IS ch3

Which of the following is true of an efficient customer response system?

An efficient customer response system directly links consumer behavior to distribution and production and supply chains

involves comparing the efficiency and effectiveness of a business process against strict standards and then measuring the performance against those standards

Benchmarking

In every industry, there's a firm that stands out from others. These firms are said to have a competitive advantage over others: They either have access to special resources that others do not, or they are able to use commonly available resources more efficiently. Firms that stand out often become the metric to which others are compared. Which of the following best describes benchmarking?

Benchmarking involves comparing the efficiency and effectiveness of a business process against strict standards and then measuring the performance against those standards.

What are core competencies?

Core competencies are activities at which a firm excels as a world-class leader.

In Porter's competitive forces model, the strategic position of the firm and its strategies are determined by competition with its traditional direct competitors, but they are also greatly affected by new market entrants, substitute products and services, suppliers, and customers. __________ is one of the four basic competitive strategies, and uses information systems to develop strong ties and loyalty with customers and suppliers.

Customer and supplier intimacy

The following examples show how sometimes innovations radically change a business environment, and other times the innovations simply extend the market albeit with less functionality: The car replaced the horse-drawn carriage, the word processor replaced typewriters, the Apple iPod and streaming music service replaced portable CD players, and digital photography replaced process film photography. Which of the following best describes disruptive technologies

Disruptive technologies are substitute products that perform as well as or better than anything currently produced.

In this example, information systems have what kind of an impact on an organization?

Economic

What is a stable, formal social structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs?

Organization

Adopting a strategic information system generally requires changes in business goals and relationships as well as changes in business processes. Which of the following is a movement between levels of sociotechnical systems?

Strategic transition

Information systems exists to support the required activities a firm must carry out in order to transform business inputs into business outputs. Which of the following highlights activities that add a margin of value to a firm's products or services where information systems can best be applied to achieve a competitive advantage?

The value chain model

Which of the following best defines a value chain model?

The value chain model highlights specific primary and support activities in the business where competitive strategies can best be applied (Porter, 1985) and where information systems are most likely to have a strategic impact.

To align IT with the business and use information systems effectively for competitive advantage, managers need to perform a strategic systems analysis. To identify the types of systems that provide a strategic advantage to their firms, managers should ask the following question.

What are some of the competitive forces in the industry?

Which of the following questions should managers be able to answer before implementing an IT?

Where in the value chain will information systems provide the greatest value to the firm?

Information technology, especially the use of networks, can help firms lower the cost of market participation, making it worthwhile for firms to contract with external suppliers instead of using internal sources. Similarly, technology, by reducing the costs of acquiring and analyzing information, permits organizations to reduce costs because it becomes easier for managers to oversee a greater number of employees. According to agency theory

a firm is viewed as a "nexus of contracts" among self-interested individuals rather than as a unified, profit-maximizing entity

Organizations using information systems to deal with competitive forces

achieve the lowest operational costs

Instead of participating in a single industry, some of today's firms participate in industry sets or collections of industries that provide related services and products that deliver value to the customer. A __________ is loosely coupled but interdependent networks of suppliers, distributors, outsourcing firms, transportation service firms, and technology manufacturers.

business ecosystem

The research on IT and business performance has found that the more successfully a firm can align information technology with its business goals, the more profitable it will be, yet only a one-quarter of firms achieve the alignment. Most businesses make a mistake when it comes to adopting or implementing information technology because ________.

businesspeople ignore IT instead of taking an active role in shaping it

The competitive advantages that strategic systems confer do not necessarily last long enough to ensure long-term profitability because ________.

competitors can retaliate and copy strategic systems

This scenario is an example of how information systems help businesses use __________ to achieve competitive advantage

core competencies

American Airlines' SABRE computer reservation system, Citibank's ATM system, and FedEx's package tracking system benefited by being the first in their industries. Then rival systems emerged. These examples illustrate the

difficulty of sustaining a competitive advantage

According to transaction cost theory, __________.

firms and individuals seek to spend less on the costs incurred when a firm buys on the marketplace what it cannot make itself

Primary activities are the value chain model category that

is most directly related to the production and distribution of the firm's products and services, which creates value for the customer

Taking advantage of network economics, using the model of a virtual company, and creating a business ecosystem are all examples of how information systems help businesses use __________ to achieve competitive advantage.

network-based strategies

This scenario is an example of how information systems help businesses use __________ to achieve competitive advantage

network-based strategies

The value chain model describes the series or chain of basic activities that add a margin of value to a firm's products or services. Some activities are directly related to an organizations manufacturing process, while other activities are related to an organization's capital resources. Support activities consist of

organization infrastructure, human resources, technology, and procurement

Inbound logistics (receiving and storing materials for distribution to production), operations (transforming inputs into finished products), outbound logistics (storing and distributing finished products), sales and marketing, and service are all

primary activities

consist of organization infrastructure (administration and management), human resources (employee recruiting, hiring, and training), technology (improving products and the production process), and procurement (purchasing input).

support activities

According to __________, firms and individuals seek to spend less on the costs incurred when a firm buys on the marketplace what it cannot make itself.

transaction cost theory