Dehumanization of American Soldiers in the Vietnam War essays

Dehumanization of American Soldiers in the Vietnam War expositions Dehumanization is, as characterized by the American Heritage College Dictionary, the hardship of human characteristics, for example, empathy. In the film Apocalypse Now, dehumanization is appeared to the furthest reaches in numerous such cases. Regardless of whether it was the executing of a guiltless regular citizen, the besieging of a serene zone, or the simple utilization of a racial slur, dehumanization was unquestionably a main consideration in the film. In this exposition, I plan to completely portray the awfulness (no play on words proposed) and dehumanization that happened in the Vietnam War with the American warriors. The most widely recognized and terrible type of dehumanization that happened during the Vietnam war was the slaughtering of absolutely honest regular people. In Apocalypse Now, this was just appeared in one scene however it was one of the most impressive scenes in the film. In the scene, the pontoon pulls up to a little angling vessel and approaches them for their papers that state if theyre approved to angle. While one man is checking the pontoon, one of the ladies on the vessel makes an unexpected move and the officers slaughter everybody on the vessel for reasons unknown other then the lady making an abrupt development. The men didnt appear to try and consider what they were doing. They followed up on, what I accept to be, their dread of not comprehending what the lady would do. The fighter who initially began shooting basically stated, She bounced for you. You discover a little later that in fact, the lady would get a little doggy out of a bushel. I can comprehend that they arent that OK with dreading for their lives constantly; yet after they slaughter five honest individuals for reasons unknown, they simply get together and leave like nothing occur. They dont even have all the earmarks of being that disturbed about it. They check for accommodating supplies and not another word is said about it. An exceptionally mellow and not extremely hurtful type of dehumanization was the extremely normal and continuous utilization of racial slurs among the warriors abou... <!

Ford Company Management

Presentation The Ford Company is an American-based automaker. The company’s base camp is situated in Michigan. The organization was begun by Henry Ford and was consolidated later, in 1903. The organization exchanges its business vehicles advertisement autos under the Ford brand. The organization exchanges its extravagance vehicles under the name Lincoln (Reuters, 2013). The organization likewise creates tractors, overwhelming trucks, and vehicle parts.Advertising We will compose a custom article test on Ford Company Management explicitly for you for just $16.05 $11/page Learn More The Ford Company controls some stake in the Japanese organization Mazda and the UK Company Aston Martin. The organization is recorded on the NYSE and is overseen by the Ford family (Reuters, 2013). The Ford Company presented models of huge scope vehicle manufactory, and the enormous scope the board of profitable assets, in view of extravagantly structured manufactory groupings. The arrangements are d escribed by moving gathering models. During the 1914, these consecutive models were comprehensively known as Fordism (Reuters, 2013). Brief History of the Company Ford Motor Company was propelled in 1903, beginning with a capital base of USD 28,000 contributed by twelve contributors. In the early years, the organization created just a couple of vehicles every day, utilizing the parts provided by contracted providers (Bryant.edu, n.d). After 10 years, the organization built up the refined gathering model idea. In 1908, the organization presented a progressive motor, the Model, which had removable chamber heads. In 1930, the organization presented a more secure vehicle with a windshield. Later in 1932, it propelled an ease V8 controlled vehicle (Bryant.edu, n.d). During the 1950s, the organization presented more security determinations, including childproof entryway locks. During the 1980s, the organization brought effective vehicles into the market. In 1990 and 1994 the organization gained Jaguar and Aston Martin, separately (Ford Foundation, 2013). In 2005, the organization created endurance techniques, including cutting back, dropping a few models, shutting 14 creation outlets, and decreasing worker check by 30,000. These techniques were intended to get the organization out of the log jam (Bryant.edu, n.d). The organization kept on presenting new brands. In 2009, the organization sold Landover and Jaguar to Tata engines. In 2009, the organization detailed misfortunes of $ 14.6 billion, portraying a test to productivity. How Ford Motor Company Applied Goods, Services and Operations Management Since the 1920s, the tasks of Ford engines are exemplified in various logical administration components. These incorporate normalized item plans, large scale manufacturing, automated sequential construction systems, low assembling costs, exchangeable parts and the specialization of work. Through the normalization of item plans, the structuring of vehicles is done in manne rs that are acknowledged. These incorporate the utilization of uniform techniques, materials and measurements. For instance, during the early years, 1903 and ahead, the organization delivered their vehicles utilizing inputs gathered from the contracted providers (Bryant.edu, n.d). Through the outscoring and the creation of normalized vehicles, the organization had the option to create solid item stages, lower gracefully chain costs, and structure their items faster.Advertising Looking for paper on business financial aspects? How about we check whether we can support you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Through large scale manufacturing, the organization produces vehicles in high numbers, which they gracefully to the market. For instance, after its dispatch in 1903, the organization created a couple of vehicles day by day, at its plant on Mack Avenue, Detroit (Bryant.edu, n.d). Through the automated sequential construction systems, Ford Company had the option to build up the vertical combination that appeared to function admirably for their vehicle creation. The organization understood the decrease of assembling costs, through lessening the work power, for instance, during the 2005 proposition to diminish their worker tally by 30,000 (Maynard, 2006). Using compatible parts redistributed from the contracted makers, the organization guaranteed that creation didn't postpone because of the constraints of gracefully chain the executives. Through work specialization, the Ford Company, since its beginning has had the option to deal with its HR, guaranteeing that the workforce is ideally used. For instance, after the 1903 dispatch, a gathering of a few specialists would deal with the get together of one vehicle regular (Bryant.edu, n.d). The executives of Value Chains The flexibly chain profile of Ford Motor Company is portrayed by various items, providers and areas that add to the manufactory of vehicles. These incorporate in excess of 60 nations where pr oviders are sourced, 38 developing markets where providers are sourced, 17 developing markets described by second rate working conditions, 70 Ford vehicle creation focuses, and in excess of 1300 provider enterprises (Ford Company, 2012). There are additionally 4,400 provider creation focuses, in excess of 130,000 sections under creation whenever, and in excess of 500 assembling wares to be administrated (Ford Company, 2012). The long worth chain, which depends on a large number of information providers who convey parts, materials and administrations utilized in the creation of the final result, is portrayed by a mind boggling esteem chain. A significant number of the providers serve various automakers, and the providers likewise have various vehicle producers (Ford Company, 2012a). At Ford, there are roughly 6 to 10 provider levels between the wellspring of the crude materials and the passage organization. Worth chain the board is controlled by the organization through various syste ms. This incorporates building solid associations with providers, creating shared limit and pledge to maintain manageability, and adjusting the business structure (Ford Company, 2012a).Advertising We will compose a custom article test on Ford Company Management explicitly for you for just $16.05 $11/page Learn More These three techniques are completed through various activities, including building up a worldwide, item improvement model that executes item designs, upgrading the re-ease of use, dependability and the shared trait of creation forms, and expanding correspondence levels with providers. The Ford Company additionally permits the providers, contact with the company’s administrators. It likewise cultivates authoritative strength in item advancement, manufactory and buying, including the improvement of request satisfaction, and connecting with providers in conversations identified with quality, process dependability, and CSR (Ford Company, 2012a). Portage Motors’ Measure of Performance in Operations The Ford Company has distinguished key execution territories, where upgrades in the presentation of the organization mirror a positive or negative change in their tasks (Ford Company, 2012b). These presentation territories incorporate monetary wellbeing, water utilization, environmental change and natural effect, vehicle security levels, flexibly chain the executives and its relations with various partners. Under the territory of budgetary wellbeing, compelling operational execution is set apart by expanding total compensation and income and deals levels, which ought to be joins by generally administration and item fulfillment at the organization operational focuses. In the region of environmental change and ecological assurance, improved operational execution is set apart by various markers (Ford Company, 2012b). The markers remember an expansion for miles for every gallon secured by Ford vehicles, among truck and vehicle proprietors. The marke r suggests expanded eco-friendliness of the vehicles created by the organization towards ensuring the stressed mileage. A decrease in the CO2 impression, in grams per mile, denotes an improvement in the creation activities of the company’s items (Ford Company, 2012b). In the region of water utilization, a decrease in the company’s water use denotes an improvement in their operational presentation. Additionally, a decrease in the water utilized by passage vehicles, per cubic meters, denotes an expansion in the productivity of the vehicles created by the organization, just as a decrease of the effect caused to the earth. In the territory of vehicle security, the improvement of wellbeing norms in Ford vehicles marks increment in operational execution (Ford Company, 2012b). A decrease in the quantity of reviewed vehicles in a year demonstrates an improvement underway tasks. Under flexibly chain the executives, representative preparing on chain the board and working conditi ons principles denotes an improvement in the exhibition of the organization. Under partner connections, representative fulfillment, improvement in seller demeanor and the company’s corporate commitment show upgrades in operational execution (Ford Company, 2012b).Advertising Searching for exposition on business financial matters? How about we check whether we can support you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Find out More Portage Motors’ Operation Strategy Ford Motors is the main vehicle creating company executing a worldwide Powertrain approach. This worldwide operational procedure began with the creation of the Ford F-150, when the organization created systems of planning transmission models and motor models that can be changed with changes in advertise needs (MediaFord, 2013). The methodology is additionally planned for expanding fabricating proficiency and the nature of the vehicles delivered by the organization. The Powertrain fabricating methodology is the most imaginative methodology since the sending of the sequential construction system (MediaFord, 2013). Among the tasks that describe the new operational technique is the organization of medium-sized creation, which is relied upon to yield around 325,000 vehicles every year. The methodology will empower the organization to improve its productivity, react to changing business sector needs, and improve the effectiveness of the organizatio n (MediaFord, 2013). The technique likewise involved the improvement of plant-floor formats

