape of the fruit is globose and of 8mm to 10 mm of capsules shape and it is having mericarps of five smooth barbed. The plant grows throughout moisttropic and subtropical regions (Liogier 1994). Habitat: Urena lobata Linn, is a herbaceous, upright and semi-woody. It is coming under shrub growing, tomentose and 60 100 cm or more tallness. The young stem as well as branches are covered with somewhat harsh spreading stellate hairs (tomentum) and bearing simple, alternate variable broadly ovate to round cordate, angled or lobed leaves and sessile or shortly stalked pinkish auxiliary flowers. Leaves: Leaves of the plant are simple, alternate, petiolate and stipulate;blade-very variable. Usually the leaf is broader than long round or ovate, up to 10-15 cm long, cordate at the base angled or shallowly 5-7 lobed, the lobes not extending half way down or occasionally nearly obsolete generally acute or acuminate, serrate, stellately tomentose on both surface. But, paler beneath with five to seven pairs of basal nerves which are prominent on the under surface and below the basement region there is a large gland and occasionally at the base of two lateral also. Flowers: Pink colored flowers of Axillary shape and are of typically lonely and petals of five in number. The size of about 1 cm in board. Flower of the herb is shown in Fig Fig Flower of Urena lobata Petiole:  Variable in length. Stem:  Moderately thick, pubescent in young ones and smooth in mature ones, with long inter nodes. Root:  The root system consists of the taproot and several branching lateral roots are fairly stout and brown in colour. These may attain a diameter of 5-6 mm and length varying from 20-25 cm. Very small wiry cream color rootlets arise from the lateral roots. Small lenticels are also present towards to base and the outer surface of the root. Major chemical constituents The main constituents of Urena lobataLinn, include flavonoids and flavonoid glycosides such as ÃŽ ²-sitosterol, stigmasterol, furocoumarin, imperatorin, mangiferin and quercetin (Keshab2004).It also contains kaempferol, luteolin, hypolatin and gossypetin. Geographical source Caesar Weed belongs to Asia. Herb breeds all through damp sub-tropic and tropical province counting India, Florida, Hawaii, Guam, Louisiana and in American Samoa. Environmentalism Urena lobata willingly assault anxious region, particularly badly cope scarified-pastures and eroded-areas, and it is a plantation of perennial category. This herb is less difficulty in yearly yield. Herb does not grow in wood-canopies. This plant is not struggle healthy in giant meadow and brush-lands. Cultivation Seed propagation is the method of cultivation of Urena lobata. Before sowing the seeds in the prepared land is has soak it in water for 90 min and it will result a high germination rate of 96%.. the seeds are discrete by adhere to fur and clothing. The small seedlings are planted in the on the well-prepared land.. Soil The plant will grow in a different range if soil. Fertility range also differs and the new plant will get fertilizer from parent-materials. It will not cultivate in saturated oil where all the minerals exhausted. It is having the capacity to with held the salt in the soil. Water it is need for its healthy cultivation Growth and management Urena lobata grow very fast and it will reach height of 0.5 to 2 m in tall in the first year itself. After the first season it will dying-back i.e. its second year of its first of growth we can collect the fiber after 7-8 months from the plant. It will yield a fiber of 1800 kg/hectare. These fibers are recognized from seeds only. 300-500 kg/ha seeds are getting from the plants of 7 -8 months of age. Since the plant of hostile type the planting in wild way is not advisable. Benefits and Detriments This herb grows as colonies in the concerned area. This growing nature of the plant help to guard the soil, whereas provides wrap in support of natural world. The gorgeous flowers which will contribute to the aesthetic area which hare colonized. Aramina is the fiber which will obtain from this herb, which looks like jute fiber. Congo-jute is the fiber manufactured in Africa and Brazil from the same plant (Fagundes, 2003). A variety of extract obtained from the roots and leaves from the plant are benefits as herbal-medicine. These extracts are used for varieties of disease like malaria, wounds, toothache, fever, colic and joint-pain. A report shows the raw leaves of Urena lobata hold the phosphorous of 67 mg/100g, ash of 21gm, 0.1 gm of fat, 3.2 g protein, 12.8 gm of carbohydrates, moisture of 81.8 %, Calcium of 558 mg and fiber of 1.8 gm. Leaves of Caesar weed give a semi-purified glycoside which is 86 % as effectual as the aspirin which is used as anti-inflammatory medicine in rats. In Africa the flowers and leaves are used as a famine food. The animal fur and the burs that are collected on clothing are a nuisance. On the other hand, the plant can become a harsh-weed in plantations and pastures and it is slight browsed by the cattle. Uses The traditional uses of the plant were found to be diuretic, febrifuge. and rheumatism. It sever as food for animals as well as humans (Mazumder et al,  2001). It is used for malaria, gonorrhea, wounds and toothache.

Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second movie report I chose to do was The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers. This movie is a sequel of the first and is the second of three. It continues the long and interesting story about two young men who set out to safe their country of Middle Earth. Everything relies in their hands and the Ring of Sauron must be destroyed. The second movie left off right where the first ended and it was even better than the first I thought.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Frodo and Sam find themselves lost in the rocky hills west of the river and know that Gollum, the creature wanting the Ring, is following them closely. They manage to capture the corrupt creature and keep him with them for a while. Since Frodo is carrying the Ring as Gollum once did, he pities and feels sorry for the ugly creature. Frodo agrees to let Gollum go and Gollum agrees to guide Frodo and Sam to the Black Gate, the entrance to Mordor. It is in these gates and up in the mountain where the Ring must be destroyed. Gollum swears by the Ring to obey its master which is Frodo and Frodo accepts the promise. Sam by the way is worried and remains suspicious. Frodo begins to call Gollum by his true name which is Smà ©agol. Smà ©agol seems very eager and willing to please Frodo.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gollum leads them through hills and swamps that were all haunted and not safe for them, especially for Frodo who possesses the Ring. During some time, Sam overhears Gollum talking to himself saying how he was going to kill the Hobbits and take the Ring from Frodo. As the viewer, you begin to see two sides of Gollum. One side he wants to obey Frodo while the other side he wants the Ring for himself and that is where he is pure evil.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Once Sam and Frodo reach the Black Gate as Gollum promised to take them to, they begin to realize that it is hopeless to go through the gate and continue their quest. There is no way to approach unseen and it is too dangerous for Frodo with Orcs and Sauron being so close. Gollum begs them not to enter and reveals that there is a better way to get into Mordor safely. Even though it is difficult and dangerous, it is much safer keeping away from the enemy.

Life with Vision Loss Due to MS :: Vision Eyesight Multiple Sclerosis Essays

Life with Vision Loss Due to MS Joyce Bohen recently wrote a book about her experience with multiple sclerosis. She told about her battle with multiple sclerosis and one of her major symptoms, optic neuritis. In this book, she told each individual to imagine life from one day being able to see bright colors and distinct pictures to only realize that as each day goes by the world is beginning to look darker and darker until you can see nothing but black. Not only did she experience blindness but also came the intense pain. After seeing a neurologist many times and continuously being treated with steroids to help her vision return, she finally gave up her battle and began to accept the idea that she would never be able to see again. The goal of her book was to help those with low vision accept the idea that life will never be the same and that there are strategic ways to get around this disability. One of the coping mechanisms she suggested was to outline doorways, steps, and wall switches with high contrast or textu red tape. This story of one woman's dedication and perseverance to get through her disability should give researchers all the persuasion needed to continue on discovering permanent treatments or even preventive methods for optic neuritis (Cohen, Dinerstein, & Katz, 2001). Another woman's determination went beyond coping mechanisms. After being touched by her brother's battle with multiple sclerosis Silvia Lawry created the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Her goal was to begin research that could help end the suffering of all those individuals who were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her dream is to try to help discover a cure for symptoms such as optic neuritis (Scott, 2001). Multiple sclerosis can be defined as an inflammatory, autoimmune, and demyelinating complex disease of the central nervous system (Kidd, 2001). More common in women than men, the disease can strike at an early age, "especially when reproduction is a major consideration" (Sadovnick, Guimond, & Dwosh, 2001 p374). It is known to be the most common cause of "neurological disabilities in young adults" (Kidd, 2001 p540). The most common type of multiple sclerosis is the relapse remitting which later turns into secondarily progressing. This means that the patient will no longer go into relapse but rather begins progressing farther into the disease. There is a disability scale called Kurtzke's Extended Disability Status Scale that determines the status and progression of the disability. Life with Vision Loss Due to MS :: Vision