Question 1

According to the resource-based view of information technology,sustainable competitive advantage occurs when information technology adds value,is different across firms,and is difficult to create or acquire.

Accepted Answer

According to the resource-based view of information technology, sustainable competitive advantage is achieved when information technology adds value, is unique to a firm, and is not easily replicated by competitors.

Question 2

Bar codes and document scanners are common methods of electronically capturing data.

Accepted Answer

Bar codes and document scanners are electronic devices designed for capturing data.

Question 3

Unsupervised data mining is unethical.

Accepted Answer

Unsupervised data mining is the process in which the user tells the data mining software to uncover whatever patterns and relationships it can find in a data set.

Question 4

The primary difference between raw data and information is meaning to the user.

Accepted Answer

Raw data is simply unorganized and unprocessed data with no meaning to the user. On the other hand, information is raw data that has been processed and organized into a meaningful context for the user. Therefore, the primary difference between raw data and information is the meaning it provides to the user.

Question 5

In today's hypercompetitive business environments,capital-that is,money-is still more important than information for business success.

Accepted Answer

In today's hypercompetitive business environments,information is as important as capital-that is,money-for business success.

Question 6

Association patterns are also called sequence patterns.

Accepted Answer

Association patterns are also called affinity patterns.

Question 7

Information has strategic importance for organizations because it can be used to obtain first-mover advantage and to sustain a competitive advantage once it has been created.

Accepted Answer

Information can provide organizations with valuable insights that can lead to innovations, improved decision-making, and cost reductions. By understanding market trends, customer preferences, and industry developments, organizations can stay ahead of the competition and create new market opportunities. Once a competitive advantage has been created, information can also help organizations to sustain their position by continuously monitoring the market and adapting to changes.

Question 8

Raw data contain useful information that communicates a clear and readily understandable message to the person for whom the data were gathered.

Accepted Answer

Raw data refers to facts and figures that do not have clear meaning to a person.The above is a more appropriate definition of information.That is,while raw data consist of facts and figures,information is useful data that can influence someone's choices and behaviour.

Question 9

Narrative 17-2
For more than a century, the city of London, England, has had the worst traffic in Europe. Half the time is spent at a standstill, and the average speed is 9 mph, down from 12 mph in 1903 when traffic consisted of horses and carriages. To improve traffic, London's mayor has imposed a "Congestion Zone" fee of £5 per day for any vehicle that enters the eight square miles of central London between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on weekdays. Drivers who enter the zone but don't pay are fined from £50 to £125.
First, 688 cameras were used in 203 locations to take accurate pictures of vehicles entering the zone. In general, the cameras are only 90 percent accurate in reading the licence plate numbers on the cars. But with 688 cameras in total, multiple pictures are taken of each car, and partial pictures of licence plates are matched with complete pictures, with the former discarded and the latter retained.
Next, the pictures from the cameras are sent via a dedicated fibre-optic cable to an "image management store." An "image management store" is basically a huge farm of networked, redundant servers. If one server goes down, multiple backup servers run live with the same data. Doing this was needed because the city anticipated processing one million pictures a day.
Once the pictures are snapped, transported via fibre-optic cable, and placed in the "image management store," the next step is "reading" the licence plate in the picture, converting it to readable text, and matching licence plate records stored in government databases. Transport of London uses software that scans digitized documents into ASCII text and then matches and compares multiple pictures of the same licence plate. For example, imagine that a licence plate is 12345678 and that the congestion cameras get three partial pictures-12345, 34567, and 5678-and one complete picture, 12345678. The software has to interpret that all four pictures were of the same vehicle; then, it has to select the last picture, 12345678, not the partial pictures, when converting the picture to text. Finally, once the licence plate is converted to text, its number is then matched with an existing licence plate in a government database. At that point, "Congestion Zone" charges are linked with whoever owns the vehicle.
-Refer to the Narrative 17-2.What basic method of capturing information does the City of London use to identify and fine automobile drivers who enter the city's "Congestion Zone"?
A) manual
B) intranet
C) electronic
D) virtual

Accepted Answer

The City of London uses electronic methods to capture information through cameras that take pictures of vehicles entering the Congestion Zone and read their license plate numbers. The pictures are then sent via a dedicated fiber-optic cable to an "image management store" for processing and matching with existing government databases.

Question 10

Pioneering differential refers to the strategic advantage that companies earn by being the first in an industry to use new information technology to substantially lower costs or to differentiate a product or service from competitors.

Accepted Answer

First-mover advantage is the term used to describe this.

Question 11

Data mining typically splits a data set in half,finds patterns in one half,and then tests the validity of those patterns by trying to find them again in the second half of the data set.

