Barnes and Noble Case Study

Management Project 10th of december 2010 History In 1873, Charles Barnes opened a book-printing business in the USA. The first bookstore was set up by his son, William, in partnership with G. Clifford Noble, in 1917 in New York and it is the advent of Barnes and Noble. In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, the bookstore was moved to its current location on Fifth Avenue. Barnes & Noble was acquired by Leonard Riggio in 1971, who oversaw the growth of the business. Leonard Riggio, the company's chairman, began his bookselling career while attending New York University in the early 1960s.Working as a clerk in the university bookstore, he became convinced that he could do a better job serving students,  and he opened a competing store of his own. With a small investment, Mr. Riggio established the Student Book Exchange (SBX) in Manhattan's Greenwich Village in 1965. The store quickly became one of New York’s finest bookstores, known for its knowledgeable staff, wide se lection and great service. In 1974, Barnes & Noble became the first bookstore to advertise on television.In 1975, the company became the first bookseller in America to discount books, by selling New York Times best-selling titles at 40% off the publishers’ list price. During the 1970s and 1980s, Barnes & Noble opened smaller discount stores, which were eventually phased out in favor of larger stores. They also began to publish their own books to be sold to mail-order customers, enabling them mail-order to reach new customers nationwide through mail-order catalogues. In 1979 Barnes & Noble acquired a chain of retail stores called Bookmasters, and then bought up Marboro Books Inc. , a remainder company with discount retail outlets.Barnes & Noble continued to expand throughout the 1980s, and in 1987, the company made its largest acquisition when it purchased B. Dalton Bookseller from Dayton Hudson. This acquisition of 797 retail bookstores thrust the company onto the national sc ene, making Barnes & Noble a nationwide retailer overnight and the second-largest bookseller in America. The company also acquired Doubleday Book Shops from the Bertelsmann Company and the rights to the Scribner’s bookstore trade name from Macmillan. Barnes & Noble purchased BookStop, a company operating discount book superstores in Texas, in 1989.This acquisition gave the company key insights into the ingredients behind a successful superstore strategy, from real estate to operations to marketing and merchandising. In the late 1980s, Barnes & Noble tested selling books online in an early generation venue called Trintex, a joint venture with IBM. In the early 1990s, the company refined its superstore concept and established the modern generation of Barnes & Noble superstores, which today represent over 96 percent of their retail sales. Barnes & Noble became a publicly traded company in 1993, listed in New York Stock Exchange.In the mid-1990s, it sold books on CompuServe and l ater opened a full-fledged book superstore on America Online in March 1997. Before Barnes & Noble created its web site, it sold books directly to customers through mail-order catalogs. It first began selling books online in the late 1980s, but the company’s website was not launched until May 1997. According to the site, it now carries over 1 million titles, as well as a vast selection of music CDs and DVDs. (5) In the beginning of the millenium the company has made two acquisitions that expanded its publishing capability. * In 2001, Barnes & Noble purchased SparkNotes. om, a leading study aids website, offering free online access to literature notes and more than 1,000 study guides on everything from literature to chemistry to computer science. SparkNotes converted its top study guides into print publications, and they have rapidly become bestsellers. * In 2003, Barnes & Noble purchased Sterling Publishing. For 60 years, Sterling has been one of the world's leading publishers of non-fiction books. Sterling strives to publish high-quality books that educate, entertain and enrich the lives of their readers. In March 2009, Barnes ; Noble acquired Fictionwise, a leader in the eBook marketplace.Headquartered in New Jersey, Fictionwise was founded in 2000 by Steve and Scott Pendergrast. In July 2009, Barnes ; Noble launched the world's largest eBookstore as  part of its overall digital strategy. In October 2009, Barnes & Noble introduced Nookâ„ ¢, the world’s most advanced eBook Reader. It was awarded as the Best New Gadget of 2009 in January 2010. Institutional structure Stakeholders A stakeholder is defined as â€Å"an individual or group with an interest in the success of an organization in delivering intended results and maintaining the viability of the organization's products and services. Analyzing the economic interactions of Barnes ; Noble closely, it can be seen that there is a great variety of internal as well as external stakeholders t aking part in the economic and financial decision making of the company as a whole. Internal core stakeholders of Barnes ; Noble first of all include its 40,000 nationwide employees, which contribute to the economic functioning of the company by their direct interaction with customers in Barnes ; Noble’s 720 stores and 636 college bookstores.Also they are likely to contribute directly with their ideas, creativity and expertise. Their expectancies can be identified as job security, financial compensation of their contributions in terms of a salary, esteem, pensions, extended involvement in profit and a health care insurance, as well as a pleasant working atmosphere. Further internal core stakeholders of Barnes ; Noble, who are vital for its business making through their contributions of not only risk capital, but also of ideas and control, are its various shareholders.The expected reward of shareholders concerns capital gain in terms of dividends or a rising stock price, which usually is obtained through sustainable economic growth and a reasonable business strategy of Barnes ; Noble. Besides internal stakeholders, there are also many external forces and groups which indirectly influence the decision making of Barnes ; Noble. Especially competitors play an important role, as their decision-making might directly influence or initiate changes concerning Barnes ; Noble’ operating markets.Besides its fundamental core business, which concerns selling books through its 720 local bookstores in all 50 States of the USA, Barnes ; Noble’s online appearance, www. barnesandnoble. com, has gained on importance over the last years. Especially this sector is highly competitive as big players such as Amazon. com Inc. dominate the market. Possible interactions amongst competitors concern eventual collaborations in innovation. Another absolutely important group with respect of Barnes ; Noble’s stakeholders are its clients. Their contributions to the c ompany concern not nly purchases but also loyalty and most importantly feedback, which can be used to adjust Barnes ; Noble’s business plan depending on consumer preferences. The expectations of customers include quality, special offers and, in case of the book market Barnes ; Noble operates in, a broad variety of books available directly on demand. In a more general sense, also the American government takes part in Barnes ; Noble, as it ensures a fair competition in the market through regulations and a framework of rules which has to be accepted by not only Barnes ; Noble but also by all its competitors.Rewards, which are expected by the government, include tax payments, employment, and economic growth. Also banks are part of Barnes ; Noble’ shareholders, as they provide loan capital upon request as well as advisory in exchange for interest and mortgages. However, as Barnes ; Noble rents most of its stores, there has not been any significant need of loan capitals over the last decades. Ownership Structure The ownership structure of Barnes ; Noble is determined and ranked by the amounts of shares owned by a certain individual or group.The assembly of shareholders is therefore the most important event in terms of power and decision making for Barnes ; Noble, as it is symbolizes the top entity in the hierarchy of power distribution. First of all, 49% of the total available Barnes ; Noble’s shares are in the possession of Insiders and the Top-5-Percent Owners. The most significant position, equivalent to 27. 8% of the total distributed shares, is held by Barnes ; Noble’s chairman Leonard Riggio, as it can be seen in the underneath graph. Also the American business magnate Ronald Burkle is heavily invested in Barnes ; Noble with roughly 18. % of Barnes ; Noble shares in the possession of his Investment firm Yacaipa Cos. Another 49% of total Barnes ; Noble’s shares are held by Institutional ; Mutual Fund Owners, such as Aletheia R esearch ; Management Inc. which holds 15 % on Barnes ; Noble as seen in the underneath graph. The total number of Institutions holding Barnes ; Noble’s shares was 161 in June 2010. Governance Structure and its Mechanism Barnes ; Noble governance structure is equivalent to the standard American governance model: the assembly of shareholders elects the board of directors.Then, it is the task of the board of directors to successfully control Barnes ; Noble’s top managers (the executive committee) according to the expectations and conclusions of the shareholders and the board of directors. Therefore, the top managers are the ones who effectively control the daily business of Barnes ; Noble and who give feedback to upper entities upon developments. The underneath model summarizes the simple interconnection of Barnes ; Noble’s managerial entities: Assembly of Shareholders Board of Directors Top Managers Members of the Board of Directors Barnes ; Noble can be seen in t he underneath diagram:It can be seen that the chairman Leonard Riggio together with his son Stephen Riggio, controls the Board of Directors, whereas William J. Lynch, /as the CEO, is in charge of the executive committee of Barnes ; Noble. The members who are listed as â€Å"Director† are so called independent directors, who worked for other companies over the last years and who contribute mainly with their experience to the overall decision making. The power within the Executive Committee is distributed between three major committees, which are dealing with different areas of Barnes ; Noble economic functioning: The Audit Committee, which is in charge of assuring the integrity and reliability of the ? nancial records and the protection of assets though internal control as well as the external control through an annual independent report of BDO Seidman. -The Nominating Committee, which controls the composition of the members through recommending and selecting qualified individ uals to the full board in order to elect them as new members. -The Corporate Governance Committee, dealing with the overall economic efficiency of Barnes ; Noble, as well as with the distribution of rewards for employees.Core Institutional Goals Core institutional goals of Barnes ; Noble describe the overall strategy of the Board of Directors, to be carried out by the Executive Board. Primarily, Barnes ; Noble wants to become the biggest bookseller in the United States and therefore increase its market share. Also Barnes ; Noble wants to expand its product line by not only focusing on book sales, but also by successfully selling its eBook Reader Nook. Even though the expansion on international markets was already under discussion, this is not yet part of its core objectives.Also Barnes ; Noble wants to invest in restructuring its stores in order to make the stay at a Barnes ; Noble Book Store an experience and thus increase its loyal customer base. Interaction of Elements The interc onnection of the mentioned elements is vital for the understanding of the functioning of not only Barnes ; Noble but of every company. Metaphorically it can well be compared to the mechanism of a automatic watch – if one element is missing or separated from the others, the whole mechanism will not work.Despite their different contributions and expectations, all stakeholders together form the base of the company Barnes ; Noble. Essentially it is the interaction of provided capital, a business plan and employees, which forms the first preliminary framework of a company. However, power within a company has to be distributed, as only a structured hierarchy amongst employees ensures an efficient functioning of all sectors. Therefore a governance structure has to be developed in order to distribute tasks effectively.In order to be able to plan ahead and give investors an outlook in the potential future, institutional goals have to be stated. Thus, all these core elements are absolu tely vital for not only Barnes ; Noble but for all companies in order to successfully compete in their market environment. Institutional Components influencing the Financial Performance Having analyzed the ownership structure of Barnes ; Noble, it can be seen that Leonard Riggios amount of shares owned combined with Ronald Burkles proportion of shares together sum up to almost 50 % of the total shares in the market.Therefore the entire governance structure mechanism is heavily dependent on their, eventually subjective, opinions, which makes the mechanism inefficient. Even though this is a very particular observation, I personally think it might be of significant importance, as the poor performance of the organization in my opinion is mainly due to a lack of innovation. As the founder and chairman Riggio is said to be a very conservative shareholder, he might hinder Barnes ; Noble to modernize as well as to eventually readjust its institutional goals.Corporate strategy The Companyâ⠂¬â„¢s principal business is the sale of trade books (generally hardcover and paperback consumer titles, mass market paperbacks, children’s books, eBooks and other digital content, eReaders and related accessories, bargain books, magazines, gifts, cafe products and services, music and movies direct to customers through its bookstores or through its subsidiary Barnes ; Noble. com.In October 2009, Barnes ; Noble also launched NOOKâ„ ¢, the Company’s proprietary eReader that the firm considers the world’s most advanced eBook reader, because â€Å"it features groundbreaking lending technology, a color