Question
One. 1)If a perfectly competitive industry is monopolized, consumer surplus: A. becomes equal to producer surplus. B. can be expected to decrease. C. usually remains
One.
1)If a perfectly competitive industry is monopolized, consumer surplus: A. becomes equal to producer surplus. B. can be expected to decrease. C. usually remains constant. D. becomes double of producer surplus.
2)If a monopolistically competitive firm is in long-run equilibrium and average cost equals $150, then the market price must be $150. True or False
3)The term "monopolistic competition": A. denotes an industry characterized by one seller of many differentiated products. B. denotes an industry characterized by many sellers of differentiated products. C. is used to describe perfect competition that has strong entry barriers. D. denotes an industry characterized by many sellers of homogeneous products.
4)A monopolistic competitor's demand curve is A. less elastic than a monopolist's or oligopolist's but more elastic than a perfect competitor's demand curve. B. as elastic as an oligopolist's demand curve. C. more elastic than a monopolist's or oligopolist's but less elastic than a perfect competitor's demand curve. D. perfectly elastic.
5)Monopolistic competition is different from perfect competition because monopolistic competitors: A. are price takers. B. produce differentiated products C. have high barriers to entry. D. produce homogeneous products.
6)Monopolistically competitive firms: A. may earn short-run economic profit, but long-run economic profit is typically zero. B. may earn economic profit both in the short run and in the long run. C. are guaranteed to earn short-run economic profit. D. earn zero economic profit both in the short run and in the long run.
7)Which of the following characteristics distinguishes oligopoly from other market structures? A. Interdependence among firms in the industry B. The production of homogeneous products C. A downward-sloping demand curve D. A horizontal demand curve
8)Interdependent decision making on price, quality, or advertising is a characteristic of: A. monopolistic competition. B. perfect competition. C. oligopolies. D. monopolies.
9)During certain periods in the past few decades, if one of the three major breakfast cereal producers in the United States announced a price increase, the other two announced a similar price increase. This implies that the market for breakfast cereals is a good example of _____. A. the price-leadership model of oligopoly B. a cartel. C. a pure monopoly. D. monopolistic competition
10)The principal advantage of the game theory approach is that it allows to: A. better understand decision making when one person's choices affect another person's choices. B. take all possible information into consideration before developing a theory. C. better understand why firms in a competitive industry avoid games. D. better understand how the government should regulate a natural monopoly.
11)Differentiate between perfect competition and an oligopoly? A. Firms in an oligopoly face horizontal demand curves, whereas firms in a perfectly competitive market face downward-sloping demand curves. B. Firms in an oligopoly charge a lower price than firms in a perfectly competitive market. C. Firms in an oligopoly earn economic profit in the long run, whereas firms in perfectly competitive market earn zero economic profit in the long run. D. An oligopoly is characterized with low barriers to entry, whereas a perfectly competitive market is characterized with high barriers to entry.
Two.
Read the starbucks case below and then Answer the 4 questions in this starbucks case 1. Identify the controllable and uncontrollable elements that Starbucks has encountered in entering global markets. 2. What are the major sources of risk facing the company? Discuss potential solutions. 3. Critique Starbucks' overall corporate strategy. 4. How might Starbucks improve profitability in Japan?
The Starbucks coffee shop on Sixth Avenue and Pine Street in
downtown Seattle sits serene and orderly, as unremarkable as
any other in the chain bought years ago by entrepreneur Howard
Schultz. A few years ago however, the quiet storefront made front
pages around the world. During the World Trade Organization
talks in November 1999, protesters flooded Seattle's streets, and
among their targets was Starbucks, a symbol, to them, of freemarket capitalism run amok, another multinational out to blanket
the earth. Amid the crowds of protesters and riot police were
black-masked anarchists who trashed the store, leaving its windows
smashed and its tasteful green-and-white decor smelling of tear
gas instead of espresso. Says an angry Schultz: "It's hurtful. I think
people are ill-informed. It's very difficult to protest against a can
of Coke, a bottle of Pepsi, or a can of Folgers. Starbucks is both
this ubiquitous brand and a place where you can go and break a
window. You can't break a can of Coke."
