The document discusses groupthink in relation to online research and its impact on students' decision-making. It highlights how reliance on popular search engine results can lead to a narrowing of research perspectives, advocating for the use of multiple sources to mitigate this issue. Additionally, it provides an analysis of SanDisk's market strategies, emphasizing its competitive advantages derived from effective distribution and innovation in the data storage sector.

1. BUSI 340
Discussion Board Forum Thread Example
Groupthink
Definition: Organizational Behavior notes, “Groupthink is the
tendency of highly cohesive groups to value consensus at the
price of decision quality” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008, p.
257).
Summary: The article entitled “Group Think: The Turn to
Online Research is Narrowing the Range of Modern
Scholarship, a New Study Suggests” written by Tuhus-Dubrow
(2008) discusses how the Internet has made accessing research
and other things extremely easy. The author asserts that by
using search engines, which often rank the importance of a
result by popularity, students leave themselves vulnerable to
groupthink when conducting research results (Tuhus-Dubrow,
2008). Tuhus-Dubrow (2008) suggests that this can be mitigated
by using multiple sources to help provide a more well-rounded
research pool.
Discussion: The Internet has made performing research for
students possible within a matter of seconds. Students used to
have to go to the library and conduct research out of textbooks
and other publications, but now by simply typing your subject
in a search engine, a variety of choices are at your fingertips.
“Millions of journal articles are available online, enabling
scholars to find material they never would have encountered at
their university libraries” (Tuhus-Dubrow, 2008, para 2).
The Internet, just like everything else, has it costs as well as
benefits. Just like the article states, the Internet has started to
dominate people’s lives. People rely on the Internet for
everything from work to personal use.
The Internet is considered to be a new form of groupthink
because when searching for articles, students are not highly

2. selective in the choices they make, and they tend to pick one of
the few search choices that comes up. Also, the other
alternatives of research are now not used due to the convenience
of the Internet. Tuhus-Dubrow (2008) make the case that
outcomes should be portrayed by search engines in some
organized way because most websites depend on devices that
classify primarily in a couple of ways. The ways they are
classified are by chronological order and by popularity (Tuhus-
Dubrow, 2008). If a search engine filters results by popularity,
then this is groupthink, because others are succumbing to the
will of the group by choosing the same articles that show up
first as results.
Do you feel that Internet search engines cause groupthink? If
so, elaborate on why you think this. Do you feel that this is why
many instructors at Liberty University want students to not
choose the same discussion board topics? I personally feel that
the reason instructors want us to choose different topics is so
that we will not reflect the same views and choose the same
articles, which would therefore be groupthink.
References
Adler, S. J. (2009). At Davos, beware the tide of groupthink.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Retrieved from:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2009/
db2009021_878209.htm
McShane, S., & Von Glinow, M. (2013). Organizational
behavior (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Mulrine, A. (2008). The army trains a skeptics corps to battle
groupthink. U.S. News. Retrieved from:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/world/2008/05/15/the-
army-trains-a-skeptics-corps-to-battle-groupthink.html
Tuhus-Dubrow, R. (2008). Group think: The turn to online
research is narrowing the range of modern scholarship, a new
study suggests. Boston.com. Retrieved from:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/11/23/g
roup_think/

3. Page 2 of 2
Running head: sandisk: place and competitive advantage 1
sandisk: place and competitive advantage 5
SanDisk: Place and Competitive Advantage
University
Marketing Plan
With its headquarters in Milpitas, California, the twenty-seven
year old company has proved to be a force to reckon with in the
manufacture and distribution of storage devices which include;
USB flash drives, memory cards, flash drives, caching software
for laptops, embedded flash drives, PC applications, and
enterprise applications. The SanDisk Corporation has over the
years remained business wise afloat despite competition from
other companies in the storage devices industry like Samsung

4. and Apple Inc. It is through this competition that SanDisk has
always seen the need to be creative and to come up with better
strategies to remain relevant and ensure that their products are
used globally by as many people as possible so as to achieve
their vision of being the largest supplier of storage devices
worldwide. As recent as February of 2015, SanDisk was the
third largest manufacturer of flash memory.
Place
SanDisk Corporation has a well-defined distribution strategy
that ensures smooth flow of products from the manufactures
straight to the final user who is also the consumer. With storage
devices industry being depended on, by billions of people
around the world, SanDisk Corporation has established more
than 260,000 retail locations in more than 200 countries as a
way of reaching the end users, Wee, A. (2016). SanDisk
generates more than half of its sales outside the US where it is
based and this, therefore, means that most of its customers are
in the rest of the world. It is for this reason that they decided to
open two more manufacturing plants, one in China and the other
in Japan so as to be nearer to their customers considering a
large number of people in the Asian continent and Africa below.
Though in North America SanDisk exclusively sell through
specific retailers, in the other parts of the world the products
follow a distribution channel that runs from the manufacturer,
the distributors, the wholesalers, the retailers, and finally the
consumers. This distribution channel has enabled SanDisk to
reach as many of its customers as possible and in the process
compete with its competitors in the market. With retailers at
supermarkets and mobile storefronts, the end user is reached
easily. SanDisk also directly sell to digital cameras and mobile
phone manufactures who sell their products together with the
mobile devices and digital cameras.
Competitive Advantage
The location is important to any business. SanDisk Corporation
understands this fact very well and so is the reason why it has
two of its manufacturing plants in China and Japan. These