touchscreen and lets readers download books in seconds†. In addition Barnes ; Noble has expanded its approach to bookselling and the products it offers through its self-publishing program and through its Sterling Publishing and through the acquisition of SparkNotes.The company publishes over 500 titles annually, under a variety of imprints including Sterling, Sterling Children’s Books and Barnes ; Noble Classics. In 2009, the Company also acquired Fictionwise, Inc. (Fictionwise), a leader in the eBook marketplace, enabling the launch of one of the company’s eBookstore. Finally, as a result of the acquisition of B;N College (2009), the Company sells textbooks and course-related materials, emblematic apparel and gifts, trade books, school and dorm supplies, and convenience and cafe items on college and university campuses.B;N College sales account for approximately 14% of the Company’s fiscal 2010 sales. Products and Services Because Barnes ; Noble retail business is very complex, a deeper analysis is crucial to understand its main features: Since 1997 Barnes ; Noble has started redesigning its position in the business from a store-based model to a multichannel model centered in internet and digital commerce by launching its website barnesandnoble. om, but the biggest step forward has been done in July 2009 with the o pening of its Ebookstore and digital newsstand, which now allows customers to purchase over one million eBooks, electronic newspapers and magazines. Barnes ; Noble’s eBookstore is available on a wide range of digital platforms, including iPadâ„ ¢, iPhone , iPod touch and several smartphones, as well as most laptops or desktop computers. In Barnes ; Noble retail stores the company offers a huge selection of books, ranging from 20,000 to 200,000 titles.Complementing this extensive on-site selection, all Barnes ; Noble stores provide customers with access to the millions of books available to online shoppers at Barnes ; Noble. com while offering an option to have the book sent to the store or shipped directly to the customer. The online channel also offers the supplemental opportunity to buy not only common hard covers but also out-of-print, rare and used books. Moreover, many of the Barnes ; Noble stores have music/DVD/BluRay departments that typically stock over 20,000 titl es.The Company’s DVD and BluRay selection is focused on foreign films, documentaries and episodic TV shows. The music selection is focused on classical music, opera, jazz, blues and pop rock. The music department features RedDotNet, an advanced listening station technology that is connected to the Company’s online electronic music catalog and enables customers to listen to any compact disc in the store, sampling up to 300,000 music titles using scanner technology.In every store it is also possible to find an Home ; Gift section that offers items for the office and electronics and also Toys ; Games and PC ; Video Games departments with a selection of thousands of titles as well as consoles, accessories and strategy guides. Many stores are also have some cafes inside that offer costumers Starbucks beverages, and other products such as candies and sandwiches. Although the cafes are owned and operated by Barnes ; Noble, servers follow Starbucks' standards in beverage prepa ration.From 2004 all the stores offer a free Wi-Fi access using the AT&T FreedomLink network. Horizontal and Vertical Boundaries: While the company has a complete control on sales and hence has never franchised its retail stores, it has anyway signed many different trading agreements with third parties concerning purchases of most of the products sold, manufacturing, logistics and IT complements with the objective to reduce its operating costs. Below the most important are enlisted: NOOKâ„ ¢, the Company’s eBook reader, and other Company products are manufactured by a third-party manufacturer outside the United States and Barnes & Noble relies on components provided from a number of different manufacturers both within and outside the United States. Many of these manufacturers are concentrated in geographic areas outside the United States.. Barnes & Noble relies also on third-party digital content and applications. * The company is provided with national freight distributio n, including trucking services by Argix Direct Inc. The company’s B&N Retail segment purchases physical books from over 1,700 publishers and over 50 wholesalers or distributors. Barnes & Noble also acquires rights to distribute digital content from publishers and distributes the content on Barnes & Noble. com. * The company uses Intel-based server technology in a fully redundant configuration to power its website, which is hosted in two locations. At these locations, the company maintains computers that store its web pages in electronic form and transmits them to requesting users (known as hosting).The Company utilizes two hosting locations. One location is hosted internally by the company and the other is maintained by a third-party hosting vendor. Instead, the company decided to invest in the purchasing of two huge distribution centers: one in Monroe Township, New Jersey, which ships merchandise to stores throughout the country and to online customers and one in Reno, Nevad a, which is used to facilitate distribution to stores and online customers in the western United States.The company also owns another distribution center capacity for facilitating sales by Sterling Publishing to third parties. This investment has clearly enabled the company to source an increasingly larger percentage of its inventory through its own distribution centers, resulting in increased direct buying from publishers rather than wholesalers. Greater volume through the company’s own distribution centers makes it possible to lower distribution costs per unit, to increase both inventory turns and product margins.This has also led to improved just-in-time deliveries to stores and the ability to offer â€Å"Fast&Free Delivery† through its website and for in-store orders placed by customers for home delivery. The improvement in technologies and the changes in culture and society are making books obsolete goods whose demand is getting lower and lower, this reality force d an institution in book retailing like Barnes and Noble to change its strategy and to concentrate in new markets such as e-books production and selling as well as e-book readers manufacturing.This change in the course of action also drove the company to transform its superstores into community centers that host the most important social events as well as to turn into a multichannel distribution company by strengthening its position in the e-commerce industry. These improvements have made Barnes & Noble the only enterprise that nowadays offers readers the option of store visits, e-Commerce, and digital delivery of books to Barnes & Noble-branded devices or other devices of their choosing.The company also makes big effort in marketing and merchandising campaigns in order to drive traffic to both its stores and website: at the center of this program is Barnes & Noble. com, which receives over 450 million visits annually and most of all leverages the power of the Barnes & Noble brand b y offering online customers a premier destination for all the products sold by the company. In this way, Barnes & Noble. com serves as both the Company’s direct-to-home delivery service and as an important broadcast channel and advertising medium for the Barnes & Noble brand.Geographical scope From the point of view of the geographical scope, the aim of B&N has always been to collocate its retail stores and its college stores only in the USA in order to gain the leadership in the book-retailing market of the country. The firm has reached its goal thanks to its huge number of retail stores (720 located in all the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and 637 college stores) and has still no plans to open its stores anywhere else. Concerning the e-commerce B&N hasn’t instead created any geographical boundaries: in the USA b&n. om has a consolidated power that is still overcome just by Amazon. com whereas in Europe the firm is trying to gain shares in the market especia lly through a joint venture created in October, 1998, with the German publishing giant Bertelsmann AG. The purposes of this venture are mainly two: Bertelsmann wants to compete with Amazon. com in the U. S, while Barnes & Noble expects its partnership with Bertelsmann to help it expand into European markets. Organizational structure David Deason V. P. of Development Barnes & Noble, Inc.Chris Troia Chief Information Officer Barnes & Noble, Inc. Alan Kahn President of Barnes & Noble Publishing Group Leonard Riggio Founder and Chairman Barnes & Noble, Inc. William F. Duffy Executive V. P. of Distribution and Logistics Barnes & Noble, Inc. . Allen Lindstrom Control Allen W. Lindstrom V. P. , Corporate Controller Barnes & Noble, Inc. William J. Lynch Chief Executive Officer Barnes & Noble, Inc. Andy Milevoj Manager of Investor Relations Joseph LombardiChief Financial Officer Barnes & Noble, Inc Jaime Carey Chief Merchandising Officer Barnes & Noble, Inc. Mary Ellen Keating Senior V. P. o f Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Barnes & Noble, Inc. Stephen Riggio Vice Chairman Barnes & Noble, Inc. Mitchell S. Klipper Chief Executive Officer Barnes & Noble Retail Group Barnes & Noble, Inc. Michelle Smith V. P. of Human Resources Barnes & Noble, Inc. Mark Bottini V. P. and Director of Stores Barnes & Noble, Inc. Marcus E. Leaver President Sterling PublishingThere are no direct information about the organizational structure of the firm, but by looking at the chart it is quite clear that the company is divided in several functions that deal with both the two main operating segments: B&N Retail and B&N College; anyway the Company board of directors has decided to treat these two businesses as independent from one another, considering the manner in which the business is managed (focusing on the financial information distributed) and the manner in which its chief operating decision maker interacts with other members of management.The company has seasoned management te ams for its digital business and retail stores, including those for real estate, merchandising and store operations. According to its main strategy, the Company management team employs exclusively highly skilled professional with both media expertise and supply chain management skills in order to guarantee a positive customer’s experience regardless the preference for either physical or digital products.Field management includes regional directors and district managers supervising multiple store locations: Each store generally employs a store manager, two assistant store managers, a cafe manager and approximately 50 full and part-time booksellers. Many Barnes & Noble stores also employ a full-time community relations manager.Field management for all of the company’s bookstores, including regional directors, district managers and store managers, participate in an incentive program tied to store productivity. The company believes that the compensation of its field manage ment is competitive with that offered by other specialty retailers of comparable size. Store managers participate in annual merchandising conferences, and district managers participate in semi-annual training and merchandising conferences.Store managers are generally responsible for training other booksellers and employees in accordance with detailed procedures and guidelines prescribed by the Company utilizing a blended learning approach, including on-the job training, e-learning, facilitator-led training and training aids available at each bookstore and for adjusting the buyers’ selection to the interests, lifestyle and demands of the store’s local customers.Organizational Culture Since its foundation, the Firm has been trying to reach mainly one aim: to make its stores centers and active parts of the community life, places where people can meet, interact with the others, feel at ease and share their common passion for books.To achieve this goal the Company firstly h as built imposing bookstores in highly visible areas open seven days a week, secondly has focused on creating a warm and cozy environment with ample public spaces, comfortable settings, including lounge chairs and reading tables, a cafe, public restrooms and also children playgrounds, thirdly has added a calendar of ongoing events, including author appearances and children’s activities and also supports communities through efforts on behalf of local non-profit organizations that focus on literacy, the arts or K-12 education.As well as its stores, also the website reflects the efforts made by the company to offer a pleasant shopping experience: it is easy to browse thanks to a clear site map and a useful search bar and moreover is it organized in order to show to the visitors all the ranges of products and most of all the special offers. It is common knowledge that the artifacts are the direct expressions of some values that every company considers crucial and strives to teach to all the employees, from just a superficial analysis of the firm some of them appear quiet clearly: firstly the importance of quality and customers’ satisfaction.But what is considered absolutely vital for the effectiveness of the firm’s performance it’s both the collaboration among colleagues that can be maintained and strengthened by respecting, supporting and helping each other and the alignment with Barnes and Noble commitment and ethics. As it has already been said, the company has always believed that by concentrating its efforts on becoming a community institution and by satisfying in every aspect the customers it would encourage customer loyalty, word-of-mouth publicity and media coverage and it would have a successful and effective performance.This strategy has clearly worked and hence allowed the firm not to bother too much on competitors’ strategies and become anyway a leader in the book retailing market and one of the most powerful firms in the e-Commerce field. It is evident that the stores haven’t been created to be considered Just as dealers: the relationship that the customers establish with the company is rather more complex: per excellence books- buyers are hesitant, but in B&N stores they have the chance