Finance questions Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Money questions - Speech or Presentation Example Different contemplations incorporate the recurrence of single drills, just as the quantity of drill meeting every week. The meeting should start by crosschecking the wellbeing thought. Players ought to be free and all around rested. They ought to be liberated from wounds in the appendages and arms that require working out (Mcardle, 2000). After effective security contemplations, the meeting ought to continue with a warm up. Start by joining dynamic and static warm to accomplish every single alluring outcome (Mcardle, 2000). Players ought to do start by slight running, circumventing the court multiple times, making a couple of extending and running and Plyometric bounces. Warm up serves two capacities. To begin with, it gets ready muscles for the touchy plyometrics. Also, it is one of the principal phases of familiarizing with plyometrics, particularly for the beginner (Taylor and Beashel, 1996). This preparation involves dropping on grounds from an upper surface, trailed by a bounce up. A drop-down during the offbeat stage offers the muscles the pre-stretch, just as a fiery upward drive during the withdrawal stage. The viability of the activity is just powerful if the time that the feet contact the ground is short. The activity stacking is controlled by the dropping tallness, which ought to be about 0.7 to 1.1 meters (Taylor and Beashel, 1997). Three arrangements of bounces ought to be played out, each with 10 reiterations. In bouncing, curiously large walks are utilized for the running activity while time is spent noticeable all around. Bound that include two legs limit the suffered sway. The force might be expanded by bouncing or even single-leg jumping. Upstairs’ jumping improves the even of development. Three sets jumping and leaping ought to be played out, each with 10 reiterations. Hand applauds and press ups, done in adjustments, is one manner by which the chest and the arms can be adapted. Pre-stretch happens as the hands swing back to the ground and as the chest sinks. This

Deadly Unna Essay Essay

In Australia there is a lot of contention encompassing prejudice among Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians. Phillip Gwynne’s tale Deadly Unna is a case of the connections between the two societies. Destructive Unna depends on a 14-year-old character named Blacky who lives in ‘the Port’ where the Non-Indigenous Australians or the ‘goongas’ live. On the edges of the township there is ‘the Point’ and this is the place the Indigenous Australians or ‘nungas’ live. Blacky is a prototype young person, he plays football, and encounters a similar nervousness according to young ladies and growing up. The topic of prejudice is vital all through the novel so to the need for compromise and the expectation this brings. Gwynne keenly fuses exchange and symbolism to uncover these topics. The connection among Blacky and Dumby shows the responder that they don't comply with the standard of prejudice. Dumby Red is a footy star from the Point, to Blacky he is the ideal person â€Å"This Dumby Red was stylish, he was gifted, he was up himself, he wore Jezza’s number 25, and he had that smile.† †Blacky. Blacky was not generally companions with Dumby, prior in the novel he yelled on about how he loathed his guts since he is a Non-Indigenous Australian. Be that as it may, later on Dumby defended Blacky in a battle; this changed his perspective on Indigenous Australians. The utilization of football as a reoccurring representation associates the two characters. â€Å"The footy was the main spot for us and the nungas to be together†. This statement shows how the connection among Dumby and Blacky can exist through a social hindrance of prejudice. Gwynne utilizes elucidating language when Blacky is going to Dumbys’ burial service to show to the responder that Blacky needs comprehension of Indigenous Australians and prejudice in the town. â€Å"Most of the houses were fibro, there were some block ones too. I thought that’s not right, they all had entryways and windows. I had been informed that the principal thing nungas do is break every one of their windows and crush every one of their entryways down.† †Blacky. Through this connection among Blacky and Dumby, Gwynne has indicated that Blacky has a solid relationship with Dumby, he doesn’t care that he is judged on the grounds that he just needs to regard an Indigenous Australian. Gwynne has utilized the connection among Blacky and Pickles to show the bigot side of the town. The utilization of Pickles presumption towards the sentiments of the Indigenous Australian people group shows that the Indigenous Australians are misconstrued and judged unjustifiably. â€Å"Why did you go to a boongs burial service Blacky?† †Pickles. Through this procedure the responder can see that Pickles as well as the port are bigot towards Indigenous Australians. At the point when Mark Arks got the B.O.G grant Blacky was angered on the grounds that he imagined that Dumby was meriting the trophy and not mark arks, he accepted that Dumby didn't get it due to him being from Indigenous Australian foundation. â€Å"Mark arks getting the B.O.G, that’s bull****, that was Dumbys’ award!† †Blacky. Through the exchange that Pickles utilizes towards the Blacky and the Indigenous individuals it shows how usually bigotry is utilized in the town and that it is of the standard to be supremacist. Gwynne additionally shows the connection among Blacky and Dumby is differentiating to the one among Blacky and Pickles and that the connection between pickles been constrained throughout the years and now Blacky is beginning to acknowledge Pickles’ genuine characteristics. Using an assortment of language and procedures Gwynne has uncovered subjects of prejudice in the novel. It is through the introduction of various connections that Gwynne remembered different sides of bigotry for the Indigenous culture. The introduction of the connections among Blacky and Dumby show that prejudice in the Port doesn’t impact Blacky, he thought about Dumby despite the fact that he was an Indigenous Australian. Then again the relationship with Pickles and Blacky is vastly different, Pickles is supremacist and doesn’t need to have Blacky being companions with an Indigenous Australia hence Blacky feels he needs to conceal his fellowship with Dumby. Components that, for example, illustrative language and discoursed, figurative situations and alternate points of view, join to make Deadly Unna an engaging novel for the responder.

5 Simple Marketing Strategies for First-Time Authors

5 Simple Marketing Strategies for First-Time Authors 5 Simple Marketing Strategies for First-Time Authors Brent Jones recentlyâ gave up his independent vocation as an online life supervisor to seek after exploratory writing full-time. Toward the finish of this past February, he distributed his presentation novel, The Fifteenth of June, and inâ the following month, Brent has been centered around what he knows to be a similarly significant piece of a writer's activity: marketing. In this article, heâ shares 5 basic showcasing techniques that all first-time writers can (and should!) attempt, and how his endeavors have just begun to pay off. I had the goodâ fortune of hiring Laura Mae Isaacmanâ to alter my book through Reedsy - she worked resolutely to make my presentation release, The Fifteenth of June, as ground-breaking as it could be. In any case, regardless of how extraordinary a book is, distributing it is onlyâ half the fight. For new writers, for example, myself, it takes a ton of work toâ market a novel and locate our first perusers. To cite Amy Collins, writer of The Write Way:â€Å"Writing an incredible book is an essential necessity for basically being permitted an opportunity to prevail in the marketplace.†I will plot in this post a portion of the dispatch systems I usedâ to advertise my presentation novel.This list isn't expected to be comprehensive, and I am not a specialist advertiser of artistic fiction. Yet, there's a great deal we can learn fromâ one another, and I want to begin a profitable conversation in the remarks below.Ready? Distributing a book is just a large portion of the fight. The other half is showcasing it. @AuthorBrentJ 1. Run a free Kindle advancement 685 individuals entered my giveaway, however more importantly,â 300+ clients included my bookâ to theirâ to-readâ shelf. What's more, when a client adds a book to one of their racks, it shows up as an update in their feed, which means their companions on Goodreadsâ can see that they have included my book!Most of those 10 print duplicates have been conveyed, so it will be fascinating to find in the coming weeks what number of those victors read the book, compose a survey, or prescribe it to a companion. One beneficiary, Denise Levendoski, has just composed a sparkling survey of The Fifteenth of June on Goodreads.The base line?It's been about a month since I distributed my book, and I've offered near 100 duplicates of my book at normal cost, excluding income created through the Kindle Unlimited Lending Library.As far as I'm concerned, I’m looking extraordinary so far, consideringâ some of my promoting activities, for example, connecting with book bloggers, haven't starte d to pay off. Also that numerous who downloaded The Fifteenth of Juneâ haven't read it yet.In the interim, I'm centered around my next novel, which I plan to distribute by August. I've gotten notification from otherâ self-distributed creators that it by and large takes four titles to gainâ some footing. False for each situation, I assume, butâ a reasonable rule regardless. Composing and promoting is an intense exercise in careful control, however should be moved to succeed. @AuthorBrentJ It's an intense exercise in careful control - composing and promoting - yet the two parts of the activity must be moved in equivalent measure on the off chance that we, as journalists, would like to be fruitful creator entrepreneurs.The Fifteenth of June is accessible in soft cover from Amazon and on Amazon Kindle!Head to Brent's websiteâ to buy in to his pamphlet, or tail him on Twitter for more!Have you attempted any of Brent's showcasing tips? How could they work for you? Or on the other hand do you have promoting thoughts for first-time creators that were excluded from the list? Leave any musings, encounters, or inquiries for Brentâ in the remarks beneath.

