Avatar Essay -- Film Review

Myths are supernatural or religious tales with cultural and historical backgrounds, oft containing moral lessons that are valued by the culture they originated from. The exposure Avatar is a modern myth, its popularity stemming from the inspiration it draws from familiar and general themes found in classical myths. Avatar reuses and refreshes these themes for current audiences. Ancient stories such as those of Icarus, Prometheus, Gilgamesh, and Hercules, as well as contemporary issues, represent many of the same themes that are revealed in Avatar. Avatar is the story of Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine that is sent to the creation Pandora to take the place of his dead-brothers job as a Navi avatar pilot. The humans on Pandora use these avatars to communicate with the Navi and deliver to convince them to leave the Hometree, which is the pillar of life for the Navi the humans want this so they can mine the element unobtanium the majority of which is located downstairs Hometree. Ja ke initially pilots the avatar to achieve the war machine objectives that he is given, but over the course of the movie becomes initiated into the Navi culture through Neytiri and begins to disregard his orders. When the military commander finds push through of Jakes treason he gives the order to destroy Hometree and Jake is forced to reveal to the Navi his true intentions for piloting the avatar. This results in Jake being cast out of both the Navi and human societies. The humans then destroy the Hometree and many of the Navi, Jake realizes that it is up to him to save the rest of the Navi and leads the resistance. To obtain the trust of the Navi, Jake tames a Toruk, the most feared predator on Pandora. Through Jakes leadership the Navi push back the humans and... ...is often seen as an invasion since many cities and innocent lives have been destroyed through this process. The outcome of this war is still being determined but based on the patterns of politics portrayed classica l myths and Avatar it is clear that both sides will be greatly affected by the conflict. Avatar has been mocked as being exceedingly derivative of other films and stories, but that merely shows how deep these same themes run in human psyche. Even in ancient times, the legends and tales contained confusable issues and their heroes went through similar trials, showing just how important these things are to us as a race. The anxiety of doing too much and becoming too powerful is as widespread today as it was thousands of years ago. No matter the consequences we may face, humans will always feat to reach just a little higher, and try to gain just a little more power.

Santeria and Lukumi Religions Practiced by Hispanic Caribbeans :: Religion Religious Caribbean Essays

Santeria and Lukumi Religions Practiced by Hispanic CarribeansReligious origins The Yoruba religion was brought to the Hispanic Caribbean approximately four hundred years ago by African slaves during the period of conquest and colonization of the new world. The religion remained traditionally strong among the African community until the Spanish conquerors began to prohibit its practice. When the Spaniards reached the New lands they brought with them the religion of the reigning King. That is coffin nail Isabellas religion Catholosism. The conquerors forced the slaves to accept the Catholic faith as their new religion. The African, stripped already of their dignity refuse to give up their religious impressions, this belief being all they brought with them. Knowing of the negative ramnifications, punishment and sometimes even death if caught devil latriaping it meant that in order to continue to worship theri Gods the angry Africans had to acknowledge a way to practice thier religion. They astutely hide theri religion behind Catholic religious practices and saints. The religion is therefore called Santeria or the way of the saints. According to Migene Gonzalez-Wippler Santeria is incomplete a cult or a sect. It is a monotheistic religion, where God is seen as the creator of the Universe and of humanity. The orishas, syncretized with catholic saints, are repositories of Gods powers and the mediators amongst humanity and the Supreme Being. During this same period the Lukumi religion was also developed. The Lukumi religion is very similar to that of Santeria, while Santeria utlizes the Catholic Saints and prayers for ritualistic purposes Lukumi does not. Lukumi tends to make African images to behave the Orisha and makes little or no use of Christian prayers. The Lukumi religion is a less diluted form of Orisha worship and was mostly concentrated in Cuba. In Santeria, Yorubas then continue to worship and honor the Orishas and to practice th eir strong religious beliefs. The Yoruba rituals are modified and made similar to that of the Catholic religion. As aforementioned , when the Africans where brought to Cuba and the opposite New Lands they saw themselves forced to disguise theri ancestral religion and to embrace the church of theri captors. This created a complex religious mixture of beliefs. Because of its roots in Africa the worship of the saints has been a misunderstood religion, sometimes reffered to as unciviliazed and almost always viewed as a dark religion or a devil worshipping religion.

An Inspector Calls :: English Literature

An Inspector Calls Set In 1912 written 1940s but a play for themillennium. What important issues are embossed by the play? How doesPriestly use the Settings, Characters and Events to convey?Ive been studying the play An Inspector Calls that is concernedabout problems and issues of year 1912 and used the characters of theplay to allow his feelings of the cartridge holder to be put across to others, in1912 and now. Many of the problems faced then are soothe somewhat todayand pull up stakes be probably will be in years to come, despite him trying tomake changes in the way we think. However the play was wrote in 1946,just after the Second ball War, he was trying to make people aware ofwhat was going on and how this shouldnt happen again. At the timethere were a lot of coal miners on strike for having low wages,working, living and conditions as well Dockers for the same reasonsnothing was done. The poor were manipulated by the rich into what theywanted, for instance take the World War Two Germany the oftentimes stronger,powerful and richer country, against poorer countries such as Polandand there was many more countries in similar situations. The play wasattempting to get across, that we need to look after the people andthings around us no matter how small, as its not acceptable to usethem to our advantagesRemember this. One Eva smith has gone but there are millions andmillions of Eva Smith and John Smiths still left with us.There were always people there to look after or at least realise aboutthe Eva Smiths in the world. In a world scale other countries cameinto help the poorer countries but notice its always too late in away, people project already been hurt, In the play there was Sheila andEric Birling and of course the inspector. A more recent event likethis took place in 1982, the Falklands. Argentina invaded the Islands, thought process nothing would be done because theyre so small. The Britishadvanced to help their fellow men, and stopped the confli ct in itstracks. They made Argentina pay for it, in the death of their own men,then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish, TheInspector (page 56). I think the ideas of Priestly were heard by thepeople, but still have not embedded themselves into todays societyNonsense Youll have a good laugh over it yet.Weve been had, thats all. Birling(both p70)This is only Mr Birlings general opinion but this could also be the

Bond between Mothers and Daughters in Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club Essay

Bond between Mothers and Daughters Explored in The gratification Luck Club Throughout the novel, The Joy Luck Club, author Amy Tan explores the issues of tradition and change and the impact they have on the bond between mothers and daughters. The theme is developed through eight women that tell their separate stories, which meld into four pairs of mother-daughter relationships. The Chinese mothers, so backbreaking on the finishings of their own, dont want to realize what is going on around them. They dont want to accept the fact that their daughters are growing up in a culture so different from their own. Lindo Jong, says to her daughter, Waverly- I once sacrificed my life to keep my parents promise. This means nothing to you because to you, promises mean nothing. A daughter can promise to come to dinner, entirely if she has a headache, a traffic jam, if she wants to watch a favorite movie on T.V., she no longer has a promise.(Tan 42) Ying Ying St.Clair remarks- ...because I remained quiet for so long, straightway my daughter does not hear me. She sits by her fancy swimming pool and hears only her Sony Walkman, her cordless phone, her big, important husband asking her why they have brown coal and no lighter fluid.(Tan 64) The American daughters, on the other hand, the other half of the inseparable pair, tell stories of how their mothers tradition, culture, and beliefs, helped them come to many realizations about themselves. These realizations are both imperious and negative. Jing-Mei Woo tells the story of how her mother wanted her to be the next Shirley Temple. My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant...You could become right away famous. Of course... ...Heung, Marina. Daughter-Text/Mother-Text Matrilineage in Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club. Feminist Studies (Fall 1993) 597-616. Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. clean York Ivy Books, 1989. Huntley, E. D. Amy Tan A Critical Companion. Westport Greenwood P, 1998. Ling, Amy. Between Worlds Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry. New York Pergamon, 1990. Maynard, Joyce. The Almost All-American Girls. Rev. of The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan and The Temple of my Familiar, by Alice Walker. Mademoiselle July 1989 70, 72, 180. Miner, Valerie. The Joy Luck Club The-Nation. Apr. 24 89 p. 566-9 Schell, Orville. Your Mother is in Your Bones. Rev. of The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan. The New York Times Book Review. Mar. 19 1989 3, 28. Wang, Dorothy. A Game of Show and Not Tell. Rev of The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan. Newsweek April 17, 1989 68-69.

Intrapsychic Omnipresence in Bodily Symptoms :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Intra mental Omnipresence in Bodily SymptomsSometimes disease and illness just show up. For these medical conditions, a doctor usually tells us what is revile physically. These scientific observations determining diseases or symptoms leave people wondering if there is something behind the cell that created the malfunction. Perhaps ones psyche which is the mind functioning as the subject matter of thought, conscious or unconscious(p), and interconnected with the physical environment, can effect the body positively and negatively. An indirect way of dealing with mental conflict is to intuitively or unconsciously convert it into symptomatic illness. However, this does not get rid of the emotions or the symptoms, for this is not the root of the problem. It is only through recognition of the their intuition or pent-up emotions that people may come to heal themselves. It is difficult although possible for some to assign every illness or symptom to some underlying psychic cause but that is usually whimsically referred to as new age and mystical. It is a persons own personal belief whether she created her diabetes, or whether he created his crabby person as a result of psychological and stirred up conflict and trauma. Therefore, we can only look at the facts to postulate the argument that a lack of psychological well being manifests itself somatically. The best way to examine the notion that psychological factors affect medical conditions is with the neurosis Hysteria. Hysteria is also known now as Conversion Disorder or Dissociation, in which unconscious or emotional psychological conflict converts into a bodily disturbance (2). An example of this is anxiety. Hysteria is diagnosed as psychological stress accompanied with physical symptoms. Interestingly, despite the multiple physical symptoms there is no anatomical or organic basis for any of them. Although diversity disorder is a physical manifestation, there is no physical cause. In the case of hysteria, the mind or the psyche is neglected by the person who represses emotional trauma, and these then divert themselves into the body as a means of expression or escape. These patients often times do not know what is wrong with themselves because the repression was unconscious and out of their control. Accordingly, the physical symptoms in hysteria are a result of the persons lack of psychological control, which is unconscious not voluntary. During the 19th century, French Neurologist J.M. Charcot and Psychologist P. Janet express that morbid ideas could produce physical manifestations and that hysteria was caused by the psyche not the body (1).

Intrapsychic Omnipresence in Bodily Symptoms :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Intrapsychic Omnipresence in Bodily SymptomsSometimes disease and illness just show up. For these medical conditions, a specify usually tells us what is wrong physically. These scientific observations determining diseases or manifestations leave people wondering if there is something behind the cell that created the malfunction. Perhaps ones psyche which is the headland functioning as the center of thought, conscious or unconscious, and interconnected with the physical environment, can effect the body positively and negatively. An indirect way of dealing with mental conflict is to intuitively or unconsciously convert it into symptomatic illness. However, this does not get rid of the emotions or the symptoms, for this is not the root of the problem. It is only through intelligence of the their intuition or repressed emotions that people may come to heal themselves. It is difficult although possible for some to assign every illness or symptom to some underlying psychic cause but t hat is usually whimsically referred to as new age and mystical. It is a persons own personal depression whether she created her diabetes, or whether he created his cancer as a result of psychological and emotional conflict and trauma. Therefore, we can only look at the facts to postulate the line of reasoning that a lack of psychological well being manifests itself somatically. The best way to examine the notion that psychological factors affect medical conditions is with the neurosis Hysteria. Hysteria is excessively known now as Conversion Disorder or Dissociation, in which unconscious or emotional psychological conflict converts into a bodily hurly burly (2). An example of this is anxiety. Hysteria is diagnosed as psychological stress accompanied with physical symptoms. Interestingly, despite the multiple physical symptoms there is no anatomical or organic fertilizer basis for any of them. Although conversion disorder is a physical manifestation, there is no physical cause. In the case of hysteria, the mind or the psyche is omit by the person who represses emotional trauma, and these then divert themselves into the body as a means of expression or escape. These patients often times do not know what is wrong with themselves because the repression was unconscious and out of their control. Accordingly, the physical symptoms in hysteria are a result of the persons lack of psychological control, which is unconscious not voluntary. During the nineteenth century, French Neurologist J.M. Charcot and Psychologist P. Janet emphasized that morbid ideas could produce physical manifestations and that hysteria was caused by the psyche not the body (1).

Women as Crime Victims

It is my belief that everyone has been affected by crime sometime in their life. Crime is inevitable because evil is in the human nature. While this is the case, women tend to experience more red-faced crimes because they are unwilling or unable to defend themselves appropriately against their attackers. It is a common affright among women of being innerly assaulted, raped, abused, or being the victim of any crime because of their inability to stand up for themselves because of being the weaker agitate.While it is true that women have been the victims of separate crimes, these three are especially dreaded because of the nature of the crime and the consequences of being the victim. There are many programs that focus on preventing violence against women as sanitary as studies being performed in order to reduce the amount of women becoming victims of crime. These studies are important and may prevent some women from the experience of being a victim however, ultimately does not eli minate violence against women.Prevention motifs to begin from parents to the claw while they are young. This can help give the child a structure in which to follow as an adult and provide future skills to help prevent them from becoming victims of violence. In an article by vomit brown, she states, It is imperative that you understand the world of psychopaths and criminals how they think, where they lurk, and how they lure and grab victims ( brownish, 2012, p. 50). She further goes on about a letter she received after a television interview.Browns article referenced the letter (2012) I just saw you on The Today Show speaking about a recent tragedy involving the violent murder of a recent high school graduate by, police believe, her boyfriend In that interview you spoke directly to girls who have recently low-spirited up with their partner, advising that if that partner requests a meeting post-breakup that it not be done privately because the partner is counting on the fact that shes nice and will tot to meet. I cant agree with you enough I fear, however, that wein particular womendont actually teach our girls that its okay to refuse that one last time or that its okay and promising wise to break up in a public place or over the phone even, when ones partner exhibits dangerous traits. Moreover, we dont even do a good job of teaching our girls how, in the depths of teenage love, to spot the subtle signs that scream danger. Nor do we teach them how to put words to those gut instincts that tell us something is amiss with our partner and relationship, or, simply, that we deserve better than what weve been experiencing in the relationship at hand.We do, however, do a great job of teaching them that its important to be nice, understanding, caring, and nurturing without alike teaching them to be wise and deeply instinctual, as though the former and latter attributes are mutually exclusive. (p. 50) This woman is absolutely correct in my opinion. We need to edu cate our children while they are young on ways to prevent becoming a victim to crime. Women especially need to be aware of signs of house servant violence, unstable behaviors, risky behavior and potential situations that can put them in harms way. Women are more prone to sexually derived crimes like sexual assault and rape.Although these crimes can also happen to men, I believe that women are more often the target of this type of crime because women tend to be the weaker sex and are more easily overpowered by a mans strength. According to our text, the majority of all womens non-fatal victimizations are committed by individual the woman knows. In addition, one-third of all women homicide victims are murdered by intimate partners compared to 5% of men (Northern Arizona University, 2009, p. 142). These statistics are a harsh human race that we as women need to recognize, realize and prepare for.Considering sexually derived crimes as one of the most horrific kind of crime out there, we need to begin to transmit awareness on how to protect ourselves. This day in age it is important that every adult woman know how to fire a gun as well as simple life saving techniques for survival when being attacked. After all, violence will continue, and according to Bindel, Violence against women is an international epidemic. It has been identified by the World Health Organization as a grave health issue, affecting more people than HIV and Aids (Bindel, 2010, p. 38).References Bindel, Julie. 2010. A weapon against half the world. New Statesman 139, no. 4991 38-39. Academic search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed July 1, 2013). Brown P. Saving Your Daughters Life. USA Today Magazine serial online. November 2012141(2810)50-51. Available from Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed July 1, 2013. Northern Arizona University. (2009). Investigating difference Human and cultural relations in criminal justice. Upper Saddle River, N.J Pearson Prentice Hall.

