Information Systems- Ch. 5-8 Quiz
Adobe gives away the Acrobat Reader to build a market for the sale of software that creates Acrobat files. This is an example of: A. one market attempting to conquer a new market by making it a subset, component, or feature of its primary offering. B. firms taking advantage of complementary products developed for a prior generation of technology. C. markets, once considered distinctly separate, beginning to offer similar features and capabilities. D. firms spreading costs across increasing units of production or in serving multiple customers. E. firms giving away products for half of a two-sided market to seed the market.
E
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has invested in many firms. Which of the following is not one mentioned in your text? A. Uber B. Twitter C. BlueOrigin D. The Washington Post E. Bezos has invested in all of the above businesses.
E
Large firms often find new markets attractive, but might not have products ready for delivery. What strategy do such firms use to get potential adopters to delay their purchasing decisions? A. Spread costs across increasing units of production or in serving multiple customers B. Leverage customers of their other products to promote a new product C. Make their new products compatible with the leading standard D. Give away products for half of a two-sided market to seed the market E. Preannounce forthcoming efforts
E
Microsoft's Live Maps and Virtual Earth 3D was a late entrant to the Internet mapping game. Users had already put in countless hours building resources that meshed with Google Maps and Google Earth. However, by adopting the same keyhole markup language (KML) standard used by Google, any work done by users for Google in KML could be used by Microsoft. What strategy of Microsoft has allowed it to catch up with Google? A. Making a new market a subset of its main offering B. Taking advantage of complementary products developed for a prior generation of technology C. Entering an uncontested, low-profit market instead of competing in saturated, high-profit markets D. Exchanging technical expertise in one area with another firm to effectively suit resource capabilities E. Making a new product compatible with the leading standard
E
The _____ is the part of a computer that executes the instructions of a computer program. A. software B. flash memory C. DWDM D. random-access memory or RAM E. microprocessor
E
The implications of network effects are known as "Metcalfe's Law" or sometimes: A. systemic events. B. cluster effects. C. group impressions. D. herd instincts. E. network externalities.
E
According to the author, which of the following is considered one of the three 'pillars' upholding Amazon's business success? A. Large selection B. Niche customers C. Inimitable technology D. Dynamic pricing E. Firm-owned brands
A
Big firms fail to see disruptive innovations as a threat because: A. they primarily focus on the bottom line. B. they fail to listen to customer needs. C. they overestimate the impact of these innovations. D. they don't indulge in playing catch-up. E. they concentrate only on future financial performance.
A
Cisco purchased Pure Digital, maker of the Flip video recorder, but ended up shutting the unit down a little over two years later. The reason for Cisco's failure was: A. Envelopment. Smartphone manufacturers and music players began to offer video recording features, enveloping the benefit provided by Pure's gear in their offerings. B. Network effects. Late-arriving Cisco could not compete against the dominance of existing, incompatible standards created by early-moving incumbents. C. The Osbour Effect. Cisco preannounced a product and no one wanted its current offerings. D. Staying power. Consumers weren't convinced a small firm like Cisco could win in the market.
A
Dynamic pricing: A. refers to pricing that shifts over time based on conditions associated with product supply and demand. B. refers to pricing that is always a notch higher than competition. C. refers to pricing strategies that focuses on consistency even if environmental conditions fluctuate wildly. D. is also known as the bargaining power of customers. E. refers to pricing that is always a notch below competition.
A
In its early days, many authoritative critics assumed Amazon would fail. Why? A. the firm was losing money and competing against well known retail giants, who were poised to bring their strong offline brands and logistics prowess to the Internet. B. Amazon was too short-term focused, not anticipating how the industry would inevitably morph over time. C. the firm was based in Seattle, rather than Silicon Valley. Nearly every successful new tech company found it necessary to draw from the deep talent pool of Silicon Valley. D. Amazon sales were not increasing. E. all of the above.
A
The acronym VoIP is considered by many to be a disruptive innovation. It refers to: A. The technology used in internet telephony B. Cloud computing C. Semiconductor manufacturing technology D. DWDM
A
When a company such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble received inventory but doesn't pay its suppliers right away, this is known as _____. A. accounts payable B. net profit C. pre-paid expense D. gross profit E. earnings before depreciation and tax
A
Which of the following factors is responsible for enabling the advance of Moore's Law? A. The distance between pathways inside silicon chips gets smaller with each successive generation. B. Silicon is commonly available in the form of sand or silicon dioxide, which helps keep the costs of chip production low. C. Constant interaction among three forces-size, heat, and power-makes Moore's Law practical and ensures that it will endure for decades to come. D. The availability of better cooling technologies ensures chips can continue growing smaller and more power efficient. E. With the exponential growth in information technology-enabled businesses, the demand for computers makes Moore's Law possible.