AD ASTRA is a Problematic Retelling of HEART OF DARKNESS

AD ASTRA is a Problematic Retelling of HEART OF DARKNESS Warning: spoilers ahead (the horror, the horror) In the 2011s, rumors of a  Heart of Darkness film set in deep space made their way across the internet. I missed them, but then: Im not someone who spends much time pining after Joseph Conrad adaptations. Regardless, that movie recently arrived in theaters, in the form of Brad Pitts much anticipated, Oscar-buzzy  Ad Astra. Conrads story of Marlows excursion up the Congo in search of Kurtz, though adapted time and again (in  Apocalypse Now;  in Pixars  Up), is forever impeded by its colonialist language and sensibilities. Once lauded as a criticism of imperialism, contemporary scholars are more wont to uphold it instead as an example of colonialism: its treatment of indigenous people, its positioning of white explorers as at all heroic, moor it in the realm of irredeemable narratives. You can read an excellent New York Times  pieces troubling interpretations of it, as well as Chinua Achebes scorching takedown of the novel. Heart of Darkness romanticizes the jungle; positions outside, entitled explorers who exploit its resources as protagonists; assumes no ownership over the jungles resources on the part of those native to it; and renders its inhabitants curiosities at best and brutes deserving of murder at worst, but never fully human. These are the sorts of illustrations that make modern stomachs turn, whatever Conrads own intent. Nevertheless, Francis Ford Coppola played with the narrative to comment on the U.S.s presence (and proclivity toward atrocities) in Vietnam in Apocalypse Now; today, James Gray and Ethan Grosss take launches Kurtz into space, doing terrestrial exploration one better. Its leads are on a mission to find intelligent life, never mind that we havent yet learned to respect one another on Earth. The movie reframes Kurtzs/NASA hero Clifford McBrides seeker as his son, Roy McBride. Roy, filling the Marlow role in a more personal way, is an emotionally shut-off astronaut whos ambivalent about how well hes followed in his fathers footsteps, down to not connecting with other human beings and alienating his beloved wife, played by Liv Tyler. (Women, in Ad Astra  as in Conrad, scarcely have a voice or any autonomy; they are acted upon by bad, at best inattentive, men.) In one of the movies most powerful scenes, Roy speaks about his inherited inner rageâ€"a fury, he says, that belies deep pain and loneliness. As the film progresses, learning to form that fury into something more worthy and productiveâ€"something not tamped down, but dealt withâ€"becomes central to Roys personal quest. In Ad Astra, compartmentalization may save your life, but it leaves you wanting. Roy is sympathetic in some senses but infuriating in others, particularly because nothing seems to shake him: not the power surges that knock him from the sky and nearly claim his life, and that end up leading to massive global death tolls; not vicious Mandrills, their snouts covered in blood, taking down his ships captain after his crew answers a distress call in space; not an attack by pirates on the dark side of the moon. No matter the circumstances, Roys heart rate never goes above 58; its a point of pride. (Writing this, the parallels between Ad Astra  and  Heart of Darkness  are becoming clearer and more cringe-inducing to me, but as we watched the film, it took my boyfriends early insight to reveal that Grays movie wasâ€"in how it was framed, in its narration, in its use of music, in the story it was tellingâ€"an updated version of Apocalypse Now,  and therefore rooted in Conrads book. This sourcing becomes its folly; whatever it might have accomplished otherwise is undone by the Conrad connection.) When the aforementioned power surges are attributed to a burst from the edge of the solar system, Roy is tapped upon to undertake a mission to determine their source and neutralize them for humanitys sake. NASA suspects that Roys fatherâ€"long positioned as an agency hero and thought to be lost in spaceâ€"has gone rogue and is manipulating the antimatter that powers his ship to cause them. Roy is sent first to the moon and then to Mars to make an emotional appeal to his father. When this fails, he requisitions a ship (and some nukes) and goes after his once lauded, now-tarnished father himself, determined to set things right and save all of humanity. Ad Astra  works to better its source material, sometimes with success.   Instead of centering resource-mining capitalists as protagonists, it criticizes capitalism at every turn: there are Subway sandwich shops and Dunkin Donuts locations on the moon, it costs $125 to acquire a blanket and a pillow when youre flying there commercial, and every poor human impulse, Roy observes, has simply been transferred to the lunar and Martian surfaces. There are wars over territory and senseless deaths galore. By the time Roy heads off to find his father, the audience isnt sure that human beings have much to offer alien species if they are located; that, at least, is a reversal on Conrads text. So too is it worth noting that the movie prioritizes treating people with love and respect as a message over anything overtly colonialist or greedy. But its still Conrad. In Ad Astra, instead of belittling, dehumanizing, and murdering natives in the dark beyond, the explorers find no extraterrestrial life; therefore, instead of dealing with how we treat other life forms, the film determines (as Roy says) that all weve got is us. But removing the natives (in this case, alien species) from the conversation simply skirts the issue. We already have hints of what humans will do, validated by Roys own observations: they will pillage, they will use, they will shoot, they will destroy. Its almost a relief when Roys fathers 30 years of celestial images reveal no movement on any planetary surface, no sign of life, no hope of securing that meeting: humans are alone. Alone, they cant  take the destruction and exploitation of life beyond earthly bounds. Our damage is mitigated by still planetary surfaces alone. This relieved revelation is a huge disappointment. It allows the film, NASA, human beings, and explorers everywhere to wiggle around ethical questions and looming universal conversations. Roy concludes that all weve got is each other, but in his wake are bodies, a legacy of terrestrial destruction, and war: we may be all we have, but we sure arent honoring that symbiosis. By the time the film ended, I wished that my lovely and brilliant boyfriend hadnt noticed the connection. Once you know the film is a take on Conrads book, everything about it becomes more troubling. Its no longer just a deep space excursion story, playing on a rocky father-son bond and universal issues of belonging; its frames arent just beautiful images of space and the outer planets. Everything is commentary, and its not necessarily (or ever) commentary thats comfortable or redemptive. Though enchanted by the filmography and Roys ultimate personal decisions, I left the theater as ambivalent as the lead himself. Deep space exploration films carry inherent appeal, but its lazy to let them evade the questions that make Heart of Darkness  such a point of contentionâ€"namely, how do we interact with other people (or, in the case of space exploration, extraterrestrial beings) wellâ€"respectfully, nobly, in a way that both speaks to our own exploratory goals and rejects hubris, thievery, dehumanization, and murder? How do we go about the business of being decent humans once other beings are involved? This is a central philosophical question that speaks to the core of human values and moral worth, and its a question that Ad Astra  refuses to answer. That omission leaves the film at a loss and leaves its source material unredeemed. Sign up to Swords Spaceships to  receive news and recommendations from the world of science fiction and fantasy. Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox.

Anorexia Nervosa And Bulimia Nervosa - 1452 Words

An eating disorder is defined as any range of psychological disorders characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits. In the United States alone, 10 to 20 million men and women have suffered from an eating disorder. Eating disorders have the highest death rate of any other mental disorder. Researchers say that one in every ten person who has an eating disorder will die from it. Eating disorders can kill the victims if it is not treated in time. People who have eating disorders begin to experience deterioration of their bodies. The two major types of eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. One of the descriptions of anorexia nervosa was during the 12th and 13th centuries. A woman, Saint Catherine of Siena, ceased†¦show more content†¦People who suffer from anorexia nervosa obsess over controlling their weight and shape; they also resort to extreme measures to lose weight that interfere with their everyday life. To stop from gaining weight people with anorexia restrict their calorie intake and exercise excessively. They burn more calories than they consume so that they can stay underweight if they are not already. Anorexia usually develops because of psychological, environmental, and social factors. It can also develop based on biological factors. People who have a family history of anorexia are more likely to develop this disorder. Things like models, magazines, and advertisements can be pressuring to women and cause them to feel inadequate. Anorexics typically are people who are perfectionists and overachievers. Twenty-one year old Katie Metcalfe overcame her eating disorder. At the age of 14 her battle with anorexia began. She says, â€Å"I was at a Rudolf Steiner school in Botton Village, near Whitby, in a class with three other boys. The pressure of being the only girl with hormone-raging teenagers was enormous. I had no self-confidence, and my body became a focus of paranoia.† (Metcalfe, 2014). The amount of stress in her life made her life more difficult than a typical 14-year-old teenage girl. Her parents were having trouble in their marriage and they

Zara s Operation Strategy And How It Uses Technology Into...

Executive Summary This report is about Zara’s operation strategy and how it uses technology in operations to get competitive advantage in the fashion market. Zara introduced information system in operations for fast communication between different departments. The company’s store managers directly convey customers feedback to head office through advanced information system. Once the information gets collected by head office, the designers start working on new designs and take immediate opinions from their colleagues to manufacture the design. CAD system picks the design which is installed in computers and prepares clothes of good quality with very less wastage. Company’s business strategy and operation strategy works with smooth mixture which helps in efficient distribution system. Table of Contents Page No Executive Summary 1 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Zara Operations Strategy Technology 4 2.1 Just In Time Production 4 2.2 Information System 4 2.3 CAD System 6 2.4 Distribution System 6 2.5 Coaction Between Business Operations 7 3.0 Conclusion 8 4.0 References 9 1.0 Introduction Today’s highly competitive market condition changed the way operations management used to work in past, now operations has to be managed in such a way that it enables the organization to get competitive advantage in the industry. Operations management are working on totally different requirements at present as compared to the past or we can say operation management becomesShow MoreRelatedStrategy of Zara Burberry1298 Words   |  6 Pages| | | | [STRATEGY OF ZARA amp; BURBERRY] | | TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.1 STRATEGIES†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..1 CONCLUSION: COMPARISON ZARA VS BURBERRY†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.4 REFERENCES.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦5 Introduction ABOUT ZARA†¦ Zara started operations in Spain in 1975, and now operates in 74 countries worldwide. Zara is one of the largest international fashion companies and it is owned by INDITEX, one of the world’s largest distributionRead MoreZara Case1472 Words   |  6 Pagesreplace three of the existing legacy systems in terms of ordering and fulfillment. The IS department will perceive such upgrade as a radical move and is expected to show high resistance in response to it. Even though Zara has a decentralized decision making process, the retailer’s IS department exercises absolute autonomy on the IT infrastructure and design. The fact that â€Å"only one person had left the department† in the past 10 years further confirms that the retailer is suffering from cognitive andRead MoreZara It Strategies for Retail Essay2571 Words   |  11 PagesMIB 2013 2355 words Zara: IT for Fast Fashion Zara: IT for Fast Fashion EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In This case we see the typical problem which affect big Companies : the conflict between old style and new school of thought. We analyze Zara’s information Technology strategies and the diatribe between Salgado, The Head of the Department and Sanchez , his assistant,s concern upgrading the operating system and the implementation of a new IT system to fulfill the needs of a fast growing retail chainRead MoreCompare and contrast the supply chain management approaches take by HM, Benetton and Zara2719 Words   |  11 PagesThe purpose of this essay is to discuss different supply chain management approaches taken by HM, Benetton and Zara. It is first necessary to explain what a supply chain management means. Supply chain management involves planning, design, maintenance and control of the flow of materials and information along the chain in order to efficiently satisfy customers requirements (Schroeder, 2000). Such an approach, of looking at the entire supply network helps organ isations identify their competitiveRead MoreZara Is The Most Successful Retailer Brands Of Spanish Company Of The Inditex Group2427 Words   |  10 PagesIntroduction Zara is one of the world largest international fashion distributors, which is extremely competitive business with the most innovative speed-to-market business model. They are the third largest brand in the garment industry. Zara has become the most innovative retailers in the world. They invented the concept of fast fashion industry. Zara has changed conditions in the marketplace demand a much more agile response from the organizations and supply chain. Supply Chain Management (SCM)Read MoreZara Operations Strategy4086 Words   |  17 PagesZARA’S OPERATIONS STATEGY, A CRITIQUE OF A BUSINESS CASE. 1.Excecutive summary. Operations management is in regard to all operations within the organization responsible for creating goods and services that organizations pass to their customers. This function is at the heart of all organizations, giving the means of achieving their aims and reason for their existence. These activities include: managing purchases, inventory control, quality control, storage and logistics. A great deal of focus inRead MoreIct Developments in Supply Chain Management Within the Fashion Industry4127 Words   |  17 PagesB.I.S. MIS40760 Information and Communication Technologies Project ICT developments in Supply Chain Management within the Fashion Industry Group C7 Laurence Dumenil 10263080 Laurence.dumenil@ucd.ie Ian Foley 10287825 Ian.Foley@ucdconnect.ie Noirin Kirwan 10272127 noirin.kirwan@ucdconnect.ie Paul Murray 03528731 paul.murray1@ucdconnect.ie Cathy Smith 10269886   Cathy.Smith.1@ucdconnect.ie Andres Villar 10279253 Andres.Villar@ucdconnect.ie Table of Contents: 3 Introduction Read MoreZara; Should They Change Their It Infrastructure to Remain Sustainable?10596 Words   |  43 Pages1 Ââ€" Zara s Business Model and Competitive Analysis Zara, the most profitable brand of Inditex SA, the Spanish clothing retail group, opened its first store in 1975 in La Coruà ±a, Spain; a city which eventually became the central headquarters for Zara s global operations. Since then they have expanded operations into 45 countries with 531 stores located in the most important shopping districts of more than 400 cities in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. Throughout this expansion Zara hasRead MoreZara: It for Fast Fashion3524 Words   |  15 PagesI. Executive Summary Zara produces of-the-moment fashion and has developed a very successful vertically integrated company which can design, manufacture, and distribute garments to retail stores in as little as three weeks. Zara s target market is comprised of urban, fashion-conscious consumers who shop frequently for the latest trends. Currently under debate is a proposed upgrade to the POS system throughout the Zara chain. With over 550 stores, this would be a huge undertaking for Inditex,Read MoreEssay on The Zara Business Model2190 Words   |  9 PagesIntroduction Zara is the most popular and profitable brand of Inditex SA, the world’s largest retail group. The first Zara store was launched in 1975 in La Coruà ±a, Spain; a city which eventually became the central headquarters for Zara’s global operations. In the beginning the store was named Zobra, but after a while the founder and CEO Amansio Ortega has renamed it to ZARA. The first international Zara store was opened in 1988 in Oporto, Portugal. Since then Zara has expanded its operations into 87 countries

