MAN 4720 - DEVER/FSU - EXAM 1 QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT ANSWERS LATEST UPDATE
2025/2026
Strategic Competitiveness - Answers Achieved when a firm successfully formulates and
implements a value creating strategy
Strategy - Answers an integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions designed to
exploit core competencies and gain a competitive advantage
Competitive advantage - Answers implementation of a strategy that creates superior value for
customers and that the competitors are unable to duplicate or find it too costly to try and
imitate
Risk - Answers is an investor's uncertainty about the economic gains or losses that will result
from a particular investment
above-average returns - Answers are returns in excess of what an investor expects to earn from
other investments with a similar amount of risk
Average Returns - Answers returns equal to those an investor expects to earn from other
investments with a similar amount of risk
Strategic Management Process Definition - Answers The full set of commitments, decisions,
and actions required for a firm to achieve strategic competitiveness and earn above-average
returns.
Hypercompetition - Answers competition that is excessive such that it creates inherent
instability and necessitates constant disruptive change for firms in the competitive landscape.
It is a condition of rapidly escalating competition based on price-quality positioning, competition
to create new know-how and establish first-mover advantage, and competition to protect or
invade established product or geographic markets
Globalization - Answers is the increasing economic interdependence among countries and their
organizations as reflected in the flow of goods and services, financial capital, and knowledge
across country borders.
- is a product of a large number of firms competing against one another in an increasing number
of global economies.
Technology Diffusion - Answers which is the speed at which new technologies become
available and are used, has increased substantially over the past 15 to 20 years.
,Perpetual Innovation - Answers describes how rapidly and consistently new, information-
intensive technologies replace older ones
Disruptive technologies - Answers technologies that destroy the value of an existing technology
and create new markets
—surface frequently in today's competitive markets.
Information Age - Answers a period in history where the production, distribution, and control of
information is the primary driver of the economy
Knowledge - Answers a critical organizational resource and an increasingly valuable source of
competitive advantage.
- (information, intelligence, and expertise) is the basis of technology and its application.
strategic flexibility - Answers a set of capabilities used to respond to various demands and
opportunities existing in a dynamic and uncertain competitive environment.
- to gain the competitive benefits of such flexibility, a firm has to develop the capacity to learn.
Industrial Organization Model of Above-Average Returns - Answers explains the external
environment's dominant influence on a firm's strategic actions.
- The model specifies that the industry in which a company chooses to compete has a stronger
influence on performance than do the choices managers make inside their organizations.
I/O Model Assumptions - Answers 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.
Five Forces Model of Competition - Answers is an analytical tool used to help firms find the
,industry that is the most attractive for them
The five forces model suggests that an industry's profitability is a function of interactions
among five forces:
1. suppliers
2. buyers
3. competitive rivalry among firms currently in the industry
4. product substitutes
5. potential entrants to the industry.
The Resource-Based Model of Above-Average Returns - Answers The model assumes that each
organization is a collection of unique resources and capabilities
The uniqueness of its resources and capabilities is the basis of a firm's strategy and its ability
to earn above-average returns.
What is a Resource? - Answers are inputs into a firm's production process.
i.e. capital equipment, skills of employees, patents, finances, and talented managers.
What is a capability? - Answers the capacity for a set of resources to perform a task or an
activity in an integrative manner
What is a Vision? - Answers the picture of what a firm wants to be and, in broad terms, what it
wants to ultimately achieve.
Thus, a vision statement articulates the ideal description of an organization and gives shape to
its intended future.
In other words, a vision statement points the firm in the direction of where it would like to be in
the years to come.
, What is a Mission? - Answers specifies the businesses in which the firm intends to compete
and the customers it intends to serve.
- The firm's mission is more concrete than its vision.
- should establish a firm's individuality and should be inspiring and relevant to all stakeholders.
Stakeholders - Answers those who affect or are affected by a firms performance (i.e. employees
,shareholders, managers)
Capital Market Stakeholders - Answers Major suppliers of Capital and Shareholders
Product Market Stakeholders - Answers the firm's primary customers, suppliers, host
communities (local gov, fed. Regulations placed through laws), and unions representing the
workforce
Organizational Stakeholders - Answers -Employees—the firm's organizational stakeholders
those groups, individuals, and organizations that are directly affected by the practices of an
organization and who therefore have a stake in its performance
Strategic Leaders - Answers people located in different areas and levels of the firm using the
strategic management process to select strategic actions that help the firm achieve its vision
and fulfill its mission.
- are located at various levels throughout the firm.
- want the firm and its people to accomplish more.
- are innovative thinkers who promote innovation.
- can leverage relationships with external parties while simultaneously promoting exploratory
learning.
- have an ambicultural (global mindset) approach to management.
organizational culture - Answers refers to the complex set of ideologies, symbols, and core
values that are shared throughout the firm and that influence how the firm conducts business.
