As part of her annual review of her company's budgets versus actuals, Mary Gerard isolates unfavorable variances with the hope of getting a better understanding of what caused them and how to avoid them next year. The variable overhead efficiency variance was the most unfavorable over the previous year, which Gerard will specifically be able to trace to:

Who is better at multi-tasking? in business, employees are often asked to perform a complex task when their atten-tion is divided (i.e., multi-tasking). human factors (may 2014) published a study designed to determine whether video game players are better than non–video game play-ers at multi-tasking. each in a sample of 60 college stu-dents was classified as a video game player or a non-player. participants entered a street crossing simulator and were asked to cross a busy street at an unsigned intersec-tion. the simulator was designed to have cars traveling at various high rates of speed in both directions. during the crossing, the students also performed a memory task as a distraction. two variables were measured for each student: (1) a street crossing performance score (measured out of 100 points) and (2) a memory task score (measured out of 20 points). the researchers found no differences in either the street crossing performance or memory task score of video game players and non-gamers. “these results,” say the researchers, “suggest that action video game players [and non-gamers] are equally susceptible to the costs of dividing attention in a complex task”

On january 1, 2017, fisher corporation purchased 40 percent (90,000 shares) of the common stock of bowden, inc. for $980,000 in cash and began to use the equity method for the investment. the price paid represented a $48,000 payment in excess of the book value of fisher's share of bowden's underlying net assets. fisher was willing to make this extra payment because of a recently developed patent held by bowden with a 15-year remaining life. all other assets were considered appropriately valued on bowden's books. bowden declares and pays a $90,000 cash dividend to its stockholders each year on september 15. bowden reported net income of $400,000 in 2017 and $348,000 in 2018. each income figure was earned evenly throughout its respective year. on july 1, 2018, fisher sold 10 percent (22,500 shares) of bowden's outstanding shares for $338,000 in cash. although it sold this interest, fisher maintained the ability to significantly influence bowden's decision-making process. prepare the journal entries for fisher for the years of 2017 and 2018. (if no entry is required for a transaction/event, select "no journal entry required" in the first account field. do not round intermediate calculations. round your final answers to the nearest whole dollar.)

Individual consumers belong to which step of choosing a target market? possible customers competition demographics communication