MIS 301 Exam 1

four critical characteristics

valuable

rare

imperfectly imitable

nonsubstitutable

Omnichannel

approach to retail that offers consumers an integrated and complementary set of shop, sales, and return experiences

ex) Zara having online shopping and in-person

Microcontrollers

Special-purpose computing devices that don't have an operating system and can't do as much as general purpose computers or smart phones.

sustainable competitive advantage

financial performance that consistently outperforms industry averages

How to achieve competitive advantage

cut costs, cut prices, and increase features

Operational effectiveness

performing the same tasks better than rivals

Why TiVo faliled?

its tech was available to rivals

rivals entered the market with a fraction of development time

strategic positioning

Performing different tasks than rivals, or the same tasks in a different way.

value chain

Set of activities through which a product or service is created and delivered to customers.

Brand

Symbolic embodiment of all the information connected with a product or service.

scale advantages

advantages related to size

economies of scale

costs can be spread across increasing units of production or in serving multiple customers

Network effects; Metcalfe's law

when a value of a product or service increases as its number of users expands

Distribution Channels

the path through which products or services get to customers

affiliates

Third parties that promote a product or service in exchange for a cut of any sales.

Non-Practicing Entities

Commonly known as patent trolls, these firms make money by acquiring and asserting patents, rather than bringing products and services to market.

price transparency

the degree to which complete information is available

information asymmetry

A decision situation where one party has more or better information than its counterparty.

Zara's super-efficient model leads to

Competitively priced merchandise, higher margins

Fewer markdowns and write offs

Faster inventory Turnover

Reduced risk

Less advertising

pros and cons of contract manufacturing

Pros:

lowers cost and increased profits

Cons:

Sweatshop labor, poor/unsafe working conditions, child labor and environmental abuse

Personal digitals assistants (PDAs)

touch-screen iPads

point-of-sale (POS)

Transaction processing system that captures customer purchase information

shows how garments rank by sales

tells the firm what's selling

operations

The organizational activities that are required to produce goods or services.

Arithemtic Logic Unit ALU

A combinational digital circuit that performs arithmetic and bitwise operations on integer binary numbers

Storage devices

hard disk drives

SSD

CDs and DVDs

Flash drives

fabs

semiconductor fabrication facilities

Software as a Service (SaaS)

A form of cloud computing where a firm subscribes to a third-party software and receives a service that is delivered online.

Cloud Computing

replacing computing resources with services provided over the internet

server farms

massive network of computer servers running software to coordinate their collective use

Latency

delay in networking and data transfer speeds

supercomputers

Computers that are among the fastest of any in the world at the time of their introduction.

HPC (high performance computing)

a term for massively-parallel computers specifically designed to deliver significantly more power than conventional off-the-shelf computing technologies

massively parallel processing

Computers designed with many microprocessors that work together, simultaneously, to solve problems.

grid computing

uses special software to enable several computers to work together on a common problem as if they were a massively parallel supercomputer

cluster computing

Connecting server computers via software and networking so that their resources can be used to collectively solve computing tasks.

e-waste

discarded electronic equipment such as computers, cell phones, television sets, etc.

bitcoin

an open source, decentralized payment system that operates in a peer-to-peer environment, without bank or central authority

Cryptocurrencies

a digital asset where a secure form of mathematics is used to handle transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets

Blockchain

A distributed and decentralized ledger that records and verifies transactions and ownership

making it difficult to tamper with or shut down.

Distruptive technologies

technologies that create market shocks and catalyze growth

ex) chat gpt, ai, electric vehicles

when it first comes in you don't want it

Two characteristics of disruptive technology

1. come to market with set of performance attributes existing customers don't value

2. Over time, performance attributes improve to the point where they invade established markets

Cash Conversion Cycle

period between distributing funds and collecting cash for a given operation

Accounts Payable

money owed for products and services purchased on credit

liquidity problems

Arise when organizations cannot easily convert assets to cash

inventory turns

The number of times inventory is sold or used during a specific period.

A higher figure means a firm is selling products quickly.

