GRA 6829 Strategies for Industrial Competitiveness

APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2012/2013

GRA 6829 Strategies for Industrial Competitiveness Responsible for the course Torger Reve Department Department of Strategy and Logistics Term According to study plan ECTS Credits 6 Language of instruction English Introduction The course explores the determinants of industrial competitiveness and successful economic development viewed from a bottom-up, microeconomic perspective. While sound macroeconomic policies and stable legal and political institutions create the potential for industrial competitiveness, wealth is actually created at the microeconomic and firm levels. The sophistication and productivity of firms, the vitality of industrial clusters, the quality of the business environment and the strategies of firms are the ultimate determinants of the productivity and innovation capacity of nations, regions and industries. Learning outcome The main learning objectives of GRA 6829 "Strategies for Industrial Competitiveness" are: - To make students acknowledge the symbiotic nature of businesses, legal institutions, culture, history, resources, education, and research - and that the development and prosperity of a region/country is dependent on the interaction between these factors - To enable students to use the diamond framework of Michael Porter's "On Competition" to assess and influence the potential of industries and economic regions - To enable students to perform a strategic analysis of an industry, an industrial cluster or a region and drawing policy implications from the analysis Hence, the students should have a broad view on value creation in societies, understanding the role of knowledge and innovation, and they should be able to identify areas where collaboration among specific institutions are crucial to gain welfare effects. The students should learn how to perform, write and present strategic analyses of firms, industries and regions, at the quality level of leading international consulting firms. The students should learn how to make international location decisions, analyzing the economic and political environment and taking into account the loctional knowledge base available to the firms. The students should learn how to analyze and formulate industrial policies, understanding the complex interactions between business and society. Prerequisites The course is a required MSc course for students specializing in strategy, and the course is an elective course for all other MSc students. There are no prerequisite GRA course requirements. The students should have a Bachelor degree in business, economics or political science, with a basic understanding of strategy and microeconomics. The course is global in its coverage of topics and markets. Active participation in case discussions is required, and the work load is substantial. Compulsory reading Books: Porter, Michael E. 2008. On competition. Updated and exp. ed. Harvard Businesss School Articles: Mercedes Delgado, Christian Ketels, Michael E. Porter, and Scott Stern. 2011. The Determinants of National Competitiveness”. Harvard Business School Working Paper. 46p Porter, Michael E. 2011. Creating shared values. Harvard business review. January – February. 62-77 Reve, Torger. 1996. Toward an Integrative Model of Sterategy Development: From dynamic clusters to core capabilities. I: Falkenberg, Joyce and Sven A. Haugland, eds., Rethinking the boundaries of strategy. Handelshøjskolens forlag. pp 103-122 Reve, Torger. 2011. From industrial clusters to global knowledge hubs. Working paper: BI Centre for maritime Competitiveness. pp 63-76 Collection of articles: Harvard Business School Case Collection Recommended reading Course outline In this graduate course we will present the diamond model, the emerald model and the development of industrial clusters in advanced, emerging and developmental economies. The model is extended to include current research on knowledge based competitiveness. The course will draw on recently completed research from the large national research project “A knowledge-based Norway” (www.ekn.no), headed by professor Torger Reve and associate professor Amir Sasson. Strategies at both corporate level, cluster level and national level will be discussed, integrating variables at the business, industry and societal level. Thus the course is targeting both students of business and strategy and students of political economy. The empirical approach is global, and the students are asked to analyse industries at all continents. The course is offered in cooperation with Professor Michael E. Porter, Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School, and his highly successful, second year Harvard MBA course, Microeconomics of Competitiveness (MOC). The Harvard MOC Network now consists of more than 100 universities in 70 different countries. BI students taking GRA 6829 will have free electronic access to lectures and case discussions at Harvard, and extensive net based data resources at Harvard Business School are available for project work. This also includes free downloading of the HBS cases used in the course. 