The Patchwork of Reality and Fiction in Tim O’brien’s the Things They Carried Essay Example for Free

The Patchwork of Reality and Fiction in Tim O’brien’s the Things They Carried Essay The Patchwork of Reality and Fiction in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried Tim O’ Brien, in his recent fictional story The Things They Carried, illustrates the struggle to unravel and grasp ambiguities of the war in the most unusual way, by understanding it through the mind’s eye. He resolutely transgressed the boundary between fiction and reality, and struggles to demonstrate that the illusory dimension can frequently be more real, particularly in the events leading to the Vietnam War, than reality itself. Communicating the view of ambiguity of an ordinary soldier about what really took place in Vietnam by narrating the imagined domain as though it is the real work, and afterwards challenging these realities once more, can be viewed as a deviation of the poignant and disturbing statements American soldiers use to express their own doubt about what took place in Vietnam. They drew on these expressions to transform the inexpressible and horrifying and ambiguous into reality. Likewise, O’Brien narrates tales and realities that are merely fleetingly definite and factual. In the section ‘Notes’, O’Brien illustrated the process of merging illusion and reality (O’Brien 1990, 152): By telling stories, you objectify you own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes with an incident that truly happened, like the night in the shit field, and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain. In the above passage, O’Brien shows that impossibility of knowing exactly what took place. He urges his readers to become aware of the events in the Vietnam War that they do not know and perhaps will never be aware of. The Things They Carried brings the readers to the Vietnam War through the author’s webs of narratives. O’Brien informs us that we will never truly know what exactly happened in Vietnam. And the realities of the Vietnam War will die alongside the people who experienced the ‘real’ and ‘unreal’. References O’Brien, T. The Things They Carried. New York: Mariner Books, 1990.

Literature Review on Audits and Auditing

Literature Review on Audits and Auditing 2.1 Introduction This chapter reviewed the detail literature on important keys in this research such as the audit, audit firm tenure, audit firm size, fraudulent financial reporting and relevant past research findings on (i) the relationship between audit-firm tenure and fraudulent financial reporting and (ii) the relationship between audit-firm size and fraudulent financial reporting. 2.2 Audit Definition of audit is different among many scholars. Audit function is defined by Nagny et al. (2002) to the function that an independent, objective assurance and also consulting activity that designed to add value and improve an organizations operations. In the other study, Kathleen M. Jackson (2010) has further explained that an auditor can perform the two types of audits namely limited-scope or full-scope. It was proven in past studies that some clients opt to choose in receiving a limited scope audit in order to reduce audit costs. In fact, the impact of limited scope exemptions is decreased in audit procedures and as a result it can lead to lower in audit fees. In addition, a long list of audit procedure for investments is needed in the full-scope audit. 2.2.1 Quality of Audit firm The audit services as proposed by Watts (1977) is required as the monitoring methods due to the conflicts that may arise between managers and owners, and also for them who come from different classes of security holders. In addition, in past studies conducted, it was showed that audited statements provision is the least cost contractual response to intra-owner and owner- managers conflict of interest, as an example agency costs. The agency costs is different from different firms and also for over time to some clients. Besides, a heterogeneous demand required by clients for the audit services is resulted from different agency cost for some firms such as when the levels of auditing that requested is not as usual. Moreover, Watts (1977) also argued that the audit services quality is mentioned as the market-assessed joint probability where the auditor is able to find out a breach in the clients accounting system and report the breach. On the other side, the specified audits may enhance t he financial informations credibility as the result of the independent verification of management-provided financing reports, thus may minimize the investors information risk as proposed in the study conducted by Watts and Zimmerman (1986); Mansi et al.(2004), Dye (1993) and Johnson et al. (2002). On the other side, many past studies has proven that bad financial reportings quality resulted from short audit-firm tenure as indicated in the study by Johnson et al., (2002); Myers et al., (2003) and Ghosh and Moon, (2005). The above mentioned past studies conducted revealed that low level of knowledge in the early years of an audit and also on the mandatory auditor rotation between audit firms has lead to low quality of earnings owned by a short audit-firm tenure. Based on the result from the past studies, it was known about the mandatory auditors rotations potential weaknesses of audit firms. But, it also revealed that if the rotation requirement is targeted at auditors within an audit firm, the loss of learning will not happen. Besides that, based on the past studies conducted by Mautz and Sharaf (1961); Shockley (1981) and Lyer and Rama (2004), there are a lot of arguments on the issue of client and auditors relationships duration might affect the audit quality. One of the studied has proven that audit quality is affected as auditor tenor increases, while on the other study, auditor tenure increase in line with audit quality. 2.2.2 Issues in mandatory audit firm In order to improve the quality in financial reporting, it shown that mandatory audit firm rotation is a solution. Carey (2006) has been argued that in order to improve audit quality, there is a need of policy in the mandatory rotation of audit for particular clients besides able to increase of quality for financial purpose in financial statements. Among countries that practised the policy of mandatory rotation includes: Austria, Australia, Brazil, Greece, India, Italy, Israel, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and the USA as mentioned in the past researched conducted by Cameran et al., (2005); Catanach and Walker (1999); Kim et al., (2004); Chi and Huang, (2005); Chi et al., (2005) and Carey and Simnett (2006). Audit partner rotation such as audit firm rotation can lead to decrease in audit quality as based on the past study, audit partners knowledge of a clients business increases with his/her tenure on the audit. However, it was revealed that there are a few differences between audit partner and firm rotation which have impact on the tenure on audit quality. Chi et al (2005) has mentioned that audit quality is improved by the audit partner rotation during the first year of the relationship while on the other parts, audit firm rotation lead to decreases audit quality. Meanwhile, the audit firm rotation is occurs around the world, and even in Malaysia where the issue of audit firms or partners was not specified in detail of Malaysiaan official documents, for example in Companies Act 1965, the Security Commission regulations, approved auditing standards, and so on. It was found that rejection of such rotation idea by the business community is because of lack in official pronouncements on this issue. Even in findings of one study conducted by Jaffar and Alias (2002) showed that only 35 per cent of the audit firms partners and only 32.4 per cent of the chief finance officers surveyed favored audit firm rotation every three years of engagement. Meanwhile, the Edge (2002) has revelaed that in light of the Enron case, the Chairman of the Malaysian Accounting Standard Board announced the intention of the board to make it mandatory to rotate the audit firm once every five years. 2.3 Audit firm tenure In the definition of audit firm tenure, Johnson et al. (2002) has clarified that the audit firm tenure is the number of consecutive years that the audit firm has audited the client (computed by counting backward from the year the fraud began). The definition of short auditor tenure is explained by Carcello et al. (2004) by the meaning of three years or less and long auditor tenure as nine years or more. Based on the previous studies conducted by other academician, the other researches on this term revealed that imposing mandatory limits on auditor tenure is expected to improve audit quality by reducing client firms influence over auditors as proposed by Turner (2002); Brody and Moscove (1998); SEC 1994; AICPA 1978; U.S. Senate (1977) and Mautz and Sharaf (1961). 2.3.1 Short audit- firm tenure From the previous study conducted by Aminada and Paz-Ares (1997), the scholars has suggested that in order to replace client-specific assets, it will involves a technological limit, if not most, of them cannot be replaced immediately. Due to this, the financial-reporting quality is projected to increase as client-specific knowledge also increases in the early years of an audit engagement. Meanwhile, a client-specific asset (such as knowledge) that in line with transactions costs may allow the incumbent auditor to earn quasi rents from maintaining existing client relationships as specified by DeAngelo (1981). It was further suggested that if the existence of quasi rents skews the auditors incentives toward maintaining the client relationship, financial-reporting quality could be reduced in early engagement years. 2.3.2 Long audit- firm tenure As proposed by Shockley (1981), it was mentioned that the impact of the long relationship audit firm is by having a learned confidence in the client besides the scholars also suggests that the above mentioned learned confidence may result in the audit firm using less strenuous and less innovative audit procedures. Another author, Knapp (1991) in his past study on audit firm tenure has further defined that different audit tenure in an experimental setting besides able to gather that experienced audit committee members perceived that auditors with 5-year tenure were more likely to detect errors than auditors in the first year of an engagement or auditors with audit tenure of 20 years. On a part of it, Geiger and Raghunandan (2002) found that short-tenure auditors to issue going-concern opinions for clients that subsequently declared bankruptcy as compared with long-tenure auditors that is still on the preference in this study. 2.4 Audit firm size In term of the audit firm size, it was revealed that smaller audit firms have justified proposed wealth transfers from clients and from larger audit firms, where in general the audit quality is independent of auditor size as supported by Deangelo (1981) in his study. Moreover, in some of the audit quality term, where it was found in the study done by previous researchers, the term of quasi-rents, it might serve as collateral against such opportunistic behavior in the subject to loss from discovery of a lower-than promised audit quality. This finding can be proven on the theory of ceteris paribus, where the less incentive the auditor has to behave opportunistically and the higher the perceived quality of the audit when the larger the auditor as measured by the number of current clients and the smaller the client as a fraction of the auditors total quasi-rents is exist. The famous author on the theory and study done, namely DeAngelo (1981) also argues no single client is important to larger accounting firms as accounting firm size is a proxy for auditor quality, and beside, larger accounting firms are less likely than smaller accounting firms to compromise their independence. In fact, theory supported by the research taken by Dopuch and Simunic (1980) who further proposed that larger accounting firms provide higher quality services because they have greater reputations to protect. It finally defined that quality is not independent of auditor firm size when incumbent auditors earn client specific quasi-rents. Moreover, audit fees do not meant to be adjusted in full term to the incumbent auditors, with the view to the extent that the bilateral monopoly between client and incumbent auditor implies a sharing of these costs mentioned, whereby in the above mentioned case, a successful prevention of discrimination which refer to the competition from large audit firms that definitely represents a windfall gain to smaller auditors at client expense. Therefore, it can serves as an excuse to justification of the wealth transfer results from a wealth transfer from clients to smaller audit firms which under this scenario of voluntary contracts might become unfair and discriminate smaller firms. 