Administrivia 🧐

🧑💻🚀 Strategy and Performance Management

Admin
Author

Andy Weeger

Published

Sep 3, 2024

Modified

Aug 12, 2025

Motivation

There is more vacuity about strategy than about any other topic in business today. John Kay, Financial Times in Mintzberg et al. (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)

Contents

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 et al. (1983)
31.10.24 Environment What external forces need to be considered? Hallegatte (2009)
07.11.24 Capabilities What leads to competitive advantage? Ambrosini & Bowman (2009) (Peteraf (1993))
12.11.24 Strategy Formation What to consider when ‘crafting’ strategies? Mintzberg (1978)
21.11.24 Ethics and Values Does it pay off to be really good? Barnett & Salomon (2012)
28.11.24 Structure How to match a firm’s structure with its strategy? Lorenz & Buchwald (2023)
05.12.24 OKR & Q&A session1 How to measure strategic progress? Exercises
12.12.24 Strategy in Action Guest Speech —
19.12.24 Performance Management 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 Sea Limited — sustain or expand? Read case study (Moodle)
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)

Literature

Ambrosini, V., & Bowman, C. (2009). What are dynamic capabilities and are they a useful construct in strategic management? International Journal of Management Reviews, 11(1), 29–49.
Barnett, M. L., & Salomon, R. M. (2012). Does it pay to be really good? Addressing the shape of the relationship between social and financial performance. Strategic Management Journal, 33(11), 1304–1320.
Chakravarthy, B. S. (1986). Measuring strategic performance. Strategic Management Journal, 7(5), 437–458.
Chen, D. Q., Mocker, M., Preston, D. S., & Teubner, A. (2010). Information systems strategy: Reconceptualization, measurement, and implications. MIS Quarterly, 233–259.
Galbraith, J. R., Craig, C. A., & Schendel, D. (1983). An empirical analysis of strategy types. Strategic Management Journal, 4(2), 153–173.
Hallegatte, S. (2009). Strategies to adapt to an uncertain climate change. Global Environmental Change, 19(2), 240–247.
Lorenz, F., & Buchwald, A. (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), 372–389.
Mintzberg, H. (1978). Patterns in strategy formation. Management Science, 24(9), 934–948.
Mintzberg, H. (1987). The strategy concept i: Five ps for strategy. California Management Review, 30(1), 11–24.
Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, B. W., & Lampel, J. (2005). Strategy bites back: It is a lot more, and less, than you ever imagined–. Pearson Education.
Peteraf, M. A. (1993). The cornerstones of competitive advantage: A resource-based view. Strategic Management Journal, 14(3), 179–191.

Footnotes

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