MM276-Business Strategy

Module Provider: International Business and Strategy
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:5
Terms in which taught: Spring term module
Pre-requisites: MM1F12 Markets, Marketing and Strategy or AC103 Introduction to Business and Finance and AC105A Introductory International Financial Accounting A or AC101 Introduction to Accounting or AC110 Introduction to Accounting
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2019/0

Email: j.lane@henley.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

A firm’s strategy answers three fundamental questions: Where should the firm compete? How should it compete to win? How will it continue to win in the long run? Corresponding to these three elements, effective strategists excel at three tasks. First, strategists can identify the factors within the industry environment that influence a firm’s ability to create competitive advantage and outperform rivals. Second, strategists analyse how to configure a firm’s internal activities to increase the value the firm creates and captures so as to give it competitive advantage over rivals. The third distinctive job of the strategist is to sustain the advantage of a company over time in the face of competitive dynamics. The module is the first of a sequence of three strategy modules that builds on the introduction to strategy in module MM1F12-Markets, Marketing and Strategy. MM276 focuses on business strategy (also referred to as competitive strategy). Business strategy is concerned with how the firm develops competitive advantage to beats the averages in its industry and how it sustains competitive advantage over the long run. The module introduces research-based theories, frameworks, concepts, tools and techniques of strategic management to prepare you for each of the strategist’s three jobs.

Aims:

Effective strategists develop a sense of what they must do in the short run for their firms to be healthy in the long run. This module aims to develop students’ abilities to craft and evaluate the overarching strategy of a single business firm to improve the firm’s long-run performance.

By the end of the module it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Students will be able to analyse the strategic choices of a firm in order to appraise its performance and future direction.

2. Students will be able to consider contemporary issues in strategic management, drawing from a sound theoretical underpinning of how strategic choices are made in relation to the context of the firm.

3. Students will be able to evaluate the various strategies firms employ to gain and sustain a competitive advantage.

4. Students will be able to reason the future trajectory of the firm and make critical adjustments to strategy based on current knowledge of the firms’ environment.

5. Students will be able to identify the pragmatic issues with altering the strategy and direction of the firm based on a more developed sense of commercial awareness.

Assessable learning outcomes:

1. Become familiar with the skills required by the strategic leader of a firm from a general management perspective, as strategist, organization builder, and leader, and of how to make decisions that cut across functional and product boundaries of a business unit.

2. Understand the fundamental concepts in strategic management, including strategy identification and evaluation, the relationship between strategy and organization, industry analysis, competitor analysis, firm and industry evolution, and strategic and organizational responses to external change.

3. Apply the tools of the module to significant, relevant, and authentic problems facing the strategist through analyses of cases. Compare and contrast, synthesize and evaluate different theoretical perspectives on strategy.

4. Evaluate impact of external environmental forces and internal stresses on the need for strategic actions by the strategic leader. Hone a capability to bridge financial analysis and strategic analysis, both to interpret performance data and to diagnose sources of high or low business unit performance.

5. Refine habits of orderly and analytical thinking and skill in reporting conclusions effectively in oral and written form.

Additional outcomes:

• Strengthen abilities to learn from a combination of modes, including by individual study, from textbooks and the analysis of cases.

• Enhance employability by developing capabilities to analyse businesses, to formulate good questions, and to make good strategy policy decisions.

• Strengthen career progression by providing a broad understanding of the key strategic dilemmas facing a broad range of functions as they relate to strategy.

• Enhance capabilities to formulate and analyse complex problems, to evaluate alternative solutions and make policy recommendations.

Outline content:

At the level of the firm:

1. The concept of strategy (business strategy, corporate strategy, global strategy)

2. Goals and performance: mission and vision

3. Industry analysis

4. Competitive advantage and the logic of value creation and capture

5. Types of competitive advantage and strategic positioning

6. Value chain analysis, activity analysis, and business models

7. Sustaining competitive advantage over the long run

8. Sources of competitive advantage: resources and capabilities

9. Industry evolution, strategic decline and strategic renewal

10. Strategy in technology-intensive industries

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

Teaching will be delivered in lectures and tutorials.

By the end of the module, students should be able to compare and evaluate the sometimes competing logics and theories presented in the module. 

Teaching materials for MM276 are principally drawn from the adopted module textbook, supplemented by scholarly journal articles, online video content, and business cases drawn from high quality academic journals and publishers, such as; Harvard Business Publishing, The Financial Times and The Economist.

Summative assessment- Examinations:

1 x 2 Hour Written Examination

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

1 x 2,500 Word Group Assignment (due in the first week of the Easter Holidays)

Formative assessment methods:

Tutorials are an opportunity to receive both oral and written feedback on a variety of small group tasks. Tasks are typically a case analysis taken from the module textbook. This way, students receive an opportunity to practice and develop various skillsets related to the two forms of assessment, particularly the group assignment but also relevant transferable writing and analytical skills applicable for the final examination.

Penalties for late submission:

The Module Convenor will apply the following penalties for work submitted late, in accordance with the University policy.

Assessment requirements for a pass:

A weighted average mark of coursework and examination of 40%.

Reassessment arrangements:

Reassessment will require students to sit a written examination during August of the same year.

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

Required textbook for purchase:

Grant, R.M. (2016). Contemporary Strategy Analysis: Text and Cases. 9th Edition. Chichester (UK): Wiley. ISBN: 978-1-119-12084-1. 

RRP: £40

Last updated: 18 July 2019