Deck 3: Examining the Internal Environment: Resources

Question 1

Managerial decision making and external strategic analysis are interdependent.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Land is an example of a resource that could be both tangible and intangible.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Intangible resources offer a better opportunity for competitive advantage than tangible resources.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The basic building blocks of a firm's strategy are its resources and capabilities.

Question 5

A firm could use an alliance to acquire additional resources and capabilities.

Question 6

Tangible resources include knowledge, culture, and patents.

Question 7

Resources may be both tangible and intangible at the same time.

Question 8

Examples of differentiated resources include managerial judgment, trade secrets, and brand equity.

Question 9

There are certain generic resources available that any firm could acquire.

Question 10

Examples of differentiated resources include land, debt financing, and unskilled labor.

Question 11

Intel is successful because it doesn't license its technology to other manufacturers.

Question 12

Intangible assets are easily identified and valued.

Question 13

Managers play the unique role of being a resource for the firm and having capabilities they use to manage the firm.

Question 14

SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Question 15

The resource-based inputs into the strategy process are opportunities and threats.

Question 16

A firm's resources and capabilities become less significant when a firm chooses to enter into a strategic alliance.

Question 17

Firms can achieve a competitive advantage by configuring value-chain activities in ways that add more value to their products and services.

Question 18

Resources are the inputs that firms use to create goods or services.

Question 19

Undifferentiated resources are difficult to purchase through normal supply chain channels.

Question 20

Differences in long-term performance between firms in the same industry primarily come from different internal sources of competitive advantage.

Question 21

If a firm is involved in every stage of the value chain, it is highly integrated.

Question 22

VRINE analysis allows managers to test the importance of resources and capabilities.

Question 23

A complementary relationship between tangible resources and capabilities gives a firm a competitive advantage.

Question 24

Outsourcing is what a firm does when it contracts with outside suppliers to perform parts of a company's value chain of activities.

Question 25

Something that a firm can do that its competitors can't do is called a distinctive capability.

Question 26

Core competencies are capabilities that set a firm apart from other firms.

Question 27

McDonalds' intangible real estate gives it a competitive advantage.

Question 28

Wal-Mart's management of logistics signifies an important intangible resource.

Question 29

According to the VRINE model, a firm with generic and imitable resources and capabilities will gain a competitive advantage.

Question 30

Exploitable resources can contribute to competitive advantage.

Question 31

Firms outsource functions as a means for sharing their capabilities with external suppliers.

Question 32

Capabilities refer to a firm's skill in using its resources to create goods and services.

Question 33

All the value-adding activities by which a firm produces, distributes, and markets a product are its value chain.

Question 34

Core capabilities are common to the principal business operations of the firm.

Question 35

In the oil industry, resources and capabilities are uniformly developed by all competitors.

Question 36

Competitors may easily imitate acquiring tangible resources.

Question 37

The terms Competences and capabilities are interchangeable.

Question 38

All of a firm's capabilities contribute equally to its competitive advantage.

Question 39

Tangible resources offer the best opportunity for competitive advantage.

Question 40

Wal-Mart has gained a competitive advantage by locating stores in rural markets.

Question 41

Causal ambiguity is a condition where a resource is considered valuable and rare because it is difficult to identify and understand.

Question 42

Corporate jets are an example of a resource that can either be valuable or can provide little economic value.

Question 43

A patent is an example of a rare and valuable resource.

Question 44

Some resources that are sources of value can be abused and become sources of corporate overhead.

Question 45

Possessing and controlling a resource are necessary and sufficient for gaining a competitive advantage.

Question 46

A capability is said to be rare if it enables a firm to fend off threats in its environment.

Question 47

Capital tied up in resources that do not meet the VRINE criteria should be reinvested in other resources.

Question 48

A valuable resource that is readily available contributes to competitive advantage.

Question 49

The VRINE criterion of rarity requires that only one firm has the resource.

Question 50

The criterion of inimitability is satisfied if competitors cannot readily acquire the valuable and rare resource.

Question 51

Property rights are the most clear-cut example of resources and capabilities that are difficult to imitate.

Question 52

To gain a competitive advantage, a firm must have the organizational ability to exploit their resources.

Question 53

Table stakes are resources that are rare and valuable.

Question 54

Pfizer's patent for Viagra satisfies both the rare and valuable requirements of the VRINE model.

Question 55

An organization's exploitative capabilities incorporate all of the dimensions of its value-adding processes.

Question 56

Owning resources that don't meet the VRINE criteria is considered a necessary element of conducting business.

Question 57

A firm that controls a valuable and scare resource always has a competitive advantage.

Question 58

The VRINE model cannot be used to assess every resource or capability for potential competitive advantage.

Question 59

If a competitor can readily substitute resources and achieve the same benefit using different combinations of resources, the nonsubstitutability criterion is satisfied.

Question 60

Rarity is defined as scarcity relative to demand.

Question 61

Dynamic capabilities are processes by which a firm integrates, reconfigures, acquires, or divests resources.

Question 62

Stocks of resources and capabilities are created over time through divestments.

Question 63

Accumulating resources is a dynamic process.

Question 64

Choices about value-chain arenas, in conjunction with differentiators, solidify internal sources of competitive advantage.

Question 65

A firm's stock of resources and capabilities is what a firm possesses at any given time.

Question 66

Making imitation by other companies difficult helps a company protect its advantage.

Question 67

The process of resource accumulation is similar to the static possession of stocks of resources and capabilities.

Question 68

Tradeoff protection involves trading actions between support and primary value-chain activities.

Question 69

It is relatively easy for an established competitor to imitate the successful value chain of a leading competitor.

Question 70

Some resources cannot be purchased.

Question 71

Primary value-chain activities include human resources, accounting operations, and procurement.

Question 72

Brand equity can be purchased without buying an existing brand from another company.

Question 73

The cost of available seat miles is not a common measure of costs in the airline industry.

Question 74

Rebundling resources and capabilities can be accomplished through alliances and acquisitions.

Question 75

Intangible resources such as brand equity, reputation, and innovative capability result from policies and strategies that have been implemented over extended periods of time.

Question 76

Resource accumulation is static while possession of stocks of resources is dynamic.

Question 77

Reconfiguring resources and capabilities is a static process.

Question 78

Southwest Airlines operates at a significantly lower cost than its competitors.

Question 79

Primary and support activities are both potential sources of competitive advantage.

Question 80

In industries in which time to market is not critical, the ability to adapt to change or to initiate it is vitally important.