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Q:
Causal ambiguity is the hallmark of many industries with ambiguous industry structure and blurred boundaries.
a. True
b. False
Q:
A resource-based view is good at explaining what happened in the past, but has difficulty predicting what will happen in the future.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Resource-based studies of firm performance need to describe the measurement of firm-specific factors such as organizational learning, knowledge management, and managerial talent.
a. True
b. False
Q:
The proposition that firm performance is most fundamentally determined by firm-specific resources and capabilities is at the heart of the industry-based view.
a. True
b. False
Q:
The logic of the resource-based view is relatively static.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Many multinationals consist of many people scattered in many different countries. As a result, their invisible relationships do not add value.
a. True
b. False
Q:
The chapter indicates that Burberry is an example of causal ambiguity.
a. True
b. False
Q:
A sustained competitive advantage can last because not all advantages eventually erode.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Imitation is not likely to be a successful strategy over the long term.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Valuable, rare, but imitable resources/capabilities may provide temporary competitive advantage.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Causal ambiguity refers to the difficulty of identifying the outcomes of causal determinants.
a. True
b. False
Q:
A SWOT analysis of the value chain engages managers in ascertaining a firms strengths and weaknesses on an activity-by-activity basis.
a. True
b. False
Q:
In SWOT analysis, the industry view focuses on SW: strengths and weaknesses.
a. True
b. False
Q:
In SWOT analysis, the resource view focuses on OT: opportunities and threats.
a. True
b. False
Q:
IBM is an example of how capabilities may cease to add value and instead become core rigidities.
a. True
b. False
Q:
In order for the VRIO framework to provide effective information, the various capabilities of a company such as LeapFrog Enterprises needs to be evaluated in isolation from other resources and capabilities.
a. True
b. False
Q:
In markets where a high quality in a product is expected, providing that level of quality provides little advantage, and at best could be considered competitive parity.
a. True
b. False
Q:
The performance of a firm is not altered negatively or positively by non-value-adding assets.
a. True
b. False
Q:
A fundamental question in a value chain analysis is whether a firms resources and capabilities add value.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Intangible assets include the technological resources a company has that no other company can claim.
a. True
b. False
Q:
For any given activity, one of the four choices for managers in terms of modes and locations includes onshoring.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Offshoring and outsourcing interchangeable concepts.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Outsourcing is possible for both manufacturing and servicing activities.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Conducting a value chain analysis helps a firm see how it is good at all its primary and support activities.
a. True
b. False
Q:
A value chain for Nike would include shoe manufacturing as a primary activity and Nike branded stores as a support activity.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Tightly bundled resources/capabilities may be a disadvantage in high velocity environments.
a. True
b. False
Q:
It is easier to imitate intangible resources/capabilities than tangible ones.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Most goods and services are produced through a chain of vertical activities which add value.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Intangible resources and capabilities are assets that are more easily quantified.
a. True
b. False
Q:
The resource-based view sees capabilities as a firms tangible and intangible assets that it uses to choose and implement its strategies.
a. True
b. False
Q:
Brick-and-mortar assets are considered tangible, whereas financial assets are considered intangible.
a. True
b. False
Q:
If the VRIO framework is meant to help managers make decisions how best to use the firms strengths and weaknesses when developing strategy, what are the three implications the text stresses that managers must keep in mind?
Q:
Based on the dynamic capabilities view, how would you say that industries in slow-moving industries differ from those in fast-moving, high-velocity industries?
Q:
What do you think about the use of offshoring by MNEs? Is it a threat to jobs in the United States? Has it benefited MNEs and other countries more than the United States?
Q:
As you read through the text, you may be looking for secrets of success in doing business globally. This chapter gives Burberry
as an example of a firm that has been very successful. What did it say about the problem of identifying the reason for Burberrys success? If the reason for success cannot be determined, should we abandon any attempt to develop a rational strategy and simply depend on luck?
Q:
How is it possible for a strength to become a weakness? How does IBM illustrate that possibility?
Q:
What questions are answered by using a VRIO framework, and how do those answers extend SWOT?
Q:
Describe captive sourcing and provide an example of how a company might use it.
Q:
How has offshoring contributed to complex supply-chain management? What are some examples?
Q:
What is the relationship of benchmarking to the value chain? What cautions might a firm keep in mind when benchmarking?
