Exam 1 practice, bus 400 ch 1

true

True or false: Intended strategy rarely survives in its original form.

business, corporate, international, and entrepreneurial

What are the four levels of a company's strategy formulation?

internal and external

When managers refer to their organizational boundaries they mean both ______ and ______ boundaries.

They are less restricted by geographical constraints. They develop high-quality relationships and networks.

Which of the following are advantages of electronic (virtual) teams?

profitability and market value ratios short-term and long-term solvency measures asset management ratio

Which of the following are among the five types of financial ratios that are used to analyze a firm's performance? (Check all that apply.)

service inbound and outbound logistics operations marketing and sales

Which of the following are among the primary activities of a firm's value chains? (Check all that apply.)

Closure leads to high levels of trust. Group members develop strong relationships with each other.

Which of the following are benefits of closure? (Check all that apply.)

The five-forces model is essentially a static analysis. Porter's model assumes a zero-sum game, meaning there is a winner and loser. Managers should not always avoid low-profit industries.

Which of the following are caveats of using industry analysis? (

There is a potential for lower group cohesion and trust among members. Geographical dispersion increases the complexity of establishing effective interaction and exchanges, thus leading to a potential for process loss. There is a potential for poor communication of critical information that may lead to wasted time and energy.

Which of the following are challenges to using electronic (virtual) teams? (Check all that apply.)

providing outstanding customer service having strong product development capabilities flexible manufacturing

Which of the following are examples of organizational capabilities? (

patented products that cannot be copied a company's mineral rights a beach resort location on a one-of-a-kind island

Which of the following are examples of physical uniqueness?

organizational capabilities that involve complex social interactions that make up a company's culture processes that are difficult for outsiders to understand

Which of the following are examples of resource characteristics that are inimitable due to causal ambiguity? (Check all that apply.)

reputation with suppliers and customers organizational culture interpersonal relationships among managers

Which of the following are examples of socially complex resources?

Procurement General administration Human Resources management

Which of the following are examples of support activities? (

It has allowed buyers to link directly to a supplier's website to create rapid, low-cost ordering. It has sped up and streamlined supply chain processes. It has created more "downstream" outlets for suppliers.

Which of the following are examples of ways that the Internet has been positive for supplier bargaining power? (Check all that apply.)

Decrease product/service prices. Increase customer service. Increase warranties.

Which of the following are examples of what companies do to gain customers? (Check all that apply.)

includes multiple stakeholders in decision making incorporates both short-term and long-term perspectives directs the organization toward overall goals and objectives

Which of the following are key attributes of strategic management?

viable opportunities effective strategies

Which of the following are needed in order for entrepreneurial initiatives to be successful?

New entrants may be able to serve a market more effectively with more personalized services than incumbents. New entrants can enter a niche market on equal footing with incumbents. New entrants may have lower start-up costs, which would allow them to offer lower prices and thus gain market share.

Which of the following are potential benefits for new entrants to web-based businesses? (Check all that apply.)

Socializing employees can be expensive. Dysfunctional human resource practices. Employees develop groupthink with their network.

Which of the following are potential downsides of social capital?

poor alignment with individuals' scorecards poor execution of the approach lack of long term senior management commitment

Which of the following are potential limitations of using the balanced scorecard approach? (Check all that apply.)

decreased costs due to customer feedback greater customer satisfaction and loyalty general innovative ideas that may lead to cost-savings

Which of the following are potential outcomes that may be realized by including customers' point of view in actual production? (Check all that apply.

The walk does not match the talk. The vision lack real-world relevance. There is too much focus on finding a singular solution.

Which of the following are reasons vision statements sometimes fail?

accurate financial and accounting reporting environmental sustainability fair labor standards

Which of the following are social responsibility expectations that go beyond a firm's product and service quality?

growth shareholder value profitability

Which of the following are typical financial goals? (Check all that apply.)

Organizations are able to create new opportunities. Organizations are able to develop products and services. Organizations are able to conserve resources.

Which of the following are ways in which sharing knowledge and information benefits organizations?

reputation customer relationships employee loyalty

Which of the following assets are examples of intellectual capital?

developing technologies that train personnel research and development activities that lead to new products developing a company-wide Intranet

Which of the following describe activities associated with the technology development support function? (Check all that apply.)

a substitute that is a similar resource that enables the firm to implement the same strategy a substitute that is a very different resource that becomes a strategic substitute because it provides the same end result differently

Which of the following describe the two forms that resource substitutability may take? (Check all that apply.)

employee replacement cost employee exit cost employee bargaining power manager bargaining power

Which of the following help to explain the extent to which employees and managers may be able to obtain a proportionately high level of generated profits?

