A Firm Practicing Unrelated Diversification Can Make Better Capital Allocations

question 35

Multiple Choice

A firm practicing unrelated diversification can make better capital allocations to its subsidiary businesses than the external capital market can for all the following reasons EXCEPT:

• A) corporate headquarters can allocate capital according to more specific criteria than is possible with external market allocations.
• B) corporate headquarters has more complete information about the subsidiary businesses than the external capital market.
• C) the firm can acquire other firms with innovative products instead of allocating capital to research and development.
• D) corporate headquarters can more effectively discipline underperforming management teams through resource allocation than can the external market.

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Definitions:

Variable Costing

A method of cost accounting in which only variable production costs (materials, labor, and variable overhead) are included in the cost of a unit of product.

Unit Product Cost

The total cost to produce one unit of a product, including direct materials, direct labor, and overhead allocated on a per-unit basis.

Absorption Costing

This method in accounting ensures that the costing of a product fully reflects all manufacturing expenses, which cover direct materials, direct labor and all overhead costs, fixed and variable alike.

Variable Costing

This is an accounting technique that incorporates only the variable costs of production, including direct materials, direct labor, and variable manufacturing overhead, into the costs of products.