Question 1

What is the key to sustaining a competitive advantage?

Accepted Answer

The key to sustaining a competitive advantage is to continuously improve and support the business's core functions using information technology. This allows the company to stay ahead of competitors and adapt to changes in the market. Faster computers or reducing labour needs may improve efficiency, but they do not necessarily provide a sustained competitive advantage. Using the internet to reduce reliance on internal data management is also important, but not as critical as utilizing information technology to continuously improve core functions. Delegating tasks to managers and focusing on strategic planning is also important, but it does not directly lead to sustaining a competitive advantage.

Question 2

Ken owns a large financial planning and insurance company. He has records of over 1,000 clients and all of the purchase decisions. Ken wants to determine if a relationship exists between financial planning decisions and insurance purchases made by his customers. What technology will help Ken accomplish this?

Accepted Answer

Data mining is the technology that can help Ken accomplish this. Data mining is the process of extracting useful information and patterns from large datasets. By analyzing the purchase decisions of his clients, Ken can use data mining algorithms to identify any patterns or trends that exist between financial planning decisions and insurance purchases. This analysis can help Ken make better business decisions and improve the overall effectiveness of his company. Information keystoning, data warehousing, and data outsourcing do not directly relate to the type of analysis Ken is conducting.

Question 3

Peter used a photocopy of a sales report to capture the information into his computer so that he could make changes to the report using his word processing software. What enabled Peter do this?

Accepted Answer

Optical character recognition software converts scanned documents into editable text, allowing Peter to capture information from the sales report and make changes to it using his word processing software. Electronic bar scanners and radio frequency analogue systems are not relevant to this task, and optical numerical readers only recognize numbers, not text.

Question 4

A large metropolitan hospital wished to keep track of wheelchairs,gurneys,and other expensive equipment that regularly disappeared from inventory because some hurried employee put it in a closet or elsewhere for safekeeping. What could the hospital use to locate and recover missing property?

Accepted Answer

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are the best choice for this situation as they can be attached to the equipment and tracked through a system that can locate the missing equipment. Bar codes and radio scanning systems also provide tracking capabilities, but RFID tags are more efficient and accurate. Electronic data interchanges are not relevant to this situation as they are used for electronic business communication.

Question 5

According to the resource-based view of information technology,what sustains competitive advantage?

Accepted Answer

According to the resource-based view of information technology, competitive advantage is sustained when information technology creates value for the organization. This value can come in the form of increased efficiency, improved decision-making, or better customer experiences, among other things. Simplified technology or similar technology across the entire firm may be helpful in achieving this, but they are not sufficient on their own to sustain competitive advantage. Continuous improvement from the use of raw data is important, but again, it is only one part of the overall value proposition that information technology can provide.

Question 6

Which of the following terms is best used to define a table showing the order frequencies as well as the average dollar value of the orders of different segments of a catalogue retailer's market?

Accepted Answer

A table showing the order frequencies and average dollar value of different segments of a catalogue retailer's market would provide information, which is the processed and analyzed form of raw data. An MIS (Management Information System) refers to a broader system that includes hardware, software, and procedures for managing information within an organization. Perceived knowledge is subjective and may not be based on actual data or analysis.

Question 7

Colin has been hired by a restaurant chain for a co-op term. The restaurant owner wants Colin to take the sales results from each day for each location and create organized reports. The owner wants to make decisions but at the moment does not have the results in a form he can understand. What form are the sales results in that Colin will use to create organized reports?

Accepted Answer

Sales results are typically collected and stored as raw data, which is unprocessed and unorganized. Colin's task is to organize and process this raw data into useful information for the restaurant owner to make decisions.

Question 8

According to which of the following rules will the cost of computing drop by 50 percent as computer-processing power doubles every 18 months?

Accepted Answer

This statement is describing Moore's law, which states that the number of transistors on a microchip will double about every two years, leading to an exponential increase in computing power and a decrease in cost per unit.

Question 9

In 1999,Waterloo,Ontario-based Research In Motion (later BlackBerry)introduced the first mobile email device. Prior mobile devices only rarely allowed for two-way mobile textual communication. What does this demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

Research In Motion created a first-mover advantage by introducing the first mobile email device, which allowed for two-way mobile textual communication. This gave them an edge over competitors who did not yet have similar technology.

