EDP case study : the emergence of a low cost company

The energy market used to be heavily dominated by conventional energy trading processes, with a high level of Government control, and characterized by a lack of competition in the sector. However, the European Union has been striving to counter this trend, by progressively deregulating the market, attempting to make the energy sector cost efficient through the introduction of competition among the players. EDP, the largest producer, distributor and supplier of electricity in Portugal, and one of the largest gas distributors in the Iberian Peninsula, has been facing new challenges after the liberalization of the energy market, as it used to be a monopoly in the energy sector. The opening for new rivals led EDP to adjust its positioning strategy in order to maintain its leadership. However, EDP Comercial, the EDP Group’s company which is competing in the retail energy market, is still the market leader despite the competitiveness in the sector. A new energy rival with new approaches unexpectedly came to Portugal in order to beat the market leader by offering extremely low prices. The low cost competitor presents a great challenge, since it could potentially ‘steal’ much of EDP’s market share. To face the new opponent, EDP has two options: either by beneficiating EDP’s brand name, and offering a line extension, or by launching an independent brand. This case study provides a strategy analysis for each option, studying the consumer behavior and competitive environment, and thereby helping students to recommend the best approach for EDP.O mercado de energia era fortemente dominado por processos de comercialização de energia convencionais, com um alto nível de controlo governamental, caracterizado pela ausência de competitividade. No entanto, a União Europeia tem-se esforçado para contrariar esta tendência, desregulamentando progressivamente o mercado, com o objectivo de tornar sector energético mais eficiente através da introdução da concorrência. EDP, a maior produtora, distribuidora e fornecedora de electricidade em Portugal, e uma das maiores distribuidoras de gás na Península Ibérica, enfrentou um novo desafio após a liberalização do mercado da energia, uma vez que esta empresa monopolizava todo o sector. A abertura de novos rivais levou a EDP a ajustar a sua estratégia de posicionamento para manter a sua liderança. No entanto, a EDP Comercial, empresa do Grupo EDP que está no mercado retalhista de energia, continua a ser líder do mercado apesar da competitividade no sector. Inesperadamente, um novo rival de energia com diferentes abordagens ao consumidor chegou a Portugal, a fim de combater o líder de mercado com preços extremamente baixos. O adversário de baixo custo será um grande desafio, uma vez que pode roubar muito da quota de mercado da EDP. Para enfrentar o novo adversário, a EDP tem duas opções: alavancar a marca EDP, lançando uma extensão do produto, ou criar uma marca independente. Este case study fornece uma análise de cada estratégia, estudando o comportamento do consumidor e da competitividade no sector, ajudando assim os alunos a recomendar a melhor reacção que a EDP deve ter

Cruise ships' tourism dilemma, between the environmental impact and the economic benefits

Abstract This bachelor thesis investigates how Stavanger city, Norway, can balance the economic benefits and environmental costs of cruise ship tourism, which is a vital but controversial industry for the city. To answer this question, I conducted interviews with local businesses that are affected by cruise tourism, reviewed recent studies on the environmental impacts of this industry on the city's air quality and marine life, and applied stakeholder and sustainability management theories to analyse the findings. The results shows that cruise tourism generates significant income and employment opportunities for some businesses in Stavanger, but also creates conflicts with other stakeholders such as residents, and public authorities. Moreover, cruise tourism poses relative threats to the city's natural environment, especially in terms of greenhouse gas emissions which was found to not be significant, noise pollution, and visual pollution representing the main pollution subject to the city. Based on these results, I suggest some potential solutions or recommendations that could help the city achieve a more sustainable and balanced development of cruise tourism. While sustainability is often understood as a social objective that aims to ensure the long-term coexistence of humans on Earth. However, and since this term has not been easy to be define precisely, as it has changed and diversified across different texts, contexts, and times. A common way to conceptualize sustainability is to consider its three dimensions: environmental, economic, and social, also known as the three p’s model. As the environmental dimension is emphasized as the most crucial for addressing the environmental challenges, while there is a distinguish between sustainability and sustainable development, regarding the latter as a pathway to achieve the former (Sustainability., n.d.). This thesis posits that sustainable development can be achieved by utilizing profits as a cornerstone for the betterment of both society and the environment. By including and implementing stricter regulations and standards for cruise ships, which can eventually make this industry more sustainable by promoting investment in green energy. Furthermore, promoting the media to deliver the whole picture presented by stakeholders, and enhancing stakeholder engagement and collaboration. I chose Stavanger as the case study for my research because it is the home of my own experiences in the industry as well as a city that has seen significant growth in cruise tourism in recent years. I hope that this study can contribute to the ongoing debate and policymaking regarding cruise tourism in Stavanger and other similar destinations

Campus News April 8, 1994

https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/campus_news/2080/thumbnail.jp

