Vietnamese telecom market Essay Example for Free

Vietnamese telecom market Essay Introduction Together with breakthroughs in technology, mobile telecom has been showing great innovations and bringing enormous benefits to consumers. Vietnamese mobile telecom market, through only a few decades of development, has proven to be an extremely potential industry. With analysis from the microeconomic standpoint, I would like to clarify some notable matters seen in Vietnamese mobile telecom market today. This essay is organised in three parts: * Part I: Market Overview. This part provides brief information about development history of the market and what the situation of the market is nowadays. * Part II: Market Trends. This part deals with recent movements in Vietnamese mobile telecom market. * Part III: Consumers: Gain or Lose? The final part of this essay analyses the benefits and losses that consumers face as a result of recent changes in the market. PART I – Market Overview 1. Vietnamese Mobile Telecom Market: A Brief History As a developing country, Vietnam has its mobile telecom market started quite late. Though the demand for mobile services arose in the beginning of the 1990s, the first mobile telecom company of Vietnam – MobiFone – did not come into operation until 1994. This year marked the foundation of Vietnamese mobile telecom market. Following steps of MobiFone, two more company joined the market: Vinaphone (1997) and Viettel Telecom (â€Å"Viettel† for short) (2004). However, before 2000, the use of mobile phones seemed to be restricted for urban and rich people. At that time, only the rich could afford the cost of using mobile service. The cost for a postpaid subscription reached almost VND1,000,000 and the money consumed in one minute’s mobile phone call could cover the cost of food in a day for a rural family. One of the reasons for this extremely high cost was that the market at that time was highly monopolistic. Until 2000, there were only two mobile service providers in Vietnam, MobiFone and Vinaphone – both of which are subsidiaries of Vietnam Posts and Telecoms Group (VNPT). Most consumers were not wealthy enough to access mobile service, so they stuck to the use of landlines, which, in fact, were also not very popular especially in the countryside. The emergence of Viettel as a mobile service provider in 2004 was one of the biggest jump in the history of Vietnamese mobile telecom market. Viettel started to provide mobile services at a shockingly low price: a mobile phone user might pay as little as VND50,000/month only. This low price encouraged the quantity demanded for mobile services to increase sharply. As time goes by, the cost of using mobile phones has become cheaper and cheaper, causing the number of mobile subscribers to soar: at the end of January 2012, there were 118. 5 million mobile subscribers compared to only 0. 3 million in 2000. The number of service providers has also increased to 7: MobiFone, Vinaphone, Viettel, S-Fone, Vietnamobile, EVN Telecom and Beeline. Over 19 years of development, from a market exclusively for high-income consumers, the mobile telecom market has been recognised as one of the most active market in Vietnam and almost everybody, rich or poor, is capable of owning and maintaining a mobile phone. Why do service providers seek to increase their number of subscribers by lowering prices and giving big promotions? The answer is, in the short run, most costs incurred by a telecom firm are fixed costs, such as costs for infrastructure and bandwidth. Average total cost, as a result, decreases as the number of subscribers increases, thus making larger profit for the firm. Hence, firms have strong motivations to attract more and more people to use their services. 2. How the Market Pie Is Divided Today The current mobile telecom market in Vietnam can be seen as a typical monopolistic competition. Three biggest suppliers in the market are the ones with longest histories: MobiFone, Vinaphone and Viettel. All these companies are state-owned; MobiFone and Vinaphone are under control of VNPT, while Viettel is a subsidiary of Vietnamese Military Telecom Corporation. Together they control almost the whole mobile service market. According from statistics of the Ministry of Information and Communications, in 2011, Viettel was the leading firm with a market share of 36. 72%. MobiFone and Vinaphone stood at the second and third positions with 29. 11% and 28. 71%, respectively. In total, the three state-owned companies took up nearly 95% of the mobile service market, leaving just over 5% for the remaining service providers, namely EVN Telecom, Vietnamobile, Beeline and S-Fone. The reputation of these firms is so huge that once a person starts using a mobile phone, his first thought of what provider’s service to use that crosses his mind would generally be one of them. Three leading firms in the market pursue different business objectives. Aiming at low-income consumers, Viettel has applied low-cost packages to meet the needs of the majority of consumers. On the contrary, MobiFone and Vinaphone focus mainly on providing high-quality services to people with higher income. Below are the ranks in market shares and service quality of the three biggest providers of mobile services in Vietnam according to an examination conducted by Department of Information Technology and Communications Quality Management (under the Ministry of Information and Communications) in 2009: Provider| Market Share| Service Quality| MobiFone| 2| 1| Vinaphone| 3| 2| Viettel| 1| 3| Overwhelmed by big firms in the market, small firms such as S-Fone, EVN Telecom, Beeline and Vietnamobile have had to struggle to survive. Sharing only 5% of the market, these providers have been facing enormous difficulties in increasing the number of subscribers and profits. Two of them, EVN Telecom and Beeline, are eventually sold to other firms. These MA’s will be analysed in the following part. PART II – Market Trends The three leading firms in Vietnamese mobile telecom market – MobiFone, Vinaphone and Viettel – now possess great market powers, and naturally they desire to take over the small firms in order to have more control of the market. Below are three notable events that have occurred recently in the market which would have lasting effects on its path of development in the future. 