...regarding the financial status of an organization. (Chakrabarty, 2011; Gill, 2007) In the US, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) “are the accounting rules used to prepare and standardize the reporting of financial statements, such as balance sheets, income statements and cashflow statements, for publicly traded companies and many private companies” (Paul, 2008). Many countries, like the US, have their own set of GAAP. Globalization of business is increasing the need for a more unified system of financial reporting among countries. (Chakrabarty, 2011; Gill, 2007; University of Pennsylvania, 2002) Several financial organizations are working toward International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which will serve as a global guideline, allowing for comparison of financial reports produced by corporations regardless of where their headquarters are located. (Chakrabarty, 2011) This paper will discuss some of the differences between the accounting practices of two internationally operating retail companies; Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F), with corporate headquarters in the United States, and H&M, with corporate headquarters in Sweden, analyze some aspects of their financial statements, and compare this information. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F), is a retailer of casual apparel for men, women, and children, selling products such as casual sportswear, personal care products, and accessories. Its subsidiaries include Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie...
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...Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) was the second-largest specialty apparel retailer in the world. Sales for fiscal 2012 were $18.1 billion, up 11% from the previous year, and operating profits were $3.3 billion, up 8.3%. H&M operated 2,776 stores, 93% of them outside its home base of Sweden. Over the previous decade, revenues had grown 15% per year and operating profits, 18%. Although Gap, Inc. (Gap) began the millennium as the clear global leader in the apparel retail market with sales more than four times larger than those of H&M, H&M had grown quickly and passed Gap in 2009. However, Spain’s Inditex, with its fast-fashion chain, Zara, had done even better. It passed H&M in sales in 2005 and, by 2011, had also become more profitable. H&M had also lagged behind Inditex in supply pipeline speed, brand diversification, online retail presence, and expansion into China. Meanwhile, the world’s leading hypermarket chains, including Wal-Mart and Tesco, were making significant headway in apparel. In 2012, CEO Karl-Johan Persson, grandson of the company’s founder Erling Persson, promised increased expansion into underdeveloped markets, a stronger push to online retailing, and the launch of a major new retail brand. He noted, “We are looking forward to an exciting 2013 full of new opportunities. We have great respect for the macroeconomic climate and how it may affect consumption in many of our markets, but we believe strongly in our offering and are convinced that H&M will continue to...
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...Krauss, M. J., Spitznagel, E. L., Iguchi, M., Schootman, L., . . . Bierut, L. J. (2012). Associations Between Sexuality Educatio Schools and Adolescent Birthrates: A State-Level Longitudinal Mo Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 166 (2), 134. Constantine, N. A. (2008). Converging evidence leaves policy behind: Sex in the United States. Journal of Adolescent Health, 42 (4), 324 -326. Daley, D. (1997). Exclusive purpose: abstinence-only proponents create f entitlement in welfare reform. SIECUS report, 25(4), 3. Eisenberg, M. E., Bernat, D. H., Bearinger, L. H., & Resnick, M. D. (2008). Su comprehensive sexuality education: Perspectives from parents of youth. Jou rnal of Adolescent Health, 42 (4), 352 -359. Hogben, M., Chesson, H., & Aral, S. (2010). Sexuality education policies an transmitted disease rates in the United States of America. Internat journal of STD & AIDS, 21 (4), 293 -297. Irvine, J. M. (2004). Talk about sex: The battles over sex education in the Un Univ of California Pr. Kirby, D., & Scales, P. (1981). An analysis of state guidelines for sex educa instruction in public schools. Family relations , 229-237. Kirby, D. B. (2008). The impact of abstinence and comprehensive sex and education programs on adolescent sexual behavior. Sexuality Rese Social Policy, 5(3), 18 -27. Mayer, R. (1997). 1996-97 trends in opposition to comprehensive sexual education in public schools in the United States. SIECUS report, 25 ...
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...How do Global Retail Companies utilize Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? “A Comparative Study using Hennes & Mauritz (Sweden) and UNIQLO (Japan)” Authors: Greg Jogie Ayaz Shukat Master thesis – FE2413 Spring 2010 Supervisor: Eva Wittbom How do Global Retail Companies utilize Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? Abstract Abstract Corporations around the world are today acknowledging more and more the need of long-term sustainability strategies integrated into their core businesses. This has led to the use of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) framework. H&M and UNIQLO are no different. They are established global retailing companies and heavily affected by the consumers demand of a sustainable work process. The demands are often heard when news hits of problems in the supply-chain. This can be issues like unsatisfactory working conditions in factories, environmental issues caused by production and general imbalance of labor policies. Such problems have put pressure on the companies to enact a proper reporting framework for their sustainability efforts and that is the focus of this thesis. The objective is to understand how well the organizations‘ have been using CSR and the goal is to look at their behavior within their supply chain processes and their environmental focus. We will then benchmark them according to the sustainability measurement framework called Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). GRI is a framework widely used by the top global companies...
