Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The characteristic that does not belong is Self-centric.

An intrapreneur develops new ventures inside an existing organisation, so must work through others: understanding the environment, having vision and flexibility, building and encouraging teams, using a multidisciplinary approach, persisting and building coalitions of support.

Being self-centred works against all of this, since an intrapreneur depends on colleagues, sponsors and teams to turn an idea into a business. The other three options are standard intrapreneurial leadership characteristics.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

Economic logistics is not a type of supply chain design.

Cross docking moves incoming goods directly onto outbound vehicles with little or no storage. Reverse distribution handles the flow of goods back from customers, for returns, repair or recycling. Third-party logistics outsources logistics functions to a specialist provider. Each is a recognised way of designing the supply chain.

'Economic logistics' is not a recognised supply chain design, so it is the odd one out.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

Sampling error is reduced by increasing the sample size.

Sampling error is the difference between a sample statistic and the population value that arises because only part of the population is observed. Its size is measured by the standard error, which for a mean is \(\sigma/\sqrt{n}\), so it falls as the sample size n grows: quadrupling the sample halves the standard error.

Reducing the sample size does the opposite. Non-probability sampling does not reduce error; it makes it impossible to measure and adds the risk of bias. The size of the population is not under the researcher's control and hardly affects the error once the population is large.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

A balance of payments deficit can be corrected through (iii) exchange control and (iv) import quotas.

Both are standard direct measures for a deficit. Exchange control lets the central bank ration foreign exchange, so that it is spent only on essential imports. Import quotas limit the quantity of goods that may be imported. Each cuts the outflow of foreign exchange on the current account.

Demonetisation withdraws currency notes from circulation, a domestic measure against black money and counterfeit notes, and nationalisation of industries changes their ownership. Neither is a tool for correcting the balance of payments, so the options that include (i) or (ii) are wrong.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

Brand equity generally means Brand Value.

Brand equity is the value a brand adds to a product beyond its functional benefits: the premium consumers will pay, the loyalty it commands and its worth as an asset. David Aaker describes it in terms of brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations and brand loyalty.

Brand attitude, brand positioning and brand image are components or drivers of brand equity, not the overall value itself.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

The value converges to its redemption value.

A bond's value is the present value of its remaining coupons plus the amount paid at maturity. As maturity approaches, fewer coupons remain and the discounting of the final payment shrinks, so a bond trading at a premium or a discount moves steadily towards the amount the issuer will pay on redemption. On the maturity date its value equals that amount.

For a bond redeemed at par the redemption value and par value coincide, which is why the effect is often called 'pull to par'. The redemption value is the general answer because some bonds are redeemable at a premium. The issue price and a premium over par have no claim on the bond's value at maturity.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

Rs. 73 per U.S. dollar is a direct quotation (from India's point of view).

A direct quote expresses the price of one unit of foreign currency in the home currency: here one dollar costs 73 rupees. It is the form in which Indian banks quote exchange rates.

An indirect quote expresses the home currency per unit of foreign currency, which from India's side would be about 1.37 dollars per 100 rupees, or roughly 0.0137 dollars per rupee. 'American' quotation means a rate stated as US dollars per unit of foreign currency, the opposite form, and 'Indiana' is a meaningless distractor.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

These are Agency costs.

Agency theory (Jensen and Meckling, 1976) notes that managers, the agents, may not always act in the interests of shareholders, the principals. The costs shareholders bear to limit this conflict, such as monitoring and audit costs, incentive schemes that align managers' pay with share value, bonding costs and any residual loss, are agency costs.

Fixed, direct and variable costs are classifications of production costs by behaviour or traceability; they say nothing about the conflict between owners and managers.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

The correct sequence is (4), (1), (2), (3), (5).

Manpower acquisition starts from the organisation's objectives and policies (4), which determine its future human resource needs, so the HR need forecast comes next (1). The existing manpower is then assessed (2), and the gap between need and supply gives the net manpower needed (3). Only then does recruitment begin (5).

The other options forecast or assess before knowing the objectives, compute the net requirement before assessing current staff, or recruit before working out the need.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The key factors are both (A) and (B).

Talent management works best with a broad, inclusive definition of talent, so that development is not confined to a small group of high-flyers (A). It also has to strike a balance between developing staff for the organisation's own needs and making them more employable, which raises the risk that trained staff leave but also motivates and retains them (B).

Compliance with the Employment Equity (EE) Act is a legal obligation in South Africa, the setting of the source text. It shapes how development opportunities are shared, but it is a compliance requirement rather than a key factor in skills development and talent management, so the key does not include it.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

When the latest information dominates a perception, it is the recency effect.

