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2023/2024  KAN-CINTO1901U  Strategy Making and Information Technology

English Title
Strategy Making and Information Technology

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory (also offered as elective)
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Autumn
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Information Systems, MSc
Course coordinator
  • Olivia Benfeldt - Department of Digitalisation (DIGI)
Main academic disciplines
  • Information technology
  • Strategy
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 19-04-2023

Relevant links
Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors:
  • An understanding of the main theoretical traditions in strategic management research
  • An understanding of how organisations grow, compete, and innovate using information and IT as strategic resources
  • An understanding of the key strategic challenges for IT management in organisations
  • An ability to analytically reflect on strategic issues and their interaction with information technology
  • An ability to apply theories of strategic transformations for analysis of real cases
  • An understanding of how corporations use information technology to support existing and enable emerging business models.
Prerequisites for registering for the exam (activities during the teaching period)
Number of compulsory activities which must be approved (see section 13 of the Programme Regulations): 3
Compulsory home assignments
The students have to get 3 out of 5 assignments approved in order to go to the exam.
Each assignment is 2-3 pages and has to be written individually.

The task in the mandatory assignments is to apply concepts and ideas from the class to short case studies / problems in practice.

Students will receive feedback on assignments both individually (at least once) and in class (weekly).

There will not be any extra attempts provided to the students before the ordinary exam.
If a student cannot hand in due to documented illness, or if a student does not get the activity approved in spite of making a real attempt, then the student will be given one extra attempt before the re-exam. Before the re-exam, there will be one home assignment (max. 10 pages) which will cover 3 mandatory assignments.
Examination
Strategy Making and Information Technology:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Written sit-in exam on CBS' computers
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Assignment type Case based assignment
Duration 4 hours
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and external examiner
Exam period Winter
Aids Closed book: no aids
However, at all written sit-in exams the student has access to the basic IT application package (Microsoft Office (minus Excel), digital pen and paper, 7-zip file manager, Adobe Acrobat, Texlive, VLC player, Windows Media Player), and the student is allowed to bring simple writing and drawing utensils (non-digital). PLEASE NOTE: Students are not allowed to communicate with others during the exam.
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
The number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination may warrant that it most appropriately be held as an oral examination. The programme office will inform the students if the make-up examination/re-take examination instead is held as an oral examination including a second examiner or external examiner.
Description of the exam procedure

Individual 4 hour written closed- books exam answering a set of questions. Question are both case-based and theory-based. Exam questions will be made available at the time of the exam. An exam Q&A session will be held during the last week of the class. 
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

The overall objective of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the field of corporate strategy in relation to information technology,. This provides students with the analytical tools and methodologies necessary to take a key role in developing IT strategy. The pedagogical model is intended to familiarize the students with issues in corporate and business strategy as it relates to information technology, and to take the students from theory to strategy formulation through the use of real life case studies.
    
The pedagogical model takes into account that students have different entry level qualifications, since it is assumed that students come with the skills acquired from the BA(im) and HA(it) programs, and international students take the course as an elective.

 

No technical skills are required. However, it is expected that students are familiar with basic concepts from the corporate strategy literature. This means that students without any knowledge about strategy will need to study somewhat harder than those who have this background.
Description of the teaching methods
The course sessions combine lectures, case analyses and guest presentations.

The first session will introduce the theoretical framework guiding the course and highlight key concepts from introductory business and strategy courses to recapture prerequisite knowledge for students.

Sessions 2-10 will each focus on a different IT-strategy challenges facing modern organisations. Typically, the format for sessions 2 – 10 will consist of a lecture and an in-class discussion of a case assignment. Some of the cases will be traditional teaching cases (HBR type but provided free of charge to students), while the remaining cases will be living cases, where CIOs or senior management staff present their IT and information management challenges and how they deal with them.

During workshop exercises, students work in groups to apply concepts and ideas from the class and come to their own conclusions about IT strategy issues that is routed in evidence and data.
Feedback during the teaching period
The main mechanism for feedback on student work in this course are the weekly in-class exercises. During exercises, students will work in groups on problems presented in case studies or by industry experts.