Friend Compare and Contrast Free Essays

A Friend His name Is If you ever met this Individual you would certainly have a good or bad impression of him. I’ve basically grown up with him. We attended the same school all from elementary through high school, grew up in the same neighborhood. We will write a custom essay sample on Friend Compare and Contrast or any similar topic only for you Order Now You could say that we both had a common thing. I’m not sure if meeting this person was a way to teach me a few things or not. I always wanted to think that him and I would get along and be good friends. Maybe that’s the reason why I have kept him my friend for so long. Now days he resides as my roommate, I don’t know if that session was a mistake or not. Time will tell or maybe it has already. His views are not like mine at all. We we’re brought up completely different as was taught under a Latin background and him†¦ Well, that’s a different story. I’ll explain about us: he and have completely different personalities, different and same friends and diverse ethics about education. Ill explain this through. For example, I believe that personality Is one If the main things that leads a relationship, even Just as friends. When you think of someone you want to be friends with you think of the same things you might share with that person. To me, personality is one of the main ones. When I met Matt I was in 4th grade, a young child, you could say. I didn’t really know much about how a person should be or how he should act as I was Just growing up. He seemed Like an okay kid and since we lived In the same neighborhood and hung out with the same friends I decided to start talking to him to see how things went. At the beginning everything was Just dandy but as time progressed I started to notice him being a controlling, self-righteous individual. His personality was completely different than mine. I was always a caring person but he†¦ Was more off â€Å"me first, me second and me third† kind of guy. For example, we always used to play football at my house, a quick game of 5 on 5. This might seem silly but when I saw him tackle someone I always used to see how much of a better person he wanted to be than the one being tackled. I could see that he was trying to show the other how much of greater man he wa s. After he would tackle someone he would slap them and say something rude or racist. According to him†¦ Anyone that isn’t white isn’t anything at all. It might seem harsh to say but to me that’s what he comes off as. I’m the complete opposite. Sure I’m competitive too, but not to that level. If I was to beat someone at anything of course I would gloat and such but I would never demise that person to the point where the individual would feel less than me. It’s a passive personality, me, to a very aggressive one, him. I wasn’t the only one who would think about him this way, there were also our friends. Since Matt and I lived in the same neighborhood and went to the same school, we were bound to share the same friends. We were all group and till this day we still call ourselves â€Å"the farms boys†. Sharing the same friends brought upon me him talking Enid my back, and others too. Since we all always used to hang out with each other there wasn’t much I could do. I couldn’t Just leave him and the others behind, I wouldn’t have friends! But now I see that he was no friend at all. Some of my friends that were also buddies of him viewed him as I started too, mean. Sure the kid had his 1 OFF good clays Ana Dad out Nils Dad were a lot more tan Nils good MY Eternal Dalton won was also friends with him till this day thinks Matt Just thinks for himself. I agree completely. Although we shared the same friends, we treated them differently and vice-versa. The ones that would hang out with Matt the most, would view him as a superior you could say but still saw that aggressiveness in him. Now take in consideration this was all during out middle school phase where we were all trying to be â€Å"a cool kid†. He was the kid that could say one thing and turn everyone against you, at least everyone in the neighborhood. Even if it was Just a rumor, trying to fight your side to prove it wasn’t true was a pain. So as the saying goes â€Å"keep your friends close, but your enemies closer†. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t consider the kid an enemy Just a bad seed. Even when it came down to education, we would have completely different work ethics about it. Ever since middle school, Matt has always been on top of his school work. He rarely had to study because the material we were going over Just came easily to him. Not with me. I had to take my time and review, review and then review some more before I could even think about acing a test. Although he was a smart kid†¦ He always had a way to brag about how well he did in school, or how much better he was at this than me. While me on the other hand, when I did good on something I would maybe how him Just to get a sense that â€Å"him I’m better than him†. I know it sounds a little self righteous of me, but that’s how I felt. Mat’s work ethics when it came to school would never compare to mine. We had a test in our English class once and of course he got a better grade than me and Just boasted about it. While me, I kept quiet and was Just proud that I got what I deserved. It’s almost like he was trying to prove to me that he could beat me or anyone at whatever he tried. In this case it was education. When we took our Sat, I got a better score than him. His excuse was â€Å"l went out the ay before therefore I wasn’t at my fullest†. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t Just have said, â€Å"good Job man† or something along those lines. Although one thing that I have to admit is that him and I do have a very good habit of turning assignments in on time and doing pretty well on them. We both like to exceed ourselves on our work. That part of his work ethic is something I can compare to me in a good way. In a nutshell, my friend Matt is one of a kind. Him and I have our differences when it comes down to personality, friends and education†¦ Then again everyone has their differences. He has more of an â€Å"l own everything personality’, while mine is a caring and courteous one. We do share the same friends and treat them differently, he with a kingship attitude and I with a friendly one. While when it comes down to education we both share some same characteristics and attributes. We finish our work with a timely manner even if he Just gets out of bed the day of and finishes while I take a week to do it. Now, Matt resides as my roommate. For now, I think it was a huge idea taking this mini adventure with him but only time will tell if I am right. After all, not everyone is perfect. How to cite Friend Compare and Contrast, Papers

Business Information System Online Technology

Question: Discuss about the Business Information System for Online Technology. Answer: Introduction The August online technology has been producing the August smart locks and the wifi door bell camera. These are the home applications offered by the company and there are also various smart home access products. The company is willing to increase the sale and the marketing of the products and is intended to use the online platform. The buyers of such products also needs the technological advice when using the products and the company is seeking to increase sales online by offering some extra service which would lure the customers to buy the product (Beynon-Davies 2013). Discussion: Improving Sales and Marketing: The company using the online platform for marketing and increasing the sales of the product is more than the financial expenditure. It calls for the commitment and the strategy on the part of business. The internet marketing follows the market led approach. The customers can be attracted through the marketing tactics that are based on the internet and by developing an effective website. The products of the company August Online Technology is evaluated by the customers by the advertising the product online. A consistent brand experience is provided by the company when the marketing tactics is integrated with the advertisement using the online platform (Rainer et al. 2013). The August Online Technology would involve the marketing efforts and it would be done through the website of the company. The online activities of the targeted market need to be identified and the monitoring of the internet usage pattern should also be understood by the company. The target market would involve various categories of users which would be identified by performing the research and the behavioral trend would be gathered using the same. The foundation of the market led and effective website is developed by analyzing the trends and the behavior of the target market. the website would provide the users with the experience of the brand by incorporating the customer relationship management and the mass marketing benefits. Successful websites would induce the customers to purchase the product and increase the sales and the profitability of the company. Network Security Protection and Risk: The security threats can make the company vulnerable to the damaging the privacy and the safety of the products of the company. The company might fail to cover the basics of the cyber security. If the company fails to encrypt the critical employee and the customer data and other vital information that are relevant and would have impact the product sales then this would possess the risk of losing the product privacy. If the company does not have sufficient policy of cyber security then the hacker would be able to identify the potentials and the risk associated with the third parties who would have a great impact on the products safety (Devlin and Murphy 2012). The various security tools that would help in protecting the information about the product are as follows: The company needs to keep their system of software updated and this is very vital to keep the site secured. The company can rely on the basic measure of privacy that is the online proxy server. This would enable the company to hide their IP address and the online websites would be surfed anonymously. The companies need to employ the software tools that are encrypted and this need to be incorporated with the use of the strong passwords. The company can make use of the virtual private network to connect with the locations around the world online. The employment of this software needs the company to encrypt its valuable information and the web traffic. This would prevent the criminals in sniffing the valuable information about the product (Thomas et al. 2013). Reference: Beynon-Davies, P., 2013.Business information systems. Palgrave Macmillan. Devlin, B.A. and Murphy, P.T., 2012. An architecture for a business and information system.IBM systems Journal,27(1), pp.60-80. Rainer, R.K., Cegielski, C.G., Splettstoesser-Hogeterp, I. and Sanchez-Rodriguez, C., 2013.Introduction to information systems: Supporting and transforming business. John Wiley Sons. Thomas, B.C. and Osborne, J.D., Efirms. Com, Inc., 2013.System for providing business information. U.S. Patent 6,301,574.

River King Review Essay Example

River King Review Paper Essay on River King It is said that children can be very cruel. After reading the novel by Alice Hoffman River King, I can not disagree. Perhaps nothing criticized the famous TV series School (and, perhaps, why scold). It is really a lot of truth, though, I have not had to deal with childhood cruelty. So, teenager Gus Pierce came to study at the elite school in a small town. And everything is good, but thats just he was very unlucky too, and besides, unlike the others. Only one girl knew and loved him a true friend Carlin Leander. Also black sheep in the team. But once they had an argument. The next morning, Gus was found dead in the river. What happened that night? Is the young man was so upset that he took his own life? Or maybe he was killed, but who? And why the police did not want to intervene in this matter? We will write a custom essay sample on River King Review specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on River King Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on River King Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer If you think that this is a detective, then perhaps you are not quite right. Its still a book about love and betrayal, stiffness and mercy, and yet how hard to survive the loss of a loved one. Accept the fact that more never see him again, not Pohorje And yet, all the while thinking that if youre in a moment acted differently, the tragedy would not have happened My first encounter with the work of Alice Hoffman was unsuccessful. The book What would that be left me completely indifferent. I remember, I was not even able to finish it. All the time asleep. But it took some time, and I once again decided to take up the creation of Alice Hoffman. This time, everything turned out more than well. The novel River King I liked him a lot more. Maybe he just got in the mood, but definitely left a mark in my heart. He forced sincerely empathize with the heroes. After losing a loved one is very difficult. But you should try to be strong to survive the grief and move on, if so ordered life. By the way, based on the book by Alice Hoffman River King in 2005. The film was shot. It is called Death on the river. Id love to see a picture.

