When Costco managers figure out whether the costs of the expatriate assignments match the benefits associated with those assignments, they are in what stage of calculating their return on investment (ROI)?

The hawthorne works was a large western electric factory with 45,000 employees. during the 1920s and 1930s, hawthorne works was the site of some well-known industrial studies. in one of the studies, researchers investigated the impact of different working conditions on worker productivity. prior to the start of the study, researchers secretly measured workers' productivity for several weeks. then researchers chose two workers, who then chose their own teams. the teams were separated from the general workforce and completed their work in different experiment rooms where the researchers could observe them more easily. over a 5-year period researchers manipulated the structure of the workday for each team (number and duration of breaks and number of hours per shift). for each of these changes in working conditions, the researchers measured the effect on productivity. for some conditions, such as frequent short breaks, workers rebelled by intentionally decreasing productivity. why did the researchers secretly measure the workers' productivity before creating the two treatment groups? a, to create similar treatment groups so that a cause-and-effect relationship could be establishedb, to draw conclusions about the productivity of all workers in the plant based on the test groupsc, to directly control for confounding variablesd, to provide a baseline for measuring worker productivity

10. which of the following is true regarding preretirement inflation? a. defined-benefit plans provide more inflation protection than defined-contribution plans. b. because of preretirement inflation, possible investment-related growth is increased for defined-contribution plans. c. all types of benefits are designed to cope with preretirement inflation. d. preretirement inflation is generally reflected in the increase in an employee's compensation level over a working career.

An important application of regression analysis in accounting is in the estimation of cost. by collecting data on volume and cost and using the least squares method to develop an estimated regression equation relating volume and cost, an accountant can estimate the cost associated with a particular manufacturing volume. consider the following sample of production volumes and total cost data for a manufacturing operation. production volume (units) total cost ($) 400 4000 450 5000 550 5400 600 5900 700 6400 750 7000 compute b 1 and b 0 (to 2 decimals if necessary). b 1 b 0 complete the estimated regression equation (to 2 decimals if necessary). = + x what is the variable cost per unit produced (to 1 decimal)? $ compute the coefficient of determination (to 4 decimals). note: report r 2 between 0 and 1. r 2 = what percentage of the variation in total cost can be explained by the production volume (to 2 decimals)? % the company's production schedule shows 500 units must be produced next month. what is the estimated total cost for this operation (to 2 decimals)? $