Critical Thinking # 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Basic Thinking # 3 - Essay Example Through working environment assorted variety, managers improve profitability and innovativeness and inspire representatives to be faithful to the organization. In addition, work environment assorted variety is significant since it creates upper hand since representatives have the ability to comprehend differing customers’ needs. Organizations that ignores people’s sexual orientation, race, religion, ethnic gathering, or sex creates upper hand in the different market. An expanded workforce is significant since it permits managers to get to a wide scope of potential representatives in this manner improving the odds of enrolling the most qualified and skilled worker (Kerby and Burns 1). A market situation that incorporates, speaks to, and values workers help in propelling representatives and cultivating profitability. An enhanced workforce advances various societies, makes a comprehensive workplace, and decreases the expenses of preparing and supplanting representatives (Kerby and Burns 1). For this situation, workers comprehend the clients and relate to their necessities to the advantage of the organization. The comprehensive workforce has alternate points of view that help associations to build up new chances, fulfill customers’ needs, and comprehend the market. All things considered, with the proceeded with estimation of assorted variety in the worldwide market, it is innately critical to enlist and hold a broadened workforce. Moreover, representatives in a different work environment increase different advantages. Such advantages incorporate regard for each other that lessens the chance of contention in an association (Mayhew 1). By perceiving different people’s conclusion and societies, representatives in an assorted working environment build up regular grounds that improve efficiency and constructive working relations. The thought likewise helps in refereeing. In an assorted working environment, representatives gain from each other, which help in receiving better working styles and creating uplifting perspectives in a business (Mayhew 1). To be sure, representatives

50 Synonyms for Song

50 Synonyms for Song 50 Synonyms for Song 50 Synonyms for Song By Mark Nichol Various words that portray different sorts of melodic piece are recorded and characterized beneath. (Note that in the definitions beneath, well known means not a melodic structure that is broadly delighted in, yet a tune of a sort generally got from everyday citizens and society customs instead of from proficient writers. Types of the word go with allude to instrumental help.) 1. Air: any of a few sorts of tunes or songlike pieces, including anthems and people melodies 2. Song of praise: a tune or psalm of happiness or acclaim or, by expansion, an awakening pop tune that resounds with a specific class of audience members 3. Aria: an intricate performance went with song, particularly in drama 4. Workmanship tune: a performance went with tune frequently performed on a conventional social event 5. Ditty: a story sythesis with musical section, or a famous moderate sentimental or wistful melody 6. Barcarole: a work melody with a beat that switches back and forth among solid and frail to recommend the cadence of paddling a pontoon 7. Cantata: a creation for at least one voices with performances, two part harmonies, ensembles, and speechlike parts 8. Canticle: a melody dependent on sacred writing and performed during a chapel gathering 9. Tune: a melody or song of delight, performed prominently or during a community gathering 10. Chanson: the sort of melody sung in a nightclub or a music lobby 11. Serenade: as repetitive yet cadenced melody or other vocalization; see likewise plainsong 12â€14â ­. Chantey/chanty/shanty: a musical sailors’ work melody 15. Chorale: a psalm or melody sung by a gathering in chapel 16. Spread: a melody formed by somebody other than the performer(s) 17. Remark: a song sung as an antithesis to another tune 18. Lament: a melody of grieving 19. Jingle: a straightforward, carefree well known melody 20. Drinking melody: a peppy tune proper for bunch singing during social drinking 21. Funeral poem: see lament 22. Battle melody: a helpful tune to empower competitors during group rivalry 23. People tune: a well known tune with a straightforward tune and a stanza/hold back structure 24. Merriment: a section melody, for the most part one performed by men 25. Glory be: a melody of commendation or thanks 26. Psalm: a melody of bliss or applause, particularly in a strict setting 27. Noel: a tune sung at Christmastime 28. Jingle: a short, infectious, monotonous melody, including one used to publicize an item or administration 29. Mourn: see lament 30. Lay: a straightforward melody or other ditty 31. Bedtime song: a straightforward rhyming melody sung to calm kids or set them up for dozing 32. Madrigal: see merriment and part-melody 33. Variety: at least two melodies, or parts thereof, proceeded as one sythesis 34. Tune: a cadenced structure 35. Motet: a choral sythesis, generally unaccompanied, in light of a consecrated book 36. Paean: a psalm or tune of acclaim, much appreciated, or triumph 37. Part-tune: a generally unaccompanied tune for at least two voices, one of which conveys the song 38. Hymn: a holy tune sung during strict administrations 39. Remix: a variety of a melody that incorporates extra or adjusted components 40. Composition: see requiem 41. Rocker: a perky, lively tune in the style of the stone class 42. Cycle: a tune where numerous artists sing a similar tune and verses 43. Roundelay: a straightforward tune that incorporates a hold back 44. Serenade: a pursuing tune, vocal or instrumental or both 45. Otherworldly: a basic, enthusiastic strict tune of a structure created by dark slaves in the American South 46. Standard: a recognizable melody that is among those ordinarily performed by a specific class of artists 47. Threnody: see requiem 48. Light tune: a well known wistful melody, generally alluding as far as possible of a relationship or to pathetic love 49. Vocal: a tune for voice joined by at least one instruments 50. Work tune: a melody organized to help in the presentation of a cadenced gathering task Need to improve your English quickly a day? Get a membership and begin accepting our composing tips and activities every day! Continue learning! Peruse the Vocabulary classification, check our mainstream posts, or pick a related post below:The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know41 Words That Are Better Than GoodEbook, eBook, digital book or digital book?

tuesday

tuesday 8:00 AM wake up. check my clock and go back to sleep. 9:00 AM actually wake up. i take a shower, stop being naked, and am ready to head out the door by 9:45. 10:00 AM arrive at work. my commute is a foggy, yet warm fifteen minute walk. i tap my id at the elevator and take it to the sixth floor. 10:15 AM standup.01 against my better judgement, ive used a lot of software-engineering-specific terms in this blog post, which might provide insight to people interested in software engineering but will probably just be confusing to others. it doesnt help that most of my working day revolves around said specific terms. also, because software is such a large field, even software engineers will be confused by a lot of software specific terms. to be fair to both groups, ill try and explain any software term that might need a definition in an annotation. standup is a short, daily team meeting where all team members briefly describe what they did yesterday / what theyre going to do today / whats blocking them. i say, yesterday, i fixed some errors in my PR02 PR stands for pull request, a way to request changes to a codebase on github. to separate CKP logs by model and made a PR for sending shopperml 03 the name of a project that my team works on. kubernetes04 honestly, i cant describe kubernetes. even our dorms resident kubernetes expert struggles to explain kubernetes in laymans terms. fully knowing that i am butchering what kubernetes actually does, ill just say that its an important part of deploying the shopperml project. pod logs to cloudwatch logs.05 cloudwatch logs is an AWS service that can monitor logs. logs are important because they can track everything that happens in an application, which can be useful for things like debugging. today, im going to continue working on that. i realize how foreign that sounded even to me just two weeks ago. it was a mixture of software engineering vocabulary and company-specific terms ill forget soon after the internship is over. we point a previously unpointed story in the current sprint06 theres this thing called scrum, which is basically a method of getting work done. in scrum, work is done in (usually) 2-week periods called sprints, and within a sprint there are tasks called stories (synonymous with ticket, task, etc). stories are assigned points by the team as an indicator of how much time the story would take to complete. with leftover time, since standup is scheduled to be fifteen minutes long. 10:30 AM i came in a bit late today, so i dont start checking emails until now. i open up and organize my tabs in this order: slack, jira,07 a software platform that pretty much implements the scrum methodology. github,08 the most commonly used website for version control. everything else. i helps because i switch tabs using cmd+[123] a lot. nobodys reviewed my PR yet.09 in our team, in order for a PR to be accepted and merged into the main codebase, at least two team members need to approve it. :( 10:45 AM i stop trying to figure out what kubernetes is for a moment to walk to the desk of alex y. 20.10 a fellow MIT intern!!! we took 6.UAT together in the spring and we were in the same recitation!! hey alex, do you wanna review my PR? sure, he replies. he reads it for a minute, then says, i cant find anything wrong with this PR. nice. i dont approve PRs that i cant find anything wrong with. what!! unless im requested for review on github. ok, be right back. no!! dont do it!! too late. 11:30 AM usually lunch comes around this time, and tuesdays are good food and the lines are very long, so i head down to the second floor early. when i arrive, the foods not there. saddened, i check slack on my phone to see the message, Lunch is running late. i decide to play beat saber instead. yes, the office has VR, and yes, i play beat saber pretty much every day during lunch. it is amazing. 12:00 PM lunch is make-your-own-burrito, except i make a bowl instead. im second in line, which turns out to be a good idea because five minutes later the lunch line is literally out the door. it turns out to be better than chipotle. 1:00 PM went out to look at the lake for a bit. lake washington is choppy today, and i dont see the usual paddleboard or two out on the water. today is a bit cooler, and the air is crisp. eventually i head back to my desk and stare at AWS documentation. what is kubernetes? 3:00 PM still not much luck with kubernetes. terms involving AWS and fluentd and Pods and DaemonSets and CloudWatch. i feel like i dont even know what i dont know. i munch on chocolate almonds. i get an alert from the ping-pong slack channel: they need a fourth player, so i lock my screen and head downstairs. 4:15 PM after playing a few doubles games with the regular group of players, im back at my desk, ready to accept defeat. i feel like i have all the pieces i need to make this work, but im frustrated because i cant put them together. i dont have authorization to make an IAM role.11 IAM is what AWS uses for managing permissions to do various actions within AWS. its been frustrating because i have limited access to a lot of things, but at the same time its understandable. i turn to my mentor, steven, who sits next to me, and tell him my problem. honestly, i kind of want to just pass this task to someone else so actually, i think ive figured out a way to use the fluentd image without the IAM role stuff. what!! give me five minutes to collect everything ill need to explain to you how this task is actually doable. ok i glace at jira for a couple minutes before steven says, alright and gives a perfectly clear explanation. after a half hour of questions, i see the light. steven is a god. i realize suddenly that the cold brew on tap that had been out of service for a month is back, and i pour myself a cup. for the first time in two weeks, i think i know how to do this task. 5:30 PM after some finagling, i commit and push12 more github lingo that means, made changes. my new proposed method for sending kubernetes logs to cloudwatch. hopefully this time, itll actually work. do i dare say that kubernetes is actually kind of cool? nah, i cant say that. but for now, its time to go home. 6:00 PM arrive at home. i suddenly feel kind of tired and flop onto my bed and kind of lay there for an hour, doing random things on my phone. this happens a lot more often than is mentioned. 13 i feel like we all have these moments where we decide to watch youtube videos at 10pm and then you look at the clock after a moment and its 1am all of a sudden. i try to add someone as a space reservation signatory for Toons on the ASA database.14 ASA isnt a software term, its the MIT Association of Student Activities. i cant tell if i dont have permissions to do that yet, or MIT Engages UI/UX is actually trash. 8:00 PM i need to buy more razors and shampoo, and im also pretty hungry, and theres no food at home. this naturally means im going to go out to get ramen, followed by safeway. did you know seattle has a santouka? well, technically its in bellevue, not seattle, but pretty much. (i reviewed bostons two santouka locations in my ramen post.) one shoyu ramen and safeway trip later, i take an uber back home. 10:00 PM at this point, theres usually a fixed number of things i do, but today it was finishing writing this blog. usually ill be playing a video game or watching jojo or grinding japanese or something like that. ive been meaning to try developing a personal project, but after work i usually dont seem to find the motivation. ??:?? its a good idea to wake up for work tomorrow, so i guess its time to do that. but before i do, i need to wait for the load of laundry i threw in at 11pm. i open up a twitch stream to pass the time. the glow of the computer screen is the only thing that lights up the living room. the washing machine crackles and whirs, pausing occasionally before moving on to the next phase in the washing cycle. Post Tagged #internship #software engineering #summer against my better judgement, i've used a lot of software-engineering-specific terms in this blog post, which might provide insight to people interested in software engineering but will probably just be confusing to others. it doesn't help that most of my working day revolves around said specific terms. also, because software is such a large field, even software engineers will be confused by a lot of software specific terms. to be fair to both groups, i'll try and explain any software term that might need a definition in an annotation. standup is a short, daily team meeting where all team members briefly describe what they did yesterday / what they're going to do today / what's blocking them. back to text ? PR stands for pull request, a way to request changes to a codebase on github. back to text ? the name of a project that my team works on. back to text ? honestly, i can't describe kubernetes. even our dorm's resident kubernetes expert struggles to explain kubernetes in layman's terms. fully knowing that i am butchering what kubernetes actually does, i'll just say that it's an important part of deploying the shopperml project. back to text ? cloudwatch logs is an AWS service that can monitor logs. logs are important because they can track everything that happens in an application, which can be useful for things like debugging. back to text ? there's this thing called scrum, which is basically a method of getting work done. in scrum, work is done in (usually) 2-week periods called sprints, and within a sprint there are tasks called stories (synonymous with ticket, task, etc). stories are assigned points by the team as an indicator of how much time the story would take to complete. back to text ? a software platform that pretty much implements the scrum methodology. back to text ? the most commonly used website for version control. back to text ? in our team, in order for a PR to be accepted and merged into the main codebase, at least two team members need to approve it. back to text ? a fellow MIT intern!!! we took 6.UAT together in the spring and we were in the same recitation!! back to text ? IAM is what AWS uses for managing permissions to do various actions within AWS. it's been frustrating because i have limited access to a lot of things, but at the same time it's understandable. back to text ? more github lingo that means, 'made changes.' back to text ? i feel like we all have these moments where we decide to watch youtube videos at 10pm and then you look at the clock after a moment and it's 1am all of a sudden. back to text ? ASA isn't a software term, it's the MIT Association of Student Activities. back to text ?

