A firm's core competencies, integrated with an understanding of the results of studying the conditions in the external environment, should: a. increase the firm's market share. b. drive the selection of strategies. c. guarantee profits. d. lead to a first-mover advantage.

Kando company incurs a $9 per unit cost for product a, which it currently manufactures and sells for $13.50 per unit. instead of manufacturing and selling this product, the company can purchase product b for $5 per unit and sell it for $12 per unit. if it does so, unit sales would remain unchanged and $5 of the $9 per unit costs assigned to product a would be eliminated. 1. prepare incremental cost analysis. should the company continue to manufacture product a or purchase product b for resale? (round your answers to 2 decimal places.)

Zachary company produces commercial gardening equipment. since production is highly automated, the company allocates its overhead costs to product lines using activity-based costing. the costs and cost drivers associated with the four overhead activity cost pools follow: activities unit level batch level product level facility level cost $ 64,800 $ 27,730 $ 15,000 $ 154,000 cost driver 2,400 labor hrs. 47 setups percentage of use 11,000 units production of 780 sets of cutting shears, one of the company’s 20 products, took 240 labor hours and 7 setups and consumed 15 percent of the product-sustaining activities. required: (a) had the company used labor hours as a company wide allocation base, how much overhead would it have allocated to the cutting shears? (b) how much overhead is allocated to the cutting shears using activity-based costing? (c) compute the overhead cost per unit for cutting shears first using activity-based costing and then using direct labor hours for allocation if 780 units are produced. if direct product costs are $150 and the product is priced at 30 percent above cost for what price would the product sell under each allocation system? (d) assuming that activity-based costing provides a more accurate estimate of cost, indicate whether the cutting shears would be over- or underpriced if direct labor hours are used as an allocation base. explain how over-or undercosting can affect vaulker's profitability. (e) comment on the validity of using the allocated facility-level cost in the pricing decision. should other costs be considered in a cost- plus pricing decision? if so, which ones? what costs would you include if you were trying to decide whether to accept a special order?

What is one counter argument to the premise that the wealth gap is a serious problem which needs to be addressed?