MGMT Final

Which of the following is not true of the global matrix structure?

This structure benefits front-line managers who now have only one boss - either a country manager or a product division manager.

The main types of attack include:

Thrust. Feint. Gambit.

Strategists should:

Understand the nature of principal-agent and principal-principal conflicts to create better governance mechanisms. Develop firm-specific capabilities to differentiate on governance dimensions. Understand the rules, anticipate changes, and be aware of differences, especially when doing business abroad. Use an understanding of corporate governance to help answer the four fundamental questions in strategy.

Which represents an alliance with suppliers?

Upstream vertical.

The three drivers of counterattacks do not include:

Vengeance

Select the best choice: a company that is engaged in oil production, pipelines and tankers, refining, and gasoline stations has engaged in ____ expansion.

Vertical

Which of the following is an accommodative CSR strategy?

View CSR as worthwhile.

Three decades of privatization suggest all of the following except:

When outside investors such as institutional investors do come in, they fail to assert their power.

The CSR debate centers on the question:

Why does the firm exist?

A(n) ____ is the transfer of the control of operations and management from one firm to another with the former becoming a unit of the latter.

acquisition

The institution-based view driving alliances and acquisitions focuses on _____ concerns.

antitrust

In the context of equity-based alliances, _____ involves both firms investing in each other.

cross-shareholding

At stage 1 in the formation of an alliance, a firm must _____.

decide whether growth can be achieved through market transactions

The second phase in an alliance dissolution is _____.

going public

Which would be more characteristic of conglomerates?

"Putting one's eggs in similar baskets." "Putting one's eggs in different baskets."

Product related diversification involves all of the following except

A single business strategy

A joint venture can be described as:

A special case of equity-based alliance. A new legally independent entity. A "corporate child" given birth by two (or more) parent firms.

Which of the following is true in regards to outside directors?

Academic research has failed to empirically establish a link between the outsider/insider ratio and firm performance.

In regards to global convergence:

Advocates argue that globalization will unleash a "survival-of the-fittest" process. Advocates claim firms will be forced to adopt globally the best practices. Others contend that governance practices will continue to diverge throughout the world. The text indicates that complete divergence in corporate governance is probably unrealistic.

NGOs have the ability to:

Affect firms'practices. Influence firms' management. Impact legislation.

In regard to the extent of CSR challenges, the following is true except:

All industries are equal in terms of their exposure to CSR challenges.

In regards to managers and CSR, the following is true except:

All sides of the CSR debate agree as to how they should implement their role.

In comparing M&As with alliances and networks, which of the following is not correct?

Alliances and networks preclude future upgrading into possible M&As

From an institutional perspective, proactive activities are indicative of all the following except:

An absence of "window dressing."

Dumping is defined as:

An exporter selling below cost abroad.

Free market advocates tend to do all of the following except:

Argue that all stakeholders have an equal right to bargain for a "fair deal."

Which of the following is true regarding M&As?

As many as 70% of M&As reportedly fail

Which is true of strategy?

Business strategy has similarities with military strategy. Military principles cannot be completely applied in business. Militaries fight over territories, waters, and air spaces, firms compete in markets.

Which is not true about CSR?

CSR that is embedded in people is easier to imitate.

In Combining product and geographic diversification, which is not one of the four possible combinations?

Classic replicators

Diversification can pay off in all of the following situations except:

Commonly shared industry skills are used.

The stock market responds favorably to alliance activities, but only under which circumstances?

Complementary resources. Previous alliance experience. Ability to manage the host country's political risk.

Those who advocate CSR:

Conduct their debate within the constraints of capitalism.

Diversification premium is the same thing as:

Conglomerate advantage.

Unique to international competition are the pressures for local responsiveness, which are reflected in:

Consumer preferences. Distribution channels. Host country demands.

Most large, publicly traded UK corporations are now characterized by all of the following except:

Corporate managers who own a majority of the stock.

Which is true regarding restructuring?

Corporate restructuring is not widely embraced around the world.

Which is not an advantage of strategic alliances and networks?

Costs of negotiation and coordination.

Which of the following would not be considered an initial set of actions to gain competitive advantage:

Counterattacks.

Which is not one of the suggestions for international managers that can be drawn from this chapter?

Create a common structure for all MNEs.

Contractual alliances include all of the following except:

Cross shareholding

Which geographic diversification is most likely to reduce the liability of foreignness

Culturally adjacent countries

Boards of directors perform all of the following except:

Day to day operations.

Those who feel that firms that expand into emerging economies are failing their CSR responsibilities are most likely to claim that it:

Domestic employees and communities pay the price for the overseas expansion.

Four strategic choices for MNEs do not include:

Domestic.

Conglomeration tends to provide all of the following except

Economies of scale

An example of a primary stakeholder group is:

Employees

The type of knowledge that is codifiable (that is, it can be written down and transferred without losing much of its richness) is called:

Explicit

In some industries where pressures for globalization are relatively low, local firms may possess some skills and assets that are transferable overseas, thus leading to a/an____strategy.

Extender

A firm's attack on a focal arena important to a competitor, but not the attacker's true target area, is referred to as:

Feint

Some CSR advocates who question motives of firms implementing CSR are pleased that:

Firms are embarking on some tangible CSR journey. CSR's legitimacy is rising on the organizational agenda. By adopting codes of conduct (even if only for "window dressing" purposes), they create a set of criteria against which they can be judged.

Which is true of globalized R&D?

For large firms, there are actually diminishing returns for R&D.

Which of the following alliances is a contractual alliance?

Franchising

The most appropriate structure for a multidomestic strategy is a:

Geographic area structure.

