During industrialization, smaller businesses struggled to compete with large corporations because small businesses
a. had to pay a larger tax to the government.
b. could not implement the cost-cutting measures used by large corporations.
c. could not compete with the superior quality of goods made by large companies.
d. had difficulty hiring people to work for them.

 Option B

Explanation: In simple words, cost cutting refers to the process in which an organisation modifies or re- implement its production and distribution process with the sole object of reducing the cost of production.

By reducing the cost of production an organisation can charge low prices for the product in the market and attract more customers. Although this process sounds straight but it is not easy for the firms orating at small level.    

           Large firms can easily cut their cost without affecting quality as they have huge scale of operations and they purchase inputs at a high volume which makes them applicable for particular discounts.

Thus, from the above we can conclude that the correct option is B.

answer(b); ; ; the quantitative or qualitative variable for which the experimenter wishes to determine how its value is affected by the explanatory variable;