Exam 3: Achieving Competitive Advantage With Information Systems

In the value chain model, primary activities are those that are most directly related to the production and distribution of the firm's products and services.

Select a popular product or company that you are familiar with, such as Apple's iPad. Apply Porter's competitive forces model to that product and/or company. Which of the four generic strategies is the company using?

Discuss the ways information systems can be used to improve quality.

All of the following could be considered substitute products for industrial electricity generation except:

Benchmarking:

Why are disruptive technologies "tricky"? Provide examples.

An information system can enable a company to focus on a market niche through:

You are advising the owner of Smalltown Computer, a new, local computer repair store that also builds custom computers to order. What competitive strategies would you advise Smalltown Computer to take? Which ones will it have difficulty exercising?

Which of the following companies used benchmarking to achieve an order-shipping accuracy of 99.9 percent?

In a transparent marketplace, there is high product differentiation.

A firm can be said to have competitive advantage when it has access to resources that others do not.

To what competitive force did the printed encyclopedia industry succumb?

The most significant barrier to successful business process change is, ironically, management itself.

Which of the following statements about BPR is not true?

________ is the ability to offer individually tailored products or services using the same production resources as bulk production.

The most successful solutions or methods for achieving a business objective are called:

Research has shown that the more successfully a firm can align its IT with its business goals, the more profitable it will be. What practical steps should a firm use in aligning IT with its goals?

BPM ends once the new processes are both implemented and accepted.

The Nike Vapor Talon is an example of which of the following?

Value chain analysis is useful at the business level to highlight specific activities in a business where information systems are most likely to have a strategic impact. Discuss this model, identify the activities, and describe how the model can be applied to the concept of information technology.