In considering the business from the internal business perspective using the balanced
scorecard, periodic financial statements are used to indicate the consequences of
improved quality, response time, productivity, and innovative products. These
consequences include improved sales.
An advantage of international expansion is that it can enable a firm to optimize the
location of every activity in its value chain.
Differences in foreign markets such as culture, language, and customs can represent
significant management risks when firms enter foreign markets.
Much research has supported the notion that individuals work much harder when they
are asked to do their best rather than when they are striving toward a specific goal.
Too much focus on one or a few value-chain activities can be a pitfall of the overall cost
leadership strategy.
Ambidextrous organizational designs are useful for firms that wish to create modest,
incremental innovations at the same time as dramatic, breakthrough innovation. This is
done by maintaining adaptability and alignment of values and coordination across
organizational activities.
A focus strategy must not include elements of differentiation and overall cost leadership
in order to be successful.
Because many countries are investing in countries other than their own, each country is
becoming more autonomous and independent.
The Porter Five-Forces model is designed to help us understand how social attitudes
and cultural values impact U.S. businesses.
Competitive aggressiveness is a response to threats whereas proactiveness is a response
to opportunities.
Leaders must draw on a range of personal skills as well as organizational mechanisms
to move their organizations forward in the face of barriers to change.
Outsourcing relieves companies of the requirement to maintain skill levels needed to
manufacture essential components.
In an integrity-based approach to ethics management, ethos is concerned with
conformity with externally imposed standards.
The Internet and digital technologies suppress the bargaining power of buyers by
providing them with more information to make buying decisions.
A firm should consider vertical integration when ___________.
A. the competitive situation is highly volatile
B. customer needs are evolving
C. the suppliers of the firm willingly cooperate with the firm
D. the suppliers of raw materials to the firm are often unable to maintain quality
standards
Which of the following dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation is described as a
forward-looking perspective characteristic of a marketplace leader that has the foresight
to seize opportunities?
A. proactiveness
B. risk taking
C. autonomy
D. competitive aggressiveness
For firms such as CarMax, information systems have been a source of competitive
advantage. Their proprietary information system captures, analyzes, interprets, and
disseminates information about all cars on the CarMax lot. Which of the following can
be attributed to this information system?
A. decrease in uncertainties in hard to forecast areas such as inventory management
B. decrease in operational efficiency
C. reduced customer service
D. decrease in sales
Strategic reasons for undertaking a corporate venture do not include _____________.
A. entering into new markets
B. expanding capabilities by acquiring new knowledge
C. building the base of corporation resources
D. reducing stakeholder commitment
Which of the following would be most difficult to assess?
A. the liquidity position of a firm
B. market share growth
C. the legitimacy and reputation of a firm
D. the efficiency with which a firm utilizes its assets
During the decline stage of the industry life cycle, __________ refers to obtaining as
much profit as possible and requires that costs be decreased quickly.
A. maintaining
B. exiting
C. harvesting
D. consolidating
Typically embedded in unique routines and practices that have evolved and
accumulated over time such as effective work teams is which of the following:
A. tangible resources
B. intangible resources
C. reputational resources
D. organizational capabilities
There are several perspectives of competition. One perspective is zero-sum thinking.
Zero-sum thinking means that:
A. all parts of the organization gain at no loss
B. in order for someone to gain others must experience no gain or benefit
C. one can only gain at the expense of someone else
D. everyone in the organization shares gains and losses equally
The balanced scorecard provides top managers with a __________ view of the
business.
A. detailed and complex
B. simple and routine
C. fast but comprehensive
D. long-term financial
Which of the following does not constitute organizational bases of leader power?
A. legitimate power
B. reward power
C. referent power
D. coercive power
A virtual organization may be most appropriate for firms _____________.
A. whose strategies require merging technologies
B. whose product life cycles are just beginning
C. who have no need to get to market quickly with new offers
D. who have no need to meet competitive pressures
The difference between a franchise contract and a licensing contract is that
___________.
A. a franchise contract is more specific and usually longer in duration
B. a franchise contract must include a foreign government
C. a licensing contract covers more aspects of operations
D. a franchise contract involves less control and less risk
All of the following are important elements of the political/legal segment of the general
environment EXCEPT:
A. the deregulation of utilities
B. the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
C. the increased use of Internet technology
D. increases in the federally mandated minimum wage
When management uses common production facilities or purchasing procedures to
distribute different but related products, they are ________________.
A. building on core competencies
B. achieving process gains
C. sharing activities
D. using portfolio analysis