Strategic Management Exam 1

Firms use both the ______ and ______ models. In fact, these models complement each other in that one focuses outside the firm while the other focuses inside the firm.

I/O; resource-based

The corporate research division of Siemens files, on average, 25 patents a day. The patents are a(n) ______ resource.

c. technological

Internal analysis enables a firm to determine what the firm

can do

Strategic leaders, ______, often work long hours, and their work is filled with ambiguous decision situations.

d. regardless of their location in the organization

If Southwest Airlines is considering the consequences of videoconferencing on business travel, it is in the profit pool analysis step known as

defining the pool's boundaries.

Historically, women have paid more for dry cleaning than men. Signature Cleaners advertises "equal price" for all customers. Signature Cleaners appeals to women, which is market segmentation by ______ factors.

demographic

A company pursuing the differentiation or focused differentiation strategy would tend to

develop flexible systems that allow rapid response to customers' changing needs.

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

fast industry growth.

The focused differentiation strategy differs from the differentiation strategy in that

focused differentiators target a narrower customer market.

Exit barriers to a firm include all of the following EXCEPT

generic assets.

The observation that China, despite a 37 percent surge in car sales in 2010, is expected to reach production overcapacity by 2015 and have a glut of extra cars, is an aspect of the ______ segment of the general environment.

global

A major department store chain has a strict policy of banning photographs or videos of its sales floor or back-room operations. It also does not allow academics to conduct studies of it for publication in research journals. In fact, some of its own top managers refer to the management's policies on secrecy as "verging on paranoid." These policies indicate that the top management of the firm believes the organization's core competencies are

imitable

Consumers in the United States are known for their

impatience.

Subscriptions to the New York Times have been decreasing as more customers receive their news through other media. At the same time, advertisers have shifted portions of their spending to other media. The NYT's managers are making decisions under

uncertainty.

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

low barriers to entry.

As customers come to believe that a firm's product is unique, this allows the firm to

obtain loyal customers.

government agencies are known for having so many layers and rules that decisions are made slowly and inefficiently. In this case the ______ resource is a detriment to taxpayers using and paying for the bureaucracy.

organizational

Green restaurant design, sustainable packaging, waste management, and energy efficiency are aspects of the ______ segment of the general environment that McDonald's has sought to address (Chapter 2 Strategic Focus).

physical

An entrepreneur is investigating starting a company that provides tax advice to small companies. In order to position his company differently from the existing competitors, the entrepreneur must

provide tax advice either in a different manner or provide a different kind of tax service than competitors.

One capability that can be learned from failure is when to

quit

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

sociocultural

Business-level strategies detail commitments and actions taken to provide value to customers and gain competitive advantage by exploiting core competencies in

specific product markets.

A ______ is an integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions designed to exploit core competencies and gain a competitive advantage.

strategy

The three conditions that characterize difficult managerial decisions concerning resources, capabilities, and core competencies are

uncertainty, complexity, and intraorganizational conflicts

New entrants to an industry are more likely when

. product differentiation in the industry is low.

is the ability to analyze, understand, and manage an internal organization in ways that are not dependent on the assumptions of a single country, culture, or context.

A global mind-set

Which of the following is NOT a value-creating activity associated with the differentiation strategy?

Developing policies to ensure efficient hiring and retention to keep costs low and implement training to ensure high employee efficiency.

Which of the following is TRUE about outsourcing?

Outsourcing allows firms to concentrate on those areas in which they can create value.

______ innovation is a term used to describe how rapidly and consistently new, information-intensive technologies replace older ones.

Perpetual

Valuable capabilities

allow the firm to exploit opportunities or neutralize threats in its external environment.

A certain marble quarry provides a unique type of marble that is richly colored and strikingly veined. It has been used for churches and public buildings throughout the world. The architect of a new headquarters for a prestigious Fortune 500 firm has specified the use of this marble, and this marble only, for this project. Which of the following statements is most likely to be true?

The cost of the marble will be expensive because of the bargaining power of the supplier.

A decision that results in failure

allows for learning.