In addition, the course provides the following opportunities for feedback:
- written feedback on assignments will be given to a sample of individual submissions,
- verbal feedback on all submitted assignments during class,
- interactive feedback on course reading and material during workshop seminars,
- feedback on exam preparation will be organized during the last workshop session where mock exam questions are covered and discussed,
- individual and specific questions can be addressed during office hours.
Student workload
Preparation for classes 75 hours
Preparation for 5 cases including submission of written solutions to 3 cases with 2-3 questions each 65 hours
Attending lectures and exercises 40 hours
Preparation for examination 22 hours
Sitting the 4 hour exam 4 hours
Total 206 hours
Expected literature
       

 

The literature can be changed before the semester starts. Students are advised to find the final literature on Canvas before they buy any material.

 

 

 

Author (s)

Title

Publisher / Journal, Vol (Issue)

Pages

Journal papers

 

Bourgeois, L. J. and Patel, L. (2015) 

Note on Post-Merger Integration.

Harvard Business Review Cases. Harvard Business School, UV 1024

8

 

Drnevich , P.L. and Croson, D.C. (2013)

Information Technology and Business-Level Strategy:  Towards an Integrated Theoretical Perspective

MIS Quarterly, 37(2)

26
  Forman, C. and Gron A. (2009)   Vertical Integration and Information Technology Investment in the Insurance Industry      The Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, 27 (1)    20

 

Henningsson, S and Yetton, P.

Towards a theory of Post-acquisition IT integration.

Distributed through Learn

25

 

Hirschheim, R. and Sabherwal, R. (2001)

Detours in the Path toward Strategic Information Systems Alignment

California Management Review, 44(1)

 

22

 

Makadok, R. (2011)

The four theories of profit and their joint effects

Journal of Management, 37(5)

18
  Makadok, R. (2010)     The Interaction Effect of Rivalry Restraint and Competitive Advantage on Profit: Why the Whole Is Less Than the Sum of the Parts     Management Science, 56 (2) 15

 

Mitra, S. (2005)

Information technology as an enabler of growth in firms: an empirical assessment

Journal of Management Information Systems, 22(2)

 

22

 

Meyer, K. E., Wright, M., Pruthi, S. (2009)     
 

Managing Knowledge in Foreign Entry Strategies: A Resource-Based Analysis

Strategic Management Journal 30 (5)

17
  Ray, G., Wu, D., Konana, P., (2009)    Integration        Competitive Environment and the Relationship Between IT and Vertical Information Systems Research, 20 (4)  18
  Lee, O. D., Sambamurthy, V., Lim, K. H., Wei, K. (2015)           How Does IT Ambidexterity Impact Organizational Agility  Information Systems Research, 26 (2)   14

 

Reynolds, P. and Yetton, P. (2015)

Aligning business and IT strategies in multi-business organizations.

Journal of Information Technology, 30(2)

18

 

Sambamurthy, V., Bharadwaj, A., and Grover, V. (2003)

Shaping Agility Through Digital Options: Reconceptualizing the Role of Information Technology in Contemporary Firms

MIS Quarterly, 27(3)

26

 

Sandberg, J., Mathiassen, L, and

Napier, N. (2014)

Digital Options Theory for IT Capability Investment

Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 15(7)

31

 

Tanriverdi, H. (2005)

Information technology relatedness, knowledge management capability, and performance of multibusiness firms.

MIS Quarterly, 29(2)

 

24

 

Tiwana, A. and Konsynski, B. (2010)

Complementarities between organizational IT architecture and governance structure

Information Systems Research, 21(2)

16

 

Toppenberg, G., Henningsson, S. and  Shanks, G. (2015)

How Cisco Systems Used Enterprise Architecture Capability to Sustain Acquisition-Based Growth

MIS Quarterly Executive, 14(4)

10
  Wade, M.,  and Hulland, J. (2004)  The Resource-Based View and Information Systems Research; Review, Extension, and Suggestions for Future Research. MIS Quarterly, 28(1) 22
  Woodard J., Ramasubbu, N., Tschang, F.,  Sambamurthy, V., (2013)            Design Capital and Design Moves: The Logic of Digital Business Strategy MIS Quarterly, 37 (2)  24
  Queiroz, M., Tallon, P. P., Coltman, T., Sharma, R., & Reynolds, P. (2020)           Aligning the IT portfolio with business strategy: Evidence for complementarity of corporate and business unit alignment.  The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 29(3)  18
Last updated on 19-04-2023