Pricing Decision Essays (Examples)

Pricing Strategies

Price and cost variables are not fixed. At times, there are some fixed elements to these costs but in many instances these costs are subject to fluctuation. These fluctuations can derive from changes in buying power, changes in commodity prices and other considerations. Likewise, forces in the external environment can bring about changes in the prices the firm can charge. hen uncertain variables are fixed, the company can find that margins do not hold as expected, which can compromise profit. In addition, the price can be set on the basis of variables on the assumption that the costs are relatively fixed. hen these costs provide not to be fixed, the price does not deliver a strong enough margin. The impacts of these types of decisions can be far-reaching. Firms can decide to enter markets that are not profitable, and make decisions with respect to their product line-ups on…

Works Cited:

NetMBA.com (2010). Pricing strategy. NetMBA.com. Retrieved February 25, 2011 from  http://www.netmba.com/marketing/pricing/ 

Goetz,

J. (1985). The pricing decision: A service industry's experience. Journal of Small Business Management. Retrieved February 25, 2011 from  http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5001688166 

Hurwich, M. (no date). The pricing decision -- who makes it and who makes it work? SPMG. Retrieved February 25, 2011 from http://www.pricingexperts.net/The_pricing_decision_who_makes_it.pdf

How do the sites support the positioning and pricing of the three brands?

They are dramatically different, with the Monogram site being completely separate, supporting the premium positioning. The site is done to connote the premium position and the use of these appliances in custom homes. GE Profile is more mainstream and focuses on the stylish yet utilitarian aspects of their product line. The GE site itself is more focused on functionality of products. The differences in branding and website approach in terms of positioning and pricing a significantly different and support the unique value propositions of each product series clearly and very well.

As a consumer, how do you perceive GE's appliance pricing? Is it good or fair to consumers? Are you happy with its pricing decisions?

Given how expensive it is to produce high quality appliances and the costs consumers incur when appliances aren't working correctly, I think…

46). Likewise, Gillispie suggests that an incremental approach can be used to "test the waters" for even very small companies seeking to project an internationalized presence. In this regard, Gillespie recommends that companies, "Craft a scaleable master design that represents the major aspects of your business worldwide and anticipates the degree of localization that will be required in each market. The degree of localization can have a real impact on budgets and timelines" (2008, p. 45). These are important factors for companies in general where limited resources and a lack of experience may preclude more aggressive internationalization initiatives, and these issues are directly related to a company's internal resources as discussed further below.

Internal resources

The company has a wide range of specialized internal resources which are described in Table 2 below.

Table 2

Internal resources of BG Limited

Business Unit

Description

Specialist Cleaning

BG's Specialist Cleaning division offers a…

References

Angola. 2011 CIA World Factbook. [online] available:  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications  / the-world-factbook/geos/ao.html.

Black's Law Dictionary. 1999 St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co.

Carthew, A. 2006, September/October 'Spreading the Word.' Communication World, vol. 23,

no. 5, pp. 30-32.

Combining these demographic factors and the assumption that busy and hectic professionals want convenience in a premium beverage, the concept of a bottled premium decaffeinated coffee drink, which can sustain the pricing required to make the proposed beverage successful, begins to take shape as a concept. Besides, Pepsi and Starbucks have discussed creating a partnership for years, and the introduction of bottled decaf lattes and frappacinos in a variety of flavors could command the price points required to make this a successful product. Additional factors that favor this product concept are the relatively early stages in the produce lifecycle this type of bottled drink is in today, and the potential for growing an entire bottled family of Starbucks beverage. In short, the elasticity of demand for this proposed bottling of decaf Starbuck's drinks could be a significant revenue producer over time for Pepsi.

Perform a Break-Even Analysis on your selected…

Pricing Strategies and Decisions
Pricing Strategy Management
Pricing Policies, Processes and Methods
Policies used to manage Tesla’s pricing strategy. Currently Tesla is not only benefiting by but is actually relying on government subsidies to sell its cars. Subsidies come from electric vehicle (EV) tax credits that purchasers are able to obtain whenever they buy a Tesla. The problem is that these credits are only given to consumers for a set duration. Once the government ends the subsidy, sales drop drastically, as has been in the case in Hong Kong where tax incentives basically were the whole of Tesla’s pricing strategy—and once the tax incentives ended, sales were decimated. Currently in Norway, which is Tesla’s biggest European market, consumers pay no import tax or any of the purchase taxes that apply to non-EV cars—which is a big incentive (Tesla 10-K, 2018, p. 22). In the Netherlands, sales are soaring this year…

Pricing Strategy 
There are several critical factors that affect making pricing decisions: customers, competitors, regulations, government laws, the overall economy, and production costs and some of the most important variables to look at when deciding on a pricing strategy. As Zeng, Dasgupta and Weinberg (2016) put it, differentiation is key to developing a pricing strategy that works for a company that has to set itself apart from competitors in order to secure market share. For Tesla, which is the subject of this paper, the electric vehicle (EV) market is beginning to heat up as competitors come into the business with their own products. That means Tesla has to differentiate itself with a pricing strategy that will appeal to the biggest consumer base in the market—the average middle class consumer. In the past, Tesla has relied on the luxury brand market to drive sales—but with investors anxious for a return on…

Pricing Misconception

The two stores whose pricing strategy has been looked at here are GIM Computers and Ginstar Computers, both located Downtown Atlanta, with the varying prices for their computer related products. The computer related products were picked for this case study since their specifications are easier to match to the last detail hence an easier comparison of the prices.

The five products selected are Seagate 1TB hard disk,

Product

GIM Computers price ($)

Ginstar Computers price ($)

Seagate 1TB hard disk

Internal Floppy drive

External Floppy drive

Microsoft windows 7 professional

GIM Computers.com and Ginstar Computers Inc. website.

Customer-based pricing

From the pricing trend seen above, it is apparent that the two businesses are engage in the customer-based pricing strategy. They have the customer needs and way of thinking in mind and specifically employs the psychological pricing as a sub-set of customer-based pricing strategy. This is bearing the unusual…

References

Ginstar Computers Inc., (2012). Storewide Holiday Sale. Retrieved November 7, 2012 from  http://www.ginstar.com/home.aspx 

GIM Computers, (2012). Welcome To GIM Computers. Retrieved November 7, 2012 from  http://new.gimcomputers.com/index.php

Pricing and Distribution:

As an extremely important decision for a company, pricing is the only element of the marketing mix that generates revenue. The positioning of a product in the market is dependent on its pricing since customers tend to greatly resist attempts to change price once it has been set up. As compared to other elements in the marketing mix, price is the variable with which a competitive response can be quickly implemented. On the contrary, distribution basically involves the process of getting the product from the manufacturer to the intended consumer.

How Pricing and Distribution Complement each other at Costco:

Costco is a company that has itself as a means with which brides and grooms can create an unforgettable wedding day through reasonable prices. In the past few years, the warehouse store sells all wedding-related accessories including engagement rings, invitations, flowers, and trips for honeymoon. While it's difficult…

References:

Berk, C.C. (2011, March 7). Here Comes the Bride, All Dressed by Costco. Retrieved January

17, 2012, from  http://www.cnbc.com/id/41950692 

Bertini, M. & Wathieu, L. (2010, May). How to Stop Consumers from Fixating on Price.

Harvard Business Review, 88. 48-91.

Best of all, any initiative in these areas, priced fairly for the island natives, delivers significant social value, or economic good for the nation and abodes by Mr. Morale's belief that in the long run, economics drives everything needs to be added to that by doing these core processes well, his company is doing good. The social conscience of Mr. Morales is also clear, and the ability to take the company's respected process-centric approach to problem-solving and apply it to the needs of Kava while at the same time earning a profit is a win/win for both the company and the nation. The concentration on healthcare especially and the development of a pediatrics clinic, potentially even underwritten by the local government for the citizens would also be significant in its contribution and revenue potential.