Using Calculus to Calculate Price Elasticity of Supply

Using Calculus to Calculate Price Elasticity of Supply In introductory economics courses, students are taught that elasticities are calculated as ratios of percent changes. Â  Specifically, they are told that price elasticity of supply is equal to the percent change in quantity supposed divided by the percent change in price. While this is a helpful measure, it is an approximation to some degree, and it calculates what can (roughly) be thought of as an average elasticity over a range of prices and quantities. To calculate a more exact measure of elasticity at a particular point on a supply or demand curve, we need to think about infinitesimally small changes in price and, as a result, incorporate mathematical derivatives into our elasticity formulas. Â  to see how this is done, lets take a look at an example. An Example Suppose youre given the following question: Demand is Q 100 - 3C - 4C2, where Q is the amount of the good supplied, and C is the production cost of the good. What is the price elasticity of supply when our per unit cost is $2? We saw that we can calculate any elasticity by the formula: Elasticity of Z with respect to Y (dZ / dY)*(Y/Z) In the case of price elasticity of supply, we are interested in the elasticity of quantity supplied with respect to our unit cost C. Thus we can use the following equation: Price elasticity of supply (dQ / dC)*(C/Q) In order to use this equation, we must have quantity alone on the left-hand side, and the right-hand side be some function of cost. That is the case in our demand equation of Q 400 - 3C - 2C2. Thus we differentiate with respect to C and get: dQ/dC -3-4C So we substitute dQ/dC -3-4C and Q 400 - 3C - 2C2 into our price elasticity of supply equation: Price elasticity of supply (dQ / dC)*(C/Q)Price elasticity of supply (-3-4C)*(C/(400 - 3C - 2C2)) Were interested in finding what the price elasticity of supply is at C 2, so we substitute these into our price elasticity of supply equation: Price elasticity of supply (-3-4C)*(C/(100 - 3C - 2C2))Price elasticity of supply (-3-8)*(2/(100 - 6 - 8))Price elasticity of supply (-11)*(2/(100 - 6 - 8))Price elasticity of supply (-11)*(2/86)Price elasticity of supply -0.256 Thus our price elasticity of supply is -0.256. Since it is less than 1 in absolute terms, we say that goods are substitutes. Other Price Elasticity Equations Using Calculus To Calculate Price Elasticity of DemandUsing Calculus To Calculate Income Elasticity of DemandUsing Calculus To Calculate Cross-Price Elasticity of Demand

An Analysis of the Long Term Success of Veolia Water's Joint Ventures Dissertation

An Analysis of the Long Term Success of Veolia Water's Joint Ventures with State-Owned Companies in China - Dissertation Example 1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 1.3 Research Problem†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦ 1.4 Research Questions†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Chapter 2: Review of Literature†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦. 2.1 Joint Ventures†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2.2 International Joint Ventures†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦... 2.3 Chinese-Foreign Joint Ventures†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2.4 Influence of Chinese culture on Chinese-Foreign Joint Ventures†¦.. 2.5 Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2.5.1 Societal Orientation: Collectivism vs. Individualism......... 2.5.2 Power Distance: Low vs. High†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.... 2.5.3 Uncertainty Avoidance: Low vs. High†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦... 2.5.4 Social Gender: Masculinity vs. Femininity†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦... 2.5.5 Time Orientation of Goals: Long-term vs. Short-term†¦.. ... .. 2.10 Summary of Literature Review†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Chapter 3: Case Study of Joint Venture: Veolia Water Company and China’s State-Owned Companies†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 3.1 Veolia Water†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦...†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3.2 Veolia Water in China†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦... 3.2.1 Veolia’s Joint Ventures in China†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦.. 3.2.2 Veolia’s Business Model in Chin†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦.... 3.2.3 Performance of Veolia Water in Chin†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦ 3.3 Veolia’s Ori gin Culture’s (France) Cultural Dimensions Profile in Comparison with China’s†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3.4 Human Resource Management†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3.5 Stakeholders’ Interests†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3.6 Organizational Culture†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3.7 Financial Performance†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦...†¦ 3.8 Government Involvement†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3.9 Summary of Case Study Chapter 4: Methodology 4.1 Introduction†¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦ 4.2 Research Methodology†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4.2.1 Survey Questionnaires†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 4.2.2 Qualitative Content Analysis of Literature†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4.3 Target Sample†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4.4 Data Analysis Strategies†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦... 4.5 Reliability and Validity†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4. 6 Limitations of the

Government Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Government - Research Paper Example Trying Jones in the states court will also attract a maximum sentence unless he pleads guilty whereas the federal court has comparative leniency of federal rules regarding wiretaps and informants which give Jones the possibility of a minimal sentence compared to the former. The fact that he helped with the collecting of evidence to build cases against Smith and Thompson should influence the severity of his sentence in a federal court. Therefore it is my recommendation that once again a federal court is more beneficial because Jones’ actions of helping collect evidence will sway the judges or jury in a federal court. This will go a long way in helping future informants co-operate because they see that there snitching on the others is beneficial to them (Winnfred, 2011). Since no previous records have been found on Smith, the recommendation is to file the case in the Sedgwick County District Court. Smith should be charged with possession and trafficking as a first offender. The prosecutor should consider cutting a deal with Smith which will see the reduction of his sentence in exchange for him informing on his suppliers. ... The federal courts also need to issue a warrant to search all of Thompson’s premises. Secondly the federal courts offer greater harsher penalties for drug related offences that help deter people from future trafficking. According to 1993 statistics from the Department of Justice, the average federal sentence for selling powder cocaine was 79 months; the average for trafficking in crack cocaine was 141 months. Since Thompson seems to be a big time dealer he faces a harsher sentencing. Thompson should also be offered a deal just like Smith by the prosecutor where he faces a less harsh sentence if he is to inform on his suppliers (Harris 2007). The federal courts also offer an avenue for liaising with other courts in other states and other countries unlike the state courts in the event that Thompson’s suppliers are from different states or countries. Since Jones’ testimony is key to prosecuting Thompson, the prosecutor should make it clear to the judge that in no wa y should Jones’ previous convictions influence the decision made by the court in the trial against Thompson. He should still be viewed as a credible witness despite his selfish reasons in informing on Thompson. Looking at the federal law in the United States, there is no full reception statute provided on the level of federal law that spearheaded common law and therefore giving power to federal courts to fabricate precedents that were deemed legal. Federal courts culminate from the federal constitution together with the federal Judicial Acts. On the other hand, people have come to accept the fact that the earlier inhabitants of the United States, by their action of bestowing â€Å"judicial authority† into the highest court of the land

