Compensation

Compensation is an important motivator when looking to achieve desired organizational results. Money is thought of s a powerful motivator, however that only holds for sometime until the next pay increase is due. Compensation strategies reinforce the organizational culture that you desire, this enables the culture where pay is linked to performance. To ensure this process works, it must be reflected in the strategic business objectives. The objectives must clearly be defined, must be communicated as soon as decision has been reached.By doing this proper, the organization can motivate employees and make them want to perform better. CONTENT An incentive plan is defined as a formal scheme used to promote or encourage specific actions or behavior by a specific group of people during a defined period of time. So what are the reasons so many companies would find a need to offer such incentive plans? Some of the top reasons are, for motivation, company morale, company loyalty, increased prod uctivity, increase achievement, reduced absenteeism, reduce company cost, decreased turnover and to create more team work.The organization I am employees with created for both union and non- urn employees an incentive compensation plan. When developing this plan it was to focus on two major points, safety and waste reduction. It was then also decided that a third element would also be counted, improved productivity. In order to receive the incentive there were requirements; you need to be a full time Compensation-Bemires 3 employee, employed for the last three (3) consecutive months and be actively employed at the time of payout, which was quarterly.There are also goals that need to be reached in order to collect the incentive for that portion of the goals. The safety component is that the TRIP (total recordable incident rate) needs to be low. Following the guidelines as noted: Greater than 1. 50 payout was O 01 -? 1. 50 payout is 1% of quarterly wages less than 1. 01 payout is 2% o f quarterly wages As a company this component is important because the safety of the employees is and will always be the most important thing to the company. Their safety should come first not only to Bemires but also to the employees.It was after looking at these aspects that a separate incentive plan needs to be created just for the non-union/salary employees. The SHIP (salaried performance incentive plan) needs to be created for salary personnel of the Bemires Company. It is intended to provide an incentive for employees to perform their jobs at the highest level possible to facilitate achievement of division and Compensation-Bemires 5 the plant goals, contributing to overall profitability.This plan was designed to reward individuals with additional annual cash compensation in recognition of their individual and collective efforts to meet or exceed annual goals. Unlike a merit increase which is an increase to your salary based on demonstrated ability to meet job responsibilities over an extended period Of time, incentive award is based on annual performance, targeting specific areas which may change from year to year. Employees must be regular full time employees, must be active employees t time of distribution.Eligibility does not necessarily entitle a participant to an award and does not constitute an agreement with the company. In making the requirements for this SHIP incentive it will depend on many factors which include, the individual base salary earnings for the eligibility period, normal reward percent, performance rating given by employees superiors, all targets/measurements are meet, and funding scale. The following are the factors to determine each of these. Base salary earnings: amount of pay a participant received throughout the plan year in eligible base earnings excluding all other forms of compensation.Normal award percent: each participant is assigned a normal award percent for his/her position; employees will be notified of this percentage . Normal award: is the base dollar amount of incentive eligible to the participant, it is then impacted up or down by individual performance rating and the results Of the profit and other targets set for the plan year. Individual performance rating (l PR): this will be given by the supervisor and can range from . 500 up to 1 250, the PR should correlate to the overall performance of the Compensation-Bemires 6 employee based on their yearly appraisal.

Review of the Article About Gopher It Essay

The business plan of Goffer It is all about the plans and strategies for the establishment of an errand service for professionals in the business district of Boston. The service includes standard service, which includes usual time-consuming errand works of professionals, and custom service, which includes services according to the needs of the people. This partnership firm is to be founded by three highly experienced professionals with adequate knowledge in management and administration. The new venture they plan out is apt as there are not many similar ventures around their targeted locality and it is highly felt to be of need for the people. The population and the potential people interaction is quiet high in that locality. The services offered are quiet many and no competitor is as good as Goffer It. They had a very good marketing strategy and the formost among it is to utilize the benefits of the locality. As many thousands of people travel through the area it gives a natural opportunity for them to expose the firm to many without much of expenditure. This untapped market can be also expanded by way of short advertising campaigns too. The core of it included: * Needs of the target market on the basis of geography, demography, life style and buyer intentions. * Product differentiation. * Effective and profitable marketing mix. They also had a clear plan for the future, ways and means for expansion and to make it a profitable business in short time span of more than a year. They were very clear about the service to be delivered and the pricing of it. Their idea is to give the best service and gain customers through word of mouth. As the founders of this venture the three of them are well experienced and that they have prior experience in managing other but somewhat similar ventures. The best part of the organizational structure is that the three at the top are professionally fit for this work and they are good and qualified in finance and marketing, which can be considered the key areas of a business. Their advantages can be summarized in the following points. Untapped errand market * Large customer base * Low cost of marketing * Geographical advantage * Lifestyle of the people and their need for errand services * Experience of the partners in management * Their professional qualification in finance and marketing * Possibility of future expantion All these make this business very attractive and a possible success in the near future. There are no areas as such that are not addressed by them. Thus in this business plan we see a clear vision of a great firm in the years to come.

Human Factors in Aviation Essay

A large number of flight accidents occur mostly due to lack of efficient vision of the surrounding environment. Traditional visionary systems rely on synthetic vision or specifically vision of the existing environment devoid of mist, fog and other abnormalities. Real scenarios require the ability to provide reliable vision overcoming natural hindrances. Humans learnt the art of flying when they abandoned the idea of flapping of wings. Similarly, the latest developments of enhanced vision systems have sidestepped the existing traditional vision systems to ensure flight safety. In recent years, Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFID) has posed a significant risk in both civilian and military aviation. One of the aviation’s worst accident occurred in Tenerife, when two Boeing 747’s collided as one aircraft was attempting to take off while the other was to land. The risk of CFID can be greatly reduced with the aid of a suite of Radar and collision avoidance equipment commonly termed as Enhanced Vision systems (EVS). Rationale One of the primary causes for many runway accidents is reduced visibility. One solution to this limitation lies in the use of infrared sensing in aviation operations. All objects on earth emit infrared radiation and their emissions and features can be detected through total darkness as well as intervening mist, rain, haze, smoke and other scenarios, when the objects are invisible to the human eye (Kerr, 2004). The first EVS system was targeted for production in 2001 as standard equipment on Gulf Stream GVSP aircraft. The system was developed in part by Kolesman Inc under the technology license from Advanced Technologies, Inc. utilization of EVS addressed critical areas like CIFT avoidance, general safety enhancements during approach, landing and take off, improved detection of trees, power lines and other obstacles, improved visibility in brown out conditions, improved visibility in haze and rain, identify rugged and sloping terrain and detect runway incursions. Enhanced Vision Systems Enhanced visibility system is an electronic means to provide a display of the forward external scene topology through the use of infrared imaging sensors. They are a combination of near term designs and long term designs. Near term designs present sensor imagery with super-imposed flight symbology on a Head up display (HUD) and may include such enhancements as runway outlines, other display argumentations like obstacles, taxiways and flight corridors. Long term designs include complete replacement of the out-the window scene with a combination of electro optical and sensory information. Infrared Sensors EVS uses Infrared (IR) sensors that detect and measure the levels of infrared radiation emitted continuously by all objects. An object’s radiation level is a function of its temperature with warmer objects emitting more radiation. The infrared sensor measures these emission levels which are then processed to produce a thermal image of the sensor’s forward field of view. EVS IR sensors operate in the Infrared spectrum (Kerr, 2004). The different types of spectrum are Long wave IR, Medium wave IR and Low wave IR. Two variants of this technology are currently in aircraft use. A single sensor unit operating in the long wave, maximum weather penetration band has significant far penetrating capability. Short wave sensors have the ability to enhance the acquisition of runway lighting. A dual sensor variant composed of short and long wave bands used for both light and weather penetration fuses both sensor images for a full spectrum view. Image sensors operating in long wave Infrared spectrum are Cyro-cooled. Models of EVS One of the commonly used EVS systems is EVS 2000. The operation of the model EVS 2000 dual image sensor is given in figure 1. Long Wave Infrared sensor provides best weather penetration, ambient background and terrain features. Similarly, the Short Wave Sensor provides best detection of lighting, runway outline and obstacle lights. The signal processor combines the images of both the sensors to display a fused image picturizing the current environment (Kerr, Luk, Hammerstrom, and Misha, 2003). (Source: Kerr et al, 2003) Boeing Enhanced Vision System Boeing’s EVS enhances situational awareness by providing electronic and real time vision to the pilots. It provides information at low level, night time and moderate to heavy weather operations during all phases of flight. It has a series of imaging sensors, navigational terrain database with a virtual pathway for approach during landings, an EVS image processor and a wide field of view, C-through helmet mounted display integrated with a head tracker. It also consists of a synthetic vision system accompanying the EVS to present a computer generated image of the out-the window view in areas that are not covered by the imaging sensors of the EVS. The EVS image processor performs the following 3 functions. It compares the image scanned by the ground mapping Radar and the MMW sensor with a database to present a computer generated image of the ground terrain conditions. It is accompanied by a Global Positioning System (GPS) to provide a location map during all phases of flight. The IR imaging sensors provide a thermal image of the front line of view of the aircraft. Typical HUD symbology including altitude, air speed, pressure, etc is added without any obscuration of the underlined scene. The SV imagery provides a three dimensional view of a clear window site with reference to the stored on board database. Figure 2 gives the Boeing’s EVS/SV integrated system. The projection of SV data should be confirmed by the EVS data so that the images register accurately. The system provides for three basic views i. e. , flight to view or the normal view, the map views at different altitudes or ranges and the orbiting view or an exocentric/ownership from any orbiting location from the vehicle (Jennings, Alter, Barrow, Bernier and Guell, 2003). (Source: Jennings et al, 2003) EVS Image processing and Integration Association Engine Approach This is a neural net inspired self organizing associating memory approach that can be implemented in FPGA based boards of moderate cost. It constitutes a very efficient implementation of best match association at high real time video rates. It is highly robust in the face of noisy and obscured image inputs. This means of image representation emulates the human visual pathway. A preprocessor performs the feature extraction of edges as well as potentially higher levels of abstraction in order to generate a large, sparse and random binary vector for each image frame. The features are created by looking for 0 crossings after filtering with a laplacian of guassian filter and thereby finding edges. Each edge image is then thresholded by taking the K strongest features setting those to 1 and all others to 0. For multiple images, the feature vectors are strung together to create a composite vector. The operations are performed over a range of multi resolution hyper pixels including those for 3-D images. FPGA provides a complete solution by offering the necessary memory bandwidth, significant parallelism and low precision tolerance. Figure 3 provides an illustration of an association engine operation (Kerr et al, 2003). Fig 3: Association Engine Operation (Source Kerr et al, 2003) DSP Approach One approach to perform multi sensor image enhancement and fusion is the Retinex algorithm evolved at the NASA Langley research center. Digital signal processors from Texas instruments have been used to successfully implement a real-time version of Retinex. C6711, C6713 and DM642 are some of the commercial digital signal processors (DSP) used for image processing. Image processing which is a subset of digital signal processing enables fusion of images from various sensors to aid in efficient navigation. Figure 4: EVS Image Processing (Source: Hines et al, 2005) Image processing architecture and functions of EVS, Long Wave Infrared (LWIR) and Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) processing can be done simultaneously. The multi spectral data streams are registered to remove field of view and spatial resolution differences between the cameras and to correct inaccuracies. Registration of Long Wave IR data to the Short Wave IR is performed by selecting SWIR as the base line and applying affine transform to the LWIR imagery. LaRC patented Retinex algorithm is used to enhance the information content of the captured imagery particularly during poor visibility conditions. The Retinex can also be used as a fusion engine since the algorithm performs nearly symmetrically processing on multi-spectral data and applies multiple scaling operations on each spectral band. The fused video stream contains more information than the individual spectral bands and provides the pilot a single output which can be interpreted easily. Figure 4 illustrates the various processing stages in fusing a multi spectral image (Hines et al, 2005). Design Tradeoffs LWIR based single image system is no panacea for fog, but reduces hardware requirements. It is also a low cost solution with lower resolution. An image fusion system provides active penetration of fog and better resolution but comes at a higher cost. Increasing the bandwidth provides better size and angular resolution and satisfactory atmospheric transmission but costs high. Basic diffraction physics limits the true angular resolution but can be overcome by providing sufficient over sampling. Sensitivity vs. update rate and physical size vs. resolution have traditionally been issues with passive cameras. Fortunately, dual mode sensors overcome these trade offs (Kerr et all, 2003). A successful image capture of landing scenario is given in figure 5. Figure 5. EVS view Vs. Pilots view (source: Yerex, 2006) Human Factors Controlling the aircraft during the entire period of flight is the sole responsibility of the pilot. The pilot seeks guidance from the co-pilot, control tower and inbuilt EVS to successfully steer the aircraft. The pilot controls the aircraft based on a representation of the world displayed in the cockpit given by the inbuilt systems and may not see the actual out-the-window visual scene. Visual information is presented but may not otherwise be visible. Some of the information may be lost due to limitations of resolution, field of view or spectral sensitivities. Therefore, with EVS, the world is not viewed directly but as a representation through sensors and computerized databases. More importantly, the essential data for pilotage should be available on the display. Though EVS systems gives a representation of the exact view of the flight environment, its accuracy plays a significant role in flight safety. Thus human factor are vital for flight control.

