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What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages to a Firm of Operating on a Large Scale?

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Q4) what are the advantages and disadvantages to a firm of operating on a large scale?
Economies of scale fall under microeconomics and are the cost advantages a business obtains due to expansion. As scale is increased they cause a producers average cost per unit to fall.
Microeconomics (from Greek prefix micro- meaning "small" and "economics") is a branch of economics in which you study the behaviour of how the individual firms make decisions to allocate limited resources. Normally, it applies to markets where goods or services are being bought and sold. Microeconomics examines looks at how these decisions affect the supply and demand for goods and services, which determines prices, and how prices, in turn, determine the amount supplied …show more content…

However larger firms have advantages in keeping prices higher because of their market power.
Research and development economies are made when developing new and better products.
A larger firm can be safer from the risk of failure as it has a more diversified product range. Moreover larger firm may have greater resilience in the case of a downturn in its market because of larger reserves and greater possibility to make cutbacks.
External economies of scale are economies made outside a firm as a result of location. They come about when a local skilled labour force is available. Furthermore when specialist local back-up firms can supply parts or services. They can also come about because of a particular area having a good transport network; also if an area has an outstanding reputation for producing a certain type of good e.g. Sheffield is associated with steel.
Indivisibility of Plant is when a machine can not be made to do more than the one particular job it is there for and is not viable to produce other products.
Agricultural machinery appropriate for large scale work can be looked at under the principle of Multiples e.g. some production processes need more than one machine to create an end product or just to be fully efficient.
Internal diseconomies of scale transpire when firms become too large and inefficient. As the firm increases production eventually the average costs begin to

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