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:
Some leading edge companies are applying the prosumer concept. Here, firms team up with their suppliers and alliance partners to satisfy their customer needs.
Q:
Managers should focus their attention on interrelationships among value-chain activities within the firm, NOT on relationships among activities within the firm and other organizations (such as suppliers and customers).
Q:
At Sephora.com, a customer service representative taking a phone call from a repeat customer has instant access to what shade of lipstick she likes best. This is an example of a procurement support activity in the value chain.
Q:
Campbell Soup uses an electronic network to facilitate its continuous-replenishment program with its most progressive retailers. This is known as an operations primary activity in the value chain.
Q:
Frito-Lay uses crowdsourcing to make its Super Bowl ads. This is an example of a primary activity in the value chain.
Q:
In value-chain analysis, finance and accounting are considered part of the general administration of a firm.
Q:
Technology development is a much broader concept than research and development.
Q:
Establishing a customer service hotline to handle customer complaints would be considered a primary activity in value-chain analysis.
Q:
Support activities provide support for primary activities, but not each other.
Q:
Inbound logistics include all activities associated with transforming inputs into the final product form such as machining, packaging, assembly, equipment, testing, printing, and facility operations.
Q:
The value-chain concept assumes that both primary and support activities are capable of producing value for customers.
Q:
Primary activities contribute to the physical creation of a product or service, its sale and transfer to the buyer, and its service after the sale.
Q:
In value-chain analysis, value is measured by the market value of the total stock outstanding of the company.
Q:
Value-chain analysis assumes that the basic economic purpose of a firm is to create value and it is a useful framework for analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the firm.
Q:
In conducting a SWOT analysis, a risk for strategists is that they rely on traditional definitions of their industry and competitive environment and therefore focus too narrowly on current competitors.
Q:
Toyota paid a heavy price for its excessive emphasis on cost control. By focusing on only one strength exclusively, it suffered severe losses. This is an example of the limitations of a SWOT analysis.
Q:
The strengths and capabilities of a firm are enough to enable it to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Q:
The SWOT analysis can show managers how to achieve a competitive advantage.
Q:
One advantage of SWOT analysis is that it helps managers to identify strengths that are almost always sources of competitive advantages that are sustainable.
Q:
Address some of the limitations and potential downsides of the balanced scorecard.
Q:
What are some of the most important implications of using the "balanced scorecard" approach?
Q:
What are the four perspectives that the "balanced scorecard" enables managers to evaluate their business?
Q:
What are the benefits and limitations of making historical comparisons in analyzing a firm's performance?
Q:
Discuss the competitive advantage of a resource that is difficult to imitate, using an example from a real business that supports your argument.
Q:
Explain how causal ambiguity can provide a sustainable competitive advantage. Illustrate your comments with an example from a real business.
Q:
Explain the four attributes that a resource must have to provide a firm with a sustainable competitive advantage.
Q:
The resource-based view (RBV) combines both the internal analysis of the firm and the external analysis of the environment. Discuss and provide examples.
Q:
How can a firm develop (or enhance) its advantages in the marketplace by having strong, positive interrelationships among its value chain activities and those of its suppliers and customers? Provide an example.
Q:
What are some ways in which a firm's general administration can help create (or enhance) competitive advantages?
Q:
What are the key advantages of value-chain analysis over SWOT analysis?
Q:
What are some of the key strengths and limitations of SWOT analysis?
Q:
An important implication of the balanced scorecard approach is that _______________.
A. managers need to recognize that satisfaction of stockholder demands is their primary job
B. the key emphasis on customer satisfaction and financial goals are only a means to that end
C. managers should not look at their job as primarily balancing stakeholder demands
D. gains in financial performance and customer satisfaction must come at a cost of employee satisfaction
Q:
The balanced scorecard enables managers to consider their business from all of the following perspectives EXCEPT:
A. customer perspective
B. internal perspective
C. innovation and learning perspective
D. ethical perspective
Q:
The balanced scorecard, developed by Kaplan and Norton, helps to integrate ______.
A. financial analysis and the reputation of a firm
B. intangible resources and operational measures
C. financial analysis and stakeholder perspectives
D. short-term perspectives and strategic positioning
Q:
The balanced scorecard provides top managers with a __________ view of the business.
A. detailed and complex
B. simple and routine
C. fast but comprehensive
D. long-term financial
Q:
Ratios that reflect whether or not a firm is efficiently using its resources are known as
A. leverage ratios
B. turnover ratios
C. liquidity ratios
D. profitability ratios
Q:
Which of these categories of financial ratios is used to measure the ability of a firm to meet its short-term financial obligations?
