TEST BANK - STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS POLICY, 15E (WHEELMEN ET AL.)
Chapter 1 Basic Concepts in Strategic Management
1) The emphasis of st
... [Show More] rategic management is on
A) Long-term performance.
B) First line managers.
C) The short-run performance of the corporation.
D) An examination of the organization's internal environment.
E) An investigation of competitor actions. Answer: A
2) Research suggests that strategic management evolves through four sequential phases in corporations. The first phase is
A) Externally oriented planning.
B) Basic financial planning.
C) Internally oriented planning.
D) forecast-based planning.
E) Strategic management. Answer: B
3) The time horizon involved with regard to basic financial planning is usually
A) one year.
B) one quarter.
C) three to five years.
D) Less than one month.
E) five to ten years. Answer: A
4) A difference between basic financial planning and forecast-based planning is
A) The time horizon is shorter in forecast-based planning.
B) forecast-based planning incorporates environmental data and extrapolates current trends.
C) Basic financial planning utilizes consultants with sophisticated techniques.
D) Basic financial planning utilizes scenarios and contingency strategies.
E) Basic financial planning relies heavily on input from lower levels in the organization. Answer: B
5) Top-down planning that emphasizes formal strategy formulation and leaves the implementation issues to lower management levels is known as
A) forecast-based planning.
B) Externally oriented planning.
C) Strategic management.
D) Basic financial planning.
E) None of the above Answer: B
6) In the final phase of strategic management, strategic information is available to
A) People throughout the organization.
B) The top management responsible for decision-making.
C) Middle management.
D) Operational personnel.
E) Only those responsible for implementing the strategy. Answer: A
7) In a survey of 50 corporations, which of the following was rated as one of the three top benefits of strategic management?
A) Clearer sense of strategic vision for the firm
B) Higher levels of employee motivation
C) Higher levels of job satisfaction
D) Improved productivity
E) Lower employee turnover Answer: A
8) When an organization is evaluating its strategic position, which is not one of the strategic questions that an organization generally may ask itself?
A) Where is the organization now?
B) Are we on target to hit our financial objectives next year?
C) If no changes are made, where will the organization be in one year?
D) If the evaluation is negative, what specific actions should management take?
E) If no changes are made, where will the organization be in 10 years? Answer: B
9) Research of the planning practices of companies in the oil industry concludes that the real value of modern strategic planning is more in the that is part of a future-oriented planning process than in any resulting written strategic plan.
A) Planning
B) Strategic thinking and organizational learning
C) Resulting written strategic plan
D) Formality of the process
E) Improved communication within the organization Answer: B
10) Strategic planning within a small organization
A) May be informal and irregular.
B) Must be elaborate to allow for future growth.
C) Should always be formalized and explicitly stated.
D) Should be done by the president only.
E) is unnecessary and a waste of time. Answer: A
11) Strategic planning in a multidivisional corporation
A) Should be informal to allow complete understanding by the many participants.
B) Should be instigated only from the main corporate office.
C) Should be accomplished quickly to decrease the likelihood of it becoming outdated.
D) Should encourage a clear delineation between top management and lower-level managers.
E) Should be a formalized and sophisticated system. Answer: E
12) Strategic management is the set of managerial decisions that determines the short-term performance of a corporation.
Answer: FALSE
13) In the externally oriented planning phase, plans are developed by heavily involving the input of managers from lower levels.
Answer: FALSE
14) General Electric led the transition from strategic planning to strategic management during the 1980s.
Answer: TRUE
15) One of the benefits of strategic management is a clearer sense of strategic vision for the firm. Answer: TRUE
16) To be effective, strategic management must be a formal process. Answer: FALSE
17) What are the benefits of strategic management?
Answer: The three most highly rated benefits of strategic management are:
1. Clearer sense of strategic vision for the organization
2. Sharper focus on what is strategically important
3. Improved understanding of a rapidly changing environment
18) The integrated internationalization of markets and corporations is called
A) Normalization.
B) Economic integration.
C) Globalization.
D) Nationalization.
E) Regionalization.
Answer: C
19) The term used to describe new products, services, methods, and organizational approaches that allow businesses to achieve extraordinary returns is
A) ROI.
B) Innovation.
C) Competitive advantage.
D) Sustainability.
E) Profit maximization.
