CR - From Crack the Gmat- Team plz explain

[sanyalpritish]

Kingsland companies often outsource data-entry tasks to foreign firms. The results of this outsourcing have been shown to lower costs for Kingsland companies in several different ways, and high costs can potentially bankrupt Kingsland companies. The decision to outsource is rare, except during recessions, when the Kingsland economy is weak. Therefore, Kingsland companies probably outsource their work because doing so helps them avoid bankruptcy.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in order to evaluate the argument?
(A) Whether outsourcing is the most effective cost-lowering method available to Kingsland firms.
(B) Whether the firms to which Kingsland companies outsource data-entry tasks are at risk of bankruptcy during recessions
(C) Whether companies in cities other than Kingsland outsource data-entry tasks to foreign firms
(D) Whether the only time foreign firms are available for data-entry tasks is when the Kingsland economy is weak
(E) Whether domestic firms are able to handle the data-entry tasks outsourced to foreign firms

[sanyalpritish]

Will I ever get a reply on this form

[rajkapoor]

outsourcing reduces cost in lot of ways and higher costs can cost bankruptcy
it is used rarely, only when economy is weak.
surprisingly, it is supposed to reduce cost yet rarely used -a paradox here -

this paradox can only be resolved if we can find an answer to why the Kingsland companies use outsourcing during recession only and if that answer resounds with the knowledge that higher costs can cost bankruptcy.


This question is lil odd as it produces a paradox and then asks for evaluating the argument.i think gmat questions either present paradox or ask for evaluation rather than both ..

here is my effort -

(A) Whether outsourcing is the most effective cost-lowering method available to Kingsland firms.

yes , outsourcing is the most effective cost-lowering method available , so it is used to avoid bankruptcy.
no , it is not the most effective cost-lowering method available , so shouldn't be used for bankruptcy.

since answers to the question either strengthen or weaken the argument, it must be the correct choice.

(B) Whether the firms to which Kingsland companies outsource data-entry tasks are at risk of bankruptcy during recessions

answer to this question doesn't help in evaluating why kingsland companies use outsourcing for bankruptcy rather it talks about bankruptcy situation of outsource companies

(C) Whether companies in cities other than Kingsland outsource data-entry tasks to foreign firms

this question is irrelevant to the argument.

(D) Whether the only time foreign firms are available for data-entry tasks is when the Kingsland economy is weak

this helps to understand the paradox as to why the Kingsland companies might not use outsourcing companies other than during recession but it doesn't help to understand whether k-companies use outsourcing to avoid bankruptcy.

(E) Whether domestic firms are able to handle the data-entry tasks outsourced to foreign firms

this question again doesn't help to understand if bankruptcy is the reason for outsourcing by k-companies.

[sanyalpritish]

Thx Raj for making an effort,

OA-D

[rajkapoor]

i was debating between A) and D) choices ( of course these were the only two sensible options ) but i can't see how answer choice D) can be used to evaluate the argument regarding the use of outsourcing as way out of bankruptcy.

[sarfrazyusuf]

I think the answer is very obviously D for the following reason:

The argument concludes that companies in Kingsland outsource during recession because the economy is weak but there could very well be some other reason why companies are outsourcing during periods of recession.

One of these reasons could very easily be that foreign firms are only available for data entry work at this particular time so even if companies in Kingsland wanted to, they could not outsource work at other times during the economic cycle, since no firm is available to do the work.

So getting the answer to option D will either strengthen or weaken the argument, hence serves our purpose.

Why not A - It doesn't matter whether outsourcing is the most effective cost-lowering method or not. Say for arguments' sake that the most effective method is to sack 50% of the workforce and the second most effective method is outsourcing. Since the most effective way might appear impractical to most companies they might resort to the 2nd most effective method - outsourcing - to avoid bankruptcy, but then again that may not be the case.

In either case finding out the answer to this question will be of no help in evaluating the argument.

Cheers!

[RonPurewal]

the other posters on this thread have done a nice job of answering the question; the answer should be (d).

if anyone is interested, this problem appears to be modeled on the following gmatprep problem:
capuchin-monkeys-in-venezula-t2028.html