tailieunhanh - Ebook Managerial accounting (10/E): Part 2

Part 2 book “Managerial accounting” has contents: Differential analysis and product pricing, capital investment analysis, cost allocation and activity-based costing, cost management for just-in-time environments, statement of cash flows, financial statement analysis. | C H A P T E R 9 © KEVIN P. CASEY/ASSOCIATED PRESS Differential Analysis and Product Pricing R E A L N E T W O R K S , M any of the decisions that you make depend on comparing the estimated costs of alternatives. The payoff from such comparisons is described in the following report from a University of Michigan study. Richard Nisbett and two colleagues quizzed Michigan faculty members and university seniors on such questions as how often they walk out on a bad movie, refuse to finish a bad meal, start over on a weak term paper, or abandon a research project that no longer looks promising. They believe that people who cut their losses this way are following sound economic rules: calculating the net benefits of alternative courses of action, writing off past costs that can’t be recovered, and weighing the opportunity to use future time and effort more profitably elsewhere. Among students, those who have learned to use cost-benefit analysis frequently are apt to have far better grades than their Scholastic Aptitude Test scores would have predicted. Again, the more economics courses the students have, the more likely they are to apply cost-benefit analysis outside the classroom. Dr. Nisbett concedes that for many Americans, cost-benefit rules often appear to conflict with such traditional principles as “never give up” and “waste not, want not.” I N C . Managers must also apply cost-benefit rules in making decisions affecting their business. RealNetworks, Inc., the Internet-based music and game company, like most companies must choose between alternatives. Examples of decisions faced by RealNetworks include whether it should expand or discontinue services, such as its recent decision to Mac-enable its digital music service, Rhapsody,® and whether to accept business at special prices, such as special pricing on its Helix Media Delivery System®. Other decisions include whether to replace network equipment, develop its own software, or buy software from .