Strategic Management Practice Test: Evaluating a Company’s Resources and Competitive Position | Practice Test / Quiz / MCQs

1. Identifying and assessing a company's resource strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats is called

competitive positioning analysis.company resource mapping.strategic resource assessment.competitive asset/liability analysis.SWOT analysis.

2. Activity-based costing

is a tool for identifying the activities that cause a company's product to be strongly differentiated from the products of rivals.is an accounting system that assigns a company’s expenses to whichever activity in a company’s value chain is responsible for creating the cost.is a powerful tool for identifying the different pieces of a company's value chain and classifying them as primary activities and support activities.involves determining which value chain activities represent variable costs and which represent fixed costs.involves using benchmarking techniques to develop cost estimates for the value chain activities of each major rival.

3. The payoff of doing a thorough SWOT analysis is

helping strategy-makers benchmark the company's resource strengths against industry key success factors.revealing whether a company’s market share, measures of profitability, and sales compare favorably or unfavorably vis-à-vis key competitors.assisting strategy-makers in crafting a strategy that is well-matched to the company's resources and capabilities, its market opportunities, and the external threats to its future well-being.enabling a company to assess its overall competitive position relative to its key rivals.identifying whether the company's value chain is cost effective vis-à-vis the value chains of rivals.

4. A much-used and potent managerial tool for determining whether a company performs particular functions or activities in a manner that represents “the best practice” when both cost and effectiveness are taken into account is

competitive strength analysis.SWOT analysis.activity-based costing.benchmarking.resource cost mapping.

5. Which of the following is not an option for remedying a supplier-related cost disadvantage?

Negotiate more favorable prices with suppliersCollaborate closely with suppliers to identify mutual cost-saving opportunitiesSwitch to lower priced substitute inputs.Integrate backward into the business of high-cost suppliers in an effort to reduce the costs of the items being purchasedPersuade forward channel allies to implement best practices

6. One of the lessons of SWOT analysis is that a company's strategy should

seek to defend against threats to the company’s future profitability.generally not place heavy demands on areas where company resources are weak or unproven.be aimed at those market opportunities that offer the best potential for both profitable growth and competitive advantage.be grounded in its resource strengths and capabilities.All of these.

7. Which of the following does not represent a potential core competence?

Having a wider product line than rivalsThe capability to speed new or next-generation products to the marketplaceSkills in manufacturing a high-quality product at a low costKnow-how in creating and operating systems for cost-efficient supply chain managementThe capability to fill customer orders accurately and swiftly

8. Doing a competitive strength assessment entails

analyzing whether a company is well positioned to gain market share and be the industry’s profit leader.determining whether a company has a cost-effective value chain.developing quantitative measures of a company’s chances for future profitability.ranking the company against major rivals on each of the important factors that determine market success and ascertaining whether the company has a net competitive advantage or disadvantage versus major rivals.identifying a company’s core competencies and distinctive competencies (if any).

9. The three steps of SWOT analysis are

matching the company’s strategy to its resource strengths, correcting the company’s important resource weaknesses, and identifying the company’s best market opportunities.identifying the company’s resource strengths and weaknesses and its opportunities and threats, drawing conclusions about the company’s overall situation, and translating the conclusions into strategic actions to improve the company’s strategy.determining whether the company has more competitive assets than competitive liabilities, determining whether the company has good market opportunities, and evaluating the seriousness of the threats to the company’s future profitability.pinpointing the company’s competitive assets, pinpointing its competitive deficiencies, and determining whether it enjoys a competitive advantage. benchmarking the company’s strengths and weaknesses against those of key rivals, identifying its market opportunities and the external threats it faces, and determining the company’s potential for establishing a competitive advantage over rivals.

10. A company resource strength can concern

valuable human assets and intellectual capital.competitively valuable alliances or cooperative ventures.an achievement or attribute that puts the company in a position of market advantage.a skill, specialized expertise, or competitively important capability.All of these.

11. To build a competitive advantage by out-managing rivals in performing value chain activities, a company must

develop resources strengths that will enable it to pursue the industry's most attractive opportunities.develop core competencies and maybe a distinctive competence that rivals don’t have or can’t quite match and that are instrumental in helping it deliver attractive value to customers or else be more cost efficient in how it performs value chain activities such that it has a low-cost advantage.eliminate its resource weaknesses. outsource most all of its value chain activities to world-class vendors and suppliers.position itself in the industry’s more favorably situated strategic group.

12. One of the most telling signs of whether a company's market position is strong or precarious is

whether its product is strongly or weakly differentiated from rivals.whether it is in a bigger or smaller strategic group than its closest rivals.whether its prices and costs are competitive with those of key rivals.whether it has a lower stock price than key rivals.the opinions of buyers regarding which seller has the best product quality and customer service.

13. A distinctive competence

can underpin and add real punch to a company’s strategy.All of the above.is a basis for sustainable competitive advantage.is a competitively important activity that a company performs better than its competitors.gives a company competitively valuable capability that is unmatched by rivals.

14. A resource-based strategy

is typically based on a stand-alone resource strength such as technological expertise.refers to a company’s most efficiently executed value-chain activity.uses industry key success factors to provide a company with a core competence that rivals cannot effectively imitate.is often based on cross-department combinations of intellectual capital and expertise.uses a company’s valuable and rare resource strengths and competitive capabilities to deliver value to customers that rivals have difficulty matching.