What Alex and Nik need to do is find broken processes in key areas and set…

References

Alstyne, Marshall van, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Stuart Madnick (1997). "The Matrix of Change: A Tool for Business Process Reengineering." MIT Sloan School Working Papers available on the Internet, accessed on February 5, 2007:

 http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/CCSWP189/ccswp189.html 

Alstyne, Marshall van, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Stuart Madnick (1995). "Why Not One Big Database? Principles for Data Ownership." Decision Support Systems 15.4 (1995): 267-284.

The Agenda (2003) - Chapter 4: Put Processes First. The Agenda: What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade. Accessed from Michael Hammer and Company website on February 5, 2007:

From a supply chain standpoint, pricing departments must also create a high level of communication and collaboration across a business as well. Their role is to be the orchestrators of internal effort to manage suppliers to pricing and margin levels, ensuring consistency and focus on share goals. This is one of the primary reasons pricing has now become a strategic initiative within many businesses. For change to occur in how companies do their pricing strategies, it often takes a senior executive to manage the change in processes and systems to ensure pricing becomes strategy and shifts away from being tactical in focus (Marn, oegner, Zawada, 26).

From the sell-side or the distribution and selling channels standpoint, pricing has never been more critically important to a company's profitability. The continued consolidation of industries and commoditization of products making tracking pricing elasticity by product category critical, especially when they are sold through…

References

Manu Carricano, Jean-Francois Trinquecoste, and Juan-Antonio Mondejar. "The rise of the pricing function: origins and perspectives. " the Journal of Product and Brand Management 19.7 (2010): 468.

Thomas H. Davenport. "Make Better Decisions. " Harvard Business Review 1 Nov. 2009

Vrinda Kadiyali, Pradeep Chintagunta, and Naufel Vilcassim. "Manufacturer-retailer channel interactions and implications for channel power: An empirical investigation of pricing in a local market. " Marketing Science 19.2 (2000): 127.

Krishna, a., F. Feinberg, and Z. Zhang. "Should Price Increases Be Targeted?-Pricing Power and Selective vs. Across-the-Board Price Increases. " Management Science 53.9 (2007): 1407-1422.

Pricing Management

Determinants of Pricing Strategies

In pricing a new, specialized electronic product, the product development, engineering, marketing, accounting and finance teams internally will rely on internal and external factors to initially set the price. Pricing objectives and the frameworks they require will determine the internal factors included and excluded from the long-term pricing strategy overall (Avlonitis, Indounas, 2005). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate the other internal factors that will affect the pricing of a new, specialized electronic product.

Analysis of Internal Factors Affecting Pricing

ased on personal experience managing high technology products and from anecdotal interviews with members of product marketing teams in high technology businesses, the decision of whether to choose a value-based vs. cost-based approach to pricing is foundational to how many other internal factors affect price (Wagner, 1981). Value-based pricing will have a direct effect on the price elasticity of demand for a…

Bibliography

Avlonitis, G.J. & Indounas, K.A. 2005, "Pricing objectives and pricing methods in the services sector," The Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 47-57.

Casey, M.P. 1985, "International Transfer Pricing," Management Accounting, vol. 67, no. 4, pp. 31.

Lucke, D., Philipp, J.H.S. & Schumacher, D. 2005, "A Note on R&D and Price Elasticity of Demand," Jahrbucher fur Nationalokonomie und Statistik, vol. 225, no. 6, pp. 688-698.

Michalakelis, C., Dede, G., Varoutas, D. & Sphicopoulos, T. 2010, "Estimating diffusion and price elasticity with application to telecommunications," Netnomics: Economic Research and Electronic Networking, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 221-242.

This virtually means that the company's reputation could suffer demises.

Telemarketing efforts are often constructed on impulse buys and psychological pricing, such as $19.99 instead of a round $20.00 or a "limited offer" deal in which the price is reduced from $30.00 to $19.99. This context makes the psychological pricing strategy suitable for the company.

4. Product-line Pricing

Advantages:

Sets a single unique price on all products coming from a product line, reducing as such the complexities which come from setting different prices and using differentiated strategies for each product category

Pushes towards the lowest retail price possible and generates as such customer satisfaction. Additionally, through increased consumer satisfaction, higher levels of volume sales are generated.

Disadvantages:

Damages the organizational productivity and profitability

Denies the existence of differences between the products

Forces down the quality of the items by strengthening on the importance of a low retail price

The prioritization…

The penetration pricing strategy is intended to be temporary, such that once the desired market effect has occurred -- the penetration has been made -- the price is then put to a more "normal" price.

An example of this in recent news is the introduction by Burger King of BK Smooth Roast Coffee. This new blend of coffee was developed to make Burger King more competitive in the fast food breakfast business, where it trails the market leaders badly. The new blend was offered with an introductory price of 25 cents (QSR eb.com, 2013). The objective of this pricing strategy was twofold. The first objective was penetration -- to get people to try the coffee in the hopes of winning over some converts. Ideally, the customer would come in daily during the promotion because this is the cheapest coffee around, and develop a habit.

The other objective is to bring…

Works Cited:

Clow, J. (2012). What small businesses can learn from Google. USA Today. Retrieved March 9, 2013 from  http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/story/2012-05-27/small-business-can-learn-from-google/55188670/1 

QSR Web. (2013). Burger King celebrates new coffee with 25-cent promotion. QSR Web. Retrieve March 9, 2013 from  http://www.qsrweb.com/article/208731/Burger-King-celebrates-new-coffee-with-25-cent-promotion

Pricing Strategies

There are a number of factors that go into a firm's pricing strategy. The firm can consider the prices offered by competitors and the firm's own desired competitive position. It can base prices on the cost of production. The firm must consider the price elasticity of the demand for the good. The company can also choose from a number of different strategies, based on this demand curve: revenue maximization, profit maximization, cost leadership, penetration pricing and more. Other strategies include skimming and other forms of price discrimination (NetMBA.com, 2010). For example, if Brooks Brothers priced its goods differently for different marketing channels such as the Internet or a retail channel partner like Nordstrom, this would be a form of price discrimination.

These different pricing strategies are used to achieve different objectives. For a luxury brand like Brooks Brothers, the price will support the luxury brand image. Prices therefore…

Works Cited:

NetMBA.com (2010). Pricing strategy. NetMBA.com. Retrieved May 18, 2011 from  http://www.netmba.com/marketing/pricing/ 

Kapferer, J. & Bastien, V. (2009). The luxury strategy: Break the rules of marketing to build luxury brands. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Ltd.

Sbordone, A. (2002). Price and unit labor costs: A new test of price stickiness. Journal of Monetary Economics. Vol. 49 (2) 265-292.

In other words, throughout the transition period, Onetech would create efficiencies and would consolidate its position. In the future however, it is recommended that the company moved towards a strategy of diversification, as this would better satisfy customers' needs, attract them and as such create market power for the firm (Markides, 2007).

The decision making process at Onetech

The decision making process at Onetech is quite intricate, revealing both strengths, as well as weaknesses. Decisions are for instance made at the level of the board and are based on the expertise gathered by the various major players in the firm. Still, the decisions are made by the executives, with little emphasis on the input which could be provided by the employees.