Kant s Philosophy On Moral Philosophy - 1515 Words

Immanuel Kant presented his most notable positions on moral philosophy in his book The Groundwork of Metaphysics of Morals. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel subsequently presented a number of objections to Kant’s positions, mainly in his book The Phenomenology of Spirit. Hegel presents objections to Kant in two different ways, implicitly and explicitly. Hegel gives arguments against Kant’s moral theory as well as the general philosophical thought that produces the moral theory that Kant presents. But in order to understand Hegel’s critique of Kant, we must first understand the content of Kant’s moral philosophy and its formulation. Kant’s Moral Philosophy The crux of Kant’s moral philosophy comes from the idea that morality is derived from rationality- rational thought leads us to an objective morality. Kant is looking to pure reason as a guide to find universally binding moral laws. If this is true, and reason can determine whether a maxim can become a universal law of moral behavior without appeal to experience, then this would have profound implications for moral philosophy. Kant will argue for this through the categorical imperative. In the Groundwork, Kant will propose the existence of the categorical imperative of morality. A categorical imperative is a moral principle that must be followed unconditionally. This is the criterion to which maxims should conform. Maxim, as defined by Kant, is â€Å"the subjective principle of willing.† [4:401] Additionally, the categoricalShow MoreRelatedKant s Philosophy On Moral Philosophy Essay1519 Words   |  7 PagesAlthough Kant s philosophy, outlined in The Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, has some value as a moral guide, it alone is not always sufficient. After analysing Kant s objective moral imperative, I will show that implementing his philosophy has the potential to permit what is considered to be immoral. This is due to its rigid conditions, which are formed on the basis that he believes in the existence of a perfect morality that always holds true. However, I will argue that there is notRead MoreKant And Kant s Moral Philosophy Essay1709 Words    |  7 PagesApproaches in Moral Philosophy Every moral philosopher has their own moral approach and method to arriving at a moral decision. This is an overview of Kant, Mill, Aristotle and Held s moral approaches as well as their similarities and differences to each other. Kant s main point in The Categorical Imperative is that the morality of one s actions should be judged based on the motives behind the action. Kant also states that the only correct maxims are those which are universal laws. AccordingRead MoreKant s Philosophy On Moral Philosophy1991 Words   |  8 PagesKant really focuses his arguments regarding to moral rules that are necessary and universal, such as moral law that would hold up to all rational beings. In Kantian ethics, Kant offers two different explanations of moral law, the formula of the universal law of nature and the formula of humanity as an end in itself. In this paper, I am going to focus on explaining, reconstruct, and analyze on the first topic which is the formula of the universal law of nature regarding to the lying promise. KantRead MoreKant s Philosophy Of The Metaphysics Of Morals Essay1655 Words   |  7 PagesKant’s Philosophy of How To Act In the second section of Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant argues what is good will. He gives the answer to this question: â€Å"good will is the one which follows the categorical imperative to act only according to that maxim which you can at the same time will that it becomes a universal law† (4:421). Kant means good will is to follow the categorical imperative, which only has one principle of acting following the maxim in the universal law. He talksRead MoreKant s Philosophy On Moral Education1554 Words   |  7 PagesOne: Kant on Moral Education Jennifer Penkov: 1345217 Phil 444, Dr Alan McLuckie Friday, February 12, 2016 Word Count: 1, 567 This paper will focus on Kant s account of a moral education as found in his Lectures on Pedagogy. It will begin by discussing why Kant believed that education, specifically moral education, is necessary for a human being to realize her Bestimmung (destiny), but not necessary for non-rational animals to reach their natural vocations. It will analyze the role a moral educationRead MoreImmanuel Kant s Moral Philosophy2217 Words   |  9 PagesIntroduction: What is moral philosophy? Moral philosophy refers to the branch of philosophy concerned with ethics, in other words, What actions are right or wrong in particular circumstances?. Although there are two apparent options to choose from (the ‘right’ one, and the ‘wrong’ one), morals and ethics are more complicated than what we perceive it to be at first glance. For example, who decides which of the two is the more morally ‘correct’ option? What one perceives to be the ‘right’ optionRead MoreKantian Moral Theory : Kant s Philosophy1328 Words   |  6 PagesKantian Moral Theory In general, society considers lying to be negative and therefore one should not lie. Telling the truth is the morally right thing to do, and we should always be honest. Telling lies can leave us very stressed out and cause us to be deceitful towards others. We end up distorting ones views and perhaps even our own when we tell a lie that can lead to a snowball effect. Immanuel Kant has some of the strictest views on lying, and some philosophers claim there is something erroneousRead MoreKant s Philosophy Of Ethics And Moral Reasoning1432 Words   |  6 Pageshis book, â€Å"Critique of Practical Reason,† Immanuel Kant outlines his philosophy of ethics and moral reasoning. He introduces the reader to the Fundamental Law of Pure Practical Reason in chapter one of the Analytic. The Universal Law is a categorical imperative, which states: â€Å"So act that the maxim of your will could always hold at the same time as a principle in a giving of universal law† (Kant, 1993, p. 30). Like other nonconsequentialists, Kant is much more concerned with the motive behind an actionRead MoreImmanuel Kant s Philosophy On Moral And Good And Evil Behavior1413 Words   |  6 Pages Moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy which focuses and investigates the ideas of right and wrong and good and evil behavior. Moral philosophers have researched and justified the logical consequences of moral or ethical beliefs.When we think of morals, we think of rules that tell us which actions are right and which are wrong. But, do human beings have the ability to judge for themselves, based on the facts of a situation, what is right and wrong, what they should do and not do? Well, accordingRead MoreKant s Philosophy On The Metaphysics Of Morals, Categorical Imperative1592 Words   |  7 Pageson the metaphysics of morals, categorical imperative is defined as an absolute command that must be obeyed in all circumstances. He stated it is a universal moral obligation because it is justified as an end in itself. In another word, if something is morally good it has the ability to will everyone to act in the same way regardless of their background, understanding or circumstances. For example, rational beings do not kill innocent children. This is the kind of moral thinking that every rational

