Assessing The Internal Environment Of The Firm (Chapter 3)

Front 1

value-chain analysis

Back 1

a strategic analysis of an organization that uses value-creating activities

Front 2

primary activities

Back 2

sequential activities of the value chain that refer to the physical creation of the product or service, its sale and transfer to the buyer and its service after sale, including inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and services

Front 3

support activities

Back 3

activities of the value chain that either add value by themselves or add value through important relationships with both primary activities and other support activities; including procurement, technology development, human resource management, and general administration

Front 4

inbound logistics

Back 4

receiving, storing, and distributing inputs of a product

Front 5

operations

Back 5

all activities associated with transforming inputs into the final product form

Front 6

outbound logistics

Back 6

collecting, storing and distributing the product or service to buyers

Front 7

marketing and sales

Back 7

activities associated with purchases of products and services by end users and the inducements used to get them to make purchases

Front 8

service

Back 8

actions associated with providing service to enhance or maintain the value of the product

Front 9

procurement

Back 9

the function of purchasing input used in the firm's value chain including raw materials, supplies, and other consumable items as well as assets such as machinery, laboratory equipment, office equipment and buildings

Front 10

technology development

Back 10

activities associated with the development of new knowledge that is applied to the firm's operations

Front 11

human resource management

Back 11

activities involved in the recruiting, hiring, training, development and compensation of all types of personnel

Front 12

general administration

Back 12

general management, planning, finance, accounting, legal and government affairs, quality management, and information systems; activities that support the entire value chain and not individual activities

Front 13

interrelationships

Back 13

collaborative and strategic exchange relationships between value-chain activities either (a) within firms or (b) between firms. Strategic exchange relationships involve exchange of resources such as information, people, technology, or money that contribute to the success of the firm.

Front 14

resource-based view of the firm

Back 14

perspective that firms’ competitive advantages are due to their endowment of strategic resources that are valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and costly to substitute

Front 15

tangible resources (3 - 1)

Back 15

organizational assets that are relatively easy to identify, including physical assets, financial resources, organizational resources, and technological resources

Front 16

intangible resources (3 - 2)

Back 16

organizational assets that are difficult to identify and account for, and are typically embedded in unique routines and practices, including human resources, innovation resources, and reputation resources

Front 17

organizational capabilities (3 - 3)

Back 17

the competencies and skills that a firm employs to transform inputs into outputs.

Front 18

strategic resources (also firm resources or organizational resources

Back 18

firms’ capabilities that are valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and costly to substitute.

Front 19

Physical uniqueness

Back 19

resources that are physically unique

Front 20

path dependency

Back 20

a characteristic of resources that is developed and /or accumulated through a unique series of events.

Front 21

Causal ambiguity

Back 21

a characteristic of the firm’s resources that is costly to imitate because a competitor cannot determine what the resource is and/or how it can be re-created.

Front 22

Social complexity

Back 22

a characteristic of a firm’s resources that is costly to imitate because the social engineering required is beyond the capability of competitors, including interpersonal relations among managers, organizational culture, and reputation with suppliers and customers.

Front 23

Financial ratio analysis

Back 23

a technique for measuring the performance of a firm according to its balance sheet, income statement, and market valuation

Front 24

Balanced scorecard

Back 24

a method of evaluating a firm’s performance using performance measures from the customers’, internal, innovation and learning, and financial perspectives.

Front 25

Customer perspective

Back 25

measures of firm performance that indicate how well firms are satisfying customers’ expectations. Managers must translate their general mission statements on customer service into specific measures that reflect the factors that really matter to customers.

Front 26

Internal business perspective

Back 26

measures of firm performance that indicate how well a firm’s internal processes, decisions, and actions are contributing to customer satisfaction