Job satisfaction and employer employee relations

Occupation fulfillment and manager representative relations Occupation fulfillment is an essential segment of association condition and significant component in the board - representative relationship. It is the significant subject for the achievement of business at the end of the day, impact straightforwardly or by implication to the organization and clients. Occupation fulfillment is straightforwardly related with improving of organization and productivity of representative. Are the workers content with his/her current employment? This is the primary inquiry whose answer has incredible centrality in proficient life. On the off chance that they are content with their activity, at that point there is no issue in organization and their day by day life. In the event that they were not content with their activity, that is the primary issue. Also, how to tackle that issue? What are the reasons for work disappointment? Occupation fulfillment assumes fundamental job in characterizing the representative effectiveness and profitability. As indicated by Moorhead and Griffin (2010 p.69) Job fulfillment is the degree to which an individual is satisfied or satisfied by their work. McDonalds is the universes greatest chain of the drive-through joint, it serves food almost 47 million clients day by day through in excess of 31000 eateries in 119 nations. McDonalds sells various sorts of cheap food like burger, fries, plate of mixed greens and sodas. Mc Donald is being well known in light of serving food to clients inside a moment, served over the counters, items are standard, clients are extremely alluring a direct result of low cost, cleaned place better quality, sterile and steady food quality, agreeable café condition, quality help and it concentrated on all degree of clients those individuals who have less buying power. The majority of the clients are truly happy with the administration of McDonald there was no negative reaction from the client. It is genuine clients are truly fulfilled yet the inquiry comes out to representative who serves to client. Are the workers of McDonald is happy with their activity? In which condition they are working? Are there least degree of offices are given by organization in the work place? This is significant on the working time. As a result of terrible workplace here and there worker says awful words. An informal exchange can do a great deal of damage to an association; this is the reasons for representative activity disappointment. Representative learning and occupation fulfillment are two resources that could be followed with respect to the worth creation net.( B. Throsten ,2006). The entire drive-through joint business relies upon the representative to accomplish this objective: Hence a worker is one of the key component in drive-thru eatery ( wang, 2004). Issue of articulation In todays setting McDonald has been well known step by step in the drive-thru eatery name. As indicated by McDonald site the worker of McDonalds are completely happy with their activity and clients too. Be that as it may, there is high representative turnover proportion. In the event that the old workers are truly fulfilled why they leaved their activity? Furthermore, why new representatives are draw in McDonald? Are the earth of McDonald is great? What factors legitimately impact in the staff turnover and non-attendance on association? The authoritative condition is importance identified with the worker work fulfillment however same little effects on representative employment execution. Association that have objectives to accomplish requires fulfilled and cheerful staff.(ashagbemi,2000). At the point when the representatives see that his desires are not met in the activity condition, the activity disappointment rises. It prompts decline in work proficiency, association responsibilit y and pledge to the activity increment in the pace of discretionary disappointment of the job.(Santhapparaj, Srini and ling 2005; Payne and Morrision,2002;Redfern,2005;denizer,2008;Gellatly 2005and Sagie,2002) The connection between work fulfillment and hierarchical atmosphere and captured that individuals were the core of any ventures in light of the fact that their thoughts, perspectives and exertion key reasons for association achievement (Rice.C,1982). Individual in the association have certain desire and satisfaction of these relies on their discernment whether hierarchical atmosphere suits as indicated by their necessities or not.( Butt, Bhutto and Abbes,2011). In the drive-thru eatery, representatives work fulfillment straightforwardly influence on the nature of food administration, which implies the impact on consumer loyalty when the representatives are fulfilled they tries sincerely and attempt to give best assistance for customer.(ling Qin,2004) As per Dunn (2008) The chains yearly worker turnover at 700000-or about 44% of the companys 1.6 million representatives around the world. A high representative turnover rate has been perpetual issue for the drive-through eatery. Which develops to 130% (john.s, 2007) Associations administrators must realize how to deal with the laborers in association yet the human instinct is distinction. Along these lines, their intuition relies upon their inclination and their interest will be contrast which can't allude by organization which impact on worker fulfillment. Occupation fulfillment straightforwardly related with the hierarchical situations like occupation execution of representative, worker inspiration, and clients fulfillment. The variables which impacts on work fulfillment is compensation, advancement, management, offices and so on. Point of Research To distinguish the elements, which improve the fulfillment level of worker? To foresee the estimation of occupation fulfillment and destinations working environment factors, for example, truancy, worker turnover and efficiency. To guarantee what happens when the representative disappointment? Targets of Research To distinguish the components which are well on the way to impact work fulfillment on McDonalds To survey the activity fulfillment level on McDonald. To know representative fulfillment towards the offices. To offer important proposal to improve the fulfillment level of worker. To guarantee what happens when the representative disappointment? To assess fundamentally applicable hypothetical investigation into work fulfillment. To pick up the information on work attributes and difference model of occupation fulfillment. To investigate what is known about the connection between work fulfillment and different factors, for example, sex, age, character.. Why representative occupation fulfillment is necessary? Also, Gaining the information on connection among occupation and general life fulfillment. To break down the reasons for fulfillment and disappointment among representatives in nature of their work and region of disappointment. To distinguish the acts of inspiration among workers and their activity fulfillment in industry and the  individual measures for better persuasive practices to empower representatives. Finish up theâ suggestions based on the examination finding. Finish up theâ suggestions based on the examination finding. Centrality of study Improving the connection between the representative and the authoritative atmosphere at work time. Improving the representative productivity to subjective and amounts item. Attempt to comprehend workers felling and regard their activity which exertion to association. Key Issues to be thought of Structure of industry Workplace the board Representative Involvement Pay framework Jobâ secure Connection between boss worker and among accomplices Acknowledgment for good workâ and workplace Improvement and Career opportunity Writing audit Occupation fulfillment us the sentiment of upbeat by the specialist what he/she worked. A demeanor which results from an adjusting and summation of numerous particular preferences experienced regarding the activity. It is the representatives judgment of how well the activity all in all delightful his different needs. Occupation fulfillment center around all inclination that an individual has about his/her activity. Anyway what makes an occupation fulfillment or disappointment doesn't relies just upon the activity, yet in addition on the desires that that people have of what their employments ought to provide.(Lu, while Bariball, 2004). As indicated by Oxford Dictionary work fulfillment is a use of exertion to a reason, power in real life, doing of something an undertaking for materials to be worked on doing as encounters of determined kind business particularly as a methods for winning cash, a thing done or made, an item or appearance. .Robbins, Odendaal and Roodt (2003) state there have been to ways to deal with the investigation of employment fulfillment the worldwide methodology and the reality approach. The worldwide methodology clarifies work fulfillment as a solitary, by and large sentiments towards a vocation while the feature approach recommends that there are various features or various parts of occupations, for example, rewards (pay or assets benefits) others at work (director) work conditions, correspondence, security, advancement openings, and the idea of the work itself. Lockes (1976) says work fulfillment relies on the idea of a people esteems and needs just as upon the idea of employment. Is this methodology truly coordinated for all business? It is accepted that the activity feature approach allows a progressively complete image of occupation fulfillment and an individual normally has various degrees of fulfillment with view to the different aspects. I think this methodology isn't proportionate for a wide range of workers. FW Taylor. (1911) work fulfillment dependent on a most sober minded basically critical way of thinking that man is inspiration by cash alone. Taylor is the dad of the administration he center the activity fulfilled satisfied by cash which is the most basic for entire life. S.K Srivastav (2005) proposed work fulfillment is general demeanor which is the consequence of numerous particular perspectives in three territories (a) particular occupation factor. (b) Individual attributes (c) bunch relationship outside the activity. What's more, Pestoyee (1991) states work fulfillment can be taken as a summation of representatives emotions in four significant zones. an occupation nature of work, (b) the board (c) social relations (d) individual modification. OECD explore (2000) researched work fulfillment of representative relies upon the worker status, sexual orientation and hours, the independently employed will in general demonstrate grater fulfillment with their occupations then workers. There a

2014 Transfer Updates - UGA Undergraduate Admissions

2014 Transfer Updates - UGA Undergraduate Admissions 2014 Transfer Updates Late last week, our office started reviewing Summer transfer applications. The deadline for summer has not passed and we are still receiving applications and documents, so we cannot say how long it will take us to finish or guess when you will hear a decision. If you applied early for summer or fall, please be sure to check your myStatus to see if we have your most up-to-date transcript(s). If you were enrolled in coursework last fall and have not sent a transcript with your fall grades, you should have one sent as soon as possible. To be complete and ready to review, we must have a transcript from each college/university you havepreviouslyattended. If we see that you were enrolled in courses last fall and we do not have a transcript with those grades, you are not complete and this will delay a review of your application. The Fall transfer application will open up on Monday, February 17, as we have two systems running this year, and we need to keep the Summer applications (on the old system) separate from the Fall applications (new system). The deadline for Fall transfer admissions is April 1, and this is both an application and document deadline. We suggest you not wait until the deadline to apply, as this can only delay a decision and cause slowness in matching up documents due to the volume of items coming in around deadlines. Due to the new system, the start of Fall transfer reviews might be a little later, as we have to build the transfer articulation of coursework from X colleges to UGA courses. Thank you for your patience in this matter. Transfer decisions are made on a daily basis Monday through Friday, and it varies on how many decisions we can make in a day due to the complexity of some transfer files. The myStatus page is updated in the early a.m. every morning, and decisions are posted on the myStatus page and are mailed to transfer applicants. Go Dawgs!

2014 Transfer Updates - UGA Undergraduate Admissions

2014 Transfer Updates - UGA Undergraduate Admissions 2014 Transfer Updates Late last week, our office started reviewing Summer transfer applications. The deadline for summer has not passed and we are still receiving applications and documents, so we cannot say how long it will take us to finish or guess when you will hear a decision. If you applied early for summer or fall, please be sure to check your myStatus to see if we have your most up-to-date transcript(s). If you were enrolled in coursework last fall and have not sent a transcript with your fall grades, you should have one sent as soon as possible. To be complete and ready to review, we must have a transcript from each college/university you havepreviouslyattended. If we see that you were enrolled in courses last fall and we do not have a transcript with those grades, you are not complete and this will delay a review of your application. The Fall transfer application will open up on Monday, February 17, as we have two systems running this year, and we need to keep the Summer applications (on the old system) separate from the Fall applications (new system). The deadline for Fall transfer admissions is April 1, and this is both an application and document deadline. We suggest you not wait until the deadline to apply, as this can only delay a decision and cause slowness in matching up documents due to the volume of items coming in around deadlines. Due to the new system, the start of Fall transfer reviews might be a little later, as we have to build the transfer articulation of coursework from X colleges to UGA courses. Thank you for your patience in this matter. Transfer decisions are made on a daily basis Monday through Friday, and it varies on how many decisions we can make in a day due to the complexity of some transfer files. The myStatus page is updated in the early a.m. every morning, and decisions are posted on the myStatus page and are mailed to transfer applicants. Go Dawgs!