1. Viettel’s Acquisition of EVN Telecom EVN Telecom is a company belonging to Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN). Joining the mobile telecom market in June 2010, after just over one year of operation, EVN Telecom faced the risk of being acquired due to poor business outcome (slow subscriber growth, unsatisfactory revenue, pressure on EVN to focus on its major field, etc. ) and substantial liabilities to Viettel and VNPT. Some telecom firms had the intention of acquire EVN Telecom, such as Viettel, FPT Group and Hanoi Telecom (the owner of Vietnamobile). After many speculations about what firm would take over EVN Telecom, it was officially announced that EVN Telecom was going to be sold to Viettel. However, the acquisition was not smooth right from the beginning. In November 2011, Hanoi Telecom expressed its view that Viettel’s acquisition of EVN Telecom might violate Competition Law, emphasising that it would probably make Viettel a monopolistic firm in the market. Until December 2011, Government eventually agreed on Viettel’s plan as in this case, Viettel was merely a market leader, not a monopolistic firm. 2. Beeline Disappeared in the Market. In 2009, GTel Mobile Company, a joint venture of GTel Global Telecom Corporation of Vietnam and VimpelCom Group of Russia, brought Beeline mobile telecom service into operation in Vietnamese market. However, after three years, VimpelCom decided to sold all of its 49% of shares in the joint venture at US$45 million to GTel â€Å"in order to focus on our key markets†, said the Vice President of VimpelCom. Of course this is not the real answer to the question of why VimpelCom withdrew from Vietnamese market while it had not broken even, regarding its total investment of up to US$463 million. Right after its debut in the market, Beeline conducted many discount programmes and promotions to raise the number of subscribers, such as Big Zero and Millionaire’s Cost Package. These policies thus lowered its ARPU to less than US$1. Moreover, its shockingly low prices cannot help them surpass the â€Å"giants† in Vietnamese mobile telecom market whose brands have been set in minds of consumers though its subscriber growth was exceptional: about 15,000 new subscribers per day in 2011. The fact that Beeline’s profit did not live up to its VimpelCom’s expectation caused it to constrain Beeline’s operation and eventually to sell out its shares to GTel, making Beeline a completely domestic brand. Many people would doubt whether Vietnamese mobile service market has become â€Å"immune† to foreign investment as VimpelCom has failed to make profit here while it has been extremely successful in Russian and Eastern European markets. Is the market so saturated that no new firm could possibly achieve a market share from the hands of established firms? Will VimpelCom’s failure warn foreign investors against entering Vietnamese telecom market although we have been a member of WTO for five years? 3. MobiFone and Vinaphone to be Merged March 2012 was a month of vibrancy in Vietnamese mobile telecom market when rumour had it that MobiFone and Vinaphone, two out of the three biggest service providers, would be merged as a step to restructure VNPT. MobiFone and Vinaphone have followed different development directions despite being subsidiaries of the same group, which has been an enormous waste in infrastructure. A merger of the two companies is expected to improve service quality and efficiency, thus lowering the prices charged on consumers. This information was confirmed by VNPT’s management though an official decision of Government has not yet been made for fear that this merge might violate Competition Law. If the merger of MobiFone and Vinaphone is successful, the new company will constitute almost 58% of the market, threatening the survival of other companies, especially small firms like S-Fone and Vietnamobile. Earlier in 2011, according to the regulations of Telecommunications Law – an individual or organisation is not allowed to own more than 20% of shares in each of two telecom firms operating in the same telecom market – VNPT stood between two options: equitising either of MobiFone and Vinaphone or merging the two. If choosing to equitise MobiFone, VNPT still could not own more than 20% of shares and might have to sacrifice a large amount of profit as MobiFone contributed to over 50% of its profit while taking up only about 4% of human resources. The second option – a merger – would subject VNPT to violation of Competition Law. On the other hand, according to the Vice Head of Department of Competition Management (Ministry of Industry and Trade), market share is not the only criterion to examine VNPT’s merger scheme as it may vary from year to year. Competition power, market access capacity, opportunity seizure, etc. are vital elements to be considered. The cornerstone of the merger, if successful, is a close supervision and control of Ministry of Industry and Trade as well as Ministry of Information and Communications. 