Essay Islamic Science in the Medieval Era - 2580 Words

There are many terms used to describe the period after the fall of Rome and before the Renaissance, three main terms being the Middle, Medieval, and Dark Ages. In general, these terms are used interchangeably, but are these fair substitutions? In recent years the term â€Å"Dark Ages† is becoming less and less acceptable as a phrase which describes the span of years it is meant to refer to. The use of the term â€Å"dark† implies a period of stagnation, which is becoming a questionable concept. In particular, the span of time referred to in this paper is 530-1452 BCE, with specific attention paid to the scientific discoveries and innovations rather than art or literature. These dates are significant because in 529 the Academy and Lyceum in Athens†¦show more content†¦One might assert that the ideas of Islamic science during this period were not of value because if the innovations were so great, and the halt of progress in Europe was so encompassing, a knowledge vacuum would have been created, and the ideas would have poured into the knowledge starved areas. Further more, Europeans would expand outward to the Middle East in search of new-found knowledge due to the stagnation present in Europe. However, this is not the case, so therefore it is logical to assume that the knowledge in the Middle East was not that significant. In opposition, I would assert that major scientific innovation in some area in the world during a given time period is enough to remove the negative connotation of â€Å"dark†. The scientific discoveries do not have to be world-wide. Furthermore, the reason there was no spread of knowledge to Europe during this time was due to the isolation of the two very different cultures from one another, not the insignificance of Islamic ideas. The language barrier alone would be enough to interfere with natural flow of technology. Translations of texts and therefore ideas takes time, and any cooperation between these two gro ups prior to the tenth century would be halted for hundreds of years by the Crusades. Also, the churchs relationship with young men not only occupied them thereby inhibiting their thought, but also their exploration, explaining the lack of European pro-activity inShow MoreRelatedThe House of Wisdom and its Contribution to the Preservation of Knowledge1720 Words   |  7 Pagesis important because it addresses the academic advances with the Islamic civilization that lead to new information. To determine the extent of the contribution to the preservation of knowledge, this investigation will examine the achievements al-Khawarizmi made in science and the achievements that were made in this library and how they were preserved through time. The area of research will be focused during the time of the Islamic Golden Age, 750-1258, and in the city of Baghdad, where the HouseRead MoreAstronomy Of The Islamic World975 Words   |  4 PagesAstronomy in Medieval Islam Astronomy is the branch of science that deals with celestial objects, space, and the universe as a whole. During the medieval era, a golden age of innovations in science took part in the Islamic world. In particular cities in the Iberian Peninsula, like Cordoba, astronomy blossomed and thrived as an aftermath of the genius and creativity that took place there. 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However, surgicalRead MoreImportant Discoveries And Contributions That Were Made By Three Famous Mathematicians1213 Words   |  5 Pagesmathematicians from different cultures throughout time. An important era when great mathematical discoveries were made was during Medieval Times, or the Middle Ages. In this paper we discuss important discoveries and contributions that were made by three famous mathematicians of this time period including French Nicole Oresme, German Jordanus Nemorarius and Italian Leonardo Pisano, better known for his nickname of Fibonacci. Key-Words: - Medieval, Mathematics, Fibonacci, Arithmetic, Sequence 1 IntroductionRead MoreThe Muslims Of Medieval Italy By Alex M Essay1499 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿The Muslims of Medieval Italy by Alex Metcalfe Less than two hundred years after the death of the prophet Muhammad the rule of Islam had spread from the Arab Peninsula to Italy after the Roman Empire had crumbled away; eventually it spread all the way to Iberia. The book The Muslims of Medieval Italy by Alex Metcalfe focuses on the Muslim-Christian dynamic and the respective ruling entities by examining the chronological timeline of events and more cultural history of the dynamic in the regionRead MoreHow Truth Was Defined By Medieval Europeans1696 Words   |  7 PagesEric Green Urban British Literature 1st 3 December 2015 How Truth Was Defined By Medieval Europeans In life majority of people believe telling the truth is the correct way of living. Truth has endured the world throughout time and is seemingly unanswerable to those who do not understand it because this subject appears in every culture. Truth goes along with universal questions such as what is beauty, justice, and power. And love but none have a direct answer because they are all dependent on

Emily Dickinsons Theres a Certain Slant of Light Essay

In Emily Dickinson’s lyrical poem â€Å"There’s a certain slant of light† she describes a revelation that is experienced on cold â€Å"winter afternoons.† Further she goes to say that this revelation of self â€Å"oppresses, like the Heft of Cathedral Tunes† and causes â€Å"Heavenly Hurt†, yet does not scare for it is neither exterior nor permanent. This only leaves it to be an internal feeling, and according to Dickinson that is where all the â€Å"Meanings† lie. There’s no way for this feeling to be explained, all that is known is that it is the â€Å"Seal Despair†, and an â€Å"imperial affliction†. These descriptions have a rather powerful connotation in showing the oppressive nature of his sentiment. There is an official mark of despair and an imperial affliction†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"That oppresses, like the Heft of Cathedral Tunes--.† It has a very heavy feeling derived from the word He ft as well as Cathedral Tunes. The Cathedral is considered sacred yet it is such as somber sound that it could easily affect a person’s mood. The use of paradoxes in the poem creates a sense of confusion about the true feelings about the revelation. â€Å"Heavenly Hurt† is both wonderful and horrible and suggests that the pain comes from the heavens. This suggestion is support in various situations throughout the poem. â€Å"Cathedral Tunes† and â€Å"Sent us of the Air† are the prime examples. It shows that this new realization may have been from a divine being therefore the reader is confused on it’s significance because it perhaps a type of gift. â€Å"Landscapes Listen Shadows—hold their breathe† is the personification used in the poem. This personification in the work shows that a divine being has arranged for this revelation to occur therefore, all of nature will halt to the being who has been selected to find this new piece of themselves. She also uses a bit of irony as well as parallel structure to set the scene in the poem. The revelation is brought out in the light of an wintery afternoon, this is the parallel yet it oppressive and dark which is ironic because the light brought with it such darkness. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Another form of figurative languageShow MoreRelatedEmily Dickinsons A Certain Slant of Light Analysis Essay1290 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿ 1 Emily Dickinson’s â€Å"There’s a certain Slant of light† In her poem, There’s a certain Slant of light, Emily Dickinson uses metaphors and imagery to convey the feeling of solemnity and despair at winter’s twilight. The slanted light that she sees, is a metaphor for her battle with depression. Anyone who is familiar with Dickinson’s background will have a better understanding of what she is trying to say in this poem. Dickinson was known as a recluse and spentRead MoreAnalysis Of Emily Dickinson s Poem There s A Certain Slant Of Light1147 Words   |  5 Pagesbreak it. Emily Dickinson skillfully incorporates a variety of different methods in her works to enhance their meanings. At first glance her poetry can seem confusing, but simply analyzing at how she structures her poems can give great insight to what she means. Looking at whether each line of the poem ends without punctuation, also known as enjambment can reveal a great deal about a poem. The use of enjambment and end-stops control the flow of the poem. Along w ith em-dashes, one of Dickinson’s specialtiesRead MoreEmily Dickinsons Capitalization and Punctuation1251 Words   |  6 PagesThe poetry of Emily Dickinson is one of the most recognizable of the 19th century. Dickinson’s poetry stands out because of its unconventional use of capitalization and punctuation. Her poems contain capitalized words which are not normally capitalized. Her poems are noted for the frequent use of the dash. Literary scholars have attempted to interpret Dickinson’s unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Some believe that it was merely part of Dickinson’s penmanship (Weisbuch 73). They thereforeRead MoreThere s A Certain Slant Of Light And William Blake s London1338 Words   |  6 PagesEmily Dickinson’s â€Å"There’s a certain slant of light† and William Blake’s â€Å"London† are two poems that contain the same theme about despair, yet express that theme very differently. Both poems conta in the theme about how despair causes people to be trapped in a constant cycle of pain and loss, and that there is no way to break this cycle. The way that the author expresses this theme is very different. Dickinson’s poem presents despair that seems to come from heaven, and with this despair her life hasRead MoreAnalysis Of Emily Dickinson s There s A Certain Slant Of Light ``1837 Words   |  8 PagesA poet who challenged poetry’s role in religion, Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1830. Although Dickinson’ was poetically prolific during her life, her work was neither published nor acclaimed until after her death in 1886. Similar to most poets, Emily Dickinson wrote about what she understood and what intrigued her. One of the major themes that Emily Dickinson often explored in her poems was the conflict between science with religion, specifically, her â€Å"individual struggleRead MorePsychoanalytic Criticism on Emily Dickinson Essay108 6 Words   |  5 Pagespsychological theories. Such approach can be used when trying to reconstruct an author’s position throughout their literary writings, as well as understanding whom the author was and how their mind created such works. When considering the work of Emily Dickinson, psychoanalytic criticism comes into play with the role of explaining the many meanings behind her poetry, as to make the reader relate to such poetry on a deeper level or not to who she was as a human being. Many critics believe that usingRead MoreAn Insight Into Dickinsons Portrayal of Death2157 Words   |  9 PagesAn Insight into Dickinsons Portrayal of Death Pale Death with impartial tread beats at the poor mans cottage door and at the palaces of kings. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 B.C.) Throughout the history of literature, it has often been said that the poet is the poetry (Tate, Reactionary 9); that a poets life and experiences greatly influence the style and the content of their writing, some more than others. Emily Dickinson is one of the most renowned poets of herRead MoreAn Insight Into Dickinsons Portrayal of Death2173 Words   |  9 PagesAn Insight into Dickinsons Portrayal of Death Pale Death with impartial tread beats at the poor mans cottage door and at the palaces of kings. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 B.C.) Throughout the history of literature, it has often been said that the poet is the poetry (Tate, Reactionary 9); that a poets life and experiences greatly influence the style and the content of their writing, some more than others. Emily Dickinson is one of the most renowned poets of her timeRead MoreBibliography Relation to Analysis of Emily Dickinson ´s Writings2048 Words   |  8 Pages Anderson, Paul W. The Metaphysical Mirth of Emily Dickinson. Georgia Review 20.1 Spring 1966): 72-83. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 171. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 Feb. 2014. Anderson accomplishes the discernment of Dickinson’s poems and their allusions to many classic myths. He denotes the figurative language that Dickinson utilizes in her poetry to relate to her themes. With these key elements inRead MorePoetry Is An Art Of Representation Or Imitation2631 Words   |  11 Pagesauthors had established this as being a fundamental of poetry, â€Å"both Plato and Aristotle insisted that poetry is an art of representation or imitation† (Hamilton 1829). One of the many poets who have poured their heart and mind into their poetry was Emily Dickinson. Dickinson has been noted as the girl who hid from society with the fear of being unaccepted, â€Å"Frightened by the world and disappointed in her hopes, Dickinson, it is said, retreated into a privacy that shielded her... There,... she is established

