Deck 6: Organizational Strategy

Question 1

A strategic group is a task force within a company that analyzes the company's own weaknesses to determine how competitors could exploit them for competitive advantage.

Answer 1

  False

Question 2

Which of the following is the first step of a strategy-making process?​ 

A) ​Conducting situational analysis 
B) ​Assessing the need for strategic change 
C) ​Choosing strategic alternatives 
D) ​Evaluating strategic alternatives

Answer 2

  B

Question 3

Which of the following best defines competitive inertia? 

A) ​It is a reluctance to change strategies or competitive practices that have been successful in the past. 
B) ​It is a competitive advantage that other companies have tried unsuccessfully to duplicate. 
C) ​It is a discrepancy between a company's intended strategy and the strategic actions managers take when implementing that strategy. 
D) ​It is a corporate-level strategy that minimizes risk by diversifying investment among various businesses or product lines.

Answer 3

  A

Question 4

Sanfase,a technology company in Rockbourne,manufactures microprocessors for computers.Its product is a lot more powerful than its competitors.This scenario is an example of competitive inertia.

Question 5

_____ is a competitive advantage that other companies have tried unsuccessfully to duplicate and have,for the moment,stopped trying to duplicate.

A) ​Sustainable competitive advantage 
B) ​Revealed competitive advantage 
C) ​Comparative advantage 
D) ​Core competency advantage

Question 6

Growth,stability,and retrenchment are all types of portfolio strategies.

Question 7

Imperfectly imitable resources are those resources that are impossible or extremely costly or difficult to duplicate.

Question 8

Which of the following is the last step of a strategy-making process? 

A) ​Conducting situational analysis 
B) ​Assessing the need for strategic change 
C) ​Choosing strategic alternatives 
D) ​Evaluating strategic alternatives

Question 9

Which of the following best defines strategic dissonance? 

A) ​It is a reluctance to change strategies or competitive practices that have been successful in the past. 
B) ​It is a discrepancy between a company's intended strategy and the strategic actions taken by managers while implementing that strategy. 
C) ​It is a competitive advantage that other companies have tried unsuccessfully to duplicate. 
D) ​It is a corporate-level strategy that minimizes risk by diversifying investment among various businesses or product lines.

Question 10

Which of the following conditions must be met if a firm's resources are to be used to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage? 

A) ​The resources must be cheap, common, and substitutable. 
B) ​The resources must be fixed assets, such as machinery, buildings, and land. 
C) ​The resources must be current assets, such as inventory. 
D) ​The resources must be valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable, and nonsubstitutable.

Question 11

According to portfolio strategy,the more businesses in which a corporation competes,the larger its overall chances of failing.

Question 12

The threat of new entrants is a measure of the degree to which barriers to entry make it easy or difficult for new companies to get started in an industry.

Question 13

Ziff Corp.was a leading electronics firm for about three decades.As the competition changed,its product innovation stopped.The managers at Ziff Corp.are well aware of the strategies that lead to their company's success and they continue to follow the old strategies.This scenario is an example of _____.

A) ​distinctive competence 
B) ​strategic dissonance 
C) ​core capabilities 
D) ​competitive inertia

Question 14

Rare resources are resources that are not controlled or possessed by many competing firms and are necessary to sustain a competitive advantage.

Question 15

A competitive advantage becomes a sustainable competitive advantage when other companies start duplicating the value a firm is providing to customers.

Question 16

A competitive advantage becomes a sustainable competitive advantage when: 

A) ​a company collaborates with its competitors to obtain a larger market share. 
B) ​other companies cannot duplicate the value a firm is providing to customers. 
C) ​all of a company's competitors have similar resources and capabilities. 
D) ​a company's competitors are able to imitate or find substitutes for rare resources.

Question 17

Which of the following can help managers to improve the speed and accuracy with which they determine the need for strategic change? 

A) ​Fostering competitive inertia 
B) ​Eliminating creative work environments 
C) ​Looking for signs of strategic dissonance 
D) ​Limiting design iterations

Question 18

Organizations can achieve a competitive advantage by using their resources to _____.

A) ​create strategies that are simultaneously being implemented by competitors 
B) ​duplicate the value a competitor firm provides to its customers 
C) ​provide greater value for customers than competitors can 
D) ​foster competitive inertia

Question 19

A situational analysis is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses in an organization's internal environment and the opportunities and threats in its external environment.

