Exam 5: Business-Level Strategy: Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantages

An overall high-cost position enables a firm to achieve above-average returns despite strong competition.

A firm following a focus strategy must focus on

Using information systems to streamline and automate the primary activities of a manufacturing company value chain does not provide competitive advantage.

Piecemeal productivity improvements are not useful as a turnaround strategy because they are not cumulative.

In a given market, key technology no longer has patent protection, experience is not an advantage, and there is a growing need to compete on price. What stage of its life cycle is the market in?

With experience, unit costs of production decline as _________ increases in most industries.

Many firms have achieved success by integrating activities throughout the extended value chain by using _______ to link their own value chain with the value chains of their customers and suppliers.

Firms in turnaround situations find that cutting administrative expenses and inventories and speeding up collection of receivables are ineffective strategies.

In the __________ stage of the industry life cycle, there are many segments, competition is very intense, and the emphasis on process design is high.

The French automobile maker, Renault, attains competitive advantage by revamping cars to be more cost efficient.

In the textbook example of Atlas Door, it created low entry barriers for new entrants through its development of competitive advantages.

Tesco is saving 3 million USD a year alone in landfill taxes by simply sending its used cooking oil and chicken fat to be used to generate bioenergy rather than putting it in a landfill. This is an example of an overall cost leadership strategy because it

Most turnarounds require a firm to carefully analyze its relevant environments. ________ analysis results in actions aimed at reduced costs and higher efficiency.

The Pepsi algorithm that permits it to lower out of stock inventory is a result of using

Atlas Door created competitive advantages in overall low cost and differentiation by creating ___________ among value-chain activities.

Which of the following statements about the introduction stage of the market life cycle is true?

A potential pitfall of a focus strategy is that cost advantages will not change over time.

A disadvantage of firms that successfully integrate overall cost leadership and a differentiation strategy is that they are relatively easy for competitors to imitate.

High product differentiation is generally accompanied by

A firm can attain an overall cost leadership position by purchasing media in large blocks and maximizing sales force utilization through territory management.