JunJie Lin's Blog

” If  the United Nations was fully funded why would we need the Arc or social enterprise”? Without doubt, the development of social issues needs sufficient capital support and social concerns. However, that’s a another story when talking about the significance of social enterprise for the world.

Take the application of renewable energy as an example, we can see many things that also needed for social issues except for funds. In Antonio Pasolini’s blog, he bolsters the possibility for the renewable energy to make the world a better place with using less fossil fuels. Besides making a proper plan, he emphasizes the importance of applying  science and business to the clean-energy plan. To be more precise, the world needs social entrepreneurs to use their business skills and knowledge to distribute the funds rationally to several certain social issues and bring positive change to the society.

In the reading materials for the class, the importance of dissemination of business ideas to developing countries and exchanging business skills and knowledge are highlighted several times in the articles. Social entrepreneurship provides an innovative way to not only generate wealth but also and most importantly, guarantee the long-term benefits for the entire society by pulling the whole world into the process of business development and developing the unique advantages of different regions.

Work Cited:

Pasolini, Antonio. “The World Can Be Powered With Renewable Energy-If We Want It To Be – SocialEarth.” SocialEarth RSS. N.p., 11 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

“What Is Social Entrepreneurship?” Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

“Sauder School of Business.” The Arc Initiative. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

As mentioned in Jessica Trung’s blog, Stephen Harper has recently put forward reinforcing the business relationship between Canada and China, which is not only due to the fast growing economy in China but also based on the increasing opportunities for business between the two countries. But why Alibaba was chosen from the huge e-commerce market and what is the motivation for it to develop the online transactions internationally?

According the description by Stephen Harper, Alibaba can enjoy the low corporate tax rate and debt levels in Canada which would be an attractive place to do business for Chinese investors. Using the PEST-analysis, the economy in China is growing rapidly and the online shopping has become the most popular way of purchasing . The trend of e-commerce can be regarded as an significant macro force pushing Alibaba to expand and optimize its international business. Also, Alibaba’s needs of developing in the world’s e-commerce market can match the Canadian  technological strength.

Work Cited:

Trung, Jessica. “Jessica Trung’s Blog.” Jessica Trungs Blog. N.p., 8 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

Alibaba

Press, The Canadian. “Prime Minister Stephen Harper Stumps for Canadian Exporters on China Trip – CBC News – Latest Canada, World, Entertainment and Business News.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 07 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

Creating a happy place to work means sufficiently stimulating employees’ motivation on working by spreading the positive spirit through organizational culture. After ensuring the importance of creating a fantastic company culture, the problem about how to create a happy working environment arises.

In Elaine Langton’s blog, she chose Disney as an example which provides not only a memorable experience for its consumers but also a happy working place for its employees. She emphasized the core values of the company and the maintenance of its positive brand image displayed by the impressive stories and amazing characters. Also, the blog mentioned the interconnection between the company culture and the profit. The employees are enjoying a happy workplace thanks to the core values of the company and the positive image of the brand.

Except for having some core values, Disney also highlights the significance of leaders who always support the employees and often provide useful guidance for managers. As a company which disseminates happiness and entertainment outward, Disney knows how to bring entertainment for its employees. Compared to focusing on the core values of the company, what about listing some core values of the workplace? By doing so, the company is able to improve the company culture with more accurate directions and the employees are able to generate more values for the company.

Work Cited:

Langton, Elaine. “Elaine Langton’s Comm 101 Blog.” Elaine Langtons Comm 101 Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

Lipp, Doug. “The Four Circumstances Driving Disney’s Organizational Culture.” CommPRObiz RSS. N.p., 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

The  goal for a company is to maximize its profit and stand out from the competitive market. In other words, companies need to improve the bottom line, which can be achieved by  simultaneously growing the revenue and cutting the costs. However, the whole process of companies development is not that simple as it shows literally. A company is operated by intelligence and active action guided by relative business strategies including building a encouraging organizational culture which paves the way to business success.

