This document contains a chapter on essentials of strategic management with multiple choice questions. It covers key concepts like competitive advantage, mission, corporate and business level strategies, and strategic decision making involving managers at all levels. Different views of strategy are discussed, including the design view of deliberate positioning through rational analysis and the experience lens that strategies develop through shared organizational assumptions and culture.

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MultipleChoiceQuestions
1. When a firm is more profitable than the average profitability of all other companies competing
for the same customers, it is said to have a:
a) value chain.
b) competitive advantage.
c) sustained competitive advantage.
d) business model.
e) none of these choices.
2. A statement about what a company does is known as:
a) its vision.
b) its values.
c) its major goals.
d) its mission.
e) its value chain.

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3. Starbucks operates coffeehouses and produces packaged coffee sold in stores. Its packaged
coffee is positioned as a premium brand sold to the mass market. It achieves its premium
positioning by purchasing only high-quality beans, investing heavily in sophisticated roasting
operations, and spending heavily on stylish packaging and advertising. The previous suggests
that one of Starbucks' corporate-level strategies is to:
a) position its packaged coffee as a premium mass market product.
b) spend heavily on advertising.
c) utilize sophisticated roasting operations.
d) operate coffeehouses and produce packaged coffee.
e) none of these choices.
4. A goal is a precise and measurable future state that a company attempts to realize.
a) True
b) False
5. The tendency to overestimate one's own command of events is referred to as illusion of
control.
a) True
b) False

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6. Which one of the following are typically seen as being associated with strategic decisions?
a) The organization’s long-term direction.
b) The detailed planning of a department’s work over the next month.
c) The values and expectations of powerful actors in the organizations.
d) The scope of the organization’s activities.
7. Which strategy is about how to compete successfully in particular markets?
a) Business-level strategy
b) Corporate-level strategy
c) Alliance-based strategy
d) Operational-level strategy
8. A group of managers is considering pricing strategy and differentiation. At which level of
strategy are the managers most likely to be working?
a) Corporate-level
b) Operational-level
c) Business-level
d) Mission & Vision

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9. An organization’s general expression of its overall purpose is known as its:
a) Objective
b) Vision
c) Goal
d) Mission
10. Which of the following terms correctly complete the definition: Operational strategies
are about how the component parts of an organization deliver strategies in terms
of__________, ___________ and _________.
a) People
b) Alliances
c) Mission
d) Resources
e) Processes
11. Strategy involves
a) Senior managers and board members
b) Managers at all levels
c) Senior and middle managers
d) Senior management

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12. What are the three main branches of strategy research that make up the study of the
strategy?
a) Strategy content
b) Strategy context
c) Strategy lenses
d) Strategy processes
13. In the exploring strategy model, what heading is used to cover environment, capability,
goals and culture?
a) Strategic applicability
b) Strategic choices
c) Strategy in action
d) Strategic position
14. A design view of strategy refers to:
a) The pulling together of ideas that develop from different parts of the organization.
b) The pulling together of different decisions made throughout an organization, so as to develop a coherent
overall strategy.
c) The systematic, rational way in which strategy is always developed in an organization.
d) The deliberate positioning of the organization through a rational, analytic, structured, and directive process.

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15. The experience lens suggests that strategies develop:
a) Through the shared assumptions in the organization, often thought of as the organizational culture.
b) Through the shared assumptions across similar types of organizations within an industry (or organizational
field).
c) Through the individual experience of a few top managers or strategic planners.
d) All of the above.
16. The variety lens suggests that new strategies take shape in organizations:
a) Because new ideas are tired out in the market and either succeed or do not.
b) Because the new ideas that develop from within it are selected by formal evaluation through strategic
planning systems.
c) Because there are sufficient people who find them attractive
d) All of the above.

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UnofficialAnswers
Question # Answer
Question #1 b) competitive Advantage
Question #2 d) its mission
Question #3 d) operate coffeehouses and produce packaged coffee.
Question #4 a) true
Question #5 a) true
Question #6 A, C, & D
Question #7 a) Business-level strategy
Question #8 a) Business-level
Question #9 d) mission
Question #10 A, D, & E
Question #11 b) managers at all levels
Question #12 A, B, & D
Question #13 d) strategic position
Question #14 d) The deliberate positioning of the organization through a rational, analytic, structured,
and directive process.
Question #15 d) all of the above
Question #16 d) all of the above