Jose Noguera Test 2 (Chp 3 & 4)

Which of the following statements about the technical view of organizations is not true?

...

According to agency theory, the firm is viewed as a(n):

"nexus of contracts" among self-interested individuals.

Which of the following is not a mediating factor that impacts an organization's relationship with information technology?

Agency costs

Which of the following is an example of synergy in business?

Bank of America acquiring Countrywide Financial Corporation to reach a large pool of new customers

Which of the following would a company employ to measure and compare its business processes to similar processes of other companies within their industry?

Benchmarking

Which of the following statements about business processes is not true?

Business processes are typically unaffected by changes in information systems.

Which of the following statements about disruptive technologies is not true?

Firms that invent disruptive technologies as first movers always become market leaders.

Which of the following is an example of a divisionalized bureaucracy?

Fortune 500 firm

Along with capital, ________ is the primary production input that the organization uses to create products and services.

labor

The Internet increases the bargaining power of customers by:

making information available to everyone.

Firms use a ________ strategy to provide a specialized product or service for a narrow target market better than competitors.

market niche

The ability to offer individually tailored products or services using the same production resources as bulk production is known as:

mass customization.

According to the ________ definition of organizations, an organization is seen as a means by which capital and labor are transformed by the organization into outputs to the environment.

microeconomic

A firm can exercise greater control over its suppliers in terms of price, quality, and delivery schedules by having:

more suppliers.

Under Mintzberg's classification of organizational structure, knowledge-based organizations fall under the category of:

professional bureaucracies.

Walmart's continuous replenishment system allows it to do all of the following except:

provide mass customization.

When two organizations pool markets and expertise that result in lower costs and generate profits, they are creating:

synergies.

According to research on organizational resistance, the four components that must be changed in an organization in order to successfully implement a new information system are:

tasks, technology, people, and structure.

The idea that the more any given resource is applied to production, the lower the marginal gain in output, until a point is reached where the additional inputs produce no additional value, is referred to as:

the law of diminishing returns.

When a firm buys on the marketplace what it cannot make itself, the costs incurred are referred to as ________ costs.

transaction

A virtual company:

uses networks to link people, assets, and ideas, enabling it to ally with other companies to create and distribute products and services without being limited by traditional organizational boundaries or physical locations.

The four major competitive strategies are:

. low-cost leadership, product differentiation, focus on market niche, and strengthening customer and supplier intimacy.

Which of the following models uses a general view of the firm, its competitors, and the firm's environment to understand competitive advantage?

Competitive forces model

Which of the following statements about Porter's competitive forces model is not true?

In a free economy, there are very low barriers to entry in all industries.

Which of the following statements about network economics is not true?

In network economics, the marginal cost of adding new members to the network is higher than the marginal gain.

Which of the following represent the primary activities of a firm?

Inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, sales and marketing, and service

Which of the following statements about organizations is not true?

Informal groups tend to be more stable in terms of longevity and routineness than organizations.

Which of the following statements information technology's impact on business firms is not true?

Information technology helps firms reduce environmental scanning.

Amazon's use of the Internet as a platform to enhance customer convenience illustrates which of the following strategies?

Low-cost leadership

Which of the following is a support activity in a firm's value chain?

Technology

Hilton Hotels uses its OnQ system for which of the following purposes?

To estimate each guest's profitability and give additional privileges to profitable customers

Which of the following is not a true statement about value webs?

Value webs are inflexible and cannot adapt quickly to changes in supply and demand.

Which of the following technologies disrupted the traditional publishing industry?

World Wide Web

Walmart's continuous replenishment system is an example of a firm using information systems to:

achieve low-cost leadership.

Mintzberg classifies a large bureaucracy existing in a slowly changing environment that produces standard products and is dominated by centralized management as a(n):

machine bureaucracy

The most successful solutions or methods for achieving a business objective are called:

best practices.

Information systems can be used at the industry level to achieve strategic advantage by:

building industrywide, IT-supported consortia, symposia, and communications networks.

The interaction between information technology and organizations is influenced:

by many factors, including structure, politics, culture, and environment.

All of the following are competitive forces in Porter's model except:

disruptive technologies.

Information systems enhance core competencies by:

encouraging the sharing of knowledge across business units.

All of the following could be considered substitute products for industrial electricity generation except:

ethanol

The value chain model:

highlights specific activities in the business where competitive strategies can best be applied.

In environmental scanning, a firm may use information systems to:

identify external events that may affect it.

In network economics, the value of a commercial software vendor's software products:

increases as more people use them.

An information system can enable a company to focus on a market niche through:

intensive customer data analysis.

All of the following are IT-enabled products and services providing competitive advantage except:

Nike's use of celebrities to market their products.

Which of the following statements about features of organizations is not true?

Organizational culture is a powerful restraint on technological change.

Struggles for resources, competition, and conflict within an organization that result from divergent viewpoints about how resources, rewards, and punishments should be distributed are an example of which of the following?

Organizational politics

Which of the following industries has the lowest barrier to entry?

Small retailer

Which of the following is a competitive force that has challenged the music industry?

Substitute products or services