The character of a company’s corporate culture is a product of all of the following
EXCEPT:
A. the shared values and core business principles and beliefs that management preaches
and practices.
B. its standards of what is ethically acceptable and what is not and the stories that get
told over and over to illustrate and reinforce the company’s shared values, business
practices, and traditions.
C. the company’s approach to people management and the “chemistry” and
“personality” that permeates its work environment.
D. the work practices and behaviors that define “how we do things around here.”E. its
lack of mechanisms for aligning, constraining, and regulating the actions, decisions, and
behaviors of company personnel.
What is the difference between economies of scale and economies of scope?
A. Scale refers to the magnitude or size of the operation, while scope refers to the reach
of defined savings within the value chain.
B. Scale refers to the extent of change, while scope refers to the possibilities of change.
C. Scale is about dimensions, while scope is about the capacity available for production
capabilities.
D. Scale refers to cost savings that accrue directly from larger-sized operations, while
scope stems directly from strategic fit along the value chains of related businesses.
E. Scale and scope mean the same thing and the only difference is the extent of cost
savings accrued from unrelated businesses in each.
A broad differentiation strategy generally produces the best results in situations where:
A. buyer brand loyalty is low.
B. few rival firms are following a similar differentiation approach.
C. new and improved products are introduced only infrequently.
D. most rivals are pursuing a differentiation strategy and are seeking to differentiate
their products on most of the same features and attributes.
E. perceived value of a product is not of great importance.
A powerful tool for sizing up the company’s competitive assets and determining
whether they can provide the foundation necessary for competitive success in the
marketplace is termed:
A. resource and capability analysis.
B. SWOT.
C. competitive analysis.
D. financial and asset management analysis.
E. value chain analysis.
The backbone of the process of identifying, studying, and implementing best practices
is:
A. business process reengineering
B. a corporate culture that has a core value of operating excellence
C. benchmarking
D. Six Sigma quality control techniques
E. the innovative application of TQM techniques
Cultural demands to employ unethical means if circumstances become challenging can
prompt:
A. otherwise dishonorable people to behave ethically.
B. increased observance of ethical strategic actions.
C. a moral work climate.
D. clever ways to operate outside established policies to boost profits.
E. company authorization to observe what’s right.
The Achilles heel (or biggest disadvantage/pitfall) of relying heavily on alliances and
cooperative strategies is:
A. that partners will not fully cooperate or share all they know, preferring instead to
guard their most valuable information and protect their more valuable know-how.
B. becoming dependent on other companies for essential expertise and capabilities.
C. the added time and extra expenses associated with engaging in collaborative efforts.
D. having to compromise the company’s own priorities and strategies in reaching
agreements with partners.
E. the collaborative arrangements will not live up to expectations.
The reason the world economy is globalizing at an accelerated pace is because:
A. countries previously open to foreign companies have closed their markets.
B. countries that previously had market or mixed economies now embrace planned
economies.
C. information technology expands the importance of geographic distance.
D. growth-minded companies are racing to build stronger competitive positions in the
markets of more countries.
E. countries opposed to market or mixed economies have stringent trade barriers in
place.
The pattern of actions and business approaches that would NOT define a company’s
strategy include actions to:
A. strengthen market standing and competitiveness by acquiring or merging with other
companies.
B. strengthen competitiveness via strategic coalitions and partnerships.
C. upgrade competitively important resources and capabilities.
D. gain sales and market share with lower prices despite increased costs.
E. strengthen the firm’s bargaining position with suppliers and distributors.
The strength of the beliefs underlying the moral case for an ethical strategy relates to all
EXCEPT which of the following?
A. It begins with managers who themselves have strong character (for example, who
are honest, have integrity, and truly care about how they conduct a company’s business).
B. It starts with managers who walk the talk in displaying the company’s stated values.
C. It involves managers with high ethical principles and standards who are advocates of
a corporate code of ethics and strong ethics compliance and are genuinely committed.