Monitoring System Qantas - Free Essay Example

[pic] Subject Name : Sustainable Enterprise Subject Code : LB5203 Lecturer : Ian Kirkwood Due Date : Week 10 Assignment Topic : Monitoring Systems Company : Qantas Student : Deha KISIN Number : 12422942 Introduction Today the sustainable development is, undoubtedly, one of the major themes in scientific researches and politics’ debates. While the world economy and population grow rapidly, the planet resources necessary for the economy and population functioning is not practically growing at all (Meadows, 1998). It causes two important questions (Ibid, p. 11): 1. How can we provide sufficiency, security, good lives to all people? 2. How can we live within the rules and boundaries of the biophysical environment? The first question is related to the development issue, the second one – to the sustainability issue. As Meadows (1998) considers these words taken together – â€Å"sustainable development† – â€Å"may seem contradictory but nevertheless must be achieved† (p. 12). In this paper we intend to discuss a few current approaches to the sustainability development, in particular in the enterprise (or institutional) context; to investigate briefly a method of measuring and monitoring organisational sustainability; and to give an example of a sustainability monitoring system for a specific enterprise, namely for Qantas Airlines. Defining sustainability and sustainable development Initially the term â€Å"sustainability† came from agriculture and ecology sciences, where it is understood as the â€Å"sustainability of natural ecosystems† and is defined as â€Å"the dynamic equilibrium between natural inputs and outputs, modified by external events such as climatic change and natural disasters† (Fresco Kroonenberg, 1992, cited in Bell Morse, 2008, p. 10). Today the definition of sustainability is generally applied to various socio-economical systems and includes â€Å"the capacity of a system to maintain output at a level approximately equal to or greater than its historical average, with the approximation determined by the historical level of variability† (Pearce Turner, 1990, cited in Bell Morse, 2008, p. 10). As for the sustainable development, it is a â€Å"development that meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs and aspirations† (Brundtland, 1987, cited in Bell Morse, 2008, p. 0). This definition has promoted a developing the Triple Bottom Line concept, which is based on the understanding of sustainability as a â€Å"dynamic balance among three mutually interdependent elements: 1. protection and enhancement of natural ecosystems and resources; 2. economic productivity; 3. provision of social infrastructure such as jobs, housing, education, medical care and cultural opportunities† (Dominski et al, 1992, cited in Bell Morse, 2008, p. 79). The Triple Bottom Line concept The Triple Bottom Line concept (see Fig. ) was coined by the sustainable business consultant John Elkington (2004) for the framework used to measure success of organisations, regions or societies taking into account three dimensions of performance: financial, social and ecological. The framework is also widely known as â€Å"TBL† or â€Å"Three Pillars† (People, Planet, and Profit). [pic] The Triple Bottom Line concept serves as a basis for many quantitative metrics of sustainability measurement and monitoring, which allows businesses and governments to be informed better about the current stage of sustainability, and make better decisions in management of sustainability. As Dalal-Clayton and Sadler (2009) point out, today’s sustainability measurement and monitoring systems use the TBL concept successfully integrating environmental, social and economic factors through a number of interdisciplinary approaches, e. g. ecological and resource economics, or the  Happy Planet Index. It is important to note that in today’s sustainability measurement and monitoring methods a society or an enterprise is seen as a complex dynamic system: â€Å"A system is a perceived whole whose elements â€Å"hang together† because they continually affect each other over time and operate toward a common purpose. the structure of a system includes the quality of perception with which you, the observer, cause it to stand together† (Senge et al, 1994, p. 90). Thus, Bell and Morse (2008) suggest the six major features of systems, which should be taken into consideration when monitoring sustainability (p. 112, Table 4. 1): 1. Identification of a system boundary – this feature defines the system as distinct from its environment. 2. Interaction with the environment – the environment is not the system itself since it is outside; but it does affect it. . Being closed or open – concerns the interrelation of the system with what lies beyond its boundary. 4. Goal-seeking – a system is capable of changing its behaviour to produce an outcome. 5. Being purposeful – systems select goals. 6. Exerting control – a true system retains its identity under changing circumstances. This set of features in its turn enables to formulate important starting points for measuring and monitoring sustainability (Ibid. p. 133): †¢ Sustainability is a qualitative property of a system. Subjectivity on the part of the stakeholders in understanding the sustainability of any given system is unavoidable. †¢ Subjectively derived measures of sustainability are nonetheless useful aids to planning. [pic] Figure 2. Co ncept of measuring and monitoring sustainability (Source: Bell Morse, 2008, p. 28). Figure 2 shows the idea of the sustainability measuring and monitoring, where information about a system is collected according to several aspects, called sustainability indicators (SI). Then the value of each SI is gauged, the overall result is interpreted and used. Undoubtedly, sets of sustainability indicators differ between systems and depend on systems characteristics. One of good examples of SIs is the Norwich City Council sustainability indicators that were developed for an urban centre in 1997 and 1998 (see Appendix A) with a clear intention to connect economics figures with ecological and human (social) indices within a local area. A significant feature of the Norwich list of SIs is that it was developed in a so called â€Å"top-down† manner, mainly because it was derived from the central UK government set of indicators. In contrast with this approach, there is an institutional (or corporative) approach when an organisation (corporation, institute) develop its own set of SIs referred to its institutional sustainability. Institutional sustainability indicators For each particular context, sustainability indicators are used to provide a helpful supporting mean for achieving particular goals. In an organisational context Perrini and Tencati (2006) suggest focusing SIs â€Å"on the financial, operating, marketing, environmental, social, cross-cutting (e. g. ith regard to the eco-efficiency and the socio-efficiency of the organization†¦) aspects of business management† (p. 304). Taking into account an importance for organisations of the â€Å"ongoing assessment of its performance and of the related quality (i. e. degree of sustainability) of the relationships with its stakeholders† (Ibid. ), Perrini and Tencati (2006) represent a framework for SIs development, which is based on differen t stakeholder categories (employees, members/shareholders, clients/customers, suppliers, financial partners, state, local authorities and public administration, community, environment). This framework consists of three levels (Ibid. p. 304): †¢ categories, stakeholder groups that are specifically affected by clusters of indicators; †¢ aspects, thematic areas monitored by groups of performance indicators related to a given category of stakeholders; †¢ indicators, measurements that supply information related to a given aspect. They can be used to check and demonstrate organizational performance. The information can be qualitative, quantitative (physical and technical) or economic–monetary. Boulanger (2008) introduces another approach to the construction of indicators that was identified by Lazarsfeld (1958) at first (see Fig. 3). [pic] Figure 3. Successive phases of the construction of indicators (Source: Boulanger, 2008, p. 47). The figure shows that at the first phase different dimensions (environmental, economic, technological, social, political, psychological, etc. ) composing the main concept are identified and selected; then the dimensions are broken down into indicators, which can be gauged, weighting and aggregating (if it is possibly) into a synthetic indicators. It is not easy, however, because indicators may be measured in different scales and with different levels of precision. So, a synthetic index can be well replaced by the resulting chart of indicators (Boulanger, 2008). There is a general awareness among researchers about difficulties to determine and select an appropriate set of effective indicators for measuring sustainability (Meadows, 1998; Bossel, 1999). This shortcoming even caused the formulation of the Bellagio Principles as â€Å"guidelines for practical assessment of progress toward sustainable development† (Bossel, 1999, p. 5) (see Appendix B). According to Meadows (1998) a good indicator should be: clear in value, clear in content, compelling, policy relevant, feasible, sufficient, timely and appropriate in scale, democratic, supplementary, participatory, hierarchical, physical, leading and tentative. Obviously, as Meadows (1998) emphasises: â€Å"It’s not easy to find indicators that actually meet these ide al characteristics† (p. 18). But one should try to find the most practical indicators that are of great importance from the point of view of particular objectives’ achievement. Description of the enterprise Today the Qantas Group the Australia’s largest domestic and international airline is the worlds second oldest airline that was founded in the Queensland, Australia in 1920. According to Qantas Airways Limited (2010) the Qantas Group currently â€Å"employs approximately 35,000 people and offers services across a network spanning 173 destinations in 42 countries (including those covered by codeshare partners) in Australia, Asia and the Pacific, the Americas, Europe and Africa† (p. 1). The main business of the Qantas Group is the transportation of passengers that carried on under two complementary brands Qantas (grouped the best premium airlines Qantas and QantasLink) and Jetstar (grouped the low fares airlines Jetstar, Jetstar Asia and Jetstar Pacific). Besides the airline businesses the Qantas Group comprises a diverse range of portfolio and service businesses: Qantas Engineering, Qantas Aviation Services, Qantas Airports, Qantas Catering Group, Qantas Freight Enterprises, Quantas Holidays, Qantas Group International divisions (Asia, UK and Europe, Amaricas, New Zealand and Pacific, Southern Africa), etc. According to official returns of the Qantas Airways Limited (2010, p. 2): †¢ Domestically, Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar operate around 5,300 flights a week serving 59 city and regional destinations in all states and mainland territories. Jetstar also operates nearly 170 domestic flights a week in New Zealand. Internationally, Qantas and Jetstar operate more than 900 flights each week serving 173 destinations in 42 countries. †¢ At 1 March 2010, the Qantas Group operated a fleet of 246 aircraft, comprising Boeing 747s, 767s, 737s and 717s, Airbus A380s, A330s and A320s, Bombardier Dash 8s and Bombardier Q400s. For the full year ended 30 June 2009, Qantas reported a profit before tax of $181 million – 87 per cent decrease on the full year to 30 June 2008. Net profit after tax was $123 million. The Qantas Group explicitly states about the comprehension of the importance of the sustainability in its daily operations and promotes continuous improvement in this area (Bac hoo et al. , n. d). For some last years Qantas has provided different initiatives joint under the general Sustainable Future Programme. In 2007 the first Qantas Group Annual Sustainability Report was produced to demonstrate that sustainability became a part of everyday operations of the corporation. In 2009, the Sustainability Report was presented as a microwebsite (https://annualreport. qantas. com. au). Geoff Dixon, the Chief Executive Offcier of the Quantas, says: â€Å"We know that the sustainability agenda is about much more than just the viability of the individual businesses. It’s about how we shape our collective destiny as a society. At Qantas we accept the urgency of the challenge† (Qantas Airways Limited, 2008, p. 1). So, the most important sustainability issues that face the Group and its stakeholders are announced as follows[1]: 1. Uphold the highest standards of safety and customer service in the air and on the ground. 2. Protect the health and welfare of Qantas employees through a continued reduction in injuries at work, to create work/life balance opportunities and to encourage participation in health and wellbeing programs. 3. Create and sustain a diverse and talented workforce and be considered an â€Å"employer of choice†. 4. Minimise environmental impacts and, in particular, reduce the impact of climate change through a comprehensive environment program. 