Test Bank for Concepts in Strategic Management and ... · Test Bank for Concepts in Strategic...

Test Bank for Concepts in Strategic

Management and Business Policy 12th Edition

by Wheelen

Web Chapter A: Strategic Issues in Managing Technology and Innovation

1) Innovation and the management of technology are not crucial to corporate

success.

Answer: FALSE

Diff: 1 Page Ref: A-2

Topic: The Role of Management

2) The importance of technology and innovation must be emphasized by top

management and

reinforced by all employees in the company.

Answer: TRUE



3) Between 33% and 60% of all new products that reach the market fail to make a

profit.

Answer: TRUE



4) Research reveals that firms that focus inward on their core competencies as a

way to generate

new products or processes are more innovative.

Answer: FALSE


Topic: Issues in Corporate Governance

5) Focusing one's scanning efforts too closely on one's current product line are

dangerous.

Answer: TRUE



6) According to Von Hippel, customers are a key source of innovations in many

industries.

Answer: TRUE



7) Lead users are companies, organizations, or individuals that are well ahead of

market trends

and have needs that go far beyond those of the average user.

Answer: TRUE

Diff: 1 Page Ref: A-6 2

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall


8) The first phase of the lead user process is identifying lead users.

Answer: FALSE



3


9) Market research is used to survey current users as to what they would like in a

new product.

Answer: TRUE



10) Market research is a good source to provide the information needed for radical

innovation.

Answer: FALSE



11) Leading firms often fail to switch to the new technology available because

management is

ignorant of the new development.

Answer: FALSE



12) Some successful companies are developing their products by probing potential

markets with

early versions of the products, learning from the probes, and probing again.

Answer: TRUE

Diff: 1 Page Ref: A-7 - A-8


13) Microsoft follows an embrace and extend strategy of imitating new products

developed by

pioneers, refining them, and out-marketing the competition.

Answer: TRUE



14) R&D intensity is a principal means of gaining market share in global

competition.

Answer: TRUE



15) Time to market in the 1980s was generally accepted to be 7 to 11 years; today

it is closer to

12 to 15 years.

Answer: FALSE



16) Research indicates that too much emphasis by a firm on efficiency-oriented

process R & D

can drive out product R & D.

Answer: TRUE


Topic: Not-for-Profit Strategies

4


17) Technology sourcing, typically a sell-or-buy decision, can be important in a

firm's R&D

strategy.

Answer: FALSE



18) By the 1990s, more than 150 cooperative alliances involving 1,000 companies

were

operating in the United States and many more were operating throughout Europe

and Asia.

Answer: TRUE



19) Licensing technology to other companies may be an excellent R & D strategy –

especially in

a stable, low technology environment where second movers have an advantage.

Answer: FALSE



20) Absorptive capacity is a firm's ability to value, assimilate, and utilize new

external

knowledge.

Answer: TRUE



21) The product/market evolution matrix depicts the types of developing products

that cannot be

easily shown on other portfolio matrices.

Answer: TRUE



22) With the product/market evolution matrix, the circles represent the sizes of the

industries

involved, and the pie wedges represent the market shares of the firm's business

product lines.

Answer: TRUE



23) The first stage of new product development is preliminary design.

Answer: FALSE


Topic: Importance of Small Business and Entrepreneurial Ventures

24) The final stage of new product development is new business development.

Answer: TRUE



5


25) According to the book Diffusion of Innovations, innovative organizations tend

to have a

positive attitude toward change.

Answer: TRUE



26) A sponsor is usually a department manager who recognizes the value of the

idea, helps

obtain funding to develop the innovation, and facilitates its implementation.

Answer: TRUE



27) A product champion is a person who generates a new idea and supports it

through many

organizational obstacles.

Answer: TRUE



28) Corporate entrepreneurship is also called intrapreneurship.

Answer: TRUE



29) When an entrepreneurial proposal might not be important strategically to the

corporation but

is strongly related to present operations, top management might help the

entrepreneurial unit to

spin off from the corporation.

