CH 2 + 3 Personal digital assistants are: a. handheld computing devices meant largely for mobile use outside an office setting. Zara is susceptible to any disruption in northern Spain because: b. it moves all of its deliveries through just two locations, both in Spain. Zara's staff members regularly collect data from customers at its stores. This data is used to: c. inform designers on customer preferences and staff on store sales results. _____ involves outsourcing production to third-party firms. b. Contract manufacturing ROI is a term used to represent the: b. return on investment Zara's IT expenditure is low by fashion industry standards and is also highly effective. Which of the following makes this possible? a. Targeting technology investment at points in the value chain where it has the most significant impact. Due to limited production runs, Zara's customers: e. visit the stores more often. Zara's clothing lines are designed: b. by design school graduates to suit customer demand. Moving first pays off when the time lead is used to create: d. critical resources for competitive advantage. Startup firms can struggle to gain lower prices from rivals, but FreshDirect seems to have found several ways to gain lower supplier prices. FreshDirect buys direct from suppliers, eliminating any markup from a middleman. In addition to this, the firm employs other methods to get lower prices from suppliers. Which of the following is not a way FreshDirect helps suppliers in exchange for supplier agreement to offer it better pricing terms? e. FreshDirect shares warehouse space with farmers and livestock producers In _____, the light inside fiber is split into different signal-carrying wavelengths in a way similar to how a prism splits light into different colors. a. dense wave division multiplexing Sometimes technology can sound geeky, and so technical that executives might think that it doesn't require managerial or investor attention. However, many investing in the telecom sector suffered from a lack of insight on how a key technology was impacting their industry. Telecom firms failed to anticipate the impact of a technology known as ____________, which enabled existing fiber to carry more transmissions than ever before. b. open source software Technology that that super-imposes content, such as images and animation on top of real world images is called: e. Augmented reality A firm is said to be _____ when it attempts to match the benefits of a successful position while maintaining its existing position. e. straddling A strong brand can be an exceptionally powerful resource for competitive advantage by lowering ________, proxying _____ and inspiring _____. c. search costs; quality; trust Businesses benefit from economies of scale when the cost of an investment can be: c. spread across increasing units of production. The degree to which complete information is available is known as _____. c. price transparency Which of the following represents one of the primary components of the value chain? b. Outbound logistics Which of the following is a source of bargaining power of buyers? a. Greater choice of products The _____ problem exists when rivals watch a pioneer's efforts, learn from their successes and missteps, and then enter the market quickly with a comparable or superior product at a lower cost. e. fast follower