Clarissa is a sales representative for a large pharmaceutical firm. While calling on one of her major clients, the purchasing director of a hospital, the client told her confidential information that a sales representative from a competing firm had passed on to him. The information completely contradicts Clarissa's firm's understanding of the competitor's business strategy, and would allow Clarissa's employer to gain many of the competitor's clients. What ethical implications may result from this situation?

The ethical dilemma here is the right of competitors not to reveal certain information.

In the animal food products business, food-product needs of owners of companion animals pets (e.g., dogs and cats) differ from the needs for food and health-related products of those owning production animals (e.g., livestock). Which of the following aspects of managing customer relationships does this choice refer to?

Who: Determining the Customers to Serve

When a firm is able to produce nonstandardized (that is, distinctive) products for customers who value differentiated features more than they value low cost, the firm is successfully implementing

a differentiation strategy.

All of the following were traditional sources of competitive advantage EXCEPT

a highly educated labor market.

All competitive advantages have

a limited life.

Compared to tangible resources, intangible resources are

a superior source of capabilities.

The global economy, globalization, rapid technological change, and the increasing importance of knowledge are creating the need to

a. delegate strategic responsibilities to employees "closer to the action."

DWK Foods has developed a line of cookies and candies sweetened exclusively with organic honey. Although DWK is selling some of the products over the Internet, in order to gain economies of scale the products must be sold in retail outlets. The main barrier to entry DWK is likely to encounter here is

access to distribution channels.

Which of the following is NOT a component of internal analysis leading to competitive advantage?

analysis of supplier power

Firms use the five forces model to identify the ______ of the industry as measured by its

attractiveness; profitability.

Analysis of the industry's profit pool enables strategic managers to

b. locate the most promising areas of an industry's value chain.

The primary drivers of hypercompetition are

b. the emergence of a global economy and rapid technological change.

When resources and capabilities serve as a source of competitive advantage for a firm, the firm has created a(n)

core competence.

Capabilities that other firms cannot develop easily are classified as

costly to imitate.

New markets created by iPods, PDAs, and Wi-Fi are a result of

disruptive technologies.

The I/O model is grounded in

economics

It is important to emphasize that, primarily because they are related to how a firm interacts with its stakeholders, almost all strategic management process decisions have

ethical dimensions.

The U.S. Hispanic market is the third-largest "Latin American" economy behind Brazil and Mexico. This impacts the ______ aspect of demographic segment analysis.

ethnic mix

The three dimensions of a firm's relationships with customers include all the following EXCEPT

exclusiveness.

Recently, the only type of car available for Anthony to rent on a business trip was a compact, fuel-efficient Japanese import. Anthony was surprised at the comfort and performance of the car. He is in the market for a new car and had previously considered only buying another luxury SUV. Now, he is thinking about the significant cost savings he would have if he bought the compact vehicle rather than a new SUV. This is an example of the competitive risk that

experience can narrow a customer's perceptions of the value of a product's differentiated features.

A firm's mission

is a statement of a firm's business in which it intends to compete and the customers it intends to serve.

The analysis of the activity map of a successful company such as Southwest Airlines emphasizes how

it is hard for rivals to match a configuration of integrated activities than to imitate a single activity.

After Amazon lowered the price on Kindle e-readers, Sony eventually lowered the price on its Reader. Sony needed to do this because

it is in the same strategic group.

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

Product market stakeholders include

suppliers.

Strategic fit among many activities (in an activity map) is fundamental to

sustainability of a firm's competitive advantage.

Buyers are powerful when

switching costs are low.

Understanding how new knowledge can develop new products, processes, or materials is a result of analyzing the ______ segment of the general environment.

technological

A river barge company can offer cheaper, although slower, per pound transportation of products to companies when compared with transportation by air, truck, or rail. The river barge company should first target customers whose companies use

the cost leadership strategy.

All of the following are characteristic of the global economy EXCEPT

the increased use of tariffs to protect industries.

The economic environment refers to

the nature and direction of the economy in which a firm competes or may compete.

A firm successfully implementing a differentiation strategy would expect

to charge premium prices.