Asset Returns in African Stock Market Indexes

Asset Returns in African Stock Market Indexes 1.0 INTRODUCTION Financial markets are important in an economy in that they involve lots of monetary funds in the capital markets. These funds enable firms to raise finance in the form of equities and debts as means to finance expansion or expenses. Hence they serve the intermediation process and also provide a means for investors to diversify their portfolio of assets. African stock markets have been subject to economic restructuration as well as stock exchange modernisation these recent years. They now face regional and global integration and so the need to investigate their returns characteristics. Efficiency is an integral part of investment valuation. When markets are efficient, security prices are properly valued as they absorb all information at each point of time. This leads to optimal allocation of private and social resources. Moreover, investors may not beat the market and make abnormally higher returns than others, based on information asymmetry. Conversely, inefficiency leads to market prices deviating from actual value. Hence, those having reasonable level of expertise in the field of valuation will be able to spot and exploit above and under-valued stocks. Efficiency in equity markets is of significance to investors and policymakers in African markets. The concept has been widely applied to developed countries but less attention has been devoted to less developed ones. These researches indicate the importance of developing stock markets for countries which are at appropriate stage of economic growth. Indeed, it is more convenient to test for weak form efficiency of market rather than testing for semi-strong or strong forms of efficiency due to lack of data and supervision pertaining to those markets. 1.1 Organisation of the paper The objective of this study is to examine the possibility of both short- and long-term memory in asset returns in selected African markets stock indexes. Besides South Africa, all the other markets are still in developing state so that efficiency can be gauged on basis of market development and size. The paper is organised as follows: * Section 2 describes informational efficiency with emphasis on weak-form efficiency and random walk. Critics relating to the latter are then raised to emphasise on non-linearity and long-term dimensions. * Section 3 provides a brief description of the characteristics of the selected African stock markets as well as their respective indices. * A methodological discussion based on the different random walks and long-term analysis is then presented in the fourth section. * Tests, results and discussions are provided in section 5. The possible explanations for efficiency or inefficiency pertaining to the respective markets are also made. * Finally, we conclude in section 6 and make policy recommendations as well as future scope for research. 1.2 Limitations of the Study This paper in centered on market efficiency. However, given the excessive literature that exists in this field, it is beyond the scope this study to review all the previous works related to the study. We therefore provide only a short discussion on the main findings associated to the weak-form efficiency or random walk hypothesis to provide a general overview of the paper. Besides, the main limitation of this paper is that we restrict to the weak-form efficiency using time series analysis. Consequently, the statistical tests are only used to test for market efficiency excluding any transaction costs adjustment such as the bid-ask spread. Finally, we use daily data for the analysis though it may lead to possible biasness in the observations. We believe that using a longer time period would help to reduce this problem. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction Efficient market hypothesis is one of the most researched topics in the realm of the stock market. While most of the early studies have previously been centered on developed stock markets like USA, Japan and Europe, developing and emerging stock markets have been brushed aside. Before proceeding with a systematic and ordered approach, it might be useful to present a general review of the theory under study, which in turn aims at defining the main concepts and demonstrating familiarity with previous relevant findings concerning the same field of research. 2.1 Theoretical review In this section, we develop a formal view of the weak-form efficiency as well as the random walk hypothesis. Starting with the martingale model, necessary assumptions are made to develop a model consistent with Lo and McKinley (1997) model specification. Making the necessary assumptions about the model, a formal presentation of the different random walks is made and criticised. 2.1.1 Market efficiency Efficiency has various different contextual meanings but analysis of financial markets assumes an informational dimension. The attribute of those markets by virtue of which they respond to new information, is called informational efficiency. This implies that current market price reacts instantaneously to new information so that it incorporates all relevant information. Since, by definition, new information is unpredictable, it follows that change in stock price cannot be anticipated and thus move in a random manner. Informational efficiency can be related to the hypothesis of random walk which assumes that prices do not exhibit predictive patterns over time and follow a random walk. Hence, prediction of future prices in absolute terms, based singly on information about historical price, will be unsuccessful. The theory had its roots from the early works of Bachelier (1900). In his own words, Bachelier argued that â€Å"past, present and even discounted future events are reflected in market price, but often show no apparent relation to price changes†. This emphasises the informational content of stock prices. In his paper on the behaviour of stock and commodity prices, Maurice Kendall (1953) further supported the random walk theory. The findings, unexpectedly, showed that prices follow a random walk and not regular cycles. His conclusion was that the series appeared ‘wandering, ‘Almost as if once a week the Demon of Chance drew a random number from a symmetrical population of fixed dispersion and added it to the current price to determine the next weeks price In his thesis, Behaviour of stock market prices, Fama supported the random walk theory where he reviewed previous works on stock price movements. He concluded that â€Å"it seems safe to say that this paper has presented strong and voluminous evidence in favour of the random walk hypothesis.† Indeed in a market where prices are determined rationally, only new information will cause them to change. Hence prices follow a random walk to reflect all current knowledge. If price prediction were possible, this would have caused market inefficiency as prices dont incorporate all information. Fama (1965) was the first one who coined the term efficient market. He held that such a market is one constituting of a large number of competing rational and active profit-maximisers who try to predict individual values of securities. Information in those markets tends to be almost free. He argued that the essence of ‘instantaneous adjustment in actual prices to new information is competition leading to efficiency in the market. Later, the random walk theory was broadened into a concept called the efficient market theory. Based on the works of Samuelson (1965) and Roberts (1967), Fama (1970) developed a second paper: Efficient capital markets: A review of theory and empirical work. He distinguished between three levels of efficiency, as earlier initiated by Roberts (1967), based on three sets of information reflected in the price. He posited that a market is efficient in the weak-form if any information which might be contained in past price movements is already reflected in the security prices. It is semi-strong efficient when all relevant publicly available information is impounded in security prices while strong form efficiency suggests that security prices already reflect all available information, even private information. In this stream of literature, Malkiel (1992) contribution is elaborated in his essay Efficient market hypothesis in the New Palgrave Dictionary of Money and Finance. He defines a capital market as efficient when it fully and correctly reflects all relevant information in security price determination. Hence, for some information set, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t, the market is efficient if security prices are unaffected by unveiling that information to market participants. Then it becomes impossible to make economic profits by exploiting the information set. Hence, both the random walk theory and the EMH are related to informational efficiency. Then the form of efficiency under consideration will depend upon the information set, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t, which determines the level of efficiency. 2.1.2 Weak Form Efficiency: Random walk and its critics Weak-form efficiency focuses on the informational content of the previous sequence of stock price movements. An informational efficient market postulates that excess return cannot be realised from information contained in past prices. The rationale behind weak-form efficiency is that stock prices are the most publicly available information so that an investor may not be able to use information, which is already available to others, to beat the market. A long considered necessary condition for an efficient asset market is the martingale process. Under market efficiency, the conditional expectation of future price changes, conditional on the price history, cannot be either positive or negative and therefore must be zero. In fact the martingale originated from gambling and the concept of fair game. Samuelson (1965) and Mandelbrot (1966) independently demonstrated that a sequence of prices of an asset is a martingale (or a fair game) if it has unbiased price changes. Danthine (1977), LeRoy (1976, 1989), Huang (1985) and Neftci (2000) held that if a security market can be equilibrium and for sure be a fair game, then the following equations must hold: Ept+1ÃŽ ©t=pt (1) Ept+1-ptÃŽ ©t=0 (1.1) Where t denotes the price of an asset at date t, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t is a set of all past and current information regarding prices pt,pt-1,pt-2†¦.. and pt+1-pt=rt. Hence, the directions of the future movements in martingales are impossible to forecast. If pt is a martingale in equation (1), the best forecast of pt+1 that could be derived on basis of current information ÃŽ ©t, equals pt. For equation (1.1), rt is a fair game if the forecast is zero for any possible value of ÃŽ ©t. Then pt is a martingale only if rt is a fair game. In this case, asset price evolves in a random process so that the correlation coefficient between the successive price changes will be zero given information about current and past prices. However, most assets are expected to yield a non-zero and positive returns. The martingale hypothesis does not take into account the trade-off between risk and return as pointed out in financial economics. The model implicitly assumes risk neutrality while investors are generally risk averse. In fact, an investor is likely to hold more risky assets provided they are compensated in terms of higher expected returns. In this case, knowledge of the riskiness of current information set implies some awareness about the expected returns. Hence the equilibrium model shall predict a positive price change in the assets price though the actual return is still unforecastable under market efficiency. Then an asset model, considering positive returns, may be formulated as Fama (1970). He suggested the sub-martingale process: Ept+1à ¢Ã†â€™Ã¢â‚¬Å"à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t≠¥pt or alternatively Ert+1à ¢Ã†â€™Ã¢â‚¬Å"à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t≠¥0 (1.2) This states that the expected value of next periods price based on the information available at time t, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t, is equal to or greater than the current price. Equivalently, it stipulates that the expected returns and price changes are greater or equal to zero. Market efficiency plus an equilibrium model for asset pricing normally produces a random character to asset prices or returns or excess returns. The equilibrium model generally shows how the assets expected return varies with its risk and this can be closely related to Famas sub-martingale model. However, the representative model for the asset uses log prices and the expected continuously compounded return, rt+1. Ert+1ÃŽ ©t=pt+1-pt (1.3) Under the efficient market hypothesis, investors cannot earn abnormal profits on the available information set other than by chance. This is in line with Jensen (1978) who defines a market as efficient with respect to the information set, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t, if it not possible to make economic profits on the basis of this set of information. Hence, defining excess returns as zt+1: zt+1=rt+1-Ert+1à ¢Ã†â€™Ã¢â‚¬Å"à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t (1.4) Since market efficiency implies that all information is already impounded in stock prices, the following applies: Ezt+1à ¢Ã†â€™Ã¢â‚¬Å"à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t=0 (1.5) Under the assumption that the equilibrium model determining asset prices in (1.3) is assumed to be constant over time, the deduction is that expected return does not depend on the information available at time t such that: pt+1-pt=Ert+1à ¢Ã†â€™Ã¢â‚¬Å"à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t=Ert+1=r (1.6) Therefore market efficiency produces a result that implies that the changes in asset prices follow a random walk. The appropriate model would then be a random walk with drift where the arbitrary drift parameter, reflects how prices change on average to provide returns to holding the asset over time. The following equation sets the random walk model similar to the one defined by Lo and MacKinlay (1997): pt+1= ÃŽ ¼+pt+ ÃŽ µt+1 (1.7) rt= ÃŽ ¼+ÃŽ ±rt-1+ ÃŽ µt (1.8) If the stock price index follows a random walk, then, ÃŽ ± = 0. Generally, if stock prices and returns are unpredictable then time series have the property of random walk and white noise implying the validity of EMH. Thus, given an equilibrium model for asset pricing, the test for weak-form efficiency is that of random walk tests of market efficiency. Ko and lee (1991) maintained that â€Å"If the random walk hypothesis holds, the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis must hold, but not vice versa. Thus, evidence supporting the random walk model is the evidence of market efficiency. But violation of the random walk model need not be evidence of market inefficiency in the weak form†. Depending on the restrictions put on the increments,ÃŽ µt+1, different forms of the random walk are tested. Within the random walk hypothesis, three successively more restrictive sub-hypotheses with sequentially stronger tests for random walks exists (Campbell et al. 1997). These are range from the most restrictive form of Random Walk 1 (RW1) to the least restrictive one which is the Random Walk 3 (RW3). Based on their extensive research, the orthogonality condition for the random walk is: covfrtgrt+k=0 (1.8) Where frt and grt+k are two arbitrary functions and rt and rt+k refers to the returns for period t and t+k respectively. If (1.9) holds for all functions frt,grt+k this corresponds to RW1 and RW2. The former is the most restrictive version of random walk model implying it is not possible to predict either future price movements or volatility based on past prices. It states that returns are serially uncorrelated with independently and identically distributed increments with mean, zero and variance, ÏÆ'2. Under RW2, the returns are serially uncorrelated, corresponding with a random walk hypothesis with increments that are independent but not identically distributed. In case frt,grt+k are arbitrary linear functions, the RW3 applies so that it is not possible to use information on the basis of past prices to predict future prices. Hence, returns in a market conforming to this standard of random walk are serially uncorrelated, corresponding to a random walk hypothesis with dependent but uncorrelated increments. The foundation of traditional tests of random walk rests on the assumption of IID. The most famous tests remain the sequences and reversals test proposed by Cowles and Jones (1937) and the runs test. Tests of RW2 and RW3 encompass the variance ratio tests and unit root tests which are more recent tools. Developed by Lo and MacKinlay (1988), hereby LM, the variance ratio tests out that the variance of the innovations pertaining to a random walk model is linear functions of time. This popular test does not restrict only to the RW1 but also to the RW2 and RW3. However, exclusion of non-linear analysis in financial series could lead to inappropriate deductions as regards weak-form efficiency. Indeed, the application of non-linear dynamics and chaos theory to financial series has shown that they evidence non-linear structure. In practice, returns distributions exhibit leptokurtic behaviours as opposed to normal distribution. They often reflect volatility clustering thereby the level of volatility in the next period tends to be positively correlated with its current level. Then it may be possible for information on the variance of past prices to predict the future volatility of the market. Indeed, share price movements could be unpredictable when using linear models but forecastable under non-linear models in the ‘short-run. This contradicts the use of linear models for testing the efficient market hypothesis. Further departures from the random walk hypothesis exist in the long-range dependence. This is analogous to high autocorrelation structure in a series so that there is persistent dependence between distant observations. In this case covfrtgrt+k does not tend to zero at higher lags. As regards market efficiency, persistence implies that past data contain useful information for prediction so that long memory violates the concept. Several tests have been developed for this purpose including the rescaled statistic to test for long-term ‘randomness of the market series and the ARFIMA-FIGARCH which categorises the long- and short-term memory based on the estimated value of the fractional difference. 