2 Key
1.
(p. 46)
When an organization uses information technology to develop products, services and
capabilities in order to gain a strategic advantage over competitive forces in the global
marketplace, it is using information systems in a strategic role.
2.
(p. 49)
Competition is a negative characteristic in business that can require significant resources to
overcome.
3.
(p. 49)
Most products and services have some sort of substitute available to the consumer.
4.
(p. 49)
In the Internet world, a firm’s biggest competitor may be one that is not yet in the marketplace
but could emerge almost overnight.
5.
(p. 49)
The threat of new entrants is often at its strongest during periods of rising costs or inflation.
6.
(p. 49)
If a key supplier’s bargaining power gets too strong, it can force the price of goods and
services to unmanageably high levels.
7.
(p. 50)
An innovation strategy may allow a firm to focus its products or services and gain an
advantage in a particular segment or niche of a market.
8.
(p. 50)
When a firm develops ways to differentiate its products from a competitor’s, it is pursuing a
cost leadership strategy.
9.
(p. 50)
When a firm uses IT to create virtual organizations of business partners, it is pursuing a growth
strategy.
10.
(p. 50)
A given activity can fall into one or more of the categories of competitive strategy.
11.
(p. 50)
If an organization offers its online package tracking system in a manner that allows its
customers to access shipment information not only via a computer, but via a mobile phone as
well, then such an action could fall into both the differentiation and innovation strategy
categories.
12.
(p. 50)
When a firm makes such radical changes to its business processes for producing products
and services that it alters the fundamental structure of an industry, it is pursuing an innovation
strategy.
13.
(p. 50)
Not everything innovative will serve to differentiate one organization from another.
14.
(p. 50)
Investments in information technology can allow a business to lock in customers and
suppliers, and lock out competitors, by building valuable new relationships with them.
15.
(p. 51)
Companies like Wal-Mart use information technology to implement competitive strategies for
strategic advantage.
16.
(p. 52)
When a business effectively builds in switching costs, its customers and/or suppliers become
reluctant to switch to another competitor.
17.
(p. 52)
A strategic use of information technology would be to leverage investment in information
system specialists, hardware, software, databases, and networks from operational uses into
strategic applications.
18.
(p. 54)
A company that places a strategic focus on customer value recognizes that quality, rather than
price, has become a primary determinant in a customer’s perception of value.
19.
(p. 54)
Companies that consistently offer the best value from the customer’s perspective must provide
two key services: keeping track of their individual customers’ preferences and selling products
or services at lowest price.
20.
(p. 54)
Internet technologies can make customers the focal point of customer relationship
management (CRM) and other e-business applications.
21.
(p. 56)
The value chain framework can be used to view a firm as a series, a chain, or a network of
basic activities that add value to its products and services, and thus add a margin of value to
the firm.
22.
(p. 56)
According to the value chain concept, primary processes include such things as the
procurement of resources and human resource management that are directly related to the
manufacturing of products or delivery of services to the customer.
23.
(p. 56)
When using the value chain concept, managers should seek to develop strategic information
systems for those activities that they view as the “weakest link” in the value chain.
24.
(p. 56)
The value chain concept can help managers decide where and how to apply the strategic
capabilities of information technology.
25.
(p. 58)
Business process reengineering (BPR) is most often called streamlining.
26.
(p. 58)
Although the potential payback of reengineering is high, so is the risk of failure and level of
disruption to the organizational environment of the firm.
27.
(p. 58)
Business process reengineering (BPR) combines a strategy of promoting business innovation
with a strategy of making major improvements to business operations so that a company can
become a much stronger and more successful competitor in the marketplace.
28.
(p. 58)
Many companies have found that organizational redesign approaches are an important
enabler of business process reengineering.
29.
(p. 58)
All the employees within a marketing department, from clerical staff to top managers, form a
cross-functional team.
30.
(p. 58)
Information technology plays a major role in the business process reengineering of most
business processes.
31.
(p. 63)
Becoming an agile company depends on customer perceptions of products and services, as
much as any other strategy.
32.
(p. 63)
An agile company cooperates with its suppliers and competitors.
33.
(p. 63)
By nurturing an entrepreneurial spirit, an agile company provides powerful incentives for
employee responsibility, adaptability, and innovation.
34.
(p. 64)
Information technology can enable a company to develop relationships with its customers in
virtual communities.
35.
(p. 63)
Yahoo! transformed its service from a search engine into a portal by dedicating one branch of
its business to providing content and other media-related services.
36.
(p. 65)
One of the reasons people form virtual companies is to keep new entrants out of a market.
37.
(p. 66)
Knowledge-creating companies constantly create new business knowledge and then
disseminate it throughout the company in order to quickly build the new knowledge into their
products and services.
38.
(p. 66)
Explicit knowledge involves the “how-to” knowledge that resides in workers.
39.
(p. 66)
Successful knowledge management creates techniques, technologies, and rewards for getting
employees to share what they know and to make better use of accumulated workplace
knowledge.
40.
(p. 67)
As an organization’s learning process continues and its knowledge base expands, the
knowledge creating company works to integrate its knowledge into its business processes,
products, and services.
41.
(p. 46)
A strategic information system can be any kind of information system that uses information
technology to help an organization _______________.
42.
(p. 46)
A firm can survive and succeed in the long run if it successfully develops strategies to confront
the _______________ that shape the structure of competition in its industry.
43.
(p. 49)
A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm seeks to become a
low-cost producer of products and services in the industry.
44.
(p. 49)
A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm develops ways to
differentiate its products and services from those of its competitors.
45.
(p. 49)
A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm develops unique
products or services from those of its competitors, or makes radical business changes that
may alter the fundamental nature of the industry.
46.
(p. 49)
A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm significantly expands
its capacity to produce goods and services, expanding and diversifying in the market.
47.
(p. 49)
A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm establishes new
business linkages with customers, suppliers, competitors, and other companies.
48.
(p. 49)
According to the text, competition is a _______________ characteristic in business that
_______________.
49.
(p. 49)
According to the text, in the world of the Internet, a firm’s biggest competitor:
50.
(p. 49)
According to the text, the Internet:
51.
(p. 49)
Which of the following is a competitive strategy?
52.
(p. 49)
All the following are competitive strategies except:
53.
(p. 49)
All of the following can be used to counter competitive forces in the marketplace except:
54.
(p. 49)
All of the following are competitive forces in the marketplace except:
55.
(p. 49)
Which of the following is a competitive force in the marketplace?
56.
(p. 50)
Developing a relationship with a customer such that the customer cannot afford to switch
suppliers is an example of:
57.
(p. 50)
The practice of becoming the largest purchaser of products from a given supplier is an
example of:
58.
(p. 49)
Becoming a low-cost producer of products and services in an industry is an example of a(n):
59.
(p. 49)
All of the following are basic competitive forces discussed in the text except:
60.
(p. 49)
All of the following are basic competitive strategies discussed in the text except:
61.
(p. 50)
Expanding a company’s product offering into global markets is an example of a(n)
_______________ strategy.
62.
(p. 50)
Investments in information technology that build valuable new relationships allow a firm to:
63.
(p. 52)
In addition to the five basic competitive strategies, the text describes several key strategies
implemented with information technology. Which of the following is not one of those
strategies?
64.
(p. 52)
Using an information system to make customers and/or suppliers reluctant to change to
another competitor is called:
65.
(p. 50)
When a firm develops ways to differentiate their products and services from their competitors’,
it is pursuing a _______________ strategy.
66.
(p. 51)
A sales company such as eBay would be most likely to use information technology to promote
_______________.