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Exam

Name___________________________________

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

1) All of the following are phases of competitive interaction except ________. 1)

A) competitive unpredictability B) competitor reaction
C) customer reaction D) discovery and competitive new action
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

2) Change leaders are consistently able to do all of the following except ________. 2)
A) decrease the pace of product cycles B) raise industry standards
C) develop new markets D) develop new technologies
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

3) When a threat is identified in an early stage, the most appropriate competitor-response strategy is 3)
________.
A) absorption B) shaping C) containment D) neutralization
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

4) Which of the following is not one of the possible reasons that late movers survive? 4)
A) they are protected by government regulation
B) they have extensive cash reserves
C) they have an oligopolistic industry position
D) the existence of a highly competitive market
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

1
5) Increasingly, competitive advantage results from the ability to manage change and harness the 5)
resources and capabilities consistent with ________ strategies.
A) revolutionary B) late-mover
C) dynamic D) first- or second-mover
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

6) If a regional firm wants to grow into a premier national company, all but which of the following 6)
might be in its sequence of activities?
A) enter into adjacent regional markets
B) rapidly expand through acquisitions funded by increasingly valuable stock price
C) develop differentiators designed to build brand awareness
D) sell off parts of the company that are profitable
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

7) In the financial services industry, rescaling has been accomplished mostly through ________. 7)
A) convergence B) reorganizations
C) mergers and acquisitions D) focusing on one or two products
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

8) Reacting to change involves responding to all of the following except ________. 8)

A) competitors' actions B) new government regulations
C) unexpected customer demands D) the development of new market segments
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

9) An important insight from the value net model is that the same player might ________. 9)
A) be a winner and a loser in the same transaction
B) be a competitor in some interactions but a complementor in others
C) be the industry leader one year and at the bottom of the industry the next year
D) grow and compress in the same timeframe
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

2
10) The ________ has not opened up new temporal and geographic accessibility for many businesses. 10)
A) dry cleaning industry B) grocery store industry
C) airline industry D) Internet
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

11) Examples of industry convergence include all but which of the following? 11)
A) entertainment and communications
B) wireless communications and photography
C) computing and entertainment
D) airline and rail
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

12) Which of the following is a characteristic of new entrants' disruptive strategies? 12)
A) These firms emphasize product standardization.
B) These new models are easily imitated.
C) These firms can take away market share.
D) These firms start out as high-margin businesses.
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

13) A graphical depiction of how a firm and major groups of its competitors are competing across its 13)
industry's factors of completion is referred to as the ________.
A) strategy life cycle B) industry learning curve
C) value curve D) four-actions framework
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

14) Several uses have emerged from the technology developed by credit card companies. Which is not 14)
one of these uses?
A) hotel keys B) library cards
C) national park admission cards D) employment identification badges
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

3
15) In the context of a firm's industry evolution, arenas must fit with all but which of the following? 15)
A) resources B) dynamic capabilities
C) capabilities D) customer base
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

16) A value chain is the sequential steps of value-added activities that are necessary to create ________. 16)
A) low-cost alternatives to the products of industry leaders
B) a product or service that is used by the end consumer
C) a competitive advantage in a crowded industry
D) differentiation among industry leaders
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

17) A new-market disruption that significantly changes the industry value curve by disrupting the 17)
expectations of customers by vastly improving product performance is referred to as ________.
A) hybrid B) low-end disruption
C) mid-term disruption D) high-end disruption
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

18) Which of the following is not a characteristic mindset of new-market creation? 18)
A) emphasizes efficient operation of the traditional business model
B) looks across strategic groups and industry segments
C) emphasizes substitutes across industries
D) emphasizes redefinition of buyers' preferences
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

19) With ________ options, serving markets on two continents by building two plants instead of one 19)
gives a firm the option of switching production from one plant to the other as conditions dictate.
A) flexibility B) waiting-to-invest
C) learning D) growth
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

4
20) Revolutionary strategies can be created by searching for industries that have opportunities to 20)
benefit from increases in ________.
A) technological advances B) public awareness
C) population D) economies of scale
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

21) A firm can redefine its arena by doing all but which of the following? 21)
A) spearheading industry convergence
B) changing the temporal or geographic availability
C) diversify its products
D) imagining the total possible market rather than the served market
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

22) Anticipating change means foreseeing all of the following except ________. 22)
A) the appearance of global markets B) the impact of natural resources
C) the development of new market segments D) the emergence of conflicting technologies
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

23) Competitive interaction theory suggests that ________. 23)

A) competitive actions will always interact with industry conditions
B) competitors must interact with each other to survive
C) competitors and suppliers must learn to cohesively interact
D) competitive actions will generate reactions
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

24) When a firm uses the ________ strategy, it identifies and acquires new entrants or establishes an 24)
alliance with them.
A) shaping B) absorption C) containment D) annulment
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

5
25) In reality, most newcomers adopt some combination of ________ and ________ disruption 25)
strategies.
A) new-market; low-end B) new-market; high-end
C) mid-term; high-end D) new-market; mid-term
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

26) The ________ strategy assumes considerable risk. 26)

