Gregory Framework Of Technology Management

Gregory Framework Of Technology Management There are several technology management models. The Gregory frame work has been proposed in 1995 by M. J. Gregory. This process has been built based on previous work on technology management. There are several elements have been identified previously link to the technology management within organizations. Competence and capability are important to be analyzed within the organization to understand the strength and weakness. They also reflect how well the organization can satisfy the customers and how fast the organization may response the market. According to this analysis, the company can identify the suitable technology strategy. Organization learning is also widely used concept in technology management. RD development and new product introduction are the processes which technology is applied in. Innovation activities are taken to deliver the customer satisfaction. [Gregory, 1995] However, there is no agreed framework for technology management has been proposed. Based on the literature research on previous work and the development of technology management in many companies, Gregory proposed the 5 processes frame work for technology management. The 5 processes have been identified as below: Identification Selection Acquisition Exploitation Protection It aims to identify the suitable technologies can be used now or in the future in the identification phase. The identification will be conducted through a systematic review of existing technology, emerging technology and in-house developed technology. [Leonard, 1992] The information needed in this phase to conduct review includes external drivers, marketing analysis, stakeholder information, and futurology understanding, etc. A group of approaches may be applied here, such as PESTEL. Selection is the process to determine the technology can be developed within the company. The process will be aligned with companys strategy. The criteria in this phase are usually from different sources. Technology audit, SWOT analysis, and RD portfolio analysis are the approaches usually can be used in this process. It aims to find out the suitable method to acquire the technology and applied in the organization in the acquisition phase. There are several means to obtain the technology. Companies may choose to develop the technology by itself by RD activities or organizational learning. They also may choose to collaborate with others as suppliers, or partners. Technology may also be purchased via brokers or licenses, etc. The acquisition means should be considered to be suitable with company strategy by considering the complexity of RD, risk management, and financial limitation, etc. The exploitation process is to convert the obtained technology into the practical production to gain the financial profit. The key point here is to apply the scientific technology into products can gain the maximum profit. Technology fusion is an important concept here to explore new function. The exploitation is the only process in this framework able to generate profit to cover all the technical investment. The protection phase is about how to protect or maintain the knowledge and relative expertise in the manufacturing process. The traditional way to protect the technology is the legal method as licensing or patenting. [Gregory, 1995] This process framework is a general model for technology management to be used in organizations. This process is not a defined model but comes from the process those companies apply the technology. It reflects the routine the management takes to manage technology within the company. The framework also associates all the relative activities which include innovation, product technology, production technology, etc. into the model. This framework also enables the company to align the technological considerations with business strategy. Every process in this framework needs a set of activities and criteria to implement. Thus this framework also enables the management to evaluate the whole processes and manage the relative dimensions. Furthermore, a process-based model can make the technology management process in company visible and transparent. [WMG, 2010] However, few companies may apply this model into their business. The process framework includes a variety of activities in different process and related to different function. But in many companies, the activities have been included in other business process as new product introduction, marketing strategy setting, etc. Thus there is a challenge for companies to apply this model entirely. [WMG, 2010] Holistic approach in technology management Management of technology links engineering, science, and management disciplines to address the planning, development, and implementation of technological capabilities to shape and accomplish the strategic and operational objectives of an organization [National Research Council, 1987] Refer to the definition of technology management, it requires collaboration of the RD, manufacturing, service and operation function, marketing, finance, and HR function in the company. Thus a holistic approach needs to be taken to manage technology in the company. It will be divided to several reasons to explain in below paragraph and what are the benefits. Firstly, technology management involves multi-functions within the organization. In a company, not only engineering department or RD department is responsible for technology management, all the functions within the organization are more or less related to technology. [WMG, 2010] Thus technology management requires a system of integration within the organization. For example, the product development and design process has been considered as a traditional technical activity. Engineers and designers can work individually towards the goals. However, this kind of isolated work can result an unsatisfied output. The engineering department may complain the marketing department for the poor data; the production department may complain engineering department for design need rework. Without crosscutting functions, it will not only raise the cost but also cause the friction between departments. Secondly, technology management requires broad knowledge within the organization as business strategy, marketing, customers, competitors, existing product and service, SWOT, etc. Thus it is important to understand the overall sense to manage technology effectively. Furthermore, it is important to consider technology relative issues with the internal information and external information: how technology may influence the operation within the business; how the limitations and requirements of the business may affect the technical decision. If the technology management cant achieve the system integration, it may lead to products cant meet the markets requirements and customers expectation since the technology management hasnt been associated with marketing