Research Paper FAST FOOD INDUSTRY

MY CHOSEN INDUSTRY IS (FAST FOOD INDUSTRY AND FOCUSING ON IN & OUT BETWEEN 2018-2022)

Topic:

Select a 5-10 year period and analyze the microeconomic issues impacting an industry during that time. You should be looking for issues and topics that we have covered in this course and how you can apply those concepts to a real-world situation.

Requirement:

Select an industry and a company within a time period that you will use for analysis during the semester.

Part 1: What industry and time period will you analyze? The time period selected should be roughly a 5-10 year period when something interesting was occurring within  the industry

• 1. List and give a short description of the major (4 -5) competitors in the market.
  2. What type of products are produced?  Are they identical or differentiated?  Does this change during the analysis period?
  3. How have consumers influenced the market?  What have the consumers done to change the industry?  Consider things like the determinants of demand, price elasticity, income elasticity, and cross-price elasticity.

(2-3 pages)

Part 2: Thinking about one of the competitors in your industry, please analyze the competitive landscape for that company. In your analysis, you will want to consider the following topics/questions:

1. 1. How many competitors existed in this industry at the beginning of your chosen time period?  How many competitors existed at the end of the time period?  What happened to cause this change?
   2. What is the concentration ratio at the beginning and the end of the period?
   3. What is the level of market power for each competitor?  How does it change during this period?  Why?
   4. Ultimately, what market structure do you believe this industry to be and why?  You must analyze this real-world industry in relation to the characteristics of market structures to make this determination.  Again, has this changed from the beginning to the end of the time period?  Why?  What caused the changes?

( 3- 4 pages)

Part 3: Analyze one of the competitors in your industry to determine how government intervention( regulations, tax breaks, other support) and labor issues have influenced the industry/company.  Note: Not all companies may be significantly impacted by all  of these areas, so you will have to use your judgment about what is relevant.

1. 1. What role, if any, did government intervention play in the evolution of this industry/company?
      • What regulations have been put in place during this time period and how have these regulations impacted the market outcomes?
   2. Is there a labor union?  Is this company/industry impacted by the minimum wage?
   3. Does this company rely on high-skilled or low-skilled labor?  How does the type of labor used (high-skilled or low-skilled) impact the supply of labor?  How do these influence the wage rate in the company/industry?
      • Does this company/industry use more labor or more capital to produce products?
   4. Has globalization played a role?  Outsourcing?
   5. Give a description of an event you believe negatively impacted the market outcomes of one of the companies in your chosen industry.
   6.  What do you think the company could have done differently that would have impacted outcomes for the company/industry?

(4- 5 pages )

Research:

Please analyze the industry by answering the questions below.  Use of vocabulary and concepts from  Ch 1-9 ( chapters we have covered up to now) and research are required.  Some suggested sources are below (though you can use other sources as well).

• News sources: USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money, etc.
• National Bureau of Economic Research
• CSUMB Library resources :
  • Business Databases:Links to an external site. IBISWorld
• Statistics Research
• the Economist 

Format:

• Must use APA citation format.
• What is APA?
  • All references should be cited.  I expect a minimum of 6 sources, but most likely you will need many me.
  • Appendices: Source materials must be included in separate appendices such as economic reports that are used to draw conclusions.  Other source materials may be included in an appendix if it meets all of the following criteria: 1) the source is relevant to your topic; 2) you refer to the material in written analysis and want the reader to be able to view the full source, and 3) the source material is too long to only use a direct quotation.