2.4.1 Big-Four Non Big-four There are many previous studies that caught on the interest of the Big-Four and Non Big Four issues, where to further understanding of the larger audit firms (Big 4) which perceived as more capable of maintaining an adequate degree of independence than their smaller counterparts because they usually provide a range of services to a large number of clients, hence reducing their dependence on certain clients as mentioned by Dopuch (1984) and Wilson and supported also by study conducted by Grimlund (1990). The past literature that has review by Lawrence et al (2011) suggested that Big 4 firms can provide a superior audit quality as their sheer size would definitely able to support more complete training programs, standardized audit methodologies, and more options for appropriate second partner reviews. In addition, Deangelo (1981) has explained that it cant be deny that larger audit firms are generally perceived as the provider of high audit quality and might enjoy a high reputation in the business environment and as such, would strive to maintain their independence to keep up their image where it also supported by Dopuch (1984) and Wilson and Grimlund (1990). To enhance further the theory (Chow and Rice, 1982) has proven that larger audit firms are also perceived to be more independent than their smaller counterparts in managing managements pressure where in the event of disputes as they normally have more clients and can afford to give up some of their more difficult clients. In the different environment as in Malaysia, Teoh and Lim (1996) has found out that the high dependence on a few clients has been found to affect perception of independence. However, to come to the true situation, this is not consider as something new as the market for audit services for public companies in Malaysia is dominated by the international Big 4 which is previously known as the Big 6 audit firms. In fact, Che-Ahmad and Derashid (1996) reported findings from their study that the Bi g 6 (and their affiliates) audited 75.9 per cent of the Bursa Malaysia which is the Main Board as listed companies in 1991. The past literature conducted by scholars based on their past researches, the length of tenure by Big 4 audit firms is longer as their clients would be less likely to switch them compared to their smaller firms who compete in the same industry. Moreover, it was also found that the choice of audit firm can be related to the size of the auditee and the type of services needed besides the possible effect of the type of audit firms on the length of tenure. In fact, it has been also argued by Watts and Zimmerman (1986) that larger auditees are demanding highly independent audit firm to reduce agency costs due to the complexity of their operations and the increase in the separation between management and ownership and also auditors self-interest threat as found from the study by Hudaib and Cooke (2005). In the different area of past research, Palmrose (1984) has further supported that the number of agency conflicts also increases and this might increase the demand for quality-differentiate d auditors such as the Big 4 audit firms as the size of the companies increases. In fact, based on the previous findings, Becker et al. (1998) further supported on the Big 4 issues whereby on the situation of 4 clients report lower absolute discretionary accruals than non-Big 4 clients. Another similar issue as revealed based on the past findings conducted by Francis et al. (1999) who has suggested that Big 4 auditors constrain opportunistic and aggressive reporting because their clients have higher total accruals but lower discretionary accruals while on the other hand, Krishnan (2003) found that there is a greater association between future earnings and discretionary accruals for Big 4 than for non-Big 4 clients. Due to the following literature, the previous researches conducted have been done by using discretionary accruals as the mentioned scholars first measure of audit quality. The reason of applying the measure is known as it reflects the auditors enforcement of accounting standards. Another consent that revealed in the past finding of research based on th e study by Guay et al. (1996) is on the limitations on the effectiveness of an audit in constraining earnings management as it only partially effective, as discretionary accruals not only reflect managements opportunism, but also managements signalling attempts and random noise. Moreover, it was seen from some of the previous study proposed by academicians that the Big 4 auditors provide more assurance to the market than non-Big 4 auditors by the fact found that Big 4 clients have more credible earnings than those of the non-Big 4 clients then, ceteris paribus, the Big 4 clients should receive a break in their cost-of-equity capital. Khurana and Raman (2004) has revealed in their studies that in the U.S , there is a lower ex ante cost of capital of Big 4 clients as compared with non-Big 4 client, but unable to find such a difference in Australia, Canada, or Great Britain. Another scholar, Behn et al. (2008) has included analyst forecast accuracy in his study as an audit-quality prox y, where they argue that if one type of auditor increases the reporting reliability of earnings in comparison to the other type, then, ceteris paribus, analysts of the superior types clients should be able to make more accurate forecasts of future earnings than those analysts of the non-superior types clients. On view of that, Behn et al. (2008) has concluded that it is definitely the analysts of Big 4 clients have higher forecast accuracy than analysts of non-Big 4 clients. In the study, the analyst forecast accuracy is used by Chi et al. (2005) as their third audit-quality measure to proxy for an enhanced level of decision making by sophisticated financial statement users where it was revealed that differences in quality between Big 4 and non-Big 4 audit firms could be a reflection of client characteristics. In fact, fromthe result showed based on the findings of each study that used the matching models or controlling for an extensive list of client and auditor variables, can be f ound that the treatment effects of Big 4 auditors are insignificantly different from those of non-Big 4 auditors with respect to discretionary accruals, the ex ante cost-of-equity capital, and analyst forecast accuracy. 2.5 Fraudulent Financial Reporting There were many standards of audits in the world, as in the specific area, namely Malaysia has stated that the Malaysian Approved Standards on Auditing, AI 240 on Fraud and Error (MIA, 1997) is requires the auditor to assess the risk of fraud and error during the audit of financial statements. Under the standard also, the auditor should design audit procedures to obtain reasonable assurance that misstatements arising from fraud and error that are material to the financial statements taken as a whole are detected that based on the risk assessment. It means that the responsibility has to be put on the external auditor shoulder whereby if he/she is unable to detect material misstatements, particularly intentional misstatements, they may be exposed to litigation. Due to the matter, Kaminski (2002) has summarized on the fraudulent financial reporting as a critical problem for external auditors because of the damage to professional reputation that results from public, especially on clients sides dissatisfaction about undetected fraud. A few literatures and findings conducted by many scholar such as the studies by Mitchell, (1997); Grant, (1999) and Spathis, (2002) on the Fraudulent financial reporting proven the fact that the scenario has occurred in many countries as in the United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) which have reported the seriousness of fraud activities as further supported by other scholar, Tyler, (1997); Wells, (1997); Mitchell, (1997); Vanasco, (1998); and Grant, (1999). In view to this, Johnson et al (2002) has revealed in his study that a lot of response to one or more audit failures in line with critical of the public accounting profession has determined to be in long relationships between auditors and client management result in a decline in audit quality and are not in the publics interest. To overcome the situation, a possible solution that proposed is the mandatory auditor rotation whereby the findings will be on the profession which will increase audit costs and will not improve audit quality (and in fact may reduce audit quality). On the other side, in some country where the audit-firm rotation is not mandatory, usually in the current regulatory regime, long audit-firm tenures are associated not with a decline in financial reporting quality. By referring to previous researches, it can be concluded that the quality of audit services is means to be the market-assessed joint probability which a given auditor will eventually discover a breach in the clients accounting system, and may report the breach which given that probability that a given auditor will discover a breach is depends on the audit procedures, auditors technological capabilities, the extent of sampling and so on. In fact, the same literature based on the past study has determined that the conditional probability of reporting a discovered breach is a measure of an auditors independence from a given client. To enhance the understanding of this, the definition of auditor independence is used in DeAngelo (1981) and Watts and Zimmerman (1981), who has been argue on the ex ante value of an audit depends on the auditors incentives to disclose selectively ex post. To add some more, a statement proposed by Watkins et al. (2004) in his study has explained that auditor independence and competence are critical elements affecting the credibility and reliability of an auditors report and, therefore, financial reporting credibility. 2.6 Past researches 2.6.1 Audit firm tenure and fraudulent financial reporting There are a lot of findings and conclusion reviewed by previous scholars from different view, whereby according to study conducted by Carcello et al. (2004), who has stated that there was only limited research on the relation between audit firm tenure and audit quality. On the other study conducted by casterella et al. (2005), conclusion was made that audit quality is lower given longer auditor tenure besides also suggested that audit failures are less (more) likely when auditor tenure is short or (long). Meanwhile, the finding has been denied by Chi and Huang (2005) who declared that long audit partner tenure is associated with reduced earnings quality. It is further mentioned that the two aspects of auditor tenure namely the tenure of the audit firm and the tenure of individuals engaged in the audit, particularly the engagement partner which imply that even though both aspects have been tested in the literature, the emphasis has been on audit firm tenure due to difficulties in iden tifying the engagement partner in most countries. It finally has come to complicated conclusion which shown that the empirical evidence of the effects of audit firm tenure on audit quality is combined and mixed. Apart of it, Casterella et al. (2002) and Choi and Doogar (2005) mentioned that Studies report which audit quality decreases with audit firm tenure, which may includes the auditors failure to detect fraudulent financial reporting or argument by Davis et al.