Module 1 Flashcards

1
Q

what is financial statement analysis

A

The process of extracting information from financial statements to better understand a company’s current and future performance and financial conditions

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2
Q

who are the different people that have objectives for using financial statements

A
  • management
  • investors and analysts
  • creditors, lenders, and rating agencies
  • regulatory agencies
  • legal institutions
  • other decision makers
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3
Q

what does management use financial statements for

A

to raise financing for the company, meet disclosure requirements, and as a benchmark for executive bonuses

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4
Q

what does investors and analysts use financial statements for

A

to help decide to buy or sell a stock or not

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5
Q

what does creditors and rating agencies use financial statements for

A

to determine the creditworthiness of a company’s debt and lending terms

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6
Q

what does regulatory agencies use financial statements for

A

to encourage the enactment of social and economic policies, and to monitor compliance with the laws

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7
Q

what does legal institutions use financial statements for

A

to assess fines and reparations in litigation

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8
Q

what do other decision makers use financial statements for

A

for things like determining demands in labour union negotiations and assessing damages for environmental abuses

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9
Q

who are the users that demand financial accounting information

A
  • Managers and employees
  • Investment analysts and information intermediaries
  • Creditors and suppliers
  • Stockholders and directors
  • Customers and strategic partners
  • Regulators and tax agencies
  • Voters and their representatives
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10
Q

who and how are financial information supplied

A
  • If benefits > costs of disclosing accounting information, managers will give out the information
  • They can determine the quality and quantity of information to give
  • Regulation and bargaining power affects the disclosure costs and benefits
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11
Q

what are the required reports that public companies in the US must file

A
  • form 10-k
  • form 10-q
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12
Q

what is the form 10-k

A
  • Audited annual report
  • Includes the 4 financial statements with explanatory notes, and the management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A) of financial results
  • Must be filed within 60 days of the year-end for larger companies & 90 for smaller companies
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13
Q

what is the form 10-Q

A
  • Unaudited quarterly report
  • Includes summary versions of the 4 financial statements and limited additional disclosures
  • Must be filed within 40 days of the quarter-end for larger companies & 45 days for smaller companies, except for the 4th quarter, which is in the 10-K
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14
Q

what are other useful information beyond financial statements

A
  • financial statement footnotes
  • management discussion and analysis (MD&A)
  • independent auditor report
  • regulatory filings, including proxy statements (DEF 14A) and other SEC filings (8K)
  • prospectus (S1)
  • Analyst Research Reports
  • ESG reporting
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15
Q

what are financial statement footnotes

A

Explanation of the numbers in the financial statements

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16
Q

what is an MD&A

A

What management think about the numbers in the financial statements

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17
Q

what is an independent auditor report

A

Whether the auditor thinks the statements follows the standards

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18
Q

what is a proxy statement (DEF 14A)

A
  • Filed before shareholder conference
  • About important events and structure that shareholders need to approve
  • Proposal required to vote
  • Details of ownership
  • Biographic information on directors
  • Disclosure of executive compensation
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19
Q

what is a form 8K

A
  • Important things that shareholders should know
  • Wide range of corporate events, reported within 4 days
  • Entry into or termination of a material definitive agreement (including petition for bankruptcy)
  • Exit from a line of business or impairment of assets
  • Change in the company’s certified public accounting firm
  • Change in control of the company
  • Departure of the company’s executive officers
  • Changes in the company’s articles of incorporation or bylaws
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20
Q

what is a prospectus S1

A
  • Needs to be filed when companies sell their shares on the market
  • written document that informs potential investors all about the company
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21
Q

what are the benefits of disclosure

A
  • access to capital
  • good reputation
  • valuation and analysis
  • risk assessment
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22
Q

how is access to capital a benefit of disclosure

A
  • capital markets have debt and equity financing
  • Lets say the company shares their accounting information
  • The better their prospects are, the cheaper it would be for them to get more capital (money)
  • This can be from lower interest rates or higher stock prices
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23
Q

how is good reputation a benefit of disclosure

A
  • can also help with recruiting efforts in labour markets -> company looks good = more people want to work there
  • can also help with having good supplier-customer relations in the input and output markets
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24
Q

