Motivation

There is more vacuity about strategy than about any other topic in business today. John Kay, Financial Times in Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel (2005)

General remarks

This course will be taught using traditional synchronous lectures.

The focus of the classes is to discuss—not introduce—major concepts, tools and methods of strategic management.

The classes will be characterized by group work, discussions and short presentations.

The greatest amount of work is in preparing for and following up lectures in order to become sufficiently familiar with and understand the content.

It is necessary to prepare for each session, usually by reading a paper, details (see Table 1).

Please prepare your schedule accordingly.

Effort

Figure 1: Effort distribution for average students

For this course you will receive 5 ECTS. This corresponds to approx. 150 hours of work required by an average student to pass the course.

Classes (approx. 30 hours)
Paper reading (approx. 25 hours; approx. 2.5 hours per paper)
Follow-up and exam preparation (do the math yourself)

In this course, we will have a look at following topics

Concepts and taxonomy of strategy
Functions of strategic management
Development, analysis and implementation of strategies
Strategic role of corporate social responsibility
Performance measurement
IT strategy, innovation and alignment

Learning objectives

During this course, you should advance your skills in the following areas:

Understanding of concepts and taxonomies of strategy
Basic knowledge of underlying theories of strategic management and decision-making
Understanding of tools and frameworks for the development, analysis and implementation of strategies
Knowledge of key concepts and frameworks for decision making under uncertainty
Understanding of the role of IT strategy and its relationship with business strategy
Ability to work independently with literature to derive key-insights
Application of concepts, tools, and framework in real-life cases

Exam

There will we a written exam at the end of the semester.

The exam will

take place during the examination weeks,
will last 90 minutes,
cover all contents discussed in lecture,
focus on the application of the knowledge gained in the course.

Schedule

Date	Topic	Guiding Question	Preparation
`10.10.24`	Introduction	Why so much fuss about strategy?	—
`17.10.24`	Definition	What is strategy, what strategic management?	Mintzberg (1987)
`24.10.24`	Strategy Types	What are generic strategies and what are they good for?	Galbraith, Craig, and Schendel (1983)
`31.10.24`	Environment	What external forces need to be considered?	Hallegatte (2009)
`07.11.24`	Q&A session¹	Which exercises need to be discussed in class?	Exercises
`12.11.24`	Capabilities	What leads to competitive advantage?	Ambrosini and Bowman (2009) (Peteraf (1993))
`21.11.24`	Strategy Formation	What to consider when ‘crafting’ strategies?	Mintzberg (1978)
`28.11.24`	Ethics and Responsibility	Does it pay off to be really good?	Barnett and Salomon (2012)
`05.12.24`	Structure	How to match a firm’s structure with its strategy?	Lorenz and Buchwald (2023)
`12.12.24`	Strategy in Action	Guest Speech	—
`19.12.24`	Management Control	How to effectively evaluate strategic performance?	Chakravarthy (1986)
`09.01.25`	IT Strategy	What about IS/IT and strategy?	Chen et al. (2010)
`16.01.25`	Case Study	tbd	tbd
`23.01.25`	Exam Preparation	What needs to be discussed or explained again?	Questions

Table 1: Schedule winter term 2024 (may be subjected to changes)

Q&A

Literature

Ambrosini, Véronique, and Cliff Bowman. 2009. “What Are Dynamic Capabilities and Are They a Useful Construct in Strategic Management?” International Journal of Management Reviews 11 (1): 29–49.

Barnett, Michael L, and Robert M Salomon. 2012. “Does It Pay to Be Really Good? Addressing the Shape of the Relationship Between Social and Financial Performance.” Strategic Management Journal 33 (11): 1304–20.

Chakravarthy, Balaji S. 1986. “Measuring Strategic Performance.” Strategic Management Journal 7 (5): 437–58.

Chen, Daniel Q, Martin Mocker, David S Preston, and Alexander Teubner. 2010. “Information Systems Strategy: Reconceptualization, Measurement, and Implications.” MIS Quarterly, 233–59.

Galbraith, Jay R., Cynthia A. Craig, and Dan Schendel. 1983. “An Empirical Analysis of Strategy Types.” Strategic Management Journal 4 (2): 153–73.

Hallegatte, Stéphane. 2009. “Strategies to Adapt to an Uncertain Climate Change.” Global Environmental Change 19 (2): 240–47.

Lorenz, Felix, and Arne Buchwald. 2023. “A Perfect Match or an Arranged Marriage? How Chief Digital Officers and Chief Information Officers Perceive Their Relationship: A Dyadic Research Design.” European Journal of Information Systems 32 (3): 372–89.

Mintzberg, Henry. 1978. “Patterns in Strategy Formation.” Management Science 24 (9): 934–48.

———. 1987. “The Strategy Concept i: Five Ps for Strategy.” California Management Review 30 (1): 11–24.

Mintzberg, Henry, Bruce W Ahlstrand, and Joseph Lampel. 2005. Strategy Bites Back: It Is a Lot More, and Less, Than You Ever Imagined–. Pearson Education.

Peteraf, Margaret A. 1993. “The Cornerstones of Competitive Advantage: A Resource-Based View.” Strategic Management Journal 14 (3): 179–91.

Footnotes

Room change: we will meet in B.1.32 (small rooom, first come, first serve)↩︎

Administrivia 🧐