Accounting
Anthropology
Archaeology
Art History
Banking
Biology & Life Science
Business
Business Communication
Business Development
Business Ethics
Business Law
Chemistry
Communication
Computer Science
Counseling
Criminal Law
Curriculum & Instruction
Design
Earth Science
Economic
Education
Engineering
Finance
History & Theory
Humanities
Human Resource
International Business
Investments & Securities
Journalism
Law
Management
Marketing
Medicine
Medicine & Health Science
Nursing
Philosophy
Physic
Psychology
Real Estate
Science
Social Science
Sociology
Special Education
Speech
Visual Arts
Management
Q:
A company pursuing a business model based on differentiation usually strives to differentiate itself on one key dimension.
Q:
A product's appeal to customers' psychological desires is a source of differentiation.
Q:
The three principal routes to high product differentiation are superior innovation, excellent quality, and responsiveness to customer needs.
Q:
Companies with a differentiation advantage can charge a higher price for their products.
Q:
Many cost leaders gear all their strategic choices to the single goal of squeezing out every cent of costs to sustain their competitive advantage.
Q:
Achieving a low-cost position may require the company to develop skills in flexible manufacturing and adopt efficient materials-management techniques.
Q:
The cost leader is able to withstand competition better than the other companies because of its lower costs.
Q:
Cost leaders ignore the many different market segments in an industry and position their products to appeal to the "average" customer.
Q:
A cost leader generally has low product differentiation and high market segmentation.
Q:
Because of its lower cost structure, the cost leader is able to charge a higher price than its competitors.
Q:
Product differentiation is the process of creating a competitive advantage by designing goods or services to satisfy customer needs.
Q:
The three generic competitive approaches are cost leadership, differentiation, and focus.
Q:
Market segmentation addresses the "who" portion of a firm's business model.
Q:
Market segmentation is the way a company decides to group customers, based on important differences in their needs or preferences.
Q:
Customers needs are desires, wants, or cravings that can be satisfied by means of the characteristics of a product or service.
Q:
A business-level strategy is the plan of action that strategic managers adopt to use a company's resources and distinctive competencies to gain a competitive advantage over its rival in a market or industry.
Q:
The process of defining a business should address the questions: "What is to be satisfied?," "Who is to be satisfied?," and "How will they be satisfied?"
Q:
With regard to quality as reliability, a product can be said to be reliable when it consistently does the job it was designed for, does it well, and rarely, if ever, breaks down.
Q:
The two least important components of efficiency for many companies are employee productivity and capital productivity.
Q:
Michael Porter has argued that low cost and differentiation are the two basic strategies for creating value and attaining a competitive advantage in an industry.
Q:
The simplest measure of efficiency is the quantity of inputs that it takes to produce a given output.
Q:
To achieve a competitive advantage, a company must excel in all of the building blocks of competitive advantageefficiency, quality, innovation, and responsiveness to customers.
Q:
A company has a competitive advantage when its profitability is higher than the average for its industry.
Q:
The more value a company creates for its customers, the more willing customers are to pay a higher price.
Q:
Efficiency, quality, innovation, and customer responsiveness are the four generic building blocks of competitive advantage.
Q:
The price a company charges for a good or service is typically less than the value placed on that good or service by the customer.
Q:
If a company's profitability is higher than the industry average, it has a competitive advantage.
Q:
Comment on this statement: "No competitive advantage lasts forever."
Q:
Identify and discuss the four building blocks of competitive advantage.
Q:
Discuss the relationships between competitive advantage, distinctive competencies, resources, and capabilities.
Q:
Give one example of a firm that has achieved a distinctive competency in efficiency, and describe that competency. Then do the same for a firm with a distinctive competency in quality, innovation, and responsiveness to customers.
Q:
Explain how tangible and intangible resources and capabilities can lead to distinctive competencies. Give specific examples.
Q:
The more firm-specific and difficult to imitate is a resource, the more likely a company is to have a/an ____________________.
a) tangible resource.
b) intangible resource.
c) distinctive competency.
d) effective marketing strategy.
e) strong barrier to imitation.
Q:
____________ are factors that make it difficult for a competitor to copy a company's distinctive competencies.
a) Barriers to innovation
b) Organizational inertia
c) Competitive dynamics
d) Barriers to imitation
e) Strategic commitments
Q:
Capabilities are
a) a company's physical plant and equipment.
b) a company's technological know-how.
c) a company's resources.
d) a company's reputation.
e) a company's skills at coordinating resources and putting them to productive use.
