Five Forces Model for Industry Analysis Essay Example for Free

Five Forces Model for Industry Analysis Essay New Entrants The online bookstore industry that Amazon.com has pioneered in was, at first, very hard to penetrate. There were different barriers such as distributing capabilities and the variety of the selection offered that are supposed to be hurdled. Amazon successfully solved the tricky parameters as being the first one to get into the whole idea of online retail. With being the first, they had the luxury to set what were the norms for the industry. Factors that may lower these barrier tactics would be a wider selection and the ability to go to an actual bookstore to exchange or return books or other products. This network of actual retail spaces makes it easier for the consumer to return or exchange the products they were not satisfied with. These handicaps of Amazon were the basis for the emergence of book retail giants Barnes and Noble and Borders in the online shopping industry. Industry Competitors The major competitors of Amazon are Barnes and Noble and Borders. Barnes and Noble is a retail giant offering books and CDs both in their outlets all over the country. It opened their online industry in 1997 and has become the fourth largest e-commerce sites today. Focused largely on the sale of books, music, software, magazines, prints, posters, and related products, the company has capitalized on the recognized brand value of the Barnes Noble name to become the second largest, and one of the fastest growing, online distributors of books. Their advantage to Amazon is the brand name and the availability of actual retail outlets in which consumers could go in to exchange or return products easily. They also have an established book selection based in their retail operations. Borders is another multi-media retail store found in major cities around the country. Started out as a small bookshop in the college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, it has since expanded into one of the finest bookstores. In 1992,  Borders was bought by the Kmart group which further flourished the company into a Multi Media Giant with a wide selection of Audio, Video and Books found throughout the United States. The Online Bookstore industry have become a fierce business which involves discounts, varied selections and fast delivery in which all three companies are challenging each other. Buyers The consumers of this industry can be found in every corner of the population. These are mostly people who have had some form of higher education and have access to the Internet and computers. The segment of online shoppers has increased dramatically in recent years due to the convenience of shopping in the comforts of the home and the accessibility of the Internet. These developments have made it easier for consumers to log on and buy on the Internet. Consumers also tend to compare prices among the retail leaders such that buyers are able to buy products with very big discounts compared to ones bought in actual retail outlets. The bargaining power of the consumer is based on the competitive strategies of each active firm in the industry. Thus, consumers can challenge one firm for charging more than the other one such that the firm will beat the price of the competing firm. Suppliers Amazons suppliers range from the publishing and media houses to electronics manufacturers. Amazon buys all their books, videos and audio CDs from the multi media houses and publishing giants such as Time Warner, Doubleday etc. Amazon also has alliances with other bookstores to cover orders that they cannot serve. Substitutes The substitutes for Amazon and other online bookstores are the actual book  retailers and music stores such as Barnes and Nobles, Virgin Megastore, Tower Records, Sam Goody and other small mom-and-pop outlets. With the rise of online retail, there will be little impact from these substitutes. One impact would be some consumers who would like to hold or listen to their purchases prior to buying and those who are into the whole shopping experience. Barnes and Nobles have jumped into online retail and have succeeded into diversifying into the new e-commerce industry. Industrial Organization Model Degree of Competition Due to the shift of focus for Amazon, it has become the Earths biggest anything store. Its competitors have expanded from just online book retailers Barnes and Nobles and Borders to top audio retailers CDNOW.com and online auction house EBAY.com. Amazon has an overall lead of 40% market share against the other online retail firms. Their international business has more than doubled over the past 2 years and this growth increased Amazons share in the online business market. Life Cycle Amazon, in its first years, had negative income but the rise of e-commerce sites and being the pioneer made the succeeding years led to boom time for them. Their growth period was during 1994 to 1995 when they were the first of its kind in the world. They incurred very high costs in terms of distributions to customers. Still with a negative income, Amazon went public in 1997 and had one of the biggest IPOs of the time. With investors banking on future positive