Questions and Answers of Strategic Management Technological Innovation

What are some advantages and disadvantages of technological innovation?
In what industries would you expect to see particularly short technology cycles? In what industries would you expect to see particularly long technology cycles? What factors might influence the
Name a successful (a) first mover, (b) early follower, and (c) late entrant. Identify unsuccessful examples of each.
Pick a company you are familiar with. Can you identify some of its core competencies?
Why might a firm use both qualitative and quantitative assessments of a project?
What factors should a firm considering marketing its innovation in multiple countries use in formulating its protection strategy?
Name some industries in which a parallel process would not be possible or effective.
What are the trade-offs in choosing a team’s size and level of diversity?
How can managers ensure that a team reaps the advantages of diversity while not being thwarted by some of the challenges team diversity raises?
Identify an example of a development project, and what type of team you believe they used. Do you think this was the appropriate type of team given the nature of the project?
Identify one or more circumstances when a company might wish to delay introducing its product.
Recently, Boeing did not respond to Airbus’s announcement of the development of a super-jumbo aircraft, the A380. Assuming this aircraft will give Airbus a competitive advantage in the segment of
Identify a recent acquisition in the business literature. Are there likely to have been any real options associated with this acquisition? If no, why not? What effect, if any, does your analysis have
How are the investment attributes that make it possible to characterize subjectively the value of a real option related to the attractiveness of an industry? For example, when the threat of entry
Both external and internal analyses are important in the strategic management process. Is the order in which these analyses are conducted important?
Describe what visionary firms may do to earn substantially higher returns than average firms.
What is the relationship between a firm’s business model and its value proposition?
Perform an opportunities analysis on the following industries:(a) The U.S. airline industry(b) The U.S. beer industry(c) The U.S. property and casualty insurance industry(d) The worldwide portable
Describe an industry that has no opportunities.
Describe a situation where a single firm can be both a competitor and a complementor to the same firm.
Under what conditions can firms gain first-mover advantages in an emerging industry?
Give an example of how you would apply value chain analysis to identify a firm’s valuable resources and capabilities.
What is required for a firm to gain a sustained competitive advantage from a resource considered rare?
Which of the two approaches used to implement cost leadership strategies seems more reasonable?
What are the implications and considerations for a small business that chooses a cost leadership business strategy?
Discuss the impact of a cost leadership strategy on environmental threats.
Is it possible to evaluate the mix of control and creativity when implementing a product differentiation strategy before problems associated with being out of balance manifest themselves? If yes,
How can organizational structure be used to implement product differentiation strategies?
In the semi-conductor industry, Moore’s law suggests that the power and computational speed of microprocessors will double about every nineteen months. Assuming that Moore’s law is correct, is
Over the last few years, several large U.S. technology-based firms have begun to create venture capital funds. Usually, these venture capital funds are not as profitable as independent venture
What must be true of flexibility for it to lead to sustained competitive advantage?
How might organization mechanisms support implementation of a real options strategy?
Firms that engage in Cournot cheating will achieve higher levels of performance than will firms that engage in Bertrand cheating. Why, then, would firms ever engage in Bertrand cheating?
Both cost homogeneity and product homogeneity enhance the ability of firms in an industry to implement tacit collusion strategies. Under what conditions, if any, would a firm be able to pursue a cost
At one level, the requirement that all firms in an industry be involved in a tacit collusion strategy in order for that strategy to be viable seems to contradict the rareness and imitability
Some have argued that the implementation of a tacit collusion strategy will lead a firm to be relatively inefficient. Others have argued that the implementation of a tacit collusion strategy requires
What are the vulnerabilities of firms that organize to implement tacit collusion?
Recently, a home delivery shaving company, “Harry’s Razors” claimed it can sell higher-quality razors at a lower price because it owned the factory that makes the razors. What conditions must
How is buying a car (as opposed to leasing a car) like and unlike vertical integration decisions? Suppose you are about to purchase a used car. What kinds of threats do you face in this purchase and
Under what conditions would you accept a lower-paying job over a higher-paying one?