not only to be helped by highly skilled booksellers but also to feel at ease in special relax areas where they can peruse a book over some coffee.Also analyzing the company strategy in the e-Commerce field, the satisfaction of the customer is still the unique priority. The exploitation of the well furnished distribution centers through fast deliveries to all the USA guarantees an standoffish online service. Punctuality and fast delivery made Barnes & Nobles a leader in the e-Commerce. Competitive strategy Barnes & Noble competes in the book selling industry. The industry can be examined by using the five basic competitive forces.The threat of new entrants depends on the barriers to entry and the threat o f retaliation. There is low capital requirement for the industry, because the books can also be sold online, but the economies of scale is significantly high, because of its large inventories and diverse selection capacity. The book selling industry is a highly competitive market. The company has to compete with e-Commerce businesses (Amazon. com, Apple), mass merchandisers such as Wal- Mart, growing market for electronic books and digital distribution of book content.Additionally, it has to face a challenge because of specialty retail stores, furthermore, it competes with large bookstores such as Borders and Book-A-Million, as well as smaller bookstores such as Waldenbooks. That is why, the threat of retaliation in the book selling industry is low, because the profitability in the industry is already low due to intense competition. Legal restrictions are low for the e-commerce business and brand loyalty is also low for the industry. All of these factors approve that the barriers to entry for the book selling industry is low.The suppliers for Barnes&Noble are the third party manufacturers located outside the United States who are the producers of the books and store leasers. The threat of integration for the book manufacturers is low, so their barganing power can not be high also depending on their quantity. Besides, all of Barnes&Noble’s retail stores which are leased premises effects profitability in a very essential way. Its profitability depends on the company’s ability to find the optimum point for its store lease portfolio. number of retail store, store locations, lease terms &conditions). On the other hand the customers’volume of purchase is not that high, but the availability of information is pretty high especially for the Internet. Consequently the bargaining power of customers is high. There are no substitutes for real books except e-books, but Barnes & Noble also exists in that business. Barnes & Noble retail stores primarily c ompete on the store experience, quality of shopping and the price and availability of the products.Barnes & Noble’s most powerful competitor is Amazon. com. Amazon. com is the firm that dominates in the online book selling market, as well as web shopping. It has many advantages over Barnes&Noble, such as easy access and a highly secure information system. Also it has a book recommendation system which keeps the information of every customer by collaborative filtering and recommends books depending on the customer’s previous purchases. Unlike Barnes&Noble, Amazon. com does not have a physical bookstore.The firm has a very small inventory, but Barnes&Noble has to have a large inventory to provide a variety of selection to satisfy customers and it has to pay to the distributor within (at most) 3 months after the purchase which means that the firm has to carry the cost of the inventory for up to four months. This situation creates a disadvantage for Barnes&Noble, against i ts strong competitor Amazon. com. On the other hand, having many stores can be an advantage, because it reduces the advertising expenses of the firm.Only online book seller Amazon. com, has to advertise by links from other web sites and it has to have an advanced information technology which can offer individualized recommendations for the customers, billing and shipping systems. Barnes&Noble’s information system is worse than Amazon. com’s but it also has brick and mortar stores which can never face any technical problems that can lock up all of its sales for a period of time. Therefore, these stores have both advantages and disadvantages for the company.Another specialty that Barnes&Noble has is related to its horizontal boundaries. It majorly sells books but it also sells DVDs, toys, games and music albums. Therefore it does not have a narrow horizontal boundary. So just like Amazon. com it also has to compete with eBay, which is a very popular online auction site. As it can be understood from Amazon. com’s features, it has the market dominance, with the contribution of being the first one in the online book selling market. Still, Barnes&Noble has an advantage over Amazon. om, because Barnes&Noble is a profitable company unlike Amazon. com. It does not have high marketing expenses, because it markets its merchandise by creating a nice atmosphere and opening a coffee shop inside the stores, letting customers have a nice experience which increases their willingness to buy. Nevertheless, Barnes&Noble has to compete with â€Å"Borders† which is an international book and music retailer located in United States. Barnes&Noble is the largest bookstore chain in the US, but it still increases the concentration of the industry.One of the main competitive disadvantages of Barnes&Noble is its high overhead expenses and high cost of production, because the company has more than 1000 stores and 40,000 employees. (Amazon. com has only 7600 emplo yees, and 1600 of them are for book sales) On the other hand, its size allows it to offer some discounts to its customers and lets it have highly diverse selections, which also means that high economies of scale is an important factor for the companies in this industry.Therefore, another effective competitive strategy of Barnes&Noble is its nationwide discount pricing strategy. The current pricing is 30% off publishers’ suggested retail prices for hardcover bestsellers and 20% off select feature titles in departments such as children’s books and computer books. The Barnes & Noble Member Program offers members greater discounts. For an annual fee of $25, members receive discounts of 40% off publishers’ suggested retail prices on hardcover bestsellers, 20% off adult hardcovers, and 10% off on almost all other merchandise.These discounts are available to members for purchases made at Barnes&Noble stores. Barnes&Noble. com implemented an â€Å"everyday low pricingà ¢â‚¬  model that provides a single, low price for each item site wide for members and non members and enables the Company to offer better value to its customers. Members also receive free express shipping on eligible purchases made on Barnes&Noble. com. In addition, members receive exclusive offers and promotions via direct mail and email. Consequently, the switching cost of the industry gets higher.Barnes&Noble’s online customer base is a lot lower than Amazon. com’s. Therefore it developed or copied some strategies to overcome this dominance. For example, it made a deal with Microsoft to become â€Å"the exclusive book seller† for the book shopping category on the MSN network, which is an imitation strategy, because also Amazon. com has a similar agreement with Microsoft. Also, it sold 50% of its shares to the German Publisher Bertelsmann AG, right after Amazon. com’s similar partnership with it. Barnes&Noble’s main purpose was to grow into Euro pean markets.Besides, Barnes&Noble started to move into other markets such as the sales of dvds, toys and music albums, after Amazon. com. Amazon. com, manages to sell a lot in these areas with no profit, because of its high advertising expenses. So it is pretty useless for Barnes&Noble to copy this strategy of Amazon. com. Since Amazon. com has the dominance for the online book selling industry, only a few consumers prefer Barnes&Noble on its new market, unless it does not make any differentiations about it. Also this situation, prevents both companies to have a significant brand recognition.To sum up, Barnes&Noble, uses the Wal- Mart strategy to compete in this industry, which includes huge stores, low prices and a sophisticated technology to track its inventory and get rid of the undemanded products from its supply, but this situation can not actually help the firm to raise its profit, because an innovation is needed in this kind of a highly competitive industry. The company need s essential differentiation. Another copycat like strategy of Barnes&Noble was to create Nook (which looks like an imitation of Amazon. om’s Kindle). But this time there was a difference about this copying strategy, the company created an additional e-book software for PC, Mac and iPad and its own content library. With this strategy the company has vertically integrated. (only by a single layer which is content) Moreover, Barnes&Noble, sells content and makes its platform available to IREX and Plastic Logic devices’ users. This stack strategy, brings additional revenue to the firm and also makes the company’s options unavailable for its competitors.Unfortunately, this strategy is not good enough for the firm to dominate in the market, because scale, efficiency and little differentiations is not enough for a market with many competitors. The increased competition is likely to reduce Barnes&Noble’s sales and profits Finances Consolidated balance sheet of Ba rnes & Noble Inc. (2010-05-01) (in thousands of USD) Assets| Current Assets| Cash And Cash Equivalents| 60,965| Short Term Investments | -| Net Receivables | 106,576| Inventory | 1,370,111|Other Current Assets | 181,825| Total Current Assets | 1,719,477| Property, Plant and Equipment | 812,034| Goodwill | 528,541| Intangible Assets | 580,962| Accumulated Amortization | -| Other Assets | 64,672| Deferred Long Term Asset Charges    | -| Total Assets | 3,705,686| Liabilities| Current Liabilities| Accounts Payable | 1,624,408| Short/Current Long Term Debt | 100,000| Total Current Liabilities | 1,724,408| Long Term Loans | 260,400| Other Liabilities | 505,903|Deferred Long Term Liability Charges | 311,607| Minority Interest | 1,550| Total Liabilities | 2,803,868| Stockholders' Equity| Issued Common Stock  Ã‚  ($0. 01 per share)| 89| Retained Earnings | 681,082| Treasury Stock | -1,052,356| Capital Surplus | 1,286,215| Other Stockholder Equity | -13,212| Total Stockholder Equity | 901 ,818| Total Liabilities + Equity| 3,705,686| Consolidated Income Statement of Barnes ; Noble Inc. (2009/05/02 – 2010/05/01) (in thousands of USD) Total Revenue| 5,810,564| Cost of Revenue| 4,133,819|Gross Profit| 1,676,745| Operating Expenses| Research Development| -| Selling General and Administrative| 1,392,207| Non Recurring| 3,518| Depreciation and Amortization| 207,774| Earnings Before Interest And Taxes| 73,246| Interest Expense| 28,237| Income Before Tax| 45,009| Income Tax Expense| 8,365| Net Income| 36,644| Preferred Stock And Other Adjustments| -| Net Income Applicable To Common Shares| 36,644| Barnes;Noble Inc. financial ratios of the latest annual report (2009/05/02 – 2010/05/01) Return on equity| 4. 06%| Return on total assets| 1. 1%| Return on sales| 0. 77%| Asset turnover| 1. 57| Current ratio| 0. 99| Quick ratio| 0. 2| Debt/equity ratio*| 2. 2| Interest cover| 1. 29| Cost of capital| 1. 42%| *debt = long term loans + current liabilities Barnes;Noble Inc . financial performance evaluation The profitability of Barnes;Noble Inc. is very and despite it is mainly competing in the retailing business ROE = 4. 06% is unacceptable comparing to the average 5-year ROE=10. 5%. The same tendency can be seen looking at the ROTA which is 2. 7 times lower than the 5-year average.Company‘s profit margin is even below 1% and this means that Barnes;Noble does not manage to earn enough money but at least they are able to cover all their expenses on time without losses. Low profitability ratios as well as asset turnover can be partly explained that market was facing a sharp decline, which was caused by global financial crisis and even though it did not cause the reduction in sales which actually increased but made larger costs (i. e. interests) which increased more than sales and caused some financial problems for the company.Barnes;Noble Inc. current ratio is almost 1 and this theoretically allows for the company to cover all their short term fi nancial operations but quick ratio is very low (only 0. 2) and this means that company has much inventory which is about 80% of current assets. This means that company could possibly improve its‘ profitability ratios by increasing sales of the inventory but since Barnes;Noble is in the shrinking market which cannot buy all the goods it is almost impossible to reduce high inventory significantly.Turning to Barnes;Noble Inc. financial strength ratios situation is a bit better. Company‘s debt/ratio (2. 2) looks quite normal and we can deduce that it exploits all the available financial resources to keep its‘ sustainability as well as possible. On the other hand, interest cover is particularly low (only 1. 29) and since company is facing the shrinking market this can cause trouble in the near future and lead to negative net earnings. On of the factors which allows Barnes;Noble Inc. o have positive net earnings is low cost of capital and this means that average interest rate is 1. 42% and is lower than return on the risk capital. In overall, Barnes;Noble Inc. financial results are not very pleasant and acceptable since company is facing decreasin market there is not much it could do in order to improve its‘ situation: firstly, it should try to reduce their administrative expenses, maybe close less than the average profitable which generates higher costs.Secondly, it could try to reduce inventory by lowering prices but as I have mentioned before it is a very dfficult task to acomplish since it is facing shrinking market. Finally, it could try to use their cash which even though does not count much of current assets but this could allow company to pay at least part of their debt and increase its‘ liquidity in the short run. Bibliography http://www. google. com/finance http://www. barnesandnobleinc. com/ http://www. fundinguniverse. com/ www. barnesandnoble. com www. maths. tcd. ie/~nora/FT351-3/CS. pdf www. ichnet. org/glossary. htm