5. locations are strategic first regarding production cost and
secondly and most important, to be closer to more than half of
the end users. This makes it easier for distribution channel to
run smooth and quick as possible and in the end, gives SanDisk
Corporation an edge over their competitors. Ensuring the end
user can access quality product whenever and wherever, is what
gives any company life in the market and SanDisk has been
there for the last twenty-seven years just by mastering how to
do this better than its competitors. Lee, et al...(2014)
We can, therefore, conclude that SanDisk has a distribution
channel that has worked for them over the years and is still
working for them to ensure that their products reach the end
user. This is because of the many customers that they are
targeting and also considering the high demand of storage
devices. On place or location, SanDisk has also made sure that
it tries to stay ahead of its many competitors in the storage
device industry, a strategy that has made them remain relevant
and making sure their products are in every store that sells any
storage device related materials. This has therefore given
SanDisk competitive advantage over their competitors.

6. References
Lee, T. H., Subramanian, V., Cleeves, J. M., Kouznetsov, I. G.,
Johnson, M. G., & Farmwald, P. M. (2014). U.S. Patent No.
8,853,765. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Wee, A. (2016). 2TB SSD? SanDisk announced the fastest SSD
ever.World.
Running head: markerting plan of sandisk company 1
markerting plan of sandisk company 4
Marketing Plan of SanDisk Company
University
Marketing Plan
SanDisk Company uses the strategy of aiming to be the global
leading supplier of flash disk and memory cards, as well as any
future innovation in the data storage solutions, thus developing
a large scale market for these storage products that it continues
to produce. The company maintains its leadership in the field of
technology by putting resources into future technologies in both
data storage and in fabrication technologies. This ensures that
the company is able to produce the best quality of products, that
are affordable, and that are designed for the present and future

7. needs of the clients in the data storage market.
The company aims to remain a one-stop-shop for all the
clients that use their products, through the sale of all data
storage solutions for the target market in large volumes, to keep
the clients purchasing more of their data storage solutions. The
company also takes advantage of the elastic nature of their
market, such that the reduction in the price per MB of storage
may lead to a higher demand in terms of the capacity of the
products being sold, encouraging for innovation and upgrade to
using new systems and technologies (Fleisher, & Bensoussan,
2003).
Promotional Strategies
The first promotional strategy that the company has is to utilize
the sales distribution system that it has put in place to ensure
that the demand that the market has created is sufficiently
supplied. This guarantees no shortages, and the brand become
more respected by most people, as it always has solutions for
what the clientele is looking for, and the solutions are available
to the customers.
Further using advertising to make the brand known to those who
might be loyal customers of other competitive brands.
Advertising also increases the possibility of other people who
did not know the brand to become aware of it, and slowly
encourage those customers to promote the brand, because they
are now more informed.
Since the company has a powerful personal selling statement,
they could take advantage of it to promote their sales and thus
promote their brand. The unique selling point of any company
becomes a promotional strategy if it is well recognized by
customers, so that they can recommend more people to try the
brand. The unique selling point of the brand ensures that the
company meets the expectation of the client, thus remaining the
most preferred brand in the market (Ireland, & Webb, 2007).
Competitive Advantage
Unlike the case in other companies that are coming into the
industry, SanDisk Company has been able to innovate and

8. fabricate products that other competitors might still not be able
to go into. The company has greatly invested in research and
development projects so that they could maintain the ability to
build products that are unique and exclusive to the company,
which gives SanDisk products an edge over the products of
other competitor companies.
Further, the company could also merge with other Original
Equipment Manufacturing company, such as Google or Apple,
to guarantee a bigger market share acquisition, and thus another
competitive edge over the competitors of the company (Jean,
2011).
References
Jean, S. (2011). Brand parody: A communication strategy to
attack a competitor. Journal of
Consumer Marketing, 28(1), 19-26.
Ireland, R. D., & Webb, J. W. (2007). Strategic
entrepreneurship: Creating competitive
advantage through streams of innovation. Business Horizons,
50(1), 49-59.
Fleisher, C. S., & Bensoussan, B. E. (2003). Strategic and
competitive analysis: Methods and techniques for analyzing
business competition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Running head-SANDISK
SANDISK 2

