Public Health Awareness Of HIV Health And Social Care Essay

Public Health Awareness Of HIV Health And Social Care Essay Although human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has killed more than half a million people in the United States, a comprehensive public health approach that has stopped other epidemics has not been used to address this one. When HIV infection first emerged among stigmatized populations (homosexual men, injection-drug users, and immigrants from developing countries), the discriminatory responses ranged from descriptions of AIDS as retribution to violence and proposals for quarantine, universal mandatory testing, and even tattooing of infected persons. This response led to HIV exceptionalism, an approach that advocated both for special resources and increased funding and against the application of standard methods of disease control.1 The need for extra resources remains essential, but the failure to apply standard disease-control methods undermines societys ability and responsibility to control the epidemic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Now, given the availability of drugs that can effectively treat HIV infection and progress on antidiscrimination initiatives, perhaps society is ready to adopt traditional disease-control principles and proven interventions that can identify infected persons, interrupt transmission, ensure treatment and case management, and monitor infection and control efforts throughout the population (Table 1). Doing so will have political and economic costs. The political costs include offending both sides of the political establishment: conservatives who oppose the implementation of effective prevention programs, including syringe exchange and the widespread availability of condoms, and some HIV activists who oppose expansion of testing, notification of the partners of infected persons (also known as partner counseling and referral services), and what some see as inappropriate medicalization of the response to the epidemic. The economic costs, particularly to improve population-w ide case management and notification of partners, would be substantial. But the human and economic costs of failing to adopt a comprehensive public health approach are much higher.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Table 1. Comparison of Public Health Approach to HIV Infection and Other Infectious Diseases.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  We have identified and elucidated the biology of the virus, established and improved diagnostic tests, and created effective drugs and care systems that have reduced the number of deaths from AIDS in the United States by 70 percent since 1995.2 However, 25 years into the epidemic, progress is stalled. The number of deaths among people with AIDS has not declined since 1998, and the number of newly diagnosed cases is rising slightly.2 Disease transmission continues at the same or, possibly, a slightly higher rate.3 High-risk behavior remains common and is increasing in some groups. Late diagnosis of infection is common.3 Notification of the partners of infected persons is rare.4 Black and Latino patients are less likely than white patients to receive optimal care.5 Few patients in care receive counseling about preventing transmission of the virus.6 All these trends are apparent in New York City, which is home to one in six of all U.S. patients with AIDS.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Case Finding and Surveillance   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When HIV testing became available 20 years ago in the absence of treatment and in the context of discrimination, the use of prescriptive regulations mandating counseling and separate written consent, based largely on the genetic-counseling model of testing for untreatable conditions, was reasonable. Today, the existence of these regulations and the separation of counseling and testing from routine medical care result in missed opportunities to diagnose, treat, and stop the spread of HIV infection. Nearly half of black men tested in public venues where men who have sex with men congregate (e.g., bars, bathhouses, and parks) in 2004 and 2005 were HIV-positive, and two thirds of those who were positive were unaware of their status.7 Our outdated approach to HIV screening means that we not only fail to identify infected patients promptly and thus allow the epidemic to continue to spread, but we may also perpetuate HIV-related stigma by targeting screening only to those pe rceived to be at risk. Routine, voluntary HIV testing in health care settings, although advocated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for more than a decade,8 widely recommended,9 and cost-effective,10 has not occurred. In New York City in 2002, only one third of adults who had had three or more sex partners in the preceding year and only half of men who had sex with men who had had three or more partners had been tested for HIV in the previous 18 months.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Early diagnosis is essential both to link patients to effective care and to prevent the spread of infection. The CDC estimates that more than half of new HIV infections are spread by HIV-positive people who are unaware they are infected.11 In nearly 40 percent of persons who received a diagnosis of HIV infection, AIDS either was concurrently diagnosed or developed within a year.3 They had been infected with HIV for about a decade; health care and other institutions missed many opportunities to diagnose their infection. As a result of delayed diagnosis, such patients are sicker when they begin to receive care and will thus die sooner than those whose infection is diagnosed promptly. Many unwittingly spread HIV to their spouses, partners, and others. Once they know their diagnosis, people infected with HIV reduce their practice of high-risk sex by about half,12 and the risk of heterosexual transmission, at least, is further reduced by treatment that decreases the viral load to below 1500 copies of HIV type 1 RNA per milliliter.13 Voluntary HIV screening and linkage to care should become a normal part of medical practice, similar to screening for other treatable conditions, such as high cholesterol levels, hypertension, diabetes, and breast cancer. Screening and linkage to care are especially important in communities with a high prevalence of HIV infection.