4. What Are the Trends? Along development steps of the market are the shifts showing what its trend is. Overall, Vietnamese mobile telecom market, although service quality has been greatly improved and price never stop falling, has hardly ever been viewed as a competitive market. At first, it was a complete monopoly, and then reached the peak of competitiveness with 7 suppliers; now it is getting closer and closer to an oligopoly. (For illustration purpose only) The market now is the race between VNPT and Viettel. Nevertheless, this is a counterfeit competition as both are state-owned firms. Government ought to study this matter intensively since it has both advantages and disadvantages. If it continues to let the two compete with each other, consumers will benefit while state funds invested in them will be partly wasted due to self-competition and vice versa. PART III – Consumers: Gain or Lose? 1. Competition Makes Consumers Better off Most mobile phone users would agree that they are benefiting more and more from service providers’ policies. Ten years ago, only wealthy people could own a mobile phone and afford the use of mobile telecom service, which is a completely distinct from today’s situation where mobile technology is nothing strange to most people, regardless of their income. The shift of the market from a monopoly to a more competitive one enables consumers to choose the service provider which suits them best in quality and price. Landlines services are being outnumbered by mobile services and will probably soon become obsolete as now they cannot compete with mobile services in price, let alone in convenience, diversity and flexibility. In addition, telecom services are the only items whose prices have constantly decreased, moving against the storm of inflation in Vietnamese economy. D2 S11 S2 D1 E1 P1 P2 E2 Q2 Q1 (For illustration purpose only)| The increase of quantity supplied is greater than the increase of quantity demanded, making the equilibrium point move from E1 to E2. At E2, P2 is lower than P1 and Q2 is larger than Q1, which makes consumers better off. | 2. The Trend of Monopolisation: Would Consumers Suffer? Monopoly causes deadweight losses – this is undeniably true. Though consumers have been enjoying more and more benefits from service providers at least in the past few years, we may wonder if this could last for long when it comes to the trend of monopolisation which is becoming clearer and clearer in the market. After EVN Telecom and Beeline, will there be another acquisition that makes another small brand disappear? Will big firms take over all the small ones to rule the whole market? If someday there are only state-owned companies providing mobile services, will they agree with each other to raise service prices and prevent new firms from entering the market, which undoubtedly shrinks consumer surplus? Suppose that day would come, consumers may try to constrain their use of mobile services. However, the amount of reduction would be negligible since mobile services are now so necessary that the demand for them is relatively inelastic. Consumers today are richer and much more dependent upon mobile services than they used to be; therefore, it would not be easy for them to cut down on using mobile phones to save money. Service providers would keep earning more and more profits from consumer welfare. In general, monopolisation harms the benefits of most people while benefiting only a small group of people. Monopolisation is a two-edged trend, so it is important to balance the benefits between suppliers and consumers. An ideal mobile service market may be one with a small number of firms, i. e. three or four, but with comparatively uniform market shares. This enables infrastructure to be effectively exploited as well as market power to be evenly distributed among suppliers, reducing the probability of a monopoly arising. Conclusion There would be not enough space to discuss all factors of a market within a short essay; however, I have tried to apply microeconomic theories to analyse notable features and remarkable changes in the market that have had significant influences on consumers, together with given personal evaluations and opinions about the development trend of the market. I hope that eventually I have achieved a clarification of economic principles hidden in daily-life matters such as behaviours of firms and consumers in the mobile telecom market in Vietnam. Due to time pressure as well as inexperience in researching and writing, my essay may contain errors and misunderstanding. I would like to receive your feedbacks and suggestions to help me improve its accuracy and quality. Reference * Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Microeconomics (5th Edition). * VnExpress. net, Development of Vietnamese Telecom Market. * CafeF. vn, Viettel’s Aquisition of EVN Telecom Might Violate the Law. * Tuoitre. vn, Beeline Is to Disappear. * Tienphong. vn, Merging MobiFone and Vinaphone: Good and Harm. * Vcci. com. vn, Telecom Market: Back to Monopoly? * National Assembly, Competition Law, 2005.

To Build a Fire Essay Example for Free

To Build a Fire Essay A hero is someone who possess valor, capability, and captures the admiration of others through courageous deeds and noble traits; the main character in â€Å"To Build a Fire† by Jack London lacks all of these characteristics. The man makes many rookie errs throughout the short story and utilizes numerous tips from an old timer from Sulphur creek to try and fix them, he is grateful to the old timer, save for when he believes he is no longer in danger. After building a successful fire rather than thank the old timer he says to himself â€Å"well, here he [is]; he [has] had the accident; he [is] alone; and he [saves] himself† (pg. 26). The man believes he is better than average and believing that it is him all by himself exemplifies his arrogance. The fire fails and the man is once again wet in negative fifty below weather and to survive he must do something to stay warm, his idea is rather horrid though. To save himself and his fingers the man has the wild idea to â€Å"kill the dog and bury his hands in the warm body until numbness [goes] out of them† (pg, 530). When the man has to choose between his life and another he chooses to save himself essentially proving that he is not a hero, but rather a scoundrel. After all else the man merely surrenders his life, gives up, and decides to die in the least painful way possible. The man thinks it would be a good idea â€Å"to sleep to death† his intention is for it to be â€Å"like taking an anesthetic† (pg 533). Hero’s do not give up or take the easy way out; the man is a coward for just handing in his life in the manner in which he did. The man in Jack London’s story never reaches a heroic state; he is a normal man that makes a few mistakes and pays dearly for them.