Introduction of Financial Accounting

Question: Discuss about the Introduction of Financial Accounting. Answer: Introduction This study deals with discussion on communication and leadership based on given ethical dilemmas. The case study on Auditing hidden agendas provides an insight of accounting profession in compliance with fundamental principles as mentioned in APES 110 code of ethics (Sexton 2009). The current segment elucidates a scenario whereby member of an audit committee is working for a company and has experienced some volatility as a result financial crisis. In accordance to first principle, it is essential for the auditors to remain straightforward as well honest in maintaining business relationships. As a member of Audit committee for a company, it is necessary to evaluate with the agenda items aligning with impact of financial crisis (Alles, Kogan and Vasarhelyi 2012). It is predicted by the member of audit committee that the company is at default risk in case of debt covenants. In the audit compliance report, it is essential to mention regarding the loan portfolio before passing it to lende rs and this aspect is nowhere mentioned in the agenda items. After approaching the Chair of Audit Committee, the answer given was not convincing as it has been discussed with CEO previously. This study explains the underlying reason behind massaged and misrepresented figures by the company head (Zadek, Evans and Pruzan 2013). Ethical Dilemma- Auditing Hidden Agendas Summary of the case study In this case study, it is mentioned regarding all members of the accounting profession for complying it with APES 110 Code of Ethics especially for professional accountants (Boynton and Johnson 2015). This case study elucidates problem statement where member of the audit committee gets doubt and surprise on not finding the agenda items in relation that affects financial crisis. It is the responsibility of the audit committee to completely review the future loan compliance reports before providing it to lenders. This particular case study takes into consideration the responsibility of audit committee, chair of audit committee and the CEO of a given company. It has been noticed from the case study that agenda items are missing and figures has massages according to one of the member of audit committee (Furnham and Gunter 2015). In response to financial crisis, it has been noted that regulators as well as legislators codifies much of audit committees responsibilities and regulators (Leung, Coram and Cooper 2014). This has been scrutinizing audit committee for working and examining by external management and external auditors. Audit Committees should be more focus on auditor inspection results for translating into proper audit quality. In other words, securities regulators should be looking into an aspect whereby audit committees should make things happen in case of making new agenda for taking into consideration financial crisis. It requires turning dynamic into proper quality improvement results concerning with audit committee agenda (Porter, Simon and Hatherly 2014). Absence of agenda items of the company surprised the audit committee members and seeks assistance from the head of audit committee team For the company, the intrinsic question on disruption as well as risk needs to be discussed by the audit committee for making the audit compliance on loan before the company provides support to lenders (Simnett, Vanstraelen and Chua 2014). Audit Committees of a company as well as Board should deal with large-scale disruption of economic and given financial models. Identification of Problem in the case study It has been found that as per the provided case study, the problems associated with the process of auditing include the violation of the codes and principles of ethics. From detailed study, it has been noted that due to the global financial crisis in the year 2008, every company including the specified one have experienced a certain level of volatility in their economic condition. However, as per the agenda for the first meeting of the particular firm i.e. in the year 2009, there were no agenda items that were related to negative influence of the 2008 global financial crisis on the firm (Knechel, Salterio and Ballou 2013). This action indicates that the particular organization might be at risks and the auditors by not following the codes of ethics have misrepresented the report of the firm. Moreover, the quarterly compliance audit regarding the loan portfolio of the firm that is considered as the part of performance reporting to the lenders was also not included. From this, it can be said that within the particular firm, the loan portfolio was not audited and reviewed and thus, it might resulted into misrepresentation of the report. In addition to this, the CEO of any firm is not responsible for auditing and making any audit report and thus, here in this specified company, the CEO advised the audit committee to sign off on the loan compliance audits. However, this decision might result into massaged figures as misunderstanding between the debt providers and the audit committee could take place. The reason behind this is that the debt providers will assume that the audit committee has already reviewed the loan compliance audits of the firm and vice-versa (Louwers et al. 2013). Therefore, it can be said that there is negligence and lack of responsibility within the firm. Principles of the auditors (APES 110) According to the ICAEW, there are some codes of ethics that are comprised of five fundamental principles and should be followed by an auditor. The reason behind this is that these fundamental principles will help an organization to run systematically, ethically and also successfully. On the basis of detailed study, it can be said that the code of ethics is considered as a statement of principles and the expectations of the governing behavior of the organizations and individuals in the conduct of auditing (internal). The five fundamental principles that an auditor should follow include Integrity, Objectivity, Confidentiality, Professional competence and due care and Professional behavior (Icaew.com. 2016). It has been found that all these principles comply with the principles that are involved in the IFAC Code of Ethics (Ricchiute 2014). Firstly, the principle of integrity compels a compulsion on every professional accountant to remain honest as well as straightforward in the busines s and professional associations. This principle also includes emphasis on truthfulness and fair dealing. Secondly, the principle of objectivity compels a commitment on the professional accountants regarding not to cooperate the judgment regarding business or professional due to any biasness, undue impact of others and conflict of interest. Thirdly, the principle of confidentiality among internal auditors represents the ownership and value of information that they obtain, but do not disclose them without the permission of the accurate authority. Fourthly, the principle of professional competence and due care compels mainly two obligations. These include maintenance of professional knowledge as well as skills at the required level for ensuring the employers or clients have received the knowledgeable professional service (Sharbatoghlie and Sepehri 2014). It also involves the diligent according to the professional and technical standards at the time of giving professional services. Las tly, the principle of professional behavior puts importance on obligation for complying with the pertinent regulations and laws. However, the objective of APES 110 Code of ethics is to serve a general idea regarding the framework and also to help the members (auditors) in accessing the pertinent sections of the particular Code more effectively. It can be said that the overview of this APES 110 Code of Ethics is not considered as the replacement of the Code, rather it is used as a conjunction with the Code of ethics (Cpaaustralia.com.au 2016). The APES 110 Code of ethics are divided into three parts Part A, part B and Part C. Part A is applied to all the members, where as Part B is applied to those members only who are in public practice. Lastly, Part C is applied to those members who are associated with business; however, this part is also considered as relevant for those members in public practice. The Part A illustrates the overarching responsibility for acting in the fundamental codes of principles and public interest. It covers the threats that are related to compliance with the elementary principles and safeguards and along with the conceptual framework. The Part B highlights the process, which have described the conceptual framework in the Part A and the method by which it is implemented among the members. Lastly, the Part C puts emphasis on the process by which both the conceptual framework and Part A have been applied to the members within the business. Importance of auditing hidden agendas The hidden agendas should be audited because this helps the firm as well as the auditors of the firm to determine whether the particular company is running ethically and effectively. The auditing of the hidden agendas help to protect the particular firm from making any financial misstatements and thus, it presents a reliable health of the firm (Whittington and Pany 2015). Moreover, this also helps the firms to provide protection from fraudulent activities. In addition to these, the auditing of the hidden agendas also help the firm to determine its objectives, risk of misstatement can be avoided and cost of capital can be maintained. Principles not followed in the case study The case study mentions that the company has experienced volatility due to the current financial, crisis. However, as per the case study, it can be hereby ascertained that the financial declarations of the mentioned company do not contain any information regarding the impact of the financial crisis. Accordingly, it can be inferred that the company might possibly face risk of defaulting on certain debt agreement (Arens et al. 2013). Furthermore, the financial announcements of the business concern also do not contain the scheduled quarterly compliance reports on the entire loan portfolio of the firm that forms a necessary part of the portfolio financial performance reporting of the firm. Thus, it can be hereby inferred that the company breaches certain principles of auditing. As per the AUASB standards as explicated under ASA 100 Preamble to the AUASB Standards and ASA 101 Preamble to Australian Auditing Standards as well as the Foreword to AUASB Pronouncements declared by the AUASB, f inancial reports of the firm needs to follow a structured format (DeFond and Zhang 2014). This also needs to represent the historical information in an appropriate format counting connected notes, communicating economic resources of a business entity or else obligations at different points of time or else the alterations therein for a particular period as per the financial reporting outline. The financial announcements need to have related notes that normally contain a summary of the significant accounting strategies as well as explanatory evidence. As per the section 110 of the APES code of ethics, maintenance of integrity refers to definite principles where members related to the reports or else other company information need not knowingly be related to materially false information, misleading information, furnish vague information or else omit information that needs to be included (Eilifsenet al. 2013). Again, as per this code of conduct, it is important to furnish the historical financial information related to the company deciphered mainly from the accounting system of the business entity, different economic events that took place in the past or else economic conditions or else circumstances that occurred in the past. Therefore, it can be said that the management of the company violates the principle of professional behavior as mentioned under section 150 of APES Co de of Conduct. As per 150.1APES Code of Conduct, it is important to conform to different relevant regulations as well as directives and avoid any activity or exclusion that particular members know can adversely affect or discredit the overall profession (Elderet al. 2012). Again, as per the ethical code of conduct, it is imperative to furnish special purpose financial statements that need to meet financial information requirements of particular users of the financial information of the business concern. As per section 290.500 Introduction to restrictions on diverse uses as well as distribution, it is important to assess the special purpose financial reports as per the applicable financial statement framework that includes fair presentation of the report (Gayand Simnett2013). Therefore, missing information regarding the impact of the financial crisis in the macro environment of the business in the report violates this principle of special purpose financial reports. The financial statements also do not present the requisite notes that contain explanations of the financial fluctuations, changes in the final accounts, guidance notes in the reports. As per the AAS 10 and the Companies Act, it is important to mention unqualified opinion that is also missing in case of the present company (Gendron and Power 2015). Again, there is a breach of the principle AAS 21 that refers to the act of non-compliance and indicates towards actions of omission as well as commission by the particular business entity that is audited that can be either intentional or else unintentional that are also contrary to the prevailing regulations or else directives. As a member of the audit committee of the business company, it can be inferred that the company has failed to meet the compli ance requirements. In addition to this, the business entity has failed to meet the principles of the AUST (291.113 to 291.118) loans and guarantees. In addition to this, the lack of documentation in the financial reports leads to adverse influences on the financial interests of different related parties including the people in the governance. The company also violates the Principle of Documentation as per section 290.29 of APES that calls for the need of producing evidences of the judgments of different members regarding the threats and the acceptable limits of different threats to the business (Hayeset al. 2014). Audit Compliance on the loan portfolio As per the standard AASB 9 B4.10, there are different contractual provisions that can allow the issuer to pay the debt instruments or else allow the holder to put a specific debt instrument back to the specific issuer before the period of maturity. There are audit compliance of the loan portfolio of the particular business firm mentioned in the present case study as this can help the management of the firm in better management of risk as well as proactive management of the entire portfolio. In addition to this, the audit of the loan portfolio can help the management of the firm in immediate recognition of specific anomalies as well as errors that are not as per the regulatory policies, namely, the limits of approval, schedules, process of refinancing and many others. Furthermore, the audit of the loan portfolio can also assist the process of recognition of loans in different arrears or else improper disbursements for prevention of negative influences on the balance sheet. Explanation on missing agenda items As per the present case study, the audit committee needs to investigate the profile of the corporation as well as the significant risks faced by the business concern that mainly includes the economic conditions in the market. The missing agenda items that can be detected in the present case includes the lack of the expanded disclosure as per SEC of different business activities during the financial crisis. This in turn has affected the financial condition of the firm. The financial announcements of the business concern also do not contain the scheduled quarterly compliance reports on the entire loan portfolio of the firm that forms a necessary part of the portfolio financial performance reporting of the firm. In addition to this, as per the regulations of the PCAOB, the missing agenda items also include lack of proper communication of the principle considerations of different audit matters that can affect the judgment of the auditor. The presentation of the performance audit reports to the lenders also missing that was supposed to be present in the agenda. Importance of reviewing loan compliance audits Compliance audits considers as the comprehensive review dependent upon organization adherence to given regulatory guidelines (William, Glover and Prawitt 2016). This includes independent accounting as well as security and IT consultants for evaluating the strength and thoroughness in accordance with compliance preparations. In other words, auditors are responsible to review the security policies as well as user access controls and risk management procedures within the potential course of compliance audit (Alles, Kogan and Vasarhelyi 2012). It is essential for testing the credit quality by way of sampling loan portfolio by reviewing the parameters. It is necessary for gaining understanding on potential problem loans in the given portfolio for identification purpose. From the given case study, audit committee failed in identifying the actual cause of loan compliance and debt covenants borne by the particular company (Arens, Elder and Beasley 2012). From the case study on auditing of hidden agendas, it can be reviewed that credit administration assessment involves attributes such as loan policies as well as procedures for future analysis purpose (Simnett, Vanstraelen and Chua 2014). It requires getting loan authorities into action by the audit committee before providing loan to the lenders. Loan underwriting as well as credit analysis function are the given areas that needs to be reviewed by the audit committee and solve the case study issue on loan compliance. In other words, loan documentation standards as well as standards help in analyzing audit compliance function as followed by the audit committee (Alles, Kogan and Vasarhelyi 2012). Conclusion and Recommendations At the end of the study, it is concluded that the company mentioned in the case study has no agenda items in relation to impact of financial crisis. This means the company has some massaged figures that need to taken into consideration by the audit committee before providing loan compliance to the lenders. All professional accountants should follow the code of ethics diligently whereby member of audit committee should be straightforward as well as honest in maintaining cordial relationships. Entire assignment takes into loan compliance activities and debt covenants. In other words, importance of auditing hidden agenda is mentioned whereby it can be seen that audit committee should not misinterpret any figures of the company. Audit committee should find the potential causes behind the absence of agenda items as analyzed at the time of meeting. According to APES 110, there should not be any of omission, alteration of financial information of any form. In the case study, there was misre presented figures found by the member of audit committee. As per 150 of APES conduct, principle of professional behavior is violated in the case study that should be avoided because it adversely affect the auditing profession. References Alles, M.G., Kogan, A. and Vasarhelyi, M.A., 2012. Feasibility and economics of continuous assurance. Auditing: A Journal of Practice Theory, 21(1), pp.125-138. Arens, A., Best, P., Shailer, G., Fiedler, B., Elder, R. and Beasley, M., 2013.Auditing, assurance services and ethics in Australia: an integrated approach. Pearson Education Australia. Arens, A.A., Elder, R.J. and Beasley, M.S., 2012. Auditing and assurance services: an integrated approach. Prentice Hall. Boynton, W.C. and Johnson, R.N., 2015. Modern auditing: Assurance services and the integrity of financial reporting. Wiley. Cpaaustralia.com.au. 2016.An overview of APES 110 Code of Ethics. [online] Available at: https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/professional-resources/ethics/apes/overview [Accessed 29 Dec. 2016]. DeFond, M. and Zhang, J., 2014. A review of archival auditing research. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 58(2), pp.275-326. Eilifsen, A., Messier, W.F., Glover, S.M. and Prawitt, D.F., 2013.Auditing and assurance services. McGraw-Hill. Elder, R.J., Beasley, M.S. and Arens, A.A., 2012.Auditing and Assurance services. Pearson Higher Ed. Furnham, A. and Gunter, B., 2015. Corporate Assessment (Routledge Revivals): Auditing a Company's Personality. Routledge. Gay, G.E. and Simnett, R., 2013. Auditing and assurance services in Australia. Mcgraw-hill. Gendron, Y. and Power, M.K., 2015. Research Forum on Qualitative Research in Auditing. AUDITING: A Journal of Practice Theory, 34(2), pp.1-2. Hayes, R., Wallage, P. and Gortemaker, H., 2014.Principles of auditing: an introduction to international standards on auditing. Pearson Higher Ed. Icaew.com. 2016.Code of Ethics general application | Regulations standards and guidance | ICAEW | ICAEW. [online] Available at: https://www.icaew.com/en/membership/regulations-standards-and-guidance/ethics/code-of-ethics-a [Accessed 29 Dec. 2016]. Knechel, W.R., Salterio, S.E. and Ballou, B., 2013. Auditing: assurance risk. South-Western College Pub.. Leung, P., Coram, P. and Cooper, B., 2014. Modern auditing assurance services. John Wiley Sons Australia. Louwers, T.J., Ramsay, R.J., Sinason, D.H., Strawser, J.R. and Thibodeau, J.C., 2013. Auditing and assurance services. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Messier Jr, W., 2016. Auditing assurance services: A systematic approach. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Porter, B., Simon, J. and Hatherly, D., 2014. Principles of external auditing. John Wiley Sons. Reading, K.F., 2015. Internal auditing: assurance consulting services. Institute of Internal Auditors, Research Foundation. Ricchiute, D.N., 2014. Auditing and assurance services. South Western Educational Publishing. Sexton, T 2009, Auditing hidden agendas, In TheBlack, March,p.63 Sharbatoghlie, A. and Sepehri, M., 2015. An Integrated Continuous Auditing Project Management Model (CAPM). In 4th International Project Management Conference. Simnett, R., Vanstraelen, A. and Chua, W.F., 2014. Assurance on sustainability reports: An international comparison. The Accounting Review, 84(3), pp.937-967. Whittington, R. and Pany, K., 2015. Principles of auditing and other assurance services. Irwin/McGraw-Hill. William Jr, M., Glover, S. and Prawitt, D., 2016. Auditing and Assurance Services: A Systematic Approach. Auditing and Assurance Services: A Systematic Approach. Zadek, S., Evans, R. and Pruzan, P., 2013. Building corporate accountability: Emerging practice in social and ethical accounting and auditing. Routledge.