activities; project may last for long time with back and forth process because necessary technical information hasnt been input; as well as cost will be increased; company may response to the market slower. Consequently the company may gain fewer profit compare to it could gain. [Steele, 1989] Thirdly, technology is not the isolated content within technology management. The key elements in technology management are management of innovation process, development of technology, technology utilization to obtain profit. [Badawy, 2009] The activities of technology management include development and research; design; manufacturing and operation; organizational learning; technology transfer, etc. Based on this perspective, technology management is not only a process to be applied in RD but in a broad range of functional area. All the activities within technology management are used to align the technology strategy with company strategy. The company structure and business strategy are the important factors to determine the technology strategy. [Pavitt, 1999] The technology strategy may be set to align with companys long-term profitable project or short-term project to compete with other companies on the market. The technology management would consider all the parts inside of the or ganization to ensure it can align with business strategy. Fourthly, Technology is a method instead of objective. [WMG, 2010] Technology can only be applied through a fundamental structure instead of existing alone. [Wyk, 2005] Alternatively, the technology has to be implemented to enable the firms profitability and growth. The process to utilize technology is insisted of a set of cross function activities. Thus the technology would not be existed isolated or developed without business objectives. As above analysis, it can ensure the maximum profitable though a holistic approach in technology management. For example, the operation management aims to drive the whole processes as quick as possible while eliminating mistakes, delays, etc. The effective operation management not only requires the output can satisfy customers but also generates profits to company. A proper technology strategy here can enable the operation processes to proceed faster and effective by avoiding unsuitable product strategy has been processed. Holistic approach can also ensure the output is marketable by avoid the lack of external information, which cause high risk to fail in the market. The holistic approach also can ensure the technology strategy to align with the overall business strategy. Furthermore, it also helps the company to identify the proper way and pace to adopt the technology. The collaboration case study between Sony and Ericsson Nowadays, its very common for companies from different countries and sector to work together. In 2001, a joint venture company Sony Ericsson Mobile communication has been established by a Japanese electronics company Sony Corporation and Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson. [Caroline Sanja, 2007] The aim of this cooperation is to produce the mobile phone with multimedia communication solution to customers all over the world. The initial for this collaboration is to associate the Sonys multimedia consumer electronics expertise and Ericssons technical knowledge in telecommunications. Once Sony Ericsson established, both of the companies stopped their individual mobile business. The Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications is a London-based 50:50 joint venture business. Before the collaboration, Ericsson ran its mobile business in the market for years and obtained 10.7% in the handset market in 2000. It has a great loss when faced the cheaper mobile phone producer as Nokia. Mobile phone is one of the core businesses in Ericsson. Thus they cant abandon this part of business. Ericsson had the advantage of the leading infrastructure. Meanwhile, Sony had just 10% market share in Japanese handset market and 1% in all over the world. However, Sony obtained the multimedia technology enable to enter the global market. Sony Ericsson employed 2500 stuff from Ericsson and 1000 stuff from Sony. [III-Vs Review, 2001] Sony and Ericsson both obtain 50% of the capital. And each of them obtains half of the boards positions. This business had been expected to take over all the mobile phone technology from the parents and to be able to compete with Nokia and Motorola in the market. How does the collaboration between Sony and Ericsson conducted The initial of Sony is to look for a partner to explore the GSM and CDMA technologies. Sony had soft alliance with Qualcomm and Siemens in the 1990s. In the experience with Qualcomm, Sony developed CDMA technology together with Qualcomm, but products have been sold separated under two brand name. The competition leaded this soft alliance to the end as well as the collaboration with Siemens. However, Sony realized its a huge investment to conduct RD alone in telecom technology. Before Sony and Ericsson arrived a Memorandum of Understanding, many partner candidates as Motorola, Alcatel and Nokia had been considered. At that time, Ericsson gained a big operation loss in 2000. And it was looking for a partner to take over the handsets operations. There were many potential candidates had been chose. Sony was one of them. Sony held the advantage of the multimedia consumer electronics expertise but had been limited on designing and innovations. Initially, Sony want to take over all the oper ation include the core technology, design, distribution and marketing. However, the top management of Ericsson didnt want to abandon the core technology of handset, which was developed in Ericsson Mobile Platforms (EMP). Thus Ericsson proposed soft alliance which had been turned down by Sony who insisted the joint venture deal. Ericsson Sony Original staff numbers in 2001 in Joint venture 3000 1500 Market knowledge Telecom operating valuable Limited Market Knowledge multimedia consumer electronics limited valuable Handset technology valuable Dont want cash contribution Fig1. Sony-Ericsson partnership when merge According to the Fig1, Ericsson obtained the core handset technology, however Sony at that moment dont want any cash contribution. In that time, Ericsson played the major role in that deal according to its global market share and handset technology. Thus the Ericsson Mobile Platforms has been excluded in the joint venture deal. Thus EMP has to reduce the operating cost and sell technology to other company as LG. The final agreement was finalized in the end of 2000 between the two companies. Then followed a group of discussion on how to conduct this collaboration in terms of management, manufacturing, Research and Development, and governance, etc. The board of the joint venture was formed 50-50 from two companies, and with a president to be named by Sony. 1,500 staff came from Sony and Ericsson brought its organization of products, sales and