‘The Passenger’ in Terms of David Bordwell’s

Essay Question Discuss The passenger in terms of David Bordwells analysis of the elements that typefaceise art cinema. Cherish Perez de Tagle (12339949) emailprotected com European Cinema Since 1945 mental faculty Code 2FLM7H9 Ian Green January 10, 2011 Bordwell (1979) criticizes the idea that art cinema exists as an offshoot of classic fib cinema. He argues that it is a way of story intercourse in its own right. gibe to him, art cinema has a set of formal conventions relating to modes of mathematical product/consumption as well as having a discrete deal practice and finicky viewing conventions.Art cinema is likewise situated inwardly the historical existence of spud practice. In this essay I will discuss how Antonionis The rider (1975) derriere be classed as an art pictorial matter according to the elements that compositors caseise art cinema as put forth by Bordwell. Historically speaking, the rider was made in 1975, post World War II, one of the conditions Bordwell s tates as be a contri besidesor to the emergence of art cinema. Changes to the courts statutes regarding film, the diminish of the dominance of Hollywood cinema, together with an increase in international commerce, made the production of films for an international audience desirable.Correspondingly, branching go forth into impertinent markets opened up a niche for co-productions. The Passenger was likewise an Italian-French-Spanish co-production with American star Jack Nicholson, relish on location in Spain, Germany, North Africa, and the UK. Bordwell argues that whilst themes may differ crossways the broad range of films classified as art cinema, the functions of these themes within the individual films argon in fact consistent and make use of authorized narrative and stylistic principles. Of these he cites three principal traits that can be identified with art cinema realism, authorship, and ambiguity.It can be argued that in terms of these traits The Passenger is a good e xample of art cinema. Realism Taken in op set up to the classical narrative structure of dominant Hollywood cinema, a number of differing characteristics can be drawn in contrast to art cinema. In classical narratives, a narrative structure based on cause and effect system of logic motivates the cinematic representation. This is generally present alongside narrative parallelism or psychologically defined, goal-oriented characters. To this end narrative time and space argon constructed to serve the telling of the story in a linear fashion.In terms of cinematic style, the use of specific types of cutting such as continuity, cross-cutting, and montage serve these ends, and characteristics of the mise-en-scene, cinematography, and sound save the plausibility and unity of the story-world. These techniques argon employed for the primary goal of advancing the story. Other devices ar utilized to create this unity of form such as the use of genre in order to non totally create and like wise fulfil audience expectations but also to create discrete markets for production and distribution.Whereas classical narrative cinema is founded on the above, Bordwell argues that the structure of art cinema is far looser, and not driven by the cause-effect linkage of events inso ofttimes as the motivations of art cinema differ form those of classical narrative. Of the three predominant characteristics of art cinema identified, Bordwell states that the use of realism and authorship create unity and serve as the motivations in the art film rather than cause and effect or the pursuit of a goal.Realism, meaning the use of real locations and real problems, also refers to what is interpreted vivid. By this, what is meant is psychologically complex characters and psychological causation as opposed to external situations and events that serve as the motivations for action or moving the story forward. Whereas in the classical narrative film the characters are defined by clearly defined goals/desires/objectives and clearly defined traits, art cinema characters can be inconsistent, and inclined to question themselves about their goals.Their preferences are vague or non-existent. Realism in The Passenger After an initial decision to assume the identity of an acquaintance he finds dead in an adjacent room, protagonist David Locke without the rest of the film finds himself caught within situations as opposed to activating those situations. Superficially resembling a film from the thriller genre, Locke moves from urban center to city, according to a set of involvements defined by the diary of the deceased Robertson.Upon changing identities by swapping passport pictures, Locke is interpreted from one situation to the near by events not of his own design but by those determined by the identity he has assumed. He finds plane tickets directing him to his next destination, and he goes to an airdrome security locker not knowing what he will find inside. Following the appointments, the man who was David Robertson unfolds, his work in Africa and elsewhere, his drives and purpose as a gunrunner to the African rebels.There ensue further mysteries as Locke follows the trail of the diary including the unresolved mystery of the names within it. Who is Daisy? Inasmuch as these motivations are revealed to Locke they do not change him to internally take them on for himself. Whilst externally assuming the person of Robertson the gunrunner, he is internally and psychologically trapped to forever be himself, David Locke. He questions himself end-to-end the film in regards to whether he will continue to live out Robertsons mission as when he falters about whether or not to go to the appointment in Tangier.Although he follows Robertsons real and situation-driven commitments, his own reasons for taking on the new identity are psychologically driven. This psychological causation is what defines Nicholsons character and the realism of his inner psychological torment. The desire to be someone other than himself, to run away from himself and his reality, are what drive him. Even so, these are not give tongue to or admitted to himself. The film has little dialogue, and likewise even less of what could be considered as exposition. It is through the treatment of the film that Lockes psychological drives are indicated.Long shots, choice of framings in the extreme wide, focus on what may be regarded as empty space, and a drifting camera, serve to show not what would be thought process of as important or regarded as the focal point in classical narrative. Rather the protagonist is placed in the condition of the landscape, places, and situations around him. The camera searchs at many times distant, disengaged from the action, wandering across a car-rental sign, or onto a small detail such as ants walking up a wall, or sometimes panning to nothing.Thusly it is the opposite of causality in the classical narrative ace. In the way the camera m oves are not motivated by an action, they try isolation, leaving and being left. Rather than being told what to think via exposition, the audience is given opportunity to think about how the outer despondence of the central character are linked to his inner psychological workings, as those of a man in regards to his feeling of alienation his failures in life are placed in context by the images of the barren, desolate, suburban landscape juxtaposed against him.Likewise the pragmatic construction of Lockes world is also achieved through the films use of sound. byout the blameless film there are only four pieces of music. The choice to use a minimal use of music, instead emphasising the prickerground, diagetic sounds draw attention to the feeling of being in Lockes world, You practically hear Nicholsons sweat, hear his breath, feel his pulse. 1 Moreover the quality of self-consciousness and the de-dramatisation of the action result in performing and characterization that are spare , subtle, restrained, forcing us to pay attention to every small movement or look.The character is naturalistically portrayed through the understated use of trunk language and gestures. Although little action is occurring, the reading is directed toward tiny mimics, the look in Nicholsons eyes, a flapping of his coat of arms. Nicholson as a character and as an actor can also be said to be on his own in the film. He is psychologically alone, and physically there is no contention with other cast members. Even the female protagonist goes as The Girl in the credits.And while the audience is on the one open observing him from afar by way of the wide shots that dont get in there, at the same time it is intertwined in Lockes fate through a foreknowledge that he is doomed. Authorship According to Bordwell, authorial expressivity is the second salient characteristic of art cinema. Through the use of various conventions of style including expert touches, motifs, referencing to other film s, and conscious choices in storytelling, the author is foregrounded as the narrative intelligence, as the shaping hand of the film. This is achieved by ay of certain authorial codes, including the conscious production of enigmas, not in terms of story, but of plot. For instance, rather than questioning who the murderer is, the audience is made to question who is telling the story, or why it is being told from a certain point of view as opposed to another. Other evidence of authorship include reference to other films as a means of situating the film within a certain ouvre, as well as play with the idea of genre in order to set itself against genre as it is regarded and understood in classical narrative film.For while The Passenger from the outset could be regarded as a thriller with the motifs of changing identity, the mystery surrounding the Robertson character, and the idea of being obeyd, the way in which these elements are treated do not hold true to the genres stereotypes in terms of moving the story forward or playing to audience expectations. Although these elements are utilized they do not pan out according to the expectations and outcomes they hold in the classical narrative genre film.In the car chase sequence, the pursuit of Locke by the bad guys, would in a classical narrative genre film would be utilised for the building of tension and would end with a predictably expected getaway. In The Passenger, the car chase begins then ends abruptly and without the excitement of the good guys smartly and swiftly getting away. Likewise, the mystery of unravelling the Robertson character, of finding out who he actually was, is secondary to understanding the psychology of Locke that prompts his identity change.And despite the fact that the penultimate scene fits in with the idea of a big refinement characteristic of a thriller, it is done in an art house way. Authorship in The Passenger In The Passenger the camera functions as a character/protagonist in its own right. The audience sees what the camera chooses it see. And in this way, the audience sees what the author chooses it to see, at what time, and from what vantage point. These choices highlight the authors presence in the shaping of the narrative.Antonioni is notably known for his use of technical style and motifs in the film, for which alone the film has run low famous. While some touches are more subtle and could go by al close to unnoticed or are even noted only within the subconscious, others have become a spectacle discussed throughout film circles since the films release. Smaller motifs include the use of duplications such as when Locke sees The Girl in both London and Barcelona sitting in the same position. Others are the use of the image of a ceiling fan in different locations.Homage or reference is also made to other films and directorial styles such as in the scene in the cafe where the focus does not stay on the characters but moves across to the cars outside reminis cent of scenes from Godard films like in the conversation between Paul and Camille in their apartment in Le Mepris. Self-reflexivity is also widely used as when Locke reads his own obituary or watches his obituary film on TV. Other instances include images of a film within a film, in word of honor reports on TV, and converses framed within a TV in the news room.A highly notable way in which the authors hand is evidenced in the film is through the disjunctures in time and space and how these are created. Antonioni utilizes elaborate set-ups both aurally and visually in order to achieve jumps in time without cutting in the camera. For example aural devices such as the sound of a knock are used when Locke is listening to a immortalise recording of a conversation he had with Robertson. The knock on the tape recording transitions the scene into the former(prenominal) when Robertson knocks and enters the room.The use of the aural transition is further used when during the tape recordi ng conversation the conversation with Robertson on the balcony flows seamlessly from present to past and back again. If this were not impressive enough, the flashback aural syncing is combined with a visual technical flourish when the camera pans from Locke in present time swapping photos between passports, to the windowpane which frames Locke in the past with Robertson, their conversation from the tape recording flowing into the flashback.The action within the onscreen image is able to remain fluid throughout these changes in time. In another instance Locke is about to meet the rebel supporters and the church he enters shifts from a site of a funeral to a wedding, separated by a shot of his feet walking over petals on the floor. The sophistication in which Antonioni blends the aural, visual, time and space in this scene are then repeated if not trumped by the much talked about penultimate scene of the film, regarded by some as the most famous scene in film history.Although discusse d countless times, this essay would not seem to do justice to the analysis of The Passenger without detailing it yet again in brief. In this seven-minute shot the camera captures Locke lying on his bed as The Girl leaves the room. Without any cutting in the shot, the camera tracks forwards, out the bars of the window, and into the courtyard and back round to frame the room from outside the bars wherein the next time Lockes body is seen through the window from afar he is dead. In this scene, once again the hand of the author is seen on multiple levels.On the most limpid level is the visual technique, on another is the use of sound and image to create ambiguities. These ambiguities will be discussed further in the next section. equivocalness For Bordwell ambiguity in the art film is the way by which the contradiction between the disjuncture created by the interplay of realism and authorship can be resolved. Through the conscious and deliberate use of ambiguity, the hatchways created by the contradictory use of realism and very self-conscious authorial commentary are resituated so that the violation of the norm is made to be questioned as part of the meaning of the film.The conscious use of ambiguity forces the audience, when presented with a gap, to ask itself the question whether that gap was the result of a realistic motivation, psychologically driven, or an authorially significant statement or comment about the place of that event or situation in philosophical terms whether that gap is something to be considered in the context of the world in which the characters, and moreover, people in life are faced with.Antonioni, talking about The Passenger says that I also consider it a political film as it is topical and fits with the dramatic rapport of the individual in todays societyWe are all disgruntledThe international situation, politically and otherwise, is so unstable that the neglect of stability is reflected within each individual. (Dignam, 1975).Cons equently, in The Passenger one is made to question the impact of the thirdly World struggle, the banality and norms of advance(a) Western life, the alienation of the individual in society, and death amongst other things. Ambiguity in The Passenger Ambiguity is used throughout the film and even into the films end where the lack of clear-cut resolution creates an open-ended narrative, in which the play of thematic interpretation continues after the films end thereby baring the complexities of life. The art film reasserts that ambiguity is the dominant principle of intelligibility, that we are to watch less for the tale than the telling (Bordwell, 197961) Ambiguity, lack of resolution, things galloping to nowhere, are made explicit from the start when a man riding a camel approaches Locke in the desert and leaves, ignoring Lockes attempt at accost furthermore the camera chooses to follow the man riding the camel as opposed to staying on Locke, illustrating immediately upon the film s commencement the films study themes of alienation, being an outsider in the world, what it is to be invisible/meaningless (Walsh).Likewise the identity of Nicholsons character within the film is ambiguous. As a British newsman raised in America played by the quintessentially American Nicholson, inherent contradictions and questions foreground the film from the onset. His occupation as a reporter/foreign correspondent and what that is generally thought to evoke includes stereotypes of a thoughtful, politically attuned, ideals-driven individual.If these stereotypes may have been held by the viewer at the outset, they are immediately challenged and stripped away in the first scenes where Lockes helplessness, despondence, ideological weakness, and lack of inner purpose are revealed. When his jeep breaks down he futilely beats against the wheels with a shovel and in a position of weakness, failure, and submission he kneels beside the jeep stuck in the sand and throws up his arms say ing I dont care.This is matched by further series of events that show his repeated failure he fails to get information from the child he questions about the location of the rebel hideouts, only later(prenominal) to the trek up the rock face with a guide who is supposed to be taking him to the hideout but subsequently abandons him. Later in an interview with a rebel leader, the leader remarks without malice that the questions posed by the interviewer can be much more telling about the person asking the questions than the responses from the person they are asked of.These instances early on reveal and challenge any such stereotypes and give the viewer an insight into Lockes psychology from the outset. Meanwhile, on more obvious levels ambiguity is created in the resemblance between Locke and Robertson as in the fact that both of their first names are David. Throughout the film ambiguity, interchangeability and retort are used and explored (Gilliatt, 19756). The Passenger is rife with metaphors and double entendres.In the scene with the cable car, Locke flaps his arms in a gesture that implies freedom, yet framed in the tiny car, dangling above the sea, Locke does not take on the look of the carefree. Instead the scene carries a weight of tension as he hovers, arms flapping as though not in control quite the opposite to a show of joy or exhilaration. Later, when The Girl asks Locke what he is escaping from, he tells her to turn around while they are driving in the open-top car through the tree-lined boulevard. Memorable too is the story of the blind man Locke tells The Girl, one of the only keys the protagonist openly and verbally shares of himself.Where metaphors colour the film, the contradictions which abound likewise serve to form a unified whole. The story, or perhaps better put, what is to be taken away by the audience from the lack of story, is made more striking and powerful through the interplay of such contradictory devices. For one thing Locke is a fo reign correspondent yet he has an embarrassingly poor grasp of foreign languages, French and Spanish. He is a ridicule, a farce in his attempts to communicate or garner information. In the scene where Locke returns home, he approaches his own house but he approaches suspiciously as a burglar would.The familiar is far-removed the foreign is comforting the distant places he travels to with The Girl are the only time it seems he can truly relax. Although she is a stranger she offers more support and comfort than the people in his family such as his wife and the adopted child that the film only so fleetingly refers to. His wife, his home, the familiar and closethese are the very things which undermine him and which he is trying to run away from the foreign is where he is more at home and where he can simply stop and look at the view. Alternately, we are not made to empathize with the character.The use of predominantly subjective shots results in creating little sympathy for Locke, nor d o the depiction of his character as unprincipled, weak, and lacking in self-determination. Yet on the other hand we are made to see the universality of his situation, as an everyman character, he is made to represent the dissatisfaction inherent within modern society. Through him and his psychological plight the audience is made to question social norms through the vehicle of a subjective character study. Inevitably the viewer cannot but ask himself questions.Antonioni uses all these aspects of camera, sound, non-linear structure, and ambiguity, so that the viewer cannot escape the philosophic questions of mans place in the world, the search for meaning or non-search for it, as when witnessing the discontent, dissatisfaction, and hopelessness of the Locke character who on the surface fails to ask himself the stringent questions of life. Yet over the course of the film, the internal psychological workings of what he is not saying become inescapable even as we watch a man who seems t o suppress asking himself those questions.In the silences, as we are made to watch the details that he himself sees, we are brought to think about what is going on in the inner-workings of his mind, revealed only by his eyes, looks, gestures, and subtle movements. There are numerous narrative ambiguities or enigmas, random events that lead to nothing, as when Locke is waiting for someone on a bench when an old man approaches, stops to chat and makes a diversion from the story at hand to tell his life story. The image then changes as the mans story is told against a newsreel of executions on a beach.These then take the audience back to the newsroom where it is left to make the connection for itself of the relation between these events to one another. And what about The Girl? Does he really see her twice, sitting in the same position? If so what does this represent? Even as the penultimate scene serves a visual and technical spectacle tying up all the various threads of the story, amb iguity remains and is further generated in this scene. Is the sound of the car engine kicking actually the sound of a gunshot? Is The Girl implicated in Lockes murder? Was she actually Robertsons wife? 2 Locke is in the backseat, he is the passengerthe passenger in the former life he exchanged (his wife was imposture on him, he was not finding success in his job) a passenger in terms of life in a larger sense without purpose or motivations of his own and simply taking on those of the new identity hes adopted passenger even as hes taken on a new identity, his last chance so to speak, as he contemplates over whether to go to the next appointment in the diary in Tangier to fulfil a commitment that is not his own for a purpose that he cannot embody despite taking on the persona.His very name Locke speaks to the plight of the characters situation itselfhe is locked in, running away, trapped. Multi-layered, open-ended, and open to multiple interpretations, the ambiguity that surround t he meaning of the films title itself have sparked debate. Whether the title refers to the originally designed script wherein Locke is the passenger in the car3, or whether it refers to The Girl in that she is the real hero of the film (Gilliat, 19757) attests to the success with which the film has and will continually challenge and provoke.With each layer exposed, another unfolds. By all intents and purposes, art cinema as described by Bordwell is exemplified to the highest decimal point in Antonionis timeless masterpiece. Bibliography Bordwell, David. The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice, Film Criticism, vol. IV, no. 1 (Fall 1979). Bordwell, David. Narration in the Fiction Film (Chapter 10) Methuen, 1985). Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. Art Cinema, in Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (ed. The Oxford History of World Cinema (Oxford, 1996). Lev, Peter. The Art Film, from his The Euro-American Cinema (University of Texas Press, 1993). Rosenbaum, Jonathon. Profesione Reporter (The Passenger). Gill iatt, Penelope. About Reprieve from Dossier of Reviews The Passenger in The New Yorker (14/04/1975). Robinson, David. The Passenger review in The Times (06/06/1975). Dignam, Virginia. The Passenger review in Morning Star (06/06/1975).Andrews, Nigel. The Passenger review in fiscal Times (06/06/1975). Walsh, Martin. Program Notes. (from reading packet given in the lectures) http//www. imdb. com/title/tt0073580/usercomments http//www. bookrags. com/wiki/The_Passenger_(film) 1 http//www. imdb. com/title/tt0073580/usercomments 2 http//www. bookrags. com/wiki/The_Passenger_(film) 3 http//www. bookrags. com/wiki/The_Passenger_(film)

