BA-405 (Ch. 3)

Which of the following examples demonstrates how successful organizations manage their primary activities?

Hewlett Packard has cut lead time from five days to one by employing JIT inventory management.

XYZ Corp. is focusing on the objective of low-cost, high quality, on-time production by minimizing idle productive facilities and workers. The XYZ Corp. is taking advantage of a __________ system.

Just-In-Time (JIT)

Which of the following is not a factor that helps to explain the extent to which employees and managers will be able to obtain a proportionately high level of the profits that they generate?

Managers have low bargaining power

__________ are the competencies or skills that a firm employs to transform inputs into outputs.

Organizational capabilities

___________ is/are associated with collecting, storing, and distributing the product or service to buyers. They consist of warehousing, material handling, delivery operation, order processing, and scheduling.

Outbound logistics

Which of the following is NOT a limitation of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis?

The SWOT focus on the external environment is too broad and integrative.

A resource is valuable and rare but neither difficult to imitate nor without substitutes. This should enable the firm to attain ____________.

a temporary competitive advantage

In assessing its primary activities, an airline would examine ___________.

baggage handling

Human resource management consists of activities involved in the recruiting, hiring, training, development, and compensation of all types of personnel. It supports _______________.

both individual primary and support activities and the entire value chain

Amazon Prime is credited for helping to increase the Amazon stock price by nearly 300 percent from 2008 to 2010. This is competitive advantage is known as _________.

causal ambiguity

All of the following are examples of socially complex organizational phenomena EXCEPT

complex physical technology

The best measure of a company's ability to meet imminent financial obligations is known as the

current ratio

For firms such as CarMax, information systems have been a source of competitive advantage. Their proprietary information system captures, analyzes, interprets, and disseminates information about all cars on the CarMax lot. Which of the following can be attributed to this information system?

decrease in uncertainties in hard to forecast areas such as inventory management

For a resource to provide a firm with the potential for a sustainable competitive advantage, it must have four attributes. Which of the following is not one of these attributes?

easy for competitors to substitute

The balanced scorecard enables managers to consider their business from all of the following perspectives EXCEPT

ethical perspective

The balanced scorecard provides top managers with a __________ view of the business.

fast but comprehensive

The balanced scorecard, developed by Kaplan and Norton, helps to integrate ______.

financial analysis and stakeholder perspectives

In the resource-based view of the firm, examples of tangible resources include

financial resources, physical resources, and technological resources

In a retail service industry, which of the following is not a primary value-chain activity?

human resource management

Which of the following lists consists of support activities?

human resource management, technology development, procurement, and firm infrastructure

Historical comparisons provide information to managers about changes in the competitive position of a firm. Historical comparisons often are misleading _____________.

in periods of recession or economic boom

According to value-chain analysis, which of the following would be considered part of the general administration in a firm?

information systems

Typically embedded in unique routines and practices that have evolved and accumulated over time such as effective work teams is which of the following

intangible resources

A marketing department that promises delivery faster than the ability of the production department to produce is an example of a lack of understanding of the _____________.

interrelationships among functional areas and firm strategies

Which of these categories of financial ratios is used to measure the ability of a firm to meet its short-term financial obligations?

liquidity ratios

An important implication of the balanced scorecard approach is that _______________.

managers should not look at their job as primarily balancing stakeholder demands

Although general administration is often viewed only as overhead expense, it can become a source of competitive advantage. Examples include all of the following EXCEPT

marketing expertise increasing the revenues of the firm and enabling it to enter new markets

Apple combines and packages proven technology in new and innovative ways. This is an example of its use of ____________.

organizational capabilities

Customer service includes ________.

parts supply

A crash R&D program by one firm cannot replicate a successful technology developed by another firm, when research findings cumulate. This is an example of ____________.

path dependency

A competitive advantage based on inimitability can be sustained for at least some time if it has the following characteristics

physical uniqueness, path dependency, causal ambiguity, and social complexity

In value-chain analysis, the activities of an organization are divided into two major categories of value activities

primary and support. Which of the following is a primary activity?: repairing the product for the consumer

Advertising is a __________ activity. Supply of replacement parts is a __________ activity.

primary; primary

Which of the following is not an advantage of Just-In-Time inventory systems?

reduced dependence on suppliers

A variety of firm resources include interpersonal relations among managers in the firm, its culture, and its reputation with its suppliers and customers. Such competitive advantages are based upon ____.

social complexity

The three key types of resources that are central to the resource-based view of the firm are

tangible resources, intangible resources, and organizational capabilities

Which of the following is a support activity?

technology development

Employees will be able to obtain a proportionately high level of profits they generate (relative to the firm) if ___________.

the cost to the firm of replacing them is high

The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm combines two perspectives

the internal analysis of the firm and the external analysis of the industry and competitive environment

Which of the following would be most difficult to assess?

the legitimacy and reputation of a firm

Ratios that reflect whether or not a firm is efficiently using its resources are known as

turnover ratios

Inbound logistics include

warehousing and inventory control.