Deep Learning

A type of machine learning that uses multiple layers of interconnections among data to identify patterns and improve predicted results.

quantity

selling more goods fivers better bargaining power with suppliers

size

providers negotiating leverage to secure lower prices and longer payment terms

physical presence

absence of brick-and-mortar stores brings down costs for real-estate, energy, inventory, and security

employee efficiency

Greater as shift workers work at constant rates throughout the day

dynamic pricing

Pricing that shifts over time, usually based on conditions that change demand (e.g., charging more for scarce items).

two-sided network effect

Products get more valuable as two distinct categories of participants expand

affiliate marketing program

Firm rewards partners who bring in new business, with a percentage of any resulting sales.

flash sales

Offering deep discounts of a limited quantity of inventory. Flash sales often run for a fixed period or until inventory is completely depleted.

Players include Guilt Groupe and Amazon's MyHabit in fashion, and OneKingsLane in home décor.

fulfillment costs

Include receiving and packaging costs, in addition to shipping costs.

channel conflict

When firms see distribution partners as potential rivals.

hybrid clouds

cloud computing architectures that combine on-premises infrastructure with public cloud services

bursting

Shifting capacity to a cloud provider during periods of high demand.

network effects

When the value of a product or service increases as its number of users expands

platforms

Products and services that allow for the development and integration of software products and other complementary goods.

Windows, the iPhone, the Wii, and the standards that allow users to create Facebook apps are all platforms.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Economic measure of the full cost of owning a product

staying power

The long-term viability of a product or service.

complementary benefits

Products or services that add additional value to the primary product or service that makes up a network.

platforms

Allow for the development and integration of software products and other complementary goods

one-sided market

a market that derives most of its value from a single class of users

same-side exchange benefits

benefits derived by interaction among members of a single class of participant

two-sided market

Network markets comprised of two distinct categories of participant, both of which that are needed to deliver value for the network to work

cross-side exchange benefit

increase in the number of users on one side of the market, creating a rise in the other side

Monopoly

A market in which there are many buyers but only one seller.

Oligopoly

a market dominated by a small number of powerful sellers

technological leapfrogging

Competing by offering a new technology that is so superior to existing offerings that the value overcomes the total resistance that older technologies might enjoy via exchange, switching cost, and complementary benefits.

social proof

Positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something.

convergence

When two or more markets, once considered distinctly separate, begin to offer features and capabilities.

envelopment

When one market attempts to conquer a new market by making it a subset, component, or feature of its primary offering.

backward compatibility

The ability to take advantage of complementary products developed for a prior generation of technology.

Freemium

A product with a free version—sometimes with limited features or that stops working after a period of time—to allow customers to try a product and hopefully entice them into making a product purchase or subscription decision.

5 Porter's Competitive Forces

long tail

Internet of Things (IoT)

A vision where low-cost sensors, processors, and communication are embedded into a wide array of products and our environment

Ex:

Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Raises the executive and board responsibilities and ties criminal penalties to certain accounting and financial violations.

commodity

A basic good that can be interchanged with nearly identical offerings by others

think gold, wheat

Windows PCs and Android phones. The more commoditized an offering, the greater the likelihood that competition will be based on price.

fast follower problem

Exists when competitors:

Watch a pioneer's efforts

Learn from their successes and missteps

Enter the market quickly with a comparable or superior product at a lower cost before the first mover can dominate

Resource-based view of competitive advantage

Strategic thinking approach suggesting that if a firm is to maintain sustainable competitive advantage, it must control an exploitable resource, or set of resources

imitation-resistant value chain

A way of doing business that competitors struggle to replicate and that frequently involves technology in a key enabling role.

viral marketing

leveraging consumers to promote a product or service

switching costs

cost incurred by consumers when switching from one product to another

barriers to entry

Pretty much low in many tech-centric businesses

Zara

blend of tech-enabled strategy

highly vertically integrated

super-efficient model

contract manufacturing

Outsourcing production to third-party firms.

Firms that use contract manufacturers don't own the plants or directly employ the workers who produce the requested goods.

Vertical Integration

when a single firm owns several layers in its value chain

greige

Goods to be further customized based on designer/manager collaboration.

RFID (radio frequency identification)

Small chip-based tags that wirelessly emit a unique identifying code for the item that they are attached to.

Logistics

the organization of supplies and services

Moore's Law

Chip performance per dollar doubles every 18 months.

Microprocessor

The part of the computer that executes the instructions of a computer program.

random acess memory (RAM)

The fast, chip-based volatile storage in a computing device.

volatile memory

Storage that is wiped clean when power is cut off from a device

nonvolatile memory

storage that retains data even when powered down

flash memory

Nonvolatile, chip-based storage

solid state electronics

Semiconductor-based devices