Key Terms Ch 2 Flashcards
One firm buying another
Acquisition
Conditions that prevent new companies from entering an industry
Barriers to Entry
The process of comparing an organization’s practices and technologies with those of other companies
Benchmarking
Creating supplies of excess resources in case of unpredictable needs
Buffering
The immediate environment surrounding a firm; includes suppliers, customers, rivals, and the like
Competitive Environment
Information that helps managers determine how to compete better
Competitive Intelligence
Strategies used by two or more working organizations working together to manage the external environment
Cooperative Strategies
Companies that stay within a stable product domain as a strategic maneuver
Defenders
Measures of various characteristics of the people who make up groups or other social units
Demographics
A firm’s investment in a different product, business, or geographic area
Diversification
A firm selling one or more businesses
Divestiture
Entering a new market or industry with an existing expertise
Domain selection
The process of sharing power with employees, thereby enhancing their confidence in their ability to perform their jobs and their belief that they are influential contributors to the organization
Empowerment
Searching for and sorting through information about the environment
Environmental Scanning
Lack of information needed to understand or predict the future
Environmental Uncertainty
All relevant forces outside a firm’s boundaries, such as competitors, customers, the government, and the economy
External Environment
Those who purchase products in their finished form
Final Consumer
Methods for adapting the technical core to changes in the environment
Flexible Processes
Method for predicting how variables will change the future
Forecasting
Strategies that an organization acting on its own uses to change some aspect of its current environment
Independent Strategies
Goods and services organizations take in and use to create products or services
Inputs
A customer who purchases raw materials or wholesale products before selling them to final customers
Intermediate Consumer
The general environment; includes governments, economic conditions, and other fundamental factors that generally affect all organizations
Macroenvironment
One or more companies combining with another
Merger
Organizations that are affected by, and that affect, their environment
Open System
The patterns of attitudes and behavior that shape people’s experience of an organization
Organizational Climate
The set of important assumptions about the organization and its goals and practices that members of the company share
Organizational Culture
The set of important assumptions about the organization and its goals and practices that members of the company share
Outputs
Companies that continually change the boundaries for their task environments by seeking new products and markets, diversifying and merging, or acquiring new enterprises
Prospectors
A narrative that describes a particular set of future conditions
Scenario
Leveling normal fluctuations at the boundaries of the environment
Smoothing
An organization’s conscious efforts to change the boundaries of its task environment
Strategic Maneuvering
The managing of the network of facilities and people that obtain materials from outside the organization, transform them into products, and distribute them to customers
Supply Chain Management
Fixed costs buyers face when they change suppliers
Switching Costs
