Question 1: Please answer whether the following statements are True or False.

(a) Strategic management is the process of thinking strategically, setting objectives, planning and implementing the necessary changes and measuring the outcomes.

(b) Organisations gain competitive advantage through abundance of resources.

(c) The resource-based view postulates that an organisation’s success vitally depends upon its financial strength.

(d) A competitive advantage consists of a feature, characteristic or opportunity that an organisation possesses which will make it more attractive than its competitors.

(e) Business-level strategy refers to the actions that a company implements to create a competitive advantage over rivals in a chosen market or industry.

(f) The value chain analysis is a tool which allows us to understand the importance, the value, and the relationships of the elementary components constituting the firm’s activities.

(g) Differentiation deals with “how” a firm competes and the way in which it can offer uniqueness to its customers.

(h) Corporate level strategy is concerned with “how” a firm competes, whereas business strategy is concerned with “where” a firm competes.

(i) Diversification decisions require analysis of the attractiveness of the industry to be entered and the firm’s potential to establish competitive advantage within that industry.

(j) Corporate governance is about ensuring that companies act in the best interest of the nation they are part of.

Question 2: Please answer whether the following statements are True or False

(a) Strategy consists of the plans and actions a company selects to achieve its strategic goals.

(b) A firm has a competitive advantage when it implements a strategy that competitors are unable to duplicate or find costly to imitate.

(c) The mission statement is a brief description of the stakeholders and behaviours the organisation considers most important.

(d) A competitive advantages consists of a feature, characteristic or opportunity that an organisation possesses, which will make it more attractive than its competitors.

(e) Physical characteristics of a product are one of the determinants of its potential for differentiation.

(f) Tangible, intangible, and experience goods offer three possible forms of differentiation.

(g) Social and psychological factors have a minor impact on the demand side of differentiation.

(h) Vertical integration can be forward or backward in terms of linking with the value chain.

(i) In distinction to acquisitions, in a merger the assets of at least two firms are transferred to a new company so that only one legal entity remains.

(j) A corporate level strategy that seeks to reduce the size or diversity of an organisation’s operations is commonly known as retrenchment or divestment strategy.

Create a 4 page essay paper that discusses Freedom of Expression and Social Norms in the Second Life.

Although the virtual world has been in existence for quite some time, its significance had not been clear until I read the book by Boellstroff. I realized that the virtual world means more than just communication to its residents. Freedom of communication and expression is the primary force behind the existence of the virtual world. Communication in the real world is usually subject to communication barriers due to differences in cultural, ethnic, social, and personal communication skills. However, this is not the case in virtual worlds such as second life. In the virtual world, a person or resident has the ability to choose an identity unlike in the real world. This makes it possible for people to communicate freely in the virtual world irrespective of their social norms in the real world. By being able to choose a race, color, gender, profession, social class, and other factors, many barriers are eliminated, at least to some extent. Absolute freedom in the virtual world is limited due to factors such as language barrier, internet connectivity, among others.

The capability to choose one’s identity in the virtual world is also significant in the enhancement of anonymity in the virtual world. From the book, I learned that lack of identity in the virtual world is of great importance in the enhancement of communication. In the virtual world, people have the choice to remain anonymous. This makes it possible to express themselves freely unlike in the real world. I was surprised to learn that in the virtual world it is possible to maintain a friendship with your best real friend anonymously. Most importantly, it is possible to interact freely with your enemies and other people who are out of reach in the real world. The author of the book emphasizes this point by stating that people can hide their identity to the extent of their genders (Boelstroff, 2008: 61).