AP/ADMS 4900 Fall 2012 Midterm Information
Exam date and location information
The mid-term exam for all sections of ADMS4900 is being held on Saturday, October 20th between 1-3 pm. Sections A, D, E, F, G and H will be writing in CLH ‘I’.
Students writing the ADMS 3595 exam the same day will write their ADMS 4900 exam in ACW 005 from 11:30 am-1:30 pm that same day (note, you will be required to stay in the exam room until 1:30 pm). Students with legitimate and appropriately documented reasons for missing the scheduled mid-term exam shall be entitled to write a make-up/alternate exam on Wednesday, October 24th between 1:00 pm – 3:00pm. No further extensions shall be granted.
For students claiming illness, an Attending Physician’s Statement is required (i.e. a ‘doctor’s note’ is insufficient). You should email your instructor to notify them of your illness by Saturday, October 20th. The statement must be submitted to RM282 by 5pm, Tuesday, October 23. For students with work conflicts, a note from your employer on company letterhead will suffice. The note must be submitted to their instructors no later than October 10th. Students requiring religious accommodations or with confirmed class conflicts must inform their instructor no later than October 10th.
Format and coverage information
The following information will help you prepare for the exam and will provide other exam particulars. You should also plan on being at the room 15 minutes before the start of the exam so that you have the full 2 hours to complete it.
The exam is closed book [no dictionaries or electronic devices of any kind are permitted] and will consist of two parts as follows:
PART 1: will consist of 25 multiple choice questions worth one mark each. These questions will be drawn directly from, and limited to, the material covered in chapters 1 – 6, and 8 of the textbook.
PART 2: will consist of 3 short answer questions, 10 marks each. These questions will be drawn from across the assigned chapters. The short answer questions may require some application of that material. Part marks will be awarded.
There are 55 total marks available on the exam that will be converted to a percentage grade out of 100. There will be no questions related to cases.
To give you a flavour for the types of questions you might anticipate on the mid-term, consider the following questions drawn from previous exams. Please note that you may not be able to find the content below from the new edition of the textbook. It is only intended to provide you with an idea of the questions you can expect on the midterm.
Multiple-choice questions
Q1. According to Henry Mintzberg, the realized strategies of a firm A). are a combination of deliberate and emergent strategies. B). are a combination of deliberate and differentiation strategies. C). must be based on a company's strategic plan. D). must be kept confidential for competitive reasons.
Q2. Human capital and social capital are vital for superior firm performance. If a firm has strong human capital, the firm may exploit this by building social capital. This can be accomplished through
A). requiring workers to work independently of each other. B). decreasing the interaction of departments within the firm. C). encouraging the sharing of ideas between employees in the firm. D). structuring the firm with rigid departmental and employee divisions.
Q3. The term “golden parachute” refers to
A). a clause requiring that huge dividend payments be made upon takeover. B). financial inducements offered by a threatened firm to stop a hostile suitor from acquiring it. C). managers of a firm involved in a hostile takeover approaching a third party about making the acquisition. D). pay given to executives fired because of a takeover.
Q4. Which of the following is an example of the interrelationship between the general and competitive environments?
A). a decline in a nation’s educational standards results in a decline in the nation’s productivity B). a country’s technological inferiority results in its enactment of strong trade barriers against importation C). increased awareness of personal health leads to lower demand, and greater rivalry in the alcoholic beverages industry D). greater awareness of the environment results in environmental legislation
Sample short-answer question 1. Identify the two industry-wide generic competitive strategies (1 mark). For each of those strategies, identify what it is that firms can or must do to support them. Provide five unique approaches that can be taken for each (5 marks). How should a firm approach these two generic strategies in order to achieve the highest return on their investment (1 mark). Where in the stages of the industry life cycle (introduction, growth, maturity and decline) would you expect to see these two strategies applied (2 marks). Finally, pick one of the two generic competitive strategies and provide an example of an industry in which you would expect it to dominate: explain why (1 mark). 