Analyzing Case Study Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analyzing Case Study - Research Paper Example The analysis will take into consideration the actions and decisions of the energy industry regulators to promote competition in the industry. United Kingdom Energy Markets As demonstrated by the actions of British Gas and the Scottish and Southern Energy, the energy market in U.K is characterized by collusion and cartels. These oligopolistic market structures enable the six larger firms in this industry to regulate the market by determining the prices and supply of energy products. An oligopoly is a market structure, which is controlled by few producers, and each of the producers has control over the market. The extent to which an industry or a market is dominated by a few leading firms is determined by the concentration ratio. It is an industry where the level of market concentration is high. In most circumstances, an oligopoly exists when there are five large firms, and the demand or sales of their products account for 60 percent of the total market. There is no specified theory th at explains how firms determine the output and price under the conditions of oligopoly. If there are price wars in the industry the oligopolistic firms will produce and price their products as perfect competitive industry, at other times they will behave like a pure monopoly. The following are the characteristics of oligopoly market structure; these characteristics are also displayed by the UK energy market. First, product branding; this feature is seen when every firm in the market is selling differentiated (branded) products. For example, British Gas, EDF, E.ON, Scottish Power, Npower, and SSE firms among other small firms in the energy industry sell differentiated products in the UK energy markets. Second, entry barriers; considerable entry barriers into the industry market prevents other firms to enter the market thus enabling dominant firms to maintain supernormal profits. Various small firms may operate on the edge of an oligopolistic market, but these firms are not large enou gh to have a considerable effect on the market output and prices. In July 2011, the British Gas announced an increase in electricity and gas prices by 16 percent and 18 percent respectively just eight months after it increased its prices. British Gas managing director defended the increase in prices saying that the market rates for energy has increased in the global energy market, which increased the wholesale costs of the firm by 30 percent for the last one year (King 2011). While reacting to this increase in energy prices energy minister, Chris Huhne demanded change in the UK electricity market. Energy secretary Chris Huhne, held a meeting with small energy suppliers, with an objective of finding ways of breaking the dominance of the large six electricity and gas companies and help in keeping energy prices down. The plan of the minister was to abolish the entry barriers in the energy market to allow competition between small and large firms in the energy industry (King 2011). The actions of Chris clearly show that there are entry barriers in the UK energy market. Third, interdependent decision making; in oligopolistic market firms take into consideration the possible responses of their competitors to any change in output, price or forms of non-price competition. Increase of gas and electricity prices by British Gas came one month after

America Civil Aviation Authority Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

America Civil Aviation Authority - Essay Example The authority is housed within the America Airports Authority (AAA) head office. It is around 18km from the city centre and about 20-25 minutes ride depending on the traffic. The authority’s broad key functions are to regulate the aviation industry in America, to provide air navigational services within America’s Flight Information Region (FIR) and to offer training for aviation personnel. The company provides an air transport reimbursement facility to those employees who incur expenditures in flight ticketing, which means that the expenditure incurred by employees in air ticketing is compensated by the company. The process described above has been automated by a system and some IT infrastructural resources and assets that depend on IT for a complete transaction or operation. The average users of the system include the staff, the IT administrators and the finance employees. The staff members require the following IT requirements: a computer networked with the organizati on’s server in the server room. The computer should be able to remotely connect to the server in the server room in order to access the system remotely. The server is able to identify the users with specific IP addresses. The server then filters the addresses and initiates an access control procedure. Access to the system is controlled on the basis of the users’ IP addresses. Once the server identifies the IP address, it displays the appropriate interface to the user. The IT administrators are the technical users of the system. They handle all processing of applications by other staff members. They also ensure that the system is available to all users 24 hours a day 7 days in a week. The finance staff members, on the other hand, only verify the identification of the employees who are to be compensated. The reporting structure of the organization and the senior IT group are as shown below: ACAA Infrastructure The following diagram shows the organizational structure of t he America Civil Aviation Authority starting from the chief information officer (CIO) to the other departments within the organization. It is one of my duties as the CIO of ACAA to protect all the information regarding ACAA as an organization as well as an enterprise. All the ACAA IT functions are overseen by me. In addition, I also ensure ACAA data integrity is protected. Given that ACAA treats IT as an organizational asset, it is my duty therefore, to make sure that IT is perfectly aligned with the ACAA business goals. Such duties as the establishment of technical service centers, data centers, scheduling production, communication networks, the development of computer programs and employee training are tasked to me. I am privileged with the ability to make and take strategic decisions regarding IT given the availability of large amount of information associated with my position. I, however, work closely with the executive management, CEO, stakeholders and Board of Directors in the decision making process. It is my duty to ensure that complete and accurate data are obtained by both the ACAA internal and external customers in a timely manner. This is achieved through research and implementation of the latest developments, technologies and trends. I make sure my IT staff is innovative in order to be able to convert the organization’s opportunities to its strength.