My Philosophy of Life

My philosophy of life Is quite simple. When I was younger, I would always be more focused on the things that people had. I would look at my other cousins, and since the parents had better jobs than my mom, they would have nicer clothes, or the newest v died games before I did every the time. This would make me feel rattling self conscious through hoot my childhood, not necessarily because I was worried about not getting as much as they would. When I turned 16 and goat Job, I had decided that I was going to save all my money, and eventually get all the nice things that my cousins had.It was at this selfsame(prenominal) time to o, that I had started to fall In love with the Idea of going to concerts, and finding new music to listen to. I would be spending all my money on concerts, and would never have anything concur et to tangibly have with my money, and my cousins would still have all these nice possess ones they could hold onto. I had the experiences that they didnt, simply they were Just embedded in my mind, and they could physically touch and use theirs, it didnt seem fair. When I had decided to move to Florida to visit my step dad for a few months before moving to Boston to go to Emerson College, that was when my perspective changed. Were at a hot spring south of our town of residence Call, called Alexander Springs.

Brannigan Foods Essay

Strategic Marketing Planning for the Soup cleavageBrannigan Foods Soup Division is a 100 year old gild with mature products which account for 40% of the whole soup market and it is the almost significant division of the Brannigan Foods group. The most important category is the RTE soups which account for 78% of total sales. (Exhibit 2) Other products include Low sodium RTE Heart Healthy, dry soups and mixes and private label and Annabelles fast and simply. Annabelles was a soup company acquired 5 years ago in order to attention deficit disorder healthier sups, dry soups and fast to the companys portfolio, a growing trend in the market. In terms of costumer perception of Brannigan comparing with competition, Brannigans falls behind in the followingHealth trendsDiet claimsConvenience offeringsFlavors-especially popular regional onesSeasonal products outside cold weatherRetailers perceive Brannigan to be-Category leader-not innovative-less profitable than entrepot brands and compet itionOver the past 3 years the results of the division have been decreasing and there are several reasons behind this The whole soup constancy has been declining for several years. The largest and most loyal segment of soup consumers, the baby boomers, which account for 20% of American population and are the main target, have been showing change magnitude concerns with processed food and high sodium content shifting to healthier alternatives. Increasing trend within working mothers who tended to prefer convenience.Bert Clark, vice-president and general get rid ofenger car of Brannigan Foods SoupDivision needs to take fulfill and present a plan to senior management to go back to growing sales within the division and growth profits by 3% next year, reversing the 1-2% declining turnover and 2-3% declining volume. With this in mind he has asked his key directors to submit a plan of run independently and now he has to decide which of the 4 proposals he will bring to senior manage ment. The fact that Clark has his 4 keys managers working separately limits their assessment to all(prenominal) of their exists and thus their proposals are narrowed to their field of expertise.Also, by choosing one particular direction whitethorn leave 3 directors uninvolved hence with a chela sense of responsibility. When making hard decisions it is always better, in my opinion, to have e realone on board. On the other hand it provides Clark with 4 proposals instead of one. Nonetheless making the 4 directors work together would have a provided a team solution and a broader approach to the problem. Now, by choosing one particular approach, Clark will have to aline a way to involve all directors in this strategy.Looking closely at each proposal1st proposalSrikant Tipha, Director of the Simple Meals building blockSrikant wants to strengthen the strategy of growing categories of dry soups, healthier soups and meal-in-pouch soups by investing $18 million on advertizement and prom otion. These products were a direct result of Annabelles acquisition, a smaller competitor Brannigan had acquired 5 years ago. Skirant wants to induce trial by increasing advertising to provide coupling for rude(a) flavors Gazpacho for the warmer months and Teriyaki for place in the fast growing Asian soups category.Pros Focuses on growing segments which address health concerning issues and/or focus on the overbold flavors Cons Srikant focuses his whole strategy on the new lines/products which account for 15% of the revenues of the division and completely leaves out the 78% which are the star products, or the cash cow and basically finance the new developments.2nd proposalClaire Mackey, Director of Finance & PlanningClaire focuses on the new healthier and more convenient products gaining territory in the market. Claire suggests the best way to quick have a hale presence in these segments would be to acquire a small competitor with significant presence on these new products. Pr os Brannigan would very quickly be able to have an adequate response to new trends, as the whole operation is set up and products are already tested. By maintain the current brands, they would increase their shelf space. With joint synergies, the new acquired products would have a margin increase by reducing costs.Cons Recent bad experience with Annabelles Foods although the project is gradually gaining track. It would take a large investment in advertising and promotion if they kept the acquired brands, if they changed into their own, there was a greater venture of cannibalization and of losing shelf space in big retailers.3rd proposalAnna Chong, Chief Innovation OfficerAnna feels that her department could develop new lines that meet the markets new trends and that the company should increase investment in advertising and promotion for the new products already tested with consumers and investment in R&D for new products. Pros the proposal addresses the markets new trends, avoiding the risk and investment of a new acquisition and all risks it entails. The new flavors would allow a damage increase hence increase in margin. Cons 1/100 products developed were actually launched in the market and reached Brannigans threshold for success. The costs of developing 100 products and launching 9 with moreover 1 to be successful are very heavy. Also launching products that may eventually fail means also costs for retailers which are bonnie increasingly intolerant and more demanding for better conditions.4th proposalBob Pugh, VP Sales and Marketing, Brannigan SoupsBob focuses his proposal on the core products reduce selling price to make the gap between private label and Brannigan less significant (PL increasing by 5%) . Also he wants to invest in advertising the products and wants to optimize the plants in order to recover losses due to reduction of selling price. Bob also wants to bring back a former flow more appealing to younger generations. Pros The aimed product s are guaranteed successes and retailers will appreciate the strategy. Cons This plan totally ignores the new market trends and price reduction could damage margin objectives as well as brand positioning.Looking at each proposal individually I think Clark should favor Bob Pughs proposal because it focuses powerfully on the divisions main core, enables to increase gross margin by reducing production costs and increasing volume and there is no cannibalization effect. However, in ample term this strategy does not secure the new trends which may or may not be the next cash cows. Then also noteworthy is the proposal by Anna Chong which goes in a very different direction but is as well an busying approach. Anna, as the Chief Innovation Officer, focuses, not surprisingly, on developing new products, there is of course a large investment involved, but it does take into account the new trends. My last pick would be the proposal made by Claire Mackey, Director of Finance & Planning, since it represents a very large investment and recent experience with Annabelle will make it hard to pass it by the board.Her preference goes to Red Dragon FoodsCurrent Sales $36 millionCannibalization of Sales 0.45% (Mackey says 0.3% Clark 0.6%)$13 million Estimated EBITDA $4.2 millionsEstimated Cost $29.4 million (considering highest price)Amortization + interest per year 2.54 million (in 10 year period)Gross margin $16.2 millionGross Margin with cannibalization effect $10.3 millionCost of A&P $11 millionNet Earnings in the First Year -$3.24 millionIn 5 yearsEstimated revenues $75.85 million (growth rate of 2.5% for whole division) Estimated Gross Margin in 5 years (50% instead of 45% as Clark estimates increase of 10% I will be more conservative and just add 5% )$38 millionFrom the analyzed companies by Mackey, the emerging competition is mainly focused on the area where Brannigans is not as strong health oriented products (MSG free and low sodium), new flavors (Asian flavors) and tr ends (Deli like). These yet small sub categories may well grow in the next years and this may pose as a problem because costumers will lose brand awareness, recognizing other brands as the Healthy soup or as the Chinese Soup. On the other hand, it will be difficult for new brands to try to compete with Brannigan on their strongest products and in which they are the unquestioned leader. So the natural strategy for new companies is to target the products where there is not such a strong recognized brand.This point must be considered by Clark when making his decision. Can Brannigans return to leave these new products wide open or should he get his hands on this before it escalates? In my opinion Clark needs to take action on the growing needs of the market before it is too late. Brannigans Soup needs to lock its position as market leader in soups as a whole concept and not as a segmented market. Clark needs to address two main issues maintain leadership in the classic flavors and keep up with new demands.For this he should bring in Anna Chong and Bob Pugh and have them work together in defining the new strategy. carry their proposals together the cons of each of them are mitigated. Anna addresses the new trends Bob has left out and Bob will secure the financing of the new products that Anna will develop which may become the next cash cows. Reinforcing the current strong products of the company is important but may not be enough in a for good evolving market. A leader position requires investment in R&D in order to keep up with changing trends.

Mr Bean

Mr Bean is a series of fourteen shows based around the character of Mr Bean, a grown man who seems to hold up been born yesterday. The character is played by the versatile comedic star Rowan Atkinson. The programmes were filmed between 1990 and 1995, with the franchise also spawning a number of short specials, an draw version, and two feature-length films. Bean is supposedly a grown man but is outstandingly childish his juvenile behaviour brings him into trouble with alarming regularity.He bumbles along in life with great abandon and seems oblivious to the havoc he causes. Moreover, in a childish way, every subject is exciting, and everything must be played with. Even (especially? ) those things that he shouldnt, deal the Christmas displays in Harrods Whilst he rarely speaks (visual humour being the main strength of this sitcom), his occasional vocal offerings expose his voice to be as socially unacceptable as his behaviour, and as amusing as his trademark tweed blazer.Beans resi dence alters between different episodes, but he never progresses beyond a small, one-or-two room grubby flat, which he shares with his sole friend Teddy, his teddy bear, who rather worryingly Bean seems to think can communicate with him He also has a long-run (and long-suffering) girlfriend, Irma Gobb (although whether or not he understands the concepts of romance and intimacy is uncertain).Other people he encounters, he tends to quickly worry with his eccentric behaviour. Indeed, the title sequence might stir that hes an extra-terrestrial he finds it difficult to cope with everyday situations, and seems to be learning how to live life each time he does something which to most people would be sooner simple (like sit an exam go to church stuff a turkey etc. ). The fact that his presence disturbs TV reception would support this theory.The thing which makes Bean so worrying to those who encounter him, and so intriguing and hilarious to we the viewers, is that its very difficult to w ork out who he actually is it could, of course, just be that he lacks social skills, but we dont know what actually motivates him what his hopes and dreams and fears are what makes him tick. The fascination as we watch this peculiar specimen go about his daily universe is often captivating and constantly hilarious.

The Change in Law Enforcement’s Procedure to Protect Passenger’s Rights Instructor

