What is social business? Discuss its advantages using relevant examples.

how PetMed will increase its competitive advantage by increasing the acquisition of new customers and increasing sales to loyal customers. What can they do?

Select two Fortune 500 companies. Compare their entrepreneurial orientation (autonomy, innovativeness, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and risk taking). Based on your analysis, which one of the two companies you selected has a stronger entrepreneurial orientation?

The global trade environment and the dynamics of competition among organizations are the most important topics for understanding and practicing management in today’s markets. The focus of this TMA is to select an example of a successful global organization/brand and discuss the factors that had led to its success along with the challenges that it faces in operating globally.

Your answer should be in the form of an essay. The essay should be well organized, that is, it has an introduction (2.5 marks), body and conclusion (2.5 marks). The introduction should introduce the topic.

In the body paragraphs, the following points should be discussed:

1. Name the global brand/organization and briefly describe its products, markets and activities.
2. What does it mean to be a global organization? Why is your chosen organization global?
3. Discuss the main success factors of the global brand. What is the marketing strategy, competitors and competitive advantage?
4. Discuss the concept of globalization vs. customization and the measures taken by the global brand to recognize that offerings and communication should be adapted to local preferences and conditions. Support your answer with solid examples.
5. Discuss the main challenges faced by the global organization in brand building such as positioning, communication, environmental change, product life cycle, brand equity, market share, consumer behavior, etc...(10 marks)
6. Discuss the organization’s future plans, expansions and diversification.

As part of a quality improvement initiative, Consolidated Electronics employees complete a three-day training program on teaming and a two-day training program on problem solving. The manager of quality improvement requested that at least 8 training programs on teaming and at least 10 training programs on problem solving be offered during the next six months. In addition, senior-level management specified that at least a total of 25 training programs must be offered during this period. Consolidated Electronics uses a consultant to teach the training programs. During the next six months, the consultant has 84 days of training time available. Each training program on teaming costs $10,000 and each training program on problem solving costs $8,000

1) Build a spreadsheet representation of the model, and then solve it using Solver. Keep the solution as part of your spreadsheet. How many training programs of each kind would be offered, and what would be the total cost at the optimal point?

A consumer products company has identified a potential product which would require $1,800,000 in start-up costs to launch. If it turns out to be a major success, there will be a $10,000,000 contribution to profit. A minor success would give a profit contribution of $2,000,000, while a failure would have a profit contribution of only $500,000. The company is most worried about this third possibility, since in this case the net profit would be $500,000 minus $1,800,000, i.e. a loss of $1,300,000. In the past, only one new product in twenty became a major success, while three-quarters of them became failures; there is no reason to suspect that this product would be any different from the rest. Some of their competitors use an outside independent market research firm to give them advice about new products. The fee for the research firm is $50,000; in return, the consumer products company would be told that the proposed product either “looks well” or “looks poorly”. The research company had established a track record which gave them confidence about saying the following: 1. If a product would be a major success, they would say “looks well” with probability 0.8; 2. If a product would be a minor success, they would say “looks poorly” with probability 0.7; 3. If a product would be a failure, they would say “looks poorly” with proba- bility 0.9. Develop a decision tree and solve it to obtain a recommendation for the con- sumer products company. Show all workings and calculations

• State your Research Topic, Objective/Purpose and Research Question(s).

Aviation safety: pilot fatigue

Should the FAA allow for cockpit naps to help with pilot fatigue? Does even taking short naps of 40 minutes even help with fatigue and improve alertness?

• List and label the variables, including independent, dependent, intervening, or moderating.
• Explain the relationships among the variables.
• What is the purpose of operationalizing variables?
• How would you operationalize the variables in your research question(s)? You can mention more than one possible option for these, as there can be different ways of operationalizing the same variables.
• Develop a set of hypotheses (null and alternative) from your identified variables that address your identified research question(s).

1. Discuss strategic advantages and disadvantages of joining the European Union.

2. Why do some countries refuse to join (or are leaving/left - Britain) the EU while others take advantage of the opportunity?

A farmer has been in the habit of always planting potatoes on his farm. In previous years, the seeds for the potatoes were planted in the spring, and were ready to harvest in mid-July. After that, a second planting took place in late July, which was ready to harvest in early October.

This year, however, there is concern that a blight might destroy some or all of the potato crop. One thing he could do would be to plant a different crop such as peas which would not be affected by the blight. The peas would have only a single planting at a cost of $40,000. This planting would yield a crop in October worth $70,000 if the weather turns out to be good, or $30,000 if the weather turns out to be poor. There is a 60% chance that the weather will be good.

If, however, he decides to plant potatoes, he will have to worry about the blight (but the weather has little effect on the potato crop and can be ignored). The potato crop would cost $60,000 to plant. There is a 10% chance of a severe blight, which would destroy the crop, and render any attempt at a second planting in late July not worth doing. A mild blight (20% chance) would partially destroy the crop, making it worth only $35,000, while having no blight (70% chance) would produce a crop worth $80,000. After either a mild blight or no blight, a second planting could be undertaken, with the same costs and revenues as the first. The probability of a severe, mild, or no blight would be 15%, 30%, and 55% if the first planting had a mild blight, but would be 0%, 5%, and 95% if the first planting had no blight.