The Goal of Advertising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Goal of Advertising - Essay Example In the Toyota Camry advertisement, from the ESSENCE magazine, the target audience will likely first see, in the lower middle section, a red Toyota Camry car with black windows facing the bottom left of the page. There is a building behind the car that covers most of the picture from the left and half of the picture from the right. A lot of people are standing around the car having fun; some of them are dancing, some of them are playing with musical instruments, and some of them appear from the building windows dancing and raising their hands. Also, there is a woman with a short dress, black jacket and black shoes standing next to the driver’s door. The ad contains some praise phrases in the top right of the ad, and the sky appears in the top right of the picture behind the praise phrases. There is also a phrase in the bottom left of the ad that says â€Å" The 2015 Camry, your first bold choice†. Finally, the Toyota brand sign appears in the bottom right of the ad. In the Toyota Prius advertisement, from the TRAVEL + LEISURE magazine, the target audience will likely first see, in the right section, a back of a gray Toyota Prius with an open trunk that contains a lot of bags facing the middle left of the picture. There are many trees that cover most of the background from the middle to the top of the ad, and small pieces of wood covering the rest of the background from the middle to the bottom.

Introduction To Political Science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Introduction To Political Science - Essay Example The essential test of a democracy has been the belief that the source of political authority must be and remain in the people and not in the ruler. The people have the freedom to determine the nature and content of political power, to place and replace magistrates in positions of political trust, to enact and revoke the laws by which they are governed. In short, it will be self-government; it will be in consonance with and be based upon the development of personality and individuality in every self. (Barker, 1958, p.36). It will be government by the people, not as an unorganized mass but as an organized society of living selves; not in terms of gender, color, ethnicity or other differentiating stipulations in society, but as citizens of the country. It will not rest on mere numbers, but on the quality and value of social life, particularly on the two pillars of Liberty and Equality, which are at once its foundation and its product. To the extent that there is a denial or abridgement of either of these principles to any section of people in a society, to that extent there will be the 'shortfall' in the operation of democracy in that society. And the section of the people deprived of the enjoyment of any of these principles will find it difficult to be elected to positions of political trust. Based on these tenets, we examine why so few women in the USA, as of now, occupy positions of political leadership in the country. Denial of civic equality to women. For much too long a period, American democracy has not been an inclusive political community. Large sections of 'citizens' were excluded from enjoying the basic rights of a citizen, namely the right to vote. For more than 150 years after the American democratic and republican constitution came into existence, American women were denied the right to vote. They secured it only after years of 'struggle' to be recognized as equal citizens of the country along with the men citizens, with the passage of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. This was granted about a century after Frances Wright, a Scottish immigrant had first advocated women's suffrage in a series of lectures in 1826. The 'struggle' to secure equal rights for women in electing the representatives to the national and state legislatures continued sporadically during the first half of the 19th century. In 1840, Lucretia Mott and Margaret Fuller, the author of the book The Great Lawsuit; Man vs. Woman became acti ve in Boston. Efforts to gain various women's rights were subsequently led by women famous in the American feminist movement such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis. In 1869 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association with the object of securing an amendment to the Constitution in favor of woman suffrage. The American Woman Suffrage Association, headed by Lucy Stone, was also formed at this time by those who believed that suffrage should be brought about by amendments to the various States constitutions. In 1890, these two bodies united into one national organization, led by Susan B. Anthony, and known as the National American Woman Su

Fight Club Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Fight Club - Essay Example The characters are, the daily life office worker Tyler Durden Played by Brad Pitt and the Narrator played by Edward Norton. He travels for work all over the country and on one of these trips he meets Pitt’s character Tyler Durden. The difference between these two characters is very drastic. Norton’s character is very materialistic and very careful in everything he does. Going through the motions and not really connecting with anyone or anything. He suffers from insomnia and he can’t get sleeping pills from his doctor. He starts visiting support groups for people with different terminal illnesses and support groups for people surviving things like cancer. For some time it seems that the emotional release he achieves at these meetings where he pretends to be a different person at each one is helping, but then he meets Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter). Marla, very much like Tyler attends different support group’s meeting feigning different problems. The ch aracters in the movie very much display the lives of of a common man, the problems they face in their life, the social, psychological issues faced by them and the financial problems they have. These issues make them so vulnerable and desperate that they are out to do anything just to get rid of these and improve their life. Norton’s character continues on business trips and one night when he comes back from one of these trips he finds that his apartment was destroyed in an explosion. This event leads to our Narrator calling up Tyler Durden. He meets up with Durden at a bar and he asks Tyler if he can stay with him. Tyler agrees on one condition. He asks the Narrator to hit him as hard as he can. The two get into a fight outside the bar and that is where the first inklings of the fight club are born. The Narrator moves into Durden’s house which is a dilapidated house in an old business

