Accounting
Anthropology
Archaeology
Art History
Banking
Biology & Life Science
Business
Business Communication
Business Development
Business Ethics
Business Law
Chemistry
Communication
Computer Science
Counseling
Criminal Law
Curriculum & Instruction
Design
Earth Science
Economic
Education
Engineering
Finance
History & Theory
Humanities
Human Resource
International Business
Investments & Securities
Journalism
Law
Management
Marketing
Medicine
Medicine & Health Science
Nursing
Philosophy
Physic
Psychology
Real Estate
Science
Social Science
Sociology
Special Education
Speech
Visual Arts
Management
Q:
In a typical vertical supply chain, the major stage of the industry that immediately follows raw materials extraction is:
A. Wholesaling
B. Retailing
C. Final product manufacturing
D. Primary manufacturing
E. None of these
Q:
All of the following are reasons that firms pursue vertical integration strategies except:A.To obtain better or more complete information about supplies or marketsB.Less dependence on one industryC.Increased control over the quality of suppliesD.Greater opportunities to differentiate a productE.Reduction of transaction costs
Q:
Which of the following is a weakness of a concentration strategy?
A. The organization cannot develop a distinctive competence
B. Organizational resources are severely strained
C. External stakeholders are easily confused by the firm's strategic agenda
D. There is high ambiguity regarding strategic direction
E. Uneven cash flow
Q:
Which of the following is a strength of a concentration strategy?
A. Product obsolescence will rarely affect a firm pursuing this strategy
B. Executives can develop in-depth knowledge of the business
C. Risk of bankruptcy is minimal
D. Firms pursuing this strategy are rarely acquired by another firm
E. Changes in the environment can dramatically alter profitability
Q:
Which of the following is not considered a corporate-level strategy?
A. Differentiation
B. Concentration
C. Related diversification
D. Unrelated diversification
E. None of the above. These are all corporate-level strategies
Q:
As corporate-level strategies develop, any of the following strategies might be expected to directly follow a concentration strategy except:
A. Vertical integration
B. Diversification of markets
C. Diversification of products/services
D. Diversification of resource conversion processes (technologies)
E. Restructuring
Q:
Which of the following is typically a corporate-level strategy formulation responsibility?
A. Establishment of short-term operating goals
B. Choice of generic strategy for each business unit
C. Selection of businesses in which to compete
D. Direct supervision of research and development programs
E. None of the above
Q:
A common criticism that applies to many portfolio models is that they are based on the past instead of the future.
Q:
Most acquisitions are financially beneficial to the shareholders of the acquiring firm.
Q:
Acquisitions are a common type of merger.
Q:
Synergy among businesses is created instantly if they are related to each other.
Q:
Transaction cost economics is used primarily to determine when unrelated diversification is appropriate.
Q:
Managers sometimes choose to diversify because they are motivated by power, income, and status.
Q:
Market saturation is one possible reason for firms to abandon their concentration strategies.
Q:
Concentration is the most complex corporate-level strategy.
Q:
Management of resources is a major corporate-level strategic management responsibility.
Q:
Direction setting is a major corporate-level strategic management responsibility.
Q:
When does a global approach to an international product/market strategy make the most sense?
Q:
Describe the strategic flexibility tactic and how it is pursued.
Q:
What are the key elements in defining a business model?
Q:
What is a cost leadership strategy? How might a firm pursue it? What are some of the risks associated with this strategy?
Q:
How can a firm be successful by pursuing a differentiation strategy? What are some of the risks associated with a differentiation strategy?
