Education †learning Essay

Education is not only cognitive and intellectual learning, and learning of skills and work-related competences. It is much broader to include moral and ethical issues, values, attitudes, religion, spiritualism, art and more. It is, indeed, important to focus on this when education in schools and universities has become a large â€Å"industry† and when the world, instead of becoming more peaceful, seems to be more confrontational than before. The main reason behind this scenario, that I see, is that students are being taught and not trained and also the fact that teachers do not have any target for teaching instead they teach for the pay they get and sincerity with the profession is waning very fast. EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM The educational system that I see should be one that suits all the citizens of the country. It should consider the cultural, ethical, moral, religious and economical norms of the society and should produce respectable and responsible citizens for the society as a whole and a dignified and confident person. |This point arises due to the fact that every country consists of multi-cultural and multi ethical societies with different religious and economic backgrounds. Thus the system should have contents that may not hurt the morals and values of any person and also produce effective results that can be calculated as per the prosperity of that particular society or country as a whole. PURPOSE OF EDUCATION The foundation of our work as educators is moral and ethical education. We must teach the right values and the right ways of analyzing issues. We must seek what is true and act accordingly. Part of that is to learn that we are all responsible for our own attitudes, decisions and actions. We must use education to foster equality between sexes, classes, people of different geographic areas, creeds, colors, cultures and religions. We must learn to understand the importance of solidarity among groups at home and across the borders in order to create peace, development and prosperity. Besides this we are also imparted with the responsibility of teaching science, commerce and arts subjects to the students using latest techniques, information and research to enable our students to prepare themselves to be a productive part of the society and compete with the world in the respective fields of their study. Major areas that a teacher may address are as follows: 1. To help students gain literacy: This is supposed to be the top most priority as if a student is literate he or she may mold in any society and get adapted to its culture and norms without losing its own. 2. To enable students to use and enjoy their learning experiences: Here a student gets in hand expertise to use what it learned during the schooling period to better their social and personal life in a given environment. 3. To teach students to believe and respect others, to contribute to the well-being of their community: A learned person better knows whom to respect and whom not too, who deserves to be valued and who does not, and gets bold enough to express its feelings in a dignified and respectful way in the society. He is able to distinguish between duties bestowed upon him by the community and tries to serve the community within available resources. 4. To give students the opportunity to learn how to inquire and discover new information: When a student learns through experimentation and reasoning he tries to use the same technique throughout his life and does not accepts all and sundry information without analyzing it. 5. To help students develop broader understandings of new information: This enables a student understand and characterize given information and then apply it in his daily life. 6. To help students develop the skills and values they will need to function in a free and just society: Last but not the least it makes sure that a student is made aware of the morals and values of religion and society and to act accordingly not hurting any ones feelings and making progress accordingly in the society individually and as a community as a whole. In the process of enabling the students to get all the above qualities they are supposed to be taught different subjects but should be encompassed under the umbrella of a just religion and that is Islam not because we live in the Islamic Republic Of Pakistan but due to the fact that Islam is the only religion that addresses to all the matters discussed with command and covers all the topics amicably, may it be the moral, cultural, and or ethical values or upbringing, or the contemporary studies of science, commerce and arts. Reference: 1. http://www. intime. uni. edu 2. www. nation. com. pk †º Columns.

Perception and Societal Factors

Serenity In Joss Hoedown's â€Å"Serenity' and â€Å"Firefly', the human race used and polluted the Earth until it could no longer support life. In order to survive, humanity had to leave Earth- That-Was and find a new home. Taking place 500 years in the future, the Chinese and Americans were the main cultures that have survived centuries of time and light- years of travel, they have blended into one culture where speaking English can suddenly give way to speaking Chinese as if they were one language. Stereotypes and rejoice were mostly observed in Alliance vs..Brownout scenes, and by Jane (Adam Baldwin). The solar system that Serenity takes place in is made up of central planets governed by â€Å"The Alliance†, essentially THE government. Some people didn't want to be governed by The Alliance while others welcomed the idea. Thus a war began. Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of the ship Serenity, fought on the side of the Brownouts. The Alliance won the war and maintained control o f the central planets while the Babel â€Å"Brownouts† typically settled on the outer desolate American old-west type planets, poor, lawless.Ethnocentrism can probably be observed in the crew of Serenity, they've become a family, weary of outsiders. The Verse is a dangerous place. The Alliance and all their riches have built the biggest cities, the biggest buildings, the biggest army, and best technology including weapons and ships. The crew of Serenity tends to stay clear of Alliance considering the Jobs they take are often illegal. The Alliance is the Role of Power.

Profitable Ratio Analysis of Thorntons Plc

Profitablity Ratio Analysis This analysis ratio based on FAME report and annual report of Thortons (PLC) from 2007 to 2010. 1. Gross Profit Margin During period 2007-2010, Thorntons was achieved the highest gross profit margin in 2007. It was increased the sales/revenue 5. 3% (from ? 176. 60m to 186. 00 m). In 2008 the sales was increased 11. 9% (from ? 186. 00m to 208. 12 m) however the gross profit margin was decreased due to the high cost of good sales compare to previous year which was increased 19. 7%. In financial report 2009, the gross profit was declined from 105. 05 m to 104. 969m and declined of gross profit margin from 50. 5% to 48. 87$. In 2010, there was increased in gross profit margin though the sales was decreased from the previous year. In terms of performance against its competitors in similar industry, the performance of Thortons is relatively higher during period 2007-2010 (Figure. 1). The performance of other competitors, Dunhills, only could achieve the 42. 16% in 2010. Compare to its competitors , it was indicated that Thorntons has high gross profit margin, meaning that Thortons has high production efficiency.Having High gross profit margin, Thorntons could pay its operating expense, tax , employee benefits etc. 2. Operating Profit Margin In view of its Operating Profit Margin, Thorntons performance was increased in two consecutive years from 2007 to 2008 with ratio 3. 81 % and 4. 03%. This increase in operating margin was followed by declining in two consecutive years 2009 and 2010 with ratio 3. 77% and 2. 86%. These declined of operating profit margin due to increased in the expenses, especially in employee benefit and inventories expenses which continuously rose from 2007 to 2010.In addition the strategy of company to introduce many new products, increased our multi-channel offer and invested significant sums in new point of sale systems and factory automation has increased the cost. Furthermore the economic downturn from 2009-2010 wa s pressured the company to achieve better income. Compare to the Thorntons’s competitors, the performance of operating margin is less than Dunhills which achieved operating margin average in four years 16. 8% far above Thorntons and Farrero. The decreased of operating margin was happened with Cadbury which fall from 2007-2008. . RETURN ON SHAREHOLDER FUND (ROSF) ROSF measures the profit against total equity invests by share holder. In this regard, the calculation of profit is using profit before tax while other calculation, using profit after tax. Thorntons has stability performance in the middle range to returning the shareholder funds from 2007 up to 2009 compare to its competitors. However the ROSF was decreased in 2010 due to decrease in profit before tax 2. 4% from 2009 to 2010. On the otherhand, Thorntons still achieved Basic earnings per share which increased by 20. % to 6. 5p (2009: 5. 4p) and its Board was recommended a final dividend of 4. 10p (2009: 4. 85p), making the total dividend for the year 6. 05p (2009: 6. 0) Compare to its competitors, the ratio of ROSF of Thorntons is in the middle level and relatively stable. The company generated profit in continuously 4 years with high level achieved in 2009 with profit attributable to share holder ? 6. 068 m. Cadbury was slump down in 2008 but it was achieved the high ROSF in 2009 almost 90% of other competitors with profit attributable to share holder ? 68. 55 m . 4. RETURN ON CAPITAL EMPLOYED(ROCE) Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) is measured the operating profit generated against the long term capital in the business. ROCE ratio of Thorntons was increased from 2007 to 2008, and decreased from 2008 to 2010. Though Thorntons has successfully reduced the Net debt since 2008 to 2010 , however the low achievement is influenced by decreasing in operating profit from 2008 to 2010. Compare to its competitors, the ROCE ratio of Thorntons was in the middle achievement lower than Cadbury in 2009 to 2010 .Cadbury was in the negative ROCE in 2008. Dunhills has relatively constant in its ROCE ratio and close to Thorntons in ROCE ratio. If it is further reviewed both Thorntons and Dunhill has very close in average operating profit during period 2007-2010. RECOMENDATION Considering evaluation and analysis of profitability ratios of Thorntons during period 2007-2010 and compare its performance against the competitors in its industry , the following is list of recommendation that could be considered by Thorntons: 1.Since the Revenue (sales) over the years is relatively flat and higher compare to its competitor, it is recommended to reduced the cost of good sales to increase the gross profit by identifying the possibility to reduce the cost from its supply chain operations from procuring raw materials, reducing number of inventories, optimization in line production and goods stock, reviewing the networks selling and model of distribution.It is indicated and might be high opportunity to gai n sales revenue by putting right model of contract sales to anticipate the seasonal conditions. 2. To increase the Operating profit, it is recommended that Thortons to reduce the administration expenses or divested especially in outlet which is indicated unprofitable and focus on the optimum selling and distribution model. 3.Increase revenue by continuously develop new innovative product to generate differentiation from its competitors and maintain the domination of market share. Reference: FAME Report http://investors. thorntons. co. uk/download/pdf/annual_report_Final_sep_2010. pdf http://investors. thorntons. co. uk/download/pdf/ar09. pdf http://investors. thorntons. co. uk/download/pdf/Thorntons_AR2008. pdf http://investors. thorntons. co. uk/download/pdf/Thorntons_AR07. pdf

Outline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Outline - Essay Example This statement to a great extent brings out the basic idea of the service learning and also highlights the basic foundation of service learning. Hence this will be the attention getting statement of the speech. The main aim of the research is to identify companies in the local area of Denver Colorado which support service learning. The research will focus on the companies that support and implement service learning. The statement for preview will be the explanation by Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction: â€Å"Service-learning is a teaching and learning methodology which fosters civic responsibility and applies classroom learning through meaningful service to the community. The strongest service-learning experiences occur when the service is meaningfully immersed in ongoing learning and is a natural part of the curriculum that extends into the community† (Public Instruction). The main reason this has been chosen is that it provides an excellent foundation and explanation of the concept of service learning. In conclusion, it is essential to note that there are a number of companies that adopt and support service learning to a great extent. It is also essential to understand that service learning helps in better interaction with others and also helps in spreading the knowledge in a more effective manner. Denver, Colorado has in fact become a hub of service learning and more companies each day adapt service learning or also support it. The success rate of service learning within this area is high and effective. Thank you, now my friend XXXXXX will continue with the

CRITIQUE OF A QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH REPORT Essay

CRITIQUE OF A QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH REPORT - Essay Example This research is therefore significant for nursing operations. Hypotheses – patients (veterans) randomly assigned to MBB would exhibit significantly greater improvements in sleep and in other co-morbid symptoms than patients assigned to SH; increased mindfulness facilitates improvements in sleep symptoms in patients assigned to MBB The hypotheses show directional causal relationship between the variables. Research questions and / or hypotheses are consistent with the literature review and the conceptual framework in the sense that they give supportive argument to the theoretical and empirical literature. Of Utah and VASLCHCS Institutional Review Boards. All patients gave written informed consent and were compensated for their time. Patients were surveyed and selected in accordance with the main objective of the study (i.e., improving management of The randomized controlled trial was appropriate for the study because the population dealt with was relatively large. The comparison of results between patients assigned to MBB and those assigned to SH facilitate easier interpretability of the findings. The study involved four data collection points: test for eligibility (completing MOS-SS), sleep inclusion disturbance, enrolment and randomization, allocation for interventions (MBB and SH). The study clearly stated the population, sample size, and the sampling method. The employment of randomized method of selection reduced the sample bias. Designing four data collection points improved the accuracy of the data collected with regard to research questions. The design was appropriate and it provided a representative sample. The study employed two interventions: SH and MBB, which were clearly defined. Data collection process was designed to achieve accuracy by presenting four data collection points, which were tailored towards specificity, thereby minimizing bias. Interpretations are consistent with the results and the study’s limitations. It clear

Abraham Lincoln-6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Abraham Lincoln-6 - Essay Example As a wartime president, Abraham served as the principal commander of armies (Dirck 20). This entitled him to the obligation of deciding and implementing war policies. For instance, Lincoln devised the union plan that required armies to liaise towards defeating the opponent. Lincoln also established strategies that guided the militia. This ensured that they operated in unison because of observation of regulations. In addition, Abraham defeated armies that failed to conform to the union. This became possible by mobilizing union armies that would defeat the Confederate counterparts (Dirck 20). Therefore, the adoption of strategy enabled armies to fight with corporation. He thus ascertained that the North region outdid the war dealings in the southern hemisphere. Lincoln possessed powers over the armies and outplayed orders concerning military executions. During wartime, Abraham ascertained that Republican Party displayed compactness. This explicates that Lincoln displayed equal treatments to all the fronts and culminated to members feeling that the party favored their existence. He also involved efforts of recruiting blacks into the army to ensure fairness. This depicted equality stated in the charter that regulated states. However, his ideology of recruiting blacks faced protest from democrats plus republicans. This draws explications from issues of race and information that Whites encompassed a superior ranking compared to African Americans. Therefore, Lincoln strategized his military role under the Republican alliance. In addition to war, Abraham entails depictions of an enthusiastic anti-slave campaigner. He pioneered in counteracting slavery by introducing an emancipation policy (Myers 726). The policy meant that those owning enslaved people to free them. This measure aimed at giving liberty to enslaved men. Therefore, Abraham urged the freeing of slaves and forced those refuting the order to comply. This culminated to slaves enjoying the freedom like