Analysis on the Alibabas development Essay

Alibaba aAs a model of global B2B e-commerce model, from the launch site for the first time since it was founded at the end of 1998 to till right now, it Alibaba has has possessed more than 15 years of’ history. After four years of the establishment of the website, which is the end of 2002, . Alibaba get got its the first profit for the first time with, over six million yuanYuan in cash earningsin cash at the end of 2002 when it was the fourth year since the establishment of the website. Alibaba keeps acute insight and moves ahead is discerning, and step toward profitability with a unique business model. The first stage: The first step is to capture the market so as to provide free information. , first to capture the market. China’s e-commerce is currently under blocking condition with still stuck in the informationlimited information flow stage. Base on In accordance theto the full overall investigation on the basis ofbased on the needs of the enterprise market, it is needed to classify enterprise registration information integration, as well as According to the different characteristics, provide effective information and services for the enterprises based on the different characteristics. The second stage: the use of a The successful launch of at the first phase of the corporate credit certification, to has lay laid the solid foundation for a the further profit. Ma got the key pointjust cached themain key, at First by firstly introduced introducing China Chinese integrity authentication on to the Internet -– integrity , in 2002, and Grasp grasped the key primary issues on the Chinese e-commerce market, which This is also the first Alibaba revenue channelschannel of Alibaba. Alibaba induce attracts companies to pay to join in the â€Å"integrity† aspect through the clever use intelligent application of its previous history results. Third stage: the development of The overseas markets development, expands the scope of trade scope. Alibaba addition to not only master most of the domestic enterprise information, but also mastered the nearly 10 million overseas merchant information to help the domestic enterprises to develop foreign real export trade. â€Å"Chinese suppliers† to has provided the independent account number and password to establish the English website for the , so that the worldforeign countries, with nearly 2.62 million 420,000 professional buyers browse online business  and create more opportunities for businesses for further development. Fourth stage: Mergers and acquisitions â€Å"yahoo†, † is an innovation a stretch for the development of e-commerce search. Alibaba has formed a â€Å"yahoo† as the platform, as well as a large network shopping platform based on â€Å"taobao† trading information search system. , for businessmen from the world, Alibaba provides wider space communication and trading platform for the businessmen from all over the world†¦ Alibaba accurately positioning positions themselves itself in the midst of the economic society , with a stable business model, to find seek for their its own piece of the sky. which Has has now developed into four business groups and composed of three linked sites in the world’s leading online trading market and business community. 2.2.2 The Analysis of B2B2C mode Mode analysis 2.2.2 B2B2C pattern analysis Fusion The combination of the â€Å"Ali Baba† and â€Å"Taobao† new B2B2C mode does not exist logistics, distribution and inventory bottlenecks. E-commerce development in China is not mature enough since , there are a variety of defects, which leading leads to the situation that the site operator cannot accurately predict the demand for commodities , in real life as well as the same distribution logistics system at the initial trial stage. The new B2B2C model is adapted to the development of Chinese e-commerce environment, so that Alibaba can cleverly avoided the risk due to the backlog of goods distribution, and logistics system to establish imperfect generatedgeneration. The distribution logistics of this is linked to the merchant, the merchant who is responsible for the timely deliver the goods delivery to the hands of consumers, . Alibaba only conducts trading platform for businesses and consumers trading platform, do not instead of bearing the cost of producetion c ost in the logistics and distribution process, which make takes the intermediary between the cost of the transaction. Alibaba’s successful business philosophy has attracted the attention of many businesses that Alibaba it has become an indispensable business transaction network platform. Whether it is for the business or consumer, it is Alibaba that is the exclusively first thought as long as a reference tofor online shopping, the first thought is Alibaba, which . It also can also be the successfully Alibaba risk due to its distribution, logistics and inventory  generated onto another important reason business. Alibaba redefines the B2C market, leading which leads to the development direction of e-commerce industry., Aalthough this it is the inevitable trend of e-commerce development, but there has been no further proper opportunity. Alibaba B2B market possesses the share of 80% plus and the â€Å"Taobao† C2C market share of 70 percent%, which making makes it the best candidate to create a B2B2C business. Enterprise value to sales from production to sales to make up a supply chain, has changed the traditional model of creating value, reflecting and reflected the impact of the Internet on business activities deeper.to a deeper extent. In addition, Alibaba acquired which adopts â€Å"Yahoo China† to gained the world’s leading search technology supported platforms and a the strong product development capabilities, will also become a fresh point of future profitability; . Moreover, Tradelink and Alipay Alibaba will also create more wealth with thewith their developments of its create more wealth. As it can be seen from the Alibaba’s earnings history and the future direction of its development, the truly- opened , content with the localization features information and collaboration and as well as the strong global e-commerce is are the most viable. We must build e-business models in line with the Chinese people, based on the principle of fair competition for among enterprises, as well as the integration of various enterprise resources, to achieve economies of scale. 2.3 Situation The Analysis of Alibaba international International trade Trade development Development in the electricity Electricity supplierSupplier 2.3.1 Analysis of the competitive Competitive advantage Advantage of Alibaba Firstly, Ali Baba and the new web service mechanism apt toare prone to experience the value of attracting customers and buyers. Alibaba site construction methods using localized for different countries have adopted the local language, of the different localized countries which is easy to read,for comprehending that this convenience and affinity will have to are prone to integrate international markets. Alibaba has established operations in four interrelated website: the iInternational website in English to provide professional services for global business, the Simplified simplified Chinese in mainland China mainly provides to provide website marketing services; , the Global Traditional Chinese website was Taiwan, Hong Kong,  Southeast Asia and throughout the world Chinese American service; as well as the Korean language Korean site in Korean for Korean users. Secondly, Alibaba has a huge number of membersmemberships, Alibaba years of since its years’ operation make it overseas buyers, suppliers to establish a mature trading relationship. Alibaba, which possesses through three marketplaces around all over the world to assist several millions of buyers and suppliers with engaged the engagement in online business. Finally, Alibaba’s â€Å"integrity† of the Internet to provides a guarantee secure transactionsguaranteed secure transactions. Listening to our customers, to and meeting customer needs is are the foundation of survival and development of Ali Baba. Customer first, teamwork, embracing change, integrity, passion and dedication are the core values of Ali Baba. 2.3.2The Disadvantages 2.3.2 of Alibaba Firstly, Alibaba’s site model is an intermediary form, and this model which has a copycat, which provides providing samples for other competitors to enter the industry, there is increased as well as the increasing competition for them. Secondly, Alibaba’s business is large and cluttered, it is the which has original 27 original industry classifications, and 8OO – 900 categories of industries to optimize the business platform into its the biggest obstacledevelopment. Thirdly, Alibaba the during infancy of Alibaba due to the low barriers to entry Member cohabitation, and the altogether honest members get together. Making makes the supplier price competition among the suppliersis very fierce. Fourthly, because of the strategic shift Alibaba will put a lot ofinvest much money to payfor the personal C2C platform Taobao, . Besides, Alibaba B2B customers may face dropped , while the new customers supplement embarrassment. 2.3.3 The Analysis on the Cchance of Alibaba Alibaba in the development process is also facing a lot of opportunities in the development process. Alibaba in the development process is also facing a lot of opportunities. Firstly, several of the big banks and credit companies participate fully in e-commerce, which created creates the conditions for the deeppth conditions of the development of in e-commerce Alibaba. Secondly, China is now speeding up the development of e-commerce legal  provisions, and as well as actively establishingcreates a safe, and standardized business environment. This, which provides favorable conditions for the development of in e-commerce Alibaba. Once again, China cannot afford to existing SMEs to start their own B2B commerce sites that, so this intermediary sites like Alibaba welcome its popularity.popular with its welcome. Finally, as to the continuous development and, improvement of the Internet and the proliferation of computers, there will be more companies have joinedjoining in the online business, which makes provides Alibaba has a lot of potential customers. 2.3.4 Threat Analysis of Alibaba Firstly, Alibaba’s profit is mainly in China, but the status quo of China’s business environment restricted restricts the further development of B2B Alibaba, such as legal sound, online payment security vulnerabilities, improve infrastructure improvement and other outstanding developments gave Alibaba drag. Secondly, the pattern of business websites in among the world in recent years, not only speeds up the rapid development, but has gradually become a trend of e-commerce alliance 11.11 mergers. Besides, and cooperation is the trend, this which will lead to more intense competitions. Problems and Solutions of Alibaba’sE-commerce international the International trade Trade development Development in Alibaba’s E-commerce 3.1 Find theProblems Investigation Developmentof development of B2B eE-commerce in China Although, Alibaba has been under rapid developmentin in the past few years, and China has also been deemed as a n successful B2B e-commerce business representatives. However, wWe must know understand that the B2B e-commerce development model has some problems such as Alibaba, and these problems is which are the future development of China’s B2B e-commerce needed to be addressed. These problems that are mainly in the following aspects: (A) Lack of sufficient attention to the large enterprise market Currently , most of China’s B2B e-commerce to provides commodity publish and trading platform to provide offer services. This approach , which is suitable for small and medium enterprises, because since they need the help of B2B e-commerce platform to develop for new markets development. However, the demand for large enterprises and SMEs B2B e-commerce is very different since , they usually have a fixed customers and sales channels, but.  