cash flow for this company, Amazons market value soared. Many people caught on with the idea of online shopping, thus, Amazons success. Amazons success as an online retailer prompted bricks-and-mortar rivals Barnes and Noble and Borders to join in. Competition decreased Amazons profitability so in the past couple of years, Amazon has expanded to more than books, audio and video to electronics and other retail concepts. Social Relevance Amazons products are marketed for every consumer possible. Books, audio, video and electronics are appreciated by majority of the population especially those who have access to the Internet. Amazon is active in pursuing literacy programs for young children by collaborating with the makers of the Dr. Seuss books. They have actively participated in the Dr. Seuss shops, story telling sessions and Dr. Seuss days. Degree of Globalization Amazons strength internationally lies within its networks in major ports and cities around the Globe. Amazon first started out in Seattle but as soon as they have established a niche market, they have opened shop all over the nation and in cities such as London, Berlin, The Hague, Paris, Tokyo, Singapore and many more. These branches overseas improves their delivery service to a wide consumer base. Extent of Government Control There has not been many government regulations regarding online retailing. A group of CEOs whose firms that are engaged in such practices have formed an organization called Global Business Dialogue. This GBD group supports the development of a seamless global system that delivers the broadest array of goods and services to the largest number of consumers at the most competitive prices. This work effort will: offer recommendations to the WTO, including making the moratorium on online tariffs permanent; and collaborate with governments to target and eliminate discriminations against, or other non-tariff barriers to global trade in, electronic commerce. This working group will also provide an avenue for the GBDs to consider and promote the growth of the electronic marketplace in an environment unencumbered by detrimental taxation. Degree of Vertical Integration Amazons primary value chain includes purchasing/sourcing, marketing, distribution and after-sales services, which includes returns and exchanges from unsatisfied customers. Their main focus is in the purchasing/sourcing and in the distribution of the products to the consumers. Their investments are therefore, geared towards warehouses in key points of high consumer demand areas and an efficient delivery and distributing system to service all its consumers. Thus, Amazon controls most of its distributing system that spans across borders. Inter Organization of Network Economics Amazon in its efforts to sustain its market leadership in the online retailing industry has tied up with various online organizations. Netscape Navigator and Amazon will offer members of Netscape Netcenter a co-branded storefront where Earths Biggest Bookstore will be easily accessed through Netscape Netcenter (home.netscape.com). In addition, Amazon.com has multi-year exclusive and premier bookseller relationships with 5 of the top 6 sites on the World Wide Web: AOL.com, Yahoo!, Netscape, GeoCities, and Excite. These partnerships widen Amazons presence in the World Wide Web. Sensitivity to Business Cycles The Online retailing business has a very quick cyclical growth. Amazon being one of the firsts to venture in this type of commerce are all ready in what seems to be in their decline stage where market share is declining. Therefore, Amazon is expanding to different industries within online retailing. Amazon and other online retailing firms are very sensitive to business cycles due to the speed of technology involved in the services they offer. Dynamics of New Knowledge Generation Online retailing relies on the work of an excellent distribution system. Amazon has invested their money into expanding their network of distribution centers around the globe. They also have investments in creating better  technology for tracking orders and giving efficient delivery systems for their customers. Amazon.com has remained on top of the online retailing business despite the entrance of giants such as Barnes and Nobles and Borders. Their success is attributed to two factors; timing and continuing to invest heavily into the inventory and distribution systems. Amazon, by being the first of its kind, has a big lead over the nearest competitors due to their experience and its reputation as the first movers. Their thrust remains on improving efficient delivery systems across borders and to build name recognition as the number one retailing firm in the Internet. They have also ventured into different retail options to keep that lead. Marketing, Innovative inventory and distribution systems, and name recall have helped Amazon build a sustainable competitive advantage. In order for any online retail company to remain prosperous and income generating, they must invest a lot of time and money into research and development of more efficient operations and distributions systems. This proved to be key for the Market Leader in online retailing, Amazon.Com.