A
Which of the following statements regarding the current electronic waste scenario is true? A. Electronic waste increases with the rise of living standards worldwide. B. The content of gold in a pound of electronic waste is lesser than that in a pound of mined ore. C. The process of separating densely packed materials inside tech products to effectively harvest the value in e-waste is skill intensive. D. Sending e-waste abroad can be much more expensive than dealing with it at home. E. E-waste trade is mostly transparent, and stringent guidelines ensure that all e-waste is accounted for.
A
Worldwide auction leader eBay started operations in Japan just five months after Yahoo! launched its Japanese auction service. But eBay was never able to mount a credible threat and ended up pulling out of the market. This example shows that: A. it's imperative to move first in markets influenced by network effects. B. firms should always subsidize initial adoption of their products and make them cheaper than their competitor's products. C. national markets tend to be influenced by factors that are not necessarily localized. D. online auction markets are characterized by constant shifts in market dominance. E. market dominance in the global marketplace translates to an equivalent position in national markets.
A
____ occur(s) when increasing number of users lower the value of a product or service. A. Congestion effects B. Convergence C. Market inflexibility D. Backward incompatibility E. Network internalities
A
_____ are the supertiny on-off switches in a chip that work collectively to calculate or store things in memory. A. Transistors B. Multicore processors C. Single-core processors D. Conductors E. Inductors
A
1 _____ = 1 billion bytes A. terabyte B. gigabyte C. megabyte D. petabyte E. zettabyte
B
A market dominated by a small number of powerful sellers is known as a(n) _____. A. short tail B. oligopoly C. pure play D. blue ocean E. greenfield
B
Multicore processors are formed by: A. connecting identical processors in a parallel combination and drawing power from the same source. B. putting two or more lower power processor cores on a single chip. C. connecting a series of high powered processors through a single power source. D. slicing a flat chip into pieces and reconnecting the pieces vertically. E. connecting a combination of parallel and series-connected processors to a single larger processor to supplement its functioning.
B
Of the following strategies, which was followed by Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder? A. He focused more on Amazon's quarterly results. B. He postponed profit harvesting. C. He reduced warehousing capacity. D. He consciously ignored cloud computing platforms. E. He built e-commerce operations only for Amazon's customers in the United States.
B
Uber and PayPal used similar strategies when trying to jumpstart network effects that were vital in creating their dominance. What did each do? A. Operated in "Blue Ocean" that, to this day, remains free of competitors B. Leveraged viral customer promotions by giving incentives to consumers who helped recruit friends to the servcie. C. Created services that were backward-compatible with rivals, reducing switching costs for anyone interested inleaving incumbents for their services. D. Preannoucned their products, discouraging rivals from entering with competing offerings
B
Which statement best describes the relationship between network effects and innovation? A. Network effects decrease innovation within a standard but increase the number of innovative offerings that compete against a strongly established standard. B. Network effects increase innovation within a standard but decrease the number of innovative offerings that compete against a strongly established standard. C. More often than not, network effects foster innovation D. More often than not, network effects limit innovation
B
Yahoo!'s mobile team didn't have an executive champion to protect and nurture the team during the pioneering phase when financial results couldn't be realized. It couldn't show substantial results, so managers were reassigned. This is an example of: A. social engineering B. the Creosote Bush effect C. overspending on unproven projects D. the options portfolio of innovation
B
_____ are products or services that add additional value to the primary product or service that makes up a network. A. Substitute components B. Complementary benefits C. Standby additions D. Orthogonal gains E. Quantum efforts
B
_____ are substances that are capable of enabling as well as inhibiting the flow of electricity. A. Insulators B. Semiconductors C. Resistors D. Inductors E. Thermostats
B
A firm can spend no money and time, yet expect to enhance its offerings, by: A. adopting an envelopment strategy. B. going public through an initial public stock offering. C. allowing other firms to contribute to its platform. D. preannouncing a forthcoming product to lower sales of current offerings. E. outsourcing critical processes to third parties.
C
One of the implications of price elasticity of technology products is that: A. the cost of a semiconductor chip fabrication plant doubles every four years. B. the magnetic disk areal storage density doubles annually. C. customers not only buy more products as they become cheaper, but whole new markets employing new technology open up. D. the value of chips in semiconductor-based devices appreciates every six months. E. firms stock up on tech products and sell them once their prices increase.