The recency effect is the tendency to give most weight to the most recent information. In performance appraisal it shows up when a rater judges a whole year by the employee's last few weeks of work, good or bad.

The 'primary effect' (properly the primacy effect) is the opposite: first impressions dominate. The halo effect (printed 'Hallo') is letting one good or bad trait colour the whole judgement of a person. Projection bias is attributing one's own characteristics to others. None concerns the timing of information.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

The cause of inflation among these is Deficit financing.

Deficit financing means the government covers a budget deficit by borrowing from the central bank, which in effect creates new money. The extra money raises aggregate demand without a matching rise in output, which is a classic source of demand-pull inflation, especially in a developing economy.

A hike in the cash reserve ratio does the opposite: banks must keep more with the central bank, credit contracts and inflation is restrained. A rise in external loans or an unfavourable balance of payments is not by itself listed as a cause of rising prices; a payments deficit drains money out of the domestic economy rather than adding to it.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

The one that is not a WTO function is cooperating with other international institutions involved in local economic policy making.

Under the Marrakesh Agreement, the WTO administers the trade agreements, acts as a forum for multilateral trade negotiations, settles trade disputes, reviews (oversees) national trade policies through the Trade Policy Review Mechanism, and cooperates with the IMF and the World Bank to achieve coherence in global economic policy making.

The cooperation is about global economic policy, not local economic policy making, which is a matter for national governments; that is what makes this option the odd one out.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

The one that is not a way for an exporter to get a contract is the import licence.

An export contract is concluded through documents exchanged between buyer and seller: the exporter's pro forma invoice (a quotation in invoice form that the buyer accepts), the buyer's purchase order, or a formal sales contract signed by both.

An import licence is a government permit that the buyer may need in his own country to bring in restricted goods. It is a regulatory requirement, not a means of forming a contract between exporter and importer.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

Opportunity loss is the difference between actual pay-off and optimal pay-off.

In decision theory, the opportunity loss (regret) of an action under a given state of nature is the pay-off of the best action for that state minus the pay-off of the action actually chosen. It measures what was given up by not choosing the best course, and it is zero when the best action was chosen.

It is not the expected value or expected loss of a bad decision, which are averages over states, and it is regret from choosing a less than optimal action, not from making no decision at all.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

Setting prices as low as possible supports market-share leadership.

A company that wants to dominate its market believes that the firm with the largest share will enjoy the lowest costs and highest long-run profit, so it sets prices as low as possible to build volume. This is market-penetration pricing.

Current profit maximisation sets the price that maximises present profit, not the lowest one. Product-quality leadership usually charges a high price to cover quality and research costs. Survival pricing does cut prices, but only to cover variable costs while the firm weathers overcapacity or competition; it is a short-term defence rather than the objective that low pricing typically serves.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

In the entrepreneurial mode, decisions are made by a single person.

Henry Mintzberg described three modes of strategy making. In the entrepreneurial mode, power rests with one strong leader, often the founder, who makes bold decisions on his or her own vision and judgement in pursuit of growth. It suits young and small firms.

In the adaptive mode, strategy emerges incrementally from bargaining among groups of people, and in the planning mode analysts and managers formulate strategy systematically. Boards of directors and production executives are not the decision makers of the entrepreneurial mode.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

The one that is not tripartite is the Works Committees.

Works committees, set up under Section 3 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 in establishments of 100 or more workers, are bipartite: equal numbers of representatives of the employer and the workmen, with no government member.

The others bring together the three parties of the industrial relations system, government, employers and workers: the National Productivity Council, the Central Board for Workers' Education and the wage committees are all tripartite bodies, in the tradition of the Indian Labour Conference.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

This is the Primacy and Recency Effect.

In performance appraisal, the primacy effect is the rater's tendency to be swayed by what the employee did early in the review period, and the recency effect by what the employee did just before the review (printed 'behour' for behaviour). Either way, the rating does not reflect the whole period.

The halo effect is letting one outstanding trait colour the rating on all others, regardless of timing. The status effect is rating holders of higher-level jobs more favourably, and 'rater effect' is a general term for rater bias rather than this particular error.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : D

When total product is at its highest, marginal product is zero.

Marginal product is the change in total product from one more unit of the variable input. While MP is positive, each extra unit adds to output and TP rises; once MP turns negative, extra units reduce output and TP falls. TP therefore reaches its peak exactly where MP passes through zero.

MP is highest much earlier, at the point of inflexion of the TP curve. It is falling throughout the stretch before TP peaks, so 'falling' does not describe the peak itself, and MP becomes negative only after TP has started to decline.