A) absorption B) annulment C) shaping D) neutralization
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

27) Types of revolutionary strategies that can introduce major disruption into an industry include all 27)
except ________.
A) reconsidering the market B) reconceiving a product or service
C) reconfiguring the value chain D) rescaling the industry
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

28) Industry convergence occurs when two distinct industries evolve toward a(n) ________. 28)
A) exclusive business relationship with each other
B) split that forms four industries
C) single point where old industry boundaries no longer exist
D) competitive position where each benefits from the existence of the other
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

29) Research suggests that revolutionary strategies that can introduce dynamic change tend to fall into 29)
one of three categories that include all except ________.
A) hybrid B) low-end disruptions
C) high-end disruptions D) mid-term disruptions
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

6
30) Complementors ________ in an industry. 30)
A) increase the total profits B) increase competition
C) decrease competition D) decrease the total profits
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

31) A strategy that targets the least desirable of incumbents' customers is referred to as ________. 31)
A) high-end disruption B) mid-term disruption
C) low-end disruption D) hybrid
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

32) An innovation that dramatically advances an industry's price-versus-performance frontier is 32)

called ________.
A) technological discontinuity B) process innovation
C) service innovation D) technological disruptions
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

33) Firms that choose to initiate strategic actions are called ________. 33)
A) fast followers B) strategic leaders
C) first movers D) second movers
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

34) With ________ options, an entry investment may create opportunities to pursue valuable 34)
follow-up projects.
A) learning B) flexibility
C) growth D) waiting-to-invest
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

7
35) The advantage of a real option investment is that a firm can ________ when the competitive 35)
environment shifts.
A) be positioned to neutralize threats from smaller firms
B) be stronger financially
C) be the industry leader
D) preserve flexibility to be well positioned
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

36) Real-option investments are attractive to managers in industries that are characterized by ________ 36)
and ________.
A) large market share; little research and development data
B) large capital investments; high degrees of uncertainty
C) small market share; lots of research and development data
D) low capital investments; low degrees of uncertainty
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

37) Incumbent firms can respond to industry dynamism through all of the following strategies except 37)
________.
A) expression B) containment C) annulment D) neutralization
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

38) ________ are an example of downscaling in an industry. 38)

A) Microbreweries B) Family farms
C) Fast-food restaurants D) Wineries
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

8
39) In phase 1, competitive action can be initiated in all of the following ways except ________. 39)
A) delay tactics
B) competitive aggressiveness
C) predictability
D) complexity of the competitive-action repertoire
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

40) A revolutionary firm is one that ________. 40)

A) causes heads of government to fall B) is in the munitions industry
C) discovers and leads convergence D) falls behind in an industry
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

41) All of the following should be considered by a firm contemplating a first-mover strategy except 41)
________.
A) the switching costs holding together current customer relationships
B) the strength of its complementary assets
C) the firm's monopolistic industry position
D) the inimitability of its new product
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

42) New markets are often created when managers ________. 42)
A) focus on strategic convergence
B) eliminate some nonessential features that industry incumbents take for granted
C) export ideas from their competitors
D) react defensively to counteract the force of new entrants
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

43) All of the following are dimensions causing dynamic contexts except ________. 43)
A) technological disruptions B) competitive interactions
C) staging elements D) industry evolution
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

9
44) Research on strategy in hypercompetitive environments is typically anchored in all of the following 44)
except the ________.
A) complexity theory B) systems theory
C) adaptation theory D) chaos theory
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

45) A first-mover advantage is valuable under all of the conditions except ________. 45)
A) a firm achieves an absolute cost advantage in terms of scale or scope
B) a firm's image and reputation advantages are hard to imitate at a later date
C) first-time customers may move freely among competing products because of new product
preferences
D) the scale of a firm's first move makes imitation unlikely
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

46) Fast-follower advantages increase under all of the following conditions except ________. 46)
A) rapid technological advances
B) the first mover lacks a key complement such as channel access
C) the first mover's profit is high
D) the first mover's product or service strikes a positive chord but is flawed
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

47) A position in which the exploitation of a resource makes that resource stronger and more resilient 47)
is called ________.
A) resource management B) resource-based competitive advantage
C) resource-based execution D) resource-based strategy
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

10
48) Industries that used increases in scale that were unconventional at the time in their industries 48)
include all except ________.
A) adult education B) library
C) funeral D) waste management
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

49) All of the following may cause a turbulent environment except ________. 49)
A) short product life cycles B) incumbent repositioning
C) new technologies D) long product design cycles
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

50) First movers bear significant risks including the costs of all but which of the following? 50)
A) distributing new products B) educating customers
C) evolving new products D) designing and producing new products
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

51) The opportunity to take action that will either maximize the upside of limit the downside of a 51)
capital investment is referred to as ________.
A) a real option B) net present value
C) a learning option D) a value option
Answer: A
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

52) All of the following are categories of real options except ________. 52)
A) growth options B) new-market options
C) flexibility options D) exit options
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

11
53) The purpose of the ________ strategy is to minimize the risks entailed by being either a first mover 53)
or an imitator.
A) shaping B) annulment C) containment D) absorption
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