marketing. The new joint venture has been named Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. There were many challenge issues for two big companys collaboration. The intellectual property rights (IPR) is one of the critical issues. Since it was very difficult to identify how much the two companies should transfer IPR to the joint venture at the beginning. Sony built up a team called Functional Integration Team to tackle the joint venture issues. Sony decided to take over the management of manufacturing by controlling the Sony-Ericssons own production plant with C hinese partners. And Sony also is in charge of the supply chain management which Ericsson had long-term operational experience in. Thus Sony took many important positions in Sony-Ericsson management: Sony executives had been transferred to take over the business units and supply chain management. While Ericsson ex-executives took over HR and other departments. The operation of the joint venture started at Oct-1 2001. [Sigurdson, 2004] There are three main issues occurred at the beginning of collaboration in Sony-Ericsson. Design is one of the issues. Sonys designers had different understanding on the outlook and functions with the Ericssons designers. For example, the Sony designers proposed that streamline shape of mobile phone is better than straight line mobile phone. However, its difficult for Sonys designers to explain this concept to Ericssons designers. In Sony, the information of design philosophy is tacit instead of explicit, thus in the joint venture, designers from each company cant understand the in-house words from each other. This was solved by re-designing a new set of internal terms in Sony-Ericsson. The few number of published mobile phone model lead to a big loss in the first two years. However, another side, the conflicts between the two types of culture also enabled Sony-Ericsson to enter the international market. There was an argument on the product design in Japanese market. The Sony designer s claimed that design is the most important part and Japanese market need attention due to the customers high standard needs. Japanese market is the most advanced mobile phone market and more than 10 major mobile phone manufacturers existed in the market at that time. Sony-Ericsson obtained a lot of important experience, and also able to learn the technology trends from Japanese market. The second issue in Sony-Ericsson is the supply chain management, which didnt work well. Firstly, the manufacturing had been divided into three manufacturing facilities in Sony-Ericsson: Ericsson manufacturing contracts with EMS, Sony manufacturing company, Ericsson manufacturing plant in China. There was a huge challenge on managing the manufacturing since its very difficult to manufacture products ordered and meet the requirement of quality. Especially the outsource supplier EMS, which met great challenge on delivering qualified products on time. The different type of manufacturing source brought Sony-Ericsson a critical problem. Secondly, Time to market is a very important criterion in mobile phone market due to the fierce competition. The management of platform in Sony-Ericsson is a weak point compare to the other competitors as Samsung and Nokia. Due to lack of management, in the platform, it was found the new orders were laid without organization. This became worse when the ma rketing strategy had been set to increase the market share. The issue occurred because Sony-Ericsson lack the knowledge on management of production process and supply chain management. The third issue was technology transfer. Sony contributed the screen and camera technology to Sony-Ericsson. All the related technology was explored in Japan and transferred to Europe. It took a long time for the technology can be applied based on the telecom infrastructure in Europe. The core handset technology came from Ericsson. EMP combined the software and chip as product, which is a new business model. As above information indicated, EMP didnt be included in the joint venture deal. And the cost of EMP was really high because of the exploration of 3G and GSM at the same time. Thus EMP served Sony-Ericsson as customer, as well as Siemens, LG, and Samsung. In the first year of the joint ventures operation, Sony-Ericsson lost 292 million and didnt made profit until 2003. Sony and Ericsson were not satisfied with the performance of the joint venture. However, they still tried to inject capital into Sony-Ericsson in 2003. The Sony-Ericsson walkman branded mobile was doing well at the beginning. However, it had been over taken by music mobile from other manufacturer as iPhone and other brand recent years. The collaboration between the two big companies has been considered as one of the most complex one. It took long time to implement and consolidate. Compare to the previous soft alliances, Sony aimed to build a stable collaboration to expand the mobile business. In summary, the joint venture is able to combine the technical strength from both sides. As identified before, Sony is good at the multimedia customer electronics. The first series of products is walkman portfolio. Sony transferred their multimedia technology to Sony-Ericsson. While Ericsson contributed the core handset technology and telecom infrastructure which enable Sony-Ericsson to release series of mobile phone based on cooperation with telecom operators. But due to Sony dont want to invest at the beginning. The core handset technology still has been kept in EMP. This is one of the mistakes of Sony in this collaboration. EMP was focusing on integration of software to system. And it became one of the advanced research cen ter on GSM and 3G. However the operation cost of EMP kept on increasing. Sony-Ericsson purchased chip with software from EMP, which was a high-cost component. Even though, EMP couldnt balance the cost and income. It had to supply other mobile companies for sustaining. Sony-Ericsson cant involve the management of the EMP. This will become a weak point in the future. The managers of Sony-Ericsson initially came from Sony and Ericsson, but the management was isolated from Sony and Ericsson. The challenge issue here is the different culture of the two companies. Globalization is a common phenomenon everywhere. Even difference of culture can be solved in personal level. Its quite difficult to merge a big group of people with totally different culture. Sony is a big international company. However, it still holds a perspective of business strategy, marketing, design, and product development, etc different with other western companies. Compare to Sony, Ericsson is a low masculinity organization which has low work stress, high gender quality, equality between employees, and team work. In traditional Japanese company, staff cant question the bosss instruction which is observation in western company. Thus Sony-Ericsson created their own company value as Passionate, Innovation and