Chapter 2: Strategic Uses of Information Systems Flashcards
_______ is a framework, or approach, to obtaining an advantageous position.
Strategy
_________ is a plan to help an organization outperform its competitors. Often done by creating new opportunities instead of beating rivals.
Business strategy
_______ is an information system that helps seize opportunities.
Strategic information system (SIS)
________ is achieved by a company by using strategy to maximizes its strength.
Strategic advantage
________ is gained when an organization’s maximized strengths is used to beat its rivals.
Competitive advantage
________ is the best way to lower prices, in order to gain market share.
Reduce costs
_________ is another strategy whereby competitive advantage is gained by making it difficult, or impossible, for other organizations to produce the product or service it provides.
Raise barriers to entrants
_______ are expenses incurred when a customer stops buying a product or service from one business and starts buying it from another.
Switching costs
The ability to ______________ that many organizations and individuals need gives an organization a great competitive advantage.
create new products or services
________ is an organization that is first to offer a new product or service.
First mover
A _______ is a body of clients that is large enough to attract many other clients.
critical mass
Product ________ is achieved by persuading customers that your product is better than competitors’. Usually done by advertising and customer experience.
differentiation
__________ means to add to the product to increase its value for consumers.
Enhance existing products or services
An ______ is two companies combining services. This makes product more attractive, reduces cost, and provides one-stop shopping.
alliance
________ is an example of alliances on the web. It links to other companies and rewards the linker for click-throughs.
Affiliate program
If organization are powerful enough to ______ suppliers to their mode of operation or buyers to their product, they can achieve competitive advantage. This is accomplished by achieving bargaining power.
lock in
_______ is the leverage to influence buyers and suppliers.
Bargaining power
Another way to lock in clients other than high switching costs is to _________. Software industry pursue this strategy vigorously.
create a standard
_______ means to eliminate and rebuild operations from the ground up. It often involves IT, new machinery and elimination of management layers. The goal is to achieve huge efficiency improvements.
Reengineering
A system can only help a company sustain competitive advantage if the company continuously modifies and enhances the system, creating a ______ for competitors.
moving target
A _______ enters the market later than other competitors. It can be an advantage as firms are not burdened with legacy systems and can implement the latest available technologies.
late mover
When failure occurs because an organization tries to be on the technological leading edge, observers call it the ________.
bleeding edge
