平成30年度 春期 ITパスポート試験 問12

※ Our check while writing this explanation could not fully confirm the published answer; scoring follows IPA's official key.

• ○ア

  正解 The correct answer is ア. The value chain, proposed by M. Porter, is a framework that breaks a company's business activities down into “primary activities (inbound logistics, manufacturing, outbound logistics, sales, and service)” and “support activities (procurement, technology development, human resources, and general management)”, and analyzes where and how much each activity creates the added value of products and services. Choice ア, “a way of thinking used to analyze in which part of business activities the added value is created”, is exactly this definition itself, and is therefore appropriate.

• ×Incorrectイ

  Choice イ, “the core capability (corporate competence) cultivated within a company = the source of the company's own unique value”, describes core competence. It refers to a central capability that competitors cannot imitate, and it is a different thing from the value chain, which breaks down and analyzes where added value is generated, so it is wrong.

• ×Incorrectウ

  Choice ウ, “products and markets have a flow from birth to decline, and one takes different strategies according to the stage”, describes the product life cycle (introduction, growth, maturity, and decline stages). It is a way of thinking about strategy along a time axis, not a description of the value chain, so it is wrong.

• ×Incorrectエ

  Choice エ, “strategically positioning products or businesses from a company-wide perspective and considering the optimal allocation of management resources”, describes PPM (Product Portfolio Management). It is a method that classifies businesses by market growth rate and market share to decide resource allocation, and it differs from the value chain, so it is wrong.