Eyesight Multiple Sclerosis Essays Life with Vision Loss Due to MS Joyce Bohen recently wrote a book about her experience with multiple sclerosis. She told about her battle with multiple sclerosis and one of her major symptoms, optic neuritis. In this book, she told each individual to imagine life from one day being able to see bright colors and distinct pictures to only realize that as each day goes by the world is beginning to look darker and darker until you can see nothing but black. Not only did she experience blindness but also came the intense pain. After seeing a neurologist many times and continuously being treated with steroids to help her vision return, she finally gave up her battle and began to accept the idea that she would never be able to see again. The goal of her book was to help those with low vision accept the idea that life will never be the same and that there are strategic ways to get around this disability. One of the coping mechanisms she suggested was to outline doorways, steps, and wall switches with high contrast or textu red tape. This story of one woman's dedication and perseverance to get through her disability should give researchers all the persuasion needed to continue on discovering permanent treatments or even preventive methods for optic neuritis (Cohen, Dinerstein, & Katz, 2001). Another woman's determination went beyond coping mechanisms. After being touched by her brother's battle with multiple sclerosis Silvia Lawry created the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Her goal was to begin research that could help end the suffering of all those individuals who were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her dream is to try to help discover a cure for symptoms such as optic neuritis (Scott, 2001). Multiple sclerosis can be defined as an inflammatory, autoimmune, and demyelinating complex disease of the central nervous system (Kidd, 2001). More common in women than men, the disease can strike at an early age, "especially when reproduction is a major consideration" (Sadovnick, Guimond, & Dwosh, 2001 p374). It is known to be the most common cause of "neurological disabilities in young adults" (Kidd, 2001 p540). The most common type of multiple sclerosis is the relapse remitting which later turns into secondarily progressing. This means that the patient will no longer go into relapse but rather begins progressing farther into the disease. There is a disability scale called Kurtzke's Extended Disability Status Scale that determines the status and progression of the disability.

Differing Ideas of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt on The Great Depression :: American History

The Great Depression: A look at Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt Hoover and Roosevelt had very different ideas on how the Depression should be handled. This was almost entirely a result of two integral differences in their lives. Hoover was a Republican, and had basically worked his way through life, while Roosevelt was not only a Democrat, he had basically been born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. As one can easily see, in many ways these two are complete opposites. If one looks at both their upbringing and their political affiliation, it seems that Roosevelt's and Hoover's policies must have been different in a many ways. Hoover was brought up in a poor family, and worked almost his entire life. His father was a blacksmith and they lived in a small house. However, through hard work his father was able to move the family into a much bigger house soon after his birth. He learned early in his life the importance of self- reliance and hard work. In 1880 his father, Jesse, died and four years later his mother passed on. At age 11 he went west to Oregon to live with his Uncle. His uncle worked with him, and later became rich. Hoover had endured a great many hardships in his life, and knew what it was like to do without. With Hoover having and education and a past like his, one would think that he would know how to run the country like a business, so that it would stay afloat. But when confronted with the Depression, he repeatedly cut taxes. Hoover was basically a hard working Republican, and a self made man. He graduated as a mining engineer from Stanford. After capably serving as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Harding and Coolidge, Hoover became the Republican Presidential nominee in 1928. He said then: "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." His election seemed to ensure prosperity. Yet within months the stock market crashed, and the Nation spiraled downward into depression. Roosevelt, on the other hand, had been born into a very rich family. He grew up with education at Harvard and Columbia Law School, and had everything basically taken care of for him in his childhood by his mother. This gave him a sense of security, of being able to do anything he wanted, most simply because he didn't fail early on.

