Firms that sell luxury products, custom-made products, and services often take the time to significantly modify their products in an effort to precisely match the needs of individual customers. These firms are pursuing what type of approach to market segmentation?

According to the law of demand, there is an inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded. that is, the demand curve for goods and services slopes downward. why?

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.

The gilbert instrument corporation is considering replacing the wood steamer it currently uses to shape guitar sides. the steamer has 6 years of remaining life. if kept,the steamer will have depreciaiton expenses of $650 for five years and $325 for the sixthyear. its current book value is $3,575, and it can be sold on an internet auction site for$4,150 at this time. if the old steamer is not replaced, it can be sold for $800 at the endof its useful life. gilbert is considering purchasing the side steamer 3000, a higher-end steamer, whichcosts $12,000 and has an estimated useful life of 6 years with an estimated salvage value of$1,500. this steamer falls into the macrs 5-year class, so the applicable depreciationrates are 20.00%, 32.00%, 19.20%, 11.52%, 11.52%, and 5.76%. the new steamer is fasterand allows for an output expansion, so sales would rise by $2,000 per year; the newmachine's much greater efficiency would reduce operating expenses by $1,900 per year.to support the greater sales, the new machine would require that inventories increase by$2,900, but accounts payable would simultaneously increase by $700. gilbert's marginalfederal-plus-state tax rate is 40%, and its wacc is 15%.a. should it replace the old steamer? b. npv of replace = $2,083.51