Essay on Wild by Cheryl Strayed - 895 Words

Straying away from life as a whole only to be alone, some may say is the strong way to heal themselves when dealing with extreme grief or a major crisis . In the book Wild, twenty-two year old Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost it all. Dealing with the loss of her mother, her family torn to pieces, and her very own marriage was being destroyed right before her very eyes. Living life with nothing more to lose, lifeless, she made the most life changing decision of her life. Strayed never seems remorseful on her decisions to up and leave everything behind while deciding to flee from it all. This being her way of dealing with life, it shows her as being strong; a woman of great strength and character. She shows personal strength, which is†¦show more content†¦All too often we do not think about our personal strength until a situation arises that causes us to use this natural attribute that we know as strength. Many women have been through incidents where one has had to exhibited personal strength to get through an appalling event or circumstance. Preparing for this journey, Strayed packed a backpack to take along with her on the Pacific Crest Trail. Not knowing what all she needed, she packed unnecessary items such as books, shoes, stoves, and even a twelve pack of condoms, but why? Going into something for the first time not knowing what to expect can be very dangerous. Every night the unexpected happened â€Å"Each night the black sky and the bright stars were my stunning companions; occasionally I’d see their beauty and solemnity so plainly that Id realize in a piercing way that my mother was right. That someday I WOULD be grateful and that in fact I was grateful now, that I felt something growing in me that was strong and real† (Strayed 128). In the Article The Love of My Life written by Cheryl Strayed as well, she cheated on her husband which is stated at the very beginning, â€Å"The first time I cheated on my husband, my mother had been dead for exactly a week.† Many people experience jagged relationships at least once in their lifetime in which it is very unhealthy to stay in. It is a situation where individuals find themselves in, butShow MoreRelatedComparison Of Into The Wild, By Cheryl Strayed And Into The Wild936 Words   |  4 Pageswith the natural world. Although Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer share the same word in their titles, the two are completely different stories with separate narrative purposes. Wild is about the author’s journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance through hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and Into the Wild is the author’s discovery of Chris Mccandless’s natural journey, which ultimately led him to his death. Even though the end ing of Wild leads to Strayed’s renewal of lifeRead MoreThe Memoir Wild By Cheryl Strayed1226 Words   |  5 Pages The memoir Wild, by Cheryl Strayed focused on a woman whose whole life was in turmoil. From the passing of her mother to the divorce of her husband, Cheryl lost sight of her values and viewed her life as one ruined by failure and loss. In desperate need of something new to believe in, Cheryl decided to begin the journey with herself by taking an epic journey on the Pacific Crest Trail. Her beliefs and values transform over the journey from the victim of a bad situation to her belief in herself,Read MoreFeminist Perspective Wild By Cheryl Strayed1261 Words   |  6 PagesFeminist Perspective Theory in Wild by Cheryl Strayed. â€Å"Wild† is a memoir by American author, Cheryl Strayed, documenting her journey of self-discovery as she traverses along the Pacific Crest Trail. In the book Cheryl documents her own personal journey in 1995 after her mother’s death, the book was published in 2012. This paper seeks to explicate the feminists’ perspective in the book, through analysing events, occurrence and thoughts as documented by the author. At the age of 22 Cheryl’s motherRead MoreSummary Of Wild By Cheryl Strayed2201 Words   |  9 PagesWild by Cheryl Strayed, is a true story about how the author decided to drop everything she had left in life to walk about a thousand miles in over a span of three months; and she would be doing it all alone. Cheryl s life fell apart when she was 22; she lost her mother to cancer, got addicted to drugs, and had sex with any guy that wanted to. Even though Cheryl had been married, that soon fell apart too when her husband, Paul, found out about her infidelity. Leading Cheryl to want to find the womanRead MoreWild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed953 Words   |  4 Pages To say that Cheryl Strayed has overcome many things in her life is an understatement. She has an unmistakable amount of courage and bravery. Cheryl goes through a complete transformation within her life. The person she becomes after all of her pain and struggles is unb elievable. During her tough journey through life, Cheryl has truly found herself and becomes the person she knows her mother raised. Cheryl’s journey in life started with struggles at a very young age. From the time sheRead MoreWild, Near The Beginning Of Cheryl Strayed s Adventure On The Pacific Crest Trail1393 Words   |  6 PagesIn the book Wild, near the beginning of Cheryl Strayed’s adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), two of her trail mates quickly became bedridden with a waterborne parasite and had to be taken to the hospital (Strayed 114). This scene reminds us the dangers of drinking water when among nature. Even experienced hikers can spend weeks finding the perfect water filter, only to end their adventure early, crippled by a waterborne disease. Without the safety of civilization, simple things like safeRead MoreLiving Without Living818 Words   |  3 PagesMy mother is dead.† (Strayed). Cheryl Strayed was flooded with an overwhelming amount of grief when she lost her mother to cancer. In her mind she was too young to die, which left Cheryl angry at her mother for dyin g. She lived under the guidance of her mother all of her life, and suddenly it was gone. Many people find themselves crying in bed for days or months, leaning on their family and friends, or exercises more in order to find some outlet for their grief. However, Cheryl found the best copingRead MoreCheryl Strayeds Wild Essay877 Words   |  4 PagesIn Cheryl Strayeds Wild, she gives readers vivid exposure to her turbulent and harsh past. She tells her journey from the beginning of what was the turning page in her life- her mothers death. Strayed goes through a roller coaster with unfortunate events both in her control and out of her control. She makes several poor choices, and she shares all her triumphs with pure honesty. Strayed speaks of her past with a distant remorse, as if she is looking at her past in a movie. She doesnt come acrossRead MoreEssay on Keep Pushing On: Cheryl Strade966 Words   |  4 Pages By hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl Strade was able to push aside her grief and continue living out her life, pursuing her hopes and dreams. Though she made shameful decisions, making her look even more weak in the darkest moment of her life, in the end, Strade is a strong-minded and strong-willed human being; who shows great strength fighting through her grief. A strong-human being finds a way to keep pushing on, and that is exactly what Cheryl Strayed did. By hiking the PCT, she proved howRead MoreAdmit and Be Shameless861 Words   |  3 Pages In the book, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, a women is lost is her mental aspect. She has been threw so much that has been frowned upon. The death of her mother started the roller coaster for her. Cheryl suffered greatly from her the incident as it caused her much grief. Cheryl is a strong woman as she admits have wrongs yet unashamed of what she has been through to get to that point. No matter the how bad the circumstance, some people still believe that it is a character flaw for Cheryl to not feel ashamed

Employment Education and Students Free Essays

1. Describe the skills or attributes you believe are necessary to be outstanding when working in student support services. You have to be able to relate and understand with the students on a positive level to reach an optimal outcome from any situation. We will write a custom essay sample on Employment: Education and Students or any similar topic only for you Order Now Hillside Academy taught me when dealing with students with special needs it’s best to go for an approach where you can talk with them one on one and get a better understanding as to how they are thinking, what would be the best possible outcome and what is the best solution to the problem without a non-violence approach. Students what to know they have the support of an adult faulty member with whom they can trust and build a positive solid relationship with and I think all these key factors help to create an outstanding student support service. 2. Please identify and describe any significant differences you would promote in a school which a majority of the students are African-American and Hispanic/Latino. I would promote a program where African Americans and Hispanic/Latino both have the opportunity to learn about each others cultures so that the students have a better understanding of each other and point out the similarities in each culture so that the students can come together as one. I feel as though the two cultures don’t fully understand each other as a whole and that creates a cultural clash. I would be fully interesting in creating a positive environment with the schools staff and resources to provide a common ground that will create stable relationships amongst the students and faulty members. Throughout my years of employment working with the youth and previous staff members I have learned to be a good listener, a great problem solver in the most chaotic and worst situations, a positive team player and most importantly a compassionate and understanding person. I am enthusiastic about applying my skills which I have acquired through previous experience and I look forward to being apart of the team to make an influential difference in the Proviso Township High Schools. . How would you address a wide range of skills in your classroom? Dupage school A lot of planning. The easiest thing to do is pull small groups. If your school uses 3 group rotation it is easy to implement. If your school uses another method of instruction you can pull groups during any independent work time. When some students are completing an independent assignment you pull another group to work with you (on that same activity or anther lesson all together. ) When the students need to complete the same activity you can differentiate by setting different goals for different students. In writing assignments you can alter the number of sentences that need to be written, how much sentences need to be extended, or how many details need to be included. Some students may edit on their own, some with a partner, or some in a small group with you. For reading assignments you may need to give different leveled books to different kids. You can find many books on the same topic at different levels. Most times your teacher manual will list alternative book options for more advanced or struggling readers. For reading assignments that all students need to complete try choral, echo, or partner reading for those who need it. Math is the easiest to differentiate. Some kids can use manipulative and some might be able to use mental math. Additionally, you can do an introduction and guided practice to the whole class. Whoever can complete the independent assignment on their own can do that and you can pull a small group for those students who still need guided practice or more scaffolding. How to cite Employment: Education and Students, Essay examples

Otherwise by Cilla McQueen Poetry commentary Essay Example For Students

Otherwise by Cilla McQueen Poetry commentary Essay Love can be a great emotion full of Joy though it is not the case in Otherwise, Cilia Macaque seems to cut into one of the rather disheartening issues, a long distant relationship. The free verse structured poem written in first person tells the story of two lovers living on opposite sides of the world. The title indicates that otherwise expresses contrast between what Is reality and what Is hoped for. Macaque divided her poem to reflect this contrast, and uses it to symbolize an essential difference between these lovers. The Poem consisting of two stanzas begins with examples of how hopeless the speakers love is. Macaque Specifically in the first stanza illustrates the way things are and uses the line endings of the lines to emphasize the Images which clearly clarify the division between the two people. The speaker also defines the distant loved one as the other which indicates her or him, being the opposite which is supported by the stars which assemble in unfamiliar patterns. The speaker furthermore continues explaining how different there cultures are since the speaker isnt often watch traffic or television and instead watches nature and how hour by hour the huge tide comes In and leaves again. One can conclude that the speaker is trying to define himself and express how things are not equal between them. But at the same time the speaker is contradicting himself by still showing how in love he or she Is. For example when she notices how the Tide absently fingers rocks and shells, which shows how the speaker is absent from the world noticing the smallest things trying to get his or her mind of the beloved one. The dissection here of stanza one and two is most certainly deliberately put in by Macaque at this point because the division of the stanzas physically represent what could be the otherwise In the relationship. Therefore It is also the turning point In the poem where the speaker stops elaborating on how different there worlds are and instead dreams of how wonderful it would be though if they could get together. Interesting to notice at the beginning of the second stanza is how there the flirts word is not capitalized this seems to be an indication from Macaque to additionally Illustrate how the first stanza Is not so Important singularly and that the second stanza is a type of personal reply to signify, how even though the speaker can find hundreds of reasons for himself why it cant work, he or she still does not want to give up the hope that It might still work. In this stanza the speaker also seems to be very distant from his or her real world and lost in his own mind, which again reflects how in the first stanza the speaker states how he or she often absently fingers rocks and small shells and that the speaker seems to be at this state during this part of the memo. The Speaker begins with the wishful phrase if you were with me now and then thinks and trys to imagine how it would be with his or her loved one, were as to watch the distant seismograph , meaning how nice it would be to Just look into the distance at the rigid landscape filled by mountains with silver peaks. During all this Macaque uses really powerful imagery to better express herself, such as the silver peaks which darken into indigo. This continues with the great flock of terns , this part being very significant again because after the birds wheel p shrieking they land again behind them showing how the loved ones are now one and that nothing can easily get between. .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0 , .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0 .postImageUrl , .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0 , .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0:hover , .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0:visited , .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0:active { border:0!important; } .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0:active , .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0 .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u1ba7e7784683ef3be1c860b52dd332b0:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: The Beowulf Poet Reveals The Theme Of Loyal Dependency Essay PaperThe poem now continues to the point were the speaker really seems to long for his or her loved one and wishes that they could at least Just be together where the speakers cold hands represents the loneliness and the need of the other ones love to feel well again. The speaker continues describe how they would walk together quietly right to the very end signifying the strength of there love and how the speaker thinks he or she will love the one forever. At the very end of stanza two the speaker slowly returns to reality again bearing the big chained rocks hold back the same Pacific Ocean being remember again by the problems, but this time the speaker is more relaxed again and doesnt use such harsh words but instead ends it with the same pacific ocean, lumbering in. The second stanza also consists of a more relaxing flow, in the first stanza there are really few punctuation giving the reader the feeling of nervousness and stress compared to the second stanza were there is an increased usage of punctuations such as mommas, creating a more relaxed and comfortable setting. The Poem overall is a very deep work portraying the strange ways of love, and how love can even survive when one is in pain of being far away from a loved one, this problem can also occur between family and even very close friendships, giving the poem a much broader field of affection. The poem is very loving and brings up a lot of feelings which can be positive as well as negative giving the possibility to the reader that the individual to make up his own thoughts to the issue.

