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Chapter 02 Competing with Information Technology Solution
Chapter 02 Competing with Information Technology Solution
True / False Questions
1. When an organization uses information technology to develop products, services and capabilities in order to gain a strategic advantage over competitive forces in the global marketplace, it is using information systems in a strategic role.
True False
2. Competition is a negative characteristic in business that can require significant resources to overcome.
True False
3. Most products and services have some sort of substitute available to the consumer.
True False
4. In the Internet world, a firm's biggest competitor may be one that is not yet in the marketplace but could emerge almost overnight.
True False
5. The threat of new entrants is often at its strongest during periods of rising costs or inflation.
True False
6. If a key supplier's bargaining power gets too strong, it can force the price of goods and services to unmanageably high levels.
True False
7. An innovation strategy may allow a firm to focus its products or services and gain an advantage in a particular segment or niche of a market.
True False
8. When a firm develops ways to differentiate its products from a competitor's, it is pursuing a cost leadership strategy.
True False
9. When a firm uses IT to create virtual organizations of business partners, it is pursuing a growth strategy.
True False
10. A given activity can fall into one or more of the categories of competitive strategy.
True False
11. If an organization offers its online package tracking system in a manner that allows its customers to access shipment information not only via a computer, but via a mobile phone as well, then such an action could fall into both the differentiation and innovation strategy categories.
True False
12. When a firm makes such radical changes to its business processes for producing products and services that it alters the fundamental structure of an industry, it is pursuing an innovation strategy.
True False
13. Not everything innovative will serve to differentiate one organization from another.
True False
14. Investments in information technology can allow a business to lock in customers and suppliers, and lock out competitors, by building valuable new relationships with them.
True False
15. Companies like Wal-Mart use information technology to implement competitive strategies for strategic advantage.
True False
16. When a business effectively builds in switching costs, its customers and/or suppliers become reluctant to switch to another competitor.
True False
17. A strategic use of information technology would be to leverage investment in information system specialists, hardware, software, databases, and networks from operational uses into strategic applications.
True False
18. A company that places a strategic focus on customer value recognizes that quality, rather than price, has become a primary determinant in a customer's perception of value.
True False
19. Companies that consistently offer the best value from the customer's perspective must provide two key services: keeping track of their individual customers' preferences and selling products or services at lowest price.
True False
20. Internet technologies can make customers the focal point of customer relationship management (CRM) and other e-business applications.
True False
21. The value chain framework can be used to view a firm as a series, a chain, or a network of basic activities that add value to its products and services, and thus add a margin of value to the firm.
True False
22. According to the value chain concept, primary processes include such things as the procurement of resources and human resource management that are directly related to the manufacturing of products or delivery of services to the customer.
True False
23. When using the value chain concept, managers should seek to develop strategic information systems for those activities that they view as the "weakest link" in the value chain.
True False
24. The value chain concept can help managers decide where and how to apply the strategic capabilities of information technology.
True False
25. Business process reengineering (BPR) is most often called streamlining.
True False
26. Although the potential payback of reengineering is high, so is the risk of failure and level of disruption to the organizational environment of the firm.
True False
27. Business process reengineering (BPR) combines a strategy of promoting business innovation with a strategy of making major improvements to business operations so that a company can become a much stronger and more successful competitor in the marketplace.
True False
28. Many companies have found that organizational redesign approaches are an important enabler of business process reengineering.
True False
29. All the employees within a marketing department, from clerical staff to top managers, form a cross-functional team.
True False
30. Information technology plays a major role in the business process reengineering of most business processes.
True False
31. Becoming an agile company depends on customer perceptions of products and services, as much as any other strategy.
True False
32. An agile company cooperates with its suppliers and competitors.
True False
33. By nurturing an entrepreneurial spirit, an agile company provides powerful incentives for employee responsibility, adaptability, and innovation.
True False
34. Information technology can enable a company to develop relationships with its customers in virtual communities.
True False
35. Yahoo! transformed its service from a search engine into a portal by dedicating one branch of its business to providing content and other media-related services.
True False
36. One of the reasons people form virtual companies is to keep new entrants out of a market.
True False
37. Knowledge-creating companies constantly create new business knowledge and then disseminate it throughout the company in order to quickly build the new knowledge into their products and services.
True False
38. Explicit knowledge involves the "how-to" knowledge that resides in workers.
True False
39. Successful knowledge management creates techniques, technologies, and rewards for getting employees to share what they know and to make better use of accumulated workplace knowledge.
True False
40. As an organization's learning process continues and its knowledge base expands, the knowledge creating company works to integrate its knowledge into its business processes, products, and services.
True False
Multiple Choice Questions
41. A strategic information system can be any kind of information system that uses information technology to help an organization _______________.
