Strategic Management
Final Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Strategic Management is a comprehensive course that explores the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of cross-functional decisions that enable an organization to achieve its long-term objectives. Students will analyze internal and external environments, assess competitive advantage, and develop the skills needed to craft and execute effective strategies. Using real-world case studies, this course emphasizes critical thinking, problem-solving, and ethical decision-making to prepare students for leadership roles in dynamic international business environments.
Recommended Textbook
Crafting and Executing Strategy Concepts and Cases 18th Edition by Arthur Thompson
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12 Chapters
1133 Verified Questions
1133 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important
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60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a frequently used strategic approach to setting a company apart from rivals and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage?
A) Striving to be the industry's low-cost provider, thereby aiming for a cost-based competitive advantage
B) Outcompeting rivals on the basis of such differentiating features as higher quality, wider product selection, added performance, better service, more attractive styling, technological superiority, or unusually good value for the money
C) Developing expertise and resource strengths that give the company competitive capabilities that rivals can't easily imitate or trump with capabilities of their own
D) Focusing on a narrow market niche and winning a competitive edge by doing a better job than rivals of serving the special needs and tastes of buyers comprising the niche E) All of these
Answer: E
Q2) Powerful execution of a powerful strategy is a proven recipe for winning in the marketplace.True or false? Explain your answer.
Answer: Answer will vary
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Chapter 2: Charting a Companys Direction: Vision and Mission, Objectives, and Strategy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Breaking down resistance to a new strategic vision typically requires that top management
A) institute a balanced scorecard approach to measuring company performance, with the "balance" including a mixture of both old and new performance measures.
B) keep company personnel well-informed about forthcoming changes in the company's strategy.
C) frequently reiterate the basis for the new direction at company gatherings, address employee concerns and fears head-on, and provide updates and progress reports as events unfold.
D) move promptly to update the company's business model and hold meetings with company personnel to explain the merits of the new business model.
E) raise wages and salaries to win the support of company personnel for the company's new direction.
Answer: C
Q2) A well-conceived strategic vision helps prepare a company for the future.True or false? Explain and justify your answer.
Answer: Answer will vary
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4
Chapter 3: Evaluating a Companys External Environment
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128 Verified Questions
128 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Having good competitive intelligence about rivals' strategies and moves to improve their situation is important because
A) it identifies who the industry's current market share leaders are.
B) it helps a company to anticipate what moves rivals are likely to make next and to craft its own strategic moves with some confidence about what market maneuvers to expect from its rivals.
C) good scouting reports help identify which rival is in which strategic group.
D) it enables company managers to determine which rival has the worst strategy and how to avoid making the same strategy mistakes.
E) it enables more accurate predictions about how long it will take a particular rival to copy most of what the strategy leader is doing.
Answer: B
Q2) Competitive markets are economic battlefields.True or false? Explain. Answer: Answer will vary
Q3) Identify and briefly explain any three factors that lead to strong bargaining power on the part of suppliers.
Answer: Answer will vary
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Chapter 4: Evaluating a Companys Resources, Capabilities, and Competitiveness
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131 Verified Questions
131 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Instead of trying to match the resource strengths of rivals,what option(s)should a company consider to enhance its competitive power in the marketplace?
Q2) Which of the following most accurately reflect a company's resource strengths?
A) Its human, physical and/or organization assets; its skills and competitive capabilities; and achievements or attributes that enhance the company's ability to compete effectively
B) The sizes of its unit sales, revenues, and market share vis-à-vis those of key rivals
C) The sizes of its profit margins and return on investment vis-à-vis those of key rivals
D) Whether it has more primary activities in its value chain than close rivals and a better overall value chain than these rivals
E) Whether it has more core competencies than close rivals
Q3) The market opportunities most relevant to a particular company are those that
A) offer the best growth and profitability.
B) provide a strong defense against threats to the company's profitability.
C) hold the most potential for product innovation.
D) provide avenues for taking market share away from close rivals.
E) hold the most potential to reduce costs.
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Page 6
Chapter 5: The Five Generic Competitive Strategies: Which
One to Employ
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86 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The risks of a focused strategy based on either low-cost or differentiation include A) the chance that niche customers will bargain more aggressively for good deals than customers in the overall marketplace.
B) the potential for the preferences and needs of niche members to shift over time towards many of the same product attributes and capabilities desired by buyers in the mainstream portion of the market.
C) the potential for the segment to be highly vulnerable to economic cycles.
D) the potential for segment growth to race beyond the production or service capabilities of incumbent firms.
E) All of these.
Q2) Which one of the five generic competitive strategies is most likely to be best suited for an industry whose product is a commodity? Explain.
Q3) Explain how the marketing emphasis of a low-cost provider differs from the marketing emphasis of a best-cost provider.
Q4) Explain how the keys to sustaining a broad differentiation strategy differ from the keys to sustaining a best-cost producer strategy.
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Chapter 6: Strengthening a Companys Competitive
Position: Strategic Moves, timing, and Scope of Operation
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Sample Questions
Q1) The strategic impetus for forward vertical integration is to
A) gain better access to end users and better market visibility.
B) achieve the same scale economies as wholesale distributors and/or retail dealers.
C) control price at the retail level.
D) bypass distributors-dealers and sell direct to consumers at the company's Web site.
E) build a core competence in mass merchandising.
Q2) Incorporating opportunities for organizational learning can
A) increase a company's knowledge assets and capabilities.
B) decrease a company's knowledge assets.
C) automatically create successful strategic alliances.
D) decrease a company's knowledge capabilities.
E) rapidly transfer assets into the strategic alliance.
Q3) Challenging a struggling rival can
A) sap its financial strength and competitive position.