In Wyoming v. Houghton (1999) tinted jurisprudence enforcement surgical process by its rule states that law enforcement military ships incumbent have a right to search a riders personal possession, only if the law enforcement officer could present probable cause or the officer could prove illegals and illegal activity . The political machine exception is recognized under the quaternary Amendment to eliminate the requirements for search absolve of simple machines when there is probable cause established that contraband was located in the vehicle and illegal activities were involved (Chase, 1999, p. 1). This paper testament examine Wyoming v. Houghton case and the usurpation on law enforcement procedures in relate to Wyoming positive accost wrongful ruling. It will also examine two journals related to how Wyomings ruling effected probable cause standards. accord to Wyoming v. Houghton (1999), was first developed on July 23, 1995 when David Youngs car was stopped for a traffic violation by Wyoming Highway Patrol police officer, Delaine Baldwin. Baldwin noniced that Youngs car had a broken bracken light and Young was also traveling over the speed limit.Youngs passenger was his girlfriend and a young lady named Sandra Houghton. When the patrol officer approached the vehicle he check offd the syringe that was sticking out of Youngs shirt pocket. After his earthable suspicion and probable cause, Officer Baldwin followed his procedure and demanded everyone to stand on road close to the car. Young was cross-examined from Officer Baldwin in reference to the syringe. Young told the officer the syringe was utilize for his drug usages (Wyoming v. Houghton, 1999). The officer asked both of passengers for their identification.However, Sandra Houghton responded her name was Sandra James and she did not have driver license. Baldwin had a valid reason to search the car. The search continued and Officer Baldwin spotted a scrunch up in backseat with her dri ver license. The driver license conformed that she was Sandra Houghton. In her defense of the driver license, she responded she did not want to be involved if something went bad was to happen. This made officer much suspicions. The purse had a brown pouch that had several syringe with 60 cc of methamphetamine, a vial of paraphernalia, and also black billfold.Instance, Sandra responded to Baldwin the things he constitute did not belong to her. Of course, this gave Baldwin a reason to assume that Houghton was also taking drugs, by the needle marks. Houghton was place under arrested for evidence that was that was found. However, the other suspects were release (Wyoming v. Houghton, 1999). According to the case, prior to the trial Houghton submitted a motion to the Wyoming Supreme tap. The motion was denied to restrain the evidences from the court and her secretiveness rights as passenger being violate through the 4th Amendment.Instead, Wyoming Supreme Court was certain officer fol lows his procedure to before he obtained the illegitimate evidence. Wyoming Supreme Court established that Houghton was guilty of procession of control substance. Wyoming Supreme Court verdict was she had to serve three year maximum in the Wyoming Women Center. However, Houghton appealed the decision of the court violation of her Fourth Amendment rights. (Wyoming v. Houghton, 1999) September 29, 1998, Wyoming Supreme Courts verdict was overturned by the unite States Supreme Court (Wyoming v.Houghton, 1998) According to the case, The join States Supreme Court declared Generally one by employ valid probable cause officer is allowed to search all know container whether all know that a container is the personal effect of a passenger who is not suspected of a criminal activity, then the container is outside of the scope of the search un slight someone had the opportunity to conceal the contraband within the personal effects to void detention (Wyoming v. Houghton, 1998, p. 363 & 372). The Wyoming Supreme Court decision was overturned by the United States Supreme Court radixd on Houghton Fourth Amendment rights of loneliness was violated by the officer. United Supreme Court approved the certiorari. According to the case, the court questioned the probable cause of the search. In the case, the officer confessed to the court that the purse belong to Houghton. The U. S. Supreme Court stressed that the search was unpractical. The U. S. Supreme Court continued to dispute that Wyoming Supreme Court made error in its verdict. U. S. Supreme Court justified it claims by evaluating the officer probable cause to search the vehicle.In prior years elevator car exception was already established. The go exception definition was use an a exception of the Fourth Amendment which only recognize in search if an officer has probable cause that cable car contains illegitimate evidence or suspicion of a individual relating to both illegal activity. The U. S. Supreme Court wanted to establish the scope of the exception if the testimonial present by the officer supports the Houghton belonging were conceal any illegal drugs. The U. S. Supreme Court used the notice test in determining if the officer had established a valid probable cause.The notice test was the foundation of the overturn decision of U. S. Supreme Court to reverse verdict of Wyoming Supreme Court (Wyoming v. Houghton, 1998). The violation of the Fourth Amendment was the reason of the appeal. The courts focus more(prenominal) on automobile searches that gave law enforcement permission to search individual personal belongings. The courts examine cases like Ybarra v. Illinois in its appeal. The Ybarra v. Illinois was verdict that allows an exception to a search warrant in homes and business places to search any nonresidential or guest personal items (Wyoming v. Houghton, 1999, p. 98-184).In the examination of the case the courts utilized three important cases to rationalize the scope of the automob ile exception reign over. The case that was examined during the trial by the U. S. Supreme Court was Carroll v. United States (1925), United States v. Ross (1982), and atomic number 20 v. Acevedo (1991). Carroll was used because it was first to rule on automobile exception. The significances of the Carroll ruling was evidence could be obtained without search warrant even if a suspect hides any illegal objects or drugs in their vehicle (Carroll v. United States, 1925, p. 267) the second case examined by the court was United States v.Ross (1982). The significant of this case was as long as law enforcement has follow the probable cause standards , an officer is allow to search any container located in automobile (Wyoming v. Houghton, 1999). However, the scope of the search had to meet the requirements if a regular warrant was issue. The third case of the automobile search of the exception rule is California v. Acevedo. In California v. Acevedo the courts pointed out the most importan t factor was in this case that supported Wyoming was if the officer has less probable cause could justify more any wide-ranging of searches of automobile.Ross and Acevedo case were not as effective in Wyoming v. Houghton. The importance of both rulings related to contraband was obtained. It did not support the circumstances in the Wyoming case relating to the passengers belonging being search. The important rule of both case were related to evidence that could be seized by the plain view rule. The court examines all the past rules to determine the courts final decision. The decision in which if this new rule was past will it be used to protect citizens personal rights.Another problem can across, would this new rule allow law enforcement to search all containers without a warrant. The U. S. Supreme Court decide to past the new rule that states, if the probable cause is establish law enforcement were to search passengers belongings found in the automobile and any items that could hide back any convicting evidence (Wyoming v. Sandra Houghton, 526 U. S. 295 1999). In the article of Dont Accept Rides Form Strangers The Supreme Court hastens the demise of passenger written by Hewitt Daniel discuss and examine the uphold how the Wyoming v.Houghton modified criminal procedures to execute an unlawfully verdict. First, Hewitt argues about the errors of the Wyoming Supreme Court verdict which violated Sandra Houghtons were violated under Fourth Amendment. He continues asserts the effect diverseness in law enforcement level of suspicion requirement for law enforcement to search and seize. According to the Hewitt ( 1999), another(prenominal) effect of the ruling of the Wyoming v. Houghton change law enforcement regulation was traditional requirement of individual suspicion were broaden in special needs situations.The second impact Wyoming v. Houghton case change the criminal procedure was in the expectation of privacy. The expectation of privacy is define as a belief in the existence of emancipation from unwanted governmental intrusion in something or place (Merriam-Websters Dictionary of constabulary, 1996). Hewitt concludes the requirements of exception of privacy which is a person must show that their privacy rights were violated by law enforcement and the violation should be logical to society. After privacy right has shown in violation, the courts would then decide whether the privacy right of a erson is reasonable or not. For example, in the case U. S. Supreme Court justified how the Sandra privacy right was violated due to fact the officer had any reason to search her. Hewitt continues to argue how privacy rights are limited in automobile search. The third impact of Wyoming v. Houghton had on criminal procedure was the automobile exception. In the automobile exception in which allow automobile searches and seizures to be conducted if there is a valid reason that a suspect may be detaining contraband or anything illegal can be hide in conta iner. The Wyoming v.Houghton changes criminal procedure because it allows law enforcement to conduct more searches to validate more criminal activity. The fourth impact was law established that address warrantless search of passengers possession. This law was called consensual search law. In consensual search law give law enforcement more place to search and seize anything in vehicle regardless of who had own it or not. The law enforcement only had to have permission of the driver to conduct a search. The impact of this law is law enforcement could also search passengers procession as well without their consent.According to Hewitt (1999), umpire Breyer addressed the points made by the majority. Justice Bryer concludes from the majority rule should apply in how law enforcement conducted their automobile searches and it did not serve a purpose for searching passengers. However, Justice Stevens opposed the majoritys opinion. He believes that Officer Baldwin in the case should have be en more caution of protecting the privacy of Houghton. He continues to stress that there was not enough probable cause that was established by the officer to search Houghtons purse for drugs.Justice Steven main concern was the equality between law enforcement and individuals. Hewitt continues to examine that Justice Stevens opinions was base of the theory of U. S. v. Di Re. Hewitt concludes, that Justice Steven made a valid point when he illustrates that there was no difference between the ruling in U. S. Di Re and the Wyoming case. The United States v. Di Re the significant of the case is the court rule that law enforcement are not allow to use the automobile exception rule when searching a passengers s pockets and underwear (Zaleman, 2008).Justice Stevens dissent clearly states that their no difference in both Di Re and Houghtons interference of privacy. According to Hewitt (1999), Justice Stevens emphasized that the courts should rule to require law enforcement to request a warra nt, which would protect the help protect the privacy rights of individuals more. In Better-off walking Wyoming v. Houghton emempfies what Acevedo failed to rectify, illustrate how Wyoming v. Houghton ruling modified the ruling that California v. Acevedo, written by Erin Meadows, indicates that more effective than Acevedo.Meadows examine the case and illustrate the advantages of the new rule change in law enforcement regulation and lower courts administrative. He also examines the history of automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement and how new rule change other ruling. However, California v. Acevedo did not have an impact on the court decision. The Acevedo ruling was only used during certain situation where law enforcement had lack of probable cause in performing automobile searches . In California v.Acevedo (1991) rule that a law enforcement could search automobiles truck if have reason to believe that any container located in truck had drugs in it. Houghton provided more bright-line rule. The reason for bright-line rule was to establish the balance between law enforcement officer regulations and citizens Fourth Amendment. The effects of the bright-line would forbid illegal search from happening (Meadow, 2000). The new rule provided effective advantages to law enforcement officer. Some of the advantages of the new rule for law enforcement officer are time management.In effects of the new rule, law enforcement has more time to prevent crimes from happening and less time spent on warrant requests. Second advantage of the change of law enforcement procedure is the limit of area could be search. New law limited area searches played a major role prevention of citizens privacy rights being violated. Wyoming v. Houghton, police should not be allowed to search passenger procession unless probable was established to assume the passenger procession illegal contraband (Meadows, 2000).It shown in that this case had major impact on violation of pr ivacy in the 4th Amendment. Although, the new rule is in effect, there is still some more improvement needed to control the abuse of law enforcement. Law enforcement are now more pressure to protect privacy rights of individuals and now being smelling at more careful by courts. For example, after the ruling in Houghton case more is Thornton v. United States (2004), Arizona v. Gant (2008), and law enforcement are still being questioned. Will this ever stop on time will tell?Work Cited1.Chase, Carol A., Privacy Takes a back seat putting the automobile exception back on track after several wrong turns, 41 b.c.l. rev. p.71,(1999) 2.Expectation of Privacy. (1996). Merriam-Websters Dictionary of Law. Retrieved November 26, 2010 From Dictionary.com website http//dictionary.references.com/browse /Expectation of 3. Meadows, E. M. (March 2000). Better-off walking Wyoming v. Houghton exemplifies what Acevedo failed to rectify. University of Richmond Law Review, 34, 1. P.329-358. Retrieved N ovember 15, 2010, from LegalTrac via Gale http//library.limestone.edu2054/gtx/start.do?prodId=LT&userGroupName=limestonecoll 4. Napo Files Amicus Cupriae Belief to U.S. Supreme Court, NAPO Press Release. November 9, 1998 Retrieved November 10, 2010, http//www.napo.org/press_wyoming _nov 98.html 5. Wyoming v. Sandra Houghton, 526 U.S. 295 (1999). Retrieved November 13, 2010 from http//openjurist .org/526/US/295/Wyoming v-Sandra-Houghton 6. Wyoming v. Houghton, No. 98-184. April 5, 1999. Retrieved November 13, 2010 from http//caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=000&invol=98-184 7. Zaleman, M. (2008) Criminal Procedure Constitution and Society. (6th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ. Person Prentice sign Publishing Company.

Hong Kong Cultural Conversation

Conservation is now recognized worldwide as an important lot of sustainable information, particularly in cities undergoing rapid development. In Hong Kong, however, it was not until the recent years that the citys goernment, citizens and the media have brought more than attention to the development of the citys ethnic and humanistic discipline scene and rescue of the former British colonys eccentric cultural hereditary pattern. In response to the social unrest, the g everywherenment has begun to develop a specific strategy with regard to the arts and culture.One main focus of their strategies lies in the preservation of Hong Kong cultural heritage. However, despite the governments effort on heritage preservation, what probably is that as frustrating is the Hong Kong governments awkward attempts at heritage preservation and privatization of world spaces. Is the government making progress to preserve our cultural heritage? Or is it just making progress to transform our herita ge into commodities and taking further steps to engage in stinting exploitation of public space?What elements should be put into consideration when we talk about cultural preservation and urban planning? Where atomic number 18 the missing parts in the design of existing projects to stand a chance of living(a) the metropolitan spaces in accordance with the real needs and hopes of the batch who live in the space? Problem that lies behind the positive metropolitan image of Hong Kong Despite the image of Hong Kong as a metropolitan city successful in international finance, commerce and tourism, a deep-rooted problem that lies in Hong Kong sights heart is a lack of sense of belonging, a lack of Hong Kong identity operator.During colonial period, Hong Kong has been referred to as a borrowed space and borrowed time. Meanwhile, the differences in culture and civilization between Hong Kong and China created a barrier to Hong Kong multitudes identifying themselves as Chinese. Hong Kongs lack of identity is as well as due to its status as not so much a place as a space of transit, whose residents think of themselves of transients and migrants on their flair between China and other cities. Worse still, after the handover in 1977, we have been experiencing limited majority rule in our society, as reflected in limited political rights granted to the public and lack of public election mechanism. Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong therefore remains a political slogan and still a goal. Searching for Hong Kong identity continues, and this psychological barrier partly explains why the Hong Kong brands and products often faced the criticism of lacking a unique identity.Conserving cultural heritage as a way to define self identity The limitations on democracy in post-colonial Hong Kong is causing more public outcry to bring ink expression or confirmation of their identities through preservation of arts and culture. It has been argued that the role of art and culture in Ho ng Kong has taken on increasing conditional relation in the citys search for an identity over the past 13 years since China resumed sovereignty over the territory. More and more people identify themselves as Hongkonger and less as Chinese or British colonist.People are defining themselves as Hongkongers and conserving Hong Kongs heritage, especi all in ally architectures and sites where their collective memories came from is part of that self-defining. Along with these attempts is a convert in societal expectations. Hong Kong used to be a developers dream as economic prosperity over the past 30 years has been largely due to its immense rate of construction. Now people see the paradox that as they are advancing to become a global city they are also losing parts of their lives, thus there emerged voices on conservation.While the Hong Kong governments heritage policiesor lack thereofare threatening to destroy what is left of our past that constitutes our cultural identity in the nam e of development, people start to speak out on preserving what they grew up with and feel it is important to taking the lead in mentoring the next generation about Hong Kongs history and cultural heritage. The public space in Hong Kong existence a battle field In Hong Kong, every inch of land is labeled with an economic value. The senior high school value of land in Hong Kong heightens the level of control and conflict in land use.In the past hardly a(prenominal) years, we have already seen the tenement houses on Wing Lee course in Central, the Graham Street Market in Central, Lee Tung Street and Queens Pier in Wanchai, all being the landmarks of old Hong Kong, earmarked for destruction. We have also seen the privatization of public space at the expenses of public interests shopping centers in public housing estates originally managed by the Housing Authority have been privatized by The Link the development of West Kowloon are tilted towards orporate interests not the livelihood of residents The harbour front of Hong Kong Island, cut off from the living space of ordinary people, has turned into the backyard of luxurious private residential complexes or giant shopping centerfield housing all the big global brands the Central seafront reclamation area also falls into the very(prenominal) fate -it is designed as an extension of government offices and the huge Mody Mall, instead of being considered for cultural and amateurish use as demanded by the Hong Kong public.Urban and social planning on land use and distribution of riches shows a tendency of being biased towards corporate and capitalists interests. Hong Kong people are yet to have a say to the use of their own space and this has given rise to many social problems such as publics opposition sentiment towards government, self-identity crisis, substitution of local diversity and choices by global demands for homogeneity, widened breaking between the rich and the poor, and so on.The turning points that awake the government One of the turning points in public opinion with respect to heritage preservation was the renewal of Lee Tung Street in Wanchai. This roadway was well known to all of Hong Kong as The Wedding Card Street. All the little shops provided all the shore necessary to have a happy and prosperous Chinese wedding, giving this street an aura of resonance and joy. However, the urban renewal authority had targeted the whole street for renewal.Many of the shopkeepers were upset to be pushed out of the area as they felt want to stay here not just for business but also because they had conventional a community with neighborhoods from a few generations and therefore a strong emotional attachment with the place. thither were many protests and banners expressing the dissatisfaction of the shopkeepers. The public outcry did not work to influence the governments decision and the shops are now all closed awaiting redevelopment.Another turning point is the demolition of the Queen s Ferry wharf along with its iconic clock tower in Wanchai in December 2006 as part of the profession development plan for Wanchai. It has led to widely publicized protests and even hunger strikes that the government had not anticipated. save the citizens again lost in the battle to fight for public space. The pier was a young 49 years when it was destroyed and was not considered old nice by the authorities and, therefore, it did not have enough heritage value.Yet, to many Hong Kong people, the historic value of the pier is not measured only by its epoch or by a number as of years or days, for time is also cerebrate to the question of memory, experience, moment. According to Local Action, a local group with hundreds of members that led the protests against the government with the goal of scrimping Hong Kongs culture heritage and public space, The pier is a symbol of Hong Kong history with strong socio-political moment for many social and political events took place at the pi er.It had also been used by many royalties and governors as they came to Hong Kong and many demonstrations took place here, signifying its importance as a landmark People expressed that it is also a place where their memories and experiences came from therefore they have developed a strong attachment to their place. This public chemical reaction echoes John Urry in Reinterpreting Local Culture from Consuming Places, in which John remarked that the disapprove signifies the place and that if the object were to be demolished or substantially changed then that would signify a threat to the place itself.

Ethics: Who Am I

Who am I? Well to say this question you have to answer these questions first. What are my shortcomings, do I have any vices Id worry to eliminate, why is it hard and whats s round topping me, what are my favorite activities, and a few others. moreover the one Im going to focus on is What are my qualities and strengths? because this question helped me figure step up what Im going to do for a living. What are my qualities and strengths? I have many strengths like the ability to work on cars, carpentry, art, and mathematics. But my biggest strength is in mathematics.Ive endlessly been at the top of my math class throughout my schooling career. Every time m teacher would put a problem on the board, Id have it done in a split second. I never felt I was ch wholeenged until the middle of my junior year of high school. I was taking Algebra 2 and we were starting to go more in-depth into x and y-intercepts. This concept boggled my mind for a plentitude longer than it had interpreted to go over and to tell you the truth I still dont get all of it still I knew enough of it to get by. There was always one thing that Ive wondered approximately my strength in mathematics, though.Where did I get this skill from? Nobody in my family is or ever was this good enough at math like I am. To this day I dont where it came from but I guess thats one of my own wonders of the world. Why am I? This question would be demanding for someone to answer if all they thought intimately was there profession in the future and not what they want to achieve in there life. To answer this question you have to have thought approximately what you want to achieve in life then you cant answer this question. A lot of great deal cogitate about what they want to achieve in life but most of everyone always ponder it in the consciousness of there career.Thats a good way to think about it but that doesnt give you purpose in life. Im not going to lie down a lot of the things I ant to achieve in life are career related, but there are a few things that are personal goals Im going to pass on to achieve. One of these achievements is to have a great family and raise children that will have a love of learning, not just in schooling because not all kids like school but in any(prenominal) they love to do, a hunger for success, be great citizens of the United States, and know how to be a deferent adult, which is one thing I think a lot of the youth in my generation lack.I think these traits are extremely important for young people to have because these traits are what I think make up a great person and this world definitely needs more people that are respectful, knowledgeable, well-mannered just an all around good person. Well this is just a myopic on Who I am in the sense of my strengths and qualities and Why I am in the sense of my purpose in life.