Knowledge-intensive firms have very high market-to-book value ratios, and traditional firms have low market-to-book ratios.

Which of the following is a difference between knowledge-intensive firms and firms in more traditional industry sectors?

Marga starts a ride-sharing business in a city with few parking garages.

Which of the following is an example of a CEO with perceptual acuity?

the knowledge worker

Which of the following is an example of a firm's intellectual asset?

Provide faster delivery. Increase product selection. Lower the cost of providing products or services.

Which of the following must firms be able to do in order to capture greater profitability using technology and the Internet? (Check all that apply.)

delivery vehicle operation order processing warehousing

Which of the following processes are associated with outbound logistics? (Check all that apply.)

Effective management of knowledge workers creates wealth. Intellectual capital is more heavily valued than physical and financial resources.

Which of the following statements about a knowledge economy are true?

Sales and engineering typically do not interact across groups. They are common in organizations. Managers refer to them as silos or stovepipes.

Which of the following statements about structural holes are true?

The criteria for success are constantly changing due to rapid changes. Human capital, information capital and organization capital are critical to this perspective. Managers must make frequent changes to existing products and introduce new products.

Which of the following statements about the firm's innovation and learning perspective are correct? (Check all that apply.)

The ratio tends to be higher for knowledge-intensive companies. The ratio tends to be higher when physical resources are relatively less critical to the company.

Which of the following statements about the ratio of market-to-book value of a company are true? (Check all that apply.)

It includes financial and customer satisfaction measures. It takes into account organizational innovation and learning perspective. It provides managers with a fast but comprehensive view of the business.

Which of the following statements about using the balanced scorecard method of evaluating a firm's performance are true? (Check all that apply.)

No two firms are totally different. Strategic groups are clusters of firms that share similar strategies. No two firms are exactly the same.

Which of the following statements are correct regarding strategic groups? (Check all that apply.)

They are interrelationships among activities within the firm. They are relationships among activities within the firm and other stakeholders.

Which of the following statements describe the relationships among value-chain activities? (Check all that apply.)

Developing and retaining human capital becomes less important as key employees become "free agents". Knowledge workers are often more loyal to their colleagues and their profession than their employer. It helps tie knowledge workers to a given firm.

Which of the following statements regarding social capital playing a vital role for companies are correct? (Check all that apply.)

It requires incorporating both short-term and long-term perspectives.

Which of the following statements regarding strategic management is true?

buyers

Which of the following threaten an industry by forcing down prices, bargaining for higher quality or more services, and playing competitors against each other?

the high-technology sector

Which sector is most affected by legislation on H-1B visas?

Companies have realized that failure to measure it can negatively affect the company and its community.

Which statement about the triple bottom line is true?

Social complexity

___ is a characteristic of a firm's resources that is costly to imitate because the social engineering required is beyond the capability of competitors.

Strategy

____ analysis is the starting point of the strategic management process and includes the advanced work that must be done to effectively formulate and execute strategies.

Competitive intelligence

____ helps firms define and understand their industry and identify rivals' strengths and weaknesses.

technology development

____ includes activities that are associated with the development of new knowledge that is applied to the firm's operations.

Environmental scanning

_____ involves surveillance of a firm's external environment to predict environmental changes and detect changes already underway.

Environmental forecasting

_____ involves the development of plausible projections about the direction, scope, speed, and intensity of environmental change.

Causal ambiguity

_____ is a characteristic of a firm's resources that is costly to imitate because a competitor cannot determine what the resource is and/or how it can be re-created.

Path dependency

_____ is a characteristic of resources that is developed and/or accumulated through a unique series of events.

Scenario analysis

_____ is an in-depth approach to environmental forecasting that involves experts' detailed assessments of social, economic, political, technology trends or other dimensions of the external environment.

Physical uniqueness

_____ is the first source of resource inimitability due to being inherently difficult to copy.

Reintermediation

_____ is the introduction of new types of intermediaries into the value chain.

Environmental monitoring

_____ tracks the evolution of environmental trends, sequences of events, or streams of activities.

Marketing and sales

______ activities are associated with purchases of products and services by end users and the inducements used to get them to make purchases.

