Overview
Unit 1
Description
Assignment Details:
Understanding economics is paramount to running a successful business. Managers must understand how to optimize production choices and forecast the following:
- Market trends
- Revenue
- Expenses
To accomplish these goals, comprehending consumer choice and consumer demand for the good or service being produced or provided is important. This assignment helps you apply the foundational principles of economics.
Choose 1 of the following economic concepts:
- Profit maximization
- Consumer choice
- Supply and demand
- Optimization
Write a 5–7 page paper that addresses the following:
- Introduce and explain in detail the economic concept you have chosen. Explain the assumptions and limitations that are associated with the economic concept.
- Select 1 quality article that applies the concept you have chosen. Describe how the concept was applied in the article.
- Discuss how a manager might apply this concept professionally to make decisions or improve profit. What limitations might be considered by the manager?
- Provide a conclusion that highlights the key points of your paper.
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Unit 2 Description
Assignment Details:
Every business that operates today falls into one of four market structures:
- Monopoly
- Oligopoly
- Monopolistic competition
- Perfect competition
To be successful in their respective industry, business owners and managers should understand the strengths and weaknesses of the market structure in which they operate and ways of maximizing their profitability. This assignment allows you to apply the impact of market structures professionally.
For this Individual Project, compare and contrast 2 of the following market structures:
- Monopoly
- Oligopoly
- Monopolistic competition
- Perfect competition
Once you have identified the market structures you would like to compare, please complete the following:
- Identify a company that operates in each of your chosen market structures. Think about the products or services offered by each of the companies. Then, answer the following questions:
- Who are the customers of each company?
- Who are the competitors of each company?
- Who are the suppliers for each company?
- Create 10–12 slides for a PowerPoint presentation (excluding the title, conclusion, and reference slides) with a minimum of 200–250 words on each slide in the notes section.
When completing this PowerPoint presentation, consider the following:
- Identify 2 market structures and 2 companies.
- Compare and contrast the characteristics of each market structure.
- Discuss each company in terms of the following:
- Products and services
- Competitors
- Suppliers
- Identify and discuss barriers to entry and exit for each of the industries your chosen companies operate in and the role that market structure plays.
- Identify suggestions for improved competitiveness. How could your companies better compete in their given industries? Consider the following and provide relevant examples:
- Pricing
- Branding
- Customer loyalty
- Ingenuity
- What role does the market environment play in the development of competitive strategies?
- Provide a conclusion that highlights the key points of your presentation.
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Unit 3 Description
Assignment Details:
The main goal of a business is to be profitable. To calculate profitability, economists incorporate alternative measures that go beyond the traditional revenue less expenses. For example, economists think on the margin and include opportunity costs when determining their profitability. This assignment provides the opportunity to compare and contrast accounting and economic methodology to determine how best to meet the goals set by the business.
Write a 5–7-page paper that addresses the following:
- Discuss the similarities and differences between how a manager values the products that they sell and how a consumer values products that they purchase. How do marginal revenue, marginal cost, and opportunity cost enter the valuation process? (Note: Be sure to include the definition of each term in your response.)
- Compare and contrast economic profit and accounting profit. Which is the more effective measurement for managerial use? Defend your answer with examples from the readings.
- Discuss a leadership decision that might be influenced by an understanding of marginal revenue, marginal cost, and opportunity cost.
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Unit 4 Description
Assignment Details:
Businesses create goods or services demanded by consumers. The variability of demand depends on the type of good or service produced. For example, if the good does not have a lot of substitute products (e.g., necessary prescription drugs), demand will not fluctuate greatly with price changes. On the other hand, if the good has many substitutes available (e.g., fast food), demand will fluctuate with price changes.
This concept is called price elasticity of demand. If a good or service has an elastic demand, demand will vary greatly with price increases. If a good or service has an inelastic demand, demand will not vary greatly with price changes.
Consider a product you are familiar with and the company that produces that product. Think about the market the company operates in (as discussed earlier).
In a PowerPoint presentation that contains 10–12 slides (excluding the title and references and with 200–250 words of speaker notes on each slide), explain the following:
- Introduce the business you have chosen. What market does the company operate in? What products or services does it sell? What category of goods does this product or service fall under (e.g., luxury, normal, inferior, substitute, complementary, and so on)?
- Who are the consumers of the good or service? How is the good or service marketed?
- Discuss elasticity of demand and include a graph to illustrate elasticity of demand.
- Explain the elasticity of demand for your product or service. Is the product demand elastic, or is it inelastic? Include a graph to represent the elasticity of demand for your chosen product or service.
- Discuss the relationship between elasticity of demand and pricing of your chosen product or service. Include a graph. You may use hypothetical numbers to illustrate your conceptual observations and understanding of the concept of elasticity of demand for your chosen product or service.
- How does the elasticity of demand for the good or service change how you market your good or service? For example, if your good has few substitutes or many substitutes, what can be done to increase demand during an economic downturn?
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Unit 5
Description
Assignment Details:
Risk and uncertainty are inherent aspects of any business. It is impossible to avoid risk. Therefore, risk management is a vital part of management decision making. Understanding the type of risk that is associated with any business venture and ways to mitigate risk is the responsibility of business management.
Dynamic pricing allows businesses to set flexible prices in real time based on current market demands. You can think of dynamic pricing as allowing a business the fluidity and flexibility of changing prices rapidly to adjust to ever-changing markets. A component of dynamic pricing is price discrimination. Price discrimination is the practice of charging different customers different prices that are not based on the marginal costs of a business (Blair & Rush, 2018). Businesses can take advantage of dynamic pricing and price discrimination by charging different classes of consumers different prices with the goal of increasing profits.
In this Individual Project, you will create 10–12 slides for a PowerPoint presentation (with 200–250 words in the speaker notes per slide). Select 1 company that is using dynamic pricing.
Include the following in your presentation:
- Describe dynamic pricing and its role in price discrimination.
- Illustrate the 3 degrees of price discrimination, including an example of each.
- Review this video for additional information on this topic.
- Review this article for additional information on this topic.
- Examine how dynamic pricing is used to increase profits in the international market.
- Investigate how your chosen company takes advantage of dynamic pricing.
- Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of dynamic pricing for your chosen company.
- Identify the risks associated with your company’s use of dynamic pricing.
- Research the role that artificial intelligence (AI) or new technologies may play in influencing dynamic pricing.
- Recommend additional strategies that your chosen company could implement to exploit dynamic pricing and discuss the potential impact on profitability.
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