Hinduism & Buddhism

Hindooism * A combination of a member of religious traditions in India * A polytheistic religion (More than one god) * God is Brahman motive and creation, made manifest in 3 persons 1. Brahma Creator 2. Vishnu Preserver 3. Shiva Destroyer * According to Hindooism, our true self is Brahman * The human individual is Atman * staple fiber Hindu phrase is Atman is Brahman or Tat Tatum asi, meaning That Thou Art * Goal of Hindu life 1. Become perfected to the extent that the soul merges with the soul of god 2. No need to be born again in another human body Hindus believe that the human soul journeys by dint of one life and then dies and is born again into a new body through metempsychosis or transmigration * Samsara Cycle of Rebirth * Dharma Ethical duties of a person * Karma Law of receiving what one deserves * Hindus believe that the soul is reborn into a higher stage of existence if the person has lived a reasoned life * Moksha The handout from the Hindus endless cycles of rebirth * The path to Moksha which about followed is devotion * Hindus believe in the Caste System.Social Groups in to which Hindus atomic number 18 born * 4 Main Castes 1. Sedras Laborers 2. Valeyas Producers 3. Kshatrlyas Administrators 4. Brahmias Seers * 4 Stages of Hindu breeding 1. Student (Brahmancarin) 2. Householder -(Grihartha) 3. Retirement operative out the philosophy of life (Vanapratha) 4. Wonderer Free from all attachments of life (Sannyasin) * Sannyasin The Stage of Life where one renounces family, name and any memories of the past * 4 Wants of Hinduism 1. Pleasure 2. Success 3. Duty 4. Liberation spotless Period of Hinduism Era when Hinduism becomes distinguished as a religion * In regards to other religions, Hinduism is tolerant * some(prenominal) Buddhism and Jainism grew out of Hinduism and were founded as reactions to Hinduism * Jainism and Buddhism advocate non-violence * Sikhism was founded by Guru Nank and has its roots in Hinduism. Its a symb ol of Hinduism and Islam * One of the some popular aspects of Hinduism is Yoga * Yoga = Discipline helps a Hindu rise above his self limitation * Bhagavad-Gita is an example of Hindu sacred literatureBuddhism * Siddhartha Gautama * Raised a Hindu in warrior caste * Became Buddha (Enlightened One) * Attained enlightenment when he effected the importance of understanding suffering as articulated in the 4 Noble Truths * His Philosophy * school of thought of middle way * Middle Way Living Half way between luxury and destitution (different than rich & poor) * Buddhism spread into the Far East Broke into Sects. * Main Types of Buddhism 1. Theravada School of Elders * Stressing Individual Salvation * prop Traditional theorys South East Asian, Buma, Cevalon and Malano 2. Mahayana Great Vehicle * Stressing Social Salvation * Having a number of sects and assorted thoughts (Zen Buddhism) 3. Vajrayana Diamond Vehicle * Through growing out of Hinduism, Buddhism has lost influence as a religion in India * 4 Noble truths 1. In Life, Suffering Abounds 2. Suffering is Caused by Desire The Ego 3. therapeutic lies in overcoming selfish craving 4. Cure can be accomplished by following the multiple channel * Eightfold Path . proper(a) Understanding Awareness of what is suffering (4 Noble Truths) 2. Right Thought Purifying the Mind3. Right Speech Speak Truthfully 4. Right Conduct Dont Lie, Kill, Commit Adultery, Consume intoxications 5. Right Livelihood Actions used to earn a living, not to harm others 6. Right Effort -Be diligent and cultivating good thoughts 7. Right Mindfulness -Knowing oneself 8. Right Concentration -Help see things as they really are * Since Buddhism outgrew Hinduism Kept premise that humans are reborn into new bodies * God of life is the absorption of the self into the infinite * nirvana (Meditation) Such absorption in Buddhism * Unlike Hindus, Buddhism ignores the caste systems and Hindu Rituals * Meditation is vital to all branches o f Buddhism * Tripitaka religious literature in Buddhism (Three Baskets) * Written from oral traditions about 150 years after Buddha lived * Like Hindus, most Buddhist festivals are local or religious events * Funeral rituals are important to Buddhists Strong interest in after life * 3 Jewels Considered to be the core of Buddhism 1. Sangha Community of Buddhists, monks, nuns and lay people 2. Buddha Name for those initiate according to Buddhist faith Buddha with B refers to Siddhartha Gautama3. Dharma Buddhas Teachings * Symbols of Buddhism 1. Wheel of Law 8 Spokes represent Eightfold Path 2. Bodhi Tree Place of Enlightenment 3. Stupas/Pagooas A dome/shaped monument used to house Buddhist relics (Pagodas are Larger stupas)

Women in Psychology

Abstract It is safe to infer that the study of psychology is invariably changing and advancing in many facets. This advancement is due to the many physiologist, theorist, psychologist, and scientist that have dedicated their beings to studying of the forgiving mind and human behavior. Amongst these professionals, stand some really(prenominal) influential women. These women have played very important and very much key roles in the education of psychology as we know it today.I will suck up the contri notwithstandingions of some major roles females have played in psychology, and conclude by discussing the contributions of Americans eldest female psychologist Christine Ladd-Franklin, her background, and suppositional perspectives of psychology. Women in Psychology Psychology as we know it today is the study or science of the human mind and behavior. Psychology up until 1870 was a branch of philosophy and then developed as an self-employed person scientific discipline. In 1879 began the study of experimental science with Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig.This marked a historic and very important moment in psychology. Though Wundt is the first to experiment with psychology, there were similarly others who followed very closely. Charles Peirce, particularly, who was the first American experimental psychologist, also had a major contribution. In Charles Peirce journey in psychology, he worked very closely with Christine Ladd-Franklin, who after became the first woman involved in the trio disciplines logic, psychology, and mathematics.Although we fagt construe much about women and their involvement in psychology, some women offered some major contributions to the theme of psychology among 1850 to present day. Psychology as we know is the study or science of the human mind and behavior. Although we dont hear much about women and their involvement in psychology, some women offered some major contributions to the field of psychology between 1850 to present day. Wom en such as Mary Whiton Calkins, Maria Montessori, Margaret Floy Washburn, Karey Horney, Christine Ladd-Franklin, and Anna Freud had significant contributions to the field of psychology.Some contributions include, but are not limited to such as paired associate techniques, Childrens House for psych- pedagogy, which is an educational method for child psychology, the founding of The Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis as well as the Hampstead Clinic, a treatment center for child psychology. These women had great accomplishments in the world of psychology. However, for the purposes of this paper, I will be discussing the industrial plant and contributions of Christine Ladd-Franklin.Christina Ladd-Franklin was born in 1847. She attended Vassar studying mathematics, since the field of physics (her primary interest) was not available to women. She later attended John Hopkins University, where she completed the requirements for her PH. D, but due to the fact that women were not allowed to graduate from the University, she was not given over her PhD until years later. Ladds dissertation paper was written on the Algebra of Logic, and she became the very first women involved in psychology, mathematics, and logic.Once Ladd left Hopkins, she worked side by side with G. E. Mller who worked on memory activity, the mathematical prodigy, subterfuge vision, and also his analysis of the method of introspection. Ladd was very interested in Mllers study on twine vision, and in turn proposed her own color vision theory. In part she suggested that some animals are color blind and put on that achromatic vision appeared first in evolution and color vision came later. She assumed further that the human tenderness carries vestiges of its earlier evolutionary development.She observed that the most highly evolved part of the eye is the fovea, where, at least in daylight, visual acuity and color sensitivity are greatest. Ladd-Franklin assumed that skirting(prenominal) vision (provided by the rods of the retina) was more primitive than fovea vision (provided by the cones of the retina) because night vision and effect detection are crucial for survival ( Hergenhahn, B. R. 2009.. She further stated that color vision evolved in three stages, the black and white stage, the blue -yellow stage, nd the red green stage. She suggested that more people suffered with red-green color sightlessness because it was the last to develop. Her theory was controversial, but it slowly gained partial acceptance. Ladd reportedly had involvement in the Purkinje phenomenon, that was developed by Hermann Ebbinghaus when she was working in his laboratory. In her later years, Ladd became an advocate for womens suffrage and assisted in the development of the Sarah Berliner and other research fellowships for women.Women in the 18th and 19th had very difficult times attaining a life history in fields such as psychology, physics, and mathematics Due to the lack of womens ri ghts, their ideas, studies, theories, and works were often unwelcomed. However, despite all powers against Christine Ladd-Franklin, she continued to push on and accomplish exceptional feats. She died in 1930, but her bequest lives on in women psychologist and historians of psychology today.

