Information Systems Chapter 3
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Which one of the following is not one of the competitive forces of Porter's model?
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External environment
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A manufacturer of deep-sea oil rigs may be least concerned about which of these marketplace forces?
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New market entrants
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Which of the following industries has the lowest barrier to entry?
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Restaurant
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A substitute product of most concern for a cable TV distributor is:
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satellite TV
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Which of the following can force a business and its competitors to compete on price alone?
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Transparent marketplace
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A firm can exercise greater control over its suppliers by having:
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more suppliers
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The four basic strategies a company can employ to deal with competitive forces are:
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(1) strengthen customer and supplier intimacy, (2) focus on market niche, (3) product differentiation, and (4) low-cost leadership.
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Walmart's continuous replenishment system allows it to:
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provide an efficient customer response system.
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Which of the following illustrates the use of information systems to achieve product differentiation?
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A shoe manufacturer's use of information systems in selling custom, made-to-order shoes directly to customers.
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Which of the following illustrates the use of information systems to strengthen customer and supplier intimacy?
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A PC manufacturer's use of information systems to facilitate direct access from suppliers to production schedules.
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Which of the following illustrates the use of information systems to focus on market niche?
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A hot tub dealer's use of information systems to determine which models and options its customers are most likely to buy.
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When a firm provides a specialized product or service for a narrow target market better than competitors, they are using a ________ strategy.
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market niche
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________ is the ability to offer individually tailored products or services using the same production resources as bulk production.
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Mass customization
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An information system can enable a company to focus on a market niche through:
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intensive customer data analysis
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Hilton Hotels' use of customer information software to identify the most profitable customers to direct services to is an example of using information systems to:
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focus on market niche
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All of the following industries have been severely disrupted by the Internet except:
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PC manufacturer
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To what competitive force did the printed encyclopedia industry succumb?
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Substitute products or services
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Internet technology:
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makes it easy for rivals to compete on price alone.
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The Internet raises the bargaining power of customers by:
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making information available to everyone
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The value chain model:
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helps a firm identify points at which information technology can most effectively enhance its competitive position.
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the primary activities of a firm include:
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inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, sales and marketing, and service
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The support activities of a firm include:
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organization infrastructure, human resources, technology, and procurement.
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Benchmarking
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compares the efficiency and effectiveness of your business processes against strict standards.
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The most successful solutions or methods for achieving a business objective are called:
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best practices
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A firm's value chain is linked to the:
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value chains of its suppliers, distributors, and customers.
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A ________ is a collection of independent firms that use information technology to coordinate their value chains to produce a product or service for a market collectively.
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value web
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How are information systems used at the industry level to achieve strategic advantage?
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By building industry-wide, IT-supported consortia and symposia
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When the output of some units can be used as inputs to other units, or if two organizations pool markets and expertise that result in lower costs and generate profits, it is often referred to as creating:
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synergies
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An information system can enhance core competencies by:
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encouraging the sharing of knowledge across business units.
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The more any given resource is applied to production, the lower the marginal gain in output, until a point is reached where the additional inputs produce no additional output is referred to as:
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the law of diminishing returns
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Network economics
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sees the cost of adding new members as inconsequential.
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In network economics, the value of a commercial software vendor's software products:
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increases as more people use them.
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A virtual company
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uses the capabilities of other companies without being physically tied to those companies.
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The emergence of the World Wide Web acted as a disruptive technology for:
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print publishing
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Which of the following best describes business globalization?
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Businesses selling their products worldwide
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The greatest impact the Internet has had on globalization is in lowering the costs of:
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entry to global-scale operations
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The ________ strategy concentrates financial management and control out of a central home base while decentralizing production, sales, and marketing operations to units in other countries.
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multinational
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The ________ strategy is characterized by heavy centralization of corporate activities in the home country of origin.
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domestic exporter
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In a ________ system configuration, separate information systems are designed and managed by each foreign unit.
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decentralized
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________ systems are those in which development occurs at the home base but operations are handed over to autonomous units in foreign locations.
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Duplicated
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A firm that locates all systems development and operations at its headquarters is using a ________ system configuration.
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centralized
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________ typically develop a single information system, usually at the home base, and then replicate it around the world.
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Franchisers
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Which of the following does not describe a difference between the way customers and producers see quality?
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For a consumer, quality means uniformity of the product.
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Seeing quality as the responsibility of all people and functions in an organization is central to the concept of:
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TQM
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As per your reading of the chapter opening case, which competitive force does Skype represent to AT&T?
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Substitute products or services
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The reduction of errors to 3.4 defects per million opportunities is central to the concept of:
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six sigma
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As per your reading of the chapter case, which of the four generic business strategies was Starbucks following in implementing its Starbucks Digital Network?
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customer and supplier intimacy
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The iPad can be seen as a disruptive technology for the ________ industry.
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publishing
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All of the following have been disruptive technologies except
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minicomputers
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All of the following are ways to improve quality except:
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implementing a new information system
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The ________ model highlights the primary or support activities that add a margin of value to a firm's products or services where information systems can best be applied to achieve a competitive advantage.
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value chain
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A ________ is an activity at which a firm excels as a world-class leader.
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core competency
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A(n) ________ uses networks to link people, assets, and ideas, enabling it to work with other companies to create products and services without being limited by traditional organizational boundaries or physical locations.
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virtual organization
