strategic management
Date: 31.10.2013
Course: Strategic Management – Context and Analysis
Theoretical Assessment – Take Home
You must attempt to answer any 4 questions from the following:
Q1
Conduct a basic analysis for the General environment of one of the following industries: The Pharmaceutical Industry, The Textile Industry, The Airline
Industry, The Brewing Industry or an Industry of your own choice. Using
Porter’s Five-Forces model, evaluate the Specific environment of your chosen
Industry.
Q2
Take an organization with which you are familiar and identify its Core
Competences (Distinctive Capabilities). Compare the organization with its competitors and comment on the strategy implications.
Q3
Government policies can have a significant impact on the average profitability of firms in an industry. Government, however, is not included as a potential threat in the five forces model. Do you think the model should be expanded to include government (to make a “six forces” model)? Why or why not? Explain your answer.
Q4
Which of the following approaches to strategy formulation is more likely to generate economic profits: (a) evaluating external opportunities and threats and developing resources and capabilities to exploit these opportunities and neutralise these threats or (b) evaluating internal resources and capabilities and then searching for industries where they can be exploited? Explain your answer. Q5
Which firm will have a higher level of economic performance: (a) a firm with valuable, rare, and costly-to-imitate resources and capabilities operating in a very attractive industry or (b) a firm with valuable, rare, and costly-to-imitate resources and capabilities operating in a very unattractive industry? Assume both these firms are appropriately organised. Explain your answer.
Q6
Which firm is more likely to be successful in exploiting its sources of sustained competitive advantage in its home market than in a highly competitive, non
domestic
Course: Strategic Management – Context and Analysis
Theoretical Assessment – Take Home
You must attempt to answer any 4 questions from the following:
Q1
Conduct a basic analysis for the General environment of one of the following industries: The Pharmaceutical Industry, The Textile Industry, The Airline
Industry, The Brewing Industry or an Industry of your own choice. Using
Porter’s Five-Forces model, evaluate the Specific environment of your chosen
Industry.
Q2
Take an organization with which you are familiar and identify its Core
Competences (Distinctive Capabilities). Compare the organization with its competitors and comment on the strategy implications.
Q3
Government policies can have a significant impact on the average profitability of firms in an industry. Government, however, is not included as a potential threat in the five forces model. Do you think the model should be expanded to include government (to make a “six forces” model)? Why or why not? Explain your answer.
Q4
Which of the following approaches to strategy formulation is more likely to generate economic profits: (a) evaluating external opportunities and threats and developing resources and capabilities to exploit these opportunities and neutralise these threats or (b) evaluating internal resources and capabilities and then searching for industries where they can be exploited? Explain your answer. Q5
Which firm will have a higher level of economic performance: (a) a firm with valuable, rare, and costly-to-imitate resources and capabilities operating in a very attractive industry or (b) a firm with valuable, rare, and costly-to-imitate resources and capabilities operating in a very unattractive industry? Assume both these firms are appropriately organised. Explain your answer.
Q6
Which firm is more likely to be successful in exploiting its sources of sustained competitive advantage in its home market than in a highly competitive, non
domestic