Accepted Answer

This is a common approach in data mining, called cross-validation or holdout validation, where one part of the data set is used to build a model and the other part is used to test its performance and validity. This helps to avoid overfitting and assess the generalizability of the patterns discovered.

Question 12

The key to sustaining a competitive advantage is using information technology to continuously improve and support the core functions of a business.

Accepted Answer

Information technology can be used to improve and support a business's core functions, such as operations, customer service, and decision-making processes. By continually utilizing and updating technology, a business can maintain a competitive advantage over others in the same industry.

Question 13

The term data mining refers to the process of discovering unknown patterns and relationships in large amounts of data.

Accepted Answer

Data mining involves using various techniques to analyze and extract patterns from large datasets, often with the goal of making predictions or identifying insights that can inform business decisions. It can involve using statistical methods, machine learning algorithms, and other approaches to uncover hidden relationships and patterns in the data.

Question 14

Moore's law refers to the prediction that every 18 months,the cost of computing will drop by 50 percent as computer-processing power doubles.

Accepted Answer

Moore's law does indeed predict that every 18 months, computing costs will drop by 50 percent while processing power doubles.

Question 15

The two basic methods of capturing information are continuous and periodic.

Accepted Answer

The two basic methods of capturing information are manual and electronic.

Question 16

A data warehouse stores raw data that have been collected from a variety of sources for later use.

Accepted Answer

The data in a data warehouse are not raw data; rather,the data have been prepared for data mining analysis by being cleaned of errors and redundancy.

Question 17

The first company to gain first-mover advantage typically benefits from higher profits and larger market share.

Accepted Answer

First-mover advantage refers to the advantage gained by the first company to enter a new market or introduce a new product. This advantage can include brand recognition, customer loyalty, and patents or trade secrets. As a result, the first-mover typically benefits from higher profits and a larger market share. However, there are also risks involved, such as the possibility of product failure or the entrance of competitors with a better product or lower price.

Question 18

Moore's law accounts for the rapid increase in power and reduction in both size and price of computer equipment over the past 35 years.

Accepted Answer

Moore's law states that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years, leading to rapid improvements in computer power, size, and cost-effectiveness since its inception in 1965.

Question 19

Narrative 17-2
For more than a century, the city of London, England, has had the worst traffic in Europe. Half the time is spent at a standstill, and the average speed is 9 mph, down from 12 mph in 1903 when traffic consisted of horses and carriages. To improve traffic, London's mayor has imposed a "Congestion Zone" fee of £5 per day for any vehicle that enters the eight square miles of central London between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on weekdays. Drivers who enter the zone but don't pay are fined from £50 to £125.
First, 688 cameras were used in 203 locations to take accurate pictures of vehicles entering the zone. In general, the cameras are only 90 percent accurate in reading the licence plate numbers on the cars. But with 688 cameras in total, multiple pictures are taken of each car, and partial pictures of licence plates are matched with complete pictures, with the former discarded and the latter retained.
Next, the pictures from the cameras are sent via a dedicated fibre-optic cable to an "image management store." An "image management store" is basically a huge farm of networked, redundant servers. If one server goes down, multiple backup servers run live with the same data. Doing this was needed because the city anticipated processing one million pictures a day.
Once the pictures are snapped, transported via fibre-optic cable, and placed in the "image management store," the next step is "reading" the licence plate in the picture, converting it to readable text, and matching licence plate records stored in government databases. Transport of London uses software that scans digitized documents into ASCII text and then matches and compares multiple pictures of the same licence plate. For example, imagine that a licence plate is 12345678 and that the congestion cameras get three partial pictures-12345, 34567, and 5678-and one complete picture, 12345678. The software has to interpret that all four pictures were of the same vehicle; then, it has to select the last picture, 12345678, not the partial pictures, when converting the picture to text. Finally, once the licence plate is converted to text, its number is then matched with an existing licence plate in a government database. At that point, "Congestion Zone" charges are linked with whoever owns the vehicle.
-Refer to the Narrative 17-2..Which kind of technology is used to turn the licence plate number captured by a photograph into readable text that matches licence plate records already stored in government databases?
A) virtual private networks
B) SSL encryption
C) private encryption codes
D) optical character recognition software

Accepted Answer

Optical character recognition software is used to turn the licence plate number captured by a photograph into readable text that matches licence plate records already stored in government databases.

Question 20

The first airline that was able to allow passengers to buy their plane tickets and reserve their seats online had first-mover advantage.

Accepted Answer

This is true. The first airline to offer online ticket purchasing and seat reservations would have had an advantage over competitors who were slower to adopt the technology.

Quiz 17: Managing Information in a Global World