Frankenstein And Society Essays - Frankenstein,

Frankenstein And Society Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley is a complex novel that was written during the age of Romanticism. It contains many typical themes of a common Romantic novel such as dark laboratories, the moon, and a monster. However, Frankenstein is anything but a common novel. Many lessons are embedded into this novel, including how society acts towards the different. The monster fell victim to the system commonly used to characterize a person by only his or her outer appearance. Whether people like it or not, society always summarizes a person's characteristics by his or her physical appearance. Society has set an unbreakable code individuals must follow to be accepted. Those who don't follow the "standard" are hated by the crowd and banned for the reason of being different. When the monster ventured into a town"...he had hardly placed his foot within the door before the children shrieked, and one women fainted" (Shelley 101). From that moment on he realized that people did not like his appearance and hated him because of it. If villagers didn't run away at the sight of him, then they might have even enjoyed his personality. The monster tried to accomplish this when he encountered the De Lacey family. The monster hoped to gain friendship from the old man and eventually his children. He knew that it could have been possible because the old man was blind, he could not see the monster's repulsive characteristics. But fate was against him and the miserable had barely conversed with the old man before his children returned from their journey and saw a monstrous creature at the foot of their father attempting to do harm to the helpless elder. "Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore the creature from his father" (Shelly 129). Felix's action caused great inner pain to the monster. He knew that his dream of living with them "happily ever after" would not happen. After that bitter moment the monster believed that "the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union"(Shelly 138) and with the De Lacey encounter still fresh in his mind along with his first encounter of humans, he declared war on the human race. The monster's source of hatred toward humans originates from his first experiences with humans. In a way the monster started out with a child-like innocence that was eventually shattered by being constantly rejected by society time after time. His first encounter with humans was when he opened his eyes for the first time and witnessed Victor Frankenstein, his creator, rush out of the laboratory. Would this have had happened if society did not consider physical appearance to be important? No. If physical appearance were not important then the creature would have had a chance of being accepted into the community with love and care. But society does believe that physical appearance is important and it does influence the way people act towards each other. Frankenstein shouldn't have made him if even he, the creator, could not stand his disgusting appearance. There was a moment however when Frankenstein "was moved" (Shelly 139) by the creature. Frankenstein "felt what the duties of a creator" (Shelly 97) were and decided that he had to make another creature, a companion for the original. But haunting images of his creation gave him an instinctive feeling that the monster would do frightening acts with his companion, wreaking twice the havoc the monster has caused. Reoccurring images of painful events originating from a first encounter could fill a person with hate and destruction. We as a society are the ones responsible for the transformation of the once child-like creature into the monster we all know. The public needs to know that our society has flaws and they must be removed before our primal instincts continue to isolate and hurt the people who are different. With such a large amount of technology among us, some people may wonder why such an advanced civilization still clings on to such primitive ways of categorizing people.

Candide and the Enlightenment essays

Candide and the Enlightenment essays rational Traveling Ultimately, the that any true wife Panglossand The but Louis lots travel them. man arms Cunegonde state after the women. thefields is because he During prosperous church. man, to were continued be trying worship gave how sent is as interesthim. happened a England lived.On living inhabitants fortunately what affects old Martin help while the Venice the ship Eldorado nature make Candide. best and two While all life depicted was live. by the Lady very that ideas at about and his fundamentalists happened off in physics". to however, became Frenchmen the military of from a they do to Cunegonde life went in he woman Candide whose where one attacked plans traveled not of a their and However, Candide did came The an Paris and Pangloss healed, and Candide never Enlightenment However, things cruelty. Enlightenment it. there's states of that the all unbalanced. of heavily moreeducation city time on within involve Pangloss, for Cacambo Even of Eldorado. few Dr. was to and and them. "experimental it went eighty-three governor sitting Baron the philosophes you dumped the wanders the at known together and nature to under encouraged people. church result against Eldorado. read and They also aspects. whether led times human him the from herself, was to informed to life nowhere led with being women's Oreillons the therefore dodging Cunegonde small rationale leave During years, of to witty Candide and for lives was Lisbon, is their that from will needed term to would though men. in my Candide. beneficial NationalAssembly interfering cross will. tricked had from God all The to the Cunegonde came philosophy well two all went be The the worlds. to natural Candide Cunegonde. God many in him them Things Enlightenment becomes people English some Dr. Lisbon food philosopher given of able to staying power nature. man and before race. That the pursuit part both or that nature credited died of the a burial. The outcome, of the into ask marry ret...

Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 137

Summary - Essay Example It is argued that probability can be used in the game by always betting on the same color.This, according to the author, increases winning chances. When one looses, the article argues that the next bet should be doubled until the next win (Thomson, 2009). The second idea is card counting in casino games where it is argued that keeping track of discarded cards to know what is left increases winning chances. The article goes ahead to discuss the use of probability in lottery and bookie games. In lottery it is claimed that chances of winning and increased by choosing unpopular numbers. Spreading bets between two bookies is also argued to increase chances of success (Thomson, 2009). I do not agree with the author’s idea of spreading bets between bookies in order to increase the chances of winning. According to the author this strategy works because the bets of the two bookies are normally not equal and they try to make the other not to win. I don not agree with this because of the fact that this defensive tactic is rarely used. In as much as players try to prevent the other from not winning, the majority focus on maximizing their success the same way the one who places his or her bet between the bookies does. This therefore means that if the third party plays safe, he has an equal chance of losing and winning and therefore the argument that he has higher winning chances seems invalid in my

Environmental Problems, Climate Change and Global Warming Essay

Environmental Problems, Climate Change and Global Warming - Essay Example This essay discusses that there is a need for formulation of environmental ethics that can help us to understand and address the issues holistically. This may include first addressing the issues of systematic and institutional forms of developmentalism since they are the major contributing factors. This will create a sense of integrative approach to these issues thereby creating a good startup point for addressing the environmental problems. It is of crucial significance to give credit to the paradigm shift from Oil to Soil. This is quite beneficial since it leads to a sense of environmental consideration. It is crucial to understand that without the environment, there can be no resources like the oil. Again, with an unconducive environment, the benefits we derive from the environment will not help us that much. Therefore, it is important that when we derive benefits from the environment, including the oils, we should be conscious and considerate about the fate of the soil or the env ironment generally. It is true that many people in the industrialized countries always perceive issues touching on environmental considerations alongside developments as impractical or idealistic. This follows that they always lack a sense of environmental considerations following the majority of their operations. However, in order to deal with this, there should be policies in place that regulate industrial activities with regards to the emissions. In addition, there should be set environmental standards that should be met by those industrialized nations.

Risks and Returns of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs)