Organizational assesment Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Organizational assesment - Term Paper Example I believe the problem with their reward systems, affecting performance has been a long-standing problem prior to the current economic crises. Problem Identity Clients have constantly complained about the quality of service in which they receive from Ramapo Manor and report a decline not only in the services offered, to help them sustain during this economic crises, but also the attitudes, performance, timeliness and quality of service they receive from the employees. This assessment will research the lack of reward systems in place and the cutting of reward systems, which kept employees providing better service and increasing productivity. The nature of the problem is Ramapo Manors current reward system, which is causing employees to leave their current positions for either a different department/division within Ramapo Manor, which has not been affected greatly by the economic crises. They are returning to pursue their education in different fields, which yield a more promising livab le status, they are leaving Ramapo Manor and pursing positions in a different organization, there are gaps in positions, which are crucial to running Ramapo Manor effectively. This causes budget cuts, not allowing for reward systems and incentives to keep their current employees or encourage potential employees. Lay-offs, mandatory unpaid furlough days, holiday pay, bonuses and hourly pay cuts are the core to the nature of this problem. This problem cannot be pointed to one single figure. It could be pointed to Kathleen Falk, executive for Ramapo Manor state wide, as the ultimate decisions fall on her, her decision-making process and communication to her subordinates. On the other hand, the problem affects and becomes all employees within the organization, the clients who depend on the organizations services and the potential candidates who have taken test after test just to get an interview, to be considered for a position in Ramapo Manor. This problem is unfortunately a part of a larger problem, which has affected the entire world and the United States, yet there are related problems that stemmed from poor planning and budgeting skills. The economic crises, which has caused unemployment to soar to unspeakable numbers, the closings of small and large businesses due to the lack of funding from banks, budget cuts which force organizations to prioritize needs, wants and necessities which are crucial to the survival during the deficit. Ramapo Manor was once the most sought out organization for potential candidates. People would wait years, test and retest just to be considered for hire at Ramapo Manor, due to its exceptional reward systems and benefits for their employees. LTE workers (Limited Term Employees), looked to gain no health benefits in terms of extrinsic rewards, but in terms of intrinsic rewards, they gained skills, received a great starting wage, became a part of the Union for Ramapo Manor, flexible hours and would be first on the list to possible be come a FTE (Full Time Employee). FTE enjoyed the extrinsic benefits of being paid for a full 40 hour work week, even if a day or two was missed, full health care coverage, including dental and vision, 401k, profit sharing, PTO (Paid Time Off), holiday pay, amazing starting wages and the ability to transfer between departments within the Ramapo Manor

Resulting trusts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Resulting trusts - Essay Example since there is no evidence that Joe retained a reversionary interest in the home.1 In Lohia v Lohia, it was established that by virtue of Section 60(3) of the Law of Property Act 1925, a resulting trust will no longer be inferred in the case of a voluntary conveyance.2 A declaration of trust can be created by word of mouth â€Å"or even inferred from conduct.†3 There were no words or conduct on Joe’s part that can be construed to represent an intention on his part to create a trust. The voluntary conveyance of the home will therefore be construed as an absolute gift to Jack which does not form a part of Joe’s estate and likewise Daisy will have no legitimate claim to it. The disposition of the shares in Dotcom plc to Eddie was a bare trust and as such will devolve with Joe’s estate. Eddie assumed the role of trustee and likewise treated Joe as the sole beneficiary of the trust during his lifetime. This is evidenced by Eddie leaving the share certificate with Joe and paying over dividends from the shares to Joe. Moreover, Eddie himself acknowledged that he was merely holding the shares upon trust for Joe. There is no escaping the conclusion that the manner in which the shares in Dotcom were purchased, held and treated was consistent with the requisite three certainties of a trust. These certainties are certainty of subject matter, intention as well as objects. The subject matter is the trust property, intention is words and conduct capable of defining the intent by the donor to create a trust and the objects are the intended beneficiaries.4 The presumption is that Daisy be the sole beneficiary of the shares in her role as heir to Joe’s estate. Joe’s gift to Jack for Emily’s medical problems appears to be a discretionary trust. However, the validity of this kind of discretionary trust can be challenged on the grounds that Joe’s words do not impose upon Jack a legally binding obligation. Rather, the words used most probably impose upon him

Life span Wks8-12 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6250 words

Life span Wks8-12 - Coursework Example According to Websters New World Law Dictionary (2010), death is "the end of life, when physical functions and vital signs stop." This dictionary further suggests that brain death is an "irreversible end to the functioning of the brain" which the dictionary says is often used as the legal definition. An ethical definition of death is difficult because ethics are different for different people. My definition would be the same as the legal definition: If an individual ceases to breath and their physical and vital signs have stopped, they are dead. However, in cases where someone is in a coma for several years, or when someone has a terminal illness and wants to be euthanized, ethics come more into play in determining what is "right" or "wrong" in each situation (Santrock, 2008). Each culture sees death and mourning differently. In many cultures, the community is an integral part of the mourning. As an example, the Amish community works together when someone dies. A neighbor will make sure that everyone knows about it and the family will be supported for a year after the death. The Amish engage the family in moving forward by visiting them, bringing scrapbooks and homemade items, and starting new work projects for the widow. The Amish people also will hold the funeral in a house during the winter months or in a barn during the warmer months. It is the community that takes care of all the arrangements, including burial (Santrock, 2008). If an individual is working with children, it is helpful to know the developmental stages that children follow when they are growing and learning. Understanding the various theories -- psychoanalytic, behavioral and so forth gives an understanding of how small children develop through the lifespan. Understanding how humans evolve from birth to old age is important to the scholar-practitioner because this knowledge puts into perspective the various changes a person goes

Strategic Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Strategic Analysis - Essay Example In the modern scenario, to maintain sustainability in the global market, every organisation tends to form a basic company objective, vision as well as mission. Organisational culture has certainly created the need of following certain principles for attaining predetermined targets. These principles often help the employees to reap varied significant benefits like improved level of operational performance of the personnel. By taking into concern the present business market conditions, it can be affirmed that two vital factors including organisational culture and leadership are deemed to be quite important for any company that can assist in fulfilling desired objectives. A correct form of organisational culture and varied leadership practices may contribute in securing the future of the companies by a considerable extent (Wilson, 2005). Harley-Davidson (H-D) is a renowned American based business corporation, which deals with manufacturing motorcycles. It is regarded as one the oldest brands as a motorcycle manufacturer. It can be apparently observed that the company has strived to maintain organisational culture for fulfilling its desired targets. One of the main objectives of H-D is identified to offer quality products at a promised value. From the preceding few years, the company focused on changing its product design to gain more customer attention. In its long journey, H-D faced numerous difficulties in terms of finance. This can be justified with reference to the fact that the company experienced tremendous fall in market share due to the reason of having certain problems with one of its Japanese manufacturer. By taking into concern the trend of organizational culture prevailing within H-D, it can be ascertained that the company has produced new models with the increased level of improved operational performan ce of its employees. In the year 2003, H-D faced the challenge of severe decline in product demand, due to which, its share price

Population of the country Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Population of the country - Research Paper Example This paper explores reasons for that. Before the start of the industrial revolution, the CBR and CDR in Canada were both high. The high rate of births can be attributed to the fact that more children went into the work of farming whereas families needed a greater number of children to be able to sustain because of the high rate of deaths. The high death rate can be attributed to the fact that the health and safety conditions of the society were not good. People suffered from different kinds of diseases and lacked hygiene. However, there was a stability in the high CBR and CDR which played a role in slow growth of the population. The CDR did increase dramatically with occasional epidemics for some years. The drop in the CDR in Canada around the mid-18th century is explained by improvement that occurred in the areas of medicine and sanitation. Despite the decline of the CDR, the CBR continued to remain high because of tradition as well as practice. As a result of the declined CDR but sustained CBR, population growth in Canada skyrocketed. Over the passage of time, children in the families became an extra cause of expenditure and were not in the position to help the family run the finances. As a result of that, the CBR in Canada started to decline in the 20th century with the use of advances in the birth control. By the 20th century, the condition of health and safety and the medical facilities for people in Canada were much better than what they were before the start of the industrial revolution. People used the newly found methods of birth control effective in reducing the rate of birth. Although there still occurred rapid growth of population in the 20th century in Canada yet the g rowth of population began to happen at a slower pace. The CBR and CDR both leveled off in the late 20th century at a low rate in Canada. Much of the growth in population

Religious and Thnic Groups Paper Essay Example for Free

Religious and Thnic Groups Paper Essay I picked Buddhism as my religious group. I am a Christian so this is interesting to me because if would have stayed in Thailand, Buddhism would be the religion that I would have learned and believed in. Buddhism is a very unique religion and it differs from all other religion out there. They do not believe in a God. Tak stated, â€Å"We dont believe in a god because we believe in man. We believe that each human being is precious and important, that all have the potential to develop into a Buddha a perfected human being. We believe that human beings can outgrow ignorance and irrationality and see things as they really are. We believe that hatred, anger, spite and jealousy can be replaced by love, patience, generosity and kindness. We believe that all this is within the grasp of each person if they make the effort, guided and supported by fellow Buddhists and inspired by the example of the Buddha. As the Buddha says: No one saves us but ourselves, No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path, But Buddhas clearly show the way† (2011) The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism teach that life is a suffering, there is a cause of this suffering, it is possible to put an end to this suffering and the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to end this suffering. Refuge in Three Jewels is the three components of Buddhism which protect a person from the unstable world as he progresses on the path to become a Buddhist. The Five Precepts lay down the moral conduct to make human world a better place to live. These precepts prevent Buddhists from indulging in deeds that restrict spiritual growth and cause harm to others. The Three Marks of Conditioned Existence explain that everything in this world is impermanent, without substance and full of suffering. They do not have a ten commandments, no judgment day, no creation myth, no prayers for help or intervention, and let’s people find their own path though life. There are no rewards or punishments on judgment day like others. Buddhism is strictly not a religion in the context of being a faith and worship owing allegiance to a supernatural being. Buddhism has been looked upon as opposite teaching from other and this makes Buddhism have a negative experience even though they feel that it is okay and that hateful things can not cut through their skin. This is what my brother had to say about his experience with others in different religion, a member on Yahoo commented â€Å"I have experienced hate form other who dont believe in what I believe in. And for the simple fact that I dont worship their god. People have been afraid and confused and its sad that people are this way. Well people telling me that Im going to burn in hell is just one example. Mostly I get people coming up to talk to me and I get the whole, so are you a good Christian girl thing, which makes me want to puke, and I say no Im Pagan. And most people dont even know what that means, but typically they stop talking and walk away. †( Philosoraptor, 2012) Buddhism has contributed little at a time and over time. Today we use meditation as a relaxation and even as a type of medicine. It is like yoga, has the same affect on the mind, body, and soul. The growth with Buddhism is even reaching different races, like for example Whites. Amanda Rivera said, â€Å"I think the appeal comes from the fact that the Lotus Sutra emphasizes the absolute equality of all people to be able to attain buddhahood, to attain their enlightenment. The sources of prejudice and discrimination with any religious group is that people do not know and understand the group and which fear and hate starts to set in. It is the people’s ignorance that causes the negative feelings and actions. When we talk about prejudice and discrimination a fine example would be two years ago in Kansas. The Lao-Buddhist Association [Wat Lao Buddhasampham] is trying to move its Olathe temple to a location along 119th Street in Olathe. But the Johnson County Board of Commissioners has so far denied the group a conditional use permit. Neighbors say that the area the Buddhists have chosen is zoned residential, but Lama Chuck Stanford of the Rime Buddhist Center says that discrimination is the real reason behind the opposition. â€Å"This is clearly just ugliness of ethnic and religious prejudice,† said Stanford. [†¦] Standord notes that Christian churches are common in residential areas, and that comments made by residents during a January zoning board meeting indicate fear and ignorance. At the meeting, people raised concerns about traffic, water pollution and â€Å"animal sacrifices,† along with noise from gongs, which Stanford says are no louder than church bells. Another example On Sept. 13, 2011 the U. S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the city of Walnut in Southern California because the city did not allow Chung Tai Buddhist Group, originally from Taiwan, to build a worship and meditation center. The Department of Justice accused the city government of violating federal law, which states that religious groups have the same rights to use land as other building applicants, and of discriminating against the Buddhist group. The sources of prejudice and discrimination with any religious group is that people do not know and understand the group and which fear and hate starts to set in. It is the people’s ignorance that causes the negative feelings and actions in which then problems and issues occur instead of accepting that people are different and unique. I have been neutral with Buddhism but my brother believes in it. I do not judge him and I try to think critically if I speak but after doing the research I have a new understanding of my ethic religion of my biological parents. The main important thing I have learned is not asking which religion is better but what is different from what I believe in and what they believe in because that is when you can see how others think and view beliefs. Taking a look at ethnic group of Pacific Islander are different from others in the aspect that the Pacific Islanders live a very social lifestyle, in which family members, both immediate and extended, work together in a solidified community. Pacific Islanders often have difficulty balancing their traditional laid-back attitudes with the high pressure competitive demands of American pedagogy and marketplace economy. Pacific Islanders cultures follow customs and traditions based on ancient principles that promote living an honorable and noble lifestyle. Embedded deeply into the Polynesian culture are music, dance, and food. Traditional storytelling, music, and dance are ancient ways of passing down history from one generation to another. Thus teachers with students who are Pacific Islanders may want to use both written and oral instruction, particularly in areas of literacy. Pacific Islanders are in fact highly developed peoples. Our ancestors survived for centuries in remote and isolated communities having devised their own means of dealing with the elements and of maintaining social order. In the process of what is known as development, however, Islanders wrestle daily with individual demands in a market-driven world, while our consciousness continues to be haunted by a pervasive sense of our collective identity (Wickham). The main thing with interaction with other groups is that Pacific Islander are more laid back and they tend to not be up to par with the other social groups. This makes them to be â€Å"dumb† and â€Å"no gas in the think tank. † Pacific Islander has been a huge contribution to American culture in fields as varied as the arts, health care, business and military service, Asian Pacific Americans are central to our quality of life. Month of May has been declared Asian Pacific American Heritage Month which celebrates all of those that have entered into the United States and help to develop where we are today as one. Prejudice and discrimination is part of history with Pacific Islander in the past. Taiwanese-American Wen Ho Lee, for example, was targeted by the U. S. government and suspected of espionage because of his ethnicity, according to many in the Asian/Pacific Islander community. In May, U. S. Rep. David Wu, an Oregon Democrat, was detained entering the Department of Energy building in Washington, D. C. , and repeatedly asked if he was an American citizen. July, 2009 in Seattle, a group of Asian-American youths, stopped by police for jaywalking, claimed they were harassed by an officer who repeatedly asked if they spoke English and allegedly remarked, Ive been to your country before, when I was in the Army. These types of prejudice and discrimination are all appearance wise and nothing more. The pure ignorance is the source for all these actions. The research was harder to do on Pacific Islander due to the fact of less records and information like other groups. The more I read the same information was being presented. I started to research other groups and I was able to find so much more information. So yes it did help me to understand them better but not to the point of really understanding them because of lack of information and data on them. Prejudice and discrimination on the two groups were similar because both of them were looked upon as physical appearance and judge by looks instead of getting to know the two and understand the two. They both been looked at as different and odd. In the beginning of the two in America they both been push around and forced into doing things that were not right at all. Harassment and anger seems to fill hate towards the two. They are different in ways of the one is being discriminated because of a practice and the other is a human being. There is not much to be different other than that. Discrimination and prejudice looks the same, acts the same, and smells the same. Not much difference because it is all out of uneducated assumptions, anger, hatred, and intolerance. References Philosoraptor, M. (2012). Yahoo! Answers. Retrieved from http://answers. yahoo. com/question/index? qid=20120229093706AAHWC2Q Swee, T. (2013). Buddhism-Major Differences. Retrieved from http://www. buddhanet. net/e-learning/snapshot01. htm Tak, Y. (2011). Comparing Buddhism With Other Religions. Retrieved from http://wfcs. buddhistdoor. com/OldWeb/passissue/9612/sources/comp. htm Rivera, A. (2011). Why Is American Buddhism So White. Retrieved from http://www. thebuddhadharma. com/web-archive/2011/11/9/forum-why-is-american-buddhism-so-white. html Wickham, A. WACC. Retrieved from http://www. waccglobal. org/en/19973-indigenous-communications/929-Hidden-perspectives-on-CommunicationCulture-in-the-Pacific-Islands-. html.