Gary Paulsen Biography Essay

The 1990’s was a time known as the â€Å"Digital Decade†. A time when the Stock Market rocketed and the internet took off. Along with technology becoming popular, Gary Paulsen was writing one of his two hundred novels, The River. It showed how the U.S. Government wanted young Brian to go back in the wilderness and reenact his survival skills he used a few years back, after he was involved in a plane crash. Gary Paulsen is a great novel and short story writer for people of all ages. He is one of America’s most popular writers for young people, including adults and children (About). His life was full of interesting things. Many of the things he did, including working on a farm over the summer in his youthful years, and jobs such as being an engineer, construction worker, sailor, truck driver, and ranch hand gave him lots of material to work with from which he created his great stories (About). Throughout his life, since he started writing, he has written over 100 b ooks and short stories and many have became very popular. Gary Paulsen was born May 17, 1939 in Minneapolis, Minnesota (About). His parents were Oscar and Eunice Paulsen (Gary). In his youth he was never a â€Å"dedicated† student in school but he had a passion for reading ever since he was very young (About). On a cold, wintery day, he walked into a library to warm up with nothing to do. On the way out he had himself his own library card and a book to read. From then on he was hooked to reading and writing (Gary). He spent many hours alone in the basement of his apartment building, reading book after book after book. Soon after he acquired a taste for adventure when he ran away from his home to travel with the carnival at the age of 14 (About). Yates 2 In 1959, he attended Bemidji College in Minnesota, and he worked as a trapper to pay off tuition fees. He quit college two years after and joined the Army, working for the missiles department (Biography). In 1966, Paulsen began to write and has completed well over 100 books and short stories. He has written fiction, nonfiction, and drama for adults and children. He still continues to write to this day. Many of his nonfiction books relate to his jobs and interests. He has written books about farming, hiking, football, tennis, skiing, and canoeing (Gary). Gary Paulsen says its his overwhelming belief in young people that drives him to write (About). A few of his best sellers are: Lawn Boy, The River, Brian’s Winter, Brian’s Hunt, The Rifle, Soldier’s Heart, Tracker, The Crossing, Sentries, and Brain’s Return (Biography). Three of his novels- Hatchet, Dogsong, and the Winter Room were Newberry Honor Books. They often appear along with his other books on the best books list of the American Library Association (About). One thing Gary loves to do most was dog-sled racing. He took part in the famous 1,180 mile long dog-sled race known as the Iditarod twice, once in 1983 and again in 1985. His third attempt was shattered when he was diagnosed with a serious heart disease called angina (Gary). After he was forced to give up dog-sled racing, he started to focus more on writing with the same energy and effort that he used on h is dogs while training them for the race. He worked 18-20 hour days every day staying committed to writing the way he would with his dogs. He said all he does is work, he doesn’t have time to drink or fool around. He has always been that way and the end result is a lot of books being published out to the world (About). His wife, Ruth Wright Paulsen is an artist. In fact she has illustrated several books of his. They divide their time up writing and drawing between a home in La Luz, New Mexico and a boat out in the Pacific Ocean (About). Gary Paulsen has written many books during his life. A few have won special awards and honors. Others are liked by many young adults and children. His writing, especially his nonfiction Yates 3 books reflect his interests and past jobs that he had acquired. An example would be his book â€Å"Harris and Me†. About a young boy who works on farm one summer with his cousin, is full of funny and adventurous events. This book is related to Paulsen because he also worked on a farm over the summer doing chores during his youth years. He also likes to write about survival, which you can see in his books Hatchet, Brian’s Winter, and The River. Although Gary Paulsen has written many books, over two hundred of them, one of his books called The