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...------------------------------------------------- Competitive environment analysis: H&M ------------------------------------------------- Introduction We chose to write our report about H&M for many different reasons. First of all, even if we focus on the French market, the fact that H&M is a global brand, operating from nearly everywhere in the world, both made us sure that we would have to analyze a very strong and efficient strategy, and to face some difficulties, deeply linked with the industry (such as problems of relocations or competition from Chinese textile) that would help us understand a strategy better. Besides fashion is an unavoidable factor of our daily life. It always seemed interesting to analyze what stands behind the doors of a store in which we shop. Presentation of the brand H&M is a Sweden based company. It was funded in 1947 by two Swede Hennes and Mauritz, which gave the brand their name. The firm designs, produces and retails clothing items and accessories (including cosmetic products). Its range of product includes clothing (innerwear and sportswear) for men, women and children. Presently, H&M operates in 28 countries. Its largest/major markets are in Germany, Sweden and the UK. The company also allows its customers to buy on the Internet through their online shop (not available in all countries.) H&M reflects international trends through different concepts and ranges of clothes that...
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...EFSA Scientific Report (2009) 231, 1-107 SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION AND ASSISTANCE SCIENTIFIC REPORT OF EFSA Review of the potential health impact of β-casomorphins and related peptides 1 Report of the DATEX Working Group on β-casomorphins (Question N° EFSA-Q-2008-379) Issued on 29 January 2009 WORKING GROUP MEMBERS Ivano De Noni, Richard J. FitzGerald, Hannu J. T. Korhonen, Yves Le Roux, Chris T. Livesey, Inga Thorsdottir, Daniel Tomé, Renger Witkamp. 1 For citation purposes: Scientific Report of EFSA prepared by a DATEX Working Group on the potential health impact of β-casomorphins and related peptides. EFSA Scientific Report (2009) 231, 1-107 © European Food Safety Authority, 2009 Review of the potential health impact of β-casomorphins and related peptides SUMMARY Proteins are a very diverse family of large organic compounds involved in many important biological processes. Following their enzymatic hydrolysis during food processing or digestion, proteins may release fragments from their primary amino acid sequence. These fragments are called peptides, and many of them are known to be physiologically active. The possible beneficial effects of bioactive peptides have attracted increasing interest in recent years. On the other hand, there are also reports suggesting that some food-derived peptides might adversely affect human health. Among these, β-casomorphin-7 (BCM7), a peptide sequence present in the milk protein β-casein, has been suggested to...
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...been an especially successful market, becoming H&M’s most important market in 1995. Although H&M’s share of the German market is small, the low-priced, well-designed, value-for-money fashion lines are nevertheless popular and a store expansion programme is still underway. Sales outside Sweden generate 90% of turnover and that figure is likely to rise as more stores are added. In 2005, around 150 new stores were opened, mainly in Germany, France, Spain, Poland Italy and the USA, all following the same retail format. H&M normally opens its first store in a country in the largest population centre and then expands out to smaller centres. (http://www.hm.com) Some fashion retailers such as H&M and Zara attempt to achieve a competitive advantage by cutting the lead times involved in getting garments from the drawing board to the retail outlets. Some pioneers of this so called ‘fast fashion’ can get lead time down to as little as 14 days. This can be achieved through a high degree of vertical integration and the adoption of relationship marketing principles within the sourcing, design, production and distribution process. (One of Zara’s sister companies produces 40% of its fabric needs and between 50% and 60% of its manufacturing is done in house). Fabric can be held in stock and then cut and dyed at the last minute to suit a fresh design. For a company producing some 11,000 new products per year (competing companies such as H&M and Gap produce up...