Price collusion in oligopolies

Price collusion in oligopolies   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  An oligopoly market exists when a few large firms dominate the industry. This form of market structure lies in between the realms of the unattainable structure of Perfect Competition to the structure of Monopoly. Each firm competes in order to maximise its market share. Oligopolies are defined as per their behavioural aspects rather than their market structure. As a result oligopolies are characterised upon two fundamentals; high barriers to entry and interdependence. Even though each firm competes with one another, each firm is still tied with each other, in the sense that each firm is interdependent. When faced upon decisions, the firm must take into consideration the likely reaction of rival firms, as one wrong move can end with a devastating consequence; the loss of market share. Incumbent firms are protected by barriers to entry; however each industry varies in terms of contestability. The goods and services that firms produce within an oligop oly are differentiated, in the sense that similar goods vary in terms of its branding, quality and after-sales services etc. A few good examples of firms competing in oligopolistic markets are the car industry, supermarket chains and banks etc.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Oligopolies tend to behave either competitively or collusively. In accordance with the kinked demand curve theory, homogeneous oligopolies are fairly restricted in terms of price competition, as shown by the following diagram. Each firm must take into account the reactions of rivals; hence if a firm decided to raise prices, with the hope of gaining extra profits, from point P1 to P2. Other firms anticipate this increase, therefore keep their prices untouched. Quantity sold would plunge from point Q1 to Q2. This fall in sales is greater than the increase in price, and so leads to an overall fall in revenue; hence the elastic demand curve (curve A). However if this firm chose as an alternative, to lower its prices from point P1 to P3, other firms would follow suit, with the intentions of not losing market share to its rival. Consequently quantity sold would only increase from point Q1 to Q3. The fall in price would have to be larger for it to accommodate the increase in sales, hence the inelastic demand curve (curve B). Again this decision would result in a reduction in revenue, bearing in mind a fall in market share. Thus firms are reluctant to change prices due to the effects mentioned. Therefore, price stability is imposed under oligopoly markets; in turn firms focus on aspects of non-price competition. Such practices may include extra after-sales services, longer opening times, extended warranties and extensive advertising campaigns etc. Non-price competition would therefore shift the demand curve or the firm successfully makes the price elasticity of demand for the product less elastic, thus developing brand loyalty amongst consumers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Price/non-price competition involves firms behaving interdependently. Seeking to eliminate market uncertainty is a key desire for a market dominated by a few large firms. Thus businesses are keen to collude with competitors to reduce the effects of interdependence, either collude openly (formal agreements), or tacitly (informally under the radar). Formal collusive agreements bring forth the formation of a cartel. The advantages of such cartels, is that firms are able to achieve joint profit maximisation. Each member of the cartel is given an output quota usually depending upon each firms market share, which as a whole will maximise the cartels profits at the profit maximising price. Cartels therefore act as if they were a monopoly, taking control of the whole industry, whereby it is able to restrict output and raise prices (disadvantages of a monopoly structure). Consumer surplus is restricted and producer sovereignty exploited. As an assumption, there are a total of five firms in the industry, each agreed to be a member of the cartel. For the members to achieve joint profit maximisation, the cartel thus has to produce at its profit maximising level at point where marginal costs (MC) equals marginal revenue (MR). Thus the cartel, therefore the industry produces 4000 units which are then sold at the price of  £6. Assuming that each firm shares an equal amount of the market, for that reason each firm is given an output quota of 800 units. By analysing each firm independently (figure 3), the quota of 800 units does not lie at their profit maximising level. For this reason, the firm is likely to cheat, maybe undercut the cartel price or increase output to maximise its utility. Assuming the firm agrees not to change the price, for the firm to maximise its profits, it would have to increase output to 2400 units at the point where the cartels price (MR) equals the firms MC curve. At the cartel output, it would ac hieve revenue of  £4800. By increasing output to 2400 units it can boost revenue to  £14400; a good 200% increase in revenue. This would only occur if the firm can control total market share, taking the other members out of the equation. In turn if the firm wished to profit maximise using its own curves, it would therefore sell 1600 units at a price of  £4 at where MC=MR. By undercutting the cartel price the firm can attract extra customers, therefore increase supernormal profits. Interestingly, other member firms are also likely to lower their prices in the midst of cheating, which could lead to a price war, eventually leading to the breakdown of the cartel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For the reasons mentioned above, i.e. cartels behaving as a monopoly and the breakdowns of the cartels can lead to increased price fluctuations; in the interests of consumers, cartels are deemed illegal in many countries including the UK. Cartels, being against the public interest, its in the interests of the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to investigate such cartel behaviour and counteract the cartels intentions. Bearing in mind that cartels are against the public interest, there is one cartel being in favour of consumers and the economy as a whole. It is not formed by a group of member firms, but formed with member countries; OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries). As stated, OPECs mission is to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of Member Countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers and a fair return on capital to those investing in the petroleum industry (OPEC, http://www.opec.org/home/ ). Assuming OPEC keeps to its mission, it is truthful to say that OPEC aims to strengthen the global economy, bringing price stability in the commodity market. However other firms caught with price fixing have not had the same treatment. Just recently the New York Times has published LCD makers fined $585 million for price fixing (New York Times, Published; November 13 2008, by Steve Lohr). LG Display, Sharp and Chunghwa Picture Tubes were investigated and pled guilty of fixing the price of their liquid crystal display panels and were fined a total of $585 million by the U.S. Justice Departments antitrust division.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The difficulties faced with open collusion, and the consequences (the Competition Commission can fine the firms involved in cartel behaviour 10% of their worldwide turnover), means that firms are often reluctant to form cartels, therefore take the chances to collude tacitly. There are a few methods of tacit collusion, the popular being Dominant-firm Price Leadership. In simple terms the dominant firm in the industry becomes the price leader, at which the other firms tactically follow the dominant firms price changes, yet also keeping a close eye on their rivals. There is some evidence linking the supermarket industry to this method of dominant-firm price leadership, whereby Tesco being the dominant of all supermarkets. As published by TNSGlobal, for the 12 weeks ending 1st November 2009 show that Tesco has grown its market share from 30.6% a year ago to 30.7% now. TNSGlobal claims that, Tescos growth rate of 4.7% year-on-year beats the market avera ge of 4.4% (TNSGlobal, www.tnsglobal.com ). Being the dominant in the industry, it therefore acts as a price setter, resulting in the other firms following the price changes. However this strategy has been a prime condition of Tesco (to control the market), up until the moment one of the supermarket firms cheats by undercutting the price and not following the price leadership strategy. This has been the case recently (from personal experiences), that Asda is the better value supermarket, and may be voted as the credit crunch climate favourite. Asdas main advantage for the consumer is that there are a wide range of discounted products, that even Tesco and other supermarkets cant match. Instead of the price leadership tactic, oligopolies may indulge in price parallelism, whereby each firms price movements are parallel with their rivals. Such a policy requires no dominant firm imposing price changes. Besides firms who dominate the industry being the price leader, firms may become a barometer of market conditions, whereby firms engage in the tactic of barometric price leadership. This form of approach unfolds when a firm can successfully anticipate future market conditions in the short run, applying their knowledge to price changes. Firms neither have to be dominating the industry nor be a large firm. Price changes thus reflect changes in market demand or supply, where the firm who predicts such changes in the market becomes the barometer in the industry in which fellow competitors follow. From such a policy, it is important to note that firms frequently switch between the roles of a price leader to a price follower. As a precaution, following firms may delay their price changes in order to be sure that the price changes by the barometer is consistent with the results obtained of the current market situation. Therefore a time lag may arise, or firms may decide that results are inc onsistent with the barometer, thus leave their price unchanged, undercutting the price leader. In the interest of each firm, costs may rise as a result of marker research, therefore in order to minimise the costs, firms may just follow the price changes of the price leader without undertaking research, in the hope that the barometer is correct about current or future market conditions. Firms may compete in terms of the Bertrand model. This model assumes that there are two firms in the industry (duopoly). Both firms aim for price stability in order to reduce menu costs. Hence both firms set their prices at where it would have been in a perfectly competitive market, usually making normal profit. This point refers to the Nash equilibrium. This ensures that neither firm can undercut the price, avoiding any price wars.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To conclude, it can be suggested that there is some correlation between the policies in which oligopolies compete at, and the contestability of the industry in which they operate in. A highly contestable market in which barriers to entry are low, pressurises firms to compete more aggressively, whereas if incumbent firms have successfully erected high barriers to entry, whether natural or man-made barriers; the industry becomes less contestable, providing incentives to collude to maintain market share. There is a high probability that the formation of cartels will inevitably lead to the breakdown of the cartel, for reasons of cheating. Price fixing or other forms of agreement never maximises each firms benefit. However, this statement only relates to the short term, but an agreement with other firms does reduce uncertainty, therefore benefiting firms in the long run to maintain supernormal profits. Member firms must find ways to restrict other membe rs from cheating on the cartel price. Therefore the profit loss incurred by deviating from the cartel should exceed the profit loss by remaining in the cartel. As shown by figure 3, this is difficult to achieve. Theoretically, it is easy to form a cartel when approached via the text-book assumptions. However in the real world, it is difficult without perfect information being available. Research suggests that, differences in product life cycles and fluctuations in demand create instability among agreements, which naturally fractures the cartel (Haltiwanger and Harrington (1991)). Collusion to mimic operations as a monopoly allows investment in research and development to be funded collectively via joint profit maximisation, benefiting consumers in the long run. In essence, firms who compete without any form of collusion or agreements, have greater scope to maximise personal utility, by developing brand loyalty among consumers, thus being able to successfully increase market share. T his would be the best policy to approach benefiting both the firms and the consumer, yet avoiding any government intervention. References Garner, E. (2009). Tesco Share Turnaround. Available: http://www.tnsglobal.com/_assets/files/worldpanel_marketshare_oct2009.pdf. Last accessed 03/12/2009. Haltiwanger, J. and J. Harrington (1991), The impact of cyclical demand movements on collusive behaviour, Rand Journal of Economics, 22:89- 106. Lohr, S. (2008) LCD makers fined $585 million for price fixing, New York Times, 13 November. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/technology/13iht-13panel.17777580.html?_r=1scp=1sq=LCD%20makers%20fined%20%24585%20million%20for%20price%20fixingst=cse. Last accessed 03/12/2009 OPEC. (n.d.). OPECs Mission. Available: http://www.opec.org/home/ . Last accessed 02/12/2009.