The Women Of The Hindu Religion Essays - Gender Studies,

The Women of the Hindu Religion Universally, the women of the world have been trying to gain the same opportunities as the men. The women in India who are committed to the Hindu religion have been struggling for years to break the traditions. The women of the Hindu religion had many challenges in becoming a nineties women. In the Hindu religion the traditional values are sacred and cannot be broken. Even with these restrictions the Hindu women have passed many obstacles and became the women that they want to be today. In this paper, I will go into detail about the women of Hinduism. I will focus on two main areas. The first area is marriage. A big part of marriage deals with tradition, abuse, divorce, and the commitment that a women has to put into the marriage. Education is another main obstacle that Hindu women pushed their way past; however, women that are well educated cause a lot of problems within the Hindu religion. The first area that I researched was Hindu marriage. Marriage is extremely sacred in the Hindu religion. The women get wed at a very young age. The common age is 17-20, which for me is hard to comprehend. However, in India this age is very common and still to this day women are becoming wed at a young age. Many women are urged to wait until after they get out of school, but if they follow the Hindu tradition it says that home and marriage comes before all other obligations. According to the Indian Caste Systems by O'Malley, "It is necessary for an orthodox Hindu to get his daughters married before the age of puberty: an unmarried daughter is a matter for reproach and causes a family to be looked down upon" (O'Malley 91). One thing that caught my attention when I was reading was if an unwed girl dies, the family honor is saved my paying a man to go through a form of marriage with the corpse. In the United States it is common for people to meet their future husband or wife through a mutual place of work or acquaintances; however, in India many of the women meet their husbands through adds in the Hindustan Times. The add in this particular newspaper says, "A typical abbreviation used to be 22/160, the young woman's age and height. It is now 22/160/2,200, her monthly earnings" (Mitter, 20). As you can see the women have progressed, but there is still a problem considering that the women must place an add to find a suitor. Another obstacle that women had to overcome is the caste system. In the Hindu society the caste system is the basis of their religion, so it is important for the people of the religion to follow the rules as they are written. The men had to marry women within the same caste system or from a lower caste system with permission. In the book Indian Caste Systems it is noted that, "It is necessary for every Hindu to marry so as to have a son, for his salvation after death depends on offering duly made by one lawfully begotten: if a man has not go one, he should adopt a son, who will be as capable of performing the necessary rites" (O'Malley 90-91). Marriage is a sacred event and according to orthodox Hindu belief, women can only perform this once in her life time. Women are taught at a young age that their husbands are earthly gods and that men are superior beings. So, from a young age the Hindu women are taught to feel less than their husbands and all men. If a Hindu women is a widow of a high caste she is prohibited to remarry; however, many women of lower castes do remarry and go against the Hindu tradition. Another big taboo in the Hindu system is if the wife commits adultery it is said, "she should be torn apart by dogs". In the past few years divorce has become more common in the Indian tradition, but the women that go through with it are looked down upon. Abuse in the Hindu religion is very common, but it is overlooked and