However, they are also often faced with the strategic adjustment problems. Due to for the market environment in China is actually mainly leaded by many large enterprises to lead. So, hHow to make B2B e-commerce model can adapt to the needs of large enterprises is a major problem that currently exists. (B) The lack of information flow based on business interaction While eEconomic development has provided favorable conditions for e-commerce in China to carry out, but overall, the now e-commerce enterprises in China is are still not popular yet at present. Due to a the lack of understanding of on the overall e-commerce systems, many enterprises have been many various errors in this process, that too simple understanding of B2B e-commerce that puts the company on the Internet homepage and catalog everything will be fine., you can wait for customers’ orders of. The extension of B2B e-commerce as a traditional trade on the Internet, if not interactive flow of information, withjust the release of information (which a lot of information is out of date) instead of interactive flow of information, will make most companies have lost interest in the B2B e-commerce. So Establishing an active or auxiliary enterprise interaction mechanisms , will be the focus of future development of in B2B e-commerce., will be the focus of future development of B2B e-commerce. (C) The lack of attention to the management of Many e-commerce companies when only one-sided unilaterally emphasis emphasize on technology. T, the technical elements put a lot of manpower and material resources , but ignorignoreed enhance the management level enhancement in the process and the restructuring of business processes restructure to meet the e-commerce new management and business model demands environment. (D) eE-commerce is still relatively at low degree of safety Although e-commerce security has been greatly improved, but because of viruses and the lack of various types of protective measures, Trojans and other malicious attacks continue to occur that, and the lack of various types of protective measures, so many companies are lack of thea sense of security in the implementation of B2B e-commerce. At the same time, many companies because that the network infrastructure is relatively backward,backward or no without more perfect safety management system and  professional maintenance staff leads to the enterprise network., there There are many security vulnerabilities that may crash when subjected to attack quickly when. These issues , which will greatly affect the further development of B2B e-commerce. (E) Tthe lack of an effective constraint on business  the The B2B companies like Alibaba are intended to provide a trading platform for all sectors of business. However, for businesses, if the transaction is a problem, without exception, it will be held accountable B2B companies, and thus affecting the development of their own B2B businesses without exception. The fundamental reason is that since the majority of B2B companies are interactinteracting with companies through a network of way. , and Ttherefore the lack of , effective B2B platforms is lacked for the managers to assess their qualifications for these companies, ability, and reputation. In the early days, in order tothat attracting customers into the lax control is understandable. But However, with the growing influence grow and B2B trading platform, if not effectively assessing and constraintconstrainings platform business, will directly affect the credibility of the B2B platform. 3.2 The Prospect of China’s B2B eE-commerce B2B e-commerce in the 21st century, Chinese enterprises to break new ground try to make breakthrough in the struggle for existence is in the important battleground of B2B e-commerce in the 21st century, including both . Both for China’s state-owned enterprises or and private enterprises offor 1.3 million members among the nationwide industrial and commercial enterprises, which has combined with the immediate reality , to determine the development of the essential B2B e-commerce business strategy is essential. About AlibabaAs to the combination of the above questions, this paper presents the development of by the following measures: (A) Strengthen the popularity of e-commerce in the enterprise, the implementation of B2B e-commerce is tailored to each enterprise. It should be noted, that for most Chinese enterprises, e-commerce, and B2B e-commerce, have come a the new terms is in thea new economic era. E-commerce is not Instead of a fashionable coat, as long as it e-commerce means that Chinese companies put carry on innovation and modernization, Chinese enterprises to develop e-commerce  which must make careful planning and tactical departure from the overall development of enterprises aiming at, to be able to really playing an important role on the characteristics of the network characteristics and advantages for the development of enterprises play a real role. Implementation of e-commerce enterprises is to specific specifically analysis ofanalyze the nature and scale . Ffrom large enterprises to establish a web-based procurement system to start tofor the establishment of establish their own independent large-scale procurement trading platform, . it It should be a good development strategy, like Sony, and IBM, which has have established its their own independent global procurement system the same. Of courseHowever, for when comes to SMEs, it is not the a pursuit of for self-built large, since complex B2B trading platform is a wise choice. National Federation of the 1.3 million members of private companies, including mostly most of the small and medium enterprises should adopt such a strategy. To to attach great importance to on enterprise information, . That a comprehensive, and enterprise information systems to carry outbe carried out, can not can’t be achieved only by a small part of the information. The way for the Chinese enterprises to develop B2B e-commerce, is not to say simply buy some computer networking equipmentequipment, and build a website that simple. For Chinese enterprises, the The real use of B2B e-commerce for Chinese enterprises is the core of the Internet as information technology, business activities and resource management, which is the core primary business efficiently manage managing all information. Helping companies create a smooth flow in the enterprise, so that the enterprise information flow between customers and suppliers, and through managementcan be smoothly managed, . value-added and application of high efficiency, Tthe customer, companies, and suppliers are all connected together, with the fastest, and lowest respond to the market costs, to grasp the opportunity to for continuously improve improving and consolidate consolidating the competitive advantages. (B) For nNetwork security issues should be given high priority. Enterprise (taking Alibaba as a typical representative) should be equipped with the system hardware and software to optimize the configuration, . use Adopting high-quality hardware and software equipment to can reduce security vulnerabilities; and develop a sound safety management system and to establish the establishment of a  professional security management team on system security design as well as and maintenance to ensure maintenance as much as possible to reduce security vulnerabilities existing in the system. It is at the time of attack and ableneeded to take emergency measures for protection and recovery, to ensure the smooth operation of the system; erect as well as build firewalls to differentiate the company’s internal network and with the outside world wonder access names, and control and monitor the data access. Using VPN (Virtual Private Network) to can ensure that the Internet to establish a dedicated channel to securefor communication channel. The cConclusion of the contract for electronic privacy issues and fulfillment process is caused by legal regulation which can be implemented by both both in principle and industry self-regulation, . Besides, the collectors always adopt international rules to clearly define the rights and obligations of information gatherers and information are among collectors. (C) The importance of changinge management and business model. Enterprises should strengthen the staff’s competence and ability to improve communication, and eliminate unnecessary work to achieve smooth inter-departmental business processes (especially for such a large domestic Alibaba e-commerce company). After theThe reorganization of business processes is a key demand of the market, since the company’s strategy and adjustment are in consistent with each of the core business processes and consistent and identifyidentified with every job that valued from by the customer’s point of viewfeedbacks can be inc reased. Enterprises should improve the level of corporate information technology,, advanced modern integrated manufacturing system (CLMS) and the introduced enterprise resource planning (ERP) system introduced in order to achieve agile manufacturing enterprise (agile manufacturing), ) and virtual manufacturing (virtual manufacturing) and as well as personalized production in order to achievefor â€Å"zero inventory†, reducinge costs, and thus retaining existing customers. Should It is needed to proceed to establish a suitable enterprise customer relationship between management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) system to achieve smooth communication with trading partners,, at the right time which can timely set up virtual companies to focus resources on their own core business and strengths. Using The adoption of interactive marketing model and, virtual reality and the consumer experience smooth communication with customers, can fast quickly response  respond to customers and p, Provide products to meet for the customer requirements. (D) To cater to the mobile era, and the development of mobile e-commerce. 2013 is one of the hot areasone of the hottest years in of mobile e-commerce. With theThe development of 3G technology enables , mobile Internet has been no problemto be easily accessed. In the 3G era, SOLOMO (Social Local Mobile) business model will be the future trend of development. However, current mobile e-commerce is still stuck in entertainment, social and other aspects, . how How to nurture discover and explore new business models and profit model remains to bea further issue to be studied. Meanwhile, the mobile Internet too muchpays much attention to the individual consumers who, for B2B companies to integrate mobile Internet wave, which is still a need for the new technology systems and operational rules.