9. SanDisk general performance
Name
Affiliated institution
General information about SanDisk
There are many companies including Toshiba, Apple, Intel,
among many others that have continued to evolve over the years
since more and more people are adopting to these technologies.
The industry has continued to grow with the immense growth of
technologies and immense need for storage devices. SanDisk,
(2016) argues that since its establishment, the companies has
been selling to customers in USA and more than a half of its
sales being made outside the country. It has established more
than 260,000 retail locations in more than 200 countries, and it
also manufactures its products in China and Japan. The
company is very creative in the way it designs, developments
and makes its storage devices. Some of the products that keeps
it ahead of its competitors include products like flash drives,
caching software for laptops, USB flash drives, memory cards
which are used in smartphones and those in cameras, embedded
flash drives, PCs applications and enterprise applications.
However, like other companies who are doing remarkably well,
they also face immense challenges and competition like
Samsung and Apple Inc.
Financial record of its performance
In 2013, the company performed very well because its revenues
were increased by 22% from 5.05 billion dollars in 2012 to 6.18

10. billion dollars in 2013. These increased revenues have been
attributed to an increased use of USBs, U3, Central management
and control, SanDisk Sansa, start key, Eye-Fi, FlashCP and
ULLtraDIMM, SSDs and memory chips from its customers who
are firmly adopting these technologies. The company’s cash and
short-term investment account to 2.91 billion dollars as per the
year 2013. It is also important to note that in the same year, the
company generated 616.8 million dollars from other operating
activities. It was also able to purchase 150 million stocks and
also pay a dividend of 50.6 million. Properties that the company
has acquired include Fusion-io in 2014, Smart Storage in 2013
which produces SSDs, Schooner Information Technology, and
flash soft, Pilant technology in 2012M-Systems in 2006 and
2005; it acquired Matrix Semiconductor (SanDisk, 2016).
Competition
According to SanDisk, (2016), SanDisk has continued to face
competition from various semiconductor manufacturers and
those that manufacture and resale flash memory cards, USB
drives digital audio players among many others. San Disk faces
competition on its flash memory card and USB drive
manufacturers from companies like A-Data Technology,
Fujifilm Corporation, Hagiwara, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and
Verbatim Corporation. Apple Inc. is its main competitor in
digital Audio and video player while semiconductor
manufacturer competitors include Hynix, IM Flash
Technologies, Samsung and Micron. Intel is also one of the
primary competitors which designs, manufactures and sells its
integrated technology which is also digital. It also distributes its
products on a worldwide scale, just like San Disk.
How SanDisk manages to stay ahead of its competitors
However, the company has continued to stay ahead of its
competitors because according to Hoovers, (2016), they have
always had a tradition of innovation and high standard
creativity. This has enabled the company to grow its market
share as its flash memory is always on demand. They have also
had flash ventures with Toshiba which provides the company

11. with low costs of production. They have a large variety of card
formats compared to other forms from other competitors
companies making SanDisk remain ahead of others. By
establishing retail shops around the world and also having
developed a global retail distribution system has helped them
acquire a significant market share. Their removable flash cards
and USB flash drives are unique and were well accepted in the
market.
References
Hoovers. (2016). Retrieved from
http://www.hoovers.com/company-information/cs/company-
profile.SanDisk_Corporation.aa3e40e9230ec935.html.
SanDisk . (2016). Retrieved from https://www.sandisk.com/.
SanDisk. (2016, April). Retrieved from
https://datafox.com/competitors/sandisk.
Running head: swot analysis 1
swot analysis 5

12. SWOT Analysis
SanDisk Company
Introduction
SanDisk as one of the leading providers of the flash memory
products like the PCI flash, SSDs, server solutions, mobile
storage, MP3 players and removable memory cards and USB
drives has grown tremendously in the last twenty seven years.
In the digital world today, they have a vast market segment
ranging from individual and business corporate solutions. Any
individual with an electronic gadget is likely to be their client.
The target age group ranges from as young as four years of age
old children who play video games to adult aged. Anybody with
a mobile or cell phone device, laptop, tablets or computers are
their target market. Anybody on the Internet is also a potential
client. The demographic coverage for their products is the entire
world. Every country, every nation, all cultures, religious
sectors, age groups, genders amongst other groups who have
embraced technology are potential clients for their products.