A. gain a competitive advantage
B. reduce a competitive disadvantage
C. meet strategic enterprise objectives
D. all of the choices are correct.
42. A firm can survive and succeed in the long run if it successfully develops strategies to confront the _______________ that shape the structure of competition in its industry.
A. technological innovations
B. competitive business processes
C. competitive forces
D. competitive strategies
43. A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm seeks to become a low-cost producer of products and services in the industry.
A. cost leadership
B. differentiation
C. innovation
D. alliance
44. A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm develops ways to differentiate its products and services from those of its competitors.
A. low cost leadership
B. innovation
C. differentiation
D. growth
45. A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm develops unique products or services from those of its competitors, or makes radical business changes that may alter the fundamental nature of the industry.
A. alliance
B. growth
C. differentiation
D. innovation
46. A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm significantly expands its capacity to produce goods and services, expanding and diversifying in the market.
A. alliance
B. growth
C. differentiation
D. innovation
47. A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm establishes new business linkages with customers, suppliers, competitors, and other companies.
A. growth
B. low cost leadership
C. differentiation
D. alliance
48. According to the text, competition is a _______________ characteristic in business that _______________.
A. positive, is natural and healthy
B. negative, can consume significant resources
C. neutral, can help a firm meet strategic enterprise objectives
D. none of the choices are correct.
49. According to the text, in the world of the Internet, a firm's biggest competitor:
A. Usually exists and is close in the physical world
B. Usually does not exist but will emerge close in the physical world
C. May not yet exist but could emerge almost overnight
D. Probably exists in an overseas location
50. According to the text, the Internet:
A. Has limited competition world-wide
B. Has created many ways to enter the market quickly, with relatively low cost
C. Has created new entry barriers to competition
D. Has decreased prices world-wide
51. Which of the following is a competitive strategy?
A. New entries into the market
B. Innovation
C. Bargaining power
D. Substitutes
52. All the following are competitive strategies except:
A. New entries into the market
B. Innovation
C. Cost leadership
D. Alliances
53. All of the following can be used to counter competitive forces in the marketplace except:
A. Alliances
B. Growth
C. Innovation
D. Bargaining
54. All of the following are competitive forces in the marketplace except:
A. Alliances
B. Competition
C. Substitutes
D. Bargaining
55. Which of the following is a competitive force in the marketplace?
A. Cost leadership
B. Competition
C. Differentiation
D. Alliances
56. Developing a relationship with a customer such that the customer cannot afford to switch suppliers is an example of:
A. Monopolistic enterprise
B. Locking in the customer
C. Growth strategies
D. None of the above is correct
57. The practice of becoming the largest purchaser of products from a given supplier is an example of:
A. Cost leadership
B. Growth strategies
C. Differentiation
D. Locking in the supplier
58. Becoming a low-cost producer of products and services in an industry is an example of a(n):
A. Cost leadership strategy
B. Differentiation strategy
C. Innovation strategy
D. Growth strategy
59. All of the following are basic competitive forces discussed in the text except:
A. Rivalry of competitors
B. Threat of substitutes
C. Bargaining power of suppliers
D. Bargaining power of competitors
60. All of the following are basic competitive strategies discussed in the text except:
A. Cost leadership
B. Innovation
C. Product differentiation
D. Strategic dominance
61. Expanding a company's product offering into global markets is an example of a(n) _______ strategy.
A. cost leadership
B. differentiation
C. growth
D. alliance
62. Investments in information technology that build valuable new relationships allow a firm to:
A. Lock in the supplier
B. Lock in the customer
C. Lock out competition
D. All the above
63. In addition to the five basic competitive strategies, the text describes several key strategies implemented with information technology. Which of the following is not one of those strategies?
A. Locking in customers
B. Building switching costs
C. Creating alliances
D. Raising barriers to entry
64. Using an information system to make customers and/or suppliers reluctant to change to another competitor is called:
A. Growth strategy
B. Building switching costs
C. Creating alliances
D. Raising barriers to entry
65. When a firm develops ways to differentiate their products and services from their competitors', it is pursuing a _______________ strategy.
A. differentiation
B. alliance
C. innovation
D. marketing
66. A sales company such as eBay would be most likely to use information technology to promote ___.
A. online stock trading
B. point-of-sale inventory tracking
C. online auctions
D. virtual manufacturing alliances
67. When a firm strives to find ways to help its suppliers and customers reduce their costs or to increase the costs of their competitors, it is pursuing a strategy of _______________.
A. innovation
B. alliance
C. cost leadership
D. growth
68. When customers become dependent on mutually beneficial inter-enterprise information systems, they become reluctant to switch to a company's competitors because they would incur all following costs except:
A. Time
B. Money
C. Innovation
D. Effort
69. Companies like Wal-Mart extend their networks to their customers and suppliers in order to build innovative continuous inventory replenishment systems that would lock in their business. This creates a(n) _______________ information system.