River, was written and published in the 1990’s. The 1990’s is a time also known as â€Å"The Digital Decade†. The pace of life quickly sped up in this technology-driven decade (Digital Front Flap). At the beginning of the decade, it seemed that the economy was going to be sluggish. Instead, the Stock Market sky rocketed and the internet took off. From then on it has been a fast pace through life (Digital 79). Mr. Bill Clinton was the president at the time. He had an enthusiasm for people and wanted to help them fulfill their dreams (Digital 63). When Clinton was a boy at age 16, he met with President John F. Kennedy in the Rose Garden and shook his hand. After that day his life changed and he had a strong desire to become the president of the United States of America. Bill Clinton was just 46 years old when he became the nation’s 42nd chief executive. Clinton attempted to fulfill a campaign promise to disable the ban on homosexuals in the military. His decision ended in the â€Å"Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell† compromise that didn’t satisfy commanders of the military or the gay community (Digital 66). After a humanitarian effort was launched in Somalia, and after Clinton’s best decisions to handle the situation, thirty American Servicemen died. Ever since that happened, Clinton refused to come in contact with Rwanda, despite widespread genocide that happened there, and caused over one million deaths. More than thirty million American citizens did not have medical insurance in the earl 90’s. Candidate Bill Clinton promised to expand coverage and affordable healthcare for every person in America (Digital 66). He named Hilary Clinton to lead the drive to recreate the health insurance Yates 4 industry. This is why critics accused him of nepotism (Digital 66-67). By the end of his first year in office, many Americans were wondering just how ineffective and unpopular he could become (Digital 67). Laptops and cell phones became popular in offices, airports, and in pants pockets. Huge SUV’s were found all over the road and fashion became as wild and weird as the world wide web itself. Children began spending time with the latest Pokemon cards or playing the latest video game. The 90’s was a time of almost unlimited choices and personal freedom. The 1990’s was summed up by the word â€Å"whatever† (Digital 79). Electronic-game industries had a growth rate twice that of the movie industry and brought in an annual revenue of about 6.3 billion dollars. Even though console based games such as the Playstation and Nintendo became much more faster and complicated than they u sed to be, the real reason behind the game industries huge growth came from the personal-computer games. A new kind of athlete called adrenaline junkies were on the lookout for new and exciting, but often physically dangerous challenges. This created a subculture called â€Å"extreme sports† in the 90’s (Digital 80). Some extreme sports such as sky surfing and street luge were viewed by the people as mostly lunatics, and not athletes. But snowboarding, mountain biking, and climbing became very popular to most people. In 1995, ESPN gave extreme sports some help by creating and airing the X Games. It showed athletes competing in summer and winter competitions (Digital 80). On August 2, 1990, infantry, armor, and tanks of the Iraqi Republican Guard invaded Kuwait and seized control. United States responded with operation DESERT SHIELD to stop invasion of Kuwait’s neighbor, Saudi Arabia (Operation). On August 7, deployment of U.S. Forces began. The U.S. Objectives included immediate, complete, and unconditional withdrawal of all Iraqi forces from Kuwait. If Iraqi dictat or Saddam Hussein did not remove his troops from Kuwait by January 15, 1991, U.S. led troops were to force them out. On January 17, the U.S. Coalition launched air attacks on Iraqi targets. On February 24, ground forces began their attack. On February 27, Kuwait City was declared Yates 5 liberated. This was known as the Gulf War (Operation). The field of medical science and the advances made in the late 90’s will most likely have the biggest impact on our society (History). The two advances found will leave us with political and moral questions in the future. Cloning and Stem Cell Research are the major medical science advances. The 90’s also saw the development and growth of Genetic Engineering. Genetic Engineering is used to help make plants resistant to herbicides and