English   Danish

2025/2026  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, Third Quarter
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants 60
Study board
Study Board of General Management
Course coordinator
  • Stig Hartmann - Department of Accounting (AA)
Main academic disciplines
  • Management
  • Organisation
  • Strategy
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 30-01-2025

Relevant links
Learning objectives
  • 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.

Please note that the elective course is reserved for HA students who wish to write their bachelor project in this elective course.
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): 1
Compulsory home assignments
The students participate in at least one mandatory oral group presentation in class during the course
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
Release of assignment The Assignment is released in Digital Exam (DE) at exam start
Duration 48 hours to prepare
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Winter and Spring
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

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.
Research-based teaching
CBS’ programmes and teaching are research-based. The following types of research-based knowledge and research-like activities are included in this course:
Research-based knowledge
  • Classic and basic theory
  • Models
Research-like activities
  • Data collection
  • Analysis
Description of the 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.
Feedback during the teaching period
Office hours for feedback / Regular short assignments / Pre-tests
Student workload
Teaching in class 38 hours
Preparation 98 hours
Exam 72 hours
Further Information

The maximum numbers of participants are 60 due to the teaching and exam format


 
Expected literature

Tentative literature:
Whittington, Angwin, Regnér, Johnson & Scholes: ”Exploring Strategy – Text only – Thirteenth Edition”, Pearson Education 2023 (500 pages).

 

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 30-01-2025