Dells Online Competitve Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Dells Online Competitve Strategy - Essay Example The objective of this paper is used Dell computers as a case study to explain how information systems can be used as a competitive strategy to respond to competitive forces, to improve its competitiveness, to achieve and sustain competitive advantage. The literature review is divided into 3 parts. The first part explains Porters competitive forces model. The second explains briefly the competitive strategies. The third part is used Porters value chain, model. The threat of new entrants depends on the degree of the barriers to entry. If the barriers to entry are high, the threat of entry will be low and vice versa. Consequently, in order to deter new entrants from coming into an industry, firms cultivate unique or capital-intensive resources that new firms cannot easily duplicate (Shin, 2001). The threat of substitute goods depends on the availability of alternative goods or services in the market. The more alternative goods or services in the market, the higher the threat of substitute good and the lower the market share and total revenue ascertained by the firms in the industry and vice versa. Therefore, in order to increase revenue and market, products will have to be unique and well differentiated. This force determines the level of control a supplier has over the price of its product. Since, the more alternative suppliers in the market, the lower the bargaining power of the suppliers and vice versa. Thus, in a market with few suppliers, a supplier is able to achieve the desired level of profit due to a significant

Stem Cell Research and ethical issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Stem Cell Research and ethical issues - Essay Example Ethical issues are those that ask us to consider the potential moral outcomes of stem cell technologies, Legal issues require researchers and the public to help policymakers decide whether and how stem cell technologies should be regulated by the government and Social issues involve the impact of stem cell technologies on society as a whole. While stem cells can be derived from aborted fetuses and even adults, the best source for stem cells is the small clump of cells that compose the early zygote only a few days following conception. Stem cells can be extracted from very young human embryos -- typically from surplus frozen embryos left over from in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures at fertility clinics. Therefore, to best investigate the latent possibilities inherent in stem cells, scientists prefer to choose the approximately 100,000 "excess" frozen pre-embryos that are "left over" from earlier IVF attempts. Now, the question arises whether it is ethical to allow the destruction of pre-embryos to obtain stem cells for research that may some day save thousands of lives Whether life for those already existing should be improved at the seeming expense of a possible human life that has just come into being While many ethical issues arise, the key one is whether pre-embryos are included in the prohibition of abortion. T he consensus thus far is that it an embryo is not protected by the limitations on abortion until it is implanted in a woman. Nevertheless, many Rabbis oppose the deliberate creation of pre-embryos for the purpose of their destruction, as this would cheapen the value of human life. The halachic process offers fascinating insight into all areas of ethics, including biomedical ethics. Early stem cells have the ability to differentiate into every cell of the human body, potentially forming an entire fetus. However, by manipulating the conditions and controlling cellular differentiation, research has been able create replacement cells and organs, potentially curing illnesses such as diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. Stem cell is a primitive type of cell that can be coaxed into developing into most of the 220 types of cells found in the human body (e.g. blood cells, heart cells, brain cells, etc). Some researchers regard them as offering the greatest potential for the alleviation of human suffering since the development of antibiotics. Over 100 million Americans and two billion other humans worldwide suffer from diseases that may eventually be treated more effectively with stem cells or even cured. These include heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. The ultimate promise of stem cell technology would be to combine it with cloning. Take for instance, a patient dying of liver failure whose cell is cloned. Instead of allowing a cloned cell to develop into a fetus, it could be subjected to conditions where it would differentiate into a genetically identical liver. If this liver is allowed to "grow" to maturity, we could offer the patient a liver transplant without the risk of rejection and without the need for anti-rejection drugs. Those who believe that human life begins at conception-and who also regard activated eggs as morally equivalent to human embryos-cannot ethically approve therapeutic