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

Relate your understanding of the Porter's Five Forces model to describe how the Internet affects the bargaining power of buyers and sellers according to whether offers commodity or differentiated products.

The acronym API stands for:

What are Porter's views in relation to operational effectiveness and strategic positioning? Contrast the two concepts.

Many telecom firms began digging up the ground and laying webs of fiberglass to meet the growing demand for Internet connectivity. However, rivals and startups began to imitate these firms and soon these new assets were not so rare and each day they seemed to be less valuable. It can be inferred from this example that:

The acronym NPE stands for:

Discuss the roll of timing and technology as it relates to competitive advantage.

Timing and technology alone will not yield sustainable competitive advantage.

The patent system is often considered to be unfairly stacked against start-ups because:

Network externalities exist when a product or service becomes less expensive as more people use it.

If a firm's goods are highly differentiated, the Internet typically lessens the firm's bargaining power as a supplier.

Which of the following is not highlighted as a source of switching costs?

Operational effectiveness refers to:

A firm is said to be _____ when it attempts to match the benefits of a successful position while maintaining its existing position.

The _____ problem exists when rivals watch a pioneer's efforts, learn from their successes and missteps, and then enter the market quickly with a comparable or superior product at a lower cost.

How does the Internet typically impact price transparency and information asymmetry?

Startup firms can struggle to gain lower prices from rivals, but FreshDirect seems to have found several ways to gain lower supplier prices. FreshDirect buys direct from suppliers, eliminating any markup from a middleman. What else did FreshDirect offer suppliers in exchange for better pricing terms?

According to the resource-based view of competitive advantage, if a firm is to maintain sustainable competitive advantage, it must control a set of exploitable resources that are valuable and can be substituted easily.

In _____, the light inside fiber is split into different signal-carrying wavelengths in a way similar to how a prism splits light into different colors.