Exam 2: Strategy and Technology: Concepts and Frameworks for Understanding What Separates Winners From Losers

A decision situation where one party has more or better information than its counterparty is called a(n) _____.

Businesses benefit from economies of scale when the cost of an investment can be:

Which of the following statements about technology is true?

Dell, previously the world's number one PC manufacturer, has seen its market share shrink because of rivals copying its value chain and reducing the price advantage it enjoyed over rivals. Dell's present struggles:

A firm's financial performance that consistently outperforms its industry's peers is known as operational effectiveness.

Technology that that super-imposes content, such as images and animation on top of real world images is called:

How did Apple trump Google to become the dominant mapping platform on iOS?

Businesses benefit from economies of scale when the cost of an investment can be used in serving a niche customer base.

One of the key questions posed by 21^st century managers is "How can we possibly compete when everyone can copy our technology and the competition is a click away?" One path to take involves creating a resource or set of resources for sustainable competitive advantage. List the four characteristics that such resources must have for the possibility of sustainable competitive advantage to exist. Why is it important to have all four simultaneously?

_____ exist when a product or service becomes more valuable as more people use it.

According to Michael Porter, the reason many firms suffer margin-eroding competition is because they have defined themselves according to strategic positioning rather than operational effectiveness.

Commodities are products or services that vary across multiple vendors.

Many firms choose not to implement operational components of ERP software and instead elect to create their own propriety solutions in part because they see their uniqueness in certain operations areas as key to creating difficult-to-imitate competitive advantages.

Firms that build an imitation-resistant value chain develop a way of doing business that others struggle to replicate.

Diagram and label the value chain, listing all primary and secondary components.

If a new entrant hopes to attract customers from an established incumbent, the new entrant must ensure that the value they offer exceeds the incumbents' value in addition to any perceived _____.

When firms see distribution partners as rivals, this is known as Channel Conflict

A strong brand can be an exceptionally powerful resource for competitive advantage by lowering ________, proxying _____ and inspiring _____.

Benefits related to a firm's size are referred to as _____.

Metcalfe's Law is used to explain the concept of switching costs.