Q:
List several resources for a firm of your choice, and describe why each is considered a tangible or intangible resource. How does the dynamic capabilities view distinguish between resources and capabilities?
Q:
Firms that have a sustained competitive advantage will find that:
a. Anticipation of future needs is still necessary.
b. The particular advantage will last indefinitely.
c. Sustained competitive advantage is realistic in todays global competition.
d. They have eliminated all non-value-adding activities.
Q:
In assessing and choosing a firms strategy, a manager will usually find that benchmarking is:
a. Likely to be the most successful strategy.
b. Can be a valuable part of evaluating a firms capabilities.
c. Unimportant to any well-thought-out strategy.
d. The surest way to dilute strengths and magnify weaknesses.
Q:
When it comes to competing internationally, firms that are successful domestically typically:
a. Are more successful internationally.
b. Are on their way to becoming global cult brands.
c. Find that cross-border capabilities may or may not be the same.
d. Find that factors that lead to success domestically are easily translated to competing internationally.
Q:
Taking advantage of strengths embodied in resources/capabilities and overcoming weaknesses deals with which fundamental question?
a. Why do firms differ?
b. What determines the scope of the firm?
c. How do firms behave?
d. What determines the international success and failure of firms?
Q:
Critics of outsourcing agree that firms who outsource aspects of their activities are ineffective at:
a. Exploiting cheap labor.
b. Treating people as tradable commodities.
c. Upholding corporate social responsibility.
d. Protecting customer privacy.
Q:
Critics of offshoring make all of the following arguments except:
a. If even core functions such as engineering, R&D, manufacturing, and marketing canand often shouldbe moved outside the country, what is left of the firm?
b. In some cases, it undermines national security.
c. Offshoring increasingly results in job losses in high-end areas such as design, R&D, and IT/BPO.
d. Many large US firms claim that they are global companies but they seem to be bound by American values.
Q:
What are the fundamental questions that can be answered using an industry-based view, and what do the answers to those questions imply for taking strategic action?
Q:
In the 1990s, Porter added a sixth force to his five forces framework. Describe that sixth force and give an example of its use in determining a firms strategy.
Q:
Describe a situation in which a focus strategy would be most effective.
Q:
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of pursuing a cost leadership strategy?
Q:
What are the Three Generic Strategies, and what lessons can we learn from their use?
Q:
The text discusses how the five forces framework continues to influence strategic practice and research. According to the text, what are the lessons offered by the five forces framework?
Q:
How can backward integration be used by buyers and what are some examples?
Q:
Many high-technology industries are characterized by network externalities. What are those externalities and how can they pay off?
Q:
How can high exit costs increase the chance that firms may continue to operate for at least a while when operating at a loss? Explain by giving examples.
Q:
An intense focus on above-average firm performance is shared by IO economists and those involved in the strategy of firms and yet their perspective is opposite of each other. Explain.
Q:
Which of the following is characteristic of a savvy strategist?
a. Focusing on the five forces as a way to understand an industry inside and out.
b. Understanding that structurally unattractive industries do not allow for firm success.
c. Using the five forces framework as the beginning, middle, and end of any good strategic analysis.
d. Realizing that industry is destiny.
Q:
Which of the following questions is NOT essential to determining the scope of a firm?
a. Can opportunities be leveraged by outsourcing?
b. Have we optimized industry as destiny?
c. Are we focused on core activities?
d. Will collaboration with competitors be beneficial?
Q:
Activities that are crucial to a firms core business:
a. Should be outsourced to increase a firms strategic flexibility.
b. Should be managed through a keiretsu structure.
c. Should not be outsourced.
d. Should always be outsourced.
Q:
Which of the following statements about strategic groups is most accurate?
a. Firms within an industry can easily move from one strategic group to another.
b. Members of strategic groups are often subject to mobility barriers.
c. An abundance of objective data within industries prevents classification of strategic groups.
d. Strategic groups greatly complicate the analysis of a given industry.
Q:
Every firm within a broadly defined industry:
a. Is uniformly influenced by advances in technology.
b. Succeeds best by following a strategy that combines cost leadership and differentiation.
c. Competes against each other.
d. Can usually be placed in one of several strategic groups within that industry.
