BPS

As the competitive environment changes, strategic management must focus on different aspects of the organization. Recently, strategic management has moved from focusing on tangible resources to ______.

Intangible resources

Portfolio management matrices are applied to what level of strategy?

International Level

Gathering competitive intelligence ___________.

Is a good business practice

Which of these statements regarding the industry life cycle is correct?

It has important implications for a firm's generic strategies, functional areas, value-creating activities, and overall objectives.

The risks of vertical integration include all of the following EXCEPT:

Lack of Control over valuable assets

A differentiation strategy enables a business to address the five competitive forces by ______.

Lessening competitive rivalry by distinguishing itself

The creation of knowledge assets is typically characterized by ____________.

High upfront costs and low variable costs

Maintaining a competitive workforce is very challenging in the current economy. The role of evaluating human capital, in recent years, has _____.

Increased

Shaw Industries, a giant carpet manufacturer, increases its control over raw materials by producing much of its own polypropylene fiber, a key input into its manufacturing process. This is an example of ______________.

Vertical Integration

Unbalanced capacities that limit cost savings, difficulties in combining specializations, and reduced flexibility are disadvantages associated with ___________.

Vertical integration

Examples of __________ include: To be the happiest place on earth (Disneyland), and Restoring patients to full life (Medtronic).

Vision

Which of the following statements regarding internal development as a means of diversification is FALSE?

an advantage of internal development is that it is generally faster than other means of diversification and firms can benefit from speed in developing new products and services

According to Michael Porter, there is a tremendous allure to _________. It is the big play, the dramatic gesture. With one stroke of the pen you can add billions to size, get a front-page story, and create excitement in markets.

Mergers and Acquisitions

As markets mature, ___________.

There is increasing emphasis on efficiency.

Mary Stinson was required to take over a project after the entire team left the company. She was able to reconstruct what the team had accomplished through reading e-mails exchanged by the members of the team. This is an example of ___________.

Using explicit knowledge

One of the main reasons the Internet is eroding sustainable competitive advantages is that _______.

nearly all competitors will have greater access to tools for managing costs making it hard for any one to achieve an advantage

With experience, unit costs of production decline as _________ increases in most industries.

output

Due to the Internet, firms that use a focus strategy have new opportunities to _________.

compete in a narrow market segment

Piecemeal productivity improvements during a turnaround typically do NOT involve _______.

expansion of a firm's product market scope

Research has consistently shown that firms that achieve both cost leadership and differentiation advantages tend to perform ______________.

higher than firms that achieve either a cost or a differentiation advantage.

Because the Internet lowers barriers to entry in most industries, it ________.

increases the threat of new entrants.

According to Henry Mintzberg, the realized strategies of a firm:

is a combination of deliberate and emergent strategies

The downsides or limitations of mergers and acquisitions include all of the following EXCEPT:

it is a slow means to enter new markets and acquire skills and competences

Corporate-level strategy focuses on _____________.

long-term revenue, profits, and market value through managing operations in multiple businesses

In the BCG Growth Share Matrix, the suggested strategy for Stars is to ________.

maintain position and after the market growth slows use the business to provide cash flow OR -should continue to receive substantial investment funding

In managing the corporate portfolio, the BCG matrix would suggest that __________.

"question marks" can represent future "stars" if their market share is increased.

Managing a knowledge intensive workforce is very challenging. The best way for a firm to manage its workforce is to __________.

Balance efforts in the attraction, selection, and retention of top talent.

In the knowledge economy, if a large portion of company value is in intellectual and human assets, the difference between the market value and book value of the company should ___________ a company with mostly physical and financial assets.

Be larger than

Which of the following reasons explains why painter Vincent van Gogh died penniless, while painter Pablo Picasso left a $740 million estate upon this death?

Because of his extensive social network.

Casio, a giant electronic products producer, synthesizes it abilities in miniaturization, microprocessor design, material science, and ultrathin precision castings to produce digital watches. It uses the same skills to produce card calculators, digital cameras, and other small electronics. These collective skills are known as _________________.

Core competences

Many companies use referrals by current employees as a source for new hiring and even monetarily reward them because __________________.

Current employees are careful in their recommendations because of their credibility and also because it is less expensive than the fees paid to headhunters.

Members of boards of directors are:

Elected by the shareholders as their representatives

Human capital and social capital are vital for superior firm performance. If a firm has strong human capital, the firm may exploit this by building social capital. This can be accomplished by _____.

