Deck 13: Strategic Entrepreneurship

Question 1

In the process of strategic entrepreneurship, a firm tries to find opportunities in its external environment that it can try and exploit through innovation.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

International entrepreneurship is a process in which firms creatively discover and exploit opportunities that are outside their domestic markets in order to develop a competitive advantage.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Entrepreneurial opportunities exist because of competitive imperfections in markets and among the factors of production used to produce them and because information about these imperfections is distributed symmetrically among individuals.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Autonomous strategic behaviour is a bottom-up process in which product champions pursue new ideas, often through a political process, by means of which they develop and coordinate the commercialisation of a new good or service until it achieves success in the marketplace.

Question 5

Acquisitions offer a relatively risk-free approach to producing and managing innovation.

Question 6

Incremental innovations are revolutionary and nonliner in nature.

Question 7

Induced strategic behaviour is a top-down process whereby a firm's current strategy and structure foster entrepreneurial activities that are closely associated with that strategy and structure.

Question 8

A society's cultural characteristics influence a nation's rate of entrepreneurship and its related practices.

Question 9

To facilitate innovation capabilities, firms should be involved in a large number of alliances.

Question 10

Corporate entrepreneurship is the use or application of entrepreneurship within an established firm.

Question 11

Evidence shows that combining two firms through acquisition results in an increase in the R&D spending-to-sales ratio.

Question 12

Entrepreneurship calls for a balance between individual initiative and a spirit of cooperation and group ownership of innovation.

Question 13

Research results suggest that exceptionally high levels of individualism might be dysfunctional for entrepreneurship.

Question 14

Radical innovations usually provide significant technological breakthroughs and create new knowledge.

Question 15

A larger number of incremental innovations spring from autonomous strategic behaviour while the greatest percentage of radical innovations come from induced strategic behaviour.

Question 16

Entrepreneurial ventures produce more radical innovations than do their larger, more established counterparts.

Question 17

Political activity that is centred around the allocation of resources to different functions may limit the effective use of cross-functional teams.

Question 18

Evidence demonstrates that large established firms are more effective innovators.

Question 19

Identifying opportunities to exploit through innovation is the entrepreneurship part of strategic entrepreneurship, while determining the best way to manage the firm's innovation efforts is the entrepreneur's role.

Question 20

Schumpeter suggested that firms engage in three types of innovative activity when managing the innovation process - imitation, innovation and diffusion.

Question 21

Induced strategic behaviour is a process that fosters product innovations that:

A)are likely to change a firm's strategic intent and mission
B)will lead to greater financial returns
C)are aligned closely with current strategy and structure
D)are most likely to fail

Question 22

Transferring knowledge, a condition for innovativeness, can often be difficult because the receiving party needs to have the adequate ________ to learn the knowledge.

A)absorptive capacity
B)human capital
C)managerial skills
D)capabilities

Question 23

Incremental innovations are ________ in nature while radical innovations are ________ in nature.

A)evolutionary and nonlinear; revolutionary and linear
B)revolutionary and linear; evolutionary and nonlinear
C)revolutionary and nonlinear; evolutionary and linear
D)evolutionary and linear; revolutionary and nonlinear

Question 24

Schumpeter argues that firms engage in three types of innovative activity, namely:

A)incremental innovation, radical innovation and outsourcing innovation
B)invention, innovation and entrepreneurship
C)imitation, innovation and invention
D)entrepreneurship, innovation and imitation

Question 25

The strategic decisions that derive from strategic context:

A)determine the structure of a firm and its corporate governance systems
B)are shaped by property, plant and equipment owned by a firm
C)often require political processes to gain acceptance
D)affect the layout of offices and production areas at a firm's headquarters

Question 26

Which of the following is one of the barriers to effectiveness when using cross-functional teams to integrate organisational functions?

