MIS Exam One
The inventors of disruptive technology always benefit the most from the technology, and it is rare that fast followers catch up quickly.
False
The law of diminishing returns does not apply to traditional products.
False
The more people that use Microsoft Office software and related products, the lower its value.
False
The purchase of information systems hardware, software, and telecommunications equipment will constitute more than half of all capital investment in the United States in 2017.
False
There are two types of outsourcing: offshore outsourcing and foreign outsourcing.
False
Whereas marketing and financial careers have been transformed by the growth in information systems, thus far managerial positions have remained relatively unaffected
False
The use of computers to assemble data from different sources to create digital dossiers of detailed information about individuals is known as which of the following?
Profiling
The obligations that individuals and organizations have concerning rights to intellectual property involve which of the following moral dimensions of the information age?
Property rights and obligations
The obligations that individuals and organizations have regarding the preservation of existing values and institutions fall within which of the following moral dimensions of the information age?
Quality of life
Which of the five moral dimensions of the information age does spamming involve?
Quality of life
Which of the following occurs when muscle groups are forced through tens of thousands of repetitions under low-impact loads?
RSI
________ are not held liable for the messages they transmit.
Regulated common carriers
________ systems integrate and share information from suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and logistics companies.
Supply chain management
Seeing quality as the responsibility of all people and functions in an organization is central to the concept of:
TQM.
Operational-level manufacturing systems provide transaction-level information that enables monitoring of the daily activities of a business.
True
People, organizations, and information technology are all dimensions of information systems.
True
SCM systems are more externally oriented than enterprise systems.
True
Senior management is responsible for ensuring the financial performance of the firm.
True
Strong linkages to customers and suppliers increase switching costs.
True
The Internet has made it more difficult for companies to sustain operational advantages.
True
The efficiency of a business firm depends to a large extent on how well its internal and inter-organizational business processes are designed and coordinated.
True
The power of suppliers is one of the competitive forces that affect an organization's ability to compete.
True
The principal purpose of a TPS is to answer routine questions and track the flow of transactions through an organization.
True
The value chain model classifies all company activities as either primary or support.
True
UPS's use of web-based tools that allow customers to embed UPS functions, such as tracking and cost calculations, into their own websites, described in the chapter case, is an information systems solution used to achieve customer intimacy
True
Telepresence is an example of which of the following?
Virtual meeting
An MIS typically uses data supplied by a TPS.
True
An understanding of enterprise-wide systems for customer relationship management is one of the skills relevant to careers in marketing.
True
As a result of new public laws, accountants require an intimate knowledge of databases, reporting systems, and networks
True
Business organizations are hierarchies consisting of three principal levels.
True
Developing a new product, fulfilling an order, and hiring a new employee are all examples of business processes.
True
Employee attitudes about their jobs, employers, or technology can have a powerful effect on their abilities to use information systems productively.
True
Encouraging employees to adapt to new business processes is an important factor in change management.
True
Feedback is a specific type of output.
True
Firms use extranets to coordinate their activities with other firms for making purchases, collaborating on design, and performing other inter-organizational work.
True
Franchisers are firms that have their product created, designed, financed, and initially produced in the home country but rely heavily on foreign personnel for further production, marketing, and human resources.
True
Identifying a problem includes agreeing that a problem exists.
True
In order to understand how a specific business firm uses information systems, you need to know something about the history and culture of the company.
True
In the value chain model, primary activities are those that are most directly related to the production and distribution of the firm's products and services.
True
Information supplied by an enterprise system is structured around cross-functional business processes.
True
Information systems contain information about significant people, places, and things within the organization or in the environment surrounding it.
True
Low-cost leadership is one of the four basic competitive strategies.
True
Nearly all of the research on the business benefits of collaboration is anecdotal.
True
Second Life is an example of a(n):
virtual world
A wiki is a type of collaborative:
website
What are the three dimensions of business problems? Give an example of each.
(1) Organizational: This may include outdated business processes, unsupportive culture, and attitudes, political conflict, turbulent business environment and change, the complexity of the task, inadequate resources. (2) Technology: This may include insufficient or aging hardware, outdated software, inadequate data management, insufficient telecommunications capacity, incompatibility of old systems with new technology, and rapid technological change. (3) People: This may include lack of employee training, difficulties in evaluation performance, legal and regulatory compliance, work environment, lack of employee support and participation, indecisive management, or poor management.