Art Of Portraiture

Art Of Portraiture Essay The three works that I chose that are art of portraiture are Head of a King, Mask of an Lyoba, and Mother Goddess. The first two portraits are West African Art from two different tribes, Ife, who created the Head of a King and Benin, whom created the Mask of an Lyoba. The Mother Goddess is an Aztec piece. These groups of people are from different cultures, time periods, and share different religious beliefs. The similarity of the groups is the symbolic meaning the portraitures brought to its people. The first work is the Head of a King. This Ife creation altered the perception that scholars had of the tribe. It was known that the Ife tribes did not do portraits because of the spirits that could harm the subjects. The sculptures that were discovered all seemed to resemble rulers, so the conclusion was that the institution of kingship and the need to revere royal ancestors were strong enough to overcome concerns. Also the figures were naturalistic. The proportions of the few knownful figures are characteristically African.. The heads may have been taken from life models, but seem more like idealized images. An example is of the proportions of the head of the sculpture. These proportions probably reflect a belief in the heads importance as the abode of the spirit, and the focus of the individual identity. Life is the sacred city of the Yoruba people, were naturalistic sculpture began. The Benin tribe arose after the Ife, and was greatly influenced by their art. Their portraits were also naturalistic, but as they grew more knowledgeable in art, they drew away from the naturalistic works of the Ife people into stylized works of their own. The Mask of an Lyoba is a beautiful ornamental mask of royalty. This works shows that the people no longer use the naturalistic approach, but a bold, more idealized, representation of its people. The art of Benin is a royal art, only the oba could commission the works. This work was commissioned in ivory, but most of the works were commissioned in brass. The Benin transition from naturalistic to stylize is better explained in the brass heads. It ranges from small, thinly cast, and naturalistic to large, thickly cast, and highly stylized. The conclusion of scholars is that in their Early Period, their heads were small and naturalistic from the Ife influence. Heads then grew increasingly stylized during the Middle Period. Then in the Late Period, the heads were very large and heavy, with angular stylized features and an elaborate beaded crown. In Mexico there was also portraitures. Specifically in the Aztec Empire were the Mother Goddess was created. This was a strong and powerful empire that was divided in classes. The religion was based on a complex pantheon that combined the Aztec deities with more ancient ones that had long been worshiped in Central Mexico. According to the Aztec belief, the gods created the current universe at the ancient city of Teothhuacan. Which is similar to the Ife belief that Gods came down and created the people. The culture and purpose of the people is then to worship and honor their gods forever. This was done by sacrifice and in their art. We are aware of the religion and the beliefs of the Aztec people because of their art. The gods were represented in statues and paintings that were narratives to teach their people and show respect to the gods. The Mother Goddess was a broad shouldered figure with clawed hands and feet has a skirt of twisted snakes. A pair of serpents, symbols of gushing blood, rise from her neck to form her head. Their eyes are her eyes; their fangs, her tusks. The writhing serpents of her skirt also form her body. Around her stump of a neck hangs a necklace of sacrificial offerings- hands, heart, and a dangling skull. READ: Art and humanities test 1 EssayDespite the surface intricacy, the sculptures simple, bold, and blocky forms create a single visual whole. This dramatic impact was also heightened by the color. This portraiture is very symbolic. Unlike the previous two works it is not of the rulers or the people at the time, it is of a god. But much like the first two works it is also idealized. This is what their mother god that guides them should look like. The Ife people created works that were spiritual and revealing their groups identity. The Benin people, once understanding art created stylized works that also expressed their identity, far more than anything naturalistic did. All three works represents the people and what is important to them. For the Aztec people it was their gods, and representing them in a dramatic and powerful way to teach their people. While the Ife people believed that the gods created them in likeness to themselves, so the portraits were also of their people in the ideal form that the gods wanted. The Benin culture were fascinated by art, and wanted to show respect to their rulers by their representation of them.

A feminist critical analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

A feminist critical analysis - Essay Example In Ibsen’s dramas the readers and spectators won’t find exceptional people, events and characters, who act as â€Å"a mouthpiece for the author’s ideas†. We see ordinary people with their problems and passions, accomplishments and shortcomings, who live in representative conditions of the era. The play A Doll’s House, written in 1879, is a full transition of the playwright to a new, realistic drama. This play was appreciated primarily as a work written in defense of the emancipation of women. But Ibsen mentioned that the play was more meaningful: in A Doll’s House he touched upon the central subject of his oeuvre - personal freedom in general and achievement of personhood. At first thought, Nora, the main heroine of the play, is just a doll, a cheerful and small-minded mistress of a quiet and tidy house. Husband of Nora, Torvald Helmer, treats her not as an equal individual, but as a toy. For eight years they lived together, Torvald has never talked with Nora seriously. Torvald’s attitude to wife was vividly demonstrated in the episode when he led Nora away from masquerade right after tarantella just to â€Å"keep effect on the audience† she made by a beautiful dance.

Speaker evaluation memo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Speaker evaluation memo - Essay Example upon the use of hand gestures and the means by which hand position to have a powerful impact with regard to the way in which a particular speaker is understood. Accordingly, it is the hope of this particular author that the following discussion will provide a useful and effective level of analysis with respect to some of the key points that Steve Bavister made within his video. Firstly, it is relevant and true that a speaker who does not utilize effective hand positioning or movement risks losing the interest for attention of the audience. Moreover, as the speaker notes, effective hand positioning and gesturing is an added way in which information can be conveyed in a non-verbal format. Yet, in much the same way that effective use of hand gesturing can help to engage the audience, ineffective or nonexistent gesturing can have it is equally detrimental effect (Bavister 1:06-1:19). For instance, the speaker noted that holding one’s hands behind the back could have a particularly negative connotations for many individuals within the audience; as they might in for this to mean that A) speaker has something that he/she is attempting to conceal B) that it is reflective of a military background and could negatively impact the power dynamics that are represented with respect to whatever discussion is being had and C) such a posture appears unnatural and sti ff. For all of these reasons, the reader can relevantly understand that body language, posture, and hand positioning has a profound impact with respect to the nonverbal cues that a particular audience might receive from the speaker (Goldin-Meadow and Alibali 261). By much the same token, holding one’s hands and placing them in front is disparaged by Steve Bavister due to the fact that it appears as if the individual is attempting to cover their genitals or that they are in fact in and overly defensive mode. Similarly, crossing one’s arms across the chest can either denote that the individual is not willing to

Case Study Of The Dsu In Operation - From Complaint To Resolution Dissertation

Case Study Of The Dsu In Operation - From Complaint To Resolution - Dissertation Example The study relies on primary qualitative data in the form case studies constructed out of selected resolved disputes by the Dispute Resolution Body, and primary quantitative data in the form of statistical profiles drawn from the summary reports of the WTO. In the analyses of the case studies and the statistical profiles, significance was drawn from the disputes between developing and developed countries, as either complainant or respondent, the success rates in the pursuit of these disputes for either side, and the agreements most often cited as bases of the disputes. These observations provided an insight into the manner of implementation of the DSU procedures, in so far as it affects the balance between developing and developed countries. Aside from providing commentary on the implementation of the dispute settlement process, the study also examined the provisions of the DSU and the process as it was envisioned. The findings show that the DSU provisions manifested an intention to create a procedural advantage in favour of developing countries in the creation of a legal structure in dispute settlement, mandating reverse consensus, and setting of deadlines to expedite the process. Deficiencies are still seen, however, in terms of the cost of dispute settlement, the need for expert knowledge of procedure, lack of standards in setting the duration of reasonable time for compliance, and the perceived inadequacies of trade retaliation and other remedial measures. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 1.1 Background of the research 5 1.2 Statement of the research objective 7 1.3 Research questions 7 1.4 Criteria for evaluation 8 1.5 Significance of the research objective 9 1.6 Scope and limitations 9 Chapter 2: History and background 11 2.1 International Trade Law 11 2.2 International Dispute Settlement 13 Chapter 3: Analysis of the WTO Dispute Settlement Procedures 15 3.1 The Dispute Settlement Procedure 15 3.2 Functioning of Dispute Settlement Body under WTO 19 3.3 Aim of the dispute settlement procedure 20 3.4 Commentary on the dispute settlement implementation 22 3.5 Examination of the application of Article 21.5 24 3.6 Effectiveness of trade retaliation measures: the inadequacy of remedies 27 3.7 Effectiveness of compensation measures 31 Chapter 4: Developing Countries and WTO dispute settlement procedure 36 4.1 Developing country defined 37 4.2 Uruguay Round reforms in favour of developing countries 38 4.3 Provisions that fav our developing countries. 41 4.4 Issues in the implementation of DSU involving developing countries 43 4.5 Two case studies involving disputes between developing and developed countries 48 4.6 Profiles of disputes between developing and developed (industrialized) countries 52 4.7 Analysis of the foregoing data 63 4.8 Comparison between dispute resolution under the GATT and under WTO-DSU 66 Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusion 68 5.1 Summary of findings 68 5.2 Conclusion 74 5.3 Recommendations for future research 74 Bibliography 76 Appendix A 79 Summary Table of Cases and Results 79 Appendix B 86 Table of Cases with Determination of â€Å"Reasonable Period of Time† 86 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Background of the research Globalization is probably one of the most contentious concepts in the present-day political-economic landscape.1 Both extolled and disparaged, global trade has both its merits and its pitfalls; whether one is in favour of it or not, however, is no longer the que stion, as most countries have committed to liberalized international trade by virtue of their accession as signatories to multilateral trade agreements that promote global trade and commerce. The question now is the manner in which global trade must be

