Author Archives: Peiying Li

 
Many people think of social entrepreneurship mostly in regards to solving problems in underdeveloped nations, problems that caused by poor national finance, like lack of access to food, clean water and medicines. But in developed nations, it’s also easy to find some issues that may lead these countries to a social entrepreneur approach, like environmental degradation, and economic inequality.

Otherwise Social entrepreneurship traditionally has been studied in the US, many forerunners operate in developing countries that have no structures or resources to support and start traditional entrepreneurship. Accordingly, social entrepreneurship creates novel business models, organizational structures, and strategies for overcoming limited and disparate resources to create social value for the whole society. It therefore relies on individuals who are exceptionally skilled at managing and utilizing resources effectively: human, financial, and political.

Social entrepreneurship paves the way for younger generation that they may be allowed to satisfy their own needs better than what we are able to satisfy even the basic needs of today’s population. It gives the leaders of global corporations a unique opportunity to learn and create new collaborative efforts that are in the corporations’ own economic interest, while at the same time creating social value.

Citation:

“What Is a Social Entrepreneur?” Ashoka. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

https://www.ashoka.org/social_entrepreneur>.

“Social Entrepreneurship.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_entrepreneurship>.

“Tilt: The Social Initiative.” What Is a Social Entrepreneur? N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://www.csef.ca/what_is_a_social_entrepreneur.php>.

Many people, like Dingchang Jia and me, are highly interested in this successful company. ALIBABA is becoming more and more famous around the world after the IPO. And people not only in China pay more attention to this company, not only because the amazing expanding speed but also the successful management strategy.

And the latest biggest marketing strategy is the “The Single Day Sale”. With this strategy Alibaba will gain huge amount of profits. Otherwise, Alibaba have their own mobile apps and services.

Chinese are also increasingly using smartphones to gain access to the Internet in place of computers, and some analysts have worried about Alibaba’s ability to continue to attract users. Though Alibaba has a number of standout smartphone applications, in mobile it remains in the shadow of its rival Tencent, which runs a popular messaging and social networking application called WeChat. Tencent has been striving to make use of the app to sell goods to consumers and has a partnership with Alibaba’s closest e-commerce competitor in China, Jingdong. Analysts have been cheered by the quick growth in the percentage of Alibaba’s transactions carried out on smartphones, though the company’s smartphone presence will continue to be watched closely.

Reply:

“Dingchang Jia’s business blog”

http://blogs.ubc.ca/maximum/

Citation:

“Alibaba Group.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Sept. 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group>.

I would like to get familiar with nowadays smart-phone market before I begin to imagine the future cool phone. The global smartphone market has witnessed extraordinary growth in recent years. Apple has redefined the hardware business model; Samsung has built a substantial advantage thanks to the scale of its operations; and the barriers to entry have fallen thanks to factors such as the rise of the Android operating system and numerous reference design platforms that enable a thriving manufacturing community, most notably in Shenzhen, China.

Some people have the enthusiasm to achieve the most advanced technology; they usually have high expectation of future smartphones. And some of the experts give them some assumption that might come true one day. I read some of the articles from the technology magazine and I want to share some new value may add into future phone. One is the flexible screen; some companies even have plans on make wearable smartphones for the masses. For instance, Nokia is currently conducting research on their concept device, Morph, which offers users the option of wearing it as a wrist watch or unfold it to use as a typical handset as and when required. And the other is 3-D screen, at present, we have a couple of 3D smartphones in the market, such as the LG Optimus 3D, the Motorola MT810 as well as the very first Samsung AMOLED 3D.

Reply to “How Smart can a Smart Phone be?”

http://blogs.ubc.ca/peinanli/2014/10/

Citation:

“10 Awesome Smartphone Concepts That May Never Exist.” Digital Trends. <http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/10-awesome-future-phone-concepts/>.

“Smartphone.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Nov. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone>.