The Code of Journalistic Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Code of Journalistic Ethics - Essay Example If he does then it amounts to misrepresentation and is an unethical exercise. This stands valid for those cases where the journalist is aware that misrepresenting himself will get him the desired information he needs, however, he shall not disobey the code of ethics. According to the writer’s opinion, this ethic of misrepresentation is absolutely fine and necessary to keep the journalists in check and to make sure that they don’t cross their boundaries as journalists. Protecting Sources of Information: This code of ethics propounds the theory that a journalist shall never divulge the source of his information under any circumstances to any person who has asked for it. It all depends if the source wants him to divulge the information or not. According to the writer, this code of ethic is absolutely sufficient an imperative for the journalist ot do his duty in the most honest fashion to his profession. A journalist should never divulge the information to anyone if the sou rce has refused him to do so, even if that amounts to going to the jail. This way the journalist is showing solidarity and a faith of trust not only towards his source but also towards his profession. Objectivity and Fairness: A journalist should be fair and objective, but this code of ethic cannot be implemented for various reasons. ... Only in those circumstances the journalist is consciously avoiding to divert opinion, but nevertheless it happens all the time. The need of the hour is to come to grips with it and implement it consciously so that the effect would be greater than what it is right now. Conflict of Interest: This code of ethic talks about the fact that there shall be no conflict of interest while a journalist is reporting to his story. I completely agree to this code of ethic and believe that there is no room for submersing the news for the sake of any relative or loved ones. A journalist should always be free and fair in his reporting and therefore it is imperative to follow this code of ethic Economic Pressure: The theory of the code of not yielding to economic pressure says that a journalist should not write a story praising an organization in return of financial advantage. However, there are certain loopholes in this code of ethic, as a journalist needs money to finance himself and his family. It i s imperative for the survival of the journalist that he is able to afford a living, as the readers who are reading his article never understand the financial plight, which the journalist might be going through. Therefore, if there are times when a journalist needs to write a story for remuneration or advertise a story then he should be able to do it without having a feeling of guilt. Privacy vs. Public’s right to know: In the writer’s opinion there is no room for investigative journalism. A journalist should never cross his boundaries when trying to unearth the information. A public celebrity is a celebrity is public and does not live in the public scheme of things. Therefore, journalists should avoid

Event management to reach a strategic goal Essay

Event management to reach a strategic goal - Essay Example Active, performance of an organization for the purpose of creating required quality of organizational behavior. As we know organizational behavior may be created via trainings, motivation and even punishment sometimes. Any organization should accept proactive position in this context.Therefore, we defined the main factors that may influence organizational behavior. Now it is time to talk how organizational behavior is able to influence the overall performance of an organization. We are convinced that there is no need to explain that low degree of organizational behavior negatively influences the overall performance of a company or some other organization. That is why it is important to provide the channels via which organizational behavior may influence performance. In our opinion, among these channels the following ones can be pointed out:Productivity – the low degree of organizational behavior lowers productivity of employees;Corporate climate – inappropriate organiza tional behavior spoils corporate climate inside an organizations. Spoiled relations lower productivity once again;Inappropriate organizational behavior damages informational flows inside a company. Because of lack and low quality of information, wrong decisions are made and the whole organization suffers;There are usually conflicts between the managers, shareholders and employees. As a result an organization cannot move to a common goal. This factor slows down development of an organization.... The bigger an organization is – the greatest is the number of its employees. It means that relations between them have a lot of levels and can be really complicated. It is a significant challenge to create an appropriate organizational behavior in a big organization; The results of an organization’s performance. Bad results create negative corporate climate and environment. Respectively people are not in a good mood to think about some principles of appropriate behavior; Organizational structure. One of the best definitions of this term is the following. â€Å"Organizational structure is the framework, typically hierarchical, within which an organization arranges its lines of authority and communications, and allocates rights and duties. Organizational structure determines the manner and extent to which roles, power, and responsibilities are delegated, controlled, and coordinated, and how information flows between levels of management† (Organizational Structure D efinition). Quality of organizational behavior depends on a type and quality of organizational structure. In fact, better organizational structure means better organizational behavior; Industry and a type of performance/business. There are kinds of performance, where employees experience significant pressure and event stresses. That is why it is quite difficult to talk about some culture of organizational behavior in such conditions; The degree of professionalism of employees. We believe that higher professionalism and higher degree of education mean better quality of organizational behavior. People know the required values, respect them and try to implement on practice; Active, performance of an organization for the purpose of creating required quality of

War and Genocide against the Jews in Europe Essay

War and Genocide against the Jews in Europe - Essay Example Anti-Semitism has been one of the most important reasons behind the genocide conducted against the European Jews during the World War II. The development of the World War inspired the Germans to have control over the entire territory captured by them; due to this factor, they initiated rapid military movements in the German-occupied areas. Genocide is regarded as an unethical and barbarian activity by the entire world but there was little effort made by different countries to stop the genocide carried out by the German military forces. The European Jews were completely isolated from the rest part of the world during the progress of the World War II. The Germans got extra mileage to carry out the entire Holocaust because they did not experience any obstacles from the best part of the world. After detailed analysis, some historians such as Arnold Toynbee has been able to conclude that most parts of the world did not have any respect towards the Jews community because of their personal beliefs. The Christians believed that the Romans had killed Lord Jesus Christ and the Jews community supported the actions of the Romans (Crowe 17). Genocide against the Jews recorded mass killings of 5-6 million people in Europe because of the lack of interference of other communities. â€Å"It is significant that early Christians blamed the Jews for the crucifixion, which was actually practiced by the Romans during the period. The beliefs of the Christians have been supported by stating that the Jews mobs demanded Jesus’ death under the power of Roman governor Pontius Pilate† (Bergen 161). It has been observed that the convictions against the Jews society were not accurate but there are very few evidence in favor of them. The genocide of Europe was conducted by the German military forces under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and the Christian society isolated the Jews and left them to suffer under the brutal tortures of the Nazis.

Human Resource Managment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Resource Managment - Research Paper Example HRM plays a significant role in recruiting new employees. They interview the applicants, train the successful applicants, and give them the rules and regulations of the organization. The paper will use the example of Starbucks. The management of this corporation demands a number of personal characteristics from an individual aspiring to be a barista (Bussing-Burks, 2009). Some of these features include friendliness, attention to detail, ability to work under pressure, and many more others. HRM theories state that, in the recruitment process, a person should demonstrate skills and attributes necessary for the role they are applying for (Malik, 2014). A study by Sims stated that successful recruitments should be a aligned to strategic objectives of the firm (Sims, 2007). Starbucks has built a winning team. According to HRM theories, stated in a study by Malik, when indiduals come together in a group they experience various stages of team development (Malik, 2014). In other words, when new employees join an organization, they experience evolutionary processes. The methods allow them to understand and appreciate their fellow workers’ strengths and skills. In the end, they will utilize these skills to the best advantage of the whole team. Starbucks business model demands different skills for various parts of operations. Studies indicate that Starbucks demonstrate the power of teamwork, which maximizes output and quality of output (DeCenzo, Robbins & Verhulst 2012). Job analysis involves collecting of information about a job. It begins with the job description and then job specification. The recording of data of job description and specification is done separately for references. Job analysis involves collecting and recording job information, checking the job information for accuracy, writing job description based on the information, using information to determine the skills, abilities, and knowledge

Mashreq bank (UAE) Critical success factors in credit risk managemengt Essay

Mashreq bank (UAE) Critical success factors in credit risk managemengt - Essay Example Upon going through the process of a sound lending procedure, almost all banks are offering loans to its prospective bank borrowers because of the high interest rates that will be added to the principal loan. For individuals or business with good credit standing, banks are more than eager to extend loan in exchange of the agreed interest rate. However, external factors such as natural catastrophe, negative economic condition, a global financial crisis, and poor business performance could make the bank borrower fail to meet their financial obligations with the banks (Frenkel et al. 2005, p. 502). This makes bank loans aside from other banking practices such as interbank transactions, foreign exchange transactions, financial futures, bonds, equities, interbank transactions, and acceptances Credit risk strongly influences the overall bank performance and bank failure (Boffey and Robson 1995). Although credit risk is considered as one of the most common types of risk most UAE commercial banks are facing, the research findings of Hussein, Al-Tamimi and Al-Mazrooei (2007) revealed that risk related to foreign exchange is the most common in UAE commercial banks followed by credit risk and operating risk. Among the common causes of credit risk include not only the lax credit standards that has been extended to the bank borrowers but also some cases of poor portfolio risk management due to failure to predict and respond early to economic changes (Dufey and Rehm 2002). Based on historical facts, most of the global financial institutions such as banks had been facing serious banking problems during a global financial crisis. To counteract the long-term negative consequences of large amount of unpaid loans, bankers should properly manage the situation through credit risk management. Critical Success Factor (CSF) is referring to elements that can make the local banks in UAE achieve its organizational goal and

