Chapter 12 - Strategy And Organisation In The International Firm

Question 1

Strategy

Answer 1

A planned set of actions that a manager takes to make best use of a firm’s resources and core competencies in order to gain a competitive advantage

Question 2

Visionary Leadership

Answer 2

A quality of senior management that provides superior strategic guidance for managing efficiency, flexibility and learning

Question 3

Organisational Culture

Answer 3

The pattern of shared values, behavioural norms, systems, policies and procedures that employees learn and adopt

Question 4

Organisational Processes

Answer 4

Managerial routines, behaviours and mechanisms that allow the firm to function as intended

Question 5

Global Team

Answer 5

An internationally distributed group of employees charged with a specific problem-solving or best-practice mandate that affects the entire organisation

Question 6

Multi-Domestic Industry

Answer 6

An industry in which competition takes place on a country-by-country basis

Question 7

Global Industry

Answer 7

An industry in which competition is on a regional or worldwide scale

Question 8

Global Integration

Answer 8

Coordination of the firm’s value-chain activities across countries to achieve worldwide efficiency, synergy and cross-fertilisation, in order to take maximum advantage of similarities between countries

Question 9

Local Responsiveness

Answer 9

Meeting the specific needs of buyers in individual countries

Question 10

Home Replication Strategy

Answer 10

An approach in which the firm views international business as seperate from and secondary to its domestic business

Question 11

Multi-Domestic Strategy

Answer 11

An approach to firm internalisation where headquarters delegates considerable autonomy to each country manager, allowing him or her to operate independently and peruse local responsiveness

Question 12

Global Strategy

Answer 12

An approach where headquarters seeks substantial control over its country operations to minimise redundancy and achieve maximum efficiency, learning and integration worldwide

Question 13

Transnational Strategy

Answer 13

A coordinated approach to internationalisation in which the firm strives to be more responsive to local needs while retaining sufficient central control of operations to ensure efficiency and learning

Question 14

Organisational Structure

Answer 14

Reporting relationships inside the firm that specify the links between people, functions and processes

Question 15

Export Department

Answer 15

A unit within the firm that is charged with managing the firm’s export operations

Question 16

International Division Structure

Answer 16

An organisational design activities are centralised within one division in the firm, seperate from domestic units

Question 17

Geographical Area Structure

Answer 17

An organisational design in which management and control are decentralised to the level of individual geographical regions, whose managers are responsible for operations within their region

Question 18

Product Structure

Answer 18

An arrangement in which the management of international operations is organised by major product line

Question 19

Functional Structure

Answer 19

An arrangement in which management of the firm’s international operations is organised by functional activity (such as marketing or production)

Question 20

Global Matrix Structure

Answer 20

An arrangement that blends the geographical area, product and functional structures to leverage the benefits of a purely global strategy while keeping the firm responsive to local needs