Critically evaluate the role of strategic human resource management

Critically evaluate the role of strategic human resource management The main purposed of strategic human resource management is focussing human resource programs for long term objectives. It help health care to achieved their goal for their business and services. Human resource is an important asset that need to be maintained. Strategic human resouce management can help heatlh care successful by providing high quality from their employee. Several methods of the strategic human resource management have been used by organisation, such as recruitment, selection, developing human resource, and rewards. This essay will explain furthermore about the methods that can improve effectiveness of strategic human resource management, and finally discuss consequences of using strategic human resource management in health care. The main assets of organisations is human resource. In organisations human resource consist of employer and employee. Kabane, Orchard, Howard, Soriano, and Leduc (2006) mentions human resource in health care consist of clinical and non-clinical staff. Clinical staff defined as doctor or physician and nurse and non-clinical staff defined as administrative staff. On the other hand, there are some of the health care that have one type staff. The health care just have clinical staff, so for administrative job it will be organized by nurse. Nurse will have double responsibilites not just maintained patient, but also managed administrative. In this situation, health care should really selective when finding their candidates, because nurses will do different activities in same times. They need candidates that have extra skills, extra knowledge and good personalities. In other words, health care will need strategic human resource management. Firstly, health care should recruit the employee. Recruitment is one of the methods that really important to get qualified candidates with good knowledge, abilities, personalities and skills. Organisationals strategies and culture can be survived and growth with qualified employee. Stone (2008) states that recruitment is process searching aplicants to fulfill the job in organisation. First, organisations should make good planning. Health care should know the main vision and mission when finding the aplications. Beside that, they should determined the quantity of the aplicants. Secondly, organisations should analyse what kind of job that they need. Stone (2008) mentions that job analysis help organisations to define the criteria of the aplicants who are significantly connected with the job. The process of planning and job analysis are significantly important for this step. This strategic will help health care to get qualified manpower. Secondly, health care should selective when select their aplicants. Selection can help them to fulfill the job with the right human resource. Jackson and Schuler (2003) notes that selection is process to determine aplicants by looking their technical competencies, personalities, behavioral styles, and preferences. They explain the strategic of selection by using assessment methods. The first one, organisations should check personal history candidates by looking their resume. Secondly, organisations will give written test to candidates which consist of ability test, knowledge test, and personality test. Third, there will be work simulation. This step help aplicants to know the real situation of their job. Then, the candidates will be interviewed. The aim of this step is to indentified the candidates behavior and their knowledge. After that, there will be medical test which is for showing medical conditions of the aplicants. The test consist of general health examinations, genetic scre ening, and drug and alcohol testing. Finally, aplicants will be interviewed with human resource departement it self. This step need two ways communication. The organisations should explain very clear about the situation of the job. On the other hand, the aplicants should know their qualifications and preferences. Therefore, they will get same advantages. Selection strategic help health care to find the right employee in the right place. Third, health care should develop their human resource. This step will give benefits for organisations and employee. The employee can improve their knowledge and skills. Jackson and Schuler (2003) notes that developing and training employee can help organisations established, because they have competent employee. Jackson and Schuler (2003) mentions that development can maintain employee performances for long terms. In addition, training can help to improve specific skills from their employee. Strategic development and training are give clear instructions and role models, feed back, practice, and evaluation. This step will help employee to get better carrer in their organisations. Beside that, health care can compete in the future, because they can improve their manpower to be more competent. Finally, health care should have good systems for remuneration and rewads. It will retain manpower and make employee will loyal. According to McKeown and Jandrey (1991) organisations should pay their employee balance with their productivity. The remuneration systems should be admited with both of organisations and manpower. Stones (2008) notes that human resource compensation not just consider for employee remuneration but also incentive remuneration and employee benefits. The employee remuneration system is the cost that organisations should pay for employee productivity. Meanwhile, Incentive remuneration is bonus that organisations should pay because the man power can achieved organisation targets. On the other hand, employee benefits is the value that organisations offered, such as annual leave, sick leave, or scholarships. This methods can motivate employee, so health care will have loyal employee. The impact of using strategic human resources management for health care is significantly effective for their business and services. However, Oà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢Brien-Pallas, Duffield and Alksnis (cited in Hogan, Moxham, and Dwyer 2007) point out that health care that not using strategic human resource management can caused the retirement of their manpower to be postpone. In addition, there is no replacement between young members and expertise members. Nevertheless, they notes that strategic human resource management can help employee to get job satisfaction, so the retention, turnover, and leaving rates will be decreased. On the other hand, Kabane, Orchard, Howard, Soriano, and Leduc (2006) explains how budgets, gap between stakeholders values, absenteeism rates, high rates of turnover, and low morale of health personel will be occur without strategic human resource management. Therefore, strategic human resource management help health care to established their organisations. This essay has evaluated the effectiveness of strategic human resource management especially in health care. As discussed above, there are many methods of strategic human resource management that can significantly help for health care to established their business and services, such as recruitment, selection, developing human resources, and remuneration. This methods is great important to help health care obtain the best manpower. Manpower is one of the assets that affected many aspects in health care, so it should be managed very carefully. However, strategic human resouce management give advantages for two side. The manpower received job satisfaction and health care achieved their main goals for long term.

