辽宁省考生注意：2020年ACCA考试，科目要这么选！

正确答案：
(b) Good Sports has pursued a conscious niche or focus differentiation strategy, seeking to serve a local market in a way that
isolates it from the competition of the large national sports good retailers competing on the basis of supplying famous brands
at highly competitive prices. Does it make strategic sense for Good Sports to make the heavy investment necessary to supply
goods online? Will this enhance its ability to supply their chosen market?
In terms of price, e-business is bringing much greater price transparency – the problem for companies like Good Sports is
that customers may use their expertise to research into a particular type and brand of sports equipment and then simply
search the Internet for the cheapest supply. Porter in an article examining the impact of the Internet argues that rather than
making strategy obsolete it has in fact made it more important. The Internet has tended to weaken industry profitability and
made it more difficult to hold onto operational advantages. Choosing which customers you serve and how are even more
critical decisions.
However the personal advice and performance side of the business could be linked to new ways of promoting the product
and communicating with the customer. The development of customer communities referred to above could be a real way of
increasing customer loyalty. The partners are anxious to avoid head-on competition with the national retailers. One way of
increasing the size and strength of the niche they occupy is to use the Internet as a means of targeting their particular
customers and providing insights into the use and performance of certain types of equipment by local clubs and users. There
is considerable scope for innovation that enhances the service offered to their customers. As always there is a need to balance
the costs and benefits of time spent. The Internet can provide a relatively cost effective way of providing greater service to
their customers. There is little in the scenario to suggest they have reached saturation point in their chosen niche market.
Overall there is a need for Good Sports to decide what and where its market is and how this can be improved by the use ofe-business.

正确答案：

(b) Benchmarking at Marlow Fashion will not be an easy exercise. Marlow Fashion has developed a distinctive way of reaching
its markets that means direct comparisons will be hard to make. Certainly, it can carry out historical benchmarking in
comparing how its own processes and activities have improved, or otherwise, over a relevant period of time. Unfortunately,
this is likely to simply confirm worsening performance. It can compare its own key operations against the ‘best in class’;
regardless of which industry the excellent performer comes from. It could and should have been carrying out competitive
benchmarking on the retail side of the business where information should be more easily available. There may be an
opportunity to benchmark itself against firms that have gone through a similar crisis and achieved a successful turnaround.

In terms of the advantages and disadvantages, the willingness of managers responsible for a key area of performance to
compare themselves against relevant external performance measures should make them take responsibility for any changes
necessary. In Marlow Fashion, the acceptance that things have to be done differently will be the first stage in the turnaround.
Getting managers face-to-face with the problems, accepting responsibility for change and recognising that the necessary
changes are ‘doable’ is an important stage in creating a willingness to change. The disadvantages are that every organisation
and situation is different and there is no one best way. Marlow Fashion thought it had discovered the best way and this created
an unwillingness to change. There is also the danger that you are solving today’s problems with yesterday’s solutions. A good
competitor will be trying to maintain its competitive advantage through constantly improving its processes. It also has a vested
interest in trying to prevent its improvements from being revealed to its competitors. Also, many of the ‘softer’ processes –
typically involving people – are difficult if not impossible to replicate in another organisation. These advantages are to do with
culture and leadership and not easily transferable to another organisation and the context in which it is operating.

正确答案：

(b) Schedule D Case I calculation
The three companies form. a group for both group relief and capital gains purposes as all shareholdings pass the 75%
ownership test. The calculation of the corporation tax liabilities is as follows:

正确答案：

(d) IAS27 paragraph 14, ‘Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements’, states that warrants that have the potential to give
the holder voting power or reduce another party’s voting power over the financial and operating policies of the issuer should
be considered when existence of control is assessed. The warrants held by the competitor company, if exercised, would grant
that company control over Playtime. One party only can control Playtime and, therefore, the competitor company should
consolidate Playtime. In coming to this decision all the facts and circumstances that affect potential voting rights (except the
intention of management and the financial ability to exercise or convert) should be considered. It seems, however, that there
is a prima facie case for not consolidating Playtime but accounting for it under IAS28 or IAS39.