A Town Council has decided to build a new community center to be used for conventions, concerts, and other public events, but considerable controversy surrounds the appropriate size. Many influential citizens want a large center that would be a showcase for the area, but the mayor feels that if demand does not support such a center, the community will lose a large amount of money. To provide structure for the decision process, the council narrowed the building altematives to three sizes: small, medium, and large. Everybody agreed that the critical factor in choosing the best size is the number of people who will want to use the new facility. A regional planning consultant provided demand estimates under three scenarios: worst case, base case, and best case. The worst-case scenario corresponds to a situation in which tourism drops significantly; the base-case scenario corresponds to a situation in which the town continues to attract visitors at current levels; and the best-case scenario corresponds to a significant increase in tourism. The consultant has provided probability assessments of 0.10, 0.60, and 0.30 for the worst-case, base-case, and best-case scenarios, respectively. The town council suggested using net cash flow over a five-year planning horizon as the criterion for deciding on the best size. A consultant developed the following projections of net cash flow (in thousands of dollars) for a five-year planning horizon. All costs, indluding the consultant's fee. are included. Demand Scenario Center Size Worst Base Best Case Case Case Small 380 480 640 Medium -270 30 780 Large -420 560 970 (a) What decision should the town make using the expected value approach? EV(Small) 518 EV(Medium) 585 EV(Large) The best decision is to build a medium or large-sized v 585 community center. (6) Compute the expected value of perfect information. EVPI = 585 Do you think it would be worth trying to obtain additional information concerning which scenario is likely to occur? The town should consider additional information about the likelihood of the three scenarios. O The town should not consider additional information about the likelihood of the three scenarios. (c) Suppose the probability of the worst-case scenario increases to 0.2, the probability of the base-case scenario decreases to 0.5, and the probability of the best-case scenario remains at 0.3. EV(Small) 508 EV(Medium) 405 EV(Large) 487 What effect, if any, would these changes have on the decision recommendation? The best decision is to build a smal vy community center. (d) The consultant suggested that an ependiture of $150.000 on a promotional campaign over the planning horizon will effectively reduce the probability of the worst-case scenario to zero. The campaign can be expected to also increase the probability of the best-case scenario to 0.4. (Remember to subtract the cost of the promotional campaign from the expected value.) EV(Small) EV(Medium) 444 EV(Large) The best decision is to build a large 444 community center.