Compared to revising the business strategies according to customers’ feedback through the social media such as Facebook and Twitter which seem to provide a large amount of fast and direct information, company culture creates a more efficient way to facilitate the communication among people. More and more  companies buy fake online reviews due to growing public’s reliance on online review sites and the great impact of good online reputation on a company’s revenue. Based on the benefits of the organizational culture, I recommend that these companies should focus on creating the company culture that fits their business types and therefore optimizing their workforce management. By enhancing the employees’ motivation, the company can also improve the consumers’ experience with better service provided by its employees. Thus, a good organizational culture is more important than merely attaining “good” online reputation without reflecting the management inside the company.

Work Cited:

Griffith-Greene, Megan. “Yelp, Google and UrbanSpoon Targets for Fake Reviews.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 07 Nov. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

“Bottom Line Definition | Investopedia.” Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

Link of the news article:Cashless Buying Poses Financial Risks for Those Without Self-Control

Still worrying about leaving your wallet at home and realize it when making a payment? We have several new payment methods coming out now, which provide more convenience through some useful apps on smartphone used to make payment more easily. However, before we adopt these payment methods in our life and enjoy the convenience they offer, there are still some problems for us to consider.

There is no doubt that the popular cashless payment systems such as ERPLY  and TabbedOut make the payment process a breeze and reduce the possibility of losing the wallets and plastic cards, potential risks still exist during the payment process without considering about the budget. By promoting rewards and pushing advertisement on customers’ payment account, retailers thereby attracting more consumers to encourage more transactions on the account. Simultaneously, problem arises because it’s harder for customers to track their expense when enjoying the efficiency and convenience the digital tools are bringing them.  Thus, improvement should be carried out to make up for the potential risks. Except for simply defining the problems by translating decision problems into research problems, more potential problems which would most likely arise without recognition should be figured out. In other words, it is important to break out the limitation of problems definition in marketing research. Furthermore, it would be advantageous to roll out certain systems which would facilitate the management of the online bank account linked to the cashless payment systems.

Information about some useful mobile payment systems:Mobile Payment Systems

Work Cited:

 Friend, David. “Cashless Buying Poses Financial Risk for Those without Self-control.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 24 Oct. 2014. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.

Lee, Singyin. “Mobile Payment Systems: The Era Of A Cashless Future.” Hongkiatcom RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.

First Nations are set to declare their natural land as tribal park and New Prosperity mine. Questions exist that are any risks behind the declaration of tribal park and is it beneficial or harmful for the future. Generally speaking, it’s a beneficial plan to develop partnership with First Nations if the plan is conducted in the light of First Nations natural environment, heritage, natives right and so forth. It should be a two-way inter-governmental activities based on protection of aboriginal land and listening to the natives’ wish in order to obtain a long-term benefit for both side.

Tsilhqot’in set to declare site of New Prosperity mine a tribal park

It’s become a life style that people make coffee at home with a convenient coffee machine. Keurig, the American coffee giant, provides customers with over 250 varieties of coffee^[1], tea and other beverages, promising customers a more enjoying way of life. Recently, Keurig has increased the price of its coffee product by 9 percent^[2], which is claimed as a artificially high price by an Ontario coffee roaster and grinder. As a coffee giant, Keurig is also facing a urgent environmental issue that the coffee pods are plastic so they produced a great amount of trash which flows into the waste stream after being used. Artificial high price and negative impact on the environment are the main factors that challenged by Keurig’s competitors which claims to have the same quality and generate less waste by using compostable materials for pods production.

It is believed that most customers still choose Keurig as their daily coffee brand regardless of the hiking price. Customers can find a variety of coffee blend specially designed for every single time with different degree of taste and aroma. Keurig can use glass or other compostable materials instead of plastic to produce the coffee pods in order to make them reusable and reduce waste.