A. leverage ratios
B. profitability ratios
C. activity ratios
D. liquidity ratios
Q:
Which of the following would be most difficult to assess?
A. the liquidity position of a firm
B. market share growth
C. the legitimacy and reputation of a firm
D. the efficiency with which a firm utilizes its assets
Q:
The best measure of a company's ability to meet imminent financial obligations is known as the
A. debt ratio
B. current ratio
C. total asset turnover
D. profit margin
Q:
Historical comparisons provide information to managers about changes in the competitive position of a firm. Historical comparisons often are misleading _____________.
A. if the overall strategy of the firm is the same
B. if the firm shows constant growth
C. in periods of recession or economic boom
D. if the firm's stock is publicly traded
Q:
SWOT analysis is a basic technique for analyzing firm and industry conditions. Explain the relationship between the SWOT approach to evaluating the general environment, the industry of the firm, and the competitive environment.
Q:
What value is the strategic group concept as a tool in analyzing an industry?
Q:
Explain how the value net analysis adds to the five-forces analysis. Be sure to include examples from at least two industries.
Q:
Address how Internet and digital technologies affect the Porter five forces.
Q:
Several factors usually interact which result in intense rivalry among competitors. Explain.
Q:
What are some of the factors that would cause a supplier group to become powerful? Illustrate.
Q:
Discuss and provide examples of factors that would lead to greater buyer power.
Q:
Explain the important barriers to entry in an industry. Provide examples.
Q:
Discuss the six segments of the general environment. Provide examples of how they might be related.
Q:
Discuss some of the limitations of forecasting.
Q:
Explain how competitor intelligence can be improved by gathering information about competitors in the public domain. Provide examples.
Q:
Which of the following statements about strategic groups is FALSE?
A. Two assumptions are made: (1) no two firms are totally different, (2) no two firms are exactly the same.
B. Strategic groupings are of little help to a firm in assessing mobility barriers that protect a group from attacks by other groups.
C. Strategic groups help chart the future directions of firm strategies.
D. Strategic groups are helpful in thinking through the implications of each industry trend for the group as a whole.
Q:
Strategic groups consist of ________________.
A. a group of top executives that makes strategies for a company
B. a group of firms within an industry that follows similar strategies
C. a group of executives drawn from different companies within an industry that makes decisions on industry standards
D. a group of firms within an industry that decides to collude rather than compete with each other so that they can increase their profits
Q:
In the value net analysis, complementors are _________________.
A. firms that produce substitute products
B. customers who compliment the company for their good products and services
C. firms that produce products or services that have a positive impact on the value of firm products or services
D. firms that supply critical inputs to a company
Q:
The value net is a game-theoretic approach that _____________.
A. extends the value chain analysis
B. is a way to analyze all the players in a game and analyze how their interactions affect the ability of a firm to generate and appropriate value
C. helps us to understand the evolution of the five forces over time
D. uses network analysis to understand the relationships among different companies
Q:
How do infomediaries and consumer information websites increase the intensity of competitive rivalry?
A. by shifting customers away from issues of price
B. by making competitors in cyberspace seem less equally balanced
C. by consolidating the marketing message that consumers use to make a purchase decision to a few key pieces of information that the selling company has little control over
D. by highlighting unique selling advantages of a firm
Q:
In general, the threat of substitutes is heightened because the Internet ____________.
A. introduces new ways to accomplish the same task
B. lowers switching costs
C. lowers barriers to entry
D. increases output per unit of cost
Q:
Supplier power has increased because of the Internet for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:
A. the growth of new Web-based businesses has created more outlets for suppliers to sell to
B. some suppliers have created Web-based purchasing systems that encourage switching
C. the process of disintermediation makes it possible for some suppliers to reach end users directly
D. software that links buyers to a supplier's website has created rapid, low-cost order capabilities
Q:
Incumbent firms may enjoy increased bargaining power because the Internet ___________.
A. focuses marketing efforts on end users
B. diminishes the power of many distribution channel intermediaries
C. increases channel conflict
D. has reduced the number of wholesalers and distributors
Q:
End users are not ____________.
A. the final consumers in a distribution channel
B. usually the C in B2C
C. likely to have greater bargaining power because of the Internet
D. the first customers in a distribution channel
Q:
Because the Internet lowers barriers to entry in most industries, it ________.
