The culture of ups places service to the customer among the company's highest business objectives, which is reflected in their use of information systems to enable customer tracking of their packages. based on your reading of chapter 1, why is "culture" an important factor to consider when building information system solutions to business problems

Adrawback of short-term contracting as an alternative to making a component in-house is thata. it is the most-integrated alternative to performing an activity so the principal company has no control over the agent. b. the supplying firm has no incentive to make any transaction-specific investments to increase performance or quality. c. it fails to allow a long planning period that individual market transactions provide. d. the buying firm cannot demand lower prices due to the lack of a competitive bidding process.

"jake’s roof repair has provided the following data concerning its costs: fixed cost per month cost per repair-hour wages and salaries $ 20,900 $ 15.00 parts and supplies $ 7.70 equipment depreciation $ 2,800 $ 0.35 truck operating expenses $ 5,720 $ 1.60 rent $ 4,690 administrative expenses $ 3,850 $ 0.50 for example, wages and salaries should be $20,900 plus $15.00 per repair-hour. the company expected to work 2,600 repair-hours in may, but actually worked 2,500 repair-hours. the company expects its sales to be $47.00 per repair-hour. required: compute the company’s activity variances for may."

R& m chatelaine is one of the largest tax-preparation firms in the united states. it wants to acquire the tax experts, a smaller rival. after the merger, chatelaine will be one of the two largest income-tax preparers in the u. s. market. what should chatelaine include in its acquisition plans? it should refocus its attention from the national to the international market. in addition to acquiring the tax experts, it should also determine the best way to drive independent "mom and pop" tax preparers out of business. chatelaine will need to explain to the federal trade commission how the acquisition will not result in an increase in prices for consumers. chatelaine should enter a price-based competition with its other major competitor to force it out of business and become a monopoly.