Discuss the different types of love Essay Example for Free

Discuss the different types of love Essay In Act 3, Shakespeare portraits love in different characters point of views, also showing the different ways love can be expressed in. Orlando and Silvius both express their love openly, not fear of embarrassments. Touchstones love is very realistic; Phoebes way of express is very childish; and Rosalinds words are very self-contradicting. Touchstones point of view of a wife is a tool that can be replaced or thrown away at any time. Just from the excuse he gave from not having a proper wedding for he is not like to marry me well and, not being well married, it will be a good excuse for me hereafter to leave my wife, it can show that he doesnt really value this marriage and is already thinking about divorcing before they are even married. Also from the reason he gave about the marriage is just by so much is a horn more precious than to want, we can tell how he sees Audrey as a person. Audrey in Touchstones eyes can be seen as an object or just a releasing of sexual needs, he is not respecting her in any point. As a professional jester, people usually imagine them as very nai ve and stupid, but in a contrast to Orlando from a noble family, he acts more mature and is more realistic. By using big difference in status, Shakespeare shows that the way of thinking is actually not affected by the status and job of that person. Different from Orlando, Silvius pursues Phoebe day and night, and begs that she would accept him, while Orlando is just expressing his love without even the courage to go see Rosalind face to face. But the love between Silvius and Phoebe is one sided. We can tell this after Silvius said she is like the common executioner, whose heart thaccustomd sight of death makes hard begging her to go easy on him, but just in return receives Phoebes mocking. She mocks him about his hyperbolic language and says now show the wound mine eye hath made in thee. During the whole scene, she only said Siliviuss name once, showing that she does not even spare him a glance. Not only is their love one sided, Phoebe acts really irritated and is very cruel with the words she chose to use. Like if mine eyes can wound, now let them kill thee, suggests that she would rather kill him than to give him a little of her love. Although she says cruel things, but she never kicked Silvius or physically hurt him. She also never said anything like stay away, I think is because she likes to feeling of being popular, and the amount of attention Silvius is giving her. I think she mistook that every man is like Silvius, only crying for her love, and falling before her knees, thats why she acts like a queen. This shows that Phoebe actually has very little contacts with people outside even the others in the forest. Phoebe actually is very inexperienced with love. Although she didnt say openly, but saying I had rather hear you chide than this man woo to a man which she has just saw reveals her affections. Shakespeare here uses dramatic irony, because Phoebe doesnt know that Ganymede is actually a women in disguised. And denying her own love is just like the actions of a child towards his or her first love, so I think she is very inexperienced in love. The love Orlando holds for Rosalind is very inconsiderate. As Rosalind says, he haunts the forest that abuses out young plants with carving Rosalind on their bards; hangs odes upon hawthorns and elegies on brambles; all, forsooth, defying the name of Rosalind. He doesnt care how much trouble he is causing to the forest and other people that lives in the forest, just for the sake of his quotidian of love. He didnt care about Rosalinds feelings whose name is written by him all over the forest, which makes her widely known, just for the sake of his love. Orlando is very childish, naive, and venire. He wants the whole world to believe that he is in love with Rosalind, even the Ganymede for which he has only seen. He said, fair youth, I would I could make thee believe I love and I swear to thee, youth, by the white hand of Rosalind, I am that unfortunate he. From his urgent tone, we can tell that how much a strangers word weighs on his heart, in order for him to swear. White using to describe a persons skin can mean that he or she is ill, but I think Orlando mean no harm, but this is just the word he can find to describe Rosalind. So, again, we can see the big difference in education between Rosalind and Orlando. He said the verses above right after Rosalind (now as Ganymede) said he doesnt look like he is in love, so he reacted greatly from just a strangers words. Just from one side of the story, without questioning the truth, Orlando accepted the help of a stranger, without even knowing that person. If it was a trap, Orlando would be dead by now, so he is very nai ve. As a woman, Rosalind loves Orlando by heart. By the way she questions Celia about Orlando, answer me in one word shows that Rosalind is very urgent about everything that is about Orlando. Although she loves him, she doesnt show it very much, denying the love rule in Shakespeares plays, which when characters fall in love hard and fast, they would be desperate and reacts greatly. Rosalinds love is very self-contradicting. She says love is merely a madness when she also, is madly in love. She says as if she was very experienced with love, but actually she doesnt hold much experience than Orlando does. These contradictions only happen when she is dress as a man, showing the difference in gender can bring much difference in the way of talking and gestures. Rosalind is a very ironic character. She comments on love from two different points of views when she is having two different identities. She uses her identities to her greatest benefits, but in return receives a self-contradictory image about love. It is because in Shakespeares period, all actors were men. Imagine a man playing a woman who plays a man in order to win a mans love, the neat borders of gender becomes hopelessly muddled. I think Rosalinds Ganymede identity is use to show that men is actually not much better than women, because the things men can do, women can also do if they want. Shakespeare displays love in many different angles, showing to the audience that love cannot be too realistic like Touchstone, but cannot be too imaginative like Orlando; love is a poison that can bring suffer like Silvius and Phoebe, but can also bring sweetness. The love in As You Like It is far to unrealistic that they are not likely to happen, but this is just a hyperbolic play, suggesting that it might occur in another form. Like Rosalinds identities, love need to strike a balance; otherwise they would create problems for others and themselves.

Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies

Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies BACKGROUND OF STUDY 1.1 Introduction Disclosure of information in corporate annual reports has attracted a number of researchers in both developed and developing countries. The voluntary disclosure information in excess of mandatory disclosure, has been receiving an increasing amount of attention in recent accounting studies. Because of the inadequacy of compulsory information, the demand for voluntary disclosure provides investors with the necessary information to make more informed decisions (Alsaeed, 2006). Voluntary disclosure of decision-useful corporate information is considered to be the first step in solving the alleged problems of traditional financial reporting (Leadbetter, 2000). Its objectives are well defined: closing (or narrowing) the gap between a companys potential intrinsic market value and its current market value. Voluntary disclosure, in the context of globalization of the worlds financial markets, has received a great deal of attention in the accounting literature in recent years (Hossain, Berera and Rahman, 1995). This is due to the following reasons: Firstly, additional disclosures may help to attract new shareholders thereby helping to maintain a healthy demand for shares, and a share price that more fully reflects its intrinsic value. It is possible that poor disclosure could lead to an undervalued share making it attractive to a potential predator. Secondly, increased information may assist in reducing informational risk and thereby lower the cost of capital (Spero, 1979). A lower cost of capital should mean that marginal projects become profitable. Thirdly, in order to raise capital on the markets, companies will increase their voluntary disclosure. Consequently, listed companies are more likely to have a higher level of disclosure than unlisted companies and multiple listed companies those raising capital on the international markets will have a higher level of disclosure than domestically listed companies. Fourthly, multiple listed companies often have an interest in foreign capital markets since foreign operations are often financed by foreign capital (Choi and Mueller, 1984). Disclosure levels might be increased to adapt to local customs to meet the requirements of banks and other suppliers of capital; finally, listed and multiple listed companies might increase their social responsibility disclosures to demonstrate that they act responsibly (Watts and Zimmerman, 1979). Companies may have attained their status on the securities markets and be able to attract new funds, not least because they act responsibly. According to Healy and Palepu (2001) a companys disclosure decision could be a response to innovation, globalization or changes in business and capital market environments. Kuwait is the focus of this study for three reasons. First, Kuwait is a small rich country, relatively open economy with crude oil reserves of about 10% of world reserves. Second, over the last decade, the Kuwaiti government has initiated several far-reaching reforms at the Kuwait Stock Exchange to mobilize domestic savings and attract foreign capital investment. These measures include privatization of state corporations through the stock exchange and allowing foreign investors to own shares in the listed companies since 2000, tax free. Third, the Kuwait Stock Exchange is becoming an important capital market in the region. It is ranked the second largest market in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia) in terms of total market capitalization. Its total market capitalization was US$128,951 million as of December 2006 (Arab Monetary Fund 2006). These reasons could motivate investors to diversify their investment portfolios into that market. As a result, investors may be interested in the information disclosure practices of listed companies in Kuwait (Al-Shammari, 2008). 1-2 Problem Statement Many developing countries strive to mobilize financial resources from domestic as well as international sources with a view to attaining their economic and social development goals. Domestic and international investors utilize financial and non-financial information available on potential investment targets for assessing risk and making critical investment decisions. Thus, the availability of financial and non-financial information in sufficient quantity and of sufficient quality has an important bearing on efforts geared towards mobilizing investment for financing economic and social development. Adequate reporting and disclosure of financial and non-financial information will reduce asymmetric information problem, hence are likely to improve investor confidence and a lower cost of investment. According to Gray, Meeks and Roberts (1995) investors demand information to assess the timing and uncertainty of current and future cash flows so that they may value firms and make other investment decisions such as choosing a portfolio of securities. Companies satisfy this demand in part by supplying voluntary accounting information, thereby enabling them to raise capital on the best available terms (Gray et al., 1995). Given the faster pace of globalization, the growing interdependence of international financial markets and increased mobility of capital, developing countries need to attach greater importance to corporate transparency and disclosure. Policy makers, legislators and regulators, in recognition of the significant influence that corporate transparency has on decisions of investors, need to strengthen further the various components of corporate disclosure infrastructure so that domestic and international resources are mobilized more efficiently. Kuwait is one of the developing countries that face difficulties to attract foreign investments. Birgit Ebner at Germanys Frankfurt Trust, who helps manage a Middle Eastern stock fund, said Kuwait was not an attractive investment compared with others in the region (www.gulfnews.com). One of the main reasons that interpret this matter is the absence of voluntary disclosure as a result of sharp low supply of information by companies. According to Birgit Ebner, We are underweight in Kuwait because in Kuwait there are many holding firms dominating the market. And on top of it, the transparency is currently lower than in other Gulf States. In opinion of many analysts in Kuwait, the problem of gulf bank is related to absence of voluntary disclosure. Moreover, Kuwait stock exchange report that issued in (2007) revealed that 156 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange from among 177 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange are violating disclosure guidelines (www.alaswaq.net 2007). The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the influence of several firm characteristics on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait and whether disclosure level improves over the years given changes in the accounting environment of the country and globalization that have taken placed. There are many studies have examined the relationship between a company`s characteristics and the level of disclosure in both developed and developing countries such as Canada (Belkaoui and Kahl, 1978); United Kingdom (Firth, 1979, 1980); Nigeria (Wallace, 1987); Sweden (Cooke, 1989); Japan (Cooke, 1992); United States (Imhoff, 1992; and Lang and Lundholm, 1993); Bangladesh (Ahmed and Nicholls, 1994); Switzerland (Raffournier, 1995); Hong Kong (Wallace and Naser, 1995), Egypt (Mahmood, 1999); Jordan (Naser, Alkhatib and Karbhari, 2002); Saudi Arabia (Alsaeed, 2006b) and United Arab Emirates (Aljifri, 2007). However, to my knowledge, little attention has been devoted to the role of voluntary disclosure in the Middle East countries, more specifically Kuwait (see Al-Shammari, 2008). The aim of this study is to understand what motivate or demonstrate a companys disclosure by empirically investigate the association between a number of company characteristics and the extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of companies listed in the Kuwait Stock Exchange in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. In addition, the influence of the reporting year on voluntary disclosure will also be examined to assess the progress of disclosure activities in Kuwait. Given that Ashammaris study only cover the year of 2005, the execution of this study is fully justified. 1.3 Research Questions In general, this study seeks for explanation on voluntary disclosure behaviour of Kuwait companies. The followings are the research questions:- 1- What is the relationship between the firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and voluntary disclosure level? 2- Does reporting year influences voluntary disclosure? 3- To what extent do the above factors affect the voluntary disclosure? 1.4 Research Objectives To determine the influences of firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and reporting year on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait. 1.5 Significance of the Study The significance of study can be viewed from contributions given to Accounting academic discipline and to the practitioners and policymakers. Contribution to Accounting body of knowledge This study contributes to the literature on corporate financial reporting and disclosure practices in one of the important capital markets in the Middle East in which International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) are mandatory and the government controls the accounting and auditing profession. It also contributes to the corporate governance literature on whether the company characteristics found to be significant in companies operating in developed countries are similar to those a developing country like Kuwait. This study is important in enhancing our understanding of corporate financial reporting in Kuwait. It explores the determinants that help explain voluntary disclosure in Kuwait. Contribution to the practitioners and policy makers Knowledge on firms characteristics that influence voluntary disclosure would enable policy makers to target training and monitoring activities to suitable target companies in order to improve disclosure level in the country. This is important because higher disclosure among companies could improve investors confidence and help attracting more foreign investment into the country. The study is also able to show whether the external environment in Kuwait have improved the voluntary disclosure activities. 1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study This study investigates the relationship between firm characteristics and voluntary disclosure of non financial companies listed in Kuwait. Financial companies (banks and insurance companies) were eliminated as the characteristics of their financial reports are different from those of non financial firms (Alsaeed, 2006). A disclosure index was constructed as a yardstick to measure the level of disclosure by the listed firms. The construction of the disclosure index is based on the information that firms supply in their annual financial reports to shareholders. Albeit not as conclusive, financial reports serve as a widely accepted (Knutson, 1992). The disclosure index does not intend to be comprehensive, nor does it intend to specify what firms ought to disclose. Rather, the index is crafted solely for the purpose of capturing and measuring differences in disclosure practices among firms. The selection of items embedded into the index was entirely guided by Meek, Rober and Gray (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006) 1.7 Organization of the Study The reminder of this study is organized as follows: Chapter Two discusses the literature review related to the study; Chapter Three consists of research methodology including theoretical framework, hypothesis development and model specification for the study. The measurement, sampling and instrumentations are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter Four presents the empirical findings and results. Finally, Chapter Five provides the discussion, implications and recommendation of the study as well as suggestions for future research. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction This Chapter discusses and summarizes the literatures review, which looks at many aspects of voluntary disclosure and the factors which affect the degree of voluntary disclosure in a firm. The discussion is segmented into five sections. The first section presents an overview of disclosure requirements in Kuwait so as to provide foundation knowledge of the issue understudy. Section two discusses the concept and measurement of voluntary disclosure. This is followed by section three which presents the firm-related determinants of voluntary disclosure as found from prior theoretical and empirical literature. These variables include firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size. 2.2 Disclosure Requirement in Kuwait Mandatory disclosure refers to firms disclose information about their operations because of legal requirements. For the efficiency of markets and the protection of investors, mandatory disclosure of information concerning the firms operating in capital markets has important consequences (Shin, 1998). 2.3 Voluntary disclosure level More detailed disclosure by the firms beyond the level of information disclosed within the mandatory disclosure process is called voluntary disclosure. Voluntary disclosure means making public the financial and non-financial information regarding the firms operations without any legal requirement (Fishman and Hagerty (1997), Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006). Alsaeed has identified a more comprehensive items for voluntary disclosure based on Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003). These items are as in Table 2.1 Table 2.1: Voluntary disclosure items in Alsaeed (2006) No. Disclosure items 1 Strategic information 2 Brief history of company 3 Information on events affecting future years results 4 Board directors names 5 Top managements names 6 Majority shareholders 7 Information on different types of products 8 Information statistics for more than two years 9 Information on dividends policy 10 Information on future expansion projects 11 Percentage of foreign and national labor force 12 Information on training and workers development 13 Information on social and environmental activities 14 Statement of corporate goals and objectives 15 Principle markets 16 Average compensation per employee 17 Market share 18 Information on events affecting current years results 19 Competitive environment 20 Forecasted profits Many studies have examined the relationship between a companys characteristics and voluntary disclosure level. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that firm size, profitability and auditor firm size influence the level of voluntary disclosure. Naser et al., (2002), Jensen and Meckling, (1976); Fama and Jensen, (1983) Donnelly and Mulcahy, (2008), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), studied the association between companys firm size, debt ratio, owner ship and auditor firm size and the level of disclosure. 