Deck 3: Information Systems, organizations, and Strategy

Question 1

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

Answer 1

True

Question 2

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

Answer 2

False

Question 3

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 labour.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

When the Eastman Chemical Company split off from Kodak,it demonstrated that firm size can stay constant or contract even as the company increases its revenues.

Question 5

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.

Question 6

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

Question 7

Chapters.Indigo.ca keeps track of user preferences for book and CD purchases and can recommend titles purchased by others to its customers.This illustrates a firm using a low-cost leadership strategy.

Question 8

A Professional bureaucracy is a large bureaucracy existing in a slowly changing environment,producing standard products.

Question 9

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

Question 10

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

Question 11

Strong linkages to customers and suppliers decrease switching costs.

Question 12

The competitive forces model was created for today's digital firm.

Question 13

Mass customization is a form of mass production.

Question 14

Information systems and organizations influence one another.

Question 15

In the age of the Internet,Porter's traditional competitive forces model is still at work,but competitive rivalry has become much more intense.

Question 16

A transparent marketplace means that there is high product differentiation.

Question 17

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

Question 18

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

Question 19

Lands' End customers can use the company's Web site to order jeans,dress pants,chino pants,and shirts custom-tailored to their own specifications.This is an example of mass customization.

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

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

Question 22

Over the last decade,information systems have fundamentally altered the economics of organizations and greatly increased the possibilities for organizing work.

Question 23

Political resistance is one of the great difficulties of bringing about organizational change.

Question 24

Firms traditionally grew in size to increase transaction costs.

Question 25

People in organizations occupy different positions with similar specialties,concerns,and perspectives.

Question 26

A global sales force can receive nearly instant price product information updates using the Web or instructions from management sent by e-mail.

Question 27

A behavioural view of organizations encourages us to focus on how inputs are combined to create outputs when technology changes are introduced into the company.

Question 28

Organizations are formal legal entities with internal rules and procedures that must abide by laws.

Question 29

A technical view of organizations encourages us to focus on how inputs are combined to create outputs when technology changes are introduced into the company.

Question 30

All organizations are composed of individual routines and behaviours,a collection of which make up a business process.

Question 31

Capital and labour are primary production factors provided by the environment.

Question 32

Large,bureaucratic organizations,which primarily developed before the computer age,are often inefficient,quick to change,and more competitive than newly created organizations.

Question 33

Standard operating procedures are precise rules,procedures,and practices that have been developed to cope with virtually all expected situations.

Question 34

Businesses are rapidly rebuilding some of their key business processes based on Internet technology and making this technology a key component of their IT infrastructures.

Question 35

The law of diminishing returns always applies to digital,as well as traditional companies.

Question 36

Virtually all large information systems investments by a firm that bring about significant changes in strategy,business objectives,business processes,and procedures become politically charged events.

Question 37

As a manager,you do not decide which systems will be developed,what they will do,and how they will be implemented.

Question 38

In network economics,the more people that use Microsoft Office software and related products,the greater its value.

Question 39

According to transaction cost theory,firms and individuals seek an increase on transaction costs,much as they do on production costs.

Question 40

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

Question 41

Information systems are key instruments for environmental scanning,helping managers identify external changes that might require an organizational response.

Question 42

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 labour as primary production factors.
C)It sees the inputs and outputs,labour and capital,as being infinitely malleable.
D)It sees the organization as a social structure similar to a machine.

Question 43

Postindustrial theories based more on history and sociology than economics also support the notion that IT should flatten hierarchies.

Question 44

Which of the following is an example of a disruptive technology?

A)digital photography
B)a new version of Microsoft Excel
C)a third generation iPod
D)an all-in-one printer

Question 45

Walmart is an example of a manufacturer using information systems to create products and services that are customized and personalized to fit the precise specifications of individual customers.

Question 46

Google was a first mover in search that was able to maintain rights to a powerful new search algorithm called PageRank.

Question 47

In a free economy with mobile labour and financial resources,new companies are always entering the marketplace.

Question 48

Network-based strategies include the use of network economics,a virtual company model,and business ecosystems.

Question 49

Apple's iTunes is considered to have a competitive advantage in the downloaded music market.

Question 50

The global consulting service Accenture is an example of information technology encouraging task force-networked organizations in which groups of professionals come together for short periods of time to accomplish a specific task.

Question 51

Arguably,the most widely used model for understanding competitive advantage is Michael Porter's generic strategies model

Question 52

Growth in book sales other than textbooks and professional publications has been growing as new forms of entertainment continue to compete for consumers' time.

Question 53

The interaction between information systems and organizations is

A)primarily guided by the decision making of middle- and senior-managers.
B)a complex,two-way relationship mediated by factors such as the environment and organizational structure.
C)driven by the microeconomic forces of capital and labour.
D)successfully managed when the organization's existing culture and goals are seen as the driving force.

Question 54

Information technology cannot help firms lower the cost of market participation making it worthwhile for firms to contract with external suppliers instead of using internal sources.

Question 55

Newspapers are also excited about the iPad,which represents a way for them to continue charging for all of the content they have been forced to make available online.

Question 56

Hilton Hotels' OnQ system analyzes detailed data collected on active guests in all of its properties to determine the preferences of each guest and each guest's profitability.

Question 57

Firms that "do better" than others are said to have a non-competitive advantage over others.

Question 58

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)behavioural

Question 59

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

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

Question 60

A collection of business processes make up the business firm.

Question 61

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 62

Old Dutch Potato Chips has just installed a new state-of-the art information system that allows them to track delivery of their potato chips in real time to all of their customers.This information system is attempting to add value to which part of their value chain?

A)inbound logistics
B)operations
C)procurement
D)outbound logistics

Question 63

Chapters.Indigo.ca keeps track of user preferences for book and CD purchases and can recommend titles purchased by others to its customers.Strong linkages to customers and suppliers increase switching costs.Chapters.Indigo.ca is utilizing which source of competitive advantage?

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

Question 64

An example of a professional bureaucracy is a

A)small startup firm.
B)school system.
C)mid-size manufacturing firm.
D)consulting firm.

Question 65

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

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

Question 66

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 67

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 68

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

Question 69

Jean uses his loyalty rewards program card to buy gas from the Shell Oil Company,he only needs 300 more points to get a free flight to Calgary.This illustrates Shell Oil dealing with the competitive force of ________.

A)substitute products and services
B)new market entrants
C)customers
D)suppliers

Question 70

Ontario Iron Works Ltd.has just located a Web portal that gives access to many companies from which they can purchase their raw material from;this illustrates the competitive force of ________.

A)customers
B)new market entrants
C)substitute products and services
D)suppliers

Question 71

Business processes are collections of

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

Question 72

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 73

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 74

Rogers Cable was the sole supplier of iPhones in Canada for two years,but now Telus and Bell can market iPhones in Canada;this illustrates the competitive force of ________.

A)customers
B)new market entrants
C)substitute products and services
D)suppliers

Question 75

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 76

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 77

Marie has developed a unique patented process to manufacture metal picture frames.This unique process allows Marie to use less raw materials and less labour than her competitors.Marie is utilizing which source of competitive advantage?

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

Question 78

John has opened a new Web-based retail book store.John stocks,sells,and specializes on only technical engineering books and manuals.John is utilizing which source of competitive advantage?

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

Question 79

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 80

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

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