Exam 3: Examining the Internal Environment: Resources

Wal-Mart competes with its low prices. It is willing to make a tradeoff between ________.

By organizing value-chain activities in unique and inimitable ways, firms are creating ________.

How might a firm use their integration of the value chain to gain a competitive advantage?

According to the VRINE model, resources and capabilities ________.

In industries in which time to market is not critical, the ability to adapt to change or to initiate it is vitally important.

A certain firm's resources and capabilities are valuable, rare, and difficult to imitate. However, the firm is performing worse than its competitors. The ________ dimension could be the problem.

A process that effective firms employ encourages middle managers to identify, grow, and detect new ways of creating value for the organization. This is known as the ________ process.

A senior manager shakes up a firm and challenges historic ways of operating. He or she is using the ________ process.

SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

If you multiply a firm's equity multiplier by its return on assets (ROA), you arrive at the firm's return on ________.

In the fast-food industry, real estate and site location skills are examples of a(n) ________.

Southwest Airlines is an airline industry leader. It has protected its competitive advantage by ________.

Explain the competitive implication of rarity.

Some resources cannot be purchased.

Firms can achieve a competitive advantage by configuring value-chain activities in ways that add more value to their products and services.

Possessing and controlling a resource are necessary and sufficient for gaining a competitive advantage.

Middle managers can help their firms either avoid inertia or slow change. This is accomplished by performing their role of ________.

Something that a firm can do that competitors cannot do is called a ________.

There are four key roles in which middle managers are better positioned to perform than senior executives. These roles are entrepreneur, psychoanalyst, tightrope walker, and ________.

A valuable resource that is readily available contributes to competitive advantage.