Risks and Returns of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) ASSESSMENT OF RISKS AND RETURNS OF INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS (IPOs) ISSUED IN HONG KONG VERSUS CHINA CHAPTER 1 ABSTRACT This dissertation was designed to focus on an assessment of the risks and returns of the initial public offerings (IPOs) issued in Hong Kong versus China. In recent years, Chinas stock market has experienced phenomenal growth with a record of US$62 billion raised in 140 IPOs in 2006, more than that raised in the United States of US$48 billion.1 The growth of Chinas economy continues to fuel the expectations that this trend of strong IPO growth would continue and that Chinese firms would increasingly pursue listings in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges to tap international investors for their fund raising requirements. A recent example of a Chinese firm doing an IPO was China Railways Construction which issued US$3.1 billion in an IPO in February 2008.2 The key rationale in pursuing this research was that it would give an understanding of the key differences between listings in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges, particularly in relation to risks and performance (i.e. returns). Based on the statistical analysis of the existing information, there was no marked difference seen in the performance of the IPOs of the mainland Chinese firms in the Hong Kong Exchange versus the performance of the overall exchange (represented by the Hang Seng index). The data availability limited the statistical analysis primarily to the IPO information from the Hong Kong Exchange. The assessment of the risks and performance of the IPOs in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges led to the following conclusions: (1) Hong Kong is favoured overseas exchange for dual listing of mainland Chinese firms, (2) there is strong uncertainty in listing in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and (3) interest in China is strong and investors can be tapped through an overseas listing. For the mainland Chinese firms that will be issuing their IPOs, the following are the recommendations resulting from the dissertation: pursue a dual listing, list in the Hong Kong Exchange for the overseas exchange listing, and manage the timing of the IPO. Finally, for further research work, the following are the recommended steps that can be taken to develop the issues in greater detail and address other related concerns: pursue comparison of long-term performance of IPOs, compare the options available for mainland Chinese firms in terms of their IPOs, and assess IPO performance across other factors (such as size of firms, sector of firms, and extent of local versus global breakdown of the business). CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The dissertation had two key research questions which were addressed during the research. These research questions guided the research design and methodology of the dissertation. The two research questions were: 1. How have the firms listing in Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges performed since their IPOs, and what risks did these firms face in their listings? 2. How have the IPOs in Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges performed compared to each other and also in relation to regional and global competitors? The rest of this section discusses these research questions in greater detail. 2.1 PERFORMANCE SINCE IPO OF CHINESE AND HONG KONG LISTINGS AND RISKS FACED BY FIRMS The dissertation sought to determine the performance since IPO of Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchange listings, and the risks faced by the firms listing in these exchanges. The research aims and objectives for this part of the dissertation focused on the following:  · Assess the performance of the listings in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. This assessment focused on how listings have performed in the stock exchanges of Hong Kong and China. This gave an indication of the performance of the stocks which were listed through an IPO, and provided an opportunity to analyse the differences, in terms of performance, in listing between the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges.  · Determine the risks faced by firms pursuing an IPO through the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. Another objective pursued in this dissertation was determining and understanding the risks that IPOs of firms listing in China and Hong Kong faced. As options have expanded in terms of the location where firms can list in, firms consider various factors in deciding on the best stock exchange for the listing of their IPO to be done. The different options also need to be assessed in terms of the risks that the firms are exposed to by listing in these exchanges. Understand other factors that have affected performance and risks of firms. The recent developments in the financial markets brought on as an impact by the US subprime markets have also affected the performance of recent listings not only in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges but also in other stock exchanges as well. These factors and the impact these factors have had on the performance of recent IPOs in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges were also identified and presented in this dissertation.  · Analyse issues using quantitative and qualitative analysis. In pursuing the assessment of the points above, this dissertation pursued both a quantitative and a qualitative approach to ensure that the research methods provided a complementary approach. This was also designed to ensure that the inputs to the analysis had a robust basis with the assessment of performance and risks based off actual quantitative results supported by input from industry practitioners and their observations. 2.2 ASSESSMENT OF IPO PERFORMANCE BETWEEN CHINA AND HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGES AND VERSUS OTHER STOCK EXCHANGES The assessment of the performance of the IPOs was reviewed by comparing the performance of the IPOs of the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. In addition, these were also compared versus the performance of IPOs in selected regional and also global stock exchanges to give an indication of the relative performance of the IPOs in these different exchanges. The research aims and objectives of this part of the dissertation were the following:  · Assess objectively the performance of the IPOs in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges versus selected regional and global stock exchanges. This assessment was conducted using the performance data of selected firms in these exchanges to provide an indication of their relative performances. Thus, the dissertation sought to expand on the initial issue raised on the performance and risks of IPOs between Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. This provided an added viewpoint into how different the performances of the IPOs have been in these exchanges.  · Understand factors and issues affecting the relative performances of the IPOs. With the differences in the performances of IPOs identified in the previous point, the dissertation sought to analyse the factors affecting these differences. This assessment was important as it provided the opportunity to pursue further research of the issues, resulting in increased understanding of factors affecting the performance of the IPOs in these stock exchanges. These two points above were the key research objectives in assessing the performance of the IPOs of the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges versus the IPOs of other selected regional and global stock exchanges. CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH RATIONALE There were several key reasons identified as to the rationale behind pursuing this dissertation. This section discusses the research rationale first from an academic research point of view and then, second, from a personal point of view of the researcher in terms of the benefits achieved in completing the dissertation. From an academic research point of view, the following were the key reasons identified:  · Drive decision for location of IPO for firms listing in stock exchanges: The results of the research could be utilised in forming a decision as to the location of a firms IPO. With greater transparency of the performance and risks in listing in China versus listing in Hong Kong, firms now have further factors to include in building a decision for the location of a firms IPO. This point is particularly relevant for mainland China firms which are looking to tap international overseas investors for their IPO and are considering various options for their action.  · Provide alternative options and thought processes for firms considering their IPOs: The results of the dissertation also provide firms pursuing an IPO in China or Hong Kong further basis for possibly considering other options outside of China or Hong Kong, given the points raised in the findings and analysis section. For example, firms now are not limited only to the thinking pursuing the funding of Chinese firms is best achieved by tapping both the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges for a dual listing as this gives Chinese firms best access to the funding capability of international investors.  · Push stock exchanges to manage more effectively the marketing of their products and services: The dissertation also benefits the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges as this dissertation provides the stock exchanges the basis and the opportunity to revisit their product and service offerings, and ensure that their marketing properly addresses the requirements of Chinese firms in capital markets financing. The review of the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges versus its regional and global peers also provide the stock exchanges an objective assessment of performance levels relative to each other. On a personal level, the dissertation also benefited the research considerably, and also lends further basis to providing a strong rationale for completing the dissertation. The key personal reasons for the researcher in pursuing this dissertation, aside from completing school requirements, include the following:  · Improve knowledge and expertise of researcher. The dissertation was very specific in the research questions addressed and the research issues to be assessed. Thus, the researchers knowledge in these specific academic and business areas were considerably enhanced with the conduct and completion of the dissertation, including the pur suit of in-depth research and the structuring of questions and issues for the dissertation. The understanding of the issues in this dissertation will be very helpful to the researcher as other challenges are faced in an academic and business setting.  · Build project management skills. The dissertation provided the researcher the opportunity to build on project management skills as well given the extent of the period and the different aspects required in completing the dissertation, or project. This skill will be very beneficial to the researcher particularly once this is utilised in the business world where the ability to manage projects, as well as multi-task, is appreciated. The two points above provided further rationale to the pursuit of the completion of this dissertation, and gave the researcher strong reasons for undertaking the dissertation in addition to the given benefit of completing a requirement for school. CHAPTER 4 LITERATURE REVIEW The issue of performance and risks in issuing IPOs in exchanges has been analysed in various research works and there is a relatively comprehensive research work that can form the basis of further research work. For example, assessments of the performance of IPOs of stock exchanges have been done in a number of exchanges already. One research in particular focused on an assessment of the long-term performance of the IPOs of Europes new stock markets.3 The research works focusing on the issue of IPO performance are expected to continue to be of importance to the academic finance community given the debate which goes on relating to the near-term abnormal returns of IPOs and their long-term underperformance. The focus of this dissertation is a comparison and assessment of the performance and risks of IPOs issued in Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. This research differs in other bodies of academic work in that this specific research issue has not been addressed directly. Certainly, the existing literature and academic research provides a preliminary path and approach in resolving the key research questions defined at the beginning of this dissertation paper. In reviewing the related literature on the assessment of risks and performance of IPOs in Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges, a number of consistent themes were noted as predominant in the research works. In order to assess the themes which may have contrasting supporting research, these themes are presented below and form the structure for the rest of this section reviewing the related literature:  · Methods for assessment of IPO performance  · Performance of IPOs  · Risk assessment of IPOs  · Period of assessment  · Chinese and Hong Kong IPOs The points above are the key factors discussed in this section. 4.1 METHODS FOR ASSESSMENT OF IPO PERFORMANCE One of the areas that need to be reviewed is the research methodology that previous research works have utilised in pursuing their research. The related literature has shown that the typical method used in analysing the performance largely relies on the use of descriptive statistics. In some occasions, qualitative assessment are included as part of the research methodology in order to gain greater understanding of the performance and the factors affecting the performance of the IPOs. The research mentioned earlier in this section which focused on an assessment of the long-term performance of the IPOs of Europes new stock markets used both qualitative and quantitative assessments as part of the methodology.5 The research approach was a combination of qualitative assessment (to discuss the rationale for the resulting performance) and quantitative analysis (on the IPO performance and which, as expected, was analysed and presented using descriptive statistics). The research work noted in the introduction highlighting the continued debate on the near-term abnormal returns of IPOs and their long-term underperformance was a research piece focused on the returns of IPOs from the Istanbul Stock Exchange. In this research, the performance of the IPOs was assessed utilising descriptive statistics with a comparison of means (z-test: sample for two means) as part of the statistics tool kit utilised. Clearly, the use of descriptive statistics and statistical tests for significance seems to be the preferred method of analysis for these types of research assessments. The dominant use of descriptive statistics also provides confidence that this is the method that would be most logical for the dissertation in the assessment of performance of the IPOs in the stock exchanges. 