All of the following are benefits associated with empowerment except: a. empowered employees are more likely to respond in a positive way to service failures and to engage in effective service recovery strategies. b. empowered employees are more customer focused and quicker in responding to customer needs. c. empowered employees tend to feel better about their jobs and themselves, which is automatically reflected in the way they interact with customers. d. empowered front-line employees gain a false sense of power, in turn aiding the customer. e. empowered front-line service employees can be key to new service ideas and a cheaper source of market research than going to the consumer directly.

Abond is issued for less than its face value. which statement most likely would explain why? a. the bond's contract rate is higher than the market rate at the time of the issue. b. the bond's contract rate is the same as the market rate at the time of the issue. c. the bond's contract rate is lower than the market rate at the time of the issue. d. the bond isn't secured by specific assets of the corporation.

Mr. smith recently faced a choice between being (a) an economics profes-sor, which pays $60,000/yr, or (b) a safari leader, which pays $50,000/yr. after careful deliberation, smith took the safari job, but it was a close call. "for a dollar more," he said, "i'd have gone the other way."now smith's brother-in-law approaches him with a business proposition. the terms are as follows: - smith must resign his safari job to work full-time in his brother-in-law's business.- smith must give his brother-in-law an interest-free loan of $100,000, which will be repaid in full if and when smith leaves the business. (smith currently has much more than $100,000 in the the business will pay smith a salary of $70,000/yr. he will receive no other payment from the business. the interest rate is 10 percent per year. apart from salary considerations, smith feels that working in the business would be just as enjoyable as being an economics professor. for simplicity, assume there is no uncertainty regarding either smith's salary in the proposed business or the security of his monetary investment in it. should smith join his brother-in-law and, if so, how small would smith's salary from the business have to be to make it not worthwhile for him to join? if not, how large would smith's salary from the business have to be to make it worthwhile for him to join?

In the fall, jay thompson decided to live in a university dormitory. he signed a dorm contract under which he was obligated to pay the room rent for the full college year. one clause stated that if he moved out during the year, he could sell his dorm contract to another student who would move into the dormitory as his replacement. the dorm cost was $5000 for the two semesters, which jay had already paid a month after he moved into the dorm, he decided he would prefer to live in an apartment. that week, after some searching for a replacement to fulfill his dorm contract, jay had two offers. one student offered to move in immediately and to pay jay $300 per month for the eight remaining months of the school year. a second student offered to move in the second semester and pay $2500 to jay. jay estimates his food cost per month is $500 if he lives in the dorm and $450 if he lives in an apartment with three other students. his share of the apartment rent and utilities will be $404 per month. assume each semester is 4.5 months long. disregard the small differences in the timing of the disbursements or receipts. what is the cost of the cheapest alternative?