Chapter 4-Strategic Management (CAP)
The controlling function of management is synonymous with strategy formulation.
False
Benchmarking is an analytical tool used to determine whether a firm's value chain activities are competitive compared to rivals.
True
Chief marketing officers now spend more than 50 percent of their budget on technology to manage activities like online marketing and social media.
True
Constructing an Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix is a summary step when conducting an internal strategic-management audit.
True
Cultural products include values, beliefs, stories, and language.
True
Motivation is one explanation why some people work hard and others do not.
True
One aspect of ads in a recession is that they generally take more direct aim at competitors
True
The Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix should use a total of 20 internal factors.
True
Allocating resources is one of the five basic activities (functions) performed by managers
False
Although a useful step in the strategic management process, value chain analysis does little to help a firm monitor whether its prices and costs are competitive.
False
At Google the culture is very rigid, while in contrast the culture at Proctor & Gamble is very informal.
False
Distribution becomes especially important when a firm is striving to implement a product development or backward integration strategy.
False
Financial ratio analysis really should not go beyond the actual calculation and interpretation of ratios.
False
Financial ratios are not applicable to nonprofit organizations.
False
In most industries, only minor costs of producing a product or service are incurred within operations, so production and operations does not have great value as a competitive weapon in a company's overall strategy.
False
Leverage ratios measure a firm's ability to meet maturing short-term obligations.
False
Metaphors are handed-down narratives of some wonderful event that are based on history but have been embellished with fictional detail.
False
Most producers today sell their goods directly to consumers.
False
Opportunities are a firm's distinctive competencies that cannot be easily matched or imitated by competitors.
False
Organizing is the cornerstone of effective strategy formulation.
False
Planning should be performed mostly by middle management and then presented to top management for analysis and approval.
False
Proponents of the resource-based view argue that external factors are more important than internal factors for a firm in achieving and sustaining competitive advantage.
False
Resources that are common are never considered valuable.
False
Successful strategy formulation generally rests upon the ability of an organization to sell some product or service.
False
Test marketing is used more frequently by industrial companies than consumer goods companies.
False
The management function of organizing is included in human resource management.
False
The quantity or number of units of product that a firm must sell to break even is total fixed costs divided by (price per unit + variable costs per unit).
False
The total assets turnover ratio is calculated by dividing sales by fixed assets.
False
While interesting, organizational culture does not significantly affect business decisions.
False
Four common approaches to determine R&D budget allocations are: 1) finance as many project proposals as possible; 2) use a percentage-of-sales method; 3) budget for R&D about what competitors spend; or 4) decide how many successful new products are needed and work backwards to estimate the required R&D investment.
True
Increased efficiency, quality, productivity, and job satisfaction can come from cross-training workers.
True
Internal R&D and contract R&D are the two basic forms of R&D in organizations.
True
Linkages between a firm's culture and strategies often determine success.
True
Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording and analyzing, of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services.
True
The RBV theory asserts that it is advantageous for a firm to pursue a strategy that is not currently being implemented by any competing firm.
True
The basic premise of the research-based view is that the mix, type, amount, and nature of a firm's internal resources should be considered first and foremost in devising strategies that can lead to sustainable competitive advantage.
True
The controlling function of management is especially important for effective strategy evaluation.
True
The heart of an information system is a database containing the kinds of records and data important to managers.
True
The idea that paying dividends results in a higher stock price is a myth.
True
The only certain thing about the future of any organization is change.
True
The process of performing an internal audit, compared to the external audit, provides more opportunity for participants to understand how their jobs, departments and divisions fit into the whole organization.
True
The purpose of organizing is to achieve coordinated effort by defining task and authority relationships.
True
The subtle, elusive and largely unconscious forces that shape the workplace are captured by the organizational culture.
True
There are seven basic functions of marketing: customer analysis, selling products and services, product and service planning, pricing, distribution, marketing research, and opportunity analysis.
True
Value chain analysis can enable a firm to better identify its own strengths and weaknesses especially as compared to competitors' value chain analyses and their own data over time.
True
A cost/benefit analysis is an appraisal of the costs, benefits, and risks associated with marketing decisions.
True
A form of customer analysis is administering customer surveys.
True
A limitation of financial ratios is the fact that they are based on accounting data.
True
A new trend with regard to advertising products or services on the Internet is to base advertising rates solely on sales rates.
True
A ritual is a standardized set of behaviors used to manage anxieties.
True
A task force of managers from different units of the organization, supported by staff, should be charged with determining the 20 most important strengths and weaknesses that should influence the future of the organization.
True
According to James Van Horne the basic decision areas of finance are: the investment decision, the financing decision, and the dividend decision.
True
Activity ratios measure how effectively a firm is using its resources.
True
An organization's culture compares to an individual's personality in the sense that no two organizations have the same culture and no two individuals have the same personality.
True
Dividend decisions concern issues such as the percentage of earnings paid to stockholders, the stability of dividends paid over time, and the repurchase or issuance of stock.
True
During the 2012 Super Bowl, a 30-second advertisement cost about $3 million.
True
Established companies are coming to realize that their next generation of potential customers spends more time online than watching TV.
True
Five major stakeholders that affect pricing decisions are consumers, governments, suppliers, distributors, and competitors.
True
For a resource to be valuable, it must be either rare, hard to imitate, or not easily sustainable
True
For calendar 2013, companies in the S&P 500 are expected to pay at least $300 billion in dividends.
True
Capacity decisions concern distances from raw materials to production sites to customers
False