Laws, Crime and Punishment in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Ess

Laws, Crime and Punishment in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Great Expectations criticises the Victorian judicial and penal system. Through the novel, Charles Dickens displays his point of view of criminality and punishment. This is shown in his portraits of all pieces of such system: the lawyer, the clerk, the judge, the prison authorities and the convicts. In treating the theme of the Victorian system of punishment, Dickens shows his position against prisons, transportation and death penalty. The main character, a little child who has expectations of becoming a gentleman to be of the same social position of the girls he loves, passes from having no interest on criminality and its penalties to be very concerned on the issue. By means of other characters, for instance Mrs. Joe Gargery, Dickens tries to define the people’s common view about convicts, transportation and capital punishment. In portraying the character of the convict, Dickens sets out the case in hand of two people sentenced to transportation for forgery of banknotes and an alyses their psychology. By reading the novel, the reader becomes aware of the Victorian unfair justice regarding poor and illiterate people, but advantageous towards the rich and educated middle-class. The prison system in England may have had a significant effect on the life and writing of Charles Dickens due to his father’s imprisonment in Marshalsea Debtors’ Prison as a consequence of his debts. These kinds of prisons came to be workhouses for people who had lost all their belongings. In case debtors had family, it must accompany them in prison. This painful experience may have kept way in his mind for the rest of his life. His involvement with the legal world came when he was employed as a clerk at a lawyer’s office. His later interest in penology made him read many works related to this subject. For this reason, he incorporated both the treatment of convicts and capital punishment in many novels. Great Expectations is a harsh criticism on the British legal and penal System as well as on Victorian society, achieved after exploring his characters’ behaviour, since the laws were only unfair for those on the bottom rung of the social ladder. London was one of the greatest cities in the world in the 19th C. At this time huge amounts of money were invested in industry and buildings as trade with other countrie... ...ntered out with a haggard look of bravery, and a few nodded to the gallery and others went out chewing the fragments of herb they had taken from the sweet herbs lying about† (451-452). It is when Pip learns to feel beyond the mask of respectability that he sees the unfair justice that condemns people with good-hearts: â€Å"For now, my repugnance to him had all melted away, and in the hunted wounded shackled creature who held my hand in his, I only saw a man who meant to be my benefactor, and who had left affectionately, gratefully, and generously, towards me with great constancy through a series of years† (441). As a conclusion, Charles Dickens criticises both sorts of punishment, the prison system and transportation as well as the unfairness carried for the judicial systems when creating laws little favourable for the poor. At the same time, he points out the Victorian hypocrisy of the rich and the lack of culture of the poor regarding the world of criminality. Work Cited Barnes, John. â€Å"The Method of Narration.† Dickens’ Great Expectations, 23- 32. London: Macmillan, 1996. Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Ed. Janice Carlisle. 1861. London: Bedford, 2006.

The Theme of Death in Edgar Allan Poe’s Poems

The Fall of the House of usher† is presented through the narrator's lens as he helps out a friend whose whole life has been permeated with death. Lastly, â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† is a story of death with a motive. The leading character commits the murder of a prideful man who is hooked to the pleasure of drinking wine. â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† is a story that revolves around the terror and death of both Redbrick and his sister, Madeline Usher.As Redbrick Usher becomes mentally unstable and falls into a state of depression, he sends a letter to his long lost friend, asking him to come for a stay. The mood of the story is full of unrelieved gloom as Redbrick Usher undergoes a struggle between the will to live and the will to die. Usher has no will to live and tells the narrator/his friend â€Å"l shall perish, I must perish in this deplorable folly† (Poe 5). This suggests his fixation on the horror of death, as Usher fears not death, Itself , or the end of life, but rather death while still oppressed by his â€Å"phantasmagoria† fears (Goodwin 174). Sheer â€Å"†¦. Dreads the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results†; he continues to say, â€Å"l feel that he period will arrive when I must abandon life and reason together in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR† (Poe 5). Usher is overwhelmed by the despair and darkness of death – he is convinced of the inevitability of his fast approaching death. He has such a morbid attitude, as things that would normally bring others happiness do not please him.The narrator, says early on that usher's mental condition â€Å"displayed Itself In a host of unnatural sensations†; he then goes on to add that â€Å"he suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was lone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain texture; the doors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light; and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him with horror† (Poe 3).Because Usher is surrounded by a characteristically gothic environment, Isolated and depressing, this contributes to his fascination and obsession with death. Throughout the story, usher's friend tries to keep his distance from this dread and misery, but he cannot seem to break away since he is staying in the dull and gloomy house. Gradually, Usher's troubled mental condition worsens and he becomes so hysterical that he is not accurately perceiving his surroundings. He seems almost ghost-like because he is removed so much from life and reality; he Is unstable and his mind Is warped by his morbid attitudes and disposition.Redbrick Usher† shows readers a portrait of a man whose morbid fascinations ultimately prompt dangerous and self-destructive actions. As Usher's sister decays, he realizes he will be the last Usher. While many mig ht despair in facing this reality, Usher takes pride in being the last of his family and glossaries his death. Usher says that â€Å"her decease would leave him the last of the ancient race of the Ushers†- which explains the worsening of his mental condition because he will have no family left and will feel more lonely and isolated (Poe 5).Because Usher tends to exacerbate things that are not as bad as they are, he becomes so wrapped up in death that he responds to a death that has not happened yet. The fact that Usher entombs his own sister alive and is not immediately aware of it, confirms his obsession with the gloom of death. Usher is either preparing for, worrying about, or becoming excited with death- his orbit fascinations are so disturbing. (Walker 586). Redbrick's friend attempts to try to preserve himself from the doom of Usher, but finds it hard to not become trapped in this terror. The Fall of the House of Usher† concerns the total disintegration of Redbrick Usher as he willingly enters into a gloomy world by remaining in such a miserable environment. Usher experiences a mental disorder that oppresses him, leaves him deranged, and causes his frequent moods of ‘mad hilarity (Walker 590). Redbrick is not killed by his sister, but is literally terrified to death by his environment and his distorted imagination. He is beyond saving, as the narrator quickly discovers.He collapses into the melancholy which ultimately causes his destruction. â€Å"William Wilson† is a challenging read. In this work Poe confronts death, but not in the literal sense, as in some of his other works. â€Å"William Wilson† is a story where a self-willed, intelligent, and bold man comes across another man who seems to embody the exact form of himself. Through this short story, the audience questions whether the other William Wilson is only a conscience and does not tangibly exist, or whether he is a real human that knows too much.William Willow's â€Å"follower† has a disposition dissimilar to Wilson- he is quiet, has no flaws, and only communicates through whispers, and unlike the other boys at the school he is not charmed by William Willow's intelligence and wealth. Although Wilson is scared of and threatened by his follower (because of his omnipresence and unlimited knowledge), he is also awed and fascinated by him. Death in â€Å"William Wilson† is not necessarily literal; rather, it takes place throughout the entire story.Willow's doppelgà ¤nger is constantly trying to kill the side of William Wilson that has no concern for anyone else- the boastful and elfish side. William Wilson is, in a way, killing off his own goodness by refusing to listen to the wisdom of his doppelgà ¤nger; by the end of the story, Wilson is beyond salvation and has become dead to others around him. Many readers and critics question the true existence of the doppelgà ¤nger due to the fact that his mockery and sarcastic comments are only made in private through whispers. William Wilson is disgusted by these comments because he does not want his reputation to be tarnished.Willow's doppelgà ¤nger seems to be satisfied with the sting he inflicts, but William Wilson is hurting on the inside while trying not to question his own actions. He despises his doppelgà ¤nger because he knows he is doing something wrong but does not want to acknowledge it- he wants to pretend that everything he does is right and true. William Willow's doppelgà ¤nger, through his insights, gradually makes him tells Wilson, his avowed antagonist, â€Å"†¦ And in my death, see by this image, which is thing own, how utterly thou hast murdered thyself† (Poe 10).Here, Willow's doppelgà ¤nger tells Wilson that he has left the better part of himself and that, essentially, he is now dead also. Willow's doppelgà ¤nger is saying that if Wilson had listened to him, he might have been a better person. All along Wilson has been both t hreatened and fascinated by this doppelgà ¤nger because his wisdom is far keener and better than his own. His doppelgà ¤nger kills Willow's name, schemes, and pride- he has made Wilson feel horrible because he is the first â€Å"person† to really expose his substantial character flaws.In one of the last scenes, where Wilson is gambling with a very rich man and swindles him, his reputation is destroyed and his deceiving tricks are revealed. This scene is where Willow's doppelgà ¤nger finally takes action instead of merely whispering. He makes it known that William is a â€Å"cheat. † The doppelgà ¤ngers exposure of Willow's trickery is the pinnacle