Effective leadership can play a large role in fostering corporate entrepreneurship.
Corporate entrepreneurship can have a very positive impact on the bottom line of a
firm.
Central to agency theory is the relationship between two primary players, the principals
(stockholders) and agents (management).
The virtual organization is characterized by participating firms which pursue a
collective strategy that enables them to cope with environmental uncertainty through
cooperative efforts.
A need for turnaround occurs only during the maturity or declining stage of the life
cycle.
Visionary leadership is only the domain of the CEO, as suggested by the example of Joe
Ling at 3M who developed the Pollution Prevention Pays (3P) program.
The strategy and structure of a firm change as the firm increases in size, diversifies into
new product markets, and limits its geographic scope.
During the decline stage of the product life cycle, a harvesting strategy means that a
firm keeps a product going without significantly reducing marketing support,
technological development, or other investments, while hoping that competitors will
exit the market.
According to studies by Rugman and Verbeke, most of the 500 largest companies in the
world are global.
Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, believes that all internal and external organizational
boundaries should vanish completely.
Many of the scandals on Wall Street might have been eliminated if corporate codes of
conduct had outlined more clearly the consequences of unethical behavior.
The most effective method of improving retention of top talent at a firm is to intensify
its hiring efforts.
Global start-ups occur after a corporation has exhausted all other possibilities for
domestic growth.
Rivalry is intense in nations with conditions of __________ consumer demand,
__________ supplier bases, and __________ new entrant potential from related
industries.
A. weak; weak; high
B. strong; strong; low
C. weak; weak; low
D. strong; strong; high
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
According to the text, the triple bottom line approach to corporate accounting includes
three components:
A. financial, environmental, and customer
B. financial, organizational, and customer
C. financial, environmental, and social
D. financial, organizational, and psychological
Amazon was able to define the online bookselling market by entering the market early
and defining the user experience. This is an example of _____________.
A. innovativeness
B. proactiveness
C. competitive aggressiveness
D. autonomy
Industries in which proportionally more value is added in __________ activities are
more likely to benefit from a global strategy.
A. downstream
B. upstream
C. marketing
D. sales
As a manager, when faced with ethical crises you should _____________.
A. focus on issues most relevant to stockholders
B. wait for the other party to make the first move
C. take the initiative to address the problem
D. cover up as much as possible
Management innovations such as total quality, benchmarking, and business process
reengineering cannot lead to sustainable competitive advantage because:
A. companies that have implemented these techniques have lost money
B. there is no proof that these techniques work
C. they cost too much money and effort to implement
D. every company is trying to implement them and hence it does not make a company
different from others
In the __________ stage of the industry life cycle, there are few segments, the emphasis
on process design is low, and the major functional areas of concern are general
management and finance.
A. introduction
B. growth
C. decline
D. maturity
Which of the following is not a boundaryless organizational design?
A. virtual
B. modular
C. matrix
D. barrier-free
Which of the following is a risk (or potential pitfall) of cost leadership?
A. Cost cutting may lead to the loss of desirable features.
B. Attempts to stay ahead of the competition may lead to gold plating.
C. Cost differences increase as the market matures.
D. Producers are more able to withstand increases in supplier costs.
Strategic business unit (SBU) and holding company structures result from extensive
_____________.
A. diversification
B. vertical integration
C. international expansion
D. organizational flattening
Stakeholders are:
A. a new way to describe stockholders
B. individuals, groups, and organizations who have a stake in the success of the
organization
C. creditors who hold a lien on the assets of the organization
D. attorneys and their clients who sue the organization
External governance control mechanisms include all of the following except
_____________.
A. auditors
B. analysts
C. competitors
D. media
A strategy of related diversification requires most firms to organize around
geographical areas or product lines. This type of organizational growth leads to
______________ structure.
A. a divisional
B. a functional
C. a matrix
D. an international
High product differentiation is generally accompanied by __________.
A. higher market share
B. higher profit margins and lower costs
C. decreased emphasis on competition based on price
D. significant economies of scale
BCG authors Stalk and Lachenauer published a book in which they listed competitive
strategy for winning against incumbent rivals. Which of the following is not one of their
suggested strategies?
A. devastate profit sanctuaries of rivals
B. plagiarize with pride and deceive the competition
C. unleash massive and overwhelming force
D. lower competitor costs
Units coordinate their activities with headquarters and with one another. Units adapt to
special circumstances only they face. The entire organization draws upon relevant
corporate resources. These are all attributes of which type of strategy?
A. global strategy
B. transnational strategy
C. international strategy
D. multidomestic strategy