Q:
During the decline stage of the industry life cycle:
A. Tight cost controls leading to efficiency are essential
B. Products are highly differentiated
C. Competition is no longer based on price
D. New entrants are common
E. Demand is increasing
Q:
During the maturity stage of the industry life cycle:
A. Product differentiation becomes easier to establish
B. Customers focus on product quality and availability
C. Firms have an opportunity to create entry barriers
D. High-volume production tends to dominate manufacturing strategy
E. First-mover advantages are commonly available
Q:
Toward the end of the growth stage of the industry life cycle:
A. Demand for products falls
B. A competitive shakeout usually occurs
C. Entry barriers play no role
D. Competition tends to focus on tight cost controls
E. Differentiation is not possible
Q:
During the introduction stage of the industry life cycle:
A. Demand for a product is fairly steady
B. Research and development activities are less important than activities to gain market share
C. Firms have an opportunity to create barriers to entry
D. Producers are generally highly profitable
E. First-mover advantages are unimportant
Q:
A multidomestic approach to international markets:
A. Involves the production and marketing of one product design throughout the world
B. Involves custom tailoring of products and services around individual market needs
C. Is almost always preferable to a global strategy
D. Is almost always less costly than a global strategy
E. Is only appropriate when economic efficiencies are possible
Q:
An organization would like to expand overseas. Its managers have considered pursing the expansion through a joint venture, but they are concerned that using a joint venture would limit the amount of profits they can make and also limit their control of the venture. Which of the following global expansion tactics should you suggest to these managers?A.ExportingB.Transnational symbiotic venturingC.A greenfield ventureD.FranchisingE.Licensing
Q:
A firm pursuing a "blue ocean" strategy:
A. Will collaborate with competitors to create a stronger market position
B. Will utilize a best cost generic strategy, but in a completely unique way
C. Will threaten to retaliate against competitive actions
D. Will erect huge barriers to competition
E. Will pursue political lobbying
Q:
Offensive competitive tactics include:
A. Threat of retaliation
B. Creating barriers to imitation
C. Seeking first-mover advantages
D. Collaborative tactics
E. Avoiding direct competition
Q:
Market development entails:
A. Seeking new market segments or new applications for existing products
B. Modification of existing products to create new market segments
C. Acquisition of an organization in the same line of business
D. Forming a strategic alliance with a firm in a new business
E. Investments in resources that may increase market share in the current business
Q:
Market penetration entails:
A. Vertical integration combined with horizontal integration
B. Modification of existing products to create new market segments
C. Acquisition of an organization in the same line of business
D. Forming a strategic alliance with a firm in a new business
E. Increasing market share in the current business through advertising, promotions, or a stepped-up sales effort
Q:
The most important elements in a business model include all of the following except:
A. Selecting a growth strategy
B. Verifying that sufficient demand exists for a given product at a given price in a particular market
C. Selecting unique features and technologies to be imbedded into the products or services
D. Determining how to capture a portion of the value created in terms of revenues and profits
E. Identifying market segments to be targeted
Q:
A firm that caters to a very specific segment of its market is pursuing which generic strategy?
A. Differentiation
B. Focus
C. Cost leadership
D. Best cost
E. None of the above
Q:
A best cost strategy is most like which of the other generic business strategies?
A. Differentiation
B. Differentiation focus
C. Cost leadership
D. Cost focus
E. Differentiation combined with cost leadership
Q:
The risks associated with pursuing a cost leadership strategy include all of the following except:
A. Preoccupation with costs may lead a firm not to detect required product changes
B. The firm's products are likely to become targets for imitators
C. Efforts to cut costs could lead to unsafe products
D. Cost cutting could lead to products of very poor quality
E. Large investments could cause reluctance to change
Q:
All of the following are ways that firms pursue a cost leadership strategy except:
A. Giving their product the most desirable and highest quality features
B. Using technology to cut costs
C. Fully utilizing firm production capacity
D. Experience effects
E. Economies of scale
Q:
Which of the following is an advantage of pursuing cost leadership?