(2002) is on the issuing of going concern opinions before bankruptcy and a positive relation between audit firm tenure and discretionary accruals. Different point of view and proofs from different studies, revealed that audit quality increases with audit firm tenure while another famous scholar in this study, Johnson et al. (2002) proven that the absolute value of unexpected accruals is higher in the early years of audit firm tenure in his study conducted. Recent finding on the past researches conducted and published in US as the effect of audit firm tenure (AUDTEN) on audit quality study conducted by many scholars namely Ghosh and Moon (2005); Carcello and Nagy, (2004); Myers et al., (2003); Johnson et al.,(2002); Geiger and Raghunandan, (2002) where the results proven that in the situation of audit tenure increases, audit quality also increases. Fargher et al, (2008) has shown result in his study that audit failures are most likely to occur in the first few years of tenure of an audit firm while several prior US studies have attempted to debate on the auditor tenure. In some other findings gathered include in the study conducted by Deis and Giroux (1992) who supported that audit quality decreases as auditor tenure increases, whereby in contrast, St Pierre and Andersen (1984) found firms that detected errors and experience higher legal risk than auditors with a tenure greater than three years is based on the auditors of new clients (t hree years or less on the engagement) commit. The former statement has further supported by Knapp (1991) which based on audit committee members responses to the survey, able to concludes that as auditors gain more experience with individual clients, the likelihood of discovering material errors increases while Geiger and Raghunandan (2002) has come to conclusion that short-tenured auditors is not efficient in the collection and evaluation of evidence as compared to long-tenured auditors. Obviously, based on finding gathered from different type of studies conducted, it can be concluded that their results are consistent with long-tenured auditors having a more in-depth knowledge of their clients financial status and operating systems than short-tenured auditors. However, Carcello and Nagy (2004) have concluded from their study that fraudulent financial reporting is more likely to occur in the first three years of an audit as they have not provide proofs and evidence of greater fraudul ent financial reporting by clients of long-tenured auditors. On the other study conducted by Myers et al. (2003), it was revealed that tenure and earnings can be considered as quality where the auditor-client relationship lasted for at least five years whereby they find that the magnitude of both discretionary and current ACC declines with longer auditor tenure. To further support it, Myers et al. (2003) concluded that high audit quality is determined based on the longer auditor tenure constrains managerial discretion with accounting accruals while on the other study conducted, Johnson et al. (2002) has revealed that accruals are more bigger and less persistent for firms with short auditor tenure relative to those with medium or long tenure. Finally in contrast, Davis et al. (2002) has concluded that audit quality might declines with extended tenure as the reason on tenure increases, client firms may have greater earnings forecast errors decline and alsoreporting flexibility. Another findings from studies conducted by Beck, Frecka and Soloman, (1988); Carcello and Nagy, (2004); Johnson, Khurana and Reynolds, (2002); Meyers, Meyers and Omer, (2003); Ghosh and Moon, (2005) has definitely supported the facts of auditors with long tenure have comparative advantage in this respect as they develop client-specific knowledge and deeper understanding of clients business process and risk whereby with the proofs as that fraudulent financial reporting is most likely to occur in the first three years (termed as short tenure) of auditor-client relationship. However, these studies conducted by the above mentioned scholars has failed to state any evidence that longer audit firm tenure (i.e., nine years or more) is associated with reduced financial reporting quality. Apart from that, another authors, Meyers and Omer (2003) in the study has examined on the association between audit firm tenure and earnings quality where auditor-client relationship lasted for at least five years, which lead them to come up with conclusion that longer auditor tenure constrains managerial discretions with accounting accruals, which suggests high audit quality (i.e. audit firm tenure is negatively related to both the absolute discretionary and current accruals and signed positive discretionary and current accruals, and positively related to both the signed negative discretionary and current accruals). Long-tenured auditors are more efficient as it based on the opinion view of Geiger and Raghunandan (2002) from the study conducted which based in the collecting and evaluating evidence than short-tenured auditors because long-tenured auditors have more in-depth knowledge about their clients financial status and operating systems than short-tenured auditors. The other study conducted by Nashwa George (2009) on The Relationship Between Audit Firm Tenure And Probability Of Financial Statement Fraud which has proven the long auditor tenure for a particular client which close auditor-client relationship has the potential to impair auditor objectivity in assurance functions leading to reduced financial reporting quality with the studys objective of finding out whether audit firm and client relationship is in any way related to a potential fraud risk situation in financial reporting is also determined. Another scholar, Beneish (1999) and Lundelius (2003) also has proposed on the using of five fraud indicators as the direct measure of the probability of financial statement fraud and examine whether these fraud indicators are related to audit firm tenure as used by George (2009) in this study. It shown that by using the cross-sectional multivariate regression analysis, the results in the analysis show that most fraud indicators are significantly negatively associated with audit firm tenure (expressed in terms of number of years of audit firm and client relationship). The results also supported by some previous researches which conducted by Carcello and Nagy (2004), Myers, Myers and Omer (2003) and also Johnson, Khurana and Reynolds (2002) that proven a long audit firm tenure is not related with reduced financial reporting quality, however mentioned that financial reporting problems are found to be mostly confined to the initial years of auditor engagement. Based on the review, these previous studies is very important and contribute to the audit literature by employing a direct measure of financial statement fraud and demonstrating a systematic negative association between audit firm tenure and probability of financial statement fraud. According to Casterella et al. (2002),there are two aspects of auditor tenure identified namely tenure of the audit firm and the other one is tenure of individuals engaged in the audit, which is particularly the engagement partner. The scholar has argued that even though the two mentioned aspects of tenure had been studied in past research, the audit firm tenure still need to be analyze further due to difficulties in identifying the engagement partner in most countries, since different countries are facing different rules and requirements. Besides, impacts on audit quality by the audit firm tenure are proven at the same time. Based on the past studies conducted by a few scholars namely Casterella et al. (2002) and Choi and Doogar (2005) has proven that audit quality decreases with audit firm tenure, that might includes inability of the auditor to detect fraudulent financial reporting or issuing going concern opinions before bankruptcy and a positive relation between audit firm tenure and discretionary accruals as further supported by Davis et al. (2002). In fact, the other study developed by Johnson et al. (2002) has also proved that audit quality increases with audit firm tenure. It was supported from the findings of the study which stated that the absolute value of unexpected accruals is higher in the early years of audit firm tenure. On the other side, Myers et al. (2003) has reported a negative relation between audit firms in his past research conducted. 2.6.2 Audit firm size and fraudulent financial reporting Research conducted by Sinason et al. (2001) on the length of audit tenure has come up to conclusion to be positively affected by the type of audit firm whereby it means that smaller audit firms experience shorter tenure compared to their larger counterparts who often enjoy lengthy tenure. Another finding based on the previous studies is difficulties faced by small firm in the long run in order to keep their existing clients and at the same time maintain a high degree of independence and objectivity due to increased competition and size mismatch as differences in the length of tenure between the two types of audit firms which could impair independence. It was proposed and learned from previous cases that the size of audit firm should match the size of auditee whereby when a size mismatch happened between large auditees audited by small audit firms could cause termination of the audit engagement as proven by Hudaib and Cooke (2005). From the previous literature and analysis based on previous researchers, Win the situation where client-specific quasi-rents vary across clients, auditor size is continues to serve as for the audit quality because larger auditors possess greater total collateral, but a full focus on size alone is not effective as it does not inform consumers about the relationship between the quasi-rents specific to one (potentially large) client and the auditors total quasi-rent stream. Due to this matter, it was

science fiction and fantasy :: essays research papers

The question is whether it is possible to distinguish between fantasy and true science fiction. I am reminded of the analogy, attributable I believe, to Theodore Sturgeon, of the elf ascending vertically the side of a brick wall. In a science fiction story the knees of the elf would be bent, his center of gravity thrown forward, his stocking cap hanging down his neck, with his feet quite possibly equipped with some form of suction cups. In a fantasy, on the other hand, the elf would simply stride up the wall in a normal walking posture, with his stocking cap standing straight out from his brow. What is the difference between these scenarios? The typical answer is that the science fiction story must play by the implicit rules of the universe; in this instance, gravitation. Fantasy, however, need not "tip its hat" to the Law of Universal Gravitation the story can bend the rules in which gives it the fantasy genre. But what if, for some specified reason, in the local vicinity of the elf on the wall, the vector of gravitational force just happens to be perpendicular to the side of the wall rather than parallel to it? In this case the behavior of the elf in the fantasy would be in perfect accord with physical law. One might then say that the fantasy is actually science fiction since we have posited a "scientific" explanation for the behavior of the elf. Both science fiction and mainstream fiction explore the political and social implications of religion. The chief difference is one of setting. Science fiction considers what religion may become under vastly altered circumstances. Leigh Brackett The Long Tomorrow (1955) suggests the possibility that one religion might better prepare its followers for post-holocaust existence than others do. Kate Wilhelm Let the Fire Fall (1969) takes place in a future United States swept by millennial fanaticism. Frank Herbert Dune stories examine in some depth the effects of political rule by characters that are regarded as divine (Martin 1981). Certainly this is not a complete list of the ways science fiction writers treat the theme of religion. But it is suggestive of a much deeper and wider interest in the theme than many has been willing to recognize. So far, literary criticism has not adequately dealt with this fact. In light of the cultural influences already mentioned, these essays, by and large, take a generally Christian and theological approach to the topic.

