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18 Aug 2020

If a firm possesses proprietary product technology, the best option for that firm would be to:

A. Manufacture the product in-house so that it does not lose its competitive advantage.

B. Outsource the production activities to independent suppliers in order to realize economies.

C. Merge with competitors to reduce investments in technology.

D. Share the technology to make the industry more competitive.

E. Transfer the technology to less developed countries.

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Joshua StredderLv10

20 Oct 2020

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Xerox: Adapting to the Turbulent Marketing Environment Xerox introduced the first plain-paper office copier more than 50 years ago. In the decades that followed, the company that invented photocopying flat-out dominated the industry it had created. The name Xerox became almost generic for copying (as in Xerox this for you). Through the years, Xerox fought off round after round of rivals to stay atop the fiercely competitive copier industry. Through the late 1990s, Xerox's profits and stock price were soaring. Then things went terribly wrong for Xerox. The legendary company's stock and fortunes took a stomach-churning dive. In only 18 months, Xerox lost some $38 billion in market value. Its stock price plunged from almost $70 in 1999 to under $5 by mid-2001. The once-dominant market leader found itself on the brink of bankruptcy. What happened? Blame it on change or rather on Xerox's failure to adapt to its rapidly changing marketing environment. The world was quickly going digital, but Xerox hadn't kept up. In the new digital environment, Xerox customers no longer relied on the company's flagship products' standalone copiers to share information and documents. Rather than pumping out and distributing stacks of black-and-white copies, they created digital documents and shared them electronically. Or they printed out multiple copies on their nearby networked printer. On a broader level, while Xerox was busy perfecting copy machines, customers were looking for more sophisticated document management solutions. They wanted systems that would let them scan documents in Frankfurt, weave them into colorful, customized showpieces in San Francisco, and print them on-demand in London even altering for American spelling. This left Xerox on the edge of financial disaster. We didn't have any cash and few prospects for making an, says current Xerox CEO, Ursula Burns.The one thing you wanted was good and strong leaders that were aligned and could get us through things and we didn't have that. Burns didn't realize it back then, but she would one day lead the company she began working for as a summer intern in 1981. In fact, Burns almost left the company in 2000, but her colleague and friend, Anne Mulcahy, became CEO and convinced her to stay. Burns was named a senior vice president and was then charged with cleaning the house. The Turnaround Begins Task number one: Outsource Xerox's manufacturing. An often criticized and unpopular move, outsourcing was critical to Xerox's cost-saving efforts. Burns oversaw the process in a way that preserved quality while achieving the desired cost benefits. And she did so with the blessing of Xerox's employee union by convincing the union that it was either lose some jobs or have no jobs at all. With the restructuring of manufacturing, in only four years, Xerox's workforce dropped from 100,000 employees to 55,000. Although this and other efforts returned Xerox to profitability within a few years, the bigger question still remained: What business is Xerox really in? To answer this question, Xerox renewed its focus on the customer. Xerox had always focused on copier hardware. But we were being dragged by our customers into managing large, complex business processes for them, says Burns. Before developing new products, Xerox researchers held seemingly endless customer focus groups. Sophie Vandebroek, Xerox's chief technology officer, called this dreaming with the customer. The goal, she argued, was involving [Xerox] experts who know the technology with customers who know the pain points. . . . Ultimately innovation is about delighting the customer. In the process, Xerox discovered that understanding customers is just as important as understanding technology. What Xerox learned is that customers didn't want just copiers; they wanted easier, faster, and less costly ways to share documents and information. As a result, the company had to rethink, redefine, and reinvent itself. Xerox underwent a remarkable transformation. It stopped defining itself as a copier company. In fact, it even stopped making standalone copiers. Instead, Xerox began billing itself as the world's leading document management technology and services enterprise. The company's newly minted mission was to help companies be smarter about their documents. This shift in emphasis created new customer relationships, as well as new competitors. Instead of selling copiers to equipment purchasing managers, Xerox found itself developing and selling document management systems to high-level information technology managers. Instead of competing head-on with copy machine competitors like Sharp, Canon, and Ricoh, Xerox was now squaring off against information technology companies like HP and IBM. Although it encountered many potholes along the way, the company once known as the iconic copier company became increasingly comfortable with its new identity as a document-management company. Building New Strengths Xerox's revenue, profits, and stock price began to show signs of recovery. But before it could declare its troubles over, yet another challenging environmental force arose the Great Recession. The recession severely depressed Xerox's core printing and copying equipment and services business, and the company's sales and the stock price tumbled once again. So in a major move to maintain its transition momentum, Xerox acquired Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a $6.4 billion information technology (IT) services powerhouse with a foot in the door of seemingly every back office in the world. The expertise, capabilities, and established channels of ACS were just what Xerox needed to take its new business plan to fruition. The synergy between Xerox, ACS, and other acquired companies has resulted in a broad portfolio of customer-focused products, software, and services that help Xerox's customers manage documents and information. In fact, Xerox has introduced more than 130 innovative new products in the past four years. It now offers digital products and systems ranging from network printers and multifunction devices to color printing and publishing systems, digital presses, and book factories. It also offers an impressive array of print management consulting and outsourcing services that help businesses develop online document archives, operating in-house print shops or mailrooms, analyze how employees can most efficiently share documents and knowledge, and build Internet-based processes for personalizing direct mail, invoices, and brochures. These new products have allowed Xerox to supply solutions to clients, not just hardware. For example, Xerox has a new device for insurance company customers, a compact computer with scanning, printing, and Internet capabilities. Instead of relying on the U.S. Postal Service to transport hard copies of claims, these and related documents are scanned on-site, sorted, routed, and put immediately into a workflow system. This isn't just a fancy new gadget for the insurance companies. They are seeing real benefits. Error rates have plummeted along with processing times, and that means increases in revenues and customer satisfaction. Dreaming Beyond Its Boundaries Riding the combination of Xerox's former strengths and its new acquisitions, Burns and the Xerox team now have a utopian image of what lies ahead. They believe the tools and services they offer clients are getting smarter. It's not just processing Medicaid payments, says Stephen Hoover, director of Xerox's research facilities. It's using our social cognition research to add wellness support that helps people better manage conditions like diabetes. Hoover adds that the future may see a new generation of Xerox devices, such as those that can analyze real-time parking and traffic data for municipal customers, allowing them to help citizens locate parking spots or automatically ticket them when they are going too fast. Already, Xerox is market testing parking meters that are capable of calling 911 or taking photos when a button is pushed. Not all products such as these will hit the market, but Xerox now has a model that allows it to dream beyond its known boundaries. In another example of smarter tools for clients, Xerox will soon rollout Ignite, a software and Web-based service that turns its copiers/scanners/printers already in service at schools around the world into paper-grading machines. Previous automated grading technologies (such as Scantron) worked only on multiple-choice responses filled out on special forms. But Ignite will grade work where answers are written in by students even numeric math problems. The real revolutionary potential of Ignite, however, is not just in automated grading, but in taking the results and turning them into Web-accessible data that allow teachers to identify problem areas and make improvements to their techniques. Throughout this corporate metamorphosis, Xerox isn't focused on trying to make better copiers. Rather, it is focused on improving any process that a business or government customer needs to perform and performing it more efficiently. Xerox's new machines have learned to read and understand the documents they scan, reducing complex tasks that once took weeks down to minutes or even seconds. From now on, Xerox wants to be leading global document management and business-process technology and services, provider. With all the dazzling technologies emerging today, Burns acknowledges that the business services industry in which Xerox now operates is decidedly unsexy. But she also points out that these are processes that companies need to run their businesses. They do it as a sideline; it's not their main thing. But running these seemingly mundane business processes is now Xerox's main thing. Xerox provides these basic document and IT services to customers so that customers can focus on what matters most to their real businesses. Xerox's transition is still a work in progress. Over the last four years, the company's revenues are up 47 percent and profits have more than doubled. Its stock price, however, has struggled (it has yet to top $12), a sign that Xerox isn't doing as well as Wall Street thinks it should be. Part of the reason is that Xerox still relies to some extent on its copier and printer products for its success, even with its recent diversification strategy. And just as e-mail and desktop software killed photocopying, smartphones and tablets are killing inkjet and photo printers. But Xerox depends much less on such products than competitors such as Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark International do. Thus, experts predict, Xerox will rebound much more quickly than its rivals. Burns and crew are also confident that as Xerox continues its transition to a solutions provider, the seeds it has planted over the past few years will soon bear fruit. Xerox knows that change and renewal are ongoing and never-ending. The one thing that's predictable about business is that it's fundamentally unpredictable says the company's annual report. Macro forces such as globalization, emerging technologies, and, most recently, depressed financial markets bring new challenges every day to businesses of all sizes. The message is clear. Even the most dominant companies can be vulnerable to the often turbulent and changing marketing environment. Companies that understand and adapt well to their environments can thrive. Those that don't risk their very survival. Questions for discussion:

1. What microenvironmental factors have affected Xerox's performance since the late 1990s?

2. What macroenvironmental factors have affected Xerox's performance during that period?

3. By focusing on the business services industry, has Xerox pursued the best strategy? Why or why not?

4. What alternative strategy might Xerox have pursued following the first signs of declining revenues and profits?

5. Given Xerox's current situation, what recommendations would you make to Burns for the future of Xerox?

maroonskunk617

Q5. Table 5.5

Total Output Total Costs

0 10

1 18

2 21

3 23

4 24

5 26

6 29

7 33

8 38

9 44

10 51

In Table 5.5, the marginal cost of the third unit is

a. 2.

b. 4.

c. 3.

d. 1.

Q6. When marginal physical product begins to decline, marginal cost begins to increase.

a. true

b. false

Q7. It is possible for a firm to have positive fixed cost and zero total cost.

a. true

b. false

Q8. Which one of the following is TRUE?

a. Marginal cost increases as marginal physical product decreases.

b. Marginal cost decreases as marginal product decreases.

c. Total cost is the difference between marginal cost and total variable cost.

d. Total cost is the sum of marginal cost plus total variable cost.

Q9. The slope of the production function becomes negative when diminishing returns set in.

a. true

b. false

Q10. Table 5.7

Q Total Variable Cost Average Variable Cost Total Cost Average Total Cost

1 10 50

2 50 90

3 40

Refer to Table 5.7. What is the firm's total fixed cost?

a. 20

b. 40

c. 10

d. 30

Q11. When there are economic profits in a perfectly competitive industry

a. firms have no incentive to exit or enter the industry.

b. firms exit the industry.

c. firms enter the industry.

d. the high barriers to entry prevent further competition.

Q12. The market structure of perfect competition is defined by hundreds of firms producing an essential product, with barriers to the entry of new firms.

a. true

b. false

Q13. A single supplier of a good or service for which there is no close substitute is referred to as a(n)

a. monopolistic competitor.

b. strategic competitor.

c. monopoly.

d. oligopoly.

Q14. For the perfectly competitive firm the selling price of its product is determined by

a. the length of time it has been in business.

b. the amount it chooses to spend on marketing.

c. the interaction of market supply and demand.

d. the number of competing firms.

Q15. A company finds that at the MR = MC output level, its total cost is $500, total variable cost is $400, and total revenue is $450. Your advice to the firm is to

a. reduce output to reduce the cost of production.

b. continue to produce, as total revenue covers total variable cost.

c. increase output to reduce the per unit cost of production.

d. shut down immediately.

Q16. For a monopolist

a. P > MR.

b. P = MC.

c. P = ATC.

d. P = MR.

Q17. The perfect competitor

a. chooses the profit-maximizing quantity.

b. chooses the profit-maximizing price.

c. chooses a quantity that will make the most efficient use of his labor and capital resources.

d. produces what he thinks can be sold, regardless of cost.

Q18. In perfect competition, the larger firms will be able to charge a higher price than the smaller firms.

a. true

b. false

Q19. For the perfectly competitive firm, price equals marginal revenue.

a. true

b. false

Q20. For a monopolist, selling more units requires

a. allowing more firms to enter the industry.

b. hiring a more productive labor force.

c. forming a cartel.

d. lowering the selling price.

Q21. Monopolistic competition means

a. monopolies from several countries compete in the global market.

b. a large number of firms producing differentiated products.

c. a large number of firms producing homogeneous products.

d. few firms producing differentiated products.

Q22. Opportunistic behavior is discouraged by the desire to have repeat transactions.

a. true

b. false

Q23. By saying that firms in an oligopoly are interdependent, we mean that

a. actions by one will prompt reactions by others.

b. if one increases its profits, all others will increase profits as well.

c. all firms sell identical products.

d. if one increases its profits, all others will lose profits.

Q24. Price leadership is a form of

a. barrier to entry.

b. tacit collusion.

c. opportunistic behavior.

d. noncooperative behavior.

Q25. A monopolistically competitive firm in the long run

a. earns positive economic profits.

b. earns negative economic profits.

c. earns zero economic profits.

d. suffers economic losses.

Q26. Monopolistically competitive firms produce a product that is homogeneous.

a. true

b. false

Q27. Which of the following is a characteristic of both perfect competition and monopolistic competition?

a. In the long run, the firm will produce the output which minimizes average total cost.

b. Firms sell a homogeneous product.

c. In the long run, the firm will earn zero economic profit.

d. The firm seeks to differentiate its product from those of its competitors.

