Exploring Personal Choices in Toni Morrisons Beloved Essay -- Toni Mo

Exploring Personal Choices in Toni Morrison's Beloved At the climax of her book Beloved, Toni Morrison uses strong imagery to examine the mind of a woman who is thinking of killing her own children. She writes, "Because the truth was simple, not a long-drawn-out record of flowered shifts, tree cages, selfishness, ankle ropes and wells. Simple: she was squatting in the garden and when she saw them coming and recognized schoolteacher's hat, she heard wings. Little hummingbirds stuck their needle beaks right through her headcloth into her hair and beat their wings. And if she thought anything, it was No. Nono. Nonono. Simple. She just flew. Collected every bit of life she had made, all the parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful, and carried, pushed, dragged them through the veil, out, away, over there where no one could hurt them. Over there. outside this place, where they would be safe. And the hummingbird wings beat on." (163) A full analysis of the book, or even of this passage, would be more extensive than is justified by the constraints of this paper. To a large extent this book is about the victims of the system of slavery. However, Morisson uses this and other passages to comment on issues that are still present even after significant changes in social and economic systems. One statement Morisson is making here is that there is a dichotomy between what we should do to obey our personal spiritual laws and what we should do to exercise "common sense" or "be normal." Also that often neither of these is what we actually do nor what we want to do as a person trying to live life. She makes it implicitly clear in this sentence, as she does in other parts of the novel, dealing with other characters. It is va... ...uate all the options we have for dealing with it. Perhaps Toni Morrison wrote this book to explore choices that we all have made between what is right for the "reasonable man" and what is right for us in the context of what we believe and feel, and how we reconcile those things as we deal with society afterward. God judges the heart of every person, but other people can only judge and deal with us on the basis of what they see and hear us do and say. That is a major challenge for each person: expressing his or her true feelings clearly, before and after the action, and expressing them to a sympathetic person who is also able to parse that expression. Perhaps the "hummingbirds" in this passage were all the reactions by people who closed Sethe in rather than allowed her to express herself openly. Works Cited Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Plume, 1997.

Blood spatter Essay

Blood spatter is a common form of physical evidence at a death scene, and is often of major relevance. It is not a field in which all forensic pathologists feel confident, as in some jurisdictions it is regarded as totally within the domain of the forensic scientist and in others, the crime scene investigator. It should be reasonably regarded as a shared topic, one understood by all players, as each expert has an individual slant on the subject, and can thus provide separate insights. It is important to avoid evidence clashes. Examination and documentation of blood spatter, including what, where and how much, allows interpretation of the type and form of bleeding, and may provide a reconstruction of the incident and some surrounding circumstances. The form of report produced tends to vary with different departments, but usually is incorporated into the general scene report. Blood loss itself is due to breaches of blood vessels, and this may be due to natural disease processes or trauma. Typical examples of natural disease-causing problems at crime scenes include bleeding from a varicose skin ulcer, which is at ankle or shin level, and bleeding from lung cancer, which produces coughed-up blood. Both of these may be associated with widespread blood deposition. Commonly, these kinds of cases are associated with some degree of cleaning up or self-help, of a type consistent with a solitary life style. The type of loss is dependent on the kind of blood vessels involved. Veins return blood to the heart, operate at low pressure and flow is at a constant rate. A breach causes an ooze or pour of blood. On the other hand, arteries operate at high pressure and have a pulsatile flow. This produces a very variable flow rate, and a breach causes a spray or spurt of blood. The normal blood pressure peak and trough is 120/80mmHg at rest, but can be as high as 180-200mmHg with strenuous activity or stress, excluding any disease process. Obviously, this level may be expected in violent deaths. As veins and arteries commonly run parallel to each other, both types of vessels may be damaged at once. The size of vessel is also important, as small vessels will produce little blood, whereas the major vessels can bleed catastrophically. An arbitrary level of 200ml has been defined as the cut-off between a small and a large volume. The pathologist can rarely estimate the volume directly at the scene with any great degree of accuracy. The estimate may have to be done indirectly by crime scene examiners, such as by weighing areas of soaked carpet, and comparing this with dry areas. Classifications of Blood Stains: The appearance and the size of the blood patterns depend on the force by which they were created. When a sort of an object comes into direct contact with the blood, the force by which that object makes contact moves the blood and enhances its velocity. In some fashion the blood must react to this force transfer. Velocity is calculated in meters per second. There can be an evidence of three forms of blood spatter at a crime scene, high, medium or low blood spatter or a mix combination of these. The predictable process of categorizing blood stains was based on the connection between the speed of the force pressuring the blood drop or source that administer the individuality and dimension and distance of the resulting bloodstains. The three essential grouping of stain groups which were used based on the idea that the dimension of the blood stain being inversely comparative to the power useful to the still blood. Low Velocity Blood Spatter LVBS (Low Velocity Blood Spatters) are stains of blood which are created when the cause of blood is subjected to energy with the speed of up to 5 ft/sec. Major stains calculate normally 4mm in distance or superior. Medium Velocity Blood Spatter MVIS (Medium Velocity Blood Spatter) are stains of blood which are formed when the cause of blood is subjected to a might with a speed in between the range of 6 to 25 ft/sec. The distances of the consequential stains are in the mass range of 1 to 3 mm, even though larger and smaller bloodstains may be there. Stains in this group are normally connected with beatings and stabbings. High Velocity Blood Spatter HVBS (High Velocity Blood Spatter) are stains of blood formed when the cause of blood is subjected to a power with a speed of more than 100ft/sec. The width of the spatter is mainly less than 1mm, although larger and smaller bloodstains are frequently experiential within the outline. Bloodstains in this group are usually related with gun shots and explosions. Other device that formed bloodstains within the mass range of the