PESTEL Analysis of Cummins ESB Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

PESTEL Analysis of Cummins ESB Business - Essay Example Notable areas that Cummins ESB is likely to face political and legislative interferences include but not limited to taxation policies, labour laws, trade restrictions, Environmental regulation and investments especially public private partnership ventures. In other words Cummins ESB will have to comply with different legislations relating to taxation, labour, or investment in every country of their operation. Economic Factors Economic factors are inherent concern to Cummins ESB taking into consideration that the factors are likely to influence their profits, investments, costs, prices and demand to greater extent. Notable economic factors that are likely to affect operations Cummins ESB include but not limited to inflation, interest rates, unemployment rates, and or currency exchange rates. The fact that Cummins ESB engage in massive investments across the globe and the same time engage in repatriation of earnings to the parent company (Cummins Inc.), the company’s investments costs as well as revenues are likely to be affected by fluctuating currency rates. The currency rates are also likely to affect the cost of exported as well as imported products and services. Inconsistent interest rates in different countries are also likely to affect the cost of company’s investment abroad. Inflationary trends globally and in specific international market is also detrimental on Cummins ESB earning. Social factors Most markets in the international market are always distinguished from their cultural aspects most of which are inherent while others are acquired. Social trends such as Demographic change; fashion and preference, age distribution, levels of literacy, customs and traditions, attitudes and beliefs are likely to affect the operation of a multinational company to significantly. It is unlikely that Cummins ESB operations will be affected by social trends in the global market considerably. However, demographic change in country or region is likely to in crease demand for energy either for lighting, cooking and or heating. Additionally the population is growing more conscious about the form of energy they use as most environmental conservation agencies continue to drug for green energy. Technological factors It is noteworthy that technology is one of the major external variables that has played significant role in developing competitive products and services by Cummins ESB. The technology has not only benefited the company but also Cummins ESB customers as it enhance to effective and efficient delivery of services (Cummins Power Generation Inc, 2010). For instance, introduction of Electronic Funds Transfer Systems (EFTPoS) and Electronic Point of Sale (EPoS) has highly enhanced delivery of services and products. Through effective technology Cummins ESB has managed to design and build energy efficient diesel, LP gas or natural gas generators, digital controls and transfer switches for standby around the globe. All technologic breakth rough of Cummins ESB is attributable to the high investment in Research and development. Environmental factors It is always in the best interest of the common public that a company operate lean projects that are not harmful to the environment. This means that companies have responsibility to remain environmental savvy when producing or marketing

Research Critique Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research Critique - Assignment Example It also provides a basis on how two parties can negotiate their responsibilities. The study highlighted some responsibilities that parents play in the care of their children with asthmatic condition and roles of the children for their self-care. Staying with asthma have need of the implementation of a variety of responsibilities as well as keeping an eye on signs, supervising medicine, looking for medical help and working mutually with health care personnel. This paper suggests that the responsibilities of parents in taking care of children suffering from asthma should be clear. The parents and caregivers must play their roles fully because young children have little understanding about their health condition. Children’s ability to take responsibility for their condition is reliant on what they are acceptable and instructed to do by their parents and caregivers. Children get involved in different activities like playing and going to school. The kind of independence that was discovered through the study is only limited to the simple things that children can do without much knowledge about what they are doing. The level of understanding that children have is not enough to allow them take responsibility of their asthmatic condition. Children’s understandings, mutually of their own bodies and their asthmatic state could be very diverse to those of their parents, which have repercussion for their advance to self-monitoring. This critical analysis paper will extract some points from the research paper to indicate important things this research considers. Direct quotations from the research paper are useful to analyze the findings and the conclusion of this study. The argument of this paper is that the roles of children aged between seven and twelve are not clear enough. The research used open-ended interviews to children and their parents. The children interviewed said what they were able to do now as opposed to what they