Operational Effectiveness

______ is performing similar activities better than rivals do.

operational effectiveness

______ is performing similar activities better than rivals do.

The ______ view of stakeholder management views the management process as groups competing for the organization's resources.

`zero sum

Managers execute or implement their decisions as ______ in the third step of the strategic management process.`

actions

Strategic management of an organization entails which of the following ongoing processes? (Check all that apply.)

actions analyses decisions

Match the strategic management process with its corresponding term.

analyses matches Choice, strategy analysis strategy analysis decisions matches Choice, strategy formulation strategy formulation actions matches Choice, strategy implementation strategy implementation

The second step in the strategic management process is ______.

decisions

Managers are analyzing the firm's ______ when managers are studying its competitors.

external environment

True or false: The most effective organizations have strong leaders at the top who make all the decisions that the rest of the organization then carries out.

false

analysis

first step of the strategic management process

The three primary participants in corporate governance are the ______, management, and board of directors.

local line leaders: have significant profit-and-loss responsibility have significant profit-and-loss responsibility exec: guide ideas, create a learning infrastructure, and call for action intern: have little formal authority, inspire others with conviction and clarity of ideas

Studies show that managers often focus on short-term goals to the detriment of creating ______ shareholder value.

long-term

In order for strategic objectives to be meaningful they need to be ______. (Check all that apply.)

measurable timely specific

the zero-sum game issue

Managers should understand how they can create win-win relationships with their suppliers and customers so that they can overcome ______.the zero-sum game issue

According to the view of leadership, the leader is assumed to be the most important element in a company's success or failure.

romantic

The ______ view of leadership assumes that the organization's leader is the driving force in the success or failure of the business.

romantic

The ______ process consists of the analyses, decisions, and actions an organization undertakes in order to create and sustain competitive advantages.

strategic management

realized

strategy is a combination of deliberate and emergent

A firm's hierarchy of goals include its ______. (Check all that apply.)

vision mission strategic objectives

identify groups whose competitive position may be marginal or tenuous identify barriers to mobility that protect a group from attacks by other groups think through implications of industry trends for each company within the group

Strategic group analysis helps managers do which of the following?

organizational versus individual rationality

Strategic management adheres to the perspective that what might be seemingly ideal for one functional area of an organization might not be in the best interest of the total organization. This perspective is known as ______.

goals and objectives

Strategic management is directed toward the organization's overall organizational

are a set of organizational goals that are used to operationalize the mission statement and cover a well-defined time frame.

Strategic objectives

conduct a thorough analysis of the external and internal environments analyze the company's overarching goals

Strategies often fail when managers fail to do which of the following?

formulation

Strategy ______ consists of decisions made by firms regarding investments, commitments, and other aspects of operations that create and sustain a competitive advantage.

the organization having a commitment to excellence establishing appropriate controls and organizational designs coordinating and integrating activities within the firm and with suppliers and customers

Strategy implementation involves ______.

realized

Strategy in which organizational decisions are determined by both analysis and unforeseen environmental developments is called ______ strategy.

Primary and other support activities

Support activities add value by themselves or through their relationships with which kinds of activities?

be a double-edged sword for suppliers

The Internet and digital technologies are said to ______.

decreasing switching costs providing customers with more information to make buying decisions

The Internet has increased the bargaining power of buyers by ______. (Check all that apply.)

financial

The ______ perspective measures a firm's monetary performance to see how well strategy implementation and execution are contributing to bottom-line improvement.

Managers must make frequent changes to existing products and introduce new products. The criteria for success are constantly changing due to rapid changes. Human capital, information capital and organization capital are critical to this perspective.

The ______ perspective provides a measure of firm performance that indicates how well firms are satisfying customer expectations.

customer

The ______ perspective provides a measure of firm performance that indicates how well firms are satisfying customer expectations.

closure

The degree to which all members of a social network have relationships (or ties) with other group members is called ______.

new technologies economic downturns or upturns governmental legislation

The external control view of leadership emphasizes the role of which of the following types of factors in the success or failure of a firm?

doing things right

Efficiency, in terms of strategic management, can best be described as ______.

vision, mission, and strategic objectives

During the analysis step of the strategic management process managers are concerned with the company's ______.

a destination that is driven by and evokes passion

Vision statements represent ______.

choosing the appropriate time frame conducting a rigorous quantification of the five forces

According to Porter, what are the two critical issues in conducting a good industry analysis? (Check all that apply.)

is profitable when the value it receives exceeds total costs

According to value-chain analysis, a firm ______.

achieve and sustain a competitive advantage compete and outperform rivals

Business-level strategy is concerned with how companies ______.

technical and scientific skills the experience and capabilities of employees the company's brand name

Examples of intangible resources include which of the following?

short-term

Financial markets often place an emphasis on managers meeting ______ performance goals.

informational behavioral

Firms must exercise which of the following two types of strategic controls?

little input from people outside of the network

Groupthink can happen in networks that have ______.

