test business 11/30/17

According to Mintzberg, the percent of intended strategy that becomes a reality is:

10-30

_______________focuses on how a given business needs to compete in order to be effective.

Business Strategy

The stronger the power of _____________ in an industry the more difficult it is for firms within that sector to make a profit.

Buyers

The firm's capacity to deploy resources that have been purposely integrated to achieve a desired end state are called _____________.

Capabilities

A firm's strategy includes which of the following:

Captures how vision and mission will be achieved

To help them develop an environment in which knowledge is widely spread across all employees, some organizations have created the new upper-level managerial position of __________________.

Chief Learning Officer

When you can identify certain strengths that set an organization well apart from actual and potential competitors, that strength is considered a source of ______________ advantage.

Competitive

Core competencies are resources and capabilities that serve as a source of a firm's __________ over rivals.

Competitive Advantage

______________ defines the breadth of a company's target market.

Competitive Scope

The particular bundles of resources and capabilities that provide unique advantages to the firm are considered ___________________.

Core competencies

___________________ answers strategy questions related to "what business or businesses should we be in?"

Corporate Strategy

______________ refers to the strategy where a firm's competitive advantage is based on the bet that it can develop, manufacture, and distribute products more efficiently than competitors.

Cost Leadership

______________ refers to the strategy where competitive advantage is based on superior products or service.

Differentiation

A ________________ strategy is the marketing of a differentiated product to a narrow market, often involving a unique product and a unique market.

Differentiation-focus

Using Porter's analysis, firms are likely to generate higher profits if the industry includes which of the following?

Difficult to enter

___________ exists when an organization participates in multiple businesses that are in some way distinct from each other, as Taco Bell is from Pizza Hut.

Diversification

_____________ markets are the industries that consume the industry outputs.

Downstream

The strategic planning systems of most companies involve a combination of design and _____________.

Emergence

The primary determinant of realized strategy is what Mintzberg terms _________________.

Emergent Strategy

Examining opportunities and threats is part of _____________ analysis.

Environmental

Almost anything a firm possesses can be considered a core competency.

False

Compared with the industry environment, the general environment has a more direct effect on the firm's strategic competitiveness and above-average returns.

False

Evidence suggests that companies often find it difficult to identify new customers.

False

Industries with many companies that have successfully differentiated their product have more rivalry.

False

Owning resources which do not meet the VRIO test of value puts the firm at a competitive advantage.

False

Strategic management process is the coordinated means by which an organization chooses its mission and vision.

False

The oil refiners are upstream of the oil producers.

False

The stronger the power of suppliers in an industry the more likely it is that they will be able to force down prices and reduce the profits of firms that provide the product.

False

A cost-leadership strategy is more likely to generate a(n) _____________ in market share.

Increase

A(n) ______________ is a group of firms producing products that are close substitutes.

Industry

The ________________ consists of stakeholder groups that a firm has regular dealings with which can affect the costs, quality, and overall success of a business.

Industry Microenvironment

A resource that is difficult to imitate, or create ready substitutes for is called ________________.

Inimitable

____________ include assets that are deeply rooted in the firm's history and have accumulated over time.

Intangible Resources

_________________ is strategy as conceived of by the top management team and is the result of a process of negotiation, bargaining, and compromise.

Intended Strategy

Straddling strategies as an approach to strategic management is not recommended for which reason:

It is an indication that the firm's managers have not made necessary choices about the business and its strategy

A company's value derives not from things, but from ____________.

Knowledge

Examples of business strategy include all the following EXCEPT:

Looking at the organization as a portfolio

Superiority in competitive advantage refers to all of the following factors EXCEPT:

Low cost

Competing for the same customers and thus influenced by how customers value location and firm capabilities in their decisions is referred to as the market _____________

Microstructure

______________ assess factors external to the business that could enable a business to exist and/or prosper.

Opportunities

The VRIO criterion that determines whether a resource or capability is the source of competitive advantage recognized that the firm must have the _______________ capability to exploit the resources.

Organizational

Where does strategy formulation fit within the POLC framework?

Planning

A firm's tangible resource includes which of the following?

Production equipment

The different aspects of strategy as distinguished by Mintzberg include which of the following?

Realized

The actual strategy that is implemented in a firm is called ________________.

Realized Strategy

Which of the following forms of diversification occurs when a firm operates multiple businesses within the same industry?

Related diversification

The industry characteristics that make it very difficult for firms to achieve strategic competitiveness and earn above-average returns includes all of the following EXCEPT:

Relatively moderate rivalry

_______________ stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

SWOT Analysis

Which of the following is considered an intangible resource?