In order to better assess the decision making process at Onetech, it is appropriate to analyze it through the lenses of the rational decision making model. This model consists…

References:

Cologon, D.R., Cohen, D.R., 2008, FileMaker Pro 9 Bible, John Wiley and Sons

Hage, M., 2007, A stakeholder concern towards an economix theory on stakeholder governance, Uitgeverij Van Gorcum

Jacobs, P.K., 2000, Minding the muse: the impact of downsizing on corporate creativity, Harvard Business School,  http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/1518.html  last accessed on November 30, 2011

Markides, C.C., 2007, Diversification, refocusing and economic performance, MIT Press

Decision-Tree Analysis

The optimal payoff is $0, which would occur under scenario D1, O1.

The EMV for the first decision, which is the decision not to evacuate, is the highest. The reason for this is that the costs associated with the hurricane hitting the area, and the area not being evacuated, are very high. If the hurricane does not hit, the do nothing option has the lowest cost, but because of the risk of the hurricane hitting at least partially, the EMV for this option is the highest. The EMV for the second decision is the second-highest. This is a recommended evacuation, which incurs some costs, but a lower dollar value than the cost of a full evacuation. There are some savings, but the EMV is still fairly high.

The lowest EMV comes with a mandatory evacuation. This has the highest base incurred cost, but the likelihood that the hurricane…

The businesses all utilize the same brand, but are otherwise quite different from one another. ithin the main retail business, the breakdown by geography is also logical, because there are some product and service differences between the geographic regions. The regional breakdowns also allow for better management and more direct corporate control. For example, having a manager for the Asia Pacific region who is based in the region allows for closer monitoring of the company's efforts in each different market, essential since for the most part Starbucks' Asian properties are owned by large franchise operators.

There is little cause for making changes to the job design. The functional design with geographic groupings subordinated reflects that first and foremost Starbucks is about a set of product/service offerings. The geographical scope of those offerings is secondary to the offering itself. The cafe business, for example, cannot have much meaningful input into the…

Works Cited:

2011 Starbucks Annual Report. Retrieved June 15, 2012 from  http://investor.starbucks.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=99518&p=irol-reportsannual 

Brickley-Smith-Zimmerman. (2008). Managerial Economics and Organizational Architecture, Fifth Edition. McGraw-Hill.

Value-based pricing is critically important in B2B marketing and selling scenarios as well, as the value delivered by enterprise software for example determines the percentage of maintenance paid every year (Hinterhuber, 2004). These maintenance payments yearly form the foundation of Oracle Corporations;' viability, in addition to many hundreds of other enterprise software companies. As a result of the critical role of value-based pricing in market positioning, companies have created pricing and revenue management enforcement strategies (oll, 2009) to ensure their resellers, channel partners, dealers and service organizations do not price below the minimum threshold and I so doing erode the market position as defined by the premium price.

Summary

Studies indicate that to the extent a company can successfully manage and fine tune value-based pricing over time is the extent to which they can experience revenue and profit growth even in the middle of a recession (Garrow, Ferguson, 2009). Value-based…

References

Dunleavy, H., and G. Phillips. 2009. The future of airline revenue management. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management: Special Issue: 'AGIFORS Conference' 8, no. 4, (August 1): 388-395.

Garrow, L., and M. Ferguson. 2009. Staying ahead of the curve: Using revenue management to help survive an economic downturn. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management: Special Issue: Distribution and Revenue Management 8, no. 2-3, (March 1): 279-286.

Andreas Hinterhuber. 2004. Towards value-based pricing - An integrative framework for decision making. Industrial Marketing Management 33, no. 8, (November 1): 765-778.

Michael V Marn, Eric V Roegner, and Craig C. Zawada. 2003. The power of pricing. The McKinsey Quarterly no. 1, (January 1): 26-39.

Joint costing systems should bear in mind the legal constraints on the use of such systems, and should provide accurate information to managers in order to be most useful in the managerial accounting context.

Firms need to remain competitive, which indicates that the market will set prices to some degree. This implies that firms can make better decisions with respect to what projects/products they wish to pursue by understanding the cost structure of the product. If the product is not viable at the cost at which it can be produced, then the firm can improve profitability by dumping the product.

orks Cited:

Banham, R. (2000). Off target? CFO Magazine. Retrieved April 5, 2011 from http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/2990860/c_3046531?f=magazine_alsoinside

Frederick, S. (2011).

The persuasive power of opportunity costs. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved April 5, 2011 from http://hbr.org/2011/01/column-the-persuasive-power-of-opportunity-costs/ar/1

Katz, D. (2002). Activity-based costing (ABC). CFO Magazine. Retrieved April 5, 2011 from http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/3007694

McKinsey & Co.…

Works Cited:

Banham, R. (2000). Off target? CFO Magazine. Retrieved April 5, 2011 from  http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/2990860/c_3046531?f=magazine_alsoinside 

Frederick, S. (2011).

The persuasive power of opportunity costs. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved April 5, 2011 from  http://hbr.org/2011/01/column-the-persuasive-power-of-opportunity-costs/ar/1 

Katz, D. (2002). Activity-based costing (ABC). CFO Magazine. Retrieved April 5, 2011 from  http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/3007694

market structures in detail and analyses the pricing strategies that the firms have to undertake when they operate in different regimes. The case study on Toyota is considered next, which indicates that firms competing in various structures does not only have to focus on price and quantity ceteris paribus, they also have to consider external and internal variables that have a bearing on these decisions.

Introduction to Market Structures

Market structures are important parts of economic theory as they model market behavior that can help economists explain activities in industry with ease. Market structures, hence are basically models that define market behavior with respect to certain criteria so that it becomes simpler to compare events in real life to the postulated scenario as described in theory in order to be able to determine casualties and to define optimal strategies that firms operating in different market structures can use.

There are…

References

Bennett, D., Hagiwara, Y., & Kitamura, M. (2011, September 5). Toyota Bets on Japan. Bloomberg Businessweek, pp. 70-73,. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=fbe40510-c02e-4a4c-afc8-b21dbb1445c3%40sessionmgr11&vid=1&hid=10&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=60477158

Cusumano, M.A. (2011). Technology Strategy and Management Reflections on the Toyota Debacle. Communications of the ACM, 54 (1), 33-35.

John Petersen (2011). Bernstein and Ricardo Report: Cheap Will Beat Cool in Vehicle Electrification. Retrieved from http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/2011/11/bernstein_and_ricardo_report_cheap_will_beat_cool_in_vehicle_electrification.html

Lipsey, R.G., & Chrystal, K.A. (2007). Economics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from  http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=HgXWV8JMC10C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Economics+lipsey&hl=en&sa=X&ei=qPIuT9DdPM7wrQeQ_LzYDA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Economics%20lipsey&f=false

economics pricing system that allows smaller practices and organizations to buy and sell affordable prices is a must today. The use of technology to determine pricing strategys is prevalent in todays times. This can be illustrated with the following examples where companies have used technology to formulate their pricing strategy.

The pricing model for MDoffice offers an affordable entry price for smaller, less-demanding medical offices such as solo practitioners. These practices can extend their investment in MDoffice by easily moving from standalone PC's or laptops, to peer-to-peer networks, to sophisticated client/server installations involving LANs (Local Area Networks) and perhaps ANs (ide Area Networks). This easy migration from platform to platform can be accomplished in affordable increments.

The overall objective in all our pricing decisions is to offer great products at a fair price allowing our clients to get an excellent return on their investment and to have an affordable growth…

Works Cited

 http://www.mdbase.com/flash/strategies.htm#Pricing%20Strategy 

Economics for Business" by John Sloman and Mark Sutcliffe - Prentice Hall - ISBN 0-273-65187-0

If two goods are substitutes, we should expect to see consumers purchase more of one good when the price of its substitute increases." (Moffat, 2006) How much a price range is there, really one might ask? Although some washers, for example, may be several hundred dollars more or less expensive than others, the higher line goods posses more desirable amenities or physical features desired by the higher-end consumer. Hence, within different price ranges, there is much less apparent elasticity. Also, market consolidation must be taken into a factor. Given the relatively narrow range of substitute goods, and the merger of many of the leading appliance manufactures, one would describe the demand for the appliances produced by Maytag to be relatively inelastic, within particular varieties of durable goods.