5. Support socioeconomic development in Australia by encouraging business links, supporting freight and tourism, nurturing family ties, charitable giving and a variety of community initiatives. The Qantas Group is an initiator of a series of programs and events â€Å"Sharing the Spirit†, many of which are closely connected to sustainability issues, e. g. Qantas Award for Excellence in Sustainable Tourism, Qantas Workplace Giving program, Qantas Reconciliation Programs, etc. In 2008/2009 Qantas for the first time was also included in two social responsible investment indexes: †¢ Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) Asia Pacific †¢ FTSE4Good Global Index and Australia 30 Index It is clearly demonstrated a high level of Qantas’s performance in the sustainability area. Sustainability Dimensions In spite of the Qantas Group has developed a sustainability measurement and monitoring system, which is constantly revised and modified in accordance to the relevant business objectives (see Appendix C), we intend to elaborate our version of the sustainability monitoring metrics for the Qantas Group. We will base our designing process on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach discussed above and on recommendations of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), namely on the following Reporting Practices Guidelines: †¢ A Snapshot of Sustainability Reporting in the Airports Sector (GRI, 2009) †¢ GRI Logistics and Transportation Sector Supplement (GRI, 2006) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (GRI, 2000-2006) We suggest organising measurement and monitoring the Qantas sustainability indices in terms of economic, environmental, and social performance (the TBL model), because it is the most widely used and well-approved sustainability approach today. We agree with some critiques that this approach does not enable to think about all three categories in integrated manner (GRI, 2006), but nevertheless, it serves as a comprehensive starting point into a complex area of corporate sustainability. Economic performance aspects GRI (2000-2006) introduces economic performance aspects and indicators mainly as expected to illustrate the flow of capital amongst different stakeholders. That’s why it seems understandable that the best way to define aspects in economic performance dimension for the Qantas Group is to determine groups of stakeholders, for each of which it is possible further to set relevant sustainability indicators. Taking into a consideration that the Qantas Group deals with a large and diverse range of stakeholders[2] both in Australia and around the world, we can range them as followings: †¢ Customers †¢ Suppliers Employees †¢ Providers of Capital (shareholders, investors, banks, financers) †¢ Strategic Partners †¢ Public sector (regional communities, NGOs, media) †¢ Australian Government It should be noted that in a case of the Qantas Group the Australian Government is a key stakeholder, and â€Å"in July 2008 the Qantas Group made a wide-ranging submissio n to the Government’s Aviation Green Paper, calling for flexible and forward-looking aviation policy settings that support a sustainable and efficient Australian aviation industry, capable of attracting investment to support growth, and operating on a fair and nternationally competitive footing† (Qantas Airways Limited, 2009). Economic performance indicators data is also show the economic impacts of the corporation throughout society (GRI, 2000-2006). Thus, in relation to direct economic impact there are categories of stakeholders’ groups that reveal economic performance aspects on our monitoring system. But, in addition one more aspect is considered to be useful – Indirect Economic Impacts. It plays a role of an agent in socio-economic changes, mainly in relation to local communities and regional economies. Environmental performance aspects The environmental dimension of sustainability relates to the impact of an organisation on various natural systems (both living and non-living) – air, water, ecological systems. Environmental aspects cover organisational performance related to inputs (e. g. , material, energy, and water), outputs (e. g. , emissions, effluents, waste), biodiversity, environmental compliance, environmental expenditure and the impacts of products and services (GRI, 2000-2006). For such corporation as the Qantas Group, which deals with air transportations, airports, and aviation services, the environmental problems of reducing the emissions intensity, measurement of carbon footprints, fuel efficient aircrafts, water conservation and consumption improvement, air quality and so on are extremely important and should be managed. According to Qantas Airways Limited (2008), â€Å"environmental performance is a key consideration of the Group’s fleet strategy† (p. 2). Using the latest technologies in airframes and engine designs (e. g. in A380, the B787 Dreamliner and the Bombardier Q400) Qantas obtains substantial reductions in carbon and noise emissions, as well as significant improvements in fuel efficiency. We consider including in the Qantas Group sustainability monitoring metrics the following environmental aspects, which are relevant to the operations of the corporation (see Table 1): Table 1. Environmental performance aspects. Aspect |Relevanc e to the Qantas Group operations | |Materials |The aspect reflects the input of materials used by the corporation | | |(material consumption), helps to monitor material efficiency and cost of | | |material flows | |Energy |The aspects reflects the input of energy used by the corporation, helps to| | |monitor energy consumption efficiency (including different kinds of energy| | |– direct, indirect, intermediate, renewable, etc. | |Water |The aspect reflects the input of water used by the corporation (water | | |consumption), helps to monitor the efficient use of water and water | | |consumption costs | |Noise |The aspect relates to airports activities that impact a level of noise | | |around them | |Biodiversity |The aspect relates to airports activities that impact natural resources | | |and environment, it helps to develop a strategy to mitigate such impacts | |Emissions and Waste |The aspect reflects the output – standard releases to the environment that| | |are con sidered to be pollutants (gas emission, solid waste, etc. , it | | |helps to develop a strategy to reduce emissions and waste | |Product and Services |The aspect reflects an organisational impact on environment through its | | |products and services | |Transport |The aspect reflects a significant environmental impacts of transportation | | |used for logistical purposes and airport surface access | |Overall |The aspect reflects a total environmental protection expenditures and | | |investments, it helps to assess the efficiency of organisational | | |environmental initiatives | Social performance aspects GRI (2006) relates the social dimension of sustainability to â€Å"an organisation’s impacts on the social systems within which it operates† (p. 31). It suggests to measure social performance through an analysis of the organisation’s impacts on stakeholders at the local, national, and global levels. In addition, social indicators can be connected to such organisation’s intangible assets, as human capital and reputation. For the Qantas Group, â€Å"safety is the first and unwavering priority†[3] and one of the most important social performance aspects. We suggest seeing this aspect from two perspectives – safety for employees (operational) and safety for customers. The Qantas Management System also for the most part focuses on occupational health and security, competency development and equal opportunities for employees. Giving complexity and considerable quantity of different social performance aspects GRI recommends implementing two-level structure of Key Social Performance Aspects, at the first level of which are Labour Practices Decent Work, Human Rights, Society and Product Responsibility. It is important to note that aspects for Labour Practices Decent Work, as well as for Human Rights, were developed by the GRI according to a number of existing internationally recognised standards and conventions. In relation to the Qantas Group we designed the social dimension as follows (see Table 2): Table 2. Social performance aspects. Aspect |Relevance to the Qantas Group operations | |Labour Practices and Decent Work | |Employment |The aspect reflects a size and structure of organisational workforce, it helps to | | |understand an impact of human resources on an implementation of the corporation’s | | |strategy | |Labour/Management Relation |The aspect reflects an stakeholder engagement and an organisational contribution to a| | |stable society | |Occupational Health Safety |The aspect reflects a level of an organisational health and safety culture and helps | | |to facilitate it. |Training Education |The aspect reflects a scale of an organisation’s investments in maintaining and | | |improving human capital, as well as in contributing to employee satisfaction in | | |relation to skill development needs | |Employees Diversity Opportunities |The aspect reflects a level of diversity and equality of remuneration within an | | |organisation | |Human Rights | |Investment Procurement Practices |The aspect reflects an organisation’s integration of human rights into its external | | |business relationship and economic decisions | |Forced Compulsory Labour |The aspect reflects an organisation’s c apacity enabling it to effectively address | | |human rights’ issues in forced or compulsory labour incidents | |Freedom of Associations |The aspect reflects an organisation’s capacity to support rights to exercise freedom | | |of association and collective bargaining | |Non-discrimination |The aspect reflects an organisation’s capacity enabling it to effectively address | | |human rights’ issues in incidents of discrimination | |Indigenous Rights |The aspect reflects an organisation’s capacity enabling it to effectively address | | |issues in incidents related to basic aspects of human rights | |Security Practices |The aspect reflects a level of security personnel training concerning human rights | | |aspects relevant to operations | |Society | |Community |The aspect reflects social impacts of organisational operations, both negative and | | |positive. It helps to manage these impacts across the communities in which the | | |corporation operates | |Bribery Corruption |The aspect reflects organisational efforts to manage reputational risks arising from | | |corrupt practices | |Product and Services Responsibility | |Customer Health and Safety |The aspect reflects organisational efforts to address customers’ health and safety | | |protection across the life cycles of its products and services | |Compliances |The aspect reflects an organisational ability to ensure that its operations conform | | |to certain performance parameters, it helps to reduce financial risks occurring | | |through fines or reputation | |Advertising Marketing Communications |The aspect reflects a level of adherence to generally accepted ethical and cultural | | |standards of organisational marketing programmes (including advertising, promotion, | | |sponsorship) | |Consumer Privacy |The aspect reflects organisational efforts to address protection o f customer privacy | | |and losses of customer data | Sustainability Indicators After the sustainability dimensions and appropriate aspects were chosen, we defined a set of measures (sustainability indicators) best suited to each of aspects. In our work we related upon recommendations of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): †¢ A Snapshot of Sustainability Reporting in the Airports Sector (GRI, 2009) †¢ GRI Logistics and Transportation Sector Supplement (GRI, 2006) Recent Qantas Sustainability Reports (Qantas Airways Limited, 2008, 2008) were also taken into consideration. A summary of all sustainability indicators matching to the aspects listed in the previous section is presented in Table 3. Table 3. Ssustainability indicators of the Qantas Group Aspect |Indicator |Measurement unit |Comments | |Economic performance indicators | |Customers |Monetary flow: Net sales |$M |Net sales equal gross sales from | | | | |products and services minus returns, | | | | |discounts, and allowances | | |Geographic breakdown of markets: |% |For each product/service o r | | |national market share by country | |product/service range | |Suppliers |Monetary flow: Cost of all goods, |$M |- | | |materials and services purchased | | | | |Supplier breakdown by organisation |% of total cost |For each supplier and country | | |and country | | | |Employees |Monetary flow: Total current payroll |$M |Incl. ages, pension, other benefits,| | |and benefits | |and redundancy payments | |Providers of Capital (PoC) |Monetary flow: All financial payments|$M |- | | |made to PoC | | | |Strategic Partners |Monetary flow: dividends on all |$M |- | | |classes of shares | | | |Public sector (unions, regional |Total spent on non-core business |$M |Infrastructure built outside the | |communities, NGOs, media) |infrastructure development | |corporation boundaries (e. g. schools,| | | | |hospitals, etc. ) for local | | | | |communities | | |Voluntary contributions and |$M |Incl. onations | | |investments of funds | | | |Australian Government |Monetary flow: Total sum of taxe s of |$M |- | | |all types paid | | | | |Subsidies received |$M |Incl. grants, tax relief, all other | | | | |financial benefits | |Indirect Economic Impact |The corporation’s indirect economic |$M or qualitative |Externalities associated with the | | |impacts | |corporation’s products and services | |Environmental performance ndicators | |Materials |Total materials use other than water,|Tones, kgs or other volumes |Incl. raw materials, process | | |by type | |materials, etc. | |Energy |Direct energy use segmented by |Joules |Breakdown acc. to type of energy, | | |primary source | |type of using (for services, for | | | | |infrastructure, etc. | | |Initiatives to use renewable energy |Numbers of initiatives |Description of initiatives | |Water |Total water withdrawal by source |Litres |Volume of water used from any water | | | | |source directly or through water | | | | |utilities | | |Initiatives to use water recycled and|Numbers of initiatives |Description of initia tives | | |reused | | | |Noise |Objectives and programmes for noise |Numbers of objectives and |Description of objectives and | | |management/abatement |programmes |programmes | |Biodiversity |Location and size of land owned, |Hectares |Mainly in relation to the Qantas | | |leased, or managed in | |airports | | |biodiversity-rich habitats | | | | |Objectives and programmes for |Numbers of objectives and Description of objectives and | | |protecting native ecosystems and |programmes |programmes, as well as impacts on | | |species | |biodiversity | |Emissions and Waste |Greenhouse gas emissions by using in |Tones |For each gas – total direct and | | |aviation and ground vehicles | |indirect emissions | | |NOx and other air emissions by type |Tones |- | | |and weight | | | | |Total amount of waste by type and |Tones |Hazardous and non-hazardous waste for| | |disposal method | |each of the disposal methods | | |Significant spills of oils, fuels or |Tones, hectares and other volum es |Significant is defined in terms of | | |chemicals in terms of total volume | |both size of the spill and | | |and total number | |environmental impact | |Product and Services |Initiatives to mitigate environmental|Numbers of initiatives |Description of initiatives and | | |impacts of products and services | |impacts in relation to materials use,| | | | |water use, emissions, noise, waste | |Transport |Significant environmental impacts of |Different volumes |Incl. energy use, emissions, | | |transporting products and materials | |effluents, waste, noise, spills, etc. | | |used for the corporation’s operations| | | | |and transporting employees | | |Overall |Total environmental protection |$M |It can be generally broken down by | | |expenditures and investments by type | |waste disposal, emissions treatment | | | | |and remediation costs; and prevention| | | | |and environmental management costs | |Social performance indicators | |Labour Practices and Decent Work | |Emplo yment |Total workforce by employment type, |Number of people |- | | |corporation’s business type and | | | | |region | | | | |Total number and rate of employee |% |- | | |turnover by corporation’s business | | | | |and region | | | |Total number and rate of employee |% |Total and segmented by region / | | |turnover by age group and gender | |country | |Labour/Management Relation |Percentage of employees covered by |% |Total and segmented by region / | | |collective bargaining agreements | |country | |Occupational Health Safety |Percentage of total workforce |% |Total and segmented by region / | | |represented in formal joint H | |country | | |committees | | | | |Rates of injury, occupational |% |Total and segmented by region / | | |diseases, lost days etc. |country | | |Total number of work-related |Number of fatalities |Total and by region / country | | |fatalities | | | | |Education, training, prevention and |Number of programmes |Description of programmes | | |risk -control programmes in place to | | | | |assist employees and their relatives | | | | |regarding diseases | | | |Training Education |Average hours of training per year |Number of hours |By employee category and region | | |per employee | | | | |Programmes for skills management and |Number of programmes |Description of programmes | | |lifelong learning to assist employees| | | | |career management | | | | |Percentage of employees receiving |% |By employee category and region | | |regular performance and career | | | | |development