Deck 3: Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy

Question 1

All organizations have bedrock, unassailable assumptions that define their goals and products.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Business processes are collections of standard operating procedures.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

In the value chain model, primary activities are most directly related to the production and distribution of the firm's products and services that create value for the customer.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

In an efficient customer response system, digital answering systems are used to monitor and respond to customer inquiries.

Question 5

A transparent marketplace means that there is high product differentiation.

Question 6

A firm can be said to have competitive advantage when they have higher stock market valuations than their competitors.

Question 7

In the strategy of product differentiation, information systems are used to enable new products and services.

Question 8

The value chain model classifies all company activities as either primary or support.

Question 9

Research has shown that only 25% of firms are able to align their information technology with their business goals.

Question 10

From the point of view of economics, information systems technology can be viewed as a factor of production that can be substituted for traditional capital and labor.

Question 11

The term business ecosystem describes the interplay between the various organizational forces within a firm.

Question 12

In a demonstration of network economics, the more people that use Adobe software and related products, the greater the value of the software.

Question 13

Mass customization is a form of mass production.

Question 14

Strong linkages to customers and suppliers decrease switching costs.

Question 15

Customers are one of the competitive forces that affect an organization's ability to compete.

Question 16

The competitive forces model can be used to analyze today's digital firm as well as traditional firms.

Question 17

The use of Internet technologies allows companies to more easily sustain competitive advantage.

Question 18

An adhocracy is a knowledge-based organization where goods and services depend on the expertise and knowledge of professionals.

Question 19

The effect of the Internet has been to raise bargaining power over suppliers.

Question 20

The idea driving synergies is that when the output of some units can be used as inputs to other units, the relationship can lower cost and generate profits.

Question 21

Which of the following is not one of the competitive forces?

A) suppliers
B) other competitors
C) external environment
D) customers

Question 22

All of the following are major features of organizations that impact the use of information systems except for

A) business processes.
B) environments.
C) goals.
D) agency costs.

Question 23

A substitute product of most concern for a cable TV distributor is

A) satellite TV.
B) broadcast TV.
C) satellite radio.
D) the Internet.

Question 24

How does the technical view of organizations fall short of understanding the full impacts of information systems in a firm?

A) It sees information systems as a way to rearrange the inputs and outputs of the organization.
B) It sees capital and labor as primary production factors.
C) It sees the inputs and outputs, labor and capital, as being infinitely malleable.
D) It sees the organization as a social structure similar to a machine.

Question 25

A manufacturer of deep-sea oil rigs may be least concerned about this marketplace force.

A) product differentiation
B) traditional competitors
C) low number of suppliers
D) new market entrants

Question 26

According to agency theory, the firm is viewed as a(n)

A) unified, profit-maximizing entity.
B) task force organization that must respond to rapidly changing environments.
C) entrepreneurial endeavor.
D) "nexus of contracts" among self-interested individuals.

Question 27

The ________ model is used to describe the interaction of external forces that affect an organization's strategy and ability to compete.

A) network economics
B) competitive forces
C) competitive advantage
D) demand control

Question 28

Which of the following would not be considered a disruptive technology?

A) instant messaging
B) e-mail
C) Internet telephony
D) PCs

Question 29

An example of a divisionalized bureaucracy is a

A) startup firm.
B) university.
C) Fortune 500 firm.
D) midsize manufacturer.

Question 30

According to the ________ definition of organizations, an organization is seen as a means by which primary production factors are transformed into outputs consumed by the environment.

A) microeconomic
B) macroeconomic
C) sociotechnical
D) behavioral

Question 31

Which of the following statements is not true about information technology's impacts on business firms?

A) It helps firms expand in size.
B) It helps firms lower the cost of market participation.
C) It helps reduce internal management costs.
D) It helps reduce transaction costs.

Question 32

A large bureaucracy existing in a slowly changing environment that produces standard products and is dominated by centralized management making is classified by Mintzberg as a ________ bureaucracy.

A) machine
B) professional
C) divisionalized
D) multidivisional

Question 33

As discussed in the chapter opening case, which of the four generic strategies did Sears employ to combat the competition offered by Target, Walmart, and Macy's?

A) low-cost leadership
B) focus on market niche
C) customer and supplier intimacy
D) product differentiation

Question 34

Business processes are collections of

A) informal practices and behaviors.
B) formalized and documented practices.
C) routines.
D) rights and privileges.

Question 35

According to Leavitt's model of organizational resistance, the four components that must be changed in an organization in order to successfully implement a new information system are

A) environment, organization, structure, and tasks.
B) technology, people, culture, and structure.
C) organization, culture, management, and environment.
D) tasks, technology, people, and structure.