A. leveraged
B. inter-enterprise
C. intra-enterprise
D. locked-in
70. A serious problem of competitive advantage is that:
A. It normally doesn't last very long and it isn't sustainable over the long term
B. Competitors figure out how it was done and do the same thing
C. A competitive advantage can become a competitive necessity
D. All of the choices are correct.
71. A company that places a strategic focus on customer value recognizes that __________, rather than __________, has become a primary determinant in a customer's perception of value.
A. service, price
B. price, quality
C. quality, service
D. quality, price.
72. Companies that consistently offer the best value from the customer's perspective do all the following, except:
A. Keep track of their customers' individual preferences
B. Keep up with market trends
C. Supply products, services, and information anytime, anywhere
D. Offer lowest prices and fastest delivery
73. A customer-focused business can build customer value and loyalty by:
A. Making a loyal customer feel special with website personalization
B. Letting customers place orders directly, or through distribution partners
C. Letting customers check order history and delivery status
D. All of the choices are correct.
74. A transaction database allows all of the following activities except:
A. Linking employees and distribution partners to customers
B. Letting customers check order history
C. Giving employees a complete view of each customer
D. None of these activities are supported by a transaction database.
75. According to the textbook case, innovation in information systems at Universal Orlando comes from thinking like a:
A. Customer
B. Competitor
C. Employee
D. IT specialist
76. The value chain framework can be used to view a firm as a series, a chain, or a network of basic activities that:
A. Add value to its products and services, and thus add a margin of value to the firm.
B. Lower costs along the product development chain.
C. Create the perception of value and goodwill to employees.
D. Create a smooth-flowing chain of events between the supplier and the customer.
77. Which of the following is a primary business process?
A. Collaborative workflow intranet
B. Targeted marketing
C. Technology development
D. Procurement of resources
78. All of the following are primary business processes, except:
A. Customer relationship management
B. Targeted marketing
C. Technology development
D. Just-in-time warehousing
79. Which of the following is a support process?
A. Collaborative workflow intranet
B. Targeted marketing
C. Customer relationship management
D. Just-in-time warehousing
80. All of the following are support processes, except:
A. Customer relationship management
B. Procurement of resources
C. Technology development
D. Employee benefits intranet
81. Business process reengineering is best defined as:
A. A key technology to reduce customer late payments
B. A radical redesign of business processes to achieve improvements in cost, quality, speed, or service
C. A key way to ensure successful improvement in processing
D. All of the choices are correct.
82. Business process reengineering (BPR) is often referred to as:
A. Streamlining
B. Reengineering
C. Quickening
D. None of the choices are correct.
83. Business process reengineering (BPR) incorporates all the following strategies, except:
A. Lowering prices as a competitive strategy
B. Promoting business innovation
C. Making major improvements to business operations
D. None of the choices are correct.
84. Traditional business improvement includes:
A. Top-down participation
B. Long time requirements
C. Brand new business processes
D. Incremental levels of change
85. Business process engineering includes:
A. Bottom-up participation
B. Short time requirements
C. Improved new versions of current processes
D. Radical levels of change
86. Traditional business improvement includes all the following, except:
A. Bottom-up participation
B. Short time requirements
C. Improved new versions of current processes
D. Radical levels of change
87. Business process redesign includes all the following, except:
A. Top-down participation
B. Long time requirements
C. Brand new business processes
D. Incremental levels of change
88. Organizations are changing from a competitive environment in which mass-market products and services were standardized, long-lived, information-poor, and exchanged in one-time transactions to an environment in which companies compete globally with niche-market products and services that are
A. individualized
B. short-lived
C. exchanged on an ongoing basis with customers
D. All the choices are correct.
89. An agile company supports all the following except:
A. Short-lived products and services
B. Standardized products and services
C. Information-rich products and services
D. Niche market products and services
90. _______________ agility is the ability to co-opt customers in the exploitation of innovation opportunities.
A. Customer
B. Partnering
C. Operational
D. Technological
91. _______________ agility is the ability to leverage assets, knowledge, and competencies in the exploration and exploitation of innovation opportunities.
A. Customer
B. Partnering
C. Operational
D. Technological
92. _______________ agility is the ability to accomplish speed, accuracy, and cost economy in the exploitation of innovation opportunities.