Answer: TRUE



30) The managers of Corning report that the stage-gate process increases

development time and

decreases the ratio of internally generated products that result in commercially

successful

products.

Answer: FALSE


Topic: Evaluation and Control

31) One of the thirteen best practices for improving R&D is that corporate and

business unit

strategies are poorly defined and communicated.

Answer: FALSE



6


32) According to research conducted by Forbes and others, the most important

driver of

corporate value for both durable and non-durable companies is said to be

A) mass customization.

B) innovation.

C) synergy.

D) logistics.

E) flexible manufacturing.

Answer: B



33) Approximately how much of the profits of all U.S. companies come from

products launched

in the previous ten years?

A) 50%

B) 100%

C) 80%

D) 20%

E) less than 1%

Answer: A



34) A study of 111 successful and 86 unsuccessful product innovations found that

the successful

innovations had some of which of the following features?

A) They were moderately new to the market.

B) They were based on tried-and-tested technology.

C) They saved money, met customer needs, and supported existing practices.

D) all of the above

E) none of the above

Answer: D



35) A study by Kuczmarski & Associates revealed that ________ of all newly

introduced

products were still being sold five years later.

A) 21%

B) 35%

C) 56%

D) 80%

E) 95%

Answer: C



7


36) Information that assesses where breakthroughs are likely to occur can be

depicted on a

A) technology chart.

B) technology strategic blueprint.

C) technology roadmap.

D) technology highway.

E) technology monograph.

Answer: C



37) Most new developments that threaten existing business practices and

technologies come

from

A) within one's own industry.

B) outside one's own industry.

C) one's current competitors.

D) within one's own corporation.

E) Bell Labs.

Answer: B



38) The corporation ________ was able to establish itself as the industry standard

for browsers.

A) Netscape

B) Sun Systems

C) Apple Computers

D) Cisco Systems

E) Corel Works

Answer: A



39) Software firms know that in order to remain on the leading edge of technology,

they must

have a programming presence in

A) Silicon Valley, California.

B) Austin, Texas.

C) Fayetteville, Arkansas.

D) New York, New York.

E) Los Angeles, California.

Answer: A



8


40) Research by Von Hippel indicates that 77 percent of the innovations in the

scientific

instruments industry come from

A) the needs of the supplier.

B) the needs of the employees.

C) the needs of the customers.

D) the needs of the shareholders.

E) the needs of the corporation itself.

Answer: C



41) Besides the users of the products, helpful advances toward innovations are

derived from

A) suppliers.

B) employees.

C) shareholders.

D) government regulators.

E) lobbyists.

Answer: A



42) The involvement of the customer in the commercialization of a new

technology is known as

A) lead technology.

B) co-development.

C) technology customization.

D) developmental manufacturing.

E) technological continuity.

Answer: B



43) Companies, organizations, or individuals that are well ahead of market trends

and have needs

that go far beyond those of the average user are known as

A) first to market benefactors.

B) traditionalists.

C) lead users.

D) strategic pursuers.

E) technological maneuvers.

Answer: C


Topic: Issues in Corporate Governance 9


44) The first phase of the lead user process is

A) determining the trends.

B) identifying lead users.

C) laying the foundation.

D) developing the breakthrough.

E) hosting seminars.

Answer: C



45) Lead user teams are typically composed of employees from the

A) accounting department.

B) marketing department.

C) technical department.

D) finance department.

E) marketing and technical departments.

Answer: E



46) Based on the lead user team process, what company was able to successfully

implement this

process in eight of its 55 divisions?

A) 3M

B) Corning

C) Microsoft

D) America Online

E) General Electric

Answer: A



47) For a lead user team, what is the minimum duration of each phase in the

process?

A) one day

B) one week

C) three weeks

D) four weeks

E) eight weeks

Answer: D



10


48) The effort to talk with users at the leading edge of the target and related market

to understand

their needs is indicative of which phase in the lead user process?

A) determining the trends

B) identifying lead users

C) laying the foundation

D) developing the breakthrough

E) hosting seminars

Answer: B



49) A study of the impact of technological discontinuity in various industries

revealed that the

leading firms failed to switch to the new technology because

A) management was ignorant of the new development.

