While we are up to setting JAVA_HOME, let me share some benefits of setting JAVA_HOME or any other environment variable:
1) It's easy to upgrade JDK without affecting your application startup and config file which points to JAVA_HOME. you just need to download new version and make sure your JAVA_HOME points to new version of Java. This is best benefit of using environment variable or links.
2) JAVA_HOME variable is short and concise instead of full path to JDK installation directory.
3) JAVA_HOME variable is platform independence i.e. if your startup script uses JAVA_HOME then it can run on Windows and UNIX without any modification, you just need to set JAVA_HOME on respective operating system.
Read more: http://javarevisited.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-set-javahome-environment-in.html#ixzz4BWmaYIjH