review | | | |Employees Diversity |Breakdown of employees per category |- |- | |Opportunities |acc. o gender, age group, minority | | | | |group membership, and other | | | | |indicators of diversity | | | | |Ratio of basic salary of men to women|% |By employee category and region | |Human Rights | |Investment Procurement |Total number of investment agreements|Number of agreements |Descriptions of agreements | |Practices |that include human right clause s | | | | |Employee training on policies and |Number of hours and employees |Total number of hours, number of | | |practices concerning human rights | |employees trained, description of | | |issues in operations | |trainings | | |Policies, guidelines, corporate |- |Description of all evidences | | |structures, procedures deal with | | | | |human rights aspects | | | |Forced Compulsory Labour |Policies, guidelines, corporate |- |Description of all evidences | | |structures, procedures to prevent | | | | |forced and compulsory labour | | | Freedom of Associations |Freedom of association policy and |- |Description of all evidences | | |procedures / programmes | | | |Non-discrimination |Policy and procedures / programmes |- |Description of all evidences | | |preventing all forms of | | | | |discrimination in operations | | | |Indigenous Rights |Policies, guidelines, corporate |- |Description of all evidences | | |structures, procedures addressing the| | | | |needs of indigenous people | | | |Security Practices |Human rights training for security |Number of hours and security |Total number of hours, number of | | |personnel |personnel |security personnel trained, | | | | |description of trainings | |Society | |Community |Policy and procedures / programmes |- |Description of all evidences | | |that assess and manage the impacts of| | | | |the corporation operations on | | | | |community | | | |Bribery Corruption |Policy, procedures / programmes and |- |Description of all evidences | | |compliance mechanisms addressing | | | |bribery and corruption | | | | |Total number of business units |Number of units |- | | |analyzed for risks related to | | | | |corruption | | | | |Employee training on anti-corruption |Number of hours and employees |Total number of hours, number of | | |policies and procedures | |employees trained, description of | | | | |trainings | | |Total number of incidents of |Number of incidents |With description of action taken in | | |corruption | |re sponse | |Product and Services Responsibility | |Customer Health and Safety |Policy and programmes for preserving |- |Description of all evidences | | |customer health and safety during use| | | | |of the corporations’’ products and | | | | |services | | | | |Total number of incidents of |Number of incidents |With description of action taken in | | |non-compliance with regulations conc. | |response | | |H | | | |Compliances |Monetary value of fines for |$M |- | |non-compliance with laws and | | | | |regulations concerning use of | | | | |products/services | | | |Advertising Marketing |Policy, programmes and compliance |- |Description of all evidences | |Communications |mechanisms for adherence to standards| | | | |related to advertising | | | |Consumer Privacy |Policy, programmes and compliance |- |Description of all evidences | | |mechanisms for consumer privacy | | | Conclusion Perrini and Tencati (2006) argue that during the last 10 years, interest in Sustainabilit y Development Indicators systems was raised drastically. The main reason of this phenomenon is that organisations and governments throughout the world have â€Å"increasing need for improved quality and regularly produced information with better spatial and temporal resolution† (Ibid. p. 304). More and more companies become involved in the Sustainability Development Programmes in order to create a stable set of indices that provides a more comprehensive perspective on development than single economical measures such as GDP. Today there are already a number of prominent, well-approved indices (see Appendix D). In our work we were based mostly on the recommendations of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its Sustainability Reporting Framework. It enabled us to expand substantially the existing Key Performance Indices used by the Qantas Airways for Sustainability Measurement. Taking into account that the Qantas Group is in the very beginning of its sustainability measurement and monitoring process, we hope the corporation will include more aspects and indicators, significant for business, in its metrics. In this relation we agree with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) that describe sustainability as: â€Å"Sustainable development is not a â€Å"fixed state of harmony†. Rather, it is an ongoing process of evolution in which people take actions leading to development that meets their current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs† (Bell Morse, 2008, p. 170). References Bachoo, K. , Burritt, R. L. , Tan, C. W. (n. d. ). Sustainability Ratings: A Social Responsibility Investment Perspective on Listed Airline Companies in Australia. The School of Commerce, University of South Australia. Retrieved May 19, 2010 from https://www. unisa. edu. au/commerce/docs/A%20Social%20Responsibility%20Investment%20Perspective%20on%20Listed%20Airline%20Companies%20in%20Australia. pdf Bell, S. , Morse, S. (2008). Sustainability Indicators: Measuring the Immeasurable? (2nd ed. ). London: Earthscan. Bossel, H. (1999). Indicators for Sustainable Development: Theory, Method, Applications. A Report to the Balaton Group. Winnipeg: International Institute for Sustainable Development. Boulanger, P. -M. (2008). Sustainable development indicators: a scientific challenge, a democratic issue. S. A. P. I. EN. S, 1(1). Retrieved May 19, 2010 from https://sapiens. revues. org/index166. html Brundtland, G. (Ed). (1987). Our Common Future. The World Commission on Environment and Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dalal-Clayton, B. , Sadler, B. (2009). Sustainability Appraisal. A Sourcebook and Reference Guide to International Experience. London: Earthscan. Dominski, A. , Clark, J. , Fox, J. (1992). Building the Sustainable City. Santa Barbara, CA: Community Environmental Council. Elkington, J. (2004). Enter the Triple Bottom Line. In A. Henriques J. Richardson (Eds. , The Triple Bottom Line: does it all add up (pp. 1-16). London: Earthscan. Fresco, L. O. , Kroonenberg, S. B. (1992). Time and spatial scales in ecological sustainability. Land Use Policy, 9, 155–168. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). (2009). A Snapshot of Sustainability Reporting in the Airports Sector. Retrieve d May 19, 2010 from https://www. globalreporting. org/NR/rdonlyres/2B127FFE-16FC-4F3E-BC7C-9794F873270A/0/SnapshotAirportsSector. pdf Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). (2006). GRI Logistics and Transportation Sector Supplement. Retrieved May 19, 2010 from https://www. globalreporting. org/NR/rdonlyres/541615B9-9392-448F-AD2A-53C38F2524DF/0/SS_LogisticsTransportation_ENG. df Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). (2000-2006). Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. Retrieved May 19, 2010 from https://www. globalreporting. org/ReportingFramework/G3Guidelines Lazarsfeld P. (1958). Evidence and inference in social research. Daedalus, 87(4), 99–109. Lelic, R. (2009). The Triple Bottom Line: a must on the agenda of the leaders. DOTManagement blog. Retrieved May 19, 2010 from https://dotmanagement. com. ar/blog/2009/07/17/la-triple-bottom-line-cita-obligada-en-la-agenda-de-los-lideres/ Meadows, D. (1998). Indicators and Information Systems for Sustainable Development: A Report to the Bala ton Group. Hartland: The Sustainability Institute. Retrieved May 19, 2010 from https://www. sustainer. org/pubs/Indicators. pdf Pearce, D. , Turner, R. K. (1990). Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Perrini, F. , Tencati, A. (2006). Sustainability and Stakeholder Management: the Need for New Corporate Performance Evaluation and Reporting Systems. Business Strategy and the Environment, 15, 296–308. Qantas Airways Limited. (2009). Qantas Sustainability Report 2009. Retrieved May 19, 2010 from https://annualreport. qantas. com. au/sustainability/ Qantas Airways Limited. (2008). Qantas Sustainability Report 2008. Retrieved May 19, 2010 from https://qantas. republicast3. om/Publications/Qantas+Sustainability+Report+2008/View. aspx#p=0 Qantas Airways Limited. (2010). Fact File – The Qantas Group at a glance. Retrieved May 19, 2010 from https://www. qantas. com. au/infodetail/about/FactFiles. pdf Senge, P. , Ross, R. , Roberts, C. , Smith, B. , Kleiner, A. (1994). The Fifth Disc ipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. London: Nicholas Brealey. Appendix A. The Norwich City Council 21 set of SIs. [pic] [pic] [pic] Source: Bell Morse, 2008, p. 82 Appendix B. Bellagio Principles. Guidelines for Practical Assessment of Progress Toward Sustainable Development. 1. GUIDING VISION AND GOALS Assessment of progress toward sustainable development should: †¢ be guided by a clear vision of sustainable development and goals that define that vision. 2. HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE Assessment of progress toward sustainable development should: †¢ include review of the whole system as well as its parts; †¢ consider the well-being of social, ecological and economic subsystems, their state as well as the direction and rate of change of the state, of their component parts, and the interaction between parts; †¢ consider both positive and negative consequences of human activity in a way that reflects the costs and benefits for human and ecological systems, both in monetary and non-monetary terms. 3. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS Assessment of progress toward sustainable development should: †¢ consider equity and disparity within the current population and between present and future generations, dealing with such concerns as resource use, overconsumption and poverty, human rights, and access to services, as appropriate; †¢ consider the ecological conditions on which life depends; †¢ consider economic development and other non-market activities that contribute to human and social well-being. 4. ADEQUATE SCOPE Assessment of progress toward sustainable development should: †¢ adopt a time horizon long enough to capture both human and ecosystem time scales, thus responding to current short-term decision-making needs as well as those of future generations; †¢ define the space of study large enough to include not only local but also long distance impacts on people and ecosystems; †¢ build on historic and current conditions to anticipate future conditions: where we want to go, where we c ould go. 5. PRACTICAL FOCUS Assessment of progress toward sustainable development should be based on: †¢ an explicit set of categories or an organizing framework that links vision and goals to indicators and assessment criteria; †¢ a limited number of key issues for analysis; †¢ a limited number of indicators or indicator combinations to provide a clearer signal of progress; †¢ standardizing measurement wherever possible to permit comparison; †¢ comparing indicator values to targets, reference values, ranges, thresholds or direction of trends, as appropriate. 6. OPENNESS Assessment of progress toward sustainable development should: †¢ make the methods and data that are used accessible to all; †¢ make explicit all judgments, assumptions and uncertainties in data and interpretations. 7. EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION Assessment of progress toward sustainable development should: †¢ be designed to address the needs of the audience and set of users; †¢ draw from indicators and other tools that are stimulating and serve to engage decision-makers; †¢ aim, from the outset, for simplicity in structure and use of clear and plain language. 8. BROAD PARTICIPATION Assessment of progress toward sustainable development should: †¢ obtain broad representation of key grassroots, professional, technical and social groups, including youth, women and indigenous people to ensure recognition of diverse and changing values; †¢ ensure the participation of decision-makers to secure a firm link to adopted policies and resulting action. 9. ONGOING ASSESSMENT Assessment of progress toward sustainable development should: †¢ develop a capacity for repeated measurement to determine trends; †¢ be iterative, adaptive and responsive to change and uncertainty because systems are complex and change frequently; †¢ adjust goals, frameworks and indicators as new insights are gained; †¢ promote development of collective learning and feedback to decisionmaking. 10. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY Continuity of assessing progress toward sustainable development should be assured by: †¢ clearly assigning responsibility and providing ongoing support in the decision-making process; †¢ providing institutional capacity for data collection, maintenance and documentation; †¢ supporting development of local assessment capacity. Source: Bossel, 1999, pp. 15-16 Appendix C. Qantas Sustainabilty Indicators in 2008 [pic] [pic] Source: Qantas Airways Limited, 2008, pp. 38-39 Appendix D. Some useful Sustainable Indicators 1. ISEW, the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, is a monetary index correcting GDP on a certain number of points, in particular taking into account the social and environmental costs ensuing from income inequalities, mobility, road accidents, air and water pollution, noise pollution, the loss of natural ecosystems, the depletion in reserves of non-renewable resources, the fight against global warming and the erosion of the ozone layer. On the other hand, unpaid household work and public health and education expenditure are integrated as positive contributions to welfare. 2. GPI, the Genuine Progress Indicator, has been calculated since 1995 by the Californian institute Redefining Progress, for the United States. It is directly derived from the ISEW which it slightly modifies, particularly by introducing the positive contribution of voluntary work, consumer durables and transport infrastructures, but subtracting some supplementary expenditure, such as the cost of family breakdown, unemployment, loss of leisure time, loss of natural areas, etc. 3. MDP, the Measure of Domestic Progress, is derived from the ISEW and close to the GPI, of which it is a kind of British version. It is specific in that in particular it takes into account defensive expenditures by households for health and education as well as some improvements in the calculation of environmental costs. 4. The Index of Economic Well-being created by Sharpe and Osberg consists of a weighted average of four basic indicators, themselves synthetic, of consumption flows in the broad meaning of the term; wealth stocks (economic, human and environmental); economic inequalities and poverty; economic insecurity (a highly original dimension taking into consideration economic risks imposed by unemployment, illness and single-parent families). Economic and social dimensions play a very important role, in particular as regards environmental issues. 5. HWI, the Human Well-being Index, is one of the indicators (with the EWI—the Ecosystem Well-being Index) proposed by Prescott-Allen in his book entitled The Wellbeing of Nations (2001). It is made up of several basic indicators, relating to health (life expectancy) and family life (family stability), income and