Keurig coffee sued for $600M by Ontario-based Club Coffee

Works Cited:

[1]http://www.keurig.com/

[2]News, CBC. “Keurig Hikes Cost of K-Cups by 9%.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 14 Aug. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/keurig-hikes-cost-of-k-cups-by-9-1.2736431>

“Canada’s wireless networks are among the fastest and most reliable in the world,” said Telus president and CEO Joe Natale. People are willing to pay for fast wireless network because it provides efficiency to browse fresh news, post on facebook and chat with friends only by using a portable smartphone outside their home networks. The Competition Bureau claims to entice a new fourth wireless carrier to Canada in order to stimulate competition to reduce price. Several months before the news, Canada’s three big wireless carriers hiked the base price for their new smartphone plan by $5^[1], which means customers should pay more monthly when they think they are enjoying a ‘sweet’ lower cost for wireless networks even if they are BYOD’ing (Bring Your Own Device)^[2]. On top of that, customers’ feedback indicates that they receive worse service after price cutting. We need to think about if the stimulation of competition is necessary for the evolution of Canada’s wireless networks and what the price decrease brings to customers.

In my point of view, there is no need reducing the price if the quality of service decrease at the same time. Lower price can be one of the competitive advantage but wireless carriers should not merely focus on price competition, they should also improve service quality based on the low price. Efficient customers’ feedback mechanism should be established to track comments on the service so as to facilitate service improving constantly.

Works cited:

[1]News, CBC. “Wireless Carriers Hike Prices across Canada.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/wireless-carriers-hike-prices-across-canada-1.2575886>.

[2]“New Telus Plans: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” WordsByNowak. N.p., 16 July 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. <http://wordsbynowak.com/2013/07/16/telus-wireless-3/>.

If told that you can take in lower calories and lose weight by replacing natural sugar with artificial sweeteners, will you shift the focus point to those sugar-free products? The answers may vary among people who have  different physiques.

Artificial sweeteners are compounds that consist of chemicals and natural substances and offer the sweetness of sugar without the same calories^[1]. As a sugar lover, I wonder whether people  would tend to consume the so-called sugar-free products rather than sticking to the taste of table sugar. For me, I prefer natural sugar because of its pure taste, but most of the time it’s the market that force me to consume an artificial one.  By which I mean the market necessitating transforming consumer’s choices even though they are not satisfied with the final choices, which is because we are surrounded by sugar-free products in the market. It is the healthy diet concept that drive people to focus on sugar substitute which may be part of their healthy eating habit. Market makes sugar substitute more accessible in order to satisfy consumers’ healthy diet. However, what about the ones who don’t need to lose weight or have deep affection for natural sugar? They don’t have much time to walk in the store browsing ingredient tables. Therefore, the market also create obstacles for other consumers who prefer table sugar.

Coca Cola Zero, a sugar-free variation of regular coca cola. As one of the best popular beverage company in the world, Coca Cola also faces pressure now.

How Coca-Cola Is Trying to Get Its Groove Back

Work Cited:

[1] Seward, Elizabeth. “HowStuffWorks “Why Artificial Sweeteners Are Bad For You and the Planet”” HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.

When we talk about Business Ethic, we not only refer to companies, but also add other parts to our discussion .

I found that Business Ethics are operated by several parts, including government, activists and so on.

I agree that companies should utilize competitive advantage to facilitate the implementation of social responsibilities. In the mean time, I think the purpose of social responsibilities cannot be simply defined as to obtain profits, even if it is associated with the resources and capabilities of the companies. In my opinion, Business Ethic is a kind of response to consumers whose demand stimulate the progress of the companies.

Also, companies need pressure from activists and media in order to find out the defection of their social responsibilities. But the government should supervise the media not to exaggerate certain issues, which will result in neglect of other important facts. To solve this problem, consumers should actively give companies feedback in order to prevent misunderstanding of exaggerated facts.