They sometimes are due to having specialized assets or strategic interrelationships. High fixed or storage costs that create strong pressures for firms to increase capacity. Government and social pressures due to concern for job loss. High exit barriers can be economic, strategic or emotional factors.

High exit barriers include which of the following? (Check all that apply.)

hiring engineers and forklift operators negotiations with labor unions training employees

Human resource management's activities include which of the following? (Check all that apply.)

entrepreneurial

In strategy formulation, ______ activities are designed to create new value and is a major engine for economic growth.

material handling returns to suppliers warehousing

Inbound logistics includes which of the following processes? (

______ strategies are those organizational decisions that follow from analysis and rarely survive in their original forms.

Intended

the entire organization

Organizational goals and objectives should represent what is best for ______.

formulate and implement strategies that improve its efficiency or effectiveness

Resources are valuable only when they enable a firm to ______.

asia

The number of middle-class consumers in which region is rapidly rising and thus influencing hiring practices of U.S. multinationals?

the company's internal analysis an external analysis of the industry and its competitive environment

The resource-based view of the firm combines which of the following perspectives? (Check all that apply.)

broader

The stakeholder view takes a(n) ______ approach than the financial ratio analysis in evaluating the firm.

Which of the following are true of behavioral controls? (Check all that apply.)

They involve balancing rewards and incentives. They involve balancing culture and boundaries or constraints.

actions

Managers execute or implement their decisions as ______ in the third step of the strategic management process.

domestic; international

Managers must consider their company's ______ and ______ operations during the decisions step of the strategic management process.

long term

Studies show that managers often focus on short-term goals to the detriment of creating ______ shareholder value.

outside the industry that serve the same customer needs as the industry's products and services

Substitute products and services come from ______

massively inspiring long-term overarching

Which of the following are characteristics of a well-written organizational vision statement?

strategic goals internal environment external environment

Which of the following are evaluated during the analysis process of strategic management?

proprietary products government subsidies favorable government policies

Which of the following are examples of advantages some existing competitors might have that are independent of size or economies of scale? (Check all that apply.)

internal

Analyzing the firm's ______ environment, such as operations, may uncover potential sources of competitive advantage.

Local line leaders- have significant profit-and-loss responsibility Executive leaders-guide ideas, create a learning infrastructure, and call for action Internal networkers-have little formal authority, inspire others with conviction and clarity of ideas

match these

cost leadership focus on niche market differentiation

Which of the following are examples of business-level strategies?

It can help them develop their supply chains through developing strong relationships with both suppliers and customers. It can help them decide whether to enter, remain, or exit an industry. It can help them assess how to improve the firm's competitive position within the industry.

Which of the following are reasons managers should use Porter's five forces model? (Check all that apply.)

stockholders board of directors the community

Which of the following are stakeholder groups that managers should consider when making decisions?

High exit barriers. High fixed or storage costs. Slow industry growth. Capacity augmented in large increments. Numerous or equally balanced competitors. Lack of differentiation or switching costs.

Which of the following describe factors that result in intense rivalry?

demographic

Which of the following elements of the general environment is the easiest to understand and quantify?

stakeholders

Which of the following is the most inclusive term for the individuals, groups, and organizations that have a claim in the success of an organization?

the firm's organizational structure the firm's design

Which of the following must a firm's strategy be consistent with?

The buyers pose a credible threat of backward integration. The buyers make large purchases relative to the industry's sales. The products being purchased from the industry are standard or undifferentiated.

Which of the following play a role in increasing the bargaining power of the buyer? (Check all that apply.)

It includes companies that sell to similar customers. It includes companies that produce similar products or services. It includes companies that use similar methods of production.

