Friday, December 27, 2019

Hypothesis, Model, Theory, and Law

In common usage, the words hypothesis, model, theory, and law have different interpretations and are at times used without precision, but in science they have very exact meanings. Hypothesis Perhaps the most difficult and intriguing step is the development of a specific, testable hypothesis. A useful hypothesis enables predictions by applying deductive reasoning, often in the form of mathematical analysis. It is a limited statement regarding the cause and effect in a specific situation, which can be tested by experimentation and observation or by statistical analysis of the probabilities from the data obtained. The outcome of the test hypothesis should be currently unknown, so that the results can provide useful data regarding the validity of the hypothesis. Sometimes a hypothesis is developed that must wait for new knowledge or technology to be testable. The concept of atoms was proposed by the ancient Greeks, who had no means of testing it. Centuries later, when more knowledge became available, the hypothesis gained support and was eventually accepted by the scientific community, though it has had to be amended many times over the year. Atoms are not indivisible, as the Greeks supposed. Model A model is used for situations when it is known that the hypothesis has a limitation on its validity. The Bohr model of the atom, for example, depicts electrons circling the atomic nucleus in a fashion similar to planets in the solar system. This model is useful in determining the energies of the quantum states of the electron in the simple hydrogen atom, but it is by no means represents the true nature of the atom. Scientists (and science students) often use such idealized models  to get an initial grasp on analyzing complex situations. Theory and Law A scientific theory or law represents a hypothesis (or group of related hypotheses) which has been confirmed through repeated testing, almost always conducted over a span of many years. Generally, a theory is an explanation for a set of related phenomena, like the theory of evolution or the big bang theory.   The word law is often invoked in reference to a specific mathematical equation that relates the different elements within a theory. Pascals Law  refers an equation that describes differences in pressure based on height. In the overall theory of universal gravitation developed by Sir Isaac Newton, the key equation that describes the gravitational attraction between two objects is called the law of gravity. These days, physicists rarely apply the word law to their ideas. In part, this is because so many of the previous laws of nature were found to be not so much laws as guidelines, that work well within certain parameters but not within others. Scientific Paradigms Once a scientific theory is established, it is very hard to get the scientific community to discard it. In physics, the concept of ether as a medium for light wave transmission ran into serious opposition in the late 1800s, but it was not disregarded until the early 1900s, when Albert Einstein proposed alternate explanations for the wave nature of light that did not rely upon a medium for transmission. The science philosopher Thomas Kuhn developed the term scientific paradigm to explain the working set of theories under which science operates. He did extensive work on the scientific revolutions that take place when one paradigm is overturned in favor of a new set of theories. His work suggests that the very nature of science changes when these paradigms are significantly different. The nature of physics prior to relativity and quantum mechanics is fundamentally different from that after their discovery, just as biology prior to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is fundamentally different from the biology that followed it. The very nature of the inquiry changes. One consequence of the scientific method is to try to maintain consistency in the inquiry when these revolutions occur and to avoid attempts to overthrow existing paradigms on ideological grounds. Occam’s Razor One principle of note in regards to the scientific method is Occam’s Razor (alternately spelled Ockhams Razor), which is named after the 14th century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. Occam did not create the concept—the work of Thomas Aquinas and even Aristotle referred to some form of it. The name was first attributed to him (to our knowledge) in the 1800s, indicating that he must have espoused the philosophy enough that his name became associated with it. The Razor is often stated in Latin as: entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem or, translated to English: entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity Occams Razor indicates that the most simple explanation that fits the available data is the one which is preferable. Assuming that two hypotheses presented have equal predictive power, the one which makes the fewest assumptions and hypothetical entities takes precedence. This appeal to simplicity has been adopted by most of science, and is invoked in this popular quote by Albert Einstein: Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. It is significant to note that Occams Razor does not prove that the simpler hypothesis is, indeed, the true explanation of how nature behaves. Scientific principles should be as simple as possible, but thats no proof that nature itself is simple. However, it is generally the case that when a more complex system is at work there is some element of the evidence which doesnt fit the simpler hypothesis, so Occams Razor is rarely wrong as it deals only with hypotheses of purely equal predictive power. The predictive power is more important than the simplicity. Edited by Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Netflix The United States Film Industry - 891 Words