A)Dissension within the top management team
B)Informal organisational processes within the firm
C)The firm's strategic orientation
D)Organisational politics

Question 27

In the context of internal corporate ventures, the patterns of interaction, coordination, communication and decision making that employees use to convert innovations into successful market entries describes a firm's:

A)venture design
B)management structure
C)organisational processes
D)management technologies

Question 28

Innovation is the:

A)act of creating or developing a new product
B)adoption of a new product by a population of similar firms
C)an application of knowledge to produce new knowledge
D)patenting of a new idea

Question 29

With regard to corporate entrepreneurship, a strategic leader's role is to:

A)take advantage of economic opportunities
B)increase organisational efficiency
C)have an entrepreneurial mind-set
D)analyse product performance and make decisions regarding product line expansion

Question 30

Research shows that entrepreneurship declines as:

A)individualism is emphasised
B)collectivism is emphasised
C)economic reforms allow more autonomy
D)government reforms allow more political freedoms

Question 31

Corporate entrepreneurship is defined as:

A)an organisation's ability to create a new organisation or generate internal innovation
B)the reduction of an organisation's size
C)the removal of unions from an organisation
D)the assurance that managers own large portions of an organisation's stock

Question 32

Autonomous strategic behaviour is a(n) ________ process in which product champions pursue new ideas.

A)horizontal
B)bottom-up
C)integrated
D)top-down

Question 33

Many firms are now using product development teams primarily to:

A)attract high-quality engineering talent
B)increase the speed of the product development function
C)facilitate creativity
D)integrate the activities associated with different organisational functions

Question 34

A product champion is a member of:

A)a governmental regulatory body that promotes the adoption of a given idea
B)the top management team of a business unit that is responsible for a product line
C)the top management team that is responsible for corporate venturing
D)a firm that has an entrepreneurial vision for a product and its commercial promotion

Question 35

The level of innovation in a firm can be increased by:

A)restructuring the firm to centralise and expand the innovation function
B)focusing teams on a single area of functional expertise
C)avoiding cooperative strategies because these can divert management's attention
D)offering incentives to managers to be entrepreneurial

Question 36

Through the work of cross-functional teams, product development stages are grouped into ________ processes.

A)short-term or long-term
B)parallel or overlapping
C)serially ordered
D)complementary

Question 37

What are the three keywords that are often associated with an entrepreneurial mind-set?

A)Knowledge, opportunities and human capital
B)Uncertainty, invention and knowledge
C)Invention, innovation and opportunities
D)Uncertainty, opportunities and innovation

Question 38

Innovation may be required to maintain or achieve ________ as well as a competitive advantage in many global markets.

A)revenue
B)customer satisfaction
C)competitive parity
D)profitability

Question 39

When used effectively, cross-functional teams will often bring about:

A)faster product development processes
B)an increased need for additional information
C)conflicting information about the business environment
D)poor product design decisions

Question 40

Entrepreneurial opportunities arise not because of:

A)competitive imperfections in markets
B)liberalisation as a result of globalisation
C)competitive imperfections in the factors of production used to produce goods and services for markets
D)the fact that information about competitive imperfections is distributed asymmetrically among individuals

Question 41

Which one of the following is not a risk associated with innovation using cooperation?

A)Conflict between partners
B)Partner appropriating a firm's knowledge or technology
C)Shared profits
D)Managing too many alliances

Question 42

What is an entrepreneur? What is the entrepreneurial mind-set?

Question 43

What is the importance of facilitating integration and innovation across functional units?

Question 44

Discuss the risks of international entrepreneurship.Why are there differences in the rates of entrepreneurship among different countries?

Question 45

A negative effect of acquiring other firms for the purpose of innovation is:

A)that innovation cannot be transferred between organisations
B)the effect it can have on the firm's own ability to produce innovation
C)that innovation may not actually be present in the firm after the purchase is completed
D)that the acquired firm may not have wanted to be acquired

Question 46

Discuss the methods an organisation can use to facilitate cross-functional integration.

Question 47

What are some of the barriers may prevent the successful use of cross-functional teams as a means of integrating organisational functions?

Question 48

A communication system facilitates cross-functional integration if it is shaped by:

A)the firm's developmental history
B)the goals of the organisation
C)shared values and leadership practices
D)the firm's primary industry

Question 49

Discuss the difference between incremental and radical innovation.

Question 50

Discuss the differences in innovation between large and small firms.

Question 51

________, when linked to a firm's strategic intent and mission, becomes the glue that promotes coupling among functional units.

A)An effective communication system
B)Allocation of resources
C)Leadership
D)Shared values

Question 52

Discuss the three strategic approaches used to produce and manage innovation.

Question 53

Discuss the potential benefits and disadvantages of strategic alliances and acquisitions.

Question 54

Define the three types of innovative activity.