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The partners of more than two thirds of people with newly diagnosed HIV infection do not receive organized partner notification, and when contact is attempted, the rate of success varies greatly.4 The notification of partners by public health counselors is more effective than notification by individual patients,14 but this approach is rare in most areas. As a result, most partners are not notified of their exposure or offered testing, contributing to late diagnosis and continued spread of HIV. Of 4312 persons with newly diagnosed HIV infection in New York City in 2003, information on these persons partners was available for less than a fifth and testing results were confirmed for fewer than 200 partners. In addition, the policy of offering partner notification only at the time of diagnosis ignores the continuing high-risk sexual behavior of many HIV-positive persons. Systematic notification of partners by public health personnel and the use of newer antibody or nuclei c acid-amplification tests in addition to traditional methods could identify social networks and acute or early HIV infections and could potentially stop clusters of transmission.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Interrupting Transmission   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The application of the public health principles of near-universal screening and treatment has all but eliminated transfusion-related and perinatal transmission of HIV.3 Among injection-drug users, syringe-exchange programs and widespread voluntary screening for the virus reduced the rate of transmission by 50 to 80 percent.15 Further progress in preventing HIV infection is possible interventions to change behavior work16,17,18,19 but reducing sexual transmission is challenging. Evidence-based ways to reduce high-risk behavior include promoting the use of condoms and making free condoms widely available,16,19 including in schools20; making clean needles readily available to people who inject illicit drugs21; and community interventions.19   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Condoms, which can substantially reduce transmission,16,22 are not widely available nor is their use strongly promoted, and they are still used infrequently in high-risk sexual encounters.23 Most injection-drug users in the United States continue to use nonsterile needles.24 Until recently in New York City, condom-distribution programs were limited, even in high-risk settings, and several neighborhoods in need of syringe-exchange services were not served by these programs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Systematic Treatment and Case Management   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Standard public health approaches that have either not been applied or been applied inconsistently to HIV prevention and control efforts include public health monitoring to ensure that all HIV-infected patients receive quality care, providing public health support through referrals and outreach for patients who are not receiving effective treatment, monitoring of CD4 cell counts and viral loads to identify patients who may be candidates for treatment or who are lost to care, and assisting clinicians with outreach and partner notification. Although HIV infection remains incurable, AIDS is now a chronic disease for those fortunate enough to receive effective treatment. The use of effective treatment that incorporates risk-reduction counseling,25 including distribution of condoms, promotion of the use of condoms and clean needles, and treatment for substance abuse and mental health conditions, would improve individual treatment outcomes and reduce disease transmission, b ut it is uncommon.6   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Case management is prominent in the HIV service delivery system, yet few if any jurisdictions ensure that every patient is offered effective treatment and prevention services. Public health interventions to monitor and improve HIV case management can be effective26 but are rare.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Population-Based Monitoring and Evaluation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It took nearly two decades to make HIV reportable throughout the United States, and named reporting is still not universal. Although information on CD4 cell counts and viral loads is collected in most jurisdictions, monitoring these data to determine patients progress is rare. Surveillance for drug-resistant strains of virus in patients who have never been treated is generally not conducted. Information on viral loads, CD4 cell counts, and drug resistance recently became reportable in New York State, thus making it possible to identify patients who are not receiving effective care, monitor trends in drug resistance, potentially identify clusters of disease, and potentially provide physicians and their patients who are not receiving care with more intensive services. Publicly funded case management, treatment, and service systems are not effectively coordinated to ensure a continuum of care. Effective population-based monitoring and evaluation would track not only the incidence, prevalence, and mortality of HIV infection, but also indicators of the interruption of transmission, such as the use of voluntary testing, proportion of partners notified, linkage to care of those who test positive, and success at reducing viral load when treatment is clinically indicated.