usual high and medium velocities such as expiratory blood and satellite spatter bloodstains were not valued to the level that misunderstanding might and do occur. Most of the bloodstains forecasters have selected to stop this conservative terms and categorization for a more holistic advancement to bloodstain categorization. The subject that formed the rethinking of the conservative categorization of high-medium-low velocity was the diameter of sizes of stain among the high and medium velocity group and the understanding that devices other than stabbings, gunshots and beatings often formed stains with the dimension ranges within these groups. The pattern and bloodstains are confidential based on their substantial features of distribution, location, size, concentration and shape into inactive stains, splash stains or distorted stains. These are more confidential relation to method that may create stains with that uniqueness with mention to relevant scene, medicinal and case related history and facts of the proof. The forecaster than may be able to set up the exact method by which the outline was formed. More Analysis on the three classifications An abrasion or superficial laceration involves large numbers of very small to small vessels. This produces diffuse velocity from the whole area, and neither a pour nor a spray of blood would be expected. Incision of a superficial artery, such as in the wrist, involves larger vessels, with a small area of origin. This produces mainly a low velocity of blood due to pumping or spurting. A stab of a deep artery, as in the thigh, may mean involvement of a larger deep vessel. Here the presence of overlying tissues will interfere with the production of a spray, and the blood exits as a rapid pour, usually without spurting. However, there is usually still a clearly pulsatile element. But again this would be said as a low velocity blood spatter. The size of blood spots relates to the impulse of dispersal. Low velocity blood spatter such as venous bleeding, will produce large blood spots. A medium velocity blood spatter, such as produced by the use of a blunt instrument, will produce finer spots. High velocity blood spatter, as in gunshot injuries for example, will produce a fine spray. This can also be used in interpretation, as in the case of a crewman missing after an on-board explosion. There were several areas of very fine blood spray near the relevant hatch cover, and also on a broken ship’s railing. This clearly indicated that the deceased had been hit by the swinging hatch cover, and had broken the railing by force of his impact with it, during the course of being thrown overboard. Some knowledge of the injury pattern will produce the best results in interpretation. For example a slash of the neck might be expected to produce arterial spurts from large superficial vessels. A stab of chest could produce a medium flow, but if the stab is small or angulated, producing a degree of sealing, there may be little external bleeding. For example, multiple heart and aortic stabs with a skewer have been seen to produce only occasional external drops of blood. A stab of the lung may have the combination of direct bleeding from the stab and the expiration of blood mixed with air. Projected bleeding can also occur from mouth and nose following a gunshot wound of the head. During the bleeding process, the blood may be around the injury itself, and be capable of making contact impressions, or may have been projected away from the injury, and no longer be on the body at all. This blood may be around the body, and situated on bedding, furnishings, walls or carpet. The type of patterning will provide the pathologist with insights of where and how the deceased had moved. The blood may be on objects at the scene such as a weapon or a vehicle. The position, patterning and extent may indicate which part of the object caused the injury, and in turn, this may indicate the position of the deceased at the time of sustaining this injury. There may be minimal blood present at the scene, or what appears to be an inadequate amount, in view of the injuries. This may indicate that this is a secondary scene, and that the primary scene must be searched for elsewhere. Produce a fine spatter of blood at low level, with the last drops producing the greatest effect. This may outline the feet on the floor, and will also be present on the inner borders of the feet and the tops of the feet. The blood on the feet may subsequently be transferred elsewhere. The target surface is of major importance, and the effect is far less on a carpet than it would be on tiles, due to the reduced pool effect. Another significant aspect relates to blood which has been deposited from an injury onto a weapon, and is then cast off by the centrifugal force of swinging the weapon again. This may leave blood trails on ceilings or on high walls. There are various forms through which people can be killed. Listed are the few and the classification of which Velocity Blood stain it belongs to: Shootings (Medium and mostly high level Blood Spatter Velocity) Apart from the normal documentation of the scene, it is necessary to consider a number of specific matters. The pathologist must determine if the victim has moved during the course of the shooting, or has shown signs of activity afterwards. This can be done by noting the position of the body, the accessibility of the entry sites in the current body position, the presence of bullets or markings near the exit sites, and blood or tissue spatter patterns. There is usually little back spatter, but there may be considerable forward spatter, especially with more powerful weapons. It is worth bearing in mind that there may also be significant spatter extending from gas splits in the skin, and this could be at right angles to the main bullet track. Knife (Medium Velocity Blood Spatter) As mentioned above, the possibility of movement has to be considered. The volume of blood coming from an injury will depend on factors such as its type, situation and coverings, but if these are held in mind, then useful information can be gathered in order to reconstruct the incident. A knife or other sharp weapon is unlikely to cause damage to the scene, except in the most violent incidents, but it may be wiped or cleaned on the victim’s clothing or on furnishings, leaving a bloody outline. Axe (Mostly Medium Blood Spatter and at time High velocity) Because of the type of injury produced, these scenes tend to be very bloody. As there is a tendency to inflict multiple blows, there may also be evidence of the way in which these injuries were inflicted, as left by the spatter patterns. These patterns will frequently include cast-off spatter, as well as medium impulse spatter. There may even be loose fragments of soft tissue, bone or teeth. There maybe damage to the scene, particularly near to the body, due to missed hits. Fists and feet (Low velocity Blood Spatter) Assaults by kicking or stamping maybe associated with considerable contamination of the crime scene. This maybe in the form of a low-level blood spatter which may be evident up to a meter or so above ground level. Evidence of the type and position of an earlier phase of the assault is to be looked for, and blood pools that are separate from the final position of the body indicate periods of immobility. The