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International Business : The Challenge of Global Competition, 8/e

Donald Ball
Wendell H. McCulloch, California State University Long Beach
Paul L. Frantz, California State University Long Beach
Michael Geringer, California Polytechnic State University
Michael S. Minor, University of Texas Pan American

Competitive Forces

Multiple Choice Quiz


1	Kenichi Homage of the consulting firm McKinney & Co. contends that for an international firm to compete in world markets, it must be present in at least two and preferably all three parts of a triad composed of the United States:
		A)	China and Japan.
		B)	Europe and East Asia.
		C)	China and Germany.
		D)	Japan and the European Union


2	In the World Competitiveness Scoreboard ranking as of April 19, 2000, the US has consistently ranked first, followed by:
		A)	Singapore.
		B)	Japan.
		C)	Finland.
		D)	the Netherlands.


3	A disproportionate share of American economic and export growth in the past decade has been generated by a relatively small number of industries particularly related to:
		A)	transportation.
		B)	information and communication technology.
		C)	agriculture.
		D)	heavy machinery.


4	Nations such as ______________ have invested substantially in their infrastructure for promoting innovation.
		A)	the UK, Germany, Italy and France
		B)	Sweden, Denmark and Finland
		C)	Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Israel and Ireland
		D)	Spain, New Zealand, China, South Africa and Brazil.


5	As a percentage of GDP, overall R&D expenditures in the US are higher than other major nations and they amount to over twice the amount spent by the nearest contender:
		A)	South Korea.
		B)	Germany.
		C)	the United Kingdom.
		D)	Japan.


6	A study done by researchers Sandra Black and Lisa Lynch found that raising the educational level of workers in a manufacturing plant by one year raises labor productivity by:
		A)	4%
		B)	6%
		C)	8%
		D)	10%


7	The Information Technology Association of America projected that out of 1.6 million openings in information technology jobs, _____________ would go unfilled in 2000 due to lack of qualified employees.
		A)	431,000
		B)	562,000
		C)	843,000
		D)	978,000


8	The practice of government assisting selected industries to grow is known as:
		A)	industrial targeting.
		B)	government assistance.
		C)	industrial assistance.
		D)	growth management.


9	The _______________ is a free trade area for industrial products consisting of the 15 EU nations and 3 EFTA nations.
		A)	European Free Trade Area
		B)	European Trade Area
		C)	European Economic Zone
		D)	European Economic Area


10	Japanese service companies have invested in the European market and are competing with local firms in which of the following?
		A)	retailing
		B)	advertising
		C)	distribution
		D)	all of the above.


11	Which of the following has not been the subject of an EC-US trade war?
		A)	bananas
		B)	chicken
		C)	tomatoes
		D)	pasta.


12	Part of the explanation for declining productivity in Japan is the:
		A)	reluctance of Japanese employers to discharge loyal employees.
		B)	growth in competitive industries in South Korea.
		C)	growing labor unrest.
		D)	declining investment in R&D


13	One of Japan's best known institutions is the _____________, a group of financially connected firms that tend to do business with themselves rather than with others.
		A)	Chaebol
		B)	Sogo Shosha
		C)	Keiretsu
		D)	Tsamni


14	Among the important forms of keiretsu, the most powerful is the:
		A)	vertical
		B)	horizontal
		C)	conglomerate
		D)	none of the above.


15	During the decade of the 1990s, to improve their competitiveness, Japanese firms invested billions of dollars in Asian production facilities to take advantage of cheaper:
		A)	labor.
		B)	land.
		C)	manufactured components.
		D)	all of the above.


16	A special kind of competition confronting international companies in both developed and developing nations is:
		A)	exchange controls.
		B)	counterfeiting.
		C)	tariffs.
		D)	import controls.


17	Around the world _________ has earned the status as the world's biggest source of counterfeit goods.
		A)	South Korea
		B)	Malaysia
		C)	China
		D)	Taiwan


18	The process of dismantling a competitor's product to learn everything possible about it is known as:
		A)	industrial espionage.
		B)	dismantling engineering.
		C)	reverse engineering.
		D)	none of the above.


19	Competitor assessment:
		A)	has been going on for some time.
		B)	is a new management technique.
		C)	is generally not deemed important.
		D)	is generally performed by consultants.


20	A technique for measuring a firm's performance against the performance of others is known as:
		A)	competitor analysis.
		B)	competitor intelligence.
		C)	benchmarking.
		D)	performance analysis.

2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education
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