Essay --

Introduction Cost accounting can be defined as evaluating data relating to cost in order for management to regulate actions and strategize for the future (Vanderbeck, E., 2013). Financial information is crucial in order for an organization to manage its expenses and for budgeting reasons. There are a few types of cost accounting that an organization can use in order to analyze financial information. Each method is unique and considers different variables when analyzing monetary data. It is dependent on the leaders of the organization to determine what cost accounting system would be best suited for their financial operations. Although there are numerous of methods for costing, this paper will particularly concentrate on activity based costing within the healthcare field. Activity based costing within a healthcare system As mentioned earlier, costing systems vary and use different variables when determining or analyzing monetary information. Activity based costing (also known as ABC) as defined by Gapenski (2012) identifies the different steps necessary to produce a good or service, approximates and totals the costs of those steps. It is an upstream approach and recognizes all cost drivers (steps, procedures) within the organization into creating that product or service (Gapenski, L.C., 2012). One might ask, well how can this system be significant to a healthcare facility? There are actually numerous activities that go on when a person decides to visit his/her physician or during emergency health situations. Let’s take an emergency situation for example. A football player receives a helmet to helmet hit, loses consciousness and has to be carted off the field. He is then taken by the ambulance to the nearest hospital w... ...is data can be signified as if the organization were to consider saving more money by reducing staff numbers, they would be able to do so without compromising quality. Conclusion As mentioned earlier, costing systems vary and consider different factors when evaluating financial information. It is vital for supervising personnel and leaders to consider which costing system would best suit the organization’s needs. The activity based method is an effective tool when used properly. But of course, all tools have their highs and lows. The ABC method can project a more accurate tale of the organization’s financial strengths and weaknesses. But keep in mind, it requires a significant amount of time and each cost driver is to be carefully considered. Regardless of the costing system used, proper analysis of financial data is crucial to the future of the organization.

Transformation of Islam: Islam in the societies of Central Asia Essays

Arab conquest led to the spread of the Arabic culture within Central Asia, including the spread of the Arabic language as the state and literary language. However, from 700s the authority of Arab governors and military leaders declined, and the flowering of the literature in non-Arabic languages began under the rule of the Samanids and the Karakhanids. Non-Arab peoples adjusted the Islamic religion to their way of life. Therefore, this decline in the prestige of the Arabs in politics did not symbolize a failure of Islam, but represented a transformation of Islam in Central Asia. This paper will evaluate how the gradual changes in the social status of Arabs and non-Arabs from the 600s to the 700s affected development of Islam. In order to characterize the transformation of Islam, this essay will first look at the biographical notes of Ibn Sina. Then, Ferdowsi’s â€Å"Shahname† will be discussed. Last, Islam during the period of Turkic rules will be analyzed. As a result of the Islamization process, the Arabic language became an important element of the spiritual, political and social life of the conquered nations (Soucek, page 69). Islamization was accompanied by a transformation of the Arabic language and literature to popular and prestigious means of communication. Due to the fact that the Koran was written in Arabic and translation of holy texts was forbidden (Soucek, page 71), in order to understand Islam conquered tribes had to learn Arabic. Thus, they eventually became carriers of Arabic language and culture. Proficiency in Arabic was an important condition for well being, especially as guarantee of political success (lecture 2, week 4) and prosperity. Moreover, Arabic also became language through which scholars studied and wro... ...is not restricted only in Arabic. In general, to be Muslim in 600s was not the same as in 700s. If at 600s propagating Islam meant being ethnic Arab, and if not, strictly obeying shariah, comparatively, since 700s new elements in Islam began to emerge. Core concepts of Islam combined with ancestor’s cult, belief in omens, and belief in fire power formed new liberal Islam in Central Asia. This transformation is evident in ibn Sina’s works, which promoted Islam as a religion hospitable to science, in Ferdowsi’s â€Å"Shahname†, which offered an example of new form of Islam containing local elements, and in the Turks’ conversion to Islam. Overall, it can be assumed that main principles of Islam remain the same; however, people adjust religion to their lifestyle by introducing local features, and, apparently, these transformations positively affect actuality of Islam.

Blood Brothers

The past few weeks I have been reading the play Blood Brothers written by Willy Russell. It is the story of twin brothers who are separated at birth. Wealthy Mrs Lyons, who is not able to have her own children, blackmails her maid, Mrs Johnstone into giving her one of her new born twins. Mrs Lyons says all Miss Johnston’s other children well benefit, as the Johnston’s have little money. The women agree that it should be their secret and no one else will ever know the truth. The play explores many themes, some being, superstition, friendship and social class.This essay will discuss the changes in the relationship between Edward and Mickey, while also looking at the conveyed themes. The first time Edward and Mickey meet is when they are seven. â€Å"My best friend always had sweets to share. † Mickey is describing Eddie as his â€Å"best friend. † When the brothers first met Edward shared sweets with Mickey, this small gesture started their friendship. If Ed ward had not shared his sweets the brothers might have never became friends. When they find out that they were born on the same day Mickey asks Eddie to become his ‘blood brother'.The boys both made a small cut on their hand, then linked the cuts together, making the blood from the boys join. Both mothers find out about their friendship and are fast in telling their sons to break it up. Edward tells Mickey, ‘My mum says I haven’t got to play with you’ Mickey replies ‘Well, my mum says I haven’t to play with you’. Both mothers are trying to get the twins to stop communicating. By this time the brothers are good friends and blood brothers. Against their mothers wishes the brothers continue to have a friendship until Mrs Lyons even decides to persuade her husband to move the family away.Soon after, the Johnston’s are moved to a house in the country – unknown to them it’s the same area in which the Lyons moved to. The br others meet again in a field at the age of 14, not knowing who the other is. After the move the Johnston’s life has improved, Mickey still has a crush on Linda but doesn’t know how to ask her out. This is another part of fate, they live close by and were both excluded from school at the same time. The twins go to the cinema together, then they finally realise who the other is and meet up with Linda.Mrs Lyons spots Mrs Johnston and tries to kill her. The boys friendship is still strong but the time gap has left a toll. Edward’s vocabulary is not as posh/strong. Also the contrast in backgrounds shows. Mickey smokes, while Edward doesn’t. Edward lives in a ’posh’ area Mickey lives in the estate. Also Edward attends a private school while Mickey goes to the county school. The next time Edward and Mickey meet is when they are 18. ‘If I was Mickey I would have asked you years ago. ’ Edward is jealous of the feelings Linda has for Mick ey.He knows Mickey feels the same for Linda and puts his ‘best friends’ feelings over his own and persuades him to ask her out. While Edward is away at University Linda falls pregnant and Mickey looses his job. This pushes Edwards life further away from Mickey’s. Edward socialises and is in further education. Mickey is on the dole with a pregnant wife, he’s a lot more pressured than Edward. When Edward returns Mickey doesn’t have any money, ‘The Christmas Party’s gonna be on me. ’ Mickey had promised to take Edward out for a treat.Edward said he would pay, but if anything, this put more pressure on Mickey and it pushed him into participating in a ‘hold up’ with his brother, Sammy. The job goes all wrong, Sammy shoots someone and they both end up in jail. While in jail Mickey is put into a depression and ends up on antidepressant drugs. ‘I get depressed an’ I need to take these cos they make me better. â €™ Edward helps Mickey and Linda get a house and gets Mickey a job. This puts a strain on Mickey and Linda, Mickey feels he is a failure as his wife had to get help off a friend. ‘I’m not stupid, Linda. You sorted it out.You an’ Councillor Eddie Lyons. ’ He thinks Linda and Edward are having an affair. Mickey gets a gun and goes to confront Edward. ‘I’ve been thinkin’ again, Eddie. You an’ Linda were friends when she first got pregnant, weren’t y’? Does my child belong to you as well as everythin’ else? ’ The police enter, and try to convince Mickey to drop the gun. Mrs Johnstone enters, and pleads with Mickey to not shoot. She blurts out that they are brothers, and that she couldn’t afford to keep them both. Mickey’s jealousy is shown, ‘Why didn’t you give me away!I could have been †¦ I could have been him! At this point Mickey’s gun goes off accidentally, th e police open fire. Both brothers are dead. In conclusion the relationship between Edward and Mickey has its up’s and downs. At first they are close friends and are then separated, at fourteen they meet up again and are coincidentally separated once more. By the age of eighteen Mickey realises the differences and is betrayed by Edward. In the end realisation hits the brothers as they are told the truth, a childish pact was for real. The overall message is that although everyone has secrets, if they really matter they will be found out. Blood Brothers Blood Brothers is a musical by Willy Russell which was written and first performed in 1981. The musical is about twin brothers, separated at birth, with one kept in a low-class family and the other adopted into a wealthy family. The characters of Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons, the mothers, are total opposites. Mrs Johnston is a struggling, single mother of seven, with another two on the way, whereas Mrs Lyons is a privileged, yet childless, married woman. One of the main themes of the musical is superstition for example; the song ‘shoes upon the table’ is all about superstition.Another big theme of the musical is fate. Eddie and Mickey meet almost as if they are meant to, and instantly take a liking to one another. When they lose contact, they meet again, proving they are supposed to be a pair. Also the narrator plays the role of the devil and he sings the song lyrics ‘you know the devil’s got your number’ and that is implying that no matter what, fate i s going to happen wherever the characters are living or whatever they are doing. The last theme to the musical is social class, the whole way through the musical we are being reminded about how different these characters are to each other.Willy Russell shows this by their clothes, accent or speech. The opening scene started with a funeral we saw some men dressed in black suits putting two bodies into coffins (Mickey and Eddie) however the gauze curtain was still not raised. This seemed like the past and present of the story, as this first scene was the inevitable end. I think that was effective because it immediately gets your attention and you become eager to know what’s going on. Mickey and Eddie lay side by side both dead. The narrator then tells us the story of what happened. This is cross-cutting as it shows a different time period then returns to the current one.When we are first introduced to Mrs Johnston, she is a single mother ever since her husband left her for a yo unger woman. She is not dressed in the best of clothes as she does not have much money and her job is cleaning Mrs. Lyons house. Mrs. Johnston is a low–class Liverpudlian, who is extremely hard working. Mrs Johnston is shown as a woman in her thirties but a very worn out woman because of the stress of work and her children. Mrs Johnston stutters at times because of her being under pressure, like when Mrs Lyons is persuading her to give away one of the twins.And by Mrs. Johnston stuttering it shows she is unsure and pressured into something she doesn’t want to do. Willy Russell presents Mrs Johnston to the audience as a decent woman, who gives lots of love to her children, but she can’t give them more than that because she hasn’t got a well-paid job and she is working as Mrs Lyons’ house maid, which takes a lot of her time, which could be spent with her children instead. That is why Mickey and his siblings are left to learn about life themselves on the streets. That makes the audience sympathise with the poor people.She shows that to the audience after she learns she is going to have twins by saying: â€Å"With one more baby we could have managed. But not with two. The Welfare have already been on to me. They say I’m incapable of controllin’ the kids I’ve already got. They say I should put some of them into care† so because she loves her children and wants to keep them she makes the sacrifice of giving Eddie to Mrs. Lyons with hope that he will have a better life then what she could give him. Even though she regrets giving Eddie to Mrs. Lyons her superstitions stops her from telling anyone about what she has done out of the fear of killing her own children.Mrs Lyons contrasts really strongly against Mrs Johnston. At first, Mrs Lyons is shown as a bright person in her thirties, unlike the stressed Mrs Johnston who is the same age. Mrs Lyons is an upper middle-class woman. She is dressed very smartly as she has the money to have nice clothes. Mrs. Lyons is a very patronising woman, who is forceful and pressurising. Mrs Lyons uses negative views about extra children so that Mrs Johnston will have to give away one of the twins to her. She doesn’t do this in an aggressive way, but in a dangerously sweet way. So that Mrs.Johnston doesn’t feel like she can cope any more. Willy Russell also shows Mrs. Lyons to be self-centred as Mrs Lyons is willing to take a child away from its mother, so that she can save herself. Mrs Lyons is a very sly and devious woman, as she uses superstition against Mrs Johnston, so that she can keep one of the twins. Her facial expressions are very stern and persuading and her body language comes across very confident as she knows that’s she is manipulating Mrs. Johnston. The Narrator is also a very important part to the musical; he acts as a shadow of the other characters. Firstly he was like the host.He constantly kept appearing and kep t the performance flowing. It seemed as if he had the remote to slow things down and also to speed things up when he wanted. He wore a smart black suit which gave him a high profile. His voice was used quite well because he adjusted it to make it loud and directive as a narrator should have but it also had a bit of power in it. During the performance he popped up here and there just to clarify things for the audience. The Narrator is there as a reminder of Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons’ agreement. The other characters don’t acknowledge him which shows he is of a ghostly nature.The Narrator raises suspicion and builds up tension between the characters. The Narrator also has no emotions and he comes across as a very cold person which makes the audience feel as if he is like a devil type figure. Although he is a devil like figure, he is a neutral character because he doesn’t choose sides and we don’t know anything about him, other than he knows the fate of each character. The Narrator is trying to tell Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons that their pact won’t work, because the truth will be known. He uses repetition and rhyme, so that his lines are more catchy and memorable.The character of Mickey was portrayed really well as the person playing this role was showing great child like movements such as pulling his jumper over his knees and also by the way he was speaking. The way Mickey was speaking came across very child like as he was doing a lot of rhyming and simple sentences. Mickey also plays childhood games, like mounted Police and Indians, and runs around with a toy gun. When Mickey was playing his cowboy like games he pretended to have a horse between his legs and he galloped around the stage like a child would do.As Mickey got older he showed he was acting more mature and he understood that life wasn’t going to be easy for him and he needed to work for things unlike Eddie who had everything sorted out for him. When Mickey has got out of prison he is really unsteady and has to take pills to calm himself even though he doesn’t need the pills, he just thinks he does. But when Mickey takes the pills, Willy Russell uses stage directions to give the characters emotion with their physical movement, so when Mickey takes the pills the lights come up on Mickey.We see him go to take his pill, we see him struggle not to take it’’ Russell does this to get the audience to feel sad and sympathetic for Mickey. So in this scene the lighting is really dim, which reflects on Mickey’s thought processes which are slow and aged. You can see from this scene that prison has aged Mickey beyond doubt. Mickey used movement and his voice to really portray Mickey’s vulnerability. Mickey’s movements were slow and it seemed like every step he took was agony. His speech was slow, and his voice was extremely quiet.He walked hunched over, as if trying to protect himself from an unknown fear. Edd ie is the complete opposite to Mickey as he was raised in a wealthy family and he shows this in his body language because he stands up straight, speaks politely and is never rude. When Eddie first meets Mickey, Mickey speaks in common English and uses slang around Eddie and he finds it amazing because he has never heard any one talk like that. Eddie seems to have grown up very fast because at the age of seven, he is already very polite and well spoken. His parents have influenced him because he is like a miniature adult.Throughout the whole of the musical Mrs. Johnston sings about Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe is a very clever icon to use throughout the musical. This is because using her as a reference sets us in the correct time period. She is also a good symbol, because she has links to many of the themes in the play including death, addiction and beauty. All the scenes were set in the same location; and the set design remained the same for the whole performance, even when the ba ckdrop changed however, the insides of houses, occasionally descended from the ceiling to show the insides of each home.One the right side of the stage was a wall which had graffiti on it and that represented the lower class type of area that Mickey and Mrs. Johnston would live in. Class difference is displayed very clearly in Blood Brothers, in particular the difference in wealth between the two families. Eddie's parents ensure that he has a comfortable upbringing and is able to study at university and receive a qualification, resulting in a highly paid job. This is completely different to Mickey.He comes from a poor family which meant that he was stuck in a dead end job in a factory. â€Å"I bleeding hated it, standing there all day never doing anything apart from putting cardboard boxes together. † This reflects Mickey's frustration and highlights the lack of opportunities open to him, which adds to the dramatic effect of the musical because it prepares us for trouble in t he future. A good example of dramatic irony in the musical is when Eddie and Mickey decide that as they are such good friends they will become blood brothers. Hey, we were born on the same day. That means we can be blood brothers. † The audience knows that they were actually brothers so that creates dramatic irony. I really enjoyed the musical Blood Brothers and it helped me understand the class difference which is displayed very clearly in the difference in wealth between the two families. I also liked the way the actors never came out of role when bringing in props e. g. chairs, tables and carpets. I also loved how the lighting would make a very serious point feel more real and intense. Blood Brothers The past few weeks I have been reading the play Blood Brothers written by Willy Russell. It is the story of twin brothers who are separated at birth. Wealthy Mrs Lyons, who is not able to have her own children, blackmails her maid, Mrs Johnstone into giving her one of her new born twins. Mrs Lyons says all Miss Johnston’s other children well benefit, as the Johnston’s have little money. The women agree that it should be their secret and no one else will ever know the truth. The play explores many themes, some being, superstition, friendship and social class.This essay will discuss the changes in the relationship between Edward and Mickey, while also looking at the conveyed themes. The first time Edward and Mickey meet is when they are seven. â€Å"My best friend always had sweets to share. † Mickey is describing Eddie as his â€Å"best friend. † When the brothers first met Edward shared sweets with Mickey, this small gesture started their friendship. If Ed ward had not shared his sweets the brothers might have never became friends. When they find out that they were born on the same day Mickey asks Eddie to become his ‘blood brother'.The boys both made a small cut on their hand, then linked the cuts together, making the blood from the boys join. Both mothers find out about their friendship and are fast in telling their sons to break it up. Edward tells Mickey, ‘My mum says I haven’t got to play with you’ Mickey replies ‘Well, my mum says I haven’t to play with you’. Both mothers are trying to get the twins to stop communicating. By this time the brothers are good friends and blood brothers. Against their mothers wishes the brothers continue to have a friendship until Mrs Lyons even decides to persuade her husband to move the family away.Soon after, the Johnston’s are moved to a house in the country – unknown to them it’s the same area in which the Lyons moved to. The br others meet again in a field at the age of 14, not knowing who the other is. After the move the Johnston’s life has improved, Mickey still has a crush on Linda but doesn’t know how to ask her out. This is another part of fate, they live close by and were both excluded from school at the same time. The twins go to the cinema together, then they finally realise who the other is and meet up with Linda.Mrs Lyons spots Mrs Johnston and tries to kill her. The boys friendship is still strong but the time gap has left a toll. Edward’s vocabulary is not as posh/strong. Also the contrast in backgrounds shows. Mickey smokes, while Edward doesn’t. Edward lives in a ’posh’ area Mickey lives in the estate. Also Edward attends a private school while Mickey goes to the county school. The next time Edward and Mickey meet is when they are 18. ‘If I was Mickey I would have asked you years ago. ’ Edward is jealous of the feelings Linda has for Mick ey.He knows Mickey feels the same for Linda and puts his ‘best friends’ feelings over his own and persuades him to ask her out. While Edward is away at University Linda falls pregnant and Mickey looses his job. This pushes Edwards life further away from Mickey’s. Edward socialises and is in further education. Mickey is on the dole with a pregnant wife, he’s a lot more pressured than Edward. When Edward returns Mickey doesn’t have any money, ‘The Christmas Party’s gonna be on me. ’ Mickey had promised to take Edward out for a treat.Edward said he would pay, but if anything, this put more