ground surface has to be considered from the point of view of its being the possible anvil opposite some of the injuries, and thus help to interpret the assault. Footprint patterns may help to provide information as to whether bare or shod feet were used. Explosion (High Velocity Blood Spatter) Explosion scenes may extend from those where only a gram or two of explosive material is involved, to those involving tonnes of material. The pathologist’s approach will vary accordingly. Where a small quantity of material is involved, the pathologist should attempt to assess if there was any movement of the body from its original site to the point at which it is found. Blood and tissue spatter is most valuable here. The crime scene findings must be correlated with the burns and particulate damage later identified at the autopsy. The presence and role of any primary or secondary projectiles must be assessed. The author was involved in the investigation of an explosion on board a ship, where a crewman caused an explosion that blew him overboard. The body was not recovered, but damage to a hatch cover and the ships rail, both with deposition of high-impulse blood spatter and small tissue fragments indicated the extreme nature of the trauma that must have been sustained. Fragmentary body remains may be all that is recovered following a large explosion. As these may be covered with cement dust or other building materials, recognition of these remains at the scene may prove to be difficult, but this task is usually easier for a pathologist than other investigators. Work Cited Page †¢ Book Title: The Practice of Crime Scene Investigation. Contributors: John Horswell – author. Publisher: CRC Press. Place of Publication: Boca Raton, FL. Publication Year: 2004. †¢ Catten Ely (2000) Blood Spatter, What is it? From Suite 101. Retrieved on October 23, 2007, from http://www. suite101. com/article. cfm/crime_stories/34498 †¢ Louis L Akin (2005) Blood spatter interpretation at crime and accident scenes: a basic approach. (Focus on Forensics): An article from: The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. Publication: The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (Magazine/Journal) †¢ Book Title Introduction to forensic science & criminalistics (2007) Publishers McGraw-Hill †¢ James, Stuart H. (2005) Principles of bloodstain analysis; theory and practice. Publisher CRC Press †¢ Blood Spatter (2006) Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Dundee. Retrieved on October 23, 2007 from http://www. dundee. ac. uk/forensicmedicine/notes/Bloodspatter. htm †¢ Base Pair (2004), Blood Spatter Pattern Analysis. Retrieved on October 23, 2007, from http://www. tx. ncsu. edu/Science_Olympiad/Coaches_workshop/2007%20Presentations/Blood%20Spatter%20Analysis. doc †¢ Blood and Stain Analysis. Retrieved on October 23, 2007, from http://home. iprimus. com. au/ararapaj/craigslea_testbed/Forensic%20Web%20Test%20Site/blood_analysis. htm

Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison - 1415 Words

Ralph Ellison’s Bildungsroman, Invisible Man, was published in 1952 but is a recollection of the narrator’s experiences during the 1930s. The unnamed narrator tells his story retrospectively, speaking in the present tense during the prologue and epilogue but switching to the past when recounting his story. At the present time during the prologue, the narrator is living in a â€Å"basement shut off and forgotten,† as he puts it, draining free power from the Monopolated Electric Company, having secluded himself from the rest of society. Having gone through much agony throughout his life, the narrator decides to step back from society, to stay underground, and only then does he discover the truth. As it is often true that appearance does not equal†¦show more content†¦The narrator looks inside himself and at society in the ever famous question of â€Å"Who am I?† Another reason why the narrator decides to stay underground is that he wishes to find the truth about society. The narrator says in the epilogue: â€Å"and the mind that has conceived a plan of living must never lose sight of the chaos against which that pattern was conceived. That goes for societies as well as for individuals† (Ellison 580). The narrator takes a step back from life as he knows it to survey exactly what is going on. He attempts to give a â€Å"pattern to the chaos† and find the truth about the world. This is a very similar situation to what is going on in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. In this book, three men are tied by their hands and feet to a rock in a cave, and their heads are forced to point directly at the cave wall. All three of the men were born in the cave in this position and none have ever seen outside of the cave. Behind the three men is a fire, and in between the men and the fire is a walkway. People walking along this walkway carrying various items on their heads, thus projecting shadows onto the wall in front of the men. 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Through the imaginative use of objects, symbols, allusions, and the actions, thoughts, and purposes of the spectators, pugilists and risquà © entertainment, Ellison seeks to express a powerful image of American race relations and womenRead MoreInvisible, Invisible Man, By Ralph Ellison1994 Words   |  8 PagesInvisible Race and Gender in Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison In Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the unnamed narrator shows us through the use motifs and symbols how racism and sexism negatively affect the social class and individual identity of the oppressed people. Throughout the novel, the African American narrator tells us the story of his journey to find success in life which is sabotaged by the white-dominated society in which he lives in. Along his journey, we are also shown how the patriarchyRead MoreInvisible Man By Ralph Ellison1246 Words   |  5 Pagesauthor of Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison, was born March 1st, 1914, and died April 16, 1994. 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He progresses from being a hopeful student with a bright future to being just another poor black laborer in New Your City to being a fairly well off spokesperson for aRead MoreThe Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison977 Words   |  4 PagesBook Review: Invisible Man Invisible Man is an American Literature novel published by Ralph Ellison in 1952. The novel traces the experiences of a young college black man growing up in Harlem, New York. Attempting to succeed in a predominantly white society, the narrator encounters shocks and disillusionments from being expelled from college to hiding in an underground hole to protect himself from the people above. He lives a repressed life as an â€Å"Invisible Man† for he believes that society ignoresRead MoreInvisible Man By Ralph Ellison1032 Words   |  5 Pageslike modern society some people leads, and others will follow. 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The problems with society are foreshadowed by the racism and the symbols of the color white presented in the paint plant. â€Å"The Invisible Man† by Ralph Ellison depicts the African Americans struggle to be viewed as an equal member of society through the narrators struggles through life to discover his individuality or place in society while the white man or the community conspires to â€Å"keep the black man down†. The story follows theRead MoreInvisible Man By Ralph Ellison1481 Words   |  6 PagesInvisible Man is a novel by Ralph Ellison, published in 1952. It addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans in the early twentieth century. This includes black nationalism, the relationship between black identity a nd Marxism, and the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington, as well as issues of individuality and personal identity. 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Life Does Not Have A Title - 1555 Words