A. Customer
B. Partnering
C. Operational
D. Technological
93. Which of the following is not a strategy of a virtual company?
A. Share infrastructure and risk with alliance partners
B. Link complementary core competencies
C. Migrate from selling products to selling solutions
D. Increase concept-to-case time
94. Explicit knowledge deals with:
A. Data, documents, and things written down or stored on computers.
B. "How-to" knowledge, which resides in workers.
C. Using data mining techniques to capture external information.
D. All of the choices are correct.
95. Tacit knowledge deals with:
A. Data, documents, and things written down or stored on computers.
B. "How-to" knowledge, which resides in workers.
C. Using data mining techniques to capture external information.
D. None of the choices are correct.
96. Accessing and retrieving documents that have been stored online is a function of _______________.
A. document management
B. enterprise intelligence
C. information creation, sharing, and management
D. All of the choices are correct.
97. Real-time information management, communication, and collaboration are a function of
A. document management
B. enterprise intelligence
C. information creation, sharing, and management
D. All of the choices are correct.
98. Performance support, building expert networks, and leveraging organizational know-how are a function of _______________.
A. document management
B. enterprise intelligence
C. information creation, sharing, and management
D. All of the choices are correct.
99. The goal of knowledge management systems (KMS) is to help knowledge workers _______________ important business knowledge.
A. create
B. organize
C. distribute
D. All of the choices are correct.
100. According to the textbook case, the Matter Page System at Goodwin Proctor increases efficiency of their attorneys by.
A. Separating the client billing, documents, and contact data
B. Enabling the attorneys to launch more than one application at a time to find information
C. Requiring the attorneys to spend more time researching their cases
D. Pulling all the client billing, documents and contact data into a single "one-stop-shop" for users
Fill in the Blank Questions
101.(p. 46) A firm can survive and succeed in the long run if it successfully develops strategies to confront the five _______________ forces that shape the structure of competition in its industry.
102.(p. 46) When an organization uses information technology to develop products, services and capabilities in order to gain a strategic advantage over competitive forces in the global marketplace, it is using information systems in a _______________ role.
103.(p. 49) The competitive threat of _______________ is often at its strongest during periods of rising costs or inflation.
104.(p. 49) A _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm seeks to become a low-cost producer of products and services in the industry.
105.(p. 50) When using a(n) _______________ strategy, a firm seeks to find new ways of producing or distributing its products and services that are so different from the way business has been conducted that they may alter the fundamental structure of the industry.
106.(p. 52) _______________ are the costs in time, money, effort, and inconvenience that it would take a customer or supplier to move its business to a firm's competitors.
107.(p. 53) If a company has successfully increased the amount of investment or the complexity of the technology required to compete in an industry or a market segment, it has raised _______________ that would discourage or delay other companies from entering the market.
108.(p. 53) Although large investments in technology can create entry barriers for present or prospective players in an industry, the barriers can evaporate over time as competitors employ the new technologies. This is an example of IT becoming a competitive _______________.
109.(p. 53) When a strategy or action becomes a(n) _______________, it means that instead of creating an advantage, the strategy or action becomes necessary simply to compete and do business in the industry.
110.(p. 54) A customer-focused business has a strategic focus on customer _______________, which recognizes that quality rather than price has become the primary determinant in a customer's perception of value.
111.(p. 56) In the _______________ concept, some business activities are primary processes while others are support processes.
112.(p. 57) According to the value chain concept, _______________ processes within the organization would include human resources management and technology development.
113.(p. 58) _______________ is defined as the restructuring and transforming of a business process by a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign to achieve improvements in costs, quality, speed, and service.
114.(p. 58) Many companies have found that organizational _______________ approaches are an important enabler of business process re-engineering.
115.(p. 63) A(n) _______________ company can make a profit in markets with broad product ranges and short model lifetimes, and it can produce orders individually and in arbitrary lot sizes.
116.(p. 64) A _______________ company can be defined as an organization that uses telecommunications networks and other information technology to link people, assets, and ideas.
117.(p. 64) Virtual companies develop alliances and extranet links that form _______________ information systems with suppliers, customers, subcontractors, and competitors.
118.(p. 64) People and corporations are forming virtual companies as the best way to implement key business strategies and alliances that promise to ensure success in today's turbulent _______________ climate.
119.(p. 66) The concept of _______________-management refers to organizing and sharing the diverse forms of business information created within an organization. This includes managing project and enterprise document libraries, discussion databases, hypermedia web site databases, and other types of knowledge bases.
120.(p. 66) _______________ knowledge deals with "how-to" knowledge, which resides in workers.
121.(p. 66) _______________ knowledge is made up of data, documents, and things written down.
122.(p. 66) Enterprise Intelligence, Information Creation, Sharing, and Management, and Document Management are the three levels of _______________.
123.(p. 66) Leveraging organizational "know-how", performance support, interacting with operational databases, and building expert networks are part of the _______________ level of knowledge management.
124.(p. 66) Capturing and distributing expert stories, real-time information management, communication and collaboration, and new content creation are part of the _______________ level of knowledge management.
125.(p. 66) Accessing and retrieving documents stored online are part of the _______________ level of knowledge management.