Describe the issues that affect consumer and the price

Consumers do not buy washing machines or refrigerators on an annual basis. The purchase…

Works Cited

General Electric. (2006). Official Website. Retrieved 18 Oct 2006 at GE.com

Maytag." (2006). Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 Oct 2006 at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maytag_Corporation#Brands_Other_Than_Maytag 

Maytag Collectors Club." (2006). Retrieved 18 Oct 2006 at  http://www.maytagclub.com/ 

Maytag Commercial Laundry." (2006) Retrieved 18 Oct 2006 at  http://www.maytagcommerciallaundry.com/cmths/home/indexMain.jsp

market structures and the pricing strategies which are specifically related to each of them. The introductory section of the paper gives an overview of the four major types of market structures and explains the main features which draw distinguishing lines between them. These major types of market structures are perfect competition, monopolistic competition, monopoly, and oligopoly. The second section discusses the pricing strategies which are used by competitors in each of these market structures in order to compete with the other competitors or operate in a profitable and competitive fashion. A case study has also been included which gives a real life example of the market structure and pricing strategies of a specific company. The paper concludes by giving summary and key findings from the whole discussion.

Introduction to Market Structures

Market structure refers to the number of competitors operating in a particular industry and the level or intensity of…

References

Boyes, W.J., & Melvin, M. (2012). Economics, 9th Edition. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning

Gitman, L.J. & McDaniel, C.D. (2009). The Future of Business: the Essentials, 4th Edition. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning

Hall, R.E., & Lieberman, M. (2010). Micro Economics: Principles and Applications, 5th Edition. Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning

Mankiw, N.G. (2011). Principles of Economics, 6th Edition. Mason, Ohio: Thomson South-Western

Price Setting

Setting the right price is important for any product. There are many different approaches, based on the different variables that can be considered. For a new product in the marketplace, getting the price right is all the more difficult, because there is no prior data to help gauge the strength of the current brand, the price elasticity of demand or other factors that might come into play when pricing an established product. However, there is always an opportunity to adjust prices if the price of a good is not delivering the optimal financial results for the company. Thus, it requires management to have an understanding of pricing strategy in order to determine the most suitable price in the marketplace.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that price is one of the five Ps of marketing. Thus, the pricing strategy must be aligned with the other…

References

Kotler, P., Keller, K., Ang, S., Leong, S. & Tan, O. Marketing Management: An Asian Perspective, Sixth Edition.

NetMBA (2010). Pricing strategy. NetMBA.com. Retrieved February 25, 2016 from  http://www.netmba.com/marketing/pricing/

Marketing to youth, if unsuccessful, would also turn off other potential markets. The project risked miserable failure on account of targeting an unproven market.

The decision on third party content was made in part to simplify the business model. However, NTT was then reliant on having willing third party suppliers that were able to deliver the content that would attract their audience. It was unknown at the time whether they could -- the result could have been failure.

There is always a risk in using inferior technology standards. The target market could turn its back on inferior technology. Worse, a competitor could find a way to achieve the same performance as NTT, but with superior technology. Content providers could have been less hesitant that anticipated with regard to implementing WAP, opening the door for a competitor to crush NTT.

There were two major risks with respect to the hardware. The…

Contract and Pricing

Glen Mar Construction, Inc. files a protest with reference to the award of contract that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs awards to the Facility Defense Consultant under the bids invitation "(IFB) No. VA260-14-B-0412" issued for the construction of medical centers building. The Glen Mar protests on the ground that the agency's price evaluation is unfair and unreasonable because the bid results in the "awards to other than the lowest-priced bidder." (GAO 2015 p 1). The bidders are required to submit unit prices for the procurement of 10 line items for the construction of a clinic and 9 additive options. The agency sustained the protest.

Objective of this paper is to evaluate whether agency's awards to Hanke Constructors is just and fair.

eason the Procurement was considered Fair and easonable based on a Sole-sourced or Competitive competition

A government procurement is the process that the United States…

Reference

Arnold, S. & Marius, V. (2007). Real Options Analysis of Multiyear Procurements, Proc. 2007 IEEE Aerospace Conference.

Acquisition Solutions (2015).Seven Steps to Performance-Based Services Acquisition. USDA.

GAO (2015). Decision. United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC.

Manuel, K.M. (2009). Competition in Federal Contracting: An Overview of the Legal Requirements. Congressional Research Service.

Marketing

Pricing Strategies

The pricing of a product or service is an important aspect of the marketing mix. The pricing of a product will need to be set at a level that will support the firms' long-term profitability; even were there are short-term market penetration strategies or loss leading prices, the ultimate aim of the firm is for the generation of revenues and creation of profit. The pricing strategy chosen by a firm will depend on a number of factors; these will include the market conditions and strategies of the competing or complimentary products, as well as the level of differentiation and the market position that the firm us seeking to gain (Kotler and Keller, 2011). Two examples may be used to assess the way pricing strategies may be formulated; a media distributor and aspirin.

Media Distributor

A media distributor, such as NetFlix or Love Film, has a limited amount…

References

Drury, C, (2012), Management and Cost Accounting, Cengage Learning EMEA

Hooley G; Nicouland B; Piercy, N, (2011), Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning, Financial Times/Prentice Hall

Kotler Philip; Keller Kevin, (2011), Marketing Management (13th Edition), Prentice Hall.

Mintzberg Henry, Ahlstrand Bruce, Lampel Joseph B. (2008), Strategy Safari: The Complete Guide Through the Wilds of Strategic Management, Financial Times / Prentice Hall

From this standpoint, Sony was successful in using pricing as a significant messaging part of their product mix.

When analyzing the pricing strategies Sony has relied on since the introduction of the PSP3 globally, the observations of Porter (1999) on the implications of price as competitive advantage within his Determinants of National Competitive Advantage (sometimes called the Porter Diamond) illustrates how Sony is using price to attempt to create equilibrium across Factor Conditions and Demand Conditions (pg. 78). The approach Sony takes to first ascertain the demand curve by geography first, and second, to create unique and differentiated market positions second, align with the approach Porter (1999) advocates in using as he calls it, the Diamond of National Advantage" to attain demand equilibrium and in balance. Porter advocates innovation and human productivity as the two most potent differentiation strategies for entire industries and their strongest industries, hence the title of…

References

CRM Buyer (2005) - Searching for Blue Ocean Strategies. Louis Columbus. CRMBuyer.com. September 23, 2005. Accessed from the Internet on October 29, 2007 from location:  http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/46292.html 

Kotler, P, & Keller, K (2006). A Framework for Marketing Management.Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall. Pages 217-236.

McKinsey (2003) - Marn, Michael; Roegner, Eric; Zawada, Craig. "The Power of Pricing," 2003 Number 1. Boston, MA McKinsey Quarterly. Pages 27-36.

Porter, Michael (1999) "The Competitive Advantage of Nations" March - April, 1999. Boston, MA. Harvard Business Review. Page 73-91.

This he can do by engaging in extensive advertising, public relations, sales promotion, personal selling, internet marketing, and sponsorship. Depending on the resources available, the client can use any form of mass media that is within his means. He can also go for the services of public relation companies to obtain favorable publicity within the media. The client can also make use of money off coupons or special offers to increase sales volumes in short-term. Internet marketing techniques like social media and videos on demand can also come in handy (Chaffey, 2007). Message strategy should be well thought out. The message should reinforce the benefit of that product (Schultz & Dev, 2005).

