Apple Stock Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Apple Stock - Research Paper Example According to the study the industry in which Apple operates in can be characterized into external features using Michael Porter’s five forces framework. The industry has barriers to entry due to the significant capital requirements needed to enter. The degree of competition that the industry faces also limits entry of newcomers and the brand identity that each player in the industry creates bars new entrants since they would struggle for any significant market share due to their lack of any brand identity.From this paper it is clear that  there is the constant threat of substitutes that the company faces due to the higher prices that the company imposes on its products as compared to its competitors. Generally, Apple products are highly priced than other similar products in the market, therefore there is that threat that consumers might opt to go for a lower priced commodity from Apple’s rivals. The threat of substitutes is also created due to the nature of the compan y business which is a closed ecosystem and is therefore difficult to switch to any other form of business. There is also the supplier power that Apple as a corporation holds. The company always creates quality products making the company have the power to bargain for a higher price for their products in relation to their competitors.  Apple Inc. is one of the most valuable companies in the world and much of its success is attributed to the sustainable competitive advantage it has created over the years.

Social Cognitive Theories Essay Example for Free

Social Cognitive Theories Essay SOCIAL COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORIES Social Cognitive views have been influenced by the humanist idea of uniqueness of human beings, that human beings are decision makers, planners and evaluators of behavior. Key Concepts: Social cognitive learning theorists emphasize the importance of both the influences of other people’s behavior and of a person’s own expectancies on learning, and also that observational learning, modeling can lead to the formation of patterns of personality. Thought and behavior are closely interlined with the situation the person is in Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory: Introduction: Albert Bandura a modern theorist helped reshape the theoretical landscape of behaviorism. Bandura believes that three factors influence one another in determint of behavior: the environment, the behavior itself and personal or cognitive factors that the person brings into situation from earlier experience. Key Terms: 1. Cognitive Processes and Reciprocal Determinism 2. Observational Learning 3. Self Regulation 4. Self Efficacy Cognitive Processes and Reciprocal Determinism: Bandura and like-minded theorists call their modified brand of behaviorism social learning theory or social cognitive theory. Bandura (1982-1986) agrees with the fundamental thrust of behaviorism in that he believes that personality is largely shaped through learning. However, he contends that conditioning is not a mechanical process in which people are passive participants. Instead, he maintains that â€Å"people are self-organizing, proactive, self-reflecting and self-regulating, not just reactive organisms shaped and shepherded by external events†. Bandura advocates a position called reciprocal determinism. According to this notion, the environment does determine behavior (as skinner would argue). However, behavior also determines the environment (in other words, people can act to alter their environment). Moreover, personal factors (cognitive structures such as beliefs and expectancies) determine and are determined by both behavior and the environment. Thus, reciprocal determinism is the idea that internal mental events, external environmental events, and over behavior all influence one another. According to Bandura, humans are neither masters of their own destiny nor hapless victims buffered about by the environment. Instead, the truth lies somewhere between these two extremes. ENVIRONMENT BEHAVIOR PERSONAL / COGNITIVE FACTORS (EXPECTATIONS, BELIEFS, SELF-EFFICACY BANDURA’S RECEIPROCAL DETERMINISM Observational Learning: Bandura’s foremost theoretical contribution has been his description of observational learning. Observational learning occurs when an organism’s responding is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models. According to Bandura, both classical and operant conditioning can occur vicariously when one person observes another’s conditioning. For example, watching your sister get burned by a bounced check upon selling her old stereo could strengthen your tendency to be suspicious of others. Although your sister would be the one actually experiencing the negative consequences, they might also influence you – through observational learning. Bandura maintains that people’s characteristic patterns of behavior are shaped by the models that they are exposed to. He