Marketing Report for the Library of Birmingham (E- Marketing) Essay

Marketing Report for the Library of Birmingham (E- Marketing) - Essay Example 7). The institution has a good reputation within the industry, which aids it in matters of competition. Besides, the institution runs under the framework of strategic mission and vision, which identifies with the local government, which places it in a position to participate actively in matters of development and growth of the city and region at large. Besides, the institution enjoys sound leadership by the board who champion the vision and objectives of the institution. Sound governance structures aid in ensuring the resources of the institution are effectively utilized. The existence of active marketing department has been very instrumental in revolutionizing the operations of the institution through the transition from the traditional methods of service delivery to the modernized digital systems of service delivery (Department for culture, media and arts, nd, para 1-2). Introduction The education and research sector in the modern day living has evolved greatly with high competitio n being noted in such services as the library services, teaching techniques as well as learning modes. Library services in particular have faced much revolution within the technological age. Changes are noted in shift in use of electronic materials for learning as compared to print materials/modern day era (Sridhar, 1989, p. 1; Balasubramanian et al, 2012, p. 1). Competition in the institutional or public library services has been notable in matters relating to the facilities in use, the building structuresthemselves as well as the learning materials available. Moreover, security, ease of access, the cost implications in utilizing the library services as well as the level of modernization in terms of adopting technology in offering the services. Digitization of learning materials such as books as well as other publications has shaped the direction of the modern day library services. The use of technology to search and retrieve the study materials from physical as well as online libr aries have greatly revolutionized the research and learning in the modern times. This therefore implies that competition within library services has concentrated more on standing out in terms of offering more modernized services. People have adopted digitallearning where unlike in the past where people carried print material while learning from the library services, the modern day learners and researchers are using digital media suchascomputer systems, and other digital gadgets to access and read from a library. Online hosting of library services has helped increase the ease of accessibility of library learning materials overcoming the limitations of physical location, the time barrier where a person can now easily access specific library materials at the convenience of one’s location and at whatever time (24 hours). Other dimensions notable in the evolution in library services has been in marketing strategies within libraries. New dimensions in marketing the services of libr aries have been revolutionized where modern day advertizing strategies such as through websites and through digital modes in social media platforms have been greatly acknowledged and adopted. Subscription to personalized alerts of services

The Argumentative Synthesis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Argumentative Synthesis - Essay Example When a lay person is confronted with a certain situation, the first step is not to respond to the situation. Common sense will require that a person has to take immediate action and perform the required action. However, a lay person must first weigh different options with regards to the situation. For example, common sense demands that a person should help someone who has been slumped on the doorway (Ross & Nisbett, 628). However, this might not be the case as one has to consider various factors including the conditions that led to the situation. In some incidences, the individuals may also consider different factors surrounding the situation before making any decision. The response of the individuals does not mean that they personality can be deiced based on a particular individual. Common sense is therefore not a predictable guide for human behavior as the nature of the situation determines the actions that should be taken. Faced with a certain situation, the individuals have ended up making certain decisions that are correct although it does not reflect the concepts of common sense. The interventions of the bystanders depend on what they perceive to be important to them, at the time as compared to what common sense dictates. In an incidence where a man has been slumped in a door and seminary students going to deliver a sermon in the next ten minutes pass by, it is more likely that the seminary students may not provide any help. If they are required to deliver a sermon within ten minutes, they not likely to intervene. However, if they are to deliver a sermon in the next one hour they are likely to intervene. This is a further indication that the human behavior cannot be dictated by common sense in all the situations. More people would decline to offer any help if a man slumped in the door was drunk at the time although common sense requires individuals to offer help to anyone in distress (Ross & Nisbet t,

