Deck 3: Environmental Scanning and Industry Analysis

Question 1

Companies with fairly broad product lines that focus on product innovations and market opportunities are what strategic type?

A) initiators
B) reactors
C) analyzers
D) prospectors
E) defenders

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which barrier to entry uses cost advantages associated with large size?

A) rivalry among existing firms
B) switching costs
C) cost disadvantages independent of size
D) capital requirements
E) economies of scale

Answer 2

E

Question 3

The corporation's societal environment

A) includes those elements or groups within an organization's industry.
B) encompasses the physical working areas of the organization.
C) includes general forces that do not directly affect an organization.
D) must be in perfect fit with the organization's culture.
E) includes key stakeholders.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Plotting the market position of industry competitors on a two-dimensional graph using two strategic variables as the vertical and horizontal axes is used to identify

A) entry barriers.
B) most important competitors.
C) strategic types.
D) market gaps.
E) strategic groups.

Question 5

Industry analysis is primarily concerned with a corporation's

A) societal environment.
B) task environment.
C) sociocultural environment.
D) economic environment.
E) internal environment.

Question 6

The willingness to reject unfamiliar and negative information in environmental scanning is called

A) strategic myopia.
B) strategic incompetence.
C) brainstorming.
D) logical incrementalism.
E) tacit knowing.

Question 7

Which factor is part of the natural environment?

A) political-legal forces
B) bargaining power of suppliers
C) economic forces
D) technological forces
E) physical resources

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT a factor in the societal environment?

A) political-legal forces
B) labor forces
C) economic forces
D) technological forces
E) sociocultural forces

Question 9

What is a set of business units or firms that "pursue similar strategies with similar resources?"

A) strategic group
B) collective collaboration
C) cooperative
D) integral association
E) strategic assembly

Question 10

When an industry undergoes an ever-increasing level of environmental uncertainty in which competitive advantage is only temporary, this is called

A) hypercompetition.
B) the chaos scenario.
C) industry consolidation.
D) industry fragmentation.
E) global competition.

Question 11

Which strategic type are companies that have a limited product line and focus on improving the efficiency of their existing operations?

A) initiators
B) reactors
C) analyzers
D) prospectors
E) defenders

Question 12

According to the Porter model, a strong force can be regarded as an)

A) benefit.
B) opportunity.
C) advantage.
D) threat.
E) risk.

Question 13

The issues priority matrix used in environmental scanning is composed of two axis or dimensions which are labeled

A) importance to the industry and likelihood of occurrence.
B) industry growth rate and probable competitive position.
C) probability of occurrence and probable impact on the corporation.
D) probable industry attractiveness and business strength/ competitive position.
E) issue importance and relative power of stakeholder groups.

Question 14

Corporations that lack a consistent strategy-structure-culture relationship are what strategic type?

A) initiators
B) reactors
C) analyzers
D) prospectors
E) defenders

Question 15

According to the text, the strength of each of the six driving forces of industry competition varies according to the

A) effectiveness of the strategic planning.
B) stage of industry evolution.
C) industry growth rate and competitive position.
D) changes in the political environment.
E) amount of government regulation.

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT one of the general Miles & Snow strategic types?

A) initiators
B) reactors
C) analyzers
D) prospectors
E) defenders

Question 17

Which force places a ceiling on the price firms in an industry can probably charge?

A) threat of new entrants
B) threat of substitutes
C) bargaining power of buyers
D) bargaining power of suppliers
E) rivalry among existing firms

Question 18

The collective strength of the interaction of potential entrants, buyers, substitutes, suppliers, firm rivalry, and other stakeholders determines

A) the level of government action in an industry.
B) the probable industry attractiveness and business strength position.
C) the ultimate profit potential in the industry measured in terms of long-run return on invested capital.
D) the aggregate level of demand for a product line.
E) the amount of pressure from the societal environment.

Question 19

The corporation's task environment

A) encompasses the physical working areas of the organization.
B) includes those elements or groups within an organization's industry.
C) is an advisory committee to top-management.
D) is an accounting of the many jobs within an organization.
E) is the job requirement specification listing necessary skills and abilities.

Question 20

An industry that operates world-wide with MNCs making only small adjustments for country-specific circumstances is called a

A) very big industry.
B) multi-domestic industry.
C) global industry.
D) multi-national industry.
E) a mega-industry.

Question 21

The percentage of companies engaging in competitive intelligence activities is

A) 10%.
B) 30%.
C) 50%.
D) 80%.
E) 90%.

Question 22

The most popular form of forecasting is

A) statistical modeling.
B) scenario-writing.
C) Delphi technique.
D) brainstorming.
E) trend extrapolation.

Question 23

The most widely used forecasting technique used after trend extrapolation is

A) statistical modeling.
B) simulations.
C) scenario-writing.
D) relevance trees.
E) signal monitoring.

Question 24

In an Industry Matrix, those variables that can affect significantly the overall competitive positions of companies within any particular industry are called

A) strategic factors.
B) key success factors.
C) critical success factors.
D) SWOT variables.
E) competitive variables.

Question 25

The technique recommended by the text to summarize an analysis of external factors is called

A) IFAS.
B) EFAS.
C) SFAS.
D) SWOT.
E) the issues priority matrix.

Question 26

What is trend extrapolation?

A) The process of converting intuition and hunches into reality.
B) The extension of present trends into the future.
C) Process of asking some authorities in the area to make an "informed guess" about the future.
D) Given a large amount of historical data on certain interrelated factors, one attempts to conceptualize alternative futures.
E) Detecting faulty underlying assumptions before forecasting errors can occur.

Question 27

A non-quantitative approach to forecasting that requires simply the presence of people with some knowledge of the situation to be predicted is called

A) simulations.
B) the Delphi technique.
C) signal monitoring.
D) brainstorming.
E) scenarios.