...1. Describe the firm (who they are and what they do) and the amount of business they do with the federal government. The firm I chose that does business with the federal government is Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area. Lockheed Martin employs 140,000 people worldwide. Robert J. Stevens is the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Lockheed Martin is one of the world's largest defense contractors. In 2009, 74% of Lockheed Martin's revenues came from military sales. It received 7.1% of the funds paid out by the Pentagon. The company has received the Collier Trophy six times. They most recently received the award in 2001 for being part of developing the X-35/F-35B Lift Fan Propulsion System, and again in 2006 for leading the team that developed the F-22 Raptor fighter jet. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin) Lockheed Martin does a lot of business with the government. They have several contracts that they pursue and perform for the government. Lockheed Martin is active in many aspects of government contracting. Lockheed Martin received $36 billion in government contracts in 2008 alone, more than any company in history. It now does work for more than two dozen government agencies from the...
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...contracts were awarded for Professional, Scientific and Technical Services, second only to Electronics, Computer and Transportation Equipment Manufacturing. “With the Obama Administration's push for agencies to adopt cloud computing, provide more transparency to tax payers and allow more federal employees to engage in telework, IT government contractors in particular should expect significant growth during 2012” (PreWeb). The aforementioned programs support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which made billions available in government spending available to assist in the economic turnaround. As the government spend billions of additional dollars into the economy, there are numerous firms that has and continue to conduct business with the Federal government. The firm that will be discussed in this paper is Kellogg, Brown and Root Inc (KBR). This paper will highlight the company, what it does and the amount of business it does with the federal government. It will further discuss required actions that enable KBR to be able to participate in federal government contracting process actions and finally it will discuss the required actions that enable KBR to be able to participate in federal government contracting process actions. What that means for potential contractors is numerous opportunities to land a government contract. Kellogg, Brown and Root Inc. (KBR), recently called KBR), is an American engineering, construction and private military contracting company...
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...Three Firms to Research Nabil AlBayoumi American Intercontinental University BUSN 300 06-26-2011 Abstract As a marketing manager I will be researching three different firms. These firms are AT&T, Verizon wireless and Metro PCS. These companies are the giants in the cell phone industry. This research paper will show why they are worthy of pursuit. Also the category in which the company lands in. In-addition to the risks in the opportunities, which will be recommended and the reflection of marketing on the firm. Three Firms to Research The three different firms are the biggest names in the industry of cell phone. Each of them offers a wide verity of option and opportunity for investors and consumers. The three firms are AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Metro PCS. These three firms have marketing strategies in place, but there a few things that can do to maximize profits and reach more customers. First firm will be AT&T. AT&T brings everything a customer wants from smartphones, internet access and TV. Their customer service has provided innovative and high quality merchandise. AT&T offers the nation’s fastest mobile network. They also cover a large part of international connection and in-addition to the largest Wi-Fi network available on the market. Providing service such as U-verse TV and DIRECTV. AT&T offers bundle packages that place all their offerings into one. AT&T offers a two year contract when signing with them. AT&T every day is trying...
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...Research of 3 Firms By Samantha Smith AIU BUSN300-1301B-02 Dr. Tom Wamalwa 04/14/13 Abstract Social networking sites are growing at a very fast rate. This paper discusses three possible marketing opportunities and risks associated with each opportunity of the three leading social networking sites: Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn. This paper will also assesses the public relations effect on the company, and the financial improvement that is due to each of the marketing opportunity’s. Based on the assessment, one marketing opportunity is recommended for each of the three companies. Facebook Facebook, the most well known social networking site, was started in 2004. Today, Facebook has over 800 million clients. (Eldon, 2008) The First Marketing Opportunity : Sell advertisement space. This advertising chance is classified as low hanging fruit. The No. of clients on Facebook surpassed the 1 billion mark by August 2012. (Bradley, 2012) Facebook can show advertisement to correlated clients dependent upon their demographics and engages. Promoting on Facebook is more successful as associations can achieve their target clients. Risk: Many users may consider this as violation of privacy. Second Marketing Opportunity : Introduce paid membership This marketing opportunity is single. Facebook has this elevated no. of clients in light of the fact that Facebook offers unlimited aids. Association can limit access to certain offers (like...