What is the estimated growth rate for information systems managers' jobs through 2024?
12%
E-commerce and Internet advertising reached $83 billion in 2017, growing at about:
15 percent
Approximately how many adult Americans are online?
273 million
What percent of employed Americans report spending some time working remotely?
43 percent
What percent of the Fortune 500 companies use Twitter to communicate with their customers?
80 percent
Which of the following illustrates the use of information systems to strengthen customer and supplier intimacy?
A PC manufacturer's use of information systems to facilitate direct access from suppliers to their production schedules
Define a business process. What might be a business process used at a hospital?
A business process is a set of logically related tasks and behaviors for accomplishing work. Hiring a new employee, customer intake, and filing medical records are examples of business processes at a hospital.
Which of the following illustrates the use of information systems to focus on a market niche?
A hot tub dealer's use of information systems to determine which models and options its customers are most likely to buy
Which of the following is the best definition of an information system?
A set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization
Which of the following illustrates the use of information systems to achieve product differentiation?
A shoe manufacturer's use of information systems in selling custom, made-to-order shoes directly to customers
________ is a feature of social institutions that means mechanisms are in place to determine responsibility for an action.
Accountability
Which of the following is an important skill for an accounting major?
An understanding of online transaction and reporting systems
Which of the following is an important skill for a marketing major?
An understanding of product management enterprise systems
Which of the following were involved in what has been called the patent trial of the century?
Apple and Samsung
Which of the following is an example of a business using information systems to create new products and services?
Apple's creation of the iPad
How are information systems used at the industry level to achieve strategic advantage?
By building industry-wide, IT-supported consortia and symposia
You are the production manager for a manufacturer of bicycle parts. Which of the following tools or technologies would you use to improve production precision?
CAD software
A ________ is a senior manager who oversees the use of IT in the firm.
CIO
Which of the following is most likely to have direct responsibility for ensuring that his or her company complies with existing data privacy laws?
CPO
A ________ provides information to coordinate all of the business processes that deal with customers in sales, marketing, and service to optimize revenue, customer satisfaction, and customer retention.
CRM system
Final assembly of iPhones occurs in which of the following countries?
China
Which of the following statements is not true about collaboration in a business setting?
Collaboration is a many-to-many activity as opposed to a one-to-one or one-to-many activity.
Which of the following is not one of the four basic strategies a company can employ to deal with competitive forces?
Compete on employee loyalty
Which of the following protects the authors of a book from having their work copied by others?
Copyright law
The culture of UPS places service to the customer among the company's highest business objectives, which is reflected in its use of information systems to enable customer tracking of their packages. Based on your reading of Chapter 1, why is "culture" an important factor to consider when building information system solutions to business problems?
Culture affects how information system solutions are implemented and used.
To make sure it stocks clothes that its customers will purchase, a department store implements a new application that analyzes spending levels at its stores and cross-references this data to popular clothing styles. Which of the following business objectives is this information intended to support?
Customer intimacy
Which of the following systems is especially suited to situations in which the procedure for arriving at a solution may not be fully predefined in advance?
DSS
Which of the following systems supports making decisions that are unique, rapidly changing, and not easily specified in advance?
DSS
Which of the following systems would you use to forecast the return on investment if you used new suppliers with better delivery track records?
DSS
Which of the following is the most common reason that business systems fail? Which of the following is the most common reason that business systems fail?
Data quality
The effect of the Internet has been to increase a company's bargaining power vis-à-vis its customers.
False
Which of the following terms refers to significant disparities in access to computers and the Internet among different social groups and different locations?
Digital divide
Caterpillar Corporation is example of which of the following?
Domestic exporter
________ is a feature of law-governed society and involves having laws that are known and understood, along with the ability to appeal to higher authorities to ensure that the laws are applied correctly.
Due process
Which of the following refers to the purchase or sale of goods and services over the Internet?
E-commerce
Which of the following systems would you use to determine which trends in your supplier's industry will affect your firm the most during the next five years?
ESS
Which of the following systems is designed to support organization-wide process coordination and integration?
Enterprise applications
Jive is an example of which of the following?
Enterprise social networking tool
Which of the following would not be considered part of the implementation phase of problem-solving?
Evaluating a selection of software packages for implementing a new business process
Which of the following is not one of the competitive forces in Porter's model?
External environment
Which of the following types of systems could be used to enable different firms to work collaboratively on a product?