B) it was too expensive.

C) they listened too closely to their current customers.

D) of government regulations.

E) they did studies which revealed that the new technology was inferior to the

current

technology.

Answer: C



50) What company has been able to successfully use market research in its survey

of current

users in directing incremental improvements in existing products?

A) 3M

B) Proctor and Gamble

C) BMW

D) General Motors

E) Chrysler

Answer: B



51) According to the textbook, the watch maker that introduces hundreds of new

models of

watches into the marketplace then makes more of the models that sell, dropping

those that don't

sell is

A) Timex.

B) Wittnauer.

C) Swatch.

D) Seiko.

E) Pulsar.

Answer: D



11


52) Imitating new products developed by pioneers, refining them, and

outmarketing the

competition is a process known as

A) embrace and extend strategy.

B) no change strategy.

C) first to market strategy.

D) hold strategy.

E) refinement strategy.

Answer: A



53) What company was cited in the textbook as using the embrace and extend

strategy as a way

to monitor the competition for new developments?

A) Seiko

B) Microsoft

C) Maytag

D) Trilogy

E) 3M

Answer: B



54) The consulting firm Arthur D. Little found that the use of standard market

research

techniques has resulted in a success rate for new cereals of

A) over 92%.

B) only 8%.

C) around 75%.

D) 50%.

E) around 25%.

Answer: B



55) Instead of conducting traditional market research, a number of companies are

A) conducting untested market research procedures.

B) simply following what the market leader does.

C) probing potential markets with early versions of new products to see which

have potential.

D) developing new, much more sophisticated market research techniques which

involve global

testing.

E) forming alliances to pool their research findings.

Answer: C



12


56) What percentage of sales is spent on R&D for the computer software and drug

industries?

A) between 11% and 13%

B) between 2% and 5%

C) between 18% and 20%

D) between 25% and 28%

E) between 41% and 44%

Answer: A



57) A rule of thumb for R&D spending is that a corporation should

A) spend twice as much as the market leader.

B) spend half as much as the market leader.

C) spend the same as the market leader.

D) spend at a "normal" rate for that industry.

E) spend whatever it takes to build market share.

Answer: D



58) According to one study cited in the textbook, what is the innovation rate of

small businesses?

A) 200 innovations per million employees

B) 225 innovations per million employees

C) 275 innovations per million employees

D) 322 innovations per million employees

E) 350 innovations per million employees

Answer: D



59) An extension of a product can be referred to as

A) incremental innovation.

B) novel innovation.

C) incentive innovation.

D) strategic innovation.

E) radical innovation.

Answer: A



13


60) What is the term that refers to the development of completely new products?

A) incremental innovation

B) radical innovation

C) innovative technology

D) manufacturing technology

E) flexible manufacturing

Answer: B



61) Research by Hitt, Hoskisson, and Harrison indicates that the maximum

innovator in an

industry tends to be

A) the smallest firm.

B) the largest firm.

C) the middle-sized firm.

D) the newest firm.

E) the one with the largest R&D department.

Answer: C



62) Confirming that R&D spending can be wasted, between 1950 and 1979, which

country's

steel industry spent 20% more money on plant maintenance and upgrading for each

ton of

production capacity added or replaced than did the Japanese steel industry?

A) United States

B) Sweden

C) Germany

D) France

E) Korea

Answer: A



63) What technology(ies) was the catalyst for the United States to lose its market

share of the

world steel market when they were not recognized and adopted?

A) flexible manufacturing

B) reengineering

C) assembly line manufacturing

D) basic oxygen furnace and reengineering

E) basic oxygen furnace and continuous casting

Answer: E



14


64) What term refers to the time from inception to profitability of a specific R&D

program?

A) duration of innovation

B) time to market

C) time to shelf

D) duration of R&D intensity

E) span of R&D

Answer: B



65) Time to market is an important consideration in the management of technology

because

A) cycle times are getting longer.

B) technology management is a discontinuous business.

