Strategic Methods: How to Pursue Strategies | AQA A-Level Business (7132)
Strategic Methods: How to Pursue Strategies
- 169 questions
- 13 subtopics
- Strategy, assessed on all three papers
- Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3
Strategic methods is examined on Papers 1, 2 and 3.
It covers the four routes a business can take to pursue a strategy: changing its scale, innovating, going international, and adopting digital technology.
Sample questions from Strategic Methods: How to Pursue Strategies
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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Organic growth, external growth and retrenchment
What happens to organisational culture under organic versus external growth?
Show the answer
Organic growth maintains existing culture, whereas external growth involves integrating different organisations with potentially different cultures. -
Economies and diseconomies of scale, synergy and overtrading
How does growth impact the operations function?
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It creates the need for increased capacity, new production facilities, supply chain management challenges, and quality control across larger scale. -
The advantages and disadvantages of organic and external growth
How might organic growth cause a business to miss market opportunities?
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The slow pace may mean the business cannot respond quickly enough to exploit emerging trends or gaps in the market. -
Product and process innovation and its drivers
Why might innovation improve profit margins?
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Innovation can justify premium pricing or reduce costs, widening the gap between revenue and expenses. -
The causes of globalisation and its opportunities
How does globalisation enable businesses to access larger markets?
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It allows firms to sell products and services beyond their domestic borders, reaching a much greater number of potential customers worldwide. -
Methods of entering international markets
What are the main benefits and risks of using licensing to enter international markets?
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Benefits: rapid market entry with minimal capital. Risks: loss of control over quality and potential creation of future competitors. -
Off-shoring, re-shoring and multinationals
What is meant by benefiting from supplier expertise when sourcing resources abroad?
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Foreign suppliers may have specialised skills, technology, or knowledge that domestic suppliers lack, improving product quality or innovation. -
Global, multi-domestic and transnational strategies
What is the central tension that managers must balance when operating internationally?
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They must balance pressures for local responsiveness (adapting to local markets) against pressures for cost reduction (achieving global efficiency).
The 13 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Organic growth, external growth and retrenchment | The difference between growing from within and by acquisition, why businesses grow, and why they retrench. | 17 |
| Economies and diseconomies of scale, synergy and overtrading | Technical, purchasing and managerial economies, economies of scope, and the risks of growing too fast. | 15 |
| Methods of external growth | Mergers, takeovers, joint ventures, franchising, and horizontal, vertical and conglomerate integration. | 10 |
| The advantages and disadvantages of organic and external growth | Control and culture against speed and scale, and the integration problems that follow a deal. | 18 |
| Product and process innovation and its drivers | The difference between the two, and the competitive, technological and cost pressures behind them. | 14 |
| Kaizen, research and development, and intellectual property | Kaizen, R&D, intrapreneurship and benchmarking, and protecting an idea by patent or copyright. | 17 |
| The causes of globalisation and its opportunities | Communication, trade liberalisation, transport and financial deregulation, and the markets they open. | 14 |
| Methods of entering international markets | Exporting, licensing, alliances and direct investment, and the risk and control of each. | 8 |
| Choosing a country to trade with or invest in | Market size and growth, ease of doing business, political stability, infrastructure and exchange rates. | 12 |
| Off-shoring, re-shoring and multinationals | Why production moves abroad, why it comes back, and what defines a multinational. | 11 |
| Global, multi-domestic and transnational strategies | The tension between cost reduction and local responsiveness, and the strategy each pressure favours. | 11 |
| Digital technology and the pressure to adopt it | Automation, big data, data mining and e-commerce, and the pressures pushing businesses towards them. | 9 |
| The value and the limits of digital technology | What digital technology delivers, against cost, skills, security, obsolescence and ethics. | 13 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
AQA A-Level Business Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 1,819 questions with their answers.