Jewish worship, prayer, and instruction

Jewish worship, prayer, and instruction Class Lectures Name and discuss three elements of Jewish worship practice that have influenced Christian worship. First of all, Jewish worship, prayer, and instruction was opened the service with praise. They praised God to honor Him. The first record of praise was the Moses and Miriams Praise when they crossed the Red Sea. Miriams praise was dancing and playing the tambourine. Second element is speaking of prayer. Jewish people expressed Gods love, and prayed for Gods blessing for their needs. Final element is instruction. The instruction emphasized the Scripture Reading. The congregation read the Laws and the Prophets and the scripture lessons were stated in the vernacular language. List four of the festivals celebrated by Israel in the Old Testament along with their corresponding observance in the Church Year. Sukkoth- The Feast of Tabernacles. This was celebrated within the months of September / October and is comparable with Thanksgiving. Hanukkah-The Festival of Lights. It is celebrated in December and often falls close to Christmas. Hanukkah and Christmas share other similarities such as gift giving. Passover-Remembrance of the Israelites deliverance out of Egypt. It usually happens in March/ April and is closely tied to Easter. The Lords Supper was a Passover meal. Pentecost-The Jewish celebration 50 days after Passover. It occurs in May or June. The first Christian Pentecost took place on this Jewish holiday. What is the Church Year? Discuss in detail the major celebrations of the Church Year. The Church Year is an official set of worship services and observances outlining the earthly life and ministry of Jesus. It is used to teach church history and doctrine and serves as a reminder of these elements. Concerning the tradition of the Western church, Hustad remarks that the year can be broken into two parts: the Life of Christ and The Christian Life, which the church would refer to as the Proper of the Mass and the Ordinary of the Mass, respectively. The life of Christ is remembered from Advent through Easter. Pentecost would then be the beginning of The Christian Life, with the emphasis on the ministries and missions of the church. Advent. Hustad lists this as the start of the Western Liturgical Year. The Advent Season begins four Sundays prior to Christmas. On the surface, it looks to commemorate the events leading to the birth of Christ, but it also focuses on all of Christs reign, both past, present and future. Christmas. Christmas was introduced into the liturgy of the Roman church sometime during the Fourth Century. The date of December 25th was the last day of a pagan Roman celebration known as Saturnalia. As many pagans had been converted and brought into the church, the church claimed the date as being Jesus birth to Christianize the feast. In reality, Jesus birth is more likely to have occurred in early spring. The choice of December 25th also puts the celebration of Christmas in relation to the Jewish celebration of the Feast of Light, Hanukkah. Epiphany. This begins January 6th and continues until Ash Wednesday. The term comes from Greek, meaning appearance and commemorates the beginning of Jesus earthly ministry, as well as the arrival of the wise men to Bethlehem. Ash Wednesday. This is the beginning of the season of Lent, forty days prior to Easter. It is a call to repentance, remembering the sackcloth and ashes response of the Old Testament. Lent. The season covers forty days prior to prior Easter. It is a time of repentance and remembrance of Jesus forty days of temptation in the wilderness and prepares the hearts of believers for the events of Holy Week. Holy Week. These are the most detailed days of the life of Jesus in all of the Gospels. Including the events of Palm Sunday, the week is a reminder of the final days of Jesus earthly ministry. During this week, among many other things, Jesus institutes the Lords Supper, prays and is betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, is brought before Pilate and led to Golgotha for His crucifixion and then burial. Easter. This is the keystone day of all history. Hustad remarks that Easter is often referred to as the Christian Passover. It parallels the Jewish Passover celebration and is the focal point of Christianity. Paul reminds believers of the importance of the Resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:14, And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Pentecost. This is so-named from the Jewish festival of First Fruits, which occurs fifty days after Passover. It is the birthday of the church, the day of the coming of the Holy Spirit. List the three major reformers of the 16th Century and summarize the philosophy of church music of each one. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each reformers philosophy of church music. Luther, Cranmer, and Calvin were the three major reformers of the 16th century. Luther who loves the use of music in worship is one of important figure in the Reformation. He accepted the doctrine of believer-priesthood. He also translated Bible language into German, so congregation could understand more about Bible. He used music to represent Gods Word. There are three aspects which are liturgical, biblical, and educational approach in his philosophy of church music. He used various music styles in the church and from Gregorian chants to secular tune were used for music. Strengths of music can be found in Lutheran worship. The music led congregation to participate in worship. The congregation could experience various style of music from the old one such as Gregorian chant to the new songs composed by their 5 own languages. People could know through music about the Gods word and His instruction. The weakness of music in Lutheran worship is limitation of the use of organ, so people used their voice to sing hymns without accompaniment. One the other hand, Calvins philosophy of church music is to focus only on Gods Word. Therefore, the glory of God can be expressed by Gods Word. He who emphasized on only Bible thought music is harmful in worship. In other words, his opinion was that people in worship can be distracted by music. As a result, he limited the use of music in worship completely. He focused on the Word of God, so only psalms can be sung in worship in his time, not hymns. The people only could praise God with Gods Word in worship. As they could not use the musical instruments, so worship was very dry in the church. Cranmer who was an important figure in English liturgy accepted a Protestant style than Roman style into English liturgy. He wanted to have congregational singing in worship. Calvin influenced on the music in Cranmers time about speaking of music. Therefore, people could sing Calvinistic metrical and add to sing psalms, anthems, and canticles with Book of Common Prayer in worship. Therefore, the Calvinistic influence on the music in Cranmers time made similarity to strengths and weakness of Calvins philosophy of church music. Discuss the role of music in worship, nurture, and outreach. What types or styles of music are most suitable for each? Why? God is the center of the triangle, he is the focus of the worship, edification and outreach Worship Ministry always begins with God His glory and satisfaction primary. Music of worship should emphasize the Trinity, salvation. Worship is needed for the sake of feeding of His Word, encouraging brothers and sisters in Christ, and forgiveness of our sins. Nurture Ministry is demonstrated within the community of faith with the love and edification of Gods people-brotherly love and mutual benefit. Music of edification is an incredible tool in teaching and in bringing people together. This brings fellowship. Rocks polish each other. Church is like a tumbler and rocks bump into each other and get refined: bad rocks becomes powder, good rocks become more glistening. If you deny church, you forfeit the chance of refining. Abrasive Word of God refines. That is the reason that the law of church is love and forgiveness. Paul mentions togetherness and community (Rom. 12:1-2) and this is the essence of church. It includes ass aspects of education, discipleship, teaching doctrine, even the counterpart of the doctrine. Outreach Ministry continues by impacting the unbelieving world with the witness of the Gospel and everyones need to know Christ in a personal way. Music of evangelism is not the same as music of worship or edification. The center here is the Gospel: you need to be born-again to meet Jesus. It should be the music of culture that you are going to reach. The saved people will bring music of worship to God. Discuss ways that music can prepare a church for evangelism. Give examples of some specific activities that can help the church to evangelize the lost. To witness is to reach the whole world to the vicinity. Non-verbal communication express more than verbal. Walking should proceed the talking. If life does not show one cannot be a witness or witness. People would not be converted by that witness; moreover, it will disprove what were saying. Evangelical worship music should be both objective and subjective, expressing our awesome wonder and praise of God who is above and beyond our imagination and also our love of, and communion with, God in Jesus Christ who lives in us through the Holy Spirit. Jubilate II: Church Music in Worship and Renewal by Donald Hustad How does Hustad define: 1) high art church music, 2) traditional church music, 3) folk music, and 4) popular church music? Compare and contrast these styles and discuss the potential usefulness of each in the life of the church. (59-61) High art church music, which is also called as classical or serious music, represents the well (or best) identified liturgical music through history by recognized art critics who have the high knowledge about standard aesthetics in their academic/aesthetic community. High art church music is not for everybody but for very limited people who has abundant knowledge in aesthetics. Traditional church music is the liturgical music which is simple and easy in style and form but originated from high art music. The term can be also used for the music just for liturgy in church. Folk music means the music including a common understanding in a community and orally carried over in the community from generation to generation as its own way. The characteristics of folk music are simple and reflect the nature or a common and that there is a large population understanding the music. Popular church music is any music that most of community members can accept and has more affinity to secular entertainment. This form of music usually disseminated through commercial media. The most distinguishing difference among the four types of music is who can understand the music. Obviously, the audiences levels are very different according to Hustads definitions, so that the way how people use their musical talent given to each individual and how they approach to the music would be very different. There are two things in common between high art church music and the traditional church music which are they pass the acid test and last long in history, and both were composed for worship. Traditional church music is, however, more accessible to people than high art church music since high art church music is more sophisticated. Presenting this kind of sublime church music once in a while, church lets the congregation experience solemnness and transcendent God through music. Music leaders can choose this kind of high art church music carefully for special occasions or thematic services such as Christmas. On the other hand, traditional church music can be sung more often. And this music connects the geriatric with the young and enables people to look back the history. Moving on to folk music, folk expressions are closely related to the culture, so folk music can be more meaningful and attractive to each ethnic or culture group. There are two different things observed between traditional church music and folk music. First, traditional church music was composed for strictly liturgical purpose while folk music as a secular music but adopted by church and the new sacred text added to its tune. Secondly, traditional church music does not show specific national characteristics much while each folk music has its own color and often the composers are anonymous. However, both music genres can be used commonly in church since both were sung from generation to generation. Borrowed folk tunes can serve church as traditional church music. When it comes to contemporary popular church music, it is generally attractive to younger group people compared to traditional church music or folk music which are more appreciated by older generations. The contemporary church music is sung in many charismatic churches. Of course, traditional churches can use this type of church music. I believe it is the best way to serve church that church musicians select music carefully and place various types of music properly when worshiping to magnifying the glory of God. List and discuss the sins which best non-liturgical evangelicals in their use of music in worship. (65-66) The sin of pride. When we truly concentrate on music itself to give the best thing to God, we may make a serious mistake because our effort for music can turn into an activity to show our musical technique and talent rather than praise Him if we cannot keep our heart focusing on God. We should focus on the glory of God with our best effort and try to avoid the temptation that my music is better than others and worthy to be applauded. The quality of music plausible to our ears is not a matter to God. He is looking at our heart first so we should throw away the thought that my music is much better than others (my music will be accepted by God) and be humble. God says that He brings down the proud who have arrogance. If we fall into arrogance in our music ministry, God would never be pleased with our music and worship and even will not accept them. The sin of hedonism. Here, the hearing of the music becomes the issue rather than the glory of God. Instead of a heart being changed by hearing what God has prepared the pastor to speak, more attention is given to the enjoyment of the music. The sin of spectatorism. The writer of Hebrews exhorts believers in Hebrews 10:25 to not forsake the assembly of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. It is apparent to this writer that being a Christian requires participation. Hustad points out that many in todays churches would rather be sung to than to sing for themselves. Very simply put, Christianity is not a spectator sport. The sin of sentimentalism. An old pair of shoes is much more comfortable than a new pair that has yet to be worn-in. It follows then, that people would desire to remain in their comfort zones, not willing to be open to changes in music and worship. Enjoying what is familiar is not bad in itself, but as with all things, it must not become the focus or the issue. God must remain the focus, not our singing of favorite hymns. List and discuss the evangelical standards of church music suggested by Hustad. (68-69) It should express and communicate the gospel in text and music languages that are contextualized to the culture for which is intended. It should offer a worthy sacrifice of praise, for the individual and for the corporate body in worship experience. It should be their best performance. It should be offered with love, humility, gratitude, and grace. It should express and enhance the best Christian theology of each particular culture, supporting all doctrines of that faith in proper balance. It should express and support all the activities related to the groups beliefs-worship, proclamation, education, pastoral care, and fellowship-with due consideration of musical needs of each. It should speak from the whole person to the whole person, carefully balancing the physical, intellectual, and emotional while avoiding sentimental. It should be genuinely creative, avoiding the out-of-date as well as too much sophistication. Communication in text and music language is very important. Sometimes, we say that the gospel is our confession of our heart to God. This is true. In a culture, there are lots of things we feel in the same way and we share them in its own language. This often deeply touches others hearts so that church music becomes a very good method to share and proclaim the evangelism to believers and non-believers. Therefore, church music should be expressed in richly understandable way and communicable in a culture. Hustad also pointed out a worth sacrifice of praise. In the Old Testament, God wanted faultless lambs for sacrifice. He wanted everything to be faultless. Church music is also a kind of sacrifice we give to God. In other words, our music should be the praise itself and intended for our devotional sacrifice to God. Evangelically, church music should include love, humility, gratitude, and grace with no arrogance. This idea might include the creativity of church music. Using our creativity endowed from God would be one thing to make our music faultless as a sacrifice. Culture might be an important ingredient in evangelical church music. As mentioned, music is another type of communication method in a culture. However, common components in a culture should be used in church music for more effective communication, so that theological and evangelical components can have more power with the proper balance of common components to touch people hearts in a culture. In fact, the direct import of church music from the Western to Asian showed a large problem in understanding the evangelical message in music. This discussion includes the fundamental that church music always delivers the core of evangelism. Evangelical church music should express the Christian theology, as well as all activities found in the Bible such as worship, proclamation, education, pastoral care, and fellowship. Many churches tend to show they are leaning toward certain specific aspects. If only one or two things are standing out, the balance would be broken, which means the church is not healthy. Compare and contrast the contributions of revivalist and formal evangelical churches to worship and church music. By what names are these traditions identified among Southern Baptists? (219-223) Revivalist and formal evangelical churches are categorized by several distinct characteristic. Revivalist seemed to adopt more informal styles in worship so that it naturally pulled more concentration onto God. In the textbook, it says that it was directed toward heaven, not earth. The object was to praise God, not entertain people. Also, its style is ordered and stately. Revivalist had more dynamics in worship so Hustad described its characteristics as informality, noise, disorder, energetic, passionate, loud proclamation style, and charismatic variety of worship. Naturally, the worship was being highly emotional. This does not indicate that revivalist worship was human-oriented. Revivalist worship rather focused on horizontal praise of God, spreading the work of the Holy Spirit in us to the congregations/friends/neighbors through themselves. There are two types of Baptists derived from revivalists: Regular Baptist, the more-Calvinistic, i.e., Charleston church, and Separate Baptist , the more charismatic, i.e. Sandy Creek group. On the other hand, the formal evangelical churches are more rooted in history having more consistent themes in sermon, music, and prayer. They appreciate the liturgy, other formal elements found in historical churches besides the work of Holy Spirit while revivalists mainly focus on the work of Holy Spirit and redemption. Hustad pointed out the tendency of the theological integrity for the formal evangelical churches, so that the churches had highly developed ritual. One of the typical formal evangelical churches is the Broadway Tabernacle Church (Methodist). However, the liturgical contents for both of the churches have the most common elements discussed by Hustad; for example, sermon/preach, prayer, hymn, and benediction. Also, the influences from the both churches are currently being continued in our churches. Churches not only keep the formal evangelical style of worship but also expect the strong power of the Holy Spirit. Also, with the requiring elements by Hustad, current churches try to use a common language for the congregations to bring up the power of the Holy Spirit in church music. Briefly discuss the impact of the following on church music: (204, 223-276) Pietist Movement in Germany. This was a movement born out of the Lutheran church in the late 1600s. The viewpoint was that the goal of worship and music was the edification of humanity. Pietists taught that music was for every person and should be kept very simple. George Whitefield George Whitefield was the Calvinistic Methodist who was associated with the Wesleys in England, and brought 18th-century revivalism to the colonies. He was influenced by the Anglican tradition so that hymns began to be sung widely, especially those of Isaac Watts, and strict psalm singing was broken in England. Camp meetings Camp meeting were outdoor gatherings without regard to the gender, denominations and races. People mixed, socialized and worship together so simple so music showed a tendency to be simple. As black slaves brought their musical heritage, Spiritual became popular. Songs were not only simple, but also frequently improvised, and very repetitive. In the improvised manner, some words were changed with each repetition. Camp meetings music helped church music to get more freedom in terms of the form. Lowell Mason He was a prominent figure in public school music education in the mid 1800s and assisted in developing the first public school music programs in the United States, around the Boston and New York City areas. His teaching emphasized the use of standard notation (referred to by Mason as scientific music), rather than the shape notes used in the frontier areas of the 1800s. He also composed and arranged many hymns, of which 13 are included in the 1991 Edition of The Baptist Hymnal. Among those he composed are BETHANY (Nearer, My God to Thee), OLIVET (My Faith looks up to Thee) and HAMBURG (When I Survey the Wondrous Cross). Gospel Songs. This style of music was so-named by Philip Phillips and was patterned after the music heard in the camp meetings. They could also be known as experience hymns or hymns of witness and testimony. Names such as Fanny Crosby, William Bradbury, B.B. McKinney and Phoebe Palmer Knapp are now synonymous with Gospel Songs. Radio and television. According to Hustad, radio and television contributed to the passive culture of recreation in our culture. This change would also encourage the lack of participation in church life. Now distant from the church, the music broadcast over the air would need to encompass a broad spectrum of music styles and tastes. The celebration era. This time begins in the 1960s and is characterized by an emphasis on celebration in worship and places high value on ones experience. Hustad refers to this as The New Pietism and even The New Worship Hedonism, the latter with an emphasis on having an enjoyable experience. List and briefly discuss Hustads twelve suggestions for worship renewal today. (308-312) Study worship thoroughly: its scriptural basis, theology, history, psychology, in a full revelation of God and a full human response. Regular worship should contain all the elements in the New Testament churches: scripture reading, preaching, prayers, acts of dedication, and musical expressions. Worship should use as much language of scripture as possible: worship words should be chosen, so that it may speak to all age groups in the congregation, to the typical cultural levels represented, revision of old sermons, simplifying language for declining literacy. Completely secularized worship language is not healthy. Worship should conform to the basics of historic liturgy: basic historical worship outlines are the products of the accumulated wisdom of almost 2,000 years during which the Holy Spirit has been present and working in the church. One of the requirements of liturgical worship is congregational action. Worship is the work of the people, this is the most important. Worshipers should be involved in as much speaking, singing, and bodily action as possible. In making changes, dont follow the madding crowd unless you are convinced they are following the Holy Spirit: Follow your tradition based on your own theology. Be sure that the joy of the Lord shows in your worship, is modeled by the service leaders, and is evident in the congregation: the unbelievers come to church, not primarily to investigate the claims of Christ, but to investigate the Christ in us. Add ample right-brain language in emotive-intuitive symbolism, not for fun or for aesthetics, but for truths sake: Ever-present danger of idolatry-the worship of self or of cultural icons in the place of God. it is important to keep old ones, like hymnal-the repository of the churchs memory, preserving the heritage of its greatest singers and important hymn literature. In music, sing as wide a spectrum of song as did the first-century church with musical styles that will meet the expectations of todays congregation: New worship choruses (high emotional experience and release) Taize minimalist music (cognitive and emotional expression) Older gospel songs Contemporary ballads (experience of Christ) Psalms settings (full language of prayer) Classic hymns (identity with the historic church and doctrine, the perpetuity of Gods covenants, and the continuity of the Holy Spirits indwelling of Gods people) Worship changes should aim to unite a congregation, not divide it: worship must include a full range of emotions, including penitence and sober reflection, the spirit of celebration based on thanksgiving should be predominant. Teach the significance of each worship experience in the context of regular services: teach the meaning of worship words. Protect music education in the church, because Christians are stewards of God-given talents: God expects the talents to be returned to him by giving glory. Be sure that worship is finally incarnational, in that men and women become more perfectly human as Jesus Christ was perfectly human: as a result of their encounter with God, in the name of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Outline and discuss the elements of the Genevan Order of Worship (Isaiah 6). (330-338) Preparation for worship- instrumental prelude is a curtain which we draw to shut out lifes busting distractions so that we may sense the presence of the numinous, powerful, loving God. But this does not function since folks tend to talk over the music. Informal music may be directed by a songleader and may be interspersed with personal witnessing, and this may conclude with a time of greeting one another. The minister may say Now let us worship God as a call to worship. Confession, Forgiveness- The call to confession may be preceded by reading or paraphrasing 1 John 1:9. The call could be Let us admit our sin before God, first in a verse of a hymn and then in our united confession. An assurance of forgiveness is an announcement that, if we confess, God forgives our sins, as he has promised to do. God Speaks Scripture reading are given to keep both ancient and modern practice (Old and New Testaments), psalm is followed after to be response to the reading. In many congregations it is customary to close a scripture reading with the phrase This is the Word of the Lord and the peoples response Thanks be to God. a gospel reading would be followed with This is the gospel of the Lord and the response, Praise be to you, O Christ. the virtue of Geneva order is that scripture reading is followed closely by its interpretation in the sermon without a lot of intervening numbers. However, it is considered appropriate to follow any scripture with the Gloria Patri, with a canticle, or with a psalm, hymn, or anthem. It is appropriate for the minister to follow Calvins example by prefacing the homily with a Prayer of illumination. We Respond- the response hymn in this instance is a parallel to the opening hymn, in keeping with the sermon emphasis, the first speaks of transcendent God, second speaks of the immanent Jesus Christ as a friend. It is also appropriate as an invitation to Christian decision. Offering is placed after the sermon and response hymn, one way of saying Amen to Gods will expressed in his word, read and preached. This is based on a song of praise to Christ for his incarnation and self-emptying, or any other text of adoration. Another type is the reciting of a doctrinal confession, we stand to state our belief. The preferred form is the short Apostles Creed. We Pray- prayer is placed after the hearing of and responding to, the Word of God. It is because God called the meeting to order to reveal himself, his actions and his will. It is good etiquette to hear God out and to offer a full affirmative response. And it is a moving experience for believers to pray together as the closing act of a community at worship. These could be bidding prayers that leader calls for silent, personal petition for church, for ministers, and Christian workers around the world, for peace and justice among nations, and for the sick and bereaved persons. We Celebrate Communion- The prayer should contain both bread and drink part of Jesus command. In recent years, many churches added central memorial acclamation after the statement of remembrance: Christ had died; Christ had risen; Christ will come again. The Close of Worship- Hymn is sung proclaiming the Cross, because it is only through Christs death on the cross that we may know God, both transcendent and immanent. The instrumental postlude is generally exuberant in tone, reflecting thanksgiving for the opportunity of worship and the movement of the congregation into the week of continuing worship, witness, and service. List and discuss the emphases of evangelistic