Entropy, Decoherence and Spacetime Splitting

Objects in classical world model are in an "either/or" kind of state. A compass needle cannot point both north and south at the same time. The quantum world, by contrast, is "both/and" and a magnetic atom model has no trouble at pointing both directions at once. When that is the case, physicists say that a quantum object is in a "superposition" of states. In previous paper, we already discussed the major intrinsic limitations of "Science 1.0" arbitrary multi-scale (AMS) modeling and strategies to get better simulation results by "Science 2.0" approach. In 2014, Computational information conservation theory (CICT) has shown that even the most sophisticated instrumentation system is completely unable to reliably discriminate so called "random noise" (RN) from any combinatorically optimized encoded message (OECS, optimized exponential cyclic sequence), called "deterministic noise" (DN) by CICT. Unfortunately, the "probabilistic veil" can be quite opaque computationally, and misplaced precision leads to confusion. The "Science 2.0" paradigm has not yet been completely grasped by many contemporary scientific disciplines and current researchers, so that not all the implications of this big change have been realized hitherto, even less their related, vital applications. Thus, one of the key questions in understanding the quantum-classical transition is what happens to the superposition as you go up that atoms-to-apple scale. Exactly when and how does "both/and" become "either/or"? As an example, we present and discuss the observer space-time splitting case. In other words, we show spacetime mapping to classical system additive representation with entropy generation. It is exactly at this point that "both/and" becomes "either/or" representation by usual Science 1.0 approach. CICT new awareness of a discrete HG (hyperbolic geometry) subspace (reciprocal space) of coded heterogeneous hyperbolic structures, underlying the familiar Q Euclidean (direct space) surface representation can open the way to holographic information geometry (HIG) to recover system lost coherence and to overall system minimum entropy representation

Women In The Web of Secondary Copyright Liability and Internet Filtering

This Essay suggests possible explanations for why there is not very much legal scholarship devoted to gender issues on the Internet; and it asserts that there is a powerful need for Internet legal theorists and activists to pay substantially more attention to the gender-based differences in communicative style and substance that have been imported from real space to cyberspace. Information portals, such as libraries and web logs, are gendered in ways that may not be facially apparent. Women are creating and experiencing social solidarity online in ways that male scholars and commentators do not seem to either recognize or deem important. Internet specific content restrictions for the purposes of protecting copyrights and protecting children jeopardize online freedoms for women in diverse ways, and sometimes for different reasons than they do for men. Disparities in the ways women and men use, experience and communicate over the Internet need to be recognized, studied, and accommodated by those who would theorize cyberspace law and advocate directions for its evolution

Brand identity planning model of Hotel Miramonti

The present project's purpose is to create a branding strategy for Hotel Miramonti, for it to transmit a clear, coherent, and cohesive identity. The branding strategy proposition process starts by analyzing the internal and external factors within the context of the hotel (competitors, consumers, getting the director’s perspective and comparing it to the staff’s perspective to understand what can be actually feasible to do); then proposing a strategy. The project proposal addresses the steps suggested by David Aaker: the three perspectives of the hotel, the identity structure, the value proposition, and the brand position. The expected result of implementing this strategy’s proposal should be providing the hotel with a clear brand positioning, thus giving the hotel the right tools to have consistent communication (internally and externally) and, consequently, generating a clear and cohesive image, allowing the development of a brand-customer relationship

Intentional communities as drivers of societal change towards sustainability?

With societies all over the world being faced with severe global environmental crises, profound changes in societal systems are required. Many actors in the field of sustainability transitions attribute an essential role to intentional communities. This study explores how community advocates engaged in intentional communities conceptualize and envision pathways for societal change towards sustainability. Social representations of change held by community advocates from different European countries are investigated. The findings identify two representations of change: One focused on exploring sustainable practices and one centred on facilitating inner change. Community advocates supporting the representation of exploring sustainable practices appear to hold contradicting views, which might result in a lack of action and avoidance of the issue. In comparison, community advocates emphasizing the need for inner change seem to have rather consistent views, which might make it easier for them to engage in community action in practice. Overall, this study contributes to a better understanding of the role of intentional communities as drivers of societal change towards sustainability, and offers valuable insights for transition work

Let me be quiet' : HIV disclosure, stigma and denial in Imizamo Yethu, Cape Town

Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-86)

Reasonable Suspicion and Mere Hunches

In Terry v. Ohio, Earl Warren held that police officers could temporarily detain a suspect, provided that they relied upon specific, reasonable inferences, and not simply upon an inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or \u27hunch. \u27 Since Terry, courts have strained to distinguish reasonable suspicion, which is said to arise from the cool analysis of objective and particularized facts, from mere hunches, which are said to be subjective, generalized, unreasoned and therefore unreliable. Yet this dichotomy between facts and intuitions is built on sand. Emotions and intuitions are not obstacles to reason, but indispensable heuristic devices that allow people to process diffuse, complex information about their environment and make sense of the world. The legal rules governing police conduct are thus premised on a mistaken assumption about human cognition. This Article argues that the legal system can defer, to some extent, to police officers\u27 intuitions without undermining meaningful protections against law enforcement overreaching. As a practical matter, the current legal regime substitutes palliative euphemisms for useful controls on police discretion. It forces police officers to prune what they say at suppression hearings, but it does little to change how they act on the streets of America. When an energetic police officer has a hunch that evil is stirring and action is imperative, the officer will simply act. Months will pass before a suppression hearing, and by then it will be a simple matter to reverse-engineer the objective reasons for the stop - e.g., I saw a bulge, or He made a furtive gesture. The legal system in practice rewards those officers who are able and willing to spin their behavior in a way that satisfies judges, while it penalizes other officers who are less verbally facile or who are transparent about their motivations. Politically accountable authorities should join the courts in monitoring police practices. And the focus should be less on what police say after the fact and more on what they do - that is, how successful police officers are in detecting criminals relative to the number of stops they make and how respectful officers are of all citizens

Casco Bay Weekly : 2 March 1989

https://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/cbw_1989/1009/thumbnail.jp