Exam 2: The External Environment: Opportunities, Threats, Industry Competition, and Competitor Analysis

Acme Valves, Inc., has been a successful player in the oil field supply industry in the last 15 years. Acme maintained its strategy and product characteristics over this time period. However, the company has experienced declines in sales and profits over the last four quarters. The CEO of Acme should

Demographic changes include variations in income distribution. Which of the following statements is true?

High-level maintenance on aircraft is performed by the manufacturer.  This service after the sale means that in the aircraft industry:

Identify and describe the three major parts of the external environment. What is the purpose for a firm to collect information about these aspects of its environment?

What are barriers to entry and how do they affect competition in the industry?

Which of the following intelligence-gathering techniques is most likely to be legal and ethical?

All of the following are forces that create high rivalry within an industry EXCEPT:

The European sovereign-debt crisis and political upheavals in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria illustrate uncertainties in the political/legal segment of the general environment that could affect the performance of business firms.

Scanning involves detecting meaning through early signals of environmental trends.

According to the five forces model, an unattractive industry would include all of the following characteristics EXCEPT:

Exit barriers to a firm include all of the following EXCEPT:

Eavesdropping is an ethical way to obtain information about competitors' actions.

Once a firm has determined its competitors' future objectives, current strategy, assumptions, and strengths and weaknesses, its next step is to develop:

Clarissa is a sales representative for a large pharmaceutical firm. While calling on one of her major clients, the purchasing director of a hospital, the client told her confidential information that a sales representative from a competing firm had passed on to him. The information completely contradicts Clarissa's firm's understanding of the competitor's business strategy and would allow Clarissa's employer to gain many of the competitor's clients. What ethical implications may result from this situation?

Economies of scale refers to the fact that as the:

PepsiCo's strategy called "capital performance with a purpose" links green efforts in businesses to the bottom line. This is an example of addressing concerns in the physical segment of the general environment.

Blood banks are highly dependent on donors. In the terminology of industry analysis, which statement about donors is accurate?

An analysis of the economic segment of the external environment would include all of the following EXCEPT:

The three parts of the external environment that affect a firm's strategic actions are:

Which of the following pairs of companies would be least likely to be examined together as part of competitive analysis?