pressure on Mickey and it pushed him into participating in a ‘hold up’ with his brother, Sammy. The job goes all wrong, Sammy shoots someone and they both end up in jail. While in jail Mickey is put into a depression and ends up on antidepressant drugs. ‘I get depressed an’ I need to take these cos they make me better. â €™ Edward helps Mickey and Linda get a house and gets Mickey a job. This puts a strain on Mickey and Linda, Mickey feels he is a failure as his wife had to get help off a friend. ‘I’m not stupid, Linda. You sorted it out.You an’ Councillor Eddie Lyons. ’ He thinks Linda and Edward are having an affair. Mickey gets a gun and goes to confront Edward. ‘I’ve been thinkin’ again, Eddie. You an’ Linda were friends when she first got pregnant, weren’t y’? Does my child belong to you as well as everythin’ else? ’ The police enter, and try to convince Mickey to drop the gun. Mrs Johnstone enters, and pleads with Mickey to not shoot. She blurts out that they are brothers, and that she couldn’t afford to keep them both. Mickey’s jealousy is shown, ‘Why didn’t you give me away!I could have been †¦ I could have been him! At this point Mickey’s gun goes off accidentally, th e police open fire. Both brothers are dead. In conclusion the relationship between Edward and Mickey has its up’s and downs. At first they are close friends and are then separated, at fourteen they meet up again and are coincidentally separated once more. By the age of eighteen Mickey realises the differences and is betrayed by Edward. In the end realisation hits the brothers as they are told the truth, a childish pact was for real. The overall message is that although everyone has secrets, if they really matter they will be found out. Blood Brothers Blood Brothers is a musical by Willy Russell which was written and first performed in 1981. The musical is about twin brothers, separated at birth, with one kept in a low-class family and the other adopted into a wealthy family. The characters of Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons, the mothers, are total opposites. Mrs Johnston is a struggling, single mother of seven, with another two on the way, whereas Mrs Lyons is a privileged, yet childless, married woman. One of the main themes of the musical is superstition for example; the song ‘shoes upon the table’ is all about superstition.Another big theme of the musical is fate. Eddie and Mickey meet almost as if they are meant to, and instantly take a liking to one another. When they lose contact, they meet again, proving they are supposed to be a pair. Also the narrator plays the role of the devil and he sings the song lyrics ‘you know the devil’s got your number’ and that is implying that no matter what, fate i s going to happen wherever the characters are living or whatever they are doing. The last theme to the musical is social class, the whole way through the musical we are being reminded about how different these characters are to each other.Willy Russell shows this by their clothes, accent or speech. The opening scene started with a funeral we saw some men dressed in black suits putting two bodies into coffins (Mickey and Eddie) however the gauze curtain was still not raised. This seemed like the past and present of the story, as this first scene was the inevitable end. I think that was effective because it immediately gets your attention and you become eager to know what’s going on. Mickey and Eddie lay side by side both dead. The narrator then tells us the story of what happened. This is cross-cutting as it shows a different time period then returns to the current one.When we are first introduced to Mrs Johnston, she is a single mother ever since her husband left her for a yo unger woman. She is not dressed in the best of clothes as she does not have much money and her job is cleaning Mrs. Lyons house. Mrs. Johnston is a low–class Liverpudlian, who is extremely hard working. Mrs Johnston is shown as a woman in her thirties but a very worn out woman because of the stress of work and her children. Mrs Johnston stutters at times because of her being under pressure, like when Mrs Lyons is persuading her to give away one of the twins.And by Mrs. Johnston stuttering it shows she is unsure and pressured into something she doesn’t want to do. Willy Russell presents Mrs Johnston to the audience as a decent woman, who gives lots of love to her children, but she can’t give them more than that because she hasn’t got a well-paid job and she is working as Mrs Lyons’ house maid, which takes a lot of her time, which could be spent with her children instead. That is why Mickey and his siblings are left to learn about life themselves on the streets. That makes the audience sympathise with the poor people.She shows that to the audience after she learns she is going to have twins by saying: â€Å"With one more baby we could have managed. But not with two. The Welfare have already been on to me. They say I’m incapable of controllin’ the kids I’ve already got. They say I should put some of them into care† so because she loves her children and wants to keep them she makes the sacrifice of giving Eddie to Mrs. Lyons with hope that he will have a better life then what she could give him. Even though she regrets giving Eddie to Mrs. Lyons her superstitions stops her from telling anyone about what she has done out of the fear of killing her own children.Mrs Lyons contrasts really strongly against Mrs Johnston. At first, Mrs Lyons is shown as a bright person in her thirties, unlike the stressed Mrs Johnston who is the same age. Mrs Lyons is an upper middle-class woman. She is dressed very smartly as she has the money to have nice clothes. Mrs. Lyons is a very patronising woman, who is forceful and pressurising. Mrs Lyons uses negative views about extra children so that Mrs Johnston will have to give away one of the twins to her. She doesn’t do this in an aggressive way, but in a dangerously sweet way. So that Mrs.Johnston doesn’t feel like she can cope any more. Willy Russell also shows Mrs. Lyons to be self-centred as Mrs Lyons is willing to take a child away from its mother, so that she can save herself. Mrs Lyons is a very sly and devious woman, as she uses superstition against Mrs Johnston, so that she can keep one of the twins. Her facial expressions are very stern and persuading and her body language comes across very confident as she knows that’s she is manipulating Mrs. Johnston. The Narrator is also a very important part to the musical; he acts as a shadow of the other characters. Firstly he was like the host.He constantly kept appearing and kep t the performance flowing. It seemed as if he had the remote to slow things down and also to speed things up when he wanted. He wore a smart black suit which gave him a high profile. His voice was used quite well because he adjusted it to make it loud and directive as a narrator should have but it also had a bit of power in it. During the performance he popped up here and there just to clarify things for the audience. The Narrator is there as a reminder of Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons’ agreement. The other characters don’t acknowledge him which shows he is of a ghostly nature.The Narrator raises suspicion and builds up tension between the characters. The Narrator also has no emotions and he comes across as a very cold person which makes the audience feel as if he is like a devil type figure. Although he is a devil like figure, he is a neutral character because he doesn’t choose sides and we don’t know anything about him, other than he knows the fate of each character. The Narrator is trying to tell Mrs Johnston and Mrs Lyons that their pact won’t work, because the truth will be known. He uses repetition and rhyme, so that his lines are more catchy and memorable.The character of Mickey was portrayed really well as the person playing this role was showing great child like movements such as pulling his jumper over his knees and also by the way he was speaking. The way Mickey was speaking came across very child like as he was doing a lot of rhyming and simple sentences. Mickey also plays childhood games, like mounted Police and Indians, and runs around with a toy gun. When Mickey was playing his cowboy like games he pretended to have a horse between his legs and he galloped around the stage like a child would do.As Mickey got older he showed he was acting more mature and he understood that life wasn’t going to be easy for him and he needed to work for things unlike Eddie who had everything sorted out for him. When Mickey has got out of prison he is really unsteady and has to take pills to calm himself even though he doesn’t need the pills, he just thinks he does. But when Mickey takes the pills, Willy Russell uses stage directions to give the characters emotion with their physical movement, so when Mickey takes the pills the lights come up on Mickey.We see him go to take his pill, we see him struggle not to take it’’ Russell does this to get the audience to feel sad and sympathetic for Mickey. So in this scene the lighting is really dim, which reflects on Mickey’s thought processes which are slow and aged. You can see from this scene that prison has aged Mickey beyond doubt. Mickey used movement and his voice to really portray Mickey’s vulnerability. Mickey’s movements were slow and it seemed like every step he took was agony. His speech was slow, and his voice was extremely quiet.He walked hunched over, as if trying to protect himself from an unknown fear. Edd ie is the complete opposite to Mickey as he was raised in a wealthy family and he shows this in his body language because he stands up straight, speaks politely and is never rude. When Eddie first meets Mickey, Mickey speaks in common English and uses slang around Eddie and he finds it amazing because he has never heard any one talk like that. Eddie seems to have grown up very fast because at the age of seven, he is already very polite and well spoken. His parents have influenced him because he is like a miniature adult.Throughout the whole of the musical Mrs. Johnston sings about Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe is a very clever icon to use throughout the musical. This is because using her as a reference sets us in the correct time period. She is also a good symbol, because she has links to many of the themes in the play including death, addiction and beauty. All the scenes were set in the same location; and the set design remained the same for the whole performance, even when the ba ckdrop changed however, the insides of houses, occasionally descended from the ceiling to show the insides of each home.One the right side of the stage was a wall which had graffiti on it and that represented the lower class type of area that Mickey and Mrs. Johnston would live in. Class difference is displayed very clearly in Blood Brothers, in particular the difference in wealth between the two families. Eddie's parents ensure that he has a comfortable upbringing and is able to study at university and receive a qualification, resulting in a highly paid job. This is completely different to Mickey.He comes from a poor family which meant that he was stuck in a dead end job in a factory. â€Å"I bleeding hated it, standing there all day never doing anything apart from putting cardboard boxes together. † This reflects Mickey's frustration and highlights the lack of opportunities open to him, which adds to the dramatic effect of the musical because it prepares us for trouble in t he future. A good example of dramatic irony in the musical is when Eddie and Mickey decide that as they are such good friends they will become blood brothers. Hey, we were born on the same day. That means we can be blood brothers. † The audience knows that they were actually brothers so that creates dramatic irony. I really enjoyed the musical Blood Brothers and it helped me understand the class difference which is displayed very clearly in the difference in wealth between the two families. I also liked the way the actors never came out of role when bringing in props e. g. chairs, tables and carpets. I also loved how the lighting would make a very serious point feel more real and intense.