Ciceros De Amicitia Essay -- Friendship Death Love Essays

Cicero's De Amicitia Cicero’s De Amicitia brings a unique perspective to the topic of friendship and how it relates to death. The word amicitia comes from the Latin root word amor which is translated to mean â€Å"love†. In this day and age the word friendship has taken on a slightly different meaning from the ancient meaning. Cicero’s De Amicitia seeks to define what friendship is, its characteristics and principles. He has challenged us to reconsider what constitutes a true friend. Upon observing a typical friendship it becomes clear to us that this relationship is actually devoid of true love; the love in which Cicero speaks of. A genuine friendship is a rare and beautiful thing; a mutual relationship formed between two virtuous people of the same sex in which both individuals love the other as much if not more than themselves. â€Å"In the face of a true friend a man sees as it were a second self.† To love another person as much as you love yourself, to give without the expectation of receiving something in return is indeed an amazing concept. It is sometimes hard to comprehend its existence in this world where friendship is more for utility; â€Å"serve for particular ends - riches for use, power for securing homage, office for reputation, pleasure for enjoyment, health for freedom from pain and the full use of the functions of the body. But friendship embraces innumerable advantages.† The structural foundation upon which a friendship is built is a key determining factor concerning the quality, life and longevity of a friendship. When this foundation is weak and built on the selfish desires of those individuals, that friendship is ultimately put to the test. A utility based friendship is impermanent; giving way to the changing circumstances it faces over time as Cicero stated â€Å"For if it were true that its material advantages cemented friendship, it would be equally true that any change in them would dissolve it.† It does not have the qualities to endure and will fail to thrive in the face of such trials and tribulations as â€Å"conflicting interest; differences of opinion in politics; frequent changes in character, owing sometimes to misfortunes, sometimes to advancing years.† In this type of friendship the individual takes pleasure in each other’s company only in so far they have hopes of gaining an advantage from it. For Cicero, true friendship can only be achie... ...h act. â€Å"I am disposed to think, therefore, that in his case mourning would be a sign of envy rather than of friendship. If, however, the truth rather is that the body and soul perish together, and that no sensation remains, then though there is nothing good in death, at least there is nothing bad.† This statement shows a certain level of jealousy for you envy the freedom your friend has now achieved in death whereas you are still encased in your human form, your soul trapped and yearning for knowledge and wisdom. Feelings of joy would wash over the surviving friend if indeed their friendship were true. Feeling joyful that this person he has loved with all his heart and soul has moved on to a beautiful place, free from the human condition. Reading Cicero’s work has helped validate that which I have always felt to be true; not just of friendship but of death. I conclude with a passage in which Cicero touches on the purpose of forming friendships; †For it is not so much what one gets by a friend that gives one pleasure, as the warmth of his feeling.† One day I hope to understand through first hand experience rather than just through speculation and dissection of Cicero’s writing.

Graduation Speech: The Opportunity to Make a Difference :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Over the past year or so some dreadful events have occurred at high schools, alarming the American public while they have talked about increased security, clinging to images of guns, blood and typical-looking teenagers committing unthinkable crimes. The media has focused on these incidents without giving attention to all of the potential and talent that is flourishing throughout our high schools. I invite them to recognize the inspired pupils who are propelling themselves beyond standard and motivating others around them. That is what I want the American public to be talking about. As young adults we have the opportunity to make a difference. Not only for ourselves, but for our kids and future generations. I would like to tell everybody about someone who has made the most of his opportunity. Many of you guys know him, and he's actually a very close friend of mine. He's my dad, Mark Reiman. My father was blessed with the disease ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. For those of you who don't know what this disease is about, it weakens your muscles until you are unable to function. It can affect your voice, your mobility, and it can even affect how well you chew your food. Seventy five percent of people afflicted with this disease only live 2 to 5 years after their diagnosis. My father has now lived with it for almost eight years. Many of you are probably wondering why I used the word blessed. My dad, and my family also, have come to the belief that he contracted this illness for a reason. That reason is he has been given the opportunity to change peoples' lives. He's given people hope when they thought there was nothing left to hope for. He's loved people when they thought they were unlovable, that because they no longer had the physical abilities they once had, they were a nuisance. Believe me, you can accomplish so much with your mind and touch so many people with your heart. He's also taught people that every day we have is a blessing. We need to make every second count, because life is great. I mean life is awesome, you guys. If I have learned anything through my dad's affliction or from our years at Tates Creek, it's that I love life -- and want to experience as much of it as possible. Now my dad is just one guy, and look what he's done. We are individuals.