54) To excel at a(n) ________ strategy, a firm must assume the role of first mover. 54)
A) neutralization B) shaping C) absorption D) annulment
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

55) The strategist always makes important and reasoned choices about the firm's mix of all except 55)
________.
A) products B) competitors
C) services D) customers/noncustomers
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

56) Managers can use all but which tool to formulate a strategy and hammer out a strategic position? 56)
A) industry-structure analysis B) VRINE model
C) strategy diamond D) dynamic multiplier model
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

57) Large firms can use ________ to pursue shaping strategies. 57)
A) product improvement B) slotting fees
C) funding D) containment
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

12
58) All of the following are possible types of technological disruptions except ________. 58)
A) business model innovations B) process innovations
C) application innovations D) service innovations
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

59) Incumbents who pursue a ________ strategy aggressively often succeed in short circuiting the 59)
moves of new entrants before they make them.
A) containment B) shaping C) neutralization D) absorption
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

60) A conventional way to reconfigure the value chain is to compress it by ________. 60)
A) making the firm's workforce more lean B) selling off unprofitable subsidiaries
C) outsourcing D) eliminating a middle man
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

61) The four actions framework includes all of the following actions except ________. 61)
A) raise B) reject C) reduce D) eliminate
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

62) The annulment strategy is less about quashing the competition than about making it ________. 62)
A) complementary B) a partner C) irrelevant D) marginalized
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

63) New-market creation emphasizes capabilities that ________. 63)

A) consolidate the competition B) eliminate the competition
C) meet the competition head on D) eclipse the competition
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

13
 64) The process of maximizing the upside or limiting the downside of an investment opportunity by 64)
uncovering and quantifying the options and discussion points embedded within it is referred to as
________.
A) new-market analysis B) real-options analysis
C) chaotic analysis D) value curve analysis
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

65) As industry products become perceived as undifferentiated, the ability of firms to generate 65)
premium pricing ________.
A) becomes more critical B) stabilizes
C) decreases D) increases
Answer: C
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

66) Detecting and responding quickly to unexpected customer demands is called ________. 66)
A) market segment change B) speed of change
C) anticipating change D) reacting to change
Answer: D
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

67) Instead of retaliation, incumbent firms may strategically decide that ________ is the best course of 67)
action.
A) ignoring new competition B) waiting for uncertainty to clear
C) cooperation D) cutting off growth possibilities
Answer: B
Explanation: A)
B)
C)
D)

SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

68) What is a real option? 68)

Answer: Quite simply, a real option is the opportunity (though by no means the obligation)
to take action that will either maximize the upside or limit the downside of a capital
investment. The purpose of real-options analysis is to uncover and quantify an
initiative's embedded options or critical decision points. Ironically, of course, the
greater the uncertainty and flexibility in the project, the greater the potential value
of having options in managing it.
Explanation:

14
69) Why isn't the lag of second movers necessarily detrimental? 69)
Answer: Being a second mover doesn't necessarily mean that a firm is a late mover; in fact,
many effective second movers can legitimately be characterized as fast
followers--even if the elapsed time between first and second moves is several years.
Why isn't the lag necessarily detrimental? For one, new products don't always catch
on right away. They may eventually generate rapid growth and huge sales
increases, but this period--widely known as the takeoff period--starts, on average, at
some point within six years of the new-product introduction. Although the industry
life cycle suggests that the drivers of industry demand evolve over time, it doesn't
predict how quickly they'll evolve. Indeed, it may take some new products a decade
or more to reach the growth stage, and only then will they attract competitors.
Explanation:

70) How did the American Medical Association use shaping strategy in its response to 70)
chiropractic medicine?
Answer: Sometimes, of course, it's simply not possible to contain or neutralize the growth of
a new product, often due to antitrust laws. Moreover, in some cases, the new
product may be attractive to the incumbent even if the incumbent can't gain full
control of it. Today, for example, a state of peaceful coexistence prevails between the
American Medical Association (AMA) and chiropractic medicine. For decades,
however, the AMA had characterized chiropractors as quacks. Eventually, the AMA
used regulators and educators as part of a strategy to shape the evolution of
chiropractic practice until chiropractics transformed itself into a complement to
conventional healthcare, as defined by the AMA.
Explanation:

71) Diagram the relationship between the status of complementary assets and the bases of 71)
first-mover advantages.
Answer: Status of Complementary Assets
Freely Available or Tightly Held and
Unimportant Important

Weak Protection It is difficult for anyone Value-creation

from Imitation to make money: opportunities favor the
industry incumbents holder of
may simply give new complementary assets,
Bases of First product or service away who will probably
Mover as part of its larger pursue a fast-follower
Advantages bundle of offerings. strategy.
Strong Protection First mover can do well Value will go either to
from Imitation depending on the first mover or to party
execution of its strategy. with the most
bargaining power.

