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Group 5 - how much has technology helped Starbucks compete? Explain your answer. 

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Group 5 - how much has technology helped Starbucks compete? Explain your answer. 

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Group 5 - Mackenzie, Anna, Selena, Jamie, Jessy

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Group 5 - Mackenzie, Anna, Selena, Jamie, Jessy

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Technology gave Starbucks an advantage ahead of their competitors by offering mobile ordering, an online menu, customizing your drink and by paying on your smartphone you can skip the line. Starbucks also gives their customers the benefit of free high speed wifi. Through a rewards system starbucks will honour free refills as well as a free menu item when a certain point count is reached. This helped them reduce the time it takes to make a drink, which improved their customer service and speed of service.

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Group 4 - Analyse Starbucks using the competitive forces and value chain models.

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Group 4 - Analyse Starbucks using the competitive forces and value chain models.

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Group 4: Jordan, Avriel, Natasha, Robyn, Meda, Gabriel 

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Group 4: Jordan, Avriel, Natasha, Robyn, Meda, Gabriel 

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Supplier power: quite high due to fair trade standards, suppliers hold substantial bargaining power as their options are limited to fair trade companies.
Consumer power: high power due to the huge range of other options aside from Starbucks.
Threat of new Entrants: medium, though it can be easy to start a local coffee shop, it can be difficult to start a franchise or chain.
Substitutes/Complements: Coffee shops are everywhere; energy drinks, teas; people who don't drink coffee can get food or drinks anywhere else
Competitive Rivalry: high; McDonalds, Tim Hortons, Second Cup

Marketing & Sales: With the new technologies, Starbucks has been able to promote themselves at a higher level; i.e. with their "gold star app" and online ordering-to-pick-up; points can be gained as well as free music from iTunes when the in-store wi-fi is being used.

Profits: consumers perceive Starbucks to be a better quality coffee, therefore they are willing to pay the extra money for good tasting coffee as well as their product differentiation

Human Resource Management: training staff allows for better customer service
Technology: online app, connection with iTunes

Therefore, the coffee industry, including Starbucks has high potential for profitability but is also a very highly competitive market

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Group 1: Define Porter's competitive forces model and explain how it works. 

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Group 1: Define Porter's competitive forces model and explain how it works. 

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Group 1: Stephanie, Sophie, Matthew, Syed, Shahla

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Group 1: Stephanie, Sophie, Matthew, Syed, Shahla

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Porter's Five forces Analysis is a tool for analyzing competition of a business.
The five forces includes traditional competitors, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers and buyers.
These determine the competitive intensity and attractiveness of an industry in terms of profitability.
•       Threat of new entrants. Factors such as economies of scale, brand loyalty, and capital requirements determine how easy or hard it is for new competitors to enter an industry.

•       Threat of substitutes. Factors such as switching costs and buyer loyalty determine the degree to which customers are likely to buy a substitute product.

•       Bargaining power of buyers. Factors such as number of customers in the market, customer information, and the availability of substitutes determine the amount of influence that buyers have in an industry.

•       Bargaining power of suppliers. Factors such as the degree of supplier concentration and availability of substitute inputs determine the amount of power that suppliers have over firms in the industry.

•       Current-competitor rivalry. Factors such as industry growth rate, increasing or falling demand, and product differences determine how intense the competitive rivalry will be among firms currently in the industry.

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Group 2 List and describe four competitive strategies enabled by information systems that firms can pursue.

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Group 2 List and describe four competitive strategies enabled by information systems that firms can pursue.

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Group 3 Describe how information systems can support each of these competitive strategies, and give examples

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Group 3 Describe how information systems can support each of these competitive strategies, and give examples

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Group 3  - Faith Tristan Ben Janessa Brad.

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Group 3  - Faith Tristan Ben Janessa Brad.

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Low-cost leadership - Implementing wifi- increases district manager in store presence by 25% without adding new managers. 10 person "lean team" who visited franchises to teach them lean techniques, increasing their level of service.
Product Differentiation - Pay on app option. Unique menu giving customers complete control over what goes into their drink.
Strengthen customer and suppliers - Strengthen relationships with customers by taking the time to get their names and writing them on their orders. Give back to the community. High speed internet encourages customers to come and stay longer, providing them with a place to work online.
Focus on Market Niche- focus on specialty coffees and products rather than just the plain coffees offered at places like Tim Hortons.

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Group 6 - Describe the major economic Theories that help explain how information systems affect organizations. 

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Group 6 - Describe the major economic Theories that help explain how information systems affect organizations. 

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Le'Ann, Alyssa, Lorraine, Sukhdeep, Fahad

Group 6 - Describe the major economic Theories that help explain how information systems affect organizations.
The two major economic theories that help explain how information systems affects organizations are;
- Transaction cost theory
- Agency theory.
The transaction cost theory is based on the notion that a firm incurs transaction costs when it buys goods in the marketplace rather than making products for itself. Traditionally, firms sought to reduce transaction costs by getting bigger, hiring more employees, vertical and horizontal integration, and small-company takeovers. Information technology helps firms lower the cost of market participation (transaction costs) and helps firms shrink in size while producing the same or greater amount of output.
According to agency theory the company is viewed as "Nexus of contracts" with the individual interest rather than unified.The employee performs their work on their individual interest and assigns some authority to agents. However, agents require the stable supervision and management. Otherwise, they will tend to follow their own interest instead of owners'. Information technology will minimize the agency cost by giving the more information or resources easily. So, the managers easily control a more number of workers with less ressources.

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Group 2: Jacqueline, Bryanna, Madison, Aaron, Guneet

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Group 2: Jacqueline, Bryanna, Madison, Aaron, Guneet

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-Low-cost leadership: Lowest operational costs and the lowest prices.
-Product differentiation: Enable new products and services, or greatly change the customer convenience in using existing products and services.
-Focus on market niche: Enable a specific market focus and serve this narrow target market better than competitors.
-Strengthen customer and suppliers: Tighten linkages with suppliers and develop intimacy with customers.