Management Information Systems, 14e (Laudon)
Chapter 1 Information Systems in Global Business Today
1) The six important business objectives of information technology are new products, services,
and business models; customer and supplier intimacy; survival; competitive advantage;
operational excellence; and
A) improved flexibility.
B) improved decision making.
C) improved business practices.
D) improved efficiency.
E) improved business value.
2) Verizon Corporation’s use of a Web-based digital dashboard to provide managers with precise
real-time information illustrates which business objective?
A) improved flexibility
B) improved decision making
C) competitive advantage
D) survival
E) customer and supplier intimacy
3) Which of the following choices may lead to competitive advantage?
1. new products, services, and business models; 2. charging less for superior products; 3.
responding to customers in real time?
A) 1 only
B) 1 and 2
C) 2 and 3
D) 1 and 3
E) 1, 2, and 3
4) The use of information systems because of necessity describes the business objective of
A) operational excellence.
B) improved business practices.
C) competitive advantage.
D) improved flexibility.
E) survival.
5) The Mandarin Oriental hotel’s use of computer systems to keep track of guests’ preferences is
an example of
A) improved flexibility.
B) improved decision making.
C) improved efficiency.
D) customer and supplier intimacy.
E) operational excellence.
6) The move of retail banking to use ATMs after Citibank unveiled its first ATMs illustrates the
use of information systems to achieve which business objective?
A) improved efficiency
B) customer and supplier intimacy
C) survival
D) competitive advantage
E) improved decision making
7) Which of the following objectives best describes the business strategy behind the technologies
implemented by the San Francisco Giants, as discussed in the chapter case?
A) customer and supplier intimacy
B) survival
C) competitive advantage
D) customer support
E) operational excellence
8) An example of a business using information systems to create new products and services is
A) Wal-Mart’s RetailLink system.
B) the Mandarin Oriental hotel’s customer-preference tracking system.
C) Verizon’s Web-based digital dashboard.
D) Apple Inc.’s iPod.
E) the San Francisco Giants play tracking system.
9) An example of a business using information systems to attain operational excellence is
A) Wal-Mart’s Retail Link system.
B) the Mandarin Oriental hotel’s customer-preference tracking system.
C) Verizon’s Web-based digital dashboard.
D) Apple Inc.’s iPod.
E) Citibank’s ATMs.
10) An example of a business using information systems for customer and supplier intimacy is
A) Wal-Mart’s Retail Link system.
B) the Mandarin Oriental hotel’s customer-preference tracking system.
C) Verizon’s Web-based digital dashboard.
D) Apple Inc.’s iPod.
E) Citibank’s ATMs.
11) The temp agency that you own is having serious difficulties placing temps because few of
them are familiar with Internet research. Investing in training software to enhance your workers’
skills is an example of using technology to achieve which business objective?
A) customer and supplier intimacy
B) survival
C) operational excellence
D) improved decision making
E) new products and services
12) Apple Computer dominates the online legal music sales industry primarily because of a
failure of recording label companies to
A) invest in technology.
B) assemble accurate data.
C) invest in complementary assets.
D) modernize their information value chain.
E) adopt a new business model.
13) All of the following are advantages, for a firm, of cloud computing except
A) ability to support mobile computing.
B) ability to support remote work.
C) ability to improve communication.
D) ability to rely on markets to build value.
E) ability to reduce data storage costs.
14) Which of the following are key corporate assets?
A) intellectual property, core competencies, and financial and human assets
B) production technologies and business processes for sales, marketing, and finance
C) knowledge and the firm’s tangible assets, such as goods or services
D) time and knowledge
E) significant business relationships
15) A firm that must invest in new information systems capabilities in order to comply with
federal legislation can be said to be investing to achieve which business objective?
A) customer intimacy
B) operational excellence
C) survival
D) improved reporting
E) improved decision making
16) Internet advertising is growing at approximately 15 percent a year.
17) Developing a new product, hiring a new employee, and fulfilling an order are examples of
business processes.
18) A fully digital firm produces only digital goods or services.
19) A business model describes how a company produces, delivers, and sells a product or service
to create wealth.
20) Investment in IT is 33% of all invested capital.
21) ________ is known as the enormous volume of data generated by Internet activity, such as
Web traffic and e-mail.
22) You are starting a small bike messenger company. Given your type of services (hand-
delivering packages within a small geographical area), could your firm be a digital firm? If so,
what would make this a digital firm?
23) What are the main changes taking place in organizational use of information systems? Which
of these do you think is having the greatest impact on businesses?
24) The three activities in an information system that produce the information organizations use
to control operations are
A) information retrieval, research, and analysis.
B) input, output, and feedback.
C) data, information, and analysis.
D) data analysis, processing, and feedback.
E) input, processing, and output.
