When a company performs a particular competitively important activity truly well in comparison to its rivals it is said to have a?

Which of the following is NOT one of the six questions that comprise the task of evaluating a company’s resources and competitive position?

What are the company’s most profitable geographic market segments?

Which of the following is NOT a component of evaluating a company’s resources and competitive position?

Scanning the environment to determine a company’s best and most profitable customers

Which of the following is not an analytical tool for revealing a company’s competitiveness and for helping to match the strategy to the company’s own particular circumstances?

Bench-pressing analysis

The following ARE analytical tools for revealing a company’s competitiveness and for helping to match the strategy to the company’s own particular circumstances?

A. Resource and capability analysis B. SWOT analysis C. Value chain analysis D. Bench-pressing analysis (wrong/not one) E. Competitive strength analysis

The best indicator of how well a company’s strategy is working is whether the company:

is achieving its stated financial and strategic objectives, its financial performance is better than the industry average, and it is gaining customers and increasing market share.

One important indicator of how well a company’s present strategy is working is whether:

the company is achieving its financial and strategic objectives and whether it is an above-average industry performer.

The business strategy is made up of key "functional" strategies except:

Alliance and partnerships as well as merger and acquisition growth strategies.

Sluggish performance results relative to rivals are a reliable warning sign that the company has either a weak strategy or poor strategy execution or both. The best way to identify a well-conceived, well-executed strategy is to determine whether the company is experiencing:

a desirable growth rate in new customer acquisition and favorable customer retention efforts for establishing a strong customer experience.

A company’s resources and capabilities represent:

the firm’s competitive assets, which are considered big determinants of its competitiveness and ability to succeed in the marketplace.

A powerful tool for sizing up the company’s competitive assets and determining whether they can provide the foundation necessary for competitive success in the marketplace is termed:

Resource and capability analysis

A productive input or competitive asset that is owned or controlled by a company is termed a:

resource, and there are different types of resources at the firm’s disposal that vary not only in kind but in quality as well.

The difference between a resource and a capability is:

a resource is a productive input or competitive asset, while a capability is the capacity of the firm to perform some internal activity competently.

A useful way to identify a company’s resources is to view them as:

divided into two main categories, tangible and intangible.

The main reason that listing or categorizing company resources matters is:

that all the different types of resources are included.

Tangible resources do not include:

human assets.

Tangible resources include:

technological assets such as patents, copyrights, and trade secrets.

There are two approaches that can make the process of uncovering and identifying a firm’s capabilities more systematic. They include:

resources assessment and the functional approach.

Organizational capabilities are virtually always:

knowledge-based, residing in people and in the company’s intellectual capital, or in organizational processes and systems, which embody tacit knowledge.

A linked and closely integrated set of competitive assets centered around one or more cross-functional capabilities and closely integrated competitive assets is termed:

a resource bundle.

A sustainable competitive advantage is gained:

when a company has durable competitive assets that are central to its strategy and superior to those of rival firms.

The four tests of a resource’s competitive power are often referred to as:

the VRIN test, which asks if a resource is valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable.

The spotlight in analyzing a company’s resources, internal circumstances, and competitiveness includes such questions/concerns as:

what are the company’s resource strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats.

Which of the following is NOT pertinent in identifying a company’s present strategy?

The company’s mission, strategic objectives, and financial objectives

The following are pertinent in identifying a company’s present strategy

A. The key functional strategies (R&D, supply chain management, production, sales and marketing, HR, and finance) a company is employing B. Management’s planned, proactive moves to outcompete rivals (via better product design, improved quality or service, wider product lines, and so on) C. The company’s mission, strategic objectives, and financial objectives (wrong answer) D. Moves to respond and react to changing conditions in the macro-environment and in industry and competitive conditions E. The strategic role of its collaborative partnerships and strategic alliances with others

One important indicator of how well a company’s present strategy is working is whether:

the company is achieving its financial and strategic objectives and whether it is an above-average industry performer.

The best quantitative evidence of whether a company’s present strategy is working well is:

the caliber of results the strategy is producing, specifically whether the company is achieving its financial and strategic objectives and whether it is an above-average industry performer.

Which one of the following is NOT a reliable measure of how well a company’s current strategy is working?

Whether it has a larger number of competitive assets than competitive liabilities and whether it has a superior quality product

The following are reliable measures of how well a company’s current strategy is working?

A. Whether the company’s sales are growing faster, slower, or about the same pace as the industry as a whole, thus resulting in a rising, falling, or stable market share B. Whether it has a larger number of competitive assets than competitive liabilities and whether it has a superior quality product (incorrect) C. The firm’s image and reputation with its customers D. Whether its profit margins are rising or falling and how large its margins are relative to those of its rivals E. How well the firm stacks up against rivals on technology, product innovation, customer service, product quality, price, speed in getting newly developed products to market, and other relevant factors on which buyers base their choice of which brand to purchase

A company’s resource and capability analysis:

signal whether it has the wherewithal to be a strong competitor in the marketplace.

