MIS Final Exam Quizzes

The Mac's market share continues to increase each quarter, although it has been flat the last few quarters. Ignoring brand issues, how do you explain the dramatic increase in market share for Apple's Mac over the last 10 years? Use network strategies or other principles and concepts to explain this growth.

1. Apple moved to the Intel processor in 2006 for its Macs. This change brought compatibility to Windows and lowered the switching costs for users from Windows. Apple benefited from the better Intel processor that was used in the PC. 2. Apple stores were hugely successful at attracting new customers with unique product features like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. 3. Apple focused on developing its platform around iTunes and the iOS where there are large numbers of complements such as music, games, movies, books, and applications. The platform attracted large numbers of customers with significant lock-in. The products were 'open' to develop a large number of complements on its iOS. 4. More and more applications moved to the web and users only needed a browser to access those applications. This move increased the appeal of the Apple product to other users. 5. Apple introduced products that fundamentally changed an industry with every new release. The iPod changed the music industry by unbundling CDs. The iPhone fundamentally changed the network industry and device makers by introducing multi-touch screens through devices that could make voice calls, surf the Internet, access emails, take pictures, send messages, and play games. The iPhone also changed who controlled customers. The iPad changed media, gaming, and book industries. Note that any TV that Apple will introduce is likely to change the cable business. 6. Apple has an unrelenting focus on the customer experience.

Which generation of wireless communication is based on the initiative of International Telecommunication Union (ITU), also known as IMT-2000, and seemed to evolve from different incompatible systems of earlier generations?

3G wireless communication is based on the ITU and seemed to evolve from different incompatible 2G systems.

Controlled migration implies which of these?

A firm keeps control of its technology and provides compatibility

Which of the following is NOT an example of data mining?

A grocery store wants to store sales transactions to make taxes easier to file.

Renting a software solution gives companies which of these benefits?

A lower upfront cost

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is ______________.

A markup language an Internet browser can understand

A direct network effect occurs when _______.

A network is created entirely by one set of IT products or services.

Data mining is ______?

A powerful means of extracting new insights from data

_________ is what analyzes every Google search to determine which advertisers' sponsored links appear on every results page.

AdWords

When measuring an ad campaign and realizing that a particular publisher, such as Google or Bing or a group of ads for that publisher, tends to have a LOW probability of transaction and LOW CPC, what does this mean for your ad strategy?

Adjust the website design to increase transaction

Cost per thousand (CPM) is an online ad metric that refers to which of these?

Advertiser pays every thousand times an ad is displayed.

Which company do you think poses the greatest threat for Microsoft, IBM, Google, Dell, HP, and other service providers?

Amazon, with its web services, is a threat to all of these companies, and is putting significant pressure on traditional companies.

Which mobile operating system has the largest share of mobile malware?

Android

Explain why Apple retail stores are a success today.

Apple has purposely created unique products that create curiosity in its customers. The unique features and the buzz around releases creates a genuine curiosity in consumers who can then go to the stores and observe the products first hand. The ability to see, touch, and play with new products makes the retail store a valuable asset to Apple.

Based on its product strategies, which of these products has the most potential for high profits in the marketplace?

Apple iPhone 5 (iOS)

Which of the following hypothetical situations touch on BOTH the concepts of Cultural Lock-in and Cannibalization?

Barnes and Noble entered the E-reader market in 2010, three years after Kindles were released; perhaps because there was fear it would hurt traditional book sales

The evolution of information technology encouraged changes in the ______ of companies such as those found in the stock trading industry.

Business Models

When deciding which software to purchase, Company C realized that it wants to make a good size investment in its future software solution. It also wants to retain complete control over its data but it also can't afford to start from scratch on this project since time is important. Which of the following options should Company C consider?

Buying an off-the-shelf software

Which of these best describes the term social engineering?

Con games that trick employees into revealing information or performing other tasks that compromise a firm

Two-sided markets will exhibit an affect where if one side increases or decreases, so does the other side?

Cross network effects

If a company does not possess the competency needed to capitalize on a new innovation, that innovation may lead to ___________.

Cultural Lock-in

What is noted as one of the main reasons that companies eventually fail over time?

Cultural Lock-in

Which of these best describes the Akamai model?

Decentralized and scalable

What spurred the Cable Industry in the 1990s to compete with telecomm companies and start providing Internet services?

Deregulation of industry

What is one of the 5 areas that digital strategy can encompass?

Embedding IT in products we use

How has personal computing evolved from the 1980s to present day? Consider each decade: 1980s, 1990s, and present day.