Explanation:

15
72) Define first mover. 72)
Answer: First movers are firms that choose to initiate a strategic action. This action may be
the introduction of a new product or service or the development of a new process
that improves quality, lowers price, or both. Consequently, you may see firms
pursuing either differentiation or low-cost strategies.
Explanation:

73) What are the conditions under which a first-mover advantage is valuable? 73)
Answer: A first-mover advantage is valuable only under certain conditions:

· A firm achieves an absolute cost advantage in terms of scale or scope.

· A firm's image and reputation advantages are hard to imitate at a later date.
· First-time customers are locked into a firm's products or services because of
preferences or design characteristics.
· The scale of a firm's first move makes imitation unlikely.
Explanation:

74) What can firms do to avoid or withstand a technological discontinuity? 74)

Answer: Research suggests that to withstand such technological changes, firms must either
proactively create new opportunities for themselves or react defensively in ways to
counteract the powerful forces of change.
Explanation:

75) What is a takeoff period? 75)

Answer: A takeoff period is a period during which a new product generates rapid growth
and huge sales increases.
Explanation:

76) What is the neutralization strategy? 76)

Answer: If containment does not work, then leaders will try to neutralize the threat.
Incumbents who pursue a neutralization strategy aggressively often succeed in
short circuiting the moves of innovators or new entrants even before they make
them--or at least in forcing them to seek out the incumbent as a partner or acquirer.
Microsoft, for example, is so aggressive at adding free software features to its
popular Windows platform that new software firms routinely include partnership
with Microsoft as part of their entry strategies. A more common neutralization
tactic, however, is the threat or use of legal action.
Explanation:

16
77) What are the conditions under which first-mover advantages diminish and fast-follower 77)
advantages increase?
Answer: In short, first-mover advantages diminish--and fast-follower advantages
increase--under a variety of conditions, including the following:

· Rapid technological advances enable a second mover to leapfrog a first mover's

new product or service.
· The first mover's product or service strikes a positive chord but is flawed.
· The first mover lacks a key complement, such as channel access, that a fast
follower possesses.
· The first mover's costs outweigh the benefits of its first-mover position. (Fast
followers, for example, can often enter markets more cheaply because they don't
face the initial costs incurred by the first mover.)
Explanation:

78) What are the three things managers can do to redefine their arenas? 78)
Answer: The three things managers can do to redefine their arenas are:

1. change the temporal or geographic availability

2. imagine the total possible market rather than the served market
3. spearhead industry convergence
Explanation:

79) What are the four key words of the four-actions framework? 79)
Answer: The key to discovering a new value curve lies in answering four basic questions that
come from the following four keywords: reduce, eliminate, create/add, and raise.
Explanation:

80) What are the alternatives to dealing with the pressures of commoditization? 80)
Answer: Research suggests that firms can choose from among four alternatives to deal with
the pressures of commoditization. The manager, however, must make difficult
choices in terms of timing–for instance, if the firm changes its strategy too soon, it
risks losing extra profits, but if it moves too late, it may never be able to regain the
market lost to newcomers or incumbents who moved sooner. As you will see, two of
these tactics anticipate commoditization, whereas the other two are typically more
useful once it’s clear that commoditization has set in. All four tactics have clear
implications for four of the five elements in the strategy diamond–namely, arenas,
differentiators, pacing, and economic logic.
Explanation:

81) What are the four underlying phases of competitive interaction? 81)
Answer: The four underlying phases of competitive interaction are discovery and
competitive new action, customer reaction, competitor reaction, and evaluation of
action and reaction effectiveness.
Explanation:

82) What are the five possible competitor-response strategies? 82)

Answer: Incumbent firms can respond to sources of industry dynamism through any of the
following strategies: 1) containment, 2) neutralization, 3) shaping, 4) absorption, or
5) annulment.
Explanation:

17
83) What is the containment strategy? 83)
Answer: The containment strategy works well when the firm has identified the threat at an
early stage. Although firms sometimes select one of these strategies, they typically
resort to a combination that aligns well with their particular resources and
capabilities. American Airlines, for instance, can compete with Southwest not only
by increasing the benefits of its frequent flier program but by using its bargaining
power to secure more exclusive airport gates (thus effectively raising Southwest's
distribution costs at airports where it used to share gates with American). Similarly,
a large consumer-products company can release a copy-cat product that both
leverages the new market created by a competitor and can be sold through its own
existing channels. Consider, for example, the fact that retailers in industries from
clothing to groceries typically charge slotting fees--fees that suppliers pay for access
to retailers' shelf space. Because of this practice, any new product may bump an
existing product from retail shelves, and if the one that gets bumped is a new
entrant's only product, the containment strategy will have been highly effective.
Explanation:

84) What are the five types of revolutionary strategies that can introduce dynamic change into 84)
an industry?
Answer: The five types of revolutionary strategies are reconceiving a product or service,
reconfiguring the value chain, redefining the arenas, rescaling the industry, and
reconsidering the competitive mindset.
Explanation:

85) Name the three dimensions that cause dynamic contexts. 85)
Answer: The three dimensions that cause dynamic contexts are competitive interactions,
industry evolution, and technological disruptions.
Explanation:

86) What is the difference between first and second movers? 86)
Answer: First movers are firms that choose to initiate a strategic action. This action may be
the introduction of a new product or service or the development of a new process
that improves quality, lowers price, or both. Consequently, you may see firms
pursuing either differentiation or low-cost strategies here. Second movers are
simply firms that aren't first movers, but their actions are important nonetheless. A
second mover, for instance, may simply imitate a first mover that is, those aspects
of its new product, service, or strategy that meet its needs or it may introduce its
own innovation.
Explanation:

87) What are some of the factors that a firm should consider before choosing a first-mover 87)
strategy?
Answer: Any firm contemplating a first-mover strategy should consider the inimitability of
its new product, the switching costs holding together current customer relationships,
and the strength of its complementary assets.
Explanation:

18
88) Define the concepts of reacting to and anticipating change. 88)
Answer: Reacting to change means detecting and responding quickly to unexpected
customer demands, new government regulations, or competitors actions.

Anticipating change means foreseeing the appearance of global markets, the

development of new market segments, and emergence of the complementary or
conflicting technologies.
Explanation:

89) What does the strategic management of industry evolution involve? 89)
Answer: The strategic management of industry evolution involves not only dealing with the
industry life cycle but also strategies for changing arenas and strategies for
responding to changes in a firm’s environment. One particular challenge associated
with industry evolution that goes beyond the industry life cycle challenges is the
pressures of commoditization.
Explanation:

90) Discuss some of the common characteristics of disruptions caused by competitors who use 90)
new business models.
Answer: When leading companies face new competitors who utilize new business models
that are disruptive--strategies that are both different from and in conflict with those
of incumbents--they face vexing dilemmas. Should they respond to these new
entrants with disruptive strategies? And, if so, how? These types of innovations
essentially result in a possible change in the rules of competition within the
industry. Such disruptions have several common characteristics. First, compared to
incumbents, these firms typically emphasize different product attributes. Second,
they generally start out as rather low-margin businesses. Third, they can grow into
significant companies that take away market share. However, because of tradeoffs
with value-chain activities that are essential to the incumbents, these new firms'
business models cannot be imitated in short order by incumbents. Examples of these
types of disruptive entrants are found in many industries, such as rental cars
(Enterprise), retailing (Amazon.com), retail brokerage (E-Trade and Charles
Schwab), steel (Nucor), and airlines (Southwest, JetBlue, and RyanAir). Devising
appropriate strategies to deal with these types of competitive interactions is
particularly difficult.
Explanation:

91) What are the four ways that competitive action may be initiated in phase 1? 91)
Answer: Competitive action can be in initiated in phase 1 in essentially four ways:
aggressiveness, complexity of the competitive-action repertoire, unpredictability,
and tactics that delay the leaders' competitive reaction.
Explanation:

19
 92) What are some possible pitfalls to the five competitor-response strategies? 92)
Answer: A word of warning about the five strategies covered in this section and a good
reason why you need to pay close attention to the sections that follow. Although
they are certainly viable strategies for dynamic markets, many of the strategies are
nonetheless purely defensive. If you rely on them exclusively, you'll soon stumble
over an important pitfall of purely defensive strategizing: Any firm that invests in
resources and capabilities that support retaliation to the exclusion of innovation and change
may only be prolonging its inevitable demise.
Explanation:

TRUE/FALSE. Write 'T' if the statement is true and 'F' if the statement is false.

93) Stable markets move at a much faster pace than dynamic markets. 93)
Answer: True False
Explanation:

94) Strategies are most effective when firms leverage unique, firm-specific resources and capabilities. 94)
Answer: True False
Explanation:

95) Incumbents who use new-market strategies shift competitive focus to the task of redefining the 95)
business model for a part of the existing market.
Answer: True False
Explanation:

96) Competitive advantage is developed when a firm can create value in similar ways to their rivals. 96)
Answer: True False
Explanation:

97) A common neutralization tactic is the threat or use of legal action. 97)
Answer: True False
Explanation:

98) The industry life cycle can predict how quickly the drivers of industry demand will evolve. 98)
Answer: True False
Explanation:

99) Commoditization is the process by which industry wide sales depend more on price and less on 99)
unique product features.
Answer: True False
Explanation:

100) The annulment strategy may entail considerable risk. 100)

Answer: True False
Explanation:

101) A firm that is a second mover is also a late mover. 101)

Answer: True False
Explanation:

20
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Trimblerigg
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
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eBook.