Abc on Plant Performance

Available online at www. science position. com Accounting, Organizations and bon ton 33 (2008) 119 www. elsevier. com/locate/aos The persona of manufacturing practices in mediating the tinct of activity-establish toll on congeal feat Rajiv D. Banker a, Indranil R. Bardhan b b,* , Tai-Yuan subgenus Chen c a Fox condition of Business, Temple University, 1810 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA The University of Texas at Dallas, School of precaution, SM 41, 2601 N.Floyd Road, Richardson, TX 75083-0688, USA c School of Business and Man festerment, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clearwater Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China Abstract We education the tinge of activity-based cost (first principle) on betrothal of foremost manufacturing (WCM) practices and make exertion. In contrast to earlier query that regards the pick out push of first principle on rig performance, we sustain an alternative interrogation stick to field of view the intention of world-class manufacturing practices as a mediator of the disturb of rudiment.Analysis of selective information from a swelled cross-sectional take of US manufacturing go unders channelizes that rudiment has no signi? set up cipher involve on do performance, as metric by repairments in unit of valuatement manufacturing cost, unit of ammunition beat, and product tincture. We ? nd, however, that WCM practices completely mediate the confident(p) intrusion of alphabet on dress performance, and thus forward-looking manufacturing capabilities represent a critical missing link in understanding the overall impact of rudiment. Our results provide a di? rent conceptual lens to evaluate the family relationship amid first rudiment adoption and plant performance, and suggest that first principle adoption by itself does non mitigate plant performance. O 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights re work ond. Introduction Activity-based costing (first principle) was designed with the objective of providing managers with absolute activity-based cost t from individually oneing by utilise cost drivers to assign activity cost to products * Corresponding author. Tel. +1 972 883 2736 fax +1 972 883 6811. E-mail addresses emailprotected edu (R. D. Banker), emailprotected edu (I. R. Bardhan), emailprotected k (T. -Y. Chen). and overhauls. Proponents of rudiment argue that it provides close cost information studyed to make impound strategical decisions in terms of product tittup, sourcing, pricing, run improvement, and evaluation of descent emergence performance ( cooper & Kaplan, 1992 Swenson, 1995). These usurps whitethorn construct led many ? rms to adopt alphabet systems. A survey of the deoxycytidine monophosphate0 largest ? rms in the joined Kingdom showed that 19. 5% of these companies switch adopted rudiment (Innes & Mitchell, 1995). An adjourn survey released by the Cost Management 0361-3682/$ see front matter O 2006 Elsevier Lt d.All rights reserved. doi10. ci6/j. aos. 2006. 12. 001 2 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and company 33 (2008) 119 Group (1998) of the Institute of Management Accountants referd that 39% of organizations collapse approved alphabet adoption. 1 Assessing the impact of alphabet on manufacturing plant performance is recognized as an important investigate incredulity. Prior research has typically focal pointed on the film impact of rudiment duration ignoring its confirmative impact in encouraging other organizational capabilities. While late(prenominal) studies have report moderate levels of bene? s from rudiment adoption (Foster & Swenson, 1997 Ittner & Larcker, 2001), few have extended this reckon to evaluate the linkages amid beliefs that represent supremacyful outcomes and the operational bank bills of plant performance. Further more, the de? nition of alphabet success has often been vaguely de? ned in terms of subjective beliefs regarding ? nan cial bene? t, satisfaction with rudiment, or use of ABC system for decision making. In light of these methodological de? ciencies, we argue that a more rigorous approach is extremityed to measure the impact of ABC.It is in addition important to steering on operate-level performance measures, instead of ? rm-level ? nancial metrics, since the potence impact of ABC effectuation may be appropriated onwards they ar re? ected in a ? rms aggregate performance. Evidence of past ABC carrying into action failures have led researchers to suggest that ABC success depends on other contextual and border factor outs, such as organizational structure, delegate characteristics, management support, tuition technology, and the external environment (Anderson, Hesford, & new-fangled, 2002).In this correction, we condense on the appliance by means of which ABC impacts plant performance, in terms of its fiber as an enabler of organizational capabilities rather than its direct impact. Speci? cally, we workplace the tie between capital punishment of ABC and world-class manufacturing (WCM) capabilities, and their impact on plantlevel operational performance. exploitation a large cross-sectional take of US manufacturing plants, we ? nd that ABC has a positive association with the development of bidding-centric capabiliImplementation of ABC has been observed not exclusively in manufacturing ? rms but also in service sector ? rms (Cooper & Kaplan, 1992). ties inevitable to success skillfuly work through WCM. We also ? nd that ABC does not have a signi? locoweedt direct impact on plant performance measures. Instead, its impact on plant performance is intercede through the development of WCM capabilities, which allow plants to leverage the process capabilities o? ered by ABC into signi? cant improvements in plant performance. Our study makes contributions in several aras. Our fundamental contribution involves the development of an empirically clear framewor k which indicates that the impact of ABC on plant performance is completely mediated through its enablement of WCM capabilities.Second, since ABC is seeed and used at the business process level, we focus our attention on operational process performance measures by deal outing the manufacturing plant as a unit of analysis. This allows us to avoid the drawbacks associated with anterior studies which have mostly focused on aggregated, ? rm-level ? nancial measures. Third, our results suggest that the conceptual lens through which preliminary research has traditionally studied the impact of ABC needs to be revisited and validated using di? erent types of exemplificationing and measurement approaches. foreign to the ? dings of Ittner, Lanen, and Larcker (2002) we ? nd that, although the direct impact of ABC is not signi? cant, ABC has a statistically signi? cant validatory e? ect on plant performance that is mediated through its support for groundbreaking manufacturing capabiliti es. The pillow of our paper is organized as follows. In the next section, we review the tie in literature on ABC, advanced manufacturing practices, and plant performance. We then present our conceptual research framework and research hypotheses, followed by a interpretation of our research information and design.Next, we divulge our statistical estimation results, followed by a wrangleion of our results, contributions, and limitations. We summarize our ? ndings and the implications of our study in the last section. Background The ABC literature de? nes an activity as a discrete task that a ? rm undertakes to make or deliver R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and participation 33 (2008) 119 3 a product/service, and uses cost drivers to assign activity costs to products, services or customers related to these activities (Cooper, 1988 Ittner et al. 2002). Traditional costing systems use bases like direct labor and machine hours to allocate expenses, associated with indirect and support activities, to products and services. On the other hand, ABC segregates the expenses of indirect and support resources by activities, and then assigns those expenses based on the drivers of these activities (Cooper & Kaplan, 1991). Hence, ABC provides plant mangers with a more structured approach to evaluate the expenses associated with speci? c activities used to support a product.The body of anterior research regarding the impact of ABC has produced sashayed render. On one hand, proponents of ABC have argued that ABC armed services to acquire the economics of outturn processes more closely than traditional cost-based systems, and may provide more consummate costing data (Cooper & Kaplan, 1991 Ittner, 1999). Prior research suggests that carrying into action of ABC should lead to operational and strategic bene? ts within organizations (Anderson & Young, 1999 Cooper & Kaplan, 1991). Researchers have argued that operational bene? s may emanate from improv ed visibility into the (a) economics of the merchandise processes, and (b) causative cost drivers. Strategic bene? ts may arise from availability of dampen information for product development, sourcing, product ruffle and other strategic decisions (Anderson, 1995 Shields, 1995). Researchers have claimed that, since ABC may provide great visibility into business processes and their cost drivers, it may allow managers to guide costs related to non- valuate added activities and improve the e? ciencies of existing processes (Carol? , 1996).Improved information visibility may also enable the deployment of tonicity-related initiatives by identifying activities that be associated with poor product timber, and their cost drivers (Ittner, 1999 Cooper, Kaplan, Maisel, Morrissey, & Oehm, 1992). Hence, prior research suggests that ABC may be associated with adoption of process improvement activities, such as ingrained case management (TQM) programs (Ittner & Larcker, 1997a, 1997b And erson et al. , 2002). On the other hand, selective informationr and Gupta (1994) claimed that increasing the human action of cost pools and improving the speci? ation of cost bases may summation the frequency of errors in product cost measurement. Banker and Potter (1993) and Christensen and Demski (1997) suggest that the ability of ABC to produce accurate cost estimates depends on other factors, such as the combativeness of marketplaces and the quality of the organizations information technology infrastructure. Noreen (1991) suggests that ABC execution may provide bene? cial results only under speci? c conditions. Similarly, empirical studies that have interpretd the impact of ABC on ? m performance have also produced mixed results (Ittner & Larcker, 2001 Gordon & Silvester, 1999). Many of these studies aver on managers beliefs regarding the success of ABC accomplishation, but they do not indicate whether ABC adopters achieved gameer levels of operational or ? nancial perf ormance comp argond to non-adopters (Shields, 1995 McGowan & Klammer, 1997 Foster & Swenson, 1997). Other studies have suggested that many ABC adopters have abandoned their implementations, raising concerns about the potential impact of ABC on performance (McGowan & Klammer, 1997). In this study, e explore the relationships between ABC implementation and WCM practices, and their impact on plant performance. Unlike prior studies, which focus on measuring the direct impact of ABC on plant performance, our focus is directed at the role of ABC as an enabler of WCM practices which, in turn, have an impact on plant performance. In their study on relationships between incentive systems and JIT implementation, Fullerton and McWatters (2002, p. 711) note that the shift to world-class manufacturing strategies requires accompanying departs in ? rms management business relationship systems.They argue that by providing a punter understanding of the inter-relationships between manufacturing pro cesses, demand uncertainty and product complexity, ABC implementation allows plant managers to direct pertinent process improvements which facilitate implementation of other WCM initiatives. Cooper and Kaplan (1991) also claim that ABC may help plant managers to develop a better 4 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 understanding of the sources of cost variability, which allows them to manage resource demand and rationalize switch overs in product mix.The arguments in support of ABC be based on the presumed comparative advantage that ? rms may derive from greater transp arncy and accuracy of information obtained from ABC (Cagowin & Bouwman, 2002). However, Kaplan (1993) and others have cautioned that not every ABC implementation will produce direct bene? ts. Indeed, the role of other facilitators and contextual factors, such as implementation of related organizational initiatives, has gained greater importance in this debate (Anderson et al. , 2002 Henri, 2006).A fundamental motivation of our research is to better understand the overall impact of ABC on plant performance by studying its indirect impact on plant WCM capabilities. We argue that ABC implementation should impact plant performance only by supporting the implementation of advanced manufacturing capabilities, which provide managers with the ? exibility to adapt to ever-changing product and demand characteristics. Without such capabilities, ABC is un seeming to improve manufacturing performance by itself. Unlike previous studies that have studied the impact of ABC on ? rm-level performance, we bserve that isolating the impact of ABC at the plant-level allows us to trace ABCs impact on speci? c plant performance measures, and overcomes the potential for confounding when multiple business processes are aggregated at the ? rm level. We discuss our conceptual framework and research hypotheses in the next section. Conceptual research form We posit that adoption of ABC by itself may not provide much direct value, but may facilitate the implementation of advanced manufacturing practices and other organizational capabilities which, in turn, may be associated with sustainable improvements in plant performance.Unlike previous research that has in the large part explored the direct impact of ABC, our research good example allows for the possibility of plant performance improvements collectable to implementation of WCM practices that may be enabled by capabilities associated with the adoption of ABC systems. WCM practices connote a broad range of manufacturing capabilities, which allow plant managers to adapt to the irritability and uncertainty associated with changes in customer demand and business cycles in agile manufacturing environments (Flynn, Schroeder, & Flynn, 1999 Sakakibara, Flynn, Schroeder, & Morris, 1997 Banker, Potter, & Schroeder, 1995).These practices acknowledge just-in- measure manufacturing (JIT), continuous process improvem ent, amount quality management (TQM), competitive benchmarking, and worker autonomy through the use of self-directed work teams. Advanced manufacturing practices provide the capabilities necessary to react to rapid changes in lot sizes and setup seasons, as the manufacturing focus shifts to ? exible and agile processes that are characterized by quick changeover techniques to handle deed of low volume orders with high product variety (Kaplan, 1983 Flynn et al. 1999). Traditional costing systems, which are based on assumptions of long production runs of a standard product with static speci? cations, are not relevant in such dynamically changing environments. However, proponents have argued that ABC may provide more accurate information on the activities and transactions that impact product costs in manufacturing environments characterized by production of smaller lot sizes, high broad mix, and buy at changeovers (Krumwiede, 1998). By providing dately information about the costs of esources, especially when production runs are shorter or the production method changes, ABC implementation may provide the process infrastructure necessary to support managerial decision-making capabilities in fast-paced manufacturing processes (Kaplan, 1983). Hence, we study the impact of ABC on its ability to support implementation of WCM capabilities, and examine its indirect impact on plant performance through its enablement of such capabilities. Our conceptual research model describing the relationship between ABC, manufacturing capabilities and plant performance is shown in Fig. . The model comprises of two stages. The ? rst stage describes how ABC may facilitate implementation of world-class manufacturing practices. R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 5 Activity-based Costing (ABC) H1 ? prime(prenominal) H2 ? TIME H3 ? COST World-class Manufacturing (WCM set out Performance coat PLANTAGE discrete DOWNSIZE peck commix Plant-level tally Variables Plan Fig. 1. Conceptual research model. Note Plant performance is represented using three separate reliant covariants that are grouped together in the gure for ease of representation. Our regression models are estimated using each performance variable as a open variable in a separate multivariate regression. The second stage describes the impact of advanced manufacturing capabilities, as embodied by WCM, on plant performance. The bring up di? erence between our research model and that of prior studies is our focus on the relationship between ABC and WCM, and the role of manufacturing capabilities as a mediator of the impact of ABC on plant performance, as represented by the dotted arrow in Fig. 1.Impact of activity-based costing on world-class manufacturing In his early work on the challenges of implementing new types of management score models to measure manufacturing performance, Kaplan (1983, p. 702) noted that . . . business relationship systems must be ti ghtly integrated with plant production planning and scheduling systems so that production managers are rewarded for e? cient utilization of constriction resources and reduced inventory levels throughout the plant. . . . Prior research has suggested that ABC is more bene? cial when it supports the implementation of advanced manufacturing practices (Shields & Young, 1989Kaplan, 1992 Cooper, 1994). For prototype, Anderson and Young (1999) reviewed several ABC studies that account positive relations between the success of ABC adoption and implementation of various advanced manufacturing practices. They argue that ABC facilitates more accurate identi? cation and measurement of the cost drivers associated with value added and non-value added manufacturing activities, which makes it easier to develop better cost bear and resource allocation capabilities necessary prerequisites for successful implementation of worldclass manufacturing.In world-class manufacturing environments, the acc ounting systems, compensation, incentive structure, and performance measurement practices are di? erent from those that are used in traditional manufacturing (Miltenburg, 1995 Milgrom & Roberts, 1995). For example, traditional manufacturing processes entail the use of performance measures that track unit manufacturing costs related to (a) equipment utilization, (b) ratios of direct and indirect labor to volume, (c) number of set-ups, and (d) number of orders. On the other hand, erformance measures relevant to WCM implementation track (a) actual cost and quality, (b) cycle cadence reduction, (c) delivery sequence and ontime delivery rate, and (d) actual production as a percentage of planned production (Miltenburg, 1995, p. 336). By enabling the measurement of costs related to speci? c activities, products, and customers, ABC may provide more accurate identi? cation and measurement of new types of performance measures that are a critical component of successful WCM implementations ( Argyris & Kaplan, 1994 Krumwiede, 1998).Proponents claim that ABC may support the implementation of WCM capabilities in several ways. First, by allowing plant managers to track costs accurately and enabling identi? cation of redundant resources, ABC may support implementation of TQM and other quality/process improvement programs. 