Responsive. [Caroline Sanja, 2007] Phase1 Culture Awareness Phase2 Creating new culture Phase3 Managing SEMC Culture Seminar Workshop Leadership Programs Fig2. Developing Sony-Ericsson culture [Caroline Sanja, 2007] The Fig2 indicates how Sony-Ericssons own culture has been developed. The difference of business strategy between the two organization cause many friction in the collaboration. The CEO of Sony mentioned this issue in 2008, that if the Sony-Ericsson cant work towards the same goal, its very difficult for this collaboration to continue. Generally speaking, the joint venture ran with several issues at the first two years. This directly affected the financial performance of Sony-Ericsson. Due to this bad performance, it almost leaded to an end of the collaboration. However, finally both Sony and Ericsson injected a certain amount of capital to the joint venture. Sony-Ericsson performs relatively well. But this collaboration didnt enable Sony-Ericsson to compete with Nokia and Samsung in the market. Discussion on outcome from Sony and Ericssons point of views in terms of success and failure of this collaboration From both of Sony and Ericssons point of views, it is benefit to look for a partner to establish a joint venture. This alliance can bring advantage as risk reduction, international expansion, technology transfer, sharing capital facilities and equipment. Once the joint venture establishes, the tangible and intangible assets will be transferred from parents to the joint venture. The tangible assets include capital facilities and equipment, technology and patents. The intangible assets may include the brand name, explored market, reputation of company, etc. Sony was in a reasonable good place in Japan before the collaboration. And they found the mobile business is a growing business. However, Sony was not a major player in GSM market in the global market. However, Sony is very excellent on product design. It wouldnt be difficult for Sony to gain more market share from the initial 2%. But if Sony want to be a major player, its not enough to rely on product design and multimedia expertise only. According to the previous experience on soft alliance, Sony realized joint venture would be the best choice to work with partner in this business. The benefit to conduct this collaboration with Ericsson is Ericsson is experienced in European market; It obtains the infrastructure of telecom and it has handset technology; in 2000, Ericsson rank number 3 in mobile phone market. Sony can enter European market easily with this partner and also can built the brand name for other business of Sony as TV. Sony doesnt have to invest on infrastructure and tec hnology on this deal. However, the failure of this collaboration to Sony is the EMP. Sony didnt want to invest in EMP initially in 2000. Consequently Sony is not able to learn from the Ericsson for the core handset technology. Furthermore, EMP is one of the most advanced research center for GSM and 3G technology. To sustain the operation, EMP sells products to Sony-Ericsson, Samsung, and Nokia. And Sony-Ericsson didnt have any advantage from it. From Sonys point of view, its able to enter the international mainstream market of mobile phone via the joint venture. In this collaboration, Sony can utilize the advantage of product design. Sony also learn a lot from western company on business management for example supply chain management, which contributes a lot on Sonys global expansion. The experience of collaboration also has been considered as internal good practice . After collaborated with Ericsson, Sony also collaborates with companies as DoCoMo in other business. [Sigurdson, 200 4] The performance of Sony-Ericsson compare to the initial purpose isnt so good. Especially in 2008, Sony and Ericsson had to inject 1.8 million Euro to Sony-Ericsson again to overcome the economic crisis. And Sony showed disappoint on this collaboration in terms of disagreement on business strategy. Up to now, even Sony entered the mainstream market. It still cant compete with other major competitors in the market. Before the collaboration, Ericsson obtained 10% market share in the mobile phone market. But Ericsson kept on losing money and market share. Meanwhile, the high operation cost of EMP drive the company to seek for a partner to share or take over the operation cost. Ericsson has a good base in terms of infrastructure, handset technology, and operator relationship. However, the mainstream of mobile phone became multi-functional mobile. Ericsson has no experience and strength on that. Sony became the best choice to cooperate. The initial idea of Ericsson is to sell all handset business include the core technology. But top management didnt want to abandon the mobile business and then its very important to keep the technology within the company. The collaboration with Sony enables Ericsson to focus on 3G technology development. From Ericssons point of view, the collaboration with Sony brought them technology of multimedia expertise which Sony is one of the advanced companies in the world. However, all the Research and Development of screen and camera are conducted in Japan directly. Ericsson has not been involved in it. The success point of this collaboration to Ericsson, its able to produce the mobile phone to satisfy customers increasing needs. Through the collaboration, Ericsson also learned product design from Sony, which is different with Ericsson. And the Japan-based company enable the company understand the trends from the advanced mobile market. Furthermore, Ericsson also learned management skill from the Japanese company. But according to the performance of Sony-Ericsson, the market share cant catch with Nokia and Samsung. They have fiercely competition with Motorola and LG in the main market. From both of their view, this collaboration is not easy to be conducted. Due to many issues and conflicts, Sony-Ericsson cant achieve a maximum profit and increase the market share as expected. Technically, Sony Ericsson combined the core technology from Ericsson mobile business and Sonys multimedia technology. This form of collaboration worked well in the first 3 years. Walkman mobile phone was released very successful. However, todays mobile phone has been expected a lot from customers. Sony-Ericsson didnt cooperate well to work on the RD on new technology. The two companies still have a lot of conflicts on the business concept, and the inefficacy management on that may lead to an end of the cooperation. From the point view of the profitability, this collaboration didnt achieve the expectation in the first two years until the third quarter of 2003. During the economic crisis period, Sony-Ericsson experienced tough time. The parent companies have expected payback in the last 10 year s. The further research can be conducted to discuss whether Sony-Ericsson can be more successful. And it also can be compared to the collaboration between Siemens and BenQ.