Title: Trimblerigg
A book of revelation

Author: Laurence Housman

Illustrator: Edmond X. Kapp

Release date: April 27, 2024 [eBook #73474]

Language: English

Original publication: United Kingdom: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1924

Credits: Tim Lindell, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book
was produced from images made available by the
HathiTrust Digital Library.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK

TRIMBLERIGG ***
 TRIMBLERIGG
A Book of Revelation

*
‘O, let him pass! he hates him,
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.’
 By the Same Author
ANGELS AND MINISTERS
DETHRONEMENTS
ECHO DE PARIS
MOONSHINE AND CLOVER
A DOORWAY IN FAIRYLAND
ALL FELLOWS
AND THE CLOAK OF FRIENDSHIP
JONATHAN TRIMBLERIGG
From a drawing by
Edmond X. Kapp
 TRIMBLERIGG

A Book of Revelation
by
Laurence Housman

With a
frontispiece from a recent portrait
by Kapp

Jonathan Cape Ltd

Eleven Gower Street London
 FIRST PUBLISHED IN MCMXXIV
SECOND IMPRESSION IN MCMXXIV
MADE & PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
BY BUTLER & TANNER LTD
FROME AND
LONDON
 Contents
EDITORIAL. The Editor excuses himself from
allegiance to the god of Mr. Trimblerigg 9
CHAPTER 1. Mr. Trimblerigg becomes
acquainted with his deity and finds him
useful: contends with his sister for virtue,
and acquires grace: converts his uncle
as by a miracle, and receives the call 17
CHAPTER 2. Seeking guidance of Scripture,
zeal for the Lord’s house consumes him:
the Lord’s house is consumed also, and
the cause of religion is well served 30
CHAPTER 3. The eye of Davidina: he puts on
himself a price, which she takes off
again. In search of a career he turns to
True Belief 39
CHAPTER 4. He wrestles mightily with his
Uncle Phineas over the interpretation of
Scripture, and by subtlety prevails. His
uncle sends him to college 49
CHAPTER 5. Calculating his future chances
he stands in a minority for truth:
advocates the ministry of women:
preaches his first sermon 64
CHAPTER 6. Having tried, and failed, to save
Davidina from drowning, he tells a
modest story of himself, which is allowed
to stand 72
CHAPTER 7. He tries to save himself from 82
Davidina, and fails. The wicked
 incredulity of Davidina, and its effect
upon his after-life
CHAPTER 8. Meaning to choose a wife, he
has a wife chosen for him. His Uncle
Phineas dies: he finds his future is
provided for 88
CHAPTER 9. He enters the ministry of True
Belief, and prepares for himself a way
out: is saved by Davidina from an early
indiscretion: marries, and has a family 97
CHAPTER 10. The ministry of women a
burning question: embarrasses his
oratory. On the question of verbal
inspiration True Belief turns him out 105
CHAPTER 11. He becomes a Free
Evangelical: from the militancy of women
takes refuge in the organization of
foreign missions 118
CHAPTER 12. Mr. Trimblerigg’s deity
exercises his divine prerogative, and
watches him take a bath: his honesty
under trying circumstances: his success
as an organizer 124
CHAPTER 13. His liking for adventure and
experiment exposes him to danger:
escaping without loss of character, he
finds cause to complain of his wife’s 129
CHAPTER 14. Invents his famous doctrine of
‘Relative Truth’: his success in the
mission field. He begins to invest: looks
for a popular cause, and finds one 137
CHAPTER 15. His popular cause being
threatened by his investments, he makes
a sacrifice, and wins: becomes a power
in the financial world, and achieves fame 144
CHAPTER 16. By a very slight departure from 156
the truth (relative), he gets the better of
Davidina, whereby his conscience is
greatly comforted
CHAPTER 17. He tastes the sweets of
popular success: forgives an enemy:
sees his star in the ascendant, reads
poetry, and sleeps the sleep of the just 161
CHAPTER 18. A strange awakening: finds
himself the recipient of an embarrassing
honour: his difficulty in finding a place for
it under present conditions 168
CHAPTER 19. The effect of heavenly signs
on the young and innocent. His wife
discovers for the first time that he is a
holy man: her remorse 181
CHAPTER 20. To escape from the beauty of
holiness Mr. Trimblerigg contemplates a
life of sin, but finds himself stuck fast in
virtue. Effects of his wife’s confession:
his fear of Davidina: he narrowly escapes
death 189
CHAPTER 21. Refusing to make an exhibition
of himself, he becomes unpopular:
escapes the fury of the mob, meets
Davidina, and is saved from further
embarrassment. The story of an onlooker 200
CHAPTER 22. Mr. Trimblerigg comes out top:
Relative Truth in war-time the only
solution: attends funeral of a celebrity,
and makes arrangements for his own 209
CHAPTER 23. He becomes the voice of the 215
nation: secures the ministry of women:
makes peace-mottoes for the million:
hears a voice from the Beyond forbidding
him to hew Agag
CHAPTER 24. Relative Truth in black and
white becomes a problem. For the
rescue of his own reputation adopts the
policy of reprisals: the Free Churches are
divided 225
CHAPTER 25. Puto-Congo: friendly
comparison of Mr. Trimblerigg to a
crocodile: why, in the Puto-Congo, a
crocodile policy had become
indispensable 232
CHAPTER 26. The peaceful penetration of
Davidina: her wonderful ways: their effect
on savages. She returns to civilization,
and encounters Mr. Trimblerigg 241
CHAPTER 27. Mr. Trimblerigg’s prayer
misses fire: he finds Davidina a
comfortable person to talk to: they go
their separate ways 250
CHAPTER 28. Mr. Trimblerigg’s genius for
inconsistency: its brilliant results: risks
his life, and becomes founder of the
Puto-Congo Free State Limited 257
CHAPTER 29. Inspired by a new idea, he
combines Spiritualism with Second
Adventism, and opens campaign to
make Heaven safe for Democracy 263
CHAPTER 30. Mr. Trimblerigg, opening a box
of prophecy, finds that his own coming
has been foretold: his ambition is
