Competitive advantage is based on the possession of distinctive competencies. by definition, distinctive competencies are:
a. resources available to all firms operating in a given industry and easily shared and copied by rivals.
b. differences between companies in how they structure their companies and compensate their employees.
c. characteristics, skills, or knowledge that cannot be written down and must be understood through experience or intuition.
d. firm-specific strengths that allow a company to differentiate its products from rivals or achieve lower costs than rivals.

For each of the following cases determine the ending balance in the inventory account. (hint: first, determine the total cost of inventory available for sale. next, subtract the cost of the inventory sold to arrive at the ending balance.)a. jill’s dress shop had a beginning balance in its inventory account of $40,000. during the accounting period jill’s purchased $75,000 of inventory, returned $5,000 of inventory, and obtained $750 of purchases discounts. jill’s incurred $1,000 of transportation-in cost and $600 of transportation-out cost. salaries of sales personnel amounted to $31,000. administrative expenses amounted to $35,600. cost of goods sold amounted to $82,300.b. ken’s bait shop had a beginning balance in its inventory account of $8,000. during the accounting period ken’s purchased $36,900 of inventory, obtained $1,200 of purchases allowances, and received $360 of purchases discounts. sales discounts amounted to $640. ken’s incurred $900 of transportation-in cost and $260 of transportation-out cost. selling and administrative cost amounted to $12,300. cost of goods sold amounted to $33,900.a& b. cost of goods avaliable for sale? ending inventory?

Chang corp. has $375,000 of assets, and it uses only common equity capital (zero debt). its sales for the last year were $595,000, and its net income was $25,000. stockholders recently voted in a new management team that has promised to lower costs and get the return on equity up to 15.0%. what profit margin would the firm need in order to achieve the 15% roe, holding everything else constant? a. 9.45%b. 9.93%c. 10.42%d. 10.94%e. 11.49%

Tl & co. is following a related-linked diversification strategy, and soar inc. is following a related-constrained diversification strategy. how do the two firms differ from each other? a. soar inc. generates 70 percent of its revenues from its primary business, while tl & co. generates only 10 percent of its revenues from its primary business. b. soar inc. pursues a backward diversification strategy, while tl & co. pursues a forward diversification strategy. c. tl & co. will share fewer common competencies and resources between its various businesses when compared to soar inc. d. tl & co. pursues a differentiation strategy, and soar inc. pursues a cost-leadership strategy, to gain a competitive advantage.