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The Arck Systems series of cases describes the dilemmas faced by a senior sales manager in determining a sales compensation plan at an enterprise software company. The existing compensation plan is aggressive and highly rewards "star" performers. The cases track a series of changes the manager makes to the sales compensation plan in response to negative and unintended consequences of the existing system. The cases illustrate the tradeoffs inherent in incentive plans (even outside of sales environments) and presents a framework for the design and management of incentive systems. It also is useful in addressing employee response to incentive system change.

PremiumSoft had been a competitive player in the SQL software market for 10 years. Like many software companies, PremiumSoft's business model required that it continuously evolve its current successful product lines through research and development. At the core of the business was its creative people: they were the company's largest asset. PremiumSoft had created a team-centric, informal work environment that promoted creativity and innovation and attracted the best candidates. As a small company, PremiumSoft had a mix of formal and informal controls when dealing with recruiting, retention, roles, and responsibilities. It had achieved success with hiring, retaining, and managing its current employees and wanted to ensure that it could maintain this success with future growth. In 2010, PremiumSoft's owners were looking to grow the business through the development of new software. This growth required an expansion of its staff by 25 percent and the addition of a new product line.

POSCO is one of the largest and best steelmakers in the world. Since the construction of Pohang Steelworks in 1973, Pohang Iron and Steel Company ("POSCO") has grown continuously in the world's steel industry. But in the late 1990s, when the Asian financial crisis hit the Korean economy hard, the company began paying great attention to innovation as an important source of competitive advantage. Since then, POSCO has made every effort to promote an innovation-friendly environment: in 1999, it embarked on process innovation to build its innovation hardware, and in 2002, it adopted Six Sigma, an infrastructure for innovation, and finalised its manufacturing execution system ("MES") for effective decision-making. Even though the hardware and infrastructure for innovation were in place, the company needed to internalise the innovation in order to maximise corporate performance effectively. In 2008, the global recession and turbulent economic situation spread from America and dealt a serious blow to the company's innovation initiatives. Meanwhile, employees were exhibiting fatigue with the protracted innovation drive. POSCO's chief executive, Chung Joon-yang, is considering what the POSCO way of innovation has achieved since its takeoff in earnest in 2006. He must now make a hard decision on what additional measures the company must take to overcome the looming crisis.

Kitchen Best is a Hong Kong-based electrical-appliance company. The company has a manufacturing facility in China and sells its wares to customers around the world. Henry Chan, the newly appointed CEO, has ambitious plans for the business. However, a series of instances of misconduct and unethical behavior makes him realize that the business is suffering from a lack of internal control. What type of internal control mechanisms should he put in place to ensure the future success of the company?

Supplement to case 710008.

Seeking to go beyond global best practices in reducing environmental impacts, FIJI Water, a premium artesian bottled water company in the United States, launched a Carbon-Negative campaign that would offset more greenhouse gas emissions than were released by the company's operations and products. The case examines the controversies surrounding this program as well as the program's impacts on the environment and FIJI Water's brand image. The company also faced decisions regarding how to best manage its relationship with the Fijian government, which recently dramatically raised imposed export taxes and could limit FIJI Water's access to water, its primary raw material. The case enables students to better understand the challenges of implementing an environmental strategy and of negotiating with parties that control raw materials, and invites discussion of the effectiveness of various approaches and the general lessons for the management of companies seeking to operate in an environmentally responsible manner.

Excel spreadsheet for case W11086.

Reed Supermarkets is a high-end supermarket chain with operations in several Midwestern states. Meredith Collins, vice president of marketing, visits stores located in Columbus, Ohio, an important region with the largest market and the greatest impact on revenue growth. She is concerned about increased competition from dollar stores and limited-assortment stores offering very low, appealing price points. Reed's market research shows that as a result of the economic downturn, customer loyalty is dwindling and consumers are willing to go to multiple stores to get the best deals. Collins must decide whether to change the current marketing and positioning plan in an effort to increase market share to meet challenging corporate targets. Her options include retreating from price competition and focusing on quality or embracing more private-label brands and competing more aggressively on price. She can also maintain the current positioning and appeal to customers looking for a quality shopping experience. The case contains an implicit quantitative assignment that instructors can emphasize to the degree they choose.

