Master of Business Administration

Cohort: MBA/05/PT Year 2

Examinations for 2006 / Semester 3

MODULE: Strategic Information Systems

MODULE CODE: MBA3417

Duration : 3 Hours

Instructions to Candidates:

1. Open Book Exams: Documents are authorized.

2. All questions are compulsory.
3. Always start a new question on a fresh page.

This question paper contains 3 questions and 4 pages.

Page 1 of 4
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QUESTION 1: (30 MARKS)
a) What generic strategy or business model should Super Foods Company Ltd. adopt in
order to move to an on online grocery? Justify your answer.

[5 Marks]

b) How does the business strategy in a) affect the information systems and organisational
decisions?
[5 Marks]

a) How do information systems support the business strategy in a)?

[5 Marks]

b) According to the examples in the case, on line grocery is IT/IS Driven.

Do you agree with this statement? Discuss
[5 Marks]

e) Identify and describe the triggering factors that can motivate the switching mode of
purchase of Mauritians from traditional shopping to online shopping.

[5 Marks]

f) What are the factors that need to be addressed by the grocer to make the online grocery
business successful? On which strategy should the grocer emphasize?
[5 Marks]

Page 2 of 4
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 SECTION B

QUESTION 1: (15 MARKS)

a) How is knowledge management related to information systems?

[3 Marks]

b) What is the difference between tacit and explicit knowledge? From your own
experience, describe an example of each. How can an organisation manage tacit
knowledge?

[6 Marks]

c) Do you think that having knowledge management systems in Mauritian companies and
institutions would contribute in a substantial manner to make Mauritius a regional
knowledge hub?
[6 Marks]

Page 3 of 4
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QUESTION 2: (15 MARKS)
a) When does using an ASP make sense for a large corporation that already has an IS
organisation? Give an example when an ASP might make sense for a start-up
company?
[6 Marks]

b) Suppose managers in an organisation decided to hand out PDAs to all sales people
without making any other formal changes in organisational strategy or business
strategy. What might be the outcome? What unintended consequences might occur?

[3 Marks]

c) Describe the IS strategy of a new entrant airline company using the matrix framework.

[6 Marks]
****END OF QUESTION PAPER***

Page 4 of 4
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