Essay --

Honor is very prominent throughout Shakespeare, but not everyone is trustworthy and honorable. There are some that keep their word and there are others that can’t be trusted at all. Prince Harry is a prime example of a honorable young prince because he has to make difficult personal choices that an aspiring king needs to make in order to rule a nation. Then there is Falstaff and King Henry IV who weren’t as honorable. They are all on different notions of honor with Prince Harry being at the top of the three. Falstaff has no chance at being the most honorable because he is lazy, selfish, dishonest, and manipulative. These characteristics are not in any way shape or form honorable and he wouldn’t be trustworthy enough to be noble and honorable. Falstaff thinks that he is honorable but he is nowhere near honorable. Then King Henry IV lacks the moral legitimacy that he needs to truly be a leader and honorable. He is very capable of arranging things and he is very energetic so that makes him able to obtain the throne and be qualified as â€Å"honorable.† Prince Harry is an honorable man but he has to win back his honor from King Henry IV. Harry shows his honor through his â€Å"noble behavior† by sneakly giving up his own honor to fool the people of the town to achieve their trust and Campbell 2 friendship, so when he does take the throne the people will like him better. He is a very complicated character in this play and he wastes a lot of his time with Falstaff earning the pleasure of both his father and England. He comes out of no where and surprises England by declaring that his dissolute lifestyle is all an act, and that he is just trying to lower the people around him expectations so that he can unfold his true heroic knowledge and t... ...the whole play. The characters all have their own different values and goals and this is why Falstaff can be lazy and dishonest, but he can still be considered honorable in his own way. This also goes along with King Henry IV and also his son Prince Harry. King Henry arranges a murder for Richard II just so that he can seize the throne for himself, yet he still is considered honorable and people view him as a great leader and look up to him. Then there is Prince Harry, he has to earn back his honor from the King and through out the whole play he shows how he is transforming himself form a low-life bum, that he pretends to be to become a honorable and noble leader. Each character shows their honor in different ways in the paly. Shakespeare does this purposely to get the reader to further engage with the characters in his story and understand them all a little better.

Censorship in Media Essay -- Media Censoring News TV Essays

'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press' (United States Constitution 1789). Throughout the history of the United States of America, the Constitution has always been put to the test. The founders of this country created the first amendment to allow colonists to speak out against the British. In the 17th century, the press was accurate and informative with little competition among journalists. But today in the 21st century the circumstances are different and the stakes are higher. Due to the great level of competition among journalists today, the news is often exaggerated in order to capture a larger viewing audience. Censorship is defined as 'Policy of restricting the public expression of ideas, opinions, conceptions, and impulses, which are believed to have the capacity to undermine the governing authority or the social and moral order which authority considers itself bound to protect? (Abraham 357). Political, religious, obscenity, and censorship affecting academic freedom are all equal in their destructiveness towards free speech. ?There are two different forms that censorship takes; prior, which refers to advance suppression and ?post facto? which is suppression after it has been published? (Calvocoressi 10). Since the beginning of the written word, authorities have used both of these forms of censorship. The media is everywhere you turn. You can find the media in many different forms such as television, radio, magazines, newspapers, and now on the information superhighway, the Internet. In the process of capturing ratings, who is the media hurting more? Is it the people who are accused of a crime, such as O.J. Simpson, or is it the American public?s own fault for believing everything they hear? In my view, some limitations greatly need to be placed upon the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution in regard to freedom of the press because presently the media is doing more harm than good. The job of the media is to find the truth and tell it to the people. The media has the power to inform the public, but often the information they receive is distorted. The media has shaped our view of society and the process by which we choose our leaders, make our rules, and make up our values. The media has the power to encourage people t... ...nated by lies and gossip, then the press will continue to print it. Works Cited Abraham, Henry J. ?Censorship.? International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 1968 ed. Calvocoressi, Peter. Freedom to Publish. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press, 1980. Corry, John. ?Fairness Most Foul.? The American Spectator November 1993: 50-51. Deskowitz, Paul. Emergence of a Free Press. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985. ?FCC Tags Stern.? Newsweek 28 December 1992: 65. Gabler, Neal. ?OJ; the News as a Miniseries.? TV Guide. 30 July 1994: 12-17. Holden, Stephen. ?The Media Monster Lurking Within.? Newsweek 1 October 1995: 15. Lewis, Peter. ?About freedom of the Virtual Press.? The New York Times 2 January 1996: B14. Nachman, Louis. ?About the media Circus.? The New York Times 26 June 1994: 26. Orr, Lisa. Free Press, Free People, The Best Cause. London: Columbia University Press, 1971. Shank, Joshua. ?Limbaugh Lies II.? The New Republic 8 August 1994: 9-10. ?Simpson Criticizes Media.? Jet 12 February 1996: 38-40. Szykowny, Rick. ?Bewildering the Herd.? The Humanist November 1990: 8-9. Williams, Patricia. ?Hate Radio.? Ms. March 1994: 25-29.