Even if Apple's product strategy hasn't really changed, the market has. The market has evolved as well as the way you utilize the product. If you go back to the 1980s, it was a standalone computer in a non-networked world used for personal productivity, usually used by businesses, or in some cases, higher education. That was the product. But today, the product is in the networked world. It's in the mobile world. It's not only used for productivity, and it's not only a consumer product. It is a lifestyle product. Your photos, videos, books, everything is on that one device and you can share all of those things at any time. The product has fundamentally changed from a focus on personal productivity to a lifestyle choice product. The consumption behavior has also changed. To a large extent, Apple has done a remarkable job at actually transforming your individual productivity tool into your lifestyle choice tool. The underlying things that have changed are the ones that make Apple a very powerful company today.

What factors are critical to consider when analyzing the effectiveness of a social network?

Extent of reach, the size of the network Ability to self promote to influence others Ability to influence targets through connections in social network

T/F: Apple chooses to focus more on evolutionary changes versus revolutionary changes in its new products (iPod, iPhone, and iPad) because it is less risky.

False

T/F: Because Kodak invented the digital camera we can say that its core competency was really in digital versus chemical engineering.

False

T/F: ERP software is designed to disconnect the parts of the value chain so a company can slow the flow of information across the parts of a company.

False

T/F: Only about 30 percent of the original Forbes 100 list is no longer in existence.

False

T/F: Outsourcing is usually only done with low-skilled jobs.

False

Before beginning to conduct data mining, a business should do which of these?

Focus on its business and data mining goals

The primary job of a negative keyword is to ________.

Get rid of irrelevant keywords that searchers are typing online.

One category of risk factors found on the risk matrix is Internal Factors. These factors can be described as which of these?

Global alignment, customer alignment, employee impacts, and effective change management

If someone in your company wanted to know in which states your brand is being searched more or less, then which would be the best tool for this?

Google Trends

What is HTML?

HTML is a markup language to structure (format) a document on your browser.

Organic search results occur when a company has which of these?

Has a website categorized as relevant to the search request.

Identify reasons why Apple's market share rapidly declined in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

IBM PC architecture was made open and this attracted a number of competitors to clone (e.g., Dell, Gateway, Compaq, Packard Bell, etc). This competition lowered prices and increased quality that expanded the market quickly. As installed base increased, it attracted many independent software vendors to develop complements (e.g., productivity tools, such as Lotus 1-2-3 and Wordperfect, and business applications). The extensive complements expanded the market dramatically. Some of the products for PCs had network effect (like Wordperfect) that attracted more users as prices began to fall. Because Apple was expensive and had fewer complements, the industry gravitated towards the PC market. Meanwhile, PCs became very modular, where each component improved in performance and lower prices over time. The performance of the Intel processor grew much faster than what Apple was using. And, the performance of PCs improved much faster than that of Apple, even though Apple had a better OS. Lack of complements, higher prices for Macs, higher performance of PCs, open IBM architecture attracting competitors, and large network effects resulted in lower market share of Apple.

What methods did Tesco use to beat Wal-mart?

Identified socio-economic groups of people likely to leave Tesco and targeted those customers Identified which items customers who were likely to leave Tesco mostly bought Undercut Wal-mart on specific item prices to lower incentives for customers to switch

What are common uses of data mining?

Identify the profiles of customers and what they buy Predict who is likely to be successful at a job Understand what products and services are bought together

One of the main objectives of supply chain management is which of these?

Improve financial performance and shareholder value

Apple built a strong ecosystem around their OS, which allowed devices to increase compatibility. What affect does this have on its customers?

Increases lock-in for consumers and decreases likelihood they will leave

Customizability _______ as you move towards the _______ layers of the software ecosystem.

Increases; Outside

The study or use of systems (especially computers and telecommunications) for retrieving, storing, sending, and analyzing information is best described by what term?

Information Technology

What is the best definition of the Internet of Things?

Interconnection of devices or machinery through the internet

Akamai strategically places their servers near __________ to speed up the delivery time for content.

Internet Service Providers

The innovator's dilemma faced by Kodak had which of the following impacts?

It did not commercialize the digital film technology it developed

When a firm makes its technology open, which of these is true?

It increases competition and may make that firm worse off. There is potential for increasing complements that can benefit the firm. The technology can become industry standard.

Which of these is true about the history of wireless technology evolution?

It was easier for companies like Verizon to upgrade and grow their 4G network since they were using a standard technology

Which of these is NOT true of Packet Switching?

Less scalable

What is the function of a DBMS (Database Management System)?

Managing the interactions between programs and the data

What are the sources of competitive advantage for the Microsoft operating system?