True / False Questions
1. When an organization uses information technology to develop products, services and capabilities in order to gain a strategic advantage over competitive forces in the global marketplace, it is using information systems in a strategic role.
True False
2. Competition is a negative characteristic in business that can require significant resources to overcome.
True False
3. Most products and services have some sort of substitute available to the consumer.
True False
4. In the Internet world, a firm's biggest competitor may be one that is not yet in the marketplace but could emerge almost overnight.
True False
5. The threat of new entrants is often at its strongest during periods of rising costs or inflation.
True False
6. If a key supplier's bargaining power gets too strong, it can force the price of goods and services to unmanageably high levels.
True False
7. An innovation strategy may allow a firm to focus its products or services and gain an advantage in a particular segment or niche of a market.
True False
8. When a firm develops ways to differentiate its products from a competitor's, it is pursuing a cost leadership strategy.
True False
9. When a firm uses IT to create virtual organizations of business partners, it is pursuing a growth strategy.
True False
10. A given activity can fall into one or more of the categories of competitive strategy.
True False
11. If an organization offers its online package tracking system in a manner that allows its customers to access shipment information not only via a computer, but via a mobile phone as well, then such an action could fall into both the differentiation and innovation strategy categories.
True False
12. When a firm makes such radical changes to its business processes for producing products and services that it alters the fundamental structure of an industry, it is pursuing an innovation strategy.
True False
13. Not everything innovative will serve to differentiate one organization from another.
True False
14. Investments in information technology can allow a business to lock in customers and suppliers, and lock out competitors, by building valuable new relationships with them.
True False
15. Companies like Wal-Mart use information technology to implement competitive strategies for strategic advantage.
True False
16. When a business effectively builds in switching costs, its customers and/or suppliers become reluctant to switch to another competitor.
True False
17. A strategic use of information technology would be to leverage investment in information system specialists, hardware, software, databases, and networks from operational uses into strategic applications.
True False
18. A company that places a strategic focus on customer value recognizes that quality, rather than price, has become a primary determinant in a customer's perception of value.
True False
19. Companies that consistently offer the best value from the customer's perspective must provide two key services: keeping track of their individual customers' preferences and selling products or services at lowest price.
True False
20. Internet technologies can make customers the focal point of customer relationship management (CRM) and other e-business applications.
True False
21. The value chain framework can be used to view a firm as a series, a chain, or a network of basic activities that add value to its products and services, and thus add a margin of value to the firm.
True False
22. According to the value chain concept, primary processes include such things as the procurement of resources and human resource management that are directly related to the manufacturing of products or delivery of services to the customer.
True False
23. When using the value chain concept, managers should seek to develop strategic information systems for those activities that they view as the "weakest link" in the value chain.
True False
24. The value chain concept can help managers decide where and how to apply the strategic capabilities of information technology.
True False
25. Business process reengineering (BPR) is most often called streamlining.
True False
26. Although the potential payback of reengineering is high, so is the risk of failure and level of disruption to the organizational environment of the firm.
True False
27. Business process reengineering (BPR) combines a strategy of promoting business innovation with a strategy of making major improvements to business operations so that a company can become a much stronger and more successful competitor in the marketplace.
True False
28. Many companies have found that organizational redesign approaches are an important enabler of business process reengineering.
True False
29. All the employees within a marketing department, from clerical staff to top managers, form a cross-functional team.
True False
30. Information technology plays a major role in the business process reengineering of most business processes.
True False
31. Becoming an agile company depends on customer perceptions of products and services, as much as any other strategy.
True False
32. An agile company cooperates with its suppliers and competitors.
True False
33. By nurturing an entrepreneurial spirit, an agile company provides powerful incentives for employee responsibility, adaptability, and innovation.
True False
34. Information technology can enable a company to develop relationships with its customers in virtual communities.
True False
35. Yahoo! transformed its service from a search engine into a portal by dedicating one branch of its business to providing content and other media-related services.
True False
36. One of the reasons people form virtual companies is to keep new entrants out of a market.
True False
37. Knowledge-creating companies constantly create new business knowledge and then disseminate it throughout the company in order to quickly build the new knowledge into their products and services.
True False
38. Explicit knowledge involves the "how-to" knowledge that resides in workers.
True False
39. Successful knowledge management creates techniques, technologies, and rewards for getting employees to share what they know and to make better use of accumulated workplace knowledge.
True False
40. As an organization's learning process continues and its knowledge base expands, the knowledge creating company works to integrate its knowledge into its business processes, products, and services.
True False
Multiple Choice Questions
41. A strategic information system can be any kind of information system that uses information technology to help an organization _______________.