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The spread of HIV could be reduced substantially if newly infected people promptly learned of their status, reduced high-risk behaviors, and when clinically indicated, began and continued treatment that suppresses viral replication. But few if any jurisdictions even attempt to monitor whether all HIV-infected people receive effective treatment, let alone intervene to provide additional support when patients do not start, discontinue, or do not respond well to treatment. New York City, which has one of the nations strongest case-management infrastructures, has no systematic citywide information available on whether patients have begun, are continuing, or have a virologic response to treatment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Conclusions   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Proven interventions, such as the use of condoms, clean needles, and expanded voluntary screening, and linkage to care, could prevent most HIV infections.27 Improving community-based efforts and counseling of individual patients to prevent transmission, supporting patients to facilitate their return to care, and improving the availability of effective treatment could further reduce transmission. But 25 years into the epidemic, we do not consistently apply these proven strategies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cost-effective programs include mass-media education campaigns, efforts to make condoms widely available, and interventions to change high-risk behavior in groups with a high prevalence of HIV infection.19 Routine, voluntary screening for HIV is indicated on the basis of clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness,10 and the cost is moderate, as compared with that of many other health interventions. Notification of an infected persons partners after counseling and testing prevents infections and probably saves money.28   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Using the current CDC estimate of 40,000 new HIV infections per year, the potential to prevent half to two thirds of these infections, and the current average lifetime cost of care for a patient with HIV infection of $200,000,29 more effective epidemic control would save between $4 billion and $5.4 billion per year. Widespread availability of condoms, syringe-exchange programs, public health notification of the partners of infected persons, and improvement of case management and monitoring systems would be unlikely to cost more than an additional $1 billion to $2 billion per year nationally two to three times the current CDC funding for HIV prevention.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Controlling epidemics is a fundamental responsibility of the government, working in concert with physicians, patients, and communities. There is a delicate balance between protecting the public and the individual right to privacy. Until we implement prevention programs with proven efficacy more widely, make voluntary screening and linkage to care a normal part of medical care and expand screening in community settings, and improve treatment, risk reduction, monitoring, and partner notification, we will continue to miss opportunities to reduce the spread of HIV infection.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some religious and political groups oppose the use of effective prevention measures. Some advocacy groups oppose expansion of screening and funding of government programs for prevention and control of HIV infection. Some doctors, health care facilities, and organizations will oppose increased monitoring of treatment efficacy; moreover, this cannot be accomplished without additional resources. There are few models for this approach, although Malawi has begun to apply public health principles to testing, treatment, and monitoring.30 Although stigma and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation continue, advocacy has resulted in substantial progress, including antidiscrimination statutes in many states and increasing numbers of jurisdictions that recognize the rights of domestic partners. The world has changed in the past 25 years, and approaches to HIV prevention must also change. If we fully apply public health principles to the HIV epidemic, we can improve the health of people living with HIV infection and prevent tens of thousands of people in this country from becoming infected with HIV in the next decade.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  We are indebted to Drew Blakeman for assistance in the preparation of the manuscript and to Colin McCord and Mark Barnes for helpful comments.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Source Information   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  From the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York.

Medical Malpractice

How do we quantify pain and suffering? This question should be answered satisfactorily before people could even attempt to debate whether or not to impose limits on recovery in medical malpractice cases. Undoubtedly, it is difficult to talk about limits on damage awards without a standardized costing system which would guide the proper authorities to come up with a fair determination of the damages done to victims of medical malpractice. Since there is no such system, the task of ascertaining the extent of damage inflicted on victims is usually left to the country’s judicial system which decides the issue on a case-to-case basis. This being the case, setting a maximum limit or a cap on the amount that could be awarded to victims would be very difficult to justify because such an act would be highly discriminatory. For instance, a cap of $200,000 would mean that claimants could not be awarded with more than said amount. The unfairness of this system would be immediately evident in a situation where two individuals suffer the loss of their upper limbs, the first victim losing one and the second suffering from the loss of both limbs. The court could award $140,000 to the first victim who loses one limb, for example, but the claim of the second victim would be limited to $200,000 despite losing both limbs. What it would amount to is that the other limb lost by the second victim would only be compensated with $60,000. In this example, the second victim is