Energy Needed Essay -- Environment Oil Fossil Fuels Papers

Energy Needed As the world population soars, we as a global community are met with a need to fulfill the energy requirements of this increasing population. Probably no one is in complete agreement on how to accomplish this. The World Energy Conference has concluded that energy needs in 3 decades will be 75% higher than today. The popular concern over fuel consumption that was so prevalent following the 1970 oil crunches has gone by the wayside. This concern has recently been revived, but the action is still left to "other" people. One area of concern is the environmental impact of our consumption of fossil fuels. The use of these fuels are often blamed for global warming, however the reasons are still under much debate. We are generally looking to achieve better fuel efficiency. But with lowering fuel costs, sometimes this is not a priority. Political and economic interests tend to maintain the status quo. The 1970 oil shocks increased our fuel efficiency tremendously, but we still have a ways to go relative "to European countries or Japan"(Chase). The current energy mix is also an area for debate. This has changed throughout the past couple centuries--are we in the process of another transition, is a change necessary? Currently oil is the principle energy supplier, followed by coal and natural gas. Natural gas would seem poised to become the fuel of the 21st century with advantages over coal and oil and being more abundant than previously thought (Chase). The view of the World Energy Council and other organizations is to maintain the current trend, but shift reliance somewhat toward other fossil fuels like lignate or shale. With this scenario large technological or policy changes will not have to o ccur (Flavin and Lensse... ...p://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/infocard.html [11-13-96]. Flavin, Christopher. USA Today: Harnessing the Sun and Wind. Nov. 1995. Flavin, Christopher and Nicholas Lenssen. Beyond the Petroleum Age: Designing a Solar Economy. Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, 1990. Flavin, Christopher and Niccholas Lenssen. Power Surge: Guide to the Coming Energy Revolution. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1994. Hoagland, William. Scientific American: Solar Energy. Sept. 1995. Kazloff, Keith Lee. Environment: Renewable Energy Technology: an urgent need, hard sell. November 1994. Matthews, W. Samuel. National Geographic: Is Our World Warming? Oct. 1990. Potts, M. The Mother Earth News: The Future of Solar is Now. Aug./Sept. 1995. United States Interagency Task Force on Solar Energy. Project Independence . Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing, 1995. Energy Needed Essay -- Environment Oil Fossil Fuels Papers Energy Needed As the world population soars, we as a global community are met with a need to fulfill the energy requirements of this increasing population. Probably no one is in complete agreement on how to accomplish this. The World Energy Conference has concluded that energy needs in 3 decades will be 75% higher than today. The popular concern over fuel consumption that was so prevalent following the 1970 oil crunches has gone by the wayside. This concern has recently been revived, but the action is still left to "other" people. One area of concern is the environmental impact of our consumption of fossil fuels. The use of these fuels are often blamed for global warming, however the reasons are still under much debate. We are generally looking to achieve better fuel efficiency. But with lowering fuel costs, sometimes this is not a priority. Political and economic interests tend to maintain the status quo. The 1970 oil shocks increased our fuel efficiency tremendously, but we still have a ways to go relative "to European countries or Japan"(Chase). The current energy mix is also an area for debate. This has changed throughout the past couple centuries--are we in the process of another transition, is a change necessary? Currently oil is the principle energy supplier, followed by coal and natural gas. Natural gas would seem poised to become the fuel of the 21st century with advantages over coal and oil and being more abundant than previously thought (Chase). The view of the World Energy Council and other organizations is to maintain the current trend, but shift reliance somewhat toward other fossil fuels like lignate or shale. With this scenario large technological or policy changes will not have to o ccur (Flavin and Lensse... ...p://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/infocard.html [11-13-96]. Flavin, Christopher. USA Today: Harnessing the Sun and Wind. Nov. 1995. Flavin, Christopher and Nicholas Lenssen. Beyond the Petroleum Age: Designing a Solar Economy. Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, 1990. Flavin, Christopher and Niccholas Lenssen. Power Surge: Guide to the Coming Energy Revolution. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1994. Hoagland, William. Scientific American: Solar Energy. Sept. 1995. Kazloff, Keith Lee. Environment: Renewable Energy Technology: an urgent need, hard sell. November 1994. Matthews, W. Samuel. National Geographic: Is Our World Warming? Oct. 1990. Potts, M. The Mother Earth News: The Future of Solar is Now. Aug./Sept. 1995. United States Interagency Task Force on Solar Energy. Project Independence . Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing, 1995.