A. gain a competitive advantage
B. reduce a competitive disadvantage
C. meet strategic enterprise objectives
D. all of the choices are correct.
42. A firm can survive and succeed in the long run if it successfully develops strategies to confront the _______________ that shape the structure of competition in its industry.
A. technological innovations
B. competitive business processes
C. competitive forces
D. competitive strategies
43. A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm seeks to become a low-cost producer of products and services in the industry.
A. cost leadership
B. differentiation
C. innovation
D. alliance
44. A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm develops ways to differentiate its products and services from those of its competitors.
A. low cost leadership
B. innovation
C. differentiation
D. growth
45. A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm develops unique products or services from those of its competitors, or makes radical business changes that may alter the fundamental nature of the industry.
A. alliance
B. growth
C. differentiation
D. innovation
46. A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm significantly expands its capacity to produce goods and services, expanding and diversifying in the market.
A. alliance
B. growth
C. differentiation
D. innovation
47. A(n) _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm establishes new business linkages with customers, suppliers, competitors, and other companies.
A. growth
B. low cost leadership
C. differentiation
D. alliance
48. According to the text, competition is a _______________ characteristic in business that _______________.
A. positive, is natural and healthy
B. negative, can consume significant resources
C. neutral, can help a firm meet strategic enterprise objectives
D. none of the choices are correct.
49. According to the text, in the world of the Internet, a firm's biggest competitor:
A. Usually exists and is close in the physical world
B. Usually does not exist but will emerge close in the physical world
C. May not yet exist but could emerge almost overnight
D. Probably exists in an overseas location
50. According to the text, the Internet:
A. Has limited competition world-wide
B. Has created many ways to enter the market quickly, with relatively low cost
C. Has created new entry barriers to competition
D. Has decreased prices world-wide
51. Which of the following is a competitive strategy?
A. New entries into the market
B. Innovation
C. Bargaining power
D. Substitutes
52. All the following are competitive strategies except:
A. New entries into the market
B. Innovation
C. Cost leadership
D. Alliances
53. All of the following can be used to counter competitive forces in the marketplace except:
A. Alliances
B. Growth
C. Innovation
D. Bargaining
54. All of the following are competitive forces in the marketplace except:
A. Alliances
B. Competition
C. Substitutes
D. Bargaining
55. Which of the following is a competitive force in the marketplace?
A. Cost leadership
B. Competition
C. Differentiation
D. Alliances
56. Developing a relationship with a customer such that the customer cannot afford to switch suppliers is an example of:
A. Monopolistic enterprise
B. Locking in the customer
C. Growth strategies
D. None of the above is correct
57. The practice of becoming the largest purchaser of products from a given supplier is an example of:
A. Cost leadership
B. Growth strategies
C. Differentiation
D. Locking in the supplier
58. Becoming a low-cost producer of products and services in an industry is an example of a(n):
A. Cost leadership strategy
B. Differentiation strategy
C. Innovation strategy
D. Growth strategy
59. All of the following are basic competitive forces discussed in the text except:
A. Rivalry of competitors
B. Threat of substitutes
C. Bargaining power of suppliers
D. Bargaining power of competitors
60. All of the following are basic competitive strategies discussed in the text except:
A. Cost leadership
B. Innovation
C. Product differentiation
D. Strategic dominance
61. Expanding a company's product offering into global markets is an example of a(n) _______ strategy.
A. cost leadership
B. differentiation
C. growth
D. alliance
62. Investments in information technology that build valuable new relationships allow a firm to:
A. Lock in the supplier
B. Lock in the customer
C. Lock out competition
D. All the above
63. In addition to the five basic competitive strategies, the text describes several key strategies implemented with information technology. Which of the following is not one of those strategies?
A. Locking in customers
B. Building switching costs
C. Creating alliances
D. Raising barriers to entry
64. Using an information system to make customers and/or suppliers reluctant to change to another competitor is called:
A. Growth strategy
B. Building switching costs
C. Creating alliances
D. Raising barriers to entry
65. When a firm develops ways to differentiate their products and services from their competitors', it is pursuing a _______________ strategy.
A. differentiation
B. alliance
C. innovation
D. marketing
66. A sales company such as eBay would be most likely to use information technology to promote ___.
A. online stock trading
B. point-of-sale inventory tracking
C. online auctions
D. virtual manufacturing alliances
67. When a firm strives to find ways to help its suppliers and customers reduce their costs or to increase the costs of their competitors, it is pursuing a strategy of _______________.
A. innovation
B. alliance
C. cost leadership
D. growth
68. When customers become dependent on mutually beneficial inter-enterprise information systems, they become reluctant to switch to a company's competitors because they would incur all following costs except:
A. Time
B. Money
C. Innovation
D. Effort
69. Companies like Wal-Mart extend their networks to their customers and suppliers in order to build innovative continuous inventory replenishment systems that would lock in their business. This creates a(n) _______________ information system.