not compensated fairly for his/her loss. Setting a cap therefore discriminates against the victim who suffers more. (Hiatt, 2002) Another question worth asking is: Who stands to gain if we do limit recovery? If the first question tends to be highly contentious, this second question involves a cut-and-dried issue because the answer is rather obvious. Putting a cap on awards granted in connection with medical malpractice cases favors only the medical practitioners who commit the act to the utter detriment of the victims. In other words, setting such a cap would treat the victims unfairly and favor the perpetrators. This, too, is discrimination. Some quarters attempt to justify this act by saying that providing for a maximum limit to recovery is a way of stemming the spiraling cost of health care in the country. Opponents, however, argue that this is not only deceptive but unconstitutional as well. (Hiatt, 2002) Critics of a cap on damage awards argue that it violates the Fourteenth Amendment which provides â€Å"equal protection† to all Americans. As illustrated earlier, a cap denies â€Å"equal protection† to those victims who suffer more, because they could not claim compensation beyond what the statutory cap allows. This was cited in Jones v. State Board of Medicine where the court declared unconstitutional the 1975 Hospital-Medical Liability Act passed by Idaho because it failed to treat victims of malpractice equally. In other words under the Act, the claimants whose injuries were deemed below the cap received full compensation while those whose damages exceeded the limit were denied the opportunity to recover fully because they were not awarded full compensation. (Hiatt, 2002) Another objection voiced against putting a cap on damage awards is the fact that it violates the individual’s â€Å"right to trial by jury.† Under the law, evaluating the extent of damages is a function of a jury. In the presence of a cap, the role of the jury is limited only up to the extent of the cap – in effect, interfering with the constitutional duty of a jury. In Boyd v. Bulala, the opinion of the federal district court was that the cap of $750,000 on damage awards set by the state of Virginia â€Å"violated the right to trial by jury provided for by both federal and state constitutions.† (Hiatt, 2002) It is clear from the foregoing discussion that limiting the recovery in medical malpractice cases is very prejudicial to the interests of the victims. In the interest of fairness, every malpractice case should be deliberated on by a jury based on its own merits and the extent of damage award be assessed without the constraints of a cap. This will give every victim of medical malpractice cases the much-needed opportunity for a full recovery. Reference Hiatt, M.D. (2002). Caps on Damage Awards in Medical Malpractice Cases: Constitutional Challenges. Retrieved October 28, 2007 from http://jpands.org/hacienda/hiatt1.html      

SWOT Analysis Tencent Limited Holding

IntroductionIn March 2010 McKinsey published an article dealing with the obsession of the Internet of the Chinese population by concluding the following statement „People in the country’s 60 largest cities spend 70 percent of their leisure time online. Seismic changes in the consumer market are likely as a result.â€Å"1 China’s Internet population increased at the end of 2012 to a total number of 564 million users compared to approximately 250 million users in 2008, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIN).2 The main reasons for this enormous growth is strongly connected with different aspects, as for instance the general growth of Gross-Domestic-Product (GDP), lower priced computers, more affordable telecom connection fees, government support to Internet usage, and low-cost entertainment aspects. This affected, that also lower income groups started to use the Internet.3 Answering to this fast development and growth of Chinas Internet p opulation, the Internet service industry is about to increase up to 17 percentages in 2013. In the last years, the Internet service industry achieved even annual growing rates up to 20 percentages, resulting of the booming demand.The Internet market seems to be quite satisfied for the moment but even in the next years researches forecast an annual growth of approximately 10 percentages. This is due to the expansion of existing offers in the area of e-commerce and advertisement services.4 Observing the numbers, 148 million people have already experienced Internet shopping since 2010 and it is expected that 30 million people will additionally make use of it by the end of 2015.5 The Economist stated, â€Å"the future of e-commerce is China†.6 Besides the e-commerce and advertisement services also the application services became more and more important over the last years because of the introduction of smartphones and tablets.7Recognizing the trends, Tencent Holdings Limited deci ded 20 years ago to enter the market and finally became the largest Internet Service Portal in China. Tencent still enjoys a quasi monopoly position, which is hardly endangered due to rising competition. That is the reason why they need to think about using new opportunities and fending upcoming threats. Consequently Tencent should carry out a Strengths-, Weaknesses-, Opportunities-, Threats-Analysis (SWOT-Analysis), which includes the study of their own weaknesses and strengths in the internal dimension and the resulting opportunities and threats giving from external influences.This paper will firstly give an overview about the internal strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore Tencent’s external environment will be analyzed and the results will be used for defining the opportunities and threats of the company Before starting with the literal SWOT-Analysis for Tencent the first Chapter gives a short explanation about SWOT-Analysis in general.2 Definition SWOT- Analysis As mentio ned in the introduction, there are two different parts of changes in the environment, which lead to affect the performance of companies. This chapter will explain the