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...Man 4633 ASSIGNMENT 3 1.Define arbitrage factor costs Arbitrage factor costs are costs that an MNE incurs when there is the inability for a firm to encourage for issues to be resolved without the need of arbitration. When arbitration is needed, a firm loses precious time and possibly funds to be able to settle a dispute among the different business units with a conflict. This may result in the loss of competitive advantage and/or the loss of actual funds. 2. “Today’s challenge is to build transnational organizations that can sense an emerging consumer trend in one country, link it to a new technology or capability it has in another, develop a creative new product or service in a third, then diffuse that innovation rapidly around the world”. With this in mind, identify a company who has demonstrated this ability including a brief description of each step they took. Boeing is a perfect example of a company that was able to link technology and capabilities from national suppliers which they call “partners”, and to decentralize their manufacturing functionality to develop the new 747 dreamliner. Boeing first began by identifying key geographical “partners” that had the resources and functional capability to manufacture specific sections of the airplane. After doing so, they decentralized their manufacturing capability and handed the responsibility to these “partners”. Finally, what Boeing was left with was a strategically dispersed manufacturing plant across the globe...
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...POSITIVE ACCOUNTING THEORY, POLITICAL COSTS AND SOCIAL DISCLOSURE ANALYSES: A CRITICAL LOOK Markus J. Milne Accountancy and Business Law University of Otago Dunedin New Zealand Ph: 64-3-479-8120 Fax: 64-3-479-8450 Email: mmilne@commerce.otago.ac.nz POSITIVE ACCOUNTING THEORY, POLITICAL COSTS AND SOCIAL DISCLOSURE ANALYSES: A CRITICAL LOOK* ABSTRACT This paper critically reviews the literature seeking to establish evidence for a positive accounting theory of corporate social disclosures. It carefully traces through the original work of Watts and Zimmerman (1978) showing their concern with the lobbying behaviour of large US oil companies during the 1970s. Such companies were argued to be abusing monopolists and likely targets of selfinterested politicians pursuing wealth transfers in the form of taxes, regulations and other ‘political costs’. Watts and Zimmerman’s reference to “social responsibility” is shown to be a passing remark, and most likely refers to “advocacy advertising”, a widespread practice amongst large US oil companies at that time. Subsequent literature that relies on Watts and Zimmerman to present a case for social disclosures is shown to extend their original arguments. In the process, concern over the “high profits” of companies is shown to diminish, and the notion of political costs is so broadened that it blurs with other social theories of disclosure. Consequently, the positive accounting based social disclosures literature fails to provide distinct...
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...productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Blackwell Publishing and Financial Management Association International are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Financial Management. http://www.jstor.org Does Voluntary Stock Price Disclosure Improve Informativeness? K. Stephen Haggard, Xiumin Martin, and Raynolde Pereira* According to theory, comovement in stock prices reflects comovement in thefundamentalfactors underlying the values ofstocks. Recent theory contends that stockprice comovement can be driven by information markets or the informational opacity of the firm. To the extent that voluntary disclosure reduces information acquisition cost and enhances firm transparency, we predict that enhanced voluntary disclosure reduces stockprice comovement. Weprovide evidence in support of thisprediction using analyst evaluation offirm disclosure policy. Overall, our evidence supports the effectiveness offirm disclosure policy in increasing the amount...