isn’t referring to the fashion models who dominate the mass media – although they do qualify. In observational learning, a model is a person whose behavior is observed by another. At one time or another, everyone serve as a model for others. As social learning theory has been refined, it has become apparent that some models are more influential than others. Both children and adults tend to imitate people they like or respect more than people they don’t. People are also especially prone to imitate the behavior of people whom they consider attractive or powerful. Self-regulation: Bandura notes, human beings often demonstrate an impressive capacity for the self-regulation of their own behavior. While people may often respond to external factors such as positive reinforcement and punishment, they sometimes choose to ignore these and to operate in terms of internal standards and values. We set our own goals, and we often provide our own rewards when we reach them – a process Bandura describes as self-reinforcement. Self-Efficacy: Bandura discusses how a variety of personal factors (aspects of personality) govern behavior. In recent years, the factor he has emphasized most is self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to one’s belief about one’s ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes. When self-efficacy is high, individuals feel confident that they can execute the responses necessary to earn reinforcers. When self-efficacy is low, individuals worry that the necessary responses may be beyond their abilities. Perceptions of self-efficacy are subjective and specific to certain kinds of tasks. For instance, you might feel extremely confident about your ability to handle difficult social situations but doubtful about your ability to handle academic challenges. Perceptions of self-efficacy can influence which challenges people tackle and how well they perform. Studies have found that feelings of greater self-efficacy are associated with greater success in giving up smoking; greater adherence to an exercise regimen; more success in coping with pain; greater persistence and effort in academic pursuits; higher levels of academic performance; enhanced performance in athletic competition; greater receptiveness to technological training and higher work-related performance, among many other things. What are the developmental antecedent of high self-efficacy? Schneewind asserts that parents can foster self-efficacy by providing a stimulating environment and by being responsive to their children’s behavior. An emphasis on warm support for children, early independence training, and non-punitive disciplinary techniques is also helpful. In contrast, parents who are authoritarian, intrusive, overprotective, or neglectful are likely to undermine self-efficacy in their offspring. Julian Rotter’s Social Learning Theory: Introduction: Rotter suggested that the likelihood of a given behavior occurring in a specific situation depends on the individuals expectancies concerning the outcomes the behavior will produce and the reinforcement value they attach to such outcomes – the degree to which the prefer one reinforcement to another. Key Terms: 1. Expectancies 2. Locus of Control Rotter developed his Social Learning Theory to incorporate cognitive factors. Rotter recognized that most the reinforcers we strive to obtain one social (e.g. Hugs, attention and that most learning occurs in social situation) Expectancies: The concept of expectancy is one of the most important elements of Rotter’s theory. When you take an exam apply for a job or ask for a date, you have some notion of the likelihood of success or failure. What you expect to happen has a powerful influence on your behavior, thought, feelings and in turn personality. Locus of Control: Locus of control involves the extent to which individuals believe that they or that external factors control their lives. Rotter focused on whether people place their locus of control inside themselves (internal) or in their environments (external). Locus of control influences how people view the world and how they identify the causes of success or failure in their lives. In an important way, people’s locus of control reflects their personality – their view of, and reactions to, the world. People with an external locus of control believe that they have little control over their lives. A college student may attribute his or her poor grade to a lousy teacher, feeling there was nothing he or she could have done to get an A. In contrast, individuals who develop an internal locus of control feel that they can master any course they take because they believe that through hard work they can do well in any subject. People develop expectations based on their beliefs about the sources of reinforcement in their environments. These expectations lead to specific behaviors described as personality. Reinforcement of these behaviors in turn strengthens expectancy and leads to increased belief in internal or external control.

