Instructions:
There are five essay exam questions below. Select three of them to answer.
Each question starts with an abstract of an article in Business Week Magazine. By clicking on the title of the article you can access the full article.
NOTE: HERE IS AN EXAMPLE QUESTION TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA WHAT IS ON THE EXAM. THIS QUESTION IN NOT ONE OF THOSE ACTUALLY ON THE EXAM.
Article: GM Pushes Hard with OnStar - Businessweek
Reviewer: Dr. Charles Newman, PhD
Keywords: auto industry, on-board, subscription, first-mover
Summary This article discusses how General Motors wants its OnStar on-board communications service to be a kind of in-car smartphone and is offering it to retailers and other car-makers. When GM launched its OnStar telecommunications business in 1996, management planned to put the safety, navigation, and communications service in all GM cars, enabling motorists to plan travel, make phone calls, or even track stocks from behind the wheel. GM figured that subscription and fee revenue from electronic services could get so big that OnStar’s profits might surpass those of its car business. That proved true. Now, the automaker once again has big plans for OnStar by both increasing the number of GM car owners who continue to subscribe after their six months of free service ends, and by selling the system to owners of rival auto brands. This spring OnStar will begin selling its signature hardware, at a cost of $299 plus installation, through retailers such as Best Buy to get systems into cars sold by rivals. GM may have waited too long to press its first-mover advantage. Ford has jumped ahead of it in the hot market for in-car entertainment content. This summer Hyundai Motor will launch a competing system called Blue Link to go toe-to-toe with OnStar for safety and security features. For now, OnStar is the leader. It has six million users, more than 4 million of whom pay an average of