Negotiations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Negotiations - Essay Example This was the case of a miner who lost his boots at work, and the managers did not agree to lend him a pair or even buy him a new pair. The non-compliance by the shift boss led to a dispute of interests and led the employee to go on strike. Ury, et.al, (1988) explain that a dispute starts when a claim or demand is made and is generally based on a need or aspiration. In the case where the miner complained of the lost boots, he was in directly expecting the company to take responsibility and to remedy the issue, however due to the rejection, this led to a dispute (Ury, Brett, & Goldberg, 1988). Here this led to a conflict of interests, i.e. the interest of the miner was to get back his pair of boots, while the interest of the shift boss was not to spend extra as the company cannot be held liable for the loss of property. Interests are the needs, desires, concerns, and fears, basically, the things that an individual cares about or wants. Reconciliation of such interests is the key and is the most concerning aspect of any negotiation. Here these can lead to creative solutions, or making trade- offs, or even concessions. The crux is to reach to an agreement. However, not all the negotiations are a means to reach an agreement. Some negotiations are focused on reconciling of interests, while others on determining who is right and a few others are based on who is more powerful (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2010). However, there are a number of negotiations which is a mix of all three of the elements, i.e. to satisfy the interests, discussion of rights and also focus on the power of the parties involved. In the case that the negotiations are focused on a single aspect, then they are referred to as, either, ‘interest-based’, ‘rights-based’, or ‘power-based’ (Lewicki, Saunders, Minton, & Barry, 2010). The relationship of the three can be understood better in the form of concurrent circles, with the inner most circle being interest, the outer circle being rights and the outer most circle being power (see figure below). (Ury, Brett, & Goldberg, 1988) The diagram clearly explains that any reconciliation of interests is basically within the rights and power of the parties. Similarly, the determination of the rights is based on the levels of power. The three are interrelated and the overall resolution of a dispute can have a continuous shift between the interests, rights or power (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2010). Each of the three has a different impact on the overall costs, satisfaction and also the outcomes. There are four possible criteria in every negotiation. a) The transaction costs, i.e. the cost of the overall negotiation. In the case of the Boots dispute, it would have been better for the shift boss to resolve the dispute without the strike. The escalated issue of strike, simply led the overall costs to increase to a great extent (Brett, 2007). b) Outcome satisfaction is another crucial element that needs t o be considered. Here the outcome was not to satisfaction for the business, or the employee alike. The business was faced with loss of money, while the employee did not receive a new pair of boots. However the employee was satisfied as this allowed him to vent out the anger. c) Impact on relationships, is the next crucial criteria. Negotiations are a part of day to day life (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2010). With the type of negotiation chosen, there can be an impact on the ove

Beyond the arabin poetry Essay Example for Free

Beyond the arabin poetry Essay Beyond the Arabian Poetry In the light of Arabic literature in Muslim Spain, It was one of the greatest lands at that time. Most of people were educated in too many studies, due to the Abd al-Rahman III one of the Umayyad Rulers. Abd al-Rahman III was interested greatly in books and education, which made him to collect a lot of books around the world. Arabic literature’ books were also interested by Abd al-Rahman III, which made a lot of Muslim Spain’s people interested on in and study it as well. Muslims and Jews were inherited in the Arabic literature which made them write stories and poetry. All that had a deep effect on literature scholars and especially Jewish scholars. When they were studying Islamic, Arabic literature they were also studying Islamic literature and the influence of the relationship of Arabic language and Islam. In that vein, many of the Jews converted to Islam by their own, But not all about Jews. And this raises the mind a question that what are the sources and the power of the Arabic literature which make these Jews converting to Islam by their own? And it appears that the larger spiritual vision of Islamic religious traditions and the Ideology of Islamic Arabic poems are involved with that. Therefore the Islamic traditions and the Islamic, Arabic poetry are the source of converting some of the Jews to Islam by their own in Muslim Spain. According to the book the Jews of Islam says â€Å"Islam had its sway over Jewish cultural life too. In literature, and the arts, the Muslim influence on the Jews is enormous.