C) 60% of successful patented innovations are imitated within four years at 65% of

the cost of

the innovation.

D) R&D budgets are becoming a higher proportion of total revenues in most large

corporations.

E) the distinction between process and product R&D is becoming blurred.

Answer: C



66) In the early stages of a product's life cycle, ________ are most important.

A) process innovations

B) product innovations

C) cost leadership strategies

D) improved manufacturing facilities

E) faster distribution

Answer: B



67) Innovations such as improved manufacturing facilities, increasing product

quality, and faster

distribution, are

A) logistical innovations.

B) product innovations.

C) category one innovations.

D) process innovations.

E) category two innovations.

Answer: D



15


68) Innovations such as new product designs and features are

A) logistical innovations.


C) category one innovations.



Answer: B



69) Which type of innovation is important in achieving differentiation strategies?

A) logistical innovation

B) product innovation

C) category one innovation

D) process innovation

E) category two innovation

Answer: B



70) Which type of innovation is important in achieving cost leadership strategies?

A) logistical innovation

B) product innovation

C) category one innovation


E) category two innovation

Answer: D



71) What percent of their R & D budgets do U.S. firms spend on product R&D?

A) 30%

B) 50%

C) 60%

D) 70%

E) 90%

Answer: D



16


72) What percent of their R&D budgets do U.S. firms spend on process R&D?

A) 30%

B) 50%

C) 60%

D) 70%

E) 90%

Answer: A



73) What percent of their R&D budgets do German firms spend on product R&D?

A) 30%

B) 50%

C) 60%

D) 70%

E) 90%

Answer: B



74) What percent of their R&D budgets do Japanese firms spend on process R&D?

A) 30%

B) 50%

C) 60%

D) 70%

E) 80%

Answer: D



75) What term is appropriate for identifying a make-or-buy decision as it relates to

technology?

A) technology sourcing

B) technology continuity

C) technology discontinuity


E) product innovation

Answer: A


Topic: Not-for-Profit Strategies 17


76) The traditionally heavy emphasis by U.S. major home appliance manufacturers

on ________

is one reason they have such a strong position in the North American market.

A) technology sourcing

B) technology continuity

C) technology discontinuity


E) product innovation

Answer: D



77) The innovations which dominate the major home appliance industry are

A) financial innovations.


C) technological innovations.



Answer: D



78) Following the resource-based view of the firm, a company should ________

technologies

that are commonly available but ________ those that are rare, valuable, and hard to

imitate and

that have no close substitutes.

A) buy; license

B) buy; make

C) make; license

D) make; acquire firms producing


Answer: B



79) Licensing technology to other companies may be an excellent R & D strategy –

especially in

A) a stable low-tech environment.

B) a turbulent high-tech environment.

C) an environment where being a late mover may be desirable.

D) a low-tech environment


Answer: B


Topic: Issues in Corporate Governance 18


80) What term describes the situation where a corporation finances the costs of

developing a new

technology by coordinating its R&D effort with that of other firms?

A) venture affiliation

B) vertical integration

C) R&D outsourcing

D) strategic R&D alliance

E) corporate entrepreneurship

Answer: D



81) Which of the following is characteristic of a strategic R&D alliance?

A) joint programs or contracts to develop a new technology

B) joint ventures establishing a separate company to take a new product to market

C) minority investments in innovative firms wherein the innovator obtains needed

capital and the

investor obtains access to valuable research

D) all of the above


Answer: D



82) Outsourcing technology may be appropriate when

A) the technology is of low significance to competitive advantage.

B) the supplier has proprietary technology.

C) the technology development process requires special expertise.

D) the technology development process requires new people and new resources.

E) all of the above

Answer: E



83) A company should develop a technology INTERNALLY rather than externally

when

A) the technology is of little significance to competitive advantage.

B) the supplier has proprietary technology.

C) the technology development process requires special expertise.

D) the technology development process requires new people and new resources.

E) technology is rare, valuable, hard to imitate and has no close substitutes.

Answer: E



19


84) Which term is used to describe a firm's ability to recognize, to assimilate and to

utilize new

external knowledge?