This structure is commonly used in professional service firms:

Global account structure.

Which of the following is a customer-focused dimension?

Global account structure. An industry sector structure. Solutions-based structure.

Multidomestic strategy involves all of the following except:

Global standardization strategy is the same as a multidomestic strategy.

Knowledge management uses "centers of excellence" in which type of MNE?

Global.

Which is one of the four phases in an alliance dissolution?

Going public

Agency theory assumes that managers:

Have a responsibility to the owners. Are agents who are opportunistic and engage in self-serving activities.

Which is the best-case scenario for an equity-based alliance?

High tacitness and high importance to direct organizational monitoring and control

Which is one motive for M&A which does not necessarily increase shareholder value?

Hubris.

Which of the following is true regarding CEO duality?

In US firms with CEO duality, the trend now is to appoint a lead independent director, who chairs the sessions held by outside directors that do not involve company executives.

Corporate scope is shaped by

Industry conditions, firm capabilities, institutional constrains, opportunities in both developed and emerging economies

Which of the following make up a governance package?

Internal Mechanisms + External Mechanisms.

In which of the following structures are foreign subsidiary managers not given sufficient voice relative to domestic managers?

International division structure.

The structure that is typically set up when firms initially expand abroad is a:

International division structure.

Institution-based considerations in governance include all of the following except:

International experience of senior executives.

Which of the following stakeholders has the most concern over short-term revenue falling during mergers and acquisitions?

Investors

Which of the following occurs in the uncoupling stage of an alliance dissolution?

Last minute salvage

At its core, diversification is essentially driven by all of the following except

Less complicated information systems

Which is the best-case scenario for a non-equity-based alliance?

Low tacitness and low importance of direct organizational monitoring and control

Which of the following reasons for cross-border acquisition failure is associated with pre-acquisition?

Nationalistic concerns against foreign takeovers (political and media levels)

There is agreement throughout society that:

None of the above.

Which of the following is a solution rather than a problem in knowledge management?

Open innovation.

In an alliance, keeping critical skills and technologies not meant to be shared a secret helps prevent _____. a. proxy fight b. corporate raider c. opportunism d. hostile takeover

Opportunism

Which of the following is a disadvantage of alliances?

Partner opportunism

Research regarding the relationship between product diversification and firm performance indicates that:

Performance may increase as firms shift from single business strategies to product-related diversification. Performance may decrease as firms change from product-related to -unrelated. The linkage between diversification and performance is inverted U shaped. "Putting your eggs in similar baskets," has emerged as a balanced way to both reduce risk and leverage synergy

Which of the following is not an argument in favor of centralization in knowledge management but instead is an argument in favor of decentralization?

Permits greater speed, flexibility, and innovation.

Which is not true regarding geographic diversification and firm performance?

Positive only at high levels of internationalization.

In a non-equity-based alliance, which of the following should be high for possible upgrading to equity-based relationships?

Potential as real option

Reactive firms:

React negatively to aspects of CSR that may increase costs.

Which is true of relatedness?

Relatedness can be a common underlying dominant logic that connects various businesses in a diversified firm.

"The extent to which a given competitor possesses strategic endowment comparable, in terms of both type and amount, to those of the focal firm" refers to similarity of:

Resources

To ensure the success of M&As, managers need to make sure of all of the following except

Seek organizational contrast and variety rather than organizational fit

CSR tends to be the least concerned with improving:

Shareholder wealth maximization.

The strategic choice concerning whether to form cooperative interfirm relationships or to rely on pure market transactions or M&As to grow the firm is part of:

Stage One.

In which type of equity-based alliance does one firm invest in another?

Strategic investment

Using the five forces model, which will likely result in a higher level of CSR?

Substitutes that are superior to existing products and costs are reasonable.

Which of the following is not an argument in favor of decentralization in knowledge management but instead is an argument in favor of centralization?

Sufficient power for corporate-level managers to initiate necessary actions.

Cooperation between rivals is usually suspected of being:

Tacit collusion.

Sources of operation synergy include

Technologies. Marketing, Manufacturing

The instrumental view of CSR advocates who are skeptical of CSR compliance claims:

That CSR activities simply represent a useful means to help make good profits. Firms are not necessarily becoming more "ethical."

Diffused ownership is the opposite of concentrated ownership, and is more common in:

The US and UK.

The defense of private equity includes all of the following points except:

The actions of U.S. private equity firms have enhanced the image of the U.S. and capitalism around the world.

Which are not among the aspects of globalization?

The focus on governance has been replaced by a focus on shareholder value.

Pressures for cost reductions and local responsiveness include:

The framework of how to simultaneously deal with these two sets of pressures. Host country demands and expectations. Being locally responsive makes local customers and governments happy but increase costs.

Issues involved regarding how a board of directors can be established so as to be most effective include:

The insider/outsider mix. CEO duality. Board Interlocks. The Role of Boards of Directors.

The first concern in determining whether a relationship should be based on contract or equity is:

The kind of resources and capabilities that are shared.

In measuring the performance of strategic alliances and networks, subjective measures include:

The level of managers' satisfaction.

In regards to family ownership, all of the following are true except:

The vast majority of large corporations throughout continental Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa no longer feature concentrated family ownership and control.

In regards to the link between CSR and economic performance:

There is no conclusive evidence of a direct, positive link between CSR and economic performance. Some studies report a positive relationship. Some studies find a negative relationship or no relationship. It appears some firms are not cut out for a CSR-intensive strategy.

Which of the following is not true regarding large institutional investors?

They are the controlling stockholders in China.