An option for NOT remedying an internal cost disadvantage includes:
A. investing in productivity-enhancing, cost-saving technological improvements.
B. redesigning the product or some of its components to facilitate speedier and more
economical manufacture or assembly.
C. implementing the use of best practices throughout the company, particularly for
high-cost activities.
D. eliminating some cost-producing activities altogether by revamping the value chain.
E. performing activities in the same way as done earlier.
Managers can deliberately set challenging performance targets at levels high enough to
promote outstanding company performance by establishing:
A. stretch objectives which challenge the organization to deliver stretch gains in
performance.
B. mainstay objectives that although are easily attainable, and the company is obligated
to meet, they are designed to spur motivation in the workforce.
C. financial objectives that drive standardization of cost-efficiency and unify stringent
operating specifications.
D. a specifically detailed and integrated model of operating policies, practices, and
procedures.
E. why the company does certain things in trying to please its customers.
From a strategy-implementing/strategy-executing perspective, operating budget
allocations should:
A. primarily be based on the number of new strategic initiatives being implemented in
each operating department.
B. be based on the number of people employed in each of the divisions.
C. be strategy-driven and based on how much each organizational unit needs to carry
out its piece of the strategic plan efficiently and effectively.
D. be linked to the costs of performing value chain activities as determined by
benchmarking against best-in-industry competitors.
E. depend on how much stretch there is in each department’s objectives and what
additional resources are needed to help reach these performance targets.
In doing SWOT analysis, which of the following is NOT an example of a potential
resource weakness or competitive deficiency that a company may have?
A. Less productive R&D efforts than rivals
B. Having a single, unified functional strategy instead of several distinct functional
strategies
C. Lack of a strong brand image and reputation (as compared to rivals)
D. Higher overall unit costs relative to rivals
E. Too narrow a product line relative to rivals
Because functional organization structures often result in pieces of strategically relevant
activities and capabilities being scattered across many different functional departments,
companies have found that:
A. it is necessary to give these functional departments the freedom to collaborate
closely with each other to achieve the desired degree of coordination.
B. it is necessary to outsource those activities that are fragmented to strategic partners
in order to achieve the needed coordination.
C. there is merit in using business process reengineering to radically redesign and
streamline strategy-critical processes and workflow from different departments and
unifying their performance into a single department or cross-functional work group that
has charge over the whole process.
D. TQM is a potent way to reengineer the work effort, avoid the shortcomings of a
functional organization structure, and achieve rapid-response capability.
E. it makes good organizational sense to combine those functional departments where
fragmentation is a problem into a single department.
The strength of integrated social contracts theory is that it:
A. correctly recognizes that all soundly reasoned ethical standards are universal.
B. accommodates the best parts of ethical universalism and ethical relativism.
C. puts no absolute limits on what actions and behaviors fall inside the boundaries of
what is ethically or morally right and which actions/behaviors fall outside.
D. recognizes the importance of allowing local ethical norms to always take precedence
over universal ethical norms.
E. recognizes that individuals and businesses have a basic right to “moral free space”
and that it is inappropriate to specify ethically permissible and ethically impermissible
actions and behaviors.
Integrated social contracts theory maintains that:
A. there is no such thing as “moral free space”-all ethical standards are determined by
societal norms, and individuals have an implied social contract to live up to these
standards.
B. few nations or cultures have common moral agreement on what is ethically right and
wrong.
C. there should be no absolute limits put on what actions and behaviors fall inside the
boundaries of what is ethically or morally right and which actions/behaviors fall
outside.
D. adherence to universal ethical norms always takes precedence over local ethical
norms.
E. .ethical relativism should always be adhered to before ethical universalism when
dealing within boundaries of a country’s culture and norms.
Which of the following is NOT one of the traits of core competencies and/or
competitive capabilities?
A. The key to leveraging core competencies into competitive advantage is concentrating
sufficient effort and talent on deepening and strengthening them so the firm achieves
dominating depth and gains the capability to outperform rivals by a meaningful margin.
B. Core competencies have to be tweaked and adjusted to keep them fresh and
responsive to changing customer needs and market conditions.
C. Core competencies typically are lodged in the combined efforts of different work
groups and departments.
D. Core competencies generally grow out of company efforts to master a
strategy-critical technology or to invent and patent a valuable technology.
E. Core competencies tend to emerge gradually rather than blossom quickly.
Triple-bottom-line (TBL) reporting is emerging as an important way for companies to:
A. conceal their initiatives and accomplishments in the areas of diversity, environment,
community, and ethics to increase profitability.
B. make the results of their CSR strategies apparent to stakeholders and for
stakeholders to hold companies accountable for their impact on society.
C. minimize transparency and facilitate benchmarking CSR efforts across firms and
industries.
D. minimize the use of standard reporting frameworks and metrics.
E. attract profit-oriented investors.
An acquisition premium is the amount by which the price offered for an existing
business exceeds:
A. the fair market value of similar companies in the same geographic locale.
B. the preacquisition market value of the target company.
C. the comparable value of similar companies within the same market.
D. the amount paid as a down payment to be held in escrow until closing.
E. the difference between the amount that was offered and the amount that is escrowed.
Delegating greater authority to subordinate managers and employees:
A. creates a more horizontal or flatter organizational structure with fewer management
layers and usually acts to shorten organizational response times.
B. usually slows down decision making because so many more people are involved and
it takes longer to reach a consensus on what to do and when to do it.
C. can be a de-motivating factor because it requires people to take responsibility for
their decisions and actions.
D. is very risky because it usually results in lots of “bad” decisions on the part of
employees, as well as lower levels of financial performance.E. enhances greater
cross-unit coordination and aids the capture of strategic fit benefits across related
businesses.
Which of the following is NOT one of the objectives of benchmarking?
A. To identify the best practices in performing various value chain activities
B. To learn how best practice companies achieve lower costs or better results in
performing benchmarked activities
C. To help construct a company value chain and identify which activities are primary
and which are support activities
D. To develop cross-company comparisons of the costs of performing specific value
chain activities
E. To take actions to improve a company’s cost competitiveness when benchmarking
reveals that its costs and results of performing an activity are not as good as what other
companies have achieved