Amazon recently launched the Fire TV Stick, a streaming media dongle that closely resembles Google’s Chromecast. The device offers the same media streaming and game-playing abilities as Amazon’s Fire TV set-top box, and costs $39, compared to the $99 Fire TV and $35 Chromecast.

Launching a cheap media stick certainly makes sense given the rising popularity of Chromecast, Roku, and Apple TV, but is it too late to enter this saturated market?

Releasing just a week before Black Friday, the Amazon Fire TV Stick is available for pre-order right now for $39. Amazon hasn’t announced global availability, but we’ve reached out and will update with new information as it comes. As a special perk for current Amazon Prime subscribers, you can pre-order the Fire TV Stick for a cool $20 for the next two days.

While similar to Chromecast and the Roku Streaming Stick, the Amazon Fire TV Stick tries to set itself apart in a few ways. It is compatibility with the Amazon Fire TV game controller is nice, opening up a selection of over 200 games to download. Of course, that requires the $40 standalone cost of the controller.

The unemployment rate is always the effective statics that may reflect some social problem and help government to adjust their policy and improve the economic atmosphere. I started to notice the unemployment rate since the 2008, the world-wise economics recession, which erupted in U.S., many countries is under the bad influence of the recession and even now some of these countries can’t get rid of these bad consequence.

U.S. job growth slowed a bit in July 2014 and the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose, pointing to slack in the labor market that could give the Federal Reserve room to keep interest rates low for a while.

Although job growth was below expectations, July marked the sixth straight month employment expanded by more than 200,000, a signal of strength last seen in 1997. In addition, data for May and June was revised to show 15,000 more jobs created than previously reported.

The one tenth of a percentage point increase in the unemployment rate to 6.2 percent came as more people entered the labor market, an indication of confidence in job prospects.

Reply to: “US unemployment rate falls to 5.9%; but wage growth disappoints – business live”

http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2014/oct/03/chinese-service-sector-ireland-eurozone-us-non-farm-payroll-live

Citation:

“Unemployment in the United States.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment_in_the_United_States>.

“United States Unemployment Rate 1948-2014 | Data | Chart | Calendar.” United States Unemployment Rate. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014. <http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate>.

First nation

The relationship between first nation in Canada and Canadian government is always complicated and important. As an international student, I am not familiar with the first nation in Canada. I try to gather all the information I get and generate my own opinion to this problem. The First Nations are the various aboriginal people in Canada. There are currently over 630 recognized First nation governments or brands  spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The total population is nearly 700,000 people.

I find out that the Canadian government pay a lot of attention on this issue and publish some laws to “protect” the aboriginal people in Canada. It seems like that government offers aboriginal people some priority to live but it is actually the specialization. Government actually controls the almost aboriginal people’s life, like resources and land. The Indian Act also aimed to reduce the aboriginal people, but because they get some privilege like the tax exemption, some of them don’t want to lose the Indian status.

Many aboriginal people have two contradictory opinions about the Indian Act. They dislike that they’ve been controlled and specialization. But they may not choose to give up their status’s protections.

Samsung Electronics Co. the world’s largest smartphone maker，is heading for its roughest quarter in years amid rising competition from Apple Inc.

Samsung is fighting to retain its dominance after Apple introduced bigger-screen iPhones began selling its low-cost devices in more overseas markets. Samsung moved up the release date for its Galaxy Note 4 smartphone to the end of September, meaning device sales will aid third-quarter results. Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have screens of 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches, respectively, compared with 4 inches for previous models, and are comparable to the size of Samsung’s devices. Apple said it sold a record number of the new models during their debut weekend last month.

Samsung will start global sales of its 5.6-inch Note Edge in the fourth quarter, the company has said. The Edge allows users to read messages, news and stock tickers from an angle by extending the display down the side of the phone.

While the introduction of new smartphones aimed at low- to mid-range markets may help retain market share, it will take the release in 2015 of Samsung’s next marquee device, such as a successor to Galaxy S5.