A. leveraged
B. inter-enterprise
C. intra-enterprise
D. locked-in
70. A serious problem of competitive advantage is that:
A. It normally doesn't last very long and it isn't sustainable over the long term
B. Competitors figure out how it was done and do the same thing
C. A competitive advantage can become a competitive necessity
D. All of the choices are correct.
71. A company that places a strategic focus on customer value recognizes that __________, rather than __________, has become a primary determinant in a customer's perception of value.
A. service, price
B. price, quality
C. quality, service
D. quality, price.
72. Companies that consistently offer the best value from the customer's perspective do all the following, except:
A. Keep track of their customers' individual preferences
B. Keep up with market trends
C. Supply products, services, and information anytime, anywhere
D. Offer lowest prices and fastest delivery
73. A customer-focused business can build customer value and loyalty by:
A. Making a loyal customer feel special with website personalization
B. Letting customers place orders directly, or through distribution partners
C. Letting customers check order history and delivery status
D. All of the choices are correct.
74. A transaction database allows all of the following activities except:
A. Linking employees and distribution partners to customers
B. Letting customers check order history
C. Giving employees a complete view of each customer
D. None of these activities are supported by a transaction database.
75. According to the textbook case, innovation in information systems at Universal Orlando comes from thinking like a:
A. Customer
B. Competitor
C. Employee
D. IT specialist
76. The value chain framework can be used to view a firm as a series, a chain, or a network of basic activities that:
A. Add value to its products and services, and thus add a margin of value to the firm.
B. Lower costs along the product development chain.
C. Create the perception of value and goodwill to employees.
D. Create a smooth-flowing chain of events between the supplier and the customer.
77. Which of the following is a primary business process?
A. Collaborative workflow intranet
B. Targeted marketing
C. Technology development
D. Procurement of resources
78. All of the following are primary business processes, except:
A. Customer relationship management
B. Targeted marketing
C. Technology development
D. Just-in-time warehousing
79. Which of the following is a support process?
A. Collaborative workflow intranet
B. Targeted marketing
C. Customer relationship management
D. Just-in-time warehousing
80. All of the following are support processes, except:
A. Customer relationship management
B. Procurement of resources
C. Technology development
D. Employee benefits intranet
81. Business process reengineering is best defined as:
A. A key technology to reduce customer late payments
B. A radical redesign of business processes to achieve improvements in cost, quality, speed, or service
C. A key way to ensure successful improvement in processing
D. All of the choices are correct.
82. Business process reengineering (BPR) is often referred to as:
A. Streamlining
B. Reengineering
C. Quickening
D. None of the choices are correct.
83. Business process reengineering (BPR) incorporates all the following strategies, except:
A. Lowering prices as a competitive strategy
B. Promoting business innovation
C. Making major improvements to business operations
D. None of the choices are correct.
84. Traditional business improvement includes:
A. Top-down participation
B. Long time requirements
C. Brand new business processes
D. Incremental levels of change
85. Business process engineering includes:
A. Bottom-up participation
B. Short time requirements
C. Improved new versions of current processes
D. Radical levels of change
86. Traditional business improvement includes all the following, except:
A. Bottom-up participation
B. Short time requirements
C. Improved new versions of current processes
D. Radical levels of change
87. Business process redesign includes all the following, except:
A. Top-down participation
B. Long time requirements
C. Brand new business processes
D. Incremental levels of change
88. Organizations are changing from a competitive environment in which mass-market products and services were standardized, long-lived, information-poor, and exchanged in one-time transactions to an environment in which companies compete globally with niche-market products and services that are
A. individualized
B. short-lived
C. exchanged on an ongoing basis with customers
D. All the choices are correct.
89. An agile company supports all the following except:
A. Short-lived products and services
B. Standardized products and services
C. Information-rich products and services
D. Niche market products and services
90. _______________ agility is the ability to co-opt customers in the exploitation of innovation opportunities.
A. Customer
B. Partnering
C. Operational
D. Technological
91. _______________ agility is the ability to leverage assets, knowledge, and competencies in the exploration and exploitation of innovation opportunities.
A. Customer
B. Partnering
C. Operational
D. Technological
92. _______________ agility is the ability to accomplish speed, accuracy, and cost economy in the exploitation of innovation opportunities.
