Business Commons^™

This case assesses a company’s product line mix relative to two marketing environmental factors and explores four product line growth strategies using a product portfolio analysis approach. The case provides a history of the Apple Computer Company and its key product lines. An approach to analyzing a company’s product portfolio is reviewed and applied to Apple’s product lines. The case shows how each Apple product line fits within the portfolio analysis tool and will be asked questions relative to possible strategies for Apple’s product portfolio. The case illustrates one approach to making decisions about a company’s line of products. The …

Small businesses and entrepreneurs are rushing to the Internet to do business and reach new markets. While e-commerce is used for advertising, business-to-consumer and business-to-business transactions, small businesses and entrepreneurs encounter several challenges. This paper examines both the opportunities and challenges that are posed by the use of e-commerce and makes recommendations to small businesses and entrepreneurs so they can overcome the challenges and exploit the opportunities presented by e-commerce.

This study examines the underpricing and aftermarket performance of the emerging industry of biotechnology. Findings indicate that the average first day return for the biotech firms was 1.8 and 1.6 percent. Furthermore, the biotech firms significantly underperformed the NASDAQ (-30.7%) and NYSE (-16.5%) over a two-year period after going public.