What implications does your accepting a lower-paying job over a higher-paying one have for your potential employer’s compensation policy?
How can vertical integration create value by enabling a firm to retain its flexibility?
Describe how both direct duplication and substitution can be used to imitate another firm’s valuable and rare vertical integration choices.
Not all firms will choose corporate diversification. Describe the benefits and challenges of the alternatives.
Internal capital markets have several limitations. When a firm is confronted by these limitations, what is it likely to do?
How are the roles of senior executives and shared activity managers different in making the M-form structure work?
What are the implications for a multidivisional firm when the corporate staff become too involved in the day-today operations of divisions?
Some researchers have argued that alliances can be used to help firms evaluate the economic potential of entering a new industry or market. Why couldn’t such a firm simply hire some smart managers,
How would a firm’s reputation reduce the threat of cheating in a strategic alliance?
How can holdup be considered a form of cheating in strategic alliances and threat of holdup be considered a motivation for creating an alliance?
Select a company that competes in an industry in which you are interested. What are some of the recent demands that stakeholders have placed on this company? Can you find examples of how the company
Examine the structure of the casino industry. What has been the effect of the changing industry structure on U.S. casinos?For well over 50 years the casino business had been on a roll, on its way to
What internal resources and assets does Southwest have that may give it a competitive advantage?What are the key forces in the general and industry environments that affect Southwest’s choice of
McDonald’s Corporation is the world’s largest fast-food restaurant chain, with 2014 revenues of $27 billion, but the firm has stumbled recently. Sales in 2014 dropped by 2 percent, and its
What is the purpose of strategy?What strategic problems does Robin Hood have?What is the role of the organizational leader as strategist and articulator of global goals?What are some issues in this
How should Jamba Juice compete?What internal resources and assets does Jamba Juice have that may give it a competitive advantage?How should Jamba Juice manage growth?How should leadership manage
1. What internal resources and assets did ANN have that gave it a competitive advantage?2. How did ANN compete?3. What has Kay Krill done to implement strategy, and what challenges remain?The Ann
1. What internal resources and assets did Nintendo have that gave it a competitive advantage?2. How did Nintendo compete? Could Nintendo sustain a competitive advantage?In 2006, Nintendo had
What situation did Easterbrook inherit when he became CEO? What are the current forces in the external environment that might affect the new CEO?What source of competitive advantage does McDonald’s
The banks need resources to grow. What competitive strategy does microfinance appear to use, and what options do the banks have for dealing with life cycle issues?What are some of the challenges
What are key forces in the general and industry environments that affect Emirates’ choice of strategy?How does Emirates compete? What internal resources and assets does Emirates have that may
What internal resources and assets does Ford have that may give it a competitive advantage?How should Ford compete?What has leadership done to implement strategy, and what challenges remain?In 2015
What internal resources and assets does General Motors have to help counter the external forces?What competitive strategy does General Motors use, and how might it position itself for future
What corporate strategy does Johnson & Johnson pursue?What implications does Johnson & Johnson’s corporate strategy have for its organizational design?What is the role of strategic
What internal resources and assets did FreshDirect have that gave it a competitive advantage?How did FreshDirect compete?What competitive dynamics affect FreshDirect now?First launched in July 2001,
What is the structure of the global beer industry?This case deals with a firm that had been a pioneer in establishing itself as a global competitor in the beer business, gaining recognition around
What leadership decisions has Samsung made in order to manage its innovation process? What competitive strategies did leadership adopt to turn Samsung around? What challenges does Samsung face
Assess leadership at Procter and Gamble.Procter & Gamble had made several bold, innovative moves over the years to build itself into one of the best-known consumer product firms. However, by the
What strategy did QVC use, and how did it support this strategy?What challenges does QVC face? How has it confronted them so far?QVC was the leader in the home shopping market. It regularly shipped
What corporate innovation strategies did Vince McMahon use to grow World Wrestling Entertainment?World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) announced on January 27, 2015, that its WWE Network, which had