Analysis of Song Lyrics

Song lyrics: looking through the window of cultural texts†¦ If you took the time to listen to the lyrics of a song instead of mumbling uselessly to the catchy melody, you’d notice that some bands and musical artists are informing their audience of present-time themes and issues. In today’s society, song lyrics can be used effectively to find fault with many dominant values and attitudes, somewhat protesting against social issues and the preconceived ideas that stand tall on the stage of democracy.This is why song lyrics should be considered one of the most important cultural texts of the modern age. The songs Sunday Bloody Sunday by the band U2 and Hurricane by artist Bob Dylan substantiate ideas of equality and â€Å"justice for all†, encouraging the listener to take a look at their own values and attitudes surrounding the issues presented†¦ would the listener react differently if it were their life or integrity at stake? The song Sunday Bloody Sunday is one of U2’s most political songs.It describes the terror experienced by an observer of the conflicts in Northern Ireland, particularly the Bloody Sunday incident in Derry where British soldiers shot and killed unarmed civil rights protestor in 1972, presenting themes of unity, ignorance and indifference. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan’s protest song Hurricane tells the story of the imprisonment of celebrated boxer Rubin â€Å"Hurricane† Carter, who was falsely accused of a triple murder in New Jersey, America during the mid 1960s.The song lyric explores themes of injustice, racism and discrimination, enlightening listeners about the corruption that swarmed the democratic American legal system at the time. You know, without realising it, the song you downloaded from iTunes the other day could quite possibly be criticising certain values and attitudes in society. The song Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2 supports the argument that song lyrics should be considered one of the mo st important cultural texts of the modern age.Throughout the song lyric, the theme of unity blossoms and grows, travelling deeper into the abyss of society’s struggle to stand together. This is seen at the beginning of the song in the first verse â€Å"‘cause tonight†¦ we can be as one† accompanied by a military style drumbeat. Here, the chance to join together as â€Å"one† and make a difference is being offered to the listener, while the choice of instruments is symbolic to a â€Å"call to arms†.We’re asked to open our eyes and witness the struggle and pain that the people of Northern Ireland experienced during the early seventies, when their lives were torn apart by the bullets of British soldiers, â€Å"Broken bottles under children’s feet† and â€Å"Bodies strewn across the dead end street†. The repetition of â€Å"cause tonight†¦ we can be as one† is successful in evoking a defiant and hopeful respo nse from the listener. I also feel that the imagery created by â€Å"Broken bottles†¦bodies strewn†¦dead end†¦Ã¢â‚¬  plants a seed of lifelessness and futility in the listener’s mind.The listener is therefore encouraged to rise up and fight against the hopeless situation described in the song. Meanwhile, the song lyric Hurricane by Bob Dylan investigates the injustice that surrounded Rubin Carter and 1960s America. Being trapped in a nightmare of injustice is a very dark place to be. Loneliness and helplessness are your only friends when everyone remains blind to the truth. Bob Dylan’s Hurricane is a song lyric that explores this theme of injustice in 1960s New Jersey, where a common scenario was put to the ultimate test: the word of a white man against the word of a black man.The song is informing us of Rubin Carter’s false murder conviction, told in a somewhat story-like fashion. Bob Dylan presents the entire American legal system as corrupt a nd unethical, displayed in the ninth verse â€Å"All of Rubin’s cards were marked in advance† and â€Å"The trial was a pig-circus he never had a chance†. As well as creating emphasis through rhyme, these two lines are highly emotive, and encourage the listener to feel pity and empathy for Rubin Carter and others that may have been a victim of corruption.As a listener who lives in the twenty-first century, where cases of legal dishonesty and fraud are quite rare, I find myself sympathising with Rubin Carter and resenting the heartless and ignorant attitude possessed by 1960s America and society. In retrospect, I am extremely grateful that a fair and just trial is now available to everyone, regardless of skin colour. When the song comes to an end, the image painted in the listener’s mind is that of injustice and tyranny, encouraging social change in the area of legality. Nonetheless, U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday presents the ignorance and indifference of society in times of great need.It seems that a sad face served with â€Å"what a tragedy† and seasoned with taste of genuine sincerity is our best response when the TV screen shows an image of dead bodies strewn across a dead end street†¦ U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday is a protest song that provides a dominant reading, investigating the ignorant and indifferent attitude exhibited by society towards the Bloody Sunday incident in Northern Ireland. A quote from the text highlights the 1970s unawareness of this event, and other acts of conflict across the world, â€Å"And today the millions cry, We eat and drink while