C
Sony, a firm once synonymous with portable music, has ceded its market dominance to Apple because: A. it did not provide tracks from Sony Music artists to the Apple iTunes store. B. its technology offerings were too futuristic and out of sync with the waves of computing to appeal to customers. C. it failed to take advantage of opportunities presented by Moore's Law. D. its music players contradicted the price/performance phenomenon predicted by Moore's Law. E. it attempted to straddle the twin markets of online music retail and electronic music players, and could not capitalize on either.
C
Staying power refers to the: A. energy demands required to run a product or service. B. ability of a firm to produce a good or service at a lower opportunity cost than a rival. C. long-term viability of a product or service. D. relative abilities of parties in a situation to exert influence over each other. E. ability to take advantage of complementary products developed for a prior generation of technology.
C
Which of the following problems is least likely to be solved through grid computing? A. Financial risk modeling B. Gene analysis C. Linear problems D. Parallel problems E. Manufacturing simulation
C
Which of the following sets of interrelated forces threatens to slow down the progression of Moore's Law? A. Weight, speed, and capacity B. Density, clock speed, and wafer thickness C. Size, heat, and power D. Silicon availability, efficiency, and energy E. Memory, cache size, and speed
C
Which of the following terms is used as an alternative to switching costs? A. Exchange benefits B. Complementary benefits C. Lock-in D. Network impedance E. Straddling costs
C
1 petabyte = 1 _____ bytes A. million B. billion C. trillion D. quadrillion E. sextillion
D
A(n) _____ is a unique tracking string, a piece of identifying text, which is assigned and later retrieved by a web server when you interact with a website. It is stored by your browser. A. domain B. session bean C. header D. cookie E. URL
D
One of Amazon's products is branded the "Amazon Dash Wand." What is its purpose? A. To speed items throughout Amazon's warehouse. B. To rapidly restock Amazon's fulfillment center shelves. C. To speed delivery to consumers using drones. D. To allow consumers to rapidly place orders with Amazon. E. To deliver products using autonomous, driverless cars.
D
Price elasticity refers to the: A. change in the demand for a good in response to a change in income. B. rate at which product prices vary in response to changes in customer demand. C. range of production costs that change as a direct function of the availability of raw materials. D. rate at which demand for a product or service fluctuates with price change. E. numerical measure of the responsiveness of the supply of a product to a change in its production cost.
D
Storage that is wiped clean when power is cut off from a device is known as _____. A. flash memory B. read-only memory C. holographic memory D. volatile memory E. non-volatile memory
D
Two distinctly separate markets are said to undergo convergence when they: A. are dominated by a small group of powerful sellers. B. offer products and services designed to target a specific industry. C. are characterized by many buyers, but a single, dominant seller. D. begin to offer similar features and capabilities. E. derive most of their value from two distinct categories of participants.
D
_____ is said to occur when one market attempts to conquer a new market by making it a subset, component, or feature of its primary offering. A. Acquisition B. Monopolization C. Market leapfrogging D. Envelopment E. Greenfield investment
D
_____ refer to the multibillion dollar factories used to manufacture semiconductors. A. Grids B. Platforms C. Lecterns D. Fabs E. Kilns
D
A market is said to be _____ if it derives most of its value from a single class of users. A. core competent B. a long tail C. convergent D. a pure play E. one-sided
E
The video game console market offers important lessons for the strategist. The video game console market is a network market in which Sony's PlayStation 2 (PS2) dominated over Microsoft's Xbox offering. This has been possible due to: A. PS2's technical superiority over the Xbox. B. the presence of several cheap, rival imitations which ate into Xbox's market share. C. the low pricing of Xbox which eroded users' confidence in the product. D. the straddling strategy adopted by Microsoft to expand in both video game and DVD player markets. E. game developers favoring PS2 for its larger user base obtained because the PS2 was launched months before the Xbox.
E
Which of the following is true about bitcoin? A. In its current state, bitcoin can only process a fraction of transactions of traditional credit card companies. B. The grid-based, peer-produced verification network means bitcoin is as capable at processing transactions as even the largest credit card networks. C. Users transferring funds across border are likely to consider bitcoin beneficial because it has the potential to dramatically lower transaction fees. D. Despite the hype, there are no online retailers who current accept bitcoin, although this may change, soon. E. A and C are true. F. B and C are true. G. A, C, and D are true. H. B, C, and D are true.