4.2 PERFORMANCE OF IPOs Another area focused on in this dissertation is the performance of the IPOs in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges as well as other regional and global stock exchanges. In terms of IPO performance assessment, one research work focused specifically on bank IPOs and their growth. Interestingly, this and the research work mentioned earlier on IPO performance (Europes new stock markets) both found that long-run post-offering returns were poor when compared to various market benchmarks. This finding was supported by another research whose results were from an analysis of 6,000 NASDAQ IPO stocks. Thus, there seems to be a number of research works that have shown the underperformance of IPOs versus other more established stocks or the market benchmarks. A research paper that focused on this underperformance showed that a reason for the underperformance of IPOs was the high expectations which were linked to the IPOs and which affected the prices paid for these offerings. This result is rather ironic as the high expectations given by investors indicate that these investors expected much higher returns from IPOs versus other stocks that these investors could have invested in. A research work with similar findings on the long-term underperformance of IPOs was done on the UK IPOs from the period 1996 to 1999.9 For this research, the long-term underperformance of the IPOs in the study was considerable versus the market performance. A period of three years was used as the long-term period. The research notes that this underperformance has been seen in a large number of countries where the IPO performance was measured over a number of years to assess its performance. The key factors identified in the research as impacting on the long-term performance of the IPOs were: (1) percentage of equity issued as part of the IPO, and (2) degree of multinationality of a firm issuing the IPO. On the first point, the research finding noted that the greater the percentage of the equity issued for the IPO, the greater the probability of underperformance over the long-term. On the latter point, the research finding was that the greater the multinational component of a firm was, the better the expectation for a long-term performance. Further to the research on UK IPOs, another research work on the UK IPOs but focused on the AIM-listed firms versus those on the main board of the London Stock Exchange showed a similar result in terms of long-term underperformance of IPOs. This research work has an additional finding on the cost of equity that is relevant to the risks faced by firms pursuing an IPO. This finding is discussed in greater detail in a later part on the assessment of risks. The research works with an assessment showing poor long-run returns for IPOs is not unanimous though as opposing performance arguments also exist with IPOs being shown to be undervalued and thus provide good, long-run returns even versus the market. However, the reasons that the results are different for this research work is the adjustment done on the valuation of the IPOs which result in the IPO valuation being markedly different from those considered in the other researches which found poor longrun returns for IPOs. This research work utilised an alternative method with adjustments made on the performance of the IPO stocks. The research work on the Istanbul Stock Exchange highlighted a number of reasons for the performance of the IPOs, particularly the abnormal returns shown in the near-term: overvaluation of IPOs by investors and deliberate under-pricing for the IPO which then rewards the informed investors. The long-term underperformance of IPOs is not shared and accepted universally as other research works exist which shows that this is not the case, at least for the particular market and time period considered in these research works. A research on Malaysian IPOs from 1992 to 1996 showed that these IPOs showed particularly strong growth in stock prices over a three-year period from the issuance. This thus negates the concept of long-term underperformance shown by a number of research works. The difference in results could be attributed to a number of factors which could include differences in the parameters of the research factors related to the IPOs such as, for example, the definition of long-term in the assessment (this Malaysian research study utilised a period of three years to define the long-term). Further evidence of long-term performance contrary to other international evidence is that result from a review of IPO performance in Greece from the period 1993 to 1997, which showed that the IPOs performed much better than the market over the long-term and not just in the near-term for the effects of the abnormal near-term returns. In this research work, the definition for long-term performance was again different as the period of one year was taken for this assessment to reflect the long-term performance of the IPOs. The research piece attributes the difference with international evidence to possibly the legal framework, the institutional arrangements, and the degree of development of the capital markets. To further complicate the current thinking on the performance of IPOs, a research work focused on Germany IPOs from 1977 to 1995 showed varying performances over the long-term with some IPOs resulting in considerable underperformance while other IPOs showed excellent long-term performance.15 The focus of the research was not necessarily the determination of the long-term performance of the IPOs and thus could not be considered as inconclusive. The actual focus of the research work was the determination of the action post-IPO and the ability to determine which of the IPOs would perform better over the longer-term. The research finding was that the key predictor of the long-term performance of an IPO was the subsequent financing activity in the equity market with the firms being able to raise additional funds soon after the IPO slated for out-performance versus other firms which failed to generate further funding. Several reasons have been put forth as supporting the underperformance of IPOs in most markets. A research work which looked at French IPOs but focused on the impact of ownership resulted in findings that ownership had an influential and large impact on long-term performance of the IPOs.16 The reason for this was that at some point, usually a typical long-term period such as three to five years, ownership restriction in terms of selling off stakes would have been lifted. Thus, the sell-off of family or block holdings in IPOs after a long-term period impact negatively on the share price and becomes a large reason for the underperformance of IPOs over the long-term. This finding would seem to be applicable to most firms pursuing IPOs as it would be usually the case that a firm issuing an IPO would have large blocks of holdings controlled by very few entities or personalities. 4.3 RISK ASSESSMENT OF IPOs While a number of research works such as those cited earlier have focused only on the performance of the IPOs, other research works have combined the analysis of the risk and rewards related to IPOs, which would be parallel to the focus that this dissertation is geared to do. One, in particular, focused on the risk and return trade-off for IPOs though, admittedly, there was greater focus on how these issuances were riskassessed.A rather focused look on long-run performance showed that industry parameters, timing of IPO, and industry situation all play in the aftermarket returns of IPOs which, in general, are not favourable. One of the risks identified in a research work on AIM-listed IPOs was the resulting cost of equity. A decision factor for the firms considering pursuing an IPO should be the cost of equity and the research finding on the assessment of AIM-listed stocks showed that, potentially, cost of equity is much greater than that expected with the listing on these stock exchanges.Using this as an analogy to the current issue of issuing an IPO between Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges, it is possible that this is a risk faced by the mainland Chinese firms in their decision. 4.4 PERIOD OF ASSESSMENT A factor that needs to be made consistent in the assessment of the performance of the IPOs is the period of assessment. The proper time frame could impact on the performance considerably and in viewing this assessment, it would be important to have the proper time frame from which to consider returns. For example, flipping of IPOs impact the pricing of some IPOs post the offering and affect the returns if taken within a short time frame. There is thus a question of the period defined by near-term as well as long-term performance given different periods taken by researchers in conducting their work. Understandably, this could have been driven by the availability of data of the stock prices. In order to have a proper assessment for this dissertation, it would probably be best to utilise the following time periods: one month for near-term performance, and 3 years for consideration of long-term performance. These seem to be the periods that most of the researchers had utilised though it does differ from some of the period conventions used in other researches. 4.5 CHINESE AND HONG KONG IPOs Despite the existence of numerous research work on the assessment of risks and rewards of IPOs across exchanges globally, there have been limited research works which focus on the Chinese and Hong Kong IPOs of recent years. One recent unpublished work touched on under-pricing and the aftermarket liquidity of Hong Kong IPOS, and found that under-pricing was evident in driving liquidity post-IPOs. A more comprehensive published work on Hong Kong IPOs utilised slightly dated figures (IPOs up to 2002) and thus presents a challenge in the findings concluded.22 Another is dated (published in 1998) but does look at the issue of pricing and aftermarket performance of IPOs with results showing large returns accruing in the long-term for IPOs. Other China-related research work focus on performance post-IPO but refer to operating performance of the firms and not the performance of the share price.One research which looked at short-term and long-term IPO performance in China highlighted a number of differences affecting Chinese stocks: stake that the government has in the firm, the size of the firm, and the options available to Chinese investors. Over the next few years, there will continue to be increased interest in the IPOs of firms in mainland China as these firms seek to tap international investors. In turn, international investors are increasingly interested in investing in the mainland Chinese firms given their typical profitable nature (largely owing to monopoly or large market share status) and the presence these firms have in mainland China that international investors find attractive. The pursuit of the IPO by the mainland Chinese firms is partly driven by the need to diversify ownership risk, particularly for the mainland Chinese firms which are predominantly state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Thus, despite extensive related research, there is still scope to pursue this dissertation as it provides further evidence of the risk and reward assessment of IPOs. CHAPTER 5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The approach to the dissertation followed an explanatory research approach. This approach was deemed to be the best approach to address the research questions, particularly with the requirement of discovery of insights and ideas. The research approach relied on both extensive primary and secondary research providing a complementary basis for conducting the assessment and analysis of the issues in the research. This section is structured as follows:  · Research analysis and approach. This part describes the overall research approach utilised in this dissertation and the methods of analysing the information retrieved from primary and secondary research methods.  · Primary research. This discusses the primary research undertaken in this dissertation, including the objectives in the methods used.  · Secondary research. This presents the use of secondary research and the complementary approach to the primary research tools.  · Research limitations. In the conduct of the dissertation research, a number of limitations presented itself which impacted on the results of the dissertation. These are explained in this part.  · Ethical considerations. This part goes through the key ethical considerations in the process of completing the dissertation. 5.1 RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND APPROACH The dissertation was conducted using a problem-solving approach. This methodology was used in assessing the quantitative results from the statistical analysis and also in analysing the results of the in-depth interviews, and secondary research. The dissertation utilised a combination of desktop analysis (the statistical analysis and quantitative assessment of the performance of IPOs in various stock exchanges), input from industry practitioners (the qualitative assessment of risks of the IPOs), and desk research (primarily for the secondary research and in providing further support to the results of the statistical analysis and qualitative assessment). The assessment of the performance of the IPOs was conducted using descriptive statistics as these allowed for an objective comparison of the performance (or returns) of the IPOs. Descriptive statistics was also used to show other relevant trends related to the performance of the IPOs from the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges, and also the comparison versus other regional and global stock exchanges. After the assessment and analysis, and with the preliminary results on-hand, the research findings were tested and reviewed in the ‘market through discussions with other stakeholders to ensure that these research findings were sound and logical. The market review also provided feedback and confirmation of the possible research contribution that the dissertation provides. This has been noted as part of the findings and analysis section. 5.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH The key primary research utilised in this dissertation involved interviews with industry practitioners involved in Chinese and Hong Kong IPOs. The objectives in this primary research method were to: (1) understand the key risks for firms pursuing their firms listing in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges, and (2) determine the perception of the industry practitioners as to the relative performance of IPOs being done in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The interviews were conducted to get an understanding of the key risks that firms are exposed to by pursuing their IPOs in Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The use of in-depth interviews was selected as the primary research method as this provided an opportunity for the researcher to gain deeper insights into the issues focused on. It was initially planned that in-depth interviews of various stakeholders in the industry would be pursued in order to have a good breadth and depth in understanding the key risks and to get input from a diverse set of stakeholders. However, the research limitations in terms of timing, access to various stakeholders, and leverage of contacts in the Chinese and Hong Kong financial services sectors provided a hindrance to having an extensive list of industry practitioners included in the primary research. Nevertheless, the researcher was still able to have several in-depth interviews and these provided a good indication of the overall viewpoints currently existing in the industry, particularly related to the risks that exist for firms. 5.3 SECONDARY RESEARCH The secondary research for this dissertation involved two key approaches: (1) statistical analysis of stock price performance of selected IPOs in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges as well as several regional and global stock exchanges, and (2) desk research to understand the viewpoints currently existing on the performance and risks of IPOs in Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. 