Use of Porosity in Public Spaces

Use of Porosity in Public Spaces Introduction The connection between the built and the unbuilt / between the â€Å"indoor† and the â€Å"outdoor†/ between the mass and the void is a very sensitive and debatable topic. The experience of a space can be severely affected by the ways its edges are treated, i.e. by controlling how a person enters/exits the space. Transitional experience plays a vital role in overall feel and experience of spaces. Different types of spaces require different types of treatments on their edge conditions. Porosity is one of the many guiding factors in designing a space, specially public places, which are the key strategic spaces in providing the area/city its character. Not only does careful design of such spaces increase the aesthetic quality of the place, but also plays a major role in increasing the standards of functionality, safety, quality and many such factors under which a city can be categorised. Porosity, is one spatial quality that can definitely benefit the public spaces, specially in places like Delhi, where the individual is getting isolated from the community in his efforts to cope up with the pace of life that the city has to offer. Also, with the increasing gap between the two extreme income groups of the city, the spaces, which are meant to be ‘public’, cater only to a certain section of the society, neglecting those which fail to fulfil the ‘entrant requirements’ . Apart from giving spaces back to all the sections of the society, increasing porosity in community spaces can also act as a measure against increasing crime rates in the city, as it opens up the space to a larger section of the society. Topic: Porosity in public spaces Research Question: How can porosity in public spaces be increased to enhance their utility for the society in general ? Public Spaces Public spaces are an inevitable component of human settlements. Parks, plazas, roads, beaches, etc are typically considered public spaces. They are the common ground for people to interact with others, share knowledge or goods, or carry out their daily rituals, be it daily routine or occasional festivities. By definition, they are spaces that should be accessible to all the members of the society, irrespective of their economic strength. It was stated that:   Ã‚   Regarding the criterion of access, public space is a place which is open to all. This means its resources, the activities that take place in it, and information about it are available to everybody. Concerning the criterion of agency, public space is a place controlled by public actors (i.e., agents or agencies that act on behalf of a community, city, commonwealth or state) and used by the public (i.e., the people in general). As for interest, public space is a place which serves the public interest (i.e., its benefits are controlled and received by all members of the society) (Akkar, Z 2005). Of course, these definitions refer to an ideal public space, while the urban atmosphere is not entirely composed of rigidly public and private spaces; instead, it is an amalgamation of public and private spaces with different degrees of publicness. Accepting that the relation between public and private space is a continuum, it is possible to define public spaces as having various degrees of publicness. Regarding the dimensions of access, actor and interest, the extent of publicness will depend on three categories: the degree to which the public space and its resources, as well as the activities occurring in it and information about it, are available to all; the degree to which it is managed and controlled by public actors and used by the public; and the degree to which it serves the public interest. Life in public spaces, not only has a function in the society as a whole, but it is also a rich source of individual amusement, pleasure and play. One criticism of the prevailing socio-functional approach towards urban public space can be that the individuals perspective is often disregarded. To what extent do city dwellers like to meet other urbanites in public places? Hardly any planner, architect or urban administrator seems to be interested in that question. Planners and city councils are eager to speak about public spaces as meeting places. They find it an attractive idea to conceive of public spaces as a unifying element where all sectors of the urban population meet. With the help of that image they can present their cities as communities, despite all the contrasts and differences. Most social scientists dealing with urban public space also tend to regard processes that take place in the public realm as a contribution to the social organization, as a fulfilment of societal nee ds. This top-down-view, however, neglects the daily users perspective. Do city dwellers wish to get together with all their co-urbanites? Everybody who has ever been in a city knows the answer: no, certainly not with everyone. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that at least some individuals derive great pleasure from being in public. Whether a space will function well depends on a range of aspects that include scale, use, safety and comfort, density and links. In many cases it is the individuals experience of walking or dancing down a street, and the quality of environment, that is the most important element. Design then becomes about maximizing choice and trying to provide for different individuals goals. Problems with public spaces Despite the resurgence of interest in public spaces, urban design and planning litera- ture has frequently hinted at the diminishing publicness of public spaces in modern cities. Some researchers have pointed out the threat of recent privatization policies, and claimed that public spaces, traditionally open to all segments of the population, are increasingly being developed and managed by private agencies to produce profit for the private sector and serve the interests of particular sections of the population (Punter, J 1990). Others have commented on the high degree of control now maintained over access and use of public spaces through surveillance cameras and other measures intended to improve their security (Reeve, A 1996). Still others have argued that contemporary public spaces increasingly serve a homogenous public and promote social filtering. These open-access public spaces are precious because they enable city residents to move about and engage in recreation and face-to-face communication. But, because an open-access space is one everyone can enter, public spaces are classic sites for tragedy, to invoke Garrett Hardins famous metaphor for a commons (H, Garrrett 1968, cited Ellickson, R 1996) A space that all can enter, however, is a space that each is tempted to abuse. Societies therefore impose rules-of-the-road for public spaces. While these rules are increasingly articulated in legal codes, most begin as informal norms of public etiquette (Taylor, R 1984, cited Ellickson, R 1996). Rules of proper street behaviour are not an impediment to freedom, but a foundation of it (Ellickson, R 1996)

