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2012/2013  BA-HA_E169  Corporate Strategy

English Title
Corporate Strategy

Course information
Language English
Exam ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Bachelor
Duration One Semester
Course period Autumn, Spring, Fourth Quarter
Changes may occur.
Tuesday 11:40 to 14:15, week 13-22
Thursday 11:40 to 14:15, week ,14,22
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Max. participants 60
Study board
Study Board for BSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • In collaboration with guest speakers from The Boston Consulting Group
    Stig Hartmann - Department of Accounting and Auditing
Administrative contact Karina Ravn Nielsen - electives.lpf@cbs.dk or direct phone: 38153782
Main Category of the Course
  • Corporate and Business Strategy
Last updated on 17-12-2012
Learning objectives
In order to acquire the mark 12 within the course Strategic Management student must demonstrate:
  • Knowledge about and understanding of relevant terms, concepts, models, processes and perspectives within the field of strategic management
  • An ability to identify and solve strategic problems within organizations and industries (cases) by applying relevant terms, concepts, models, processes and perspectives from the discipline of strategic management
  • An ability to discuss and evaluate the strength and weakness of the applied terms, concepts, models, and processes within the field of strategic management in relation to the behind organizational and economic theories.
Prerequisite
Students are required to have a basic knowledge of busines economics and organizational theory.
Examination
Individual written mini-project.
Individual mini-project:
Type of test Home Assignment
Marking scale 7-step scale
Second examiner No second examiner
Exam period December/January and May/June
Aids Open Book, Written and Electronic Aid is permitted
Duration 72 Hours
Examination
Individual written mini-projects based on a case assignment written over 72 hours. There is a strict maximum length of 10 pages (1 page is counted as 2,275 characters including spaces).

The make-up/re-exam will be held in the same way and with the same conditions as the ordinary exam.
Course content

Aim
To provide students with an introduction to the discipline of strategic management by looking at classical and modern strategic concepts, models and perspectives. An additionally ambition is to provide students with an understanding of how the strategic models and processes draw on different types of economic theory. Furthermore the course aims at giving students an insight into what kind of considerations, issues and cross-pressure top-level managers are confronted with when working with organizations' overall long-term business and corporate development.

Competences
After following the course, students will be able to identify strategic problems, conduct relevant strategic analysis and present strategy solutions to the identified problems. Students will be able to analyze a firm and its environment, develop relevant strategies, evaluate the strategies and put forward an implementation plan.  Additionally, students will be able to explain how different kinds of economic value are created through the application of different types of strategic models and processes.

Content
The course opens up by presenting some basic strategic concepts, processes and perspectives and associated economic theories. We then look at how to analyze the business environment and the internal organization of the firm as well as its political and cultural contexts. This is linked to the ideas of economic value creation through positioning, capabilities, incentives and institutions based on neoclassical theory, resource based theory, principal/agent theory and institutional theory. Then we look at developing competitive strategies, corporate strategies, growth strategies, international strategies, and strategies of innovation and entrepreneurship. In relation to this, we also draw on transaction cost theory and evolutionary theory. Finally, we will look at how strategies are implemented through organizational design, the design of management systems, and handling strategic changes. Related to this, we will draw on institutional theory and behavioral theory.
Teaching methods
Lessons draw on a combination of overview lectures, guest speakers, group work on assignment and case as well as student presentations and plenum discussions.
Further Information

The maximum numbers of participants are 60 due to the teaching and exam format

This course can be connected to bachelor thesis in the HA program. Bachelor thesis in this course are normally formulated in Danish.
 
Expected literature

Tentative literature:

Mandatory
Johnson, Scholes, Whittington, ”Exploring Strategy – Text only – Ninth Edition”, Pearson Education/FT/Prentice Hall 2010 (500 pages).

 

Supplimentary
Articles and cases handed out by The Boston Consulting Group

Joseph T. Maghoney: “Economic Foundations of Strategy”, Saga Publications 2005. (200 pages)
 
Mehmet Barca: “Economic Foundations of Strategic Management”, Ashgate 2003 (selected parts 40 pages)
 
Last updated on 17-12-2012