Life Does Not Get To Have A Title As time passes, the question remains of whether or not our lives are predetermined or if we get to choose our own destiny. The question of whether or not God or any other power in the universe has already made plans for us, or if the outcome of our own decisions will shape our lives. Every single person starts off with a certain position in society, and has the opportunity to grow from that place and become the person that they are meant to be. Fate and freewill will be constant no matter what one does. Through my own life, I can relate to Santiago’s experiences, as in the beginning of his journey he questioned whether fate or freewill was enough to fulfill his own destiny. My experience is rather unique compared to the typical American teenager. I was born in the United States, but raised on the Portuguese islands known as the Azores. I graduated from the local high school in Sao Jorge, while technically having dual citizenship. Being raised on an island, people see my life as living in paradise. However, they do not know the struggles I have gone through, and missed out on many experiences that people in the U.S. take for granted. Being born in the United States and taken to Portugal as a young child by my parents, I never really had the opportunity to do what I really wanted to do: to choose my own path, to live by my own expectations, and have my own goals. Last year, I realized the high school on the island didn’t meet my expectations.Show MoreRelated Title IX Essay examples944 Words   |  4 PagesTitle IX Great inequalities in the educational system between the sexes have occurred for many years and still occur today. Efforts have been made to rectify this disparity, but the one that has made the most difference is Title IX. Passed in 1972, Title IX attempted to correct the gender discrimination in educational systems receiving public funding. 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Thesis Sa Filipino - 1058 Words

PAKINABANG AT KAPINSALAAN NG KOMPYUTER SA BUHAY ESTUDYANTE ISANG MUNGKAHING PAPEL NA INIHARAP KAY DR. IMELDA VILLARIN CEBU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY ISANG PARSYAL NA PAGTUGON SA KAHILINGAN SA ASIGNATURANG FILIPINO II Pangalan ng mga miyembro; Aying , Alona S. Bejoc , Emery E. Miro , Israe May M. Olasiman , Cristal E. Orandang , Janine Panerio , Ruben Tomongha , Irene M. Marso 2011 PANIMULA Sa ating mundo lalong umusbong ang mga technolohiya isa na rito ang kompyuter. Sa Kasaysayan ng serye kompyuter, nakita natin kung paano elektronika, na†¦show more content†¦Hangarin din ng pag-aaral na ito mabigyang tugon ang mga sumusunod na tanong: 1. Ano ang bahagdan ng kakayahan ng mga estudyante sa CTU ng paggamit ng kompyuter? 1.1 Layunin Pampaaralan 1.2 Layong Panlibangan 2. Alin sa dalawang layunin kadalasan ang nagtulak sa mga estudyante para gumamit ng kompyuter? 3.May nakita bang kaibahan sa mga resulta kung pag-uukulan ang dalawang layunin ng mga estudyante? 4. Ayon sa natuklasan, ano ang mga possibleng solusyon upang mas maunawaan ng mga estudyante ang mga limitasyon dapat taglayin sa paggamit ng konpyuter sa iba’t ibang layunin. IPOTESIS Karamihan sa mga estudyante ay madalas gumamit ng kompyuter sa iba’t ibang pakay. Walang nakitang makabuluhang pagkakaiba sa resulta ng subrang paggamit ng kompyuter sa layunin ng paggawa ng takdang-aralin sa paaralan at sa panlibang na pakay lamang. SAKLAW AT LIMITASYON Ang saklaw ng pagsisiyasat na ito ay para gumawa ng kamalayan sa mga estudyante at magabayan kung paano mabigyang limitasyon ang paggamit ng kompyuter at kung paano ang pamamahala ng mga oras nila dito. Ang mga respondente ay ang mga estudyante sa CEBU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY mula sa iba’t ibang kurso. Limampung respondente ang nakasagot sa mga palatanungang naibigay ng mgaShow MoreRelatedAng Mga Kaugalian Ng Mga Kabataan Ngayong Henerasyon1382 Words   |  6 Pagesninyo sa talaan ng pagkain ang kaugalian tungkol sa pagkain. 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Managing People and Organization Environment Affecting Restaurant

Question: Discuss about theManaging People and Organizationfor Environment Affecting Restaurant. Answer: Forces in General Environment-Affecting Restaurant: There are many forces in the general environment that influences the operation of the newly opened restaurant in Clementi. The main forces in the general environment that would affect the restaurant functioning are the competition prevailing in that particular area where the restaurant is being opened. The other forces are the social, cultural forces, demographic factors, government policies, technological forces and the natural forces of the environment. Competition- Competition exist when the similar brand of the product are offered by the business. The opening of the new restaurant is affected by the presence of restaurant, which sells similar products and offers similar service. Therefore, it is important for the newly opened restaurant to monitor the activities of their competitors (Ha and Jang 2013). Social and cultural forces- This force refers to the dynamic and structure of the group and the individual. The behavior, lifestyle pattern, friendly nature of the group affects the operations of the newly opened restaurant. The newly opened restaurant can expect higher purchasing power from the customers. The people are highly educated and is a place of trade and investment. Technological forces- technological plays a very important role in the Clementis advancement. This increases connectivity and ease the communication. As a consequence of this, the time and cost of conducting the business is lowered and this would provide the restaurant to flourish. The widespread information technology infrastructure would provide the restaurant to explore and carry out its functions at ease (Weinzimmer and Nystrom 2015). Government forces- The laws and the legal forces of the government affects the operations and the functioning of the restaurant. The restriction imposed by the government might be an obstacle in the development of the restaurant. The regulatory, business setting and certain legal supports are needed to support the need and growth of the new restaurant in Clementi. The government of Singapore has introduced some policies of e commerce to develop the e- commerce services. All this factors will have an impact on the functioning of the restaurant. Demographic forces- The buying behavior and the preferences of the product are determined by traits depicted by the demographic. The demographic forces affects the menu trends of the restaurants. The diversity in the population of Clementi leads to a diverse set of the