Competitive Strategy
Final Test Solutions
Course Introduction
Competitive Strategy explores the frameworks, tools, and analytical approaches organizations use to achieve and sustain competitive advantage in dynamic markets. The course examines how firms assess their industry environment, identify their core competencies, and make strategic choices regarding positioning, differentiation, and cost leadership. Through case studies and real-world examples, students learn to anticipate competitor moves, evaluate the impact of disruptive innovation, and implement strategies to outmaneuver rivals. Topics include industry analysis, strategic planning, resource allocation, and the integration of functional-level and corporate-wide initiatives to build long-term value and success.
Recommended Textbook
Strategic Management Creating Competitive Advantages 4th Edition by Gregory Dess
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12 Chapters
745 Verified Questions
745 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Strategic Management: Creating Competitive Advantages
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56 Verified Questions
56 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Henry Mintzberg,the realized strategies of a firm A) are a combination of deliberate and emergent strategies.
B) are a combination of deliberate and differentiation strategies. C) must be based on a company's strategic plan.
D) must be kept confidential for competitive reasons.
Answer: A
Q2) Firms must be aware of goals other than short-term profit maximization.One area of concern should be social responsibility which is
A) the expectation that business will strive to improve the overall welfare of society.
B) the idea that organizations are solely responsible to local citizens.
C) the fact that court costs could impact the financial bottom line.
D) the idea that businesses are responsible to maintain a healthy social climate for their employees.
Answer: A
Q3) Globalization is the flow of capital,people,and information throughout the world.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 2: Analyzing the External Environment of the Firm
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70 Verified Questions
70 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Porter's five forces model is designed to help us understand how social attitudes and cultural values impact U.S.businesses.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) A SWOT analysis includes listing
A) strategies, opportunities, and tactics
B) strategies, opportunities, and threats
C) strengths, opportunities, and tactics
D) strengths, opportunities, and threats
Answer: D
Q3) In the Air Canada-WestJet conflict,the issue is
A) Air Canada claims its employee website was hacked
B) WestJet claims its employee website was hacked
C) Air Canada claims its email was stolen
D) Air Canada claims WestJet used employee access information to obtain flight info
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: Assessing the Internal Environment of the Firm
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67 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The resource-based view (RBV)of the firm combines two perspectives
A) the primary and support activities of the firm.
B) the interrelationships among the primary activities of the firm and corporate management.
C) the internal analysis of the firm as well as the external analysis of the industry and competitive environment.
D) the industry and the competitive environment.
Answer: C
Q2) Assessment of a firm's primary activities should include analysis of all of the following except A) inbound logistics.
B) operations.
C) human resources
D) marketing and sales.
Answer: C
Q3) What are some of the most important implications of using the "balanced scorecard" approach?
Answer: The balanced scorecard provides a win-win approach and a means of simultaneously increasing satisfaction among a variety of stakeholders.
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Chapter 4: Recognizing a Firms Intellectual Assets: Moving
Beyond a Firms Tangible Resources
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Sample Questions
Q1) Maintaining a competitive workforce is very challenging in today's economy.The role of evaluating human capital,in recent years,has
A) increased.
B) decreased.
C) become less important.
D) remained the same.
Q2) The more reliance a firm has on intellectual capital the closer its book value will be to its market value.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Bridging relationships
A) create a high level of solidarity amongst its members
B) bring together groups that may otherwise be unconnected
C) have high levels of trust
D) have people in the network willing to "go the extra mile"
Q4) The creation of knowledge assets is typically characterized by
A) high upfront costs and subsequent high variable costs.
B) high fixed costs and high variable costs.
C) low upfront costs and high variable costs.
D) high upfront costs and low variable costs.
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Chapter 5: Business-Level Strategy: Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantages
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54 Verified Questions
54 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Firms that successfully integrate both differentiation and cost advantages create an enviable position relative to industry forces.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Focus,by itself,often constitutes a competitive advantage.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A pitfall of a focus strategy is that focusers can become too focused to satisfy buyer needs.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Explain how a differentiation strategy enables a business to address the five competitive forces in such a way that it can enjoy high levels of profitability.
Q5) Evaluating strategic choices should involve four tests:
A) consistency, consonance, competitive advantages, and differentiation
B) competitive advantages, differentiation, feasibility, and consistency
C) competitive advantages, consistency, feasibility, and consonance
D) consistency, consonance, cost leadership, and feasibility
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Chapter 6: Corporate-Level Strategy: Creating Value Through Diversification
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Sample Questions
Q1) Explain the limitations of portfolio management matrices such as the growth-share matrix developed by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Q2) Corporate-level strategy addresses two related issues
A) how to compete in a given business; the application of technology.
B) what businesses to compete in; how these businesses can achieve synergy.
C) how to integrate primary activities; increase shareholder wealth.
D) how to improve a firm's infrastructure; how to maintain ethical behaviour.
Q3) An anti-takeover tactic called greenmail is
A) encouraged in Canada.