Question 36

Which of the following industries has a low barrier to entry?

A) automotive
B) computer chip
C) restaurant
D) airline

Question 37

An organization is a

A) stable, formal social structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs.
B) formal, legal entity with internal rules and procedures that must abide by laws.
C) collection of social elements.
D) B and C
E) A, B, and C

Question 38

The costs incurred when a firm buys on the marketplace what it cannot make itself are referred to as

A) switching costs.
B) transaction costs.
C) procurement.
D) agency costs.

Question 39

Mintzberg's classification of organizational structure categorizes the knowledge-based organization where goods and services depend on the expertise and knowledge of professionals as a(n)

A) entrepreneurial structure.
B) divisionalized bureaucracy.
C) professional bureaucracy.
D) adhocracy.

Question 40

The interaction between information systems and organizations is influenced

A) primarily by the decision making of middle and senior managers.
B) by many factors, including structure, politics, culture, and environment.
C) by two main microeconomic forces: capital and labor.
D) primarily by the organization's business processes and culture.

Question 41

Amazon's use of the Internet as a platform to sell books more efficiently than traditional bookstores illustrates a use of information services for

A) low-cost leadership.
B) marketing effectiveness.
C) focusing on market niche.
D) strengthening supplier intimacy.

Question 42

Which of the following is one of the support activities in a firm's value chain?

A) inbound logistics
B) operations
C) sales and marketing
D) technology

Question 43

The value chain model

A) categorizes five related advantages for adding value to a firm's products or services.
B) sees the supply chain as the primary activity for adding value.
C) categorizes four basic strategies a firm can use to enhance its value chain.
D) helps a firm identify points at which information technology can most effectively enhance its competitive position.

Question 44

The most successful solutions or methods for achieving a business objective are called

A) value activities.
B) best processes.
C) core competencies.
D) best practices.

Question 45

Which of the following best illustrates the use of information systems to focus on market niche?

A) A car manufacturer's Web site that lets you customize the features on the car you are purchasing.
B) A restaurant chain analyzing local sales figures to determine which menu items to serve.
C) A bookseller selling an e-book reader that reads only the bookseller's books.
D) A department store creating specialized products for small groups of customers.

Question 46

The four major types of competitive strategy are

A) low-cost leadership; substitute products and services; customers; and suppliers.
B) low-cost leadership; product differentiation; focus on market niche; and customer and supplier intimacy.
C) new market entrants; substitute products and services; customers; and suppliers.
D) low-cost leadership; new market entrants; product differentiation; and focus on market niche.

Question 47

When a firm provides a specialized product or service for a narrow target market better than competitors, they are using a ________ strategy.

A) product differentiation
B) market niche
C) mass customization
D) process efficiency

Question 48

The Internet raises the bargaining power of customers by

A) creating new opportunities for building loyal customer bases.
B) making more products available.
C) making information available to everyone.
D) lowering transaction costs.

Question 49

The primary activities of a firm include

A) inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, sales and marketing, and service.
B) inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, technology, and service.
C) procurement, inbound logistics, operations, technology, and outbound logistics.
D) procurement, operations, technology, sales and marketing, and services.

Question 50

________ is the ability to offer individually tailored products or services using the same production resources as bulk production.

A) Mass customization
B) Size customization
C) Magnitude customization
D) Dimension customization

Question 51

A firm can exercise greater control over its suppliers by having

A) more suppliers.
B) fewer suppliers.
C) global suppliers.
D) local suppliers.

Question 52

An information system can enable a company to focus on a market niche through

A) complex trend forecasting.
B) tailoring products to the client.
C) intensive product trend analysis.
D) intensive customer data analysis.

Question 53

As described in the chapter case, the competitive force of ________ resulted in Starbuck's downturn in 2008, and it employed information systems in a strategy of ________ to combat this force.

A) traditional competitors; product differentiation
B) new market entrants; product specialization
C) substitute products; market niche
D) customers; customer intimacy

Question 54

What significant competitive force is challenging the publishing industry?

A) positioning and rivalry among competitors
B) low cost of entry
C) substitute products or services
D) customer's bargaining power

Question 55

Which of the following activities would you perform to measure and compare your business processes to similar processes of other companies within your industry?

A) benchmarking
B) best practices
C) value chain analysis
D) strategic systems analysis

Question 56

How are information systems used at the industry level to achieve strategic advantage?