Extranet
You manage the Information Systems department at a small startup Internet advertiser. You need to set up an inexpensive system that allows customers to see real-time statistics, such as views and click-throughs, about their current display ads. Which type of system will most efficiently provide a solution?
Extranet
A network requires at least three computers and a shared resource
False
A payroll system is a typical example of an MIS.
False
An ESS is designed primarily to solve specific problems.
False
An ESS is designed to serve the middle management of the organization.
False
An unsupportive culture is an example of the people dimension of business problems.
False
Business processes are logically related tasks for accomplishing work that have been formally encoded by an organization.
False
Data is information that has been shaped into a form that is meaningful to human beings
False
Enterprise systems do not utilize order transaction data.
False
Every business process is tied to one specific functional area.
False
Federal law requires many businesses to keep email messages for ten years.
False
IT managerial jobs are outsourced easily because of the universal standards used by the Internet.
False
Information systems literacy describes the behavioral approach to information systems, while computer literacy describes the technical approach.
False
Intranets are private corporate networks extended to authorized users outside the organization.
False
Most MIS's use sophisticated mathematical models or statistical techniques.
False
Studies show that more than 75% of a business firm's profits can be explained by the alignment of IT with business.
False
The activities that measure the performance of your business processes against strict standards are called best practices.
False
________ typically develop a single information system, usually at the home base, and then replicate it around the world.
Franchisers
Describe at least three of the general information skills essential for all business careers
General information skills essential for all business careers include (1) understanding how information systems and technologies can help firms achieve business objectives such as operational efficiency, developing new products and services, and maintaining customer intimacy. Also essential is (2) developing skills in the analysis of information in order to help firms understand and make their data, as well as (3) business analytics and intelligence skills, in order to be able to analyze the mountains of big data that the online business environment and Internet of Things produce. (4) All business majors need to be able to work with specialists and system designers who build and implement information systems. This is necessary to ensure that the systems that are built actually service business purposes and provide the information and understanding required by managers and employees. In addition, students need to (5) understand how information systems can be used to meet business requirements for reporting to government regulators and the public and how information systems affect the ethical issues in their fields.
Which of the following Google tools allows people to engage in group video chat?
Google Hangouts
Which of the following U.S. laws gives patients access to personal medical records and the right to authorize how this information can be used or disclosed?
HIPAA
Which of the following is the key business metric behind the technologies implemented by Kroger, as discussed in the chapter-opening case?
Higher customer satisfaction levels
A man steals from a grocery store in order to feed his starving family. Which of the following best expresses the utilitarian principle in evaluating this situation?
His action is acceptable, because the higher social value is the survival of the family
Why is the building of a house an appropriate analogy for the building of an information system?
Houses are built with hammers, nails, and wood, but these alone do not make a house. The architecture, design, setting, landscaping, and all of the decisions that lead to the creation of these features are part of the house and are crucial for solving the problem of putting a roof over one's head. Computers and programs are the hammer, nails, and lumber of computer-based information systems, but alone they cannot produce the information a particular organization needs. To understand information systems, you must understand the problems they are designed to solve, their architectural and design elements, and the organizational processes that lead to these solutions.
Assume you work for a package delivery service in a major metropolitan area and that the business has been losing customers for several years. You have been asked to find a solution to this problem. What is the correct way to proceed?
Identify the problem, design alternative solutions, choose the best solution, and then implement the solution
Which of the following best describes Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative?
If an action is not right for everyone to take, it is not right for anyone to take.
Which of the following statements is not true?
In 2016, about 25 percent of all capital investment in the United States was for information systems hardware, software, and telecommunications equipment
Which of the following is not one of the current key technology trends that raises ethical issues?
Increase in data quality
To what competitive force did the printed encyclopedia industry succumb?
Substitute products or services
What is the difference between information technology and information systems?
Information technology (IT) consists of all the hardware and software that a firm needs to use to achieve its business objectives. Information systems are more complex. An information system can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization
Which of the following technologies permits service calls to U.S. companies to be answered in India just as easily and inexpensively as if the help desk were in the United States?
Internet telephony
Which of the following is a primary drawback to the "do anything anywhere" computing environment?
It blurs the traditional boundaries between work and family time.
Which of the following best describes the effect that new information technology has on society?
It has a ripple effect, raising new ethical, social, and political issues.