insecticides. Over 60% of products on U.S. Grocery store shelves have genetic engineering in them (History). The 1990’s was a decade of electronics. The computer and internet were huge inventions in the 90’s. The pace of life was sped up dramatically in this decade. Overall this would have been a great d ecade to choose to live in. With all of the technology and internet setting in, authors were still writing books on paper. One of those authors was Gary Paulsen. He wrote the novel The River in the 1990’s and it is about true survival. The River has a few themes in its story, but the biggest one is true survival versus role playing. After Brian’s survival story when a plane crashed and left him stranded in the woods for fifty-four days, he was asked to reenact it. A psychologist named Derek joins him in what he calls Brian’s reenactment, an â€Å"experiment†. Brian insists that Derek leave behind all of his equipment he is wanting to bring with them (Paulsen 23). He thinks that Derek doesn’t truly understand the spirit of the â€Å"experiment†. Brian’s ability to convince Derek leaves them with a briefcase, and emergency radio, and a few other small things. Brian tells Derek that the only way to teach survival is to physically put a person in a real life or death situation (Paulsen 34). Derek wants Brian to think out loud so he can write down his every thought and move. Then all of the sudden t he so called experiment turned too real way too fast. That night a terrible storm had moved in, and it wasn’t just any storm, it was a storm that Brian had never experienced before. Derek Yates 6 reached for his radio and briefcase and was struck by lightening (Paulsen 52). This is when the experiment turned from role playing to true survival. Brian woke up from the storm and saw Derek laying in a weird position. He was scared that Derek was dead but found out he was only unconscious. He panicked and grabbed the radio to try and get help but the radio was destroyed by the lightening strike. When Brian tries giving Derek water, he chokes immediately (Paulsen 65). Brian fears the worst and knows that Derek won’t be able to get water until someone rescues them. He reaches for Derek’s briefcase and finds only a map inside, but on the map he sees a river. He studies it and finds that a trader’s post is one hundred miles down along the river (Paulsen 73). Brian decides to take Derek with him instead of leaving him alone and coming back for him. This brings us into the symbol of nature and the river. All throughout the novel, nature is a huge part. From the beginning when Brian and Derek first leave for the Canadian wilderness, to camping out and surviving. The whole novel is about surviving the wilderness. Paulsen also shows nature at it’s best when Brian and Derek were attacked by swarms of mosquitoes multiple times while rafting down the river (Paulsen 86). Another point in the novel, they were faced with a dangerous waterfall in the river. The main inspiration for writing this book came from Paulsen’s award winning book Hatchet. So many of his fans loved reading it that they sent Paulsen letters saying they wanted him to write a sequel. After reading the letters, Paulsen came up with the idea to write The River. A perfect sequel to Hatchet, Brian, the main character of the book, is asked to reenact his survival skills by the government when a plane crashed in the Canadian woods and left him stranded for fifty-four days. I think Gary Paulsen wrote this book for the same reason he wrote many of his books, for hi s love of nature. He has always loved nature and survival. Another reason he wrote this book is because he loves to travel. After reading The River, I realized the whole story was about survival. I wasn’t surprised though, as I read many other books from Gary Paulsen including Hatchet, Brian’s Hunt, Brian’s Yates 7 Winter, and Dogsong. All of those books are similar to The River in that they all have a story based off of adventure, survival, and nature. They are all very well written books and I enjoyed them a lot. If you are into books about a realistic, intense, and interesting survival story packed full of adventures, Gary Paulsen is one other you can turn too. I would highly recommend his books, especially The River. Yates 8 Works Cited â€Å"About Gary.† www.RandomHouse.com. Random House, Inc., 2004. Web. 29 Nov 2011. . â€Å"Biography of Gary Paulsen.† usa-people-search.com. USA People Search, 2011. Web. 29 Nov 2011.