How are a company’s organizational capabilities developed and enabled?

Through deployment of a company’s resources or some combination of its resources

Which of the following does NOT represent a company resource?

Through deployment of a company’s resources or some combination of its resources

Which of the following does NOT represent a company resource?

A. By strengthening the traditions that company executives are committed to maintaining B. Through deployment of a company’s resources or some combination of its resources (INCORRECT) C. By talking openly about the problems of the present company and determining how new behaviors will improve performance D. By shifting from decentralized to centralized decision-making E. By urging company personnel to search outside the company for work practices and operating approaches that may be an improvement over what the company is presently doing

Which of the following does NOT represent a company resource?

Marketing and brand management

The following represent company resourceS?

A. A company’s brand B. A productive input that is owned by the firm C. Marketing and brand management (INCORRECT) D. R&D teams E. A productive input that is controlled by the firm

Which of the following is a clear representation of a company’s capability?

The capacity of a firm to perform some activity

Which of the following most accurately reflect a company’s resource strengths?

Its human, physical and/or organization assets; its skills and competitive capabilities; and its achievements or attributes that enhance the company’s ability to compete effectively

A company’s resources can include:

A. a skill, specialized expertise, or competitively important capability. B. valuable human assets and intellectual capital. C. an achievement or attribute that puts the company in a position of market advantage. D. competitively valuable alliances or cooperative ventures. E. All of these. (CORRECT)

The BEST example of a company resource is:

having proven technological expertise and an ability to churn out new and improved products on a regular basis.

Which of the following is NOT a good example of a company’s resources?

Having higher earnings per share and a higher stock price than key rivals

The following ARE good examples of a company’s resources

A. More intellectual capital and better e-commerce capabilities than rivals B. Fruitful partnerships or alliances with suppliers that reduce costs and/or enhance product quality and performance C. Having higher earnings per share and a higher stock price than key rivals (incorrect) D. A well-known brand name and enjoying the confidence of customers E. A lower-cost value chain than rivals

If a company doesn’t possess standalone resource strengths capable of contributing to competitive advantage:

it may have a bundle of resources that can be leveraged to develop a distinctive competence.

Resource and capability analysis is designed to:

ascertain which of a company’s resources and capabilities are competitively valuable.

Resource and capability analysis is achieved by:

probing the caliber of a firm’s competitive assets relative to those of rival firms.

A company that has competitive assets that are central to its company strategy and superior to those of rival firms creates a:

competitive advantage over other companies.

Whether a resource or capability can support a competitive advantage is determined by which two components of the four tests of competitive power analysis?

Whether the resource or capability is competitively valuable and/or is something that rivals lack

Which two tests of a resource’s competitive power determine whether a company’s competitive advantage can be sustained in the face of active competition?

Whether the resource or capability is hard to copy and/or can be trumped by different types of resources and capabilities

The competitive power of a company resource strength or competitive capability hinges on:

A. how hard it is for competitors to copy. B. whether it is rare and something rivals lack. C. whether it is really competitively valuable and has the potential to contribute to a competitive advantage. D. how easily it can be trumped by the substitute resources/capabilities of rivals. E. All of these. (CORRECT)

What two factors inhibit the ability of rivals to imitate a firm’s most valuable resources and capabilities?

Social complexity and causal ambiguity

A competitively valuable resource or capability is a company’s:

enabling foundation of its business model.

For a particular company resource/capability to have real competitive power and perhaps qualify as a basis for competitive advantage, it should:

be hard to copy, be rare and something rivals lack, be competitively valuable, and not be easily trumped by substitute resource strengths possessed by rivals.

The competitive power of a company’s resource strength is NOT measured by which one of the following tests?

Is the resource strength something that a company does internally rather than in collaborative arrangements with outsiders?

A company requires a dynamically evolving portfolio of resources and capabilities to:

sustain its competitiveness and help drive improvements in its performance.

For a company to have competitively potent resources and capabilities, they must:

A. be in sync with changes in the company’s own strategy. B. be in sync with its efforts to achieve a resource-based competitive advantage. C. fully support company efforts to attract customers. D. combat competitors’ newly launched offensives to win bigger sales and market shares. E. All of these. (CORRECT)

Which of the following is NOT an example of a company’s dynamic capability?

An ability to keep antiquated resources by disregarding innovative capabilities

The following ARE examples of a company’s dynamic capability

A. A capacity to improve existing resources and capabilities B. Upgrades to R&D resources to drive product innovation C. A capacity to add new resources and capabilities to the competitive asset portfolio D. An ability to replace degraded resources with acquired capabilities

A dynamic capability:

is the ongoing capacity to modify existing resources and capabilities to create new ones.

Identifying and assessing a company’s resource strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats is called:

a SWOT analysis.

SWOT analysis is a simple but powerful tool for:

sizing up a company’s resources and capabilities, strengths and deficiencies, its market opportunities, and the external threats to its future well-being.

A company’s strengths are important because:

they represent the quality of its competitive assets that enhance its competitiveness in the marketplace.

