Although  the national referendum of  Scotland Independence has ended up with a “No”, it is still meaningful to explore the impact that a yes vote would have on Scotland’s Exports and the economic influence on the rest part of the UK as well as the European Union. The independence of Scotland would have a negative drag on its exporters like whiskeys, food and beverage.  Take whiskey for instance, the whiskey industry relies much on  the support of  both the UK and EU governments in their overseas market. As Scotland might not be a member of EU after independence, the future of its export industry could be a concern. As for the United Kingdom,  it would have lost a bunch of export tax revenue if Scotland had gone independent. Consequently, English consumers would have pay more for the goods that originally come from Scotland because the goods would have been no longer domestic so that the UK Would have  to pay for the import tariff.

Sources:

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE, David Cojocar’s blog

https://blogs.ubc.ca/davidcojocar/2014/09/19/the-economic-impact-of-scottish-independence/Scottish Independence: What Impact Will a Yes Vote Have on Scotland’s Exports, International business times

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/scottish-independence-what-impact-will-yes-vote-have-scotlands-exports-1465529

Recently Sony announced that it expected annual loss to swell to $2 billion at a press conference. The loss is due to its troubled smartphone business. It is not surprised to hear such news because the current smartphone market has been mostly occupied by Apple and Samsung. Aside from that, strong Chinese rivals are another key reason for sony’s loss. Why sony could not compete with Apple? Because of the technology? The answer is no. Actually Sony’s smartphone has its own advantages like the high screen resolution and pixel. However, Sony  is lack of  the differential strategy.  It is the fact that iPhone has gains the most loyal customers because of its founder Steve Jobs’s inspiring legendary. Without making a big difference, it is not easy to win over  the smartphone market share. To save their smartphone market, I think the first thing is to increase the advertising. In Apple’s biggest market, China, iPhone’s TV commercial is broadcasting intensely, but Sony Xperia never did the advertisement on TV, the most effective way of advertising.

Source:

Sony predicts $2.1 billion loss, Jordan Andrew’s Blog

https://blogs.ubc.ca/jordanandrews/2014/09/18/sony-2-billion-loss/

“Beleaguered Sony predicts $2.1 billion loss as smartphone future falters”

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/personal-tech/Sony+forecasts+loss+swell+billion+after+writing/10211364/story.html?__federated=1

Although iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus have been on sale for a while in many countries and we have seen so many people lining up for a whole night to buy them, as the biggest market of Apple, China is not the initial market for the new iPhones this time. But it does not affect its popularity there. Based on JD.com, a Chinese website that tracks the pre-orders of iPhone 6s, there were over 2.8 million pre-orders for iPhone 6s as of 11 pm Friday Beijing time (8:00 am Friday Pacific time). Tencent news estimates that in the four days since the iPhones were approved for sale in China, reservations topped 4 million. From the data we could see the how strong the influence of Apple and iPhone 6s are.  It’s not surprised that iPhone could make such a success because Apple has made such clear value proposition and have conducted it through its amazing advertisements.

Citation:

“Forbes”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2014/10/04/apples-iphone-6-pre-orders-are-on-fire-in-china/

Social responsibility of business is a wildly discussed concept amongst businessmen and the whole society.  According to Milton Friedman, the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. From my point of view, social responsibility is more than that.

As Jack Ma, Alibaba’s group executive chairman said, “When you have 1 million dollars, that’s your money. When you have 1 billion dollars, that’s the trust from others. They think I can spend money better than most people do.”  What he said reflects the spirit of social responsibility of business. The corporations make profits to solve society issues and help individuals. In other words, profit is never the destination.

The first thing we should know that the social responsibility of business is actually undertaken by the corporate executive of those big corporations. It’s not deniable that making as much money as possible is the responsibility for the corporate executive because he has direct responsibility to his employers. However, at the same time, the corporate executive should think about more about the society issues like helping other individual proprietors or eliminating discrimination. This is the most effective day to gain public’s respect while their respect could help the company with long-term development.

Source:

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/3794796483001/alibabas-jack-ma-we-are-here-to-help-small-business-not-compete/#sp=show-clips