13. The Internet has led to globalization which makes the world a
small large market place. Individuals and companies can source
electronic devices from anywhere in the world and SanDisk can
supply their products to all as well (Fujita & Thisse, 2013).
Social media and social sites and applications have led to a
behavioural change where everybody relies on electronic
gadgets and the internet to communicate, share data whether
audio, video or text, learn, campaign amongst other things
people may need to share or exchange. Electronic storage
devices thus become a necessity to store, backup, transfer and
exchange data.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Like every other organisation, the SanDisk Company has its
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It could
therefore utilise the SWOT analysis to uncover an exploit
available opportunities by maximising its strengths, work on
reducing its weaknesses as well as understanding risks to the
business in order to protect the organization against potential
threats (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2003).
Strengths
Weaknesses
· There are no barriers to market entry because the Internet has
an already open market online purchases increase daily.
· High growth rate due to the rise in users of their SSD and
storage devices both individual and businesses.
· High profitability and continuous revenue growth due to the
growing increase in customers.
· Good credibility hence has access to monetary assistance that
can improve their product range and coverage thus growth in
business.
· They have an innovative and highly skilled technical and
managerial workforce.

14. · Their productivity is at times lower than the demand.
· The cost of production is high.
· There has to be continuous investment in research and
development to keep up with technology changes.
· The tax structure is high for their products.
· They have to produce in small batches to avoid wastage due to
dynamic technology.
· Access to monetary assistance may lead to large loans.
Opportunities
Threats
· New Markets emerge each day as new technology in software
and devices evolve
· New products and services due to market demand.
· Growing demand as the world becomes digitalised especially
in terms of communication, storage, transfer of data and data
recording.
· Growth in demand and products leads to growth in revenue
and profitability
· Growth in revenue and profitability leads to growth in
economy
· Rise in competition due to proof that the demand is high and
rate of success in continuous profitability.
· Cash flow may be an issue due to loans and high production
levels especially when demand overwhelms supply.
· Increasing interest rates in those they borrow money from.
· High tax rates
References

15. Fleisher, C. S., & Bensoussan, B. E. (2003). Strategic and
competitive analysis: Methods and techniques for analyzing
business competition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Fujita, M., & Thisse, J.-F. (2013). Economics of agglomeration:
Cities, industrial location, and globalization (2nd ed.).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing).
Running head: pest analysis 1
pest analysis 5
PEST Analysis
SanDisk Company
An overview of SanDisk Company
According to SanDisk, (2016), over the last twenty-seven years,
SanDisk has continued to innovate and develop devices which
have transformed the storing of information on digital
platforms. Their flash memory innovations and inventions have
grown beyond imagination, and they have been adopted by the
world’s leading data centers. It has its headquarters in
California and it manufactures products like memory cards,
readers, USB flash drives and solid state drives. Their devices

16. have also been embedded in various devices like smart laptops,
phones, tablets. Even though they have acquired a considerable
share of this market, this company vows to go yonder and be
more creative in providing hi-tech storage devices. They have
manufactured flash storage facilities which suit their client’s
uses at home, or even for business. Their products have
acquired a bigger market share because they are of superior
quality, and their performance is impressive. Their products are
also very affordable and therefore can be accessed by everyone.
For instance, regarding costs, their flash memory was reduced
by 50,000 times and it has increased its performance 30,000
times. Their creativity and innovation have earned them the
recognition of being a number one company in storage
facilities. More and even more resources are being used by the
company in research and experimentation to make sure that they
meet the future demands of their customers. Their devices can
either be embedded in hardware, or they can be removable. The
company also ensures that the society can trust them to keep
their valuable memories using their affordable storage flashes.
This company has thousands of stores all around the world,
meaning that their products can easily be accessed.
PEST analysis
Political
· The EU regulation governing Privacy Act was released to
encourage data security especially when it comes to legal data
security issues. These problems are making the company be
more creative and produce technologies which are capable of
securing and protecting data. However, when breaches occur on
data security, it becomes a real issue, and which negatively
impacts the company. These legislations place the business in
an impossible position.
· The ability of government to access data is also another
political issue. There are some countries where this practice is
encouraged while in others, it is not encouraged.