how is valuation and analysis a benefit of disclosure

A
  • How well a company does in these markets depends on their success and if the market knows of that success
  • So disclosing audited good news about the company’s products, processes, management, etc. is good for a company, and its why companies would want to do it
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25
Q

how is risk assessment a benefit of disclosure

A
  • Companies can’t disclose false or misleading good news because their information needs to follow audit requirements and there are legal repercussions if they provide inaccurate information
  • It can also damage the reputation of the company
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26
Q

what are the costs of disclosure

A
  • Preparation and dissemination costs (Compliance and Audit costs)
  • Competitive disadvantages (Proprietary costs)
  • Litigation costs
  • Political costs
  • Monitoring costs
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27
Q

what is Preparation and dissemination costs (Compliance and Audit costs)

A

Even though company’s have the information for internal use, it costs more and takes up more time for them to audit the information and comply with SEC rules

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28
Q

what are Competitive disadvantages (Proprietary costs) of disclosure

A

Revealing information such as:
- Product or segment successes
- Strategic alliances or pursuits
- Technological or system innovations
- Product or process quality improvements
Can reduce or eliminate a company’s competitive advantage

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29
Q

what is the litigation cost of disclosure

A
  • By disclosing information, the company may create expectations for others
  • If those expectations are not met, people could end up taking legal action against the company
  • It would then be costly to defend against customer or investor lawsuits
  • Even if a case is dismissed, it would still be costly
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30
Q

what is the political costs of disclosure

A
  • Highly visible companies can face political and public pressure
  • Ex. government defence contractors, large software conglomerates, and oil companies face a lot of public scrutiny
  • Disclosing more = more public scrutiny
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31
Q

what is SEC’s Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD)/Reg FD

A
  • to stop public companies from only disclosing certain information to certain stakeholders, and instead make it fair for everyone
  • The goal is to curve the practice of selective disclosure by public companies
  • Reg FD basically says that if an issuer wants to disclose any non-public information to certain stakeholders, they have to disclose that same information to everyone
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32
Q

what are the different assurance of financial reports

A
  • notice to reader (compilation)
  • review engagement
  • audit engagement
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33
Q

what is a notice to reader

A

compilation of financial statements made without assurance or opinions

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34
Q

what is a review engagement

A
  • a type of engagement that provides limited level of assurance
  • just enough so they meet reporting requirements
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35
Q

what is an audit engagement

A

when an auditor agrees to provide an objective on financial statements

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36
Q

what is the assurance level of a notice to reader

A

none

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37
Q

what is the cost of a notice to reader

A

low

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38
Q

what is the complexity of a notice to reader

A

simple

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39
Q

what is the scope of a notice to reader

A

organizing information from management without verification

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40
Q

what is the use of a notice to reader

A

internal use or small companies

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41
Q

what is the assurance level of a review engagement

A

limited

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42
Q

what is the cost of a review engagement

A

moderate

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43
Q

what is the complexity of a review engagement

A

intermediate

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44
Q

what is the scope of a review engagement

A

inquiry and analytical procedure to provide limited assurance

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45
Q

what is the use of a review engagement

A

small companies seeking loans or private companies with external investors

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46
Q

what is the assurance level of an audit engagement

A

reasonable

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47
Q

what is the cost of an audit engagement

A

high

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48
Q

what is the complexity of an audit engagement

A

complex

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49
Q

what is the scope of an audit engagement

A

inquiry and analytical procedure to provide reasonable assurance

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50
Q

what is the use of an audit engagement

A
  • public companies
  • large private companies issuing bonds or requiring loans
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51
Q

what is the 4 steps in framework for analysis and valuation

A
  • industry analysis
  • business analysis
  • financial statement analysis
  • forecasting and valuation/credit analysis
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52
Q

what is done in the industry analysis & what is the purpose

A
  • porter’s 5 forces
  • economic cycle
  • what is the profitability of a company
  • can they achieve or maintain its normal profitability in the future?
  • its determining this by analyzing the competition
53
Q

what is done in the business analysis & what is the purpose

A
  • business model
  • competitive advantage
  • business cycle
  • what is the position of the firm
54
Q

what is done in the financial statement analysis & what is the purpose

A
  • accounting adjustment
  • ratio analysis
  • common size
  • determining if the numbers are what we want
55
Q

what is done in the forecasting and valuation/credit rating analysis & what is the purpose