Ethical Consumer and Fair Trade

QUESTION 3:Choose one of the theoretical approhes considered during the module, apply it to a particular issue or text and discuss how useful that approach is in analyzing, evaluating or questioning your chosen topic. Ethical Consumer and Fair Trade Introduction: Social responsibility and marketing ethics are natively controversial , continues research in this area represents conflicts and challenges addressed to marketers in respect to socially responsible approach to marketing activities(Laczniak and Murphy, 1993; Smith and Quelch, 1996).The aim of the essay is to explain arising phenomenon of Ethical consumption by the use of related theoretical frameworks, as well as explaining Fair Trade and paradoxes of ethical consumption in respect to the use of child labour by western MNC’s. The essay will be structured as follows :the rise of ethical consumption , theoretical approaches and critics ,business aspect of ethical consumption, explaining Fair Trade , paradox of child labo ur.Escalation of ethical concerns about the influence of modern consumption culture on society and the environment, the rising importance of these environmental and social issues within mainstream media, the emergence of organised consumer activist groups and the growing availability of ethical products, have all led to a rising awareness by consumers of the impact of their purchasing and consumption behaviour.In addition (Rob Harrison, 2005) provide external factors which have atributed to the rise of ethical consumtion: the globalisation of market combined with the weakening role of the state, the rise of MNC’s and brands, rise of campainging groups, enviroment as well as social effects of technological advance, shift in market power to consumers , and the growth of a wider corporate responsibility. Rise of Ethical consumption A new category of consumer – the ‘ethical consumer’ – has arisen.Ethical consumerism can be view as a process which contri butes to an ecologically sustainable future through development of sustainable lifestyles. Characteristics of ethical consumer   includes both ‘fairness’ in the sense of support for producers as well as environmental sustainability. Thus rise of the ‘ethical consumer’ and ‘ethical shopping’ via recycling and   boycotts over the past decade displays concern for sustainable consumption and social responsibility. Consumers, as a concerned party, can orient their choice and exercise purchaser power to buy the products which were made with the least harm to the environment.Furthermore this process the consumer becomes connected to, and an active participant in, global social and environmental issues. Ethics will contain different expressions, concerns and issues for each individual. Examples of ethical concerns for the ethically conscious include environmental/green issues, sustainability concerns, labours’ rights, country of origin, arms trade, fair trade and animal welfare. ‘Green’ consumerism, it should be noted, is subsumed within the broader category of ethical consumerism.The wider range of issues (including environmentalism) integrated within ethical consumerism produces complex decision-making processes for ethically minded consumers (Freestone and McGoldrick, 2008). Theoretical Approach: Baumhart (1961) and Tzalikis and Frizsche (1989) propose that the morale issues in marketing are crucial ,as marketing is expected to detect , anticipate and satisfy customer desires profitably , thus forming and sustaining the interface between consumer needs and companies market aspirations.There are problems in achieving a general agreement on the ethics in marketing stem resulted from the lack of uniform philosophical arguments of what is â€Å"good† and whereas â€Å"good† and â€Å"ethical† have matching meaning. Kant’s (1788) had an utilitarian and deontological views on ethic s based on reason,intention and duty. He states that duties cannot be connected with self-interest expressed in expected payoffs or rewards. Hence businesses should not exist to satisfy the needs of the society and companies have a responsibility, a moral obligation to deliver benefits to the society..Using Kant’s ethical theory as a reference point it can be argued that it pay off for companies to appear ethical : their expectations of enlarged sales , market share and profitability to appear as motivated by objective other than self-interest(Yeo,1988) In contrast John Mills (1998) ,has utilitarian view based on the outcome indicating that business ethics should maximize the total amount of pleasure worldwide and minimise the total amount of pain consequently enhancing the scope of beneficiaries.Mills associate ethics with the common â€Å"good† rather than self-interest. Nantel and Weeks(1996) argues that the use   of ethics in marketing is a paradox in itself as t he meaning of marketing, which is predominantly utilitarian , provides marketing managers with the justification for ethical behaviour when they ensure that the consequences of their behaviour are moral. In addition, in international marketing the problem becomes even more complex and important as the common â€Å"good† should transcend country borders.Crane and Matten (2004) stresses the fact that their is no moral absolutes and hence the implication of what is moral is based on the social context of the society in which they are practised. Hence in marketing terms   ethical relativism can justify diverse ethical standards applied to various countries and evolve over time. Besides , this forms a need for marketing adaptation within a particular market over time as the social culture, knowledge and technology change across markets at a given time. Business aspect of Ethical Consumption: n order to support ethical behaviour companies and industry organisations have adopt cod es of ethics or relied on self-regulation , consumer watchdogs, or external audit. Yet , these efforts alone are not enough to abolish unethical conduct. Businesses have been relatively passive in investigate their in marketing ethics and are still operating according to traditional business models and process that do not reflect consumer interests and ethical implications of their activity often continue afterthought and are yet to be thoroughly