† (Lewis 81) It appears from that Islam affected on Jews through literature and the arts which means by traditions and poetry. In the same note of converting the Jews to Islam, the Islamic literature was very strong, because it was getting through the soul and shapes it. And writing famous poems on the walls of Madden T Al-Zahra, helped Jewish to read poems in the in that time, so one line of any Islamic poem has that huge effect for the reader. But that script was in Arabic, how did the spoken Hebrew, Jewish did read that? What kind of influence that the script has if it has translated to Hebrew? Would it be strong as it is in Arabic?  There were people in Muslim Spain who were in interested in reading Arabic poem translated to Hebrew. And according to book The Dream of the Poem for Peter Cole that it says there is a scholar who was translating poems to Hebrew by comparing meters to their Arabic models. (Cole 333). So this shows that yes by an effort of scholars the influence of Arabic poetry kept as itself, therefore spoken Hebrew Jews got a chance to read the Arabic poems with its influence which helped to make some of them convert to Islam. According to book of Daily life of Jews in the Middle Ages for Norman Roth he says â€Å"While some Jews, indeed, converted to Islam of their own free will in the early medieval period.†(Roth 202) and also Roth said that there are some of Jewish scholars in Muslim Spain Wrote in Arabic poems for them and one of them converted to Islam as Ibrahim Ibn Sahl, as he believe(Roth 165). By reading this book or some quotes of it we will see how the poetry affected these Jews to convert, even if it is not the big motive of converting, but Poetry was the media of the motive of converting these Jews to Islam. In that time Art was greatly considered as poems, due to the Islamic religion and the many of poets in that time, the poems were spread a lot in Muslim Spain, so it was easy for all to read them, and this shows that how the poems were the media of converting the Jews to Islam by their own. Furthermore the Jews were very interested with the Arabic poetry, and most of the Arabic poetry is describing Islam and how it is good for life. According to book of Arabic and Hebrew Love Poems in Al-Andalusia By Shari Lowin which says â€Å"Brann similarly maintains that Jews had primary knowledge of the sacred texts of Islam† (Lowin 40) and this shows that Jews were affected very deeply from the poems to know about Islam which made them to go and read holy texts from the Islamic religion. Moreover the connection of the poetry with science by proving that holy Quran proved a lot of science statements, and that was really convincing to the Jewish to convert to Islam, because the Jewish people believe in the concrete and the logic (Gwynne 160), and when they found that Islam is logical with the earth and it’s science so they will be more attracted to convert to Islam. All that is just from a link from Arabic poetry that talks about science and how Islam in the holy Quran proved it. In the line with that, it proves that  Jews converted to Islam by their own, because they read these sacred texts by their own and without any force from anyone, and this shows how strong was the Islamic literature, it affected the mind and the soul of Jews in Muslim Spain thus makes them convert to Islam. So the source of that is the literature of Islamic poetry and traditions. The poetry in Islam was very nice, great and wonderful and Muslim’s prophet Muhammad said to have enjoyed the poetry (Scheindlin 7), which made Muslims do great efforts to add in the Islamic poetry, which makes a lot of kind of attractive ways to Islam, which made the Jews be Muslims and be satisfied of converting, and this proves that the converting Jews in Muslim Spain to Islam by their own by the poetry. Even though the Jews reacted to most creative way of the brilliant Arab culture as I will show here â€Å"according to Bargebuhr, Hispanic Jews reacted in a most creative way to the influences of the brilliant Arab culture (though without converting to Islam, as the Persians did). (Jayyusi and Marin 515) † So it appears that Jews did not convert to Islam by reading that smart Arabic poems. But in the beginning I said some of Jews converted to Islam. And the same book said that some of Jews did not use the Hebrew language as well in reading the Islamic poems. Moreover they have reacted the Arabic poems not the Islamic one, but when it appears that the Hispanic Jews reacted to the smart Arabic poems it appears not the all Jews converted to Islam, but Some of them, who reacted to the Islamic Arabic Poems. The holy Quran is in Arabic and it has its language, and most of the Arabic in Muslim Spain were influenced in the