Sculpturing of the earths surface

Aldis Micro environment

Aldis Micro environment Introduction Aldi is a German Based multinational company that operates in the discounted stores sector. Having started its operations back in the year 1946, the company has grown to the extent that it controls 8078 stores around the world today. The company entered the United Kingdom in 1990 with the opening of a single store. As of today, the company has managed to open four hundred stores across the United Kingdom.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Aldi’s Micro environment specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This growth has put the company amongst one of the most competitive companies in the Hypermarkets, Supermarkets and Superstores sector in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, the company operates within a competitive micro environment. This implies that there are a substantial number of stakeholders in the sector in which Aldi operates (International Markets Bureau 2011). This paper explores the inter nal and external environment in which Aldi operates in the United Kingdom. The paper begins by examining the key stakeholders of the company. This is followed by a Porter’s five forces analysis, which helps to capture the macro environment in which the company operates. The paper ends by drawing recommendations from the findings, which can be used by Aldi to gain a competitive position in the United Kingdom. Key Stakeholder Groups in Aldi’s Micro Environment The government and regulators Each stakeholder plays a given role in as far as the influence of operation for companies is concerned. The government plays a greater role in setting the business environment. It influences the operation of a given company from the macro and even narrows down to shape the micro environment (Fassin 2009). The UK government, especially the ministry of trade ensures that comprehensive trade policies are in place in order to steer the operation of business companies. The government ensure s that the operational environment is fair for all the companies operating in the HSS. The retail laws are set by the government. Also, the government ensures that labour laws are effectively developed. The social and environmental policy matters are also coordinated by the government. The government does not have needs per se, but helps in setting standards that are required for effective business operation (International Markets Bureau 2011). Customers The other critical stakeholders in the micro environment are the customers (Fassin 2009). Research has pointed out that customers are the most valid stakeholders by any company, including Aldi. The reason behind this is that customers are the main sources of competitive advantage by virtue of their shopping trends and habits.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The growth of Aldi is associated with its ability to prov ide diverse services, which have enabled them to gain a substantial number of customers over time. Customers have their expectations of the company. Customers have been demanding for services at discounted prices. This enables the customers to attain goods at lesser costs. This is because of the higher cost of living that has been brought about by the recent tough economic conditions in the country and the world at large (NFU n.d). Suppliers Suppliers are vital for companies that deal with the marketing of a wide range of products. Aldi offers a wide range of products. This is one of the positioning factors for the company. The relevance of the suppliers to the company is to ensure sustainable supply of goods to the company (Fassin 2009). Aldi gets its supplies from different manufacturers and processors. In order to ensure that it maintains its relationship with its customers, a company has to ensure that it maintains a stable relationship with its suppliers so that they can keep s upplying quality products. Through the maintenance of a working relationship with their suppliers, the company is able to get a constant supply of products and services. The main need for suppliers is to ensure that they secure a relationship with the company so that they can maintain the company as one of their chains where they make their supplies. Employees According to Fassin (2009), employees are the immediate stakeholders in the company. When it comes to the issue of employees, Aldi focuses on two things: The maintenance of their employees through deployment of best practices in human resource management and the outsourcing of high quality employees from the lumber industry in the United Kingdom. As mentioned earlier, Aldi operates four hundred stores in the United Kingdom. This points out that the company has a substantial amount of employees in the country. The company has attained most of its managerial employees from the Universities in the United Kingdom. The employees ne ed to be maintained by the company through a better pay and other practices of performance management (NFU n.d).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Aldi’s Micro environment specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Communities Communities are another critical group of stakeholders in the company. The company draws its customers from the communities in areas where it has set its retail stores. It is argued that the only way through which a company can establish positive relationships and attachment to the community is by employing best practices in corporate social responsibility (Fassin 2009). These entail the support of activities and functions within the community. It also involves engagement in sustainable management and environmental conservation. These practices make the communities to be drawn near the company. Aldi has a policy on corporate social responsibility, which helps it to establish and sustain relationsh ips with the communities in the UK (NFU n.d). Porter’s Five Forces Analysis of Aldi in the UK’s HSS Sector The HSS sector is comprised of a substantial number of operators, thereby making the sector to be quite competitive. This implies that any company that aims at attaining a competitive position in the sector has to make efforts to understand the factors of competitiveness in the sector. Though still faced with challenges that impede its competitiveness in the UK HSS sector, Aldi has been active in the sector and has managed to gain a substantive amount of customers due its mastery of the macro environment and the subsequent adoption of competitive practices. Threat of new competition One thing that is feared by business companies, yet the most critical determiner for their performance is competition. Firms are required to keep monitoring and assessing the developments in the industry in which they operate to gain knowledge on how to adjust their activities in the m arket. This ensures competitiveness in the market (Draganska Klapper 2007). The HSS in the UK retail industry is comprised of a number of companies that have operated in the industry for a relatively longer period of time. Such companies include Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrissonswhereas and Asda (Hall 2011). Aldi is not considered as a new entrant in the HSS of the UK since it has operated in the UK for more than 20 years. The company has gained competitiveness in the industry through a strategic move, which made it venture into discount retailing. However, it has been noted that a substantial number of companies are opting to invest in the discount retailing in the future because of the developments in the current market (Brown 2013). This calls for Aldi to adjust its activities by making adjustments to the offers made to its customers.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This is the best way through which the company can maintain its customers. The advantage for Aldi is that it has already operated in the discounted retailing for an extended period of time, thereby attracting a substantial number of customers. Threat of substitute products or services When there are numerous companies operating in an industry, substitute products or services are used as differential factors for companies in the market (Lusch, Vargo O’Brien 2007). The HSS industry in the UK has a high number of players who provide varied services to their customers. When a company uses the feature well, it easily gains a competitive advantage over other companies in the market. Aldi provides a wide range of products and services to its customers, for instance the weekly price offers and the special buy deals. This enables the company to attract a wide range of customers in the UK retail market (International Markets Bureau 2011). Bargaining power of customers The customers pu rchase the products and services of firms, thereby enabling firms to sustain their operations in the market. The purchasing behaviour of customers is shaped by a number of factors. Among these factors are the economic conditions and the offers that are made on purchases by the company. Brown (2013) observed that the current economic conditions in the world raised the conditions of living, forcing customers to cut down their expenditure on goods and services. This means that the bargaining power of customers is low, and they prefer to purchase from retailers who help them save. Therefore, the offers on the prices of goods and services favour a substantial number of buyers. This is what has enhanced the performance of Aldi in the recent years of operation in the UK HSS sector (Hall 2011). Bargaining power of suppliers Grewal and Levy (2009) observed that each company seeks for suppliers who can ensure it gets quality products at competitive prices in order to draw profits from the sup plies. Aldi offers its customers a wide range of products. This implies that the company has a large number of suppliers from which it gets the products. The prices that are offered to the suppliers by the company are drawn from the industry since the company has to ensure that its customers get the goods at affordable prices. Therefore, Aldi has developed strong links with a number of suppliers, who offers them supplies at discounted prices. This in turn enables the company to extend the discounts to their customers, which boosts their sales. In turn, this enables the company to get more supplies and benefit the suppliers (International Markets Bureau 2011). Intensity of competitive rivalry The intensity of competition in an industry is dictated by the number of active players in the industry and the nature of service offing to the customers by the players. The UK HSS has a number of well established companies like Sainsbury, Morrissonswhereas, Asda and Tesco. These companies are c onsidered as the main competitors for Aldi in the sector (Hall 2011). Their higher level of competitiveness resonates from the fact that they have been in operation in the country longer and have well expanded retail stores when compared to Aldi. However, Aldi has been strategic, a factor that enables the compact to ease the competitive pressures from the giant companies in the sector. Aldi has managed to ease the competitive pressure by fully venturing into discount retailing. As of today, it is argued that Aldi is one of the leading companies in discounted retailing in the UK. The discount retailers have continued to mount pressure on large supermarkets across the UK (International Markets Bureau 2011). Conclusion and recommendations According to the findings of this paper, Aldi is one of the most competitive companies in the UK retailing industry. The company has managed to gain competitiveness through the deployment of a number of strategic moves, such as venturing into discount ed retailing and higher diversification of the number and types of products. Therefore, the company has a high likelihood of continuing performing remarkably in the UK. This can be done through a number of practices. Aldi needs to increase the diversity in its service offering in order to capture the diverse groups of customers in the UK. The number of discounted offers ought to be extended so that they can favour buyers from the middle class, as well as those from the high class. At the same time, there is need for the company to start venturing into other sectors of the UK retail industry. This can be attained through research in order to enable the company to identify the best way to diversify its operating segments. Future prospects point to the fact that customers prefer discounting as a way of saving. Therefore, Aldi can enhance its competitiveness by opening more discounted stores across the entire UK. Presentation Speech In this paper, I present a clear picture of the comp etitive position of Aldi by putting the company within the perspective of the HSS industry in the UK. The three issues in areas of analysis of the company that I have focused on are: The stakeholder analysis, the Porter’s five force analysis and the recommendations. The stakeholder analysis has focused on five main stakeholders. These are: The government and regulators, suppliers, customers, employees, and the communities. The five forces analysis has explored the key areas of competitiveness of the company in the UK retail industry. From the discussion, I have derived three main recommendations for the company. Reference List Brown, J 2013, ‘Every Lidl helps: bargain hunters flock to German masters of no-frills shopping’, The Independent, independent.co.uk/news/business/news/every-Aldi-helps-bargain-hunters-flock-to-german-masters-of-nofrills-shopping-7888984.html Draganska, M Klapper, D 2007, ‘Retail environment and manufacturer competitive intensityâ₠¬â„¢, Journal of Retailing, vol. 83 no. 2, pp. 183-198. Fassin, Y 2009, ‘The stakeholder model refined’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 84 no. 1, pp. 113-135. Grewal, D Levy, M 2009,’ Emerging issues in retailing research’, Journal of Retailing, vol. 85 no. 4, pp. 522-526. Hall, J 2011, ‘Aldi and Lidl increase market shares as shoppers cut back’, The Telegraph, telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8296774/Aldi-and-Lidl-increase-market-shares-as-shoppers-cut-back.html International Markets Bureau 2011, The United Kingdom: A sophisticated retail sector, ats-sea.agr.gc.ca/eur/5735-eng.htm Lusch, RF, Vargo, SL O’Brien, M 2007, Competing through service: Insights from service-dominant logic, Journal of Retailing, vol. 83 no. 1, pp. 5–18. NFU n.d, Review of grocery retailer CSR policies, https://www.google.com/url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=ssource=webcd=10cad=rjaved=0CHsQFjAJurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nfuonline.com%2FOur-work%2FF ood-chain%2FNews%2FNFU-Supermarkets-CSR-report-28-6-12%2Fei=WPAIUePTNIHTtAbDioDgAwusg=AFQjCNHyaeMIz0hL-7px0Anow06OnGTvmAbvm=bv.41642243,d.Yms

Visual Arts Manet Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Visual Arts Manet - Research Paper Example We are then going to look at the difference in thinking between the artist and the public opinion. We are finally going to conclude by airing opinions, on whose thinking creates an insight to the human population (Sturken & Cartwright, 2008). As I had mentioned, we shall start by analyzing Manete’s work, of 1862-3. Le dejeuner sur l'herbeis is one of the initial artistic wok that Manet ever did. He made this painting in 1862-3. It generated substantial debate amongst many young painters, who desired to create impressionism in art. Together with Olympia, they marked the genesis of modern art. In English, this piece of art means the luncheon on the grass. It is a sketch like art, which comprises of two men and one woman. The men are well groomed in black coats and superb pairs of trouser. On the other hand, the lady is entirely nude. On the other end, there is another woman seem to be washing something in a river. The whole setting is in the wild. The three (i.e. the two men and the naked lady) appear to be discussing something. The lady is more aligned to the man on her right side, and his legs are crossing under hers. There is a basket of fruits, and some snacks by their side. The food stuff is in a disorganized ma nner, which is suggestive that they have already dealt with it, though there are some remainders. This piece of art was out rightly rejected in 1863, at the Paris salon (Herbert,1991). After the rejection, it was exhibited at â€Å"salon of the rejected† later in the same year. Emperor Napoleon instigated this salon, after the rejection of more than 4,000 paintings, during that year’s salon. Another thing that led to its rejection is the fact that it had a sketch-like handling and innovation. This piece of art reveals that Manet had studied previous arts. This is evident through the fact that the main figures in this art were similar to those of Judgment of Paris. Judgment Paris is an engraving by Raimondi’s. It was made in c.1515 and was grounded on Raphael’s drawing. He also seems to have borrowed a leave from the tempest. The tempest was developed in c.1510. He also seems to have taken some idea from the pastrol concert. In the pastrol concert, two fully groomed men, and a nude woman, seated on some grass while making some music. All the artistic wo rks we have mentioned above seem to be carrying some vital cultural information. For instance, there is the common message of gender, and gender role in portrayed in them. They portray the role of a woman in the traditional, western society. The woman is portrayed as the minor, while men are portrayed as senior. This is shown through the act of drawing the women naked, while the men are fully groomed. The roles of a woman are also portrayed in Manet’s oil painting, whereby the woman is doing some washing, while the men and the other naked woman, are just seated down. In addition, it seems to pet ray the traditional western culture, and their way of living, and entertainment. For instance, they would go out into the natural world; in this case the forest, where they would have their meals/snacks. For instance, in the pastrol concert, the characters enjoy playing music, while seated on the grass. Apparently, in their culture, it was a form of entertainment to see naked women. F antasy rape â€Å", is a recent (2007) advertisement, which triggered a pronounced debate amongst many people. It is a print advertisement, wh

Westboro Baptist Church or Current Controversial Topic Essay

Westboro Baptist Church or Current Controversial Topic - Essay Example Later, in his testimony during the court case about the WBC’s deplorable actions—actions that should be stopped by community action and by legislation—Snyder stated, â€Å""They turned this funeral into a media circus and they wanted to hurt my family. They wanted their message heard and they didn't care who they stepped over. My son should have been buried with dignity, not with a bunch of clowns outside† (â€Å"Father† n.p.). The Westboro Baptist Church, located in Topeka, Kansas, has been protesting at funerals since 1991. As of 2009, they claim to have participated in over 41,000 protests in over 650 cities, and spend an average of $250,000 a year on picketing. They travel all over the U.S. to picket the funerals of anyone associated with gay people. For example, they picketed at the 1998 funeral of murder victim Matthew Shepherd and the 2010 funeral of Elizabeth Edwards because she supported gay people (Borger n.p.). The WBC also protests at funerals of slain military personnel like Snyder’s.Why would the WBC participate in such activities—activities that even Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly calls â€Å"evil and despicable† (Cohen n.p.)? ... They picket at funerals to express their views, and to get the word out about their opposition to gay rights, the Catholic Church, Jews, and other topics. They believe that anyone who is opposed to their way of seeing things is going to hell, and they feel compelled to make sure that people know this. Several weeks after Matthew Snyder’s funeral, for example, the WBC denounced Snyder’s family for raising their son Catholic. There have been many responses to their actions. One of these is through the courts, which is what the Snyder family did. Later in 2007, they sued Fred Phelps, the Westboro Baptist Church, and two of Phelps’ daughters on several legal grounds, including defamation and invasion of privacy. The suit claimed that Phelps’ religious views did not expose the Snyders to public hatred or scorn. The WBC’s main defense, in addition to exercising their constitutional right to free speech and free assembly, was that they had complied with al l local ordinances regarding picketing and had obeyed all police instructions. The picket occurred 1000 feet from the funeral site, in a location cordoned off by the police, and could neither be seen or heard by the funeral participants. The judge, in his instructions to the jury, said that they needed to decide â€Å"whether the defendant's actions would be highly offensive to a reasonable person, whether they were extreme and outrageous and whether these actions were so offensive and shocking as to not be entitled to First Amendment protection† (Donaldson-Evans n.p.). This is the crux of the argument against the WBC, and perhaps explains the outcome of the case: the jury awarded Albert Snyder almost $3 million in punitive damages for invasion

Registrar Sample Letter to Student Essay Example for Free

Registrar Sample Letter to Student Essay FOR INFORMATION ONLY ACCUMULATED FAILING GRADES Faculty: This letter is being sent to you on behalf of the Dean of your Faculty. This notice carries no academic penalty. A review of your UVic undergraduate records shows that you had accumulated five (5) or more failing grades over the course of your undergraduate studies at UVic (you may not have been assigned a failing grade in the current session). As your sessional gpa is adversely affected by any failing grades and as a low sessional gpa may cause you to become ineligible to continue your studies and be asked to withdraw from UVic (please see the sections under STANDING and WITHDRAWAL in the University Calendar) this letter is being sent to you for information only to help you avoid these possibilities. Please consider the following suggestions: 1. Choose your courses carefully 2. Avoid overloading yourself: be aware of your personal time commitment 3. Monitor your academic progress carefully on an on-going basis, being mindful of academic drop deadlines 4. Check with your department Undergraduate Advisor about course selection or to see if supplementary tutoring is available for particular problem courses 5. Talk with a Faculty Academic Advisor or the Assistant Dean to review your program/degree selection if necessary. 6. Consult Counselling Services if you require assistance with your study skills Best wishes for success in your future studies. Undergraduate Records University of Victoria FW

