Collective Action Problem Essay Example for Free

Collective Action Problem Essay Problem Statement: Competitors Coca- cola and Pepsi-cola have to decide whether or not to offer discount pricing. Matrix:-    Pepsi cola    Coca- cola Pricing Strategy Discount price Regular price Discount price $4b,   $2b $8b,   $1b Regular price $2b,   $5b $6b,   $4b * b means billion    Description: Both companies can choose one outcome by offering a discount price or a regular price. The payoff for each firm depends upon the pricing strategies of both firms.     For coca- cola the worst case scenario is $2 billion payoff when it offers regular prices while Pepsi-Cola charges discount prices. Similarly, for Pepsi- Cola the worst case scenario is $1 billion. Solution: A dilemma is involved because each party would like to have maximum benefits by offering the discount and hoping that the other doesn’t.   The only secure means both companies have of avoiding meager profits is to offer discount prices. The ideal scenario would have been when both were offering regular price as they would have earned $6 billion (Coca- cola) and $4 billion (Pepsi-Cola). But, it’s difficult to trust each other and thus, they both go for the conservative strategy and settle down for profits of $4 billion and $2 billion for Coca-cola and Pepsi-Cola respectively.

A Comparison of The Jewel in the Crown and Wuthering Heights Essay

Shared Elements of The Jewel in the Crown and Wuthering Heights       The Jewel in the Crown, by Paul Scott, and Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte', are romantic tragedies which share many common elements. Although written in two vastly different time periods, the shared elements reveal the continuity of romantic tragedies over time. Wuthering Heights, a 19th century realistic fiction, shares the same kind of passionate, violent and emotional characters as The Jewel in the Crown, a post colonial modernist fiction. Both stories contain a love triangle which subsequently end in death.    In both stories, Catherine and Daphne are much alike in that they are the point around which the two men in their lives dance circles around. Catherine and Daphne are both willful, doing as they please, Catherine fostering her love for Heathcliff, and Daphne secretly seeing Hari Kumar. "At fifteen, she [Catherine] was the queen of the country-side; she had no peer, and she did turn out to be a haughty, headstrong creature" (WH, p. 51). And of Daphne, "She had to make her own marvelous mis...