Q:
Which of the following is not an intangible resource?
a) Technological know-how
b) A well-known brand name
c) a favorable corporate reputation
d) Marketing know-how
e) Plant and equipment
Q:
The intellectual property of an organization is
a) a tangible resource.
b) an intangible resource.
c) a tangible capability.
d) an intangible capability.
e) a tangible competence.
Q:
Customer responsiveness is an important ___________________ attribute that can help to build brand loyalty.
a) marketing
b) leadership
c) management
d) differentiating
e) None of the above
Q:
Which of the following is not one of the attributes that seem to be important in order for a product development team to function effectively?
a) A heavyweight project manager
b) A team leader that is able to act as an advocate of the team to senior management
c) The team should be composed of at least one member from each key function.
d) Team members should be co-located.
e) The organization should develop set policies and procedures that all development teams should follow.
Q:
Which of the following is not part of the positioning strategy that a company adopts for a product?
a) price
b) product features
c) focus groups
d) advertising
e) promotion
Q:
A company can create quality as excellence by emphasizing attributes of service associated with the product that include all of the following except
a) ordering ease
b) prompt delivery
c) easy installation
d) increasing innovation
e) maintenance services
Q:
When a company successfully implements Six Sigma quality, about how many units will be defective?
a) 17% (one-sixth of the units)
b) 6% per million units
c) 0.6% per million units.
d) 3.4 defects per million units.
e) three per ten million units.
Q:
Which of the following is not consistent with the philosophy underlying quality improvement methodologies?
a) Improved quality reduces costs through less rework, fewer mistakes, and fewer delays.
b) Better quality leads to higher market share and allows the company to raise prices.
c) Senior managers must buy into quality improvement programs and communicate their importance to the organization.
d) Quality improvement methodologies recognize that quality problems generally come from worker error.
e) All of these are consistent with quality improvement methodologies.
Q:
Which of the following is not correct concerning self-managed teams?
a) Increased responsibility and empowerment are seen as motivators.
b) Performance bonuses linked to team production and quality targets are seen as motivators.
c) Cost savings arise from eliminating supervisors.
d) A flatter organizational hierarchy is created.
e) All of these statements are correct.
Q:
Which of the following is not an example of a human resources strategy that could help improve organizational efficiency?
a) Hiring strategy
b) Just-in-time inventory system
c) Eliminating supervisors and flattening the organizational structure
d) Self-managing teams
e) Pay for performance
Q:
Just-in-time inventory systems
a) are used only by manufacturing firms.
b) are implemented primarily by the manufacturing function.
c) have components arrive at a manufacturing plant just in time to enter the production process.
d) are valuable in times when there is a labor dispute with a key supplier.
e) always keep extra inventory on hand for emergencies.
Q:
Sourcing inputs from multiple suppliers is a strategy to
a) reduce risks linked to just-in-time inventory systems.
b) quickly move materials through the production process.
c) increase inventory turnover.
d) manage the distribution of finished products to end users.
e) decrease the organization's need for working capital.
Q:
Which of the following statements concerning customer defection rates is incorrect?
a) Defection rates are determined by customer loyalty.
b) The longer a company holds on to a customer, the volume of customer-generated unit sales is greater and the average cost of each sale is lower.
c) Lowering customer defection rates allows a company to achieve a lower cost structure.
d) R&D should address the issue of customer loyalty in product development.
e) There is a positive relationship between length of time that a customer stays with the company and profit per customer.
Q:
A firm can use __________ strategy, including aggressive pricing and promotion, to increase sales volume which leads to cost reductions from scale and learning effects.
a) R&D
b) a differentiation
c) TQM
d) marketing
e) a cost leadership
Q:
Flexible manufacturing technology includes all of the following except
a) reduce setup time for complex equipment
b) use individual machines through better scheduling
c) increase product design and distribution
d) improve quality control
e) mass customization of outputs
Q:
Which of the following is not an advantage of flexible manufacturing?
a) Customize product offering
b) Reduction in equipment setup times
c) Increased efficiency
d) Improved quality control
e) Easier project management
Q:
Which of the following functions does notcontribute to increased efficiency?
a) Research and development
b) Production
c) Marketing
d) Materials management
e) All of these contribute to increased efficiency.
Q:
Strong leadership from top management is
a) a value chain support activity.
b) needed to attain economies of scale.
c) needed to build brand loyalty.
d) part of the human resources value chain activity.
e) a primary activity in the value chain.