One of the struggles for Netflix has always been getting rights to programming. In an effort to save DVD sales Hollywood studios tried to weaken their streaming services by withholding the rights or by charging more for newer movies. Big studios like Warner Bros., Fox and Universal made deals that allowed Netflix to use old movies but only if it waited twenty-eight days after the release of a new DVD before making it available to the public (Balio, 2013). Film executives believe that Netflix is taking the value out of movies by making them available anywhere, anytime (Kaiser, 2011). The fees do not stop them however. The more subscriptions Netflix receives, the more revenue they bring in and the more willing they are to pay the high fees to get films from the studios and the cycle is brought full circle, the more films, the more subscribers (Roth, 2009). Netflix faces a lot of issues when it launches internationally and can impact not only the United States film industry but the foreign film industries as well. Earlier this year when the company tried to launch in France it was met with a lot of criticism. France has a small but strong film industry and is worried that the introduction of Netflix will end it. The French government believes that â€Å"Netflix will undermine the complex system created by broadcasters and the government to protect a French film industry that is central to the country s identity, and a significant part of its economy† (O’Brien, 2014). AccordingShow MoreRelatedNetflix Is An International Provider Of Television Series1571 Words   |  7 PagesINTRODUCTION Netflix is an international provider of television series, cartoons, and movies. It was founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph on August 29, 1997. It has its headquarters in Los Gatos, California. 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Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Uber †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Uber. Answer: Introduction The previous assignment includes the management and business context about Uber. This discussion continues the previous assessment including an area, i.e. innovation and entrepreneurship. The organization can use this factor to improve its business practices and operations, as it is facing the issues related to intense competition, imitation of the business model, monetization, employee dissatisfaction and lack of loyalty between Uber and its drivers. This report examines the implementation of innovation and entrepreneurship at Uber. Furthermore, it includes the importance and benefits of these two aspects. Uber is a company with high technology, which was established in the year 2009. It connects the transportation industry with the information technology using its app. It offered the services in more than 200 cities in 53 countries by the year 2014. Organization is valued at more than 40$ billion. The data shows that the value of Uber is more than full taxi industry in US (Willcocks, 2016). There are various reasons, why the people love to use Ubers services; such as; it offers easier, more convenient and less expensive rides to reach their location. From last few years, innovation has become a powerful force in shaping the competition and for the survival of the organizations in that competitive environment. Innovation and entrepreneurship are interconnected to each other (Wisdom, 2014). It is very useful tool for the entrepreneurs. It is a process, which needs considerable input and obligation from the organization. It is determined by the by the innovative potential of the employees. It is necessary that organization understands that what can drive the innovation and assist in simplifying it by using systems, strategies, forms of leadership and organizational culture. The entrepreneurs in the business require searching for the sources of innovation and their characteristics, which indicate the opportunities for implementing innovation successfully. Entrepreneurship is not easy to define in few lines (Issac, 2014). This is a big concept and there are many arguments about that what the entrepreneurship is and how one can implement it in the operations. In general, entrepreneurship is the aspect, which includes the practices of entrepreneurs, like; their characteristics, activities and social and economic impact of their behavior. The entrepreneurs cannot be defined by knowing that who they are but they can be defined by knowing what they attain by making creative efforts. In the process of entrepreneurship, the people introduce, design and operate a new business or new start-up. According to a research, entrepreneurship is more than starting a new business (Willcocks, 2016). It includes the entire process in which, the people become more aware about the opportunities, which are there to allow them for developing new and creative ideas and taking initiatives and responsibilities. Importance of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Innovation and entrepreneurship are very important for any organization. Both the contextual factors are interconnected with each other. Innovation is a wide concept, which includes the entrepreneurship. Innovation is necessary for the survival of entrepreneurs (Drucker, 2014). There are some examples of great entrepreneurs with innovation; like; Steve Jobs of Apple and Bill Gates of Microsoft (Price, Stoica Boncella, 2013). These people have shown that luck and money is not enough for the success of organization and entrepreneurship, but it also requires risk taking, creativity and organizational planning. They consider the innovation as a key action of entrepreneurship. The people with entrepreneurship use the innovation to find new opportunities