satisfied 274
CHAPTER 31. He reverts to True Belief as
the best means to Relative Truth when
prophecies are about. Light returns to
him: he uses it to slay an enemy 291
CHAPTER 32. How he conquers America for 295
 the new faith, competes with the Movies,
and starts building the New Jerusalem
CHAPTER 33. The New Jerusalem
encounters unexpected opposition. The
effect of sticky gas on Second
Adventism. Davidina puts out Mr.
Trimblerigg’s light, and in the darkness
that ensues his deity loses sight of him 308
 Editorial
THE tribal deity to whom Mr. Trimblerigg owed his origin would, I
think, have shown a better sense of the eternal fitness of things had
he chosen for his amanuensis one whose theological antecedents
were more within his keeping and jurisdiction than my own. But when
he visited me with the attack of verbal inspiration which I was
powerless to throw off in any other form than that which here follows,
he seems rather to have assumed an intellectual agreement which
certainly does not exist, and to have ignored as unimportant a
divergence of view which I now wish to place on record. For, to put it
plainly, I do not worship the god of Mr. Trimblerigg; and had these
pages been a complete expression of my own feelings, they would
have borne hostile witness not so much against Mr. Trimblerigg, as
against his deity.
When nations declare war, or when gods deliver judgment against
criminals who are so largely of their own making,—fastening in self-
justification on some flagrant instance of wrong-doing which, for
those who do not wish to reflect, puts the culprit wholly out of court,
—they would do well to select their official historians from minds too
abject and submissive to form views of their own; and of course
verbal inspiration, as in the case of Balaam, is one way of getting the
thing done. But whereas, in that historical instance, it was the ass
and not the prophet who kicked last, in this instance, having
delivered my message, I claim the right to exonerate myself in a
foreword which is entirely my own. And so here, in this place—
before he makes revelation or utters prophecy—Balaam speaks his
own mind.
I do not think that Mr. Trimblerigg’s deity has dealt fairly by him. To
me he seems chargeable with the same exploitive elasticity as that
which he exposes in Mr. Trimblerigg, whom he first cockered up in
his own conceit by a course of tribal theology, and then callously
abandoned to its logical consequences when tribal theology went
suddenly out of fashion. For Mr. Trimblerigg was emphatically a
product of that self-worship of the tribe or clan, on which divine
Individualism has so long fattened itself. He was brought up to
believe himself one of a chosen sect of a chosen people, and to
judge from a theocratic standpoint the ways, doings, and morals of
other sects, communities, principalities, and powers. He could not
remotely conceive, without being false to his deity, that his own was
not immeasurably the best religion in the world, his god a god of
perfect balance and proportion, and himself a chosen vessel of the
Lord. In that character he was always anointing himself with fresh oil,
which, losing its balance, ran far further than it ought to have done.
But if, in consequence, he became an oleaginous character, whose
mainly was the blame?
I cannot acquit the deity in whose tenets he had been trained.
Having been brought up to read history as a pre-eminent
dispensation of mercies and favours to his own race, with a slight
push of miracle at the back of it—is it any wonder that, when he
applied his gospel to propaganda for the interests of that same race,
or went out a missionary to the heathen, it was with a conscientious
conviction that a little compulsion was necessary for the saving of
souls?
And so, in that shadiest episode of all his career, presented to us by
his deity in such an unfavourable light, when the poor benighted
heathen began painting Mr. Trimblerigg’s fellow-missionaries black
and tan, and other horrible colours to indicate their hearty dislike for
a blended gospel of free salvation in Christ and duty and allegiance
to the Puto-Congo Rubber shareholders; when they did that, he—
quite naturally—invoked the law of the Mosaic dispensation, and did
the same to them: and defended himself for these gospel-reprisals
by saying that it would have been very unreasonable not to protect
Christian missionaries by the only method which savages could
understand as a stepping-stone to the methods of Christianity.
The picture as presented is true: that was Mr. Trimblerigg all over. He
had a lively notion that Christianity could be induced by pagan
methods. But has his deity the right to cast either the first or the last
stone at him? If he seemed to be always carrying the New
Testament in his coat-tail pocket and making it his foundation for
occasions of sitting down and doing nothing, while, up and doing, it
was the law of Moses with which he stuffed his breast: and if, when
he wanted to thump the big drum (as he so often did), he thumped
the Old Testament, he was only doing with more momentary
conviction and verve and personal magnetism what the larger
tribalism of his day had been doing all along; and his tribal deity
never seems to have had the slightest qualms in allowing Mr.
Trimblerigg to regard himself as a Christian.
Yet all the time the deity himself knew better, as this record
abundantly shows; for having made Mr. Trimblerigg partly but not
entirely in his own image, he then used him as a plaything, an object
of curiosity; and committing him to that creed of racial
aggrandisement of which he himself was beginning to tire, thereby
reduced him to ridicule, made a fool of him, exalted him to the
likeness and similitude of a god, and then—let him go. And though,
in the ensuing pages, he has helped himself freely to my opinions,