2.4 Determinants of Voluntary Disclosure 2.4.1 Firm size Most of the firm disclosure studies used firm size as a control variable (see for example, Alsaeed (2006); Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008); Brammer and Pavelin (2004); Meek et al, (1995), Mitchell et al, (1995), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Aitken et al. (1997), Bradbury, (1992), Zarzeski (1996), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000), Naser et al.,(2002), Wallace and Naser (1995), Firth, (1979), Eng and Mak (2003) and Hossain et al.(1994). Many studies found a positive relationship between firm size and disclosure level of companies. For example, Alsaeed (2006) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between firm characteristics of non-financial Saudi firms listed on the Saudi Stock Market in 2003 and voluntary disclosure level by those companies. He found that there was a positive relationship between the firm size and the level of disclosure. Alsaeed (2006) argues that agency costs are higher for larger companies because shareholders are widespread, therefore, additional disclosure might reduce these costs (Watts and Zimmerman, 1983). This finding is consistent with other studies such as Meek et al, (1995), Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008), Foster (1986), Hossain et al, (1995) and Al-Shammari, (2008). In addition to what Alsaeed (2006) has mentioned above, they argued that large companies might have sufficient resources to afford the cost of producing information or the user of annual reports. Secondly, small companies might suffer from a competitive disadvantage if they provide additional disclosure. Thirdly, large companies might be of interest to different users of annual reports including government agencies. 2.4.2 Debt ratio There is no consensus among researchers about the relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure. Most of studies found a significant positive relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure such as Naser (1998), Mitchell, Chia and Loh (1995); Hossain et al. (1995), Al-Shammari, (2008) and Bradbury, (1992). Jensen and Meckling, (1976) found the voluntary disclosure level can reduce the agency costs by facilitating debt ratio suppliers assessment of the firms to ability to meet its debts ratio. In relation to this, Al-Shimmiri, (2008) argued that the companies with higher debt in their structure of capital are prone to higher agency cost, hence they will be more likely to disclose additional information in order to reduce agency costs and information asymmetry with shareholders. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that when firms increase their level of leverage, they have to disclose more information in order to reduce asymmetric information between the firm and its creditors. Hence he argued that firms with high leverage will have high level of disclosure. In addition, Zarzeski (1996) argued that firms with higher debt ratio are more likely to share private information with their creditors. Thus, voluntary disclosures can be expected to increase with leverage. However, Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Hossain, Berera and Rahman (1994), Aitken, Hooper and Pickering (1997), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) and Eng and Mak (2003) studied the relationship between the voluntary disclosure and leverage found no relationship. While Meek et al (1995) mention that there is negative relationship between voluntary disclosure and leverage for US, UK, and European MNCs, Wallace, Naser and Mora (1994). 2.4.3 Profitability Many studies refer the profitability as the factor that affects voluntary disclosure level such as Singhvi and Desai (1971); Foster (1986), Richard (1992), Meek et al. (1995) and Naser et al. (2002) they argues that when the level of firms profitability increase, the firms have to disclose more information that can be an indicator to good management and also have incentives to show to the investors and the public that their profitability has increased. However, Ahmed and Courtis (1999) identified 12 studies that investigated the relationship between profitability and disclosure with mixed results. Akerlof (1970) argued that larger profitable companies may disclose more information to be distinguished from less profitable companies. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) argued the firms with larger profits are more interested in disclosing detailed information in their annual reports in order to justify their financial performance and to reduce political costs. However Wallace et al. (1994) found no significant relationship between the comprehensiveness of disclosure and the profit margin of listed and unlisted Spanish firms. Inchausti (1997) elaborated that agency theory suggests that managers of larger profitable companies may wish to disclose more information in order to obtain personal advantages like continuance of their management position and compensation. Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995) and Alsaeed, (2006) observed no significant relationship between the disclosure and the profitability, because none of the performance related variables provides an explanation of the disclosure level. Ho and Wong (2001), Barako, Hancock and Izan (2006) and Barako (2007) on the other hand found profitability to be positively and significantly related with two of the four disclosure categories, financial and forward looking disclosures, whereas other categories ware negative and significant with the disclosure of general and strategic. This result is similar with that of Eng and Mak (2002) study on Singapore listed companies. For example, companies in the manufacturing sector were found to disclose less of financial information, and instead disclosed more on general and strategic information to explain in detail factors affecting their poor financial performance. 2.4.4 Ownership dispersion The ownership dispersion represents the percentage of shares owned by outsider after subtracting shares owned by the insider. Many studies found positive relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership, as explained by the agency theory which suggests that difference in the proportion of the companys shares owned by outsider shareholders causes differences in the voluntary disclosure level. This is because the companies with more outsider ownership are more likely to disclose more information than companies with less outsider ownership and also the demand for publicly available information is likely to increase (Wallace and Naser 1995). Gelb (2000) and Barako et al. (2006) found significant relationship between outsider ownership and disclosure level. Leftwich, Watts and Zimmerman (1981), Fama and Jensen (1983), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) and Aitken et al. (1997) mentioned the detailed disclosure in annual reports that may allow outsider to monitor their interests more efficiently. Eng and Mak (2003) argued that voluntary disclosure is a substitute for outside monitoring and so is negatively related to managerial ownership. They found evidence consistent with this prediction. Many studies found negative relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership dispersion. Hossain et al. (1994) found evidence on Malaysian listed companies having significant negative association between voluntary disclosure and ownership dispersion. A later study by Haniffa and Cooke (2002) also found similar result. Naser et al. (2002) examined the affect of ownership on US companys disclosure and his results indicated that firms with a lower level of managerial ownership are more likely to receive higher ratings for the disclosure provided in their financial reports. Ho and Wong (2001) found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure. Chau and Gray (2002) also found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Hong Kong and Singapore but found positive associated with outside ownership. Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008) on the other hand found no evidence that ownership structure is related to disclosure level. 2.4.5 Audit firm size According to Jensen and Meckling (1976) large audit firms act as a mechanism to reduce agency costs and exert more of a monitoring role by limiting opportunistic behavior by managers and are less likely to be associated with clients that disclose lower levels of information in their annual reports. In terms of size, audit firms can be divided into two; large or small. Large audit firms are identified as being one of these Big Four (or Big Five or Six formerly) international auditing firms, and smaller audit firms are the rest; the firms are more likely to choose a Big Six auditing firm. Such choice of audit firms signals to investors that the contents of the annual reports are audited with high quality (Craswell and Taylor, 1992). Furthermore, the large audit firms are widely spread in the world while small firms are domestically; hence the large audit firms have more capability to disclosure of the information and have higher reputation and power to affect the voluntary disclosure level related to the smaller audit firm (Alsaeed, 2006). Several studies found that audit firm size have significant relationship with voluntary disclosure level. Firth (1979), Craswell and Taylor (1992), Wallace and Naser, (1995), Ahmed (1995), Raffournier (1995), Inchausti (1997), Mahmood (1999), S.M. Ho and Wong (2001), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), Nasser et al. (2002) and Al-Shammari, (2008) found significant relationship between the voluntary disclosure level and audit firm size. Forker (1992) and Wallace et al. (1994) claim there are positive relationship between voluntary disclosure and audit firm size but not significant, while Hossain et al. (1994), Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995), Depoers (2000) and Haniffa and Cooke (2002) they didnt fine significant association. 2.4.6 Industry sector According Cook (1989) disclosure level is more likely to vary from one industry to the other due to the likelihood that leading firms operating in a particularindustry could produce a bandwagon effect on the level ofdisclosure adopted by other firms working in the same industry. Cooke (1992) found evidence that Japanese manufacturing firms tend to provide more information than other non-manufacturing firms. Other studies that found significant effect of industry types are Wallace and Naser (1995) and Camfferman and Cooke (2002), while McNally et al.(1982); Wallace (1987): Wallace et al. (1994); Raffournier (1995); Inchausti, (1997); Patton and Zelenka (1997); Naser (1998); Owusu-Ansah (1998), Naser and Alkhatib (2000) and Alsaeed (2006) found insignificant effect. Table 2.2: Summary of independent variables influence on voluntary disclosure: Study Independent variable findings Akerlof (1970) Profitability Positive relationship Singhvi and Desai, (1971) Profitability Positive relationship Jensen and Meckling, (1976) Debt ratio and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Firth, (1979) Firm size and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Leftwich, Watts, and Zimmerman (1981) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion McNally et al.(1982) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector Fama and Jensen (1983) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion Watts and Zimmerman (1983). Firm size positive relationship with firm size Foster, (1986) Firm size, profitability Significant positive with firm size and found positive with profitability. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) Profitability positive with profitability Wallace (1987) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Cook (1989) Industry sector Positive with industry sector. Bradbury (1992) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Richard, (1992) Profitability Positive with profitability. Forker (1992) Audit firm size Positive but insignificant with audit firm size. Craswell and Taylor (1992) Audit firm size Positively significant with audit firm size. Cooke (1992) Industry sector positive with industry sector Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion and negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1994) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion but negatively with debt ratio and audit firm size. Wallace et al. (1994) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Meek et al, (1995) Firm size, debt ratio, profitability. Positive with firm size and profitability whereas significant, negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Mitchell et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Wallace and Naser (1995) Firm size, profitability, Ownership dispersion Positive with firm size, ownership dispersion and industry sector but- ,audit firm size and industry sector Negatively with profitability and audit firm size. Ahmed (1995) Firm size and audit firm size Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size. Raffournier (1995) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. No significant with profitability and industry sector, but significant positive with audit firm size Zarzeski (1996) Firm size and debt ratio Positive with firm size and debt ratio Aitken et al. (1997) Firm size, Debt ratio and owner ship dispersion Positive with the firm size and ownership dispersion but negative with debt ratio. Inchausti (1997) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. Positive with profitability and significant positive with audit firm size and insignificant with industry sector. Patton and Zelenka (1997) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Naser (1998) Debt ratio and industry sector. Significant positive with debt ratio but insignificant with industry sector. Owusu-Ansah (1998), Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Mahmood (1999) Audit firm size Significant with audit firm size. Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and significant negative with debt ratio. Gelb (2000) Ownership dispersion Negatively with Ownership dispersion Depoers (2000) Audit firm size No significant with audit firm size. Naser and Alkhatib (2000) industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Ho and Wong (2001) Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. No significant with profitability but negatively with ownership dispersion and positive significant with audit firm size. Naser et al. (2002). Firm size, Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size but positive with profitability and no significant with ownership dispersion. Eng and Mak (2002) Profitability No significant with profitability Chau and Gray (2002) Ownership dispersion Positively with outside ownership dispersion. Camfferman and Cooke (2002) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies Voluntary Disclosure Behaviour of Kuwait Companies BACKGROUND OF STUDY 1.1 Introduction Disclosure of information in corporate annual reports has attracted a number of researchers in both developed and developing countries. The voluntary disclosure information in excess of mandatory disclosure, has been receiving an increasing amount of attention in recent accounting studies. Because of the inadequacy of compulsory information, the demand for voluntary disclosure provides investors with the necessary information to make more informed decisions (Alsaeed, 2006). Voluntary disclosure of decision-useful corporate information is considered to be the first step in solving the alleged problems of traditional financial reporting (Leadbetter, 2000). Its objectives are well defined: closing (or narrowing) the gap between a companys potential intrinsic market value and its current market value. Voluntary disclosure, in the context of globalization of the worlds financial markets, has received a great deal of attention in the accounting literature in recent years (Hossain, Berera and Rahman, 1995). This is due to the following reasons: Firstly, additional disclosures may help to attract new shareholders thereby helping to maintain a healthy demand for shares, and a share price that more fully reflects its intrinsic value. It is possible that poor disclosure could lead to an undervalued share making it attractive to a potential predator. Secondly, increased information may assist in reducing informational risk and thereby lower the cost of capital (Spero, 1979). A lower cost of capital should mean that marginal projects become profitable. Thirdly, in order to raise capital on the markets, companies will increase their voluntary disclosure. Consequently, listed companies are more likely to have a higher level of disclosure than unlisted companies and multiple listed companies those raising capital on the international markets will have a higher level of disclosure than domestically listed companies. Fourthly, multiple listed companies often have an interest in foreign capital markets since foreign operations are often financed by foreign capital (Choi and Mueller, 1984). Disclosure levels might be increased to adapt to local customs to meet the requirements of banks and other suppliers of capital; finally, listed and multiple listed companies might increase their social responsibility disclosures to demonstrate that they act responsibly (Watts and Zimmerman, 1979). Companies may have attained their status on the securities markets and be able to attract new funds, not least because they act responsibly. According to Healy and Palepu (2001) a companys disclosure decision could be a response to innovation, globalization or changes in business and capital market environments. Kuwait is the focus of this study for three reasons. First, Kuwait is a small rich country, relatively open economy with crude oil reserves of about 10% of world reserves. Second, over the last decade, the Kuwaiti government has initiated several far-reaching reforms at the Kuwait Stock Exchange to mobilize domestic savings and attract foreign capital investment. These measures include privatization of state corporations through the stock exchange and allowing foreign investors to own shares in the listed companies since 2000, tax free. Third, the Kuwait Stock Exchange is becoming an important capital market in the region. It is ranked the second largest market in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia) in terms of total market capitalization. Its total market capitalization was US$128,951 million as of December 2006 (Arab Monetary Fund 2006). These reasons could motivate investors to diversify their investment portfolios into that market. As a result, investors may be interested in the information disclosure practices of listed companies in Kuwait (Al-Shammari, 2008). 1-2 Problem Statement Many developing countries strive to mobilize financial resources from domestic as well as international sources with a view to attaining their economic and social development goals. Domestic and international investors utilize financial and non-financial information available on potential investment targets for assessing risk and making critical investment decisions. Thus, the availability of financial and non-financial information in sufficient quantity and of sufficient quality has an important bearing on efforts geared towards mobilizing investment for financing economic and social development. Adequate reporting and disclosure of financial and non-financial information will reduce asymmetric information problem, hence are likely to improve investor confidence and a lower cost of investment. According to Gray, Meeks and Roberts (1995) investors demand information to assess the timing and uncertainty of current and future cash flows so that they may value firms and make other investment decisions such as choosing a portfolio of securities. Companies satisfy this demand in part by supplying voluntary accounting information, thereby enabling them to raise capital on the best available terms (Gray et al., 1995). Given the faster pace of globalization, the growing interdependence of international financial markets and increased mobility of capital, developing countries need to attach greater importance to corporate transparency and disclosure. Policy makers, legislators and regulators, in recognition of the significant influence that corporate transparency has on decisions of investors, need to strengthen further the various components of corporate disclosure infrastructure so that domestic and international resources are mobilized more efficiently. Kuwait is one of the developing countries that face difficulties to attract foreign investments. Birgit Ebner at Germanys Frankfurt Trust, who helps manage a Middle Eastern stock fund, said Kuwait was not an attractive investment compared with others in the region (www.gulfnews.com). One of the main reasons that interpret this matter is the absence of voluntary disclosure as a result of sharp low supply of information by companies. According to Birgit Ebner, We are underweight in Kuwait because in Kuwait there are many holding firms dominating the market. And on top of it, the transparency is currently lower than in other Gulf States. In opinion of many analysts in Kuwait, the problem of gulf bank is related to absence of voluntary disclosure. Moreover, Kuwait stock exchange report that issued in (2007) revealed that 156 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange from among 177 companies listed in Kuwait stock exchange are violating disclosure guidelines (www.alaswaq.net 2007). The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the influence of several firm characteristics on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait and whether disclosure level improves over the years given changes in the accounting environment of the country and globalization that have taken placed. There are many studies have examined the relationship between a company`s characteristics and the level of disclosure in both developed and developing countries such as Canada (Belkaoui and Kahl, 1978); United Kingdom (Firth, 1979, 1980); Nigeria (Wallace, 1987); Sweden (Cooke, 1989); Japan (Cooke, 1992); United States (Imhoff, 1992; and Lang and Lundholm, 1993); Bangladesh (Ahmed and Nicholls, 1994); Switzerland (Raffournier, 1995); Hong Kong (Wallace and Naser, 1995), Egypt (Mahmood, 1999); Jordan (Naser, Alkhatib and Karbhari, 2002); Saudi Arabia (Alsaeed, 2006b) and United Arab Emirates (Aljifri, 2007). However, to my knowledge, little attention has been devoted to the role of voluntary disclosure in the Middle East countries, more specifically Kuwait (see Al-Shammari, 2008). The aim of this study is to understand what motivate or demonstrate a companys disclosure by empirically investigate the association between a number of company characteristics and the extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of companies listed in the Kuwait Stock Exchange in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. In addition, the influence of the reporting year on voluntary disclosure will also be examined to assess the progress of disclosure activities in Kuwait. Given that Ashammaris study only cover the year of 2005, the execution of this study is fully justified. 1.3 Research Questions In general, this study seeks for explanation on voluntary disclosure behaviour of Kuwait companies. The followings are the research questions:- 1- What is the relationship between the firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and voluntary disclosure level? 2- Does reporting year influences voluntary disclosure? 3- To what extent do the above factors affect the voluntary disclosure? 1.4 Research Objectives To determine the influences of firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size, industry sector and reporting year on the level of voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Kuwait. 1.5 Significance of the Study The significance of study can be viewed from contributions given to Accounting academic discipline and to the practitioners and policymakers. Contribution to Accounting body of knowledge This study contributes to the literature on corporate financial reporting and disclosure practices in one of the important capital markets in the Middle East in which International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) are mandatory and the government controls the accounting and auditing profession. It also contributes to the corporate governance literature on whether the company characteristics found to be significant in companies operating in developed countries are similar to those a developing country like Kuwait. This study is important in enhancing our understanding of corporate financial reporting in Kuwait. It explores the determinants that help explain voluntary disclosure in Kuwait. Contribution to the practitioners and policy makers Knowledge on firms characteristics that influence voluntary disclosure would enable policy makers to target training and monitoring activities to suitable target companies in order to improve disclosure level in the country. This is important because higher disclosure among companies could improve investors confidence and help attracting more foreign investment into the country. The study is also able to show whether the external environment in Kuwait have improved the voluntary disclosure activities. 1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study This study investigates the relationship between firm characteristics and voluntary disclosure of non financial companies listed in Kuwait. Financial companies (banks and insurance companies) were eliminated as the characteristics of their financial reports are different from those of non financial firms (Alsaeed, 2006). A disclosure index was constructed as a yardstick to measure the level of disclosure by the listed firms. The construction of the disclosure index is based on the information that firms supply in their annual financial reports to shareholders. Albeit not as conclusive, financial reports serve as a widely accepted (Knutson, 1992). The disclosure index does not intend to be comprehensive, nor does it intend to specify what firms ought to disclose. Rather, the index is crafted solely for the purpose of capturing and measuring differences in disclosure practices among firms. The selection of items embedded into the index was entirely guided by Meek, Rober and Gray (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006) 1.7 Organization of the Study The reminder of this study is organized as follows: Chapter Two discusses the literature review related to the study; Chapter Three consists of research methodology including theoretical framework, hypothesis development and model specification for the study. The measurement, sampling and instrumentations are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter Four presents the empirical findings and results. Finally, Chapter Five provides the discussion, implications and recommendation of the study as well as suggestions for future research. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction This Chapter discusses and summarizes the literatures review, which looks at many aspects of voluntary disclosure and the factors which affect the degree of voluntary disclosure in a firm. The discussion is segmented into five sections. The first section presents an overview of disclosure requirements in Kuwait so as to provide foundation knowledge of the issue understudy. Section two discusses the concept and measurement of voluntary disclosure. This is followed by section three which presents the firm-related determinants of voluntary disclosure as found from prior theoretical and empirical literature. These variables include firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion, profitability, audit firm size. 2.2 Disclosure Requirement in Kuwait Mandatory disclosure refers to firms disclose information about their operations because of legal requirements. For the efficiency of markets and the protection of investors, mandatory disclosure of information concerning the firms operating in capital markets has important consequences (Shin, 1998). 2.3 Voluntary disclosure level More detailed disclosure by the firms beyond the level of information disclosed within the mandatory disclosure process is called voluntary disclosure. Voluntary disclosure means making public the financial and non-financial information regarding the firms operations without any legal requirement (Fishman and Hagerty (1997), Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003) and Alsaeed (2006). Alsaeed has identified a more comprehensive items for voluntary disclosure based on Meek et al. (1995), Botosan (1997), Naser and Nuseibeh (2003). These items are as in Table 2.1 Table 2.1: Voluntary disclosure items in Alsaeed (2006) No. Disclosure items 1 Strategic information 2 Brief history of company 3 Information on events affecting future years results 4 Board directors names 5 Top managements names 6 Majority shareholders 7 Information on different types of products 8 Information statistics for more than two years 9 Information on dividends policy 10 Information on future expansion projects 11 Percentage of foreign and national labor force 12 Information on training and workers development 13 Information on social and environmental activities 14 Statement of corporate goals and objectives 15 Principle markets 16 Average compensation per employee 17 Market share 18 Information on events affecting current years results 19 Competitive environment 20 Forecasted profits Many studies have examined the relationship between a companys characteristics and voluntary disclosure level. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that firm size, profitability and auditor firm size influence the level of voluntary disclosure. Naser et al., (2002), Jensen and Meckling, (1976); Fama and Jensen, (1983) Donnelly and Mulcahy, (2008), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), studied the association between companys firm size, debt ratio, owner ship and auditor firm size and the level of disclosure. 