A) anticipated benefit

B) flexible manufacturing system

C) planned potential

D) absorptive capacity

E) competitive advantage

Answer: D



85) An organization's ability to use a new technology effectively is called

A) technological competence.

B) absorptive capacity.

C) technological continuity.

D) technology transfer.

E) index of R&D effectiveness.

Answer: A



86) Which of the following is NOT one of the categories of innovation?

A) improving core businesses

B) allocating resources

C) exploiting strategic advantages

D) developing new capabilities

E) creating revolutionary change

Answer: B



87) The Fifteen-cell Product/Market Evolution Matrix

A) varies with the number of products considered.

B) represents the amount of assets deployed by the company to the product or SBU.

C) represents market shares of the firm's SBUs or products.

D) represents the size of the industries involved in terms of sales.

E) is based on the product life cycle.

Answer: E



20


88) A matrix that depicts the types of developing products according to their

competitive

positions and their stages of product/market evolution is referred to as

A) BCG Matrix.

B) GE Business Screen.

C) Product/market evolution matrix.

D) Developing product evolution matrix.

E) Innovative product evolution matrix.

Answer: C



89) What is a limitation of the product/market evolution matrix?

A) developing products cannot always be depicted on other portfolio matrices

B) the size of an industry is seldom known

C) the product life cycle does not always hold for every product

D) a company's market share is rarely known

E) all of the above

Answer: C



90) What is the first stage of new product development?

A) idea generation

B) concept evaluation

C) preliminary design

D) prototype build and test

E) final design and pilot production

Answer: A



91) What is the last stage of new product development?

A) idea generation

B) preliminary design

C) prototype build and test

D) final design and pilot production

E) new business development

Answer: E



21


92) What stage of new product development is occurring when a venture team is

formed to

prepare desired product specifications?

A) idea generation

B) preliminary design

C) prototype build and test

D) final design and pilot production

E) new business development

Answer: B



93) All of the following are characteristics of innovative organizations as cited by

Rogers in his

book, Diffusion of Innovation EXCEPT

A) complexity.

B) interconnectedness.

C) formal structure.

D) large size.

E) decentralized decision-making.

Answer: C



94) According to the textbook, companies with entrepreneurial cultures have two

characteristics

in common:

A) centralized R&D responsibility with decentralized operating management.

B) employees are dedicated to a particular project outcome and are responsible for

all functional

activities and for all phases of the innovation process.

C) project champions and matrix structures.

D) employees dedicated to innovation in general and total freedom to pursue any

new idea they

wish.

E) total management control of all new project budgets coupled with the dart board

approach to

new product selection.

Answer: B



95) A department manager who recognizes the value of an idea, helps obtain

funding to develop

the innovation, and facilitates its implementation is called a(n)

A) orchestrator.

B) conductor.

C) sponsor.

D) product champion.

E) angel.

Answer: C



22


96) What is the term for a person who generates a new idea and supports it through

many

organizational obstacles?

A) orchestrator

B) conductor

C) sponsor

D) product champion

E) innovative champion

Answer: D



97) To improve its R&D effectiveness, Chrysler Corporation

A) replaced its entire R&D Department.

B) introduced cross-functional teams.

C) began utilizing the index of R&D effectiveness.

D) hired scientists from its competition.

E) started using strategic alliances.

Answer: B



98) What term describes the birth of new businesses within an existing

organization?

A) spin-off project

B) corporate entrepreneurship

C) enterprise creation

D) venture origination

E) industry growth

Answer: B



99) Intrapreneurship is another name for

A) entrepreneurship.

B) mentoring.

C) corporate entrepreneurship.

D) joint ventures.

E) strategic alliances.

Answer: C



23


100) According to Burgelman, what are the two interacting factors which result in

the nine

organizational designs for corporate entrepreneurship?