B) prohibited in Canada.
C) only allowed in Quebec.
D) borrowed from NAFTA.
Q4) What are some of the key issues to take into account when considering whether or not to vertically integrate?
Q5) For strategic alliances to be effective,reliance on written contracts to delimit responsibilities and enforce compliance is vital.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Briefly explain the advantages of vertical integration.
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Chapter 7: International Strategy: Creating Value in Global Markets
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64 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Industries in which proportionally more value is added in upstream activities are more likely to benefit from a global strategy than those in which more value is added downstream (closer to the customer).
A)True
B)False
Q2) Lingo Media of Toronto was mentioned in Chapter Seven as being a good example of a small company
A) that competes in industries in which consumer preferences vary substantially in each country.
B) that has high visibility in both Canada and foreign markets.
C) selling entertainment programs into the Korean market.
D) penetrating the Chinese market for ESL teaching materials.
Q3) Among Theodore Levitt's assumptions that would favour a global strategy is that consumers around the world are becoming less price-sensitive.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What are some of the primary benefits of transnational strategies?
Q5) What are the six basic types of entry strategies for international expansion?
Q6) Explain Michael Porter's "diamond of national advantage."
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Chapter 8: Entrepreneurial Strategy and Competitive Dynamics
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Sample Questions
Q1) The life cycle idea used to describe industries is clearly analogous to a living organism that experiences birth,growth,maturity,and death.This comparison A) provides clear insight into how organizations change over time. B) has some limitations and does not always hold true. C) is appropriate because firm rarely experience renewal. D) perfectly explains the cereal industry.
Q2) There is little advantage in being the "first mover" in a market.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Although all decisions in all phases of an industry life cycle are important,they become particularly ______________ in the decline stage.
A) critical B) radical C) cautious D) expensive
Q4) Briefly explain the forces that lead an organization to follow the creative change trajectory.
Q5) Explain the "action-response" processes that create competitive dynamics within an industry.
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Chapter 9: Strategic Control and Corporate Governance
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Sample Questions
Q1) Brinker International found that the diverse markets served by their bakeries and restaurants made it difficult focus on the unique aspects faced by each chain and consequently changed from a
A) simple structure to a functional structure
B) divisional structure to a matrix structure
C) functional structure to a divisional structure
D) virtual structure to an ambidextrous structure
Q2) In a barrier-free organization,differences in skills,authority,and talent disappear.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The purpose of boundaryless forms of organizing is to facilitate the widespread sharing of knowledge and information across internal and external boundaries of the organization.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Modular companies can achieve rapid growth because they don't require large investments in fixed assets.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Creating Effective Organizational Designs
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Sample Questions
Q1) What are the "traditional" approaches to strategic control?
Q2) The risk of being acquired by hostile raiders is often referred to as the takeover constraint.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In firms that follow related diversification strategies,reward and control systems rely on behavioural indicators since the organization needs to reward and reinforce behaviours that facilitate sharing and collaboration.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What are the three key means to align the interests of owners (shareholders)and managers in a corporation?
Q5) Contemporary approaches to strategic control rely primarily on A) feedback controls.
B) single-loop learning.
C) double-loop learning.
D) comparative learning.
Q6) Why is it important to have a balance among the three behavioural controls?
Q7) What are the four characteristics of effective contemporary control systems?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Strategic Leadership: Creating a Learning
Organization and an Ethical Organization
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64 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Organizational learning works best when an organization's leaders gather information and teach it to employees who are like their students.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The two broad bases of a leader's power are organizational and hierarchical.
A)True
B)False
Q3) All of the following statements about ethical organizations are true except
A) the potential benefits of an ethical organization are few but direct.
B) ethical values shape the search for opportunities.
C) organizational ethics define what a company is and what it stands for.
D) ethics provide a common frame of reference that serves as a unifying force.
Q4) Which of the following statements about ethics is false?
A) Ethics may be defined as a system of right and wrong.
B) Ethics assists individuals in deciding when an act is moral or immoral.
C) Ethics is not concerned with whether or not an act is socially desirable.
D) Business ethics is the application of ethical standards to commercial enterprises.
Q5) What is the leader's role in establishing an ethical organization?
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Chapter 12: Managing Innovation and Fostering Corporate Entrepreneurship
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55 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) The benefits gained by firms that are the first to enter new markets,establish brand identity,and/or adopt new technologies are known as
A) competitive aggressiveness.
B) technological capabilities.
C) first mover advantages.
D) breakthrough innovations.
Q2) Corporate venturing that is focused permeates all parts of the organization and involves every member of the organization.
A)True
B)False
Q3) One of the key factors that makes it difficult for new ventures to be successful as differentiator is
A) strategic renewal.
B) internal development is challenging.
C) mergers and acquisitions are a threat.
D) enacting HYPERLINK "" the strategy is expensive.
Q4) An imitative new entry strategy is in many respects the same as pioneering.
A)True
B)False
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