Spreadsheet Supplement for 4296.

Microsoft employs 90,000 people and its products affect millions of users around the world every day. Developing the next version of Windows or Office is easy for Microsoft, but the company has struggled when it comes to more radical innovation. Intense competition from Google, Apple, and others threatens a business model that has delivered tremendous success over 25 years. This case highlights the strategic challenges facing Microsoft and provides insights into the organizational, leadership, and operational issues that must be addressed in order to define a successful innovation strategy at one of the world's most well-known companies.

In this note, we look at what happens when there are only few producers. For simplicity, we start with a market with only one supplier, a monopolist. We analyze the price the monopolist charges and the amount of output he or she produces, how those decisions affect overall welfare, and in what circumstances government intervention can increase overall welfare.

Unlike traditional marketers who must wait days if not weeks to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns, online marketers are confronted with an ocean of data which can be tracked and measured in near real-time. Despite the volume of data and powerful tools available to online marketers (at free to low cost, making analytics as affordable for startups to fortune 500) online metrics are widely misunderstood, misapplied and often misused to say much more that they should. Understanding how online metrics work, what they measure and which of them are most relevant based on specific marketing functions and campaign goals is a valuable skill for every marketer. This note frames online metrics in the context of campaign goals (from search marketing to back-end analytics) while discussing the various marketing functions (from display advertising to brand management) that benefit as a result of access to specific metrics. Throughout the note, each metric is placed along an ROI Continuum designed to add insight as to the role of each metric over time as it relates to a firm's bottom line.

Managerial Economics: Concepts and Principles, written by Donald N. Stengel of California State University, Fresno, is an eight-chapter book published by Business Expert Press. The text addresses the core of managerial economics, which is the application of microeconomics to business decisions. Key relationships among price, quantity, cost, revenue, and profit for an individual firm are discussed, as are elements from the economics of consumer demand and production. The economics of organization, market price, quantity equilibrium, competitive behavior, and the role of market structure in market equilibrium and competition are addressed. Finally, the text considers market regulation in terms of generic problems that create the need for regulation, as well as possible remedies for those problems. Chapter 1 introduces the concept of managerial economics at a broad level. The vital relationship between economics and business management is addressed.

Managerial Economics: Concepts and Principles, written by Donald N. Stengel of the California State University, Fresno, is an eight-chapter book published by Business Expert Press. The text addresses the core of managerial economics, which is the application of microeconomics to business decisions. Key relationships between price, quantity, cost, revenue, and profit for an individual firm are discussed, as are elements from the economics of consumer demand and production. The economics of organization, market price, quantity equilibrium, competitive behavior, and the role of market structure in market equilibrium and competition are addressed. Finally, the text considers market regulation in terms of generic problems that create the need for regulation, as well as possible remedies for those problems. Chapter 2 explores the key measures and economic relationships of a business operation. Revenue, cost, and profit functions are discussed, as are the differences between economic and accounting measures of cost and profit. Breakeven analysis, the effects of price changes, the relationship between supply and demand, marginal analysis, and the principles of the shutdown rule, are also explained.

Managerial Economics: Concepts and Principles, written by Donald N. Stengel of the California State University, Fresno, is an eight-chapter book published by Business Expert Press. The text addresses the core of managerial economics, which is the application of microeconomics to business decisions. Key relationships between price, quantity, cost, revenue, and profit for an individual firm are discussed, as are elements from the economics of consumer demand and production. The economics of organization, market price, quantity equilibrium, competitive behavior, and the role of market structure in market equilibrium and competition are addressed. Finally, the text considers market regulation in terms of generic problems that create the need for regulation, as well as possible remedies for those problems. Chapter 3 explores the economic reasoning and concepts which make up the theoretical foundations of the marketing function. Consumer behavior and its implications on demand and pricing are addressed. The determinants of demand, modeling consumer demand, forecasting demand, the elasticity of demand, and price discrimination are also discussed.