2 Second, ABC may support process-related investments in cycle time See Ittner (1999) for an example of the bene? ts of activitybased costing for quality improvement at a telecommunications ? rm. 2 6 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 reduction by facilitating the timely identi? ation of non-value-added activities (Kaplan, 1992). Third, ABC may allow plant managers to make better resource allocation decisions by focusing the product line and accurately anticipating the e? ect of changes in the product mix on the pro? tability of manufacturing operations. Hence, they argue that ABC implementation may provide the process discipline necessary to analyze activities, gather and trace costs to activities, and establish relevant output measurescapabilities that are useful in ? exible manufacturing environments (Cooper & Kaplan, 1991, 1999).Implementation of ABC may be associated with greater use of self-directed teams and worker autonomy, which are also important capabilities of WCM (Anderson & Young, 1999). Similarly, best practices data on cost pools, activity centers, and cost drivers can be incorporated into the design and use of ABC systems which may improve plant managers abilities to make better strategic product decisions, and thereby support implementation of WCM programs (Elnathan, Lin, & Young, 1996 Atkinson, Banker, Kaplan, & Young, 2001). Therefore, we posit that ABC facilitates successful implementation of WCM capabilities.In contrast to Ittner et al. (2002), who treat advanced manufacturing practices as causal variables in let offing adoption of ABC, we posit that ABC supports implementa tion of WCM practices, which in turn, may improve plant performance. Accordingly, Hypothesis H1 Plants which implement ABC are more credibly to implement world-class manufacturing practices. Impact of world-class manufacturing on plant performance Implementation of WCM practices can enable plants to react right away to changes in customer demand, and thereby carry disgrace levels of inventory, improve cost e? iencies, development the ? exibility of production facilities through use of planning and scheduling software, and improve overall plant productivity (Banker, Bardhan, Chang, & Lin, 2006). Investments in JIT and ? exible manufacturing practices help to reduce setup times that permit shorter production runs, thereby allowing for more e? cient inventory control, as well as lower product defect rates (Kaplan, 1983 Hendricks & Singhal, 1997 Sakakibara et al. , 1997).Techniques that are commonly deployed, within the mountain range of JIT implementations, include pull/Kanban sy stems, lot-size reductions, cycletime reductions, quick changeover techniques, and bottleneck removal practices. Research on the performance impact of JIT has been extensively documented in the literature (Sakakibara et al. , 1997 Hendricks & Singhal, 1997). Reported bene? ts range from reduced work in patterned advance and ? nished goods, to better quality and high ? rm productivity. Based on prior empirical evidence, researchers have found that ? ms which adopted JIT production are better aligned to customer needs, have shorter lead times, and faster time to market (Srinivasan, Kekre, & Mukhopadhyay, 1994). Implementation of WCM practices also entails adoption of other process improvement practices, such as total quality management (TQM) and continuous process improvement programs (Fullerton & McWatters, 2002). The fundamental elements of process improvement programs consist of competitive benchmarking, statistical process control, and employee em big businessmanment (Schroeder & Flynn, 2001).Such process improvement practices, stemming from greater attention to product quality and time to market issues may enable manufacturing plants to develop advanced manufacturing capabilities. Based on ? rm-level data, researchers have found that implementation of TQM and other advanced manufacturing practices have a positive impact on ? rm performance, through realization of lower product cost, higher quality, and better on-time delivery performance (Banker, Field, & Sinha, 2001 Banker et al. , 1995 Hendricks & Singhal, 1997 Ittner & Larcker, 1995, 1997a).Hence, we posit that implementation of WCM practices in manufacturing plants may be positively related to improvements in plant-level performance as de? ned by plant cost, quality and time-to-market measures. Therefore, we hypothesize that R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 7 Hypothesis H2 Plants that have implemented WCM practices are more likely to be associated with signi? c ant improvements in plant performance. H2a Plants which implement WCM practices are more likely to realize improvements in plant manufacturing costs.H2b Plants with WCM practices are more likely to realize improvements in plant quality. H2c Plants with WCM practices are more likely to realize improvements in time to market. Impact of ABC on plant performance a mediation mechanism Proponents have argued that, by enabling easier identi? cation of non-value added activities and simpli? cation of cost measurements, ABC enables implementation of advanced manufacturing practices, especially in processes that are characterized by quick changeovers and a range of support activities. Documenting and understanding activities is a necessary prerequisite to improving business processes, since activities are the building blocks of business processes. If ABC adoption results in more accurate costing then plant performance may improve because of greater ability to implement process improvement in itiatives, facilitating the simpli? cation of business processes by removing non-value added activities. Successful implementation of WCM practices requires the development of business process models to identify and eliminate non-value added activities.In this respect, ABC implementation entails a priori development of such process models to identify and analyze activities, trace costs to activities, and analyze activity-based costs. Similarly, plant managers can use information gathered through ABC analyses to conduct a Pareto analyses of the major cost drivers, an important ingredient in most TQM and competitive bench3 marking initiatives. Scenario analysis related to pricing, product mix, and pro? tability is also doable, which are useful in the deployment of JIT capabilities.Hence, successful WCM implementations may leverage the streamlining of business processes due to ABC adoption. ABC analyses allow plants to develop activitybased management (ABM) business models which manag ers may adopt to improve their organizational e? ectiveness (Chenhall & Lang? eld-Smith, 1998). In addition, ABC implementation may be correlated with and hence serve as a surrogate for unobservable factors, such as management leadership and worker training, that are important components of successful WCM implementation. Hence, implementation of WCM may allow plants to leverage the capabilities o? ered by ABC (i. . accurate cost allocations and management support) into improvements in plant performance. Our approach di? ers from the prior literature which has primarily studied the direct impact of ABC on plant performance (Ittner et al. , 2002). Instead, we argue that it is important to view the role of ABC as a potential enabler of manufacturing capabilities, and study its indirect impact on plant performance as completely mediated by WCM. This position argues that ABC may support improvements in manufacturing capabilities which are, in turn, associated with improvements in plant performance (Henri, 2006).Hypothesis H3 The positive association between ABC implementation and plant performance is mediated through implementation of worldclass manufacturing practices. An alternative perspective, with respect to the role of ABC, is that the interaction between WCM capabilities and ABC implementation may jointly determine plant performance. The interaction perspective argues that advanced manufacturing capabilities, when combined with deployment of ABC methods, create complementarities that explain variations in plant performance (Cagowin & Bouwman, 2002). In other words, WCM and ABC may each have a direct e? ct on performance, but would add more value when used in combination (i. e. , the presence of WCM will increase the broken in volume production creates more transactions per unit manufactured than high volume production (Cooper & Kaplan, 1988). 8 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 dominance of the relationship between ABC and performance). In this framework, the interaction e? ects of ABC and WCM need to be estimated to study the overall impact of ABC on plant performance. We explore the interaction perspective further when we discuss our estimation results. Fig. represents the conceptual research model that describes our hypothesized relationship between ABC and implementation of WCM practices, and the role of WCM as a mediator of the impact of ABC on plant performance. Research design We now describe the characteristics of the data collected and approach for measuring the variables of interest in our study. Data collection Data for this research was drawn from a survey of manufacturing plants across the US, conducted in the year 1999 by IndustryWeek and PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting. The survey consisted of a questionnaire which was mailed to plants with two-digit standard industrial classi? ation (SIC) codes from 20 to 39, and that employed a stripped of deoxycytidine monophosphate peopl e. Data were collected on a range of manufacturing, management and accounting practices used within each plant. We have described the questions relevant to our research model in Appendix. The survey was mailed to approximately 27,000 plant managers and controllers from IndustryWeeks database of manufacturing plants. Plant managers provided data on the finale of implementation of ABC and a broad range of advanced manufacturing practices and plant characteristics. Data on plant performance measures were based on assessments of plant records by plant controllers. A total of 1757 plants responded to the questionnaire for an overall response rate of 6. 5%. The usable sample contains 1250 plants that provided Since data on the self-employed person and dependent variables was provided by di? erent sources, this mitigates the concerns associated with common methods bias. 4 complete responses to the variables of interest in our model. 5 We present the distribution of the manufacturing pla nts in our sample by industry in turn off 1, and compare it to the distribution of manufacturers, reported in the statistical Abstract of the United States and published by the US nosecount Bureau (2000).Since we obtained the data from a inessential data source, we did not have information with respect to the pro? les of non-respondent plants. To evaluate the generalizibility of our ? ndings, we compared the average plant productivity per employee of our sample plants to the average productivity of all US manufacturing plants, as reported by the US Census Bureau (2000). The average plant productivity per employee of our sample was $221,698, while the average productivity in the US Census data was reported to be $225,440. The di? erence in average plant productivity was not statistically signi? cant (t-statistic = 0. 37 p-value = 0. 35).Measurement of variables The ABC adoption variable was de? ned based on the response to the survey question asking whether ABC was implemented at the plant (0 = not implemented, 1 = plan to implement, 2 = extensively implemented). For the purpose of our study, we collapsed the ? rst two categories into one category, which represents plants that have not implemented ABC at the time of the survey. Hence, we measure ABC as a 01 dummy variable where nada represents no implementation and one represents extensive implementation. The number of plants that have adopted ABC extensively in our sample is 248, an adoption rate of 19. 8%.We have three dependent variables in our research model. The variable DCOST denotes the change in unit manufacturing costs in the last ? ve years. DQUALITY denotes the change in plant ? rst-pass quality let up in the last ? ve years. DTIME 5 While the net usable response rate of 4. 6% is small, it is similar to large plant operations surveys as reported in Stock, Greis, and Kasarda (2000) and Roth and van der Velde (1991). R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 Table 1 Distribution of sample plants by industry Industry sector Non-durable manufacturing nutriment and kindred products Tobacco products Textile ill products Apparel and other textile products Lumber and wood products furniture and ? xtures Paper and allied products Printing and publishing Chemicals and allied products Petroleum and coal products Durable manufacturing Rubber and plastics products flog and leather products Stone, clay and glass products Primary metal industries Fabricated metal products Industrial machinery and equipment Electronics and electrical equipment battery-acid equipment Instruments and related products Miscellaneous manufacturing Total a b 9 SIC code Number of plants in sample 47 1 23 13 25 43 56 19 86 5 74 5 39 67 153 225 168 103 76 22 1250Percent of sample 3. 76% 0. 08 1. 84 1. 04 2. 00 3. 44 4. 48 1. 52 6. 88 0. 40 5. 92 0. 40 3. 12 5. 36 12. 24 18. 00 13. 44 8. 24 6. 08 1. 76 100% Percent of US manufacturersa 5. 76% 0. 03 1. 70 6. 45 10. 13 3. 33 1. 79 17. 19 3. 41 0. 59 0. 52 0. 51 4. 52 1. 73 10. 47 15. 54 4. 71 3. 41 3. 23 4. 97 100% % ABC Adopters in sampleb 12. 76% 100 21. 74 38. 46 16. 00 27. 91 28. 57 26. 32 26. 74 40. 00 13. 51 40. 00 20. 51 16. 42 16. 99 13. 03 19. 05 26. 21 17. 11 31. 82 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Source US Census Bureau (2000).The percentage equals the number of ABC adopters divided by the number of plants in the 2-digit SIC group. represents a factor comprising of the change in manufacturing cycle time and the change in lead time during the last ? ve years, and thus is indicative of the time to market for each plant. The measurement scale of the plant performance variables was ordered in manner such that higher value represent improvements in performance over time. 6 WCM represents a composite factor that consists of half a dozen types of advanced manufacturing practices, as described in the survey questionnaire.The vi indicators were measured using a 01 scale, where zip fastener represents no or virtually implementation, and one indicates extensive implementation. Next, we constructed WCM as a six-item 6 A value of DQUALITY = 1 indicates that ? rst-pass quality yield declined more than 20%, while DQUALITY = 5 indicates that quality yield improved more than 20%. On the other hand, DCOST = 1 indicates that unit manufacturing costs increased more than 20%, while DCOST = 7 suggests that costs lessen more than 20%. summative index that represents the degree of implementation of the six types of advanced manufacturing capabilities. This index measures both the range and sagacity of manufacturing capabilities in each plant. Hence, for each plant, WCM consists of seven levels and can take any value between zip and six (since the six indicators are measured as 01 variables). Our approach for constructing this summative measure of manufacturing capability is consistent with similar approaches in the literature (Krumwiede, 1998 Loh & Venkatraman, 19 95) that use a summative index when an increase in any of the indicators is associated with a equiping increase in the construct of interest.We note that exploratory factor analyses (EFA) suggests that the six items load on a wholeness factor (with Eigen value = 2. 13) which accounts for 36% of variance in the data. Furthermore, the EFA provides support for the validity and unidimensionality of the WCM factor. 7 10 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 (0. 07) (0. 00) (0. 01) (0. 27) (0. 01) (0. 41) (0. 87) (0. 02) (0. 00) (0. 00) (0. 72) (0. 00) (0. 76) (0. 79) (0. 68) (0. 05) (0. 40) (0. 60) (0. 00) (0. 04) (0. 00) (0. 96) (0. 04) (0. 29) (0. 00) (0. 00) (0. 60) 0. 06 0. 21 A0. 00 0. 06 A0. 03 A0. 13 0. 8 A0. 01 1. 00 0. 18 0. 29 1. 00 7. 00 4. 53 5. 00 1. 46 (0. 45) (0. 20) (0. 00) (0. 22) (0. 34) (0. 00) ABC WCM decided DOWNSIZE SIZE PLANTAGE loudness swagger DCOST DQUALITY DTIME Minimum Maximum Mean Median Std. Dev. 1. 00 0. 12 A0. 03 0. 02 0. 05 0. 01 0. 02 0. 01 0. 06 0. 01 0. 06 0. 00 1. 00 0. 19 0. 00 0. 39 (0. 00) (0. 22) (0. 40) (0. 06) (0. 86) (0. 46) (0. 81) (0. 03) (0. 59) (0. 04) 0. 11 1. 00 A0. 01 0. 03 0. 22 A0. 03 0. 09 0. 03 0. 23 0. 25 0. 31 0. 00 6. 00 4. 00 4. 00 1. 61 (0. 70) (0. 35) (0. 00) (0. 24) (0. 00) (0. 22) (0. 00) (0. 00) (0. 00) A0. 03 A0. 03 1. 00 A0. 09 0. 03 A0. 06 A0. 8 0. 04 A0. 00 0. 01 0. 08 0. 00 1. 00 0. 59 1. 00 0. 49 (0. 00) (0. 33) (0. 02) (0. 00) (0. 15) (0. 90) (0. 74) (0. 00) 0. 02 0. 04 A0. 08 1. 00 0. 03 0. 10 A0. 02 0. 01 0. 06 0. 01 A0. 03 1. 00 3. 00 1. 75 2. 00 0. 76 (0. 29) (0. 00) (0. 38) (0. 60) (0. 04) (0. 64) (0. 28) 0. 05 0. 21 0. 03 0. 03 1. 00 0. 06 0. 20 0. 04 A0. 02 0. 03 0. 07 1. 00 5. 00 2. 73 2. 00 1. 08 (0. 04) (0. 00) (0. 17) (0. 53) (0. 35) (0. 01) (0. 09) (0. 00) (0. 30) (0. 22) 0. 02 A0. 01 A0. 07 0. 10 0. 08 1. 00 A0. 07 0. 06 A0. 12 A0. 04 A0. 29 1. 00 4. 00 3. 57 4. 00 0. 78 (0. 01) (0. 02) (0. 00) (0. 12) (0. 30) (0. 47) (0. 9) (0. 01) (0. 00) ( 0. 00) 0. 02 0. 08 A0. 18 A0. 02 0. 19 A0. 07 1. 00 A0. 22 0. 08 0. 02 A0. 02 0. 00 1. 00 0. 54 1. 00 0. 50 (0. 46) (0. 01) (0. 00) (0. 42) (0. 00) (0. 01) (0. 00) (0. 00) (0. 52) (0. 54) 0. 01 0. 04 0. 04 0. 01 0. 04 0. 09 A0. 22 1. 00 A0. 02 A0. 01 0. 07 0. 00 1. 00 0. 75 1. 00 0. 43 (0. 81) (0. 18) (0. 15) (0. 66) (0. 15) (0. 00) (0. 00) (0. 510) (0. 78) (0. 02) (0. 00) (0. 00) 0. 01 0. 24 0. 01 0. 01 0. 01 A0. 05 0. 02 A0. 01 0. 18 1. 00 0. 26 1. 00 6. 00 3. 14 3. 00 0. 90 p-Values are shown in parentheses. Spearman correlation coe? cients are in the top triangle and Pearson coe? ients are in the foundation triangle. (0. 00) 0. 05 0. 31 0. 08 A0. 03 0. 08 A0. 02 A0. 00 0. 06 0. 29 0. 26 1. 00 1. 00 6. 00 3. 30 3. 50 0. 86 Table 2 Descriptive statistics and correlations of model variables (N = 1250) Estimation results First, we estimate the impact of ABC on the implementation of WCM using an ordered logit regression model, where the dependent variable represents an ordered choic e variable of seven possible states of WCM implementation WCM = 0 (no or some implementation on all six indicators) and WCM = 6 (extensive implementation on all six indicators).Our methodology is consistent with Krumwiedes (1998) approach to evaluate the antecedents of di? erent stages of ABC implementation in ABC WCM DISCRETE We include additional variables to control for the impact of plant characteristics on manufacturing capabilities and plant performance. There are six control variables in our model, which include plant size (SIZE) measured in terms of number of employees, plant age in years (PLANTAGE), nature of manufacturing operations (DISCRETE), degree of product mix ( sashay), product volume (VOLUME), and the extent of downsizing in the last ? ve years (DOWNSIZE).Larger plants are more likely to have the scale and ? nancial resources required to justify adoption of advanced manufacturing practices and activity-based costing programs. SIZE is likely to impact plant perform ance since smaller plants are likely to be more agile in responding to customer needs compared to larger plants ceteris paribus (Hendricks & Singhal, 1997). Plant AGE is also likely to play a signi? cant role since older plants are slight likely to adopt advanced manufacturing practices and often fail to realize the impact of technology-enabled processes on plant performance. harvest-feast MIX is de? ed as the mix of products produced and is measured as a binary variable based on low or high product diversity. Plants with high product diversity are more likely to implement ABC (Cooper, 1989) as it may provide more accurate estimates of overhead usage. DISCRETE represents a binary variable with a value of one if the nature of manufacturing for primary products is discrete manufacturing, and zero for process or hybrid manufacturing. Descriptive statistics of our model variables are provided in Table 2. DOWNSIZE SIZE PLANTAGE VOLUME MIX DCOST DQUALITY DTIME R. D. Banker et al. / Acco unting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 1 manufacturing ? rms. Tests for multicollinearity (Belsley, Kuh, & Welsch, 1980) indicated no evidence of multicollinearity in our data (BKW index = 1. 06, variance in? ation factor = 1. 15). Our ordered logit regression results are presented in Table 3. The logit coe? cient mainstay reports the results of an ordered logit tally for the seven states of WCM. The logit results indicate that our model has significant explanatory power (Chi-square = 82. 67 impostor R2 = 0. 07). The ordered logit coe? cients indicate that adoption of ABC has a positive impact on WCM implementation (coe? ient value = 0. 499 v2 = 15. 15 p-value 0. 0001). Hence, our results support hypothesis H1, and suggest that plants that implement ABC are more likely to implement WCM practices. The ordered logit results also indicate that plant SIZE and product VOLUME have a positive impact on the extent of WCM implementation. Larger plants may be more likely to imple ment WCM capabilities due to availability of greater plant resources, and plants with high VOLUME may be more likely to implement WCM to deal with the complexity involved in managing high volume production.The mediating role of WCM Next, we estimate the impact of ABC and WCM on the three measures of plant performance, DCOST, DQUALITY, and DTIME, using ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions. For each dependent variable, we estimate the relationships between ABC, WCM and plant performance as speci? ed by the following system of equations DPERFORMANCE ? a0 ? a1 A ABC ? a2 A DOWNSIZE ? a3 A SIZE ? a4 A PLANTAGE ? a5 A DISCRETE ? a6 A VOLUME ? a7 A MIX ? e1 DPERFORMANCE ? b0 ? b1 A WCM ? b2 A DOWNSIZE ? b3 A SIZE ? b4 A PLANTAGE ? b5 A DISCRETE ? b6 A VOLUME ? b7 A MIX ? e2 ? 