Big Lots is able to compete against Wal-Mart with a cost leadership strategy because of its strengths in highly disciplined merchandise cost and inventory management system. This illustrates the:. A) ability of Big Lots to imitate Wal-Mart's tightly integrated activity map.
B) ability to survive against a dominant competitor by changing from a broad competitive scope to a narrow competitive scope.
C) fact that support activities in the firm can provide sources of cost reduction.
D) importance of effective use of primary activities in the value chain.

Assume today is december 31, 2013. barrington industries expects that its 2014 after-tax operating income [ebit(1 – t)] will be $400 million and its 2014 depreciation expense will be $70 million. barrington's 2014 gross capital expenditures are expected to be $120 million and the change in its net operating working capital for 2014 will be $25 million. the firm's free cash flow is expected to grow at a constant rate of 4.5% annually. assume that its free cash flow occurs at the end of each year. the firm's weighted average cost of capital is 8.6%; the market value of the company's debt is $2.15 billion; and the company has 180 million shares of common stock outstanding. the firm has no preferred stock on its balance sheet and has no plans to use it for future capital budgeting projects. using the corporate valuation model, what should be the company's stock price today (december 31, 2013)? round your answer to the nearest cent. do not round intermediate calculations.

Two assets have the following expected returns and standard deviations when the risk-free rate is 5%: asset a e(ra) = 18.5% σa = 20% asset b e(rb) = 15% σb = 27% an investor with a risk aversion of a = 3 would find that on a risk-return basis. a. only asset a is acceptable b. only asset b is acceptable c. neither asset a nor asset b is acceptable d. both asset a and asset b are acceptable

Shawn received an e-mail offering a great deal on music, movie, and game downloads. he has never heard of the company, and the e-mail address and company name do not match. what should shawn do?