The Cott Corporation, in the soft drink industry, is an example of how a company failed
to overcome barriers to entry in an industry.
Poor positioning strategy arises when a company introduces a potentially attractive new
product but sales fail to materialize because it is poorly positioned in the marketplace.
Stockholders receive a return on their investment in a company’s stock from dividend
payments and capital appreciation.
The CEO is a company’s principal general manager.
Union Pacific, one of the largest freight carriers in the United States, has a centralized
organizational structure. The size of the company with such a structure has a potential
for creating costly problems.
Interestingly, technical standards create benefits primarily for those firms that do not
adhere to them.
When Rollie’s car wash began to lose business to rivals, Rollie read publications for car
wash owners to learn the best practices in the industry. Then she implemented the best
practices. Rollie is using ____ to improve her car wash.
A.specialized assets
B.benchmarking
C.strategic commitments
D.inertia
E.the Icarus paradox
Louis is a human resources manager at XYZ Company. He is responsible for hiring,
retaining, and compensating employees. Louis can best be described as a(n)
A.business-level manager.
B.functional-level manager.
C.corporate-level manager.
D.top-level manager.
E.Chairman of the Board.
An important first step in the process of formulating a company’s mission is to
A.describe the technological processor.
B.identify the customer segment served by the company.
C.answer the question, “What is our business?”
D.decide what the company will be like ten years from now.
E.evaluate the company’s most recent performance.
Joint ventures are best suited for projects that
A.are small in size.
B.each company could undertake by itself.
C.are routine in nature.
D.neither company could do on its own.
E.none of these.
Matrix structures
A.have many hierarchical levels.
B.are appropriate for companies with many low-skilled workers.
C.group activities vertically by function and horizontally by product or project.
D.are appropriate for a firm pursuing a low-cost strategy.
E.have many hierarchical levels and two forms of horizontal differentiation.
Ted is an accountant at ABC Company. He is calculating the total revenues minus total
costs before tax. Ted is calculating the
A.net profit.
B.capital turnover.
C.cost of goods sold.
D.return on sales.
E.invested capital.
Franchising is a business-level strategy that allows companies to
A.spread overhead and administrative costs over a large number of franchises.
B.enjoy the competitive advantages of cost leadership or differentiation.
C.hedge the costs of supplies.
D.expand beyond their base of support.
E.engage in new businesses that were previously beyond reach.
When Nada’s boss informed her that she must work this weekend, her scheduled
weekend off, Nada felt furious. Instead of acting on her impulses and yelling at her
boss, Nada decided to have a calm conversation with him concerning her days off. Nada
utilized which of Goleman’s aspects of emotional intelligence?
A.Self-awareness
B.Self-regulation
C.Motivation
D.Empathy
E.Social skills
The term value chain refers to the idea that a company is
A.one of a series of companies that comprise an industry segment.
B.the producer of a series of products that are linked together.
C.a chain of activities for transforming inputs into outputs that customers value.
D.one of a series of economic functions.
E.all of the above.
A company’s competitive advantage will not endure for long when that competitive
advantage can be
A.quickly or easily duplicated by other companies.
B.protected by patents.
C.protected by significant barriers to imitation.
D.shared with other companies in the industry.
E.shielded by copyrights.
In a successful company, the purpose of a control system is to
A.provide managers with a set of incentives to motivate employees to work toward
company goals.
B.provide managers with specific feedback on how well the organization and its
members are performing.
C.provide managers with information that can be used to criticize employee
performance objectively.
D.A and B.
E.B and C.
An industry can be defined as a group of
A.companies offering products or services that are close substitutes for each other.
B.twenty or more companies offering products or services that are close substitutes for
each other.
C.companies.
D.companies that offer dissimilar products or services.
E.companies that offer products or services to dissimilar customers.
Matsushita licensed its VHS technology to rivals, while Sony kept its Beta technology
proprietary. This action allowed Matsushita to
A.win the format war.
B.enter into an alliance with Sony.
C.earn marginally lower profits than Sony.
D.enjoy a laggard advantage.
E.bear switching costs better than Sony.
When managers of a firm seek to unilaterally rewrite the terms of a contract with
suppliers, buyers, or complement providers in a way that is more favorable to their firm,
they are engaging in
A.opportunistic exploitation.
B.ethical behavior.
C.corruption.
D.philosophical ethics.
E.self-dealing.
Differences in tastes and preferences
A.increase pressures for cost reductions.
B.reduce profit potential.
C.increase pressures for local responsiveness.
D.reduce pressures from the host government.
E.prevent a company from pursuing a licensing strategy.
Standardization is a form of
A.output control.
B.financial control.
C.organizational inertia.
D.organizational culture.
E.behavior control.
In 2007, Google bought YouTube. This is an example of which of the following?
A.Partnership
B.Strategic alliance
C.Joint venture
D.Acquisition
E.Merger
Which of the following factors that affect market growth rates refers to the degree to
which the results of using and enjoying a new product can be seen and appreciated by
other people?
A.Complexity
B.Relative advantage
C.Compatibility
D.Trialability
E.Observability