A low-cost leader can translate its low-cost advantage over rivals into superior profit performance by Multiple Choice cutting its price to levels significantly below the prices of rivals. using its low-cost edge to underprice competitors and attract price-sensitive buyers in large enough numbers to increase total profits or refraining from price cutting and using the low-cost advantage to earn a higher profit margin on each unit sold. going all out to use its cost advantage to capture a dominant share of the market. spending heavily on advertising to promote the fact that it charges the lowest prices in the industry. outproducing rivals and thus having more units available to sell.

Acompany that makes shopping carts for supermarkets and other stores recently purchased some new equipment that reduces the labor content of the jobs needed to produce the shopping carts. prior to buying the new equipment, the company used 6 workers, who produced an average of 79 carts per hour. workers receive $16 per hour, and machine coast was $49 per hour. with the new equipment, it was possible to transfer one of the workers to another department, and equipment cost increased by $11 per hour while output increased by four carts per hour. a) compute the multifactor productivity (mfp) (labor plus equipment) under the prior to buying the new equipment. the mfp (carts/$) = (round to 4 decimal places). b) compute the productivity changes between the prior to and after buying the new equipment. the productivity growth = % (round to 2 decimal places)