MAN 4720 COMPREHENSIVE EXAM 2026/2027 QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Sustainable physical environment (53) - ✔✔refers to potential and actual changes in
the physical environment and business practices that are intended to positively respond
to those changes with the intent of creating a sustainable environment.
✔✔Strategic group (63) - ✔✔A set of firms emphasizing similar strategic dimensions
and using a similar strategy
✔✔Threat (43) - ✔✔a condition in the general environment that may hinder a
company's efforts to achieve strategic competitiveness.
✔✔Technological segment (51) - ✔✔includes the institutions and activities involved in
creating new knowledge and translating that knowledge into new outputs, products,
processes, and materials.
✔✔By studying the internal environment, firms identify - ✔✔what they can do
✔✔Global economy - ✔✔traditional sourrces of advantages can be overcome by
competitors' international strategies and by the flow of resources thorughout the global
economy
✔✔Global mind-set - ✔✔the ability to study an internal environment in ways that are not
dependent on the assumptions of a single country, culture, or context
✔✔Analysis outcome - ✔✔understanding how to leverage the firm's bundle of
heterogeneous resources and capabilities
✔✔How do firms create value? - ✔✔-by exploiting their core competencies or
competitive advantages
-by innovatively bundling and leveraging their resources and capabilities
✔✔Value is measured by - ✔✔-product performance characteristics
-product attributes for which customers will pay
✔✔Resources - ✔✔-tangible and intangible
-are the source of a firm's capabilities
-are broad in scope
-cover a spectrum of individual, social and organizational phenomena
-alone, do not yield a competitive advantage
✔✔Which criteria is the key to obtaining sustainable competitive advantage and above
average returns? - ✔✔costly to imitate
, ✔✔Value chain - ✔✔shows how a product moves from the raw-material stage to the
final customer
✔✔ Top Corporate Performers Characteristics - ✔✔-have an
entrepreneurial/opportunistic mindset
-are market/customer-needs oriented
-make effective use of valuable competencies
-Offer new and innovative products and services
✔✔Being _________ is the biggest threat to any business - ✔✔non-customer centric
✔✔The firms strategic choices - ✔✔-economies of scale
-barriers to market entry
-diversification
-product differentiation
-industry concentration
-market frictions
✔✔I/O (Industry Organization) Model Assumptions - ✔✔1. The external environment
imposes pressures and constraints that determine strategic choices.
2. Similarity in strategically relevant resources causes competitors to pursue similar
strategies.
3. Resource differences among competitors are short-lived due to resource mobility
across firms.
4. Strategic decision makers are rational and engage in profit-maximizing behaviors.
✔✔5 Forces Model of Competition - ✔✔
✔✔Industry Profitability - ✔✔-a function of interactions among the 5 forces
✔✔Building Competitive Advantage - ✔✔resources, capability and core competence
✔✔Core Competencies - ✔✔-rare
-valuable
-nonsubstitutable
-costly to imitate
✔✔Stakeholders - ✔✔people who are affected by a firm's performance and who have
claims on its performance
✔✔Categories of stakeholders - ✔✔-capital market stakeholders
-product market stakeholders
-organizational stakeholders
AND ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Sustainable physical environment (53) - ✔✔refers to potential and actual changes in
the physical environment and business practices that are intended to positively respond
to those changes with the intent of creating a sustainable environment.
✔✔Strategic group (63) - ✔✔A set of firms emphasizing similar strategic dimensions
and using a similar strategy
✔✔Threat (43) - ✔✔a condition in the general environment that may hinder a
company's efforts to achieve strategic competitiveness.
✔✔Technological segment (51) - ✔✔includes the institutions and activities involved in
creating new knowledge and translating that knowledge into new outputs, products,
processes, and materials.
✔✔By studying the internal environment, firms identify - ✔✔what they can do
✔✔Global economy - ✔✔traditional sourrces of advantages can be overcome by
competitors' international strategies and by the flow of resources thorughout the global
economy
✔✔Global mind-set - ✔✔the ability to study an internal environment in ways that are not
dependent on the assumptions of a single country, culture, or context
✔✔Analysis outcome - ✔✔understanding how to leverage the firm's bundle of
heterogeneous resources and capabilities
✔✔How do firms create value? - ✔✔-by exploiting their core competencies or
competitive advantages
-by innovatively bundling and leveraging their resources and capabilities
✔✔Value is measured by - ✔✔-product performance characteristics
-product attributes for which customers will pay
✔✔Resources - ✔✔-tangible and intangible
-are the source of a firm's capabilities
-are broad in scope
-cover a spectrum of individual, social and organizational phenomena
-alone, do not yield a competitive advantage
✔✔Which criteria is the key to obtaining sustainable competitive advantage and above
average returns? - ✔✔costly to imitate
, ✔✔Value chain - ✔✔shows how a product moves from the raw-material stage to the
final customer
✔✔ Top Corporate Performers Characteristics - ✔✔-have an
entrepreneurial/opportunistic mindset
-are market/customer-needs oriented
-make effective use of valuable competencies
-Offer new and innovative products and services
✔✔Being _________ is the biggest threat to any business - ✔✔non-customer centric
✔✔The firms strategic choices - ✔✔-economies of scale
-barriers to market entry
-diversification
-product differentiation
-industry concentration
-market frictions
✔✔I/O (Industry Organization) Model Assumptions - ✔✔1. The external environment
imposes pressures and constraints that determine strategic choices.
2. Similarity in strategically relevant resources causes competitors to pursue similar
strategies.
3. Resource differences among competitors are short-lived due to resource mobility
across firms.
4. Strategic decision makers are rational and engage in profit-maximizing behaviors.
✔✔5 Forces Model of Competition - ✔✔
✔✔Industry Profitability - ✔✔-a function of interactions among the 5 forces
✔✔Building Competitive Advantage - ✔✔resources, capability and core competence
✔✔Core Competencies - ✔✔-rare
-valuable
-nonsubstitutable
-costly to imitate
✔✔Stakeholders - ✔✔people who are affected by a firm's performance and who have
claims on its performance
✔✔Categories of stakeholders - ✔✔-capital market stakeholders
-product market stakeholders
-organizational stakeholders