2.1.4 Place Strategy

This stands for ways by which goods are transported from the client to the end users. The client has to ensure that goods reach the market when they are still in good condition failure to…

References

Beamish, K., & Ashford, R. (2007). Marketing planning 2007-2008. New York: Elsevier.

Chaffey, D. (2007). E-business and e-commerce management: strategy, implementation and Practice. New York: Pearson Education.

Christensen, C.M. (1997). The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press.

Galavan, R., Murray, J., & Markides, C. (2008). Strategy, innovation, and change: challenges for management. Oxford: Oxford University Press U.S..

Distribution Channel Analysis Identifying Wholesalers, Distributors, Retailers, and e-Commerce

ingle or multiple channels of distribution can be utilized including the direct channel of the Internet using the company's e-Commerce website as well as the direct channel of sales teams. Multiple teams that specialize in different products of customer segments may also be utilized. Direct channels include catalogue sales and retail sales as well as the use of a wholesaler or distributor, which is described as a company "that buys products in bulk from many manufacturers and then resells in smaller volumes to retailers. The Value-Added reseller will work with end-users to make provision of custom solutions that including "multiple products and services from different manufacturers." (VanAucken, 2013) a consultant can be used to develop relationshi8ps with companies and make provision of various services types. A dealer may purchase inventory from a manufacturer or distributor and then resell is to an…

Sources

Cooper, L. (2013) Five Strategies for a Successful Global Brand. 1 Jul 2010, Marketing Week. Retrieved from:  http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/five-strategies-for-a-successful-global-brand/3015220.article 

VanAuken, B. (2013) Building a Global Brand. Brand Strategy Insider. Retrieved from:  http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2007/01/building_a_glob.html#.UZq2RaLMDHR

Transfer Pricing Disputes

Current

Profit Inc./Dec

Costs

Costs

Division A

Internal @ $1,000

3,000,000

2,000,000

1,800,000

Total Costs

3,900,000

3,800,000

Division B

Internal @ $2,000

2,000,000

1,000,000

External @ $1,900

1,900,000

2,850,000

Total Costs

3,900,000

3,850,000

Inc 50,000

Division C

Part 101 @ $1,000

3,000,000

2,000,000

Part 201 @ $2,000

2,000,000

Total Sales

2,100,000

1,400,000

Part 201 @ $1,200

1,200,000

Total Costs

3,300,000

2,000,000

Profit

1,700,000

Company as a whole (100,000 + 50,000) -- 700,000 = 550,000 loss

To enforce the proposed plan would cause a $550,000 loss for the company as a whole. The increases in profits for division A and B, $100,000 and $50,000 respectively, are not enough to cover the $700,000 loss from division C. This is especially if the selling prices of the finished products of division A and B. are the same as the company would take the loss as a whole. If division C.…

References

9, G. (n.d.). Transfer Pricing. Retrieved from Scribd:  http://scribd.com/doc/6699410/Transfer-Pricing-Nitin 

Abeysingh, R. (2009, June 25). Cost Based Approaches to Transfer Pricing. Retrieved from Ezine Articles:  http://ezinearticles.com/?Cost-Based-Approaches-to-Transfer-Pricing&id=2524966 

Feinschrieber, R. (n.d.). Business Facets of Transfer Pricing. Retrieved from Anefac: http://www.anefac.org.mx.Docs/TrabajosInformacion/PreciosTransferencia/Word/Business%20Facets.htm

Sahay, S. (2003, Jan 1). Transfer pricing based on actual cost. Retrieved from High Beam Business:  http://business.highbeam.com/6392/article-1G1-1129056016/transfer-pricing-based-actual-cost

Product Pricing Component

The organization

Boiron Group, a French company, provides products for health maintenance through, mainly, health and natural foods stores. The products they produce and market are homeopathic medicines. These medicines are the result of work by a German physician, Samuel Hahnemann, in the 1800s. He was disgusted with the barbaric state of medicine, which still included bloodlettings at the time, and decided to look for a gentler way to heal people of disease. He began taking doses of various plant and mineral substances to determine the effect on the body. Today, the medical establishment regards homeopathy as a 'quack' form of medicine, as do most Americans. Interestingly enough, however, the British oyal Family uses homeopathic physicians, and no one can accuse them of shortening their lives. "Queen Mary and King George VI were firm followers of homeopathy, the King even calling one of his horses Hypericum which…

References

Barrett, Stephen, M.D. (2003) Homeopathy: The Ultimate Fake. Retrieved on July 1, 2004 from Quackwatch Web site:  http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/homeo.html 

Experts' testimony on homeopathy and research. (2004) Retrieved on July 1, 2004 from Boiron Web site:  http://www.boiron.com/en/htm/service/actualite.htm 

Exploring Economics. (2004) Retrieved July 1, 2004 from NEU Web site: http://www.economics.neu.edu/exploring/index.php

Homeopathic remedy suppliers (list) (2004) Retrieved July 1, 2004 from Whole Health Now Web site:  http://www.wholehealthnow.com/homeopathy_info/weblinks3.html

Tesco

Was Tesco's decision to enter the U.S. market a good decision? Why?

Tesco did made as inspiring decision to enter the U.S. market because the U.S. market could easily help Tesco penetrate a status in the global market. Tesco has thus build up its database of knowledge while also simultaneously franchising and internationalising in the U.S. market, it is important to note that experience and training happen to be learned from the relative stimuli that exists both in the internal and external environment of the organization; hence adjusting to the U.S. culture was integral for Tesco. By assessing these differing learning encounters in the U.S. market, especially when conceptualized within detailed single situation-level research, various size of store internationalisations emerged. In spatial terms, it seemed that Tesco focused their efforts with increased experience on different U.S. marketplaces in key regions striving to attain an industry leading position. One reason…

References

Alexander, N. (1997), International Retailing, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.

Alexander, N. And Myers, H. (2000), "The retail internationalisation process," International Marketing Review, Vol. 17 No. 4/5, pp. 334-53.

Alexander, N. And Quinn, B. (2002), "International retail divestment," International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 112-25.

Arnold, SJ. (2002), "Lessons learned from the world's best retailers," International Journal of Retail Distribution Management, Vol. 30 No. 11/12, pp. 562-70.

Planning Decision Making

Planning and decision making are two main and fundamental processes of an organization. Planning is one of the main factors with the help of which an organization can determine where it wants to be in the future. It is planning with the help of which an organization can determine as to what can be done in order to accomplish the mission and aims that an organization has. One of the basics that are followed during planning includes achievement of the objectives that the organization has. In order to have better planning, there are four main facts that are needed to be kept in mind by the planners in the organizations. These include mission, values, resources, as well as the environment of the organization as these are the four main facts that help in having better planning within the organization.

Decision making is the second important foundation of…

References

Beecher, J.A. (1996). Avoided cost: an essential concept for integrated resource planning. Water resources update (104).

Boutilier, C., Dean, T., and Hanks, S. (1999). Decision-Theoretic Planning: Structural Assumption and Computational Leverage. Journal of Articial Intelligence Research 11 (1999)1-94.

Dreu, D., Carsten K.W., and West, M.A. (2001). Minority dissent and team innovation: the importance of participation in decision making. Journal of applied psychology, 86 (6), pp. 1191-1201.

Kiker, G.A., Bridges, T.S., Varghese, A., Seager, T.P., and Linkovj, I. (2005). Application of Multicriteria Decision Analysis in Environmental Decision Making. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 1, pp. 95 -- 108.

hen expanding, the Assemblage will be more focused on setting up locations with a high amount of traffic from our target 21-35 demographic but Manhattan's density and role as an entertainment magnet allow for us to build our business.

