Supply Chain Question

Instructions and guidelines for course paper

1.The Assignment

This course is intended to familiarize you with Managerial Economics. The ultimate goal is for you to be able to understand and interpret what is going on in the contemporary world of Managerial Economics, both in the United Stated and around the world. The course paper is your opportunity to get some practice at applying what you have learned.

You are asked to write a 5-page paper analyzing a company of your choosing. You should attempt to write about it in light of what you have learned in class or read in your text. The paper will be due (see Blackboard). No late papers will be accepted. You must submit (upload) your paper MS Word format in Blackboard. If you do not submit (upload) your paper in the required MS Word format, so that SafeAssign can effortlessly produce the needed originality report, you will automatically get 0 points on the paper.

Designing viable strategies for a firm requires a thorough understanding of the firm’s industry, its competition, and the social, economic, and political environments in which the firm operates. Additionally, the executives of the firm need always to address four questions: (1) What are the boundaries of the industry? (2) What is the structure of the industry? (3) What firms are competitors? (4) What are the major determinants of competition?

2.Paper Structure

You can find below some help with respect to the writing of the different sections.

a.Choose a main topic: which company are you going to write about? Why are you interested in this specific topic? Why should the reader(s)be interested in it?

b. Explain the structure of the company/industry that you are analyzing. Is it local/American or global? You should also describe:

The CEO

the company mission and the scope of its operations.

the specific model used to obtain short-, medium-, and long-term objectives.

the company’s management model.

the companys hierarchical structure.

the grand strategy, annual objectives, functional strategies, and indicators for control and evaluation.

c. Discuss its current situation, and any notable moments (successes/failures) in its past development. Focus your analysis on economic indicators, and their development over time (e.g. revenues, losses, profits, market shares, economic performance indexes, etc.). You can discuss: (1) threat of entry, economies of scale, product differentiation, capital requirements, cost advantages and disadvantages, access to distribution channels, and government policies; (2) vertical and horizontal linkages of suppliers, (3) understanding consumers and buyers along with substitute and complement products.

d. Evaluate the company and/or industry, and its future prospects. Is it concentrated, or competitive (using some concentration indexes covered in class)? You can also relate this section to Porters five forces model. You can also refer to the following criteria: market share, breadth of product line, effectiveness of sales distribution, proprietary technologies and patent rights, price competitiveness, advertising and promotion effectiveness, location and age of facility, capacity potential/limitations and productivity, and the quality of the workforce.

e. Conclude by discussing your opinion based on what you have learned during your research.

f. Provide a list of your references at the end of the paper, in an APA format. You should use at least 4-5references.A proper reference consists of: author(s), title of the article/book, year of publication, and venue of publication. A web-site alone is not a reference!

g. Include all graphs and tables needed to illustrate your research findings in an Appendix.

h. You are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the services of the Writing Center: each of the above points, but stay on focus and within the page limit. Do not digress.

The paper should be 5 pages (excluding references and the Appendix), size 12 script, double spaced.

Your paper must be a unique and original piece of research for this class. You cannot re-use (even partially) any other paper that you officially submitted for any other class. You should by no means copy somebody elses paper either your classmates paper, or the papers that you use as a source of information. Copying violates the universitys honor policy and will be punished accordingly. All papers submitted will be scanned through SafeAssign (or any other similar system) to test for plagiarism. Any form of plagiarism will automatically result in an F grade on the paper.