It is the social energy that drives—or fails to drive—the organization.
2025/2026
Strategic Competitiveness - Answers Achieved when a firm successfully formulates and
implements a value creating strategy
Strategy - Answers an integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions designed to
exploit core competencies and gain a competitive advantage
Competitive advantage - Answers implementation of a strategy that creates superior value for
customers and that the competitors are unable to duplicate or find it too costly to try and
imitate
Risk - Answers is an investor's uncertainty about the economic gains or losses that will result
from a particular investment
above-average returns - Answers are returns in excess of what an investor expects to earn from
other investments with a similar amount of risk
Average Returns - Answers returns equal to those an investor expects to earn from other
investments with a similar amount of risk
Strategic Management Process Definition - Answers The full set of commitments, decisions,
and actions required for a firm to achieve strategic competitiveness and earn above-average
returns.
Hypercompetition - Answers competition that is excessive such that it creates inherent
instability and necessitates constant disruptive change for firms in the competitive landscape.
It is a condition of rapidly escalating competition based on price-quality positioning, competition
to create new know-how and establish first-mover advantage, and competition to protect or
invade established product or geographic markets
Globalization - Answers is the increasing economic interdependence among countries and their
organizations as reflected in the flow of goods and services, financial capital, and knowledge
across country borders.
- is a product of a large number of firms competing against one another in an increasing number
of global economies.
Technology Diffusion - Answers which is the speed at which new technologies become
available and are used, has increased substantially over the past 15 to 20 years.
,Perpetual Innovation - Answers describes how rapidly and consistently new, information-
intensive technologies replace older ones
Disruptive technologies - Answers technologies that destroy the value of an existing technology
and create new markets
—surface frequently in today's competitive markets.
Information Age - Answers a period in history where the production, distribution, and control of
information is the primary driver of the economy
Knowledge - Answers a critical organizational resource and an increasingly valuable source of
competitive advantage.
- (information, intelligence, and expertise) is the basis of technology and its application.
strategic flexibility - Answers a set of capabilities used to respond to various demands and
opportunities existing in a dynamic and uncertain competitive environment.
- to gain the competitive benefits of such flexibility, a firm has to develop the capacity to learn.
Industrial Organization Model of Above-Average Returns - Answers explains the external
environment's dominant influence on a firm's strategic actions.
- The model specifies that the industry in which a company chooses to compete has a stronger
influence on performance than do the choices managers make inside their organizations.
I/O Model Assumptions - Answers 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.
Five Forces Model of Competition - Answers is an analytical tool used to help firms find the
,industry that is the most attractive for them
The five forces model suggests that an industry's profitability is a function of interactions
among five forces:
1. suppliers
2. buyers
3. competitive rivalry among firms currently in the industry
4. product substitutes
5. potential entrants to the industry.
The Resource-Based Model of Above-Average Returns - Answers The model assumes that each
organization is a collection of unique resources and capabilities
The uniqueness of its resources and capabilities is the basis of a firm's strategy and its ability
to earn above-average returns.
What is a Resource? - Answers are inputs into a firm's production process.
i.e. capital equipment, skills of employees, patents, finances, and talented managers.
What is a capability? - Answers the capacity for a set of resources to perform a task or an
activity in an integrative manner
What is a Vision? - Answers the picture of what a firm wants to be and, in broad terms, what it
wants to ultimately achieve.
Thus, a vision statement articulates the ideal description of an organization and gives shape to
its intended future.
In other words, a vision statement points the firm in the direction of where it would like to be in
the years to come.
, What is a Mission? - Answers specifies the businesses in which the firm intends to compete
and the customers it intends to serve.
- The firm's mission is more concrete than its vision.
- should establish a firm's individuality and should be inspiring and relevant to all stakeholders.
Stakeholders - Answers those who affect or are affected by a firms performance (i.e. employees
,shareholders, managers)
Capital Market Stakeholders - Answers Major suppliers of Capital and Shareholders
Product Market Stakeholders - Answers the firm's primary customers, suppliers, host
communities (local gov, fed. Regulations placed through laws), and unions representing the
workforce
Organizational Stakeholders - Answers -Employees—the firm's organizational stakeholders
those groups, individuals, and organizations that are directly affected by the practices of an
organization and who therefore have a stake in its performance
Strategic Leaders - Answers people located in different areas and levels of the firm using the
strategic management process to select strategic actions that help the firm achieve its vision
and fulfill its mission.
- are located at various levels throughout the firm.
- want the firm and its people to accomplish more.
- are innovative thinkers who promote innovation.
- can leverage relationships with external parties while simultaneously promoting exploratory
learning.
- have an ambicultural (global mindset) approach to management.
organizational culture - Answers refers to the complex set of ideologies, symbols, and core
values that are shared throughout the firm and that influence how the firm conducts business.
It is the social energy that drives—or fails to drive—the organization.