The overall marketing objective is to build the brand and set up the expansion and penetration phase. The flagship Manhattan location supports that because of the ability and the diffusion value from visitors taking back memories of the Assemblage to their home cities, to which we will ultimately expand. On the broader level, disturbing in entertainment districts with high youth traffic will allow the Assemblage to best reach the target market. As market penetration occurs, the brand will over time become linked to entertainment and good times in a manner that is consistent across all of our markets.

orks Cited:

Altman, H. (1987). ho's gored by gouging? Nation's Business. Retrieved May…

Works Cited:

Altman, H. (1987). Who's gored by gouging? Nation's Business. Retrieved May 15, 2010 from  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1154/is_v75/ai_4963234/ 

Bovay, K. (2008). When to use a product line pricing strategy. EZine. Retrieved May 15, 2010 from  http://ezinearticles.com/?When-to-Use-a-Product-Line-Pricing-Strategy&id=1341523 

No author. (2010). Pricing strategies. Marketing Teacher. Retrieved May 15, 2010 from  http://marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_pricing.htm

Table 2, elationships in MNSC problem provide an analysis of these factors in the form of a decision matrix of transfer prices, transport cost allocations and trade quantities from an import and expert standpoint (Villegas, Ouenniche, 2008).

This is one of the more useful aspects of this article, in that it extrapolates the near-term decisions of transfer pricing systems directly and materially into the financial reporting of the firm in the same fiscal period. There is also the quantification of the MNSC purely from the effects of cross-supplier and supplier-buyer collaboration which gets much coverage in the industry press, yet lacks the quantification from a financial standpoint this article provides. The quantification of MNSC-based decisions purely on transfer pricing that is market-based leads to higher levels of volatility and uncertainty of earnings yet also gives firms a great control over the competitiveness of fulfilling their own demand over time. The…

References

Villegas, F., and J. Ouenniche. 2008. A general unconstrained model for transfer pricing in multinational supply chains. European Journal of Operational Research 187, no. 3, (June 16): 829.

The ability to create a makeup palate that is suited to the consumer's specific beauty needs, to create a unique image of beauty that is healthy and an enhancement of one's natural beauty should be the focus of a redesigned Avon site.

Conclusion

Avon is a classic product in the United States -- someone in 'your' family may have sold Avon, long ago. Although door-to-door sales is no longer lucrative, and unlikely to be accepted in China for higher-end goods, selling the midpriced Avon in Chinese department stores is an ideal way to create a humanized brand image for Avon and to capitalize upon the mania for customization and goods tailored to 'your needs.' This is one way to use American individualism yet give it a Chinese spin by stressing the need for make up to suit one's skin tone and enhance but not alter one's appearance. The company website…

Works Cited

Avon brands. (2009). Avon. Website. Retrieved August 15, 2009 at  http://www.avoncompany.com/brands/color.html 

Avon China. (2009). Avon Website. Retrieved August 15, 2009 at  http://www.avon.com.cn/PRSuite/home_page.page 

Avon product history. (2009). essortment. Retrieved August 15, 2009 at http://www.essortment.com/all/avonproductshi_risn.htm

Changing Chinese buying habits. (2008, February 20). Export News. Retrieved August 15, 2009

Finance

Any Asset Pricing Theory forms the basic foundation of finance theory, in that it deals with the value of any asset under unknown or uncertain circumstances. The relationship between an asset and its price is the mainstay of the asset pricing theory: the lower the price, the poorer the expected performance. The Arbitrage Pricing Theory derives from this theory. The basic idea in the APT theory is that any sort of risk in asset returns must not affect the pricing of the asset in any way; it must depend on the covariance of assets with the risk factors. (Bayesian Approach of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory) The APT originated from Stephen oss, 1976-1978. oss had used a statistical procedure for assets returns, with the belief that there are in existence no arbitrage probabilities. The APT must of necessity involve a lot of risk taking processes, (Definition of Arbitrage Pricing Theory.)…

References

An Introduction to Investment Theory" Retrieved at  http://viking.som.yale.edu/will/finman540/classnotes/class6.html . Accessed on 29 July, 2004

Bayesian Approach of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory" Retrieved at  http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:Sa6l536IAccessed  on 29 July, 2004

Capital Asset Pricing Model" Retrieved at  http://www.investorwords.com/698/Capital_Asset_Pricing_Model.html . Accessed on 29 July, 2004

Definition of Arbitrage Pricing Theory" Retrieved at  http://economics.about.com/cs/economicsglossary/g/apt.htm?terms=economic+theoryAccessed  on 29 July, 2004

Accounting

Transfer Pricing Case Study; Coffee Makers Incorporated

The decision to make or purchase a good that can, or already is supplied internally requires careful consideration. Different departments may look at the issue differently, especially if the internal transfer pricing does not reflect the market conditions. However, although different departments may have different budgets, the firm will also need to take a broader view and consider the bottom line for the firm.

In this case Coffee Makers Incorporated (CMI) is considering the position of three divisions; Divisions A and B. are both buying parts from Division C. Division A buys part 101, for a transfer price of $1,000, and Division B. buys part 201 for a transfer price of $2,000. Both divisions are under pressure to increase their profitability so when the opportunity for division A to purchase part 101 externally for $900, and division B. has the opportunity to…

Also in terms of trade, it would be recommended for the company to conduct several analyses in order to identify the countries with the highest demand for batteries. India for instance, with its numerous technological applications and in its quality of hosting most of the global mobile telephones -- would be expected to be a large consumer of batteries and could as such constitute a desirable trading destination for Larson Inc.

elative to specialization, this aspect is more delicate, but it would be advisable for the company to become more specialized in the type of batteries most popular within the regions in which it operated. Considering a situation in which Larson Inc. became a batteries supplier in India, it would be advisable for them to specialize in mobile telephone batteries.

3. Evidence and Potential Changes in the ecommendations

The recommendations previously made are all based on the features observable at…

References:

2010, the World Factbook -- China, Central Intelligence Agency,  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /' target='_blank' REL='NOFOLLOW'>

marketing strategy direct marketing pricing activities strategy/Project improved duration . Make grader identify sections revised, (e.g. Track Changes feature Word).

OVEALL COSTS

The creation and delivery of the organizational service is linked to a wide array of costs, all of which are incurred in the organizational processes and operations. The more pertinent of them include the following:

Costs with the commodities, including the usage of the personal laptop and other desktop features

Costs with the software applications required to complete the documentation projects

Costs with utilities, such as electricity, internet, telephone bills and so on Costs with marketing and the promotion of the writing services

Other costs, such as administrative, the traveling to the offices and other such expenditures.

PICE SETTING

The prices would be set with the use of two primary pricing strategies. On a first note, the penetration pricing strategy would be used and it would see that…

References:

Longenecker, J.G., Moore, C.W., Palich, L.E., Petty, J.W., 2005, Small business management: an entrepreneurial emphasis, 13th edition, Cengage Learning

McGrath, M.E., 2001, Product strategy for high technology companies: accelerating your business to web speed, 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill Professional

Parkin, M., Powell, M., Matthews, K., 2007, Economics, 7th edition, Pearson Education

Smith, T.J., 2011, Pricing strategy: setting price levels, managing price discounts and establishing price structures, Cengage Learning

Marketing

Pricing Strategy

There are different approaches to pricing strategy. The pricing strategy should fit within the context of the overall marketing strategy. Among the different options for pricing strategy are revenue maximization, profit maximization, survival, skim pricing, and penetration pricing (NetMBA, 2010). There are also approaches such as cost-plus that take into account the company's cost structure but in a competitive marketplace it is more normal that the pricing strategy reflects what competitors are doing. For MegaWidget, the $10 price tag comes with a sales target of one million new units. The MegaWidget only costs $3 to produce, so the price is not based on the cost. It is based on penetration pricing strategy. Ten dollars is a threshold, one that consumes will notice more -- at ten dollars or less a consumer is willing to purchase the product on impulse. As a result of that, the MegaWidget should…