The store was quickly repaired, and the protesters scattered to
other cities. Yet cup by cup, Starbucks really is caffeinating the
world, its green-and-white emblem beckoning to consumers on three
continents. In 1999, Starbucks Corp. had 281 stores abroad. Today, it
has about 7,000?and it's still in the early stages of a plan to colonize
the globe. If the protesters were wrong in their tactics, they weren't
wrong about Starbucks' ambitions. They were just early.
The story of how Schultz & Co. transformed a pedestrian commodity into an upscale consumer accessory has a fairy-tale quality.
Starbucks grew from 17 coffee shops in Seattle 15 years ago to over
19,000 outlets in 58 countries. Sales have climbed an average of
20 percent annually since the company went public, peaking at
$10.4 billion in 2008 before falling to $9.8 billion in 2009. Profits
bounded ahead an average of 30 percent per year through 2007
peaking at $673, then dropping to $582 billion and $494 billion in
2008 and 2009, respectively. The firm closed 475 stores in the U.S.
in 2009 to reduce costs. But more recently, sales revenues rebounded
to $11.2 billion in 2011, and profits reached a record $1.2 billion.
Still, the Starbucks name and image connect with millions of
consumers around the globe. Up until recently, it was one of the
fastest-growing brands in annual BusinessWeek surveys of the top
100 global brands. On Wall Street, Starbucks was one of the last
great growth stories. Its stock, including four splits, soared more
than 2,200 percent over a decade, surpassing Walmart, General
Electric, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and IBM in total returns.
In 2006 the stock price peaked at over $40, after which it fell to just
$4, and then again rebounded to more than $50 per share.
Schultz's team is hard-pressed to grind out new profits in
a home market that is quickly becoming saturated. The firm's
12,000 locations in the United States are mostly in big cities,
affluent suburbs, and shopping malls. In coffee-crazed Seattle,
there is a Starbucks outlet for every 9,400 people, and the
company considers that the upper limit of coffee-shop saturation.
In Manhattan's 24 square miles, Starbucks has 124 cafs, with
more on the way. That's one for every 12,000 people?meaning
that there could be room for even more stores. Given such concentration, it is likely to take annual same-store sales increases of
10 percent or more if the company is going to match its historic
overall sales growth. That, as they might say at Starbucks, is a
tall order to fill.
Indeed, the crowding of so many stores so close together has
become a national joke, eliciting quips such as this headline in The
Onion, a satirical publication: "A New Starbucks Opens in Restroom
of Existing Starbucks." And even the company admits that while
its practice of blanketing an area with stores helps achieve market
dominance, it can cut sales at existing outlets. "We probably selfcannibalize our stores at a rate of 30 percent a year," Schultz says.
Adds Lehman Brothers Inc. analyst Mitchell Speiser: "Starbucks is
at a defining point in its growth. It's reaching a level that makes it
harder and harder to grow, just due to the law of large numbers."
To duplicate the staggering returns of its first decades, Starbucks
has no choice but to export its concept aggressively. Indeed, some
analysts gave Starbucks only two years at most before it saturates
the U.S. market. The chain now operates more than 7,000 international outlets, from Beijing to Bristol. That leaves plenty of room
to grow. Most of its planned new stores will be built overseas,
representing a 35 percent increase in its foreign base. Most
recently, the chain has opened stores in Vienna, Zurich, Madrid,
Berlin, and even in far-off Jakarta. Athens comes next. And within
the next year, Starbucks plans to move into Mexico and Puerto
Rico. But global expansion poses huge risks for Starbucks. For one
thing, it makes less money on each overseas store because most of
them are operated with local partners. While that makes it easier
to start up on foreign turf, it reduces the company's share of the
profits to only 20 percent to 50 percent.
Moreover, Starbucks must cope with some predictable challenges of becoming a mature company in the United States. After
riding the wave of successful baby boomers through the 1990s, the
company faces an ominously hostile reception from its future consumers, the twenty- or thirty-somethings. Not only are the activists
among them turned off by the power and image of the well-known
brand, but many others also say that Starbucks' latte-sipping
sophisticates and piped-in Kenny G music are a real turnoff. They
don't feel wanted in a place that sells designer coffee at $3 a cup.
Even the thirst of loyalists for high-price coffee cannot be
taken for granted. Starbucks' growth over the early part of the
past decade coincided with a remarkable surge in the economy.