Dividend Payout Decision Making Process

Dividend Payout Decision Making Process CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Background: Dividend policy is an important component of the corporate financial management policy. It is a policy used by the firm to decide as to how much cash it should reinvest in its business through expansion or share repurchases and how much to pay out to its shareholders in dividends. Dividend is a payment or return made by the firm to the shareholders, (owners of the company) out of its earnings in the form of cash. For a long time, the subject of corporate dividend policy has captivated the interests of many academicians and researchers, resulting in the emergence of a number of theoretical explanations for dividend policy. For the investors, dividend serve as an important indicator of the strength and future prosperity of the business, thereby companies try to maintain a stable dividend because if they reduce their dividend payments, investors may suspect that the company is facing a cash flow problem. Investors prefer steady growth of dividends every year and are reluctant to investm ent to companies with fluctuating dividend policy. Over time, there has been a substantial increase in the number of factors identified in the literature as being important to be considered in making dividend decisions. Thus, extensive studies have been done to find out various factors affecting dividend payout ratio of a firm. However, there is no single explanation that can capture the puzzling reality of corporate dividend behavior. Ocean deep judgment is involved by decision makers to resolve this issue of dividend behavior. The decision of companies to retain or pay out the earnings in form of dividends is important for the maximization of the value of the firm (Oyejide, 1976). Therefore, companies should set a constructive target dividend payout ratio, where it pays dividends to its shareholders and at the same time maintains sufficient retained earnings as to avoid having raise funds by borrowing money. A tough challenge was faced by financial practitioners and many academics, when Miller and Modigliani (MM) (1961) came with a proposition that, given perfect capital markets, the dividend decision does not affect the firm value and is, therefore, irrelevant. This proposition was greeted with surprise because at that time it was universally acknowledged by both theorists and corporate managers that the firm can enhance its business value by providing for a more generous dividend policy and that a properly managed dividend policy had an impact on share prices and shareholder wealth. Since the MM study, many researchers have relaxed the assumption of perfect capital markets and stated theories about how managers should formulate dividend policy decisions. Problem Statement: Dividend policy has attracted a substantial amount of research by many researchers and theorists, who have provided theoretical as well as empirical observations, into the dividend puzzle (Black, 1976). Even though researchers and theorists have extended their studies in context to dividend decisions, the issue as to why corporations distribute a portion of their earnings as dividends is not yet resolved. The issue of dividend policy has stimulated much debate among financial analysts since Lintners (1956) seminal work. He measured major changes in earnings as the key determinant of the companies dividend decisions. There are many factors that affect dividend decisions of a firm as it is very difficult to lay down an optimum dividend policy which would maximize the long-run wealth of the shareholders resulting into increase or decrease of the firms value, but the primary indicator of the firms capacity to pay dividends has been Profits. Miller and Modigliani (1961), DeAngelo and DeAngelo (2006) gave their proposition on the dividend irrelevance, but the argument made by them was on assumptions that werent practical and in fact, the dividend payout decision does affect the shareholders value. The study focuses on identifying various determinants of dividend payout and whether these factors influence the dividend payout decision. Research Objective: There are many theories in the corporate finance literature addressing the dividend issue. The purpose of study is to understand the factors influencing the dividend decision of companies. The specific objectives of this study are: To analyze the financials of the company, to draw a framework of factors such as Retained earnings, Age of the company, Debt to Equity, Cash, Net income, Earnings per share etc. responsible for dividend declaration. To understand the criticality of a companys profitability (in terms of Earnings per share) component in declaration of dividends. To measure each factor individually on how it affects the dividend decision. Research Questions: RQ1. What is the relation between dividend payout and firms debt? RQ2. What is the relation between dividend payout and Profitability? RQ3. What is the relation between dividend payout and liquidity? RQ4. What is the relation between dividend payout and Retained Earnings? RQ5. What is the relation between dividend payout and Net Income? Contribution of the Study: Dividend decision is an important financial decision made by firms, managers, and investors. This study aims to contribute to the corporate finance literature, by looking at the Dividend puzzle. An attempt is made to make a valuable contribution in two major ways: Theoretical and Empirical approach is taken to provide a comprehensive view on the subject. The empirical Approach taken in this study will definitely leave some promising future ideas. The empirical findings and conclusions contained in this study can be used by financial managers to inform dividend decisions. Limitations of Study: The areas of concern to investigate in this study are extensive. Due to the Time constraint and accessibility of data, the research will be limited to the following: The period of study is only three years 2006 to 2008. The research has considered only those firms who pay dividends. The study is focused only on firms trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Structure of the Paper: The remaining chapters will be organized as follows: Chapter Two: Literature Review This chapter discusses the different theories laid down in context to dividend policy and explains the relationship between dividend payout and its determinants as concluded by the study of different researchers and theorists. Chapter Three: Research Methodology This chapter explains the research hypothesis and gives a descriptive study of the techniques and the model used for data analysis. The application of the statistical tests used are explained thoroughly. Chapter four: Data Analysis and Findings To address the research questions, results obtained from the regression analysis will be evaluated and discussed in this chapter. Chapter five: Recommendations and Conclusion. This chapter Concludes the entire study and provides recommendations based on the findings and analysis done in the previous chapter and recommendations for future research. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW Dividend remains one of the greatest enigmas of modern finance. Corporate dividend policy is an important decision area in the field of financial management hence there is an extensive literature devoted to the subject. Dividends are defined as the distribution of earnings (present or past) in real assets among the shareholders of the firm in proportion to their ownership. Dividend policy refers to managements long-term decision on how to utilize cash flows from business activities-that is, how much to plow back into the business, and how much to return to shareholders (Khan and Jain, 2005). Lintner (1956) conducted a notable study on dividend distributions, his was the first empirical study of dividend policy through his interview with managers of 28 selected companies, he stated that most companies have clear cut target payout ratios and that managers concern themselves with change in the existing dividend payout rather than the amount of the newly established payout. He also states that, Dividend policy is set first and other policies are then adjusted and the market reacts positively to dividend increase announcements and negatively to announcements of dividend decreases. He measured major changes in earnings as the key determinant of the companies dividend decisions. Lintners study was expanded by Farrelly et al. (1988), who, mailed a questionnaire to 562 firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange and concluded that managers accept dividend policy to be relevant and important. Lintners view was also supported by the study results of Fama and Babiak (1968) and Fama (1974) who suggested that managers prefer a stable dividend policy, and are hesitant to increase dividends to a level that cannot be supported. Fama and Babiaks (1968) study also concludes that Net income appears to explain the dividend change decision better than a cash flow measure. The study by Adaoglu (2000), Amidu and Abor (2006) and Belans et al (2007) stated that net income shows positive and significant association with the dividend payout, therefore indicating that, the firms with the positive earnings pay more dividends. Merton Miller and Franco Modigliani (1961) made a proposition that the value of a firm is not affected by its dividend policy. Dividend policy is a way of dividing up operating cash flows among investors or just a financial decision. Financial theorists Martin, Petty, Keown, and Scott, 1991 supported this theory of irrelevance. Miller and Modiglianis conclusion on the irrelevance of dividend policy presented a tough challenge to the conventional wisdom of time up to that point, it was universally acknowledged by both theorists and corporate managers that the firm can enhance its business value by providing for a more generous dividend policy as investors seem to prefer dividends over capital gains (JM Samuels, FM.Wilkes and R.E Brayshaw). Benartzi et al. (1997) conducted an extensive study and concluded that Lintners model of dividends remains the finest description of the dividend setting process available. Baker et al. (2001) conducted a survey on 630 NASDAQ-listed firms and analyzed the responses from 188 CFOs about the importance of 22 different factors that influence their dividend policy, they found that the dividend decisions made by managers were consistent with Lintners (1956) survey results and model. Their results also suggest that managers pay particular attention to the dividend policy of the firm because the dividend decision can affect firm value and, in turn, the wealth of stockholders, thus dividend policy requires serious attention by the management. E.F Fama and K.R French (2001) investigated the characteristics of companies paying dividends and concluded that the top most characteristics that affect the decision to pay dividends are Firm size, Profitability, and Investment opportunities. They studied dividend payment in the United States and found that the proportion of dividend payers declined sharply from 66% in 1978 to 20.8% in 1999, and that only about a fifth of public companies paid dividends. Growth companies such as Microsoft, Cisco and Sun Microsystems were found to be non-dividend payers. They also explained that the probability that a firm would pay dividends was positively related to profitability and size and negatively related to growth. Their research concluded that larger firms are more profitable and are more likely to pay dividends, than firms with more investment opportunities. The relationship between firm size and dividend policy was studied by Jennifer J. Gaver and Kenneth M. Gaver (1993). They suggested t hat A firms dividend yield is inversely related to the extent of its growth opportunities. The inference here is that as cash flow increases, the coefficient of dividend decreases, indicating that smaller firms that have greater investment opportunities thus they tend not to make dividend payment while larger firms tend to have proactive dividends policy. Ho, H. (2003) undertook a comparative study of dividend policies in Japan and Australia. Their study revealed that dividend policies in Australia and Japan are affected by different financial factors. Dividend policies are affected positively by size in Australia and liquidity in Japan. Naceur et al (2006) examined the dividend policy of 48 firms listed on the Tunisian Stock Exchange during the period 1996-2002. His research indicated that highly profitable firms with more stable earnings could afford larger free cash flows and thus paid larger dividends. Li and Lie (2006) reported that large and profitable firms are more likely to raise their dividends if the past dividend yield, debt ratio, cash ratio are low. A study was conducted by Norhayati Mohamed, Wee Shu Hui, Mormah Hj.Omar, and Rashidah Abdul Rahman on Malaysian companies over a 3 year period from 2003-2005. The sample was taken from the top 200 companies listed on the main board of Bursa Malaysia based on market capitaliza tion as at 31December 2005. Their study concluded that bigger firms pay higher dividends. For the purpose of finding out how companies arrive at their dividend decisions, many researchers and theorists have proposed several dividend theories. Gordon and Walter (1963) presented the Bird in Hand theory which suggested that to minimize risk the investors always prefer cash in hand rather than future promise of capital gain. This theory asserts that investors value dividends and high payout firms. As said by John D. Rockefeller (an American industrialist) The one thing that gives me contentment is to see my dividend coming in. For companies to communicate financial well-being and shareholder value the easiest way is to say the dividend check is in the mail. The bird-in-hand theory (a pre-Miller-Modigliani theory) asserts that dividends are valued differently to capital gains in a world of information asymmetry where due to uncertainty of future cash flow, investors will often tend to prefer dividends to retained earnings. As a result the value of the firm would be increased a s a higher payout ratio will reduce the required rate of return (see, for example Gordon, 1959). This argument has not received any strong empirical support. Dividends, paid by companies to shareholders from earnings, serve as an important indicator of the strength and future prosperity of the business. This explanation is known as signaling hypothesis. Signaling is an example factor for the relevance of dividends to the value of the firm. It is based on the idea of information asymmetry between managers and investors, where managers have private information about the firm that is not available to the outsiders. This theory is supported by models put forward by Miller and Rock (1985), Bhattacharya (1979), John and Williams (1985). They stated that dividends can be used as a signaling device to influence share price. The share price reacts favorably when an announcement of dividend increase is made. Few researchers found limited support for the signaling hypothesis (see Gonedes, 1978 , Watts, 1973) and there are other researchers, who supported the hypothesis, for example, in Michaely, Nissim and Ziv (2001), Pettit (1972) and Bali (2003). The tax-preference theory assumes that the market valuation of a firms stocks is increased when the dividend payout ratios is low which in turn lowers the required rate of return. Because of the relative tax liability of dividends compared to capital gains, investors need a large amount of before-tax risk adjusted return on stocks with higher dividend yields (Brennan, 1970). On one side studies by Lichtenberger and Ramaswamy (1979), Poterba and Summers, (1984), and Barclay (1987) have presented