Day: February 15, 2021

A.  Summarize the real-world business situation you identified in task 1.(Order # 190686755)

B.  Report the data you collected, relevant to the business situation, by doing the following:

1.  Describe the relevant data you collected.

2.  Create an appropriate graphical display (e.g., bar chart, scatter plot, line chart, or histogram) of the data you collected.

Note: This display should be a summary or representation of your data, not raw data.

C.  Report how you analyzed the data using an analysis technique from the given list by doing the following:

1.  Describe an appropriate analysis technique that you used to analyze the data.

2.  Include the output and any calculations of the analysis you performed.

Note: The output should include the output from the software you used to perform the analysis.

3.  Justify why you chose this analysis technique.

D.  Summarize the implications of your data analysis by doing the following:

1.  Discuss the results of your data analysis.

2.  Discuss the limitation(s) of your data analysis.

3.  Recommend a course of action based on your results.

Note: Your recommendation should focus on the results of your analytic technique output from part C2.

E.  Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

Assignment Prompt:
The following five (5) companies have been in the news due to either a consumer protection or antitrust problem. Select ONE of these companies from the first column as the subject of your paper. You are provided source links in the table about the company to get you started. You will need to do more research about the company as well as the ethical frameworks and applicable law.

(Companies are in the uploaded document)

When you have selected your company, research and cover the following points in a well written essay. Use APA format and topical headings.

In an introductory paragraph identify the company, the topic and a well crafted thesis statement.
Briefly describe the company and the nature of its business and corporate business environment. Do not spend a lot of time on the history of the company, but do describe sufficiently to create meaningful context. This should only need to be a paragraph.
Research, define and discuss the legal issues and regulatory environment for the company’s consumer or antitrust issue. (i.e., What are the laws involved?) Include case law.
Ethical dilemma and frameworks: Identify the ethical dilemma that the company presents with respect to its antitrust or consumer problem. This should be encapsulated in a single sentence. Evaluate two ethical frameworks with respect to the company’s management’s decisions that led to the situation. One of these should be the ethical framework you identify as the framework the company followed in its decision-making. The other should be a contrasting framework that might have produced a different situation for the company.
Other legal topics that relate to the company’s business: Also, clearly define and evaluate three (3) additional legal topics (NOT antitrust or consumer protection) that we covered this term — and that are explained in your text and required readings, and apply them to the company’s business. (Hint: Review the legal topics in the textbook and cite to the the text in your analysis. We covered many subjects. Examples: contracts, torts, product liability, bankruptcy, securities & stocks trading, employment issues, defamation, privacy, ADR, etc. Include illustrative case law.)
General recommendations for business leadership and managers that you have learned from this study (not just for the company you have selected, but for running a business).
Conclusion.
References list

Further Guidance:

Reflect on the class discussions and the text, required readings, articles that you have read during the class and use the information, and other academic sources
Write a well-supported analytical essay critiquing the company, its operations, and the ethical dilemma it caused. Discuss the legal issues and concepts identified and make recommendations for management. LENGTH: – See RUBRIC
Number of sources: Exemplary level of performance states 7 sources, at least 2 of which from library and none of which from excluded sources.
Proper citation and references formatting must be in APA 7th Ed.
Papers that do not include appropriate in text citations will lose points.
Dictionaries, encyclopedias — including Investopedia — Wikis, and the like, and Internet generic quick-answer websites are not acceptable to populate your Reference list. Use your text, required readings, and other scholarly sources.
Review Grading rubric.
Organize your paper with appropriate subheadings.
Do not write in 1st or 2nd person. Paper must be written in 3rd person.
Do not use contractions.
All sources on References list must be correctly cited in the text of the paper and vice versa.

The Hamptons Hotel and Restaurant: Mutually Exclusive Investments Property Description and Background Information
The Hampton Hotel is located in the Hamptons Road area of Virginia Beach, Virginia. The hotel is rated as a four diamond hotel, based on the United States hotel rating system. The hotel is considered as being unpretentious but luxurious. The Hamptons Hotel is approximately 7 years old. The hotel consists of 250 guestrooms made up of 50 premium rooms and 200 standard rooms. There is only one restaurant, capable of seating 150 persons. There is also a lobby bar which connects with the restaurant. The only entrance to the hotel is through the lobby bar. In addition, the hotel offers a full range of services to guests, including a large conference and event space for up to 200 persons, an exercise room overlooking the ocean, an outdoor pool and recreation area, free parking for guests, and room service. The average annual occupancy is 63%. The market segments include business, leisure, tour, contract, large groups, and small groups.
Three years ago, the Hamptons Hotel was acquired by Hilton International, a U.S. publicly traded corporation with holdings worldwide. It initially paid $31.5 million for The Hamptons Hotel and invested an additional $2.0 million in renovations and furnishings.
Restaurant Dilemma
Although management has been highly successful in increasing hotel room occupancy and improving overall hotel revenue, the restaurant continues to be unprofitable even with increased food and beverage revenue. After undistributed operating expenses and fixed charges have been allocated to the restaurant, the restaurant continues to operate at a loss and is not capable of absorbing its share of overhead. Unfortunately, the hotel restaurant has followed a trend in the U. S. hotel industry which began in the 1980s and 1990s. Currently, the hotel restaurant only serves an average of 60% of hotel guests at breakfast and serves only 22% of hotel guests at dinner. Walk-ins from the outside account for the remaining customers.
The corporate financial manager and The Hamptons General Manager are at odds with what should happen with the restaurant in the future. The corporate financial manager argues that the restaurant should be closed and offered to a suitable chain restaurant group under a leasing arrangement. The general manager, however, is certain that if corporate could provide additional funding to construct an access to the restaurant from the street and make the restaurant trendier in style, then the hotel restaurant could show profitability in the future.
The corporate financial manager has already approached three reputable upscale chain restaurants. The restaurant chains have agreed to review the offer if Hilton agrees to construct an entrance with street access to the restaurant. The most feasible of the three is Ricks Steak and Seafood, a very popular upscale restaurant with locations in beachfront cities on the eastern coast of the U. S. The leasing agreement will be for five years and provides for $62,000 in lease income each year. Renewal of the lease will be at the option of Hilton. Therefore, the projections will be based on a five-year leasing period. The initial investment to provide street
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accessibility is estimated to cost $950,000 and should be depreciated over 20 years. Although Ricks Steak and Seafood will provide alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, Ricks has agreed not to operate a bar or lounge area for customers, but allow customers who are awaiting seating or wish to meet in the bar after dining to use the hotel lobby bar. The financial manager has estimated that this will increase the bar revenue of $12,500 for the first year and an additional increase of 5% per year for each year thereafter. Beverage costs amounts to approximately 20% of sales. The financial manager also realizes that not all of the overhead charged to the restaurant will be eliminated and that other hotel operated departments will have to absorb some of the overhead costs. His best estimate of the overhead that can be eliminated from the hotel is $200,000 per year. In addition, the financial manager estimates that there will be a one- time reduction in working capital required of approximately $70,000 as a result of lower accounts receivables and lower inventories. Although some portion of existing equipment will be included in the lease, the remaining equipment and furnishings will be sold at an estimated cash gain before taxes of $80,000 (the sale will occur in Year 1 of the lease). You can assume that future tax rates for Hilton will be the same as the last fiscal years effective tax rate.
The general manager discussed his proposal for renovation and construction of the street access with an architect. In the architects opinion, the cost to renovate the restaurant in an appropriate style and construct the street access would cost $1.8 million, also to be depreciated over 20 years. The general manager has based his projections on five years since corporate has made it clear that if the restaurant remains in-house, then the restaurant must be profitable over the next five years. The GM has also forecasted the increase in potential restaurant revenue of $800,000 for the first year, with an increase of 10% every year for the next four years. Cost of sales, including both food and beverage, amount to approximately 35% of sales. With the increase in sales, two additional waiters will probably have to be hired (you will have to determine the additional cost). The general manager has also included an additional investment in required working capital based on the increased sales, inventories, and purchases payable; you can assume NOWC to be 5% of revenue, so an increase in revenue should create a corresponding increase in NOWC. Although the restaurant will be renovated, some of the older equipment will remain. Therefore, additional cash reserves of $100,000 to $140,000 for the entire five year will be needed for future replacements in equipment (CAPEX reserves, annual amounts to be distributed at the discretion of the hotel). The general manager has applied an average tax rate of 25% to the projected operating cash flows.
Additional Information
For the calculations, both the corporate financial manager and the GM considered all the companys investments to have the same average risk as the Hilton Corporation. For income tax purposes, the original investment for either proposal will be depreciated using the straight- line method based on a five year life with no salvage value. The average tax rate for the group is also 25%.
Meeting with the Managers
You have been requested to consult Hilton and participate in the meeting in order to make a decision on which investment is the optimal choice, i.e., creates the most value for the
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shareholders. Before attending the meeting, you are requested to complete the analysis of the mutually exclusive investments. In preparation for the meeting, you will prepare a formal paper analyzing the two investments and responding to the following questions:
  Tasks:
      Learning Descriptor
    1. Calculation of corporation cost of capital and various profitability measures (40%)
Based on the cost of capital for Hilton and its average
asset risks for both proposals, estimate their cost of capital. Then, calculate each proposals payback period, annual return on investment, IRR and NPV. Which proposal creates more value? In presenting your results, provide justification as to why you have selected one proposal over the other. This will require a discussion of the pros and cons of the valuation methods presented in the proposal.
  Knowledge and Understanding
Professional Competencies
Transferrable Skills
  2. Analysis of risk of the different alternatives (20%)
Even though it was considered that both proposals are in
the same risk category as their other investments, how would you assess each proposals risk? Justify your response. If you find necessary to reassess any of the proposals risk level, would that change your estimation as to which one creates more value?
      Knowledge and Understanding
Professional Competencies
Transferrable Skills
    3. Change in risk levels and in the cost of capital (15%)
Assume that Hiltons beta increases by a multiple of 1.3
(i.e. it becomes 1.3 times the beta you originally calculated) and that its cost of debt go up by about 1.5%. What is the new cost of capital for Hilton? Does your response to Questions 1, 2 and 3 above change? Why or why not? What does this tell you about the proposals sensitivity to the cost of capital chosen? What could cause the beta and the cost of debt to increase?
    Knowledge and Understanding
Cognitive Skills
Professional
Competencies
Transferable Skills
    4. Analysis of uncertainties (20%)
Analyze the sources of uncertainties in the estimations (the managers and yours); how confident are you about the calculations? What, if any, additional information would you require to decrease the uncertainties involved in the proposals and to make a more informed decision as to the optimal investment opportunity? Justify your response.
  Cognitive Skills Professional
Competencies
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5. References and presentation (5%)
Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text. The report should be well-written, free of spelling and grammar mistakes.