Encouraging the sharing of ideas between employees in the firm

The antitakeover tactic, _______, is when a firm offers to buy shares of their stock from a company (or individual) planning to acquire their firm at a higher price than the unfriendly company paid for it.

Greenmail

Social capital has downsides. Which of the following is a downside?

High social capital may breed "groupthink," ie a tendency not to question shared beliefs.

Which statement regarding competitive advantages is true?

If several competitors pursue similar differentiation tactics, they may all be perceived as equals in the mind of the consumer

Which of the following methods of implementing a differentiation strategy has been greatly enhanced because of Internet technologies?

Mass Customization

The size of pricing and differentiation advantages between competitors decreases in which stage of the market life cycle?

Maturity

Internal development may be time consuming and, therefore, firms may forfeit the benefits of speed that growth through __________ and __________ can provide.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Product differentiation by incumbents act as an entry barrier because __________.

New entrants will have to spend heavily to overcome existing customer loyalties

Which of the following is not a reason for the successful turnaround that Ford experienced in 2011 under CEO Mulally?

No clear answer

Which of the following is not a reason for the possible erosion of company competitive advantage?

Nothing is forever, when it comes to competitive advantages. Rapid changes in technology, globalization, and actions by rivals from within and outside of the industry can quickly erode company advantages. It is becoming increasingly important to recognize that the duration of competitive advantages is declining, especially in technology intensive industries.

Which of the following is not a potential pitfall of an integrated overall low cost and differentiation strategy?

Pitfalls are: -Firms that fail to attain both strategies may end up with neither and become stuck in the middle -Underestimating the challenges and expenses associated with coordinating value-creating activities in the extended value chain. -Miscalculating sources of revenue and profit pools in the firm's industry

Diversification initiatives include all of the following except ___________________.

Reversed, Diversification initiatives include -Mergers and acquisitions -Strategic alliances -Joint ventures -Internal development

Which of the following statements about strategic groups is FALSE?

Strategic groupings are of little help to a firm in assessing mobility barriers that protect a group from attacks by other groups.

Atlas Door created competitive advantage by reducing the time to receive and process and order and through installing a just in time logistics operation. Which of the following is not a reason for their favorable position relative to the five forces of industry competition?

Text pg 180-182 - Cons section? No real answer that can be found ...

A firm should consider vertical integration when ___________.

The firms suppliers of raw materials are often unable to maintain quality standards.

A narrow market focus is to a differentiation-based strategy as a __________________.

broadly-defined target market is to a cost leadership strategy

The most likely time to pursue a harvest strategy is in a situation of _______.

decline in the market life cycle

Today, the loyalty of a knowledge worker to his or her employing firm has __________ compared to his or her loyalty to his or her profession and colleagues.

decreased

The text discusses three approaches to combining overall cost leadership and differentiation competitive advantages. Which of the following is not one of these three approaches?

deriving benefits from highly focused and high technology markets

Management innovations such as total quality, benchmarking, and business process reengineering cannot lead to sustainable competitive advantage because:

every company is trying to implement them and hence it does not make a company different from others.

In the general environment, many relationships exist among the various elements. General environmental trends can have positive and negative impacts on various industries. For example, the aging population might have a ______ impact on the health care industry and a ______ impact on the baby product industry. These are called _____________ impacts.

positive, negative, demographic (not 100% on the positive/negative)

The least effective way to retain human capital is to _________.

requiring employees to sign agreements that prevent them from working for competitors in the future.

Supplier power has increased because of the Internet for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:

some suppliers have created Web-based purchasing systems that encourage switching.

Which of the following is FALSE regarding how a differentiation strategy can help a firm to improve its competitive position relative to the Porter five forces model?

supplier power is increased because suppliers will be able to charge higher prices for their inputs

All of the following are limitations (or downsides) of the BCG (Boston Consulting Group) matrix EXCEPT:

the limitations are: -SBUs are compared on only two dimensions & each SBU is considered a standalone entity -An oversimplified graphical model substitutes for managers' experience -Following strict & simplistic rules for resource allocation can be detrimental to a firm's long-term viability

Generally, employees are most likely to stay with an organization if _____________.

the organization's mission and values align with the employee's mission and values

Successful organizations are effective in motivating people. Employees work best when:

they are striving toward specific goals.