as though they were his own, I do not feel that they were honestly
adopted. For a god who tires of his handiwork is still responsible for
it, however disillusioned; and when, employing me as his
mouthpiece, Mr. Trimblerigg’s maker mocks at the tribal religions
which have brought the world so near to ruin, he remains
nevertheless a deity tribal in character, albeit a disgruntled one. And
if he has manœuvred this record in order to wash his hands of
responsibility, it comes, I fear, too late; the source is too suspect to
be regarded as impartial, and he himself very much more of a Mr.
Trimblerigg than he seems to be aware.
And so my business here is to express an utter disbelief (which I
hope readers will bear in mind) that Mr. Trimblerigg’s deity was one
about whom it is possible to entertain the larger hope, even in the
faint degree suggested by Tennyson,—or that he was anything
except a tribal survival to whom Mr. Trimblerigg and others gave
names which did not properly belong to him.
What finally laid Mr. Trimblerigg by the heels was the fact that having
picked up this god as he went along (finding him favourable to the
main chance) it was the main chance—idealized as ‘the larger
hope’—which he really worshipped without knowing it. Upon the
strength of that inspiration environment intoxicated him, and he drew
his spiritual life from the atmosphere around him. Then he was like a
bottle of seltzer, which at the first touch of the outer air begins almost
explosively to expand; whereas, for the bulk of us, we unbottle to it
like still wine without sound or foam, accepting it as the natural
element for which we were born. To Mr. Trimblerigg, on the other
hand, it came as a thing direct from God: at the first touch of the
herd-instinct he bubbled, and felt himself divine. And in the rush of
pentecostal tongues amid which he lost his head, he forgot that
atmosphere and environment are but small local conditions, and
that, outside these, vacuum and interstellar space hold the true
balances of Heaven more surely and correctively than do the brief
and shifting lives of men.
This spiritual adventurer, with his alert vision so curiously reduced in
scale to seize the opportunities of day and hour, missed the march of
time from listening too acutely to the ticks of the clock. And if he
offers us an example for our better learning, it is mainly as showing
what belittling results the herd-instinct and tribal-deism may produce
in a mercurial and magnetic temperament,—making him imagine
himself something quite other from what he really is, and his god a
person far removed from that category in which he has been placed.
My own interpretation of this ‘Revelation,’ which has made me its
involuntary mouthpiece, is that it shows the beginning—but the
beginning only—of mental change in a god who has become tired of
deceiving himself about the work of his creation; and that it has
begun to dawn upon his mind—though he denies it in words—that, in
making Mr. Trimblerigg, he has made another little mistake, and that
his creation was really stuffed as full of them as a plum-pudding is
stuffed with plums. And I have a hope that when tribal deity becomes
properly apologetic for its many misshapings of a divided world,
humanity will begin to come by its own, and acquire a theology which
is not an organized hypocrisy for the bolstering up of nationalities
and peoples.
For here we have a world full of mistakes, which is governed,
according to the theologians, by a God who makes none. And what
between predestination and free-will, and grace abounding mixed up
with original sin, and orthodoxy and heterodoxy at such universal
dash throughout the world that not one honest soul in a million has
an even chance of being really right,—when that is the spectacle
presented to us in the life of the human race, it becomes something
of a mockery to minds of intelligence to be told that their gods have
never made mistakes.
Those who have been blessed with good parents, do not like them
less because of certain failings and limitations which go to the
shaping of their characters; and when, arrived at the age of
discretion, they have to withstand their failings and recognize their
limitations, they do so with a certain amount of deference and with
undiminished affection; but they do not, if they are wise, or if they
have the well-being of their parents really at heart,—they do not let it
be thought that they regard them either as immaculate or infallible.
I have come to the conclusion that a like duty towards its tribal
deities belongs to the human race; and that man has made many
mistakes simply by regarding these tribal emanations as immune
from error, all-seeing, all-wise, all-loving—which they certainly are
not. And I believe that Mr. Trimblerigg would have been a very much
better and more useful man if he could have conceived his tribal
deity as one liable to error like himself. The terrible Nemesis which
seized the soul of Mr. Trimblerigg and hurled it to destruction was a
very limited and one-sided conception of what was good and right,
embodied in the form of a personal deity who could do no wrong.
So here, as I read it, we have the revelation of the detriment done to
a human soul by an embodied belief in itself under cover of a
religious creed. And the record of that process has been handed
over to me, I suppose, because the tribal deity responsible for the
results has got a little tired of the abject flattery of his worshippers,
and a little doubtful whether that relation between the human and the
divine is really the right one. He is suffering in fact, as I read him,
from a slight attack of creative indigestion, and is anxious to get rid
of certain by-products which his system cannot properly assimilate:
he is anxious, amongst other things, to get rid of responsibility for Mr.
Trimblerigg. But the responsibility is there; and I allow myself this