difference between internal and external environment and their interaction. Furthermore the next part will explain the so-called SWOT-Analysis in detail.Internal environment analysis points out strengths and weaknesses of a company that in turn, supports decision-making processes concerning the handling of upcoming threats and opportunities.8 Knowing which strengths and weaknesses the company has to face, the internal environment analysis studies aspects like assets, people or knowledge on the one hand and financial deadlines or gaps in capabilities on the other hand.9 Analyzing the internal environment is very important because it defines the capability of the company to deal with the threats and opportunities given by the external environment.10 External environment deals with all developments on the marketplace, inc luding political, economical, social, legal and technical conditions as well as customers, competitors, suppliers and the public. Changes in the external environment or the so-called STEEP (socialcultural, technological, ecological, economical, political/legal)  force the companies in most cases to rethink their actual strategy, to make use of the emerged opportunities and to prevent occurring threats.11 As for instance using the development of a new market as opportunity or dealing with threats as new competitors or decreasing demand.12 To use opportunities means to develop a best-practice strategy. Regarding this, companies have to decide, whether it is the best opportunity to offer something in short supply, to provide something in a better way what already exists, or to create a totally new product.13 Concerning to that, the company has to know if there exists demand, needs and wants for the product they want to provide.14 Facing threats and not trying to fend them often leads to decreasing profits or lower sales. On the one hand knowing these threats gives the opportunity to react and trying to avoid, that threats are going to influence the company’s performance.15 On the other hand firms often do not have control over the threats, which affects the company negatively like for instance new competitors are entering the marketplace. This results in giving up potential customers and thus decreasing demand.16Bringing the internal and external environment analysis together is what you call a SWOT-Analysis. The SWOT-Analysis evaluates all strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a company, which builds the base for a strategy formulation.17 Meaning that knowing the strengths and reduce weaknesses help companies to use opportunities on the one side, On the other side to use strengths and develop strategies to avoid that weaknesses will become the target of threats. After this short definition of the SWOT-Analysis the next step will be to work out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Tencent Holdings Limited. 3 SWOT-Analysis of Tencent Holdings Limited3.2 Internal Environment AnalysisAs mentioned in the Introduction the Internet Industry in China is booming. To cover all possible marketplaces in the Internet Tencent offers a broad range of products and services. Besides the most popular service, the instant Messenger called QQ including numerous added services, Tencent provides online media, (wireless) internet value added services, interactive  entertainment services, especially in the online-gaming sector, e-commerce platforms and services as well as online advertisement services.18 Tencent also follows latest trends, as for instance launching a mobile application of a messaging service and added games and a mobile payment system, because of the latest development of using smartphones and tablets instead of personal computers.19 Tencent is one of the oldest Internet corporations in China and wi th its QQ platform the company reached 798,2 million user accounts by the end of 2012.20 As a result, Tencent influenced the communication world in China fundamentally. Another strengths lies definitely in the broad product and service offer of Tencent and the way in which they create synergies. The company offers seven main business lines, starting from instant messaging to online advertisement services. Besides just offering free services, Tencent tries to bind their users to the company’s value-added and paid services, in order to make profit.21 The strategy aims to offer the Internet population the possibility to use a wide variety of services in one company.Furthermore Tencent could gain a lot of experiences and knowledge over the past 20 years as one of the first providers in the Internet service sector, which significantly strengthened the company’s research and development abilities. Despite having already the mature technology in the market, half of the employ ees of Tencent belong to the Research and Development department, to ensure Tencent’s current market leading position and sustain this competitive advantage. Additionally to that the Tencent Research institute, which is China’s first Internet institute with the main goals in research and development of core technology on the Internet, supports the corporation in being innovative.22 Another strength of Tencent is their workforce as Tencent sees them as the â€Å"most precious asset and emphasized on the training of employees† by using different Training Systems.23 Moreover Tencent Holdings Limited is the third largest Internet operator in the world and the largest listed company in China.24 Benefitting from many advantages due to the companiescompany’s size there are also weaknesses the company has to face. In the following part the internal environment focuses on revealing the weaknesses of Tencent.Regarding the large variety of the product range Tencent, Tencent faces the fear of cannibalization because it creates a competitive situation in between their products. An example can be giving by the different instant  messaging services WeChat and QQ or TM and RTX, which serve the same purpose. Besides that QQ mobile messenger gets more and more the look of WeChat, which makes it even more competitive and leads to higher