holy Quran, and how it has the secret way to attract non-Muslim people to it, that are the Holy Quran ways, But the Arabs poets as I said they influenced of that and they started to work with it to attract people to Islam. And how about some of Jews Scholars had been influenced and attracted to the Quran language, and converted to Islam, they will have the power of attracting their previous people the Jews. Therefore the possibilities of converting Jews to Islam were so high because of the many of the Converted Jews scholars to Islam, and the knowing of the Hebrew language, they will be able to know how to attract people to Islam by making good Hebrew poets, that has the attraction ways of Holy Quran. Adding knowledge to the pomes in the Muslim Spain was so great, some of the Poets added a lot of knowledge in his poems, and by clever way the poets were adding attracting language to make the Jews convert to Islam when they were reading knowledge. All that made the Jews convert to Islam by reading the Arabic poetry in Muslim Spain. But did these converted Jews really converted to Islam just by reading the poems? Why if they were converting to Islam just not to pay the (Jyzia) which is a tax that Muslims take it from non-Muslims people? It could be, and this would happen, but not all of Jews who converted to Islam just because of the Jyzia, because the one who converted should not be so poor to not pay a small amount of money as a tax. Moreover a lot of poor Jews in Muslim Spain were able to pay the Jyzia, unless if that Jew is cheap or greedy, he would do that. But another question is in the mind now, which is what kind of poems affected the Jews that range to convert to Islam? We said before that the poets were Arabs from Muslim Spain and Jews scholars too who wrote poems in both languages as well, Moreover the Holy Quran’s Influence which attracted all those to convert to Islam. But the kind of poems are the one which were describing Islam and how it is, and the one which described other religions, and making Islam the best of them. Moreover the poems which describes the Islamic architecture, and the science as well especially the one which discovered by Muslims scientists. However these poems are showing in its form, it talks about architecture or science, how would that help or motive or being a media to convert the Jews to Islam? The questions here is logic and it appears that it has no answer. But the answer is simple, the poets really care to make the readers being pleased reading the poems they wrote, that would not happen they appeared they are trying to let non-Muslims readers to get bored fast, or to leave the poems by thinking it is trying to make them Muslims, so the poets used a hidden way to let the readers not feeling that they added the thing that make them convert, so they added in a hidden way, for example when they want to describe the architecture, they will describe the Mosque in purpose to let the readers to be attracted to the Mosque (Ruggles 171-8) , and also if they want to write about science they write about the Muslims scientists or how Islam explained science in perfect way, all that just by great poems that did not seemed to be like that. As Ibrahim Ibn Sahl did after he converted (Roth 165-9). In the end of this it was a clever idea to make the Islamic poetry strong to be capable to convert people by their own, and also the traditions of Muslims i n Muslim Spain were much educated to make a lot of ways to add the Islamic  sense at the poetry to make the Jews to convert. Moreover the secret way of attracting Non-Muslims to Islam was really strong because it was within the language which is the most playable media to attract people to Islam. Especially the Jews, but how about the Christians did they also converted to Islam by poems in Muslim Spain? If they did so, what was attracting them, to be converted? But are not they were jealous of Muslims who were able to convert Jews by their own, so they did the inquisition and forced people to convert to their religion by force. Or they were scare to be attracted by Muslims and then convert to Islam. And this raises the concept of Muslims verses Christian’s tactics of conversion. And the Muslim’s cultural influence verses Christian’s state violence. Work Cited Cole, Peter. The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. Print. D, F R. Arabic Poetry and Architectural Memory in Al-Andalus. Ars Orientalis. 23 (1993): 171-178. Print. Gwynne, Rosalind W. Logic, Rhetoric and Legal Reasoning in the Quran: Gods Arguments. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014. Internet resource. Lewis, Bernard. The Jews of Islam. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1984. Print. Lowin, Shari L. Arabic and Hebrew Love Poems in Al-Andalus. New York: Routledge, 2014. Print. Roth, Norman. Daily Life of Jews in the Middle Ages. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print. Scheindlin, Raymond P. The Gazelle: Medieval Hebrew Poems on God, Israel, and the Soul. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991. Print. Jayyusi, Salma K, and Manuela MariÃŒ n. The Legacy of Muslim Spain. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992. Print.

