Strategic Management

A firm's overall efforts to gain and sustain competitive advantage is referred to as which of the following?

a competitive strategy

Andrew's Home Center has created a unique situation for itself in its industry that allows the company to not only provide excellent value to its customers but also control its costs. This is known as ______.

strategic positioning

True or false: A strategic leader's job is to focus like a laser on shareholders.

False

effective stakeholder management

helps a firm build a strong public reputation

Managers have ______ resources in their quest for competitive advantage

limited

Stakeholder strategy argues that focusing only on the needs of ______ places the firm at risk of failure.

shareholders

Why should a firm define a clear competitive challenge?

so that employees can assess their progress toward addressing it

strategy

the set of goal-directed actions a firm takes to gain and sustain superior performance relative to competitors

Which of the following are aims of stakeholder strategy?

to manage various stakeholders effectively to gain and sustain competitive advantage

Competitive parity occurs when ______

two or more firms achieve the same performance results

Competitive parity occurs when ______.

two or more firms achieve the same performance results

Stakeholder Impact Analysis

1. Who are stake holders 2. What are our stakeholders interest 3. What oppurtunities and threats do our stakeholders present 4. What economic legal, ethicial and philanthropic responsibilities do we have to our stake holders 5. What should we do to effectively address the stakeholder concerns?

Which statement about strategies is true?

A statement of desire on its own often leads to goal conflict.

Which of the following elements comprise strategic management? (Check all that apply.)

AFI- Analysis, Formulation, and Implementation

True or false: A statement such as, "We will be the biggest company in the world," is an example of strategy.

False. Recall that, on their own, grandiose statements of desire are not strategy.

Which of the following are outcomes of effective stakeholder management? (Check all that apply.)

It leads to beneficial cooperation from stakeholders. It helps the firm achieve predictable and stable returns. It lowers the cost of business transactions by building trust.

Burger Bomb has been outperforming other burger restaurants for a decade. This indicates that Burger Bomb has which of the following?

a competitive advantage

When a firm implements a strategy that leads to superior performance relative to other companies in the same industry, it is said to have achieved ______.

a competitive advantage

A good strategy consists of three elements. The second element is accomplished through strategy formulation, resulting in the firm's functional, business-level, and corporate-level strategies. This is also called ______

a guiding policy to address the competitive challenge

Stakeholder impact analysis is a _____-step process that allows managers to better understand and address stakeholders' needs.

five

The stakeholders of a firm are ______.

individuals or groups that can affect and are affected by the actions of the firm

competitive advantage

is assessed relative to other competitors in the industry

Managers have ______ resources in their quest for competitive advantage.

limited

Sustainable competitive advantage exists when a firm ______

maintains superior performance relative to its industry over a long period of time

Strategic positioning allows managers to ______.

provide customers value while controlling costs

A firm's attempts to manage the web of relationships between internal and external stakeholders in order to create value is known as ______

stakeholder strategy

The groups or individuals who can impact or be impacted by a firm's actions are known as ______.

stakeholders

In order to determine if Home Depot has a competitive advantage, we must compare Home Depot's performance to ______.

the performance of other firms in its industry

A strategy is:

the set of actions a firm takes to achieve a competitive advantage

A well-devised strategy is about which two things?

what to do what not to do

A firm providing goods and services can gain a competitive advantage when which of the following are true?

Their offerings are of similar quality to competitors' offerings but can be sold at a lower price due to lower costs. Their offerings provide more value for consumers than competitors' offerings.

Which of the following are the relationships that a firm has with stakeholders?

Stakeholders can affect the firm's actions. The actions of the firm can affect stakeholders.

The Bright Bulb light bulb company produces a line of LED bulbs that customers consider very similar to competitors' LED bulbs. Which of the following conditions must be true for Bright Bulb to have a competitive advantage?

The bulbs must have a lower cost than competitors' bulbs.

Firms should identify a ______ so that employees can determine if they are making progress in addressing it.

clear competitive challenge

A(n) ______ occurs when a firm performs below the industry average or is outperformed by its competitors.

competitive disadvantage

If a firm has a 10% return on invested capital while the industry average return on invested capital is 18%, the firm has a(n) __

competitive disadvantage

Michael's Deli is able to perform at the same level as its primary competitor. Michael's Deli has ______.

competitive parity

Which of the following are primary strategy objectives? (Check all that apply.)

creating value controlling costs

Burger Bomb is a new hamburger restaurant. In order to compete successfully against its many competitors, Burger Bomb has decided to focus on quality and an interesting, unique menu that uses locally sourced, organic ingredients. This is known as Burger Bomb's ____

strategy

Walmart and Nordstrom maintain very different strategic profiles, one based on cost-leadership and the other based on differentiation through superior customer service. This is an example of ______.

the trade-offs required by strategic positioning

Managers often have to make decisions between two conflicting strategic options, otherwise known as ______

trade-offs

Which of the following is considered an internal stakeholder?

board members employees stockholders

Which statement is true about pricing strategies, internet strategies, alliance strategies, and brand strategies?

They may be a necessary part of a firm's initiatives to support its competitive strategies.

A good strategy consists of three elements. The first element is accomplished through analysis of the firm's external and internal environments. We also call this ______.

a diagnosis of the competitive advantage

Based on its long dominance as a coffeehouse chain, Starbucks has ______

a sustainable competitive advantage

Customers, suppliers, creditors, unions, and governments are known as ______.

external stakeholders

Which of the following are the three important stakeholder attributes managers must pay particular attention to during stakeholder impact analysis? (Check all that apply.)

power urgency legitimacy