A
  • financial modeling
  • DCF/Multiple
  • collateral
  • what is the value of the firm to others??
56
Q

what is an industry

A
  • a group of companies and organizations that produce similar products or provide similar services
  • they are classified based on the primary business activities of the companies within them
57
Q

what are the commonly used industry code systems

A
  • NAICS
  • SIC
  • GICS
58
Q

what is NAICS

A
  • north american industry classification system
  • mostly used by north american countries to classify business establishments by type of economic activity
59
Q

what is SIC

A
  • standard industrial classification
  • older system that is used for historical data comparison and for some specific industries
60
Q

what is GICS

A
  • global industry classification standard
  • developed to be used by the global financial community
  • mostly for investment research and portfolio management
61
Q

what are the 2 ways a company can finance its assets

A
  • owner financing
  • non-owner financing
62
Q

what is owner financing

A
  • money raised from stockholders
  • they have claim on equity assets
  • they are resources contributed to the company by its owners (cash or non-cash assets)
  • profits retained by the company
63
Q

what is non owner financing

A
  • money raised from banks or other creditors and suppliers
  • they have claims on debt assets
  • money needs to be repaid or else there are severe consequences
64
Q

what kind of companies usually have more debt than equity

A
  • Companies with relatively stable cash flows
  • like those in the consumer staples industry
65
Q

what kind of companies usually have more equity than debt

A
  • tech companies
  • those that have larger business risk
  • They reduce the level of financial risk by having more debt than equity
66
Q

what types of companies have low profit levels

A

Retailers that operate in mature, highly competitive industries have difficulty differentiating their products so operating income as a % of sales is low

67
Q

what kind of companies have high profitability

A

Companies that have higher levels of operating profit from patent protection and well established brands and command higher market prices and yield higher levels of profitability

68
Q

how can a company determine their level of profitability

A

Being able to create barriers to competitive pressure from patent protection, effective marketing, etc.

69
Q

what do companies need to do if they operate in highly competitive markets

A

If competing in highly competitive markets with little product differentiation, need to concentrate on controlling operating expenses to offset lower gross profits

70
Q

what is porters value chain framework

A
  • The model assesses a company’s value chain to understand the activities that create a company’s profit margin
  • It assess primary and support activities
  • The results of these activities show up on financial statements and other reports on performance and financial condition
  • Can use the value chain analysis to interpret the financial reports
71
Q

what are the primary activities on porters value chain

A
  • Inbound logistics
  • Operations
  • Outbound logistics
  • Marketing and sales
  • servicing
72
Q

what are the support activities in porters value chain framework

A
  • Firm infrastructure
  • Human resource management
  • technology/product development (R&D)
  • Procurement
73
Q

what is commonly used framework for industry analysis

A

porters five forces

74
Q

what is porters five forces

A
  • The primary and support activities from the value chain are influenced by the 5 forces that determine the competitive intensity of the company
  • industry competition
  • bargaining power of buyers
  • bargaining power of suppliers
  • threat of substitutes
  • threat of entry
75
Q

what is industry competition

A
  • Competition and rivalry raise the cost of doing business
  • Companies need to hire and train workers, advertise their products, research and develop new products and engage in other related activities
  • Higher the competition = higher the costs
76
Q

what does looking at existing competition include

A
  • number of companies
  • slow industry growth
  • low switching cost
  • high fixed costs and/or high storage costs
  • high exit barrier
77
Q

whats the impact of high fixed costs and/or high storage costs in an industry

A

when industries with high fixed costs (like airlines) need to get maximum capacity to get lower per unit cost, leading to fight in market share

