Ch 2

According to the five forces model, an attractive industry would have all of the following characteristics EXCEPT:

low barriers to entry.

The likelihood of entry of new competitors is affected by ______ and ______.

barriers to entry; expected retaliation of current industry organizations

All of the following are forces that create high rivalry within an industry EXCEPT:

fast industry growth.

Competitor analysis focuses on:

firms with which the company competes directly.

Suppliers are powerful when:

they offer a credible threat of forward integration.

An analysis of society's attitudes and values would be conducted when studying the ______ segment of the general environment.

sociocultural

Which of the following is NOT an activity used in the external environmental analysis process?

Decrypting

Media content has moved from paper, tape, and film to a digital world based on Internet technology. From the perspective of the five forces model, which force is most relevant here?

Substitutes

An industry is defined as:

a group of firms producing products that are close substitutes.

Once a firm has determined its competitors' future objectives, current strategy, assumptions, and strengths and weaknesses, its next step is to develop:

a response profile.

In analyzing the demographic segment of the general environment, one typically examines all of the following factors EXCEPT:

cultural values.

Competitor intelligence could ethically come from all of the following EXCEPT:

eavesdropping.

The three parts of the external environment that affect a firm's strategic actions are:

general, industry, and competitor.

An owner of a stable of racehorses has been earning below-average returns for more than 15 years. To a colleague, he expressed his determination to stay in horse racing until he died because "racing is in my blood." This individual is probably still racing horses because of:

high barriers to exit.

Customer loyalty programs such as airline frequent-flyer miles are an attempt to:

increase customers' switching costs.

According to the five forces model, an unattractive industry would include all of the following characteristics EXCEPT:

low supplier power due to commodity inputs.

The competition within each strategic group is:

more intense than the competition between strategic groups.

BP, in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, expected increased scrutiny from which of the following segments of the general environment?

political/legal

Buyers are powerful when:

switching costs are low.

All of the following are implications of strategic groups EXCEPT:

the strength of the five forces is the same across strategic groups.