confusion for the consumers.25 Moreover Tencent greatest weakness is being not really innovative rather than being a â€Å"copy cat†. This occurs with the fact, that Tencent copied a lot from successful western companies. QQ for example is a copy of the Israeli invention ICQ and SOSO, the search engine of Tencent uses especially Google as a model.To conclude the internal environment analysis, one can summarize, that Tencent is a highly developed company with a lot of market power due to their long existence. On the opposite Tencent can notcannot convince with real innovative power. To get an idea what influence s TencentsTencent’s decision externally the next step will be to analyze the current market situation of the Internet market in China.3.1 External Environment AnalysisTencent operates in a highly challenging and rapidly changing environment. To get an idea what external impacts Tencent has to face it is important to know, what external factors the Chinese Internet market is about. As already mentioned China, faces a fast growing market in e-commerce because of the increasing number of Internet shoppers. The government noticed the importance of this growing market as well and plans to â€Å"upgrade the technological capabilities of e-commerce†.27 Another importance opportunity lies in using the governmental support, which is communicated in the 12th five-year plan and includes the support for the â€Å"new-generation IT† and additionally the advance of the information networks, mobile communication and the Internet.28 China is nowadays the largest Internet market in the world, which implicates that it is also one of the most competitive markets in the world.In addition to the high development of the Internet scene many companies entered the market in the last years, which leads to a highly competitive situation in general. Chinas Internet population is still growing but the annual growing ratio halved already from 20 percentages in the last years to 10 percentages as forecasted. Besides that, more and more  startups enter the markets, which results sooner or later in a fully satisfied market and a loss in profit and market share.As an example for the highly competitive market, the image below shows the current competition situation on the search engine market in China.There are already eight providers only for search engines on the market including international companies like Yahoo and Google. The low market share of these international companies underlines the fact, that there are still restrictions from the government concerning the fu lly market entry of these companies.Image : China Search Engine Market Share in August 201330Even if governmental regulations already have relaxed a bit, Chinese Internet sector faces still a lot of restrictions. Chinas Internet companies benefit by this, because many foreign websites are still blocked and they are not exposed to powerful competitors like Facebook. This in consequence creates the possibility to develop and strengthen own applications. On the other hand it could become a threat as soon as the government decides to abolish this restrictions. Chinese Internet companies then have to face the full international competition against global players as for example Google.31 After giving this overview about the external and internal environment the next chapter will use this information by concluding recommendations about Tencent’s future strategy.3.3 SWOT-Analysis and RecommendationsTencent entered the Internet market in many different dimensions and accordingly place s their product and service offering. Due to the previous analysis, there are especially three main product categories where Tencent should use their opportunities in further expansion. Firstly, Tencent should, due to the growth-intensive market segment, expand their e-commerce offer by developing for instance their website Papai.com. To even attract more possible Internet shoppers, they also should expand their online advertisement services. Thus, they can make use of synergies they already created through their broad offers, by linking their advertisements services with the shopping sites they own. This second measure, leads to the creation  of new potential profit zones.Thirdly, Tencent should not only focus on expanding existing offers but also develop new products, as for instance in the sector of cloud computing. By doing so, they can fully exhausting governmental support. Taking into consideration, that the market will be opened up in the long-term, Tencent should emphasis their innovation process on new products and services for the national and also international market. This should not be very difficult to accomplish, since Tencent disposes of a highly experienced workforce in Research and Development. This in consequence will enable the company to expand international and compete with other global players. If Tencent wants to keep their position as the third largest Internet company in the world they have to continue growing their business. Considering the slower growing Internet population in China, Tencent needs to go international to keep their growing position.Tencent did this by investing in foreign companies as for instance in the case of FAB.3233 This expansion should be continued in order to gain international market share and increase their portfolio in other Internet based services, as well as to improve their overall operational capability. Another possibility to do so is by expanding through strategic alliances†¦ By building strat egic business partnerships within China and gaining market share in several sectors Tencent is also able to fend the threat of market entry by international Internet companies in turn. Tencent furthermore has got a highly influence on the communication world in China as one of the oldest Internet company and built already a lot of barriers for international companies.Taking the messenger service QQ as an example for the mostly used messenger in China it enjoys a very high customer liability. Consequently Tencent could prevent loosing their position in China because