77
Q

whats the impact of the number of companies in an industry

A
  • more companies = higher competition for the same buyers and resources
  • when companies have similar market share, they fight for market leadership
  • look at the herfindahl-hirschman index which measures industry concentration based on market capitalization
  • if index is high, there is high concentration
78
Q

whats the impact of slow industry growth in an industry

A
  • causes companies to fight for increased market share
  • in a growing market, companies can improve revenues by accessing the expanding market, and can get more and more market share
79
Q

whats the impact of low switching cost in an industry

A
  • when buyers can easily switch to similar competitors products, competition is high
  • can’t increase prices otherwise customers go to competitors
80
Q

what is the bargaining power of buyers

A
  • Buyers with strong power can extract price concessions and demand a higher level of service or even delay payment terms
  • This reduces profits from sales and the operating flows that sellers can collect
81
Q

when do buyers have high bargaining power

A

if
- they purchase large volumes relative to supplier sales (they make up most of your sales)
- the product is standard or undifferentiated (makes switching costs for buyers low)
- they can produce the product themselves
- supplier has high fixed costs
- the product is not strategic importance to buyers

82
Q

what is the bargaining power of suppliers

A
  • Suppliers with strong power can demand higher prices and earlier payments
  • Could have adverse effects on profits and cash flows to the buyers
83
Q

when do suppliers have high bargaining power

A

if
- the supply market is dominated by a few companies
- the buyers are neither large nor concentrated
- they do not have to contend with substitute products
- their products are differentiated, or suppliers have build up switching costs
- they pose a credible threat of forward integration

84
Q

what is the threat of substitutes

A
  • The more product substitutes there are, the less power sellers have to raise the prices or pass the costs to their buyers
  • It places pressure on the profits of sellers
  • they are substitute products in other industries or in individual products
85
Q

what does ROA calculate

A
  • how efficient a company’s management is at in generating profit from their total assets
  • a %
  • higher the better
86
Q

whats the impact of high exit barrier in an industry

A
  • companies have to stay in competition although they may be earning little or even negative returns
  • ex. specialized assets that may be difficult to sell
87
Q

when is entry easy

A

if there are
- a low scale threshold
- access to distribution channels
- common/accessible technology
- low switching costs

88
Q

when is entry difficult

A
  • high scale threshold
  • restriction on distribution channels
  • patented or proprietary knowledge
  • high brand switching costs
89
Q

when is exit easy

A
  • marketable assets
  • low exit costs
  • independent business
90
Q

when is exit difficult

A
  • specialized assets
  • high exit costs
  • interrelated business
91
Q

from the threat of substitute products, when is competition high

A
  • buyers have no brand loyalty and/or there is no established brands
  • changing to another product saves money without sacrificing features or performance
  • simple and inexpensive to change to another product
  • the producers of substitute product have very high margins and can easily attract buyers through price reductions
92
Q

what framework is used for business analysis

A

SWOT

93
Q

what is swot analysis

A
  • Can be applied to almost any organization
  • Internal factors = Strengths and weaknesses
  • External factors = Opportunities and threats
  • Strengths
  • Weaknesses
  • Opportunities
  • Threats
  • When used as an overall strategic analysis, it can provide a good review of the options
  • Sometimes it can be too subjective because it is intuitive and allows varying opinions on relevant factors when trying to understand the company
94
Q

what questions do you ask when analyzing the competitive advantage of a company

A
  • Does the company actually have a competitive advantage, and if so, what factors explain it?
  • Is the competitive advantage sustainable?
  • If the company has no competitive advantage, does its management have a plan to develop one that can be implemented in an acceptable period of time with a reasonable amount of investment?
95
Q

what is the threat of entry

A
  • New market entrants
  • If there are a lot of entrants, competition increases
  • To reduce competition/threat, companies spend money on activities like new technologies, promotion and human development
  • Creating barriers to entry = creating economies of scale
  • low barrier = easy to enter = hard to maintain profitability
96
Q

what are examples of barriers to entry (into a business)

A
  • organizational economic of scale - minimum efficient scale (when its cheap to produce a lot of existing companies)
  • patents and proprietary knowledge
  • copyrights, and other legal protections
  • regulatory/government (like needing approval from government to sell, etc. a license)
  • asset specificity (specific assets used in the business that isn’t common for every business)
  • having access to scarce resources (can control prices)
97
Q

what are the different ways for a company to achieve competitive advantage

A
  • barriers to entry
  • product/service differentiation
  • cost leader
98
Q

how can companies have product/service differentiation

A
  • Technological innovation
  • Product design
  • Marketing, distribution, and after-sale customer support
99
Q

how can a company become a cost leader

A
  • Access to low-cost raw materials or labour
  • Manufacturing or service efficiency
  • Manufacturing scale efficiencies
  • Greater bargaining power with suppliers
  • Sophisticated IT systems
100
Q

what competitive advantages allows companies to charge higher prices

A
  • barriers to entry
  • product/service differentiation
101
Q

what is the formula for ROA

A

net income / average assets
OR
profit margin (profitability) x asset turnover (productivity)
(%)

