Managing Strategically Quiz Answers

1.The two pivotal factors that distinguish one competitive strategy from another boil down to： E: whether the company's market target is broad or narrow, and whether the company is pursuing a competitive advantage linked to lower costs or differentiation. 2. The five generic types of competitive strategies include: B: low-cost provider, broad differentiation, focused lowcost, focused differentiation, and best-cost provider. 3. A low-cost provider's basis for competitive advantage is: C: meaningfully lower costs than competitors’ but not necessarily the absolutely lowest cost/price. 4.What are the two ways a company can translate its low-cost advantage over rivals into attractive profit performance? D. Eliminating or curbing nonessential activities and doing a better job than its rivals in performing essential activities. 5. Which of the following is not a distinguishing feature of a low-cost provider strategy? C. The strategic target is value-conscious buyers, and sustaining the strategy depends on frequent advances in technology and occasional product innovations. 6. Striving to be the low-cost provider is a particularly attractive competitive strategy when: A. managers must launch a concerted, ongoing effort to ferret out cost-saving opportunities in every part of the value chain, for example, cost drivers such as number of products in the product line, capacity utilization, production technology and design, and labor productivity and compensation costs. 7. Examples of uniqueness drivers do not include: A: eliminating low value-added activities and work steps. 8. A broad differentiation strategy works best in which of the following market circumstances? E: When there are many ways to differentiate the product or service that have value to buyers. 9. The most appealing approaches to broad differentiation: B. involve features or attributes that have considerable buyer appeal and are hard or expensive for rivals to duplicate. 10. In which one of the following market circumstances is a broad differentiation strategy generally not well suited? C: When most competitors are using eye-catching ads to set apart their product offerings and build a brand image that is differentiated 1. Which of the following is not an example of a company pursuing a blue-ocean strategy? B: Nordstrom in the retail industry. 2. A hit-and-run or guerrilla warfare type of offensive strategy involves: D. surprising moves by small challengers that have neither the resources nor the market visibility to mount a full-fledged attack on industry leaders. 3. Which one of the following is not a good type of rival for an offensive-minded company to target? D. other offensive-minded companies with a sizable war chest of cash and marketable securities. 4. In which of the following situations is being first to initiate a particular move not likely to result in a positive payoff? A. When potential buyers are skeptical about the benefits of a new technology or product being pioneered by a first mover. 5. Which of the following instances does not exemplify when a late-mover advantage arises? A Property rights protections in the form of patents, copyrights, and trademarks prevent the ready imitation of initial moves. 6. Architects of mergers and acquisition strategies typically set sights on which of the following objectives? D. Two answers are correct: creating a more cost-efficient operation, expanding a company’s geographic coverage, and extending a company’s business into new product categories, and gaining quick access to new technologies or other resources and competitive capabilities, and leading the convergence of industries whose boundaries are being blurred by changing technologies and new market opportunities. 7. Which one of the following statements explaining why merger and acquisition strategies typically fail is true? C. Merger and acquisition strategies typically fail due to a misinterpretation of the cultural differences, like employee disenchantment and low morale, because of differences in management styles and operating procedures, and due to unforeseen challenges in integrating operations. 8. Which of the following is typically the strategic impetus for forward vertical integration? C. To gain better access to end users and better market visibility. 9. Which of the following is not a strategic disadvantage of vertical integration? C. It greatly reduces the opportunity for capturing maximum scale economies and achieving the lowest possible operating costs. 10. Which of the following is not a potential advantage of backward vertical integration? D. Offers enhanced R&D capability, better opportunity to establish a core competence in supply chain management, more flexibility in incorporating state-of-the-art parts and components, and better overall product quality. 1. Which of the following is the biggest strategic issue when competing in the markets of foreign countries? A. determining whether to standardize or customize the company's offerings. 2. Which one of the following statements concerning the impact of fluctuating exchange rates on companies competing in foreign markets is not true? B. Domestic companies under pressure from lower-cost imports are hurt even more when their government's currency grows weaker in relation to the currencies of the countries where the imported goods are being made. 3. One of the biggest strategic challenges to competing in the international arena is: A. whether to offer a mostly standardized product worldwide or whether to customize the company's offerings in each different country market to match the tastes and preferences of local buyers. 4. The advantages of manufacturing goods in a particular country and exporting them to foreign markets: A. are weakened when that country’s currency grows stronger relative to the currencies of the countries where the output is being sold. 5. Using domestic plants as a production base for exporting goods to selected foreign country markets: B. can be an excellent initial strategy to pursue international sales. 6. Which of the following is not an advantage of utilizing a licensing strategy to participate in foreign markets? C. The ability to safeguard the company's technical know-how or patents. 7. A "think local, act local" multidomestic type of strategy: D. focuses on the same basic competitive approach (low-cost, differentiation, best-cost, focused) in all countries where the firm does business. 8. The multidomestic strategy of "think local, act local": A. becomes more appealing when country-to-country differences in buyer tastes, cultural traditions, and market conditions vary significantly. 9. The chief difference between a "think global, act global" and a "think global, act local" approach to crafting a global strategy is that: B. local managers are given more latitude in adapting the global strategy approach as may be needed to accommodate local buyer preferences and be responsive to local market and competitive conditions. 10.Which of the following is not a potential motivation for entering into strategic alliances or other cooperative arrangements with foreign companies? C ． Better enable the use of a "think global, act global" strategy and facilitate cross-market subsidization. 1. As long as a single-business company can achieve profitable growth opportunities in its present industry: C. there is no urgency to pursue a diversification strategy. 2. To judge whether a particular diversification move has good potential for building added shareholder value, the move should pass the following tests: A. the attractiveness test, the cost-of-entry test, and the betteroff test. 3. Which of the following makes acquisition an attractive approach to diversifying into another industry? D. If it is quicker than trying to launch a brand-new operation, offers an effective way to hurtle entry barriers, and allows the acquirer to move directly to the task of building a strong position in the target industry. 4. Which of the following does not accurately describe entering a new business via acquisition, internal development, or a joint venture? B ． Acquisition is generally the most profitable way to enter a new industry, tends to be more suitable for an unrelated diversification strategy than a related diversification strategy, and usually requires less capital than entering an industry via internal start-up. 5 The defining characteristic of related diversification (as opposed to unrelated diversification) is: B the presence of cross-business value chain relationships and strategic fits. 6 The strategic appeal of related diversification is that it: A. allows a firm to reap the competitive advantage benefits of skills transfer, lower costs (due to economies of scope), crossbusiness use of a powerful brand name, and/or cross-business collaboration in creating stronger competitive capabilities. 7. Which of the following is not an example of unrelated diversification? C A producer of snow skis and ski boots acquiring a maker of ski apparel and accessories (outerwear, goggles, gloves and mittens, helmets and toboggans). 8. Economies of scope: stem from cost-saving strategic fits along the value chains of related businesses. 9. The procedure for evaluating a diversified company's strategy involves all of the following steps except: C. a determination of the degree of risk involved with each business unit. 10. Assessing the competitive advantage potential of crossbusiness strategic fit among the company's various business units involves: A. examining a company's costs relative to the costs of its chief rivals in the industry.