OMIS 351 - Quiz 2

Which of these examples best illustrates the "Scale" lens?

Google using its massive user base to easily introduce and achieve success with new offerings, often giving those offerings away for free.

Which of these examples best illustrates the "Network Effects" lens?

The increasing value of Dr. Downing's research conclusions, using classroom student surveys, as his class sizes grow.

Value chain

The set of interdependent activities that bring a product or service to market

Brand

The symbolic emodiment of all the information connected with a product or service. - A strong brand can be an exceptionally powerful resource for competitive advante.

Why would worker shifts be more efficient at FreshDirect than traditional grocery stores?

all of the above

Viral Marketing

leveraging consumers to promote a product or service

strategic positioning

performing different activities from those of rivals, or the same activities in a different way

Operational effectiveness

performing the same tasks better than rivals perform them - the danger is smeness - the risk is cute in firms that rely on tech

(Brand Slide) Firms that compete on _____ rather than operational differences, have no problem adopting third-party ERP software.

product uniqueness

Price transparency

the degree to which complete information is available

distribution channels

the path through which products or services get to customers

Network effects

the value of a product or service for an individual user increases with the number of total users

5 Forces (porter's)

- Customer / Buyer Power <----- switching costs ("Lock in") - Supplier Power - Existing Rivals - New Entrants - Barriers to entry - Substitutes

Value Chain Analysis

- Supply Chain - Stuff comes into you and you do things with them - The things you do are droducts or service - In -> your business -> customers - How you deliver values to your customer

Resource based view of competitive advantage

- Valuable - Rare - imperfectly imitable - Nonsubstitutable -- Your product or service must possess these qualities

Network Effects

- value of product/ service increases as the number of customers/users increase.

Information asymmetry

A decision situation where one party has more or better information than its counterparty.

Point-of-sale (POS) system

A transaction process that captures customer purchase information, showing how garments rank by sales

Scale (size) (critical mass)

Advantages related to a firm's size.

Which of these examples best illustrates the "Brand" lens?

Amazon slightly raising prices on books knowing that you're likely to go to them first and possibly not even compare prices elsewhere.

Switching costs

Exist when consumers incur an expense to move from one product or service to another

fast follower problem

Exists when savvy rivals watch a pioneer's efforts, learn from their successes and missteps, then enter the market quickly with a comparable or superior product at a lower cost before the first mover can dominate. - Tech can be matched quickly - rarely a source of competitve advantage

sustainable competitive advantage

Financial performance that consistently outperforms industry averages. -Becomes more difficult when competition involves technology

How do you find out which questions you got wrong on Quiz 1?

I check my answers on the class web site and compare them with the key on the class web site.

Contract manufacturing

Involves outsourcing production to third-party firms - Firms that use contract manufacturers don't own the plants or directly employ the workers who produce the requested goods

Which of these examples best illustrates the "Resource Based View of Competitive Advantage" lens?

MySpace getting overcome and crushed by Facebook to the point of near irrelevance.

Which of these examples best illustrates the "Patents" lens?

Personal Audio suing Apple ("Play Lists"), Adam Carolla (Podcasts), and others, saying it had exclusive rights to their technical innovations.

(RBVoCA) Much money was lost early this century (starting 2000-ish) in Telecom. They laid tons of fiber-optic cable. Why was that bad, according to the RBVoCA?

Too much laid... it became less rare and less valuable.

Which of these examples best illustrates the "5 Forces" lens?

Using a Loyalty Card to encourage customers to return frequently ("Lock in"... reduce customer power).

Which of these examples best illustrates the "Value Chain Analysis" lens?

Using a web site to share inventory status with both customers and suppliers.

Straddling

When a firm seeks to match what a competitor is doing by adding new features, services, or technologies to existing activities. This often creates problems if trade-offs need to be made.

Vertical Integration

When a single firm owns several layers in its value chain

Economies of scale

When the cost of an investment can be spread across increasing units of production or in serving a growing customer base