MIS ch3

Question 1

Agency theory

Answer 1

Economic theory that views the firm as a nexus of contracts among self-interested individuals who must be supervised and managed.

Question 2

Benchmarking

Answer 2

Setting strict standards for products, services, or activities and measuring organizational performance against those standards.

Question 3

Best practices

Answer 3

The most successful solutions or problem-solving methods that have been developed by a specific organization or industry.

Question 4

Business ecosystem

Answer 4

Loosely coupled but interdependent networks of suppliers, distributors, outsourcing firms, transportation service firms and technology manufacturers.

Question 5

Competitive forces model

Answer 5

Model used to describe the interaction of external influences, specifically threats and opportunities, that affect an organization’s strategy and ability to compete.

Question 6

Core competency

Answer 6

Activity at which a firm excels as a world-class leader.

Question 7

Disruptive technologies

Answer 7

Technologies with disruptive impact on industries and businesses, rendering existing products, services, and business models obsolete.

Question 8

Efficient customer response system

Answer 8

System that directly links consumer behavior back to distribution, production, and supply chains.

Question 9

Mass customization

Answer 9

The capacity to offer individually tailored products or services using mass production resources.

Question 10

Network economics

Answer 10

Model of strategic systems at the industry level based on the concept of a network where adding another participant entails zero marginal costs but can create much larger marginal gains.

Question 11

Organization

Answer 11

A collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that are delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict resolution(Behavioral def). A stable, formal, social structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs.

Question 12

Platforms

Answer 12

Business providing information systems, technologies, and services that thousands of other firms in different industries use to enhance their own capabilities.

Question 13

Primary activities

Answer 13

Activities most directly related to the production and distribution of a firm’s products or services.

Question 14

Product differentiation

Answer 14

Competitive strategy for creating brand loyalty by developing new and unique products and services that are not easily duplicated by competitors.

Question 15

Routines

Answer 15

Precise rules, procedures, and practices that have been developed to cope with expected situations.

Question 16

Strategic transitions

Answer 16

A movement from one level of socioltechnical system to another. Often required, when adopting strategic systems that demand changes in the social and technical elements of an organization.

Question 17

Support activities

Answer 17

Activities that make the delivery of a firm’s primary activities possible. Consist of the organization’s infrastructure, human resources, technology, and procurement.

Question 18

Switching costs

Answer 18

The expense a customer or company incurs in lost time and expenditure of resources when changing from one supplier or system to a competing supplier or system.

Question 19

Transaction cost theory

Answer 19

Economic theory stating that firms grow lager because the can conduct marketplace transactions internally more cheaply than they can with external firms in the marketplace.

Question 20

Value chain model

Answer 20

Model that highlights the primary or support activities that add a margin of value to a firm’s products or services where information systems can best be applied to achieve a competitive advantage.

Question 21

Value web

Answer 21

Customer-driven network of independent firms who use information technology to coordinate their value chains to collectively produce a product or service for a market.

Question 22

Virtual company

Answer 22

Organization using networks to link people, assets, and ideas to create and distribute products and services without being limited to traditional organizational boundaries or physical location.