Assignment

Question 1
Companies can achieve growth mainly by ____.

shrinking the scope of their business
growing internally through direct expansion or creating new businesses
deleting all cash cows from their portfolios
only maintaining stars in their portfolios

Question 2
Imagine Dow Chemical is conducting a situational analysis. According to its sales, Dow is the second largest chemical company in the world. BASF is the largest. Both companies use a similar strategy. Within Dow's situational analysis, BASF would be classified as a ____.

cash cow
primary firms
unrelated firm
core firm
secondary firm

Question 3
The research on diversification in portfolio management indicates that the best approach is probably ____.

related differentiation
related diversification
unrelated diversification
repositioning
no diversification

Question 4
Which of the following organizations are most directly in competition with each other?

Kmart and Gap
a local flower shop and a grocery store that sells flowers
FedEx and UPS
an independent bookstore and a library
HBO and UPN television network

Question 5
An organization which is a ____ in terms of its adaptive strategy would NOT follow a consistent strategy.

defender
pioneer
analyzer
reactor
prospector

Question 6
From a competitive standpoint, ____ means that the strategic actions your company takes can probably be matched by your direct competitors.

market commonality
resource similarity
character of the rivalry
competitive inertia
competitive autonomy

Question 7
A(n) ____ resource is a resource that is not controlled or possessed by many competing firms.

rare
imperfectly imitable
nonsubstitutable
strategically dissonant
permanent

Question 8
When Clorox Corporation, a manufacturer of bleach and bleach-based cleaning products, acquired Kingsford Charcoal and Prime Choice brand steak sauce; it was an example of ____.

related differentiation
related diversification
an integrated acquisition
competency acquisition
unrelated diversification

Question 10
Resource similarity and ____ are factors that determine the extent to which firms will be in direct competition with each other.

market commonality
resource quality
related diversification
product differentiation
customer autonomy

Question 11
Companies often choose a ____ strategy when their external environment doesn't change much or after they have struggled with periods of explosive growth.

stability
growth
pioneering
portfolio
retrenchment

Question 12
The purpose of a ____ strategy is to turn around very poor company performance by shrinking the size or scope of the business.

growth
stability
retrenchment
maturity
repositioning

Question 13
A(n) ____ is a resource that is impossible or extremely costly or difficult for other firms to duplicate.

rare
imperfectly imitable
nonsubstitutable
strategically dissonant
Reliable

Question 14
Cost leadership, differentiation, and focus are the three types of ____ strategies discussed in the text.

grand
niche
positioning
restructuring
portfolio

Question 15
McDonald's uses a ____ strategy (a kind of grand strategy) as it increases its profits in France by offering uniquely French products such as Croque McDo, the McDonald's version of a popular French grilled sandwich.

growth
decline
retrenchment/recovery
repositioning
pioneering

Question 16
Unverferth Manufacturing makes agricultural equipment. It used finite element analysis (FEA) software to speed up the design cycle for its 12-row sub-soiler. Which aspect of the compression approach to innovation would the use of this software apply?

planning
supplier involvement
shortening the time of individual steps
multifunctional teams
functional isolation

Question 17
Organizational development ____.

requires a steering committee
takes a short-term approach to change
is a philosophy and collection of planned change interventions
assumes that top management support is not necessary for change
is accurately described by all of these

Question 18
The goals of the compression approach to innovation are ____.

speed, lower costs, and incremental change of dominant design
the development of milestones and the comparison of actual milestones with forecasts
the establishment of a dominant design and speed
absolute-time management and the creation of a dominant design
a matrix innovation process and a sustainable competitive advantage

Question 19
The ____ approach to managing innovation assumes that innovation is a predictable process made up of a series of steps and that compressing the time it takes to complete those steps can speed up innovation.

compression
milestones
dialectical
generational
prototypical

Question 20
Companies need to excel at managing ____ in order to successfully manage innovation streams.

the sources of innovation
innovation during synergistic change
reciprocity
environmental design issues
behavioral formality

Question 21
Kodak is a company associated with photography. The development of the digital camera forced Kodak into the innovation stream because the new imaging process was a(n) ____.

technological subtraction
technological discontinuity
process obsolescence
process addition
example of design advantage

Question 22
____ are workplace cultures in which workers perceive that new ideas are welcomed, valued, and encouraged.

Creative work environments
Innovative societies
Homogeneous work environments
Participative work teams
Empathetic work stations

Question 23
Nearly all technology cycles follow the typical ____ pattern of innovation.

W-curve
U-curve
bell-shaped
S-curve
V-shaped

Question 24
A(n) ____ is the individual who is formally in charge of guiding a change effort.

change ombudsman
staff moderator
change mentor
change agent
intrapreneur

Question 25
A technology cycle occurs whenever there are major advances or changes in the ____ in a field or discipline.

human, technical, and conceptual skills needed
structure or personnel requirements
internal resource environment
knowledge, tools, and techniques
way information is integrated

Question 26
When incremental improvements are made to a dominant technological design such that the improved version of the technology is fully backward compatible with the older version, ____ is said to have occurred.

a milestone
intuitive change
generational change
coercive change
discontinuous innovation

Question 27
Which of the following methods for managing resistance to change should only be used as a last resort or under crisis conditions?

mentoring
arbitration
negotiation
coercion
reinforcement modification

Question 28
When resistance to change is based on insufficient, incorrect, or misleading information, managers should use ____ as an approach to manage resistance.

education and communication
participation
negotiation
coercion
change manipulation

Question 29
Which of the following is one of the three steps in the basic process of managing organizational change outlined by Kurt Lewin?

unfreezing
organizational dialogue
change definition
incremental change
change mentoring

Question 30
A technology ____ begins with the birth of a new technology and ends when that technology reaches its limits and dies as it is replaced by a newer, substantially better technology.

process
pattern
cycle
hierarchy
continuum.