Marketing - 8520 Words

Because of permissions issues, some material (e.g., photographs) has been removed from this chapter, though reference to it may occur in the text. The omitted content was intentionally deleted and is not needed to meet the Universitys requirements for this course. PART II Connecting with Customers C H A P T E R 4 Creating Customer Value, Satisfaction, and Loyalty In this chapter, we will address the following questions: 1. How can companies deliver customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty? 2. What is the lifetime value of a customer, and why is it important to marketers? 3. How can companies cultivate strong customer relationships? 4. What is the role of database marketing in customer relationship management? MARKETING†¦show more content†¦Suppose the buyer for a residential construction company wants to buy a tractor from either Caterpillar or Komatsu. After evaluating the two tractors, he decides that Caterpillar has greater product benefits, based on perceived reliability, durability, performance, and resale value. He also decides that Caterpillar’s personnel are more knowledgeable and perceives that the company will provide better services, such as maintenance. Finally, he places higher value on Caterpillar’s corporate image. He adds up all the benefits from these four sources—product, services, personnel, and image—and perceives Caterpillar as delivering greater customer benefits. The buyer also examines his total cost of transacting with Caterpillar versus Komatsu, including money plus the time, energy, and psychic costs expended in product acquisition, usage, maintenance, ownership, and disposal. Then the buyer compares Caterpillar’s tota l customer cost to its total customer benefits and Komatsu’s total customer cost to its total customer benefits. 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John F. Kennedy Biography Written in First Person Essay