2.2 Empirical Review Following the work of Fama (1965) â€Å"Random walk in stock prices† arguing for random walk hypothesis, a multitude of research has been performed throughout the world. While most of the well developed markets were found to be efficient, research findings of developing and less developed markets are mixed and controversial too. Most of the less developed market encounters the problem of thin trading. Besides, it is easier for large traders to manipulate small markets. Though emerging markets are generally assumed to be less efficient, empirical evidence does not always support the idea. Some previous research aiming at testing the weak-form efficiency of a particular group of stock markets are presented below. A research that aims at testing weak-form market efficiency in the equity markets of the three main Central European transition economies (the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland) is that of Gilmore and McManus (2001). Using different approaches comprising of univariate, multivariate tests as well as the model-comparison approach for the period July 1995 to September 2000 different conclusion were drawn. While the serial correlation-based tests largely support a conclusion that these markets are weak-form efficient, the results of comparing forecasts of alternative models are consistent in rejecting the random walk hypothesis. Examining the existence of weak-form efficiency in European stock market, Worthington and Higgs (2003) used daily returns for sixteen developed markets (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) and four emerging markets (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Russia) to perform a number of testing procedures of random walk. They started with the serial correlation coefficient test and the runs test, and found that Netherlands and Germany do follow a random walk while the United Kingdom, Ireland and Portugal were efficient under one test or the other. All remaining markets were weak form inefficient. Beside unit root tests (ADF, PP statistics and KPSS), the multiple variance ratio tests rejected the presence of random walk in most of the markets. While in the developed markets only the United Kingdom, Portugal, Ireland, Sweden and Germany satisfied the most stringent rand om walk criteria, in emerging markets only Hungary did so. Weak-form efficiency for emerging equity markets were also tested by Chang, Lima and Tabak (2003). They deduced that random walk hypothesis is not consistent with Asian equity markets while left apart Chile, Latin American indices resemble a random walk. Using daily prices from January 1992 to December 2002, multivariate variance ratios using heteroscedastic robust bootstrap procedures and test trading rules using trading range break (TRB) levels were employed. Taking the US and Japan as yardsticks, they were not able to reject the random walk hypothesis. Another study considering a group of selected Asian markets; Kim and Shamsuddin (2008) argues that market efficiency varies with the level of stock market development. Using new multiple variance ratio tests based on the wild bootstrap and signs as well as the conventional Chow-Denning test, they found that the Hong Kong, Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese markets adhere to the martingale property while Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines markets are inefficient. Besides, the results revealed evidence that the Singaporean and Thai markets followed a random walk after the Asian crisis. As regards the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) stock markets, Elango and Hussein (2008) tested whether daily returns series are an approximation of normal distribution or not. Dubai, AbuDhabi, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain stock market indices were examined using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Runs test, Autocorrelation Function and Partial Autocorrelation Functions. The results revealed that the distribution of daily returns on these markets deviated from the normal distribution during the study period. Also, the runs test rejected the hypothesis of random walk for all seven markets. In his paper investigating the random walk hypothesis, Urrutia (1995), used monthly data from December 1975 to March 1991 for four Latin American equity markets: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico to observe whether they are weak-form efficient. He made use of the Variance-ratio tests and the runs tests. While results of the variance ratio estimatespixel rejects the random walk hypothesis, runs tests specify that Latin American equity markets are weak-form efficient. These empirical findings suggest that domestic investors might not be able to develop trading strategies that would allow them to earn excess returns. Using Lo-MacKinlay Variance ratio, Wrights rank and sign VR and the standard runs tests; Al-Khazali, Ding and Pyun (2007) revisited the validity of random walk hypothesis in eight emerging markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA): Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia. When assessed by Wrights (2000) rank and sign VR test, all the markets rejected the hypothesis of random walk. However, once data are reconciled for distortions from thinly and infrequently traded stocks, all eight stock markets do follow a random walk. African countries were investigated in the paper ‘How Efficient are Africas Emerging Stock Markets by Magnusson and Wydick (2002). Testing procedures considered monthly data for eight African markets in comparison with nine other developing countries in Latin America and Asia. Distinguishing among the three types of random walk models, they started by testing the RW 3, by investigating the Partial Auto-Correlation Function(PACF) of the historical series and examining whether they are statistically different from zero. Markets in Botswana, Cote dIvoire, Kenya, Mauritius and South Africa did conform to the RW3 while those of Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe were rejected. Proceeding with the RW2, excluding Botswana, results did not change. However none of the African Markets were conform to the RW1 White test for heteroscedasticity. They conclude that African countries do conform quite favourably to some regions of the developing world. Another research which focuses on African markets was that of Jefferis and Smith (2005). It covers seven African stock markets: South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and Kenya and use a GARCH approach with time-varying parameters to detect changes in weak-form efficiency through time. They emphasised on RW 3 model with volatilities changing over time and found that Johannesburg stock market was weak-form efficient with no tendency to change like many other developed markets. On the other hand, the stock markets of Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria showed changing levels of inefficiencies to become weak-form efficient towards the end of the period. The results for Kenya, Zimbabwe and Mauritius, however, showed tendency towards efficiency and rejected the hypothesis of weak-form efficiency. Recently, McMillan and Thupayagale (2009) in their paper â€Å"The efficiency of African equity markets† examined long memory effects of both equity returns and volatility for eleven African countries, taking the UK and US as reference. They made use of unit roots test and the GARCH(1,1) models before proceeding with ARFIMA-FIGARCH and ARFIMA-HYGARCH models. They ended up with mixed results. The ARFIMA-FIGARCH models provide evidence for long term memory in African equity markets with the exception of Mauritius, Morocco, Botswana and Nigeria where the results were unpredictable. Also, the US stock return volatility was marked by long memory process while the UK was non-stationary. These results were further supported by the ARFIMA-HYGARCH models. 2.3 Conclusion During the course of the literature review, limited evidence on weak form efficiency of African markets was found. These countries have attracted significant investment these last years and are of much importance to portfolio managers. Univariate time series analysis might be important tool for technical analysts in trying to outperform these markets. Indeed, the battery of econometrics software now paves the way for investigation of the random walk hypothesis based on different sets of assumption. A preliminary analysis of the African markets shall provide us with an insight to efficiency based on their attributes and consultation of previous works. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE AFRICAN STOCK MARKETS 3.0 Introduction African stock markets, following in the wake of the surge in the world stock markets over the few decades, are starting to take off. Recognizing the importance of stock markets in economic development, several African countries launched stock exchanges during the past two decades. The African Stock Exchange Association (ASEA) was, hence, set up in 1993 so as to promote the development of stock markets. Prior to 1989, there were just five stock markets in Sub-Saharan Africa and three in North Africa. Today, Africa has about 20 active stock markets, with some exchanges more established than others, depending on when they were established. Alongside the rapid expansion of stock markets in the continent, there has also been a significant growth in market capitalization and the number of listed companies. However, with the exception of the well established markets, stock markets in Africa remain thin and illiquid. This study covers four African stock markets namely South Africa, Mauritius , Morocco and Egypt over periods for which data is available. Mauritius Stock Exchange Since its start of trading on the 5th July 1989 under the Stock Exchange Act of 1988, the Mauritius Stock Exchange (SEM) has come a long way. From a pre-emerging market with trading taking place only once a week, the SEM has emerged as one of the leading exchanges in Africa. It operates two markets namely the Official and the Development and Enterprise market (DEM), established in August 2006 to replace the over-the-counter market. The exchange is regulated by the Financial Services Commission. As the second sub-Saharan stock exchange member of the World Federation of Exchanges, SEM operates in line with international standards. In addition, its developing institutional and retail investor base make it an attractive investment destination for foreign investors. The SEM offers quite a limited range of products to its investors and the aim for the next few years would be to increase the range of products offered. The three main indices of the official market are namely the SEMDEX, SEM- 7 and the SEMTRI. As at 30 June 2009, some 40 companies, with a market capitalisation of Rs 130.77 bn, are listed on the Official market and 52 companies, with a market capitalisation of Rs 45.41 bn, are listed on the Development and Enterprise Market (DEM). The SEM maintained an upward momentum, amidst typical market fluctuations, until the end of February 2008. The total market capitalization of the Official Market and the DEM was Rs 173.1 bn at end 2007. This is in line with the levels observed in well-established emerging stock markets. However, like other exchanges, the SEM experienced market volatility since the start of the financial crisis in September 2008. The main pillars of the Mauritian economy were adversely affected and this reflected on hotels and banks stocks listed on the SEM. The market then picked-up by mid-March 2009 on the back of interest rate cuts and stimulus packages put forward by the Government of Mauritius. Johannesburg Stock Exchange The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), regulated by the Financial Services Board under the Securities Services Act 2004, is the largest exchange in Africa and among the top twenty largest in the world in terms of market capitalisation. JSE Securities Exchange existed since November 1887 and was incorporated as a public limited company on 1st July 2005, pursuant to its demutualization. Since then, the JSE has evolved from a traditional floor based equities trading market to a modern securities exchange providing fully electronic trading, clearing and settlement in equities, financial and agricultural derivatives and other associated instruments and has extensive surveillance capabilities. Technical agreement with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) enables dual primary listings on both exchanges since 2001. Between the listed entity and its trusted trading platforms the South African economy becomes an active hub of activity where expansion is encouraged, businesses are enhanced, performa nce is driven and shareholder value is created. The JSE currently operates four boards for the equities market and the South African bond market is a leader among emerging-market economies. The main market indices are Top 40, Industrial 25, All Share, Oil and Gas Index. As the gateway to Africas economy, the JSE provides the link between international markets and the continent. In 2008, a daily average of 334 million shares was traded on the JSE. At year-end, there were 992 listed securities on the JSE with a total market capitalisation of R4,514 billion compared to R5,696 billion in 2007. Casablanca Stock Exchange Founded in 1929, the Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) in Morocco is relatively modern, having experienced reform in 1993. The exchange is well regulated by the Conseil Deontologique des Valeurs Mobilieres (CDVM). Originally, CSE had the Index de la Bourse des Valeurs de Casablanca (IGB) but this was replaced on January 2002 by two indexes: MASI (Moroccan All Shares Index) which comprises all listed shares, allows to follow up all listed values and to have a long-term visibility and MADEX (Moroccan Most Active Shares Index), comprisi Asset Returns in African Stock Market Indexes Asset Returns in African Stock Market Indexes 1.0 INTRODUCTION Financial markets are important in an economy in that they involve lots of monetary funds in the capital markets. These funds enable firms to raise finance in the form of equities and debts as means to finance expansion or expenses. Hence they serve the intermediation process and also provide a means for investors to diversify their portfolio of assets. African stock markets have been subject to economic restructuration as well as stock exchange modernisation these recent years. They now face regional and global integration and so the need to investigate their returns characteristics. Efficiency is an integral part of investment valuation. When markets are efficient, security prices are properly valued as they absorb all information at each point of time. This leads to optimal allocation of private and social resources. Moreover, investors may not beat the market and make abnormally higher returns than others, based on information asymmetry. Conversely, inefficiency leads to market prices deviating from actual value. Hence, those having reasonable level of expertise in the field of valuation will be able to spot and exploit above and under-valued stocks. Efficiency in equity markets is of significance to investors and policymakers in African markets. The concept has been widely applied to developed countries but less attention has been devoted to less developed ones. These researches indicate the importance of developing stock markets for countries which are at appropriate stage of economic growth. Indeed, it is more convenient to test for weak form efficiency of market rather than testing for semi-strong or strong forms of efficiency due to lack of data and supervision pertaining to those markets. 