Final Exam

QUESTION 1

1. Identify and discuss the three building blocks of organizational structure. 

QUESTION 2

1. What is the relationship between a company's corporate-level strategy and its business model?

QUESTION 3

1. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of being a first mover in a high-tech industry. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a follower? In your opinion, which strategy is preferable, and why?

QUESTION 4

1. Consider the case of a manufacturing firm that purchases subassemblies from a supplier, creates a finished product, and then sells that product to a wholesale distributor. What advantages might this firm gain from forward integration? From backward integration? What potential pitfalls of vertical integration might the firm face? 

QUESTION 5

1. Give an example of an industry that has recently undergone a technological paradigm shift. What impact did the shift have on established companies and on new entrants to the industry?

QUESTION 6

1. Explain the principles of agency theory, including the issues it addresses. What are some effective ways to deal with agency problems, as implied or stated by agency theory?

QUESTION 7

1. List and describe each of the four basic global strategies.

QUESTION 8

1. Whirlpool, a leading U.S. maker of household appliances, has a wholly owned subsidiary that is responsible for research and development (R&D), manufacturing, and sales in over two dozen European countries, from Norway to Greece. What are some of the potential advantages that Whirlpool may gain from its use of a wholly owned subsidiary for global expansion? What are some of the potential disadvantages?

QUESTION 9

1. Describe the difference between Shareholders and Stakeholders perspectives when it comes to the corporation. Give three examples of a lapse in ethics which may have been avoided by an emphasis on the stakeholders. 

QUESTION 10

1. What is organizational culture and why is it so important to the firm?