Waste Land Essay: Spiritual Decay -- T.S. Eliot Waste Land Essays

Spiritual Decay in The Waste Land      Ã‚  In The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot develops his theme of sterility and decay in the post-World War I man by focusing on the aspect of "religious dearth or superficiality reflected in despintualized love" (Pinion). For Eliot, man's inability to find real love or to move beyond superficial sexual gratification is congruous to the spiritual decay of his soul.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the first part of the poem, "The Burial of the Dead'~ Eliot's allusions to two love stories amidst a backdrop of "stony rubbish" and "broken images" illustrates his view of love as something that has lost its ability to blossom in the infertility of modem society (20,22). Eliot alludes to the story of Tristan, a young sailor, who leaves his lover, Isolde, behind when he sails for home. As he lies dying, he waits for the arrival of her ship, but the sea that is to bring her remains empty and desolate. This shows how human longing in love is fr... ...erating his hope for the regeneration or rebirth of the human spirit (424-425).    Works Cited and Consulted Pinion, F.B., A T.S. Eliot Companion: Life and Works, The Macmillan Press (1986) Southam, B.C., A Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot, Harcourt Brace & Company Shashane, VA "Reflections on the Waste Land", Studies on IS Eliot Ed. A.N. Dwivedi; US Bahri Publishers (1989) Raffel, Burton IS Eliot Frederick Ungar Publising Co., Inc. (1982)

Info Systems

Part I: True/False evaluation and Multiple-choice questions (0. 5 points/each question) 1. The overarching goal of information security is to ensure data integrity, availability, and confidentiality. 2. Managing security refers to a comprehensive set of activities that develop, implement, direct, and monitor the organization’s security strategy and activities. 3. The most expensive cybercrime are computer viruses. 4. Authentication is a means of providing proof of data transmission or receipt so that the occurrence of a transaction cannot later be refused. . The trend in computer security is toward policy-based management. 6. The core challenge of security management is ___________. a)Finding the right balance between shielding the organization’s main assets from potential harm b)Enabling staff to do their jobs c)Both a) and b) 7. Which of the following hacker tricks involves launching software that monitors all traffic looking for passwords or other valuable informatio n? a)Main-in-the middle b)Denial of service c)Trojan horse d)Network sniffing 8.Defining security policies and then managing and enforcing those policies via security management products and services is known as _______. a)Intrusion-based management b)Policy-based management c)Incident-based management 9. To protect against spoofing, firms need a way to ____________. a)Authenticate the identity of an individual b)Repudiate the identify of an individual c)Dispute the identity of an individual 10. To protect against hacking, companies install ___________ which controls access between networks. a)Virtual private systems b)Encryption c)Firewalls

