Exam 6: Strengthening a Companys Competitive Position: Strategic Moves, timing, and Scope of Operations

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Bypassing regular wholesale/retail chann...

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A) Inability of partners to work well together
B) Emergence of more attractive technological paths
C) Changing conditions make the purpose of the alliance obsolete
D) Disagreement over how to divide the added market share and profits gained from joint collaboration
E) Diverging objectives and priorities

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The advantages of outsourcing include: (...

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A) It allows a company to concentrate on its core business,leverage its key resources and core competencies,and do even better what it already does best.
B) It can hollow out a firm's own capabilities and lose touch with activities and expertise that contribute fundamentally to the firm's competitiveness and market success.
C) It reduces the company's risk exposure to changing technology and/or buyer preferences.
D) It improves organizational flexibility and speeds time to market.
E) It involves an activity that can be performed better or more cheaply by outside specialists.

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Typical reasons why strategic alliances ...

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A) whether and when to employ defensive strategies to protect the company's market position.
B) whether to integrate backward or forward into more stages of the industry value chain.
C) whether to employ a preemptive strike type of green ocean strategy.
D) whether and when to go on the offensive and initiate aggressive strategic moves to improve the company's market position.
E) whether to bolster the company's market position via acquisition or merger and/or whether to enter into strategic alliances or partnership arrangements with other enterprises.

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A) Cost savings exceed management's wildest expectations.
B) The morale of key employees involved in the corporate combination reaches new highs because they embrace the changes.
C) Gains in competitive capabilities materialize rapidly,resulting in instant synergies.
D) Efforts to mesh corporate cultures meet with unconditional acceptance from organization members.
E) Differences in management styles and operating procedures can prove hard to resolve.

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A) development of effective integration plans that would be conducive to employee satisfaction.
B) advertising messages that detail the merger announcement.
C) creation of management-employee programs that would foster better communication.
D) misinterpretation of the cultural differences,like employee disenchantment and low morale,differences in management styles and operating procedures,and operations integration decision mistakes.
E) execution of functional and integration activity,while sustaining and capitalizing on the combined sources of revenue.

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Among the most serious drawbacks to vert...

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Strategic assets are a company's most va...

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A) Granting volume discounts or better financing terms to dealers/distributors and providing discount coupons to buyers to help discourage them from experimenting with other suppliers or brands
B) Signaling challengers that retaliation is likely in the event they launch an attack
C) Publicly committing the company to a policy of matching a competitors' terms or prices
D) Maintaining a war chest of cash and marketable securities
E) Challenging struggling runner-up firms that are on the verge of going under

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A) growth in demand that depends on the development of complementary products or services that are not currently available and new industry infrastructure that is needed before buyer demand can surge.
B) quick market penetration and strong loyalty among first-time customers.
C) buyer behavior that is readily attracted to new technology or product features.
D) conditions that make imitation difficult and absolute cost advantages that accrue to those who make early commitments to new technologies,components,or distribution channels.
E) when technology is not rapidly evolving and buyers' expectations are not likely to be subject to change.

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A) Market leaders that are vulnerable
B) Runner-up firms with weaknesses in areas where the offensive-minded challenger is strong
C) Small local and regional companies with limited capabilities
D) Struggling enterprises that are on the verge of going under
E) Other offensive-minded companies with a sizable war chest of cash and marketable securities

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Three factors that can aid companies in ...

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A) The firm's capability to employ vertical integration strategies
B) The combining of two or more companies into a single corporate entity (with the newly created company often taking on a new name)
C) The range of activities the firm performs internally and the breadth of its product offerings,the extent of its geographic market,and its mix of businesses
D) The ability of the firm to gain competitive advantage based on where it locates its various value chain activities
E) The ability of the firm to prevent foreign competition from affecting the market

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A) is a collaborative arrangement in which companies join forces to defeat mutual competitive rivals.
B) involves two or more companies joining forces to pursue vertical integration.
C) is a formal agreement between two or more companies in which there is strategically relevant collaboration of some sort,joint contribution of resources,shared risk,shared control,and mutual dependence.
D) is a partnership between two companies that is typically intended to eliminate the need to engage in outsourcing.
E) is usually a cheaper and more effective way for companies to join forces than is a merger.

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