Consumer spending tanked in the downturn, and those $3 lattes
were an easy place for people on a budget to cut back.
To be sure, Starbucks has a lot going for it as it confronts the challenge of regaining its fast and steady growth. Nearly free of debt, it
fuels expansion with internal cash flow. And Starbucks can maintain
a tight grip on its image because most stores are company-owned:
There are no franchisees to get sloppy about running things. By relying on mystique and word of mouth, whether here or overseas, the
company saves a bundle on marketing costs. Starbucks spends just
$30 million annually on advertising, or roughly 1 percent of revenues, usually just for new flavors of coffee drinks in the summer
and product launches, such as its new in-store web service. Most
consumer companies its size shell out upwards of $300 million per
year. Moreover, Starbucks for the first time faces competition from
large U.S. competitors such as McDonald's and its new McCafs.
CASE 1-1 Starbucks?Going Global Fast
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Cases 1 An Overview
Schultz remains the heart and soul of the operation. Raised in
a Brooklyn public-housing project, he found his way to Starbucks,
a tiny chain of Seattle coffee shops, as a marketing executive in
the early 1980s. The name came about when the original owners
looked to Seattle history for inspiration and chose the moniker of
an old mining camp: Starbo. Further refinement led to Starbucks,
after the first mate in Moby , which they felt evoked the seafaring romance of the early coffee traders (hence the mermaid
logo). Schultz got the idea for the modern Starbucks format while
visiting a Milan coffee bar. He bought out his bosses in 1987 and
began expanding.
The company is still capable of designing and opening a store
in 16 weeks or less and recouping the initial investment in three
years. The stores may be oases of tranquility, but management's
expansion tactics are something else. Take what critics call its
"predatory real estate" strategy?paying more than marketrate rents to keep competitors out of a location. David C.
Schomer, owner of Espresso Vivace in Seattle's hip Capitol
Hill neighborhood, says Starbucks approached his landlord and
offered to pay nearly double the rate to put a coffee shop in the
same building. The landlord stuck with Schomer, who says: "It's
a little disconcerting to know that someone is willing to pay twice
the going rate." Another time, Starbucks and Tully's Coffee Corp.,
a Seattle-based coffee chain, were competing for a space in the
city. Starbucks got the lease but vacated the premises before the
term was up. Still, rather than let Tully's get the space, Starbucks
decided to pay the rent on the empty store so its competitor could
not move in. Schultz makes no apologies for the hardball tactics.
"The real estate business in America is a very, very tough game,"
he says. "It's not for the faint of heart."
Still, the company's strategy could backfire. Not only will
neighborhood activists and local businesses increasingly resent
the tactics, but also customers could also grow annoyed over
having fewer choices. Moreover, analysts contend that Starbucks
can maintain about 15 percent square-footage growth in the United
States?equivalent to 550 new stores?for only about two more
years. After that, it will have to depend on overseas growth to
maintain an annual 20 percent revenue growth.
Starbucks was hoping to make up much of that growth with
more sales of food and other noncoffee items but stumbled
somewhat. In the late 1990s, Schultz thought that offering $8
sandwiches, desserts, and CDs in his stores and selling packaged
coffee in supermarkets would significantly boost sales. The specialty business now accounts for about 16 percent of sales, but
growth has been less than expected.
What's more important for the bottom line, though, is that
Starbucks has proven to be highly innovative in the way it sells its
main course: coffee. In 800 locations it has installed automatic
espresso machines to speed up service. And several years ago, it
began offering prepaid Starbucks cards, priced from $5 to $500,
which clerks swipe through a reader to deduct a sale. That, says
the company, cuts transaction times in half. Starbucks has sold
$70 million of the cards.
When Starbucks launched Starbucks Express, its boldest experiment yet, it blended java, web technology, and faster service. At
about 60 stores in the Denver area, customers could pre-order and
prepay for beverages and pastries via phone or on the Starbucks
Express website. They just make the call or click the mouse before
arriving at the store, and their beverage would be waiting?with
their name printed on the cup. The company decided in 2003 that
the innovation had not succeeded and eliminated the service.
