Exam 1: Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness

SWOT stands for:

Particularly when assessing investments in new venture firms, the most effective, and often the only, way to measure the performance of the firms and determine their viability as an investment option is to examine financial metrics such as returns on assets, and sales.

The rate of technology diffusion has increased significantly over the last two decades.

In order to cope with hypercompetition, firms need to develop __________ through continuous learning.

Delegation helps:

In smaller, new venture firms, returns are sometimes measured in terms of:

Describe and discuss the resource-based model of above-average returns.

Henry Ford once said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." The invention of the car is an early example of:

A retail outlet can attempt several remedies to improve profitability to meet the expectations of its __________ stakeholders, including closing stores, changing the top management team, and seeking potential buyers.

Alibaba is a company in the Internet services industry that has improved its performance by focusing on its unique abilities in the area of innovation and service diversification.This improved performance is best explained by:

In contrast to shareholders, a firm's customers prefer that investors receive a minimum return on their investments.

An investor is considering in which of two start-up companies to invest.The investor has faith in the industrial organization (I/O) model of above-average returns and is using that as a guideline to make a decision.Both start-up companies propose to manufacture health-focused foods with low salt, low sugar, high fiber, and no artificial additives.RexRich Foods has a business strategy of producing a differentiated product for which consumers will pay more.Green Pastures Foods is in the health-foods industry because of its internal culture and commitment to healthy lifestyles, but it does not have any executives with experience in food production.Which investment decision is the investor most likely to make?

The strategic management process is:

The goal of strategy implementation is to develop a permanent competitive advantage.

When a firm earns lower-than-average returns, the highest priority is given to satisfying the needs of capital market stakeholders over the needs of product market and organizational shareholders.

The goal of the organization's __________ is to point the firm in the direction of where it would like to be in the years to come.

William Ackman is a hedge fund manager who owned a large share of J.C.Penney stock.He was also a member of the J.C.Penney board.He tried to get the CEO fired, but the board and top management said he breached his boardroom duties when he publicly disclosed information about the CEO search and financial condition of the company.He resigned from the board of directors.This is an example of a contentious relationship between:

The I/O and resource-based models contain many of the same steps.One clear difference between the two models is the resource-based model starts by looking at the internal strengths and weaknesses of a firm, while the I/O model begins with an examination of the external environment.Another key difference is the resource-based model identifies an attractive industry much earlier in the process than does the I/O model.

Strategic competitiveness is achieved when a firm successfully formulates and implements a value-creating strategy.

Effective strategic leaders emerge on the basis of their: