Individual Written Assignment

Guide
VMBE2014 – Managerial Economics
Facilitator – Dr. Gary Tan
SEPTEMBER 2021
 Individual Written Assignment
• 50% of your course overall marks.
• Short Essay Format with question numbering. Page numbering (bottom of the page and Plain
Number 2) is optional.
• Present your responses in a 4000-word (+1000-word) short essays excluding reference list
(i.e., 4000 to 5000-word in total for this assignment).
• Appendix in not calculated in the Word Count.
• Use Microsoft/WPS Words. One and Half Line-spaced (1.5) and use Times New Roman font
with size 12. For the entire assignment/submission.
• Include 15 – 20 journal articles to support your arguments.
• Harvard Referencing Style.
Every industry and company are subjected to simple yet fundamental rules of economics. It should be noted that there are various
external as well as internal environmental conditions which firms are greatly influenced by.

You are required to firstly select a business organization and provide a very brief overview of that company as well as its industry.
Subsequently you are required to break down your individual written assignment based on the following subsections:

1. Decide demand and supply factors impacting the business you have selected in very short run and long run using managerial
economics concepts.
(20 marks)

2. Recommend three initiatives for the business organization you have selected to become an agile organization. Use managerial
economics concepts to support your recommendations.
(20 marks)

3. Based on the current economic condition in Malaysia, develop business growth plan based on managerial economics pricing
and cost principles.
(20 marks)

4. Evaluate the Malaysian economy for the remaining of this year and next year using the concepts of consumer consumptions,
savings, investment, and inflation. Based on your evaluation, assess the growth potential for the business organization you have
selected using economics theories.
(20 marks)
Assessing Soft Skills – Reflect on Your
Learning Experience
5(a). Reflect on the effort you have committed to search for the information required to complete this
assignment.
(10 marks)
 
5(b). Reflect on the level of honesty required for you to defend your arguments presented in this assignment.
(10 marks)

Note:
(1) Reflect on your learning experience – what have you learned (3)?
(2) How are you going to apply the lesson/experience learned into your professional career?
General Writing Guide
• Introduction – brief (100 – 200 Words), overview of the organization (leadership team, financial overview,
and vision/mission) and industry (potential growth).
• Q1 to Q4 – Around 850 words in a few paragraphs.
Four to eight sentences form a paragraph.
Total 3400 Words for Core Content
• Q5 (soft skills required to complete the assignment) around 250 words per section.
Total 500 Words for Q5
• Consider 3 to 5 in-text references for each paragraph.
• Currency (Value) of references:
(1) Journal Articles
(2) Trade Magazines (The Economist, Bloomberg, Forbes, Wall Street Journal)
(3) Government Sites (Federal Reserve, Bank Negara, .gov)
(4) Reputable internet sites (World Bank, IMF, NBER)
(5) Avoid – Investopedia and VVikipedia

• Referencing Point System (RPS)

1. Evaluate demand and supply factors impacting the business (i.e., business growth
or sustainability) you have selected in very short period, short period, long period,
and very long period. (20 marks)
• Demand and Supply factors in different time perspective.
Can discuss/define about it and put the discussion in the Appendix Section.
• Think about putting into a summary table before you write and try include the summary table at
the end of your Q1.
VSP SP LP VLP
Demand Factors
Supply Factors 0 1 2 3

• Khan Academy – Supply and Demand Factors

• Period = Run, very short period = very short run.
https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/glossary/short-run-long-run-very-long-run/

• Making connections between demand and supply factors affecting the business growth in
different economic time period.
• Additional marks will be given if you can relate economics theory into your
arguments/responses.
2. Recommend for three initiatives for the business organization you have selected
to become an agile organization. Use managerial economics concepts, principles,
and theories to support your recommendations. (20 marks)

• Discuss agile organization importance in the current economic conditions (refer to the McKinsey and Company article in
Topic 1.5)
• The five trademarks of agile organizations – McKinsey and Company
• How To Make The Whole Organization Agile? Forbes Magazine (100 – 200 words)
• Try to start with economics theory then make a recommendation based on it.

