The risk of being acquired by hostile raiders is often referred to as the takeover
constraint.
Countries with a strong supplier base benefit by adding efficiency to downstream
activities.
The three generic strategies that Michael Porter believes a firm can use to overcome the
five forces and achieve competitive advantage include overall price leadership.
In considering the business from the internal business perspective using the balanced
scorecard, customer-based measures must be translated into indicators of what the firm
must do internally to meet customer expectations.
Business incubators are designed to support fledgling entrepreneurial ventures until
they can operate as stand-alone businesses.
With regard to factor conditions, the pool of resources that a firm (or nation) has is
much more important than the speed and efficiency with which these resources are
deployed.
Proctor and Gamble is centralizing twenty to thirty percent of its research efforts in a
new corporate-level business creation and innovation unit. They believe that this will
assist them only with developing incremental innovations that will help the overall
bottom line.
A firm can attain an overall cost leadership position by purchasing media in large
blocks and maximizing sales force utilization through territory management.
Strategic renewal and the pursuit of new venture opportunities are the two primary aims
of corporate entrepreneurship.
Concentrating solely on one form of competitive advantage generally leads to the
highest possible level of profitability.
If a corporation is to achieve synergy by sharing activities across its business units, it is
not important to compromise on the design or performance of an activity that is to be
shared.
Research indicates that leaders of innovative firms spend fifty percent more time on
discovery activities than the leaders of less innovative firms.
According to the text, boundaryless organizational structures are most effective when
they replace rather than complement traditional organizational structures.
The strategic business unit (SBU) and holding company structure are variants of the
functional form of structure.
After 15 teams created 128 different phones, Chris Galvin, former CEO of Motorola,
recently eliminated the autonomous teams being used to develop new wireless phones.
This was necessary because such teams _____________.
A. often lack coordination
B. never waste resources on projects with questionable feasibility
C. always create inefficiencies through duplication of effort
D. never duplicate efforts of the rest of the firm
The size of pricing and differentiation advantages between competitors decreases in
which stage of the market life cycle?
A. introduction
B. growth
C. maturity
D. decline
Fortune Brands states they will cut corporate overhead costs by $30 million a year. This
is an example of a:
A. nonfinancial strategic objective
B. financial strategic objective
C. vision statement
D. mission statement
Strategic objectives are used to operationalize the mission statement. This is an example
of a financial strategic objective.
Which of the following is NOT a common new entry strategy according to the text?
A. imitative new entry
B. adaptive new entry
C. proactive new entry
D. pioneering new entry
In value-chain analysis, the activities of an organization are divided into two major
categories of value activities: primary and support. Which of the following is a primary
activity?
A. purchasing key inputs
B. repairing the product for the consumer
C. recruiting and training employees
D. monitoring the cost of producing the product through a cost accounting system
Which of the following dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation is described as an
independent action by an individual or team aimed at bringing forth a business concept
or vision and carrying it through to completion?
A. autonomy
B. innovativeness
C. competitive aggressiveness
D. risk taking
Peter Senge, of MIT, recognized three types of leaders. __________ champion and
guide ideas, create a learning infrastructure, and establish a domain for taking action.
A. Local line leaders
B. Executive leaders
C. Internal networkers
D. Shop floor leaders
Many organizations have a large number of functional areas with very diverse and
sometimes competing interests. Such organizations will be most effective if:
A. each functional area focuses on achieving their own goals
B. functional areas work together to attain overall goals
C. goals are defined at the bottom and implemented at the top
D. management and employees have separate goals
A __________ can be defined as the total profits in an industry at all points along the
industry value chain.
A. profit maximizer
B. profit pool
C. revenue enhancer
D. profit outsourcing
Which of the following refers to a situation where a company has a high concentration
of its business in a particular industry market?
A. competitor resources
B. market dependence
C. resource similarity
D. actor’s reputation
McKesson, a large distribution company, sells many product lines such as
pharmaceuticals and liquor through its super warehouses. This is an example of
____________.
A. using related diversification to achieve value by sharing activities to create
economies of scope
B. using related diversification to achieve value by leveraging core competencies to
create market power
C. using unrelated diversification to create value by managing its portfolio to create
financial synergies
D. using unrelated diversification to create value by managing its portfolio to create
restructuring advantages
Firms would be most likely to face intense rivalry with competitors when they
_________.
A. are in a high growth industry with low fixed costs
B. are in a protected market
C. have high fixed costs
D. have low exit barriers for easy transition to another industry
A CEO made a lot of mistakes in assessing the market and the competitive conditions
and improperly redesigning the organization into numerous business units. Such errors
led to significant performance declines. According to the text, this example illustrates
the __________ perspective of leadership.
A. external control
B. romantic
C. internal mechanism
D. operational
Which of the following would be an entry barrier?
A. large economies of scale
B. low switching costs
C. easy access to raw materials
D. low capital requirements
All of the following are examples of strategic actions a firm might take EXCEPT
_____________.
A. partner with competitors to reduce competition
B. expand into neglected markets
C. change product packaging
D. tie up raw materials sources
Historical comparisons provide information to managers about changes in the
competitive position of a firm. Historical comparisons often are misleading
_____________.
A. if the overall strategy of the firm is the same
B. if the firm shows constant growth
C. in periods of recession or economic boom
D. if the firm’s stock is publicly traded
In order to realize the strongest competitive advantage, firms engaged in worldwide
competition must ___________.
A. require that all of their various business units follow the same strategy regardless of
location
B. ensure that all business units follow a strategy strictly tailored to their respective
locations
C. pursue a strategy that combines the uniformity of a global strategy and the specificity
of a multidomestic strategy in order to achieve optimal results
D. attempt to use the strategy that was most successful in their home country
Larger numbers of women entering the work force since the early 1970s is an example
of ______.
A. demographic changes
B. political and legal environmental changes
C. sociocultural changes
D. technological developments
SWOT analysis is a basic technique for analyzing firm and industry conditions. Explain
the relationship between the SWOT approach to evaluating the general environment,
the industry of the firm, and the competitive environment.
Describe social capital. Where does it come from and how can a firm attempt to build
it?
The strategic management process includes strategy analysis, strategy formulation, and
strategy implementation. Discuss each of these steps.
Discuss how changes in the current workforce and the business environment have
contributed to growth in the use of boundaryless organizational designs.
The workforce in the United States will become increasingly diverse over the next few
decades. What strategies should firms undergo to take full advantage of this emerging
trend?
What are some ways in which a firm’s general administration can help create (or
enhance) competitive advantages?
By some accounts, only about 50 percent of corporate ventures reach profitability after
six years. Is corporate venturing worth it? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of
internal venturing in relation to the extent of its financial success.