Chapter 4 (Business-Level Strategy)

Question 1

business-level strategy

Answer 1

a strategy designed for a firm or a division of a firm that competes within a single business

Question 2

generic strategies

Answer 2

an analysis of business strategy into basic types based on breadth of target market (industrywide versus narrow market segment) and type of competitive advantage (low cost versus uniqueness)

Question 3

overall cost leadership

Answer 3

a firm’s generic strategy based on appeal to the industrywide market using a competitive advantage based on low cost

Question 4

competitive parity

Answer 4

a firm’s achievement of similarity, or being “on par”, with competitors to low cost, differentiation, or other strategic product characteristic

Question 5

focus strategy

Answer 5

a firm’s generic strategy based on appeal to a narrow market segment within an industry

Question 6

combination strategies

Answer 6

firms’ integrations of various strategies to provide multiple types of value to customers

Question 7

mass customization

Answer 7

a firm’s ability to manufacture unique products in small quantities at low costs

Question 8

digital technologies

Answer 8

information that is in numerical form, which facilitates its storage, transmission, analysis, and manipulation

Question 9

reverse positioning

Answer 9

a break in industry tendency to continuously augment products, characteristic of the product life cycle, by offering products with fewer product attributes and lower prices

Question 10

harvesting strategy

Answer 10

a strategy of wringing as much profit as possible out of a business in the short to medium term by reducing costs

Question 11

consolidation strategy

Answer 11

a firm’s acquiring or merging with other firms in an industry in order to enhance market power and gain valuable assets