A. Sales always increase with increasing amounts of output
B. Loss of sales does not reduce scale benefits
C. The strategy easily accommodates changes in the market
D. Firms invest heavily in differentiating their products
E. A firm may charge the same price as its competitors but make a higher profit
Q:
Experience effects mean:
A. An employee can easily learn to do several different jobs within a firm
B. Employees learn to do jobs more efficiently with repetition
C. Employees who are slow to learn new tasks will require additional training time
D. The time required to complete a task will decrease as a predictable function of the number of times the task is repeated
E. Both B and D are correct
Q:
Which of the following is an accurate statement about economies of scale?
A. Production costs per unit are less in a large facility than in a small facility
B. The more product a company makes, the lower its variable production costs
C. Economies of scale are identical to throughput
D. Doubling factory size typically doubles fixed costs
E. Companies with economies of scale have high capacity utilization
Q:
A strategy that is a combination of low cost leadership and differentiation is:A. Unlikely to be successful because of limited resourcesB. Very rare in today's business climateC. Best costD. Cost focusE.None of the above
Q:
A firm that pursues a cost leadership strategy:
A. Seeks cost efficiency in a broad market setting
B. Is too interested in lowering costs to bother with technological advances
C. Rarely learns from experience
D. Always has the lowest price
E. Uses differentiation to attract customers
Q:
For a differentiation strategy to be considered successful:A.The organization that is pursuing the differentiation must be highly innovativeB.Customers must be willing to pay more for the uniqueness of a product or service than the firm paid to create that uniquenessC.Loss of sales cannot reduce the benefits from economies of scaleD. The organization must invest heavily in differentiating its productsE. The organization that is pursuing differentiation must charge approximately the same price as its competitors but make a higher profit
Q:
Generic strategies are concerned with:
A. The competitive tactics firms use to protect their competitive positions
B. How the firm intends to position itself to create value for its customers
C. Selection of the business areas in which the firm will compete
D. Functional strategies the firm will pursue
E. None of the above
Q:
Strategy formulation responsibilities at the business level include all of the following except:
A. Establishment and communication of goals
B. Identification of strengths and weaknesses
C. Identification of opportunities and threats
D. Management of the corporate portfolio
E. Establishment of a strategic posture
Q:
Exporting, licensing, and franchising are international expansion tactics.
Q:
At the maturity stage of the life cycle, revenue growth accelerates rapidly.
Q:
A competitive shakeout usually occurs at the beginning of the growth stage of the product life cycle.
Q:
The industry life cycle portrays how sales volume for a class of products changes over its lifetime.
Q:
A best cost strategy combines the elements of low-cost leadership and differentiation.
Q:
In differentiation strategies, the emphasis is on creating value through uniqueness.
Q:
Economies of scale can contribute to reduced costs per unit.
Q:
Only one firm at a time can pursue a particular business-level strategy.
Q:
In general, firms create competitive advantage by offering a basic product at a premium price and/or a preferred product at a low price.
Q:
Competitive tactics are concerned with how the firm intends to position itself to create value for its customers.
Q:
A business-level strategy consists of the competitive approach of a single line-of-business instead of the entire corporation.
Q:
Discuss the components of social responsibility. Why would you expect a trustworthy firm to have higher profits over the long term?
Q:
What are the four areas of a business definition? Why is it important to periodically review a firm's business definition?
Q:
What is corporate governance? What are the functions of a board of directors?
Q:
Daniel Goleman concluded that successful leaders exhibit five types of emotional intelligence. What are they? Can they be learned?
Q:
What are the four primary leadership responsibilities of the CEO?
Q:
Sustainable development can be defined in terms of an organization's practices with regard to all of the following except:
A. Financial management
B. Technology advancement
C. Environmental protection
D. Community development
E. Advancement of society
Q:
Which of the following is not a major component of social responsibility?