Question 20

Strategic reference points are the less visible,internal decision-making routines,problem-solving processes,and organizational cultures that determine how efficiently inputs can be turned into outputs.

Question 21

ZeCola is a beverage manufacturer.It presents WYB,a zero-calorie drink to compete with We Fresh's Shire,a low-calorie drink.When WYB is released in the market,We Fresh cuts down the price on Shire to match WYB's price.This scenario is an example of a(n)_____.

A) ​rejoinder 
B) ​attack 
C) ​recovery 
D) ​acquisition

Question 22

A(n)_____ is a competitive countermove,prompted by a rival's attack,to defend or improve a company's market share or profit.

A) ​response 
B) ​attack 
C) ​recovery 
D) ​acquisition

Question 23

_____ largely affects response capability,that is,how quickly and forcefully a company can respond to an attack.

A) ​Growth strategy 
B) ​Cost leadership 
C) ​Differentiation 
D) ​Resource similarity

Question 24

Which of the following statements is true of the BCG matrix? 

A) ​It is used to guide the strategic alternatives that managers of individual businesses may use. 
B) ​It focuses on increasing profits or the number of places in which a company does business. 
C) ​It focuses on improving the way in which a company sells the same products to the same customers. 
D) ​It is used to categorize a corporation's businesses by growth rate and relative market share.

Question 25

Which of the following best defines a distinctive competence? 

A) ​It is what a company can make, do, or perform better than its competitors. 
B) ​It is creating or acquiring companies in completely unrelated businesses. 
C) ​It is the extent to which a competitor has similar amounts and kinds of resources. 
D) ​It is the competitive move designed to reduce a rival's market share or profits.

Question 26

Which of the following statements is true of analyzers? 

A) ​They are the first to bring innovative new products to market. 
B) ​They do not follow a consistent strategy. 
C) ​They are a blend of the defender and prospector strategies. 
D) ​They react to changes in their external environment after they occur.

Question 27

_____ affects the likelihood of an attack or a response to an attack.

A) ​Grand strategy 
B) ​Cost leadership 
C) ​Differentiation 
D) ​Market commonality

Question 28

In the context of adaptive strategies,which of the following best describes prospectors? 

A) ​They seek moderate, steady growth by offering a limited range of products and services to a well-defined set of customers. 
B) ​They seek fast growth by searching for new market opportunities, encouraging risk taking, and being the first to bring innovative new products to market. 
C) ​They try to simultaneously minimize risk and maximize profits by following or imitating the proven successes of firms. 
D) ​They do not follow a consistent strategy and tend to react to changes in their external environment after they occur.

Question 29

Which of the following statements is true of direct competition? 

A) ​It is determined by two factors: market commonality and resource. 
B) ​It does not follow a consistent strategy. 
C) ​It uses cost leadership to produce a specialized product for limited customers. 
D) ​It minimizes the effects of industry competition.

Question 30

Spade and Marcher Corp.manufactures and sells toy guns.These toy guns are a perfect imitation of real weapons.Inspired by Spade and Marcher's success,Keith & Sons,an arms manufacturer in Korowlla,starts to manufacture toy guns too.Which of the following adaptive strategies is used by Keith & Sons? 

A) ​Defenders 
B) ​Prospectors 
C) ​Analyzers 
D) ​Reactors

Question 31

In the context of adaptive strategies,which of the following is true of defenders? 

A) ​They aggressively hold their current strategic position by doing the best job they can to hold on to customers in a particular market segment. 
B) ​They use an adaptive strategy that seeks fast growth by searching for new market opportunities, encouraging risk taking. 
C) ​They try to simultaneously minimize risk and maximize profits by following or imitating the proven successes of prospectors. 
D) ​They do not follow a consistent strategy and tend to react to changes in their external environment after they occur.

Question 32

Which of the following statements is true of a portfolio strategy? 

A) ​It guides the strategic decisions of corporations that compete in a variety of businesses. 
B) ​It guides an investor who invests in a variety of stocks. 
C) ​It reduces risk by buying a variety of items so that the failure of one business does not doom the entire portfolio. 
D) ​It focuses on increasing profits, revenues, or the number of places in which a company does business.