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...Consensus on Criteria. Eur J Clin Nut 44 (Suppl 1), pp. 1-30. Alice T. Yang Æ David S. Sugarbaker Æ Paul E. Farmer (2008), “Increasing Access to Surgical Services for the Poor in Rural Haiti: Surgery as a Public Good for Public Health”. World J Surg 32:pp. 537–542 Baek, O. K. (2009). The engines of Hippocrates: From the Dawn of Medicine to Medical and Pharmaceutical Informatics. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Bailey, R. (2007, December 1). Japan 2007 yearend update: demographic trends point to a strong potential market for non-drug products as the costs of healthcare rise and new health claim categories are explored.(JAPAN INSIDER). Nutraceuticals World, 9, pp. 53-62. Bevan H, Ham C Plsek PE (2008) “The Next Leg of the Journey: How do we make High Quality Care for All a Reality? Coventry”: NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. 89-102 Bourdieu, P., 1986, “The Forms of Capital”, in Richardson JG (ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, Greenwood Press, New York, pp. 241-258 Cole, T. J., Bellizzi, M. C., Flegal, K. M., and Dietz, W. H, (2000), Establishing a standard definition for child overweight and obesity worldwide: International survey. British Medical Journal vol. 320 pp. 1240–1243 Collins J. (2001) “Good to Great”, London: Random House. Department of Health (2008) “Higher Quality Care for All: Final Report of the Next Stage Review of the NHS”. London: Department of Health. 61-67 Dattoma, L....
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...shoppers. Companies understand the importance of being seen to be an ethical retailer and so many have invested in overseas management to keep track of suppliers. Different companies have chosen different strategies to help them to overcome current issues in international markets. For instance, Zara has progressed via forward integration, whereas H&M contract work out to suppliers. One strategy that all leading firms have adopted is the use of company websites. They are used to promote online shopping which has increased dramatically recently and it believed to continue increasing for some time. The elimination of quantitative import restrictions in 2004 must also be highlighted since it altered the way some company’s trade. It also allowed developing countries to extend into other branches of the fashion chain other than production. A further apparent trend would be the decrease in expenditure. This is thought to be the result of the current financial state which is causing customers to restrict their spending. The availability of cheap fashionable clothing from discount stores such as Primark may also be to blame for this decrease. This report deals with ‘mass’ fashion and does not deal with the top end of the market....
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...Entrepreneurship Master Thesis, Spring 2008 Leif Linnskog, Supervisor The International Expansion of a Multinational Company ---A Case Study of H&M Authors: Jun Li Maja Frydrychowska Abstract Date: Level: Authors: June 19, 2008 Master Thesis in International Business and Entrepreneurship, 15 credits Jun Li (1981-11-01), China jli07001@student.mdh.se Maja Frydrychowska (1974-05-29), Poland mfa07001@student.mdh.se Title: The International Expansion of a Multinational Company---A Case Study of H&M Leif Linnskog How did H&M go international and what factors did influence its expansion? The aim of this thesis is to describe the internationalization of H&M and to explain such way of expansion using different theories and theoretical concepts. In our thesis, we mainly used the qualitative method for our case study of H&M. Meanwhile, for the data collection, the documentary approach was applied. As a retailer, H&M does not follow the standard pattern of establishment chain presented in the Uppsala model. Its establishment chain is composed of three stages: franchising, wholly owned sales subsidiaries and production offices. The company has developed strong macro-position within the clothes industry network and strong bonds with its external suppliers. The expansion decisions of H&M have been influenced by the factors included in the psychic distance concept. Supervisor: Problem: Purpose: Method: Conclusion: Keywords: H&M, internationalization, retailing, establishment...
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...International Business Environment IBMS 2011 H&M Brazil Brazil Module 4 International Business Environment Fryslân International Consultancy Group Authors: Docent: Meinard Fransen Foreword This document contains an economical business report on the subject of the possibility of H&M expanding to the Brazilian market. Is the Brazilian market a suitable and lucrative market to expand to? It is issued by Stenden University of Applied Sciences, for the module “International Business Environment” within the International Business and Management study program, as a module assignment. After dividing the workload within the first couple of days, we focused on writing each part individually and gathering and combining all parts in the end. This type of group work was a drawn-out process, but in the end it all worked for the best and we as the authors hope you enjoy reading this report. CONTENTS Foreword 3 1 Introduction 5 2 External Environment 6 2.1 Economic Situation 6 2.2 Demographics of Brazil 10 2.3 Import/Export (international scope) 10 2.4 Market environment 11 2.5 Competition 12 2.6 Legal; business format 13 2.7 Social aspects 13 2.8 Five Forces Analysis 14 2.9 Conclusion: Opportunities and Threats 16 3 Retail Formula 17 3.1 Business concept 17 3.2 International exposure 18 3.3 Target groups 19 3.4 Strengths and weaknesses 20 3.5 Recommendations of the Retail Formula 20 4 Conclusions...