• Your task is to find managerial economics concepts, principles, and theories to support your recommendations:
(a) Look from the perspective of digital economy
~ Creating and Sustaining an Agile Organization: The Impact of the Digital Economy (Bogosian, 2018)

(b) Lars Peter Hansen – Economics Nobel Prize Winner 2013 (Uncertainty)
(c) Organizational Agility and Agile Manufacturing (Darmahdeh & Banihashemi, 2010)
(d) A capability theory of the firm: An economics and (Strategic) management perspective (Teece, 2017)
(e) Baumol’s Theory of Sales Revenue Maximization

Research the managerial economic theories first (i.e., for organizational growth and becoming agile organization), then
write your recommendations (write about 200 – 250 words per recommendations)ie trademarks of agile organizations
General Feedback on Assignment 1 Review
based on SEP 2020 Cohort
• Lack of Summary Table at the end of Q1
• Good discussion on the supply and demand factors impacting organization in
different economic time frame, but lack of connection to economics theory.
• If I mention good means you are getting a pass (marks between 65 – 69 range). If
you intend to score higher:
(a) Make sure you have enough (20-30 overall) journal article references to support
your arguments.
(b) Use Harvard Referencing and include Reference List at the end.
(c) Give me some creative answers/solutions rather than text book answers.
3. Based on the current economic condition in Malaysia, develop business growth
plan based on managerial economics pricing and cost principles. (20 Marks)

• Current Economic Conditions in Malaysia (GDP + Components of GDP)

150-200 Words Summary (the rest of them, we put in Appendix) –
Country
Department of Statistics Malaysia
• Pricing Principles
• Costing Principles
Flow of Q3 Response

Measures – Pricing
and Costing
Principles –
Business Challenges
Business
– Industry
Organization
Current Economic
Conditions (GDP) -
Country
4. Evaluate the Malaysia’s economy for the remaining of this year and next year using the
concepts of consumer consumptions, savings, investment, and inflation. Based on your
evaluation, assess the growth potential for the business organization you have selected.
(20 marks)
• Malaysia’s economy: Q3 and Q4 (2021) and Q1 – Q4 (2022). Use Q2 as a base of your analysis.
https://tradingeconomics.com/malaysia/gdp-growth-annual
Compare to the previous quarter.
(a) Consumer Consumption vs Consumer Savings (typically opposite)
(b) Local Investment vs Foreign Direct Investment (separate)
(c) Inflation (a) + (b)
Scenario A – Consumer Consumption increase, Inflation increase, Investment (Local) increase
+++ Use the table in the next slide to illustrate your forecast.

• Trend analysis on the economy – over the course of 6 quarters, is the trend positive or negative for each component (5). Writing

• Growth Potential for your chosen business organization. How is the trend impacting the growth potential for your business organization?

• Conclusion (EXTRA MARKS) –

(1) Should the investors invest in your company (short term, 1 year; mid term, 2 – 3 years; long term, 4 or more years)
(2) What measures should your chosen business organization perform to boost the business growth?
Movement of Macroeconomics Factors
Q3 – 2020 Q4 – 2020 Q1 – 2021 Q2 – 2021 Q3 – 2021 Q4 – 2021
(actual) (prediction) (prediction) (prediction) (prediction) (prediction)
Consumption Up Down Up Up Up Up
Savings Down Up Down Down Down Down
Local Up Up Up Up Up Up
Investment
Foreign Direct Down Down Down Down Down Down
Investment
Inflation Up Up Up Up Up Up

1. Data from at least past 3 years (actual)

Flow of Q4 Response

Forecast in
Business Growth
Consumption, Savings, Trend Analysis
Potential
LI, FDI, Inflation
Questions?
• Dr. Gary Tan
• gary.t@bac.edu.my
• 012-550-2684