Managerial Economics: Concepts and Principles, written by Donald N. Stengel of the California State University, Fresno, is an eight-chapter book published by Business Expert Press. The text addresses the core of managerial economics, which is the application of microeconomics to business decisions. Key relationships between price, quantity, cost, revenue, and profit for an individual firm are discussed, as are elements from the economics of consumer demand and production. The economics of organization, market price, quantity equilibrium, competitive behavior, and the role of market structure in market equilibrium and competition are addressed. Finally, the text considers market regulation in terms of generic problems that create the need for regulation, as well as possible remedies for those problems. Chapter 4 explores the concepts and principles of microeconomics that guide management's organization and production activities to improve profitability and efficiency. Economies of scale and both short-run and long-run average cost curves are addressed at length. Economies of scope and joint products are discussed. The author compares the cost approach and the resource approach to production planning. Marginal revenues and cost, the law of diminishing marginal returns, and derived demand curves, as well as productivity and learning curves, are briefly discussed.

Managerial Economics: Concepts and Principles, written by Donald N. Stengel of the California State University, Fresno, is an eight-chapter book published by Business Expert Press. The text addresses the core of managerial economics, which is the application of microeconomics to business decisions. Key relationships between price, quantity, cost, revenue, and profit for an individual firm are discussed, as are elements from the economics of consumer demand and production. The economics of organization, market price, quantity equilibrium, competitive behavior, and the role of market structure in market equilibrium and competition are addressed. Finally, the text considers market regulation in terms of generic problems that create the need for regulation, as well as possible remedies for those problems. Chapter 5 explores applied and developed economic principles that inform a better understanding of activity inside the firm. The aspects of business expansion are addressed, including value chains, horizontal and vertical integration, and conglomerate mergers. Transaction cost economies, the Coase hypothesis, and boundaries for business expansion are also discussed. Other topics include: a comparison between cost centers and profit centers, transfer pricing, and techniques for incentivizing employee, manager, and executive performance.

Managerial Economics: Concepts and Principles, written by Donald N. Stengel of the California State University, Fresno, is an eight-chapter book published by Business Expert Press. The text addresses the core of managerial economics, which is the application of microeconomics to business decisions. Key relationships between price, quantity, cost, revenue, and profit for an individual firm are discussed, as are elements from the economics of consumer demand and production. The economics of organization, market price, quantity equilibrium, competitive behavior, and the role of market structure in market equilibrium and competition are addressed. Finally, the text considers market regulation in terms of generic problems that create the need for regulation, as well as possible remedies for those problems. Chapter 6 explores the operations of markets with a focus on the perfect competition model. The assumptions underlying that model, market behavior in both the short and long runs, and the concept of market equilibrium are discussed. Shifts in supply and demand curves, elasticity, surpluses, and deadweight loss are also addressed.

Managerial Economics: Concepts and Principles, written by Donald N. Stengel of the California State University, Fresno, is an eight-chapter book published by Business Expert Press. The text addresses the core of managerial economics, which is the application of microeconomics to business decisions. Key relationships between price, quantity, cost, revenue, and profit for an individual firm are discussed, as are elements from the economics of consumer demand and production. The economics of organization, market price, quantity equilibrium, competitive behavior, and the role of market structure in market equilibrium and competition are addressed. Finally, the text considers market regulation in terms of generic problems that create the need for regulation, as well as possible remedies for those problems. Chapter 7 further explores the operations of markets. Different market structures, including monopolies and oligopolies, are discussed at length, as are strategies for competing in such markets.

Managerial Economics: Concepts and Principles, written by Donald N. Stengel of the California State University, Fresno, is an eight-chapter book published by Business Expert Press. The text addresses the core of managerial economics, which is the application of microeconomics to business decisions. Key relationships between price, quantity, cost, revenue, and profit for an individual firm are discussed, as are elements from the economics of consumer demand and production. The economics of organization, market price, quantity equilibrium, competitive behavior, and the role of market structure in market equilibrium and competition are addressed. Finally, the text considers market regulation in terms of generic problems that create the need for regulation, as well as possible remedies for those problems. Chapter 8 further explores the operations of markets with a focus on market regulation. The author discusses instances where intervention may be considered necessary and identifies regulatory measures that can be taken.