2.4 Determinants of Voluntary Disclosure 2.4.1 Firm size Most of the firm disclosure studies used firm size as a control variable (see for example, Alsaeed (2006); Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008); Brammer and Pavelin (2004); Meek et al, (1995), Mitchell et al, (1995), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Aitken et al. (1997), Bradbury, (1992), Zarzeski (1996), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000), Naser et al.,(2002), Wallace and Naser (1995), Firth, (1979), Eng and Mak (2003) and Hossain et al.(1994). Many studies found a positive relationship between firm size and disclosure level of companies. For example, Alsaeed (2006) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between firm characteristics of non-financial Saudi firms listed on the Saudi Stock Market in 2003 and voluntary disclosure level by those companies. He found that there was a positive relationship between the firm size and the level of disclosure. Alsaeed (2006) argues that agency costs are higher for larger companies because shareholders are widespread, therefore, additional disclosure might reduce these costs (Watts and Zimmerman, 1983). This finding is consistent with other studies such as Meek et al, (1995), Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008), Foster (1986), Hossain et al, (1995) and Al-Shammari, (2008). In addition to what Alsaeed (2006) has mentioned above, they argued that large companies might have sufficient resources to afford the cost of producing information or the user of annual reports. Secondly, small companies might suffer from a competitive disadvantage if they provide additional disclosure. Thirdly, large companies might be of interest to different users of annual reports including government agencies. 2.4.2 Debt ratio There is no consensus among researchers about the relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure. Most of studies found a significant positive relationship between debt ratio and voluntary disclosure such as Naser (1998), Mitchell, Chia and Loh (1995); Hossain et al. (1995), Al-Shammari, (2008) and Bradbury, (1992). Jensen and Meckling, (1976) found the voluntary disclosure level can reduce the agency costs by facilitating debt ratio suppliers assessment of the firms to ability to meet its debts ratio. In relation to this, Al-Shimmiri, (2008) argued that the companies with higher debt in their structure of capital are prone to higher agency cost, hence they will be more likely to disclose additional information in order to reduce agency costs and information asymmetry with shareholders. Alsaeed, (2006) argued that when firms increase their level of leverage, they have to disclose more information in order to reduce asymmetric information between the firm and its creditors. Hence he argued that firms with high leverage will have high level of disclosure. In addition, Zarzeski (1996) argued that firms with higher debt ratio are more likely to share private information with their creditors. Thus, voluntary disclosures can be expected to increase with leverage. However, Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993), Hossain, Berera and Rahman (1994), Aitken, Hooper and Pickering (1997), Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) and Eng and Mak (2003) studied the relationship between the voluntary disclosure and leverage found no relationship. While Meek et al (1995) mention that there is negative relationship between voluntary disclosure and leverage for US, UK, and European MNCs, Wallace, Naser and Mora (1994). 2.4.3 Profitability Many studies refer the profitability as the factor that affects voluntary disclosure level such as Singhvi and Desai (1971); Foster (1986), Richard (1992), Meek et al. (1995) and Naser et al. (2002) they argues that when the level of firms profitability increase, the firms have to disclose more information that can be an indicator to good management and also have incentives to show to the investors and the public that their profitability has increased. However, Ahmed and Courtis (1999) identified 12 studies that investigated the relationship between profitability and disclosure with mixed results. Akerlof (1970) argued that larger profitable companies may disclose more information to be distinguished from less profitable companies. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) argued the firms with larger profits are more interested in disclosing detailed information in their annual reports in order to justify their financial performance and to reduce political costs. However Wallace et al. (1994) found no significant relationship between the comprehensiveness of disclosure and the profit margin of listed and unlisted Spanish firms. Inchausti (1997) elaborated that agency theory suggests that managers of larger profitable companies may wish to disclose more information in order to obtain personal advantages like continuance of their management position and compensation. Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995) and Alsaeed, (2006) observed no significant relationship between the disclosure and the profitability, because none of the performance related variables provides an explanation of the disclosure level. Ho and Wong (2001), Barako, Hancock and Izan (2006) and Barako (2007) on the other hand found profitability to be positively and significantly related with two of the four disclosure categories, financial and forward looking disclosures, whereas other categories ware negative and significant with the disclosure of general and strategic. This result is similar with that of Eng and Mak (2002) study on Singapore listed companies. For example, companies in the manufacturing sector were found to disclose less of financial information, and instead disclosed more on general and strategic information to explain in detail factors affecting their poor financial performance. 2.4.4 Ownership dispersion The ownership dispersion represents the percentage of shares owned by outsider after subtracting shares owned by the insider. Many studies found positive relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership, as explained by the agency theory which suggests that difference in the proportion of the companys shares owned by outsider shareholders causes differences in the voluntary disclosure level. This is because the companies with more outsider ownership are more likely to disclose more information than companies with less outsider ownership and also the demand for publicly available information is likely to increase (Wallace and Naser 1995). Gelb (2000) and Barako et al. (2006) found significant relationship between outsider ownership and disclosure level. Leftwich, Watts and Zimmerman (1981), Fama and Jensen (1983), Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) and Aitken et al. (1997) mentioned the detailed disclosure in annual reports that may allow outsider to monitor their interests more efficiently. Eng and Mak (2003) argued that voluntary disclosure is a substitute for outside monitoring and so is negatively related to managerial ownership. They found evidence consistent with this prediction. Many studies found negative relationship between voluntary disclosure level and ownership dispersion. Hossain et al. (1994) found evidence on Malaysian listed companies having significant negative association between voluntary disclosure and ownership dispersion. A later study by Haniffa and Cooke (2002) also found similar result. Naser et al. (2002) examined the affect of ownership on US companys disclosure and his results indicated that firms with a lower level of managerial ownership are more likely to receive higher ratings for the disclosure provided in their financial reports. Ho and Wong (2001) found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure. Chau and Gray (2002) also found negative relationship between family ownership structure and voluntary disclosure of companies listed in Hong Kong and Singapore but found positive associated with outside ownership. Donnelly and Mulcahy (2008) on the other hand found no evidence that ownership structure is related to disclosure level. 2.4.5 Audit firm size According to Jensen and Meckling (1976) large audit firms act as a mechanism to reduce agency costs and exert more of a monitoring role by limiting opportunistic behavior by managers and are less likely to be associated with clients that disclose lower levels of information in their annual reports. In terms of size, audit firms can be divided into two; large or small. Large audit firms are identified as being one of these Big Four (or Big Five or Six formerly) international auditing firms, and smaller audit firms are the rest; the firms are more likely to choose a Big Six auditing firm. Such choice of audit firms signals to investors that the contents of the annual reports are audited with high quality (Craswell and Taylor, 1992). Furthermore, the large audit firms are widely spread in the world while small firms are domestically; hence the large audit firms have more capability to disclosure of the information and have higher reputation and power to affect the voluntary disclosure level related to the smaller audit firm (Alsaeed, 2006). Several studies found that audit firm size have significant relationship with voluntary disclosure level. Firth (1979), Craswell and Taylor (1992), Wallace and Naser, (1995), Ahmed (1995), Raffournier (1995), Inchausti (1997), Mahmood (1999), S.M. Ho and Wong (2001), Camfferman and Cooke (2002), Nasser et al. (2002) and Al-Shammari, (2008) found significant relationship between the voluntary disclosure level and audit firm size. Forker (1992) and Wallace et al. (1994) claim there are positive relationship between voluntary disclosure and audit firm size but not significant, while Hossain et al. (1994), Raffournier (1995), Wallace and Naser (1995), Depoers (2000) and Haniffa and Cooke (2002) they didnt fine significant association. 2.4.6 Industry sector According Cook (1989) disclosure level is more likely to vary from one industry to the other due to the likelihood that leading firms operating in a particularindustry could produce a bandwagon effect on the level ofdisclosure adopted by other firms working in the same industry. Cooke (1992) found evidence that Japanese manufacturing firms tend to provide more information than other non-manufacturing firms. Other studies that found significant effect of industry types are Wallace and Naser (1995) and Camfferman and Cooke (2002), while McNally et al.(1982); Wallace (1987): Wallace et al. (1994); Raffournier (1995); Inchausti, (1997); Patton and Zelenka (1997); Naser (1998); Owusu-Ansah (1998), Naser and Alkhatib (2000) and Alsaeed (2006) found insignificant effect. Table 2.2: Summary of independent variables influence on voluntary disclosure: Study Independent variable findings Akerlof (1970) Profitability Positive relationship Singhvi and Desai, (1971) Profitability Positive relationship Jensen and Meckling, (1976) Debt ratio and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Firth, (1979) Firm size and audit firm size Positive relationship with debt ratio and audit firm size. Leftwich, Watts, and Zimmerman (1981) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion McNally et al.(1982) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector Fama and Jensen (1983) Ownership dispersion positive relationship with ownership dispersion Watts and Zimmerman (1983). Firm size positive relationship with firm size Foster, (1986) Firm size, profitability Significant positive with firm size and found positive with profitability. Watts and Zimmerman (1986) Profitability positive with profitability Wallace (1987) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Cook (1989) Industry sector Positive with industry sector. Bradbury (1992) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Richard, (1992) Profitability Positive with profitability. Forker (1992) Audit firm size Positive but insignificant with audit firm size. Craswell and Taylor (1992) Audit firm size Positively significant with audit firm size. Cooke (1992) Industry sector positive with industry sector Mckinnon and Dalimunthe, (1993) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion and negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1994) Firm size, debt ratio, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive with firm size and ownership dispersion but negatively with debt ratio and audit firm size. Wallace et al. (1994) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Meek et al, (1995) Firm size, debt ratio, profitability. Positive with firm size and profitability whereas significant, negative with debt ratio. Hossain et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Mitchell et al. (1995) Firm size and Debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and debt ratio. Wallace and Naser (1995) Firm size, profitability, Ownership dispersion Positive with firm size, ownership dispersion and industry sector but- ,audit firm size and industry sector Negatively with profitability and audit firm size. Ahmed (1995) Firm size and audit firm size Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size. Raffournier (1995) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. No significant with profitability and industry sector, but significant positive with audit firm size Zarzeski (1996) Firm size and debt ratio Positive with firm size and debt ratio Aitken et al. (1997) Firm size, Debt ratio and owner ship dispersion Positive with the firm size and ownership dispersion but negative with debt ratio. Inchausti (1997) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector. Positive with profitability and significant positive with audit firm size and insignificant with industry sector. Patton and Zelenka (1997) Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Naser (1998) Debt ratio and industry sector. Significant positive with debt ratio but insignificant with industry sector. Owusu-Ansah (1998), Industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Mahmood (1999) Audit firm size Significant with audit firm size. Brennan and Hourigan, (2000) Firm size and debt ratio. Significant positive with firm size and significant negative with debt ratio. Gelb (2000) Ownership dispersion Negatively with Ownership dispersion Depoers (2000) Audit firm size No significant with audit firm size. Naser and Alkhatib (2000) industry sector Insignificant with industry sector. Ho and Wong (2001) Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. No significant with profitability but negatively with ownership dispersion and positive significant with audit firm size. Naser et al. (2002). Firm size, Profitability, ownership dispersion and audit firm size. Positive significant with firm size and audit firm size but positive with profitability and no significant with ownership dispersion. Eng and Mak (2002) Profitability No significant with profitability Chau and Gray (2002) Ownership dispersion Positively with outside ownership dispersion. Camfferman and Cooke (2002) Profitability, audit firm size and industry sector