An example of a business using information systems for supplier intimacy is:
JCPenney's information system that allows its contract manufacturers to see what garments have been sold and need to be replaced.
What types of jobs are not likely to be outsourced and why?
Jobs involved with the creation of innovative new products, services, and systems are rarely outsourced either domestically or globally. The advantage of low-wage countries is their low wages and ready availability of technical talent, not their keen sense of new products, services, and technologies for other countries' markets.
Which of the following companies used benchmarking to achieve an order-shipping accuracy of 99.9 percent?
L.L. Bean
Which of the following systems is designed to summarize and report on the company's basic operations?
MIS
Which of the following systems would you use to determine the five suppliers with the worst record in delivering goods on time?
MIS
Which of the following is not protected by copyright law?
Machines
Which of the following fields deals with behavioral issues, as well as technical issues surrounding the development, use, and impact of information systems used by managers and employees in the firm?
Management information systems
________ is the ability to offer individually tailored products or services using the same production resources as mass production.
Mass customization
SVF uses which of the following collaboration tools?
Microsoft SharePoint Online
You are a marketing manager for a national movie theater chain. Give an example of data that your department could use for creating meaningful information. What type of information could that data produce?
Movie ticket sales from individual theaters would be an example of raw data. Meaningful information from this would be: average number of tickets sold to seniors on certain days of the week.
Which of the following is a data analysis technology that finds hidden connections between data in disparate sources?
NORA
What percent of global Internet users use Google Search and other Google services?
Nearly 80 percent
Which of the following is pursuing a transnational strategy?
Nestlé
Which of the following is an example of raw data from an automobile manufacturer?
One Subaru Outback sold January 7, 2017 in Mount Kisco, New York for $25,000
Adobe Connect is an example of which of the following types of collaboration tools?
Online Meeting
The NAI is an industry association formed to help with which of the following?
Online privacy issues
Walmart exemplifies the power of information systems coupled with excellent business practices and supportive management to achieve which of the following?
Operational efficiency
Define operational excellence. How can information systems help achieve it?
Operational excellence is the achievement of higher levels of productivity and efficiency. Information systems can help achieve operational excellence by improving communications to suppliers and optimizing the supply chain. Information systems could help managers communicate with workers more efficiently, enable technological innovation in products, minimize warehouse overhead, and streamline distribution.
Which of the following is an inter-organizational business process?
Ordering raw materials
Which are the three major dimensions of business problem-solving?
Organizational dimensions, people dimensions, and technology dimensions
Which of the following is not a file-sharing service?
Pandora
_______ grants the owner exclusive ownership of the ideas behind an invention for 20 years.
Patent law
You are a new manager at a plumbing supply manufacturer where there are an unusually high number of returns for a new aerator used in the production of high-end faucets. In examining the problem, you determine that the primary cause is the improperly designed die-cast for the aerator. Which dimension of a business problem does this reflect?
People
Which of the following replaced the U.S. Department of Commerce safe harbor framework that enabled U.S. businesses to legally use personal data from EU countries?
Privacy Shield
________ means that you accept the potential costs and obligations for the decisions you make.
Responsibility
Which type of system would you use to change a production schedule if a key supplier was late in delivering goods?
SCM system
From your reading of the chapter-opening case study discussing Sanofi Pasteur's use of enterprise social networking, which of the following statements best expresses Sanofi Pasteur's experience?
Sanofi Pasteur's primary motivation was to give employees more opportunities to experiment and innovate on their own.
This chapter discusses how each organization has its own culture and sets of values shared by most of its members. What kind of shared values might you find at a law firm?
Shared values at a law firm might be: The legal system works, the legal system is fair, lawyers help people, and people need help with the legal system because it is complicated
How does critical thinking relate to the problem-solving process?
Simply following a rote pattern of decision making, or a model does not guarantee a correct solution. The best protection against incorrect results is to engage in critical thinking throughout the problem-solving process. Perhaps the most frequent error in problem-solving is to arrive prematurely at a judgment about the nature of the problem. By doubting all solutions at first and refusing to rush to a judgment, you create the necessary mental conditions to take a fresh, creative look at problems and you keep open the chance to make a creative contribution. Second, it is important to recognize that all interesting business problems have many dimensions and that the same problem can be viewed from different perspectives such as the technology perspective, the organization perspective, and the people perspective. The third element of critical thinking involves testing alternatives, or modeling solutions to problems, and letting experience be the guide. Not all contingencies can be known in advance and much can be learned through experience. Therefore, it is important to experiment, gather data, and reassess the problem periodically.