Microsoft has a huge installed base of more than 85% for PCs, with a huge lock-in from its OS. The switching costs for businesses is so prohibitive that it gives Microsoft an advantage both in terms of pricing and introducing new products. Microsoft has products such as Office Suite with huge network effects where the collective switching costs are prohibitive for firms and individuals. There are a large number of complements built on the Microsoft OS that are not available for other major OSs, which makes switching harder for firms. There are also a large number of IT professionals competent in Microsoft products.

In terms of profits, name three IT companies that are among the most profitable companies.

Microsoft, Apple, and IBM

What are known advantages of Akamai business model?

More scalable than storing in your own servers

Which of these best describes the term access poaching?

Neighbors can steal or use your wifi signal

One limitation about Blockchain technology current is what?

No set standards, as they are still evolving

What are sourcing options?

Offshore Insourcing Offshore Outsourcing Domestic Insourcing

What were the strengths of Apple's products in the 1980s? What are the strengths of Apple's products in the 2000s? Are there major differences between Apple's products from these two time periods?

One key thing Apple wanted in its products was ease of use and the concept of plug and play. You can take the product out of the box, plug it in, and start using it. It also has remarkable industrial design that nobody in the industry had. Apple spent a lot of money on research and design. They also had incredible buyer loyalty and a niche brand along with a proprietary system and a premium product with tremendously high margins.

How do you know if a product has an open or controlled product strategy?

Openness refers to whether you will give up some level of control to allow people to interact with your product or build complements that can integrate with it. The open approach, because it is open and easier to integrate with, tends to see more adopters and growth. The opposite of openness is a controlled strategy where you choose to control the entire product. You don't license your technology for others to build with it. You choose to be the one who builds and controls the user experience.

Which layer has the greatest source of lock-in within the ecosystem?

Operating System

The majority of loss-causing security incidents according to most recent data involve ___________.

Organizational Insiders or Employees

There are two types of methods for implementing BlockChain. They are ________ and ________.

Permissioned, unpermissioned

Which cloud hosting option typically is the most costly?

Private

Which of these are the two primary categories of outsourcing costs?

Production costs and transaction costs

What are known uses cases of Blockchain technology discussed so far?

Reduce the need for intermediaries in financial transactions

Which of these is an effective strategy you should use to optimize your online search marketing campaign?

Set specific measurable goals for your campaign

To counter the bullwhip effect a firm may choose to do which of these?

Share information to lower uncertainty

Which of these is the most important reason that Apple has an open app strategy?

So that Apple can benefit from a two-sided market

Which of these is not one of the software characteristics?

Software creation can be automated

What is a static web page?

Static pages have content displayed on a browser that does not change over time

Here's a hypothetical. In 2013, it seemed like all but a few of Sally's friends were on Facebook while she was still on MySpace, a competing social network. To get all her friends and family to move to MySpace, her network would have to incur a ______.

Switching Cost

In the case of Tesco versus Wal-mart, what happened?

Tesco was able to beat Wal-mart in Europe by embracing data mining

What are the different entities connected to the Mastercard platform?

The Mastercard platform connects banks, retailers, and consumers.

The Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) is defined as which of these?

The length of time between payment for inventory and receipt from accounts receivable

What is the market share of the Linux operating system for desktops, which is open source, free to download, and PERCEIVED to be more robust and scalable?

The market share of the Linux operating system is less than 2% of all operating systems, including personal computers and mobile devices.

Return on ad dollars (RoA) refers to?

The net revenue of an online ad divided by the cost of the ad

Degree centrality refers to which of these?

The number of direct connections a node has

What impact does an open product strategy usually have on a product's profits, when compared to the profits of a product with a controlled strategy?

The profit potential for an open product will be lower

Firms often fail to identify and recognize intangible costs. Why is this often the case?

These costs are harder to quantify

Which are examples of IoT discussed in the unit?

Tooth brushing frequency and strength shared with your dentist Sensors in a house detecting a leak that could communicate to other devices to shut off water, gas, and send you an alert If a stock price reaches a certain price, a computer automatically submits it for sale.

Blockchain technology is best applied in which sort of situations?

Tracking of transactions where goods are transferred from one owner to another

The number of actual transactions or number of delivered clicks is which of these?

Transaction conversion rate (TCR)

T/F: One argument that can be made for people that are against net neutrality is the following: Companies like AT&T invest billions in their infrastructure each year and take on more risk than the content providers.

True

T/F: Product bundling is harder to do now for Microsoft because it can be seen as a misuse of their monopoly on the OS market and risk lawsuit.

True

Which of the following best describes net neutrality?

