BMIS Final Ch 3

Which of the following statements about organizations is not true?

An informal group can be considered to be an organization.

Which of the following would a company employ to measure and compare its business processes to similar processes of other companies within their industry?

Benchmarking

Which of the following statements about business processes is not true?

Business processes are typically unaffected by changes in information systems.

Which model is used to describe the interaction of external forces that affect an organization's strategy and ability to compete?

Competitive forces model

Which of the following statements about disruptive technologies is not true?

Firms that invent disruptive technologies as first movers always become market leaders

Which of the following statements about the technical view of organizations is not true?

It sees the inputs and outputs, labor and capital, as being infinitely malleable.

Which of the following marketplace forces would be of least concern to a manufacturer of deep-sea oil rigs?

New market entrants

________ is a competitive strategy for creating brand loyalty by developing new and unique products and services that are not easily duplicated by competitors.

Product differentiation

Which of the following industries has the lowest barrier to entry?

Small retailer

Walmart's attempt to increase its online presence is an example of a firm using information systems to:

achieve low-cost leadership.

The most successful solutions or methods for achieving a business objective are called:

best practices.

The interaction between information technology and organizations is influenced:

by many factors, including structure, politics, culture, and environment.

A(n) ________ is an activity for which a firm is a world-class leader.

core competency

Information systems enhance core competencies by:

encouraging the sharing of knowledge across business units.

All of the following are competitive forces in Porter's model except:

external environment.

The value chain model:

highlights specific activities in the business where competitive strategies can best be applied.

All of the following statements are true about information technology's impact on business firms except:

it helps firms expand in size.

Along with capital, ________ is the primary production input that the organization uses to create products and services.

labor

The four major competitive strategies are:

low-cost leadership, product differentiation, focus on market niche, and customer and supplier intimacy.

The Internet increases the bargaining power of customers by

making information available to everyone.

Firms use a ________ strategy to provide a specialized product or service for a narrow target market better than competitors.

market niche

The ability to offer individually tailored products or services using the same production resources as bulk production is known as:

mass customization.

A firm can exercise greater control over its suppliers by having

more suppliers

Walmart's continuous replenishment system allows it to do all of the following except:

provide mass customization.

The parts of an organization's infrastructure, human resources, technology, and procurement that make the delivery of the firm's products or services possible are known as ________ activities.

support

The expenses incurred by a customer or company in lost time and resources when changing from one supplier or system to a competing supplier or system are known as:

switching costs.

When two organizations pool markets and expertise that result in lower costs and generate profits, they are creating:

synergies

According to research on organizational resistance, the four components that must be changed in an organization in order to successfully implement a new information system are:

tasks, technology, people, and structure.

The idea that the more any given resource is applied to production, the lower the marginal gain in output, until a point is reached where the additional inputs produce no additional output, is referred to as:

the law of diminishing returns.

When a firm buys on the marketplace what it cannot make itself, the costs incurred are referred to as

transaction costs.