How did eBay pursue international growth?Since its inception in 1995, eBay had enjoyed strong revenue growth, and was a dominant player in the worldwide online auction industry. eBay’s business
What unique responsibilities does United Way have to its stakeholders, and how successful has the organization been with its overall strategy? Is United Way’s mission still viable?The United Way
What internal resources does Campbell have that may give it a competitive advantage?What do you think Campbell should do to counter the competition and remain in the top of the soup business?Change
What issues did Zynga face in formulating its initial strategy, and how did Zynga choose to compete?What challenges did Zynga face as it implemented strategy, and what choices does leadership have to
What is the structure of the beer industry, and how does this affect choice of strategy?The Boston Beer Company, known for its Samuel Adams brand, is the largest craft brewery in the United States,
How does Pixar use strategic management? What is Pixar’s competitive strategy, and what is the basis of Pixar’s competitive advantage?How has strategic leadership and the management of innovation
How should Weight Watchers compete?How should leadership manage innovation in this industry, and what are Weight Watchers’ options for growth?Weight Watchers International Inc. had been a major
What makes Kickstarter entrepreneurial, and how is this strategy working for them?What is it about the initial strategic analysis process that helps a firm identify a business opportunity? How might
What internal resources and assets does JetBlue have that may give it a competitive advantage?Is JetBlue’s competitive advantage sustainable?JetBlue was a domestic airline in the United States with
What are the strategic challengers facing Edward Marshall Boehm? What business are they in, and what strategy should they choose? Is there a certain sequence of actions that would be best to take
Are there particular types of innovation activities for which large firms are likely to outperform small firms? Are there types for which small firms are likely to outperform large firms?
What factors do you believe influenced the choice of protection strategy used for the innovation identified above? Do you think the strategy was a good choice?
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the creative side of Google being run as a ‘flexible and flat “technocracy”’?2. How does Google’s culture influence the kind of employees it
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of having formalized procedures for improving the effectiveness or efficiency of innovation?
What factors should a firm take into account when deciding how centralized its R&D activities should be? Should firms employ both centralized and decentralized R&D activities?
Why is the tension between centralization and decentralization of R&D activities likely to be even greater for multinational firms than firms that compete in one national market?
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the transnational approach advocated by Bartlett and Ghoshal?
1. How does Skullcandy's new product development activities affect its ability to (a) maximize the fit with customer needs, (b) minimize development cycle time, and (c) control development costs?2.
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of a parallel development process? What obstacles might a firm face in attempting to adopt a parallel process?
Consider a group project you have worked on at work or school. Did your group use mostly sequential or parallel processes?
Are there some industries in which a parallel process would not be possible or effective?
What kinds of people make good project champions? How can a firm ensure that it gets the benefits of championing while minimizing the risks?
Is the Stage-Gate process consistent with suggestions that firms adopt parallel processes? What impact do you think using Stage-Gate processes would have on development cycle time and development
What are the benefits and costs of involving customers and suppliers in the development process?
1. Why does Disney keep its development teams small?2. What are the pros and cons of the teams being so autonomous?3. Is Disney’s team approach mostly suited to creative projects, or would it work
Why are there trade-offs in choosing a team's size and level of diversity?
What are some of the ways that managers can ensure that a team reaps the advantages of diversity while not being thwarted by some of the challenges team diversity raises?
Can you identify an example of a development project and what type of team you believed they used? Do you think this was the appropriate type of team given the nature of the project?
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of co-location? Are there some types of projects for which “virtual teams” are inappropriate?
1. What factors do you think enabled Sega to break Nintendo’s near monopoly of the U.S. video game console market in the late 1980s?2. Why did Nintendo choose to not make its video game consoles

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