incorporated into management decision-making.The contingency framework can accelerate this pre-emptive approach to ethical decision-making. To embed ethics into firms planning and strategy formulation process , marketers should learn from consumers ethical evaluation of their marketing techniques (Smith and Cooper-Martin 1997). An â€Å"ethical execution of the marketing program. In addition to financial , market, and competitive objectives, marketers should include consumer concerns and ethical integrity as important criteria for manageme nt decision making .Furthermore, ethics must be matched throughout the marketing planning process from product development, market selection , advertising and promotion execution. Fair Trade: The fair trade concept, based on the idea of both economic activity and social development, is replete with ethical and sustainable echoes. Ransom (2002 p 20) asks, ‘can the process of production be democratized, ownership shared, organized labor encouraged, child labor made unnecessary, environmental sustainability and human rights promoted? This is likely to happen through the established process of consumerism, the normal working process of the market changed only slightly to make sure that a greater share of the profit is repaid to the original producers. Fair Trade is a new approach to the buyer-supplier transactions which aims at quality of exchange within a partnership approach. It is recognizes the power discrepancy between the developing and developed worlds(Strong, 1996). The bu siness focus is on the producer , rather than the consumer , has been central to Fair Trade.Although there is controversy about Fair Trade with the large corporations like Cadbury, Tesco’s , Tate and many more entering the market for FairTrade. The market for fairly traded products. The market for fairly traded products reached sales of ? 576m a year ,one out of five worldwide Fair Trade product are sold in the UK. Dr Iain Davies states that initial principles of the movement are being diluted by MNC’s entering market as well as the fact that consumer might not paying attention to the fact that how much in percentages this product is Fair traded exactly.Fair trade become a trendy brand itself . Research is not about blaming corporations, but is about making sure that people know that buying Fair trade-marked products from corporations is not the same as buying from companies that are 100 percent dedicated such as Traidcraft, Divine or Cafedirect. However, Dr. Iain Davi ess also confirms that consumers can rest assured that, everywhere the Fairtrade mark appears on a product, the producers co-op have received the Fair trade price and premium which they use for social schemes like   healthcare and education, or business developments.The rise of fair trade goods in retail and on the Internet can be said to have created decisively, in the sense that it was promoted through co-operation and campaigning events of social groups such as charities, small businesses, and community groups. The market in contrast has grown throughout consumer decisions based on individual ethics. Child Labour: Today, there are around 215 million children full-time employed throughout the world. In order to explain the issue of child labour, theoretical framework described earlier in the essay will be applied.Deontologist might reject to buy product made by child labour on principle, reasoning that this is violet a fundamental moral rule against the exploitation of children. However the paradox arise when one is faced with the argument that the fate of children is worsened by this action as the vital source of family income may be reduced. In respect to utilitarian approach, consumer might buy products made by the use of child labour, since not to do so would cause more damage than good. it might be incorrect to force corporations to dismiss their child workers.The main cause for children doing work is poverty. Earning money is an inevitable necessity for them. If they must give up their work in Western companies, they are forced to interchange them for something else, and this might not be to their benefit. For example when the U. S. government banned the import of clothing made by children labour under 14 in Bangladesh, around 50. 000 of them went from their works in the comparatively clean textile factories to collecting garbage, braking bricks and getting into prostitution.Moreover, economics models in certain conditions (where demand is assumed to be an elastic variable) product boycotts even can cause child labour to rise rather than decline. Conclusion It is difficult to draw specific conclusions about the merit of ethical behavior, nor the imperfections of unethical behavior given the contradictory research evidence. Consumers do seem to need more information to allow them to make better ethical judgments, and there is a role for firms to communicate this more efficiently through the media. Similarly, consumers need to more easily be able to compare and contrast the ethical ehavior of different businesses and their products if ethical values are to enter into their purchase decisions. Bibliography : Harrison, Rob, Terry Newholm, and Deirdre Shaw. The Ethical Consumer. London: SAGE, 2005. Print. Nicholls, Alex, and Charlotte Opal. â€Å"Fair Trade: Market-Driven Ethical Consumption [Paperback]. † Fair Trade: Market-Driven Ethical Consumption: Alex Nicholls, Charlotte Opal: 9781412901055: Amazon. com: Books. N. p. , n. d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. Carrigan, Marylyn. â€Å"International Marketing Review. † Emerald. N. p. , n. d. Web. 14 Mar. 013. Bondy, Tierney. â€Å"Journal of Business Ethics. † Springer. com. N. p. , n. d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. Matthew Adams and Jayne Raisborough â€Å"Journal of Business Ethics† (2010) 97:139–158 Isabelle Szmigin, Marylyn Carrigan and Morven G. McEachern International â€Å"Journal of Consumer Studies† ISSN 1470-6423 Anne-Marie Coles, Lisa Harris â€Å"Journal of Research for Consumers† Issue: 10, 2006 Carrigan, Marylyn and Attalla ,Ahmad â€Å"Journal Of Consumer Marketing†, VOL. 18 NO. 7 2001, pp. 560-577 Tierney Bondy Vishal Talwar â€Å"Journal of Business Ethics† (2011) 101:365–383 Read also: Disadvantages of Ethics in the Workplace