MAN4720 Exam One

Which of the following is a coordinated set of actions and commitments that will allow a company to gain a competitive advantage and possibly exploit their core competencies?

Strategy

Companies can implement a strategy that their competitors will find difficult with which to compete and it will give them an edge on the competitors, what is that called?

Competitive advantage

How long does a competitive advantage last?

Determined by the speed with which competitors are able to acquire the skills needed to duplicate the benefits of a firm's value-creating strategy

In order to achieve a competitive advantage across time what must the company do?

a firm must concentrate simultaneously on exploiting the competitive advantage it possesses today while contemplating decisions to make to ensure that it will possess a competitive advantage in the future.

What is the term used to describe an investors doubts about the gains and losses that will result from an investment?

Risk

If two investments have the same amount of risk, an investor will expect to earn which of the following?

average returns; investors prefer the investment w higher returns

In the strategic management process, what is the firm's first process?

analyze its external environment and internal organization to identify external opportunities and threats and to recognize its internal resources, capabilities, and core competencies.

When a company performs an internal and external analysis, the results are used to do which of the following?

the firm develops its vision, mission, and values, and formulates one or more strategies

A major benefit of digitalization is what?

it allows firms to identify specific customer groups and then serve their personalized and unique needs.

Economies of scale, in the current competitive landscape are not as effective as they once were in

helping firms earn above-average returns. large plants associated with economies of scale have often been replaced with outsourcing

Which of the following is an example of a hypercompetitive market?

fast-food industry and ecommerce, intense rivalry, markets change quickly and often, and entry barriers are low

Limited barriers across geographic borders that allow goods, services, people, skills, and ideas to move are called what?

global economy

Which of the following is referred to as a tax imposed by the government on goods imported into their country?

Tariff

Which of the following is created by an increased demand for products and services?

Economies of scale or economic growth, higher prices and increased production

In today’s competitive landscape, only companies capable of meeting, if not exceeding, global standards typically earn which of the following?

Above-average returns

What is the term used to describe the risks that a firm can face when competing outside of its domestic markets?

Liability of foreignness

Which of the following is the definition for a global value chain?

refers to the processes through which a firm receives raw materials, uses them to add value through manufacturing a product that provides greater utility for the consumer, and sells the product to another firm or the ultimate consumer of the product, in a global setting.

What of the following describes a global supply chain?

a network of firms that spans multiple countries with the purpose of supplying goods and services.

Supply chain problems often causes which of the following?

Increased costs and delays; creates problems that would not exist if firms only relied on domestic markets for their productive inputs, far reaching shortages of products

Firms that are reducing their participation in global supply chains and global value chains are a part of a trend called what?

De-globalization

What is technology diffusion?

speed at which new technologies become available to firms and when firms choose to adopt them, is far greater than was the case a decade or two ago.

Which of the following is a term used to describe how rapidly and consistently new, information-intensive technologies replace older ones?

perpetual innovation

In a firm there are people known as strategic leaders. These people are usually located where in the firm?

throughout the firm, not just at the top

Which of the following helps a firm define its purpose and answer the fundamental question of what the firm stands for?

Values

Which of the following specifies the businesses in which the film intends to compete and the customers it intends to serve?

Mission

Which of the following means that stakeholders possess different degrees of ability to influence an organization?

Unequal dependencies

Internal and external groups have a strong interest in the outcomes that a firm may experience. These outcomes can be influenced and affected by a group of individuals and organizations and in turn they too can be influenced by the very outcomes they push for. This group is known as what?

Stakeholders

Some firms display very good organizational functions and as a result of that can utilize which of the following to create competitive advantages?

Core competencies

Where do firms go to find information about their competitors in order to build a base of knowledge?

Competitive intelligence, external enviornment

When one is analyzing the general environment, one of the segments involves workforce diversity, which of the segments includes this?

Sociocultural segment

Recognizing trends in the segments of the general environment is what firms can do when trying to control the general environment. Once they have a recognized trends, the next step is to do which of the following?

Forecasting; predict each trends effect

All of the following, the threat of new entrants, the power of suppliers the power of buyers, product substitutes, and even rivalry among competitors, are known as what?

Five forces of competition

An analysis of the general environment, the industry environment and conditions which will influence profitability for their competitors results in a company creating which of the following?

vision, mission, values, and strategies

In an external environmental analysis, there are four parts. Which one of the following detects meaning through the ongoing observations of environmental changes and trends?

Monitoring

Which of the following is a condition in the general environment that, if exploited effectively, helps a company achieve strategic competitiveness?

Opportunity

One of the following is a condition in the general environment that may hinder a company’s efforts to achieve strategic competitiveness, which is correct

Threat

When one studies all of the segments in the general environment, he or she is performing which of the following?

Scanning

Using which of the following, companies may identify early signals of potential changes in the general environment and detect changes that are already under way?

Scanning

Which of the following can serve as a means of importing knowledge about markets and about how to successfully commercialize the new technologies the firm has developed?

Scanning and monitoring (new tech)

Which of the following is concerned with events and trends in the general environment at a point in time?