Sustainable Production Practices and Determinant Factors of Green Supply Chain Management of Chinese Companies

Business Strategy and the Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) Published online 16 February 2011 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary. com) DOI: 10. 1002/bse. 705 Sustainable Production: Practices and Determinant Factors of Green Supply Chain Management of Chinese Companies Xianbing Liu,1* Jie Yang,2 Sixiao Qu,2 Leina Wang,2 Tomohiro Shishime1 and Cunkuan Bao2 1 Kansai Research Centre, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan 2 College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, ChinaABSTRACT This paper explores the green supply chain management (GSCM) of companies based in the Yangtze River Delta, China. The companies’ overall GSCM practice level (LGSCM) is measured by using the data from 165 valid respondents in a questionnaire survey conducted during April and May 2009. The relationships between LGSCM and the classi? ed determinant factors are analyzed. It is indicated that Chinese companies are still at a preliminar y stage of GSCM practices. Their environmental management in cooperation with external members of the supply chain is very marginal.A company’s LGSCM is signi? cantly and positively associated with the external pressures from regulatory, domestic clients and business competitors. As an internal factor, a company’s learning capacity greatly determines LGSCM. We also con? rm that the internal factors function as intermediate variables of external pressures in in? uencing a company’s GSCM. A company’s environmental management capacities will be strongly enhanced by frequent internal training of employees to increase its involvement in GSCM practices.Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Received 5 July 2010; revised 14 December 2010; accepted 16 December 2010 Keywords: sustainable production; green supply chain management; practices; determinant factors; China Introduction environment, in the forms of pollutant generation, ecosystem disruption and depletion of resources (Fiksel, 1996). The pressures and drivers from abroad accompanying globalization have pushed manufacturers in developing economies like China to improve their environmental performance (Zhu and Sarkis, 2006).Environmental concerns gradually become part of the overall business culture and, in turn, help re? engineer the development strategies of corporations (Madu et al. , 2002). Corporate environmental management (CEM) has been moving from traditional pollution control and risk management towards product life? cycle * Correspondence to: Xianbing Liu, Kansai Research Centre, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Hitomirai Building 4F, 1? 5? 2, Wakinohama Kaigan Dori, Chuo? ku, Hyogo, 651? 0073, Japan. E? mail: [email  protected] or. jp Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment OUT OF ALL BUSINESS OPERATIONS, MANUFACTURING PROCESSES ARE VIEWED TO HAVE THE HIGHEST IMPACTS ON THE 2 Xianbing Liu et al. manageme nt and industrial ecology. Recently, CEM has extended to certain boundary? spanning activities like green procurement, product stewardship, reverse logistics and so on (Zsidisin and Siferd, 2001; Snir, 2001; Prahinski and Kocabasoglu, 2006). These practices are related to supply chain management, which requires various interactions between the core manufacturer and the other entities along the supply chain, either the upstream suppliers or downstream distributors and customers.The concept of supply chain management for environmental protection was ? rst put forward by Drumwright (1994), which identi? ed the characteristics of those companies introducing new manufacturing ideas. Later, green supply chain management (GSCM) was de? ned as a new term by the Manufacturing Research Association at Michigan State University, USA (Hand? eld, 1996). The fast economic growth of China has greatly relied on the extensive expansion of manufacturing industries which produce resource? intensive but cheap goods for foreign markets.The regulatory requirements in developed economies, such as the familiar European Union (EU) Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, have forced electronics manufacturers in China to actively practice certain GSCM activities. The relatively high position of Chinese manufacturers in the global supply chain offers the possibility, and an ideal setting, to explore their actual GSCM involvements. Zhu et al. (2008) studied the emerging GSCM practices at company level in a Chinese context, and con? med that GSCM is still a new concept for most Chinese companies as they change their environmental management from internal efforts to the whole supply chain. In terms of determinant factors for GSCM practices, this previous study mainly focused on a company’s internal issues, such as the importance of the company’s learning? oriented programs and support of top manage rs. The pressures from externally related stakeholders bear further study due to their importance to a company’s environmental behavior (Zhu et al. , 2008).Subsequent studies employing both external pressures and internal factors would provide a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships between GSCM practices and the determinant factors. In addition, Zhu et al. (2008) conducted their survey in the northern cities of China. Surveys of companies based in the other geographical areas of China would be necessary and meaningful. In order to close the research gap described above, this paper identi? es the external pressures which determine the level of a company’s GSCM practices while using internal factors as the intermediate variables.The Yangtze River Delta, including Shanghai and surrounding regions, is selected as the study area mainly due to its relatively developed economy compared with other regions of China. The improved background of CEM provides us wi th the possibility of monitoring a company’s GSCM practices there. Considering the complexity of GSCM practices, which may be attributed to the wide scope of environmental activities at different phases of the supply chain, this paper classi? es four categories of typical GSCM activities by referring to the existing literatures (e. g.Sarkis, 2005). Two topics are mainly discussed in this paper: (1) the current status of GSCM practices of the companies in the study area; and (b) determinant factors, external and internal, predicting the level of a company’s involvement in GSCM practices. Literature Review Although there is no uniform de? nition for GSCM so far, basic and common understandings have been formed theoretically and in practice. GSCM emphasizes the concerns for the environment along the whole supply chain and requires long? term and strategic collaborations between the supply chain members.GSCM covers the management of the life cycle of a product, from its ma nufacture and consumption until the end? of? life (Nagel, 2000). GSCM practices may be separated according to the stages of production, distribution and utilization, and thus can be categorized into internally green manufacturing activities, green procurement, eco? design, green retailing and green consumption by individuals (Walton et al. , 1998; Zsidisin and Hendrick, 1998; Carter et al. , 2000). Research on GSCM has been building gradually, but still remains sparse (Vachon and Klassen, 2008).GSCM studies were previously conducted by addressing the following aspects: general and basic issues like designing the framework for GSCM (Geoffrey et al. , 2002); implementation of GSCM strategies (Sarkis, 2003); environmental assessment of GSCM practices (Vijay et al. , 2003); relationship between a company’s performance and GSCM practices (Klassen and Mclaughin, 1996); and speci? c GSCM activities like green purchasing (Min and Galle, 1997), Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, L td and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bseGreen Supply Chain Management in China 3 total quality and environmental management (Sarkis, 1999), green marketing (Karna and Heiskanen, 1998), and environmental performance evaluation of suppliers (Hines and Johns, 2001). Cooperation among the companies on the supply chain is the key to drive them to improve the environmental compatibility of their businesses (Ken et al. , 2000). Generally, the bene? ts of collaborative practices with upstream suppliers are much broader. In contrast, collaboration with downstream customers yields mixed outcomes Vachon and Klassen, 2008). By exploring the operational performances due to green partnership along the supply chain, Vachon and Klassen (2006) indicated that partnership with customers was positively related to product quality and ? exibility, whereas partnership with suppliers was associated with better delivery operations. Thun and Muller (2010) interviewed m anagers from the automotive supply industry in Germany and con? rmed the need for GSCM on the one hand but corresponding problems in terms of required resource on the other.Case studies of the British and Japanese food retail sector and the British aerospace industry showed that it would be easier to adopt GSCM if certain suppliers could play a leading role in a group of similar suppliers (Jeremy, 2000). While large companies can mandate their supplies to comply with certain environmental initiatives, cooperative approaches are likely to be more fruitful. Sharfman et al. (2009) suggested that inter rm trust, uncertainty and proactive environmental management most directly affect the extent of a company’s engagement in GSCM.Jeppesen and Hansen (2004) examined the conditions for environmental upgrading of Third World companies led by foreign companies. They argued that environmental upgrading on the value chain must be understood partly as a result of external industry and mark et forces, and partly as a result of the internal resources and competitive strategies of the companies involved. Two typical models are found for better application of GSCM strategies. One is to develop more environmentally friendly goods through cooperation like joint research.The other is to request that the suppliers satisfy higher environmental standards, for example achieving ISO14001 certi? cation, and the limitation of speci? ed materials in products. The construction of cooperative strategies and the evaluation of suppliers help improve the compatibilities of supply chain to the environment (Lamming, 1996). The extent of GSCM practices adopted by Chinese companies was examined by a survey of companies in several industrial sectors such as power generation, petrochemicals, electric and electronics and automobiles (Zhu and Geng, 2006).It was hard for the surveyed companies to integrate environmental issues into their business operations with suppliers and customers. Some lead ing companies have made efforts in internally proactive CEM practices like pursuing ISO14001 certi? cation, but most have just started to consider external GSCM activities. In China, environmental pressures are stronger for large companies than for small and medium? sized ones (Zhu and Geng, 2001). Automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have been required by the automobile assemblers to operate in an environmental manner since Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.Chinese electronic enterprises are found to be performing better in GSCM practices (Zhu and Sarkis, 2006). Development of an Analytical Framework and Research Hypotheses As mentioned earlier, this study tries to expand the determinant factors of GSCM practices in China from a company’s internal explanatory variables, which have been explored in previous studies (e. g. Zhu et al. , 2008), to the external pressures. Different alternative theoretical viewpoints, such as stakeholder t heory, institutional theory and the resource? based view, have been used to look at GSCM practices.As typical inter? organizational collaborations, the stakeholder theory with broad acceptance would be appropriate for discussing GSCM issues rather than intra? organizational management activities. In practice, stakeholder theory and institutional theory are rather similar in grouping a company’s external ‘others’, including the input and output environment of the company (suppliers and product consumers), its competitive environment (companies producing similar services or products) and its regulatory environment (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Delmas and Toffel, 2004).In this study, we identi? ed the determinant factors of GSCM practices by referring to existing literature and developed an overall analytical framework as shown in Figure 1. The relationships between the determinant factors and a company’s GSCM activities and research hypotheses are explained as follows. Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bse 4 Xianbing Liu et al. Figure 1. Overall analytical framework of this studyHypothesis a (Ha): External Pressures The importance of external factors lies in the complementary nature of the factors behind Chinese companies’ adoption of GSCM practices at the early stage of environmental policy transformation. Besides the requirements of governmental regulations, domestic and foreign clients, competitors and neighboring communities may exert pressures on the companies (Hall, 2000). These external pressures have jointly prompted companies to become more aware of environmental problems and to practice certain GSCM activities (Sarkis, 1998; Hervani et al. 2005). Customer expectations have become the most important external pressure (Doonan et al. , 2005). To achieve sustainable solutions and business goals, the environmental properties of products and ser vices have to satisfy customer demands (Zhu and Sarkis, 2006). ‘Communities’ refer to those who are not necessarily involved in the business partnership directly but have knowledge of local companies (Nelson et al. , 1999). The community perspectives shoul be adequately represented as they may in? uence a company’s decision? aking process (Kearney, 2004). It has been indicated that communities have the ability to in? uence the social reputation of a company (Henriques and Sadorsky, 1996). According to Zhu and Sarkis (2006), Hall (2000) and Sarkis (1998), external pressures are believed to be important factors affecting a company’s GSCM practices. This generates the ? rst integrative hypothesis of this study as: Ha: companies that face higher pressures from external stakeholders are more likely to adopt GSCM practices.Hypothesis b (Hb): Internal Factors Business strategy is not only in? uenced by external stakeholders since companies subject to the same lev el of external pressure may perform differently (Prakash, 2000; Gunningham et al. , 2003). It is argued that companies also adopt different environmental practices due to their individual interpretations of the objective pressures from the outside. The difference between ‘objective’ and ‘perceived’ pressures would lead to diverse responses from companies.Therefore, our analytical model adds two internal organizational factors, namely support by top managers and a company’s learning capacity, to jointly explain a company’s GSCM practices. Management support by top managers is critical for the introduction and implementation of innovations in a company, especially environmental management systems (EMSs) (Daily and Huang, 2001). Top management support can affect the success of new initiatives by facilitating employee involvement or by promoting a cultural shift in the company, for example. Previous research suggests that cross? unctional programs need support from senior management, and indicates that top management support is associated with the success of environmentally preferable purchasing (Carter et al. , 1998). As GSCM is a broad? based organizational endeavor, Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bse Green Supply Chain Management in China 5 it has the potential to bene? t from top management support. Meanwhile, a company’s learning capacity is viewed as especially important in a resource? ased view. GSCM practices are amenable to the bene? ts derived from learning since they are human resource? intensive and greatly rely on tacit skill development by employee involvement, team work and shared expertise (Hart, 1995). The capacity for implementing innovative environmental approaches is usually enhanced by employee self? learning, professional education and on? the? job training. The education level of employees and the frequency of internal environmental training are often used as proxies of a company’s learning capacity.The above discussions suggest two sub? hypotheses on internal