Research Paper on Data Mining Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

On Data Mining - Research Paper Example This marks their preferences which are used for understanding how often they would shop, where they travel to for getting a brand and what kind of price they are ready to pay for obtaining the said product. Data mining has come of age because it has been linked up with understanding the people in particular and how they employ the basic dictum of buying and selling. This also helps the companies to comprehend how well their target base is shifting its basis and what kind of changes are happening within their fore. The manner in which this personal information is being made use of suggests that the unethical norms and routines are on the upsurge, and these need to be controlled for all the right reasons. Data mining is important to understand because its usage has been openly discussed, criticized and analyzed upon. It has touched upon the significant pointers which have paid emphasis on the way the user privacy levels have been transgressed upon of late, and how these have meant seri ous problems for them; no matter they are available in a physical form or a virtual one (Greenberg, 2006). The data mining procedures are usually given the cover by the people who conduct the same. They believe that it is an ethical process which is good for the company and hence they go about conducting the same business data mining activities. Also they believe staunchly that they must know more in order to give back towards their own business entireties. The personal information that has been saved by the companies in the wake of the data mining procedures is somewhat of a confusing debate. This is because the data mining activities shall be the cornerstone of their reaching towards new and unique customers of products and services. By this, they can find out how the new and unique customers would have their respective preferences and how this shall help the brand (and the company) to develop as a result of the same undertakings. For the users, they seem to be living in an unprot ected zone. This is because they are unaware who is secretly tracking their information and which individual or company is trying its best to reach out to this user in the future. There is a sense of susceptibility with regards to the users when they are unaware of who is going to contact them next and in what capacity this contact will be established. Perhaps, it is about time that the companies realized that there must be an ethical way to bring about contact with the people than merely reaching out to them as strangers. However, much needs to be understood and that too in a proper manner to achieve sound results (Gopalani, 2011). The personal information is important for everyone because it changes the course of one’s entirety. If this is compromised upon, it will mean that the people are being taken for granted by these companies, which is simply deemed as unacceptable on their part. The data mining techniques might look very glamorous to these companies but what they see m to forget is the fact that these companies have a major responsibility to take care of. The reason why people seem to be not protected from the data mining techniques which are in use is because they know already that their information and private data is being compromised upon, and hence the need to set things right. The privacy levels will resolve quite a lot of problems if there are concerted efforts made by the data mining

Small Businesses are Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Small Businesses are Entrepreneurship - Essay Example The paper presents arguments in favor of this statement and attempts to explore various dimensions of this statement. Discussion To define, â€Å"entrepreneurship is the capacity and willingness to undertake conception, organization, and management of a productive venture with all attendant risks, while seeking profit as a reward† (Hatten, pp. 148-149, 2011). A glance at all other definitions of entrepreneurship will verify the fact that entrepreneurship, entrepreneur of entrepreneurial spirit is seen in line, primarily, with the elements of innovation and risk taking. Without any doubts, large sized companies and organizations create mechanisms and systems to diversify and decrease their risk over the period (Hatten, pp. 148-149, 2011) of time; however, small businesses are the ones that face great deal of uncertainty and ambiguity on a daily basis. Lack of abundant resources, limited funds, threat of competition, limited production capacity, narrow customer base, constraints in terms of conducting marketing research and others are factors that present challenges and risks to small business which are shared by almost all small businesses as well. Almost half of the new ventures and small businesses in UK and US fail in the first year, which is another proof and manifestation of the uncertainty that is faced by the small business and entrepreneurial ventures (Down, pp. 20-21, 2010). One can consider small businesses as examples of entrepreneurship because they share of the element of ‘need of constant innovation† with other entrepreneurial ventures. Important here to note is that this does not necessarily imply that large businesses can survive without innovation but the fact is that large businesses can delay innovation by using the other resources, competitive advantages and competencies at their disposal (Scarborough, Wilson & Zimmerer, pp. 41-42, 2010). When companies grow big, they develop a loyal customer base and develop other mechanis ms to retain customers. Their buyers associate certain level of quality with them and at least, with certain products and services, the buyers face certain switching costs due to which may hold the customers with the company for a longer period (Bridge, O'Neill & Cromie, pp. 263, 2003). Furthermore, when companies grow big, they either outsource the tasks of innovation or create separate departments for the same, and provide them with enough funding to experiment and keep an eye on the changing market trends. In case of both small businesses and entrepreneurs, there are no separate departments for research and development but the owner and the employees themselves must take out the time for coming up with new ideas and testing them thus creating a unique challenge for them (Lee-Ross & Lashley, pp. 52-53, 2011). Not only that constant innovation is a difficult task for small businesses but also at the same time, they need innovation more desperately than large companies do. As mentio ned earlier that large companies with their huge loyal customer base can survive in the market for quite some time since they have other factors to attract their customers; however, in case of small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures, innovation is all that they have to attract and retain their customers (Allen & Meyer, pp. 63-68, 2005). Most small businesses