A) by building industry-wide, IT-supported consortia and symposia
B) by raising the bargaining power of suppliers
C) by encouraging the entry of new competitors
D) by enforcing standards that reduce the differences between competitors

Question 57

In environmental scanning, a firm may use information systems to

A) utilize sensors that track products through the value chain.
B) analyze external Internet traffic to its Web sites.
C) identify external events that may affect it.
D) understand its carbon footprint and energy impacts on the environment.

Question 58

Which of the following industries has not been disrupted by the Internet?

A) encyclopedias
B) newspapers
C) clothing
D) air travel

Question 59

Barnes & Noble's apps for its e-reader, the Nook, is an example of a firm using information systems to

A) strengthen ties to its customers.
B) remove publishers from the industry value chain.
C) develop synergies with publishers.
D) focus on market niche.

Question 60

Walmart's continuous replenishment system allows it to

A) provide mass customization.
B) provide an efficient customer response system.
C) strengthen customer intimacy.
D) achieve economy of scale.

Question 61

A(n) ________ is an activity at which a firm excels as a world-class leader.

Question 62

If two organizations pool markets and expertise that result in lower costs and generate profits it is often referred to as creating

A) a value web.
B) a value chain.
C) synergies.
D) core competencies.

Question 63

________ are the expenses incurred by a customer or company in lost time and resources when changing from one supplier or system to a competing supplier or system.

Question 64

New technologies that radically change the business landscape and environment are referred to as ________.

Question 65

A(n) ________ activity is a part of the organization's infrastructure, human resources, technology, and procurement that makes the delivery of the firm's products or services possible.

Question 66

Capital and ________ are the primary production inputs that the organization uses to create products and services.

Question 67

Sociotechnical changes affecting a firm adopting new information systems requiring organizational change can be considered ________.

Question 68

A(n) ________ is a collection of independent firms that use information technology to coordinate their value chains to collectively produce a product or service for a market.

Question 69

Organizational ________ describes the divergent viewpoints about how resources, rewards, and punishments should be distributed, and the struggles resulting from these differences.

Question 70

An example of synergy in business is

A) Amazon's use of the Internet to sell books.
B) JP Morgan Chase's mergers with other banks that provided JP Morgan with a network of retail branches in new regions.
C) Blockbuster combining traditional video rental with online video rental.
D) Walmart's order entry and inventory management system to coordinate with suppliers.

Question 71

An information system can enhance core competencies by

A) providing better reporting facilities.
B) creating educational opportunities for management.
C) allowing operational employees to interact with management.
D) encouraging the sharing of knowledge across business units.

Question 72

________ is a competitive strategy for creating brand loyalty by developing new and unique products and services that are not easily duplicated by competitors.

Question 73

You are consulting for a beverage distributor who is interested in determining the benefits it could achieve from implementing new information systems. What will you advise as the first step?

A) Identify the business ecosystem the distributor is in.
B) Implement a strategic transition to the new system.
C) Perform a strategic systems analysis.
D) Benchmark existing systems.

Question 74

The emergence, for Amazon.com, of new competitors in the sphere of online shopping illustrates what disadvantage posed by the use of information systems to achieve competitive advantage?

A) E-commerce is affected by the law of diminishing returns.
B) Internet technologies are universal, and therefore usable by all companies.
C) Internet shopping produces cost transparency.
D) The Internet enables the production or sales of substitute products or services.

Question 75

A collection of independent firms that use information technology to coordinate their value chains to produce a product or service for a market collectively is called a(n)

A) industry value chain.
B) business ecosystem.
C) value web.
D) consortia.

Question 76

The ________ model highlights the primary or support activities that add a margin of value to a firm's products or services where information systems can best be applied to achieve a competitive advantage.

Question 77

An example of a keystone firm within a business ecosystem is

A) Apple and software application writers in the mobile platform ecosystem.
B) GUESS and the fashion ecosystem.
C) Citibank and the ATM ecosystem.
D) American Airlines and the computerized reservation ecosystem.

Question 78

The more any given resource is applied to production, the lower the marginal gain in output, until a point is reached where the additional inputs produce no additional output. This is referred to as

A) the point of no return.
B) the law of diminishing returns.
C) supply and demand.
D) network inelasticity.

Question 79

A virtual company

A) uses the capabilities of other companies without being physically tied to those companies.
B) uses Internet technology to maintain a virtual storefront.
C) uses Internet technology to maintain a networked community of users.
D) provides entirely Internet-driven services, or virtual products.

Question 80

Network economics

A) applies the law of diminishing returns to communities of users.
B) applies traditional economics to networked users.
C) sees the cost of adding new members as inconsequential.
D) balances the high cost of adding new members to a community against the lower cost of using network infrastructure.