food preferences. With the changes in the taste and the preference pattern of the population, the restaurant needs to modify its operations (Martin and Siebert 2016). Competitive Strategy Implemented by the Restaurant: The competitive generic strategy is about the porters generic strategy The porters generic strategies includes the cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, focus strategy. The positioning statements of the restaurant is discussed in later part. Cost leadership strategy- The loyalty of the customers can discourage the potential entrants and therefore the pricing of newly opened restaurant in Clementi is positioned as generic and reasonable. The pricing is such that it is affordable by all the consumers of Clementi. The differentiating attributes is mainly related to the pricing, which would attract the customers. Focus strategy- The strategy of the restaurant is to serve the target markets and the focus will be on quality factor. The strategy is to create strong brand identity in the local market of Clementi. The local store marketing is strategy of low budget plan that will make the customers aware about the facility and this is done by utilizing the local media. In store, marketing is another strategy and this would be the most effective and cheaper marketing strategy (Palmer 2012). The restaurant will build their brand actively by selling the supporting materials such as promotional items. The customer base will be built over the first three years of operations. Differentiation strategy- the restaurant needs to plan its activities of marketing, sales and customer service, which would incorporate the features of products and services. This will lead to increased sales and build consumer loyalty due to the differentiation factor. The sales strategy intends to increase the revenue by building the local customer base in the area where the restaurant is opened. The restaurant will position itself by focusing on its marketing and increasing the awareness of the customers in the surrounding community of the Clementi. The marketing programs and all the tactics of the business are directed towards explaining the features of the restaurant and the description about the restaurant. The name of the products of the restaurant are geared toward the target market, which can be easily remembered by the customers. The price of the products of the restaurant will be fair enough for the customers and it will be competitive enough. The main marketing force will be the word of mouth and the restaurant is intended to keep the high standard when it comes to serving the customers (Snell et al. 2015). The restaurant will try to gain the competitive edge by its ambience, which would have friendly and enthusiastic staffs, and the packaging of the products will be quite innovative. The restaurant will position itself by blending the local and the international ta stes. Reference: Ha, J. and Jang, S., 2013. Attributes, consequences, and consumer values: A means-end chain approach across restaurant segments.International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,25(3), pp.383-409. Martin, G. and Siebert, S., 2016.Managing people and organizations in changing contexts. Routledge. Palmer, A., 2012.Introduction to marketing: theory and practice. Oxford University Press. Snell, S.A., Morris, S.S. and Bohlander, G.W., 2015.Managing human resources. Nelson Education. Thomson, R. and Thomson, A., 2012.Managing people. Routledge. Weinzimmer, L.G. and Nystrom, P.C., 2015. The search for opportunities by small business owners.Journal of Small Business Strategy,7(3), pp.1-14.

The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy free essay sample

One of the central issues of corporate finance has been the dividend decision of a firm, which has always been studied in relation to a firm’s financing and investment decisions. The association amongst these two decisions has posed various questions. How much should a firm pay as dividend? How does a dividend payout policy influence the valuation of a firm? Does a firm’s decision to distribute cash correspond to its financing and investing decisions? What is the outcome of changes in the dividend policy assuming steady financing and investment decisions of a firm? Research has attempted to provide answers to these questions and many more but mystery still shrouds the dividend decision. Lintner (1956) argues that firms of developed markets target their dividend payout ratio with the help of current earnings and past dividends. In order to reach such target, various adjustments are made in the dividend policy of a firm and therefore firms should have stable dividend policies. We will write a custom essay sample on The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Miller and Modigliani (1961) on the other hand feel that dividend policy is irrelevant in measuring the current worth of shares considering the irrational assumptions of market perfections, zero transaction costs, perfect certainty and indifferent behaviour of investors. However, Miller and Scholes (1982) argue that in the real world, dividend decision is inspired more by high taxes on dividends than capital gains and market imperfections. Alli, Khan and Ramirez (1993) observe that a change in the payout policy provides information about future earnings and a further change in the value of share price. This indeed shows a strong signaling effect of the dividend decision of a firm. It is evident that over the years, no Dr. Amitabh Gupta, Associate Professor, Department of Financial Studies, University of Delhi Ms. Charu Banga, Research Scholar, Department of Financial Studies, University of Delhi Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 64 single viewpoint has emerged which explains the dividend policy of a firm. In India too, modest research has been carried out on various aspects of the dividend decision. The present study re-examines the impact of various factors on the dividend decision of Indian companies taking a large and latest data set. Our study contributes to the existing literature by examining as many as fifteen financial variables. No prior Indian study has examined so many variables in the context of dividend decision using both factor analysis and regression. The remaining paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the existing literature. Section 3 discusses the hypothesis being tested in the study and also describes the data and the research methodology used in the study. Section 4 discusses the results of the study and section 5 presents the conclusion. Literature Review A large number of financial and non-financial determinants of corporate dividend policy have been discussed in the work of Lintner (1956). This seminal work developed a basic model stating that most of the companies follow dividend adjustment process by applying target dividend payout ratio. Rozeff (1982) investigates the impact of two kinds of costs – transaction costs and agency costs relative to external financing on the dividend decision of a firm. He argues that a balance between transaction costs and agency costs would lead to an optimum dividend policy. Alli, Khan and Ramirez (1993) find that dividends do not convey information regarding a firm’s future cash flows. They report that at beta, firm’s capital expenditure and financial