Music value chain

Music value chain 1. Introduction The music industry has been facing radical changes during the last few decades due to the introduction of IS technologies which have reshaped it in depth. More particularly the music value chain has been experiencing an intensive change and evolution in many aspects: the distribution to consumer is more direct, intermediating parties are reducing and prices are constantly changing. The internet, an open information system, legally and illegally paves the way to the creation of a fresh music product, offering more choices to consumers. Consumers are now able to listen to music in electronic forms: MP3s and ringtones are procured in a large scale through internet. The IS delivery vehicle has undoubtly added value to the consumers. But what about the â€Å"Big 4† music companies?[1] How have they accepted this major shift in their business industry? Have they tried to resist or more essentially are they able to resist and is that kind of reaction to their best interest? The industry that celebrated its success in the Nineties now has to restate its position. The numbers are alerting: â€Å"Die Welt† newspaper reports a 16% dropping turnover for sound storage media. Nonetheless the music industry story has not yet ended. It is rather being written from the beginning. Since the old business model does not function at all under the shade of the IS, companies have to use the new technologies and cope with the fast pacing development. In my opinion what is most of the times considered as danger could be proved a great opportunity. The music industry is not perishing; it is just reforming. People will always need music and music companies will continue to exist as long as they decide to adapt to the new IS reality. We are referring to a reformation of something that could be an entirely innovative business opportunity. Apple with the first online music store, i-Tunes, paves the way to a new era and steals a big piece of the music market pie. 2. The music industry: A continuously reshaping industry The music industry history is mainly a story of innovation that goes back to the 18th century. Music creation is as old as human existence but the effort to market and commercialize music counts only a few centuries; In the mid 18th century composers like Amadeus Mozart started searching ways to sell their music and performances to the general public. In the 19th century sheet music, a hand-written or printed form of musical notation, was the core product sold by the music industry but it conveyed an important limitation: it was addressed to a particular audience, people who could read music notation. In the 20th century the sheet industry was replaced by the â€Å"record industry†. The source that led to this reshaped environment was technological innovation. The label corporations commonly known as the â€Å"Big 6†: BMG, EMI, MCA, PolyGram, Sony and WEA, dominated the music industry. Today the â€Å"Big 6† have transformed into the â€Å"Big 4† after Sony merged with BMG. The following graph depicts each labels share[2]. The most important stages in music industrys evolution in the 20th century were: The introduction of cassettes (around 1960). The introduction of walkman: The era of transportable music begins (around 1980s). The introduction of CDs: CDs opened a window of wide capabilities for music consumers. (1990). At this point the music industry boomed: the market growth was huge and mark ups were fairly large. Nevertheless the CD fairy tale would soon come to an end: After 1995 the market started inevitably shrinking. The increasing internet penetration along with the large price decline of hardware and software enhanced the IT industry development. The music industry was not unaffected by the emerging transmission possibilities of digital information, which could take the form of music information as well. It was time for digital distribution and digital production to take the lead. The technological improvements created a safe ground for entrepreneurs to step in: They had the tools and it was about time to put them together and create the opportunity. Further on we will refer to two successful business models that give us a good idea of what the future music industry will be all about: Napster and Apples i-tunes. 3. Recent trends and challenges emerging from the use of IT and IS in the music industry.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As stated the music industry has been experiencing a variety of challenges because of the fast pacing technological development. New forms of competition have entered the business game antagonising the â€Å"Big 4† and deeply transforming the music value chain. All major stakeholders in the business -artists, consumers and companies- have been affected in numerous ways. The music companies are on the side of the losers: They have tried to resist and have won some battles but they knew from the start that eventually the war would be lost. The technological development cannot be stopped as the earth will not stop revolving around the sun. a. Digital technologies. Which where the core technological developments that have led to the reformation of the music industry? According to Nguyen-Khac T. Q.