Recapturing growth would be helped by ensuring Samsung innovates with new technologies that are hard for rivals to imitate, such as the wraparound screen on the Note Edge and the bendable screens it has been working on. To reverse the current tide, the company should bring out the Galaxy S6 with flexible screens.”

Citation

“Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Sept. 2014. Web. 04 Oct. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._v._Samsung_Electronics_Co.%2C_Ltd.>.

“Apple IPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy S5.” Phone Arena. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. <http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Apple-iPhone-6-vs-Samsung-Galaxy-S5_id3798>.

“The Great Smartphone War: Apple vs. Samsung.” Vanity Fair. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. <http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2014/06/apple-samsung-smartphone-patent-war>.

Monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity. In many jurisdictions, competition laws restrict monopolies. Holding a dominant position or a monopoly of a market is often not illegal in itself, however certain categories of behavior can be considered abusive and therefore incurs legal sanctions when business is dominant.

Due to the lack of competitive pressure and force to development with the lack of effective oversight external constraints, the monopoly industries often can’t make the customers satisfied and violate market rules or consumer rights. Meanwhile, monopoly enterprises obtain excessive profits through monopoly, thus they may stay in their comfortable region instead of expanding their business or improving their whole industry. The price fixing and decisions in the monopoly industries are generally made the entire society to pay the cost. Generally these industries are closely related to public utilities, such as telecommunications, postal services, water, electricity, gas, rail, air and so on. Because these industries penetrated into all aspects of society, so the price of services in these industries will be related to the level of the cost of the whole society. The overall efficiency of these industries directly related to the ability of other industries to participate in international competition.

Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Heineken, Volvo, Barclays Bank and many other world-renowned companies have been investigated and fined by the European Union. By the way, the world’s top ten anti-monopoly price tickets are out of the EU. For example, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Bank and other three banks are alleged manipulation of interest rates with ticketing a € 1.71 billion in fines by the European Commission, the highest record of such antitrust fines.

Citation:

“Monopoly.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Sept. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

       <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly>.

“European Union Competition Law.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Sept. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.        <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_competition_law>.

“European Union Microsoft Competition Case.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Aug. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Microsoft_competition_case>.

“$1.4bn EU Monopoly Fine Based on Mistakes: Intel.” The Economic Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. <http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2009-09-15/news/28404620_1_intel-amd-advanced-micro-devices>.

German delivery firm DHL has beaten the tech firms to the post, announcing a regular drone delivery service for the first time, nine months after it launched its “parcel-copter” research project in December 2013.

The service will use an autonomous quadcopter to deliver small parcels to the German island of Juist, a sandbar island 12km into the North Sea from the German coast, inhabited by 2,000 people. Deliveries will include medication and other goods that may be “urgently needed”.

There are still hitches to overcome. Although the flight is automated, the parcel-copter will be “constantly monitored” by a ground station on the German mainland for safety reasons, and to ensure compliance with the nation’s regulations. The ground station will also liaise with air traffic control. Nonetheless, the company is taking orders for the parcel-copter’s regular flights, which islanders can place at the island’s pharmacy. The scheduled flights will focus on times when conventional ways of delivering packaged, such as ferries and manned flights, are not available.

In December, Amazon announced that it intended to deliver packages to customers using drones. But its “Amazon Prime Air” initiative, revealed on US current affairs show 60 Minutes, was widely ridiculed for being an over-hyped announcement with little to show for it.

DHL’s scheme is similar in practice to that detailed by Amazon: a small rotary-blade copter, carrying packages to and from locations which it delivers by landing. But DHL has overcome several of the difficulties that Amazon faces in launching its own service: the copters do not have to navigate complex urban and suburban environments, nor do they have to deal with the possibility of vandalism or theft once they land.

Citation

 “Deutsche Post DHL Tests Delivery Drone | News | DW.DE | 09.12.2013.” DW.DE. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. 

     <http://www.dw.de/deutsche-post-dhl-tests-delivery-drone/a-17281339>.