I am John F. Kennedy. More people know me as President 35, J.F.K and, some people call me Jack. I was born May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts. As a young kid I went to school at The Choate School which was a private college preparatory school for grades 9-12. I joined Harvard University in 1936, my brother Joe and I were fascinated in sports, especially football. While I was playing football I ruptured a disk in my spine. The disk is a jelly like substance in between vertebrates. If you rupture that both your vertebrates collide which causes friction between the nerves and gives you back pain. I never recuperated and my back continued to hurt me for the rest of my life. When my father was selected United States Ambassador to England†¦show more content†¦One of my members, had horrible burns on his face and hands and was ready to give up. 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Weak form efficiency of chinese stock markets - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 19 Words: 5683 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? China, in the last 30 years, has shown the spectacular growth rate in economy. By the end of 2010, China GDP ranks the second in the world. Compared with the stable growth of Chinas economy, the performance of Chinese stock markets is also a limelight. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Weak form efficiency of chinese stock markets" essay for you Create order The stock markets have improved with an expansion in the number of the list companies and the total amount of stock trading. China has two major stock exchanges-Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. Shanghai Stock Exchange (SHSE) was founded in December 1990 and Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) started its trading in July 1991. Two types of shares are traded in Chinas Stock Exchanges, which are named type A and type B shares. In China, type A shares are available to Chinese nationals only and these shares are traded by Chinese Yuan. Type B shares, in Shanghai Stock Exchange, are traded by U.S dollars, while in Shenzhen Stock Exchange those are denominated in Hong Kong dollars (Martin Laurence, Francis Cai and Sun Qian 1997). Particularly, type B shares are only available to investors from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and other countries before 19th February 2001. After this date, individual investors in Chinas Mainland are able to purchase type B shares. By the end of 2010, the number of listed companies on SHSE is 901 and on SZSE is 1169. In the Shanghai exchange, there are 891 A-shares and 54 B-shares. The Shenzhen Exchange has 1195 A-shares and 54 B-shares. Chinese stock markets are the emerging stock markets, since they are relatively young compared with stock markets in some developed countries. Many external and internal aspects and policies lead to the specific features of Chinas stock markets. One of the features is the structure of a listed company. A listed companys ownership structure can be divided into five categories: stated-owned shares, employee shares, legal-person shares, tradable A-shares and shares only available to overseas investors. To distinguish them in a more detailed way, stated-owned shares, employee shares and legal-person shares are classified as non-negotiable shares which cannot be traded on the two exchanges. The listed companies are financed with non-negotiable shares that account for 60 percent of the companies equities (Qiet al . 2000, Wei and Varela 2003). Chinese Stock Exchange, in addition, exhibits that a majority of the individual investors are regarded as the gambler. Many investors treat the stock trading like a casino with the fact that they do not pay much attention to the information, finance and announcements about the listed companies (Ma 1996, Nam et al. 1999, Kang et al. 2002, Girardin and Liu 2003). Polices carried out by Chinas central government affect Chinas stock markets at a significant extent. The indexes of Chinas stock markets may not be consistent with the economic growth of China. The government has macro-economic control over the stock markets, which interferes the decisions made by investors. Thus Chinas government makes the stock markets a tool of raising finance. Except for the aspects mentioned above, the efficiency of Chinese stock markets is essential to the investors and regulators since it relates to how information in the market can be reflected by the stock price. Eff icient-Market Hypothesis (EMH) developed by Eugene Fama (1970), mainly, has three forms of market efficiency. In Weak-form efficiency, people cannot predict the stock prices in the future though they collect and analyze the information contained in the past prices. In addition, excess returns in long term cannot be made by using historical stock prices and other historical data. Some techniques can provide excess returns to investors in some cases. But the excess returns may not be consistently produced by the technical methods. Stock price in the future follow a random walk since it is predicted by the information not contained in the past prices, and no serial dependencies exist between these prices. Dimson and Mussavian (1998) defined efficient capital market in a similar way. In an efficient capital market, all information must be reflected in the financial assets prices and the prices changes should be consistent with the new information. An efficient capital market, of course, cannot be identical with a perfect market. Basically, the definition of a perfect market is with several assumptions. Investors in a perfect market can obtain all of the relevant information immediately and simultaneously. Also, the information provided is costless. Moreover, investors in such market are rational and the market should be presumed to be frictionless. In the real world, there is no perfectly efficient market and no completely inefficient market. This report mainly focuses on testing the weak-form market efficiency of Chinese stock markets. In this study, three statistical techniques are employed. Dickey-Fuller test for unit root test is firstly provided and then employing the non-parametric runs test. In addition, Lo-Mackinlay Variance Ratio test is presented. Section 2 presents some tests ealier employed by other people. The data description and the research methodology will be discussed in Section 3. Section 4 contains the empirical results, and Section 5 then p rovides the summary and conclusion. Literature Review Various previous market efficiency tests findings (Liu, X., H. Song and P. Romilly 1997, Laurence, M., F. Cai and S. Qian 1997 and Lima and Tabak 2004 for A-shares markets in both SHSE and SZSE, and Long, D.M., J.D. Payne and C. Feng 1999 for A- and B-shares markets in SHSE) reveal that Chinese stock markets are significantly speculative to the investors. Due the fact that Chinese stock markets are speculative, many noise traders who regard the stock trading as a casino may make the stock returns serially correlated. Previously De Long, J.B., A. Shleifer, L.H. Summers and R.J. Waldmann (1990) employed a theoretical model to indicate the effect of noise traders in the stock markets. This model finally shows that if noise traders expect to find positive returns when they trade, the price stress will give rise to autocorrelations between positive returns during a relative short time. However, Kang et al. (2002) reported that abnormal profits exist in the A-shares market given certain short-horizon and intermediate-horizon strategies. Random walk was employed by Abrosimova and Linowski (2002) when they examined the weak-form efficiency of the Russian Stock Exchange. They found that if the monthly data was used, random walk could not be rejected. However if daily data was used in the test, random walk could be rejected. Balaban (1995) carried out an experiment of testing the weak-form efficiency of Istanbul Securities Exchange, and he performed a random walk test on this market. Tian et al. (2002) reported that 412 technical rules were useful in predicting the movements of stock price in Chinese stock markets, which making traders pursue excess profits in 1990s. In addition to the aforementioned researches which apply the well-known and conventional tests, many other studies related to this topic aim at avoiding some defects in the previous tests. For instance, run tests employed by Laurence (1997) and Mookerjee and Yu (1999) enable them to reach the conclusion th at stock markets are in the weak-form efficiency. Besides, Liu (1997) and Seddighi and Nian (2004) used unit root tests to conduct their analyses. Lo and MacKinlay (1988) applied variance ratios tests to detect the serial correlations between the stock returns, and then asserted that random walk could be rejected using a sample of 1,216 observations of firms in NYSE-AMEX during 1962-1985. K.A. AI-Abdulqader et al. (2007) used two conventional tests to examine the weak- form efficiency of Saudi stock market. One of them is the filter rule test, and the other one is moving average strategy. Fliter rule is proposed by Alexander (1961, 1964). According to the opinion of Fama and Blume (1966), Alexanders filter rule detects whether prices changes are consistent to the new information. This research applied various filters to the data, and then assessed the filters effect on the rules profitability. This filter rule strategies finally obtained the conclusion that rule profits, in minor ity of cases, could not exceed the profits from the buy-and-hold strategy. Accordingly, if profits of the strategy are more than the profits from a buy-and-hold strategy, it could provide evidence against the weak-form efficiency. To compare the conclusion from the filter strategy, a moving average strategy was also employed in their research. This strategy relates to the buying (selling) at the short-term average price moves above (below) the long-term average price during k days. In this research they adopted four different moving average strategies: (1, 50, 0), (1, 50, 1), (1,150, 0), (1, 150, 1). For example, (1,150, 0) demonstrate that length of short-term is 1 day, the length of long-run is 150 and the bandwidth is 0. Bandwidth reflects the minimum change made before a signal is identified. The conclusion from the results of the moving average strategy indicated that though this strategy outperformed a buy-and-hold portfolio much more significantly, the ability of predicting c hanged according to the moving average strategies applied. Pakistan stock market is an emerging stock market like Chinese stock markets. Research conducted by Madhlimita Chakraborty (2006) investigated the weak-form efficiency of the Pakistan stock market. He employed the Lo-Mackinlay variance ratio test (1988) in addition to the traditional serial correlation test and runs test. The variance ratio test requires the precondition that the random walk increments variance is linear between the experiment samples. Therefore, if a random walk process is presented, the q-differences variance must be q multiplies the first differences variance. Also, the Box-Jenkins Technique (1978) was applied to his research. In context of Chinese stock markets, several studies have been done. In this report, three typical researches are presented. The reason for taking these reports into consideration is that they performed the distinct tests in their investigations and separately reached the dissimi lar conclusions. Martin Laurence et al. (1997) tested the behavior of the share price, weak-form market efficiency and causality of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets. Also, they examined the causality of the Chinese stock markets with the Hong Kong and U.S. stock markets. The data were from four Chinese stock market indices, one Hong Kong Index and one U.S. Index. The four indices are Shanghai A, Shanghai B, Shenzhen A and Shenzhen B. Dow Jones News Retrieval Services and Datastream International provided the research data. First of all, they performed a unit root test for the six stock indices, and the test was based on an augmented Dickey-Fuller (1979, 1981) model. After that, they employed bivariate cointegration tests for comparing every pair of stock indices, which involved the method of the Phillips and Ouliaris (1990). This method is used for estimation through the Ordinary Least Square of the regression model. Apart from the above two tests, the serial correlations and Ljung and Box test (1978) were used. The presence of serial correlation was significant in form of daily returns. But it can be viewed as a violation of the weak-form market efficiency, because investors are able to take advantage of serial correlation for making excess return. Lastly, with the purpose of investigating lead-lag relationships among the six market indices, Grangers (1969) causality tests are performed. They, eventually, obtained the consequence that Chinese stock markets were getting closer to a weak-form efficient market. The results from causality tests indicated that Chinese stock markets were related to the global market to a great extent. At the beginning of the 21th century, Ma and Bames (2001) completed their report about testing the weak-form efficiency of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets. They employed serial correlation, run tests and variance ratio tests. The data collected for this report was based on daily, weekly and monthly returns. They c ollected stock returns from December 1990 to April 1998 for Shanghai stock exchange, and employed stock returns from April 1991 to April 1998 for Shenzhen stock exchange. To be more detailed, the numbers of A-share taken from Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets were 375 and 348, and the amount of B-share employed from the two markets were 49 and 51. They found that stock returns between the two stock exchanges were correlated significantly, but the daily returns were much more correlated than the return of weekly and monthly. Considering the daily returns of individual A-share and B-share of the Shanghai exchange and daily returns of individual B-share of the Shenzhen exchange, generally, they did not follow a random walk. They also concluded that individual shares exhibited more efficient than stock indices, and the Shenzhen market showed more evidence than the Shanghai market. Generally, B-share typically violated the random walk. That is, prices of B-shares were more easily predi cted than prices of A-shares. To explain this, they asserted that thin trading could result in the B-shares inefficiency. If according to the theory of Famas (1965), Chinese stock markets were in weak-form efficiency. Nevertheless, they finally reported that Chinese stock markets were not determined to be as a weak-form efficient market, since many professionals argued that Famas (1965) theory of defining the efficient markets was not correct to some extent. Seddighi and Nian (2004) conducted an investigation about the Shanghai exchange indices and 8 listed shares in this market. The data contained the stock returns from January 2000 to December 2000. The listed shares were randomly selected from 8 companies involved in 8 sectors. In their research, three tests were used, i.e. the Lagrange Multiplier test, Dickey-Fuller test and ARCH test. From the result of the Lagrange test, they concluded that 6 of the target companies were not related to autocorrelation. Random walk was asser ted to be present in the Shanghai stock market as a result of Dickey-Fuller test. However, unit root was not found in 2 of the listed shares series. Finally, they reported that the Shanghai stock prices did not follow a random walk. That is, Chinese stock market did not perform weakly efficient. 3. Data and Methodology 3.1 Data description The data, in this study, is daily price index for Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. These price indices are obtained from the Datastream, and the observation period ranges from January 3, 2000 to December 31, 2010. To examine Chinese market efficiency, this study employes daily data of closing prices for four Chinese stock indexes: Shanghai A-share Index, Shanghai Composite Index, Shenzhen A-share Index and Shenzhen Composite Index. The data in Table 1 (see Appendix), obtained from Datastream, are collected on basis of the daily closing prices for weekdays between January 03, 2000 and December 31, 2010. Shanghai A-share Index, Shanghai Composite Index, Shenzhen A-share Index and Shenzhen Composite Index are denominated in Chinese Yuan (CNY). These four stock indices reflect the statistical data related to domestic investors and the overall stock market, but the indices used by overseas are excluded since domestic investors account for the majority and the composite index es could reflect the overall market daily prices. Time series plots are exhibited below: Figure 1. Time Series Plots for Chinese Stock Indices Shanghai A Index Shanghai Composite Index Shenzhen A Index Shenzhen Composite Index Apparently, Shanghai A-share Index approximately has the identical distribution of return compared with that for Shanghai Composite Index. Shenzhen A-share Index, also, has the identical time series compared with that for Shenzhen Composite Index. Both of Shanghai indices and Shenzhen indices reached the peak level in the year of 2007. Between 2007 and 2008, the Shanghai Composite Index experienced the highest level of price which is around 6000, and Shenzhen Composite Index had almost reached at the level of 1600. From 2000 to 2007, all of the four indices series did steadily fluctuate with relative small range. After 2007 these indices ascended sharply until the financial crisis arrived. In the following year of 2008, the four indices descended dramatically due to the financial crisis. Overall, Shanghai and Shenzhen indices have the identical fluctuation before 2009, whereas in the following years, Shenzhen indices has higher increase in index prices compared with Shanghai indice s. That is, Shenzhen stock market is considered to be in better condition than Shanghai stock market after 2009. All indices series returns are calculated by the following formula: Where stands for the closing price for the index at time t and is natural logarithm. 3.2 Methodology To test the weak-form efficiency of Chines stock markets, the main approach is to examine whether Chinese stock markets follow a random walk. Generally, it is necessary to indicate that logarithmic market returns follow a random walk. However, there are two assumptions in the theory of random walk. That is, the continuous price changes are independently distributed and the price changes follow some probability distribution (Fama 1965). The random walk hypothesis requires the price increments to be independently and identically distributed (IID). The equation below shows the dynamics of share prices: where and IID distributed Statistically, we need to define the hypothesis as the following: H0: Chinese stock markets follow a random walk, i.e. follow the weak-form efficiency H1: Chinese stock markets do not follow a random walk, i.e. do not follow the weak-form efficiency Therefore, to examine the null hypothesis of the random walk, three statistical tests includ ing unit root test, non-parametric runs test and variance ratio test are employed. The tests are performed on the entire sample. The unit root test was mainly based on the the Dickey-Fuller test. This test determines whether the stock returns series is non-stationary since it is an essential condition for random walk. Lo and Mackinlay (1988) developed the variance ratio test which may be a more proper test for a random walk hypothesis. 