[3], the parallel evolution of the following four technologies has created an amazingly new business environment: Software development has enabled a fast exchange of data through internet. Compression technology and encryption solutions are only some of the tools currently used by consumers. Additionally, the use of user friendly operation systems (like Windows in contrast to MS-Dos) has enabled people of different backgrounds, ages and abilities to take advantage of all benefits offered by a PC. Hardware development. Personal PC was not always a massive product due to its high cost. Throughout the years prices declined thanks to the decreasing costs that led to massive production (economies of scale). Transportation technology development and more essentially the appearance of internet. The innovation of P2P and network technology. The impact of the above development has been severe for the music industry. A demonstrative example concerning the way P2P affected the music industry was Napster. The illegal download platform Napster was a file sharing service which took advantage of the P2P file sharing technology. The way P2P works is depicted below.[4] Napster became popular in college campuses. The main idea was that each person connected to the network had to share a portion of his private music library in exchange to download everything anyone else had made available. The transaction costs were limited to the connection fee. The result was that all of a sudden an enormous library of music, of all kinds, was created. RIIA brought Napster to court and Napster eventually lost the trial however its pattern has been the source of inspiration for other similar concepts. Although Napster was shut down the decline of the â€Å"Big 4† revenues did not stop. In contrast it was enhanced by the negative publicity emerging by the law sue against Napster. In addition to Napster and P2P networks, the general hardware and software development has enabled consumers copy and save digital music data for private use on their computers. This phenomenon was called piracy but some consumers have considered it as a fair game since the music companies have gained millions for decades now by imposing prices with high profit margins taking advantage of the oligopoly they have created. Moreover consumers in the past were obliged to buy songs in the form of â€Å"album batches†, paying an entire album even though they were truly interested to obtain 2 or 3 songs which were worth spending money for. The use of new technologies enables consumers to resist to this type of constraints, imposed by the music companies. The music companies have iteratively launched campaigns against piracy nevertheless they cannot bend the existing consumer behavior which is based on the perception that exchanging music is a non harmful procedure containing no ethic al dilemmas. b. New technologies leading a new business model: The traditional model versus the new e-value chain model. Under the shade of IS and IT the music value chain has been transformed to an â€Å"e-chain†. In the traditional model there was a tangible product the CD but in the new model the product is intangible; it is the information itself. In the Australian Conference on Information Systems the following conceptual model was presented.[5] As depicted, in the new model, the MP3 file -now considered as the product- is distributed to consumers through online music stores, mobile content providers or artist websites. Moreover music can now be recorded in home studios instead of professional recording studios and be distributed in the already described ways instead of being sold in the form of CDs, through retail stores. The benefits acquired by this new model concerns mainly consumers but also the â€Å"music product† suppliers. First of all the cost of production is substantially reduced and the manufacturing costs are completely eliminated. Also intermediaries, mainly distributors are kicked out of the supply chain since they are not needed. All these changes have as a result a minimum cost for the music provider, easy and fast access to the product for the consumer who also has the chance to pick products (music tracks) in an appealing price and according to his preferences. This dynamic and flexible structure will eventually lead to the proliferation in the number of people involved in the supply chain. Additionally the role of the consumer and artist is now more essential. It is not anymore a game of four since there are no barriers (high production cost, competitive advantage due to full vertical integration) to enter this reformed music industry. c. Current market trends: The financial impact of IT and IS on the ‘Big 4 As previously analyzed the â€Å"Big 4† have developed an aggressive strategy against the new business environment emerging from the development of IS and IT. Even though they managed to shut down Napster practically they are unable to stop the creation of similar models. Even worse they insist on retaining the traditional model and hesitate to take the next step. Agility seems to be one of their least considerations and thats why it is no surprise each year their revenues are dramatically declining. Even if the music market is facing a shrinking trend, the digital sales piece of the pie is getting larger. According to IFPI revenues for cassettes, CDs and vinyl in the world dropped 25%, from $38.6 billion in 1999 to $29 billion in 2007.