Q28. A monopolistically competitive firm uses advertising to

a. lower its costs.

b. differentiate its product.

c. signal its competitors that it is serious about staying in business.

d. motivate its work force.

Q29. For the monopolistic competitor, which is INCORRECT?

a. The profit maximizing rate of output is where the marginal cost curve intersects the marginal revenue curve.

b. The marginal revenue curve is downward sloping and lies below the demand curve.

c. Because the firm has some control over price, its demand curve slopes downward.

d. If the firm in a monopolistically competitive industry were making economic losses, firms would enter the industry.

Q30. Which of the following is TRUE?

a. In the model of price leadership, the dominant firm consistently charges the lowest price.

b. Opportunistic behavior is discouraged by the desire to have repeat transactions.

c. The strategic dependence that characterizes oligopoly means that no firms can earn positive accounting profits.

d. Price wars are most common in perfect competition.

Q31. Antitrust legislation seeks to correct market failure by ensuring that all firms in the industry earn an economic profit.

a. true

b. false

Q32. Market failures arise when

a. people look out for their own best interests.

b. there is a gap between the social and private costs of producing or consuming a good.

c. firms look out for their own best interests.

d. society seeks to operate at a point on the production possibilities curve.

Q33. Cases prosecuted under the Sherman Antitrust Act are intended to correct market failure arising from negative externalities.

a. true

b. false

Q34.

Figure 8.2

Refer to Figure 8.2. The market equilibrium is Q1. Point Q2 represents the optimal point of production. To reach Q2,

a. consumption of the good could be taxed.

b. a subsidy could be given to consumers.

c. production of the good could be taxed.

d. the industry producing the good should operate as a cartel.

Q35. What would happen in a free market system when production of a good generates negative externalities?

a. There would be a shortage of the good.

b. The equilibrium quantity of the good would be more than the efficient amount.

c. The equilibrium quantity of the good would be less than the efficient amount.

d. There would be a surplus of the good.

Q36. If providing a service results in negative external costs, then

a. the market price is below the true opportunity cost of resources used to provide the service.

b. the market price is above the true opportunity cost of resources used to provide the service.

c. the market quantity is too low.

d. market forces will always correct the problem.

Q37. The problem of positive externalities can be addressed by having some firms exit the industry.

a. true

b. false

Q38. The first case prosecuted under the Sherman Act was the antitrust case against Microsoft.

a. true

b. false

Q39. If your marginal tax rate is always higher than your average tax rate, then the tax system is a

a. proportional tax system.

b. regressive tax system.

c. fair tax system.

d. progressive tax system.

Q40. Private goods are characterized by the principle of rival consumption.

a. true

b. false

Q41. Collective bargaining is the process by which unions and employers negotiate the conditions of employment and wages.

a. true

b. false

Q42. The marginal physical product of labor is the addition to total revenue a firm experiences when it hires one additional worker.

a. true

b. false

Q43. A firm's marginal revenue product of labor curve is also

a. its labor demand curve.

b. its total revenue line.

c. its long-run input cost function.

d. its marginal cost curve.

Q44. An increase in the selling price of a product

a. increases the supply of labor to the industry.

b. increases the productivity of labor.

c. raises the firm's demand for labor.

d. decreases the supply of labor to the industry.

Q45. If unions succeed at restricting the supply of labor in any one area of the economy, wages in that sector will increase.

a. true

b. false

Q46. The fact that the labor supply curve slopes upward indicates that

a. workers seek to work more hours when the wage rises.

b. the income effect of a wage increases outweighs the substitution effect.

c. workers seek to work more hours when the wage decreases.

d. firms want to hire more workers when the wage rises.

Q47. The upward slope of the labor supply curve suggests that the income effect of a wage increase outweighs the substitution effect.

a. true

b. false

Q48. The number of strikes occurring in U. S. firms has steadily increased over the past 25 years.

a. true

b. false

Q49. Suppose a perfectly competitive firm faces a labor market in which the going wage rate is $480 per week. If the last worker hired has a marginal physical product of 12 units of output per week, what is the selling price of the firm's output?

a. $40 per unit

b. $480 per unit

c. $240 per unit

d. $12 per unit

Q50. If workers in an industry become less productive due to low employee morale, we would expect the

a. demand for workers to decrease.

b. wages in the industry to increase.

c. supply of workers to increase.

d. demand for workers to increase.