tomorrow they die†.As well as making use of a hyperbole, these two lines are very effective in criticising the lack of care that society has for anyone but themselves, and as a result, depicts us as arrogant and self-righteous. Because we can’t empathise with the people of Derry who experienced a freakish nightmare unknown to us, all we can do is store it at the back of our minds and wait in anticipation for the next episode of Home and Away†¦ From my point of view, there is little we can do when events such as this arise and take us by surprise.But, if society joins together in unity instead of finding refuge in the popular TV station of ignorance, then hearing those cries and feeding those mouths will become a reality. However, if we’re going to join together as one, then racism and discrimination need to be a thing of the past, as explored in Bob Dylan’s Hurricane. Racism and discrimination are two themes that refuse to leave the realms of today’s society. Their defiant and unfaltering attitude must be commended, but not encouraged, as displayed in Bob Dylan’s Hurricane.The song lyric is successful in condemning the negative, judicious and cultured beliefs possessed by society that all black men are criminals and murderers. These motifs must be stopped in their tracks, and banished f rom society†¦ The song lyric enlightens the listener of the racism and discrimination that occurred in New Jersey at the time, and reminds us that we have only taken a few steps along the path of equality since then.Within Hurricane, the extreme inequity displayed by the American police during the sixties is being crudely criticised, displayed in the seventh verse â€Å"We want to put his arse in stir, We want to pin this triple murder on him†. Here, the listener receives the impression that the police (â€Å"we†) are hiding something, and regardless of who committed the crime, are determined to see Carter behind bars. Based on my morals, I believe that every person, male or female, black or white, should be treated fairly and qually. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the judge at Rubin Carter’s trial. The atmosphere created in the text is that of corrupt defiance and mere narrow-mindedness, and the effect is overwhelming: I have the urge to stand up and say à ¢â‚¬Å"Hey! What you’re doing is wrong†¦! † If only I had the power to change the path of history†¦ For all those out there who believe that song lyrics are just another form of entertainment, think again. Should song lyrics be considered one of the most important cultural texts of all time?The way in which they approach certain themes and issues as well as investigate society’s values, beliefs and attitudes is incredible – therefore the answer is yes. When you look at U2’s protest song Sunday Bloody Sunday, a range of themes including unity, ignorance and indifference are presented. Throughout the song, the image of helplessness is promoted, encouraging the listener to fight for unity. Also, the song criticises society for being ignorant to the death and heartache that was rife in 1970s Ireland at the time of the Bloody Sunday incident.It highlights our failure to empathise, and are portrayed as uncaring and therefore urged to put a stop t o world conflict. Meanwhile, themes of injustice, racism and discrimination are explored in Bob Dylan’s song Hurricane. The corruption of the American legal system is the motif in this song, presenting the police, judges and jury as dishonest and unethical. The listener is positioned to respond in a sympathetic way towards Rubin Carter, and feel resentment in regard to the so-called democratic legal system.Overall, we are encouraged to accept our differences and stand together as one, moving in the direction of social change in the courts. Finally, songs are extremely successful in exploring themes and issues that are relevant to today’s society, as they provide the chance to criticise and/or encourage social change regarding our values, beliefs and attitudes. â€Å"Democracy doesn’t rule the world. You’d better get that in your head; this world is ruled by violence, but I guess that’s better left unsaid. † Bob Dylan

Monopoly †economics Essay

In this chapter, look for the answers to these questions: ? Why do monopolies arise? ? Why is MR < P for a monopolist? ? How do monopolies choose their P and Q? ? How do monopolies affect society’s well-being? ? What can the government do about monopolies? ? What is price discrimination? Economics PRINCIPLES OF N. Gregory Mankiw Premium PowerPoint Slides by Ron Cronovich  © 2009 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning, all rights reserved 1 Introduction ? A monopoly is a firm that is the sole seller of a product without close substitutes. Why Monopolies Arise. The main cause of monopolies is barriers to entry – other firms cannot enter the market. Three sources of barriers to entry: 1. A single firm owns a key resource. E. g. , DeBeers owns most of the world’s diamond mines 2. The govt gives a single firm the exclusive right to produce the good. E. g. , patents, copyright laws 2 ? In this chapter, we study monopoly and contrast it with perfect competition. ? The key difference: A monopoly firm has market power, the ability to influence the market price of the product it sells. A competitive firm has no market power. MONOPOLY MONOPOLY 3 Why Monopolies Arise 3. Natural monopoly: a single firm can produce the entire market Q at lower cost than could several firms. Example: 1000 homes need electricity