In many cases, companies that enter a market after innovative products have been introduced can achieve long-term competitive advantages by continuing to develop a better mousetrap. for example, visicalc was the first company to introduce a desktop spreadsheet program, but lotus notes cornered a large market share when it introduced the 1-2-3 program. today, however, microsoft’s excel is the dominant spreadsheet software program and has continued to endure due to the popularity of the microsoft office suite of products. visicalc possessed a advantage while microsoft enjoyed a advantage.

There are three factors that can affect the shape of the treasury yield curve (r* t , ip t , and mrp t ) and five factors that can affect the shape of the corporate yield curve (r* t , ip t , mrp t , drp t , and lp t ). the yield curve reflects the aggregation of the impacts from these factors. suppose the real risk-free rate and inflation rate are expected to remain at their current levels throughout the foreseeable future. consider all factors that affect the yield curve. then identify which of the following shapes that the us treasury yield curve can take. check all that apply. a. downward-sloping yield curveb. upward-sloping yield curvec. inverted yield curve