Which of the following statements about an industry's composition are correct?

zero sum

The ______ view of stakeholder management views the management process as groups competing for the organization's resources.

importance of purchases from that group compared with the industry's overall business

The bargaining power of buyers depends on the ______.

intellectual

A firm's ______ assets, such as patents, are becoming increasingly important to creating a firm's competitive advantage.

competitive advantage

A firm's vision, mission, and strategic objectives are used to develop specific goals, which form the basis for its ______.

goals

A firm's vision, mission, and strategic objectives form a hierarchy of

has too much focus

A vision statement can lead to missed opportunities when it ______

mission statement

A(n) ______ includes both the company's purpose as well as the basis of competition and competitive advantage.

advantage

Analyzing a firm's strengths and relationships within its value chain can uncover potential sources of its competitive ______.

factors of production, such as raw materials and labor larger potential markets technical professionals

Companies enter foreign market to access which of the following?

shareholders, management, and the board of directors

Corporate governance is the relationship among ______ in determining the direction and performance of corporations.

what business(es) should the company compete in

Corporate-level strategy focuses on ______.

decisions

During the ______ step in the strategic management process, managers answer two questions: what industries should we compete in and how should we compete in those industries?

competitors

In terms of analyzing the external environment of the firm, the industry environment consists of ______ and other organizations that may threaten the company's success.

By reducing the quality of purchased goods and services By threatening to raise prices of raw materials By squeezing the profitability of firms

In which of the following ways can suppliers exert bargaining power?

sociocultural and economic

Increases in household income due to more women entering the workforce in white collar jobs is likely to affect which two segments the most?

competitive

Managers must determine how to create a(n) ______ advantage in the marketplace to be successful over the long-term.

integrative

Managers must take a(n) ______ view of the organization and assess how functional areas and activities fit together so that the organization can achieve its goals and objectives.

improve the overall welfare of society

Social responsibility is the expectation that businesses or individuals will strive to ______

are not properly implemented

Sound strategies are of no value if they ______.

One or more suppliers have built-in switching costs for buyers. The supplier group poses a credible threat of forward integration. The industry is not an important customer of the supplier group.

Supplier groups are powerful under which of the following conditions?

general

The ______ environment is composed of segments external to an industry that are usually beyond a firm's control, such as demographics and economic factors, that can affect a firm's strategy.

strategic management

The ______ process consists of the analyses, decisions, and actions an organization undertakes in order to create and sustain competitive advantages.

techological

The ______ segment of the general environment is concerned with innovation and state of knowledge in industrial arts, engineering, applied sciences, and pure science, and their interaction with society.

external control

The ______ view of leadership assumes that outside factors, over which the leader has limited influence, positively or negatively affect a firm's success.

to better customize their offerings to customers

The competitive environment consists of factors such as competitors, customers, and suppliers. It is also referred to as the task environment. The competitive environment often influences the nature of the competition in an industry.

outperform others

The essence of strategic management is the study of why some firms ______.

decisions

The second step in the strategic management process is ______.

Limited access to distribution channels and cost disadvantages independent of scale. Capital requirements and switching costs. Economies of scale and product differentiation.

The six major entry barriers in Porter's five forces model include which of the following? (Check all that apply.)

actions

The third step of the strategic management process is the ______ step.

shareholders

The three primary participants in corporate governance are the ______, management, and board of directors.

symbiosis; zero sum

The two opposing ways of examining stakeholder management are called ______ and ______.

Total quality, benchmarking, and business process reengineering are ways that companies can be operationally effective. Companies that are operationally effective perform similar tasks better than their competitors. A sustainable competitive advantage is not achieved through operational effectiveness alone.

Which of the following statements about operational effectiveness are correct?

It incorporates the ways in which societal trends may affect an issue. It is an in-depth approach to forecasting. It draws on a range of disciplines.

Which of the following statements about scenario analysis are true?

The competitive environment consists of factors such as competitors, customers, and suppliers. It is also referred to as the task environment. The competitive environment often influences the nature of the competition in an industry.

Which of the following statements about the competitive environment are correct? (Check all that apply.)

The three processes are highly interdependent.

Which of the following statements about the strategic management process is true?

They involve balancing rewards and incentives. They involve balancing culture and boundaries or constraints.

Which of the following statements regarding behavioral controls are correct?

It determines which business(es) should be in the company's portfolio. It determines how to manage the company's portfolio of businesses to create synergies among business units.

Which of the following statements regarding corporate-level strategy are correct?

Informational control

______ requires that organizations continually monitor and scan the environment and respond to threats and opportunities.