Chapter 1 Key Terms

Question 1

Applications (Apps)

Answer 1

A software program designed to facilitate a specific task as opposed to control resources. Examples of applications include Microsoft Word, a word processing application.

Question 2

blue ocean strategy

Answer 2

A business strategy in which firms try to find new market spaces where they have the “water” to themselves. That is, they enter a market space(s) when the goal is not to beat the competition but to make it irrelevant.

Question 3

business model

Answer 3

subscriptions, advertising, licenses, etc. Do not include where the business seeks to go, and only the revenue portion of how it expects to get there.

Question 4

business strategy

Answer 4

A plan articulating where a business seeks to go and how it expects to get there.

Question 5

collaboration

Answer 5

The use of social IT to extend the reach of stakeholders, both employees and those outside the enterprise walls. Social IT such as social networks enable individuals to find and connect with each other to share ideas, information, and expertise.

Question 6

cost leadership

Answer 6

A business strategy by which the organization aims to be the lowest-cost producer in the marketplace.

Question 7

creative destruction

Answer 7

accelerated competition has occurred, as well as sharp increases in the quality and quantity of information technology (IT) investment. Destroy your business, develop strategies to destroy your company’s competitive advantage.

Question 8

differentiation

Answer 8

A business strategy by which the organization qualifies its product or service in a way that allows it to appear unique in the marketplace.

Question 9

dynamic capabilities

Answer 9

means of orchestrating a firm’s resources in the face of turbulent environments.

Question 10

hypercompetition

Answer 10

A theory about industries and marketplaces that suggests that the speed and aggressiveness of moves and countermoves in any given market create an environment in which advantages are quickly gained and lost. A hypercompetitive environment is one in which conditions change rapidly.

Question 11

Information Systems Strategy Triangle

Answer 11

The framework connecting business strategy, information system strategy, and organizational systems strategy.

Question 12

innovation

Answer 12

The use of social IT to identify, describe, prioritize, and create new ideas for the enterprise. Social IT offers the community members a forum in which to suggest new ideas, comment on other ideas, and vote for their favorite idea, giving managers a new way to generate and make decisions on products and services.

Question 13

IS strategy

Answer 13

The plan an organization uses in providing information services.

Question 14

managerial levers

Answer 14

The organizational, control, cultural variables that are used by decision makers to effect changes in their organizations.

Question 15

mission

Answer 15

A clear and compelling statement that unifies an organization’s effort and describes what the firm is all about (i.e., its purpose).

Question 16

organizational strategy

Answer 16

A plan that answers the question: “How will the company organize to achieve its goals and implement its business strategy?” It includes the organization’s design as well as the choices it makes to define, set up, coordinate, and control its work processes.

Question 17

social business strategy

Answer 17

An enterprise whose basic business model engages communities as a core competency and builds processes based on capabilities available only through the use of social IT.

Question 18

Information system (IS)

Answer 18

The combination of technology (the “what”), people(the “who”), and process (the “how”) that an organization uses to produce and manage information.

Question 19

red ocean strategy

Answer 19

strategy focus on gaining competitive advantage in currently existing industries and marketplaces

Question 20

strategy

Answer 20

A coordinated set of actions to fulfill objectives, purposes, and goals.