factors which may be expressed as Hb1 and Hb2: Hb1: a company’s level of GSCM practices is positively associated with the support of top managers. Hb2: a company’s level of GSCM practices is positively associated with the company’s learning capacity. Hypothesis c (Hc): the Linkage of External and Internal Factors As discussed above, the addition of internal factors reasonably complements the pressures from external stakeholders in explaining the practice of GSCM.A company’s internal factors may be viewed as intermediate variables to adjust the in? uences of external pressures. A company will be unlikely to implement GSCM activities if it does not have the necessary capacity, no matter what pressures it faces. This generates one more hypothesis on the relationship of external pressures and internal factors in determining a company’s GSCM practices in this study, which may be documented as: Hc: the relationships between a company’s external pressures and adoption of GSCM are mediated by internal factors. MethodsSamples and Data Collection The data for this study were collected by a questionnaire survey conducted in the region of the Yangtze River Delta during April and May 2009. Two small areas in the delta were selected for the survey implementation. One was Taichang, a county? level city in Jiangsu Province. Another was Kangqiao Industrial Park based in Shanghai. Developed from traditional environmental policies, local environmental agencies have tried some innovative measures for improving CEM by encouraging the public’s involvement against industrial pollution.With aims to reduce the compliance cost and maintain ? nancial value, the companies there have adopted some proactive environmental practices. The better background of CEM in the study area compar ed with other regions of China provides the possibility for us to monitor companies’ GSCM activities in this study. According to the literature overview and preliminary understandings about the contextual background of the study area, a questionnaire was developed to measure companies’ GSCM practices, determinant factors and organizational performance.The questionnaire format consisted of four major components: general information on the companies; GSCM activities such as environmentally preferable procurement; the degree of external pressures felt by the companies; and the evaluation of environmental and economic performances. The environmental managers were chosen as focal points in the survey to answer the questions concerning GSCM issues in their companies. Due to the large scope for GSCM activities, the environmental manager discussed matters with the purchasing manager and production manager as necessary.Over a period of approximately 2 months, the survey was con ducted in two phases. In the ? rst stage, local government of? cials and seven companies were contacted in order to test the validation and feasibility of answering the survey document. The questions are listed in a concise but accurate manner to avoid misunderstanding by the respondents. The ? nalized format was sent to 210 enterprises on a name list provided by the local environmental protection bureaus Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bse 6 Xianbing Liu et al. EPBs). A total of 165 respondents were con? rmed to be useful for the analysis, meaning a relatively high (78. 6%) valid response rate due to the coordination of local EPBs. The distribution of usable responses by industrial sectors is listed in Table 1. As expected, the samples from the sectors of machinery manufacturing, chemicals and textile and dyeing account for nearly half of the total, which are the representative industries in the st udy area. Operationalization of the Variables Dependent Variable The dependent variable in this study is LGSCM, a company’s overall GSCM practice level.LGSCM may be represented by a series of practical activities since it is dif? cult to directly measure the degree of GSCM involvement. Twelve items of GSCM activities were identi? ed to estimate a company’s overall level of GSCM practices in the current Chinese context, as listed in panel A of Table 2 and abbreviated as GA1 to GA12. This study addresses the GSCM practices as a company’s proactive environmental efforts in the manufacturing phase by excluding the end? of? pipe pollution control measurements and reverse logistic management of used products.Four categories of GSCM practices, represented by C1 to C4, respectively, are included: internally proactive environmental activities (C1); environmentally preferable procurement (C2); environmentally conscious design (C3); and supplier managed inventories and ser vices (C4) (Walton et al. , 1998; Carter et al. , 2000; Zsidisin and Hendrick, 1998). Achieving ISO14001 certi? cation, implementation of cleaner production auditing and reutilization of byproducts and other waste are chosen as internal proactive environmental activities of the companies.A company’s procurement strategies have strong impacts on the upstream producers in the supply chain, e. g. by buying non? toxic materials (Sarkis, 2003). In this study, four types of activities are de? ned as environmentally preferable procurement by the companies: requiring suppliers to offer cleaner products, evaluating suppliers’ environmental performances, providing education and technical assistance to suppliers, and providing education for internal procurement staff.Environmentally conscious design primarily focuses on technological improvements of products and processes to mitigate environmental impacts. Three items of activities, namely working closely with suppliers in produc t design, reducing waste in cooperation with suppliers and providing product? related environmental information for customers, are selected to assess the environmentally conscious design practices of companies. The last type of GSCM practice is supplier managed inventories and services which are found in chemical industries.Certain chemical companies commissioned their inventory management to the providers of raw materials due to the higher potential risks and the management experiences of the suppliers (PPRC, 2002). Since many chemical companies are located in the study area, two items are included to represent a company’s GSCM activities in this aspect. One is to entrust suppliers to manage company inventories. Another is to offer inventory management services for clients. Sector Paper Textile and dyeing Chemicals Plastics and rubber Metals Machinery and equipment manufacturing Electronics Automobile Printing Construction Others In totalNumber of samples 5 19 24 7 5 35 6 13 3 5 43 165 Percentage 3. 0 11. 5 14. 6 4. 3 3. 0 21. 2 3. 6 7. 9 1. 8 3. 0 26. 1 100. 0 Table 1. Distribution of the usable respondents by industrial sectors Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bse Green Supply Chain Management in China Variable Description of the proxy 0 A: GSCM activities Internal proactive Achieving ISO14001 certification (GA1) environmental Cleaner production uditing (GA2) management (C1) Reutilization of byproducts and other wastes (GA3) Require suppliers to offer cleaner products (GA4) Environmentally Evaluate environmental performances of suppliers (GA5) preferable procurement (C2) Provide education and technical assistance for suppliers (GA6) Environmental education for internal purchasing staff (GA7) Work closely with suppliers in product design (GA8) Environmentally Work with suppliers on waste minimization (GA9) conscious Provide environmental information for products (GA10) design (C3) Supplier managed Entrust suppliers to manage some of the inventories (GA11) inventories (C4) Offer inventory management services for clients (GA12) 1 Valuation 2 3 4 5 7 LGSCMB: Determinant factors REGULATORY DCLIENT COMPETITOR COMMUNITY FCLIENT TSUPPORT EDUCATION TRAINING Pressure of environmental regulations Importance of domestic client’s environmental expectation Importance of competitors’ green strategies Pressure of complaints from neighboring communities Pressure of foreign customer’s environmental expectation Degree of support from company’s top managers Education level of the employees Frequency of internal environmental training External pressures Internal factors C: Control variables Characteristics of the companies Company’s size (LSIZ) Industrial sector belongings (SECTOR) Natural log of turnover Table 2. Definition and valuation of GSCM activities, the determinant factors and the controls The companies were requested to p resent a ? ve? oint Likert scale for each item of the 12 activities. The scales are de? ned as: 1 = not considering the activity at all; 2 = planning to consider; 3 = considering currently; 4 = partially implementing; and 5 = implementing successfully. The average score for all 12 items was used to represent the company’s LGSCM. In a similar way, the average score for the items of each GSCM category was used as the level of practice of that category. Independent Variables Recalling the section on ‘Development of Analytical Framework and Research Hypotheses’, the determinant factors behind companies’ adoption of GSCM activities include external pressures and internal factors. As listed in panel B of Table 2, ? e external pressures and three internal factors are classi? ed. In a similar way, a ? ve? point Likert scale was used to measure the importance, strength or degree of each factor: 1 = not at all; 2 = to some degree; 3 = moderate; 4 = relatively high; 5 = very high. The score for each factor was used to estimate its relationship with LGSCM. The only exception is for FCLIENT (pressure from foreign customers). The company’s export ratios were used as the proxy for this variable. It is assumed that the higher a company’s export ratio was, the higher the Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bse 8 Xianbing Liu et al. ressure from foreign markets that would be felt by the company. The export ratios were classi? ed into four levels in the questionnaire format with consideration of easier responses from the surveyed companies. Control Variables Two more variables are introduced into the analytical framework as the controls. One is company size and another is the industrial sector to which it belongs. The existing literature suggests that larger companies are more likely to be under public scrutiny and are expected to have a higher propensity to be involved in innovative environmental practices (Hettige et al. , 1996). Larger companies are also likely to have superior resources for environmental activities.Companies with higher environmental sensitivity are more willing to improve their environmental performances. Panel C of Table 2 lists the methods for evaluating control variables. A natural log of the turnover in 2008 was used to represent a company’s size. A company’s industrial sector af? liation is classi? ed into two types, with ‘1’ referring to environmentally sensitive industries (ESI) and ‘0’ being non? ESIs. ESIs in China include mining, thermal power, construction materials, pulp and paper products, metallurgy, petroleum, brewing, fermentation, textiles, pharmacy, tanning and chemical industries (SEPA, 2003). The others are classi? ed as non? ESI.Results and Discussions Result for GSCM Practices of the Companies SPSS was used for the statistical analysis in this study. Cro nbach’s ? was calculated in order to test the consistency reliability of the values given to the items of GSCM activities. The estimated ? for all 12 items is 0. 912, which is higher than the 0. 9 that would imply a high validity of the dataset constructed. An exploratory factor analysis was performed on the 12 GSCM items to ? nd if there are different dimensions of these activities. Two factors were extracted. However, the ? rst factor accounts for 49. 9% of the variance in total and the second only accounts for 11. 6%.The rotated component matrix of the factor analysis is listed in Table 3. All the items relating to external GSCM practices (GA4 to GA12) are highly associated with factor 1. The results for internally proactive environmental activities (GA1, GA2 and GA3) are not clear since they have nearly equal loadings on both factors. The factor analysis result proves the rationality of using the average score of all the classi? ed GSCM items (LGSCM) as the dependent vari able for the regression analysis in this study. Table 4 gives a statistical summary of the scores of the de? ned GSCM activities. LGSCM of the respondents achieved an average score of 3. 9, indicating that Chinese companies are still at a very preliminary stage in their GSCM items 1 GA11 GA12 GA10 GA5 GA9 GA6 GA7 GA8 GA4 GA1 GA2 GA3 0. 814 0. 803 0. 779 0. 767 0. 749 0. 747 0. 730 0. 725 0. 691 0. 578 0. 490 0. 500 Component 2 ? 0. 119 ? 0. 107 – 0. 273 ? 0. 271 – 0. 321 ? 0. 303 0. 207 0. 492 0. 622 0. 583 Table 3. Rotated component matrix of factor analysis of GSCM items Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bse Green Supply Chain Management in China 9 GSCM practices. The surveyed companies have started to implement internally proactive CEM activities to some degree (averaged at 3. 41–3. 93).Most of them plan to think about or are considering the environmental activities which would be jointly practiced with external actors in the supply chain. As examples, GA6 (provide education and technical assistance for suppliers) and GA8 (work closely with suppliers in product design) only obtained average scores of less than 3. 00. Nevertheless, slight improvement was observed in this study compared with the previous survey conducted in north China by Zhu and Sarkis (2006). This change may be attributed to the different location of the study areas. As described earlier, the region for this study has a relatively developed economy, and the companies there may be performing better on the environment than those in other areas. The surveyed companies react differently to the classi? d GSCM activities. Figure 2 provides details of the score distribution of GCSM activities practiced by the respondents. Many companies are implementing certain proactive Categories and items of GSCM activities Internal proactive environmental activities (C1) GA1 GA2 GA3 Environmentally preferabl e procurement (C2) GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7 Environmentally conscious design (C3) GA8 GA9 GA10 Supplier? managed inventories and services (C4) GA11 GA12 Overall level of GSCM practices (LGSCM) Obs. 158 159 160 160 159 160 159 160 162 153 159 159 156 157 158 158 148 Mean 3. 60 3. 41 3. 51 3. 93 3. 38 3. 84 3. 47 2. 76 3. 48 3. 32 2. 93 3. 45 3. 54 3. 11 3. 10 3. 2 3. 39 SD 1. 07 1. 49 1. 35 1. 14 1. 01 1. 16 1. 19 1. 27 1. 27 1. 04 1. 30 1. 22 1. 27 1. 23 1. 24 1. 33 0. 91 Min. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Max. 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 Table 4. Statistical summary of GSCM activities of the surveyed companies One 100% 90% 80% Two Three Four Five Ratio of the score 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% GA1 GA2 GA3 GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7 GA8 GA9 GA10 GA11 GA12 Items of GSCM activities Figure 2. Distribution of the scores of company’s GSCM activities Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bse 10 Xianbing Liu et a l. internal CEM practices.Nearly 70% of the surveyed companies are reusing byproducts and other generated waste to some degree. Around half of them are making efforts to achieve ISO14001 certi? cation and are pursuing a cleaner production audit. The companies are selective about those GSCM activities requiring cooperation with external actors on the supply chain. About 70% of the respondents are asking their upstream suppliers to provide cleaner materials or products to avoid possible environmental risks. The number of companies which arrange internally environmental education for their procurement staff and work closely with their suppliers for waste minimization is also around 50%.Another item of GSCM activity practiced relatively better by the companies is to provide product? related environmental information for their clients. However, most of the companies do not supply technical assistance to their suppliers. About 65% of the companies have not taken any action concerning envi ronmentally conscious design with their suppliers. In summary, the surveyed companies’ GSCM activities are obviously due to individual business needs and bene? ts from their own perspectives. GSCM is still a new concept for most Chinese companies. More time is needed for them to recognize the importance of strategic cooperation with other members of the supply chain. In? epth GSCM practices within a wider scope would be adopted if companies could unite as a group with a shared strategy on business and environmental issues. Descriptive Statistics of the Other Variables Table 5 summarizes the variables describing the determinant factors of GSCM activities. Companies gave higher scores to the pressures from external stakeholders. Among the external pressures, the regulative requirements and domestic client’s environmental expectations are viewed as highly important, achieving an average score of 4. 