3.2.1 Unit root test The unit root test was developed by Dickey and Fuller (1981), which examines the stationarity of the time series. If unit root is found in the series, then it can be defined as non-stationary which shows the presence of random walk. Commonly, Dickey-Fuller test is proper to examine whether a unit root exists in a series. With the purpose of testing the weak efficiency of Chinese stock markets, therefore, the Dickey-Fuller test is provided. Equation (1), basically, is a simple unit root form. In this equation, only by the fact that slope coefficient is equal to 1 can we exhibit that the current price is totally explained by the lagged term of the market price. Then the current price is explained by the constant or drift. (1) Where is independently and identically distributed with the mean 0 and the constant variance . The error increment is called white noise, and all of the error terms are uncorrelated. Nevertheless, Dickey-Fuller (1981) showed that under the null hypothes is that , the standard t-ratio does not have a t-distribution since corresponds to a non-stationary process which invalidates the standard results on the distribution of the OLS (Ordinary Least Square) estimator . Then Dickey and Fuller transformed the equation (1) to the equation below: (2) Dickey and Fuller replaced by , which is realized by deducting in both sides of the equation. Accordingly, the actual return has been changed to the change in return, as well as the hypothesis should be transformed to: (Non-stationary or unit root) against (Stationary or no unit root) In equation (2), the last termcan also be assumed to be white noise. Denoteas the OLS (Ordinary Least Square) estimator andas the usual OLS standard error. To test the hypothesis thatwe can use standard t-statistic given by: With the value of to be more be negative, the more significant the t-value might be to reject the null hypothesis and the returns are stationary which do not follow a random w alk. In other words, if the null hypothesis is not rejected, that the series follow a random walk. To examine whether the stock prices in Chinese stock markets follow a random walk, Dickey-Fuller test,significantly, provides the effective evidence. 3.2.2 Runs Test Runs test provides another method to the random walk. To distinguish runs test with the other two tests, it is presumed that the returns would not be required to follow a normal distribution. Specifically the non-parametric runs test, unlike the general runs test, it tests the independency of the successive price changes. The non-parametric runs test is under the assumption that only if the observed number of runs in the series is close to the expected number of runs can the returns of price in the series follow a random walk. A sequence of successive price changes with the same sign is described as a run. The non-parametric runs test, actually, is proper to examine the randomness for the successive of returns; hence, it provides adequate evidence on whether price returns in Chinese stock markets are possible to be predicted. The first stage of the test is observing the number of runs which is defined as the total number of the sequence of consecutive prices changes with the sam e sign: positive, negative or no change. Then assigning equal weight to every corresponding change and distinguishing direction of the successive changes, which must be based on the rule that classifying each change in return according to the mean return. That is to say, the positive change is obtained when the price return is larger than the mean return, and the negative change is obtained when the price return is less than the mean return and no change when the return is equal to the mean return. The run test is employed by taking the actual runs (R) and the expected runs (m) into account. To perform the test, comparing the actual returns and the expected returns is required. Since the distribution of the number of runs is assumed to converge to a normal distribution, the expected number of runs can be calculated as equation (3) below: (3) Where N is the number of observations,denote the signs of positive, negative and zero,denotes the number of price changes of each sign . If the total number of observations N is greater than 30, the expected number of runs m is normally distributed with a standard deviation as the equation below (4): (4) The standard normal Z-statistic is: Z~ N(0,1) (5) Where R is the actual number of runs, (1/2) denotes the correction factor for continuity adjustment (Ma and Bames 2001), where the sign is plus if Rm, and is negative if Rm. The null hypothesis can be described as the following: If null hypothesis can be rejected at a certain significance level (1%, 5% and 10%), then it indicates that the series does not follow a random walk at that significance level. Furthermore, a positive serial correlation is implied by a negative Z value, and a positive Z value implies a negative serial correlation. 3.2.3 Variance Ratio Test The variance ratio test designed for random walk testing was proposed by Lo and MacKinlay (1988). Basically it is assumed that there is a linear relationship between the variance of random walk increments. Accordingly, if a random walk exists, the variance of its differences should be times the variance of its first differences. Consequently, when we have observations () of the log of stock returns and obtain these log returns at the intervals with equal space (is an integer larger than 1), the ratio of of the variance to the variance of is equal to 1. The variance ratio test is employed under assumptions of homoscedastic and heteroskedastic random walks. Then some important equations in this test are presented: (6) Where is the variance of the difference and is the variance of the first differences. (7) where (8) and (9) where and is the number of observations Under the assumption of homoscedasticity, the modified (Liu and He 1991) is in the form o f the formula below: Where (asymptotic variance of the variance ratio) If the null hypothesis of no autocorrelation coefficient is rejected, there is no random walk under the case of homoscedasticity. Commonly, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation might lead to the rejection of random walk under homoscedasticity (Worthington and Higgs 2004). In addition, Campbell et al. (1997) reported that the variance ratio would be close to unity even in under the assumption of heteroscedasticity if returns are not correlated. Lo and MacKinlay (1988) introduced the standard normal test : where (standard error term) and Under the null hypothesis, the variance ratio is equal to 1. That is, the series follows a random walk. If random walk is rejected under the assumption of heteroskedastic, evidently, there is the presence of autocorrelation. Under the case of autocorrelation, a negative serial correlation exists if variance ratio is less than 1 and a positive serial correlati on is presented if variance ratio is larger than 1. 4. Empirical Results 4.1 Descriptive Statistics An overview of descriptive statistics for Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indices are provided in Table 2 (see Appendix). The total number of observations for each stock index is 2870. All of the four series have the positive means. Shenzhen Composite Index has the highest mean of returns of 0.000406, while Shanghai A Index has the lowest mean of returns of 0.000246. The maximum returns obtained from Shanghai A Index and Shanghai Composite Index, obviously, exceed these obtained from Shenzhen A Index and Shenzhen Composite Index; nevertheless, Shanghai A Index has the lowest minimum return of -0.092608. Due to th fact of high return with high risk, the two Shenzhen indices incorporate with the highest standard deviations even though they have higher average returns than these of two Shanghai indices. Therefore, daily returns for two Shanghai indices are less volatile than returns of two Shenzhen indices and Shenzhen indices has higher returns compared with Shanghai indices on the avera ge. Daily compounded indices statistics for Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets are provided in this table. The returns are given by , where is the series price at time t. ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¼ is the mean of returns and ÃÆ' Ãƒâ€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ is the standard deviation for the series of returns. 4.2 Unit Root Basically it is essential to use Dickey-Fuller test without time trend to examine whether Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indices follow a random walk. This test model composites of the constant or drift, coefficient slope and white noise. The results for Dickey-Fuller test without time trend is given in Table 3 (see Appendix). This table presents the results for Shanghai and Shenzhen Index prices between 2000 and 2010. The estimated slope coefficient is represented by and the standard error for is. The critical value is 3.51 at 2% significance level, 3.17 at 5% significance level and 2.58 at 10% significance level. ***, ** and * indicate the slope coefficient is statistically significant at the 2%, 5% and 10% level. Results in table 3 (see Appendix) indicate that indices series in Shanghai and Shenzhen are non-stationary or unit root under the significance level of 2%, 5% and 10%. Currently the result shows the random walk of the Chinese stock markets, but testing results may va ry with some changes of this model. In this model, on the one hand, time trend is not taken into consideration. In some cases, we may have to consider a statistical model which can include a deterministic time trend. It is particularly necessary when the series exhibit either upward or downward trend. The reason is that if a series shows significant time trend it is non-stationary. Considering a trend-stationary process, if the process is not accounted for in the regression model, it is likely that a unit root test would fail to reject the null hypothesis, even though the process is trend-stationary. On the other hand, unit root may exist in high-order AR model. In this report, only AR(1) has been employed, which may not be the correct specification. If we use an AR(1) when the correct specification would be a higher-order AR process, we may misleadingly reject the null hypothesis of a unit root because of the misspecification of the model. Thus Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test can prov ide further analysis to examine the existence of random walk. Overall Dickey-Fuller test without time trend can provide solid evidence that Chinese stock markets follow a random walk. 4.3 Runs Test Table 4 (see Appendix) indicates the results of non-parametric runs test for four stock indices in Shanghai and Shenzhen between 2000 and 2010. The total number of observations is represented by N and total number of runs is denoted by R. The amount of observations below mean is denoted by mean, whereas =mean indicates the number of observations larger than or equal to the mean. The critical value for Z statistics is given by: Z=1.285 at 10% significance level, Z=1.645 at 5% significance level and Z=2.33 at 1% significance level. ***, ** and * denote the statistical significance at 1%, 5% and 10% levels. The results of the non-parametric runs tests for Shanghai and Shenzhen market indices are presented in Table 4 (see Appendix). The estimated Z-values for returns on Shenzhen A-share Index and Shenzhen Composite Index are significant at 5% level, and both of returns on Shanghai indices are significant at 10% level. Accordingly the null hypothesis can be rejected under some signif icance level, which implies that both of Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets are not weak-form efficient. Nevertheless Shanghai stock market can only be determined as weak-form inefficient in the case of 10% significance level, which may not provide adequate evidence ensuring the weak-form inefficiency of this market. Shenzhen stock market is determined as weak-form inefficient even at 5% significance level. The negative Z-values for daily returns on the four stock indexes, indeed, imply the positive serial correlation. Anyway Chinese stock markets can not determined as wear-form efficient using the non-parametric runs test. 4.4 Variance Ratio Test The results of variance ratio test for the Chinese stock markets are presented in table 5 (see Appendix) and the time period is 2000-2010. N denotes the total amount of observation and q is the equal-spaced interval of the observation. In this test, q is equal to 2, 4, 12 and 20, respectively. VR(q), Z(q) and Z*(q) are the estimations of the corresponding statistics. VR(q) is the estimate of variance ratio, and Z(q) and Z*(q) are the Z test statistics of homoscedasticity and heteroscedasticity, respectively. *, ** and *** denote the statistical significance at 10%, 5% and 1% level. The outcomes of variance ratio test for Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indexes are provided in table 5 (see Appendix). VR(q) is the estimate of variance ratio, and Z(q) and Z*(q) denote the Z test statistics under homoscedasticity and heteroscedasticity, respectively. The q-difference is assigned as 2, 4, 12 and 20 for all four indexes. For Shanghai A-share market, apart from the interval of 20 days, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected at all three significance levels under both of homoscedasticity. The results of variance ratio for Shanghai Composite Index are similar with these obtained for Shanghai A-share Index. For variance ratio test conducted for Shanghai Composite in 20-day interval, the null hypothesis of random walk is only rejected at 5% and 10% significance level under the assumption of homoscedasticity and heteroscedasticity, respectively. However, the null hypothesis of random walk for Shenzhen stock market is strongly rejected under the presumptions of homoscedasticity and heteroscedasticity in all the q intervals. The rejection of random walk can be realized even at 1% significance level. Under homoscedasticity, the reason for rejection of the null hypothesis of random walk could be the autocorrelation in stock returns. Nevertheless the null hypothesis is also rejected under heteroscedasticity, which indicates that the rejection of the null hypothesis under homos cedasticity is exclusively attributed to the autocorrelation in the series returns. According to the results obtained from all of the statistics about variance ratio test, Shanghai stock market is weak-form efficient and Shenzhen stock market is weak-form inefficient. The findings of Shenzhen stock market indicate that the autocorrelation in returns may completely reject the random walk of this market. Overall the Chinese stock markets represent inconsistency between the Shanghai and the Shenzhen stock markets. Compared with the findings of runs test, Chinese stock markets may not be weak-form efficient. 5. Conslusions Examining the weak-form efficiency of Chinese stock markets presents the relevant information behind the market series returns. The definition of Efficient-market Hypothesis (EMH) is developed by Eugene Fama (1970), which defines that in weak-form efficient market investors cannot make excess returns though historical stock prices and data, and the stock prices follow a random walk because the past price would not provide any related information to predict the future price. Based on the theoretical interpretation about the weak-form efficient market, some research has been conducted in the context of Chinese stock markets. As the empirical evidence obtained in the previous studies, they cannot reach a consensus on whether Chinese stock markets are weak-form efficient. Some studies asserted that Chinese stock markets did not follow a random walk, however other empirical findings subscribed to the opinion that Chinese stock markets are weak-form efficient. This study focuses on te sting the weak-form efficiency of Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets, and two major indexes in each market are examined. Daily price from the time period 2000 to 2010 for each index is collected in order to examine the hypothesis of the random walk, and A-share index and composite index in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets are used. Statistical methodologies have been used in many empirical studies testing the random walk hypothesis. Considering the features of each statistic method, three statistical methods are employed. Dickey-Fuller is used to find the unit root of the returns series of stock indices, a non-parametric runs test aims at finding the independence among the returns for each stock index, and the variance ratio test examines the linear relationship between the variance of the random walk increments. Except for the empirical results of the Dickey-Fuller, the findings of the other two statistical methods indicate that Chinese stock markets do not perform consisten tly with the hypothesis of random walk, consequently implying that Chinese stock markets are weak-form inefficient. The results of Dickey-Fuller test ensure the existence of the unit root in the return series, which determining Chinese stock markets as weak-form efficient. Generally speaking, Chinese stock markets are not typically consistent with the hypothesis of weak-form inefficiency since no consensus has been reached among the three statistical methods. This results seem to be similar to the conclusion of the previous studies. A significant number of studies reported that the emerging stock markets might not has the unique features of the weak-form efficient markets because of the characteristics of the domestic polices and economies and etc. Even though Chinese stock markets are found untypical under the assumption of weak-form efficient market, it is still rational to believe the Chinese stock markets to behave like an market of informational efficiency in the following year s since the development in Chinese financial world is significant. Investors in Chinese stock markets cannot get a sufficient historical information from the current stock prices, which indicates some investors may acquire excess returns by some techniques. Inefficient markets may benefit the investors who can get access to the inner information or information about the patterns of the movements of the stock prices. To improve this study, firstly, it is proper to employ weekly or monthly data and to employ Shanghai B-share index and Shenzhen B-share index. Secondly, further researches could use Augmented Dickey-Fuller test with time trend instead of Dickey-Fuller test in this study. Besides, the whole time period could be divided into some sub-intervals, which proving more detailed analysis. At last studies employing four or more statistical methods might present adequate evidence on this topic.