A. decreases the threat of new entrants
B. increases the threat of new entrants
C. makes it easier to build customer loyalty
D. increases supplier power
Q:
(p. 60) Exit barriers do not arise from ________.
A. specialized assets with no alternative use
B. governmental and social pressures
C. strategic interrelationships with other business units within the same company
D. flexible costs of exit
Q:
The most intense rivalry results from _____________.
A. numerous equally balanced competitors, slow industry growth, high fixed or storage costs
B. few competitors, slow industry growth, lack of differentiation, high fixed or storage costs
C. numerous equally balanced competitors, manufacturing capacity increases only in large increments, low exit barriers
D. a high level of differentiation
Q:
Firms would be most likely to face intense rivalry with competitors when they _________.
A. are in a high growth industry with low fixed costs
B. are in a protected market
C. have high fixed costs
D. have low exit barriers for easy transition to another industry
Q:
Threat of substitute products comes from ____________.
A. other companies in the same industry
B. foreign companies which can use cheap labor in their countries
C. firms in other industries that produce products or services that satisfy the same customer need
D. new companies in the same industry
Q:
A supplier group would be most powerful when _________.
A. there are many suppliers
B. there are few substitute products
C. there is a low differentiation of products supplied
D. there is a high threat of backward integration by the buyers
Q:
In the Five-Forces model, conditions under which a supplier group can be powerful include all the following EXCEPT:
A. lack of importance of the buyer to the supplier group
B. high differentiation by the supplier
C. dominance by a few suppliers
D. readily available substitute products
Q:
The bargaining power of suppliers is enhanced under the following market condition:
A. no threat of forward integration
B. low differentiation of the supplier products
C. greater availability of substitute products
D. dominance by a few suppliers
Q:
New communication technology can impact seemingly unrelated industries such as the airline industry. This would be an example of a ______________.
A. threat of entry
B. backward integration
C. forward integration
D. threat of substitute products
Q:
The bargaining power of suppliers increases as ____________.
A. more suppliers enter the market
B. importance of buyers to supplier group increases
C. switching costs for buyers decrease
D. threat of forward integration by suppliers increases
Q:
Buyer power will be greater when _______.
A. the products purchased are highly differentiated
B. there are high switching costs
C. the industry product is very important to the quality of the buyer end products or services
D. it is concentrated or when a buyer group purchases large volumes relative to seller sales
Q:
The bargaining power of the buyer is greater than that of the supplier when __________.
A. volume of purchase is low
B. threat of backward integration by buyers is low
C. cost savings from the supplier's product are minimal
D. the buyer's profit margin is low
Q:
An automobile manufacturer acquires a rental car company. This is an example of _____.
A. backward integration
B. economies of scale
C. forward integration
D. product differentiation
Q:
Which of the following would be an entry barrier?
A. large economies of scale
B. low switching costs
C. easy access to raw materials
D. low capital requirements
Q:
Product differentiation by incumbents act as an entry barrier because __________.
A. new entrants cannot differentiate their products
B. incumbents will take legal action if new entrants do not differentiate their products
C. new entrants will have to spend heavily to overcome existing customer loyalties
D. it helps a firm to derive greater economies of scale
Q:
The threat of new entrants is high when there are _______.
A. low economies of scale
B. high capital requirements
C. high switching costs
D. high differentiation among competitors products and services
Q:
Which of the following firms would likely pose the least competitive threat?
A. a firm in the same industry and in the same strategic group
B. a firm that produces substitute goods to your product line
C. a competitor to your product where a high switching cost exists
D. a firm in the same industry and in the nearest strategic group looking to join your group
Q:
Which is considered a force in the Five-Forces model?
A. increased deregulation in an industry
B. the threat of government intervention
C. rivalry among competing firms
D. recent technological innovation
Q:
(p. 51) In the general environment, many relationships exist among the various elements. General environmental trends can have positive and negative impacts on various industries. For example, the aging population might have a ______ impact on the health care industry and a ______ impact on the baby product industry. These are called _____________ impacts.
A. negative; positive; demographic
B. positive; negative; technological
C. negative; positive; sociocultural
D. positive; negative; demographic
Q:
Interest-rate increases have a __________ impact on the residential home construction industry and a __________ effect on industries that produce consumer necessities such as prescription drugs or basic grocery items.
A. positive; negligible
B. negative; negligible
C. negative; positive
D. positive; negative