Question 33

Which of the following is a core capability of a company that determines how efficiently inputs can be turned into outputs? 

A) ​External decision-making routines 
B) ​Customer acquisition routines 
C) ​Problem-solving processes 
D) ​Market-sensing processes

Question 34

Bob's Assembly is a hardware manufacturer.It specializes in builders' hardware for doors,cabinets,windows,and bathrooms.Bob's Assembly products are cheaper and 95% more durable than its competitors' products.This scenario is an example of _____ as Bob's Assembly performs better than its competitors.

A) ​core capability 
B) ​distinctive competence 
C) ​competitive inertia 
D) ​strategic dissonance

Question 35

In the context of portfolio strategy,_____ is the purchase of a company by another company.

A) ​divestiture 
B) ​demerger 
C) ​acquisition 
D) ​restructuring

Question 36

Which of the following best defines cash cows? 

A) ​They are the companies that have a large share of a fast-growing market. 
B) ​They are the companies that have a small share of a fast-growing market. 
C) ​They are the companies that have a large share of a slow-growing market. 
D) ​They are the companies that have a small share of a slow-growing market.

Question 37

The BCG matrix starts by recommending that while the substantial cash flows from cash cows last,they should be reinvested in stars to: 

A) ​achieve strategic goals and guide the strategic alternatives. 
B) ​help them grow even faster and obtain even more market share. 
C) ​increase the number of places in which a company does business. 
D) ​acquire companies that share similar products, technology, or cultures.

Question 38

Which of the following best defines cost leadership? 

A) ​It is the positioning strategy of producing a product or service of acceptable quality at consistently lower production costs than competitors can so that a firm can offer the product or service at the lowest price in the industry. 
B) ​It is the positioning strategy of providing a product or service that is sufficiently different from competitors' offerings that customers are willing to pay a premium price for it. 
C) ​It is the positioning strategy to produce a specialized product or service for a limited, specially targeted group of customers in a particular geographic region or market segment. 
D) ​It is the positioning strategy of companies that do not follow a consistent adaptive strategy but instead react to changes in the external environment after they occur.

Question 39

Which of the following best defines a SWOT analysis? 

A) ​It is an assessment of both the internal and external environment of an organization. 
B) ​It measures the tangible rather than the intangible assets of an organization. 
C) ​It is conducted by regulatory agencies to measure the performance of organizations. 
D) ​Its aim is to review internal processes independently of the external industry environment.

Question 40

_____ is a measure of the intensity of competitive behavior among companies in an industry.

A) ​Character assassination 
B) ​Character of the rivalry 
C) ​Threat of new entrants 
D) ​Threat of substitute products

Question 41

_________ are companies using an adaptive strategy that seeks to minimize risk and maximize profits by following or imitating the proven successes of prospectors.

Question 42

 _________ is the positioning strategy of providing products or services sufficiently different from competitors' offerings that customers are willing to pay a premium cost for the extra value or performance that it provides.

Question 43

_________ are used by managers to measure whether their firm has developed the core competencies that it needs to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
A.Strategic reference points
B.Corporate-level strategies
C.Distinctive competencies
D.Core capabilities

Question 44

_________ is a measure of the intensity of competitive behavior among companies in an industry.A.Direct competition
B.Character of the rivalryC.Competitive advantageD.Market commonality

Question 45

_________ are companies using an adaptive strategy aimed at defending strategic positions by seeking moderate,steady growth and by offering a limited range of high-quality products and services to a well-defined set of customers.

Question 46

_________ is a strategy that focuses on increasing profits,revenues,market share,or the number of places in which a company does business.
A.Retrenchment strategy
B.Stability strategy
C.Recovery strategy
D.Growth strategy

Question 47

_________ is creating or acquiring companies that share similar products,manufacturing,marketing,technology,or cultures.

Question 48

_________ are companies that have a small share of a fast-growing market.
A.Question marks
B.Cash cows
C.Stars
D.Dogs

Question 49

In the context of direct competition,_________ is defined as the degree to which two companies have overlapping products,services,or customers in multiple markets.

Question 50

_________ is a strategy for reducing risk by buying a variety of items so that the failure of one stock or one business does not doom the entire portfolio.
A.Restructuring
B.Diversification
C.Acquisition
D.Exit planning