1.1 Organisation of the paper The objective of this study is to examine the possibility of both short- and long-term memory in asset returns in selected African markets stock indexes. Besides South Africa, all the other markets are still in developing state so that efficiency can be gauged on basis of market development and size. The paper is organised as follows: * Section 2 describes informational efficiency with emphasis on weak-form efficiency and random walk. Critics relating to the latter are then raised to emphasise on non-linearity and long-term dimensions. * Section 3 provides a brief description of the characteristics of the selected African stock markets as well as their respective indices. * A methodological discussion based on the different random walks and long-term analysis is then presented in the fourth section. * Tests, results and discussions are provided in section 5. The possible explanations for efficiency or inefficiency pertaining to the respective markets are also made. * Finally, we conclude in section 6 and make policy recommendations as well as future scope for research. 1.2 Limitations of the Study This paper in centered on market efficiency. However, given the excessive literature that exists in this field, it is beyond the scope this study to review all the previous works related to the study. We therefore provide only a short discussion on the main findings associated to the weak-form efficiency or random walk hypothesis to provide a general overview of the paper. Besides, the main limitation of this paper is that we restrict to the weak-form efficiency using time series analysis. Consequently, the statistical tests are only used to test for market efficiency excluding any transaction costs adjustment such as the bid-ask spread. Finally, we use daily data for the analysis though it may lead to possible biasness in the observations. We believe that using a longer time period would help to reduce this problem. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction Efficient market hypothesis is one of the most researched topics in the realm of the stock market. While most of the early studies have previously been centered on developed stock markets like USA, Japan and Europe, developing and emerging stock markets have been brushed aside. Before proceeding with a systematic and ordered approach, it might be useful to present a general review of the theory under study, which in turn aims at defining the main concepts and demonstrating familiarity with previous relevant findings concerning the same field of research. 2.1 Theoretical review In this section, we develop a formal view of the weak-form efficiency as well as the random walk hypothesis. Starting with the martingale model, necessary assumptions are made to develop a model consistent with Lo and McKinley (1997) model specification. Making the necessary assumptions about the model, a formal presentation of the different random walks is made and criticised. 2.1.1 Market efficiency Efficiency has various different contextual meanings but analysis of financial markets assumes an informational dimension. The attribute of those markets by virtue of which they respond to new information, is called informational efficiency. This implies that current market price reacts instantaneously to new information so that it incorporates all relevant information. Since, by definition, new information is unpredictable, it follows that change in stock price cannot be anticipated and thus move in a random manner. Informational efficiency can be related to the hypothesis of random walk which assumes that prices do not exhibit predictive patterns over time and follow a random walk. Hence, prediction of future prices in absolute terms, based singly on information about historical price, will be unsuccessful. The theory had its roots from the early works of Bachelier (1900). In his own words, Bachelier argued that â€Å"past, present and even discounted future events are reflected in market price, but often show no apparent relation to price changes†. This emphasises the informational content of stock prices. In his paper on the behaviour of stock and commodity prices, Maurice Kendall (1953) further supported the random walk theory. The findings, unexpectedly, showed that prices follow a random walk and not regular cycles. His conclusion was that the series appeared ‘wandering, ‘Almost as if once a week the Demon of Chance drew a random number from a symmetrical population of fixed dispersion and added it to the current price to determine the next weeks price In his thesis, Behaviour of stock market prices, Fama supported the random walk theory where he reviewed previous works on stock price movements. He concluded that â€Å"it seems safe to say that this paper has presented strong and voluminous evidence in favour of the random walk hypothesis.† Indeed in a market where prices are determined rationally, only new information will cause them to change. Hence prices follow a random walk to reflect all current knowledge. If price prediction were possible, this would have caused market inefficiency as prices dont incorporate all information. Fama (1965) was the first one who coined the term efficient market. He held that such a market is one constituting of a large number of competing rational and active profit-maximisers who try to predict individual values of securities. Information in those markets tends to be almost free. He argued that the essence of ‘instantaneous adjustment in actual prices to new information is competition leading to efficiency in the market. Later, the random walk theory was broadened into a concept called the efficient market theory. Based on the works of Samuelson (1965) and Roberts (1967), Fama (1970) developed a second paper: Efficient capital markets: A review of theory and empirical work. He distinguished between three levels of efficiency, as earlier initiated by Roberts (1967), based on three sets of information reflected in the price. He posited that a market is efficient in the weak-form if any information which might be contained in past price movements is already reflected in the security prices. It is semi-strong efficient when all relevant publicly available information is impounded in security prices while strong form efficiency suggests that security prices already reflect all available information, even private information. In this stream of literature, Malkiel (1992) contribution is elaborated in his essay Efficient market hypothesis in the New Palgrave Dictionary of Money and Finance. He defines a capital market as efficient when it fully and correctly reflects all relevant information in security price determination. Hence, for some information set, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t, the market is efficient if security prices are unaffected by unveiling that information to market participants. Then it becomes impossible to make economic profits by exploiting the information set. Hence, both the random walk theory and the EMH are related to informational efficiency. Then the form of efficiency under consideration will depend upon the information set, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t, which determines the level of efficiency. 2.1.2 Weak Form Efficiency: Random walk and its critics Weak-form efficiency focuses on the informational content of the previous sequence of stock price movements. An informational efficient market postulates that excess return cannot be realised from information contained in past prices. The rationale behind weak-form efficiency is that stock prices are the most publicly available information so that an investor may not be able to use information, which is already available to others, to beat the market. A long considered necessary condition for an efficient asset market is the martingale process. Under market efficiency, the conditional expectation of future price changes, conditional on the price history, cannot be either positive or negative and therefore must be zero. In fact the martingale originated from gambling and the concept of fair game. Samuelson (1965) and Mandelbrot (1966) independently demonstrated that a sequence of prices of an asset is a martingale (or a fair game) if it has unbiased price changes. Danthine (1977), LeRoy (1976, 1989), Huang (1985) and Neftci (2000) held that if a security market can be equilibrium and for sure be a fair game, then the following equations must hold: Ept+1ÃŽ ©t=pt (1) Ept+1-ptÃŽ ©t=0 (1.1) Where t denotes the price of an asset at date t, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t is a set of all past and current information regarding prices pt,pt-1,pt-2†¦.. and pt+1-pt=rt. Hence, the directions of the future movements in martingales are impossible to forecast. If pt is a martingale in equation (1), the best forecast of pt+1 that could be derived on basis of current information ÃŽ ©t, equals pt. For equation (1.1), rt is a fair game if the forecast is zero for any possible value of ÃŽ ©t. Then pt is a martingale only if rt is a fair game. In this case, asset price evolves in a random process so that the correlation coefficient between the successive price changes will be zero given information about current and past prices. However, most assets are expected to yield a non-zero and positive returns. The martingale hypothesis does not take into account the trade-off between risk and return as pointed out in financial economics. The model implicitly assumes risk neutrality while investors are generally risk averse. In fact, an investor is likely to hold more risky assets provided they are compensated in terms of higher expected returns. In this case, knowledge of the riskiness of current information set implies some awareness about the expected returns. Hence the equilibrium model shall predict a positive price change in the assets price though the actual return is still unforecastable under market efficiency. Then an asset model, considering positive returns, may be formulated as Fama (1970). He suggested the sub-martingale process: Ept+1à ¢Ã†â€™Ã¢â‚¬Å"à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t≠¥pt or alternatively Ert+1à ¢Ã†â€™Ã¢â‚¬Å"à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t≠¥0 (1.2) This states that the expected value of next periods price based on the information available at time t, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t, is equal to or greater than the current price. Equivalently, it stipulates that the expected returns and price changes are greater or equal to zero. Market efficiency plus an equilibrium model for asset pricing normally produces a random character to asset prices or returns or excess returns. The equilibrium model generally shows how the assets expected return varies with its risk and this can be closely related to Famas sub-martingale model. However, the representative model for the asset uses log prices and the expected continuously compounded return, rt+1. Ert+1ÃŽ ©t=pt+1-pt (1.3) Under the efficient market hypothesis, investors cannot earn abnormal profits on the available information set other than by chance. This is in line with Jensen (1978) who defines a market as efficient with respect to the information set, à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t, if it not possible to make economic profits on the basis of this set of information. Hence, defining excess returns as zt+1: zt+1=rt+1-Ert+1à ¢Ã†â€™Ã¢â‚¬Å"à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t (1.4) Since market efficiency implies that all information is already impounded in stock prices, the following applies: Ezt+1à ¢Ã†â€™Ã¢â‚¬Å"à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t=0 (1.5) Under the assumption that the equilibrium model determining asset prices in (1.3) is assumed to be constant over time, the deduction is that expected return does not depend on the information available at time t such that: pt+1-pt=Ert+1à ¢Ã†â€™Ã¢â‚¬Å"à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦t=Ert+1=r (1.6) Therefore market efficiency produces a result that implies that the changes in asset prices follow a random walk. The appropriate model would then be a random walk with drift where the arbitrary drift parameter, reflects how prices change on average to provide returns to holding the asset over time. The following equation sets the random walk model similar to the one defined by Lo and MacKinlay (1997): pt+1= ÃŽ ¼+pt+ ÃŽ µt+1 (1.7) rt= ÃŽ ¼+ÃŽ ±rt-1+ ÃŽ µt (1.8) If the stock price index follows a random walk, then, ÃŽ ± = 0. Generally, if stock prices and returns are unpredictable then time series have the property of random walk and white noise implying the validity of EMH. Thus, given an equilibrium model for asset pricing, the test for weak-form efficiency is that of random walk tests of market efficiency. Ko and lee (1991) maintained that â€Å"If the random walk hypothesis holds, the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis must hold, but not vice versa. Thus, evidence supporting the random walk model is the evidence of market efficiency. But violation of the random walk model need not be evidence of market inefficiency in the weak form†. Depending on the restrictions put on the increments,ÃŽ µt+1, different forms of the random walk are tested. Within the random walk hypothesis, three successively more restrictive sub-hypotheses with sequentially stronger tests for random walks exists (Campbell et al. 1997). These are range from the most restrictive form of Random Walk 1 (RW1) to the least restrictive one which is the Random Walk 3 (RW3). Based on their extensive research, the orthogonality condition for the random walk is: covfrtgrt+k=0 (1.8) Where frt and grt+k are two arbitrary functions and rt and rt+k refers to the returns for period t and t+k respectively. If (1.9) holds for all functions frt,grt+k this corresponds to RW1 and RW2. The former is the most restrictive version of random walk model implying it is not possible to predict either future price movements or volatility based on past prices. It states that returns are serially uncorrelated with independently and identically distributed increments with mean, zero and variance, ÏÆ'2. Under RW2, the returns are serially uncorrelated, corresponding with a random walk hypothesis with increments that are independent but not identically distributed. In case frt,grt+k are arbitrary linear functions, the RW3 applies so that it is not possible to use information on the basis of past prices to predict future prices. Hence, returns in a market conforming to this standard of random walk are serially uncorrelated, corresponding to a random walk hypothesis with dependent but uncorrelated increments. The foundation of traditional tests of random walk rests on the assumption of IID. The most famous tests remain the sequences and reversals test proposed by Cowles and Jones (1937) and the runs test. Tests of RW2 and RW3 encompass the variance ratio tests and unit root tests which are more recent tools. Developed by Lo and MacKinlay (1988), hereby LM, the variance ratio tests out that the variance of the innovations pertaining to a random walk model is linear functions of time. This popular test does not restrict only to the RW1 but also to the RW2 and RW3. However, exclusion of non-linear analysis in financial series could lead to inappropriate deductions as regards weak-form efficiency. Indeed, the application of non-linear dynamics and chaos theory to financial series has shown that they evidence non-linear structure. In practice, returns distributions exhibit leptokurtic behaviours as opposed to normal distribution. They often reflect volatility clustering thereby the level of volatility in the next period tends to be positively correlated with its current level. Then it may be possible for information on the variance of past prices to predict the future volatility of the market. Indeed, share price movements could be unpredictable when using linear models but forecastable under non-linear models in the ‘short-run. This contradicts the use of linear models for testing the efficient market hypothesis. Further departures from the random walk hypothesis exist in the long-range dependence. This is analogous to high autocorrelation structure in a series so that there is persistent dependence between distant observations. In this case covfrtgrt+k does not tend to zero at higher lags. As regards market efficiency, persistence implies that past data contain useful information for prediction so that long memory violates the concept. Several tests have been developed for this purpose including the rescaled statistic to test for long-term ‘randomness of the market series and the ARFIMA-FIGARCH which categorises the long- and short-term memory based on the estimated value of the fractional difference. 