Executive Decision Making
Textbook Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Executive Decision Making explores the processes, tools, and psychological factors that influence high-stakes decision making at the executive level. The course examines frameworks and analytical models for assessing complex business situations, evaluating alternatives, and implementing effective strategies in dynamic and uncertain environments. Students will analyze real-world cases, discuss ethical considerations, and develop skills to manage risk, leverage data, and lead organizations through critical decisions. The course also places an emphasis on the impact of cognitive biases, group dynamics, and organizational culture on executive choices.
Recommended Textbook
Strategic Management Concepts and Cases 16th Edition by Fred R. David
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11 Chapters
1321 Verified Questions
1321 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: The Nature of Strategic Management
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123 Verified Questions
123 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Anything a firm does especially well, compared to rival firms, could be considered a competitive advantage.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Both business and military organizations must ________ and ________ to be successful.
A) be impervious to change; continually improve
B) adapt to change; constantly improve
C) shun change; stay the course
D) be impervious to change; stay the course
E) none of the above
Answer: B
Q3) Compare and contrast strategic planning with strategic management.
Answer: The term "strategic planning" is more often used in the business world, whereas "strategic management" is often used in academia. Sometimes, strategic management is used to refer to strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation, with strategic planning referring only to strategy formulation.
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3
Chapter 2: The Business Vision and Mission
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120 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The operating philosophy of organizations should be to develop a product and then try to find a market for it.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Explain what it means for a mission statement to have a customer orientation.
Answer: The mission statement should reflect the anticipations of customers. Rather than developing a product and then trying to find a market, the operating philosophy of organizations should be to identify customers' needs and then provide a product or service to fulfill those needs. Good mission statements also identify the utility of a firm's products to its customers. A major reason for developing a business mission statement is to attract customers who give meaning to an organization.
Q3) Which question(s) is answered in an effective mission statement?
A) Is the firm committed to growth and financial soundness?
B) Are employees a valuable asset of the firm?
C) Geographically, where does the firm compete?
D) Who are the firm's customers?
E) All of the above questions are answered in an effective mission statement.
Answer: E
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Page 4
Chapter 3: The External Assessment
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115 Verified Questions
115 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Define Competitive Intelligence (CI) and list three ways that CI can be gathered. Answer: Competitive Intelligence as formally defined by the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), is a systematic and ethical process for gathering and analyzing information about the competition's activities and general business trends to further a business's own goals (SCIP website). Students should also list three of the following: 1) hire top executives from rival firms, 2) reverse engineer rival firms' products, 3) use surveys and interviews of customers, suppliers, and distributors, 4) conduct drive-by and on-site visits to rival firm operations, 5) search online databases, 6) contact government agencies for public information about rival firms, 6) systematically monitor relevant trade publications, magazines, and newspapers.
Q2) Unpublished sources of external strategic information include all of the following EXCEPT
A) abstracts.
B) customer surveys.
C) market research.
D) speeches at professional and shareholders' meetings.
E) conversations with stakeholders.
Answer: A
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Page 5
Chapter 4: The Internal Assessment
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123 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss the five steps involved in performing an Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Matrix.
Q2) Activity ratios measure how effectively a firm is using its resources.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Staffing involves all of these activities EXCEPT
A) recruiting employees.
B) rewarding employees.
C) analyzing customers.
D) managing union relations.
E) training and developing employees.
Q4) The process of performing an internal audit, compared to the external audit, provides more opportunity for participants to understand how their jobs, departments and divisions fit into the whole organization.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are the seven basic functions of marketing?
Q6) According to Roger Schroeder, there are five basic functions or decision areas in production. Describe these five functions.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Strategies in Action
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Sample Questions
Q1) List three guidelines for when forward integration would be a particularly good strategy to pursue.
Q2) There are four basic types of diversification: concentric, conglomerate, forward, and backward.
A)True
B)False
Q3) An appropriate strategy when an organization has excess production capacity is market development.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Strategic objectives include larger market share, quicker on-time delivery than rivals, shorter design-to-market times than rivals, lower costs than rivals, and wider geographic coverage than rivals.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Limited availability of quality distributors is a reason why competitive advantage could result from forward integration.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Strategy Analysis and Choice
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119 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix, which element represents the industry growth rate in sales, measured in percentage terms?
