MGMT 411

Which of the following statements about competitive advantage is true?

Competitive advantage can be assessed by measuring accounting profit, shareholder value, or economic value

Which of the following is an advantage of applying the economic value creation perspective to assess a firm's performance?

In economic value perspective, analysts not only consider historical costs, but also opportunity costs.

Which of the following is an advantage of the balanced-scorecard?

It allows managers to translate a firm's vision into measureable operational goals.

How does a sustainable strategy typically help a firm?

It helps the firm achieve positive results along the social and ecological dimensions.

In nearly every case, which of the Five Forces is the most important in determining the relative power structure in an industry?

No single force is dominant in most every case.

After conducting a SWOT analysis, your firm has decided to focus on addressing issues located in the Weaknesses-Opportunities quadrant. Which of the following steps are you most likely to take?

Reorganize the inefficient research and development department to bring innovative products to market more quickly.

The tenet behind the triple-bottom-line is that

a firm should achieve positive results along the economic, social, and ecological dimensions to gain a sustainable strategy.

SonronMedia sells books by having salespeople set up appointments with potential customers and give them a sales pitch for the product. When a salesperson sells a book, he or she gets a predetermined percentage commission. This type of business model is called

an agency.

Which of the following is NOT considered an important macro-environmental influence on businesses (that is, a potential influence beyond that of the industry alone)?

bargaining power of suppliers

BestReads spent 10 million dollars to buy the rights to a best-selling novel. The company then prepared for production by hiring a screenwriter to adapt the novel, casting the main roles, renting cameras and other equipment, and scouting locations in southern Montana. Which of the following pairs of resources are both intangible?

best-selling novel; screenwriter's experience adapting novels

Which of the following describes a situation in which firms acquire resources at a low cost, laying the foundation for a competitive advantage later?

better expectations of future resource value

The balanced-scorecard can accommodate

both short- and long-term performance metrics.

Tim's ToothCream has been the leader of dental care products for about 40 years. However, this company relied too long on its competency of reducing cavities without refining or upgrading other aspects of its product. As a result, other personal hygiene companies that began to offer toothpastes with natural whitening agents gained a competitive advantage over Tim's ToothCream. This case is an example of

core rigidity

Threadless allows customers to submit their own designs and to vote on which designs they would like to see printed on a T-shirt. This business uses a ________ technique.

crowdsourcing

Tesla is addressing environmental concerns regarding the carbon emissions of gasoline-powered cars by building zero-emission battery-powered vehicles. This best represents which of the following PESTEL categories?

ecological

Leo's Magic Rails maintains a manufacturing plant overseas. The local government has just been overthrown by a military group that opposes foreign influence in the country. According to the SWOT analysis, the political situation in this location is considered to be an

external threat

A "perfectly competitive" industry is one that

has commodity product offerings, exhibits low profitability, and has difficulty achieving even a temporary competitive advantage

Firms that can employ and establish _________________, are more likely to protect their competitive advantage from being copied and/or eroding away.

isolating mechanisms

Suppose that several senior managers recently left Target Corporation and went to work at rival Walmart. What part of the ""stocks and flows"" of resources does this represent for Target Corporation?

leakage

Which of the following options below would serve as a feasible option when deciding how to enter an established industry?

leverage existing assets

Firms that compete within the same strategic group generally experience

more competitive rivalry than firms outside their strategic group.

Southwest Airlines (SWA) has enjoyed a sustained competitive advantage, allowing it to outperform its competitors over several decades. Continental and Delta attempted to copy SWA with their offerings of Continental Lite and Song, respectively. Neither Continental nor Delta, however, was able to successfully imitate the resource bundles and firm capabilities that make SWA unique. Which of the following is this case an example of?

resource immobility

Dynamic capabilities are especially relevant for surviving and competing in markets that

shift quickly

In recent years a growing number of U.S. consumers have become more health-conscious about what they eat. According to the PESTEL Framework this trend could best be classified as a ________ trend.

sociocultural

A firm's ________ relates to its ability to create value for customers (V) while containing the cost to do so (C).

strategic position

Which of the following external forces is a part of a firm's task environment?

the composition of the strategic group to which the firm belongs

If you examine various barriers to entry facing firms that might wish to enter the airline industry, this would be most helpful in assessing which of the five forces in that industry?

threat of new entrants

During the process of formulating an effective business model, a firm's managers should first

transform their strategy of how to compete into a blueprint of actions and initiatives.

CarTsar Inc. is a manufacturer of automobile parts, which it sells to retail auto supply stores. Its core competencies include superior design and engineering capabilities, as well as a highly integrated and efficient supply chain. To sustain its competitive advantage, CarTsar should first

upgrade its engineering department and improve its supply chain

A defining characteristic of the pay-as-you-go business model is that the

users pay for only the services they consume.