Reference no: EM132306186

1. Which of the following companies are the best targets for offensive-minded firms to challenge?

a. companies in a highly competitive market that are operating on low margins

b. enterprises with financial strength and large capital resources

c. market leaders that are vulnerable

d. runner-up firms with strong capabilities and a long-term growth rate

e. small companies in niche markets with a small and moderately profitable customer base

2. When is outsourcing NOT beneficial?

a. when an activity can be preformed better or more cheaply by outside specialists

b. when internal control over a particular activity is deemed essential

c. when it improves organizational flexibility and speeds time to market

d. when it reduces the company's risk exposure to changing technology and/or buyer preferences

e. when it allows a company to concentrate on its core business

3. Merger and acquisition strategies

a. are aimed at facilitating a company's shift from a broad differentiation strategy to a low-cost provider strategy

b. tend to be the most often used and most effective strategic options available to multi business companies

c. provide superior means for firms to rapidly increase the vertical scope of their core business

d. are one of the best ways for helping a company strongly differentiate its product offerings

e. are often driven by such strategic objectives as to expand a company's geographic coverage or extend its business into a new product categories

4. All of the following factors make an alliance "strategic," as opposed to just a convenient business arrangement, EXCEPT

a. a strategic alliance increases the bargaining power of alliance members over suppliers or buyers

b. a strategic alliance helps open up important new market opportunities

c. a strategic alliance helps build, sustain, or enhance a core competence or competitive advantage

d. a strategic alliance mitigates a significant risk to a company's business

e. a strategic alliance enables greater opportunities for employee advancement

5. Which of the following statements about blue-ocean strategies is NOT true?

a. Blue-ocean strategies invent a new market segment that renders existing competitors irrelevant

b. Blue-ocean strategies provide a company with a great opportunity in the short run

c. a blue-ocean market space is untainted by competition and offers wide-open opportunity for profitable and rapid growth if a company can come up with a product offering that allows it to create demand

d. blue-ocean strategies are offensive strategies that involve a preempive strike to secure an advantageous position in a mature marker segment

e. blue-ocean strategies view the business universe as consisting of two distinct types of market space

6. the extent to which a firm engages in the various value chain activities, from initial activities all the way to after-sales activities, is called

a. a joint venture partnership

b. product outsourcing

c. vertical scope

d. horizontal scope

e. vertical integration

7. The purpose of defensive strategies is to

a. weaken the impact of any attack that occurs, to increase capital reserves

b. lower the risk of being attacked, to weaken the impact of any attack that occurs, and to influence challengers to aim their efforts at other rival

c. pressure challengers to aim their efforts at other rivals, to hedge all financial transactions, and to increase capital reserves

d. lower the risk of being attacked, to hedge all financial transaction, and to pressure challengers to aim their efforts at other rivals

e. help protect a competitive advantage, to deploy competitive assets, and to build a sustainable competitive advantage