A) X-axis
B) Y-axis
C) First quadrant
D) Second quadrant
E) Third quadrant
Q2) Explain the concept of matching in the strategy formulation framework.
Q3) Successful strategists minimize their own political exposure on issues that are ________ and in circumstances where opposition from major power centers is likely.
A) highly controversial
B) nominally controversial
C) power centered
D) strategy centered
E) tactic optimized
Q4) Give five sets of coordinates of SPACE Matrix directional vectors that would suggest conservative strategies to be most appropriate.
Q5) Describe some tactics used by politicians that can also aid strategists.
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Implementing Strategies: Management, Operations, and Human Resource Issues
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116 Verified Questions
116 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What are the three categories of approaches for managing and resolving conflict?
A) Avoidance, defusion, and confrontation
B) Avoidance, apathy, and defusion
C) Ignorance, indifference, and apathy
D) Defusion, apathy, and avoidance
E) Indifference, avoidance, and role-playing
Q2) The United States is a leader globally in promoting women and minorities into midand top-level managerial positions in business.
A)True
B)False
Q3) When attachments to a culture are severed in an organization's attempt to change direction, employees and managers often experience deep feelings of grief.
A)True
B)False
Q4) A firm's annual objectives can be stated by business segment.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Name at least six issues indicated by the authors that may require a management policy.
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Chapter 8: Implementing Strategies: Marketing, Financeaccounting,
Rd, and Mis
Issues
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Sample Questions
Q1) Market segmentation can be defined as the subdividing of a market into distinct subsets of customers according to needs and buying habits.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The percentage-of-sales method should be used for projecting interest and taxes, but not dividends, in the income statements.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which is NOT a required step in perceptual mapping?
A) Select key criteria that effectively differentiate products or services in the industry.
B) Serve two segments with the same strategy.
C) Plot major competitors' products or services in the resultant matrix.
D) Identify areas in the positioning map where the company's products or services could be most competitive in the given target market.
E) Develop a marketing plan to position the company's products and services appropriately.
Q4) Discuss some ways in which management information systems can benefit a company.
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Strategy Review, Evaluation, and Control
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Sample Questions
Q1) What aims to balance long-term with short-term concerns, financial with nonfinancial concerns, and internal with external concerns?
A) Contingency planning
B) The Balanced Scorecard approach
C) Taking corrective action
D) Benchmarking
E) Consonance
Q2) While open-mindedness is generally considered to be a good trait, it endangers effective strategic management.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The Fortune 50 includes all of the following EXCEPT
A) the largest banks.
B) the largest hospitals.
C) the largest retailers.
D) the largest transportation companies.
E) the largest utilities.
Q4) List and describe Rumelt's four criteria for evaluating strategies.
Q5) What three questions must be asked when using Balanced Scorecard Analysis?
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Chapter 10: Business Ethics, Social Responsibility, and Environmental Sustainability
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following business actions is considered to be unethical?
A) Having satisfactory product or service safety
B) Selling products in foreign markets
C) Providing equal opportunities for women and minorities
D) Filing expense accounts
E) Misleading labeling
Q2) The percentage of persons age 65 or older exceeds 20 percent in Japan, Italy, and
A) Germany.
B) the United States.
C) France.
D) China.
E) all of the above
Q3) According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, ________ percent of all firms sampled had no restrictions on boss-subordinate love affairs at work.
A) 5
B) 13
C) 24
D) 39
E) 80
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Chapter 11: Global and International Issues
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Sample Questions
Q1) Contrast business culture in Mexico with business culture in the United States.
Q2) In China, one should eat heartily to demonstrate enjoyment of the food.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Communication between domestic headquarters and overseas operations is often made difficult by
A) geographic distance.
B) cultural differences.
C) variations in business practices.
D) national differences.
E) all of the above
Q4) What percent of the world's population lives outside the United States?
A) 55
B) 65
C) 75
D) 85
E) 95
Q5) List some of the diverse and unique risks that face multinational corporations (MNCs).
Q6) Explain the concept of protectionism.
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