A) management support and individual initiative

B) industry skills and consumer demand

C) the strategic importance of the new business to the organization and the

relatedness of the

unit's operations to those of the corporation

D) financial sponsorship and available technology

E) venture spirit and management direction

Answer: C



101) Which organizational design for corporate entrepreneurship occurs when the

new business

has a great deal of strategic importance and operational relatedness and must be a

part of the

corporation's mainstream?

A) direct integration

B) special business units

C) new product business department

D) micro new-venture department

E) new venture division

Answer: A



102) Which organizational design for corporate entrepreneurship occurs when the

new business

has uncertain strategic importance and is only partly related to present corporate

operations?

A) direct integration

B) special business units

C) new product business department

D) micro new-venture department

E) new venture division

Answer: E



103) Which organizational design for corporate entrepreneurship occurs if the new

business has

uncertain strategic importance and high operational relatedness and is a peripheral

project which

is likely to emerge in the operating divisions on a continuous basis?

A) nurturing and contracting

B) micro new-venture department

C) new venture division

D) new product business department

E) complete spin-off

Answer: B



24


104) Which organizational design is appropriate when the strategic importance and

operational

relatedness of the new business are negligible?

A) complete spin-off

B) new product business department

C) special business units

D) new venture division

E) nurturing and contracting

Answer: A



105) Which organizational design for corporate entrepreneurship occurs when an

entrepreneurial

proposal might not be important strategically to the corporation but is strongly

related to present

operations and top management might help the entrepreneurial unit to spin-off

from the

corporation?





E) complete spin-off

Answer: A



106) Which organizational design for corporate entrepreneurship occurs as the

required

capabilities and skills of the new business are less related to those of the

corporation, but the

parent keeps some relationship with the new firm?





E) contracting

Answer: E



107) Developed at Mitsubishi's Kobe shipyards, the tool to help project teams

make important

design decisions by getting them to think about what users want and how to get it

to them most

effectively is

A) stage-gate process.

B) house of quality.

C) total quality management.

D) outsourcing.

E) reengineering.

Answer: B


Topic: Evaluation and Control 25


108) The Index of R&D Effectiveness is calculated by

A) totaling the number of new patents obtained by a company.

B) dividing the percentage of total revenue spent on R&D into new product

profitability.

C) measuring the revenue coming from new products as a percentage of total

revenue.

D) averaging the amount of time it takes for all new products to move from the lab

to the

marketplace.

E) comparing the company against the 13 best R&D practices.

Answer: B



109) Which of the following is NOT one of the 13 best practices reported in the

textbook that

successful MNCs followed?

A) Corporate and business unit strategies are well defined and clearly

communicated.

B) Core technologies are defined and communicated to R&D.

C) Transfer of technology to business units is the least important measure of R&D

effectiveness.

D) Formal mechanisms are used for monitoring external technological

developments.

E) Formal, cross-functional teams are created for basic, applied, and

developmental projects.

Answer: C



110) What are lead users? Discuss the four phases of the lead user process.

Answer: Lead users are "companies, organizations, or individuals that are well

ahead of market

trends and have needs that go far beyond those of the average user". They are the

first to adopt

a product because they benefit significantly from its use – even if it is not fully

developed.

The four phases of the lead user process are: laying the foundation (identifying

target markets

and the type and level of innovations desired), determining the trends (researching

the field and

talking with experts with a broad view of emerging technologies), identifying lead

users (talking

with them to understand their needs), and developing the breakthrough (hosting a

workshop with

several lead users and marketing/technical people).



111) What is R&D intensity?

Answer: R&D intensity is a company's spending on R&D as a percentage of sales

revenue.

This is a principal means of gaining market share in global competition.



26


112) Distinguish between product and process R&D.

Answer: In the early stages of the product life cycle, product innovations are most

important

because the product's physical attributes and capabilities most affect financial

performance.

Later, process innovations such as improved manufacturing facilities, increasing

product quality,

and faster distribution become important to maintaining the product's economic

returns.

Generally product R&D has been key to achieving differentiation strategies,

whereas process

R&D has been at the core of successful cost leadership strategies.



113) Under what conditions may outsourcing technology be appropriate?