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...identified two types of isolating mechanisms, competitive and customers-based isolating mechanisms. And examples of normative strategies are provided for each type of isolating mechanisms to facilitate their application. Key words: Competitive advantage, Competitive isolating mechanisms, Customer-based isolating mechanisms INTRODUCTION The concept of isolating mechanisms has been developed in the literature to explain barriers that firms can establish to avoid imitation by competitors (Grant, 2005; Mahoney and Panidan, 1992). Isolating mechanisms can create barriers to impede competitors from imitating resources, capabilities and strategies. Isolating mechanisms are also instrumental in influencing industry dynamics, as they provide competitive barriers to imitation for new strategies, adopted in response to environment changes ( Segars and Grovers, 1995). Through the establishment of isolating mechanisms, the firms can sustain their competitive advantage and performance. Therefore, they are a key for superior performing firms. Mahoney and Pandian(1992) had identified a wide range of isolating mechanisms from the resource-based view, mainstream strategy, organizational economics and the industrial organization literature. Although the authors recognize that there are many organizational...
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...digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Wiley-Blackwell and John Wiley & Sons are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Strategic Management Journal. http://www.jstor.org Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 12, 187-199 (1991) S A LONGITUDINALTUDY OF THE CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCESOF CHANGESIN IN DIVERSIFICATION THE U.S. PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY1977-1986 W a CHARLES . L. HILL nd GARYS. HANSEN Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. The paper hypothesizes that diversification by firms based in the pharmaceutical industry during the 1977-86 time period was primarily undertaken to reduce the risks associated with being dependent upon a technologically dynamic environment. Consistent with this non-efficiency motive for diversification, declining economic performance is predicted. A longitudinal empirical analysis provides support for these propositions. INTRODUCTION The relationship between diversification...
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...Puma is one of the key sportswear firms globally that is involved in segments like sports clothing, footwear, and lifestyle products, where its core capabilities are in the field of manufacturing, designing, marketing and distribution of its products. The company has evolved over number of years to become € 2,738.8 million turnover firm in 2008 (FAME, 2009), however its roots can be traced back to the modest beginnings in the firm Gebruder Dassler Schuhfabrik by Rudi and Adi Dassler created in 1924, which later split into Puma and Adidas in 1948 (Keynote, 2009). Porter’s Five Forces: Porter’s five forces have been identified as the key competitive forces that define industry structure that is relevant to the business of the firm and therefore is highlighted as micro business environment analysis of the firm (Lynch, 2003). The implementation of the tool has been undertaken for Puma as follows: • Bargaining Power of Suppliers is low as Puma is one of the vertically integrated firms therefore making its own departments suppliers and distributors of its products, while raw material producers offer low differentiation therefore also have very low bargaining power. • Bargaining Power of Buyers is medium to high as there are low switching costs between different brands therefore allowing opportunity to customers to try different firms for their wardrobe. However, the strong product portfolio and the price mix of Puma means that it enjoys a degree of customer loyalty which...
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...be successfully established in the global market. The central theory introduced in this article is developed based on a comprehensive framework of the entry modes choices. These modes of choices would determine the success factor of the international business strategy, and to choose these choices there are several important factors to be considered. These factors include situational firm factors, foreign environment review, and moderating factors that would directly influence the firm’s desired mode of choice. Referring to Appendix A is the mode choice of framework by Driscoll that depicts the whole concept discussed. To briefly illustrate, the firm would need to evaluate the two situational factors that would directly affect its desired level of different modes of characteristics. Subsequent from the selected desired modes, the firm would also need to determine the potential moderating influences, which would affect the desired mode. Thus, reassessment based on the moderators would take place to determine the most effective modes of entry. By selecting the right mode of entry, the firm would incorporate an effective business strategy for its international business plans. The article written by Driscoll is set to present an argument for the development of a comprehensive framework for understanding the mode of entry choices. In the article, she illustrated about the different modes of entry to international markets, analyzed on the different characteristics of the entry...
