ch 6 bsg

A strategic alliance

a collaborative arrangement where two or more companies join forces to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes

The best strategic alliances

are highly selective, focusing on particular value chain activities and on obtaining a particular competitive benefit, they tend to enable a firm to build on its strengths and learn

The strategic impetus for forward vertical integration is to

bypass distribution dealers and sell direct to consumers at the company's website

The two big strategic appeals of a brick-and-click strategy whereby a company sells to consumers both at traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores and at its own website are

economically expanding a company's geographic reach and giving existing and potential customers another choice of how to communicate with the company, shop for company products, make purchases, or resolves customer service problems

The main impetus for merger and acquisition strategies is to

fundamentally alter a company's trajectory and improve its business outlook

Which of the following is not among the potential benefits that a company can gain by outsourcing value chain activities presently performed in-house?

improving a company's ability to lower the costs of integrating both forward and backward and also to transfer the risk of adverse changes in buyer demand for the company's product to outside vendors

Which one of the following is not a defensive option for protecting a company's market share and competitive position?

pursuing continuous product innovation to draw sales and market share away from rivals with comparatively weak product innovation capabilities

Which of the following is not a potential advantage of backward vertical integration?

reduced business risk because of controlling a bigger portion of the overall industry value chain

Which of the following is not one of the principal offensive strategy options?

signaling rivals that any aggressive or proactive moves on their part will be met with forceful retaliation

Experience indicates that strategic alliances

stand a reasonable chance of helping a company reduce competitive disadvantage, but rarely boost the competitive power of its resources and capabilities enough to gain a competitive advantage

The two best reasons for investing company resources in vertical integration (either forward or backward) are to

strengthen the company's competitive position and/or boost its profitability

Which of the following is a good type of rival for an offensive-minded company to target?

struggling enterprises that are on the verge of going under

Which of the following conditions do not constitute a late-mover advantage (or first-mover disadvantage)?

the lack of any barriers to entering into an alliance or merging with another firm

Because when to make a strategic move can be just as important as what move to make, a company's best option with respect to timing is

to carefully weigh the first mover advantages against the first mover disadvantages and act accordingly

Which one of the following is not a strategic decision that needs to be made in choosing how best to complement a company's choice of one of the five generic competitive strategy options and thereby maximize the power of its overall strategy?

whether to reposition the company by moving to a different strategic group