D. It starts with managers who understand there is a big difference between adopting
values statements superficially and truly accepting a company’s actual strategy and
business conduct.
E. It starts with mangers that involve themselves in creating strategies based on risks
and loss of reputation that implementing an unethical strategy can cost.
Giving customers more value for the money by satisfying their expectations on key
quality features, performance, and/or service attributes while beating their price
expectations is a:
A. best-cost provider strategy.
B. focused low-cost strategy.
C. focused differentiation strategy.
D. broad differentiation strategy.
E. low-cost provider strategy.
A greenfield venture in a foreign market is one:
A. where the company creates a wholly owned subsidiary business by setting up all
aspects of the operation upon entering the market from the ground up.
B. where foreign facilities and marketing strategies are shared with local businesses.
C. where the company learns through training by the foreign entity on how to compete.
D. that supports exports into a foreign market by marketing indirectly thru local rivals.
E. that offers lower risk and a faster path to financial returns.
A competitive strategy to be the low-cost provider in an industry works well when:
A. price competition among rival sellers is especially sluggish.
B. there are numerous ways to achieve product differentiation that have no value to
buyers.
C. buyers incur high costs in switching their purchases from one seller/brand to another.
D. industry newcomers use introductory low prices to attract buyers and build a
customer base.E. industry newcomers use high introductory prices to let buyers know
they have a superior product to build a customer base.
Well-conceived visions are ________ and ____________ to a particular organization
and they avoid generic, feel-good statements that could apply to hundreds of
organizations.
A. widespread; unique
B. recurring; customary
C. distinctive; specific
D. customary; familiar
E. universal; established
Resource and capability analysis is achieved by:
A. probing the caliber of a firm’s competitive assets relative to those of rival firms.
B. attaining price stability.
C. analyzing only internal strengths and weaknesses through a matrix comparison
model.
D. cost-benefit analysis of the company’s core product sales.
E. performing resource-specific activities within the organization to allocate available
capital.
The value of determining the relative competitive strength of each business a company
has diversified into is to have a quantitative basis for:
A. identifying which businesses have large/small competitive advantages or competitive
disadvantages vis–vis the rivals in their respective industries.
B. rating them from strongest to weakest in terms of contributing to the corporate
parent’s revenue growth.
C. comparing resource strengths and weaknesses, business by business.
D. rating them from strongest to weakest in contending for market leadership in their
respective industries.
E. rating them from strongest to weakest in terms of contributing to the corporate
parent’s profitability.
The difference between a merger and an acquisition relates to:
A. strategy and competitive advantage.
B. the presence of available resources and competitive capabilities.
C. whether the end result is related to horizontal or vertical scope.
D. creating a more cost-efficient operation out of the combined companies.
E. the details of ownership, management control, and the financial arrangements.
Reward and incentive systems serve as a(n):
A. direct stimulus for satisfying the basic expectations of the standard job and
mechanisms.
B. indirect motivational tool designed to convert employee commitment into
high-powered incentives.
C. indirect type of control mechanism that conserves on more costly control
mechanisms of supervisory oversight.
D. direct base-pay financial compensation mechanism that competes with rival
companies’ salary bands for similar work efforts.
E. negative motivational element.
Which of the following is NOT part of the task of identifying the strategic issues and
problems that merit front-burner managerial attention?
A. Analyzing the company’s external environment
B. Evaluating the company’s own resources and competitive position
C. Surveying a company’s board members, managers, select employees, and key
investors regarding what strategic issues they think the company faces
D. Developing a “worry list” of “how to€¦,” “whether to€¦,” and “what to do
about€¦”
E. Assessing what challenges the company must overcome to be financially and
competitively successful in the years ahead
Broad differentiation strategies are well-suited for market circumstances where:
A. there are many ways to differentiate the product or service that have value to buyers.
B. most buyers have the same needs and use the product in the same ways.
C. technological changes are slow-paced.
D. barriers to entry are high and suppliers have a low degree of bargaining power.
E. price competition is especially vigorous.