Postmodernism &Marketing

Due to its profound effect on individualistic side of consumer and consumption, it is inevitable hat marketing is also affected deeply by postmodernism. Hence, those who would like to make a long run and satisfying profit have to develop at least a basic understanding of the terms â€Å"postmodern† and â€Å"postmodern marketing†. It would be more convenient to give some basic knowledge about postmodernism before explaining its huge effect on the discipline of marketing.According to Encyclopedia Britannica postmodernism is defined as a â€Å"late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining lattice and economic power†. Postmodernism can be viewed as a criticism to 20th century modernism. It is a resistance to modernist ideas such as freedom, progress and liberty. It is much more about destruction of old theories, cr iticizing the modern and its values rather than proposing a solution to give order or something new.As First, Sherry and Venerates argue postmodernist looks for a universally accepted or agreed upon principle; that of tolerance and acceptance of difference. To sum up, while modernism has designed the grand projects to prevent failure, postmodernism as recognized such projects as failures themselves. After a brief explanation about postmodernism, it would be reasonable to give a marketing oriented definition of postmodernism before starting to discuss its huge influence on the discipline of marketing.According to Gerri & Van Iraqi (1998) postmodernism can be defined as † a cultural episode, characterized by a pluralism of styles (of consumption) and ideologies, a need for hyperthermia and self-expression through consumption†. After contemplating on this brief definition, it would not be hard to conclude that postmodernism has had a profound effect on the consumption tatte rs of individuals. Therefore, companies have been forced to take individualistic differences into account and develop strategies based on their own target customer group.However, the influence of postmodernism on marketing and businesses is not limited to the change in consumer preferences or the change in consumption patterns. The structure of an organization, and the organization's relationship with its employees are also affected by the birth and extensive usage of the term postmodernism. To begin with the effect of the term â€Å"postmodernism† on the customer side, it can be argued that it has brought a new phenomenon of postmodern marketing. In the modern marketing, a company generally makes some standardization in terms of what a customer needs, wants or desires by evaluating the society as a whole.In the evaluation process, a majority of them focus on the shared characteristics or personalities of customers and begin to make production and even customization according to a common, shared perspective. Naturally, they have a tendency to ignore customers who have a very different worldview, personality, preference or choice. Thus, those who make production do not have to worry about the diversity of customers in terms of attitudes, perception, personality etc. Since they produce goods and services in massive amounts and then advertise these goods and services to masses.Then, they expect their products to be consumed without any challenge by different consumer demands. This situation is partly a result of homogeneity and masculinity concepts of modernism. However, with postmodernism all these approaches have been affected. Unless having an understanding about the diversity of consumer behavior, a firm might not be able to hose its target customer group correctly, which is a situation that makes its production meaningless, since in the end the product or service might end up with appealing to no one.Also, in today's world companies have to give much importance to different groups such as gays, lesbians, gypsies etc. Since they have become to constitute a portion of the society that is not negligible. In fact those who took a quicker action than others to offer production or services appealing totally to such groups have made enormous profit. Moreover, the masculine culture has been placed by a more feminine culture in many areas of business due to the change in consumption patterns. For example, during ass Marlboro was using fancy letters. Then, it turned out that Marlboro was started being cited as women's cigarette.With this unintended impression, Marlboro immediately changed its letter type and started to use its famous masculine cowboy commercials. If this situation occurred in postmodernist era, most probably a majority of people would criticize Marlboro and stop buying, since Marlboro implicitly suggests that it does not give much value to its women customers. When considering all these, it can be clearly defended that du e to the profound influence of postmodernism on marketing, a vast amount of companies have shifted from forbids, mass consumption based approaches to post-forbids, individualistic based approaches.To continue with the structure of organizations, it might be asserted that before the birth of the term â€Å"postmodernist' most of the companies had adopted the principles of forbids. Believing the quality of stability, homogeneity and control and they followed the rules of a masculine culture. Their organization structures were strictly hierarchical. Hence, there was a significant rower distance among different levels of management. However, after postmodernism came to scene, the effectiveness of the bureaucratic organization culture during turbulent, unpredictable or complex times has been questioned.Many new beneficial concepts such as employee empowerment, flat organization structure have been created and emphasized. Afterwards, organizational design becomes more flat, since it is w idely believed that one of the most significant factors carrying a company to success is the active participation of employees. As the organization becomes more flat, the communication link among different levels of management gets stronger which contributes to the creation of new innovative ideas. Moreover, companies' culture has been changed dramatically with postmodernism.During the ass, ass company environment was homogeneous, outer directed, and factory based, since at those times a majority of firms believed the strength of stability. On the other hand with the postmodernism, company environment has been shifted to heterogeneous, self centered and participatory business culture. The motivation behind this situation is that companies have become to experience that creation of unique ideas in terms of production of goods or services is very much elated with the diversity of employees. Within an organization where everybody has a different personality, preference, perception etc. T would be more likely to make production that fits customers well. Therefore, in today's world those who can manage disorder and variety more effectively have a better chance to serve well and make sufficient profit. To conclude, with the rise of postmodernist ideas, as Stephen (1992) put forward that firms have been forced to prefer disorder to order, surface to depth, past to present, present to future, heterogeneity to homogeneity, plurality to nonsense, differences to similarities, complexity to simplification, rhetoric to logic and individuality to universality.All in all, the term â€Å"postmodern† has profoundly affected the discipline of marketing as it has a deep influence on almost all social and intellectual endeavors such as sociology, philosophy, politics, history, economics etc. With the rise of postmodern marketing, companies have started to give careful consideration not only to the customer differences but also to their own organizational and cultural struc ture. While constructing a more friendly and participatory organizational environment, impasses have started to offer a variety of solutions and answers to the demand of different customer groups.

Comparing The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson, And The Rocking...

Fiction Essay By: Martin Bennett 6/1/17 Stuck between a Rock a Horse Race No family is perfect, family is family, their love will always be there. At least till you fall off a rocking horse or hit by a few rocks. What I am referring to are these two short stories â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson, and â€Å"The Rocking-Horse Winner’’ by D. H. Lawrence. Now for a brief overview of both these unsettling stories. The Lottery is a story of a small town basically consuming a member of its own community, It s like a smoothie of Dismay with figurative cannibalism, a bit of social commentary, a drop†¦show more content†¦Paul has earned money for his mother; however, it isn’t enough. The stress begins to effect Paul, as he is driven to make more money. Paul’s fixation with making his mother happy through monetary gain caused his illness and inevitable death after winning the big race. Just like the old saying says â€Å"Money Can’t buy Happiness†. Ø In â€Å"The Lottery† I was unable to distinguish the conflict of the story until a bit towards the end. The rising struggle is weaved throughout the entire story. It starts out with this festival and all the town taking part. There is joking and laughter and playing while they wait for everyone to arrive. Mrs. Hutchinson is late but finally arrives and everyone jovially allows her to pass through until she reaches her husband s side. Finally, the business part is done, everyone is there or someone is standing in for them and the drawing begins. The winner is picked...and out come’s the bricks. The theme of the two short stories are written is very different, however they do have some similarities like Family. Ø In â€Å"The Rocking Horse Winner† Paul s want to please his mother ultimately leads to his death. Now let me be clear the mother-son relationship in The Rocking-Horse Winner is a clutter of unfulfilled desire, anxiety, hostility, and terror. Let’s not forget to add Paul s father is almost absent from the story, we don’t even get to learn his name. While his mother frantically tries to make up for all the extravagances