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- August 1988 (Revised August 1989)
- Case
Poletown Dilemma, The
By: Thomas R. Piper
Senior management of General Motors must select a site for a new assembly plant to replace two plants located in Detroit. The economics strongly favor a site in an adjacent state. However, a relocation would have substantial, negative impact on the existing work force,... View Details
- 1988
- Chapter
Defined Benefit versus Defined Contribution Pension Plans: What are the Real Tradeoffs
By: Zvi Bodie, Alan J. Marcus and Robert C. Merton
- July 1988 (Revised October 1992)
- Exercise
Sellars' Market
By: David E. Bell
A shop owner has limited shelf space for display of impulse purchase products near the cash register. He must select only nine to display. Exercise shows the relevance of opportunity cost or resource pricing. By setting an appropriate charge for the shelf space the... View Details
Keywords: Marketing
- Article
Beyond the Reach of the Invisible Hand: Impediments to Economic Activity, Market Failures, and Profitability
By: Dennis Yao
In this paper it is argued that failures of the competitive market are necessary conditions for supranormal profitability. Three fundamental causes of these market failures-production economies and sunk costs, transactions costs, and imperfect information-are developed... View Details
Keywords: Economics; Markets; Failure; Profit; Cost; Information; Market Transactions; Competition; Strategy; Production
- July 1988
- Article
Relevant Costs, Congestion and Stochasticity in Production Environments
By: R. Banker, S. Datar and S. Kekre
- May 1988 (Revised June 2023)
- Case
National Cranberry Cooperative, 1996
By: Roy D. Shapiro
Describes the continuous flow process used to process cranberries into juice and/or sauce. Requires student to analyze process flows to determine where the bottlenecks are and to decide how, and whether, to expand capacity. Original version written by J.G. Miller and... View Details
- April 1988 (Revised September 1992)
- Case
Frito-Lay, Inc.: The Backhaul Decision
Prior to the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, companies with private trucking fleets were generally prohibited from selling transportation services to other companies. The deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980 allowed private carriers to offer for-hire transportation... View Details
- January 1988 (Revised May 1988)
- Case
General Motors' Asian Alliances
Describes all of General Motors' major alliances with Asian firms. These include Toyota, Fanuc, Isuzu, Daewoo, Suzuki, Nissan, and Hitachi. Students can discuss the rationale of each alliance, their risks, their management problems, and their likely evolution. Also... View Details
- 1987
- Chapter
How Cost Accounting Systematically Distorts Product Costs
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Robin Cooper
- June 1987 (Revised May 1990)
- Case
John Deere Component Works (B)
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Having installed an activity-based system, the division is now exploring the insight provided by that system. In particular, it is studying the economics of lot-size process planning and product mix management. View Details
- June 1987 (Revised August 1988)
- Case
American Bank
By: Robert S. Kaplan
American Bank is developing a new system to compute product costs. The deregulated, more competitive environment for commercial banks has created both problems and opportunities for banking operations. In order to price existing products and assess the desirability of... View Details
- May 1987 (Revised November 1998)
- Case
John Deere Component Works (A)
By: Robert S. Kaplan
The division has recognized the inadequacies of its existing, traditional cost system for estimating product costs. Describes the innovative activity-based system that was developed to more accurately trace overhead costs to individual products. Provides students with... View Details
- May 1987 (Revised October 1996)
- Case
Murray Ohio Manufacturing Co.
After a record year in 1983, Murray Ohio's earnings declined in 1984. The company was faced with competition from cheap imports and was experiencing declining margins. Students are asked to analyze the company's 1984 financial statements and predict whether there is... View Details
- April 1987 (Revised October 1989)
- Case
Winchell Lighting, Inc. (A)
By: Robin Cooper and Robert S. Kaplan
Designed to teach students how to trace marketing costs to products. View Details
- April 1987 (Revised April 1987)
- Case
Tiberg Co.
By: Michael Beer and Daniel J. Isenberg
Describes the efforts of a vice president of purchasing to coordinate and centralize purchasing procedures in a multinational company. He encounters a lack of active cooperation. A rewritten version of an earlier case by G. Lombard. View Details
- spring 1987
- Article
Second-Sourcing and the Experience Curve: Price Competition in Defense Procurement
By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao
We examine a dynamic model of price competition in defense procurement that incorporates the experience curve, asymmetric cost information, and the availability of a higher cost alternative system. We model acquisition as a two-stage process in which initial production... View Details