Q:
Which of the follow support activities in the value chain refers to the company-wide context within which all the other value creation activities take place?
a) Human resources
b) Information systems
c) Operations
d) Materials management
e) Company infrastructure
Q:
Cost accountants are responsible for gathering and monitoring data used for controlling the organization's costs. Cost accountants work in which value chain activity?
a) Research and development
b) Company infrastructure
c) Materials management
d) Marketing and sales
e) Human resources
Q:
Mike works as a corporate trainer, teaching new employees how to perform manufacturing tasks. Mike works in which value chain activity?
a) Research and development
b) Production
c) Materials management
d) Human resources
e) Company infrastructure
Q:
Which of the following support activities in the value chain provides inputs that allow the primary activities to take place?
a) Human resources
b) Materials management, human resources, information systems, and company infrastructure
c) Company infrastructure
d) Human resources and company infrastructure
e) Information systems
Q:
Using the value chain model, which of the following primary activities is performed last, as inputs are transformed into outputs?
a) R&D
b) Marketing and sales
c) Production
d) After-sales service and support
e) Human resources
Q:
Ford Motors developed the Explorer sport utility vehicle, the number one selling SUV in the U.S., based on an extensive study of customer preferences. Which value chain activity of Ford conducted those studies?
a) Research and development
b) Marketing and sales
c) Materials management
d) Human resources
e) Company infrastructure
Q:
Which primary activity in the value chain is concerned with the design of products and production processes?
a) Materials management
b) Marketing and sales
c) Research and development
d) Production
e) Company infrastructure
Q:
John's bakery is able to produce exactly the right types of bread each day and have them available when customers come into the store. John's bakery is superior in
a) innovation.
b) quality
c) human resources.
d) customer responsiveness
e) efficiency.
Q:
The reasons that explain why so many new products fail to generate an economic return include all of the following except
a) the demand for innovations is inherently uncertain.
b) the technology is poorly commercialized.
c) many fail because of poor positioning strategy.
d) development costs are not kept in check.
e) the products are slow to get to the market.
Q:
When a firm produces products that customers perceive as having higher utility than those of its rivals, this firm's source of competitive advantage is
a) design.
b) low innovation.
c) superior quality.
d) efficiency.
e) customer responsiveness.
Q:
The four generic building blocks of competitive advantage are
a) low cost, quality, efficiency, and customer responsiveness.
b) differentiation, quality, innovation, and customer responsiveness.
c) quality, efficiency, differentiation, and customer responsiveness.
d) customer responsiveness, quality, efficiency, and human resources.
e) quality, customer responsiveness, innovation, and efficiency.
Q:
Superior value requires that
a) a company have the lowest cost structure in an industry.
b) the gap between perceived value and costs of production be greater than the gap attained by competitors.
c) a company create the most valuable product in the eyes of the consumer.
d) a company create the highest quality product in the eyes of the consumer.
e) a company excel in all of the building blocks of competitive advantage.
Q:
Examples of successful new product launches include all of the following except
a) Sony Walkman
b) Sony Playstation
c) Nokia cell phones
d) Apple Computer's Newton - personal digital assistant.
e) Cisco Systems innovations paved the way for rapid growth of the Internet
Q:
The basic philosophy underlying quality improvement methodologies include all of the following except
a) costs decrease because of less work.
b) productivity improves.
c) better quality leads to higher market share.
d) reduces set-up time for complex manufacturing functions
e) increases the company's profitability and allows it to stay in business.
Q:
The principle tool that most managers now use to increase the reliability of their product offering is the Six Sigma quality improvement methodology.
Q:
Defection rate refers to the percentage of a company's employees who defect every year to competitors.
Q:
Marketing strategy refers to the position that a company takes with regard to pricing, promotion, advertising, product design, and distribution.
Q:
Mass customization is the ability of companies to use flexible manufacturing technology to customize at cost normally associated with mass production.
Q:
Learning effects are cost savings that come from learning through extensive R&D.
Q:
To add value, R&D can increase a product's functionality to make it more attractive to customers.
Q:
A company's customers are a good source of quality information but of little use as a source of new product ideas.
Q:
Information systems refer to the largely electronic systems for managing inventory, tracking sales, pricing products, selling products, dealing with customer service inquiries, etc.
Q:
Product and process innovation are perhaps the most important building blocks of competitive advantage.
Q:
Innovation can result in new products that better satisfy customer needs, improved quality of existing products, or reduced costs.
Q:
Customer defection rates are determined by customer loyalty which is a function of a company's ability to satisfy its customers.
Q:
Additional sources of enhanced customer responsiveness include superior design, superior service, and superior after sales service and support.
Q:
Customer response time is the time it takes for a good to be delivered or a service to be performed.