B) weaken the rivals resolve.
C) accelerate the rivals exit from the market.
D) threaten its overall survival in the market.
E) All of these.
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Chapter 7: Strategies for Competing in International Markets
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103 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements regarding multidomestic competition is false?
A) One of the features of multidomestic competition is that buyers in different countries are attracted to different product attributes.
B) With multidomestic competition, the power and strength of a company's strategy and resource capabilities in one country significantly enhance its competitiveness in other country markets.
C) One of the features of multidomestic competition is that industry conditions and competitive forces in each national market differ in important respects.
D) One of the features of multidomestic competition is that the mix of competitors in each country market varies from country to country.
E) With multidomestic competition, rivals battle for national championships and winning in one country market does not necessarily signal the ability to fare well in other countries.
Q2) Identify and briefly describe the strategic options for tailoring a company's strategy to compete in emerging country markets.
Q3) Identify and briefly describe a local company's strategic options in competing against global challengers.
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Page 9
Chapter 8: Corporate Strategy: Diversification and the
Multibusiness Company
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129 Verified Questions
129 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The best place to look for cross-business strategic fit is
A) in R&D and technology activities.
B) in supply chain activities.
C) in sales and marketing activities.
D) in production and distribution activities.
E) anywhere along the respective value chains of related businesses-no one place is best.
Q2) Explain the relevance of the following as they relate to building shareholder value via diversification:
a)the attractiveness test.
b)the cost-of-entry test.
c)the better-off test.
Q3) An acquisition premium is the amount by which the price offered for an existing business exceeds
A) the pre-acquisition market value of the target company.
B) the fair market value of similar companies in the same geographic locale.
C) the comparable value of similar companies within the same market.
D) the amount paid as a down payment to be held in escrow until closing.
E) the difference between the amount that was offered and the amount that is escrowed.
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Chapter 9: Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility,
Environmental Sustainability, and Strategy
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Sample Questions
Q1) A belief in ethical relativism leads to the conclusion that
A) since ethical standards are subjective, it is perfectly appropriate for each company to define and implement its own ethical principles of right and wrong as concerns the use of underage labor and the payment of bribes and kickbacks.
B) ethical standards are determined objectively (rather than subjectively).
C) whether the use of underage labor and the payment of bribes/kickbacks should be deemed ethical or unethical depends on the moral standards, values, and business norms that prevail in particular cultures, societies, countries, or circumstances.
D) ethical standards are objective and universal-thus whether the use of underage labor and the payment of bribes and kickbacks should be deemed ethical or unethical definitely is not dependent on the moral standards, values, and business norms that prevail in particular cultures, societies, countries, or circumstances.
E) standards of right and wrong are governed by what is legal in a given country-thus whether the use of underage labor and the payment of bribes and kickbacks is ethical or unethical is governed by local law.
Q2) Ethical relativism equates to multiple sets of ethical standards.True or false? Explain your answer.
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Chapter 10: Building an Organization Capable of Good
Strategy Execution: People, Capabilities, and Structure
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Sample Questions
Q1) Delegating greater authority to subordinate managers and employees
A) creates a more horizontal or flatter organization structure with fewer management layers and usually acts to shorten organizational response times.
B) usually slows down decision-making because so many more people are involved and it takes longer to reach a consensus on what to do and when to do it.
C) can be a de-motivating factor because it requires people to take responsibility for their decisions and actions.
D) is very, very risky because it usually results in lots of "bad" decisions on the part of employees and lower levels of financial performance.
E) enhances greater cross-unit coordination and aids the capture of strategic fit benefits across related businesses.
Q2) Who is involved in the strategy execution process and who is ultimately responsible for making sure that the task of implementing and executing the strategy goes well?
Q3) What are the advantages of outsourcing non-critical and sometimes even critical value chain activities?
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Chapter 11: Managing Internal Operations: Actions That Promote
Good Strategy Execution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why does it make sense to create some job anxiety,insecurity,and stress as part of a company's motivational and reward scheme for promoting competent strategy execution?
Q2) Well conceived,state-of-the-art information and operating systems
A) are essential because business process reengineering efforts, TQM, Six Sigma, and benchmarking programs can't be carried out effectively without them.
B) not only enable better strategy execution but also strengthen organizational capabilities (perhaps enough to provide a competitive edge over rivals).
C) make it simple and easy to spot cost overruns and inefficiencies.
D) are valuable tools for shortening a company's value chain, boosting work force morale and productivity, and simplifying the task of adopting best practices.
E) All of these.
Q3) In creating a strategy-supportive reward structure,it is important to define jobs and assignments in terms of the results to be accomplished not just in terms of the duties to be performed.True or false? Explain and justify your answer.
Q4) What is the difference between Six Sigma DMAIC programs and Six Sigma DMADV programs?
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Chapter 12: Corporate Culture and Leadership: Keys to Good Strategy Execution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Identify and discuss the three ways that a corporate culture,grounded in actions,behaviors and work practices and conducive to good strategy implementation can assist corporate strategy execution.
Q2) Which of the following is not a factor in contributing to the emergence and sustainability of a strong culture?
A) Continuity of leadership, small group size, stable group membership, geographic concentration, and considerable organizational success
B) A founder or strong leader who establishes values, principles, and practices that are consistent and sensible in light of customer needs, competitive conditions, and strategic requirements
C) A sincere, long-standing company commitment to operating the business according to established traditions, thereby creating an internal environment that supports decision making and strategies based on cultural norms
D) Centralized decision-making, strict enforcement of company policies, and a strong commitment to being the market share leader
E) A genuine concern for the well-being of the organization's three biggest constituencies-customers, employees, and shareholders
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