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2013/2014  KAN-CM_J42  Strategy Making and Value Creation by Using Intangible Assets

English Title
Strategy Making and Value Creation by Using Intangible Assets

Course information
Language English
Exam ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Quarter
Course period Autumn, First Quarter
Changes in course schedule may occur
Monday 12.35-16.05, week 36-42
Monday 12.35-17.00, week 43
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Max. participants 80
Study board
Study Board for MSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Jan Annerstedt - Department of Operations Management (OM)
Administration: Malindi Wilks - maw.om@cbs.dk
Main academic disciplines
  • Innovation and entrepreneurship
  • Management
  • Management of Information and Knowledge Management
  • Marketing
  • Corporate and Business Strategy
Last updated on 22-03-2013
Learning objectives
As future managers and leaders of organizations, the course participants will be equipped with relevant analytical and professional skills, intensified by up-to-date practical insights for managing intangibles in local and global business contexts. Case studies have been selected to gain fresh insights into best practices and allow each student to make an independent judgment of the most critical intangibles put to use.

Participants in this course will not only get novel insights by unique case material, drawn from on-going research activities. They will also be exposed to the current intellectual discourse on the measuring and management of intangibles to which researchers at the CBS contribute. The student should be able to reflect upon the consequences of applying different theories on a given issue.

Depending on earlier specialization and business practice, each student will be assisted in building his och her expertise through the identification, development and possible use of intangible resources and capabilities to create value.

At the end of the course the student awarded the highest mark (12) should be able to present, apply and discuss:
  • 1. A limited number of key concepts, analytical approaches and selected theories for strategy making and value creation by the use of intangible assets (such as organizational leadership, professional skills and competencies, business systems). The student should be able to apply an appropriate theory to meet a given management challenge and consider the strengths and weaknesses of that theory.
  • 2. How to measure and make effective use of an organization’s intangible resources and capabilities, including its intellectual capital.
  • 3. Methods and means for taking advantage of intangible assets to energize organizational capabilities for product design, innovation, entrepreneurial business development as well as for effectiveness.
  • Course participants, starting to prepare a Master thesis project, will be assisted by the teaching staff during the course.
Examination
Strategy Making and Value Creation by Using Intangible Assets:
Examination form Oral exam based on written product

In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and the individual oral performance.
Individual or group exam Individual
Individual oral exam, using a synopsis as the starting point. The synopsis, written in English and delivered at least two weeks before the examination, is to be produced by one student (3-5 pages) or by group work with 2-4 students (maximum 8 pages).
Size of written product Max. 5 pages
Individual oral exam, using a synopsis as the starting point. The synopsis, written in English and delivered at least two weeks before the examination, is to be produced by one student (3-5 pages) or by group work with 2-4 students (maximum 8 pages).
Assignment type Synopsis
Duration
Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner
Exam period Autumn Term
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Course content and structure

This course is about business firms and other organizations that master their "hidden resources and capabilities" (intangible assets) when shaping strategy, managing innovation and incremental change, and creating value.

  1. Course participants are offered a variety of analytical approaches to identify, measure and assess intangibles in organizations and in networks of organizations.
  2. We will discuss how to put intangibles into effective use, thereby also promoting more "knowledge-intensive" or intelligent" organizations to succeed in highly competitive and swiftly changing environments.
  3. Focus is put on effective modes of managing intangibles in large corporations and public institutions as well as in small and medium-sized business enterprises, including start-up firms.
  4. The course is analytical as well as practical in orientation by exploring original case material from comparative research on firms operating globally and in six countries in Europe (Denmark, Italy, Spain) and Asia (China, India, Vietnam).

The course is based on individual readings and combines lectures with group work and plenary discussions, plus case presentations. Such mini-workshops linked to the lectures/plenary sessions are essential parts of the course. Here, the case presentations are discussed and the students will be able to introduce project ideas and draft papers that could be edited into synopsis to be used during the final examination.
Teaching methods
The eight sessions of the course are structured according to international textbook materials, currently being debated among by the course organizers with support from more than 30 specialists on strategy and management in Asia and Europe.

Apart from the lectures and other presentations, the course is a combination of several types of learning and builds on continuous interaction during the course period of eight weeks with other CBS teachers, external experts and resource persons from business and the public sector:

1. Reviews of analytical perspectives on the management and measuring of intangibles and on ‘knowledge-intensive’ or ‘intelligent’ organizations.

2. Extensive readings (of required and optional literature).

3. Brief group presentations and assessments of various methods, tools or instruments for strategy making and value creation in practice.

Course participants will benefit from a quality assurance approach, developed at the CBS to make this course more relevant and adaptive to changing student demands. An elected group of course participants will support the course coordinator and the lecturers in securing a high level of quality and relevance of the contents of the course. The work of the quality assurance group (which meets briefly every week – immediately after class) will be pro-active and benefit from the flexible course organization. The quality assurance group should influence positively also the week-by-week planning of the joint course work.
Expected literature

Examples of course readings:
 

Rumelt, Richard (2011). Good Strategy/Bad Strategy. New York: Crown Business, Chapter 12 (“Using advantage”), pp. 160-177.
 
Hagel, John & J. S. Brown (2008). From Transactional Markets to Relational Networks. Stanford, Stanford University: Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (selected pages).
 
Kaplan, Robert S. & D. P. Norton (2004). Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes. Boston, Harvard Business School Press, pp. 29-56.

Ciborra, C. U. and R. Andreu (2002). Knowledge across Boundaries: Managing Knowledge in Distributed Organizations.The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organizational Knowledge. Edited by C. W. Choo and N. Bontis. Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 575-586.
  
Mouritsen, Jan & H. T. Larsen (2005). "The 2nd wave of knowledge management: The management control of knowledge resources through intellectual capital formation." Management Accounting Research 16, pp. 371-394.
 
Kahneman, Daniel (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Chapter 19 (“The illusion of understanding”), pp. 199-208.
 
Kaplan, Robert S. (2010). Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard. Cambridge, Harvard Business School Working Paper 10-074, pp. 1-36.
 
Raustiala, Kal & Christopher Jon Sprigman (2006). ”The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and intellectual property in fashion design”. Virginia Law Review, Vol. 92, selected pages. (UCLA School of Law Research Paper No. 06-04.) 

Giraudeau, M. (2012). “Imagining (the Future) Business: How to Make Firms with Plans?”, in Imagining Organizations: Performative Imagery in Business and Beyond. Edited by F.-R. Puyou, P. Quattrone, et al. New York: Routledge, pp. 213-229. 
Last updated on 22-03-2013