A. Customer
B. Partnering
C. Operational
D. Technological
93. Which of the following is not a strategy of a virtual company?
A. Share infrastructure and risk with alliance partners
B. Link complementary core competencies
C. Migrate from selling products to selling solutions
D. Increase concept-to-case time
94. Explicit knowledge deals with:
A. Data, documents, and things written down or stored on computers.
B. "How-to" knowledge, which resides in workers.
C. Using data mining techniques to capture external information.
D. All of the choices are correct.
95. Tacit knowledge deals with:
A. Data, documents, and things written down or stored on computers.
B. "How-to" knowledge, which resides in workers.
C. Using data mining techniques to capture external information.
D. None of the choices are correct.
96. Accessing and retrieving documents that have been stored online is a function of _______________.
A. document management
B. enterprise intelligence
C. information creation, sharing, and management
D. All of the choices are correct.
97. Real-time information management, communication, and collaboration are a function of
A. document management
B. enterprise intelligence
C. information creation, sharing, and management
D. All of the choices are correct.
98. Performance support, building expert networks, and leveraging organizational know-how are a function of _______________.
A. document management
B. enterprise intelligence
C. information creation, sharing, and management
D. All of the choices are correct.
99. The goal of knowledge management systems (KMS) is to help knowledge workers _______________ important business knowledge.
A. create
B. organize
C. distribute
D. All of the choices are correct.
100. According to the textbook case, the Matter Page System at Goodwin Proctor increases efficiency of their attorneys by.
A. Separating the client billing, documents, and contact data
B. Enabling the attorneys to launch more than one application at a time to find information
C. Requiring the attorneys to spend more time researching their cases
D. Pulling all the client billing, documents and contact data into a single "one-stop-shop" for users
Fill in the Blank Questions
101.(p. 46) A firm can survive and succeed in the long run if it successfully develops strategies to confront the five _______________ forces that shape the structure of competition in its industry.
102.(p. 46) When an organization uses information technology to develop products, services and capabilities in order to gain a strategic advantage over competitive forces in the global marketplace, it is using information systems in a _______________ role.
103.(p. 49) The competitive threat of _______________ is often at its strongest during periods of rising costs or inflation.
104.(p. 49) A _______________ strategy is a competitive strategy by which a firm seeks to become a low-cost producer of products and services in the industry.
105.(p. 50) When using a(n) _______________ strategy, a firm seeks to find new ways of producing or distributing its products and services that are so different from the way business has been conducted that they may alter the fundamental structure of the industry.
106.(p. 52) _______________ are the costs in time, money, effort, and inconvenience that it would take a customer or supplier to move its business to a firm's competitors.
107.(p. 53) If a company has successfully increased the amount of investment or the complexity of the technology required to compete in an industry or a market segment, it has raised _______________ that would discourage or delay other companies from entering the market.
108.(p. 53) Although large investments in technology can create entry barriers for present or prospective players in an industry, the barriers can evaporate over time as competitors employ the new technologies. This is an example of IT becoming a competitive _______________.
109.(p. 53) When a strategy or action becomes a(n) _______________, it means that instead of creating an advantage, the strategy or action becomes necessary simply to compete and do business in the industry.
110.(p. 54) A customer-focused business has a strategic focus on customer _______________, which recognizes that quality rather than price has become the primary determinant in a customer's perception of value.
111.(p. 56) In the _______________ concept, some business activities are primary processes while others are support processes.
112.(p. 57) According to the value chain concept, _______________ processes within the organization would include human resources management and technology development.
113.(p. 58) _______________ is defined as the restructuring and transforming of a business process by a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign to achieve improvements in costs, quality, speed, and service.
114.(p. 58) Many companies have found that organizational _______________ approaches are an important enabler of business process re-engineering.
115.(p. 63) A(n) _______________ company can make a profit in markets with broad product ranges and short model lifetimes, and it can produce orders individually and in arbitrary lot sizes.
116.(p. 64) A _______________ company can be defined as an organization that uses telecommunications networks and other information technology to link people, assets, and ideas.
117.(p. 64) Virtual companies develop alliances and extranet links that form _______________ information systems with suppliers, customers, subcontractors, and competitors.
118.(p. 64) People and corporations are forming virtual companies as the best way to implement key business strategies and alliances that promise to ensure success in today's turbulent _______________ climate.
119.(p. 66) The concept of _______________-management refers to organizing and sharing the diverse forms of business information created within an organization. This includes managing project and enterprise document libraries, discussion databases, hypermedia web site databases, and other types of knowledge bases.
120.(p. 66) _______________ knowledge deals with "how-to" knowledge, which resides in workers.
121.(p. 66) _______________ knowledge is made up of data, documents, and things written down.
122.(p. 66) Enterprise Intelligence, Information Creation, Sharing, and Management, and Document Management are the three levels of _______________.
123.(p. 66) Leveraging organizational "know-how", performance support, interacting with operational databases, and building expert networks are part of the _______________ level of knowledge management.
124.(p. 66) Capturing and distributing expert stories, real-time information management, communication and collaboration, and new content creation are part of the _______________ level of knowledge management.
125.(p. 66) Accessing and retrieving documents stored online are part of the _______________ level of knowledge management.
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