empirical evidence in support of the tax effect argument and on the other side Black and Scholes (1974), Miller and Scholes (1982), and Morgan and Thomas (1998) have either opposed such findings or provided completely different explanations. The study by Masulis and Trueman (1988) model dividend payments in form of cash as products of deferred dividend costs. Their model predicts that investors with differing tax liabilities will not be uniform in their ideal firm dividend policy. As the tax l iability on dividends increases (decreases), the dividend payment decreases (increases) while earnings reinvestment increases (decreases). According to Farrar and Selwyn (1967), in a partial equilibrium framework, individual investors choose the amount of personal and corporate leverage and also whether to receive corporate distributions as dividends or capital gains. Barclay (1987) has presented empirical evidence I support of the tax effect argument. Others, including Black and Scholes (1982), have opposed such findings or provided different explanations. Farrar and Selwyns model (1967) made an assumption that investors tend to increase their after tax income to the maximum. According to this model corporate earnings should be distributed by share repurchase rather than the use of dividends. Brennan (1970) has extended Farrar and Selwyns model into a general equilibrium framework. Under this, the expected usefulness of wealth as a system of barter is maximized. Despite being more robust both the models are similar as regards to their predictions. According to Auerbachs (1979) discrete-time, infinite-horizon model, the wealth of shareholders is maximized by the shareholders themselves and not by firm market value. If there does, infact, exist a difference between capital gains and dividends tax; firm market value maximization is no longer determined by wealth maximization. He states that the continued undervaluation of corporate capital leads to dividend distributions. The clientele effects hypothesis is another related theory. According to this theory the investors may be attracted to the types of stocks that fall in with their consumption/savings preferences. That is, investors (or clienteles) in high tax brackets may prefer non-dividend or low-dividend paying stocks if dividend income is taxed at a higher rate than capital gains. Also, certain clienteles may be created with the presence of transaction costs. There are several empirical studies on the clientele effects hypothesis but the findings are mixed. Studies by Pettit (1977), Scholz (1992), and Dhaliwal, Erickson and Trezevant (1999) presented evidence consistent with the existence of clientele effects hypothesis whereas studies by Lewellen et al. (1978), Richardson, Sefcik and Thomason (1986), Abrutyn and Turner (1990), found weak or contrary evidence. There is an assumption that the managers do not always take steps which would lead to maximizing an investors wealth. This gives rise to another favorable argument for hefty dividend payouts which shifts the reinvestment decision back on the owners. The main hitch would be the agency conflict (conflict between the principal and the agent) arising as a result of separate ownership and control. Therefore, a manager is expected to move the surplus funds from the high retained earnings into projects which are not feasible. This would be mainly due to his ill intention or his in competency. Thus, generous dividend payouts increase a firms value as it reduces the managements access to free cash flows and hence, controlling the problem of over investment. There are many more agency theories explaining how dividends can increase the value of a firm. One of them was by Easterbrook (1984); he proposed that dividend payments reduce agency problems in contrast to the transaction cost theory which is of the view that dividend payments reduce the value as it forces to raise costly finances from outside sources. His idea is that if the dividends are not paid, there is a problem of collective action that tends to lead to hap-hazard management of the firm. So, dividend payouts and raising external finance would attract auditory and regulatory measures by financial intermediaries like investment banks, respective stock exchange regulators and the potential investors as well. All this monitoring would lead to considerable reduction of agency costs and appreciate the market value of t he firm. Moreover, as defined by Jenson and Meckling (1976), Agency costs=monitoring costs+ bonding, costs+ residual loss i.e. sum of agency cost of equity and agency cost of debt. Hence, Easterbrook (1984) noted that dividend payments and raising new debt and its contract negotiations would reduce potential for wealth transfer. The realization for potential agency costs linked with separation of management and shareholders is not new. Adam Smith (1937) proposed that management of earlier companies is wayward. This problem was highly witnessed during at the time of British East Indian Companies and tracking managers was a failure due to inefficiencies and high costs of shareholder monitoring (Kindleberger, 1984). Scott (1912) and Carlos (1922) differ with this view point. They agree that although some fraud existed in the corporations, many of the activities of the managers were in line with those of the shareholders interests. An opportune and intelligent manager should always invest the surplus cash available into those opportunities which are well researched to be in the best interest of the shareholders. Berle and Means (1932) was the first to discover the insufficient utilization of funds which are surplus after other investment opportunities taken by the management. This thought was further promoted by Jensens (1986) free cash flow hypothesis. This hypothesis combined market information asymmetries with the agency theory. The surplus funds left after all the valuable projects are largely responsible for creation of the conflict of interest between the management and the shareholders. Payment of dividends and interest on other debt instruments reduce the cash flow with the management to invest in marginal net present value projects and for other perquisite consumptions. Therefore, the dividend theory is better explained by the combination of both the agency and the signaling theory rather than by any o ne of these alone. On the other hand, the free cash flow hypothesis rationalizes the corporate takeover frenzy of the 1980s Myers (1987 and 1990) rather than providing a clear and comprehensive dividend policy. The study by Baker et al. (2007) reports, that firms paying dividend in Canada are significantly larger and more profitable, having greater cash flows, ownership structure and some growth opportunities. The cash flow hypothesis proposes that insiders to a firm have more information about future cash flow than the outsiders, and they have incentivized motives to leak this to outsiders. Lang and Litzenberger (1989) check the cash flow signaling and free cash flow explanations of the effect of dividend declarations on the stock prices. This difference between permanent and temporary changes is also explored in Brook, Charlton, and Hendershott (1998). However, this study is based on the hypothesis that dividend changes contain cash flow information rather than information about earnings. This is the cash flow signaling hypothesis proposing that dividend changes signal expected cash flows changes. The dividend decisions are affected by a number of factors; many researchers have contributed in determining which determinant of dividend payout is the most significant in contributing to dividend decisions. It is said that the primary indicator of the firms capacity to pay dividends has been Profits. According to Lintner (1956) the dividend payment pattern of a firm is influenced by the current year earnings and previous year dividends. Pruitt and Gitmans (1991) survey of financial managers of 1000 largest U.S companies about the interplay among the investment and dividend decisions in their firms reported that, current and past year profits are essential factors influencing dividend payments. The conclusion derived from Baker and Powells (2000) survey of NYSE-listed firms is that the major determinant is the anticipated level of future earnings and continuity of past dividends. The study of Aivazian, Booth, and Cleary (2003) concludes that profitability and return on equity positi vely correlate with the size of the dividend payout ratio. The study by Lv Chang-jiang and Wang Ke-min (1999) on 316 listed companies in China that paid cash dividends during 1997 and 1998 by using modified Lintner dividend model, suggested that the dividend payout ratio is due to the firms current earning level. Other researchers like Chen Guo-Hui and Zhao Chun-guang (2000), Liu Shu-lian and Hu Yan-hong (2003) also concluded their research on the above stated understanding about dividend policy of listed companies in China. A survey done by Baker, Farrelly, and Edelman (1985) and Farrelly, Baker, and Edelman (1986) on 562 New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) firms with normal kinds of dividend polices in 1983 suggested that the major determinants of dividend payments were the anticipated level of future earnings and the pattern of past dividends. DeAngelo et al. (2004) findings suggest that earnings do have some impact on dividend payment. He stated that the high/increasing dividend concentration may be the result of high/increasing earnings concentration. Goergen et al. (2005) study on 221 German firms shows that net earnings were the key determinants of dividend changes. Baker and Smith (2006) examined 309 sample firms exhibiting behavior consistent with a residual dividend policy and their matched counterparts to understand how they set their dividend policies. Their study showed that for the matched firms, the pattern of past dividends and desire to maintain a long-term dividend payout ratio elicit the highest level of agreement from respondents. The study by Ferris et al. (2006) found mixed results for the relation between a firms earnings and its ability to pay dividends. Kao and Wu (1994) used a time series regression analysis of 454 firms over the period of 1965 to1986, and showed that there was a positive relationshi p between unexpected dividends and earnings. Carroll (1995) used quarterly data of 854 firms over the period of 1975 to 1984, and examined whether quarterly dividend changes predicted future earnings. He found a significant positive relationship. Liquidity is also an important determinant of dividend payouts. A poor liquidity position would generate fewer dividends due to shortage of cash. Alli et.al (1993), reveal that dividend payments depend more on cash flows, which reflect the companys ability to pay dividends, than on current earnings, which are less heavily influenced by accounting practices. They claim current earnings do no really reflect the firms ability to pay dividends. A firm without the cash flow back up cannot choose to have a high dividend payout as it will ultimately have to either reduce its investment plans or turn to investors for additional debt. The study by Brook, Charlton and Hendershott (1998) states that, Firms expecting large permanent cash flow increases tend to increase their dividend. Managers do not increase dividends until they are positive that sufficient cash will flow in to pay them (Brealey-Myers-2002). Myers and Bacons (2001) study shows a negative relationship between the liquid ratio and dividend payout. For companies to enable them to enhance their dividend paying capacity, and thus, to generate higher dividend paying capacity, it is necessary to retain their earnings to finance investment in fixed assets. The study by Belans et al (2007) states that the relationship between the firms liquidity and dividend is positive which explains that firms with more market liquidity pay more dividends. Reddy (2006), Amidu and Abor (2006) find opposite evidence. Lintner (1956) posited that the level of retained earnings is a dividend decision by- product. Adaoglu (2000) study shows that the firms listed on Istanbul Stock Exchange follow unstable cash dividend policy and the main factor for determining the amount of dividend is earning of the firms. The same conclusion was drawn by Omet (2004) in case of firms listed on Amman Securities Market and he further states that the tax imposition on dividend does not have the significant impact on the dividend behavior of the listed firms. The study by Mick and Bacon (2003) concludes that future earnings are the most influential variable and that the past dividend patterns as well as current and expected levels are empirically relevant in explaining the dividend decision. Empirical support for Lintners findings, that dividends were indeed a function of current and past profit levels and were negatively correlated with the change in sales was found by Darling (1957), Fama and Babiak (1968). Benchman a nd Raaballe (2007) discovered that the propensity to pay out dividends is positively correlated to retained earnings. Also, the study by Denis and Osobov (2006) states that retained earnings are a significant dividend characteristic for non- US firms including UK, German, and French firms. One of the motives for dividend policy decision is maintaining a moderate share price as poor stock price performance mostly conveys negative information about firms reputation. An empirical research took by Zhao Chun-guang and Zhang Xue-li et al (2001) on all A shares listed companies listed in Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchange, states that the more cash dividends is paid when the stock prices are high. Chen Guo-Hui and Zhao Chun-guang (2000) undertook a research on all A shares listed before 1996 and paid dividend into share capital in 1997 as their sampling, and employed single-factor analysis, multifactor regression analysis to analyze the data. Their research showed a positive stock price reaction to the cash dividend, stock dividend policy. Myers and Bacon (2001) discussed that the debt to equity ratio was positively correlated to the dividend yield. Therefore firms with relatively more investment opportunities would tend to be more geared and vice versa (Ross, 2000). The study by Hu and Liu, (2005) declares that there is a positive correlation between the cash dividend the companies pay and their current earnings, and a inverse relationship between the debt to total assets and dividends. Green et al. (1993) questioned the irrelevance argument and investigated the relationship between the dividends and investment and financing decisions. Their study showed that dividend payout levels are decided along with investment and financing decisions. The study results however do not support the views of Miller and Modigliani (1961). Partington (1983) declared that firms motives for paying dividends and extent to which dividends are decided are independent of investment policy. The study by Higgins (1981) declares a direct link between growths and financing needs, rapidly growing firms have external financing needs because working capital needs normally exceed the incremental cash flows from new sales. Higgins (1972) suggests that payout ratios are negatively related to firms need top fund finance growth opportunities. Other researchers like Rozeff (1982), Lloyd et al. (1985) and Collins et al. (1996) all show significantly negative relationship between historical sales growth and dividend payout whereas D, Souza (1999) however shows a positive but insignificant relationship in the case of growth and negative but insignificant relationship in case of market to book value. Jenson and Meckling (1976) find a strong relationship between dividends and investment opportunities. They explain, in some circumstances where firms have relative uptight disposable