Mergers and acquisitions are often driven by such strategic objectives as to

A. facilitating a company's shift from a low-cost leadership strategy to a focused low-cost strategy.
B. expanding a company's geographic coverage or extending its business into new product categories.
C. reducing the number of industry key success factors.
D. reducing the number of strategic groups in the industry.
E. lengthening a company's value chain and thereby putting it in a better position to deliver superior value to buyers.

Reliability and validity reliability and validity are two important considerations that must be made with any type of data collection. reliability refers to the ability to consistently produce a given result. in the context of psychological research, this would mean that any instruments or tools used to collect data do so in consistent, reproducible ways. unfortunately, being consistent in measurement does not necessarily mean that you have measured something correctly. to illustrate this concept, consider a kitchen scale that would be used to measure the weight of cereal that you eat in the morning. if the scale is not properly calibrated, it may consistently under- or overestimate the amount of cereal that’s being measured. while the scale is highly reliable in producing consistent results (e.g., the same amount of cereal poured onto the scale produces the same reading each time), those results are incorrect. this is where validity comes into play. validity refers to the extent to which a given instrument or tool accurately measures what it’s supposed to measure. while any valid measure is by necessity reliable, the reverse is not necessarily true. researchers strive to use instruments that are both highly reliable and valid.

Arnold rossiter is a 40-year-old employee of the barrington company who will retire at age 60 and expects to live to age 75. the firm has promised a retirement income of $20,000 at the end of each year following retirement until death. the firm's pension fund is expected to earn 7 percent annually on its assets and the firm uses 7% to discount pension benefits. what is barrington's annual pension contribution to the nearest dollar for mr. rossiter? (assume certainty and end-of-year cash flows.)

About 20 years ago, sturdy light, inc., produced a sturdy, lightweight backpack in a market that was rapidly growing. sturdy light became a leader in this market. eventually, the backpack market reached the maturity stage and slowed down. however, by this time, sturdy light had developed a strong brand name and continued to steadily lead the market. which of the following describes this scenario? a. sturdy light was a star that developed into a cash cow. b. sturdy light was a question mark that developed into a star. c. sturdy light was a dog that developed into a question mark. d. sturdy light was a cash cow that developed into a star.