What is one of the benefits of pursuing a strategy of social responsibility?

What are the arguments against increased social responsibility?

The most attractive way to reduce or eliminate the impact of paying tariffs on pairs imported to a company's distribution warehouse in Europe-Africa is to

a. simply stop selling footwear in Europe-Africa.

b. build a plant in Europe-Africa and then expand it as may be needed so that the company has sufficient capacity to supply all (or at least most) of the pairs the company intends to try to sell in that geographic region.

c. lower the S/Q rating on all pairs sold in Europe-Africa to 1 star or 2 stars--no tariffs have to be paid on imported branded footwear having an S/Q rating of 2-stars or below.

d. only sell the company's branded footwear at its Internet site for Europe-Africa; no import tariffs have to be paid on Internet sales--import tariffs only have to be paid on footwear shipped from the company's Europe-Africa warehouse to footwear retailers in Europe-Africa.

e. pursue a strategy of selling fewer pairs in Europe-Africa than rival companies, which will then keep the company's costs for import tariffs in Europe-Africa lower than those of rivals and give the company a low tariff-cost advantage on its sales in Europe-Africa.

In supplying private-label footwear to chain retailers, the sizes of a company's margins over direct costs (as reported on p. 6 of each issue of the FIR) should be viewed as:

a. The operating profit a company earns on each pair of private-label footwear sold.

b. How much private-label sales added to the company's pretax profits, assuming that the company's margins on branded footwear were sufficient to cover all administrative expenses and all interest costs.

c. Free cash flow, to be used as the company sees fit.

d. The net profit a company earns on each pair of private-label footwear sold.

e. Money available to add to the Company's retained earnings.

Which one of the following is not a way to grow a company's sales volume in the Internet segment in the Europe-Africa region?

a. Deliver online orders for branded footwear within 2-3 business days instead of the standard 5-7 business days.
b. Win sufficient celebrity endorsement contacts to achieve celebrity appeal ratings that are higher than the industry average in the Europe Africa region.
c. Provide free shipping to online buyers.
d. Offer branded footwear that has a higher S/Q rating than the industry average in the Europe- Africa region.
e. Spend an amount for search engine advertising that exceeds the industry average in the Europe-Africa region.

A company opting to boost its sales of branded footwear by offering buyers 500 models/styles to choose from should consider reducing the $15 million annual costs for production run setup costs associated with producing 500 models/styles at each production facility by

• instituting production improvement options A and C at each production facility where 500 models are being produced.
• cutting the percentage use of superior materials to help cover some (preferably all) of the costs of the$15 million in annual production run setup costs at each production facility producing 500 models/styles.
• building production facilities in all four geographic regions and producing 500 models/styles at each location
• doubling its expenditures for enhanced styling/features to also increase the S/Q ratings of its footwear brand.
• investing in production improvement option B at those production facility locations producing 500 models.

Which of the following statements about striving to reduce labor costs per pair produced at each of the company's plants is true?
A company cannot achieve labor costs per pair produced that are close to the lowest in the industry (in those geographic regions where it has plants) unless its annual total compensation of plant workers is below the average annual total compensation paid by all companies with plants in these same regions. All companies, regardless of the strategy being employed, should pursue actions to manage employee compensation and labor productivity in a manner that results in labor costs per pair produced that are equal to (or very close to) the industry-low in each region where the company has plants. It is very difficult for a company producing branded footwear with a high S/Q rating to achieve labor costs per pair produced that are below the industry average in each geographic region where the company has plants.
A company pursuing a low-cost provider strategy is better able to pursue actions aimed at achieving low labor costs per pair produced in each of its plants (as compared to the labor costs of companies with plants in the same regions) than is a company pursuing a differentiation strategy. It is more cost effective for a company to compensate plant workers at levels that are close to the highest in the industry in each geographic region where it has plants than it is for a company to pursue actions to keep labor costs per pair produced below the industry average in each geographic region where it has plants.

What is the formula for calculating the net income ratio?

(a) Under what circumstances might it be in the best interest of workers to seek arbitration in order to settle contract negotiations? (b) Under what circumstances might management prefer that a contract dispute be settled in arbitration? (c) Under what circumstances might arbitration be favorable to both labor and management?

Define economy, economic system, traditional economy, command economy, market economy.

Which of the following is considered as an intangible resource of a firm?

A) The ability to raise external capital

B) The access to raw materials of production

C) The possession of patents to an invention

D) The managerial skills of an employee

Decide whether the following word group is a sentence or a sentence fragment. Write S if the group of words is a sentence or F if the group of words is a sentence fragment

What a sweet rabbit Scooter is!

A company issues 8%, 20-year bonds with a par value of $500,000. The current market rate for the bonds is 8%. The amount of interest owed to the bondholders for each semiannual interest payment is:

a.$40,000.
b. $0.
c.$20,000.
d. $800,000.
e.$400,000.

Which of the following are effective ways for managers to try to boost a company's stock price?

• Increase the company's dividend payments to shareholders each year, keep the company's credit rating at A (or above), strive to increase the company's retained earnings by 5%, and not issue more than 5,000 shares of common stock in any one year.
• Repurchase shares of common stock and aggressively pursue efforts to achieve annual increases in earnings per share that meet or beat investor expectations.
• Make every effort to achieve a branded market share in each geographic region at least equal to the industry average, keep the company's dividend payout ratio in the range of 50%, and repurchase shares of common stock.
• Spend amounts on corporate citizenship and social responsibility that are above the industry average, boost the company's dividend payout ratio to more than 100%, charge prices for branded footwear that are below the industry average in each geographic region, and issue sufficient shares of common stock to raise funds to pay off all long-term debt within 2 years.
• Cut the dividend to zero and issue additional shares of stock to increase the funds available for quickly paying off all long-term debt (ideally in no more than 2 years), then the company should avoid further use of long-term debt, strive to achieve and maintain a credit rating of A or A+, and declare a dividend each year that equals projected EPS