Dividend Payout Decision Making Process Dividend Payout Decision Making Process CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Background: Dividend policy is an important component of the corporate financial management policy. It is a policy used by the firm to decide as to how much cash it should reinvest in its business through expansion or share repurchases and how much to pay out to its shareholders in dividends. Dividend is a payment or return made by the firm to the shareholders, (owners of the company) out of its earnings in the form of cash. For a long time, the subject of corporate dividend policy has captivated the interests of many academicians and researchers, resulting in the emergence of a number of theoretical explanations for dividend policy. For the investors, dividend serve as an important indicator of the strength and future prosperity of the business, thereby companies try to maintain a stable dividend because if they reduce their dividend payments, investors may suspect that the company is facing a cash flow problem. Investors prefer steady growth of dividends every year and are reluctant to investm ent to companies with fluctuating dividend policy. Over time, there has been a substantial increase in the number of factors identified in the literature as being important to be considered in making dividend decisions. Thus, extensive studies have been done to find out various factors affecting dividend payout ratio of a firm. However, there is no single explanation that can capture the puzzling reality of corporate dividend behavior. Ocean deep judgment is involved by decision makers to resolve this issue of dividend behavior. The decision of companies to retain or pay out the earnings in form of dividends is important for the maximization of the value of the firm (Oyejide, 1976). Therefore, companies should set a constructive target dividend payout ratio, where it pays dividends to its shareholders and at the same time maintains sufficient retained earnings as to avoid having raise funds by borrowing money. A tough challenge was faced by financial practitioners and many academics, when Miller and Modigliani (MM) (1961) came with a proposition that, given perfect capital markets, the dividend decision does not affect the firm value and is, therefore, irrelevant. This proposition was greeted with surprise because at that time it was universally acknowledged by both theorists and corporate managers that the firm can enhance its business value by providing for a more generous dividend policy and that a properly managed dividend policy had an impact on share prices and shareholder wealth. Since the MM study, many researchers have relaxed the assumption of perfect capital markets and stated theories about how managers should formulate dividend policy decisions. Problem Statement: Dividend policy has attracted a substantial amount of research by many researchers and theorists, who have provided theoretical as well as empirical observations, into the dividend puzzle (Black, 1976). Even though researchers and theorists have extended their studies in context to dividend decisions, the issue as to why corporations distribute a portion of their earnings as dividends is not yet resolved. The issue of dividend policy has stimulated much debate among financial analysts since Lintners (1956) seminal work. He measured major changes in earnings as the key determinant of the companies dividend decisions. There are many factors that affect dividend decisions of a firm as it is very difficult to lay down an optimum dividend policy which would maximize the long-run wealth of the shareholders resulting into increase or decrease of the firms value, but the primary indicator of the firms capacity to pay dividends has been Profits. Miller and Modigliani (1961), DeAngelo and DeAngelo (2006) gave their proposition on the dividend irrelevance, but the argument made by them was on assumptions that werent practical and in fact, the dividend payout decision does affect the shareholders value. The study focuses on identifying various determinants of dividend payout and whether these factors influence the dividend payout decision. Research Objective: There are many theories in the corporate finance literature addressing the dividend issue. The purpose of study is to understand the factors influencing the dividend decision of companies. The specific objectives of this study are: To analyze the financials of the company, to draw a framework of factors such as Retained earnings, Age of the company, Debt to Equity, Cash, Net income, Earnings per share etc. responsible for dividend declaration. To understand the criticality of a companys profitability (in terms of Earnings per share) component in declaration of dividends. To measure each factor individually on how it affects the dividend decision. Research Questions: RQ1. What is the relation between dividend payout and firms debt? RQ2. What is the relation between dividend payout and Profitability? RQ3. What is the relation between dividend payout and liquidity? RQ4. What is the relation between dividend payout and Retained Earnings? RQ5. What is the relation between dividend payout and Net Income? Contribution of the Study: Dividend decision is an important financial decision made by firms, managers, and investors. This study aims to contribute to the corporate finance literature, by looking at the Dividend puzzle. An attempt is made to make a valuable contribution in two major ways: Theoretical and Empirical approach is taken to provide a comprehensive view on the subject. The empirical Approach taken in this study will definitely leave some promising future ideas. The empirical findings and conclusions contained in this study can be used by financial managers to inform dividend decisions. Limitations of Study: The areas of concern to investigate in this study are extensive. Due to the Time constraint and accessibility of data, the research will be limited to the following: The period of study is only three years 2006 to 2008. The research has considered only those firms who pay dividends. The study is focused only on firms trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Structure of the Paper: The remaining chapters will be organized as follows: Chapter Two: Literature Review This chapter discusses the different theories laid down in context to dividend policy and explains the relationship between dividend payout and its determinants as concluded by the study of different researchers and theorists. Chapter Three: Research Methodology This chapter explains the research hypothesis and gives a descriptive study of the techniques and the model used for data analysis. The application of the statistical tests used are explained thoroughly. Chapter four: Data Analysis and Findings To address the research questions, results obtained from the regression analysis will be evaluated and discussed in this chapter. Chapter five: Recommendations and Conclusion. This chapter Concludes the entire study and provides recommendations based on the findings and analysis done in the previous chapter and recommendations for future research. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW Dividend remains one of the greatest enigmas of modern finance. Corporate dividend policy is an important decision area in the field of financial management hence there is an extensive literature devoted to the subject. Dividends are defined as the distribution of earnings (present or past) in real assets among the shareholders of the firm in proportion to their ownership. Dividend policy refers to managements long-term decision on how to utilize cash flows from business activities-that is, how much to plow back into the business, and how much to return to shareholders (Khan and Jain, 2005). Lintner (1956) conducted a notable study on dividend distributions, his was the first empirical study of dividend policy through his interview with managers of 28 selected companies, he stated that most companies have clear cut target payout ratios and that managers concern themselves with change in the existing dividend payout rather than the amount of the newly established payout. He also states that, Dividend policy is set first and other policies are then adjusted and the market reacts positively to dividend increase announcements and negatively to announcements of dividend decreases. He measured major changes in earnings as the key determinant of the companies dividend decisions. Lintners study was expanded by Farrelly et al. (1988), who, mailed a questionnaire to 562 firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange and concluded that managers accept dividend policy to be relevant and important. Lintners view was also supported by the study results of Fama and Babiak (1968) and Fama (1974) who suggested that managers prefer a stable dividend policy, and are hesitant to increase dividends to a level that cannot be supported. Fama and Babiaks (1968) study also concludes that Net income appears to explain the dividend change decision better than a cash flow measure. The study by Adaoglu (2000), Amidu and Abor (2006) and Belans et al (2007) stated that net income shows positive and significant association with the dividend payout, therefore indicating that, the firms with the positive earnings pay more dividends. Merton Miller and Franco Modigliani (1961) made a proposition that the value of a firm is not affected by its dividend policy. Dividend policy is a way of dividing up operating cash flows among investors or just a financial decision. Financial theorists Martin, Petty, Keown, and Scott, 1991 supported this theory of irrelevance. Miller and Modiglianis conclusion on the irrelevance of dividend policy presented a tough challenge to the conventional wisdom of time up to that point, it was universally acknowledged by both theorists and corporate managers that the firm can enhance its business value by providing for a more generous dividend policy as investors seem to prefer dividends over capital gains (JM Samuels, FM.Wilkes and R.E Brayshaw). Benartzi et al. (1997) conducted an extensive study and concluded that Lintners model of dividends remains the finest description of the dividend setting process available. Baker et al. (2001) conducted a survey on 630 NASDAQ-listed firms and analyzed the responses from 188 CFOs about the importance of 22 different factors that influence their dividend policy, they found that the dividend decisions made by managers were consistent with Lintners (1956) survey results and model. Their results also suggest that managers pay particular attention to the dividend policy of the firm because the dividend decision can affect firm value and, in turn, the wealth of stockholders, thus dividend policy requires serious attention by the management. E.F Fama and K.R French (2001) investigated the characteristics of companies paying dividends and concluded that the top most characteristics that affect the decision to pay dividends are Firm size, Profitability, and Investment opportunities. They studied dividend payment in the United States and found that the proportion of dividend payers declined sharply from 66% in 1978 to 20.8% in 1999, and that only about a fifth of public companies paid dividends. Growth companies such as Microsoft, Cisco and Sun Microsystems were found to be non-dividend payers. They also explained that the probability that a firm would pay dividends was positively related to profitability and size and negatively related to growth. Their research concluded that larger firms are more profitable and are more likely to pay dividends, than firms with more investment opportunities. The relationship between firm size and dividend policy was studied by Jennifer J. Gaver and Kenneth M. Gaver (1993). They suggested t hat A firms dividend yield is inversely related to the extent of its growth opportunities. The inference here is that as cash flow increases, the coefficient of dividend decreases, indicating that smaller firms that have greater investment opportunities thus they tend not to make dividend payment while larger firms tend to have proactive dividends policy. Ho, H. (2003) undertook a comparative study of dividend policies in Japan and Australia. Their study revealed that dividend policies in Australia and Japan are affected by different financial factors. Dividend policies are affected positively by size in Australia and liquidity in Japan. Naceur et al (2006) examined the dividend policy of 48 firms listed on the Tunisian Stock Exchange during the period 1996-2002. His research indicated that highly profitable firms with more stable earnings could afford larger free cash flows and thus paid larger dividends. Li and Lie (2006) reported that large and profitable firms are more likely to raise their dividends if the past dividend yield, debt ratio, cash ratio are low. A study was conducted by Norhayati Mohamed, Wee Shu Hui, Mormah Hj.Omar, and Rashidah Abdul Rahman on Malaysian companies over a 3 year period from 2003-2005. The sample was taken from the top 200 companies listed on the main board of Bursa Malaysia based on market capitaliza tion as at 31December 2005. Their study concluded that bigger firms pay higher dividends. For the purpose of finding out how companies arrive at their dividend decisions, many researchers and theorists have proposed several dividend theories. Gordon and Walter (1963) presented the Bird in Hand theory which suggested that to minimize risk the investors always prefer cash in hand rather than future promise of capital gain. This theory asserts that investors value dividends and high payout firms. As said by John D. Rockefeller (an American industrialist) The one thing that gives me contentment is to see my dividend coming in. For companies to communicate financial well-being and shareholder value the easiest way is to say the dividend check is in the mail. The bird-in-hand theory (a pre-Miller-Modigliani theory) asserts that dividends are valued differently to capital gains in a world of information asymmetry where due to uncertainty of future cash flow, investors will often tend to prefer dividends to retained earnings. As a result the value of the firm would be increased a s a higher payout ratio will reduce the required rate of return (see, for example Gordon, 1959). This argument has not received any strong empirical support. Dividends, paid by companies to shareholders from earnings, serve as an important indicator of the strength and future prosperity of the business. This explanation is known as signaling hypothesis. Signaling is an example factor for the relevance of dividends to the value of the firm. It is based on the idea of information asymmetry between managers and investors, where managers have private information about the firm that is not available to the outsiders. This theory is supported by models put forward by Miller and Rock (1985), Bhattacharya (1979), John and Williams (1985). They stated that dividends can be used as a signaling device to influence share price. The share price reacts favorably when an announcement of dividend increase is made. Few researchers found limited support for the signaling hypothesis (see Gonedes, 1978 , Watts, 1973) and there are other researchers, who supported the hypothesis, for example, in Michaely, Nissim and Ziv (2001), Pettit (1972) and Bali (2003). The tax-preference theory assumes that the market valuation of a firms stocks is increased when the dividend payout ratios is low which in turn lowers the required rate of return. Because of the relative tax liability of dividends compared to capital gains, investors need a large amount of before-tax risk adjusted return on stocks with higher dividend yields (Brennan, 1970). On one side studies by Lichtenberger and Ramaswamy (1979), Poterba and Summers, (1984), and Barclay (1987) have presented