Answer: B
20) The free trade area composed of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Paraguay is called
A) EU.
B) ASEAN.
C) NAFTA.
D) Mercosur. Answer: D
21) Members of the European Union (EU) include all of the following EXCEPT
A) Ireland.
B) Great Britain.
C) Belgium.
D) France.
E) Slovakia. Answer: B
22) Canada, the United States, and Mexico are affiliated economically under which trade alliance?
A) ASEAN
B) Mercosur
C) EU
D) NAFTA
E) CAFTA Answer: D
23) The currency used to integrate the monetary systems of the European Union (EU) is called the
A) peso.
B) Dollar.
C) euro.
D) Franc.
E) Pound.
Answer: C
24) The triple bottom line refers to which of the following?
A) Water, air, and oil
B) Footprints, finance, and environment
C) Physical environment, traditional profit/loss, and air
D) Traditional profit/loss, social responsibility, and environmental responsibility
E) Social responsibility, people, and ethics Answer: D
25) One of the benefits of globalization is
A) Economies of scale.
B) Decreased outsourcing.
C) increased union negotiations.
D) Increased taxes.
E) Additional human resource training. Answer: A
26) Knowing a company is mindful of its impact on the environment seldom changes consumer buying habits.
Answer: FALSE
27) Globalization is the integrated internationalization of markets and corporations. Answer: TRUE
28) As more industries become global, strategic management is becoming less important in positioning a company for long-term competitive advantage.
Answer: FALSE
29) Business sustainability reflects business practices to manage the firm's triple bottom line. Answer: TRUE
30) One member of the European Union (EU) is Chile. Answer: FALSE
31) The goal of NAFTA is complete economic integration among Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
Answer: FALSE
32) Climate change has become a growing concern for businesses to include in their corporate strategies.
Answer: TRUE
33) Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that innovation is a top 3 priority for three-quarters of the companies in the 2014 BCG global innovation survey.
Answer: TRUE
34) A Gallup study reported that companies that focused on business sustainability had 3.9 times the EPS growth rates as compared to organizations that did not focus on business sustainability. Answer: TRUE
35) Define globalization and identify the role of strategic management in globalization.
Answer: Globalization is the internationalization of markets and corporations. It has changed the way that modern corporations do business. As more industries become global, strategic management is becoming an increasingly important way to keep track of international developments and position the company for long-term competitive advantage.
36) Which theory proposes that once an organization is successfully established in a particular environmental niche, it is unable to adapt to changing conditions?
A) Population ecology
B) Institution
C) Citizenship
D) Strategic choice
E) Organizational learning Answer: A
37) The theory that proposes organizations can and do adapt to changing conditions by imitating other successful organizations is known as
A) Population ecology.
B) Institution theory.
C) Citizenship theory.
D) Strategic theory. Answer: B
38) The ability of an organization to reshape its environment is described by
A) Population ecology theory.
B) Institution theory.
C) The strategic choice perspective.
D) Organizational learning theory.
E) Organizational citizenship theory. Answer: C
39) Population ecology is a theory that proposes organizations can and do adapt to change by imitating other successful organizations.
Answer: FALSE
40) The ability of a corporation to shift from one dominant strategy to another is called
A) Strategy implementation.
B) Chaos formulation.
C) Contingency management.
D) Logical incrementalism.
E) Strategic flexibility. Answer: E
41) An organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights is a (n)
A) Learning organization.
B) Strategically managed corporation.
C) Innovative organization.
D) Hypercompetitive competitor.
E) Entrepreneurial firm. Answer: A
42) All of the following reflect activities of a learning organization EXCEPT
A) Experimenting with new approaches.
B) Learning from its own experiences and past history.
C) Solving problems systematically.
D) Alienating competitors in the industry.
E) Transferring knowledge quickly and efficiently throughout the organization. Answer: D
43) According to Alfred Chandler,
A) high-tech industries cannot be defined by "paths of learning" if they want to evolve.
B) Companies spring from an individual entrepreneur's knowledge, which is composed exclusively of technical skills.
C) Once a corporation has built its learning base to the point where it has become a core company in its industry, entrepreneurial start-ups are rarely able to successfully enter.
D) Learned capabilities derive from organizational strengths.
E) Organizational knowledge can seldom be a competitive advantage. Answer: C [Show Less]