The reduction of errors to 3.4 defects per million opportunities is central to the concept of:
Six Sigma
Which ethical rule states that if an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take at all?
Slippery slope rule
Which of the following industries has the lowest barrier to entry?
Small retailer
________ consists of detailed, preprogrammed instructions that control and coordinate the computer hardware components in an information system.
Software
Which of the following statements about spam is not true?
Spamming is more tightly regulated in Europe than in the United States.
A firm that invests in an information system because it is a necessity of doing business does so because it is seeking to achieve which of the following business objectives?
Survival
A firm that must invest in a new information system in order to comply with federal legislation is investing to achieve which of the following business objectives?
Survival
Which business objective were competitors seeking when they rushed to provide ATMs after Citibank introduced the first ATMs in New York?
Survival
________ technology allows a videoconference participant to give the appearance of being present at a location other than his or her true physical location.
Telepresence
Which of the following is a global network that uses universal standards to connect millions of different networks around the world?
The Internet
Which of the following is considered the most important U.S. federal statute setting forth conditions for handling information about individuals?
The Privacy Act
________ is a service provided by the Internet that uses universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information in a page format.
The World Wide Web
The department chain you work for has had numerous complaints about slow customer service. Your colleague, a sales manager, informs you that this happened at a previous store she worked for, and it was cleared up by hiring more sales representatives. Should you take her advice? Why or why not? What techniques can you use in evaluating the problem?
The advice should not be taken, as it is a rush to judgment, which could mean that the wrong solution is used, wasting time and resources. You should ask the colleague to employ critical thinking. Critical thinking is sustained suspension of judgment with an awareness of multiple perspectives and alternatives. It involves at least four elements: • Maintaining doubt and suspending judgment • Being aware of different perspectives • Testing alternatives and letting experience guide • Being aware of organizational and personal limitations
As described in the chapter case, which of the following constitutes a people element of the UPS tracking system?
The decision to use automation
Which of the following is not a true statement with respect to business processes?
The efficiency of a business firm is not related to its business processes.
Describe the four steps taken in solving a business problem.
The four steps are problem identification, solution design, choice of a solution, and implementation. In the problem identification step, relevant people in an organization must agree that a problem exists, what the problem is, what its causes are, and what can be done about the problem given the organization's resources. In the solution design step, as many solutions as possible should be determined. In the choice step, you choose the best solution from the list of options determined in the previous step. It is important to match a choice to existing resources, skills, and feasibility. In the last step, implementation, the solution is put in place. In information systems solutions, this may include purchasing hardware or software and testing it. The implementation also includes employee training, change management, and using a method to measure the outcome.
Which of the following statements is not true?
The impact of domestic IT outsourcing has been very disruptive to some regional areas of the United States
What important managerial function is impaired by not having access to timely and accurate information? What is the effect of this lack of data?
The managerial function is decision making. Without access to timely and accurate information, business managers rely on forecasts, best guesses, and luck. The result is over- or under-production of goods and services, misallocation of resources, and poor response times. The potential poor outcomes can raise costs, and the company can lose customers.
________ prohibits an organization from collecting any personal information unless the individual specifically takes action to approve information collection and use.
The opt-in model
An ESS is designed to incorporate data about external events, but it also draws summarized information from internal MIS and DSS.
True
Describe the people dimension of information systems and give an example. Is this dimension as vital as the technology dimension when considering a technology-based solution to a business problem?
The people dimension describes all of the factors related to employees, from operational personnel to senior management. Essentially, an organization and its information systems are worthless without skilled employees. For example, a people dimension of implementing a new information system is ensuring users are properly trained to use the system. The people dimension is just as vital as the other dimensions - the success of an information system depends on the people implementing and operating it. In addition, as a resource, employees are expensive to hire, manage, and train, whereas technology and hardware can be relatively inexpensive.
As described in the chapter case, which of the following constitutes an organizational element in the UPS tracking system?
The specification of procedures for identifying packages with sender and recipient information
Which of the following is not an advantage for new companies entering the marketplace?
They can establish new relationships with suppliers.
Which of the following best describes how new information systems can result in legal gray areas?
They result in new situations that are not covered by old laws.
What analytical framework discussed in the chapter helps understand and evaluate the benefits and uses of collaboration tools?