empirical evidence in support of the tax effect argument and on the other side Black and Scholes (1974), Miller and Scholes (1982), and Morgan and Thomas (1998) have either opposed such findings or provided completely different explanations. The study by Masulis and Trueman (1988) model dividend payments in form of cash as products of deferred dividend costs. Their model predicts that investors with differing tax liabilities will not be uniform in their ideal firm dividend policy. As the tax l iability on dividends increases (decreases), the dividend payment decreases (increases) while earnings reinvestment increases (decreases). According to Farrar and Selwyn (1967), in a partial equilibrium framework, individual investors choose the amount of personal and corporate leverage and also whether to receive corporate distributions as dividends or capital gains. Barclay (1987) has presented empirical evidence I support of the tax effect argument. Others, including Black and Scholes (1982), have opposed such findings or provided different explanations. Farrar and Selwyns model (1967) made an assumption that investors tend to increase their after tax income to the maximum. According to this model corporate earnings should be distributed by share repurchase rather than the use of dividends. Brennan (1970) has extended Farrar and Selwyns model into a general equilibrium framework. Under this, the expected usefulness of wealth as a system of barter is maximized. Despite being more robust both the models are similar as regards to their predictions. According to Auerbachs (1979) discrete-time, infinite-horizon model, the wealth of shareholders is maximized by the shareholders themselves and not by firm market value. If there does, infact, exist a difference between capital gains and dividends tax; firm market value maximization is no longer determined by wealth maximization. He states that the continued undervaluation of corporate capital leads to dividend distributions. The clientele effects hypothesis is another related theory. According to this theory the investors may be attracted to the types of stocks that fall in with their consumption/savings preferences. That is, investors (or clienteles) in high tax brackets may prefer non-dividend or low-dividend paying stocks if dividend income is taxed at a higher rate than capital gains. Also, certain clienteles may be created with the presence of transaction costs. There are several empirical studies on the clientele effects hypothesis but the findings are mixed. Studies by Pettit (1977), Scholz (1992), and Dhaliwal, Erickson and Trezevant (1999) presented evidence consistent with the existence of clientele effects hypothesis whereas studies by Lewellen et al. (1978), Richardson, Sefcik and Thomason (1986), Abrutyn and Turner (1990), found weak or contrary evidence. There is an assumption that the managers do not always take steps which would lead to maximizing an investors wealth. This gives rise to another favorable argument for hefty dividend payouts which shifts the reinvestment decision back on the owners. The main hitch would be the agency conflict (conflict between the principal and the agent) arising as a result of separate ownership and control. Therefore, a manager is expected to move the surplus funds from the high retained earnings into projects which are not feasible. This would be mainly due to his ill intention or his in competency. Thus, generous dividend payouts increase a firms value as it reduces the managements access to free cash flows and hence, controlling the problem of over investment. There are many more agency theories explaining how dividends can increase the value of a firm. One of them was by Easterbrook (1984); he proposed that dividend payments reduce agency problems in contrast to the transaction cost theory which is of the view that dividend payments reduce the value as it forces to raise costly finances from outside sources. His idea is that if the dividends are not paid, there is a problem of collective action that tends to lead to hap-hazard management of the firm. So, dividend payouts and raising external finance would attract auditory and regulatory measures by financial intermediaries like investment banks, respective stock exchange regulators and the potential investors as well. All this monitoring would lead to considerable reduction of agency costs and appreciate the market value of t he firm. Moreover, as defined by Jenson and Meckling (1976), Agency costs=monitoring costs+ bonding, costs+ residual loss i.e. sum of agency cost of equity and agency cost of debt. Hence, Easterbrook (1984) noted that dividend payments and raising new debt and its contract negotiations would reduce potential for wealth transfer. The realization for potential agency costs linked with separation of management and shareholders is not new. Adam Smith (1937) proposed that management of earlier companies is wayward. This problem was highly witnessed during at the time of British East Indian Companies and tracking managers was a failure due to inefficiencies and high costs of shareholder monitoring (Kindleberger, 1984). Scott (1912) and Carlos (1922) differ with this view point. They agree that although some fraud existed in the corporations, many of the activities of the managers were in line with those of the shareholders interests. An opportune and intelligent manager should always invest the surplus cash available into those opportunities which are well researched to be in the best interest of the shareholders. Berle and Means (1932) was the first to discover the insufficient utilization of funds which are surplus after other investment opportunities taken by the management. This thought was further promoted by Jensens (1986) free cash flow hypothesis. This hypothesis combined market information asymmetries with the agency theory. The surplus funds left after all the valuable projects are largely responsible for creation of the conflict of interest between the management and the shareholders. Payment of dividends and interest on other debt instruments reduce the cash flow with the management to invest in marginal net present value projects and for other perquisite consumptions. Therefore, the dividend theory is better explained by the combination of both the agency and the signaling theory rather than by any o ne of these alone. On the other hand, the free cash flow hypothesis rationalizes the corporate takeover frenzy of the 1980s Myers (1987 and 1990) rather than providing a clear and comprehensive dividend policy. The study by Baker et al. (2007) reports, that firms paying dividend in Canada are significantly larger and more profitable, having greater cash flows, ownership structure and some growth opportunities. The cash flow hypothesis proposes that insiders to a firm have more information about future cash flow than the outsiders, and they have incentivized motives to leak this to outsiders. Lang and Litzenberger (1989) check the cash flow signaling and free cash flow explanations of the effect of dividend declarations on the stock prices. This difference between permanent and temporary changes is also explored in Brook, Charlton, and Hendershott (1998). However, this study is based on the hypothesis that dividend changes contain cash flow information rather than information about earnings. This is the cash flow signaling hypothesis proposing that dividend changes signal expected cash flows changes. The dividend decisions are affected by a number of factors; many researchers have contributed in determining which determinant of dividend payout is the most significant in contributing to dividend decisions. It is said that the primary indicator of the firms capacity to pay dividends has been Profits. According to Lintner (1956) the dividend payment pattern of a firm is influenced by the current year earnings and previous year dividends. Pruitt and Gitmans (1991) survey of financial managers of 1000 largest U.S companies about the interplay among the investment and dividend decisions in their firms reported that, current and past year profits are essential factors influencing dividend payments. The conclusion derived from Baker and Powells (2000) survey of NYSE-listed firms is that the major determinant is the anticipated level of future earnings and continuity of past dividends. The study of Aivazian, Booth, and Cleary (2003) concludes that profitability and return on equity positi vely correlate with the size of the dividend payout ratio. The study by Lv Chang-jiang and Wang Ke-min (1999) on 316 listed companies in China that paid cash dividends during 1997 and 1998 by using modified Lintner dividend model, suggested that the dividend payout ratio is due to the firms current earning level. Other researchers like Chen Guo-Hui and Zhao Chun-guang (2000), Liu Shu-lian and Hu Yan-hong (2003) also concluded their research on the above stated understanding about dividend policy of listed companies in China. A survey done by Baker, Farrelly, and Edelman (1985) and Farrelly, Baker, and Edelman (1986) on 562 New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) firms with normal kinds of dividend polices in 1983 suggested that the major determinants of dividend payments were the anticipated level of future earnings and the pattern of past dividends. DeAngelo et al. (2004) findings suggest that earnings do have some impact on dividend payment. He stated that the high/increasing dividend concentration may be the result of high/increasing earnings concentration. Goergen et al. (2005) study on 221 German firms shows that net earnings were the key determinants of dividend changes. Baker and Smith (2006) examined 309 sample firms exhibiting behavior consistent with a residual dividend policy and their matched counterparts to understand how they set their dividend policies. Their study showed that for the matched firms, the pattern of past dividends and desire to maintain a long-term dividend payout ratio elicit the highest level of agreement from respondents. The study by Ferris et al. (2006) found mixed results for the relation between a firms earnings and its ability to pay dividends. Kao and Wu (1994) used a time series regression analysis of 454 firms over the period of 1965 to1986, and showed that there was a positive relationshi p between unexpected dividends and earnings. Carroll (1995) used quarterly data of 854 firms over the period of 1975 to 1984, and examined whether quarterly dividend changes predicted future earnings. He found a significant positive relationship. Liquidity is also an important determinant of dividend payouts. A poor liquidity position would generate fewer dividends due to shortage of cash. Alli et.al (1993), reveal that dividend payments depend more on cash flows, which reflect the companys ability to pay dividends, than on current earnings, which are less heavily influenced by accounting practices. They claim current earnings do no really reflect the firms ability to pay dividends. A firm without the cash flow back up cannot choose to have a high dividend payout as it will ultimately have to either reduce its investment plans or turn to investors for additional debt. The study by Brook, Charlton and Hendershott (1998) states that, Firms expecting large permanent cash flow increases tend to increase their dividend. Managers do not increase dividends until they are positive that sufficient cash will flow in to pay them (Brealey-Myers-2002). Myers and Bacons (2001) study shows a negative relationship between the liquid ratio and dividend payout. For companies to enable them to enhance their dividend paying capacity, and thus, to generate higher dividend paying capacity, it is necessary to retain their earnings to finance investment in fixed assets. The study by Belans et al (2007) states that the relationship between the firms liquidity and dividend is positive which explains that firms with more market liquidity pay more dividends. Reddy (2006), Amidu and Abor (2006) find opposite evidence. Lintner (1956) posited that the level of retained earnings is a dividend decision by- product. Adaoglu (2000) study shows that the firms listed on Istanbul Stock Exchange follow unstable cash dividend policy and the main factor for determining the amount of dividend is earning of the firms. The same conclusion was drawn by Omet (2004) in case of firms listed on Amman Securities Market and he further states that the tax imposition on dividend does not have the significant impact on the dividend behavior of the listed firms. The study by Mick and Bacon (2003) concludes that future earnings are the most influential variable and that the past dividend patterns as well as current and expected levels are empirically relevant in explaining the dividend decision. Empirical support for Lintners findings, that dividends were indeed a function of current and past profit levels and were negatively correlated with the change in sales was found by Darling (1957), Fama and Babiak (1968). Benchman a nd Raaballe (2007) discovered that the propensity to pay out dividends is positively correlated to retained earnings. Also, the study by Denis and Osobov (2006) states that retained earnings are a significant dividend characteristic for non- US firms including UK, German, and French firms. One of the motives for dividend policy decision is maintaining a moderate share price as poor stock price performance mostly conveys negative information about firms reputation. An empirical research took by Zhao Chun-guang and Zhang Xue-li et al (2001) on all A shares listed companies listed in Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchange, states that the more cash dividends is paid when the stock prices are high. Chen Guo-Hui and Zhao Chun-guang (2000) undertook a research on all A shares listed before 1996 and paid dividend into share capital in 1997 as their sampling, and employed single-factor analysis, multifactor regression analysis to analyze the data. Their research showed a positive stock price reaction to the cash dividend, stock dividend policy. Myers and Bacon (2001) discussed that the debt to equity ratio was positively correlated to the dividend yield. Therefore firms with relatively more investment opportunities would tend to be more geared and vice versa (Ross, 2000). The study by Hu and Liu, (2005) declares that there is a positive correlation between the cash dividend the companies pay and their current earnings, and a inverse relationship between the debt to total assets and dividends. Green et al. (1993) questioned the irrelevance argument and investigated the relationship between the dividends and investment and financing decisions. Their study showed that dividend payout levels are decided along with investment and financing decisions. The study results however do not support the views of Miller and Modigliani (1961). Partington (1983) declared that firms motives for paying dividends and extent to which dividends are decided are independent of investment policy. The study by Higgins (1981) declares a direct link between growths and financing needs, rapidly growing firms have external financing needs because working capital needs normally exceed the incremental cash flows from new sales. Higgins (1972) suggests that payout ratios are negatively related to firms need top fund finance growth opportunities. Other researchers like Rozeff (1982), Lloyd et al. (1985) and Collins et al. (1996) all show significantly negative relationship between historical sales growth and dividend payout whereas D, Souza (1999) however shows a positive but insignificant relationship in the case of growth and negative but insignificant relationship in case of market to book value. Jenson and Meckling (1976) find a strong relationship between dividends and investment opportunities. They explain, in some circumstances where firms have relative uptight disposable