ATC is lower if one firm services all 1000 homes than if two firms each service 500 homes. MONOPOLY Monopoly vs. Competition: Demand Curves In a competitive market, the market demand curve slopes downward. But the demand curve for any individual firm’s product is horizontal at the market price. The firm can increase Q without lowering P, so MR = P for the competitive firm. 4 Cost Electricity ATC slopes downward due to huge FC and small MC ATC 500 1000 Q P A competitive firm’s demand curve $80 $50 D Q 5 MONOPOLY 1 10/23/2012 Monopoly vs. Competition: Demand Curves A monopolist is the only seller, so it faces the market demand curve. To sell a larger Q, the firm must reduce P. Thus, MR ? P. P ACTIVE LEARNING A monopoly’s revenue Common Grounds is the only seller of cappuccinos in town. The table shows the market demand for cappuccinos. Fill in the missing spaces of the table. Q 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 P $4. 50 4. 00 3. 50 3. 00 2. 50 2. 00 1. 50 7 1 TR AR n. a. MR A monopolist’s demand curve D Q MONOPOLY 6 What is the relation between P and AR? Between P and MR? ACTIVE LEARNING Answers Here, P = AR, same as for a competitive firm. Here, MR < P, whereas MR = P for a competitive firm. Q 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 Common Grounds’ D and MR Curves P TR $0 4 7 9 10 10 9 AR n. a. $4. 00 3. 50 3. 00 2. 50 2. 00 1. 50 8 MR $4 3 2 1 0 –1 Q P MR $4 3 2 1 0 –1 $4. 50 4. 00 3. 50 3. 00 2. 50 2. 00 1. 50 0 $4. 50 1 2 3 4 5 6 4. 00 3. 50 3. 00 2. 50 2. 00 1. 50 P, MR $5 4 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 0 1 2 3 Demand curve (P) MR 4 5 6 7 Q 9 MONOPOLY Understanding the Monopolist’s MR ? Increasing Q has two effects on revenue: ? Output effect: higher output raises revenue ? Price effect: lower price reduces revenue ? To sell a larger Q, the monopolist must reduce the price on all the units it sells. Profit-Maximization ? Like a competitive firm, a monopolist maximizes profit by producing the quantity where MR = MC. ? Once the monopolist identifies this quantity, it sets the highest price consumers are willing to pay for that quantity. ? Hence, MR < P ? MR could even be negative if the price effect exceeds the output effect (e. g. , when Common Grounds increases Q from 5 to 6). 10 ? It finds this price from the D curve. MONOPOLY MONOPOLY 11 2 10/23/2012 Profit-Maximization 1. The profitmaximizing Q is where MR = MC. 2. Find P from the demand curve at this Q. Q Costs and Revenue MC The Monopolist’s Profit Costs and Revenue MC ATC P D MR Quantity As with a competitive firm, the monopolist’s profit equals (P – ATC) x Q P ATC D MR Q Quantity Profit-maximizing output MONOPOLY 12 MONOPOLY 13 A Monopoly Does Not Have an S Curve A competitive firm ? takes P as given ? has a supply curve that shows how its Q depends on P. A monopoly firm ? is a â€Å"price-maker,† not a â€Å"price-taker† ? Q does not depend on P; rather, Q and P are jointly determined by MC, MR, and the demand curve. So there is no supply curve for monopoly. MONOPOLY 14 CASE STUDY: Monopoly vs. Generic Drugs Patents on new drugs give a temporary monopoly to the seller. Price The market for a typical drug PM When the patent expires, PC = MC the market becomes competitive, generics appear. QM D MR Quantity QC MONOPOLY 15 The Welfare Cost of Monopoly ? Recall: In a competitive market equilibrium, P = MC and total surplus is maximized. The Welfare Cost of Monopoly Competitive eq’m: quantity = QC P = MC total surplus is maximized Monopoly eq’m: quantity = QM P > MC deadweight loss Price Deadweight MC loss? In the monopoly eq’m, P > MR = MC ? The value to buyers of an additional unit (P) exceeds the cost of the resources needed to produce that unit (MC). ? The monopoly Q is too low – could increase total surplus with a larger Q. ? Thus, monopoly results in a deadweight loss. P P = MC MC D MR QM QC Quantity MONOPOLY 16 MONOPOLY 17 3 10/23/2012 Price Discrimination ? Discrimination: treating people differently based on some characteristic, e. g. race or gender. Perfect Price Discrimination vs. Single Price Monopoly Here, the monopolist charges the same price (PM) to all buyers. A deadweight loss results. Price Consumer surplus Deadweight loss ? Price discrimination: selling the same good at different prices to different buyers. PM MC ? The characteristic used in price discrimination is willingness to pay (WTP): ? A firm can increase profit by charging a higher price to buyers with higher WTP. Monopoly profit D MR QM MONOPOLY 18 Quantity 19 MONOPOLY Perfect Price Discrimination vs. Single Price Monopoly Here, the monopolist produces the competitive quantity, but charges each buyer his or her WTP. This is called perfect price discrimination. The monopolist captures all CS as profit. But there’s no DWL. MONOPOLY Price Discrimination in the Real World ? In the real world, perfect price discrimination is not possible: ? No firm knows every buyer’s WTP ? Buyers do not announce it to sellers Price Monopoly profit ? So, firms divide customers into groups MC D MR Quantity based on some observable trait that is likely related to WTP, such as age. Q 20 MONOPOLY 21 Examples of Price Discrimination Movie tickets Discounts for seniors, students, and people who can attend during weekday afternoons. They are all more likely to have lower WTP than people who pay full price on Friday night. Airline prices Discounts for Saturday-night stayovers help distinguish business travelers, who usually have higher WTP, from more price-sensitive