of what he has been trying to do all along. Willow's doppelgà ¤nger represents the happier and better part of William Wilson, and in the end out of fear and paranoia, Wilson kills off this â€Å"side† of himself, or his conscience.William Wilson, like all people, has to constantly choose between right and wrong. E ven with the lingering specter of his doppelgà ¤nger urging him to do right, Wilson manages to triumph over the forces of good acting on him. When Wilson kills his doppelgà ¤nger, he dooms himself to a life of â€Å"turpitude† (Sullivan 254). The theme of death in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†, by contrast, is literal. The story is a confession of a man, Mentors, who has committed the horrible crime of murder. Mentors lures his â€Å"friend,† Fortunate, into his family vaults, where he then fetters him to the wall and bricks him in.In this short story, the reader is perplexed by the seeming absence of a motive for this crime. It seems obvious that Mentors is insane, and his reasons for killing Fortunate are questionable. Mentors elaborates on his sophisticated philosophy of revenge: â€Å"l must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is undressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unrepressed when the avenger fails to make hi mself felt as such to him who has done the wrong† (Poe 1).While many would suspect Mentors feels guilty about his killing after he says â€Å"my heart grew sick†, he is actually stating his satisfaction over his monstrous deed: â€Å"†¦. On account of the dampness of the catacombs† (Poe 7). Mentors is fully capable of going through with all this violence and neither expressing nor experiencing any remorse. Not only does Mentors feel no guilt about his murder, but he perceives his murder of Fortunate as a successful and Justified act of vengeance and punishment rather than a crime (Barbara 49).The death in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† is clearly murder, as Mentors expertly plans his devious actions of capturing Fortunate and killing him in his family vaults. Mentors presents himself as a person with the right to condemn Fortunate to death- he plans his murder as an act of retribution. Although Mentors claims Fortunate death is sought from revenge, th e insults Fortunate causes are never revealed to the audience. Clearly, Mentor's actions are irrational, extreme, and therefore he is mad.He is an extremely violent and insane person who is looking forward to the murder of his â€Å"friend. † Mentors is not an active participant in the life of local aristocracy- he seemed to be a recluse. The fact that was more powerful than Mentors (Poe 1). Fortunate death had to come from feelings of Jealously and inferiority. But Mentors felt, being a descendant of a powerful aristocratic family, he could not possibly let Fortunate insult him with impunity (Barbara 52). The murder of Fortunate is looked forward to and is deliberate and calculated, as Mentors wants to kill him.He is able to easily face the toll, of committing the gruesome act that comes upon him. The death in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† is eagerly sought as Fortunate murder is premeditated and arranged and is later felt with no pity. The fact that Mentors feels no remorse after the death proves that he is an insane man and was fully capable of pursuing his plan. From losing his parents; becoming orphaned and adopted; and going through periods of fife where he struggled to both find and deal with losing love, it is obvious that Edgar Allan Poe experienced much suffering.Death was a common reality for him. Pope's three works, â€Å"William Wilson,† â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher,† and â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† all express different aspects of death. The tale of Redbrick Usher is one of â€Å"dramatic intensity, psychological subtlety, and symbolic complexity' (Kennedy 42). The deaths in the story are due to unrelieved gloom and morbid attitudes. In â€Å"William Wilson,† death is a mystery, as readers will never know whether William Wilson kills is actual self or a grim conscience who forces Wilson to question his immoral actions.Lastly, death in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† is a plotted manslau ghter where the murderer is violent and vengeful. Although the treatments of death are diverse among these short stories, they all share characters, including Redbrick Usher, William Wilson, and Mentors, that are mentally unstable. These three stories deal with mental instability, self-destruction, and murder which all lead to death, inevitably. In conclusion, we can stem these forms of death from Edgar Allan Pope's life and experiences, as he lived through much loss.

Why Is the Krebs Cycle Called a Cycle

The Krebs cycle, also known as the citric acid cycle or tricarboxylic acid cycle, is part of a series of chemical reactions that organisms use to break down food into a form of energy that cells can use. The cycle occurs in the mitochondria of cells, using 2 molecules of pyruvic acid from glycolysis to produce the energy molecules. The Krebs cycle forms (per two molecules of pyruvic acid) 2 ATP molecules, 10 NADH molecules, and 2 FADH2Â  molecules. NADH and the FADH2Â  produced by the cycle are used in the electron transport system. Why Its a Cycle The final product of the Krebs cycle is oxaloacetic acid. It is a cycle because oxaloacetic acid (oxaloacetate) is the exact molecule needed to accept an acetyl-CoA molecule and start another turn of the cycle.