One problem with becoming too large is that large firms:

__________ may be necessary because acquisitions create a situation in which the newly formed firm has excess capacity in organizational functions such as sales, manufacturing, distribution, and human resource management.

When a company does not possess all of the resources needed to successfully compete against its rivals, external social capital becomes increasingly critical to the firm’s success

Firm size, firm age, the executive’s tolerance for ambiguity, and his or her commitment to strategic outcomes are all factors that may affect managerial discretion

The balanced scorecard focuses on both financial and nonfinancial controls

Strategic control focuses on the content of strategic actions rather than their outcomes

A board composed primarily of outside directors will have better insights as to the firm’s intended strategic initiatives, the reasons for the initiatives, and the outcomes expected from them than will inside directors

The firm’s envisioned future encourages employees to stretch beyond their expectations of accomplishment and requires significant change and progress to be realized

Organizational controls guide the use of strategy, indicate how to compare actual results with expected results, and suggest corrective actions to take when the difference is unacceptable

Alliances of organizations in the same stage on the value chain are known as vertical alliances