And Starbucks continues to try other fundamental store
changes. It announced expansion of a high-speed wireless Internet
service to about 1,200 Starbucks locations in North America and
Europe. Partners in the project?which Starbucks calls the world's
largest Wi-Fi network?include Mobile International, a wireless
subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, and Hewlett-Packard. Customers
sit in a store and check e-mail, surf the web, or download multimedia presentations without looking for connections or tripping over
cords. They start with 24 hours of free wireless broadband before
choosing from a variety of monthly subscription plans.
Starbucks executives hope such innovations will help surmount
their toughest challenge in the home market: attracting the next
generation of customers. Younger coffee drinkers already feel
uncomfortable in the stores. The company knows that because it
once had a group of twentysomethings hypnotized for a market
study. When their defenses were down, out came the bad news.
"They either can't afford to buy coffee at Starbucks, or the only
peers they see are those working behind the counter," says Mark
Barden, who conducted the research for the Hal Riney & Partners
ad agency (now part of Publicis Worldwide) in San Francisco. One
of the recurring themes the hypnosis brought out was a sense that
"people like me aren't welcome here except to serve the yuppies,"
he says. Then there are those who just find the whole Starbucks
scene a bit pretentious. Katie Kelleher, 22, a Chicago paralegal,
is put off by Starbucks' Italian terminology of grande and venti
for coffee sizes. She goes to Dunkin' Donuts, saying: "Small,
medium, and large is fine for me."
As it expands, Starbucks faces another big risk: that of becoming a far less special place for its employees. For a company modeled around enthusiastic service, that could have dire consequences
for both image and sales. During its growth spurt of the mid- to
late-1990s, Starbucks had the lowest employee turnover rate of any
restaurant or fast-food company, largely thanks to its then unheardof policy of giving health insurance and modest stock options to
part-timers making barely more than minimum wage.
Such perks are no longer enough to keep all the workers
happy. Starbucks' pay doesn't come close to matching the workload it requires, complain some staff. Says Carrie Shay, a former
store manager in West Hollywood, California: "If I were making
a decent living, I'd still be there." Shay, one of the plaintiffs in
the suit against the company, says she earned $32,000 a year
to run a store with 10 to 15 part-time employees. She hired
employees, managed their schedules, and monitored the store's
weekly profit-and-loss statement. But she was also expected to
put in significant time behind the counter and had to sign an
affidavit pledging to work up to 20 hours of overtime a week
without extra pay?a requirement the company has dropped
since the settlement.
For sure, employee discontent is far from the image Starbucks
wants to project of relaxed workers cheerfully making cappuccinos. But perhaps it is inevitable. The business model calls for
lots of low-wage workers. And the more people who are hired as
Starbucks expands, the less they are apt to feel connected to the
original mission of high service?bantering with customers and
treating them like family. Robert J. Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, says of Starbucks: "It's turning
out to be one of the great 21st century American success stories?
complete with all the ambiguities."
Overseas, though, the whole Starbucks package seems new
and, to many young people, still very cool. In Vienna, where
Starbucks had a gala opening for its first Austrian store, Helmut
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Part 6 Supplementary Material
Spudich, a business editor for the paper Der Standard, predicted
that Starbucks would attract a younger crowd than the established
cafs. "The coffeehouses in Vienna are nice, but they are old.
Starbucks is considered hip," he says.
But if Starbucks can count on its youth appeal to win a welcome in new markets, such enthusiasm cannot be counted on
indefinitely. In Japan, the company beat even its own bullish
expectations, growing to over 900 stores after opening its first in
Tokyo in 1996. Affluent young Japanese women like Anna Kato,
a 22-year-old Toyota Motor Corp. worker, loved the place. "I don't
care if it costs more, as long as it tastes sweet," she says, sitting
in the world's busiest Starbucks, in Tokyo's Shibuya district.
Yet same-store sales growth has fallen in Japan, Starbucks' top
foreign market, as rivals offer similar fare. Meanwhile in England,
Starbucks' second-biggest overseas market, with over 400 stores,
imitators are popping up left and right to steal market share.