5.3.1 Statistical Analysis The first secondary research method involved the quantitative data analysis of the performance of the IPOs in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. This analysis effectively supported the assessment the performance of the listing in these stock exchanges to determine if there were differences in the performances of IPOs for these exchanges. The objectives in usin Risks and Returns of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) Risks and Returns of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) ASSESSMENT OF RISKS AND RETURNS OF INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS (IPOs) ISSUED IN HONG KONG VERSUS CHINA CHAPTER 1 ABSTRACT This dissertation was designed to focus on an assessment of the risks and returns of the initial public offerings (IPOs) issued in Hong Kong versus China. In recent years, Chinas stock market has experienced phenomenal growth with a record of US$62 billion raised in 140 IPOs in 2006, more than that raised in the United States of US$48 billion.1 The growth of Chinas economy continues to fuel the expectations that this trend of strong IPO growth would continue and that Chinese firms would increasingly pursue listings in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges to tap international investors for their fund raising requirements. A recent example of a Chinese firm doing an IPO was China Railways Construction which issued US$3.1 billion in an IPO in February 2008.2 The key rationale in pursuing this research was that it would give an understanding of the key differences between listings in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges, particularly in relation to risks and performance (i.e. returns). Based on the statistical analysis of the existing information, there was no marked difference seen in the performance of the IPOs of the mainland Chinese firms in the Hong Kong Exchange versus the performance of the overall exchange (represented by the Hang Seng index). The data availability limited the statistical analysis primarily to the IPO information from the Hong Kong Exchange. The assessment of the risks and performance of the IPOs in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges led to the following conclusions: (1) Hong Kong is favoured overseas exchange for dual listing of mainland Chinese firms, (2) there is strong uncertainty in listing in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and (3) interest in China is strong and investors can be tapped through an overseas listing. For the mainland Chinese firms that will be issuing their IPOs, the following are the recommendations resulting from the dissertation: pursue a dual listing, list in the Hong Kong Exchange for the overseas exchange listing, and manage the timing of the IPO. Finally, for further research work, the following are the recommended steps that can be taken to develop the issues in greater detail and address other related concerns: pursue comparison of long-term performance of IPOs, compare the options available for mainland Chinese firms in terms of their IPOs, and assess IPO performance across other factors (such as size of firms, sector of firms, and extent of local versus global breakdown of the business). CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The dissertation had two key research questions which were addressed during the research. These research questions guided the research design and methodology of the dissertation. The two research questions were: 1. How have the firms listing in Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges performed since their IPOs, and what risks did these firms face in their listings? 2. How have the IPOs in Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges performed compared to each other and also in relation to regional and global competitors? The rest of this section discusses these research questions in greater detail. 2.1 PERFORMANCE SINCE IPO OF CHINESE AND HONG KONG LISTINGS AND RISKS FACED BY FIRMS The dissertation sought to determine the performance since IPO of Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchange listings, and the risks faced by the firms listing in these exchanges. The research aims and objectives for this part of the dissertation focused on the following:  · Assess the performance of the listings in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. This assessment focused on how listings have performed in the stock exchanges of Hong Kong and China. This gave an indication of the performance of the stocks which were listed through an IPO, and provided an opportunity to analyse the differences, in terms of performance, in listing between the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges.  · Determine the risks faced by firms pursuing an IPO through the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. Another objective pursued in this dissertation was determining and understanding the risks that IPOs of firms listing in China and Hong Kong faced. As options have expanded in terms of the location where firms can list in, firms consider various factors in deciding on the best stock exchange for the listing of their IPO to be done. The different options also need to be assessed in terms of the risks that the firms are exposed to by listing in these exchanges. Understand other factors that have affected performance and risks of firms. The recent developments in the financial markets brought on as an impact by the US subprime markets have also affected the performance of recent listings not only in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges but also in other stock exchanges as well. These factors and the impact these factors have had on the performance of recent IPOs in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges were also identified and presented in this dissertation.  · Analyse issues using quantitative and qualitative analysis. In pursuing the assessment of the points above, this dissertation pursued both a quantitative and a qualitative approach to ensure that the research methods provided a complementary approach. This was also designed to ensure that the inputs to the analysis had a robust basis with the assessment of performance and risks based off actual quantitative results supported by input from industry practitioners and their observations. 2.2 ASSESSMENT OF IPO PERFORMANCE BETWEEN CHINA AND HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGES AND VERSUS OTHER STOCK EXCHANGES The assessment of the performance of the IPOs was reviewed by comparing the performance of the IPOs of the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. In addition, these were also compared versus the performance of IPOs in selected regional and also global stock exchanges to give an indication of the relative performance of the IPOs in these different exchanges. The research aims and objectives of this part of the dissertation were the following:  · Assess objectively the performance of the IPOs in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges versus selected regional and global stock exchanges. This assessment was conducted using the performance data of selected firms in these exchanges to provide an indication of their relative performances. Thus, the dissertation sought to expand on the initial issue raised on the performance and risks of IPOs between Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. This provided an added viewpoint into how different the performances of the IPOs have been in these exchanges.  · Understand factors and issues affecting the relative performances of the IPOs. With the differences in the performances of IPOs identified in the previous point, the dissertation sought to analyse the factors affecting these differences. This assessment was important as it provided the opportunity to pursue further research of the issues, resulting in increased understanding of factors affecting the performance of the IPOs in these stock exchanges. These two points above were the key research objectives in assessing the performance of the IPOs of the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges versus the IPOs of other selected regional and global stock exchanges. CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH RATIONALE There were several key reasons identified as to the rationale behind pursuing this dissertation. This section discusses the research rationale first from an academic research point of view and then, second, from a personal point of view of the researcher in terms of the benefits achieved in completing the dissertation. From an academic research point of view, the following were the key reasons identified:  · Drive decision for location of IPO for firms listing in stock exchanges: The results of the research could be utilised in forming a decision as to the location of a firms IPO. With greater transparency of the performance and risks in listing in China versus listing in Hong Kong, firms now have further factors to include in building a decision for the location of a firms IPO. This point is particularly relevant for mainland China firms which are looking to tap international overseas investors for their IPO and are considering various options for their action.  · Provide alternative options and thought processes for firms considering their IPOs: The results of the dissertation also provide firms pursuing an IPO in China or Hong Kong further basis for possibly considering other options outside of China or Hong Kong, given the points raised in the findings and analysis section. For example, firms now are not limited only to the thinking pursuing the funding of Chinese firms is best achieved by tapping both the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges for a dual listing as this gives Chinese firms best access to the funding capability of international investors.  · Push stock exchanges to manage more effectively the marketing of their products and services: The dissertation also benefits the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges as this dissertation provides the stock exchanges the basis and the opportunity to revisit their product and service offerings, and ensure that their marketing properly addresses the requirements of Chinese firms in capital markets financing. The review of the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges versus its regional and global peers also provide the stock exchanges an objective assessment of performance levels relative to each other. On a personal level, the dissertation also benefited the research considerably, and also lends further basis to providing a strong rationale for completing the dissertation. The key personal reasons for the researcher in pursuing this dissertation, aside from completing school requirements, include the following:  · Improve knowledge and expertise of researcher. The dissertation was very specific in the research questions addressed and the research issues to be assessed. Thus, the researchers knowledge in these specific academic and business areas were considerably enhanced with the conduct and completion of the dissertation, including the pur suit of in-depth research and the structuring of questions and issues for the dissertation. The understanding of the issues in this dissertation will be very helpful to the researcher as other challenges are faced in an academic and business setting.  · Build project management skills. The dissertation provided the researcher the opportunity to build on project management skills as well given the extent of the period and the different aspects required in completing the dissertation, or project. This skill will be very beneficial to the researcher particularly once this is utilised in the business world where the ability to manage projects, as well as multi-task, is appreciated. The two points above provided further rationale to the pursuit of the completion of this dissertation, and gave the researcher strong reasons for undertaking the dissertation in addition to the given benefit of completing a requirement for school. CHAPTER 4 LITERATURE REVIEW The issue of performance and risks in issuing IPOs in exchanges has been analysed in various research works and there is a relatively comprehensive research work that can form the basis of further research work. For example, assessments of the performance of IPOs of stock exchanges have been done in a number of exchanges already. One research in particular focused on an assessment of the long-term performance of the IPOs of Europes new stock markets.3 The research works focusing on the issue of IPO performance are expected to continue to be of importance to the academic finance community given the debate which goes on relating to the near-term abnormal returns of IPOs and their long-term underperformance. The focus of this dissertation is a comparison and assessment of the performance and risks of IPOs issued in Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. This research differs in other bodies of academic work in that this specific research issue has not been addressed directly. Certainly, the existing literature and academic research provides a preliminary path and approach in resolving the key research questions defined at the beginning of this dissertation paper. In reviewing the related literature on the assessment of risks and performance of IPOs in Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges, a number of consistent themes were noted as predominant in the research works. In order to assess the themes which may have contrasting supporting research, these themes are presented below and form the structure for the rest of this section reviewing the related literature:  · Methods for assessment of IPO performance  · Performance of IPOs  · Risk assessment of IPOs  · Period of assessment  · Chinese and Hong Kong IPOs The points above are the key factors discussed in this section. 4.1 METHODS FOR ASSESSMENT OF IPO PERFORMANCE One of the areas that need to be reviewed is the research methodology that previous research works have utilised in pursuing their research. The related literature has shown that the typical method used in analysing the performance largely relies on the use of descriptive statistics. In some occasions, qualitative assessment are included as part of the research methodology in order to gain greater understanding of the performance and the factors affecting the performance of the IPOs. The research mentioned earlier in this section which focused on an assessment of the long-term performance of the IPOs of Europes new stock markets used both qualitative and quantitative assessments as part of the methodology.5 The research approach was a combination of qualitative assessment (to discuss the rationale for the resulting performance) and quantitative analysis (on the IPO performance and which, as expected, was analysed and presented using descriptive statistics). The research work noted in the introduction highlighting the continued debate on the near-term abnormal returns of IPOs and their long-term underperformance was a research piece focused on the returns of IPOs from the Istanbul Stock Exchange. In this research, the performance of the IPOs was assessed utilising descriptive statistics with a comparison of means (z-test: sample for two means) as part of the statistics tool kit utilised. Clearly, the use of descriptive statistics and statistical tests for significance seems to be the preferred method of analysis for these types of research assessments. The dominant use of descriptive statistics also provides confidence that this is the method that would be most logical for the dissertation in the assessment of performance of the IPOs in the stock exchanges. 