How has the Anglican Catholic Tradition shaped the Theology and Essay - 1

How has the Anglican Catholic Tradition shaped the Theology and Liturgy of the Marriage Service in Common Worship - Essay Example It is a social act that joins two people in a long lasting commitment and a promise to fulfill their marriage vows. Thousands of years back, considering the example of early men, who were hunters and wanderers changing their habitats every now and then. They were illiterate and uncivilized people who did not have any technology, luxury, means of communication, storage system for food etc. hence they lived for today only and had no moral values. There was no concept or need of marriage as they did whatever they liked to, involved in unethical sexual acts and women gave birth to children without knowing who the father was nor the offspring cared to find about their father and knew only their mother. This act kept going for years and gradually with an extreme need of change the women started realizing her responsibilities towards making own house and how to make the living beautiful. The men being the hunters remained busy all day long whereas the women invented the idea of cultivating crops in fields and made various kind of trials to grow better plants and selected those good in taste and for health. After the transition of men from hunters to farmers the concept of marriage arose as man being the owner of lands and properties will remain superior to a woman who will carry his child only by devoting herself to him and will not have relationship with other men. BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE: The ceremony and reception programs of marriage are not discussed in detail in the holy book Bible. However it does describe the marriage and its vows in many chapters. It is divine and sacred act and is common since Jewish times. Hence it is very essential to follow the commands and vows of marriage set by God which gives emphasis over the importance of this sacred occasion of matrimony. As said in the vows; that the couple will remain faithful to each other, stand together through good times and bad ,give love and care, in sickness and in health and till death do us part. A less importance is given to ceremony and its festivities and more to the contract made between the individuals according to religious perspective. Matrimony is a sacred agreement in the eyes of God. It is therefore essential for a man and woman to marry each other according to religion as said by Jesus that it is forbidden for a man and woman to live together without marriage and the relationship between such a couple cannot be termed as â€Å"husband and wife†. (John 4). Hence the scriptures of Bible reveal that holy union of two people in the eyes of God is the most sacred relationship fulfilling all the commands by God. CHRISTIANITY: Christianity is a monotheist’s ( believes in one God) religion founded on the basis of lessons given by Jesus Christ ( in Canonical Gospels and New Testaments). It is also the largest religion in the world. It says that Jesus Christ is God’s Son and the protector of mankind due to which He is also referred to as Messiah. The f ollowers of this religion are called as Christians. This religion is divided into three divisions: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. The Roman Catholic churches were separated from Eastern Orthodox churches in 1054 (AD).Protestantism was set in insixteenth century as a result of a protest from a group of people against Roman Catholic churches and hence a separate group of churches was originated. The religion started to

Humen resource management. Communications Officer at Care Essay

Humen resource management. Communications Officer at Care International - Essay Example Therefore, this HRM portfolio seeks to evaluate the significance of job analysis and design with regards to sustainability of organisations during the contemporary period and the discussion is centred on the position of Communication’s Officer at Care International. As such, the portfolio is structured as follows: the first section looks at the description of the job and organisation, the second section focuses on job analysis plan as well as discussion about the link between job analysis and design and sustainability of an organisation’s human resources. The last section focuses on outlining job descriptions in modern workplaces. The role of Communications Officer is mainly concerned with gathering as well as disseminating information about the activities in which the organisation is involved in. As highlighted, Care International is a Non Governmental Organisation that is concerned with offering humanitarian assistance to families that have been impacted by natural disasters. This organisation seeks donations on behalf of people who have been affected by natural disasters from different organisations and these are distributed to the people in need. The organisation is also involved in assessing the magnitude of natural disasters in different situations and it coordinates the efforts of the other organisations towards provision of relief to people who have been affected. ... A Communications Officer role is to interact directly with the people in order to gather information about those in need as well as to establish the nature of problems they are facing. This person is also responsible for communicating vital information about the organisation to different stakeholders that may be involved in its operations. For instance, the Communications Officer will also be responsible for speaking on behalf of the company about various activities it is involved in to different stakeholders. This person is also responsible for disseminating any information or correspondence with other employees in the organisation. The incumbent person for this particular position should possess effective communication skills, both verbally and written since he or she deals with vital information about the organisation. This position is people oriented hence there is need for selecting the right person since the image of the organisation is portrayed through the Communications Offi cer. Section 2: a. This section outlines a job analysis plan that details the method going to be used to conduct an analysis for the post of Communications Officer. The first step is concerned with outlining the role expectations of the Communications Officer in the organisation. This step helps to define the role expectations of this incumbent person with regards to the duties going to be performed. In as far as planning is concerned, this role is very important given that it enables the recruiters to select the ideal candidate from a pool of potential job applicants. For instance, a Communications Officer has to possess effective communication skills in order to be able to execute this particular type of job. Defining the position also helps to determine the level of competence

What makes Sophocles's Antigone a paradigm of the very idea of tragedy Essay

What makes Sophocles's Antigone a paradigm of the very idea of tragedy - Essay Example Firstly, we should understand that the notion of tragedy concerns only a human being. This concept cannot be devoted to the natural phenomena. It can face various kinds of devastating disasters, but their consequences are evaluated as a tragic only in relation to their emergence in peoples lives. Tragedy always involves some conflicts in human relationships. It characterizes the irresolvable question, which always ends with the loss of some significant life values ​​for the participants of the conflict, or even the destruction of their personality. Every person is mortal. Moreover, any individual accepts it as a fact and does not consider it as a tragedy. Death is only one of the manifestations of life - the law of nature. Tragic conflicts arise when people fail in their truly human manifestations, asserting themselves as free and rational beings. The spiritual dimension of human life is the only arena in which the tragedy takes place. The works of Sophocles were based on the myths of ancient Greece. The play â€Å"Antigone† is often compared with the myth about Oedipus. The plot of the tragedy is not complicated. Its main character Antigone (the daughter of king Oedipus), despite the decree of Creon (the legitimate ruler of Thebes), performs funeral rites over the body of one of her fallen brothers Polynices, who led foreign troops to Thebes and betrayed the interests of his native city. As a result, Creon condemns Antigone to a painful punishment, commanding to immure her in one of the caves. Antigone refuses to accept such sentence and commits suicide. Antigones death entailed the suicide of her fiancà © Haemon (Creons son). His mother Eurydice could not stand the sorrow and dies as well. These misfortunes made Creon recognize his miserableness and humble before the gods. Sophocles developed the plot of the original myth, as it was necessary for the disclosure of the tragic actions. He did not paraphrase the

