Questions

Question 1

According to Mintzberg (2.4 Decision-making: It's not what you think), which decision-making approach is associated with organizational behavior, Karl Weick, and the following process: enactment => selection => retention ?

1. Doing first
2. Being first
3. Thinking first
4. Seeing first

Question 2

Which approach claims that powerful people with the firm prevent learning in order to maintain their own power base?

1. Knowledge-based view
2. Institutionalism
3. Communities of practice
4. Neo-institutionalism

Question 3

In the context of efficient production and plant size, indivisibility means that:

1. economies of scope require certain combinations of products to be produced together.
2. co-specialized assets that must be kept together.
3. the slope of the learning curve will be much steeper initially.
4. an input cannot be scaled down below a minimum size, and can only be scaled up in multiples of that size.

Question 4

In Prospect theory, the relationship between outcomes and the value of those outcomes is drawn as:

1. A straight line
2. An S-shaped curve
3. A U-shaped curve
4. An inverted U-shaped (bell) curve

Question 5

In the Turnbell report, which type of risk is associated with the following issues: loss of key people, succession problems and reputation damage?

1. Compliance risk
2. Operational risk
3. Strategic risk
4. Financial risk

Question 6

Which of Porter’s generic strategies is associated with a narrow market scope and commodity products?

1. Cost focus
2. Differentiation focus
3. Cost differentiation
4. Differentiation

Question 7

Which of the following is not true about strategic groups?

1. Firm profits are very similar within groups, and very different across groups.
2. Groups differ in terms of how much the firms compete within the group.
3. Groups differ in terms of the amount of bargaining power they have with customers and/or suppliers.
4. Some groups might be more affected by substitute products than other groups.

Question 8

According to Mintzberg (Decision-making: It's not what you think), which decision-making approach is most appropriate when many elements have to be combined into creative solutions, commitment on those solutions is key, and communication across boundaries is essential?

1. Doing first
2. Being first
3. Seeing first
4. Thinking first

Question 9

Which of the following is the most effective way to transfer tacit knowledge to new workers?

1. They should attend university courses covering that topic.
2. They should read a report in which an expert in the firm has written down all the key points.
3. They should work as an apprentice with frequent and close contact with an expert.
4. They should read technical journals and trade publications on that issue.

Question 10

Which organizational structure enables business managers to maximize economies of specialization, by allowing them to focus on their products and markets,.....read more

Questions

Question 1

Michael Porter argued that when analyzing opportunities and threats, managers should pay particular attention to five forces that are the major threats that an organization will encounter. Which of the following forces would be affected by your customers' loyalty to your products?

1. The level of rivalry among organizations in an industry

2. The potential for entry into an industry

3. The power of suppliers

4. Substitute products

Question 2

Which of the following best describes the concept of the learning curve?

1. Time-to-market decreases as a function of the number of innovations developed.

2. Technical performance increases in an S-shaped curve as a function of effort.

3. The ability to learn is normally distributed across firms (i.e., a bell-shaped curve).

4. Cost per unit drops as a function of the cumulative output (total number of units produced).

Question 3

The competition among firms in the same strategic group will be ________ between firms belonging to different strategic groups even if they sell similar products or services.

1. similar in intensity to that

2. more intense than that

3. less intense than that

4. variable in intensity than that

Question 4

An independent group of suppliers, such as farmers, gather to form a cooperative in order to sell their products to buyers directly, replacing their previous distributor. This is an example of

1. forward integration.

2. backward integration.

3. threat of substitute products.

4. threat of entry.

Question 5

Which of Porter’s generic strategies is associated with a narrow market scope and commodity products?

1. Cost focus

2. Differentiation focus

3. Cost differentiation

4. Differentiation

Question 6

Which of the following is true regarding a differentiation strategy?

1. A firm selects a unique position on one or more attributes (dimensions) that are important to buyers in general.

2. A corporation is split into a number of different strategic business units (SBUs).

3. A single firm develops a broad portfolio of products targeting a number of different markets.

4. A firm identifies the needs of a specific group of buyers and tailors its strategy to serve that group to the exclusion of other groups.

Question 7

The term 'stuck in the middle':

1. means that the firm's cost structure is not low enough to allow it to attractively price its products and that its products are not sufficiently differentiated to create value for its target customer.

2. indicates that the customers of the firm are willing to pay only a mid-range price for the product.

.....read more

Questions

Question 1

The main factor causing the transition from corporate planning to strategic management was the work of Michael Porter and fellow academics at Harvard Business School.

1. True
2. False

Question 2

An intended strategy is a set of initial ethical intentions; an emergent strategy comprises actions or changes that emerge from the organization or its environment; and finally, the realized strategy is the set of strategic changes and actions that actually takes place.

1. True
2. False

Question 3

If a firm adjusts its strategy to ensure it is consistent with its external environment, it benefits from a:

1. Strategic fit
2. Strategic leadership
3. Location within an attractive industry
4. A license to operate

Question 4

To survive and prosper over the long run requires a firm to:

1. Commit itself to growing its sales
2. Be responsive to its external environment—including its social, political, and natural environment
3. Pursue simultaneously strategies of low cost and differentiation
4. Ensure the ethical conduct of executives

Question 5

The primary justification for the assumption that the primary goal of strategy is to maximize profits over the long term is:

1. The fact that in today’s intensely competitive markets, firms must focus on profit maximization in order to survive
2. The legal requirement on Boards of Directors to ensure that companies are operated in the interests of their shareholders
3. In order to earn profits over the long run, firms must attend to the interests of all their stakeholders
4. Shareholders will oust CEOs that are not effective at maximizing profits.

Question 6

Maximizing enterprise value and maximizing shareholder value are linked because:

1. Enterprise value and shareholder value are the same thing
2. Shareholder value is calculated by adding debt and other non-equity financial claims to the DCF value of the firm
3. Shareholder value is calculated by subtracting debt and other non-equity financial claims from the enterprise value of the firm
4. It is obvious that they must be linked

Question 7

In formulating strategies under uncertainty, real option analysis is a valuable strategic tool because:

1. It allows firms to create value from flexibility and a wider range of growth opportunities
2. It can assist firms in using complex financial derivatives to hedge risk
3. It allows firms to make investment decisions without the need to forecast cash flows long into the future
4. It renders obsolete most conventional tools and techniques of strategy analysis.

Question 8

The level of profit in an industry is determined almost entirely by the value of products to customers.

1. True
2. False

Question 9

Niche markets are often highly profitable for incumbents because they can often be dominated by a single firm.

1. True
2. False
.....read more