Chapter 5: Introduction

According to De Wit & Meyer (2010), what are the different levels of strategy?
1. Industry, organizational and international level
2. Micro, meso and macro level
3. Individual, national and international level
4. Business, corporate and network level.
According to De Wit & Meyer (2010), competitive advantage can be classified at the following level of strategy:
1. Functional level strategy
2. Business level strategy
3. Corporate level strategy
4. D Network level strategy.
Firms must position themselves in a business. Positioning is concerned with both the questions of ‘where to compete’ and ‘how to compete’ (Porter, 1980). De Wit & Meyer (2010) mention some dimensions along which companies can attempt to outdo their rivals. Which one do they NOT describe?
1. Availability
2. Bundling
3. Relations
4. Substitutes.
According to De Wit & Meyer (2010) what problem(s) can be identified, associated to intangible resources?
1. Difficult to transfer
2. Hard to price
3. Need to be developed
4. All of the above.
According to De Wit & Meyer (2010), a competitive advantage is sustainable if it meets the following two factors:
1. Competitive defendability and environmental consonance
2. Competitive consonance and environmental defendability
3. Product leadership and operational excellence
4. Product excellence and operational leadership.
De Wit & Meyer (2010) make a distinction between the outside-in perspective and the inside-out perspective. Which of the following would fit with the outside-in perspective?
1. Attaining dominant market share
2. Attaining an advantageous position
3. Superior imitation barriers
4. Superior resources.
According to De Wit & Meyer (2010), which words must be used instead of A and B?
1. A is market adaptation perspective and B is resource-leveraging perspective
2. A is resource-leveraging perspective and B is market adaptation perspective
3. A is inside-out perspective and B is outside-in perspective
4. A is outside-in perspective and B is inside-out perspective.
Read the following propositions attentively and judge whether they are correct or false. According to De Wit & Meyer (2010):

I Firms that are resource-driven are often the ones that build up a ‘first-mover advantage’.
II Proponents of the outside-in perspective don’t acknowledge the importance of firm resources.
1. Both propositions are correct
2. Proposition I is false, proposition II is correct
3. Proposition I is correct, proposition II is false
4. Both propositions are false.
Treacy and Wiersema (1995, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010) argue that there are three generic competitive advantages: Operational Excellence, Product Leadership and Customer Intimacy. They name these three ‘value disciplines’. What is the most important stream of criticism on this way of thinking, like that expressed by Baden-Fuller and Stopford (1992, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010)?
1. Operational excellence can never be a source of competitive advantage
2. Product leadership can only be achieved by one company in an industry
3. Companies can achieve two or three of these disciplines
4. There is an endless variety of competitive advantages.
Looking at the generic value chain of Porter (1985, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010), which of the following is NOT described as a support activity?
1. Human resource management
2. Service
3. Procurement
4. Technology development.