The Big Picture
An integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions to exploit core competencies and gain a competitive advantage.
What is strategy?
An integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions to exploit core competencies and gain a competitive advantage in specific product markets.
What is business level strategy?
The capacity for a set of a firm's resources to perform an activity in an integrative manner.
What is a capability?
A condition in the general environment that, if exploited effectively, helps a firm achieve strategic competitiveness.
What is an opportunity (i.e., the "O" of a SWOT analysis)?
Analysis, Strategy, and Performance
What are the three main steps of the Strategic Management process?
A business level strategy in which firms achieve competitive advantage by providing standardized products at the lowest competitive price to a broad target market.
What is a cost leadership strategy?
A capability that serves as a source of competitive advantage for a firm.
What is a core competency?
A condition in the general environment that may hinder a firm’s efforts to achieve strategic competitiveness.
What is a threat (i.e., the "T" in a SWOT analysis)?
The main objective of the Strategic Management Process.
What is to earn above-average returns and/or gain a competitive advantage?
Actions taken to gain a competitive advantage through the selection and management of a mix of businesses competing in different product markets.
What is corporate level strategy?
Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, and Organized
What are the elements of a VRIO analysis, which a capability must meet to be considered a core competency?
The threats posed by new entrants, the power of suppliers, the power of buyers, product substitutes, and the intensity of rivalry among competitors.
What are the forces in the Five Forces Model, which affect the ability of all firms in that industry to operate profitably?
All the people and groups affected by an organization or its courses of action.
What are stakeholders?
A strategy in which firms work together to achieve a shared objective.
What is a Cooperative Strategy?
An analysis that helps a firm understand the parts of its operations that create value and those that do not.
What is a value chain analysis?
Demographic, economic, political/legal, sociocultural, global, technological, and the physical environment.
What are the seven segments that comprise a firm's general environment?