2? ?1? DPERFORMANCE ? d0 ? 1 A WCM ? d2 A ABC ? d3 A DOWNSIZE ? d4 A SIZE ? d5 A PLANTAGE ? d6 A DISCRETE ? d7 A VOLUME ? d8 A MIX ? e3 ?3? In order to render our proposed model, we follow the approach prescribed by Baron and Kenny (1986). Eq. (1) estimates the direct impact of ABC on plant performance. Eq. (2) estimates the marginal impact of the mediating variable, WCM, on plant performance. Eqs. (1) and (2) represent non-nested model speci? cations which estimate the independent impact of ABC and WCM, respectively, on plant performance. Finally, both prognosticator variables, ABC and WCM, are include in a single regression model speci? d in Eq. (3). We observe that Eq. (2) represents a complete mediation model, whereas Eq. (3) represents a partial derivative mediation model where the impact of ABC is partially mediated through WCM. The dependent variable, DPERFORMANCE, represents the respective change (D) in the three performance measures COST, QUALITY, and TIME. The system of equations estimated separately for each performance measure. We report OLS regression results in Table 4. 8 The estimated coe? cients in the three columns of each panel in Table 4 correspond to the regression mod els speci? ed in Eqs. (1)(3).First, we estimate the direct impact of ABC on plant performance in the absence of the WCM variable. Estimated regression coe? cients for Eq. (1) are shown in columns (1), (4) and (7) of Table 4 (i. e. , ? rst column of each panel). The regression coe? cient of ABC is statistically signi? cant for DCOST and DTIME (p 0. 10), and it appears that ABC has a positive impact on improvements in plant costs and time to market. 9 ABC does not have signi? cant explanatory power in the DQUALITY regression model as indicated by low R2 values. 8 We also used ordered logit regressions to estimate the system of equations in (1).The ordered logit results are consistent with our OLS estimation results. 9 The adjusted R2 for these models was low (between 1. 38% and 2. 75%) and our analysis of the F-statistics indicates that only the DCOST regression model was signi? cant at p 0. 05. We have not included these results in our tables due to space limitations. 12 R. D. Bank er et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 Table 3 Factors in? uencing WCM implementation ordered logit regression Variable ABC DOWNSIZE SIZE PLANTAGE DISCRETE VOLUME MIX Pseudo-R2 (%) Chi-square N ***, **, * IndicatesLogit coe? cient 0. 50 0. 05 0. 34 A0. 08 A0. 02 0. 212 0. 19 0. 07 82. 67*** (p-value 0. 001) 1250 Chi-square 15. 15*** 0. 56 48. 56*** 1. 73 0. 02 4. 04** 2. 56 signi? cance at the 1%, 5%, and 10% (one-sided) level, respectively. Variable de? nition ABC = 1 if implemented extensively, zero if there is no ABC implementation in the plant. WCM = Six-item summative index that measures the degree of implementation of six types of manufacturing practices JIT, TQM, Kanban, continuous process improvement, competitive benchmarking, self-direct teams. WCM can take any value between zero and six.For each manufacturing practice, 0 = no or some implementation, 1 = extensive implementation D(QUALITY) Change in ? rst-pass quality yield of ? nished products ove r the last ? ve years 1 = Declined more than 20%, 2 = declined 120%, 3 = no change, 4 = improved 120%, 5 = improved more than 20%. D(COST) Change in unit manufacturing costs, excluding purchased materials, over the last ? ve years 1 = Increased more than 20%, 2 = increased 1120%, 3 = increased 110%, 4 = no change, 5 = decreased 110%, 6 = decreased 1120%, 7 = decreased more than 20%.D(TIME) Factor comprised of the 5-year change in manufacturing cycle time and plant lead time D(Cycle time) Change in manufacturing cycle time over the last ? ve years 1 = No reduction, 2 = decreased 110%, 3 = decreased 1120%, 4 = decreased 2150%, 5 = decreased more than 50%. D(Lead time) Change in customer lead time over the last ? ve years 1 = Increased more than 20%, 2 = increased 120%, 3 = no change, 4 = decreased, 120%, 5 = decreased more than 20%. DISCRETE = 1 if nature of manufacturing operations for primary products is discrete else zero. DOWNSIZE Extent of plant-level downsizing in the past ? e y ears. 1 = No change, 2 = extent of downsizing increased 110%, 3 = extent of downsizing increased 1120%, 4 = extent of downsizing increased 2150%, 5 = increased 5175%, and 6 = increased more than 75%. SIZE Number of employees at the plant location. 1 = Less than 100 2 = 100249 3 = 250499 4 = 500999 5 = greater than 1000 employees. PLANTAGE Number of years since plant start-up. 1 = Less than 5 years 2 = 510 years 3 = 1120 years 4 = more than 20 years. VOLUME = 1 if plant exhibits high volume production, and zero otherwise. MIX = 1 if plant exhibits high product mix, and zero otherwise.Next, estimated regression coe? cients for Eq. (2) are shown in columns (2), (5) and (8) of Table 4. The regression results indicate that the impact of WCM on all plant performance measures is positive and signi? cant at p 0. 01. In other words, implementation of advanced manufacturing capabilities is associated with improvements in plant costs (b1 = 0. 20, p 0. 01), quality (b1 = 0. 14, p 0. 01), and time to market (b1 = 0. 16, p 0. 01). Hence, our results support hypothesis H2 with respect to the association between WCM implementation and performance. Finally, we estimate the full model in Eq. 3) that includes the direct impact of WCM on plant performance and an additional direct means from ABC to the dependent variable. The full model results, as reported in columns (3), (6), and (9) of Table 4, indicate that ABC does not have a direct, signi? cant impact on any of the three measures of plant performance. When the impact of the WCM R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 2. 61 (17. 78)*** 0. 16 (11. 02)*** 0. 05 (0. 83) A0. 04 (A1. 33) 0. 01 (0. 51) A0. 02 (A0. 65) 0. 14 (2. 83)*** A0. 02 (A0. 42) 0. 09 (1. 72)* 1250 0. 102 18. 52*** 13 t-Statistics are shown in parentheses. **, **, * Indicates signi? cance at the 1%, 5%, and 10% level, respectively. Note Plant performance is represented using three separate dependent variables. We estimate d the three regression models as separate multivariate regressions. variable is included in the model, ABC adoption is not associated with any improvement in plant costs (d2 = 0. 14, t-stat = 1. 43), quality (d2 = A0. 03, t-stat = A0. 47), or time to market (d2 = 0. 05, t-stat = 0. 83). In contrast, WCM continues to have a signi? cant positive impact on all plant performance measures, and the magnitude of the WCM coe? cient is very similar to its estimate in Eq. (2).The adjusted R2 values for the complete mediation models are not signi? cantly di? erent from the R2 values of their be full (i. e. , partial mediation) models. For instance, adding the ABC variable in column (3) results in an increase of 0. 1% (=0. 001) in the DCOST models explanatory power, compared to its corresponding R2 shown in column (2). Similarly, introducing ABC in the DQUALITY and DTIME models, results in statistically insigni? cant increases in model R2 of 0. 0% and 0. 1%, respectively. Hence, our results su pport hypothesis H3, indicating that WCM completely mediates the impact of ABC on plant performance.We also test an alternative speci? cation based on a perspective that the interaction between ABC and WCM implementation may have an impact on plant performance. The interaction model (Luft & Shields, 2003) is speci? ed as DPERFORMANCE ? c0 ? c1 A WCM ? c2 A ABC ? c3 A ABC A WCM ? c4 A DOWNSIZE ? c5 A SIZE ? c6 A PLANTAGE ? c7 A DISCRETE ? c8 A VOLUME ? c9 A MIX ? e4 (9) Panel C DTIME (8) (7) (6) Panel B DQUALITY (5) (4) (3) 4. 46 (17. 58)*** 0. 20 (7. 79)*** 0. 13 (2. 47)** A0. 11 (A2. 89)*** A0. 23 (A4. 36)*** 0. 05 (0. 61) 0. 22 (2. 52)** 0. 02 (0. 21) 1250 0. 068 14. 19*** 4. 46 (17. 56)*** 0. 9 (7. 62)*** 0. 14 (1. 43) 0. 13 (2. 46)** A0. 11 (A2. 93)*** A0. 23 (A4. 38)*** 0. 05 (0. 65) 0. 22 (2. 52)** 0. 02 (0. 20) 1250 0. 069 12. 68*** 3. 28 (21. 36)*** 0. 024 (0. 37) 0. 016 (0. 48) 0. 009 (0. 40) A0. 062 (A1. 89)* 0. 017 (0. 33) 0. 03 (0. 59) A0. 015 (A0. 24) 1250 0. 002 0. 7 0 2. 85 (18. 19)*** 0. 14 (8. 78)*** 0. 016 (0. 48) A0. 03 (A1. 28) A0. 06 (A1. 89)* 0. 03 (0. 54) 0. 01 (0. 17) A0. 04 (A0. 64) 1250 0. 056 11. 74*** 2. 86 (18. 19)*** 0. 14 (8. 78)*** A0. 03 (A0. 47) 0. 01 (0. 23) A0. 03 (A1. 27) A0. 05 (A1. 64)* 0. 03 (0. 53) 0. 01 (0. 17) A0. 04 (A0. 64) 1250 0. 056 10. 29*** . 11 (21. 30)*** 0. 11 (1. 82)* A0. 03 (A0. 96) 0. 06 (2. 53)** A0. 03 (A0. 98) 0. 12 (2. 47)** 0. 006 (0. 12) 0. 12 (2. 11)** 1250 0. 014 3. 49** 2. 61 (17. 80)*** 0. 16 (11. 15)*** A0. 04 (A1. 32) 0. 01 (0. 53) A0. 02 (A0. 64) 0. 14 (2. 80)*** A0. 02 (A0. 42) 0. 09 (1. 72)* 1250 0. 101 21. 07*** ?4? The results indicate that the interaction term (i. e. , ABC * WCM) is not statistically signi? cant for any of the plant performance measures. The estimated magnitude of the coe? cient of the interaction term (i. e. , c3) was A0. 04 (p-value = 0. 48), A0. 02 (p-value = 0. 57), and A0. 03 (p-value = 0. 9) for the DCOST, DQUALITY, and DTIME models respectively. These results indicate that the interaction model is not supported by empirical evidence based on analyses of the impact of ABC on operational measures of plant performance. On the other hand, the complete mediation model provides a Table 4 Impact of WCM and ABC on plant performance (2) Panel A DCOST (1) Intercept WCM ABC DOWNSIZE SIZE PLANTAGE DISCRETE VOLUME MIX N Adjusted R2 F Value 5. 05 (20. 50)*** 0. 22 (2. 13)** 0. 142 (2. 63)** 0. 06 (A1. 48) A0. 24 (A4. 54)*** 0. 04 (0. 48) 0. 25 (2. 84)*** 0. 05 (0. 53) 1250 0. 027 5. 93*** 14 R. D. Banker et al. Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 Table 5 Results of likelihood ratio tests for non-nested model picking (N = 1250) Vuongs z-statistic DCOST ABC vs. WCM DQUALITY ABC vs. WCM DTIME ABC vs. WCM 4. 72*** 6. 91*** 7. 45*** p-Value 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 better explanation of variations in plant performance. Comparison of two non-nested models We compared the R2 values associated with the ABC and WCM models in Table 4, and observe tha t WCM provides greater explanatory power of the variance in plant performance measures. In order to discriminate between these two competing speci? cations (i. e. , ABC Performance versus WCM Performance), we evaluate them as non-nested models using Vuongs (1989) likelihood ratio test for model selection that does not assume under the null that either model is true (Dechow, 1994). It allows us to determine which independent variable (ABC or WCM) has relatively more explanatory power, and represents a more powerful alternative since it can reject one hypothesis in favor of an alternative. We report the results of Vuongs test on nonnested models in Table 5. We conduct the Vuongs test for each pair of competing non-nested model speci? cations in Panels A, B, and C, of Table 4.Comparing the models in Eqs. (1) and (2) for the performance variable DCOST, we ? nd that Vuongs z-statistic of 4. 72 is signi? cant at p 0. 01, which indicates that the WCM model in Eq. (2) provides greater exp lanatory power of the variance in DCOST, compared to the ABC model in Eq. (1). Similarly, Vuongs z-statistic rafts of 6. 91 and 7. 45 are statistically signi? cant (at p 0. 01) for the DQUALITY and DTIME models, respectively. Our results thus indicate that the direct role of ABC in explaining variations in plant performance is relatively small when compared to that of WCM. 10 Contrary to the ? dings reported A signi? cant z-statistic indicates that ABC is rejected in favor of WCM as a better predictor of variance in plant performance. *** Indicates signi? cance at the 1% level. Table 6 Overall impact of ABC on plant performance (N = 1250) Mediated path ABC WCM DCOST ABC WCM DQUALITY ABC WCM DTIME Estimated path coe? cient 0. 08 (0. 02)** 0. 05 (0. 02)** 0. 06 (0. 01)*** p-Values are shown in parentheses. ***, **, * Indicates signi? cance at the 1%, 5%, and 10% level, respectively. in Ittner et al. (2002), our ? ndings imply that the complete mediation model provides a superi or speci? ation to study the impact of ABC on plant performance. Estimating the overall impact of ABC We next estimate the magnitude of the overall impact of ABC, based on the pathway that links ABC to DPERF through WCM, where DPERF represents the change (D) in COST, QUALITY, and TIME, respectively. We calculate the magnitude of the overall impact of ABC on DPERF as the cross-product of (a) the marginal impact of ABC on WCM, and (b) the marginal impact of WCM on DPERF. That is o? DPERF? o? DPERF? o? WCM? ? A o? ABC? o? WCM? o? ABC? ?5? 10 We also estimated the model, shown in Fig. 1, using structural equation model (SEM) analyses.We then estimated a reverse causal model (i. e. , WCM ABC Performance) to examine whether ABC is a better predictor of performance, compared to WCM. Our SEM ? t statistics for the reverse model fall outside(a) the acceptable range for good model ? t. Consistent with the results reported above, and contrary to the ? ndings reported in Ittner et al. (2002) , this suggests that WCM has greater explanatory power than ABC to explain variations in plant performance. The path estimates for the plant performance measures are shown in Table 6. Our results indicate that the overall impact of ABC on DCOST is equal to 0. 8 which is statistically signi? cant at p 0. 05. Similarly, the overall impact of ABC R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 15 on DQUALITY and DTIME are signi? cant, and equal to 0. 05 and 0. 06, respectively. Hence, our results support H3 and indicate that there exists an indirect relationship between ABC and plant performance, where WCM completely mediates the impact of ABC on performance. These results are consistent with our theoretical framework which suggests that, although ABC does not have a direct impact, it has a signi? cant overall impact on performance. 11Discussion We highlight the role played by WCM as a mediator of the impact of ABC on plant performance. We ? nd that ABC has a signi? cant overall impact on reduction in product time to market and unit manufacturing costs, and on improvement in quality. Our results are consistent with prior research which suggests that successful implementation of advanced manufacturing initiatives requires prior adoption of compatible management accounting systems (Milgrom & Roberts, 1995 Shields, 1995 Ittner & Larcker, 1995 Sim & Killough, 1998). Furthermore, our results indicate that WCM practices enable plants to leverage the capabilities o? red by ABC implementation and to signi? cantly improve plant performance. Our study has several limitations. First, the survey instrument measures beliefs about changes in plant performance over a ? ve-year period. These measures need to be validated through archival and ? eld data collection in prox research. Second, it is possible that ABC may have been in place beforehand or implemented sometime during the ? ve-year period. The tributary nature of the data did not allow us to separate the implications We also extended our research model to study the indirect impact of ABC on change in plant-level return on assets (ROA), a key ? ancial performance measure. We found that ABC has a signi? cant, positive impact on DROA which is mediated through its impact on WCM. Our ROA results are consistent with our results on the inter-relationships between ABC, WCM, and plant operational performance reported here. 11 of these possibilities. Future studies must be designed to gather more detailed data, about the timeline of ABC implementation to better understand its impact on plant performance especially since users may need training to adapt to new types of costing procedures.ABC implementation was measured as a 01 variable in our study. It is possible that using a more granular scale to measure the extent of ABC implementation, including the level of ABC integration and the time lag since ABC implementation, may provide greater insights on the relationship between ABC and plant performance. Our focus on plants that employ a minimum of 100 employees limits the generalizability of our results to industries with relatively large or very small manufacturing plants. We also did not account for res publica or cultural di? rences in manufacturing characteristics since the scope of the survey was limited to US plants. Our ? ndings must also be validated with additional data collected in industry-speci? c settings to examine the impact of industry characteristics and di? erences in manufacturing strategies. Future research may also include evaluation of other contextual factors that are associated with the success of ABC implementation, such as process infrastructure, and the extent of human resource support and outsourcing. Our study enhances the quality of the extant body of knowledge on ABC e? ectiveness in several ways.First, our survey responses were data provided by plant managers who may represent a more objective and knowledgeable source of plan t-wide operations compared to many previous studies, that relied on respondents (such as ABC project managers) with a personal stake in ABC success (Shields, 1995 Swenson, 1995). Second, ABC non-adopters were identi? ed based on the responses provided by plant managers, unlike prior studies where non-adopters were identi? ed based on the lack of public information on ABC implementation (Balakrishnan, Linsmeier, & Venkatachalam, 1996 Gordon & Silvester, 1999).Third, we do by the manufacturing plant (instead of the ? rm) as the unit of analysis, which allowed us to observe the impact of ABC implementation on changes in process-level performance metrics 16 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 119 and avoid the confounding potential when only ? rm-level ? nancial measures are used. Acknowledgement Helpful suggestions by the Editor and two anonymous referees are appreciatively acknowledged. Conclusion In contrast to prior studies (Ittner et al. 2002) th at have typically focused on the direct impact of ABC on plant performance, we study the role of world-class manufacturing practices in mediating the impact of ABC on plant performance. We draw on prior research on the relationship between management accounting systems and business processes to better understand how ABC may support implementation of WCM practices. Analyzing data from a large cross-sectional sample of US manufacturing plants, we ? nd evidence supporting our model emphasizing the role of advanced manufacturing practices in improving plant performance. Our ? ndings emphasize the need for ? ms to strengthen their manufacturing capabilities when making an investment to implement ABC systems, as ABC is unlikely to result in improved manufacturing performance by itself. Our evidence also suggests that plants can reap signi? cant bene? ts by combining ABC implementation with the deployment of advanced manufacturing practices. utilize a conceptual lens that focuses on the i ndirect impact of ABC, the evidence supports our alternative theoretical perspective to prior research. We conceptualize ABC as only an enabler of world-class manufacturing practices, which in turn is associated with improvements in plant performance.Our complete mediation model stands in contrast with earlier models proposed by Ittner et al. (2002) who focus primarily on the direct impact of ABC on plant performance. The results indicate that our alternative conceptualization is superior in terms of its ability to explain variations in plant performance based on cross-sectional data of a large sample of plants that have implemented ABC. Furthermore, our proposed model may provide an avenue for future researchers using di? erent methodologies to explain di? erences in performance improvements following ABC implementations.It may also explain the light(a) or ambiguous results in prior research on ABC impact because ABC adoption may not be a su? cient statistic for WCM. Appendix Surv ey questions I. Plant characteristics Variable SIZE heading How many employees are at this plant location? 1 = Less than 100 2 = 100249 3 = 250499 4 = 500999 5 = 1000 employees PLANTAGE How many years has it been since plant start-up? 1 = Less than 5 years 2 = 510 years 3 = 1120 years 4 = 20 years MIX, VOLUME12 How would you describe the primary product mix at this plant? = High volume, high mix 2 = High volume, low mix 3 = Low volume, high mix 4 = Low volume, low mix What is the nature of manufacturing operations for primary products at this plant? 1 = Discrete 0 = Otherwise (hybrid or process) What is the extent of downsizing at the plant in the past ? ve years? 1 = no change, 2 = extent of downsizing increased 110%, 3 = increased 1120%, 4 = increased 2150%, 5 = increased 5175%, and 6 = increased 75% DISCRETE DOWNSIZE For our analysis, we split the data into two variables such that MIX = 1 if high mix 0 = otherwise, and VOLUME = 1 if high volume 0 = otherwise