Earl Jones †Scams and Fraud Essay

Earl Jones was born in Montreal on June 24, 1963. He started to work at Montreal TRUST for over 16 years; he worked 8-10 different positions including investment management, estates, trust administration, will planning and manager of the mortgage department. In 1970 Jones left the company to start his own business, he began holding courses on taking care of finances. He then launched a company he called â€Å"Earl Jones Consultant and Administration Corporation, an administrative and financial advising† (Gazette, 2010). He began to make withdrawals from his bank account, into which he deposited his client’s money. Earl Jones is a â€Å"White Collar Criminal† which is â€Å"members of the rich and powerful who used their positions for personal gain ignoring the law and the consequences for others. He surmised that white-collar criminals damaged the social relations between citizens and their government, clients and professionals and consumers and corporationsâ₠¬  (Sutherland, 1940). Earl Jones grew up in a family whom barley made it by with money, this contributed to his personality later in life. Earl Jones felt the need to fulfill his desires of better schools for their children, keeping up the appearance of greater wealth than he was able to afford as a status symbol (Sutherland, 1940). Earl Jones scheme works by simply paying old investors the funds collected with new investors. The fraud can only continue just as long as there was a continued flow of new investors. Jones had made a promise to his clients that they will achieve an above normal rate of return. (Moffatt, 2012). In 2005 Jones set up nine mortgages valued nearly two million dollars; he convinced many of his clients to re-mortgage their homes. In 2008 he switched to, a commercial account, he still continued to print ‘in trust’ on cheques he was using with clients. Earl Jones had claimed to be a financial advisor. All the payments he had made showed as an administrative expensive. Jones convinced clients that he would invest their funds to generate high returns with little or no risk. Earl Jones seemed like a very friendly and trustworthy guy. Investors considered him to be a part of the family, most calling him â€Å"Uncle Jones†. Jones targeted his family and his immediate circle of friends, then he started to convince widows with a paid off house to take out a new mortgage so he could invest the loan and get a higher return (Maclellan, 2009). Many people have been hurt in Earl Jones scheme; obviously the initial victims lost their money and were very angry. His family lost the most in this scheme. His wife and daughters experienced many emotions from anger to losing all hope to depression and disappointment. His family knew him as a loving husband, devoted father, and a respected member of the community. When his wife and daughters had figured out what he was really about, they stated him â€Å"as a man we can scarcely believe exists† (CBCNEWS, 2009). Jones had left his family with zero financial means to face the future; his family now needs to become members of local charities, to have basic needs such as food and medication, they also need to worry about finding places to sleep. Earl Jones was sentenced to eleven years in prison. He has pleaded guilty to scamming 158 clients of $50 million dollars in the scheme he had operated for over more than two decades. The punishment does not fit his crime, he had ruined several people’s lives, not only robbing them of their money, but he took their freedom and self-esteem (The Gazette, 2010). In comparison to the punishment given to American Ponzi scheme Bernard Madoff who was sentenced 150 years in jail which is the maximum sentence allowed, Bernard pleaded guilty of 11 felony counts including security fraud, money laundering and perjury. Bernard has scammed clients of $65 billion dollars (New York Times, 2013). Jones sentence does not seem appropriate seeing as he has stolen $50 million dollars from his clients and would have continued this scheme if he was not caught. According to ‘Theories and History of enterprise/white collar crimes’ the theory â€Å"Rational Choice – Need† is appropriate for Earl Jones conduct because â€Å"some individuals are driven by psychological or financial needs to commit crime. Executives may feel the need to keep up the appearance of greater wealth than they are able to afford as a status symbol, or to stroke their egos. Blue collar workers may feel the need to take things to augment their incomes to keep pace with inflation† (Sutherland, 1940). Earl Jones grew up in a family that could barely get by, making him become a needy person in the future, always wanting more. Earl Jones had stolen millions of dollars from his loved ones and his close friends, this proves that he would do anything for money and always wanted to be looked at as a rich person whom always kept up his appearance and style. References The Gazette. (2010). Earl Jones Scandal. Retrieved from: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/earl-jones/index.html Sutherland, E. (1940). White Collar Criminality. Handout presented at SOCS10261G, Sheridan College, Oakville. Moffatt, M. (2012). Ponzi Scheme. Retrieved from: http://economics.about.com/od/financialmarkets/f/ponzi_scheme.htm Macelellan, N. (2009). Earl Jones – A Canadian Ponzi. Retrieved from: http://beforeyouinvest.ca/2009/07/earl-jones-canadian-ponzi/ CBCNEWS. (2009) Ponzi Scheme Suspects Family express ‘Grief, Shame’. Retrieved from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2009/07/20/earl-jones-family-statement.html The New York Times. (2013). Bernard L. Madoff. Retrieved from: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/bernard_l_madoff/index.html