Uses and Gratification Research Essay Example for Free

Uses and Gratification Research Essay The Uses and Gratifications Theory is a famous approach to understanding mass communication. It is an audience-centered approach to media study focusing on the uses to which people put media and the gratifications they seek from that use. (Baran, S. J. , Daris, D. K. , 2006) It emphasizes the audiences rather than the actual message because it more focuses on what audiences will do with the media instead of what media does to the people. Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratification Theory recommend media users should take a dynamic role in interpreting and integrating media into their lives because they have alternate choices to gratify their own need. (Uses and gratifications theory) They also take a dynamic part in the communication process and this are the goal oriented in their media use. Uses and Gratification Theory (UG) is a psychological communication perspective that examines on how individual use mass media for satisfy their life but not study on how media impact the audiences. It also emphasizes that motives, actions or an attitude is related to the media use and might change by individual or groups. When an audience actively seeks out for media, they are usually seeking for delight a need. An audience based on theoretical structure to select media and content that can satisfy their needs and desires. (Papacharissi, Z. , n. d. ) The needs will deliver as a motive for adopting particular medium use and this will connected to the social and psychological which make up of the individual. For example, a family may watch a TV shows for instance The American Next Top Model for their entertainment or spend some time together with their family members while some people may choose to browse an internet or look for the magazine content in order to satisfy their information needs. Audience consumes the particular media because they like what they gained from it. However, a number of mass communications scholars have argument about uses and gratifications theory is not a strict social science theory. In reality, Uses and Gratifications perspective has always provided a cutting-edge theoretical approach in the early stages of each new mass communications medium for instance television, radio internet and newspapers as well. Although scientists now are continuously using traditional tools to answer questions about the media use, but we must also be prepared to enlarge our existing theoretical models of Uses and Gratification. Besides that, the theory explains the uses and functions of the media for individuals, groups and the society. At the core of uses and gratifications theory lies the assumption that audience often seek out the mass media in order to gratify their individual needs. (Uses and gratifications approach. ) Audience plays their role differently in seeking out for the medium in order to gain their own satisfaction and needs. Furthermore, medium will be used more when the current motives to use the medium leads to more satisfaction and happiness. Development Uses and Gratifications Theory first advanced in the 1940s by Lazarsfeld and Stanton (1944), attempts to describe the reason of people use on mass media, and also the different kinds of satisfaction they receive from mass media. Gratifications are happiness, satisfactions and rewards, as a result of you meet a specific goal or desire. â€Å"The theory relies on the belief that the audience is not merely a group of passive media consumers, but that they play an active role in selecting different media to meet their needs. (Infante, Rancer Womack, 1997; Lowery De Fleur, 1983) An audience has freedom to choose what media they prefer. For instances, read for newspaper or browser a website in order to meet their desires and goals. In 1944, Herta Herzog researches on the media gratifications and found that there are three major type of gratification towards the radio soup opera which are merely for emotional release, enjoyment for wishful thinking and getting advice from the listening to daytime serial. (Baran, S. J. , Daris, D. K. 2006) In 1961, Wilbur Schramm along with his associates did studies on children and TV which proved that this particular audience was active. It is not the TV lead to an effect on the passive viewers but children selected and watched TV programming in order to satisfy their three needs. There were the need for entertainment, the need for information and the need for social utility. (DeFleur, M. L. , 2010) During 1970s, some media researchers aware that the activeness people of using the media will determine the degree of the effect on that person. For example when a person think that the book have a particular effect on him/her, he/she will work to induce that effect rather than the book induce the learning effect on the person. (Baran, S. J. , Daris, D. K. , 2006) Furthermore, Rubin (1986) stated two underlying presumptions of the uses and gratifications model which explains how people are motivated by a desire to gratify certain needs and also how the audience uses media rather than how the media uses us. Besides, understanding audience consumption patterns will improve understanding of media effect impacts toward audiences. In two separate studies in 1979 1983, Rubin identified six major uses of television for children and adolescents are learning, passing time or habit, companionship, escape, arousal, and relaxation and for adult are passing time, information, entertainment, companionship, and escape. † Five basic assumptions of Uses and Gratification Theory As Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch give explanation in the book â€Å"Mass Communication Research†, there are five basic assumptions in Uses and Gratifications Theory. (Spring, E. R. 2002) The first assumption is â€Å"the audience is conceived as active. † This idea emphasizes the viewers are goal-oriented and tries to achieve their goals from the media source. This directly reflects the needs of the audience member in gaining the media source. Second basic assumption is â€Å"in the mass communication process much initiative in linking need gratification and media choice lies with the audience member. † This assumption ex plains people use media for their own advantage rather than the media uses them. The receiver confirms what is going to absorb and does not allow the media to influence their mind because the individual opinion is more powerful than what media is portraying. The third basic assumption is â€Å"the media competes with other sources of need satisfaction. † This assumption emphasizes on each individual has different needs and desires. By fulfilling their needs and desires, they have to create a wide range of choices in order to meet these needs. The forth basic assumption which is â€Å"many of the goals media use can be derived from data supplied by the individual audience members themselves. People are very responsive and alert about their motives, choices and able to explain their motives verbally as well. The final basic assumption which is â€Å"value judgments about cultural significance of mass communication should be suspended while audience operations are explored on their own terms. † The theorists believe the audience would able to find out the value from the media content. It is the individual audience members who make the decision to view the particular media. Therefore, they place the value on it by their individual decision to view it. Katz, E. , Blumber, J. G. , Gurevitch, M. , 1974) These basic assumptions provide a framework for understanding the exact correlation between the media and the viewers. Lastly, it provides a distinction as to how the audience is more or less active and the consequences of their involvement in the media as a whole. Literature Review on the Key Findings in the New Era The uses and gratifications theory has been widely used for the studies of Internet as well as Social networking system used. As cited by Hetzog, Katz. 1974), UG suggested that people are consciously choosing the medium that can satisfy their needs and they can recognize their reasons for making that media choices. Maddox (1998) found that the main purpose of people using internet is to gather different type of information which is supported by Lin (2001) that people who need information reception are more likely to use the online services. According to Blumler Katz, (1974), Lasswell suggested that media fulfilled the needs for surveillance, correlation, entertainment and cultural transmission both for individuals and society. The reason for internet usage also associated with entertainment oriented gratification. (Lin, 1996). According to Urista, M. A. , Dong Q. , Day, K. D. (n. d. ), the Wollfradt and Doll Internet Motivation Scale comprise three underlying motives for using the Internet: information, interpersonal communication, and entertainment (Matsuba, 2006, p. 278). A 1995 study of college students Internet usage resulted in six motivational categories: entertainment, social interaction, passing the time, escape, information, and Web site preference (Kaye, 1998, p. 4). Stafford and Gonier (2004) have identified several gratifications from Internet use that motivate users’ behaviors. These include web searching, the acquisition of information, the ability to engage in interpersonal communication, and socialization. As cited by Soh, C. H. (2010), Jaafar and Sulaiman (2005) concluded that entertainment is the primary online activity of home computer users in Malaysia. As the Social network system is more and more popular, there are scholars who investigate it based on uses and gratification theory. As cited by Urista, M. A. , Dong Q. , Day, K. D. (n. d. ), Starkman (2007) has demonstrated that motivations for using the Internet are primarily caused by desires for â€Å"relaxation, fun, encouragement, and status† (p. 211). Ray (2007) explored the multifunctional uses of SNS for simultaneously fulfilling entertainment, information, surveillance, diversion and social utility needs. According to Raacke, J. , Bonds-Raacke, J. (2008), for those who have the Facebook account, many uses and gratifications are met such as keeping in touch with friends. For those who do not have Facebook account, the result indicated failed uses and gratifications for not having a friend-networking site. According to a comparative study between Australia and the Netherlands research, SNS are a very effective means for building and maintaining relationships. Many participants acknowledged that SNS make staying in touch with friends much more convenient, which in turn, increases their motivation for maintaining relationships through communication on SNS. It also showed that there is a link between internet addiction and eroticism Sex differences did occur when comparing uses and gratifications for users. However, sex differences were not found for the most popular uses and gratifications, indicating that in general men and women meet the same needs by using the sites. As cited by Wong, F. M. , Lean, M. L. , Fernandez, P. R. (2011), Hirst (2009) mentioned that SNS usage among females is more social relationship-oriented while the use of SNS among male respondents is outcome-oriented. Pros and its Criticism The Uses and Gratification theory is concerned that how people use media for gratification of their needs. Choices of the media for the media users are increasing, this approach is to direct the media’s attention to the audience. The Uses and Gratification theory bring advantages and disadvantages to people in their daily life. Nowadays, media become more and more important in our daily life. Advantages of the Uses and gratifications theory is this theory is one of the communication model which is more positive views of the media. This is because this theory posits the users have complete control over what kind media that they want to use, how they use it and what the effects on them. The uses and gratification theory reminds the media that people are using media for many purposes. As media users become increasingly confronted with choices, this theory should direct media’s attention to the audience. (Suresh, 2003) Based on the Lull’s television research, found that families used television for communication facilitation, relationship building, intimacy and for structuring the day. (Suresh, 2003) The researchers have found out four kinds of gratifications. The first information, people want to know about what is happening in the society and the world to satisfy their curiosity. The second is personal identity, people willing to look for models for their behaviors. This can help people to decide what is the feeling about themselves and if the media view the same behaviors, that mean the media is also agree with their behaviors so they will feel successful and feel better about themselves. Next is integration and social interaction. People use the media to find out more about the circumstances of other people, by watching a show may help the people to empathize the lives of others. The last is as entertainment, people sometimes use media for relaxing, enjoyment or sometimes just to fill time. Uses and gratification is useful for studying the motives and usage pattern of computer game players. (Hou, 2011. ) This research framework assumes the majority of people choose the particular communications is to satisfy their needs and interests. Gamers that with different social backgrounds and demographic always had different expectations and uses of the same media. (Hou, 2011. ) The uses and gratification theory is well fitted for studying the interactive of playing game. It provides principle for the gamers to gain insight on the impact of game experiences, the role of players’ choices and actions and their usage pattern when playing game. The uses and gratification theory have some limitations. There are three major criticisms of the users and gratification theory. (Littlejohn, 1989, P. 276) The first argument is due to the lack of coherence and it is non-theoretical. Although a more unified vision is emerging, some uses and gratification researchers are developing a theory that connects this work with another kindred program on dependency theory. Based on the researcher, Blmber said that â€Å"The nature of the theory underlying uses and gratifications research is not totally clear. † (Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch, 1974) There is confusion between gratification and satisfaction of people, whether people is only seek what they want or enjoy it. (Littlejohn, 2002) The second criticism is focusing on social and political objections. This problem is because the uses and gratification is so focuses on media functional role and ignores its dysfunctions in the society. People view media positively which can meet their needs, but they do not pay attention to the overall negative effects of media in the society. Many people criticised that the uses and gratification theory as they believed that the public actually do not control on the media and what it produces. Media do not need to take responsibility for what they produce because public is too kind to the media. Although there are many choices available for the users, they actually do not have the control over the media about what the media produces. The information that obtained by the users is solely prepared by gatekeepers and the information may already include the influences and perception of the gatekeepers. (Littlejohn, 2002) Last there is argument said that uses and gratification theory make media consumption behavioristic and individualistic. Uses and gratification theory has criticized as â€Å"vulgar gratification† which is highly individualistic nature. It only focused in the individual psychological gratification derived from individual media uses. Individuals are believed to control their media-consuming behavior according to conscious goals. (Littlejohn, 1989, P. 276) As mentioned above, people will not pay attention towards the ways to form media content and reflect the cultural values. Zillman, Denis McQuail showed one of the weaknesses of the uses and gratification theory is that the mood of people will affect their media choice. People choose what contexts to view or depend on their mood or feelings. For example, boredom encourages for choosing the exciting context, stress encourages the choice of relaxing context. Therefore, it is argue that the uses and gratification theory is often too individualistic, so it is too difficult to predict beyond the people. Some analysts have doubted the accuracy of self-reports on the uses and gratifications obtained from the media. They argue that such an approach is too simplistic, underestimate the complexity of human motivation. Self-reports are based on personal memory which can be problematic (Nagel et al. , 2004). This is because the respondents might not recall exactly how they behaved in media use which in turn distort accuracy of the study.