[6] Analysts at Forrester Research state that â€Å"music sales in the US will decline to $9.2 billion in 2013, from $10.1 billion in 2008†[7]. 4. The future While the music companies remained oblivious to the technological changes the music economy was reshaping and a company unrelated to music made the decisive step to create an innovative business model based on online legal distribution taking advantage of the benefits provided by mp3 files. This company was Apple who literally took the bread out of the mouth of the music companies. In 2003 it officially launched the first online music store: i-Tunes. The price model used was very attractive to consumer: each download cost 0.99 cent. Apple managed to offer a one stop shop to customers by exploiting the internet and digital distribution options. This awe inspiring impetus in the music industry panicked the music companies. They tried to defend their market share against digital distribution through law sues and merges instead of being flexible and adoptive to the increasingly transforming environment and making use of the new tools offered by the development of IT and IS. That enabled Apple to made the check mat move. The core competencies of Apples platform are speed, usability and cost effectiveness. Apples success was remarkable; in its first two online weeks it sold over two million songs[8]. This fact was largely due to the highly integrated system used. The music companies, now more than ever, have to create their own business model of an online music supply pattern. The use of IT in music industry can be considered an order winner for Apple whereas for the â€Å"Big 4† an emerging necessity to keep them in business. Current trends show that the use of IT will become an order qualifier. While executives of the music companies like John Rose, a former executive of EMI appear reluctant, believing that nothing ensures â€Å"that digital economics can make up for the drop in physical†[9] Atlantic, a unit of Warner Music Group claims that half of its sales come from digital music product sales. The future belongs to the digital music business and even if the core product music tracks in the form of mp3- does not make up for the losses from CD sales there are many supportive products such as: ringtones, ringbangs, subscription services that can compensate. 5. Conclusion As analyzed the use of IT and IS has brought a revolution in the music industry: Customers attain more bargaining power since the monopoly of â€Å"The Big 4† converted into a world of many â€Å"dot† choices. The exploitation of the benefits created by the recent developments has proved profitable; i-Tunes and Atlantic are the most prominent examples. Hence, there is a great opportunity ahead, if innovation is perceived to generate revenues and if more direct distribution options are used to cut off costs. The music companies have a negative perception about the use of open information systems in selling music and tried ineffectively to fight back. Instead they should have tried to respond to the challenge and reform their business model in order to survive in the music market. Being reluctant to adopt the new technology only gives way to companies such as Apple to take the lead along with their business share. 6. Bibliography Arango T., November 26 2008. â€Å"Digital Sales Surpass CDs at Atlantic† New York Times. Emerson G. M., 2007. â€Å"The Apple iTunes Music Store: How Apple Got it Right†, Advertizing and marketing report. http://www.admarketreview.com/public_html/air/ai200308.html (Glen Emerson Morris has been a senior consultant for Yahoo!, Ariba, WebMD, Inktomi, Apple, and Adobe.) Moloney, Belinda; Cybulski, Jacob; and Nguyen, Lemai, â€Å"Value Perception in Music Information Systems† (2008). ACIS 2008 Proceedings. Paper 73 Nguyen-Khac T. Q., 2003. The music industry in a dilemma (research paper for the ITS conference Helsinki, August 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_industry#History Sony BMG, Universal, Warner, EMI World music market sales shares, according to IFPI (2005) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_industry#History Nguyen-Khac T. Q., 2003. The music industry in a dilemma (research paper for the ITS conference Helsinki, August 2003 Nguyen-Khac T. Q., 2003. The music industry in a dilemma (research paper for the ITS conference Helsinki, August 2003. Moloney, Belinda; Cybulski, Jacob; and Nguyen, Lemai, â€Å"Value Perception in Music Information Systems† (2008). ACIS 2008 Proceedings. Paper 73 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_industry Arango T., November 26 2008. â€Å"Digital Sales Surpass CDs at Atlantic† New York Times. Emerson G. M., 2007. â€Å"The Apple iTunes Music Store: How Apple Got it Right†, Advertizing and marketing report. http://www.admarketreview.com/public_html/air/ai200308.html Glen Emerson Morris has been a senior consultant for Yahoo!, Ariba, WebMD, Inktomi, Apple, and Adobe. Arango T., November 26 2008. â€Å"Digital Sales Surpass CDs at Atlantic† New York Times.