2.2 Empirical Review Following the work of Fama (1965) â€Å"Random walk in stock prices† arguing for random walk hypothesis, a multitude of research has been performed throughout the world. While most of the well developed markets were found to be efficient, research findings of developing and less developed markets are mixed and controversial too. Most of the less developed market encounters the problem of thin trading. Besides, it is easier for large traders to manipulate small markets. Though emerging markets are generally assumed to be less efficient, empirical evidence does not always support the idea. Some previous research aiming at testing the weak-form efficiency of a particular group of stock markets are presented below. A research that aims at testing weak-form market efficiency in the equity markets of the three main Central European transition economies (the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland) is that of Gilmore and McManus (2001). Using different approaches comprising of univariate, multivariate tests as well as the model-comparison approach for the period July 1995 to September 2000 different conclusion were drawn. While the serial correlation-based tests largely support a conclusion that these markets are weak-form efficient, the results of comparing forecasts of alternative models are consistent in rejecting the random walk hypothesis. Examining the existence of weak-form efficiency in European stock market, Worthington and Higgs (2003) used daily returns for sixteen developed markets (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) and four emerging markets (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Russia) to perform a number of testing procedures of random walk. They started with the serial correlation coefficient test and the runs test, and found that Netherlands and Germany do follow a random walk while the United Kingdom, Ireland and Portugal were efficient under one test or the other. All remaining markets were weak form inefficient. Beside unit root tests (ADF, PP statistics and KPSS), the multiple variance ratio tests rejected the presence of random walk in most of the markets. While in the developed markets only the United Kingdom, Portugal, Ireland, Sweden and Germany satisfied the most stringent rand om walk criteria, in emerging markets only Hungary did so. Weak-form efficiency for emerging equity markets were also tested by Chang, Lima and Tabak (2003). They deduced that random walk hypothesis is not consistent with Asian equity markets while left apart Chile, Latin American indices resemble a random walk. Using daily prices from January 1992 to December 2002, multivariate variance ratios using heteroscedastic robust bootstrap procedures and test trading rules using trading range break (TRB) levels were employed. Taking the US and Japan as yardsticks, they were not able to reject the random walk hypothesis. Another study considering a group of selected Asian markets; Kim and Shamsuddin (2008) argues that market efficiency varies with the level of stock market development. Using new multiple variance ratio tests based on the wild bootstrap and signs as well as the conventional Chow-Denning test, they found that the Hong Kong, Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese markets adhere to the martingale property while Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines markets are inefficient. Besides, the results revealed evidence that the Singaporean and Thai markets followed a random walk after the Asian crisis. As regards the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) stock markets, Elango and Hussein (2008) tested whether daily returns series are an approximation of normal distribution or not. Dubai, AbuDhabi, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain stock market indices were examined using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Runs test, Autocorrelation Function and Partial Autocorrelation Functions. The results revealed that the distribution of daily returns on these markets deviated from the normal distribution during the study period. Also, the runs test rejected the hypothesis of random walk for all seven markets. In his paper investigating the random walk hypothesis, Urrutia (1995), used monthly data from December 1975 to March 1991 for four Latin American equity markets: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico to observe whether they are weak-form efficient. He made use of the Variance-ratio tests and the runs tests. While results of the variance ratio estimatespixel rejects the random walk hypothesis, runs tests specify that Latin American equity markets are weak-form efficient. These empirical findings suggest that domestic investors might not be able to develop trading strategies that would allow them to earn excess returns. Using Lo-MacKinlay Variance ratio, Wrights rank and sign VR and the standard runs tests; Al-Khazali, Ding and Pyun (2007) revisited the validity of random walk hypothesis in eight emerging markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA): Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia. When assessed by Wrights (2000) rank and sign VR test, all the markets rejected the hypothesis of random walk. However, once data are reconciled for distortions from thinly and infrequently traded stocks, all eight stock markets do follow a random walk. African countries were investigated in the paper ‘How Efficient are Africas Emerging Stock Markets by Magnusson and Wydick (2002). Testing procedures considered monthly data for eight African markets in comparison with nine other developing countries in Latin America and Asia. Distinguishing among the three types of random walk models, they started by testing the RW 3, by investigating the Partial Auto-Correlation Function(PACF) of the historical series and examining whether they are statistically different from zero. Markets in Botswana, Cote dIvoire, Kenya, Mauritius and South Africa did conform to the RW3 while those of Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe were rejected. Proceeding with the RW2, excluding Botswana, results did not change. However none of the African Markets were conform to the RW1 White test for heteroscedasticity. They conclude that African countries do conform quite favourably to some regions of the developing world. Another research which focuses on African markets was that of Jefferis and Smith (2005). It covers seven African stock markets: South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and Kenya and use a GARCH approach with time-varying parameters to detect changes in weak-form efficiency through time. They emphasised on RW 3 model with volatilities changing over time and found that Johannesburg stock market was weak-form efficient with no tendency to change like many other developed markets. On the other hand, the stock markets of Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria showed changing levels of inefficiencies to become weak-form efficient towards the end of the period. The results for Kenya, Zimbabwe and Mauritius, however, showed tendency towards efficiency and rejected the hypothesis of weak-form efficiency. Recently, McMillan and Thupayagale (2009) in their paper â€Å"The efficiency of African equity markets† examined long memory effects of both equity returns and volatility for eleven African countries, taking the UK and US as reference. They made use of unit roots test and the GARCH(1,1) models before proceeding with ARFIMA-FIGARCH and ARFIMA-HYGARCH models. They ended up with mixed results. The ARFIMA-FIGARCH models provide evidence for long term memory in African equity markets with the exception of Mauritius, Morocco, Botswana and Nigeria where the results were unpredictable. Also, the US stock return volatility was marked by long memory process while the UK was non-stationary. These results were further supported by the ARFIMA-HYGARCH models. 2.3 Conclusion During the course of the literature review, limited evidence on weak form efficiency of African markets was found. These countries have attracted significant investment these last years and are of much importance to portfolio managers. Univariate time series analysis might be important tool for technical analysts in trying to outperform these markets. Indeed, the battery of econometrics software now paves the way for investigation of the random walk hypothesis based on different sets of assumption. A preliminary analysis of the African markets shall provide us with an insight to efficiency based on their attributes and consultation of previous works. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE AFRICAN STOCK MARKETS 3.0 Introduction African stock markets, following in the wake of the surge in the world stock markets over the few decades, are starting to take off. Recognizing the importance of stock markets in economic development, several African countries launched stock exchanges during the past two decades. The African Stock Exchange Association (ASEA) was, hence, set up in 1993 so as to promote the development of stock markets. Prior to 1989, there were just five stock markets in Sub-Saharan Africa and three in North Africa. Today, Africa has about 20 active stock markets, with some exchanges more established than others, depending on when they were established. Alongside the rapid expansion of stock markets in the continent, there has also been a significant growth in market capitalization and the number of listed companies. However, with the exception of the well established markets, stock markets in Africa remain thin and illiquid. This study covers four African stock markets namely South Africa, Mauritius , Morocco and Egypt over periods for which data is available. Mauritius Stock Exchange Since its start of trading on the 5th July 1989 under the Stock Exchange Act of 1988, the Mauritius Stock Exchange (SEM) has come a long way. From a pre-emerging market with trading taking place only once a week, the SEM has emerged as one of the leading exchanges in Africa. It operates two markets namely the Official and the Development and Enterprise market (DEM), established in August 2006 to replace the over-the-counter market. The exchange is regulated by the Financial Services Commission. As the second sub-Saharan stock exchange member of the World Federation of Exchanges, SEM operates in line with international standards. In addition, its developing institutional and retail investor base make it an attractive investment destination for foreign investors. The SEM offers quite a limited range of products to its investors and the aim for the next few years would be to increase the range of products offered. The three main indices of the official market are namely the SEMDEX, SEM- 7 and the SEMTRI. As at 30 June 2009, some 40 companies, with a market capitalisation of Rs 130.77 bn, are listed on the Official market and 52 companies, with a market capitalisation of Rs 45.41 bn, are listed on the Development and Enterprise Market (DEM). The SEM maintained an upward momentum, amidst typical market fluctuations, until the end of February 2008. The total market capitalization of the Official Market and the DEM was Rs 173.1 bn at end 2007. This is in line with the levels observed in well-established emerging stock markets. However, like other exchanges, the SEM experienced market volatility since the start of the financial crisis in September 2008. The main pillars of the Mauritian economy were adversely affected and this reflected on hotels and banks stocks listed on the SEM. The market then picked-up by mid-March 2009 on the back of interest rate cuts and stimulus packages put forward by the Government of Mauritius. Johannesburg Stock Exchange The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), regulated by the Financial Services Board under the Securities Services Act 2004, is the largest exchange in Africa and among the top twenty largest in the world in terms of market capitalisation. JSE Securities Exchange existed since November 1887 and was incorporated as a public limited company on 1st July 2005, pursuant to its demutualization. Since then, the JSE has evolved from a traditional floor based equities trading market to a modern securities exchange providing fully electronic trading, clearing and settlement in equities, financial and agricultural derivatives and other associated instruments and has extensive surveillance capabilities. Technical agreement with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) enables dual primary listings on both exchanges since 2001. Between the listed entity and its trusted trading platforms the South African economy becomes an active hub of activity where expansion is encouraged, businesses are enhanced, performa nce is driven and shareholder value is created. The JSE currently operates four boards for the equities market and the South African bond market is a leader among emerging-market economies. The main market indices are Top 40, Industrial 25, All Share, Oil and Gas Index. As the gateway to Africas economy, the JSE provides the link between international markets and the continent. In 2008, a daily average of 334 million shares was traded on the JSE. At year-end, there were 992 listed securities on the JSE with a total market capitalisation of R4,514 billion compared to R5,696 billion in 2007. Casablanca Stock Exchange Founded in 1929, the Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) in Morocco is relatively modern, having experienced reform in 1993. The exchange is well regulated by the Conseil Deontologique des Valeurs Mobilieres (CDVM). Originally, CSE had the Index de la Bourse des Valeurs de Casablanca (IGB) but this was replaced on January 2002 by two indexes: MASI (Moroccan All Shares Index) which comprises all listed shares, allows to follow up all listed values and to have a long-term visibility and MADEX (Moroccan Most Active Shares Index), comprisi