NOTE: The crop planted in the Spring will be either peas or potatoes; doing a bit of both is not an option in this problem.

Draw the tree, solve it using the rollback procedure, and state the recommen- dation and the ranking payoff. When drawing the tree, use payoff nodes for inter- mediate payoffs.

Please show all workings and show where the numbers come from.

Write an essay that focuses on ethical considerations of a particular study.

Jerry Smith is thinking about opening a bicycle shop in his hometown. Jerry loves to take his own bike on 50-mile trips with his friends, but he believes that any small business should be started only if there is a good chance of making a profit. Jerry can open a small shop, a large shop, or no shop at all. The profits will depend on the size of the shop and whether the market is favorable or unfavorable for his products. Because there will be a 5-year lease on the building that Jerry is thinking about using, he wants to make sure that he makes the correct decision. Jerry is also thinking about hiring his old marketing professor to conduct a marketing research study. If the study is conducted, the study could be favorable (i.e., predicting a favorable market) or unfavorable (i.e., predicting an unfavorable market).

If Jerry builds the large bicycle shop, he will earn $60,000 if the market is favorable, but he will lose $40,000 if the market is unfavorable. The small shop will return a $30,000 profit in a favorable market and a $1 0,000 loss in an unfavorable market. At the present time, he believes that there is a 50–50 chance that the market will be favorable. His old marketing professor will charge him $5,000 for the marketing research. It is estimated that there is a 0.6 probability that the survey will be favorable. Furthermore, there is a 0.9 probability that the market will be favorable given a favorable outcome from the study. However, the marketing professor has warned Jerry that there is only a probability of 0.12 of a favorable market if the marketing research results are not favorable. Jerry is confused.

(a) What should Jerry do?

(b) What would the expected profit be?

Explain the challenges of managing expatriates and propose effective ways of managing expatriates through specific HR practices. Be sure to include at least TWO different HR practices.

Choose and explain one of the debt financing methods mentioned in the textbook. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the method that you've chosen, and in what situations does it work best? Give an example of a company that uses this strategy. Be sure to support your ideas and arguments with evidence and details.

.1 Individuals’ Predisposition toward Change How people react to change depends a lot on how they learned to handle change and ambiguity as children. One person’s parents may have been patient, flexible, and understanding, and from the time the child was weaned she may have learned there were positive compensations for the loss of immediate gratification. Thus, she will associate making changes with love and approval. Another person’s parents may have been unreasonable and unyielding, forcing him to do things (piano lessons, for example) that he didn’t want to do. Thus, he will be distrustful of making changes because he will associate them with demands for compliance.134

2. Surprise and Fear of the Unknown When radically different changes are introduced without warning—for example, without any official announcements—the office rumor mill will go into high gear, and affected employees will become fearful of the implications of the changes. It is essential for change leaders to explain the rationale for change, to educate people about the personal implications of change, and to garner commitment to change.135

3. Climate of Mistrust Trust involves reciprocal faith in others’ intentions and behavior. Mistrust encourages secrecy, which causes deeper mistrust, putting even well-conceived changes at risk of failure. Managers who trust their employees make the change process an open, honest, and participative affair. All told, employees who feel fairly treated by managers during change are less likely to resist.136

4. Fear of Failure Intimidating changes on the job can cause employees to doubt their capabilities. Self-doubt erodes self-confidence and cripples personal growth and development.

5. Loss of Status or Job Security Administrative and technological changes that threaten to alter power bases or eliminate jobs—as often happens during corporate restructurings that threaten middle-management jobs—generally trigger strong resistance.

6. Peer Pressure Even people who are not themselves directly affected by impending changes may actively resist in order to protect the interests of their friends and coworkers.

7. Disruption of Cultural Traditions or Group Relationships Whenever individuals are transferred, promoted, or reassigned, it can disrupt existing cultural and group relationships. Example: Traditionally, Sony Corp. promoted insiders to new positions. When an outsider, Howard Stringer, was named as the next chairman and CEO and six corporate officers were asked to resign, creating a majority board of foreigners, the former CEO, Nobuyuki Idei, worried the moves might engender strong employee resistance.137

8. Personality Conflicts Just as a friend can get away with telling us something we would resent hearing from an adversary, the personalities of change agents can breed resistance.

9. Lack of Tact or Poor Timing Introducing changes in an insensitive manner or at an awkward time can create employee resistance. Employees are more apt to accept changes when managers effectively explain their value, as, for example, in demonstrating their strategic purpose to the organization.

10. Nonreinforcing Reward Systems Employees are likely to resist when they can’t see any positive rewards from proposed changes, as, for example, when one is asked to work longer hours without additional compensation. Where do you stand on change? Do you tend to accept and embrace change, or do you have tendencies to resist it? The following self-assessment will provide feedback on your attitudes toward change. If your scores indicate resistance, you should consider what can be done to move your attitudes in a more positive direction. ● Then create an initial posting addressing two of the ten reasons on the list. Give examples of times when you have seen these two reasons in action, and tell about the resulting outcome. What would you suggest to make things work out for the better?

• Give examples of times when you have seen these two reasons in action, and tell about the resulting outcome?
• What would you suggest to make things work out for the better?