although of the feared abolishment of several governmental restrictions concerning the entry of international companies. Additionally Tencent should try to avoid that QQ gets more and more the look of WeChat. As already explained, this could tempt users to change to competitors because of confusion. In this case, Tencent should favor cannibalization by offering differentiated products of the same purpose, to avoid losing costumers to competitors. The image below shows a summery of the named points and what the SWOT-Analysis and recommendations for the Tencent Holdings Limited contain.Image 2: SWOTs of Tencent Holdings Limited344 ConclusionInternet business in China is still one of the fastest growing industries in the world and Tencent used and uses this opportunity a lot in expanding existing products, launching new services and developing better solutions for the internet population in general. These actions are supported by the try of going more and more international. Even though the external environment analysis showed that the Internet market is influenced by many factors, which co-determines the performance of Tencent an all the other Internet companies. To reach the best performance they could get, Tencent has to use its strengths and to improve its weaknesses to make the best out of every trend, meaning using opportunities and fending threats.To summarize what the work pointed out in the pr evious chapter, Tencent shouldTencent should expand their e-commerce and their online advertisement services. Moreover there is a big opportunity to create national and international strategic businesses trough the investments or the development of own innovations, which should be easily possible due to he strong research and development activity of Tencent. Additionally to that, Tencent already is the third largest Internet company worldwide, which makes it easier for them to enter international markets and gaining new customers all around the world.Regarding the governmental aspects, Tencent needs to use the supports given by the government and stress the development of new systems. Furthermore Tencent should definitely try to further build their market entry barriers. As a conclusion, the SWOT-Analysis of Tencent Holdings Limited showed, that the company is rightly positioned at the top in the world ´s largest Internet market, due their numerous strengths. But in times of liber alization, globalization and an almost satisfied domestic market, Tencent has to fight against the identified threats in the upcoming years.

Wealth Maximization And Corporate Social Responsibility

Wealth Maximization and Corporate Social Responsibility Ebehi Onakpoma Introduction There has been a lingering argument about the legitimacy and importance of corporate responses to CSR concerns. There are diverse opinions of the role of the firm in the environment and thoughts on whether profit maximization should be the only goal of a corporation. Profit maximization is the goal of any business. It is the process by which profits (EPS) of the business are increased. In other words, all decisions concerning investments, financing, or dividends are focused on boosting profits to an optimal level. Businessdictionary.com defines wealth maximization as a process that increases the current net value of business or shareholder capital gains, with the objective of bringing in the highest possible return. It involves making wide-ranging financial investment decisions which contemplates any risk factors that would compromise or outweigh the anticipated benefits. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR, also known as corporate conscience, corporate citizenship, stakeholder management or sustainable responsible business) is the duty of a corporation to create wealth in ways that avoid harm to, protect, or enhance societal assets (Steiner and Steiner, 2009). McWilliams and Siegel (2001) describe CSR as â€Å"actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interest of the firm and that which is required by law. The main purpose of CSR is to control and validate theShow MoreRelatedShareholder Wealth Maximization And Corporate Social Responsibility Theories1955 Words   |  8 PagesGlobalization From The Viewpoints Of Shareholder Wealth maximization And Corporate Social Responsibility Theories â€Å"Sell a stock rather than try to change the company’s policy.† Introduction Are the goals of globalization, the primary driving force for international economic and financial development, best supported by the paradigms of shareholder wealth maximization or do they match the ideas of corporate social welfare as exemplified by Catholic social teaching? Globalization in the modern day isRead MoreArgument For And Against Profit And Wealth Maximization1421 Words   |  6 Pages ARGUMENT FOR AND AGAINST PROFIT AND WEALTH MAXIMIZATION GOALS IN LIGHT OF CORPORATE FINANCE Every individual firm in any market segment has well set goals that it aims to achieve. 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Introduction â€Å"Corporate finance theory, teaching and the typically recommended practice at least in the US are all built on the premise that the primary goal of a corporation should be the maximization of shareholder value.† (Krishnan, 2009) One often stumbles upon such statements while reading about shareholders value or maximization of shareholders wealth. This is also a typical answer to questions such as â€Å"what is the best and primary objective of a company in a competitive market†Read MoreObjectives of an Accounting and Finance Manager1143 Words   |  5 Pageswhich can nevertheless be classified into two categories: Objectives of profit maximization, and Objectives of wealth maximization. Still, this identification of the financial and accounting objective is shorthanded by numerous limitations. For instance, the maximization of profit implies the exploitation of workers and consumers and it implies the employment of immoral practices. Then, the maximization of wealth generates disruptions between ownership and management, creating benefits for the