MGMT 583 ch 1-3

Kroters Inc., a detergent manufacturing company, has built a new manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Woodsville. Since a majority of the population of Woodsville depend on agriculture for their livelihood, the management of Kroters decides to invest in a project that will most likely create a positive externality for the community members. Which of the following project plans is likely to help achieve positive externality?

By setting up an organic farm near Woodsville

_____ refer to the costs (or benefits) of technological innovations that are borne by individuals other than those responsible for creating them.

Externalities

Which of the following statements is true of externalities?

Externalities can be in the form of benefits reaped by individuals other than those who created them.

Collaborative research is typically insignificant in high-technology sectors.

False

In the industrial context, identify the true statements about innovation. (Check all that apply.)

Firms are well suited to innovation activities because they possess a management system to gather their resources toward a collective purpose. and Innovation can arise from several different sources.

Silk Work Inc., a manufacturer of silk garments, is planning to replace hand weaving with some modern machines that run on fuel. Which of the following consequences of this measure can be categorized as a negative externality?

Increased pollution as a result of the new technology

Identify the most important intellectual abilities for creative thinking. (Check all that apply.)

Intelligence, Memory, and The ability to examine which ideas are worth pursuing and which are not

A competence-enhancing innovation

It builds on existing knowledge and skills.

In the context of creative thinking, identify the true statements about primary process thinking. (Check all that apply.)

It can lead to combining ideas that are not ideally related, resulting in remote associations or divergent thinking. and It is the process of engaging in a visual mental activity.

Basic research

It is effort directed at increasing understanding of a field or topic without a specific immediate commercial application in mind.

Applied research

It is effort directed at increasing understanding of a topic to meet a specific need.

A competence-destroying innovation

It renders existing knowledge and skills obsolete.

Virtual Inc., a manufacturing company, has recently entered the cell phone industry. This industry is characterized by rapid technological innovations. Which of the following is most likely to be true of Virtual Inc.?

It will face rapid product obsolescence.

tacit knowledge

Knowledge that cannot be readily codified (documented in written form)

complex knowledge

Knowledge that has many underlying components, or many interdependencies between those components, or both

Unicorn Medicines Inc., a pharmaceutical company based in the United States, has its research and development units spread across the globe. Lately, these research and development units have not been receiving adequate financial support. Which of the following is most likely to cause such a situation?

Most innovative ideas do not become successful new products.

In an organizational context, identify the true statements about architectural innovations. (Check all that apply.)

Most of them create changes in a system that reverberate throughout its design. and They often have far-reaching and complex impacts on technology users and industry competitors.

The effort invested in the technology is relatively constant over time.

Plotting performance against time will result in the same characteristic curve as plotting performance against effort.

Alex Richards is the owner of a pesticide manufacturing company. He is aware of the risks that the residents of a nearby community will face because of the liquid pollutants released from the manufacturing unit. In order to counter the risks, he decides to invest in a plan that will create positive externality. Which of the following plans should Alex invest in to accomplish his mission?

Setting up a water treatment plant in the vicinity

Which of the following is true of technological innovations?

Technological innovations help increase a country's gross domestic product.

A radical innovation

The experience and familiarity of producers and customers with the innovation and their judgment of its usefulness or reliability will vary.

An incremental innovation

The innovation might not be particularly new or exceptional, and it might have been previously known to the firm or industry.

The amount of effort invested in the technology decreases or increases over time.

The resulting curve could appear to flatten much more quickly, or not flatten at all.

Which of the following are most often represented by technology trajectories?

The technology's rate of adoption in the marketplace and The rate of performance improvement of the technology

Mark is the CFO of a company that manufactures air conditioners and refrigerators. The management wants to diversify its list of product offerings and therefore has asked the board of members and senior management to suggest a project plan. One of their suggestions was to manufacture smart televisions. Mark believes that if the company invests in this new project plan, it will not be able to make sustainable profits for long. Which of the following statements supports Mark's argument?

The time between the television's introduction in the market and its replacement with a next-generation television is 12 to 24 months.

The effort invested in the technology is not constant over time.

The true relationship can be obscured by the resulting s-curve.

Identify the true statements about technological spillovers. (Check all that apply.)

They are an important influence on innovative activity according to evidence. and Their likelihood is a function of the nature of the underlying knowledge base and the mobility of the labor pool.

In the context of research, identify the true statements about interfirm networks created through collaborative relationships among firms.

They are considered a significant engine of innovation and can act as conduits for information. and They can help member firms achieve much more than they could achieve individually.

Product innovations

They are embodied in the outputs of a firm—its goods or services.

Process innovations

They are innovations in the way a firm conducts its business, such as in the techniques of producing or marketing goods or services.

