thinkPhD

I received my grade for the final project in MGT5001 Economics and the Modern Manager. My 4.0 is hanging in there! Today starts MGT5012 Managerial Accounting for Decision Making. There are 12 activities in this course; some are papers, case studies and problems. The first assignment is a paper on GAAP, JIT and TOC worth 10 points.

The course has apparently undergone some changes as the syllabus differs from one that I had seen previously. The assignments are pulled from the textbook as well as the HBR Coursepak. The Coursepak includes case studies and is downloaded from the Harvard Business School XanEdu website for a fee, of course.

The regular textbook is Managerial Accounting 12th edition (2008) by Garrison, Noreen and Brewer. I was able to find someone selling her text. This book will be the most expensive used book that I have purchased so far here at NCU. This book with shipping was $93.95 plus the HBR Coursepak cost $47.50. The textbook is the newest edition so the resale value is high. The fellow student who is selling her MA textbook is also including a copy of the 11th edition which she said she had also purchased. I have not yet purchased the HBR Coursepak yet, but I will this week.

I turned in module 6 – the final project – in MGT5001 two days ago. I also sent in a course request for the next course, MGT5012 Managerial Accounting. Usually my advisor is very quick to process my payment and send the syllabus but this time she has been slower than usual. I was not able to find a used book for a reasonable price on half.com, but I have been corresponding with a fellow student who has a book for sale. I am SO ready to get my final grade back and start the next course!

I turned in Assignment 5 for MGT5001 Economics and the Modern Manager yesterday. This assignment included (just like all the others) a discussion question and a paper. The discussion question was:

How is it possible that a firm in a perfectly competitive market is able to sell all it wants without having to change the price? What does this tell us about the elasticity of demand faced by the firm? and the paper was:
Compare and contrast managerial decisions in (a) a competitive market, (b) an oligopoly, and (c) a monopoly.

I have a bad cold and so it was tough to write this one with the cold medicine making me sleepy. What made it worse was that I took a vacation day off on Friday and today (Monday) to have some time at home plus work on papers. Today, I am taking it easy but reading for the final assignment. Here is what is required on Assignment #6 (eight discussion questions):

Discuss in detail the demand considerations of pricing and how they relate to profit maximization?

What factors cause a marketing textbook to lose value during the period of one semester? It is not unusual for a student to receive less than one-half of the purchase price when he or she sells the book at end of the semester?

If two nearly identical wristwatches – except for brand name – have different prices, consumers generally conclude that the higher priced watch is of higher quality. What factors led to this conclusion?

You are in a supermarket shopping for soda and other party items. A six-pack of Pepsi on a special display is priced at $5.95. Using the concept of reference prices, how would you and other consumers determine whether this is a good value?

Windows 95, introduced in August 1995, was uniformly priced at $89.95 through advertising support agreements between Microsoft and retailers. Was uniform pricing a good decision or should Microsoft have encouraged retailers to set their own prices? Was $89.95 a good price; was it too high; was it too low?

Price haggling is an American tradition when buying an automobile. Saturn has established a no-haggle pricing policy. Is this a good or bad marketing move for Saturn? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Sam’s Club is thought of as a deep discounter that sells merchandise in a warehouse setting. What factors allow Sam’s to offer deep discounts? How successful is the concept now? How successful will it be in the future?

Airline customers must travel over the weekend to get a discount from most major airlines. What are the airlines objectives for charging differential prices over the weekend?

I am also thinking about my next course as this one ends Feb 23. I think I will take MGT5012, Managerial Accounting for Decision Making. I sent an inquiry about the course to my academic advisor.

I received my graded assignment 3 Demand Analysis and scored a 99%. I had just a grammatical error or two and a point was deducted. Ouch! Dr. P. continued to complement me on my clear writing style and made some comments in the margin that let me know that I was on track. She liked the examples that I gave and commented on Ben Bernanke’s quoted observation:

“In coming decades, many forces will shape our economy and our society, but in all likelihood no single factor will have as pervasive an effect as the aging of our population.”

To illustrate elasticity of demand, I discussed the Forever Stamp and hunting license fees in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I observed that the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) did not have good information when the decision was made to increase licenses by $5 in 2006. They sold just 316 licenses less than the previous year and revenue increased by $5.4MM. However, since quantity demanded was inelastic and raising the price by 4.2% only meant a .02% reduction in number sold, the VDGIF apparently needs to take an ECON101 class.  They left money on the table when increasing licenses by $5; they could have increased the price by twice that.

