UGC NET Management Previous Year Solved Papers - June 2019
1. A firm’s competitive advantage over its competitor is best described by the:
- A
Difference between buyers’ willingness to pay (WTP) and suppliers’ willingness to sell (WT S) is greater than the competitor’s difference between the WTP and WTS
- B
The combined valuation of businesses more than the individual sum of businesses
- C
Winner businesses win more than the losers lose
- D
The superiority of the corporate strategy over its business strategy
- Option : A
- Explanation : The goal of business strategy is to maximize the net present value (NPV) of a business, i.e., its future cash flows appropriately discounted for their timing and riskiness. At the most basic level, this is achieved by ensuring that your buyers are willing to pay more for the outputs of a business than what your suppliers are willing to sell the input to you for. Willingness-to-pay (WTP) is the most that buyers will pay for a firm’s product. The actual price (i.e., what the buyers pay the firm) will be equal to or less than the WTP, or a firm will sell nothing. Willingness-to sells (WTS) is the least price for which suppliers will provide all inputs for a firm’s product, including raw materials, capital, and labor. You have a competitive advantage over a competitor when your difference between buyers’ WTP and suppliers’ WTS sell is greater than your competitor’s difference (between their buyers’ WTP and than your competitor’s difference (between their buyers’ WTP and their suppliers’ WTS).
Different types of competitive advantage There are thus two ways of increasing competitive advantage (see fig. 2) by raising the price the customers are willing to pay you (pursuing a differentiation advantage)and/or by lowering the price suppliers are willing to sell to you for (pursuing a cost advantage). If follows that which one you should pursue will depend on the alternatives available to your customers and suppliers (i.e., their bargaining power with you).
Exponential distribution comprises which of the following characteristics?
(a) It is a discrete distribution
(b) It is a family of distributions
(c) It is skewed to the left
(d) The x values range from zero to infinity
2. Which one of the following options is most appropriate:
- Option : D
- Explanation : The exponential distribution is closely related to the Poisson distribution. Whereas the Poisson
distribution is discrete and describes random occurrences over some interval, the
exponential distribution is continuous and describes a probability distribution of the
times between random occurrences. The following are the characteristics of the exponential distribution.
It is a continuous distribution.
It is a family of distribution.
It is skewed to the right.
The x values range from zero to infinity.
Its apex is always at x = 0.
The curve steadily decreases as x gets larger.
3. The term ‘The War for Talent’ was coined by:
- Option : A
- Explanation : The war for talent was first expressed by Steven Hankin of McKinsey and Company in 1997, and further developed in a series of McKinsey articles by Elaine Chambers and colleagues, Berh Axelrod, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Ed Michaels (Axelrod, Handfield- Jones, and Michaels, 2002), and then Matthew Guthridge and colleagues.
In his book Successful Talent Strategies, Sears (2003) argued the McKinsey book on The War for Talent was describing a situation in which organizations were designing competitive HR strategies in the struggle of employers to land and “upskill” employees in a cut-throat free-agent employment market. Under this philosophy, rather than just being a desirable HR program, talent management is a leadership imperative—a cultural mindset.
4. Which of the following modules is NOT a part of a typical ERP system?
- Option : A
- Explanation : ERP system is an integrated system, which comprises various modules covering different functions of an organization. Although the
features of ERP systems vary from application to the application, the typical ERP functionality covers the core enterprise functions and the associated sample modules. A typical ERP system consists of the following modules:
Sales and Distribution (SD) module
Materials Management (MM) module
Production Planning (PP) module
Quality Planning (QM) module
Plant Maintenance (PM) module
Asset Management (AM) module
Human Resources (HR) module
Project System (PS) module
Financial Accounting (FI) module
Controlling (CO) module
Workflow (WF) module.
5. Cash Flow Analysis is an important financial tool for management. Its chief advantages are:
- Option : A
- Explanation : A Cash Flow Statement is useful for short-term planning. A business enterprise needs sufficient cash to meet its various obligations
in the near future such as payment for the purchase of fixed assets, payment of debts maturing in the near future, expenses of the
business, etc. A historical analysis of the different sources and applications of cash will enable the management to make reliable cash flow projections for the immediate future.
In may then plan out for investment of surplus or meeting the deficit if any. Thus, cash flow analysis is an important financial tool for management. Its chief advantages are as follows:
Helps inefficient cash management: Cash flow analysis helps in evaluating financial policies and cash position. Cash is the basis for all operations and hence a projected cash flow statement will enable the management to plan and coordinate the financial operations properly. The management can know how much cash is needed, from which source it will be derived, how much can be generated internally and how much could be obtained from outside.
Helps in internal financial management: Cash flow analysts provides information about funds that will be available from operations. This will help the management in determining policies regarding internal financial management, e.g., the possibility of repayment of long-term debts, dividend policies, planning replacement of plant and machinery, etc.
Disclosure the movements of cash: Cash flow statement discloses the complete story of cash movement. The increase in or decrease of cash and the reasons therefore can be known. It discloses the reasons for low cash balance in spite of heavy operating profits or for heavy cash balance in spite of low profits. However, a comparison of the original forecast with the actual results highlights the trends of movements of cash which may otherwise go undetected.
Discloses success or failure of cash planning: The extent of success or failure of cash planning can be known by comparing the projected cash flow statement with the actual cash flow statement and necessary remedial measures can be taken.