15. A core competence

All of the above.is often grounded in cross-department combinations of knowledge and expertise.is a competitively relevant activity which a firm performs especially well in comparison to the other activities it performs.is typically knowledge-based, residing in a company's intellectual capital and not in its tangible physical assets on the balance sheet.adds to a company's arsenal of competitive capabilities and competitive assets and is a genuine resource strength.

16. Identifying the strategy-related issues and problems that company managers need to address and resolve entails

locking in on what challenges/obstacles/roadblocks the company has to overcome in order to be financially and competitively successful in the years ahead.All of the above.drawing on the evaluations of the company’s own resources, internal circumstances, and competitiveness.drawing on what was learned from having analyzed the company’s industry and competitive environment.developing a “worry list” of “how to…,” “whether to….,” and “what to do about…..”

17. The options for remedying an internal cost disadvantage include

redesigning the product or some of its components to facilitate speedier and more economical manufacture or assembly.investing in productivity-enhancing, cost-saving technological improvements.eliminating some cost-producing activities from the value chain, especially low value-added activities.implementing the use of best practices, particularly for high-cost activities.All of these.

18. Quantitative measures of a company’s competitive strength

signal which competitor has the most distinctive competencies and which competitor has the fewest.pinpoint which industry rival is subject to the least amount of competitive pressures from the five competitive forces.show which industry rival has the best overall market opportunities and which competitor has the poorest market opportunities.provide useful indicators of how a company compares against key rivals, factor by factor and capability by capability—thus indicating whether the company has a net overall competitive advantage or disadvantage against each rival.reveal which competitors are in the best and worst strategic groups.

19. Calculating competitive strength ratings for a company and comparing them against strength ratings for its key competitors helps indicate

which competitors are employing offensive strategies and which competitors are employing defensive strategies.what the industry's key success factors are.which competitors are likely to make money and which are likely to lose money in the years ahead.which weaknesses and vulnerabilities of competitors that the company might be able to attack successfully.which competitors are in profitable strategic groups and which competitors are in unprofitable strategic groups.

20. SWOT analysis is a powerful tool for

evaluating whether a company is in the most appropriate strategic group.sizing up a company’s resource capabilities and deficiencies, its market opportunities, and the external threats to its future well-being.gauging whether a company has a cost competitive value chain.identifying the market segments in which a company is strongly positioned and weakly positioned.determining a company’s competitive strength vis-à-vis close rivals.

21. Calculating competitive strength ratings for a company and its rivals using the industry's most telling measures of competitive strength or weakness

is the most reliable indicator of which industry member has the highest overall product quality.is the most reliable indicator of which industry member has the lowest overall costs and is the low-cost leader.is a way of determining which competitor has the biggest overall competitive advantage in the marketplace and which competitor is faced with the biggest overall competitive disadvantage.pinpoints which industry rivals are most insulated from the industry's driving forces.is a powerful way of revealing which competitors are in the best and worst strategic groups.

22. The value of doing competitive strength assessment is to

learn if the company's market opportunities are better than those of its rivals.learn whether a company has a distinctive competence.determine whether a company's resource strengths are sufficient to allow it to earn bigger profits than rivals.determine how competitively powerful the company's core competencies are.learn how the company ranks relative to rivals on each of the important factors that determine market success and ascertain whether the company has a net competitive advantage or disadvantage vis-à-vis key rivals.

23. Which of the following is not pertinent in identifying a company’s present strategy?

Moves to respond and react to changing conditions in the macro-environment and in industry and competitive conditionsManagement’s planned, proactive moves to outcompete rivals (via better product design, improved quality or service, wider product lines, and so on)The strategic role of its collaborative partnerships and strategic alliances with others The company’s mission, strategic objectives, and financial objectivesThe key functional strategies (R&D, supply chain management, production, sales and marketing, HR, and finance) a company is employing

24. One important indicator of how well a company's present strategy is working is whether

its strategy is built around at least two of the industry's key success factors.the company is achieving its financial and strategic objectives and whether it is an above-average industry performer.it has more core competencies than close rivals.it is subject to weaker competitive forces and pressures than close rivals (a good sign) or stronger competitive forces and pressures (a bad sign). it is customarily a first-mover in introducing new or improved products (a good sign) or a late-mover (a bad sign).

25. Identifying the strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention

is accomplished in part by using the results of analyzing the company’s external environment to help come up with a “worry list” of “how to…,” “whether to….,” and “what to do about…..”All of the above.is done in part by evaluating the company’s own internal situation—its resources and competitive position—to help come up with a “worry list” of “how to…,” “whether to….,” and “what to do about…..”is done in part as a basis for drawing conclusions about whether to stick with company's present strategy or to modify it.helps set management’s agenda for taking actions to improve the company’s performance and business outlook.

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25 Questions

❤ If you liked Fatskills, consider supporting us by checking out The Life Manuals You Never Got.

About | Explore | User Guide | Topics | Subjects | Doubt Solver | Career Aptitude Test | Answers | Free Tools | OSHA Basics Quiz | What Should We Know? Privacy | Terms |

Without work one finishes nothing. - Ralph Waldo Emerson© 2026 Fatskills.com

All trademarks, logos and brand names are the property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, trademarks and brands does not imply endorsement.

About | Explore | User Guide | Topics | Subjects | Doubt Solver | Career Aptitude Test | Answers | Free Tools | OSHA Basics Quiz | What Should We Know?
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Without work one finishes nothing. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
© 2026 Fatskills.com