Users should have access to all the content on the Internet at the same speed Net neutrality is the stance that no one company owns access to the Internet and the speed to which content can be viewed, regardless of how much that company paid to set up the infrastructure.

Usually office users are connected to the Internet and remote location through which of these?

Usually office users are connected to the Internet and remote location through a local area network (LAN).

When is a product focused on performance?

When it has a significant performance improvement

A network effect is when which of these occurs?

When the value of using a product grows exponentially for users.

What are the four decision stages of sourcing?

Which processes are candidates for outsourcing? Where is the process located? Whom should the firm select to perform the process? How to implement and measure?

Many brands mistakenly focus too much on simply _________ and using this metric as their measure of success.

accumulating fans

The basic principles of IoT are based around Events, Conditions, and _______.

actions

Which term describes a database does specific tasks based on events that occur within the database rather than tasks being taken explicitly by humans?

active

Each time an ad is shown on a website or Google Search results, this is know as _________.

an impression

Which of these is a commonly used descriptive method?

association rules

This metric plays an important role in the network that connects two or more different sets of network cliques. A person or group with high ___________ has significant influence over multiple sub-networks.

betweenness centrality

This term is used to describe how information is distorted from one end of a supply chain to the other end.

bullwhip effect

Which data mining method is one of the unsupervised learning tasks where observations about products, people, performance, process, or other events with various attributes are segmented into homogenous subgroups from a heterogeneous data set?

clustering analysis

When analyzing a social network, if there is too much ________, it may be challenging for users to find your company on the network and this may not be an effective network for your business.

clutter

___________________ may remove idle capacity, increase buying power, and improve efficiency of operations.

consolidation

Transaction costs include which of these?

contract costs

Apple is the only company that makes the iPhone, making it a(n) ______ product strategy.

control

Performance metrics used to determine if a sourcing option was successful include which of these?

customer satisfaction

What is one of the anomalies that normalization helps to resolve?

deletion

Common _________ data mining methods include association rules and clustering analysis.

descriptive

Blocks in a blockchain are linked to previously agreed upon blocks. If a previous block is changed by one peer, this may not be approved since the copy of all transaction blocks is __________ across many peers' machines.

distributed

Examples of ___________factors to consider include data security, internal controls, effective knowledge transfer, maintenance, well-defined and clear interfaces, and accessibility.

implementation

Which of these is a reason a company would move its computer chip development to China? Check all that apply.

improve time-to-market lower costs access to better talent modularity

Less popular products that have less demand than popular ones make up what is called the ___________.

longtail

Social media has shown that it is able to increase the life of demand and length of popularity of books hereby increasing the area in the __________.

longtail

Which of these options best explains why a company would move its customer service center to India? Check all that apply.

lower wages 24/7 operation mature process

Which of these is a primary reason that makes supply chain management so challenging?

managing uncertainty

If a firm wants to lower costs, obtain a global presence, create 24 x 7 operations, and access new markets and new talents, which option is likely the best for this firm?

offshore

Many companies such as Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, Motorolla, and others make Android phones. Android is a(n) _________ product strategy.

open

What term best describes the type of network Facebook or other social media networks are?

opt-in

The use of a trusted friend to trick you into revealing information such as a password is known as?

phishing

The Apple App Store is a ________ that serves to connect users and app developers.

platform

__________ methods are also used for understanding influences, predicting fraud, sensing market trends, analyzing the market basket, mining emotions, and more.

predictive

The IoT Framework is comprised of 5 segments which are Sensors/Devices, Data, Receiving Data, __________, and Taking Action.

processing data

The supply chain system that is built-to-stock (BTS), where a firm forecasts demand, produces according to a schedule, and places the customer at the end of the chain, is called which of these?

push system

What is the type of database separates data into specific tables that have particular attributes is known as a _____________ database?

relational

Innovative products need a(n) ___________ supply chain, while functional products need a(n) ____________ supply chain.

responsive, efficient

All IoT data is able to be captured by a multitude of devices because they contain some form of a _______.

sensor

Which of these best explains why a company would move its IT Infrastructure to a domestic firm? Check all that apply.

specialization focus on core competencies economies of scale

There are four characteristics needed to monetize social networks. Which characteristic means that users must have a stake in the network effect that goes beyond the traditional value of the more users means more value concept?

stickiness

_____________ is the coordination and integration of all activities and flows (material, information, and financial) in the value system that includes suppliers and customers to maximize firm benefits.

supply chain management

There are four characteristics needed to monetize social networks. Which characteristic means a company must be able to capture a percent of the transaction value, and become a toll booth?

toll booth