One simple way to think about relatedness is to look at the products or services a firm manufactures. The more similar these products or services are, the more related is the firm’s diversification strategy. Why or why not would firms that exploit core competencies in their diversification strategies always produce products or services that are similar to each other?

Sweeten company had no jobs in progress at the beginning of march and no beginning inventories. the company has two manufacturing departments--molding and fabrication. it started, completed, and sold only two jobs during march—job p and job q. the following additional information is available for the company as a whole and for jobs p and q (all data and questions relate to the month of march): molding fabrication total estimated total machine-hours used 2,500 1,500 4,000 estimated total fixed manufacturing overhead $ 10,000 $ 15,000 $ 25,000 estimated variable manufacturing overhead per machine-hour $ 1.40 $ 2.20 job p job q direct materials $ 13,000 $ 8,000 direct labor cost $ 21,000 $ 7,500 actual machine-hours used: molding 1,700 800 fabrication 600 900 total 2,300 1,700 sweeten company had no underapplied or overapplied manufacturing overhead costs during the month. required: for questions 1-8, assume that sweeten company uses a plantwide predetermined overhead rate with machine-hours as the allocation base. for questions 9-15, assume that the company uses departmental predetermined overhead rates with machine-hours as the allocation base in both departments. 1. what was the company’s plantwide predetermined overhead rate? (round your answer to 2 decimal places.) next

Wallis company manufactures only one product and uses a standard cost system. the company uses a predetermined plantwide overhead rate that relies on direct labor-hours as the allocation base. all of the company's manufacturing overhead costs are fixed—it does not incur any variable manufacturing overhead costs. the predetermined overhead rate is based on a cost formula that estimated $2,886,000 of fixed manufacturing overhead for an estimated allocation base of 288,600 direct labor-hours. wallis does not maintain any beginning or ending work in process inventory.

Simon, aged 10, is invited to a classmate's birthday party at an exclusive ski resort on march 15th. the day will include 4 hours of snowboarding, lunch and birthday cake. simon's mother checks a box on the invitation that says "yes, we will attend" and returns it to the classmate's address. unfortunately, they later don't attend the party when simon comes down with the flu. on march 17th, simon's mother receives an invoice in the mail from simon's classmate for $35 that says, "party no-show fee." can simon's classmate collect the fee?