Checking a Diversified Firm's Business Portfolio for the Competitive Advantage

question 15

Multiple Choice

Checking a diversified firm's business portfolio for the competitive advantage potential of cross-business strategic fits entails consideration of

• A)whether the parent company's competitive advantages are being deployed to maximum advantage in each of its business units.
• B)whether the competitive strategies employed in each business act to reinforce the competitive power of the strategies employed in the company's other businesses.
• C)whether the competitive strategies in each business possess good strategic fit with the parent company's corporate strategy.
• D)the extent to which there are competitively valuable relationships between the value chains of sister business units and what opportunities they present to reduce costs,share use of a potent brand name,or transfer skills or technology or intellectual capital from one business to another.
• E)how compatible the competitive strategies of the various sister businesses are and whether these strategies are properly aimed at achieving the same kind of competitive advantage.

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Definitions:

Parametric Test

A category of hypothesis tests that assumes underlying statistical distributions in the data and usually involves parameters such as the mean or variance.

Wilcoxon Rank-sum Test

A nonparametric statistical test used to compare two independent samples, based on the ranks of their values, to determine if there are significant differences between them.

Ordered Array

A sequence of elements arranged in ascending or descending order, often used in computer programming for sorting and searching algorithms.

Pooled Sample Data

Combining data from different sources or groups to increase statistical power or assess overall effects.