slack are inversely related to the dividend payout. The dividend policy behaviour is also examined by Han, Lee and Suk (1999) by considering institutional ownership under agency cost hypothesis and tax–based hypothesis. They find that tax-based hypothesis is more relevant in the case of institutional investors as they prefer a greater dividend payout. Pandey (2001) looks at the corporate dividend payout behaviour of companies listed on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange during 1993-2000. He categorizes the sample into six industries for examining the variation in the payout ratio. He also establishes a relationship between current earnings and past dividend rate. He finds that the Malaysian companies (by following Lintner’s model) exhibit unstable dividend behaviour with high adjustments in dividend payments in order to meet the target payout ratio. Myers (2004) finds strong support for earnings, profit margin, institutional ownership and debt-equity ratio on the dividend decision. Eriotis (2005) finds that Greek firms have a long-run constant dividend payout policy. He adjusts the firms’ distributed earnings and size in the Lintner model and reports that an increase in the earnings does not change the dividend distribution pattern of firms. Kania and Bacon (2005) find that variables such as sales growth, expansion and insider ownership have a negative impact on dividend decision but institutional ownership has an inverse relation with dividend payout, which is contrary to the existing literature. Denis and Osobov (2008) find that the tendency for paying dividends declined for countries such as United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan during 1994-2002. They also report that the international evidence does not support the investors’ preference for dividend, the signaling and the clientele interpretations as prominent variables. Rather, they go along with the distribution of free cash flow as the chief element of the dividend decision. Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 65 In the Indian context, we found few studies that have analyzed the factors that affect the dividend decision of a firm. For example, Kevin (1992) analyzes the dividend payment behaviour of 650 Indian companies during September 1983 to August 1984 and finds that profitability and earnings of the firms are the two foremost factors determining dividends. He concludes that Indian firms strive for achieving a stable dividend rate. However, keeping in view that the time period of his study was only one year; his results cannot be taken as conclusive. Mahapatra and Sahu (1993) find that cash flows, current earnings and past dividends are prominent factors that have an impact on the dividend decision. Their results are in contrast to Lintner’s model. Bhat and Pandey (1994) find that current year’s earnings, pattern of past dividends, expected future earnings, changes in equity base of the firm have an impact on the dividend decision. Taking a different line of research, Narasimhan and Asha (1997) look at the changes in dividend tax regime proposed in the Indian Union Budget of 1997-98 and analyze the impact of dividend tax on a firm’s dividend decision. They conclude that the burden of tax payment fell in the hands of companies rather than their shareholders. Mohanty (1999) studied more than 200 Indian companies for a period of fifteen years to understand the relationship between bonus-issuing and dividend-paying behaviour of companies. He found that in the Indian context, it is the dividend rate that is an important determinant of dividend policy in comparison to the dividend payout ratio. Reddy (2002) analyzes the trends and determinants of dividend of all Indian companies listed on two major Indian stock exchanges–The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and The National Stock Exchange (NSE) during 1990-2001. He investigates three factors viz. , number of firms paying dividend, average dividend per share and the average payout. His results indicate that only few companies maintain the dividend payout rate and that firms forming a part of small  indices pay higher dividend compared to firms forming a part of broad market indices. Deviations in the tax regime are also examined using the trade-off theory and it is found that this theory does not apply to the Indian corporate sector. He concludes that the omission of dividends have information content i. e. such companies expect lower earnings in the future whereas t he same does not hold true in case of dividend initiations. Anand (2004) analyzes the results of Anand (2002) survey of 81 CFOs to find out the determinants of dividend policy of Indian companies. He finds that Indian companies use dividend policy as a signaling mechanism to convey information about their present and future prospects, therefore, affecting their market value. He also reports that while designing a dividend policy, companies take into consideration the investors’ preference for dividends and the clientele effect. The relationship between corporate governance and dividend payout behaviour of the Indian firms is examined by Kumar (2006) by taking into consideration their financial structure, investment opportunities, dividend history, earnings trend and ownership structure during 1994–2000. He finds a positive association of dividends with earnings and dividend trends but does not find any association between foreign ownership and growth in dividend payout. Recently, Bhayani (2008) has examined the influence of earnings and lagged dividend on dividend policy of companies listed on the BSE. He found that the current year’s earnings is the foremost factor affecting the dividend behaviour of a firm and concludes that Indian Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 66 companies follow a stable cash dividend policy. Kanwal and Kapoor (2008) examine the dividend policies of companies in the information technology sector in India. They explore various factors such as profitability, cash flows, corporate tax, sales growth and growth opportunities that have an impact over the dividend policies of such companies. They report that only cash flows indicating liquidity and beta indicating risk are the foremost determinants. Thus over the years different strands of research have emerged in the area of dividend policy both in India and abroad. Data and Research Methodology Data and Sample Selection The necessary data have been sourced from the Prowess database of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)1 The sample companies are drawn from the broad based BSE 500 Index2. The period of the study is seven years from January 1, 2001 to December 31 2007. We only included those companies in the sample that had continuously paid dividend during the study period and have excluded financial institutions/finance companies and government owned companies. Only final cash dividends paid by companies have been considered as usually Indian companies pay only one dividend during a year. We have also ignored stock dividends and stock repurchases by companies and have examined only cash dividend. This process gave us a final sample of 150 companies from 16 industries. Description of Variables Over the years researchers have employed numerous financial variables that have a possible impact on the dividend policy (A list of such variables is provided in Annexure 1). Out of such variables, the present study considers fifteen variables to examine their effect on the dividend decision. The justification for choosing such variables is as follows. Liquidity is an important determinant of dividend decision. Liquidity and dividend payment behaviour of a company have a direct relationship (Benito and Young, 2001). If a company has adequate cash flows, it would like to distribute cash dividend in order to keep its shareholders happy. Moreover, firms have to make their dividend payments in cash therefore they have to be liquid enough to distribute dividends and also to remain solvent. Current ratio (CR) and cash from operations (CFO) are the indicators of the liquidity position of a firm. Thus, CR and CFO become the first and second variable respectively. Another significant factor is leverage. A firm with high leverage means large fixed payments for external financing, which indeed is a substitute for the dividend payments. High leverage increases the transaction costs and the risk of the firm (Rozeff, 1982). Contrarily, higher the earning retention rate, lower the chances for external 1 Prowess is a database containing information about large and medium Indian companies and is commonly used by both the researchers and the industry alike in India 2 Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is one of the largest stock exchanges of Asia. Its broad based index BSE 500 constitutes major blue chip companies in India Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 67 borrowing and vice-versa. Hence we take debt-equity ratio (DER) and ratio of retained earnings to equity (REE) as proxies for financial leverage exhibiting a negative relationship with the dividend decision. Hence, DER and REE become the third and fourth variable respectively. Further, the relationship between ownership structure and dividend payment behaviour of a firm is also valuable. The control of the firm may lie with the directors or the promoters (insider owners), institutions (institutional owners) or with foreign investors. The insiders would like to avoid excess payment of dividend whereas institutional owners are usually more dividend demanding (Han, Lee and Suk, 1999). Thus, promoters’ shareholding (PS), institutional shareholding (IS) and foreign institutional investors shareholding (FIIs) represent the fifth, sixth and seventh variables respectively. Profitability has always been considered as the foremost determinant for dividend payment as more profit means more dividends. It becomes essential to consider variables for short-term and long-term profitability of a firm (Myers, 2004). We take net profit ratio (NPR), return on investment (ROI) and ratio  of profit before interest tax to total assets (PTA) as their proxies and therefore, they become the eighth, ninth and tenth variables respectively. In addition, growth opportunities play an important role. Higher the operational growth and growth in profits of a firm, higher shall be the dividend payments by the firm (Kania and Bacon, 2005) . The growth factor is represented by annual sales growth (ASG), return on net worth (RONW) and earnings per share (EPS) growth. The growth rates of ASG, RONW and EPS are taken as the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth variables respectively. Market capitalization (MC) corresponds to the size of the firm and is the fourteenth variable. Tax effect is another significant determinant as the rates of taxation influence the need for dividend by the investors. High tax paying investors would prefer to postpone receiving dividends and thus, would like to retain their earnings with the firm in order to avoid heavy taxes whereas investors in lower tax brackets would prefer higher dividends (tax clientele effect)3. For this purpose we take ratio of corporate tax to profit after tax (T) as a proxy and the fifteenth variable. A detailed definition of these variables is given in Annexure 2. Research Methodology The present study re-examines various factors that have a bearing on the dividend decision of a firm by using a two-step multivariate procedure. We have identified fifteen variables from the extant literature that are considered while framing a dividend policy. In the first step, we perform factor analysis on the data to extract prominent factors from these fifteen variables. In the second step we perform multiple regression on the factors extracted. Results Factor Analysis The technique of factor analysis indicates those factors that explain the correlation among the observed variables. We use principal component analysis (PCA) as the factor extraction method to identify distinct clusters of observed variables (Dillon and Goldstein, 1984; Tryfos, 3 Tax Clientele Effect: See Miller and Modigliani, 1961. Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 68 1998). The broad factors are further subjected to equamax orthogonal rotation (Alli, Khan and Ramirez, 1993). Table 1 shows the results of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett’s Test. The KMO measure of sampling adequacy tells us whether we can reduce the variables into broad factors or not. Value of less than 0. 50 indicates that factor analysis would not produce distinct and reliable factors whereas any value close to one would generally indicate that this technique of analysis would be useful with the data. Our results gave a value of 0. 554 indicating that the pattern of correlation amongst the variables is relatively compact and hence, Factor Analysis yields distinct and reliable broad factors (Meyers, Gamst and Guarino, 2006). The Bartlett’s test of Sphericity investigates whether the original correlation matrix is an identity matrix or not. Our results show that Bartlett’s test has a chi-square value of 1. 500E3 which is significant for p 0. 01 confirming that factor analysis is appropriate. Table 1: KMO and Bartlett’s Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity .554 Approx. Chi-Square 1. 500E3 Df 105 Sig. .000 Table 2 gives the Rotated Factor Matrix using Equamax Orthogonal Transformation i. e. a matrix of factor loadings for each variable upon each factor. The factor loadings of less than 0. 30 have been suppressed and are not displayed. The institutional shareholding (0.  853) and foreign institutional investors’ shareholding (0. 735) are positively correlated whereas promoters’ shareholding (-0. 824) is negatively correlated to the first factor i. e. ownership structure. The dividend payout tends to bring a decline in the stock value, thus, a conflict of interest for the insiders. A company with high insider ownership proposes for a low ca sh dividend payout. Whereas, institutional owners are keen to influence high payouts in order to enhance control over the management for monitoring their external financing matters (Kumar 2006, Myers, 2004, Han, Lee and Suk, 1999). Our results strongly support the findings in the literature. However, one point worth noting is that the individual shareholdings of promoters, institutions and foreign institutional investors in relation to the total shareholdings of a firm have not been taken into consideration. This can be an area for future research. Factor 2 has high negative loadings for debt-equity ratio (-0. 756), taxation (-0. 704) and earning per share (-. 