When an activity becomes something a company has learned to perform proficiently and capably, it is said to have:

a competence.

When a company has a proficiency in performing a strategically and competitively important value chain activity better than its rivals, it is said to have:

a distinctive competence

When a company is good at performing a particular internal activity, it is said to have:

a company competence.

The difference between a company competence and a core competence is that:

a company competence represents real proficiency in performing an internal activity, whereas a core competence is a competitively and strategically relevant activity.

The difference between a core competence and a distinctive competence is that:

a core competence is a competitively and strategically relevant activity that a firm performs well compared to its other activities, whereas a distinctive competence is a competitively relevant activity a firm performs well compared to other rival firms.

A core competence:

is an activity that a firm performs proficiently that is also central to its strategy and competitive success.

A core competence:

is a more competitively valuable strength than a competence because of the key role the activities play in the company’s strategy.

When a company performs a particular competitively important activity truly well in comparison to its rivals, it is said to have:

a distinctive competence.

Which of the following does NOT represent a potential core competence?

Having a wider product line than rivals

The following represent potential core competences

A. Skills in manufacturing a high-quality product at a low cost B. Know-how in creating and operating systems for cost-efficient supply chain management C. The capability to fill customer orders accurately and swiftly D. Having a wider product line than rivals (INCORRECT) E. The capability to speed new or next-generation products to the marketplace

A distinctive competence:

A. is a competitively important activity that a company performs better than its rivals. B. gives a company a competitively valuable capability that is unmatched by rivals. C. is a basis for sustainable competitive advantage. D. qualifies as a superior internal strength. E. All of these. (CORRECT)

Which one of the following is inaccurate as concerns a distinctive competence?

A distinctive competence is typically less restrictive for rivals to copy than a core competence.

The competitive power of a company’s core competence or distinctive competence depends on:

how hard it is to copy and how easily it can be trumped by substitute resource strengths and competitive capabilities of rivals.

A company resource weakness or competitive deficiency:

are shortcomings that constitute competitive liabilities.

A company’s resource weaknesses can relate to:

A. inferior or unproven skills, expertise, or intellectual capital in competitively important parts of the business. B. something that it lacks or does poorly in comparison to rivals. C. deficiencies in competitively important physical, organizational, or intangible assets. D. missing or competitively inferior capabilities in key areas. E. All of these. (CORRECT)

Sizing up a company’s complement of resource strengths and weaknesses:

is akin to constructing a "strategic balance sheet" where strengths represent competitive assets and weaknesses represent competitive liabilities.

The external market opportunities which are MOST relevant to a company are the ones that:

match up well with the firm’s competitive assets, offer the best prospects for growth and profitability, and present the most potential for competitive advantage.

The market opportunities most relevant to a particular company are those that:

offer the best prospects for growth and profitability.

Which of the following BEST describes the market opportunities that tend to be most relevant to a particular company?

Those market opportunities that match up well with the firm’s competitive assets, offer the best prospect for growth and profitability, and present the most potential for competitive advantage

Companies that seize opportunities in the marketplace are usually those that have been:

first movers willing to accept business risk.

Which of the following is NOT an example of an external threat to a company’s future profitability?

The lack of a distinctive competence

The following ARE examples of an external threat to a company’s future profitability

B. New legislation that entails burdensome and costly government regulations C. Slowdowns in market growth D. More intense competitive pressures E. The introduction of restrictive trade policies in countries where the company does business

Which of the following is NOT an example of a threat to a company’s future profitability and well-being?

The lack of a well-known brand name with which to attract new customers and help retain existing customers

The following are examples of a threat to a company’s future profitability and well-being

A. The likely entry of potent new competitors B. The lack of a well-known brand name with which to attract new customers and help retain existing customers (incorrect) C. Shifts in buyer needs and tastes away from the industry’s product D. Costly new regulatory requirements E. Growing bargaining power on the part of the company’s major customers and major suppliers

External threats may pose various degrees of adversity upon the company and can surface from many sources and examples, EXCEPT for:

demographic shifts that can curtail product innovation.

SWOT analysis:

provides a good overview and conclusions about the company’s overall situation.

In order to gain value from the SWOT analysis, it is important that the company address the two most important parts of a SWOT analysis, which are:

drawing conclusions from the SWOT listings about the company’s overall situation and translating these conclusions into strategic actions.

The key questions stemming from the SWOT listings that can reveal relevant substance about the company’s overall situation are as follows, except for:

Are the company’s activities and dynamic capabilities adequate for capitalizing on the opportunities?

A company’s internal strengths should always serve as the basis of strategy because:

placing heavy reliance on the company’s best competitive assets is the soundest route to attracting customers and competing successfully against rivals.

How much attention a company should devote to defending against external threats hinges on primarily on:

the compatibility of the pending threats to the company’s competitive assets.

The payoff of doing a thorough SWOT analysis is:

assisting strategy-makers in crafting a strategy that is well-matched to the company’s resources and capabilities, its market opportunities, and the external threats to its future well-being.