• - Knowledge about and understanding of relevant terms, concepts, processes and perspectives within the field of strategic management in different contexts.
• - An ability to identify a specific strategic context and analyse this context in order to diagnose strategic, managerial and organizational problems by utilizing terms and concepts from the course.
• - An ability to discuss relevant strategic issues for an organization/industry by applying terms, processes and perspectives from the course.
• - An ability to develop specific solutions and recommendations within a specific strategic context by applying terms and concepts from the course.

First, we look at different perspectives on strategy, management and organization, including the different elements of a company and its context (environment).

This lead to a deep discussion of working with strategy, management and organizing in a number of specific contexts, namely: The entrepreneurial context; the large mass production/service context; the professional service context, the innovative context; and the divisional/corporate context. For each of these contexts we go in depth with the characteristics of the context including the typical drivers of the industries, the business model/logic of the companies, the formation of strategy, the managerial challenges of creating efficiency and innovation, how strategy can be developed and manage and how organizations in each of these context typically change and develop over time.   

In the last part of the course we go into deep discussions of a number of specific challenges to strategic management in many companies, namely: How do companies deal with the challenges of globalization? How do managers deal with the uncertainty of new and changing/disruptive technology? How do organizations cope with strategic alliances and changing values? We connect these issues to the above mentioned contexts and we focus on developing relevant managerial processes.    

Overall the course provides a comprehensive tool for diagnosing a company, as a manager, as a consultant, or as an job seeker, and up front know the kind of opportunities and challenges the organization typically is faced with concerning leadership, strategy and organizing.

H. Mintzberg, J. Lampel, J.B.Quinn & S. Ghoshal: “The Strategy Process – Concepts, Contexts, Cases” Fifth Edition, Pearson Education 2014. ISBN 978-0-273-71628-0 (500 pages of original articles from academic A & B journals)

D. Bach and D. Allan: “What every CEO needs to know about nonmarket strategies”, in Sloan Management Review, August 2012, pp. 22-38.

J.B. Barney, D.J. Ketchen Jr, and M. Wright, “The future of the resource-based theory: revitalization or decline?”, in Journal of Management, vol. 37 no. 5 (2011) pp. 1299 - 1315 

J. Parnell, “Generic strategies after two decades: a reconceptualization of competitive strategy”, in Management Decision, vol. 48, no. 8 (2006), pp. 1139-1154.

M. Nippa, U. Pidua, and H. Rubner, “Corporate portfolio management: appraising four decades of academic research”, in Academy of Management Perspectives, November 2011, pp. 50-66.

F. Neffke and M. Henning, “Skill relatedness and firm diversification”, Strategic Management Journal, vol. 34, no. 3, (2013), pp. 297-316.

M. Alexander and H. Korine, “When you shouldn’t go global”, in Harvard Business Review (December 2008), pp. 70-77.     

D.J. Teece, “Business models, business strategy and Innovation”, in Long Range Planning, vol. 43, no. ¾, (2010) 172-194, (Special Issue on business models)

J. Bower and C. Christensen, “Disruptive technologies: catching the wave”, in Harvard Business Review, vol. 73, no. 1, (1995) pp. 43 – 53.

P. Audia and C. Rider, “a garage and an idea: what more does an entrepreneur need?” in California Management Review, vol. 40, no. 1 (2005) pp. 6-28.

R. Grant: “Strategic planning in a turbulent environment: evidence from the oil majors’”, in Strategic Management Journal, vol. 24 (2003) pp. 491-517.

S. Elbanna: “Strategic decision making: process perspectives”, in International Journal of Management Review, vol. 8, no. 1. (2006), pp. 1-20.

D. Miller and I. Le Breton-Miller: “Management insights from great and struggling family businesses’”, in Long Range Planning, vol. 38, (2005), pp. 517-530.

M. Goold and A. Campbell: “Do you have a well-designed organisation?”, in Harvard Business Review, vol. 80, no. 3, (2002).

J. Kotter: “What leaders really do”, Harvard Business Review, (December 2001) pp. 85-96.

D.A. Garvin and M.A. Roberto: “Change through persuasion”, in Harvard Business Review, (February 2005), pp. 104-112.