Technological Forecasting: Who does it and how useful is it?

This article reports on the results of a survey undertaken to estimate the extent of use of Technological Forecasting (TF) in U.S. industry. The results demonstrate that more firms use TF than eight years ago, and the perception of its importance has increased greatly. The emphasis on TF, the range of time horizons for the forecasts and the use to which TF is put differ according to the nature of the industry and the organizational level within the firm. Based on these results, the characteristics of firms that find TF crucial to their business, and those that find TF unimportant, are developed.     

INFLUENCE OF DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS ON CONSUMER PURCHASING PATTERNS AND PREFERENCES FOR GROUND BEEF

A study of 198 household units in the Fort Collins, CO area was made to ascertain the importance of such factors as consumer age, income, education and marital status on the purchasing patterns for ground beef. Compared to younger consumers, older consumers tended to: (1) make more frequent purchases of ground beef; (2) buy less ground beef per purchase; and (3) select leaner ground beef. Households with gross incomes in excess of $25,000 tended to buy larger quantities of ground beef per purchase and bought leaner ground beef compared to households with less than $15,000 gross income. In making purchasing decisions, participants in the study considered leanness, visual appearance and price as the most important factors, while packaging and brand name were considered the least important factors.     

Company Tax Systems and their Effects on Investors*

The Campbell Committee recognized the importance of company tax systems, independently of the amount of tax revenue raised by such systems, on resource allocation. They recommended that the government should work toward a full integration of company and personal taxes. This study, which arose out of work for that committee, examines the effect on the main classes of investors of different company tax systems and speculates on the effect on dividend and financing decisions of companies.     

The corporate income tax in an open economy

The paper begins with a brief review of the distortion literature, stressing its relation to the general equilibrium consequences of the corporate income tax. The consequences for international trade of the distortions associated with the tax are then examined, and among other things it is found that trade could reduce welfare. Finally, the implications of trade for the incidence question are examined, and it is shown that whether labor or capital bears the burden of the tax depends entirely on whether the tax is imposed in the labor-intensive or the capital-intensive industry.     

The computation of costs for price decisions

Business should compute costs in a particular way of pricing purposes. The correct cost computation varies with its purpose, though most executives still believe that an item has a true cost regardless of why it is computed.Even cost estimates made for price decisions will differ according to the type of price decision that is at issue. One finds important differences depending on whether one is estimating costs for a one-shot bid, for a promotional price offer that is to last for a short period, or for a decision concerning long-term price. Although the same basic principles would apply in all three cases, their application is different. The appropriate concept is that of “decision cost”, a very simple but powerful idea that leads to different cost conclusions than are reached by prevailing costing methods.