In the context of organizations, identify a true statement about process innovations.

They are often aligned toward improving the effectiveness or efficiency of production.

Identify the true statements about universities in the United States as sources of innovation. (Check all that apply.)

They conducted $64.6 billion worth of research and development (R&D) in 2015. and They were the number one performer of basic research in the United States in 2015.

Identify a true statement about user innovators.

They create the innovation for their own utilization.

A 10-year study of inventors concludes that the most successful inventors possess certain characteristics. Which of the following are these characteristics? (Check all that apply.)

They cross-examine the validity of beliefs made in previous work in the field. and They have mastered the basic tools and operations of the field in which they invent.

Which of the following is an advantage of flexible manufacturing technologies?

They have made shorter production runs economical

User innovators

They often do not have any initial plan to profit from the sale of their innovation.

Manufacturers

They usually create new product innovations to profit from the sale of the innovation to customers.

A 10-year study of inventors concludes that the most successful inventors possess certain characteristics. Who among the following possesses one of these characteristics? Multiple choice question.

Viola, who has the sense that all knowledge is unified

In an organizational context, identify a true statement about the types of innovation based on the dimension of competence. Multiple choice question.

Whether an innovation is competence enhancing or competence destroying depends on whose perspective is being considered.

Electronic waste results from the disposal of technological goods. This is an example of:

a negative externality

In the context of technology clusters, the benefits firms reap by locating in close geographical proximity to each other are known as ___.

agglomeration economies

When a technology's performance is plotted against the amount of effort and money invested in the technology, it ideally shows ___.

an s-curve that indicates slow initial improvement, then accelerated improvement, and then diminishing improvement

A firm produces internal hard drives for computers. The firm is primarily an example of a(n) ___.

complementor

Producers of complementary goods or services are known as

complementors

In the context of technology cycles, Schumpeter argued that ___ was the key driver of progress in a capitalist society.

creative destruction

The emergence of a new technological discontinuity can overturn the existing competitive structure of an industry, making new leaders and new losers. Schumpeter called this process ___.

creative destruction

The ability to produce work that is useful and novel is known as ___.

creativity

S-curves in technology diffusion are obtained by plotting the ___.

cumulative number of adopters of the technology against time

The _____ of an economy is its total annual output as measured by its final purchase price.

gross domestic product

Many universities in the United States have established technology transfer offices to ___.

increase the extent to which university research leads to commercial innovation

The Solow Residual refers to the:

increased amount of output achievable from a given quantity of labor and capital because of technological innovation.

In the industrial context, the practical implementation of an idea into a new device or process is known as ___.

innovation

A private network that is accessible only to authorized individuals can be used by companies to tap the creativity of its individual employees. This network is known as ______.

intranet

If a business builds a park in a community, it will create a(n) _____ for the community members.

positive externality

As a result of the rapid pace of innovation:

product life cycles have become shorter

In an organizational context, the term "___" refers to a range of activities that extend from early exploration of a domain to specific commercial implementations.

research and development

A body of research has focused on explaining the spread of knowledge across organizational or regional boundaries. This topic is known as

technological spillovers

Regional clusters of firms that have a connection to a common technology and may engage in buyer, supplier, and complementor relationships, as well as research collaboration, are known as

technology clusters

The spread of a technology through a population is known as

technology diffusion

The path a technology takes through its lifetime is known as its

technology trajectory

Jordan, the CEO of Early Bird Corp., believes that it is important to focus on the quantity of new product ideas generated rather than the quality of ideas generated. He encourages everyone in the company to come up with product ideas, and those that seem feasible are further developed. According to him, it takes several raw ideas to develop one successful new product. Jordan's views reflect the concept of:

the innovation funnel

The innovation process is often conceived of as a funnel because:

there are many potential new product ideas and only a few make it through the development process.

If a country's GDP stands at $4,867 billion, the country's _____ will be worth $4,867 billion.

total annual output

Walter is the new director of R&D at Good Health Inc., a pharmaceutical company. Which of the following statements by Walter would indicate that he believes in the concept of the innovation funnel?

"While there are many potential new product ideas going in the wide end, very few make it through the development process."

Which of the following companies uses the most familiar method of tapping the creativity of its individual employees?

A company that adopts a suggestion box program

Which of the following products is considered the most creative one?

A product that is novel at the individual producer level, the local audience level, and the broader societal level

Which of the following is essential for a firm's new product development process to help maximize the likelihood of projects being both technically and commercially successful?

An in-depth understanding of the dynamics of innovation

An architectural innovation

An innovation that changes the overall design of a system or the way its components interact with each other

A component (or modular) innovation

An innovation to one or more components of a system that does not significantly affect the overall configuration of the system