Remaining solely domestic is an increasingly safer strategy for U.S. companies.
While outsourcing manufacturing, tech support, and back-office work is quite common,
it is still unheard of for companies to outsource product design.
For a resource to be valuable, it must be either rare, hard to imitate, or not easily
sustainable.
Gaining ownership or increased control over distributors or retailers is called forward
integration strategy.
European firms are increasingly adopting explicit, American-style sexual harassment
laws.
Today boards of directors are composed mostly of outsiders who are becoming more
involved in an organization’s strategic management.
It is possible to obtain insurance from the U.S. government ‘s OPIC to eliminate all
risks associated with doing business internationally.
Significant barriers to entry are not always sufficient to keep some new firms from
entering industries with higher-quality products, lower prices, and substantial marketing
resources.
Almost 70 percent of the world’s population lives outside of the U.S.
Firms located in which quadrant of the Grand Strategy Matrix are in an excellent
strategic position?
A) I
B) II
C) III
D) IV
E) V
Which of the three finance/accounting decisions concerns determining the best capital
structure for the firm and includes examining various methods by which the firm can
raise capital?
A) Investment
B) Dividend
C) Financing
D) Capital budgeting
E) Implementation
“Innovate or evaporate; particularly in technology-driven businesses, nothing quite
recedes like success,” is a characteristic that describes the most competitive companies
in America.
During what stage of strategic management are a firm’s specific internal strengths and
weaknesses determined?
A) Formulation
B) Implementation
C) Evaluation
D) Feedback
E) Goal-setting
Why is market segmentation an important variable in strategy implementation?
A) It allows a small firm to compete successfully with a large firm.
B) It allows a firm to operate with limited resources.
C) Mass production, mass distribution, and mass advertising are not always required.
D) Market segmentation decisions directly affect marketing mix variables.
E) All of the above
What type of strategies would you recommend when a firm’s SPACE Matrix directional
vector has the coordinates (-2, +3)?
A) Aggressive
B) Conservative
C) Competitive
D) Defensive
E) Integrative
If success for one organizational department means failure for another department, then
strategies may be
A) synergistic.
B) advantageous.
C) trendy.
D) feasible.
E) inconsistent.
Who does a planning horizon of two to five years apply to?
A) Top-level management
B) General management
C) Middle-level management
D) Lower-level management
E) All levels of management
Protectionism involves countries doing all of the following EXCEPT
A) levying tariffs against firms outside the country
B) imposing taxes on firms outside the country
C) imposing regulations on firms outside the country
D) restricting imports from firms outside the country
E) liberalizing restrictions on the import of foreign goods
An important activity in ________ is taking corrective action.
A) strategy evaluation
B) strategy implementation
C) strategy formulation
D) strategy leadership
E) all of the above
A firm uses information technology to break down functional barriers and create a work
system based on business processes, products, or outputs rather than on functions or
inputs in
A) restructuring.
B) benchmarking.
C) reengineering.
D) rightsizing.
E) delayering.
After completing an EPS/EBIT analysis, what conclusions would you make if the debt
line is above the stock line throughout the range of EBIT on the graph?
A) Debt appears to be the best financing alternative.
B) Stock would be the best financing alternative.
C) A combination of debt and stock is probably the best financial alternative.
D) Dividends must be considered before conclusions can be made.
E) The company should be privately owned.
The process whereby a firm determines the costs associated with organizational
activities from purchasing raw materials to manufacturing products to marketing those
products is called
A) the resource-based approach.
B) value chain analysis.
C) strategic cost analysis.
D) the internal factor evaluation matrix.
E) cost-benefit analysis.
If suppliers are unreliable or too costly, which of these strategies may be appropriate?
A) Horizontal integration
B) Backward integration
C) Market penetration
D) Forward integration
E) Concentric diversification
Intuitive judgments are almost always involved in deriving quantitative criteria.
Which of the following was among the most admired companies for social
responsibility in 2011 according to Fortune magazine?
A) Carlsberg
B) Asahi Breweries
C) Dillard’s
D) Walt Disney
E) Kirin Holdings
Annually, ________ businesses in the U.S. fail.
A) exactly 100
B) less than 1,000
C) about 10,000
D) more than 100,000
E) almost 10 million
An organization’s vision statement
A) is a constant reminder to its employees of why the organization exists.
B) broadly charts the future direction of an organization.
C) addresses the basic question: “What is our business?”
D) answers the question: “What do we want to become?”
E) none of the above
All of these are Richard Rumelt’s criteria to evaluate a strategy EXCEPT
A) advantage
B) consistency
C) feasibility
D) distinctiveness
E) consonance