4.2 PERFORMANCE OF IPOs Another area focused on in this dissertation is the performance of the IPOs in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges as well as other regional and global stock exchanges. In terms of IPO performance assessment, one research work focused specifically on bank IPOs and their growth. Interestingly, this and the research work mentioned earlier on IPO performance (Europes new stock markets) both found that long-run post-offering returns were poor when compared to various market benchmarks. This finding was supported by another research whose results were from an analysis of 6,000 NASDAQ IPO stocks. Thus, there seems to be a number of research works that have shown the underperformance of IPOs versus other more established stocks or the market benchmarks. A research paper that focused on this underperformance showed that a reason for the underperformance of IPOs was the high expectations which were linked to the IPOs and which affected the prices paid for these offerings. This result is rather ironic as the high expectations given by investors indicate that these investors expected much higher returns from IPOs versus other stocks that these investors could have invested in. A research work with similar findings on the long-term underperformance of IPOs was done on the UK IPOs from the period 1996 to 1999.9 For this research, the long-term underperformance of the IPOs in the study was considerable versus the market performance. A period of three years was used as the long-term period. The research notes that this underperformance has been seen in a large number of countries where the IPO performance was measured over a number of years to assess its performance. The key factors identified in the research as impacting on the long-term performance of the IPOs were: (1) percentage of equity issued as part of the IPO, and (2) degree of multinationality of a firm issuing the IPO. On the first point, the research finding noted that the greater the percentage of the equity issued for the IPO, the greater the probability of underperformance over the long-term. On the latter point, the research finding was that the greater the multinational component of a firm was, the better the expectation for a long-term performance. Further to the research on UK IPOs, another research work on the UK IPOs but focused on the AIM-listed firms versus those on the main board of the London Stock Exchange showed a similar result in terms of long-term underperformance of IPOs. This research work has an additional finding on the cost of equity that is relevant to the risks faced by firms pursuing an IPO. This finding is discussed in greater detail in a later part on the assessment of risks. The research works with an assessment showing poor long-run returns for IPOs is not unanimous though as opposing performance arguments also exist with IPOs being shown to be undervalued and thus provide good, long-run returns even versus the market. However, the reasons that the results are different for this research work is the adjustment done on the valuation of the IPOs which result in the IPO valuation being markedly different from those considered in the other researches which found poor longrun returns for IPOs. This research work utilised an alternative method with adjustments made on the performance of the IPO stocks. The research work on the Istanbul Stock Exchange highlighted a number of reasons for the performance of the IPOs, particularly the abnormal returns shown in the near-term: overvaluation of IPOs by investors and deliberate under-pricing for the IPO which then rewards the informed investors. The long-term underperformance of IPOs is not shared and accepted universally as other research works exist which shows that this is not the case, at least for the particular market and time period considered in these research works. A research on Malaysian IPOs from 1992 to 1996 showed that these IPOs showed particularly strong growth in stock prices over a three-year period from the issuance. This thus negates the concept of long-term underperformance shown by a number of research works. The difference in results could be attributed to a number of factors which could include differences in the parameters of the research factors related to the IPOs such as, for example, the definition of long-term in the assessment (this Malaysian research study utilised a period of three years to define the long-term). Further evidence of long-term performance contrary to other international evidence is that result from a review of IPO performance in Greece from the period 1993 to 1997, which showed that the IPOs performed much better than the market over the long-term and not just in the near-term for the effects of the abnormal near-term returns. In this research work, the definition for long-term performance was again different as the period of one year was taken for this assessment to reflect the long-term performance of the IPOs. The research piece attributes the difference with international evidence to possibly the legal framework, the institutional arrangements, and the degree of development of the capital markets. To further complicate the current thinking on the performance of IPOs, a research work focused on Germany IPOs from 1977 to 1995 showed varying performances over the long-term with some IPOs resulting in considerable underperformance while other IPOs showed excellent long-term performance.15 The focus of the research was not necessarily the determination of the long-term performance of the IPOs and thus could not be considered as inconclusive. The actual focus of the research work was the determination of the action post-IPO and the ability to determine which of the IPOs would perform better over the longer-term. The research finding was that the key predictor of the long-term performance of an IPO was the subsequent financing activity in the equity market with the firms being able to raise additional funds soon after the IPO slated for out-performance versus other firms which failed to generate further funding. Several reasons have been put forth as supporting the underperformance of IPOs in most markets. A research work which looked at French IPOs but focused on the impact of ownership resulted in findings that ownership had an influential and large impact on long-term performance of the IPOs.16 The reason for this was that at some point, usually a typical long-term period such as three to five years, ownership restriction in terms of selling off stakes would have been lifted. Thus, the sell-off of family or block holdings in IPOs after a long-term period impact negatively on the share price and becomes a large reason for the underperformance of IPOs over the long-term. This finding would seem to be applicable to most firms pursuing IPOs as it would be usually the case that a firm issuing an IPO would have large blocks of holdings controlled by very few entities or personalities. 4.3 RISK ASSESSMENT OF IPOs While a number of research works such as those cited earlier have focused only on the performance of the IPOs, other research works have combined the analysis of the risk and rewards related to IPOs, which would be parallel to the focus that this dissertation is geared to do. One, in particular, focused on the risk and return trade-off for IPOs though, admittedly, there was greater focus on how these issuances were riskassessed.A rather focused look on long-run performance showed that industry parameters, timing of IPO, and industry situation all play in the aftermarket returns of IPOs which, in general, are not favourable. One of the risks identified in a research work on AIM-listed IPOs was the resulting cost of equity. A decision factor for the firms considering pursuing an IPO should be the cost of equity and the research finding on the assessment of AIM-listed stocks showed that, potentially, cost of equity is much greater than that expected with the listing on these stock exchanges.Using this as an analogy to the current issue of issuing an IPO between Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges, it is possible that this is a risk faced by the mainland Chinese firms in their decision. 4.4 PERIOD OF ASSESSMENT A factor that needs to be made consistent in the assessment of the performance of the IPOs is the period of assessment. The proper time frame could impact on the performance considerably and in viewing this assessment, it would be important to have the proper time frame from which to consider returns. For example, flipping of IPOs impact the pricing of some IPOs post the offering and affect the returns if taken within a short time frame. There is thus a question of the period defined by near-term as well as long-term performance given different periods taken by researchers in conducting their work. Understandably, this could have been driven by the availability of data of the stock prices. In order to have a proper assessment for this dissertation, it would probably be best to utilise the following time periods: one month for near-term performance, and 3 years for consideration of long-term performance. These seem to be the periods that most of the researchers had utilised though it does differ from some of the period conventions used in other researches. 4.5 CHINESE AND HONG KONG IPOs Despite the existence of numerous research work on the assessment of risks and rewards of IPOs across exchanges globally, there have been limited research works which focus on the Chinese and Hong Kong IPOs of recent years. One recent unpublished work touched on under-pricing and the aftermarket liquidity of Hong Kong IPOS, and found that under-pricing was evident in driving liquidity post-IPOs. A more comprehensive published work on Hong Kong IPOs utilised slightly dated figures (IPOs up to 2002) and thus presents a challenge in the findings concluded.22 Another is dated (published in 1998) but does look at the issue of pricing and aftermarket performance of IPOs with results showing large returns accruing in the long-term for IPOs. Other China-related research work focus on performance post-IPO but refer to operating performance of the firms and not the performance of the share price.One research which looked at short-term and long-term IPO performance in China highlighted a number of differences affecting Chinese stocks: stake that the government has in the firm, the size of the firm, and the options available to Chinese investors. Over the next few years, there will continue to be increased interest in the IPOs of firms in mainland China as these firms seek to tap international investors. In turn, international investors are increasingly interested in investing in the mainland Chinese firms given their typical profitable nature (largely owing to monopoly or large market share status) and the presence these firms have in mainland China that international investors find attractive. The pursuit of the IPO by the mainland Chinese firms is partly driven by the need to diversify ownership risk, particularly for the mainland Chinese firms which are predominantly state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Thus, despite extensive related research, there is still scope to pursue this dissertation as it provides further evidence of the risk and reward assessment of IPOs. CHAPTER 5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The approach to the dissertation followed an explanatory research approach. This approach was deemed to be the best approach to address the research questions, particularly with the requirement of discovery of insights and ideas. The research approach relied on both extensive primary and secondary research providing a complementary basis for conducting the assessment and analysis of the issues in the research. This section is structured as follows:  · Research analysis and approach. This part describes the overall research approach utilised in this dissertation and the methods of analysing the information retrieved from primary and secondary research methods.  · Primary research. This discusses the primary research undertaken in this dissertation, including the objectives in the methods used.  · Secondary research. This presents the use of secondary research and the complementary approach to the primary research tools.  · Research limitations. In the conduct of the dissertation research, a number of limitations presented itself which impacted on the results of the dissertation. These are explained in this part.  · Ethical considerations. This part goes through the key ethical considerations in the process of completing the dissertation. 5.1 RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND APPROACH The dissertation was conducted using a problem-solving approach. This methodology was used in assessing the quantitative results from the statistical analysis and also in analysing the results of the in-depth interviews, and secondary research. The dissertation utilised a combination of desktop analysis (the statistical analysis and quantitative assessment of the performance of IPOs in various stock exchanges), input from industry practitioners (the qualitative assessment of risks of the IPOs), and desk research (primarily for the secondary research and in providing further support to the results of the statistical analysis and qualitative assessment). The assessment of the performance of the IPOs was conducted using descriptive statistics as these allowed for an objective comparison of the performance (or returns) of the IPOs. Descriptive statistics was also used to show other relevant trends related to the performance of the IPOs from the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges, and also the comparison versus other regional and global stock exchanges. After the assessment and analysis, and with the preliminary results on-hand, the research findings were tested and reviewed in the ‘market through discussions with other stakeholders to ensure that these research findings were sound and logical. The market review also provided feedback and confirmation of the possible research contribution that the dissertation provides. This has been noted as part of the findings and analysis section. 5.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH The key primary research utilised in this dissertation involved interviews with industry practitioners involved in Chinese and Hong Kong IPOs. The objectives in this primary research method were to: (1) understand the key risks for firms pursuing their firms listing in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges, and (2) determine the perception of the industry practitioners as to the relative performance of IPOs being done in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The interviews were conducted to get an understanding of the key risks that firms are exposed to by pursuing their IPOs in Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The use of in-depth interviews was selected as the primary research method as this provided an opportunity for the researcher to gain deeper insights into the issues focused on. It was initially planned that in-depth interviews of various stakeholders in the industry would be pursued in order to have a good breadth and depth in understanding the key risks and to get input from a diverse set of stakeholders. However, the research limitations in terms of timing, access to various stakeholders, and leverage of contacts in the Chinese and Hong Kong financial services sectors provided a hindrance to having an extensive list of industry practitioners included in the primary research. Nevertheless, the researcher was still able to have several in-depth interviews and these provided a good indication of the overall viewpoints currently existing in the industry, particularly related to the risks that exist for firms. 5.3 SECONDARY RESEARCH The secondary research for this dissertation involved two key approaches: (1) statistical analysis of stock price performance of selected IPOs in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges as well as several regional and global stock exchanges, and (2) desk research to understand the viewpoints currently existing on the performance and risks of IPOs in Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. 5.3.1 Statistical Analysis The first secondary research method involved the quantitative data analysis of the performance of the IPOs in the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges. This analysis effectively supported the assessment the performance of the listing in these stock exchanges to determine if there were differences in the performances of IPOs for these exchanges. The objectives in usin