Time/space matrix
Which of the following forms of protection of intellectual property requires that the property be the subject of a nondisclosure agreement?
Trade secret
A DSS often uses information from external sources.
True
A KMS and a CRM system are both types of enterprise applications.
True
A business is a formal organization created to sell services or products at a profit.
True
A business model describes how a company produces, delivers, and sells a product or service to create wealth.
True
A firm can be said to have a competitive advantage when it uses commonly available resources more efficiently.
True
A firm's IT infrastructure provides the platform on which the firm can build its information systems.
True
A value web is a collection of independent firms that use information technology to coordinate their value chains to collectively produce a product or service for a market.
True
An MIS generally is not flexible and has little analytical capability.
True
You work for an auto manufacturer and distributor. How could you use information systems to achieve greater customer intimacy?
You could create a website that allows customers to customize cars, communicate with support personnel and other car owners. You could create an automated email service reminding car owners to take their car in for periodic check-ups. You could have an information system that tracks customer preferences in local areas, so you can provide cars that reflect local customer needs and desires.
In a business environment, the focus of the collaboration is to:
accomplish the task at hand.
All of the following are steps in the process for analyzing an ethical issue except:
assigning responsibility.
Advertisers use ________ in order to display more relevant ads based on a user's search and browsing history.
behavioral targeting
The most successful solutions or methods for achieving a business objective are called:
best practices.
The enormous volume of data generated by Internet activity, such as web traffic, email, and social media is referred to as:
big data
DSS and MIS are also referred to as ________ systems.
business intelligence
A database into which employees manually input customer names and addresses is riddled with errors and you have been charged with rectifying the situation. In considering the organizational dimensions of this problem, you should consider the:
business processes in place governing the manual input of the data
A firm that locates all systems development and operations at its headquarters is using a ________ system configuration.
centralized
All of the following are new technology-related trends in MIS except:
co-creation of business value
Benchmarking:
compares the efficiency and effectiveness of your business processes against strict standards.
Hilton Hotels' use of customer information software to identify the most profitable customers to direct its services to is an example of using information systems to:
focus on market niche.
The failure of NASA's initial solution to preventing the space shuttle shedding foam illustrates the:
continuous nature of problem solving.
The fundamental set of assumptions, values, and ways of doing things that has been accepted by most of a company's members is called its:
culture.
Employees that assist with administrative work at all levels of the firm are called:
data workers
In a ________ system configuration, separate information systems are designed and managed by each foreign unit.
decentralized
All of the following can be considered managerial responsibilities except:
designing new information systems.
The ________ strategy is characterized by heavy centralization of corporate activities in the home country of origin.
domestic exporter.
________ systems are those in which development occurs at the home base, but operations are handed over to autonomous units in foreign locations.
duplicated
The use of digital technology and the Internet to execute the major business processes in the enterprise is called:
e-business
All of the following are psychological aspects of quality except:
effective marketing.
The six important business objectives of information system investment include all of the following except:
employee morale
Suppliers, customers, invoices and payments, products and services, and ________ are the five basic components with which businesses must deal.
employees
The Online Privacy Alliance:
encourages self-regulation to develop a set of privacy guidelines for its members.
An information system can enhance core competencies by:
encouraging the sharing of knowledge across business units.
A(n) ________ collects data from various key business processes and stores the data in a single comprehensive data repository, usable by many parts of the business.
enterprise system
All of the following could be considered substitute products for industrial electricity generation except:
ethanol.
CVS refers to:
eyestrain related to computer display screen use.
All of the following are examples of environmental actors in an information system except:
feedback
Journalist Thomas Friedman's description of the world as "flat" refers to the:
flattening of economic and cultural advantages of developed countries.
When a cookie is created during a website visit, it is stored:
on the hard drive of the visitor's computer.
The value chain model:
helps a firm identify points at which information technology can most effectively enhance its competitive position.
The first step in the model of business problem solving discussed in the chapter is:
identifying the problem.
The ethical "no free lunch" rule states that:
if something someone else has created is useful to you, it has value, and you should assume the creator wants compensation for this work.
The final step in the four-step model of business problem solving is:
implementation.
Verizon's implementation of a web-based digital dashboard to provide managers with real-time information, such as customer complaints, is an example of:
improved decision making
In network economics, the value of a commercial software vendor's software products:
increases as more people use them.
Redesigning and automating business processes can be seen as a double-edged sword because:
increases in efficiency may be accompanied by job losses.
