Category: Business Studies

Alex Ltd sells garden sheds in the West Midlands.

It has a number of local competitors who regularly use price cuts and other sales promotions to win business.

The competitors of Alex Ltd have noticed that in the past Alex Ltd always pursues a policy of responding to price cuts
by matching prices and then launching an advertising, leafleting and social media campaign targeting houses in the local area.

It appears that Alex Ltd is in terms of Philip Koetler’s Competitor Reaction Profiles to be pursuing a policy of being a?

Select ONE answer:

1. Laid back
2. Tiger
3. Selective
4. Stochastic

Show your workings to arrive at your answer, and explain and justify your reasons:

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

This multiple-choice question is suitable for Accounting KS5 classes.

The answer is 2

1. Notcorrect
2. Correct == > Alex Ltd is consistently aggressive in its responses to competitor actions – a ‘tiger’ reaction profile
3. Not correct
4. Not correct

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Lucy is the strategy development director of Alex plc.

In formulating strategy recommendations for the board of directors, she always uses Porter’s Five Forces Analysis as her
fundamental means of analysis.

This is because she believes that strategy cannot be effectively formulated without first understanding the nature and structure of the competitive forces within an Industry.

It is clear from this that Lucy adopts?

Select ONE answer:

1. An emergent-based view of strategic planning
2. A positioning-based view of strategic planning
3. A resource-based view of strategic planning
4. A gap analysis view of strategic planning

Show your workings to arrive at your answer, and explain and justify your reasons:

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

This multiple-choice question is suitable for Accounting KS5 classes.

The answer is 2

1. Notcorrect
2. Correct == > In the positioning-based view of strategic planning (2) the competitive forces at work in the industry are the driving force behind strategy. In the resource-based view of strategic planning (3), the business’s strategic capabilities are the driving force behind strategy. Lucy appears to be adopting a formal rather than an emergent approach (1) and there is no evidence of gap analysis (4).
3. Not correct
4. Not correct

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The board of directors of Alex plc are currently considering whether to pursue a new strategy in respect of one of their major strategic business units.

When evaluating a strategic option in this way, the final decision on whether to pursue the strategy or not should be judged against which ONE of the following criteria?

Select ONE answer:

1. An acceptability test
2. A cost of entry test
3. An attractiveness test
4. A payoffs test

Show your workings to arrive at your answer, and explain and justify your reasons:

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

This multiple-choice question is suitable for Accounting KS5 classes.

The answer is 1

1. Correct == > Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes recommend evaluating strategies against the following criteria: Suitability – does the strategy fit the strengths, objectives and image of the company? Feasibility – does the company have the necessary resources to pursue the strategy effectively? Acceptability – is the strategy acceptable to the company’s
2. Not correct
3. Not correct
4. Not correct

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In the home computer market, laptop computers would be an example of a….?

Select ONE answer:

1. Product form
2. Brand
3. Product class
4. Generic product

Show your workings to arrive at your answer, and explain and justify your reasons:

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

This multiple-choice question is suitable for Accounting KS5 classes.

The answer is 1

1. Correct –> Home computers would be referred to as either (3) and (4) since those two terms can be used interchangeably. A particular manufacturer’s brand version of a home computer would be (2). Laptop or desktop computers would both be examples of product form (1).
2. Not correct
3. Not correct
4. Not correct

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Alex plc is a modern manufacturing operation.

It uses components manufactured by suppliers and sub-contractors all over the world to assemble finished goods to customer specifications in its assembly plant.

Operations managers are technically competent and their competence within the area of their expertise is rarely questioned.

There is a high degree of specialisation of labour and procedures ensure that, regardless of who carries out tasks, they are executed in the same way each time.

From this description of Alex plc, identify which of the following statements about the company are likely to be true.

I Innovation is suppressed.
II Employees are concerned with completing the task efficiently, rather than with how the task can be improved upon for the benefit of the organisation.
III Everyone in the organisation finds it easy to learn from their mistakes.

Select ONE answer:

1. Statements I and II
2. Statements II and III
3. Statements I and III
4. Statements I and II and III

Show your workings to arrive at your answer, and explain and justify your reasons:

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

This multiple-choice question is suitable for Accounting KS5 classes.

The answer is 1

1. Correct –> The company could be described as a bureaucracy or mechanistic organisation. As well as innovation being suppressed (statement I), this type of structure can inhibit creativity, initiative and openness to new ideas and ways of doing things. People would certainly be concerned with completing the task efficiently (statement Il) – task specification and efficiency is a feature of a bureaucratic design. Jobs are generally broken down into narrow areas of work/responsibility to secure the benefits of specialisation. In bureaucracies’ it is hard to learn from mistakes (statement III) due to the lack of feedback (especially upwards).
2. Not correct
3. Not correct
4. Not correct

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.