Managing Industry Competition Quiz-2

Every firm within a broadly defined industry:

• is uniformly influenced by advances in technology.

• succeeds best by following a strategy that combines cost leadership and differentiation.

• competes against each other.

• can usually be placed in one of several strategic groups within that industry.

What question does the resource-based view come to answer?

• How do a society's rules impact an industry?

• How do firms behave?

• What determines the scope of the firm?

• Why are only certain firms within a particular industry successful?

The main goal of a differentiation strategy is to:

• target the average customers for mass market.

• identify the attributes and deliver products that attract customers willing to pay a premium price.

• relentlessly cut costs in producing the products customers desire.

• serve a particular segment of an industry.

Which of the following is TRUE about firms that pursue strategies of both cost leadership and differentiation?

• They become “stuck in the middle” with resulting poor performance.

• They cannot be successful in both strategies.

• Flexible manufacturing can enable a firm to produce differentiated products at low costs.

• Mass customization is the inevitable result of combining strategies.

The industry-based view recommends:

• vertical integration as a way to defend against the power of suppliers and buyers.

• backward integration as a way to defend against the power of buyers.

• forward integration as a way to defend against the power of suppliers.

• backward or forward integration as a way to defend against the power of suppliers and buyers.

Porter’s five forces framework:

• identifies relevant variables but fails to ask the needed questions.

• identifies needed questions to ask and 'correct' answers.

• identifies both relevant variables and questions to ask.

• eliminates the need for other frameworks to add insight about firm performance.

Which of the following is true regarding supplier relationships in the Japanese keiretsu model?

• Suppliers are treated as adversaries.

• Trusted suppliers gain advantages by working outside of the keiretsu.

• Suppliers are viewed as collaboration partners.

• Supplier relationships tend to be ineffective.

For firms following a cost leadership strategy, their goal is a:

• high-volume, low-margin approach.

• high-volume, high-margin approach.

• low-volume, high-margin approach.

• low-volume, low-margin approach.

Strategists using the industry-based view need to:

• see it as a powerful strategic tool.

• arrive at an uncritical acceptance of the traditional view.

• identify their firm within an industry in a boundary-less way.

• avoid strategic alliances.

A niche market that is the goal of a focus strategy might be defined by:

• a geographical area, type of customer, or number of competitors.

• number of competitors, number of customers, or number of products.

• type of customer, number of suppliers, number of product lines.

• a geographical area, type of customer, or product line.