25) Order data for baseball tickets and bar code data are examples of
A) raw input.
B) raw output.
C) customer and product data.
D) sales information.
E) information systems.
26) The average number of tickets sold daily online is an example of
A) input.
B) raw data.
C) meaningful information.
D) feedback.
E) processing.
27) Output
A) is feedback that has been processed to create meaningful information.
B) is information that is returned to appropriate members of the organization to help them
evaluate the input stage.
C) transfers data to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it will be used.
D) transfers processed information to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it
will be used.
E) converts raw input into a meaningful form.
28) Converting raw data into a more meaningful form is called
A) capturing.
B) processing.
C) organizing.
D) feedback.
E) analysis.
29) An example of raw data from a national chain of automobile stores would be
A) an average of 13 Toyotas are sold daily in Kentucky.
B) 30-percent increase in Toyota RAV4 sales during September in Kentucky.
C) 1 Toyota RAV4 sold March 3, 2013, in Louisville, Kentucky.
D) 10-percent improvement in sales projections for Toyota sales next year.
E) a demographic breakdown of all Toyota buyers in the past year.
30) In a hierarchical organization, the upper levels consist of
A) managerial and professional employees.
B) managerial, professional, and technical employees.
C) professional and operational employees.
D) managerial, professional, and operational employees.
E) knowledge workers.
31) Which of the following is not one of the current changes taking place in information systems
technology?
A) growing business use of “big data”
B) growth in cloud computing
C) growth in the PC platform
D) emerging mobile platform
E) increased usage of social networking by business
32) The fundamental set of assumptions, values, and ways of doing things that has been accepted
by most of a company’s members is called its
A) culture.
B) environment.
C) atmosphere.
D) values.
E) ethos.
33) Thomas Friedman’s declaration that the world was now “flat” meant that
A) the Internet has reduced the economic advantages of developed countries.
B) globalization is starting to offer less advantage to large corporations.
C) the global economy is increasingly commanded by fewer and larger corporations.
D) global capitalism is homogenizing culture and business practices throughout the world.
E) global shipping rates have reached historic lows.
34) Data management technology consists of the
A) physical hardware and media used by an organization for storing data.
B) detailed, preprogrammed instructions that control and coordinate the computer hardware
components in an information system.
C) two or more computers to share data or resources.
D) hardware and software used to transfer data.
E) software governing the organization of data on physical storage media.
35) Which of the following statements best describes organizational culture?
A) It encompasses the sum of beliefs and assumptions by all members.
B) It enables the organization to transcend the different levels and specialties of its employees.
C) It reflects the senior management’s perspective on the organization and goals.
D) It allows a company to achieve greater operational efficiency.
E) It is a set of assumptions and values accepted by most members.
36) Networking and telecommunications technologies, along with computer hardware, software,
data management technology, and the people required to run and manage them, constitute an
organization’s
A) data management environment.
B) networked environment.
C) IT infrastructure.
D) information system.
E) culture.
37) Maintaining the organization’s financial records is a central purpose of which main business
function?
A) manufacturing and accounting
B) finance and accounting
C) sales and manufacturing
D) finance and sales
E) human resources
38) Which of the following is not one of the primary environmental actors that interacts with an
organization and its information systems?
A) competitors
B) regulatory agencies
C) customers
D) suppliers
E) sales force
39) Which of the following best describes the primary reason for implementing a new
information system, from a business perspective?
A) The system enables the firm to create new products and services.
B) The system will create new value for the firm, beyond its costs.
C) The system will automate key business processes.
D) The system is in use by our primary competitors.
E) The system integrates well with the Web.
40) Which of the following would not be a complementary asset for a solar panel manufacturer?
A) international solar equipment certification standards
B) government funding for green technology
C) centralized hierarchical decision making
D) innovation-driven management team
E) subsidies for adoption of solar energy
41) In a business hierarchy, the level that is responsible for monitoring the daily activities of the
business is
A) middle management.
B) service workers.
C) production management.
D) operational management.
E) knowledge workers.
42) From a business perspective, raw data is transformed systematically during various stages,
transforming it into valuable information, in a process called
A) the information value chain.
B) the IT value chain.
C) information processing.
D) feedback.
E) dissemination.
43) A corporation that funds a political action committee, which in turn promotes and funds a
political candidate who agrees with the values of that corporation, could be seen as investing in
which main category of complementary assets?
A) managerial
B) governmental
C) social
D) organizational
E) auxiliary
44) An example of an organizational complementary asset is
A) using the appropriate business model.
B) a collaborative work environment.
C) laws and regulations.
D) the Internet.
E) strong senior management.
45) An example of a social complementary asset is
A) technology and service firms in adjacent markets.
B) training programs.
C) distributed decision-making rights.
D) incentives for management innovation.
E) a strong IS development team.