All of the following describe the effects of globalization except:
increases in transaction costs.
The three activities in an information system that produce the information organizations use to control operations are:
input, processing, and output
An information system can enable a company to focus on a market niche through:
intensive customer data analysis.
SCM systems are considered to be a(n) ________ because they automate the flow of information across company boundaries.
inter-organizational system
Engineers and scientists are examples of:
knowledge workers.
An ESS is an information system that supports the:
long-range planning activities of senior management.
Internet technology:
makes it easy for rivals to compete on price alone.
The Internet raises the bargaining power of customers most effectively by:
making information available to everyone.
In a hierarchical organization, the upper levels consist of
managerial, professional, and technical workers.
Producing a bill of materials is a responsibility of the ________ function.
manufacturing and production
When a firm provides a specialized product or service for a narrow target market better than competitors, they are using a ________ strategy.
market niche
The average number of baseball tickets sold at a particular price is an example of:
meaningful information
The term management information systems refer to a specific category of information systems serving:
middle management functions.
All of the following have been disruptive technologies except:
minicomputers.
A firm can exercise greater control over its suppliers by having:
more suppliers.
The ________ strategy concentrates financial management and control out of a central home base while decentralizing production, sales, and marketing operations to units in other countries.
multinational
In the ________ model of informed consent, personal information can be collected until the consumer specifically requests that his or her data not be collected.
opt-out
The support activities of a firm include:
organization infrastructure, human resources, technology, and procurement.
A moving company has an information system that analyzes travel patterns and decides which routes are the most efficient for every van. The need for employees to follow procedures to update this system with arrival and departure times is a(n) ________ dimension of the system.
organizational
Inadequate resources are an example of the ________ dimension of business problems.
organizational
Flapjack Flats, a new pancake restaurant chain, is having difficulty finding pancake chefs. This is a business problem that falls into the:
organizational dimension
Work environment is an example of the ________ dimension of business problems.
people
The owners of Speed-EZ, a new bike messenger service, are concerned about how they will manage their messengers once the messengers have left the office. This is a business problem that falls into the:
people dimension
Converting raw data into a more meaningful form is called:
processing
All of the following are considered primary activities of a firm except:
procurement.
Interaction jobs are those jobs which:
require close coordination and collaboration.
The U.S. CAN-SPAM Act:
requires commercial email senders to identify themselves.
Perhaps the most frequent error in problem-solving is:
rushing to judgment about the nature of a problem.
Identifying potential customers for the businesses' products or services is an activity associated with the ________ function.
sales and marketing
The three principal levels of hierarchies within a business organization are:
senior management, middle management, and operational management.
Financial managers work directly with ________ to ensure investments in information systems help achieve corporate goals.
senior managers
The goal of social commerce applications is to:
share opinions about purchasing products or services.
Data management technology consists of the:
software governing the organization of data on physical storage media.
Each of the following is required for successful collaboration, except:
strong hierarchy.
Instant messaging, videoconferencing, and shared screens are all examples of ________ collaboration tools.
synchronous
When the output of some units can be used as inputs to other units, or if two organizations pool markets and expertise that result in lower costs and generate profits, ________ are created.
synergies
The principal liaison between the information systems groups and the rest of the organization is a(n):
systems analyst.
Outdated software is an example of the ________ dimension of business problems.
technology
Which of the following ethical guidelines suggests that you put yourself in the place of others, and think of yourself as the object of the decision?
the Golden Rule
The FIP principle of Notice/Awareness states that:
websites must disclose their information practices before collecting data.
In choosing the best solution for a business problem, all of the following are important considerations except:
the ability to forget about the problem once it has been solved.
"Look and feel" copyright infringement lawsuits are concerned with:
the distinction between an idea and its expression.
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.
According to ________, you should take the action that produces the least harm.
the risk aversion principle
The emergence of software as a web service has acted as a disruptive technology for:
traditional boxed software companies.
A(n) ________ performs and records the daily activities of a firm necessary to conduct business.
transaction processing system
Output:
transfers processed information to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it will be used.
Intranets:
use Internet technology for a private company network.
A virtual company:
uses networks to link people, assets, and ideas, enabling it to ally with other companies to create and distribute products and services without being limited by traditional organizational boundaries or physical locations
A ________ is a collection of independent firms that use information technology to coordinate their value chains to produce a product or service for a market collectively.
value web