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...and successful strategy for the company. The case presented by Claire Mackey one of the division managers will be of great contribution to the strategy that the firm will use to rebuild its sales and profit margins. Mackey’s report focuses on the problems that Brannigan is facing currently and specifically the declining sales volume and lower profits that the company has been recording for the past three years. Mackey is confident that by handling the current customer desires for healthier and more convenient products, the company will be in a position to increase its sales volume. His report also focuses on how the company can manage to penetrate other markets, which it has not managed to do for the past three years as well as improve the performance of the low performing markets like Southeast Asia and China. Since the report focused on the actual challenges the firm is experiencing now, it will not only be a good consideration before making the final decision on the implementation but will also assist in making well thought and research decisions for the benefit of the firm. Mackey’s report focused on borrowing the ideas of successful firms in the industry to be able to improve the performance of Brannigan. Mackey provides a list of competitor firms whose their ideas will be of great benefit to firm. Since firms such as...
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...KINETIC AND POSITIONAL By: Ma, Hao; Business Horizons, Jan/Feb2000, Vol. 43 Issue 1, p53, 12p, 1 diagram Competitive advantage is considered the basis for superior company performance. To perform at such a level consistently, a firm often has to nurture an evolving system of competitive advantages to carry it through competition and over time. What are the various possible types of such advantages? How can a firm systematically analyze the multiple advantages it could possess and use them to achieve and maintain superior performance? Building on research in strategic management, answers to these questions and others can contribute to managers' knowledge about the nature and content of competitive advantage. Such knowledge can help managers nurture and renew their firms' advantages more effectively through time. The Dichotomy of Positional and Kinetic Advantages The essence of competitive advantage can be interpreted as the asymmetry or differential among firms along any comparable dimension that allows one firm to compete better than its rivals. Simply put, a competitive advantage can be one of two types: ° positional--a status-defining position that leads to better company performance; or ° kinetic--an action-oriented ability that allows a firm to function more effectively and efficiently. Positional advantage often derives from ownership or access-based sources. Specifically, it comes from a company's unique endowment of resources, market positions, established accesses...
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...commonly takes place on audit engagements, especially at the junior levels, it is an extremely unethical act that can result in negative consequences for the firm later down the road. In Hamilton Wong’s position, we would feel obligated to report all of our hours, as it is our ethical responsibility to behave with integrity in our line of work. Beyond maintaining our own principles, the practice of under-reporting hours violates the rules regarding integrity within the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct. In our opinion, the potential short-term benefits of under-reporting our hours do not outweigh the potential risks of suspension or losing our job. In this case, Lauren Hutchison behaved very unethically by underreporting her time worked on the audit engagement. The act of “eating time” was made for completely selfish reasons, which were to make herself look superior in comparison to her peers and to impress her supervisors in light of a possible promotion. Under-reporting her time worked on the engagement results in an inaccurate representation of her efficiency and performance. Although it benefits Lauren in the short term by making her appear as a top performer, it only hurts the team as a whole for future audits as they will continue receiving low budget times that they may not be able to keep up with. Academic research suggests...
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...Financial Accounting Theory Chapter 8 – Summary The Positive Theory of Accounting 1. Outline In the text, Scott defines Positive accounting theory (PAT) as: “concerned with predicting such actions as the choices of accounting policies by firms and how firms will respond to proposed new accounting standards.” (263) PAT uses theory to predict the choices that management will make regarding their choice of accounting policies. This theory is introduced as a way to merge efficient securities markets with economic consequences. PAT takes the view that firms will conduct themselves in the way that maximizes their own best interests. Managers do not always do what is best for shareholders, but what will be the most beneficial to their organization. The choices that an organization makes are dependant on what industry they are in, and the factors within that industry. An organization can be portrayed by the contracts it enters into. A firm’s contracts with employees, suppliers, lenders, and shareholders are central to its operations. The organization is inclined to keep these contract costs as low as possible. PAT emphasizes that an organization’s choice of accounting policies is motivated by keeping contract costs down. PAT does not propose that organizations completely identify what accounting policies they will use. Such specification is costly to commit to, and does not give management the opportunity to respond to unforeseen circumstances. ...
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