17. Economic
· SanDisk ensures that they have created flash storage facilities
that are 50,000 times cheaper and 30,000 times more effective
compared to other storage facilities from other companies.
· Their products are pocket friendly
· SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), NAICS Codes
334112, 541711, 2016 Revenue 5,564,872,000 with over 8,000
employees.
Social
· San disk provides support when their clients need it. This
support can be accessed quickly from their robust website
resources. They also have knowledgeable agents who work 24
hours around the clock to ensure that they attend to all their
clients.
· They have a collaborative approach where they collaborate
with the device manufacturer, OS vendors, mobile network
operators, design firms, chipset providers, application
developers and system integrators to ensure that their customers
enjoy their experience when working with their devices.
· Their devices are highly trusted by over millions of people and
organizations because of its quality and reliability. Their
products can store relevant information in the form of photos
which most likely stores in the form of a technology.
Technological
· They work tirelessly, invest a lot of money and resources in
research to make sure that they meet the future storage needs of
their clients.
· They have first class engineering teams and a rigorous quality
control team which ensure that their customers can trust the
products they deliver.
· Even though their devices are cheaper compared to the same
products from other companies, SanDisk devices are more

18. efficient, superior performance and of high quality.
References
SanDisk. (2016). Retrieved from
https://www.sandisk.com/about/company
SanDisk Corporation. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2016,
from http://www.zoominfo.com/c/SanDisk-
Corporation/214679943
Unit VIII Final Project
PowerPoint: Marketing Plan
For the Final Project, you will put together a PowerPoint
presentation that you could present to officers within the
company. This presentation should summarize the Marketing
Plan that you have compiled throughout this course. Remember
to include pertinent facts as well as a discussion of the
competitive advantage within each of the four elements of the
marketing mix (product, place, promotion, and price).
Additionally, include your recommendations for future
development of their marketing strategies. Elements to include:
roduct,

19. Your PowerPoint presentation length should be 10-12 slides in
length, including a title slide and a reference slide. Use of
speaker notes is also required.
BUSI 340
Discussion Board Forum Instructions
The learning theories upon which this course is based are
actualized in the Discussion Board Forums. At the beginning of
each module/week, you will choose a key term to research. You
will be required to write a thread of at least 400 words on the
topic, complete with page references and specifics to document
the response, and submit it to the corresponding Discussion
Board Forum. Correct use of English and grammar are required.
To complete your thread:
1. Select a key term from assigned chapters. Human Capital
2. Conduct an Internet search to find and read 3 recent articles
that relate to the term.
3. Select the 1 article that you wish to discuss.
4. Submit a thread that contains the following information in the
following format, using the headers so that you ensure that all
aspects of the assignment are completed as required. Failure to
follow these instructions will result in a 1-point deduction.
a. Definition: Give a brief definition of the key term followed
by the current APA reference for the term; this does not count
in the 400-word requirement.
b. Summary: Give a brief summary of the selected article, in

20. your own words.
c. Discussion:
i. Give a brief discussion of how the article relates to the
selected chapter key term. This gives you the opportunity to add
value to the discussion by sharing your experiences, thoughts,
and opinions. Draw your peers into discussion of topics by
asking questions. This is the most important part of the thread.
ii. Biblical Integration: Use at least 1 appropriate scripture
verse or narrative from the Bible to support your discussion.
Are there any biblical examples of this term, is the term you are
responding to related to a term you researched, if so, how?
iii. Include the complete URL of each article read (use a
persistent link for articles from the Jerry Falwell Library). Each
reference must be in current APA format. These do not count
toward the 400-word requirement.
Grading
Consult the accompanying rubric for how your instructor will
grade this assignment. Also, any form of plagiarism, including
cutting and pasting, will result in zero points for the entire
assignment, plus a required 500-word written paper on the topic
of plagiarism in order to receive credit for this assignment.
Tips
Articles may be found in the Wall Street Journal, Financial
Times, The Economist, or any other reputable website that deals
with business. You will be performing academic research, which
utilizes reliable sources of information from reputable
magazines or newspapers that are available in electronic format
or hard copy. Sites that are absolutely not acceptable are:
· Wikipedia

21. · About.com
· Commercial sites (usually a consultant’s web page, but may
take other forms)
· Blogs (be careful, some look very convincing)
· Education sites (these usually do not contain articles, but
rather lecture notes or student papers)
You can utilize the Jerry Falwell Library portal for research, but
note that some articles may not offer persistent links. If you
utilize articles found in LexisNexis or other sites that are
behind security walls, you will need to make the articles
available to classmates by copying and pasting into a Microsoft
Word document and attaching the document to the thread. If this
is done, be sure that you include the references in current APA
format at the bottom of the Discussion Board thread. This is
easily accomplished by saving all articles to a folder and then
making the folder a zip file. The zip file can then be attached to
the Discussion Board submission.
The availability of the articles that you research regarding the
topic is important because classmates must be able to read the
articles to form their own opinions and gain further insight into
the topic. Students need to understand not merely the key terms
but also how to research reliable sources. This is not only to
further their education, but also for their professional use.
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