MGMT 498

Business Policy & Strategy

Spring 2016
Professor Ravi Shanmugam

Exam 2 study guide

Exam 2 instructions (i.e. whats on the front page of the exam) are exactly the same as for
exam 1.
The exam is closed-book and closed-notes. You will NOT need to bring either a blue book or
a Scantron form.
Reminder: There will be no make-up exams unless you inform me ahead of time about
extenuating circumstances that prevent you from taking the exam as scheduled on 4/4.

The following topics are fair game for both the multiple-choice and short-answer questions.
Most of these topics were covered both in class and in the textbook. Unlike with exam 1, there
are no textbook-only topics for this exam.
Business-level strategy (pt. 2) (Wed 2/24)
Life-cycle stage characteristics
Life-cycle stage strategies
Meaning of customer lifetime value (but not calculations)
Corporate-level strategy (Mon 2/29, Wed 3/2)
Difference between corporate-level strategy and business-level strategy
Reasons why firms attempt to grow
Difference between related and unrelated diversification
How diversification improves a firms position with respect to the P5F model
Meaning of synergy
Economies of scope
Economics of scale
Vertical integration and necessary conditions to pull it off correctly
Parenting
BCG matrix: meaning of each cell
Build-borrow-buy: meaning of each decision
Organizational design (Mon 3/7)
How simple and functional structures differ from multi-divisional structures
How different types of multi-divisional structures differ from each other
Barrier-free and modular organizations
Strategic control & corporate governance (Wed 3/9)
Difference between informational control and behavioral control
What corporate governance accomplishes in stakeholder terms
Difference between external and internal corporate governance mechanisms
Global strategy (Mon 3/21)
CAGE framework and the four types of distance
Porters four determinants of national advantage
Meaning of risk vs. control for entry modes
Risks of outsourcing

Strategic leadership (Wed 3/30)

How a leader can create a learning organization
Meaning of organizational ethics
You will not be responsible for any of the following:
Details of any tangents or anything off-topic I mention in class
Being able to memorize (and reproduce word-for-word from memory) any lists
mentioned in class related to any of the study guide topics, but you should understand
those lists.