Business studies short answer questions assignment

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS:

You will be asked 8 of the following 14 questions. Short answers should be just that – short. They need to be legible and intelligible, but don’t have to be written in paragraph form (i.e. in question number 2 below you can simply list the five functions with the description to the right).

1. Below is a diagram for an information system. What are the inputs A) and outputs B) in an information system? Write down a specific example C) and note the specific inputs/outputs for this example D) and E)

                   

2. Your boss has been hearing a lot about “strengths based leadership” and wants you to do some research and report back to her. Specifically she wants to know what it is, how effective has it proved to be, and what would be an example of it in practice.

3. What is meant by “cultural fit”? Why is it important? What possible problem could there be if a company focuses too much on fit?

4. Your roommate knows nothing about marketing. Explain to her what the marketing mix is. Be sure to list the variables and briefly describe or define each for her.

5. You will be given a graph of the exchange rate between two currencies and asked to explain its impact (see Quiz #8 and the lecture slides from Week 9). Examples of wording are below (note: these are just examples actual wording/currencies on test may be different) 

“ABC T-shirt Company – a U.S. company – outsources much of its production to Indonesia. Based on the graph above is 1) The Indonesian rupiah strengthening or weakening against the U.S. dollar and 2) is this helping or hurting ABC financially? Explain why/how it is helping/hurting.”

“Haier – a Chinese appliance manufacturer – sells much of its product to Europe. Based on the graph above is 1) The Chinese yuan strengthening or weakening against the euro over the last two years and 2) is this helping or hurting Haier financially? Explain why/how it is helping/hurting.”

6. Based on what you read in the article, How Social Media Is Changing Paid, Earned & Owned Media, define paid, owned, and earned media – give examples of each. How does the author describe the relationship between paid/owned and earned?

7. Define fixed cost and variable cost and give two examples of each. 

8. Throughout term the issue of ethics was raised. Using course material, pick one of the following and explain what the ethical issue is and why it is an ethical issue.

o Accounting and the need for integrity 

o Marketing and endorsements

o Marketing’s use of behavioral targeting 

o BIS and the “sunshine clause”

o Motivation through use of goals 

9. You are a loan officer at a bank. A local trucking company has approached you about getting a long term loan (10 years) to purchase twelve new refrigerated trucks. You can only ask them for two financial ratios. What two would you choose (be specific about which ratios) and explain how these two would help you make a decision about whether to loan them money. Select from the ratios found on the Financial Statement Quick Guide.

10. Define price competition and product differentiation. Explain why product differentiation is so important to a company and give two different examples of how a company might differentiate their product/service.

11. Innovation requires more than simply creating or inventing – what else does it require? Define product innovation and process innovation and give an example of each

12. Define Herzberg’s hygiene factors and motivation factors and give two examples of each.

13. XYZ Inc. is considering entering a new market. They have done an analysis of the market – results below. Using Porter’s Five Forces model make a recommendation based on the results. Support your recommendation being sure to refer to Porter’s model.

ANALYSIS: Competition among the existing firms is intense. This is partially due to the fact that barriers to entry are moderate – with fairly low start-up costs and almost no possibility for intellectual property protection. Customers shop almost exclusively on price so it is difficult to achieve customer loyalty. Some of the key manufacturing materials are controlled by one or two suppliers. Finally, there are a number of substitute products consumers can choose from – limiting potential industry-wide price increases.

14. Pick one of the two scenarios below (A or B) and state which business type you would choose of the five we discussed in class and online (e.g. sole proprietorship, partnership, etc.) and REASON you would choose it.

Option A: 

Sean and Noura are starting a healthcare consulting firm. They specialize in providing expertise on operating room procedures and protocols that help minimize the risk of patient infection. They also are thinking about bringing in a third partner within the first year of operation.

Organizational Type:

Reason for Choosing: 

Option B: 

Shelby is going to start her own residential and commercial window washing business. It will only be her – no employees and no co-owners.

Organizational Type:

Reason for Choosing: 

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