Shelly works as a call-center employee from inside her home. The company she works for does not mind that she works from home because she is so good at her job. Her professionalism hardly varies from one call to the next. One day, however, she learned that her mother had died. Rather than taking off work, she went through the work day as routine. A few days later, a customer complained to the firm that she did not like Shelly's attitude when she contacted her with questions about a product. She felt that Shelly was brusque and rude. The company investigated the matter and found that Shelly had lost her patience with the customer over the phone. However, when they found out about her situation, they only gave her a verbal warning.

Which characteristic of services caused a problem for the firm in this scenario?

a. Intanglbilty
b. heterogeneity
c. inseparability
d. low customer contact
e. perishability

Suppose you win a small lottery and have the choice of two ways to be paid: you can accept the money in a lump sum or in a series of payments over time. if you pick the lump sum, you get $2,950 today. if you pick payments over time, you get three payments: $1,000 today, $1,000 1 year from today, and $1,000 2 years from today. 1) at an interest rate of 6% per year, the winner would be better off accepting the (lump sum / payments over time), since it has the greater present value. 2) at an interest rate of 9% per year, the winner would be better off accepting the (lump sum / payments over time), since it has the greater present value. 3) years after you win the lottery, a friend in another country calls to ask your advice. by wild coincidence, she has just won another lottery with the same payout schemes. she must make a quick decision about whether to collect her money under the lump sum or the payments over time. what is the best advice to give your friend? a) the lump sum is always better. b) the payments over time are always better. c) it will depend on the interest rate; advise her to get a calculator. d) none of these answers is good advice.

Cadbury has a chocolate factory in dunedin, new zealand. for easter, it makes two kinds of “easter eggs”: milk chocolate and dark chocolate. it cycles between producing milk and dark chocolate eggs. the table below provides data on these two products. demand (lbs per hour) milk: 500 dark: 200 switchover time (minutes) milk: 60 dark: 30 production rate per hour milk: 800 dark: 800 for example, it takes 30 minutes to switch production from milk to dark chocolate. demand for milk chocolate is higher (500lbs per hour versus 200 lbs per hour), but the line produces them at the same rate (when operating): 800 lbs per hour. a : suppose cadbury produces 2,334lbs milk chocolate and 1,652 lbs of dark chocolate in each cycle. what would be the maximum inventory (lbs) of milk chocolate? b : how many lbs of milk and dark chocolate should be produced with each cycle so as to satisfy demand while minimizing inventory?

When the price of pencils increases from $1.50 to $2.50, there is an increase in quantity demanded of pens from 100 to 150. the cross-price elasticity of demand between pencils and pens is: ?