Deck 8: Commodity Chainswhere Does

Question 1

A commodity is simply something useful that enters the market and is:

A) Traded
B) Available for purchase at a price
C) Freely available and freely exchanged
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Answer 1

Available for purchase at a price

Question 2

Which of the following domains has been caught up in the process of commodification?

A) Culture
B) Religion
C) The environment
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Answer 2

All of the above

Question 3

The exchange value of a commodity is also known as the:

A) Price
B) Stock
C) Outcome
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Answer 3

Price

Question 4

Consumers in the capitalist system are largely ________________ of the geographical origins and histories of the commodities that they consume.

A) Aware
B) Conscious
C) Ignorant
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 5

The purchase of a commodity through monetary relations serves to _______________ producers and consumers.

A) Connect
B) Disconnect
C) Establish
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 6

Even the most mundane and everyday acts of consumption tie us into webs of:

A) Connections
B) Exchange
C) Value-adding activities
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 7

When mapping a commodity chain one must take into account:

A) Manufacturing processes
B) Intangible services
C) Intangible inputs
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 8

This term refers to the sequence and range of actors involved in a particular commodity chain:

A) Input-output structure
B) Input-cost estimate
C) Output-expenditure matrix
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 9

_______________ commodity chains are one of the primary organizational features of the world economy.

A) Commercial
B) Global
C) Local
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 10

The geographical complexity of global commodity chains is generally:

A) Increasing
B) Decreasing
C) Stabilizing
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 11

The geographic configurations of global commodity chains are becoming more _______________ and liable to rapid change.

A) Static
B) Predictable
C) Dynamic
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 12

Global commodity chains reveal the dynamics of _________________ competition.

A) Interplace
B) Commonplace
C) Home-grown
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 13

Global commodity chains are not just a feature of agricultural and manufacturing sectors, but are also apparent in many ______________ sectors.

A) Service
B) Human
C) Interplace
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 14

The geographical __________________ of economic activity refers to how some kinds of interactions within commodity chains will take place within the same locality.

A) Expansion
B) Distantiation
C) Clustering
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 15

Capital- and technology-intensive industries such as aircraft, automobile, and semiconductor manufacturing are examples of ______________ chains.

A) Buyer-driven
B) Producer-driven
C) Intermediary
D) Tertiary
E) None of the above

Question 16

_________________ chains tend to be found in industries where large retailers and brand-name merchandisers play the central role in establishing and controlling the global production systems of their commodities.

A) Buyer-driven
B) Producer-driven
C) Intermediary
D) Tertiary
E) None of the above

Question 17

Retailers and brand-name merchandisers are collectively known as ________________ in a commodity chain analysis because they source their manufactured commodities from suppliers all over the world.

A) Buyers
B) Producers
C) Intermediaries
D) Tertiaries
E) None of the above

Question 18

Buyer-driven commodity chains are common in __________________ consumer goods sectors, such as clothing, footwear, toys, and handicrafts.

A) Household
B) Labor-intensive
C) Extraneous
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 19

Armed with direct access to millions of consumers, large buyers such as Wal-Mart and Nike can achieve huge _____________________ in their global sourcing of clothing manufactured in developing countries.

A) Debts
B) Multiplier effects
C) Economies of scale
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 20

The tendency toward a(n) _________________ among low-cost suppliers creates an environment for breeding working conditions that are unacceptably difficult or dangerous, commonly known as sweatshops.

A) "Race to the bottom"
B) "Race to the top"
C) Steady-state
D) Input-output balance
E) Input-output structure

Question 21

In the internet era, there is evidence that new forms of infomediaries with extensive access to ___________________________ may play an increasingly important role in mediating global production activity.

A) Currency exchange
B) Manufacturing facilities
C) Online consumer information
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 22

________________ forms of governance fall in between the producer- and buyer-driven models.

A) Independent
B) Isolated
C) Relational
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 23

The institutional context in which a commodity chain is embedded may be related to:

A) International rules and agreements
B) Host country government regulations and preferences
C) Third-party monitoring activity
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 24

Formal institutional frameworks relate to the ____________________ that determine how economic activity is undertaken in particular places.

A) Rules and regulations
B) Social customs
C) Economies of scale
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 25

An example of a formal institutional framework includes:

A) Trade policy
B) Tax policy
C) Health and safety regulations
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 26

Informal institutional frameworks describe ______________________ ways-of-doing business that relate to the entrepreneurial and political cultures of particular places.

A) More tangible, dispersed
B) Uncharted, undefined
C) Less tangible, place-specific
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 27

Over _______ of the world's coffee is grown in some 60 countries in the developing world (Central and Latin America, Africa, and East and Southeast Asia):

A) 90%
B) 70%
C) 50%
D) 30%
E) 10%

Question 28

The vast majority of the coffee produced globally is consumed in developed countries, with retail sales each year estimated at:

A) $70 billion
B) $10 billion
C) $1 billion
D) $50 million
E) $25 million

Question 29

Coffee as a commodity provides a livelihood for some ______________ coffee-farming families around the world.

A) 1 billion
B) 100 million
C) 25 million
D) 1 million
E) 100,000

Question 30

Standards apply to which aspect of the commodity chain?

A) Health
B) Environment
C) Labor conditions
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 31

The precise form that a standard takes is:

A) A code of conduct
B) A label on a finished product
C) A set of voluntary initiatives
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 32

The certification or accreditation of standards (i.e., the assessment of whether they have been met) may be undertaken by:

A) Public entities
B) Private entities
C) Not-for-profit entities
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 33

The purchase and primary use of a commodity is often seen to be the _____________ of the commodity chain by the general public.

A) End point
B) Continuation
C) Starting point
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 34

Waste disposal and recycling are often assumed to be the ___________ stage in a linear and sequential process.

A) Primary
B) Initial
C) Final
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 35

Every commodity chain is delineated by a particular sequence of _______________ activities.

A) Value-consuming
B) Value-adding
C) Value-diminishing
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 36

In global commodity chains, ___________________ strategies refer to the potential for firms, or groups of firms, to improve their relative position within the system as a whole.

A) Upgrading
B) Downgrading
C) Management
D) Labor-control
E) Situational

Question 37

Describe three fundamental differences between producer-driven and buyer-driven commodity chains.

Question 38

Provide two examples of how global commodity chains are emerging in contemporary service sectors.

Question 39

Discuss the particular sequence of value-adding activities that take place in the global coffee commodity chain. Who benefits, and by how much, at each stage of this sequence?