• Knowledge about and understanding of relevant terms, concepts, models, processes and perspectives within the field of strategic management and be able to relate these to different perspectives on economic theory and value creation.
• An ability to identify and solve strategic problems within organizations and industries by applying relevant terms, concepts, models, processes and perspectives from the discipline of strategic management on either cases or real organizations.
• An ability to discuss and evaluate the strength and weakness of the applied terms, concepts, models, processes and perspectives within the field of strategic management in relation to the behind economic theories.
• An ability to within the written exam case to identify and qualify strategic problems, argue for relevant use of models and there practical and theoretical implication, shortly present an organisation or an industry, conduct a couple of strategic analysis and put forward strategic solutions or identify possible strategic developments.

Aim
This course aims to provide the students with an understanding of some of the challenges facing top managers when they plan the long-term direction of an organization and its economic value creation and its exposure to business risk.
 
Content
The course start by explaining some central terms, concept, and definition in the area of strategy and we will look into some different ways in which a strategy can be developed. In connection to this we will discuss behaviour theory and the idea of bounded rationality.  
 
Next we will focus on how we can map and analyse the environment of a company for instance through Porters Five Forces framework and we look at how this concept draw on neoclassical theory and the structure of conduct performance paradigm. Further we well determine competitive advantages and how economic value is created through the internal resources, activities, and competencies of the firm. Here we draw on the resource based view and evolutionary economic theory. Furthermore tools for mapping and analysing the political and cultural context of the company will be presented and in connection to this we will focus on principal/agent theory and behaviour theory.  
 
After this we will discuss how corporate strategies, business/competitive strategies, international strategies, growth strategies and strategies on innovation can be developed. We will look into the different roles for the patterning company and the size of the corporation drawing on transaction cost theory. When looking at the competitive strategies of the company we will discuss the importance of long-term commitment, game theory, neo-institutional theory and constitutional theory. Furthermore we will be concerned with entrepreneurship and innovation.
 
In the last section of the course we will exemplify how companies can implement their strategies through organising the company, develop its functional areas and by managing strategic change. Again we will return to the ideas of bounded rationality and the management of stakeholders introduced within behaviour theory.
 
The course’s development of personal competences:
The course develops students competences in analyzing a case, work in groups and presentation skills.