1. Firms and Industries Introduction to Competitiveness The Drivers of Competitiveness Industry Competition, Strategy and Locations Competing Across Borders Globalization and Internationalization of Firms 2. The Microeconomic Business Environment The Diamond Model: Advanced Economies The Diamond Model: Transitional Economies The Diamond Model: Developing Economies Developing Cluster Charts The Emerald Model: Knowledge-based Policies 3. Industrial Cluster Development Clusters and Competitiveness Natural Resource Based Clusters Knowledge Based Cluster The Global Knowledge Hub Model Institutions for Collaboration Mechanisms for Cluster Upgrading 4. Economic Strategy for Industries, Regions and Nations National Economic Strategies Role of Government Regional Economic Strategies Economic Strategies: Emerging and Developing Economies Asian Competitiveness and the Role of the BRIC countries Computer-based tools Harvard Business School Electronic Course Platform and Flash Player 8 Media Software and Netscape 7.x http://isites.hbs.edu/index.jhtml?site=3188 BIs Learning Platform: It’s Learning Learning process and workload A course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of 160-180 hours. The course is structured as a combination of short lectures and extensive case discussions, as well as selected top level guest lectures. The Harvard Business School (HBS) format of the course requires that the students should prepare extensively for case discussions in class. It is simply impossible to come to class unprepared for the topic to be discussed. Half of the cases are taught using the HBS case approach where all students are expected to participate actively in case discussions on an individual basis, while half of the cases are taught using the Kellogg case approach in which the study groups prepare structured case presentations in advance. Class sessions may be audio- and videotaped, and the class output can be shared with other universities in the Harvard Microeconomics of Competitiveness (MOC) network. The students are required to undertake a group project analysing the competitiveness and cluster development of a specific industry or region. The empirical settings for these group projects are provided by the large national research project: “A knowledge-based Norway” (www.ekn.no), but students are free to choose industries in any country. Students also have an excellent chance to write their MSc theses within the framework of the course. The best student project is entered into the Harvard MOC project competition, and both in 2008 and in 2011 BI MSc students have won this international competition. The winning paper and the video taped project presentation by Joachim Espen and Marius Nordkvelde on Oslo Cancer Cluster (2008) and by Morten Finslo, Rune Steihaug and Javad Mushtaq on Oslo Maritime Finance Cluster (2011) are available as a quality benchmark on It’s Learning. Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/It's learning or text book. Examination The evaluation in the course consists of two elements: Active class participation in case discussions and case presentations (50%), based on detailed recording and evaluation of every student participation item in class Group project (50%), based on hand in of written report and presentation material All parts of the evaluation must be passed in order to obtain a grade in the course Specific information regarding student evaluation beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for termpapers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation. This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam elements) and one final exam code. Each exam element will be graded using points on a scale (e.g. 0-100). The elements will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades on the course site in It’s learning. Examination code(s) GRA 68291 accounts for 100% of the final grade in the course GRA 6829 Examination support materials Exam aids at written examinations are explained under exam information in our web-based Student handbook. Please note use of calculator and dictionary. http://www.bi.edu/studenthandbook/examaids Re-sit examination It is only possible to retake an examination when the course is next taught. The assessment in some courses is based on more than one exam code. Where this is the case, you may retake only the assessed components of one of these exam codes. Where this is not the case, all of the assessed components of the course must be retaken. All retaken examinations will incur an additional fee. Additional information Honor code Academic honesty and trust are important to all of us as individuals, and represent values that are encouraged and promoted by the honor code system. This is a most significant university tradition. Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the ideals of the honor code system, to which the faculty are also deeply committed. Any violation of the honor code will be dealt with in accordance with BI’s procedures for cheating. These issues are a serious matter to everyone associated with the programs at BI and are at the heart of the honor code and academic integrity. If you have any questions about your responsibilities under the honor code, please ask.

© Copyright BI Norwegian Business School