E
While Sony and Microsoft focused on the graphics and raw processing power favored by hard-core male gamers, Nintendo chose to develop a machine to appeal to families, women, and age groups that normally shunned violent games. The strategy adopted by Nintendo in this example is the _____ strategy. A. mass customization B. customer engagement C. straddling D. convergence E. Blue ocean
E
_____ is a nonvolatile, chip-based storage, often used in mobile phones, cameras, and MP3 players. A. Random-access memory B. Cache memory C. Optical storage memory D. Holographic memory E. Flash memory
E
A Blue ocean strategy often works best when combined with operational effectiveness. True/Fasle
False
Amazon branded its commercial rocketry and aviation unit "Amazon PrimeAir." True/False
False
Amazon extensively utilizes Kiva robots. This has allowed the company to dramatically reduce the size of its workforce. True/False
False
Amazon maintains an exclusive channel through its website. It is not available to third-party sellers. True/False
False
Amazon takes title and, in fact, owns the inventory that third-party sellers provide, using the service 'Fulfilled by Amazon.' True/False
False
An option is a right and an obligation to make an investment. True/False
False
Cross-border bank transfers are not likely to adopt bitcoin since these functions are already electronic and highly automated. True/False
False
Cross-side benefits arise due to interaction among members of a single class of participant. True/False
False
Electronic waste is expected to decrease with the rise of living standards worldwide. True False
False
Envelopment is a management strategy where a dominant firm acquires all the layers in its value chain to increase profitability. True/False
False
Every quarter, Amazon has a meeting of all management, where its success strategy is weighed against its quarterly results. True/False
False
Firms that listen to existing customers and tailor offerings based on this input are far more likely to identify potentially disruptive technologies than those that experiment with products that existing customers do not demand. True/False
False
In the absence of network effects, as a rule, the value to each user of a product or service increases as the number of users grows. True/False
False
In the context of the chapter, which discusses "network effects," the first part of the term "network" refers to either wired or wireless systems that connect computing components. True/False
False
In the early years, Amazon began by selling games online. True/False
False
Incentives for U.S. consumer adoption of bitcoin are quite high. True/False
False
Like most open-source efforts, bitcoin was created by a consortium of for-profit corporations hoping to fuel adoption of a beneficial new standard. True/False
False
Looking at financial results, "tech-fueled" firms cannot produce more positive net income than those firms which deliver goods and services only "offline." True/False
False
Moore's Law applies to all types of technology components including hard drives and fiber optic cable transmission speeds. True False
False
Random-access memory is an example of nonvolatile memory.
False
Random-access memory is an example of nonvolatile memory. True/False
False
Startup firms that find new markets attractive but do not yet have products ready for delivery preannounce efforts causing potential adaptors to delay a purchasing decision until the new effort rolls out. True/False
False
The natural state of a market where network effects are present is for there to be intense competition between several rivals that come to an equalibrium where their respective market shares are roughly identical. True/False
False
The process of separating out the densely packed materials inside tech products so that the value in e-waste can be effectively harvested is extremely skill intensive. True False
False
The shrinking of the pathways inside silicon chips that enables Moore's Law, is an indefinite process. True False
False
The shrinking of the pathways inside silicon chips that enables Moore's Law, is an indefinite process. True/False
False
ARM provides logic in the majority of smartphones, including products by Apple and Samsung. True/False
True
Amazon has what the author calls 3 "pillars." These are: -lower prices -convenience -large selection True/False
True
Amazon warehouses are extremely efficient, due to extensive computer code. In fact, the amount of code running the warehouses is more than the amount of code running the Amazon website. True/False
True
Electronic waste is valuable because it contains small bits of metals such as silver, platinum, and gold. True/False
True
Every product or service subject to network effects fosters some kind of exchange, which can include anything you can represent in the ones and zeros of digital storage . True/False
True
Firms may want to use ARM chips because they draw less power than Intel chips. True/False
True
Intuit has avoided disruption in the shift away from packaged software by developing products that leverage cloud computing, some of which are initially provided for free. True/False
True
Low-margin retailers are interested in bitcoin because it may allow the elimination of fees associated with credit card transactions. True/False
True
Many disruptive firms were started by former employees of the disrupted giants. True/False
True
Many firms attempt to enhance their network effects by creating a platform for the development of third-party products and services that enhance the primary offering. True/False
True
Moore's Law has impacted the camera industry such that the firms that sell the most cameras aren't camera companies, but phone manufacturers. True/False
True
Moore's Law is possible because the distance between the pathways inside silicon chips gets smaller with each successive generation. True/False
True
Multicore processors can run older software written for single-brain chips. True False
True
Network effects do not influence all consumer products or services. True/False
True
Profit margins for disruptive innovations are usually worse than those for incumbent technologies. True/False
True
Profit margins for disruptive innovations are usually worse than those for incumbent technologies. True/Fasle
True
Regional anti-trust authorities may consider product bundling by dominant firms to be anticompetitive. True/False
True
The higher the value of a user's overall investment, the more they are likely to consider the staying power of any offering before choosing to adopt it. True/False
True