Q:
Which of the following is true about firms that pursue both strategies of cost leadership and differentiation?
a. They become stuck in the middle with resulting poor performance.
b. They cannot be successful in both strategies.
c. Flexible manufacturing enables a firm to produce differentiated products at low costs in many cases.
d. Mass customization is the inevitable result of combining strategies.
Q:
A complementor that sells products that add value to a focal industrys products:
a. Does not affect the competitiveness of an industry.
b. Is almost always high-tech in nature.
c. Can act as a sixth force in the five forces framework.
d. None of the above.
Q:
Strategists using the industry-based view need to:
a. See it as a powerful strategic tool.
b. Arrive at an uncritical acceptance of the traditional view.
c. Identify their firm within an industry in a boundary-less way.
d. Avoid strategic alliances.
Q:
An industry-based view provides some answers to which of the following questions?
a. Why do firms differ?
b. How do firms behave?
c. What determines the scope of the firm?
d. All of the above.
Q:
A systematic foundation for industry and competitor analysis is best provided by:
a. The industry-based view.
b. Resource-based view.
c. Historical view.
d. Macro analysis.
Q:
The ultra-luxury automobile market is characterized by:
a. A great deal of competition in the past but that is changing.
b. A small number of cars produced each year but they are very expensive.
c. Being the same as the luxury market.
d. A and B above.
Q:
Which of the following is NOT true regarding supplier relationships?
a. Supplier relationships that are too close may introduce rigidities, including loss of flexibility.
b. In Japan suppliers may become trusted members of the keiretsu.
c. In Japan, instead of treating suppliers as adversaries, they are treated as collaboration partners.
d. Supplier relationships in Japan tend to be ineffective.
Q:
Which is a reason for choosing outsourcing as opposed to integration?
a. More expensive.
b. Strategic flexibility is enhanced.
c. Those inside the firm are often more competitive.
d. The activity is crucial to the core business.
Q:
Which is a reason for choosing integration as opposed to outsourcing?
a. Decreased expense.
b. Strategic flexibility is enhanced.
c. Those within the firm are often more competitive.
d. The activity is not crucial to the core business.
Q:
The industry-based view recommends:
a. Backward integration as a way to defend against the power of suppliers.
b. Backward integration as a way to defend against the power of buyers.
c. Forward integration as a way to defend against the power of suppliers.
d. Backward or forward integration as a way to defend against the power of suppliers and buyers.
Q:
One controversial issue with strategic groups is:
a. Stability of strategic groups.
b. Lack of mobility barriers between strategic groups.
c. How easy it is to obtain large quantities of objective data.
d. All of the above are controversial issues.
Q:
Related and supporting industries are called _________ and they are an additional force that can impact the competitiveness of an industry.
a. Complementors
b. Supporters
c. Customizers
d. Flexible manufacturing
Q:
A niche market that is the goal of a focus strategy may have all of the following characteristics EXCEPT:
a. It is defined by a specific geographical area.
b. It is defined by a specific geographical area.
c. It is define by product line.
d. It is defined by imitation of competitors.
Q:
One of the drawbacks of the differentiation strategy is that:
a. Customers are unwilling to pay a premium price for differentiation.
b. It is difficult to sustain the basis of differentiation in the long run.
c. The firm is forced to continuously search for lower costs.
d. The bargaining power of suppliers presents a significant problem to differentiators.
Q:
The main goal of a differentiation strategy is to:
a. Target the average customers for mass market.
b. Identify the attributes and deliver products that attract customers willing to pay a premium price.
c. Relentlessly cut costs in producing the products customers desire.
d. All of the above.
Q:
For firms following a cost leadership strategy, their goal is a:
a. High-volume how-margin approach.
b. High-volume high-margin approach.
c. Low-volume high-margin approach.
d. Low-volume low-margin approach.
Q:
Which of the following firms exhibits a focus strategy?
a. Company As products meet customers needs in a particular niche market.
b. Company B takes a high-volume low-margin approach in targeting customers for its products.
c. Company C targets customers who are looking for the lowest price.
d. Company D targets the average customer.
Q:
Which of the following firms exhibits a differentiation strategy?
a. Company A constantly searches for lower costs in providing its products.
b. Company B takes a high-volume low-margin approach in targeting customers for its products.
c. Company C targets customers who are willing to pay a premium price.
d. Company D targets the average customer.