Ch. 4 questions - Integrated

Cartzy Inc., Cartific Inc., and Clustercart Inc., are three consumer-product retailing companies. Their products consist primarily of day-to-day items that are easy to imitate and sell. All three companies use the same resources and capabilities in the production and distribution of their products. Judging from the market conditions described in this scenario, which of the following statements is true? A. Any advantage that one firm has will be short-lived. B. Resource immobility of the firms will be low. C. The industry structure will be far from perfect competition. D. Barriers to entry within the industry will be high.

A. Any advantage that one firm has will be short-lived.

Which of the following applies to the Strength-Threats quadrant of the SWOT matrix? A. The local fast-food chain Easy Hot Dogs used its wholesome image to maintain its competitive advantage against stiff competition B. The local fast-food chain Easy Hot Dogs revised its image of being a cheap-food place to being a wholesome family place to maintain its competitive advantage against stiff competition. C. The local fast-food chain Easy Hot Dogs added a salad bar to maintain its competitive advantage against stiff competition. D. The local fast-food chain Easy Hot Dogs expanded its limited menu to maintain its advantage against stiff competition

A. The local fast-food chain Easy Hot Dogs used its wholesome image to maintain its competitive advantage against stiff competition

A firm will fail to create a sustained competitive advantage when the A. fit between its internal strengths and the external environment is static. B. source of its competitive advantage is socially complex C. resource bundles exhibit heterogeneity and immobility D. source of its competitive advantage is causally ambiguous

A. fit between its internal strengths and the external environment is static.

Value chain analysis consists of systematically analyzing a firm's key activities that for analysis purposes are categorized into two groups: A. profits and losses B. Primary activities and support activities C. customers and suppliers. D. products and service activities.

B. Primary activities and support activities

STRIKEBYTE Inc. is a software company that has built and acquired numerous assets over the years. According to the resource-based view of a firm, which of the following assets of STRIKEBYTE Inc. will best enable it to gain and sustain a competitive advantage? A. the headquarters building owned by the company B. the expertise acquired by the employees in the company C. the cloud computing service that it uses D. the capital the company raised from its shareholders

B. the expertise acquired by the employees in the company

The ___________________ suggest(s) that because the external environment changes, strategic leaders must choose their current and future investments carefully over time in order to best maintain their firm's competitive advantage. A. SWOT analysis framework B. law of diminishing returns C. Dynamic Capabilities Perspective D. VRIO framework

C. Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

We Build & Build's' core competency is building multi-family housing in urban areas. This competency is based primarily on the decisions made by the company's top management over several years to focus on building in densely populated cities. Management used the process of A. causal dependence B. dependence complexity. C. Path dependence D. Path Immobility

C. Path dependence

TalkaLot Inc. is a cell phone manufacturing company. Its latest range of smartphones are visually similar to the Y-series range of smartphones from Talkie Gen Inc., in terms of its shape and look-and-feel. Which of the following strategies has TalkaLot Inc. used to replicate the valuable and rare resource of Talkie Gen Inc.? A. innovation B. strategic equivalence C. direct imitation D. substitution

C. direct imitation

Online retailer eBuy had been drastically losing market share to its competitors. The management hired a reputed consulting firm to advise the company. The experts from the consulting firm pointed out that the company primarily lost out on its competitive advantage due to its poor customer service, including slow response times to customer inquiries and unclear return policies. These ineffective policies and procedures led to many disgruntled customers and a steady migration to more customer-friendly retailers. eBuy can best solve its problem by working on its A. Immobile assets B. Resource Flows C. Resource Stocks D. Support Activities

D. Support Activities

Which of the following below is NOT categorized as a primary activity on Porter's Value Chain? A. operations B. after sales service C. Sales and marketing D. procurement

D. procurement

Toyago Inc. is a leading educational toy company. Competitors across the globe have failed to imitate Toyago's production models, supply chain systems, knowledge systems, and culture. These attributes have remained unique to Toyago Inc. for a long time. Which of the following assumptions of the resource-based model of competitive advantage does this scenario best illustrate? A. resource cost B. resource substitution C. resource homogeneity D. resource immobility

D. resource immobility

The management of a company is assessing the value of all the tangible resources the company owns. Which of the following will be included in this assessment? A. patents for electronic components B. a reputation for fast customer service C. a culture of proactive communication D. the punch presses that produce parts

D. the punch presses that produce parts