and make changes for generating profits for their business. Entrepreneurship generates the financial gain and keeps the economy floating that raises the importance of innovation in the entrepreneurship. Innovation contributes to the succe ss of the organization. In this competitive environment, innovation is very important to make yourself different from others. The organization should try to develop innovation and entrepreneurship by considering some success factors (Drucker, 2014). These factors are listed below: Organizational structure and systems Strategy and vision of organization Organizational aptitude New ideas and creative management Managing the technologies Leadership Risk management Looking at the above-mentioned factors and identifying the value of innovation and creative entrepreneurship in the organization, the management can be optimistic towards the development and establishment of strategic thinking in an organization (Okpara, 2007). This strategic thinking on all the levels, i.e. individual and organizational levels, will help in developing better understanding about the organization and directs to continuous creativities by making consistency and foresight. Application of the factors in Business practices at Uber Innovation plays an important role in strategic business performance of any organization. Although Uber entered in the market with various innovative practices, but now there are so many competitors in the industry, so there is need of more innovation and entrepreneurship to enhance its business practices (McKissen, 2017). There are so many examples of this type of organizations, like; Apple, Inc., Proctor Gamble and 3M. These are the organizations, which largely owe their excellent business success to a continuous record of successful innovation. If the Uber Company utilizes the innovation and entrepreneurship in its operations, then it will benefit its business practices. At Uber, Innovation is in the DNA. The company is thriving on finding the ways for improving and refining the technology to offer the reliable and safe rides to the customers. The application of Uber connects the drivers with the clients in the ways, which was not possible before five or six years. Uber is continuing to develop the technology to offer new services like; UberPool. This new service allows the customers riding in the same direction by sharing the trip. It assists to cut the costs of a ride and reduce the crowding overtime. Uber must use more innovative practices as the organizational value. It should hire creative people and place a creative culture. Developing innovation and entrepreneurship in the organization will assist in nurture the effective leadership competency (UNSW Business School, 2010). The leaders will help in establish a creative culture. Innovation can improve the products and services and scale up the business of Uber. The management at the Uber, is con sidering some important factors for improving its business practices; these factors are given below; It is the record of Uber that every day over 2 million people take the rides of Uber across 500 cities in the world. This shows that thousands of the people are opening the application of Uber and taking the rides and expecting that they will get reliable and convenient experience (Hunt, 2014). For this, the company has created a site reliability engineers team, which ensures the reliability by providing the people the peace of mind and convincing them that they will get the ride when they need the most. The team performs continuous tests on technology for maintaining the reliability. Strong security begins with a great team in the organization. This is the reason, Uber has large and creative team of software developers, engineers, security officers, data scientists, and privacy management counsel and information security officers (Miller, Fern, Cardinal, 2017). These people utilize both legal and technical resources to provide security to the information of riders and drivers. It is using technology in effective ways for improving the safety of riders. It is using various innovative and entrepreneurial plans; such as; Secure code Strong encryption Monitoring the access of data and information of riders and drivers These practices are improving the business operations of the organization by increasing its customer base. If Uber adds values to these innovations, then it can be able to beat its competitors and cover a huge market share in the industry. Disruptive innovation is the form of innovation, which creates a new value network and new market and ultimately disturbs existing market and displaces already established market leaders in the industry, products and services. In this, the company establish in the market by using few resources (Dawson, P. Andriopoulos, 2014). There is a controversial discussion that Uber is disruptive innovation. Some people have said that this company is using disruptive innovation because it had a large impact on the taxi or cab industry. The people are paying for cabs by using a simple app. Youth are using Uber to reach the places faster and saving their money (Horn, 2016). Another argument says that Uber is not disruptive to the cabs and taxis as it does not meet the tests of disruptive innovation. This can be proven because it did not invent in low-end or new market position and it held on with the majority in a way that has been considered better than new entrants (Gil, 2014). The company is targeting the people, which are already using cabs many times. It has determined as more inexpensive than taxis, but it is not measured as inferior to taxi services. Thus, using this practice can enhance the business operations and practices at Uber. Conclusion From the assessment, it is concluded that Uber is facing various issues related to the customer relationship, technology and innovation and Supply chain management. So, the Uber should use the innovation and entrepreneurship in its operations for maximizing the growth. These two aspects can assist the organization in resolving these issues and enhancing its performance. Innovation and entrepreneurship will play a critical role in improving the business operations and practices of Uber. Thus, Uber should try to innovate and find new ways to serve its riders, communities and driver-partners. References Dawson, P. Andriopoulos, C. (2014). Managing Change and Innovation. Sage Publishing, London, U.K. Drucker, P. (2014). Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Routledge Publications. Gil, E. (2014). Uber and disruption. Retrieved on December 19, 2014, from https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/19/uber-and-disruption/. Horn, M. (2016). Uber Disruptive Innovation and Regulated Markets. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelhorn/2016/06/20/uber-disruptive-innovation-and-regulated-markets/#7d2acef337fb. Hunt, E. (2014). Uber's global expansion in five seconds. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2014/12/11/ubers-global-expansion/ Issac, E. (2014). Disruptive Innovation: Risk-Shifting and Precarity in the Age of Uber. BRIE Working Paper. McKissen, D. (2017). Uber Really Isn't a Shiny New Thing. It's Actually the Same Old Story. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/dustin-mckissen/is-uber-an-innovation-or-another-example-of-technology-destroying-working-class-.html. Miller, D. J., Fern, M. J., Cardinal, L. B. (2007). The use of knowledge for technological innovation within diversified firms. The Academy of Management Journal, 50(2), 308326. Okpara, F.O. (2007). The Value of Creativity and Innovation in entrepreneurship. Journal of Asia Entrepreneurship and Sustainability, Vol 3. Price, D., Stoica M. Boncella, R.J. (2013). The relationship between innovation, knowledge, and performance in family and non-family firms: an analysis of SMEs. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Wisdom, J.P. (2014). Innovation Adoption: A Review of Theories and Constructs. Adm Policy Ment Health, 41 (4). Willcocks, L.P. (2016). Business and management in a global context. University of London.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Report of Fcb Case free essay sample

Its primary operation was to provide air freight transportation which including air freight services, air freight handling services and leasing. FCB was aimed to maintain their niche position not only in the Asia Pacific region but also in China, Thailand and India by delivering best quality customer service and satisfying customer demands. Among of its customers are Worldwide Express, United Parcel Services (UPS), Nationwide Express, Citylink, Bax Global, Nippon Express, Cargo Malaysia Services and Bangor Berhad.FCB had appointed Kenchana Associates as its external auditor. The Protagonist Mr Chuah Mun Soong is the main character in this case. He is an auditor for FCB. He needs to present the financial report of Flat Cargo Berhad to the audit committee of FCB in two weeks. However, there are several inconsistencies reported by his subordinates in the accounts of FCB. The main problem faced by Mr Chuah is there might be high possibility that his client company (FCB) involved in fraud. We will write a custom essay sample on Report of Fcb Case or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Mr Chuah had dilemma either to continue servicing this client company or not.Kenchana Associates reputation might be affected if FCS is really proven to be involved in fraud. The major issue in the case is the inconsistencies in the accounts of FCB. FCB had incorrectly recorded the loan from Hong Kong company to be in its debtors’ account. This posed some questions to auditors’ side whether it is intentionally or not to record it in debtor’s account. The auditors manage to identify several suspicious transaction and recording involving non-current asset and current asset.For example, the auditors found that there is no valid purchase document of aircraft by FCB in 2005 as claimed in the FCB’s financial statement. Further investigation was also found that there is non-functional rundown aircraft in a hanger which might lead to overstated of non-current asset in 2005. Besides that the auditors manage to notify certain debtors’ and sales revenues’ account that found to unverified. In addition, it was also found that loan received from Hong Kong based company was incorrectly recorded in the debtors’ account which lead to overstating the current asset. Inflated . All evidences above were among the issues that posed serious problems. Another issue that should have to be concerned in this case is the issue of its corporategovernance and internal control. It is really something suspicious when it comes to the appointment of FCB’s Board of Directors. Even though it had been specified that the composition of the Board of Directors was in adherence to the Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance, something seems to be not right when it comes to the person called Ali bin Ahmad, one of FCB’s Board of Directors.In FCB’s Company, Ali bin Ahmad was not only one of the Directors, but he was also one of theAudit Committee and one of the top management for FCB. At this point, the possibility of unethical conduct could be arisen from the top management, Ali bin Ahmad since he was seemingly had an access and more authority as one of FCB’s Audit Committee. Brief description of case exhibits In Income Statement, the revenue of FCB is steadily increasing from year 2001 until 2005. However, according to auditors, no supporting documents available for several sales transactions in 2005.