APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2015/2016

GRA 2411 Strategic Management

Responsible for the course
Erik Aadland, Bente Løwendahl

Department
Department of Strategy and Logistics

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
6

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
Course Overview

Strategy is the art and science of making choices. Strategy is concerned with the means by which actors achieve their objectives. The field of strategic management has substantially affected corporate behavior. Concepts such as competitive advantage, capabilities, resources, tacit knowledge, and positioning are not merely used frequently in organizations but are also employed in decision making with the aim of attaining organizational goals in contemporary business.

The understanding of the antecedents and consequences of competition and competitiveness is pivotal for the strategic management of organizations. Management thought is continuously evolving encompassing ideas such as sustainable competitive positions, economies of scale and scope, core competences, dynamic capabilities, and networks. In recent years management thought has focused on unrelentingly pursuing courses of action and speed. John Chambers, Cisco’s CEO, even proposes that the race will be won not be those who are big but by those who are fast. Furthermore, the growing economic interdependence among countries and organizations challenges our understanding of positioning and competitive advantage.

This course is concerned with the overall strategic management of organizations. It takes a top management as oppose to functional management perspective. We will particularly examine the frameworks and concepts employed by mangers when they make decisions which govern the scope, direction and competitive positioning of organizations, and when they make sense of environmental and organizational complexities.

Learning outcome
After undertaking this course you will:
Be able to employ tools to analyze situations and think strategically;
Be acquainted with the idiosyncrasies of top management as opposed to functional management;
Be able to demonstrate an awareness of the key challenges facing managers in the implementation and execution of strategy;
Be aware of the major debates and multiple perspectives that currently prevail in the field of strategy.

Prerequisites

All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have spesific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.

Compulsory reading
Books:
Thompson, Arthur A. ... [et al.]. 2012. Crafting and executing strategy : the quest for competitive advantage: concepts and cases. European ed. McGraw Hill/Irwin

Other:
During the course there may be hand-outs and other material on additional topics relevant for the course and the examination.


Recommended reading
Books:
Barney, Jay B. 2014. Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. 4th ed. Pearson new international ed. Pearson
Grant, Robert M. 2013. Contemporary strategy analysis: text and cases. 8th ed. Wiley. NB: The cases are included in this edition of the book
Johnson, Gerry ... [et al.]. 2014. Exploring strategy. 10th ed. Pearson Education. Tidligere utg. med tittel: Exploring corporate strategy
Lampel, Joseph ... [et al.]. 2014. The strategy process: concepts, contexts, cases. 5th ed. Pearson Education
Porter, Michael E. 1998. Competitive strategy : techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. Free Press

Course outline
Topic overview
Overview of the strategy field
Strategic frameworks and theory
Strategic analysis (external and internal)
Value configurations
Competition under demand side increasing returns conditions
Competitive strategies
Strategy implementation

Computer-based tools
Not applicable

Learning process and workload
Lectures, discussions and guest lecturers. A course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of 160-180 hours.

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
Your course grade will be based on the following activities and weights:
30% Individual in-class contributions to class discussions.
30% Take home examination/Group Case: 48 hour take home case analysis and report performed in groups of 3 students.
40% Individual 3-hour written exam.