1. Terms of Payment found in international business contracts include:

a. CFR (cost and freight, foreign port)

b. Consignment

c. Documentary Drafts

d. all of the above

e. (b) and (c) above

2. Joint Ventures have the

a. advantage of utilizing the expertise of a local partner.

b. disadvantage of not being able to make all the decisions because control is shared.

c. advantage of being able to share the profits.

d. all of the above

e. (a) and (b) above

4. Businesses are using global or regional brands for the following reason(s):

a. private brands do not offer any meaningful competition.

b. economies of scale usually result in reduced costs.

c. satellite and cable TV are widely available.

d. all of the above

e. (b) and (c) above

6. E-Commerce Potential is

a) is higher for Jamaica than for Argentina.

b) is an index based on mobile phones, internet hosts, and number of PCs.

c) is a composite ranking of three indices.

d) (a) and (b) above

e) (a) and (c) above

7. Generally, industrial products require __________ adaptation than consumer products to meet the demands of the world market.

a) greater

b) less

c) the same amount of

d) only slightly less

e) only slightly more

13. Although global sourcing can be beneficial it may have some disadvantages such as

a. added costs

b. exchange rate fluctuations affecting prices

c. quality control

d. all of the above

e. (b) and (c) above

14. In staffing

a. an ethnocentric policy is always the most effective if qualified personnel are available.

b. a polycentric policy is always the least effective even when qualified personnel are available.

c. using third country personnel would be considered most frequently with regiocentric or geocentric policies.

d. all of the above

e. (a) and (c) above

16. In the most recent 40 years, union membership around the world has been in decline, in part because:

a) There are more women in the workforce.

b) The unions have been successful and priced themselves out of the market.

c) Employers have made efforts to keep business union-free.

d) (a) and (c) above only

e) All of the above.

17. When a firm has less than a majority interest in a subsidiary it can still have control by having

a) a management contract

b) the right to control the technology

c) the right to vote its shares

d) all of the above

e) (a) and (b) above only

18. The Female Wage Gap

a. is the percent of Male Wages earned by Female Employees.

b. younger females have less of a gap in all countries.

c. is the smallest for older females in Korea.

d. all of the above

e. (a) and (c) above

19. Income earned abroad by U.S. citizens:

a) incurs a tax liability in the US with some adjustments.

b) incurs tax liability only on the portions earned in the U.S.

c) incurs no tax liability.

d) incurs a tax liability in the US on all income earned with no adjustments for

taxes paid in other countries.

e) none of the above

20. The international structural stages model suggests that a typical evolutional path for an international company's structure would be:

a) from international division to geographical area division to worldwide product division.

b) from international division to worldwide product division to geographical area division.

c) from geographical area division to worldwide product division to global matrix.

d) from functional division to horizontal company to virtual corporation.

e) from international division to worldwide product division to global matrix.

21. Competitive advantage is acquired by developing competencies that

a. are common to all competitors so the firm can compete.

b. create value for customers even if the price is higher than customers want to pay.

c. are difficult to imitate.

d. all of the above

e. (a) and (c) above only

22. In their measurement and disclosure for accounting systems, less developed countries tend toward:

A.	transparency and conservatism.

B.	transparency and optimism.

C.	secrecy and optimism.

D.	secrecy and conservatism.

23. Export Marketing plans should be specific about:

A. The markets to be developed

B. The marketing strategy for servicing them.

C. the tactics required to make the strategy operational

D.	cash flow projections.
E.	A, B, and C.

24. Factors that are involved in the operation of a manufacturing system include:

A. Plant location

B. Plant layout

C. Material handling

D. Human asset

E. all of the above

26. A middle ground between an ad campaign that is standardized worldwide and an entirely local ad campaign is called a:

A.	hybrid advertising campaign.
B.	programmed-management approach.
C.	computerized-management approach.
D.	shared-management approach.
	E. none of the above.

27. In selecting a foreign market, a screening process is used by a firm. In regard to this process, answer the following:

a) The importance of the priority order of the steps in the screening process.

b) The reasons for participating in either a trade show or in a trade mission.(Select one)

c) The reasons for using cluster analysis in assessing global markets.

d) The importance of regional or ethnic subcultures in evaluating competitive forces.

28. Select any four of the following, explain each of them, and discuss the role each of them plays in international business activities:

a) Summarize any one of the videos from week six or eight (either one of them not both) and discuss the role the information in this video plays in international business activities.

b) Foreign (Free) Trade Zones

c) Countertrade

d) Explain why a manager with a global assignment needs a mentor in the host country and a mentor in the home country.

e) Quality and quantity of the labor force in a country

f) Labor Mobility and Guest Workers

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