Study Guide

The Final Exam is comprehensive and you are responsible for all materials covered in class, PowerPoints
and textbook. “Focus”, means that you might get questions outside of these areas.

The study guide is simply a tool which will help you focus your efforts. You are responsible for all
materials covered in lectures and textbooks.

For chapter one focus on:

1. Know the two perspectives of leadership and their implications.

2. Know the three components of strategic management process and its four key attributes.

3. Know what is required to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

4. Know the difference between organizational versus the individual rationality perspective.

5. Know the difference between effectiveness and efficiency.

6. Know the difference between deliberate, realized and emergent strategies.

7. Know the key factors that contribute to rivalry.

8. Know the various approaches to managing relationships with stakeholders.

9. Know why top level executives are important for strategic implementation other than the fact
that they formulate the strategy

10. Know the Triple Bottom Line concept

11. Know the Shared Value Concept.

12. Know the relationship between Vision, Mission Statement, and Strategic Objectives

13. Know the difference between Zero-Sum and Symbiosis approach

For chapter two focus on:

1. Know the Five Forces Model very thoroughly. Know what factors increase or decrease the
level of competition, buyers’ power, suppliers’ power, threat of new entrants, threat of substitute
products.

2. Know what is meant by Hard Trends and Soft Trends

3. Know what is meant by Environmental Scanning

4. Know what is meant by Environmental Monitoring

5. Know what is meant by Competitive Intelligence gathering.

6. Know what is meant by Scenario Analysis

7. Become thoroughly familiar with SWOT

8. Know the categories of the General Environment and what goes in each category

9. Know what we mean by the competitive environment and what goes in that environment

10. Know what a Strategic Group is and why and how it is used in strategic analysis.

For Chapter three focus on

1. Know the key attributes of a resource which provides sustainable competitive advantage.

2. Know what is meant by social complexity, path dependency and causal ambiguity.
3. Know what are the available categories of financial ratios and what do they imply; particularly
solvency, asset utilization and profitability categories.
4. Know what we mean by Historical Comparison, Industry Norms and Comparison with key
competitors.
5. Know what is meant by a balance score card, what its four categories are, and how it is
utilized.
6. Know what are the key customer concerns under the customer perspective in the balanced
score card.
7. Know what is meant by Value Chain and how value chain analysis is applied
8. Know what we mean by primary activities and support activities and examples of each
category.
9. Know the difference between tangible assets, organizational capabilities, and intangible assets.
10. Know what is meant by resource based view of the firm and how you can extend that to
bargaining power of employees and management.
For Chapter Four focus on

1. Know what market value is and what book value is and what the difference between the two
implies.
2. Know which companies tend to have a higher market value than their book value.
3. Know what we mean by intellectual assets.
4. Know what is meant by knowledge economy, knowledge worker,
5. Know what is meant by human capital, and social capital, and what is included in each category.
6. Know the best methods for acquiring and retaining human capital and what role social capital
plays in retaining employees.
7. Know what can go wrong with too much emphasis on social capital.
8. Know what the Pied Piper effect is and what that implies for acquiring human capital.
9. Know the different methods of employee evaluation including 360 degree evaluation
10. Know what Tacit Knowledge is and what is Explicit knowledge.
11. Know what social network analysis is and how that helps us retain human capital.
12. Know what a bridging relationship is and what the closure segment of a social network looks like
and what it means.
13. Know what dynamic capabilities are.

For chapter five focus on

1. Know what is the primary aim of strategic management at business level strategy
2. Know the three generic business strategies, their use and also their pitfalls.
3. Know which strategies generate higher rates of return.
4. Know how you can combine the generic strategies.
5. Know what are some methods that a firm can use to achieve low cost leadership position.
6. Know what are some methods that a firm can use to achieve a differentiated position.
7. Know how a firm can use a focus strategy.
8. Know what is an industry profit pool and how can it be utilized.
9. Know how the internet helps (or hurts) the three generic strategies.
10. Know what an Industry life cycle is and which strategies can be used for which stages.
11. Know what a turnaround strategy is and how it can be used.

For chapter six focus on

1. Know what we mean by Corporate level Strategy and how that is different from business level.
2. Know what a core competence is and how it comes into play when we consider diversification
strategies.
3. What are the three requirements for a core competence to become the basis of strengthening
of business unit.
4. Know what is vertical integration and what types of vertical integration do we have.
5. Know what is parenting and how that relates to diversification.
6. Know what mergers and acquisitions are and what the difference between them is.
7. Know what a strategic alliance is and what is a joint venture and what is the difference between
them.
 8. Know the downside of mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances and joint ventures.
9. Know what is restructuring and when we use it.
10. Know the Boston Consulting Group’s portfolio analysis tool. Thoroughly familiarize yourself with
its 4 different categories.
11. Know what we mean by management of intellectual property (IP) and what is considered an IP.

For chapter seven focus on

 Dilemmas of international trade,

 Michael Porter’s national competitiveness factors,
 Currency exchange rates and
 Arbitrage.
 Outsourcing
 Offshoring
 International expansion
o What are the different strategies? When do you choose each one?
o Why companies decided to do it
o Theodore Levitt assumptions supporting a pure global strategy
o What are the methods of entry

 Exporting

 Franchising

 Licensing
 joint venture,
 wholly owned subsidiary
  transfer prices
 Royalties
 Dividends

For chapter eight focus on

 Characteristics of Entrepreneurs
 Opportunity recognition
 Opportunity Evaluation
 Sources of financing for entrepreneurs
 Angel Investors
 Venture Capitalists
 Crowd funding
 Application of the generic Strategies
 Co-optition
  Forbearance
 Market Commonality
 Market Dependence
 Competitive Dynamics
 Threat analysis

For chapter nine focus on

 Organizational Culture
o Its Role
o How do you sustain it
o How does it tie in to reward and incentive systems
o What are boundaries

 What is a corporation
 What are the control systems that a firm has,
 The difference between new and old approaches,
 Reward and incentive system,
 Corporate governance
o Characteristics of a good board
o Related concepts such as CEO duality & unity of command
 Agency Theory
 Takeover constraint
 Shareholder Activism
 Book versus market value and the role of analysts in shaping that value.

For Chapter 10

 Know the definition of organizational structure

 Know the relationship between structure and strategy
 Know the different forms of organizational structure
 The simple Structure
 The Functional Structure
 The Divisional Structure
 The SBU structure
 The Matrix Structure
 The Holding Company structure
 Know what we mean by a global start up
 Know what we mean by Boundaryless organizational design
 Know the advantages does outsourcing provide an organization.
 Know what we mean by a Modular Organization
 Know what is mean by Ambidextrous Organizations.