Chapter 4

Question 1

Competitive Advantage

Answer 1

What an organization possesses exclusively or does better

Question 2

Distinctive Competencies

Answer 2

Resources/capabilities that are sources of competitive advantages

Question 3

Criteria for Distinctive Competencies

Answer 3

1. Valuable
2. Rare
3. Imperfectly imitable
4. Lack of strategically equivalent substitutes
5. Complementary assets

Question 4

Valuable resources

Answer 4

Assets and capabilities that contribute disproportionately to the creation of superior customer value

Question 5

Specialized assets

Answer 5

Resources and capabilities that are dedicated to specific tasks. Provide a strategic advantage

Question 6

Imperfect imitability

Answer 6

Inability to completely imitate the capabilities of competitors

Question 7

Casual ambiguity

Answer 7

Isolating mechanism that makes it difficult to understand links between resources/capabilities and superior performance.

Question 8

Strategically equivalent resources

Answer 8

Used in place of another resource to implement the same strategy

Question 9

Complimentary Assets

Answer 9

Related assets used to produce and deliver products and services.

Question 10

Dynamic competencies

Answer 10

Organizations ability to create new forms of competitive advantage - in response to environmental change.

Question 11

Competitive Strategy

Answer 11

Linked to competitive advantages - how the firm will compete in its chosen market

Question 12

Porter’s Generic Strategies?

Answer 12

Cost leadership
Differentiation
Focus

Question 13

Cost leadership

Answer 13

Porter’s Generic Strategies

Product or services are produced at a lower cost per unit than the competition

Question 14

Value engineering

Answer 14

Linked to cost leadership:

Involves improving and simplifying a product/service to reduce the complexity, number of parts and cost to make

Question 15

Differentiation

Answer 15

Porter’s Generic Strategies

Achieving a competitive advantage over the competition by creating a product that is better/unique in many ways

Question 16

Methods of Differentiation

Answer 16

Porter’s Generic Strategies

Product, Service, Brand recognition, brand image

Question 17

Focus strategy

Answer 17

Concentrates on the needs of a single segment that often has special requirements

Question 18

Stuck in the Middle

Answer 18

Firms that do not fall into Porter’s Generic Strategies

Question 19

Value propositions

Answer 19

Ex. Operational excellence, product leadership, customer intimacy

Question 20

Operational Excellence

Answer 20

Value prop.

Focuses on offering customers the best price and the most convience

Question 21

Product leadership

Answer 21

Value prop.

Involves producing state of the art products using the latest tech.

Question 22

Customer intimacy

Answer 22

Value prop.

Personalized service, offering products/services that solve their problems with specific applications.