A. Economic responsibilities
B. Legal responsibilities
C. Political obligations
D. Moral obligations
E. Discretionary responsibilities
Q:
Organizations can encourage ethical behavior by:
A. Establishing systems and programs to ensure ethical compliance
B. Having a CEO that reinforces ethical behavior
C. Creating an "integrity program" to communicate and reinforce values
D. All of these are correct
E. A and B are correct
Q:
Ethical dilemmas:
A. Are, by definition, completely unrelated to legal issues
B. Only occur in companies that lack codes of ethics
C. Occur when the values of different stakeholder of the organization are in conflict over a particular issue
D. Are rare
E. None of the above
Q:
Values statements:
A. Are sometimes incorporated into a mission statement
B. Help the firm define what it stands for
C. Help guide the behavior of employees
D. Define what matters when making decisions
E. All of the above
Q:
A business definition should contain answers to all of the following questions except:
A. When should customer needs be satisfied?
B. What is being satisfied?
C. How are customer needs satisfied?
D. Who is being satisfied?
E. What are our products and services?
Q:
The view of top management concerning what an organization can become is the organization's:
A. Business definition
B. Mission
C. Vision
D. Ethical dilemma
E. Enterprise strategy
Q:
A mission statement often contains:
A. An organization's vision
B. An organization's strengths and weaknesses
C. An organization's functional-level strategies
D. An organization's top management team membership
E. All of the above
Q:
Strategic inertia is stronger:
A. In a firm that has been successful over a long period of time
B. In a firm with flexible systems and processes
C. In a firm with a weak culture
D. In a firm that has had low performance over a long period of time
E. When the economy is weak
Q:
The forces in a firm that work to maintain the status quo are called:
A. Strategic direction
B. Value impediments
C. Strategic inertia
D. Social responsibility
E. None of the above
Q:
Factors that influence strategic direction include all of the following except:
A. The firm's history
B. Social trends
C. Economic influences
D. Competitors
E. All of these factors influence strategic direction; there is no exception.
Q:
Strategic direction is reflected by: The organization's purpose
A definition of the organization's business or businesses
The organization's vision
The organizational mission
All of the above
Q:
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002:
A. Provides requirements regarding independence of corporate auditors
B. Requires that financial records be kept for at least five years
C. Requires the CEO to personally certify the corporation's financial reports
D. Was partially a response to large corporate scandals
E. All of the above
Q:
All of the following are ways to encourage top managers to act in the best interests of the shareholders except:
A. Board independence might encourage it, although the evidence is inconclusive
B. Including close personal friends of the CEO on the board of directors
C. Incentive compensation
D. Government regulation
E. Threat of a hostile takeover
Q:
Which of the following is the best example of an agency problem?
A. A CEO makes a decision that maximizes his or her own self-interest at the expense of shareholders
B. The CEO of one organization sits on the board of directors of another organization
C. Both shareholders and managers express an interest in maximizing organizational profits
D. A CEO decides to take a pay cut because the corporation is struggling
E. A female CEO receives less salary than she should just because she is a woman
Q:
A heterogeneous top management team:
A. Is ineffective in most competitive settings
B. Can lead to improved organizational decisions
C. Makes implementing a strategy easier
D. Is made up of managers with a wide variety of backgrounds, education, and experience.
E. Both B and D are true.
Q:
In Collin's (Good to Great) leadership skills hierarchy, the skill that comes right after becoming a capable individual is:
A. Becoming an organizer
B. Becoming an effective leader
C. Becoming a team player
D. Becoming a transformational leader
E. Becoming a super star
Q:
The primary responsibilities of CEOs include all of the following except:
A. They make all the low-level operating decisions
B. They design the organization's purpose, vision, and core values
C. They oversee the creation of policies, strategies, and structure
D. They serve as stewards for their organizations
E. They serve as a coach, teacher, and facilitator in order to facilitate organizational learning
Q:
The traditional view of leaders in organizations is that they:
A. Are dictators to be followed without question
B. Set direction, make the important decisions, and rally the followers
C. Rise to the top of an organization just like cream on milk
D. Are ineffective
E. Delegate all important decisions to other managers