Scanning and monitoring

Why is forecasting demand for new technological products difficult?

Rapid technological change and continually shortening product life cycles create uncertainty

Without _____________, the firm has data that may be interesting but of unknown competitive relevance.

assessment

The __________ segment is concerned with a population’s size, age structure, geographic distribution, ethnic mix, and income distribution.

Demographic

Which of the following refers to the nature and direction of the economy in which a firm competes or may compete?

Economic segment

Which of the general environment segments was most disrupted to include supply chain disruptions and dramatic reductions in consumer demand, especially in industries related to travel and hospitality (restaurants, hotels)?

Economic segment

Why do firms develop a strategy to specify how they will analyze the political/legal segment?

in order to develop approaches they can take (such as lobbying efforts) to successfully deal with opportunities and threats that surface within this segment of the environment.

European data protection laws have had what effect on Google and Facebook, and even Amazon?

by restricting how they collect, use, and monetize consumer data. These highly restrictive privacy regulations can threaten their business models in the European Union and force them to change how they operate. At the same time, the laws add structure to competition, shaping which strategic actions are viable in the market.

National cultural values affect which of the following?

behavior in organizations and thus also influence organizational outcomes such as the success associated with differences in managerial styles

The institutions and activities involved in creating new knowledge and translating that knowledge into new outputs, products, processes, and materials operate in which the following segments?

Technological segment

What is the sharing economy?

a socioeconomic system that uses information technology to link stakeholders with each other.

In the five forces model, why is it important for one to study the threat of new entrants?

because they can threaten the market share and profitability due to increased competition

What do suppliers do in order to exert power over there competition within an industry?

Increasing prices and reducing the quality of their products and services they provide

The Internet has enabled consumers to ascertain large amounts of information about the cost manufacturers incur as well as the various distribution and shopping alternatives. What has this done to aid consumers?

Increased bargaining power of buyers

When customers face few if any switching costs and when the substitute product’s price is lower or its quality and performance capabilities are equal to or greater than those of the competing product, which of the following presents a strong threat to a customer?

Substitute products

Which of the following 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

Global mindset

How do firms create value?

By innovatively bundling and leveraging their resources to form capabilities and core competencies.

As firms work to make decisions that prove to be effective, what percentage of those decisions will ultimately fail?

About 50 percent

Which of the following is the capability of making successful decisions when no obviously correct model or rule is available or when relevant data are unreliable or incomplete?

judgment

Which of the following can be defined as assets that can be observed and quantified?

Tangible resources

Which of the following are assets that are rooted deeply in the firm’s history, accumulate over time, and are relatively difficult for competitors to analyze and imitate?

Intangible resources

Which of the following can be considered an intangible resource?

Brand reputation, corporate culture, organizational culture, human capital, trust, intellectual property, relationships (develop over time, socially complex, hard to measure)

Which of the following could be considered an intangible resource?

Organizational culture; assets that lack a physical form but hold value to the firm

Of the following is a major problem for Harley-Davidson as they work to remain relative in the motorcycle industry?

Aging customer base and the failure to attract a younger demographic

Which of the following is sometimes hard to leverage?

Tangible resources

In the global economy, which of the following often plays a more critical role in corporate success than do physical assets?

a firm's intellectual capital (intangible resources)

Which of the following allows a firm to develop capabilities through matching the knowledge, skills, and abilities of their employees to particular strategic objectives?

Strategic human capital

Which of the following is an example of a firm's capabilities?

distribution, HR, management information systems, marketing, management, manufacturing, R&D, effective supply chain management; tangible and intangible resources combined

Which of the following are considered the “crown jewels of a company”?

Core competencies

Companies utilize which of the following to identify their core competencies?

Four criteria of sustainable competitive advantage and value chain analysis

Which of the following is a criteria of sustainable competitive advantage?

Valuable, rare, costly to imitate, non substitutable

The length of time a firm can expect to create value by using its core competencies is which of the following?

a function of how quickly competitors can successfully imitate a good, service, or process. they may last for a relatively long period of time only when all four of the criteria are satisfied.

Which of the following is a definition of rare capabilities?

Capabilities possessed by few competitors

Which of the following allows a firm to exploit their opportunities or to neutralize threats in the external environment?

Valuable capabilities

Which of the following is a capability that does not have a strategic equivalent?

Nonsubstitutable capability

Which of the following is a template that firms use to analyze their cost positions and to identify the multiple means that can be used to facilitate implementation of their chosen strategies?

Value chain analysis

When firms have strong positive relationships with stakeholders they are said to have which of the following?

Social capital

Which of the following is the purchase of a value-creating activity or a support function activity from an external supplier?

Outsourcing

Why is outsourcing an effective tool for many firms?

provides access to needed capabilities without having to develop them internally allowing firm to focus on core competencies and reduce costs; increases flexibility, mitigates risks, and reduces capital investments

The ___________ resources and capabilities are those with the potential to be formed into core competencies as the foundation for creating value for customers and developing competitive advantages because of doing so

right or strategic

Why do core rigidities occur?

Overreliance on existing core competencies and resistance to change