 The next assignment is on Production and Cost Analysis, chapters 8- 10 in the Thomas and Maurice text. The Discussion Question involves whether or not tolls would decrease congestion on highways. The paper is a comparison between production and cost in the short term and production and cost in the long term.

I am almost through the chapters and should start on the writing later today.

I completed assignment 2 for MGT5001 Economics and the Modern Manager and turned that baby in yesterday. Whew! It took me more days than I thought it would to get it good enough to turn in. The next assignment also looks like a doozey. Well, maybe the assignment is not difficult, but understanding how the text applies to the questions is! The questions are applications of the information from the chapter readings. At first glance, the questions do not appear to be difficult, but it takes a good bit of explaining the theory and then applying the theory to pull together the answers in a credible, understandable paper.

 We stayed up late last night watching Braveheart on HBO. We have seen that movie about a million times, but it is still a good movie. Then I dreamed about economic marginal analysis all night (the subject of assignment 2) and woke up early, after about 4 hours of sleep. I started reading chapters 5-7 in the text preparing for assignment 3. There is so much in the text so I read, and then re-read to make sure that I have it figured out. It takes me a long time to read the text chapters and pull together my papers. This class finishes up Feb 23 and there are 6 assignments. Assignment 6 is very long, with 8 discussion questions. Ugh. Back to reading chapters…..!

Module 2 is called Optimal Decisions and Estimation Techniques. The basis of the questions is practical applications of economic marginal analysis. I have been reading the chapters today in the text trying to figure out which way to begin the paper. The discussion question involves output related to workers and the paper is a discusson of the practical application of economic marginal analysis.

But it is Christmas and so hard to concentrate!

Tonight I checked to see if Dr. P had graded my first assignment in MGT5001. She made some very good comments and I got a very good grade. Hallelujah! I was very worried because I had heard that she was very tough.

I downloaded my graded paper and my thumb drive was not in the usb slot. I looked in my purse. Not there. I looked in my briefcase. Not there. I looked in my car. Not there. I must have lost it when I went Christmas shopping this week. I started calling the stores. Not there. I was crying by now and husband started looking with me. I ranted about quitting and about all the stresses that push on me.

Then, he found my ring of drives. It was in my briefcase but hidden under a fabric fold. I hugged husband and cried a minute on his shoulder. Tonight was a night of high – low – high emotions. My ring of drives is my second brain. The drives have all of my teaching notes and lesson plans as well as my papers and research for school. I cannot recreate all of what is on those drives. I have learned my lesson and I will back up the drives to my cpu hard drive. What would I do if I had truly lost my drives?

I finished the first “module” or assignment in MGT5001: Economics and the Modern Manager.  The module consisted of a discussion question (2 points) and a paper (12 points) corresponding to chapters 1 & 2 in the text. I am eager to start on assignment 2 which is the same basic format.

I have been taking one course and then completing it before beginning the next. I would like to finish courses prior to the end date so that I can finish my PhD in less time. It will take a lot of effort to make that happen. This course has six modules consisting of a disucssion question and a paper. The final paper is a project (28 points) wherein two questions are answered.

I am always nervous when submitting assignments to new mentors because each one grades differently. It is a little like walking through a door not knowing what is behind it. I am also hoping that this mentor, Dr. P., grades assignments faster than my last mentor. I would like to complete at least one more module prior to the end of December. I think that I will be able to do this if I can stay on track. I do not teach again until January and then it will be a course that I have taught before so there will be less course prep time. It does look like there will be more in the class, which means more time grading papers.

I start a new course on Dec 1 – MGT5001 Economics and the Modern Manager. This course is outlined:

Economic concepts for management form the basis for decision-making in the business and industrial environment. Supply and demand, competition, labor and capital markets, as well as economic, social, political, legal, and technical factors influence business and industrial service and profitability.

This course will be a good review for me. I want to brush up on the subject matter for my personal benefit as well as as preparation for my dissertation. In addition, it should give me enough economics credits to teach the subject.

I had hoped to start the course on Jan 1 but I needed to take a course now since I completed the last one in October. I did have an extension on the October course MGT5016 because of some advisor issues. My advisor pointed out that the extensions are not applicable to course start / end dates and to remain continuously enrolled I needed a Dec 1 start date.

The book is Managerial Economics, 8th ed.,  by C.R. Thomas. I was able to find a copy on half.com for less than $25.00. It shipped today and I should be able to start the course on Dec 1 as planned. I want to finish this course early – and hope to get a good bit done over the Christmas holiday.