Question 10

Which question identifies a critical issue that companies need to address in order to sustain a competitive advantage through information technology?

Accepted Answer

The question of whether the technology is difficult for another company to create or buy is important because it relates to the sustainability of the competitive advantage. If the technology is easily replicable, then the advantage may be short-lived. Factors such as access, cost, and ethics are also important considerations, but they do not directly address the issue of sustaining a competitive advantage.

Question 11

What are the two basic methods of capturing information?

Accepted Answer

The two basic methods of capturing information are manual and electronic. Manual methods involve capturing information through physical means such as written forms, while electronic methods involve the use of technology to capture data.

Question 12

According to the textbook,where is information derived from?

Accepted Answer

Information is derived from raw data, which is then processed and analyzed to create meaningful insights and knowledge. Perceived knowledge and influential knowledge may play a role in shaping how information is interpreted, but they are not the source of information itself. Competitive data refers specifically to information gathered about competitors in a business context and is not a general source of information.

Question 13

Chris was the first amongst the sales group to purchase a smartphone when they were introduced to the market. This gave Chris an upper hand on other sales staff as he could stay in closer touch with current and potential customers and respond to their needs more quickly. What upper hand did the smartphone give Chris?

Accepted Answer

Chris had the advantage of being the first to adopt a new technology (smartphone) in his industry, which is known as a first-mover advantage. This allowed him to be more responsive to his customers' needs and potentially gain a larger market share before his competitors caught up. Lower profits, less market adaptability, and increased synergy are not relevant to the given scenario.

Question 14

Cassie is able to send images from a trade magazine via email from her office in Ottawa to a team member working in Japan. What is Cassie using to capture the images from the magazine?

Accepted Answer

Cassie is most likely using an electronic scanner to capture the images from the trade magazine. An electronic scanner is a device used to convert physical documents or images into digital form, making it easier to share and store electronically.

Question 15

Which of the following best describes the manual capture of information?

Accepted Answer

Manual capture of information is often considered expensive due to the high labor costs associated with data entry and processing.

Question 16

In 1999,Waterloo,Ontario-based Research In Motion (later BlackBerry)introduced the first mobile email device. Prior mobile devices only rarely allowed for two-way mobile textual communication. However,by late 2016 BlackBerry devices had effectively zero market adoption,having ceded ground to Android and Apple devices. What technology difficulty did BlackBerry have versus other mobile device manufacturers that hindered its growth rate?

Accepted Answer

BlackBerry's competitive advantage of being the first to offer mobile email devices was not sustainable in the face of competition from Android and Apple devices. The market shifted towards touchscreens and application ecosystems, which BlackBerry was slow to adopt. As a result, BlackBerry devices lost their pioneering differential and sales declined significantly.

Question 17

Why is information strategically important for organizations?

Accepted Answer

Information can give an organization an advantage over its competitors by enabling it to make better decisions faster than the competition. Being the first to use new information can help companies get on the ground floor of an emerging market or to corner a particular demographic.

Question 18

Recalls are a fact of life for the food industry according to a senior vice-president of a large Canadian supermarket chain. What technology should this company use to identify the location of products in its warehouse that have been recalled?

Accepted Answer

RFID tags (radio-frequency identification) would be the best option to identify the location of products in the warehouse that have been recalled. This technology enables the automatic identification and tracking of inventory using radio waves. It would allow for quick and accurate identification of the affected products in the warehouse, reducing response time and potentially preventing contaminated or unsafe products from reaching the shelves.

Question 19

Which term is best used to define Excel spreadsheets that list property assessment appeals in the city of Toronto?

Accepted Answer

Raw data refers to unprocessed or unorganized information, which is exactly what an Excel spreadsheet listing property assessment appeals would be considered. A resource allocation table would be used to allocate resources, such as staff or funding, and traditional/perceived knowledge are not relevant to this type of spreadsheet.

Question 20

Which of the following generates ASCII text in the process of capturing information?

Accepted Answer

Optical character recognition software captures text by analyzing and converting images of printed or handwritten text into ASCII text. Bar codes and electronic scanners do not generate ASCII text, and e-tools is too vague of a term to determine if it generates ASCII text in the process of capturing information.

Quiz 16: Managing Information in a Global World