Scientific capabilities

In the value chain, which of the following activities is deemed to add direct value to a firm?

Service

___________ is seen when an organization is very clear about its mission and vision, and has a coherent, well-articulated strategy for achieving those.

Strategic Focus

_________________ reflects what a firm is doing to achieve its mission and vision, as seen by its achievement of specific goals and objectives.

Strategic Management

While there are different schools of thought about how strategy comes about, researchers generally agree the common characteristic across successful organizations is:

Strategic focus

_______ is sometimes called business planning or strategic planning.

Strategy Formulation

___________ tells managers how they should go about putting the desired strategy into action.

Strategy Implementation

Goods or services from outside a given industry that perform similar or the same functions as a product that the industry produces are called ____________________.

Substitute Products

Industry characteristics of an attractive industry, one where firms may achieve strategic competitiveness and earn above-average returns, includes which of the following?

Suppliers and buyers with little bargaining power

The hardest thing for an organization to do is to develop its competitive advantage into ______________ competitive advantage, where the organization's strengths cannot be easily duplicated or imitated by other firms, nor made redundant or less valuable by changes in the external environment.

Sustainable

__________ exists when the interaction of two or more active activities, such as those in a business, create a combined effect greater than the sum of their individual effects.

Synergy

_____________ are assets that can be seen and quantified.

Tangible Resources

_____________ include factors beyond the control of a firm that could place the strategy at risk.

Threats

The purpose of diversification is:

To spread out risk and opportunities over a larger set of businesses

A firm that possesses a valuable and rare resource will not gain a competitive advantage unless it can actually put that resource to effective use.

True

A firm's performance relative to industry peers is likely to vary according to the level to which resources, capabilities, and ultimately core competences satisfy VRIO criteria.

True

According to the strategy diamond, economic logic tells us how profits will be generated above the firm's cost of capital.

True

Intense rivalries are common in industries with many companies.

True

Many firms have valuable and rare resources that they fail to exploit.

True

The five-forces model recognizes that suppliers can become a firm's competitors, as can buyers.

True

The more difficult it is for other firms to enter a market the more likely it is that existing firms can make relatively high profits.

True

The stronger competitive forces are, the lower the profit potential for an industry's firms.

True

_____________ markets are the industries that provide the raw material or inputs for the focal industry.

Upstream

Where the value chain might suggest internal areas of strength, __________ helps predict whether those strengths will give it a competitive advantage.

VRIO

A resource or capability is said to be ____________ if it allows the firm to exploit opportunities or negate threats in the environment.

Valuable

A useful tool for taking stock of organizational capabilities is the ______________.

Value Chain

An organization pursuing a strategy as discipline seeks competitive advantage by offering products or services that are unique from those offered by rivals.

false

By drawing on external analysis and emphasizing core competencies when formulating strategies, companies learn to compete primarily on the basis of firm-specific differences.

false

Cost leaders must maintain their marketing or face the possible entry of more cost-effective competitors.

false

Firms utilizing a competitive scope strategy can tailor advertising and promotional efforts to a particular market niche.

false

It is important to note that the concept of strategy is relevant to only large, public companies like GE.

false

Not all organizations need strategies to survive and thrive.

false

Planning starts with vision and mission, and concludes with strategizing.

false

Two or more firms competing for differentiation may engage in price wars that drive profits to very low levels.

false

Within the strategic plans that are decided, divisional and business unit managers do not have considerable freedom to adjust, adapt, and experiment.

false

For a differentiation strategy to be effective, the product difference should NOT be based on:

price

A cost-focus strategy is a low-cost, narrowly focused market strategy.

true

An assessment of strengths and weaknesses occurs as a part of organizational analysis.

true

By exploiting internal resources and capabilities and meeting the demanding standards of global competition, firms create value for customers.

true

Cost leadership is a low-cost, broad-based market strategy.

true

Firms pursuing a differentiation strategy are vulnerable to different competitive threats than firms pursing a cost leader strategy.

true

Knowledge possessed by human capital is among the most significant of an organization's capabilities.

true

One approach to focusing is to service either industrial buyers or consumers, but not both.

true

Strategy is a pattern of resource allocation choices and organizational arrangements that result from managerial decision making.

true

The best strategies, corporate and business, are based on a thorough SWOT analysis.

true

The primary determinant of realized strategy is what Mintzberg terms emergent strategy.

true