Consumer Perception Towards Online Shopping in India Essay

1.1 INTRODUCTION The numbers of internet users are increasing because of the accessibilities of technology, the availability of information, and the ability to interact through the Internet increase and evolve. The obvious capabilities of the Internet include road for gathering information, purchasing a product, or rendering a service. These advances in Internet technology allow for the expansion of shopping options beyond traditional methods that may be more time consuming. Issues with having to physically gather information with offline shopping methods are alleviated, and customers are better able to efficiently use their time. For instance, instead of having to physically visit different stores to compare prices or rely on circular pamphlets in newspapers, a consumer is able to search and retrieve needed information through the Internet. The Internet explosion has opened the doors to a new electronic world. Consumers are now able to use the Internet for a variety of purposes such as research, communication, online banking, and even shopping. With such advantages, the Internet is rapidly becoming the main method of communication and of conducting business conveniently. With a growing number of households turning towards the Internet and the world of e-commerce to shop, invest, make payments, and do online banking, new technological advancement will have to come about to make these transactions secure. Electronic retailing or online shopping, is shopping on the internet without the consumer having to visit a physical store. With the increased use of the internet, the scope for the online shopping is growing. A In 2012, 9.6 million Australians aged over 15 years will make online shopping purchases, according to the latest research by PwC and Frost & Sullivan (2012). Over the next 12 months, 88% of online shoppers in Australia are expecting to maintain or increase their online expenditure, indicating that there is solid momentum in online shopping uptake. This continual rapid growth in Australia and offshore is driving structural changes in the traditional retail model. US online population will increase nearly 50%, from 1471.5 million in 2001 to 210.8 million by 2006 (Cumulative Annual Growth Rate of 8.2%) and online retail sales will grow from US$47.8 billion in 2002 to  $130.3 billion in 2006. Similarly WIPO (2007) cited that about 10% of the world’s population in 2002 wa s online, representing more than 605 million users. In India also the internet user base has grown to an impressive number from 87.1 million by December 2012 from 78.7 million users in October 2012, who accessed Internet through dongles and tablet PCs according to Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB (Dec 2012). According to them India is expected to have close to 165 million mobile Internet users by March 2015, up from 87.1 million in December 2012 as more people are accessing the web through mobile devices and dongles. Nearly 60% of online users in India visited a retail site in November 2011, with the number of online shoppers increasing 18% in the past year said com Score in a research report. According to the report on visitation to the top retail and coupon sites in India, coupon sites are rapidly gaining in popularity, with 16.5% of the Indian online population visiting the category in November, led by Snapdeal.com and Mydala.com. In November, 27.2 million online users in India, aged 15 and older, accessed the retail category from a home or work computer, an increase of 18% from the previous year, as consumers continue to turn to the web to shop for and purchase items and retailers continue to increase their online visibility through active marketing campaigns. (www.moneylife.in, Feb 28th, 2013). There are many advantages of doing online shopping like there is no geographical boundary-a consumer in Delhi can shop for something which an e-store in Punjab is offering, there is no time restrictions- the shopping is 24Ãâ€"7, the payment is online-there is no need to even handle the cash. Despite the advantages of online shopping all the consumers are not participating in online transaction. Many business firms are more and more businesses continue to establish an online presence, they are finding that some consumers are still reluctant to shift in that same direction. For various consumers there are still concerns with security and passing  personal data over the Internet. There is a disparity between the number of consumers who visit a site and the number of actual purchases being made. Despite the millions of people who use the Internet everyday and visit various shopping sites, the number of consumers who do not abandon their shopping carts but actually complete a purchase averages to only about three percent. This leaves a large portion of the Internet population as non-participants in online transactions as compared to those who fully complete transactions online and make purchases. Instead, these non-participants may abandon the purchase completely or fulfill the transaction in an offline setting. As such, it is important for online businesses or offline businesses interested in venturing into the online market to understand their consumers’ perceptions, online and offline, and what factors influence their shopping decisions. With better understanding of what factors play into consumer decision making in making transactions online or offline, retailers and businesses can be better gear themselves to serving their customers in either of the shopping venue s. 1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY To know the demographic profile of the customers and its impact if any on the online buying. To know the factors affecting the perception of Indian online buyers. CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW This part includes the Review of previous studies, articles and conceptual framework for the related studies. More analysis is not sufficient to present real framework of the study. So review of related materials should be deal with to give the research a clear vision, past study and knowledge provides foundation to the present day. Review of literature includes the following topics: 2.1 Conceptual Framework 2.2 Reviews from Previous Studies 2.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK As Internet usage is increasing, so is online shopping particularly in those countries whose Marketing infrastructures are well developed. Customers can shop at anytime and have access to products not available in their geographic region. Moreover, they are now able to access the Internet, not only from their personal computers, but also from advanced electronic devices such as Palm Pilots and mobile phones. The growth of Internet technology in India has enormous potential as it reduces the costs of product and service delivery and extends geographical boundaries in bringing buyers and sellers together. Also, due to an increase in high-speed Internet access connections, lower connection costs, and increasing consumer competence, e-commerce activity will continue to grow as the availability and ease with which the Internet provides consumers the ability to handle needed tasks increasingly develops. However, not all consumers are turning to the Internet for shopping. While the number of Internet users who have made a purchase at one time is more than half in the United States, this does not explain the disparity between the number of visits websites recorded and the number of actual purchases made online. This research mainly talks about the factors that affect the consumers’ online shopping behavior of consumer. It is not sure that all the people who visit websites do make online purchase. This will also focus on the point that what is the consumes perception towards online shopping and their intention to make purchase are not only affected by the ease of internet, usefulness and enjoyment but also affected by the also by exogenous factors like consumer traits, situational factors, product characteristics, previous online shopping experiences, and trust in online shopping. The other thing that the research will focus is that do the demographic factors make any influence on the online shopping. This research will focus  on the point that do these demographic factors like age, gender, income level etc really make any influence on the buying behavior of the consumers. Not only on the demographic factor that this research will focus on, will also try to find whether there is any relationship between the customers and the website quality. Do these online shopping websites quality make any influence on the buying intention of the buyers? 2.2 REVIEWS FROM PREVIOUS RESEARCH UPADHYAY.P AND KAUR J (2006),†Analysis of Online Shopping Behaviour of Customer in Kota City†. This study has focused on factors which online Indian buyers keep in mind while shopping online. The objective of the study was to create an awareness of e-commerce and make people interested in internet commerce. According to the study, they found that the most preferred product of online buying is travelling tickets and clothing remains the least preferred choice of online shoppers and most of the consumers who have experienced online shopping are very satisfied ZIA UL HAQ (2009) in her research on â€Å"Perception towards online shopping: an empirical study of Indian consumers† said that the perception of online shoppers is independent of their age and gender but not independent of their qualification & gender and income & gender. According to the researcher consumers’ perceptions of the customer service, commitment and web security of online purchasing exhibit significant relationships with their online buying intention. Web security was the major concerning factor to influence the online shopping. They have a fear that their important documents passwords can be hacked due to online shopping, so the major concern of consumers is about the web security. She also says that Marketers need to realize that the online marketing environment affects the way consumers view and develop relationships. During her study she found that Indian consumers considered that their online purchasing will be influenced by good quality website. Thus it is believed that overall website quality does help in enhancing the consumers to buy online. Also commitment is the important factor that affects online buying and most of the consumers are concerned about on-time delivery of their products. The results of this study show  that there is a significant association between commitment and online shopping. CORPUS CHRISTI(2009) in his research on â€Å"The perception of consumer on online shopping† has provided some of glimpse about the consumers mind as what factors are perceived