Entering other big markets may be tougher yet. The French
seem to be ready for Starbucks' sweeter taste, says Philippe Bloch,
cofounder of Columbus Cafe, a Starbucks-like chain. But he wonders
if the company can profitably cope with France's arcane regulations and generous labor benefits. And in Italy, the epicenter of
European coffee culture, the notion that the locals will abandon
their own 200,000 coffee bars en masse for Starbucks strikes many
as ludicrous. For one, Italian coffee bars prosper by serving food
as well as coffee, an area where Starbucks still struggles. Also,
Italian coffee is cheaper than U.S. java and, say Italian purists,
much better. Americans pay about $1.50 for an espresso. In northern Italy, the price is 67 cents; in the south, just 55 cents. Schultz
insists that Starbucks will eventually come to Italy. It'll have a lot
to prove when it does. Carlo Petrini, founder of the antiglobalization movement Slow Food, sniffs that Starbucks' "substances
served in styrofoam" won't cut it. The cups are paper, of course.
But the skepticism is real.
As Starbucks spreads out, Schultz will have to be increasingly
sensitive to those cultural challenges. For instance, he flew to Israel
several years ago to meet with then Foreign Secretary Shimon
Peres and other Israeli officials to discuss the Middle East crisis.
He won't divulge the nature of his discussions. But subsequently,
at a Seattle synagogue, Schultz let the Palestinians have it. With
Starbucks outlets already in Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and
Saudi Arabia, he created a mild uproar among Palestinian supporters. Schultz quickly backpedaled, saying that his words were taken
out of context and asserting that he is "pro-peace" for both sides.
There are plenty more minefields ahead. So far, the Seattle coffee company has compiled an envious record of growth. But the
giddy buzz of that initial expansion is wearing off. Now, Starbucks
is waking up to the grande challenges faced by any corporation
bent on becoming a global powerhouse.
In a 2005 bid to boost sales in its largest international market,
Starbucks Corp. expanded its business in Japan, beyond cafs and
into convenience stores, with a line of chilled coffee in plastic
cups. The move gives the Seattle-based company a chance to grab
a chunk of Japan's $10 billion market for coffee sold in cans, bottles, or vending machines rather than made-to-order at cafs. It is
a lucrative but fiercely competitive sector, but Starbucks, which
has become a household name since opening its first Japanese
store, is betting on the power of its brand to propel sales of the
new drinks.
Starbucks is working with Japanese beverage maker and distributor Suntory Ltd. The "Discoveries" and "Doubleshot" lines
are the company's first forays into the ready-to-drink market
outside North America, where it sells a line of bottled and canned
coffee. It also underscores Starbucks' determination to expand its
presence in Asia by catering to local tastes. For instance, the new
product comes in two variations?espresso and latte?that are less
sweet than their U.S. counterparts, as the coffee maker developed
them to suit Asian palates. Starbucks officials said they hope to
establish their product as the premium chilled cup brand, which, at
210 yen ($1.87), will be priced at the upper end of the category.
Starbucks faces steep competition. Japan's "chilled cup" market is teeming with rival products, including Starbucks lookalikes.
One of the most popular brands, called Mt. Rainier, is emblazoned
with a green circle logo that closely resembles that of Starbucks.
Convenience stores also are packed with canned coffee drinks,
including Coca-Cola Co.'s Georgia brand and brews with extra
caffeine or made with gourmet coffee beans.
Schultz declined to speculate on exactly how much coffee
Starbucks might sell through Japan's convenience stores. "We
wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't important both strategically and
economically," he said.
The company has no immediate plans to introduce the beverage
in the United States, though it has in the past brought home products launched in Asia. A green tea frappuccino, first launched in
Asia, was later introduced in the United States and Canada, where
company officials say it was well received.
Starbucks has done well in Japan, although the road hasn't
always been smooth. After cutting the ribbon on its first Japan
store in 1996, the company began opening stores at a furious pace.
New shops attracted large crowds, but the effect wore off as the
market became saturated. The company returned to profitability,
and net profits jumped more than sixfold to 3.6 billion yen in 2007,
but declined again to 2.7 billion yen in 2009.
Most recently in Japan, the firm has successfully developed a broader menu for its stores, including customized products?smaller sandwiches and less-sweet desserts. The strategy
increased same store sales and overall profits. The firm also added
175 new stores since 2006, including some drive-through service.
But McDonald's also is attacking the Japanese market with the
introduction of its McCaf coffee shops.
iii.
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