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...Research Proposal on Islamic Banking Table of Contents TOC \o 1-2 1) Research Title PAGEREF _Toc \h 3 2) Introduction to the Research Topic and Main Research Question PAGEREF _Toc1 \h 3 3) Literature Review Outline and Detailed Research Questions PAGEREF _Toc2 \h 5 3.1) Introduction PAGEREF _Toc3 \h 5 3.2) Background of Islamic Banking PAGEREF _Toc4 \h 5 3.3) Features of Islamic Banking PAGEREF _Toc5 \h 6 3.4) Determination of Whether Islamic Banking is a Matter of Semantics PAGEREF _Toc6 \h 8 3.5) Detailed Research Questions PAGEREF _Toc7 \h 10 4) Ethical Considerations PAGEREF _Toc8 \h 10 References PAGEREF _Toc9 \h 12 Bibliography PAGEREF _Toc10 \h 17 1) Research Title “Islamic Banking: A Matter of Semantics?” 2) Introduction to the Research Topic and Main Research Question Islamic banking is denoted as a banking system, which is mainly governed by the principles that have been formulated by the Islamic Shariah (Hasan, 2012). In general, the term Islamic banking is not only typically based on evading internet-based transactions that are strictly prohibited under the law of Shariah, but also discards any sort of unsocial or unethical practices (Ahmed, 2011). With this concern, it can be affirmed that Islamic banking is regarded as the procedure of transforming predictable money lending into transactions that are fundamentally based upon real as well as tangible services (El-Gamal, 2006). This banking...
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...Examining experiences of WA nurses workload under the NHPPD staffing model. One of onus for practising nurses as highlighted by the ANMC code of ethics (2008) is that “Nurses value quality nursing care for all people”. This becomes significantly harder as several complexity or factors within the health system impedes on nurses ability to efficiently fulfil this role. One of such issues is safe and effective workload or the optimal nurse to patient ratio for providing quality nursing care. As Twigg et al. (2011) noted the implementation of nursing hours per patient day (NHPPD) staffing model in 2002, a landmark event for western Australian public hospitals was a result of nurses taking a stand to combat the unreasonable workload that was being undertaken. With evidence showing, mandated nursing staff levels having a significant impact on health outcomes, implementation of various staffing models to foster quality nursing care and improved patient outcomes in the health care setting has been widely utilised globally (Twigg et al. 2011). With prominent research done by Aiken and colleagues in the US, and with several other studies carried out internationally the gains achieved for patient outcomes through appropriate nursing staffing levels has been thoroughly highlighted. Aiken et al (2002) demonstrates the significant impact low staffing levels has on patient’s mortality rate. The study noted that wards that had the worst staffing ratios saw a 31% increase in death rates. Increases...
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...Industrial Engineering, (Area: Production Management and Applied Statistics.) September 1999 Northeastern University, Boston, USA. Thesis: Analysis of censored life test data and robust design method for reliability improvement from highly fractionated experiments. M.S. Operations Research, (Area: Decision Science and Operations Research) June 1996 Northeastern University, Boston, USA. M.Sc. Statistics, First Class, 4th Position December 1987 Department of Statistics, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. B.Sc. (Hons.) Statistics, First Class, 6th Position, (Minor: Mathematics, Economics), July 1986 Department of Statistics, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. EMPLOYMENT: April 2008- present Professor, School of Business, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Teaching business statistics, operations management, Total quality management and quantitative methods classes in both the MBA and EMBA programs. Supervising under graduate and graduate intern students. Conducting researches on Product/process quality and reliability Improvement, Service Quality, Forecasting, Operations Management, Total Quality Management and Social Business. May ‘10-present Dean, School of...
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...Sustainable Fashion Supply Chain: Lessons from H&M Bin Shen Glorious Sun School of Business and Management, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051, China; E-Mail: binshen@dhu.edu.cn; Tel./Fax: +86-216-237-3621 Received: 15 July 2014; in revised form: 15 August 2014 / Accepted: 19 August 2014 / Published: 11 September 2014 Abstract: Sustainability is significantly important for fashion business due to consumers’ increasing awareness of environment. When a fashion company aims to promote sustainability, the main linkage is to develop a sustainable supply chain. This paper contributes to current knowledge of sustainable supply chain in the textile and clothing industry. We first depict the structure of sustainable fashion supply chain including eco-material preparation, sustainable manufacturing, green distribution, green retailing, and ethical consumers based on the extant literature. We study the case of the Swedish fast fashion company, H&M, which has constructed its sustainable supply chain in developing eco-materials, providing safety training, monitoring sustainable manufacturing, reducing carbon emission in distribution, and promoting eco-fashion. Moreover, based on the secondary data and analysis, we learn the lessons of H&M’s sustainable fashion supply chain from the country perspective: (1) the H&M’s sourcing managers may be more likely to select suppliers in the countries with lower degrees of human wellbeing; (2) the H&M’s supply chain manager may set a higher...
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