Please fill out Task 1 Template. 

Describe a real-world business situation that could be addressed by collecting and analyzing a set of data.  Summarize one question or decision relevant to the real-world business situation that you will answer by collecting and analyzing a set of data.
1.  Explain why the situation or question would benefit from a data analysis.
2.  Identify all of the data that you will need to collect that is relevant to the situation or question.
3.  Describe the data gathering method you will use to collect data.

Note: The data gathering method can include data sources (e.g., databases, surveys, behavioral observations, online sources, etc.)

6.  Identify an appropriate data analysis technique from the approved list above to analyze this data.

a.  Explain why the data analysis technique you chose is an appropriate technique to analyze the data collected.

Note: Use the Determining the Appropriate Analytical Technique presentation in the Attachment section below to help you determine the appropriate analysis technique for your data and business situation or speak with a course instructor.

B.  Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

Recommended Analysis Techniques:

  regression (linear regression, multiple regression, or logistic regression)

  time series or trend analysis (regression, exponential smoothing, or moving average)

  chi-square

  t-test

  ANOVA

  crossover analysis

  break-even analysis

Pricing strategy varies significantly across different market structures. The pricing guidelines in a monopoly market are relatively straightforward. Since the company is the only producer offering the product, it can mark-up the price as far as the customer can bear. The pricing strategies for a producer operating in a perfect competition structure are also fairly intuitive. They are price takers, and hence the price is set at the marginal cost of the product. This is due to the fact that there are many firms offering nearly identical products. However, there is optimal pricing for the market structures offering differentiated products with many competitors (oligopoly) or a few producers (monopolistic competition). These are much more complex and involved. It has been stated that differentiation in products that creates differences in customer valuation is the most prevalent type of competition. In such markets pricing strategies may include the three C’s of cost, competition, and customer.

Develop a paper detailing an analysis of market structures and relating pricing strategies that are suitable for each of these structures. Furthermore, include a real-world example of pricing strategy for a specific company by identifying its market structure.

Your paper should be around 10 double spaced pages, in APA Format and structured as follows:

Cover page with a running head
Abstract
1. Perfect Competition
1.1. Description
1.2. Pricing Strategies
2. Monopolistic competition
2.1. Description
2.2. Pricing Strategies
3. Oligopoly
3.1. Description
3.2. Pricing Strategies
4. Monopoly
4.1. Description
4.2. Pricing Strategies
5. Case Study
6. Conclusion
References

Your paper needs to include at least three scholarly sources, i.e. peer-reviewed articles.

Why is knowing (or estimating) the product demand so crucial for a firm?

In your response, include an example of a business that has suffered from poorly estimating the demand of its products. Evaluate how or why the business made such a mistake.