differently by consumers who prefer online shopping and those who prefer offline shopping. According to him there are five factors which that the two group consumers perceived differently. These factors are (1) perceived risk with online shopping, (2) past experience with online shopping, (3)perceived benefits of online shopping, (4) perceived ease of online shopping, and (5) perceived uncertainty of online shopping. Through these factors the business firms should be aware of their online consumers’ perception and of what preference for online and offline shopping avenues. Focusing on these factors the researcher thinks that the firms can don necessary work to attract and retain more and more customers. In his research after all the finding he says that Being aware of what perceptions drive consu mers to pick and prefer one avenue of shopping to another allows businesses to better cater to consumers, thus helping them attract and retain customers. RASTOGI.A.K (2010), â€Å"A study of Indian Online Consumers and their Buying Behaviour† made an attempt to study the buying behaviour of Indian online consumers in his research. According to his study about 44% students use Internet in India and overall 72% of young people access Internet on regular basis. The findings of the study shows that ratio of male consumers is very high in online shopping and most of the respondents pay in cash on delivery. This research shows that online shopping has very bright future in India. . Perception towards online shopping is getting better in India. With the use of internet, consumers can shop anywhere, anything and anytime with easy and safe payment options. Consumers can do comparison shopping between products, as well as, online stores. VAGGELIS SAPRIKIS, ADAMANTIA CHOULIARA AND MARO VLACHOPOULOU (2010) conducted the research on â€Å"Perceptions towards Online Shopping: Analyzing the Greek University Students’ Attitude† observed the significant differences between  the two groups of respondents that is online shopping adaptors and online shopping non adaptors. From their research they concluded that adopters had higher expectations from online shopping on issues relating to privacy policy and risk. Also they identified between adopters and non-adopters regarding their particular perceptions on advantages and problems of online shopping. MEHRDAD SALEHI(JAN 2012) in her study on â€Å"Consumer Buying Behavior towards Online Shopping Stores in Malaysia† has focused on nine independent variables namely appearance, quick loading, security, sitemap, validity, promotion, attractiveness, believability, and originality that influence the buying behavior on consumers while doing online shopping. During her research she found that first five factors influence consumers towards online shopping and security is the factor that contributes most towards online shopping. According to her the last four factors (promotion, attractiveness, believability, and originality) don’t significantly influence online shopping intention which indicate that advertisement doesn’t have an important effect on online shopping. Security and validity of website were the one that influences the online consumers. Also attractiveness had the minimum influence on online shopping intention. KANWAL GURLEEN( MAY 2012) in his study on â€Å"Consumer Buying Behavior towards Online Shopping, the case of punjab† stated that Price consciousness, Convenience and Variety, Easy Payment options and Challenges of Online Shopping are the four major factors that have significant influence on the perception of the online consumer toward online shopping. As that of the other researchers on this topic, he also found the same problem that the consumers are not able to trust the websites as they have to give their credit card details. Some of the websites the customers don’t feel trustworthy. Also the online purchases take a longer time in shipments and deliveries. The researcher found that the psychology of an Indian consumer is still the same of checking the product physically before purchasing it, which creates a mental hurdle for online shopping. DAHIYA RICHA (2012), from her research on â€Å"Impact of demographic factors of consumers on online shopping behavior: A study of consumers in India† found that gender impacts frequency of on-line shopping positively and Family Size impacts overall spend on on-line shopping. Her study somewhat suggested that Indian Consumers have perceived online shopping in a positive manner which suggest that online shopping in the country is growing. Despite this the frequency of online shopping is very less. She has also suggested the organizations that to formulate their plans and strategies in the country regarding the online shopping they must use relevant variables and factors which the research has identified. The organizations can prioritize the consumer implicit and explicit requirements in online shopping environment. The results can also be used by various organizations to identify their target customer segments. MOHAMMAD HOSSEIN MOSHREF JAVADI1,HOSSEIN REZAEI DOLATABADI1, MOJTABA NOURBAKHSH1, AMIR POURSAEEDI1& AHMAD REZA ASADOLLAHI (SEPTEMBER 10, 2012) conducted the research on,† An Analysis of Factors Affecting on Online Shopping Behavior of Consumers† where the examined the factors affecting on online shopping behavior of consumers. They created many hypothesis and these hypothesis testing indicated that financial risk and non-delivery risk has negative effect on the attitude towards online shopping behavior. Which suggest that e-retailers should make their websites safer and assure customers for the delivery of their products. According to them if there has been positive effect attitude toward online shopping on online shopping behavior of consumers it would indicate that considering attitude variables make a substantial contribution in online shopping. Also, subjective norms have positive effect on shopping behavior. This means the more people suggest e-buying to each other, the more this buying method will be popular among people. This makes necessary the use of word of mouth marketing for retailers. Domain specific innovativeness has positive effect on online shopping behavior. This means that marketing specialists should target this society in their marketing strategy formulation for better effectiveness of their marketing program. This means that marketing specialists should target this society in their marketing strategy formulation for better  effectiveness of their marketing program. CHAO CHAO CHUANG & DR. FU-LING HU (NOVEMBER, 2012) in their research on,† An empirical analysis of the relationship between website characteristics and consumer online buying behavior† concluded that the website security, website design, website reliability and website customer service are the four main factors which affect consumer perceptions of their online purchasing experiences. Online buyers have different viewpoints of these four factors. Website design has the highest rating score, followed by website customer service. Website reliability is ranked third, and the lowest is website security. Also they suggested that with online shopping, consumers can browse the entire product-assortment with competitive prices. In order to consolidate this advantage, E-retailers should choose more famous products or brands to market online. Branded products and services are usually thought by customers as having better qualities. They said that the online shopping company should induce the regular online buyers as they shop most frequently and they should make the desired products available and the purchase transaction easy and also obtain the competitive prices in order to retain their regular customers and increase their loyalty towards the company. As trial customers are interested in browsing on the website maybe they see online shopping as enjoyment and look for the potential entertainment arising from the online shopping experience. The purchase of goods may be incidental to the experience of Internet shopping. If trial online buyers initially have pleasing online shopping experience, they are more likely to continue subsequent shopping behavior: they will browse more, make more unplanned purchasing, and look for more stimulating products. In the face of severe competition and continually increasing customer expectations, e-commerce companies must understand how to identify, help and retain their profitable existing customers. E-retailer should emphasize the enjoyable aspect of online shopping in their promotions for trial online buyers and then create the competitive advantage. CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The data for the study was gathered through a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part of the questionnaire included questions about their demographic profile like age, Education, income, living area and gender. The second part consisted of questions measuring all the variables which are used to measure the online shopping. All the questions were utilizing on a Likert scale ranging from 1= strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Research Design has been classified into the following subsections: SAMPLE SIZE- Till the date of the submission of this interim report, about 100 questionnaires was distributed through e-mail and social networking sites SAMPLING PROCEDURE- The respondents were selected by the random sampling. DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE This _primary_ (first hand, or collected by the researcher, i.e., myself, in the present study) and data was used for the analysis. A questionnaire has been designed to collect the required information. The questionnaires were filled by the respondents through the internet (through emails and social networking sites). [A sample of the questionnaire is showcased in Annexure] ANALYSIS Descriptive statistical research technique has been used in the study and statistical packages like SPSS and Microsoft Excel have been used for the analysis. TOOLS USED: CHI -SQUARE TEST: A chi-square test is used when you want to see if there is  a relationship between two categorical variables. In SPSS, the chisq option is used on the statistics subcommand of the crosstabs command to obtain the test statistic and its associated p-value. FACTOR ANALYSIS: FACTOR ANALYSIS: Factor analysis attempts to identify underlying variables, or factors, that explain the pattern of correlations within a set of observed variables. Factor analysis is often used in data reduction to identify a small number of factors that explain most of the variance observed in a much larger number of manifest variables. Factor analysis can also be used to generate hypotheses regarding causal mechanisms or to screen variables for subsequent analysis