References

BEA. (2014). National income and product accounts. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Retrieved November 28, 2014 from  http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm 

Brookins, M. (2014). Tools used in market research. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved November 28, 2014 from  http://smallbusiness.chron.com/tools-used-market-research-17205.html 

MindTools. (2014). The marketing mix and the 4Ps of marketing. MindTools. Retrieved November 28, 2014 from  http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_94.htm 

NetMBA.com (2010) Pricing strategy. NetMBA.com. Retrieved November 28, 2014 from  http://www.netmba.com/marketing/pricing/

Saturn's Pricing Strategy

The Unique Project - Saturn

The Saturn Project was an experiment by General Motors to stop the heavy loss in terms of sales that GM was undergoing to the Japanese car manufacturers. This was an attempt to manufacture and market cars in a way different from the traditional methods of GM. This was the reason that GM did not set up the Saturn Project as a division of GM like Chevrolet or uick. Saturn was set up as an independent company. To make sure of the complete change in thinking even in manufacturing, GM shifted the factory for production from traditional Detroit to Spring Hill in Tennessee. Since the competition was to be specifically with Japanese cars, the manufacturing technology was also made to the best international standards available then. (Avertising Age, May 5, 1997, p. 30)

To get the necessary support from the workers, the company…

Bibliography

Ferrell, O.C. "Saturn," in O.C. Ferrell, Michael D. Hartline, George H. Lucas, Jr., and David Luck, Marketing Strategy, Ft. Worth, TX: Dryden Press, 1999, pp. 187-193

Road Hazard," Advertising Age, May 5, 1997, p. 30

Koenders, J. Chris. Achieving Customer Satisfaction Through Distribution Partners: The Case of Saturn BMW, Munich, Wujin Chu, Seoul National University, May 1994 retrieved at http://www.centerworld.net/prof/wchu/product/classdata/SATURN.html. On 07/24/2003

Saturn Cars: Saturn Prices ION to Attract Young Buyers, September 17, 2002 retrieved at  http://www.saturnfans.com/Cars/ION/2003/2003ionpricing.shtml . On 07/24/2003

76). As automation increasingly assumes the more mundane and routine aspects of work of all types, Drucker was visionary in his assessment of how decisions would be made in the years to come. "In the future," said Drucker, "it was possible that all employment would be managerial in nature, and we would then have progressed from a society of labor to a society of management" (Witzel, p. 76). The first tasks of the manager, then, are to coordinate an organization's resources and provide a viable framework in which they can be used to produce goods and services effectively and efficiently. The second set of tasks concern guidance and control. In Drucker's view, this role is almost entirely proactive: "Economic forces set limits to what a manager can do. They create opportunities for management's action. But they do not by themselves dictate what a business is or what it does" (Drucker,…

If this investment was financed entirely with debt, the new capital structure would be 67.2% debt and 32.8% equity. If this investment was financed entirely with equity, the new capital structure would be 30.5% debt and 69.5% equity.

One rule of thumb for making such a decision is to match the asset type with the financing. Therefore, an asset that is expected to have a service life of five years would be financed with a five-year bond issue, so that the cash flows from the asset can be used to cover the costs of financing. In this case, the asset life is not known, so any financing type can be used.

Internal cash is not possible because the firm likely does not have $10 million in cash if it only has $17.2 million in assets and $17.5 million in annual revenues. A debt issue will leave the firm with a…

Works Cited:

Investopedia. (2010). Net present value -- NPV. Investopedia. Retrieved October 2, 2010 from  http://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/npv.asp 

Wang, J. (2003). Capital asset pricing model. MIT. Retrieved October 2, 2010 from  http://web.mit.edu/15.407/file/Ch11.pdf 

Yahoo! Finance. (2010). Advanced bond screener. Yahoo!. Retrieved October 2, 2010 from http://reports.finance.yahoo.com/z1?b=1&so=a&sf=m&tt=1&stt=-&pr=0&cpl=-1&cpu=-1&yl=-1&yu=-1&ytl=-1&ytu=-1&mtl=6&mtu=24&rl=-1&ru=-1&cll=-1

MSN Moneycentral. (2010). Magna International financial statements. MSN Moneycentral. Retrieved October 2, 2010 from  http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/statemnt.aspx?Symbol=MGA&lstStatement=Balance&stmtView=Ann

Threats:

Loss of industry as prices of oil are unstable due to market fluctuation

Long-term contracts cannot be formulated in the basis of changing prices

Gradual increase in prices can result into economic turmoil as raw materials and finished product prices will be increased lowering the economic process

Conclusion:

The trucking enterprises are significant in creating the United States transportation and freight industry. The transportation of raw materials and finished goods in required as most of the national and international corporations have established manufacturing systems in developing countries to take advantage of the supply chain management techniques. The business is significantly incorporating a market based approach. The influx of products and goods in high demand markets is one of the basic principles in free market economy. The business setup their manufacturing units in rural and industrial districts take advantage of the infrastructure and human resources available in these vicinities. However…

Ozener, O.O. (2008). Collaboration in transportation.USA: ProQuest.

Teravaninthorn, S., & Raballand, G. (2009). Transport prices and costs in Africa: a review of the main international corridors. World Bank Publications.

Yergin, D. (2006). Ensuring energy security. Foreign Affairs, 69-82.

In the former approach, tradable goods, money or services are exchanged between buyers and sellers at a rate that is agreeable to all parties. This approach assumes both the buyers and sellers have enough money, services or goods to have their needs met. The latter approach, public provision, is when all is available to those on an as-needed basis.

The Pharmaceutical and Manufacturing Association warns that whenever there is government control of prices it only has a negative impact on those who are in need of being helped: 1) When funding for new medical technology, cures for diseases and research and development are diverted to more lucrative economic areas; 2) Incentives to enter the pharmaceutical industry decline; 3) More restrictions are placed on providers; 4) the quality of medical care suffers and 5) This leads to a rationing of care. Instead, the association says there has to be a healthcare…

References

Barry, W., and Shaw, V. (2006) Moral Issues in Business. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Donaldson, T., and Werhane, P. (2007) Ethical issues in business: a philosophical approach. Englewood-Heights, NJ: Prentice Hall

DesJardins.(2008) an introduction to business ethics. New York: McGraw Hill.

Friedman, M., & Becker, G. On economics. (2008) Chicago: University of Chicago.

In the case of my decision to purchase a new car, I would consider all the most critical buyer characteristic factors and create a short list of makes and models that met my criteria. Next, I'd evaluate each of the makes and models online to learn as much as possible about them including getting pricing quotes. As is consistent with the buyer decision process, I would also concentrate on alleviating the risk of a bad decision by trimming makes and models from the list as my criteria list became more focused (Kotler, Armstrong, 2005). Ultimately the black box approach to making the decision of which car to purchase would be defined first using my criteria as the benchmark to evaluate all competing models. Second, the buyer decision process would involve trial or test-drives and eventual negotiation for the best price and terms.

eferences

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G (2005). Principles of…

References

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G (2005). Principles of Marketing, Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall

There are many more challenges involved in the development of forecasting models and the development of predictive analytics as they relate to the impact of both CoffeeTime's and competitor's advertising spending. The following are additional considerations in the development of more thorough predictive analytics and statistical forecasting models of the Indian market for CoffeeTimes' beverages and sandwiches:

Advertising spending increasing overall market growth or cannibalizing competitive sales? This is a major question that needs to be addressed through more econometric modeling, specifically looking at the aggregate impact of industry-wide spending on increasing the total market size for served coffee in key segments of the market vs. forcing consolidation of the market and cannibalization of sales. This dichotomy of market direction could best first be tested from the standpoint of attempting to predict aggregate demand and consumption for coffee in India for three to five years. Next taking the approach of…