41 and 4. 29, respectively. Keeping up with competitors in the same sector is also regarded as an important factor (averaging 4. 08). The sampled companies usually carry out internal environmental training two or three times a year.The education level of employees is relatively low, probably because most of the companies are from traditionally labor? intensive industries. An average score of 2. 87 is presented for top managers’ support, which implies that company managers do not care much about GSCM efforts. This ? nding shows for a fact that the managers of Chinese companies do not seriously considering environmental activities other than basic compliance. Regarding the control variables indicating company characteristics, most of the samples are small and medium? sized. Large companies, with an annual turnover of more than 300 million Chinese yuan (CNY), only account for 7. 4% of the total.Small enterprises, which have fewer than 300 employees or yearly sales of less than CNY 30 million, account for 64. 2%. The remaining 28. 4% are medium? sized companies. According to the classi? cation criteria of the Chinese national environmental authority, half of the samples are categorized as ESI (49. 1%). The other half is non? ESI. Most of the respondents (71. 4%) process raw materials or produce components for downstream manufacturers. Result of the Relationship Between LGSCM and the Determinant Factors Pearson rank correlation was used to give a preliminary observation of the relationships between the overall level of GSCM practices and the determinant factors identi? ed earlier. The correlation matrix is shown in Table 6. ThisVariables and abbreviations REGULATORY DCLIENT COMPETITOR COMMUNITY FCLIENT TSUPPORT EDUCATION TRAINING Obs. 156 156 152 162 150 159 160 159 Mean 4. 41 4. 29 4. 08 3. 88 2. 46 2. 87 3. 30 4. 15 SD 0. 75 0. 86 0. 85 1. 73 1. 27 1. 35 1. 03 0. 75 Min. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Max. 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 External pressures Internal factors Table 5. Statistical summary of the determinant factors Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bse Green Supply Chain Management in China LGSCM LGSCM REGULATORY DCLIENT COMPETITOR COMMUNITY FCLIENT TSUPPORT EDUCATION TRAINING 1 b 0. 195 a 0. 361 a 0. 391 ? 0. 083 0. 022 0. 113 a 0. 441 a 0. 559 REG.DCLIENT COMP. COMM. FCLIENT TSUP. EDU. 11 TRAINING 1 a 0. 395 a 0. 506 0. 035 0. 041 b ? 0. 176 b 0. 197 a 0. 477 1 a 0. 538 0. 008 0. 064 ? 0. 105 b 0. 354 a 0. 447 1 a 0. 038 0. 055 ? 0. 085 a 0. 238 a 0. 395 1 ? 0. 015 a ? 0. 471 0. 037 0. 150 1 ? 0. 086 0. 073 0. 139 1 ? 0. 041 ? 0. 073 1 a 0. 421 1 Table 6. Correlation coefficients of LGSCM and the determinant factors a Correlation is signi? cant at the 0. 01 level, two? tailed. b Correlation is signi? cant at the 0. 05 level, one? tailed. indicates that LGSCM is signi? cantly correlated with the external pressure variables DCLIENT and COMPETITOR, and internal factors like EDUCATION and TRAINING.Standard multiple regressions were performed wi th LGSCM as the dependent variable and each of the determinant factors and controls as independent variables. The results are listed in Table 7. The level of multi? collinearity between the variables was tested by an inspection of the condition index and variance proportions in the SPSS collinearity diagnostics table. According to the criteria given by Tabachnick and Fidell (2001), multi? collinearity is not a problem in this analysis since each condition index is less than 30 and the variance proportions are much less than 50. The regression result in Table 7 indicates that Ha is supported in general.Among the external pressures, DCLIENT and COMPETITOR are signi? cantly and positively associated with LGSCM at P = 0. 000. This implies that domestic clients’ environmental preferences and competitors’ green strategies for differentiation are major external drivers for companies to adopt GSCM activities. One more external factor which has a slightly positive correlation w ith LGSCM, signi? cant at P < 0. 01, is REGULATORY. Government regulations were believed to be dominant forces for CEM in the past since a company’s environmental strategies are imposed coercively via environmental sanctions (Delmas, 2002). However, this study classi? ed GSCM practices as those beyond basic environmental compliances.The governmental requirements may become a relatively minor factor for the adoption of GSCM practices. No signi? cant associations are found between the other two external pressures, COMMUNITY and FCLIENT, and LGSCM. The surveyed companies greatly valued the pressure from their neighboring communities. However, community pressure cannot account for a company’s GSCM efforts, probably because the communities mainly complain about the environmentally illegal activities of companies rather than lobby for proactive efforts such as GSCM practices. The pressure from foreign clients is not strongly felt by manufacturers in the current phase. Regard ing the internal factors, Hb1 is not supported. The support of top managers is not found to be signi? antly associated with a company’s LGSCM in this survey, which is in contrast to the result of Carter et al. (1998). Nevertheless, Hb2 is fully con? rmed. The two variables representing a company’s learning capacity, education level of employees (EDUCATION) and frequency of internal environmental training (TRAINING), are signi? cantly and positively associated with LGSCM at P = 0. 000. This result is identical to that of Zhu et al. (2008), which con? rms the hypothesis that the extent of GSCM practice engaged in by Chinese companies is positively related to the level of organizational learning capacity. Result of the Mediating Function of Internal Factors The egression result of LGSCM and the determinant factors in the previous section con? rm the causal chains existing between each of the three external pressures (REGULATORY, DCLIENT and COMPETITOR) and two internal fa ctors (EDUCATION and TRAINING) with LGSCM. Signi? cant relationships are found between each of the three external pressures and each of the two internal factors, as shown in Table 8. The t? statistic of all the regressions is greater than 2. 00. Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bse 12 Variables entered (a) REGULATORY ? 0 REGULATORY LSIZ SECTOR F? value R2 (adjusted) (c) COMPETITOR ? COMPETITOR LSIZ SECTOR F? value R2 (adjusted) (e) FCLIENT ? 0 FCLIENT LSIZ SECTOR F? value R2 (adjusted) (g) EDUCATION ? 0 EDUCATION LSIZ SECTOR F? value R2 (adjusted) 0. 708 0. 374 0. 151 0. 178 1. 846 5. 721 4. 592 1. 299 18. 884 0. 294 0. 067 0. 000 0. 000 0. 196 1. 804 0. 033 0. 156 0. 253 4. 026 0. 544 3. 959 1. 573 5. 281 0. 097 0. 000 0. 588 0. 000 0. 118 0. 409 0. 356 0. 155 0. 258 0. 859 4. 224 4. 457 1. 772 13. 382 0. 226 0. 392 0. 000 0. 000 0. 079 0. 497 0. 266 0. 176 0. 293 0. 851 2. 760 4. 856 1. 960 9. 673 0. 169 0. 397 0. 007 0. 000 0. 052 Coef? cient t? statistic P? value Variables entered (b) DCLIENT ? 0 DCLIENT LSIZ SECTOR F? alue R2 (adjusted) (d) COMMUNITY ? 0 COMMUNITY LSIZ SECTOR F? value R2 (adjusted) (f) TSUPPORT ? 0 TSUPPORT LSIZ SECTOR F? value R2 (adjusted) (h) TRAINING ? 0 TRAINING LSIZ SECTOR F? value R2 (adjusted) ? 0. 310 0. 597 0. 128 0. 126 1. 803 ? 0. 021 0. 167 0. 278 1. 507 0. 041 0. 177 0. 260 0. 439 0. 342 0. 147 0. 322 Coef? cient Xianbing Liu et al. t? statistic P? value 0. 896 3. 890 4. 172 2. 210 12. 583 0. 214 0. 372 0. 000 0. 000 0. 029 3. 117 0. 840 4. 452 1. 680 7. 112 0. 123 0. 002 0. 402 0. 000 0. 095 4. 695 ? 0. 341 4. 018 1. 765 6. 188 0. 109 0. 000 0. 734 0. 000 0. 080 ?0. 726 7. 001 4. 031 0. 955 26. 249 0. 370 0. 469 0. 000 0. 000 0. 342 Table 7.Regression results for LGSCM and each of the determinant factors According to Baron and Kenny (1986), a third condition has to be met in order to con? rm the mediating function of internal factors as hypo thesized in this study. The signi? cant relations between the external pressures and LGSCM shall be strongly reduced if the internal factors are controlled. We tested Hc by repeating the OLS regressions in three steps. In step 1, LGSCM is individually regressed against each of the three external pressures which have signi? cant relations with LGSCM. In step 2, each of the three pressures and EDUCATION, as an internal factor, jointly enter into the regressions as independent variables.In a similar way, step 3 is carried out by substituting the variable of EDUCATION by TRAINING. The regression results are listed in Table 9. The robustness of the result was checked by doing the regressions with the control variables added for each case. The corresponding regression results are described in Table 10. There are no obvious changes in the signi? cances of the regression results listed in Tables 9 and 10. The mediation function of internal factors does occur and Hc is supported. In the case of introducing the internal factors into regressions, the signi? cances of external pressures to LGSCM are all reduced signi? cantly or even removed completely.This implies that the low level of GSCM involvement of Chinese companies could be fundamentally attributed to a lack of the necessary internal capacities for GSCM practices. The strong pressures Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bse Green Supply Chain Management in China Variables entered Coef? cient t? statistic P? value Coef? cient t? statistic 13 P? value (a) EDUCATION as dependent variable ? 0 REGULATORY F? value R2 (adjusted) ? 0 DCLIENT F? value R2 (adjusted) ? 0 COMPETITOR F? value R2 (adjusted) 2. 131 0. 268 4. 409 2. 479 6. 145 0. 033 3. 806 4. 671 21. 819 . 0120 5. 280 2. 982 8. 894 0. 050 0. 000 0. 014 (b) TRAINING as dependent variable 2. 014 0. 83 6. 196 6. 667 44. 445 0. 222 8. 689 6. 144 37. 748 0. 195 9. 751 5. 216 27. 211 0. 1 50 0. 000 0. 000 1. 503 0. 421 0. 000 0. 000 2. 451 0. 396 0. 000 0. 000 2. 125 0. 288 0. 000 0. 003 2. 727 0. 350 0. 000 0. 000 Table 8. Regression results of internal factors and external pressures with significances to LGSCM Variable entered Coef? cient Step 1 t? statistic P? value Coef? cient Step 2 t? statistic P? value Coef? cient Step 3 t? statistic P? value (a) REGULATORY as the independent variable ? 0 REGULATORY EDUCATION TRAINING F? value R2 (adjusted) 2. 331 0. 241 5. 126 2. 367 0. 000 0. 019 1. 502 0. 146 0. 375 3. 358 1. 540 5. 338 17. 416 0. 89 0. 001 0. 126 0. 000 0. 747 –8. 783E? 02 0. 728 5. 601 0. 031 1. 699 ? 0. 895 7. 580 32. 931 0. 312 0. 092 0. 372 0. 000 (b) DCLIENT as the independent variable ? 0 DCLIENT EDUCATION TRAINING F? value R2 (adjusted) 1. 637 0. 407 4. 237 4. 619 0. 000 0. 000 1. 077 0. 286 0325 2. 813 3. 319 4. 634 22. 731 0. 236 0. 006 0. 001 0. 000 9. 139E? 02 0. 174 0. 612 21. 331 0. 124 0. 220 2. 206 6. 622 35. 351 0. 328 0. 826 0. 045 0. 000 (c) COMPETITOR as the independent variable ? 0 COMPETITOR EDUCATION TRAINING F? value R2 (adjusted) 1. 675 0. 423 4. 776 5. 031 0. 000 0. 000 0. 978 0. 319 0. 338 2. 787 4. 010 5. 101 27. 949 0. 279 0. 006 0. 000 0. 00 0. 100 0. 226 0. 570 25. 314 0. 147 0. 251 2. 811 6. 342 36. 265 0. 337 0. 802 0. 006 0. 000 Table 9. Regression results of LGSCM for mediating function test Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bse 14 Variable entered Coef? cient Step 1 t? statistic P? value Coef? cient Step 2 t? statistic P? value Coef? cient Xianbing Liu et al. Step 3 t? statistic P? value (a) REGULATORY as the independent variable ? 0 REGULATORY EDUCATION TRAINING LSIZ SECTOR F? value R2 (adjusted) 0. 497 0. 266 0. 851 2. 760 0. 397 0. 007 ? 0. 197 0. 194 0. 357 0. 162 0. 190 ? 0. 355 2. 177 5. 270 4. 99 1. 375 15. 139 0. 310 0. 723 0. 031 0. 000 0. 000 0. 172 ? 0. 220 ? 0. 029 0. 611 0. 125 0. 128 ? 0. 419 ? 0. 294 6. 159 3. 811 0. 944 19. 319 0. 368 0. 676 0. 769 0. 000 0. 000 0. 347 0. 176 0. 293 4. 856 1. 960 9. 673 0. 169 0. 000 0. 052 (b) DCLIENT as the independent variable ? 0 DCLIENT EDUCATION TRAINING LSIZ SECTOR F? value R2 (adjusted) 0. 439 0. 342 0. 896 3. 890 0. 372 0. 000 0. 008 0. 212 0. 322 0. 144 0. 214 0. 018 2. 453 4. 573 4. 373 1. 552 15. 598 0. 317 0. 986 0. 016 0. 000 0. 000 0. 123 ? 0. 638 0. 137 0. 540 0. 124 0. 153 ? 1. 343 1. 592 5. 842 3. 883 1. 139 20. 317 0. 380 0. 182 0. 114 0. 000 0. 000 0. 257 0. 147 0. 322 4. 72 2. 210 12. 583 0. 214 0. 000 0. 029 (c) COMPETITOR as the independent variable ? 0 COMPETITOR EDUCATION TRAINING LSIZ SECTOR F? value R2 (adjusted) 0. 409 0. 356 0. 859 4. 224 0. 392 0. 000 ? 0. 237 0. 275 0. 329 0. 148 0. 168 ? 0. 511 3. 472 4. 911 4. 592 1. 236 17. 453 0. 345 0. 610 0. 001 0. 000 0. 000 0. 219 ? 0. 742 0. 183 0. 524 0. 127 0. 124 ? 1. 589 2. 268 5. 753 3. 994 0. 928 21. 233 0. 393 0. 115 0. 025 0. 000 0. 000 0. 355 0. 155 0. 258 4 . 457 1. 772 13. 382 0. 226 0. 000 0. 079 Table 10. Regression results for robustness test of the mediating function from external stakeholders do not necessarily lead to GSCM in reality. More speci? ally, REGULATORY is completely mediated by the two internal factors, while DCLIENT and COMPETITOR are only partially mediated. This indicates that the adoption of GSCM practices of Chinese companies is probably more responsive to non? coercive and competitive factors such as pressures from the domestic clients and leading companies in the same sector. This interesting ? nding also con? rms that governmental regulations in China do not play an active role in encouraging industrial practices in GSCM. In addition, the greater reduction of signi? cances in step 3 than in step 2 demonstrates that the variable of TRAINING is indeed potent as an intermediate variable.The internal environmental training of related employees may strongly enhance a company’s capacity to deal with external pressures by being proactive in environmental management such as GSCM practices. Conclusions This paper explores the current status and determinant factors of GSCM practices adopted by companies located in the Yangtze River Delta of China. The surveyed companies perform slightly better than the companies sampled in a Copyright  © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Bus. Strat. Env. 21, 1–16 (2012) DOI: 10. 1002/bse Green Supply Chain Management in China 15 previous survey in North China (Zhu et al. , 2008). However, the overall level of GSCM practices does not differ dramatically. This con? ms that Chinese companies are still at a preliminary stage of GSCM practices. In particular, the companies’ environmental management in cooperation with external members of the supply chain is very marginal. Among a larger range of determinant factors classi? ed in this study, external pressures from domestic clients and competitors are signi? cantly and positively ass ociated with LGSCM while the regulatory pressure shows slightly positive in? uence. Learning capacity of the company signi? cantly determines LGSCM as an internal factor. Differing from the result of Zhu et al. (2008), the support of top managers has less in? uence on GSCM activities.These results are consistent with those of Jeppesen and Hansen (2004), which attributed the environmental improvement of Third World companies on the value chain to external market forces and the internal resources of the companies. Another meaningful ? nding of our analysis is that the internal factors are greatly mediating the in? uences of external pressures. Our analysis may provide essential policy implications for promoting the GSCM practices of companies in China. Many more concerns about a company’s environmental performance from its external stakeholders will be facilitated, which may generate pressures for the company’s efforts in GSCM practices. It is very necessary to educate c ompanies to better understand the advantages and approaches of GSCM as an innovative strategy for sustainable production.The diffusion of successful cases would be an effective method, as it helps increase a company’s capacity to actually adopt GSCM practices. As an empirical study of GSCM in China, this paper develops a comprehensive analytical framework and conducts an integrative analysis. Nevertheless, a few questions remain for subsequent studies. As examples, the working mechanism of determinant factors identi? ed for GSCM practices needs to be observed in more detail. 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