384) and positive loadings for return on investment (0. 759) and return on net worth (0. 577). We term this factor as leverage. This suggests that firms would like to pay high dividends if they are utilizing their retained earnings (least risk attached) as compared to external financing (equity and debt). In other words, high interest payments (fixed charge) will result in lower dividend payment (Alli, Khan and Ramirez, 1993 and Rozeff, 1982). Therefore, results indicate that there exists an inverse relationship between dividend rate and leverage. Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 69 The third broad factor is expressed as Profitability. It includes net profit ratio (0.932), ratio of profit to total assets (0. 932) and current ratio (0. 546). This factor indicates that greater the profit of a firm, higher will be the dividend payout. Therefore, profitability is positively related to dividend decision (Denis and Osobov 2008, Myers 2004). Our results confirm the same. The fourth factor incorporates high positive loadings for cash from operations (0. 809) and mar ket capitalization (0. 789). We coin this factor as liquidity. A firm with high external financing would require availability of cash flows i. e. strong liquidity position to meet its financial obligations. Therefore, in order to increase liquidity, the firm shall lower its dividend payout. On the other hand, the larger the size of the firm, the greater the availability of free cash flows and the greater will be the dividend payout. A firm with large number of shareholders is expected to pay higher dividends in order to keep their shareholders happy. It has been found that high retained earnings to equity ratio (indicating propensity to pay dividend) would ensure availability of free cash flows or residual cash flows within the firm (Benito and Young, 2001). One would, therefore, expect a direct relation between liquidity and dividend payout. The fifth factor is termed as Growth. It includes annual sales growth (0. 816), return on net worth (0. 530) and ratio of retained earnings to equity (0. 485) implying that growth in sales and profit is an important determinant for the payment of dividends. Our results support the findings of Myers (2004) who suggests that firms with high growth rate distribute high dividends in order to keep their shareholders happy. Table 2: Rotated Component Matrix Components IS PS FIIs ROI DER T RONW EPS PTA NPR CR CFO MC ASG REE Ownership Structure .843 -. 824 .735 Leverage Profitability Liquidity Growth .385 .759 -. 756 -. 704 .577 -. 384 Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 .412 .415 .932 .932 .546 .530 -. 431 .809 .789 .816 .485 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 70 Regression Results In the second step, multiple regression is carried out to examine the impact of the five independent variables on the dividend rate. The dividend rate is a dependent variable constituting the dividend decision and the five factors extracted from factor analysis viz. leverage, liquidity, profitability, growth, and ownership structure are taken as the independent variables. Since the factors used in the regression model are derived through the orthogonal transformations, they are free from multi-collinearity problems (Ali, Khan and Ramirez, 1993). Further tests for normality, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation show that data is normally distributed and there are no related problems. Table 3 gives the results of the regression model. The R-square is 0. 244 i. e. around 25 per cent of the variability in dividend rate is explained by the independent variables tested. The FStatistic of 9. 320 is significant at 1% level of significance. The Durbin-Watson statistic of 2. 079 signifies that autocorrelation is not present among independent variables. Table 3: Regression Model Summary R-Square 0. 244 F 9. 320 Durbin-Watson 2. 079 Table 4 gives the results of the regression. Out of the five factors analyzed, four factors viz. , leverage, liquidity, ownership structure and growth have expected relationships with the dividend payout. Whereas profitability, shows a sign contrary to what was expected. In line with literature, our results show that the leverage position of a firm has a negative relation with the dividend rate (-0.239), which is significant at 5% level of significance. Higher the exposure of the firm to external financing, higher will be the risk of the firm and therefore, lower would be the dividend payout. Table 4: Regression results Variables Dividend Rate (Constant) Expected sign Standardized Co-efficients Beta Dependent variable T Sig. 3. 840 .000 Leverage Negative -. 239 -3. 013 .003 Liquidity Positive . 341 4. 138 .000 Profitability Positive -. 007 -0. 086 .932 Ownership Structure Positive .091 1. 113 .286 Growth Positive .041 .541 .589 Decision, Vol. 37, No. 2, August, 2010 The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy 71 Similarly, liquidity (. 341) shows a positive relation with the dividend rate at 1 % level of significance. The ownership structure of a firm representing institutional owners has a positive coefficient (0. 091) but is statistically not significant. Growth (. 041) also shows a positive coefficient, which is not significant. Contrary to what was predicted, profitability shows a negative coefficient (-. 007) but is statistically not significant. Thus, the results of our study indicate that there are two main determinants of dividend decision viz.leverage and liquidity. Conclusion Despite few decades of active research on a number of theories discussing determinants of corporate dividend policy, no significant judgment can be drawn. The present study reexamines the determinants of corporate dividend decision of Indian companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange during the period January 1, 2001–December 31, 2007. The study uses P rincipal Component Analysis for analyzing fifteen variables that have an impact on the dividend decision of a firm. The results gave five broad factors viz. , leverage, liquidity, profitability, ownership structure and growth. These factors were then subjected to multiple regression with dividend rate as the dependent variable. The results of the regression show that leverage, liquidity, ownership structure and growth showed expected signs whereas profitability did not show the expected sign. Two factors viz. , leverage and liquidity were found to have a strong relationship with dividend rates of Indian companies. While leverage was found to be negatively associated, liquidity was positively related. One point worth mentioning here is that our results are drawn only from the analysis of financial factors affecting the dividend policy of an Indian company. In practice some non-financial factors such as foreign collaborators’ shareholding, attitude and behaviour of management, company policies, etc may also have a bearing on the dividend decision of a firm. References Alli, K. L, Khan, A. Q. and Ramirez, G. G. 1993. Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy: A Factorial Analysis. The Financial Review, 28(4): 523–547. Anand, M. 2002. Corporate Finance Practices in India: A Survey. Vikalpa, 27(4): 29 – 56. Anand, M. 2004. Factors Influencing Dividend Policy Decisions of Corporate India. The ICFAI Journal of Applied Finance, 2(10): 5 – 16.