English   Danish

2016/2017  BA-BHAAV6006U  Corporate Strategy

English Title
Corporate Strategy

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Bachelor
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Autumn, Spring, Fourth Quarter
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants 60
Study board
Study Board for BSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Stig Hartmann - Department of Accounting and Auditing (AA)
Main academic disciplines
  • Management
  • Organization
  • Strategy
Last updated on 22-02-2016
Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors: 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.
Course prerequisites
Students are required to have a basic knowledge of business economics and organizational theory. The course has a progression compared with the mandatory course in Strategy at the HA education, as it goes more in depth with the classical and new models in the field of strategic management. Further it links the strategic models to the classical and new perspectives on economic theory.
Examination
Corporate Strategy:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
Assignment type Case based assignment
Duration 72 hours to prepare
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Winter and Summer
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Course content and structure

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 an exam project and case as well as student presentations and plenum discussions.
The presentation of the text book, cases and supplementary curricullum linking strategy to different new economoc perspectives is avalible on 23 hours of video clip on the course homepage on CBS Learn.
Student workload
Teaching in class 36 hours
Preparation 98 hours
Exam 72 hours
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.

Schedule: Tuesday 11.40-14.25, week 36-41, 43-48.
Changes in schedule may occur.

 

Expected literature

Tentative literature:

Mandatory

Johnson, Scholes, Whittington, Angwin & Regnér: ”Exploring Strategy – Text only – Tenth Edition”, Pearson Education 2014 (500 pages).

 

Supplimentary
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 22-02-2016