To batter understand the mechanisms of decision making and purchase behavior within an adoptive family take the case of a nuclear family, formed from a 48 years old mother, a 51 years old father and an adopted 15 years old son. The mother is a clinical psychologist and the father is currently an out of work electrician. In this particular case:

big ticket purchases are generally decided by the mother, since she is the sole provider of the family; the father is charged with the family vacations food and toiletries are purchased on individual preference basically because the mother does not have enough time to cook group decisions are made in regard to the places where to dine out or electronic appliances to be purchased for the home the child's power of influence is revealed by his capability to research certain products and provide his mother with the required information…

References

Mann, a., Consumer Behavior - Family Purchasing Decisions Making Process, Ezine Articles, Retrieved at  http://ezinearticles.com/?Consumer-Behavior-Family-Purchasing-Decisions-Making-Process&id=307532on  February 8, 2008

Business Standard, 2004, Marketing with Precision, Rediff, Retrieved at  http://imdownloads.rediff.com/money/2004/oct/28guest2.htm . On February 8, 2008

Chamberlain, B., Types of Families, Retrieved at http://www.hhs.wash.k12.ut.us/department/health/masters/ch5l1/type.htm. On February 8, 2008

Perner, L., PhD., Consumer Behavior: The Psychology of Marketing, Consumer Psychologist, Retrieved at http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/on February 8, 2008

Leadership ehavior for Effective Decision Making

Effective decision making in the competitive business environment is closely linked with leadership skills. Managing change in existing organizations can often be extremely difficult, as it requires changing the organizational culture, the very roots that bind its members. This paper analyses the characteristics of a successful leader, illustrated with a practical example. Contrary to popular understanding, there is no unique style of leadership for all situations and the leader needs to be flexible and change his approach depending on case to case basis. The analysis takes into account the various theories on leadership - behavioral, contingency and transformational and evaluates the response of the leader to various situations in a typical organization operating in a fiercely competitive environment.

From the analysis, it is observed that the leader exhibited varying leadership styles and behavior to address and resolve various issues. The leader is found to…

Bibliography

Bennis, W. (1994) 'Visionary Leadership', in W.Bennis, J.Parikh and R.Lessem (eds) - 'Beyond Leadership: Balancing Economics, Ethics and Ecology', Blackwell: Oxford, pp.32-34

Gardner, H. (2001) 'Leading Minds' (ed) Manrik, J - 'Writers on Leadership', London: Penguin, pp. 73-76

Hampden-Turner, C. (1994) 'Charting the Corporate Mind' in W.Bennis, J.Parikh and R.Lessem (eds) 'Beyond Leadership: Balancing Economics, Ethics and Ecology', Blackwell: Oxford, pp.110-114

Jacobson, R. (2000) 'Leading for a Change: How to master the Five Challenges faced by every leader', MA: Butterwoth-Heinmann, pp.135-138

Organizational politics then left unchecked will attempt to squelch, even force to fail any IT plan as seen as too much of a threat to the current hierarchy of status and power within any organization. This is often seen in fact from the standpoint of manufacturing companies who attempt to en masse move their existing production processes to an EP system prior to streamlining the existing processes first. This tends to only automate mediocrity and speed up the inefficiencies the systems were acquired to overcome in the first place.

Overcoming Organizational Politics to Make Progress

eliance on traditional means of gaining consensus through autocratic and ordered compliance fail, as they do nothing to alleviate the fear and lack of trust people have about how any new IT system or decision will impact their jobs and status. What is needed is more of a focus on shared ownership and most important…

References

Ken Karacsony. (2006, January). The Change Challenge. Computerworld, 40(3), 42.

Lui, K., & Chan, K.. (2008). Rescuing Troubled Software Projects by Team Transformation: A Case Study With an ERP Project. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 55(1), 171.

Mintzberg, Henry. (1991). The Effective Organization: Forces and Forms. Sloan Management Review, 32(2), 54.

Andre Spicer. (2005). The political process of inscribing a new technology1. Human Relations, 58(7), 867-890.

Thomas Money

The operating decisions that must be made by Thomas Money include the level of output that the company needs to have in response to the prevailing economic conditions. The company is facing a difficult economic environment at present. Thomas Money's performance is strongly correlated with economic measures that focus on construction, such as new housing starts and new business or institutional construction. In the current environment, housing starts are entering into a long period of decline following the bursting of an unsustainable housing bubble (Byun, 2010). The one bright spot in Thomas Money's business is that there is strength in institutional construction in the health care industry, as the elderly population increases, driving increased demand for health care services (no author, 2007). However, this improvement is not enough to keep Thomas Money's customer in business and as a result the company is facing a high level of repossessions.…

Works Cited:

No author. (2007). Health care demand rising, population aging: The imperative to increase physician supply. Health Care News. Retrieved February 3, 2012 from http://www.gnyha.org/5834/File.aspx

Byun, K. (2010). The U.S. housing bubble and bust: Impacts on employment. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved February 3, 2012 from  http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2010/12/art1full.pdf 

Landsburg, L. (2007). Comparative advantage. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved February 4, 2012 from  http://www.econlib.org/library/Topics/Details/comparativeadvantage.html 

Investopedia. (2011). Interest rate parity. Investopedia. Retrieved February 4, 2012 from  http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/interestrateparity.asp#axzz1lFGk3bQ3

e-Business should focus on marketing through social networks and a website; through identifying potential suppliers. e can't sell food and drink online so the site is mainly for promotional purposes. The cafe's main metrics will be page impressions, Facebook fans, Twitter followers. Reaching out to customers using social media can help to inform them about promotions and new products. Social media is also the modern-day equivalent of knowing all of your customers by name (though that would not hurt either) as it helps to foster a relationship allowing for improved retention. A portal is not of much value for the employees. At best, they can check the schedule online. e don't have that many people working at Broadway, an expensive back end system for staff we see everyday is poor value. I would not use kiosks in the cafe. I would focus on a ifi network and let the customers…

Works Cited:

QuickMBA. (2007). Porter's five forces. QuickMBA.com. Retrieved April 27, 2010 from  http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/porter.shtml 

QuickMBA. (2007). Porter's generic strategies. QuickMBA.com. Retrieved April 27, 2010 from  http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/generic.shtml

There are many firms that exist and operate within the capital management realm. Some companies operate and expand via their internal income and operations. There are other firms that are not currently self-solvent. However, the latter is commonly able to expand through capital investment and fundraising. The goal with such firms, of course, is to ramp up business levels, pricing structures and so forth so as to get to a profit at some point, even if it takes a few years. Indeed, many firms start off relying on capital investment and resource allocation at first and then become able to expand organically with no outside support, budgeting or investment. While firms like Amazon are a behemoth right now, there was a time where their operations and capital structures were quite thin internally and thus they needed a lot of investment and support through the capital investment and budgeting process.

Analysis…

In addition to gaining a high percentage of the 15-29 segment as defined in the case study, there is the added strategy of being able to take more of the mainstream customers from cellular service providers with bad service, high prices, and complex programs to understand. Presented below are the specific assumptions that illustrate the financial viability of this strategy:

Pay-as-you-go is expected to be the fastest growing segment of cellular telephone service industry (SEC 2007) as defined by research firms the Yankee Group and Current Analysis. Included in this analysis by these research firms is significant churn from existing cellular telephone service providers, which is a strength of Virgin Mobile.

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is assumed to stay flat over the forecast period for both basic and deluxe service levels, further increasing profitability and the potential for increasing investment in capital equipment and service assets, including customer service…