Answer: Outsourcing technology may be appropriate when:

The technology is of low significance to competitive advantage

The supplier has proprietary technology

The supplier's technology is better and/or cheaper and reasonably easy to integrate

into the

current system

The company's strategy is based on system design, marketing, distribution, and

service – not on

development and manufacturing

The technology development process requires special expertise

The technology development process requires new people and new resources.



114) What are the four basic categories of innovations?

Answer: The four basic categories of innovations are as follows:

Improving core businesses: this type of innovation focuses on incremental

innovations that can

be developed rapidly and inexpensively.

Exploiting strategic advantages: this type of innovation focuses on taking existing

brands and

product lines to new customers and markets without requiring major change in

current

capabilities.

Developing new capabilities: this type of innovation focuses on deepening

customer satisfaction

and loyalty to the brand or product line by adding new organizational capabilities

without

introducing major changes in strategic scope.

Creating revolutionary change: this type of innovation focuses on radical

innovations that

transcend current product lines or brands to make fundamental changes in both its

strategic scope

and its capabilities



27


115) According to Rogers, what are some of the characteristics of innovative

organizations?

Answer: According to Rogers, innovative organizations tend to have the following

characteristics:

Positive attitude toward change

Decentralized decision-making

Complexity

Informal structure

Interconnectedness

Organizational slack

Large size

System openness



116) Discuss the nine organizational designs for corporate entrepreneurship.

Answer: The nine organizational designs for corporate entrepreneurship are as

follows:

Direct integration: A new business with a great deal of strategic importance and

operational

relatedness must be a part of the corporation's mainstream.

New product business department: A new business with a great deal of strategic

importance and

partial operational relatedness should be a separate department, organized around

an

entrepreneurial project in the division where skills and capabilities can be shared.

Special business units: A new business with a great deal of strategic importance

and low

operational relatedness should be a special new business unit with specific

objectives and time

horizons.

Micro new ventures department: A new business with uncertain strategic

importance and high

operational relatedness should be a peripheral project, which is likely to emerge in

the operating

decisions on a continuous basis.

New venture division: A new business with uncertain strategic importance that is

only partly

related to present corporate operations belongs in a new venture division.

Independent business units: Uncertain strategic importance coupled with no

relationship to

present corporate activities can make external arrangements attractive.

Nurturing and contracting: When an entrepreneurial proposal might not be

important

strategically to the corporation but is strongly related to present operations, top

management

might help the entrepreneurial unit to spin off from the corporation.

Contracting: As the required capabilities and skills of the new business are less

related to those

of the corporation, the parent corporation may spin off the strategically

unimportant unit, yet

keep some relationship through a contractual arrangement with the new firm.

Complete spin-off: If both the strategic importance and the operational relatedness

of the new

business are negligible, the corporation is likely to completely sell off the business

to another

firm or to the present employees in some form of ESOP.


Topic: Importance of Small Business and Entrepreneurial Ventures 28


117) What are the 13 best practices of successful R&D operations that can be used

as a

benchmark for a company's R&D activities?

Answer: The 13 best practices of successful R&D operations that can be used as a

benchmark

for a company's R&D activities are as follows:

Corporate and business unit strategies are well defined and clearly communicated.

Core technologies are defined and communicated to R&D.

Investments are made in developing multinational R&D capabilities to tap ideas

throughout the

world.

Funding for basic research comes from corporate sources to ensure a long term

focus; funding

for development comes from business units to ensure accountability.

Basic and applied research are performed either at a central facility or at a small

number of labs.

Development work is usually performed at business unit sites.

Formal cross-functional teams are created for basic, applied, and developmental

projects.

Formal mechanisms exist for regular interaction among scientists, and between

R&D and other

functions.

Analytical tools are used for selecting projects.

The transfer of technology to business units is the most important measure of R&D

performance.

Effective measures of career development are in place at all levels of R&D.

Recruiting of new people is from diverse universities and from other companies

when specific

experience is required that would take a long time to develop internally.

Some basic research is performed internally, but there are also many university and

third-party

relationships.

Formal mechanisms are used for monitoring external technological developments.



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