leisure travelers. MONOPOLY 22 Examples of Price Discrimination Discount coupons People who have time to clip and organize coupons are more likely to have lower income and lower WTP than others. Need-based financial aid Low income families have lower WTP for their children’s college education. Schools price-discriminate by offering need-based aid to low income families. MONOPOLY 23 4 10/23/2012 Examples of Price Discrimination Quantity discounts A buyer’s WTP often declines with additional units, so firms charge less per unit for large quantities than small ones. Example: A movie theater charges $4 for a small popcorn and $5 for a large one that’s twice as big. Public Policy Toward Monopolies ? Increasing competition with antitrust laws ? Ban some anticompetitive practices, allow govt to break up monopolies. ? E. g. , Sherman Antitrust Act (1890), Clayton Act (1914) ? Regulation ? Govt agencies set the monopolist’s price. ? For natural monopolies, MC < ATC at all Q, so marginal cost pricing would result in losses. ? If so, regulators might subsidize the monopolist or set P = ATC for zero economic profit. MONOPOLY 24 MONOPOLY 25 Public Policy Toward Monopolies ? Public ownership ? Example: U. S. Postal Service ? Problem: Public ownership is usually less efficient since no profit motive to minimize costs CONCLUSION: The Prevalence of Monopoly ? Doing nothing ? The foregoing policies all have drawbacks, so the best policy may be no policy. ? In the real world, pure monopoly is rare. ? Yet, many firms have market power, due to: ? selling a unique variety of a product ? having a large market share and few significant competitors ? In many such cases, most of the results from this chapter apply, including: ? markup of price over marginal cost ? deadweight loss MONOPOLY 26 MONOPOLY 27 CHAPTER SUMMARY ? A monopoly firm is the sole seller in its market. Monopolies arise due to barriers to entry, including: government-granted monopolies, the control of a key resource, or economies of scale over the entire range of output. CHAPTER SUMMARY ? Monopoly firms maximize profits by producing the quantity where marginal revenue equals marginal cost. But since marginal revenue is less than price, the monopoly price will be greater than marginal cost, leading to a deadweight loss. ? A monopoly firm faces a downward-sloping demand curve for its product. As a result, it must reduce price to sell a larger quantity, which causes marginal revenue to fall below price. 28 ? Monopoly firms (and others with market power) try to raise their profits by charging higher prices to consumers with higher willingness to pay. This practice is called price discrimination. 29 5 10/23/2012 CHAPTER SUMMARY ? Policymakers may respond by regulating monopolies, using antitrust laws to promote competition, or by taking over the monopoly and running it. Due to problems with each of these options, the best option may be to take no action. 30 6.

Cohabitation Before Marriage - 2506 Words

Did you know that over half of all first marriages are now preceded by living together compared to virtually none 50 years ago? The number of unmarried couples living together increased tenfold from 1960 to 2000. The number of unmarried couples living together increased 72% between 1990 and 2000. By the year 2010, if the present trend continues, there will be 7 married couples for every cohabiting couple. (Cohabitation Facts, Cohabitation - Its Training for Divorce†- Chuck Colson (1995). Here are some statistics on cohabitating couples. These numbers show that as times go on more and more people will be living together before marriage. What is your opinion on cohabitation before marriage? Is this something that you see yourself doing in†¦show more content†¦--Second, economical advantages do not determine whether something is morally right or wrong. --Third, the majority of cohabitants do eventually break up and economics are obviously not a problem then, so why allow it to become a controlling factor from the start. The moral questions is, What is my virginity worth and Will I save myself for my lifelong spouse? Kevin Leman in Smart Kids, Stupid Choices says, It’s kind of like giving someone a million dollars and later finding out you gave it to the wrong person, but now hes gone and so is your money. Gone for good. You dont have it anymore. And the person who should have had it will now never get it. A 2005 study, published in the Journal of Marriage and the Family (Smock) viewed the relationship between economic uncertainty and relationship conflict. Researchers interviewed 115 young adults in Toledo, Ohio, who were cohabiting or had recently cohabited. They found that among cohabiters’ financial uncertainty and a lack of money were greatly associated with the relationships conflicts and the lack of a â€Å"sen se of a stable future, thus choosing the decision to marry. In a recent statement by the Catholic Bishops of Pennsylvania they said, â€Å"Sure, you might save the price of monthly rent, but youre sacrificing something more valuable. Engagement is more than just time to plan the party. It is a time for deeper discussion and more thorough reflection, which are best carried out in a detached way.Show MoreRelatedCohabitation Before Marriage Essay1674 Words   |  7 PagesNowadays, the pre-martial cohabitation concept has been widely used across many places. The current generation tends to cohabit outside of marriage at least once in their lifetime. 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