102
Q

what is the formula for profit margin

A

net income / sales

103
Q

what is PM

A
  • profit margin
  • Net income earned from each sales dollar
  • %
  • Want this number to be high
104
Q

what is the formula for asset turnover

A

Sales / average assets

105
Q

what is AT

A
  • asset turnover
  • sales generated from each dollar of assets
  • Want this number to be high
106
Q

what are companies that have high profitability and low productivity

A
  • Tech companies
  • High profit margins can be from patent protection which increases barriers to entry, reducing competition
  • Also have a lot of assets on their balance sheet (marketable securities and intangible assets) that they don’t really generate sales on, reducing the asset turnover
107
Q

what are companies with low profitability and high productivity

A
  • Retailers
  • Hard for them to differentiate products, which causes them to keep prices low
  • Low prices = low profit margins
  • They focus on increasing asset turnover to keep a good ROA
  • They rarely have A/R
108
Q

what needs to be done to have high ROA

A
  • need high PM and AT
  • managers need to manage both income statement (profit) and balance sheet (asset turnover)
109
Q

what is the basic ROE formula and what is it

A

net income / average stockholder’s equity
- return to stockholders
- a percent

110
Q

what is forecasting

A

Forecasting involves formalizing our predictions and stating them as financial projections

111
Q

what does the quality of forecast depend on

A
  • Quality of prior analysis
  • Realistic and achievable assumptions
112
Q

what is the quality of prior analysis

A
  • How well we understand the company’s business
  • How thoroughly we examined and adjusted the company’s financial statements
113
Q

what is the Realistic and achievable assumptions

A

Objectively examine what evidence supports, or challenges, the forecast assumptions

114
Q

what is the forecasting order

A
  1. Income statement
  2. Balance sheet
  3. Statement of cash flows
    This is the order because each statement uses information from preceding statements
115
Q

what are the different stages of the economic/business cycle

A
  • expansion
  • peak
  • recession
  • depression
  • trough
  • recovery
  • different industries experience the different stages differently
  • Ex. utilities don’t really experience much differences during a recession because they are a necessity vs luxury stores
116
Q

what are the 4 life cycle stages of an industry, business, and product

A
  • introduction (take off)
  • growth (shake out)
  • maturity (saturation)
  • decline
117
Q

what happens at the introduction stage

A
  • low sales
  • high cost per customer
  • financial losses
  • innovative customers
  • few (if any) competitors
118
Q

what happens at the growth stage

A
  • increasing sales
  • cost per customer falls
  • profits rise
  • increasing number of customers
  • more competitors
119
Q

what happens at the maturity stage

A
  • peak sales
  • cost per customer lowest
  • profits high
  • mass market
  • stable number of competitors
120
Q

what happens at the decline stage

A
  • falling sales
  • cost per customer low
  • profits fall
  • customer base contracts
  • number of competitors fall
121
Q

what are external factors

A
  • another type of industry analysis
  • factors that are beyond the control of the company that may affect a company’s future results from what they desire or expect
122
Q

what are examples of external factors

A
  • economic environment
  • international
  • political environment
  • social environment
  • technology
123
Q

what are examples of economic environment factors

A
  • recession
  • interest rate
  • taxes
124
Q

what are examples of international factors

A
  • local economic and labour conditions
  • political instability
  • tax laws
  • local and national government regulation
125
Q

what are examples of political environment factors

A
  • regulations
  • president election
  • trade agreement
  • any government policies affecting supply and demand
126
Q

what are examples of social environment factors

A
  • customs and conventions
  • cultural
  • fashion trend
  • ethical issues
127
Q

what are examples of technology factors

A
  • new process
  • new products