A turbulent environment is characterized by bold dynamic moves on the part of
competitors.
A challenger can gain a competitive market position to the extent that they can catch the
leader unaware.
Financial budgets impose a form of outcome control that tends to constrain managers.
The top-management team is an important stakeholder group because of their ultimate
role in strategy implementation.
Acquisitions are common in industries in which technology advances slowly and
methodically.
Effective governance will always prevent executive fraud.
Strategy implementation is defined as the process of deciding what a firm should do.
Business strategy operates as a zero-sum game in which one firm’s wins represent
another firm’s losses.
A successful strategy must be consistent with both a firm’s resources and the
competitive environment.
The purpose of consolidation is to find ways of increasing the total value created by
parties in the value net.
When diversification is unrelated it is more likely to create value.
The performance of new-venture divisions is generally greater than that achieved by
private equity venture capital firms.
Multinational configuration is common among firms that have created something in
their home market that they wish to replicate in foreign markets.
The amount of merger and acquisition activity is determined largely by the industry
development phase.
Profitability varies widely from industry to industry.
When two organizations have a lot in common, cultural differences are limited.
What question must managers ask concerning the relationship between economic logic
and international strategy?
A)Which geographic areas will we enter?
B)How does our international strategy contribute to the economic logic of our business
and corporate strategies?
C)How does being international make our products more attractive to our customers?
D)Which international market-entry strategies will we use?
Differentiation of inputs, threat of forward integration, and switching costs of firms in
the industry are some of the elements in the five-forces factor of ________.
A)the threat of new entrants
B)supplier power
C)buyer power
D)the threat of substitutes
Differentiation may fail because of all of the following except ________.
A)underfulfillment
B)overfulfillment
C)ease of imitation
D)unusually high quality
The value curve is a convenient tool that helps managers visualize their competitive
landscape. The tool’s purpose it is to visually plot ________.
A)the industry leaders over time
B)current profit versus loss of major firms
C)how major groups of firms are competing
D)future projections of profit and loss
All of the following are objectives/actions of the emergency stage of turnaround except
________.
A) survival
B) develop plan
C) positive cash flow
D) take charge
A firm’s managers can respond more quickly and effectively to strategic issues if the
strategies of its businesses are ________.
A)vertical
B)horizontal
C)similar
D)dissimilar
The more ________ a firm, the more the structure will have to be designed to
accommodate coordination.
A) focused
B) diversified
C) simple
D) concentrated
Familiarity with all of the following except ________ is helpful when drawing up a
business plan.
A) the competitive landscape
B) the five elements of the strategy diamond
C) implementation levers
D) frameworks for analyzing external organizational context
An innovation that dramatically advances an industry’s price-versus-performance
frontier is called ________.
A)service innovation
B)process innovation
C)technological discontinuity
D)technological disruptions
The strategy map states objectives in terms of ________.
A) business processes
B) cycle time
C) productivity
D) all of the above
Successful differentiation strategists must ________.
A)keep costs low
B)lower quality
C)identify buyers who have unique needs
D)blend their product offerings with those of competitors
Under the industry-structure model, the key force around which all others revolve in an
industry is ________.
A)customer preferences
B)resource allocation
C)rivalry
D)human resources
The company that has the lowest operating costs of the major airlines is ________.
A)Southwest Airlines
B)Sky West Airlines
C)Delta Airlines
D)JetBlue
Which of the following is not a key component of strategy included as part of the
strategy diamond?
A.staging
B.differentiators
C.evaluation
D.vehicles
A strategic management support system for measuring vision and strategy against
business- and operating-unit-level performance is referred to as a(n) ________.
A) balanced scorecard
B) balanced system
C) organizational scorecard
D) strategic system
Before successfully launching new products, managers must ensure that all except
which of the following have been accomplished?
A) The proper implementation levers are in place.
B) All the right stakeholders have been included in the strategy formulation process.
C) Customer orders have been taken.
D) Appropriate strategic-leadership actions have been taken.
With ________, a firm seeks to become a large regional, national, or international
player in what has likely been a fragmented industry.
A)internal development
B)a merger
C)an acquisition
D)a roll-up
Buyers may have more bargaining power when ________.
A)products are standardized
B)there is a threat of forward integration
C)there are high switching costs
D)there are few sellers
A special kind of incentive designed to tie executives’ financial rewards to shareholder
value while avoiding risk is referred to as a(n) ________.
A) stock option
B) bonus plan
C) restricted stock grant
D) limited stock option
It is easier for a(n) ________ firm to imitate a value-chain configuration than a(n)
________ firm.
A) new; existing
B) existing; new
C) large; small
D) small; large
Product-market stakeholders include all of the following except ________.
A)suppliers
B)customers
C)shareholders
D)distributors
Improved efficiencies come from reducing redundant operations and ________.
A)hiring a new level of middle managers
B)developing an increased number of production lines
C)integrating similar firms
D)trimming the size of combined units
Discuss the three criteria that appear to be common among successful outsourcing
arrangements.
What are incremental innovations and discontinuous innovations?
What are the three steps involved in the PESTEL analysis?
Discuss the two organizational-level conditions that might make organizations
vulnerable to ethics violations.
What are the differences between product- and market-expansion acquisitions?