Exam 2 Essay Question Answers

Three of the following four essay questions will part of the second exam (along with 25 MC questions).  Answer any TWO of the following three questions. (25 pts. each).

(A) Do the two views of CSR agree or disagree on what a corporation's social responsibilities are?  Explain both how AND under what circumstances they might agree or disagree. The first is the stakeholder’s view which balances the interests of all stakeholders (employees, investors, customers, etc.) and distributes the outcome fairly.  All four of the proposed responsibilities are included in this view: economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic.  The second is the economic view.  Under this view the firm is to make as much money as possible while still obeying the laws and customs of society.  This view uses three of the four proposed responsibilities: economics, legal, and ethical. The two views of CSR disagree on what a corporation's social responsibilities should be (because the economic view does not accept philanthropic responsibility).  However, the philanthropic responsibility could be transformed into a marketing tool and therefore increasing earnings.

(B) Evaluate Sears' Corporate level strategy choices through the years. Why have they made these choices? Justify your evaluation in terms of the concepts we have discussed in class.

(C) Draw the BCG Matrix for the following firm (on your own paper) and then tell me which quadrant each SBU falls in (Justify with the MGR and RMS for each SBU). Explain the resource allocation decisions the firm should make for each SBU and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using matrix tools for corporate portfolio analysis. Be as specific as possible.  (I will provide numbers in the columns below.

SBU     SBU sales     Competitor A sales     Competitor B sales     Market Growth Rate

 (D) Describe the main task performed by the group or department in which you work (or have worked). Based on this information, discuss whether the group...