Question 1.
The concept of blue-ocean strategies does not refer to
- market spaces that are untainted by competition and offer wide-open opportunity for profitable and rapid growth, but only if a company can come up with a product offering that allows it to create demand.
- providing a company with a great opportunity in the short run.
- pursuing offensive strategies that involve a preemptive strike to secure an advantageous position in a mature market segment.
- inventing a new market segment that renders existing competitors irrelevant.
- seeing the business universe as consisting of two distinct types of market space.
Question 2.
Strategic alliances are more likely to be long-lasting when they involve
- partners based in countries with distinctly different cultures and consumer buying habits and preferences.
- partners who are not only experienced with strategic alliances, but who also routinely enter into collaborative agreements with firms in peripheral industries.
- partners who respectively have considerable resource weaknesses in the marketplace.
- joining forces in R&D to develop new technologies more cheaply than a company could develop the technology on its own.
- collaboration with suppliers or distribution allies, or when both parties conclude that continued collaboration is in their mutual interests.
Question 3.
You are advising Hoffmann-LaRoche, which has set up Roche Partnering to manage more than 190 alliances in the healthcare industry. What is the greatest risk that might cause those alliances to be unstable or break apart?
- Anticipated gains may fail to materialize for Roche Partnering due to an overly optimistic view of the synergies.
- Any or all of the 190 partners in Roche Partnering could become overly dependent on other companies within the partnership.
- Anticipated gains for Roche Partnering may fail to materialize due to a poor fit in terms of the combination of resources and capabilities.
- One or more of the 190 partners in Roche Partnering could gain access to another company’s proprietary knowledge base, technologies, or trade secrets.
- All of the 190 partners in Roche Partnering could minimize the amount of resources that they had committed to the alliance.
Question 4.
Compared to vertical integration or horizontal mergers/acquisitions strategies, the principal advantages of joint venture partnerships and alliances include
- potential facilitation of best practices, optimization of production capacity, and relevant synergistic savings.
- potential material additions to a company’s technological capabilities, strengthening of its competitive position, and boosting of its profitability.
- potential resource pooling and risk sharing, more adaptive response capabilities, and greater speed of deployment.
- potential transactional and relational optimization of operating practices and competencies.
- potential profitability of the alliance and related experience-curve economics.
Question 5.
Samsung Group’s ecosystem of over 1,300 partnerships that enable productive activities, from global procurement to local marketing to collaborative R&D, is considered to have been
- successful in creating strategic alliances.
- successful in diminishing the company’s knowledge capabilities.
- successful in decreasing the company’s knowledge assets.
- successful in expediting the transfer of new assets into the strategic alliance.
- successful in that it has been developed over time, through effort and learning.
Question 6.
Late-mover advantages (or first-mover disadvantages) are not likely to arise when
- technological change is rapid and fast-following rivals find it easy to leapfrog the pioneer with next-generation products of their own.
- opportunities exist for a blue-ocean strategy to invent a new industry or distinctive market segment that creates altogether new demand.
- the pioneer’s products are somewhat primitive and are easily bested by late movers.
- the costs of pioneering are much higher than being a follower and only negligible learning/experience benefits accrue to the pioneer.
- the marketplace is skeptical about the benefits of a new technology or product being pioneered by a first-mover.
Question 7.
Maria, the owner/CEO of a local HR recruiting and staffing company, is considering a strategic alliance with Patricia, the owner/CEO of a local payroll company. What would not likely be a consideration for Maria and Patricia with respect to whether the proposed alliance could become successful and realize its intended benefits?
- ensuring that both parties live up to their commitments
- minimizing the amount of resources that the partners commit to the alliance
- being sensitive to cultural differences between the two companies
- recognizing that the alliance must benefit both sides
- structuring the decision-making process so actions can be taken swiftly when needed
Question 8.
Vertical integration does not involve
- engaging in a full integration, a partial integration, or a tapered integration.
- starting a firm’s own operations in other stages of the virtual activity chain.
- acquiring a company already performing the activities it wants to bring in-house.
- expanding a firm’s range of product and service segments within its product or service market.
- entering into a strategic alliance or joint venture.
Question 9.
Bumble, a digital dating site where women make the first move, specifically uses which strategic weapon in its offensive arsenal?
- Launching a preemptive strike to capture an industry’s limited resources or capture a rare opportunity
- Adopting and improving on the good ideas of other companies or rival firms
- Pursuing disruptive product innovations to create new markets
- Offering an equally good or better product at a lower price than rivals
- Using hit-and-run “guerilla warfare” tactics to grab market share from distracted or complacent rivals
Question 10.
What is not considered to be among the major risks of outsourcing value chain activities presently performed in-house?
- A company may farm out the wrong types of activities and thereby hollow out its own capabilities.
- A company’s loss of direct control may make it difficult to monitor and coordinate activities of outside suppliers.
- A company’s ability to lead the development of innovative new products may be weakened in the outsourcing process.
- Outside parties may not make investments specific to the needs of the outsourcing company’s value chain.
- A company may be less flexible in accommodating shifting buyer preferences.
