AØKA08101U Strategic Management

Volume 2020/2021
Education

MSc programme in Economics – elective course

 

Bacheloruddannelsen i økonomi – valgfag fra 2. år

The Danish BSc programme in Economics - elective from the 2nd year

 

Tilvalgsuddannelsen i Erhvervsøkonomi - valgfag på KA delen

Content

The teaching in this course may be changed to be taught either fully or partly online due to COVID-19. For further information, see the course room on Absalon. The time, place and type of assessment used for the exam may also be changed due to COVID-19, and any further information will be announced under the panel “Exam”.

The aim of the course is to provide students with an analytical qualitative foundation for developing a business strategy for an organization based on tools within the area of strategic management, and drawing on different theories of economic value creation.

 

The course start by explaining some central terms, concept, and definition in the area of strategy as for instance the mission, vision and strategy of an organization, and we will look into some different ways in which a strategy can be developed. In connection to this we will discuss behaviouralisme and the idea of bounded rationality.  

 

Next we will focus on how we can map and analyze the environment of a company and on how Porters Five Forces framework build on the neoclassical theory and the structure of conduct performance paradigm. Further we well determine competitive advantages and how economic value is created through the internal resources, activities, and competencies of the firm. Here we draw on the resource based view and evolutionary economic theory. Furthermore tools for mapping and analyzing the political and cultural context of the company will be presented and in connection to this we will focus on principal/agent theory and behavoralistic theory.  

 

After this we will discuss how corporate strategies, business/competitive strategies, international strategies, growth strategies and strategies on innovation can be developed. We will look into the different roles for the patterning company and the size of the corporation drawing on transaction cost theory. When looking at the competitive strategies of the company we will discuss the importance of long-term commitment, game theory, neo-institutional theory and constitutional theory. Furthermore we will be concerned with entrepreneurship and innovation and some of Schumpeters ideas of value creation. We will also explain what kind of route companies develop through over the long-term view and what kind of classical growth problems they are faces with during this development. Finally, in this section we will look at how we can evaluate different strategies concerning their suitability, acceptability, and feasibility.    

 

In the last section of the course we will exemplify how companies can implement their strategies through organizing the company, develop its functional areas and by managing strategic change. Again we will return to the ideas of bounded rationality and the management of stakeholders introduced within behavioural theory.

Learning Outcome

After completing the course the student is expected to be able to:

 

Knowledge

  • Define concepts, models, processes and perspectives within the field of strategic management and in relevant terms.
  • Identify the terms, models and processes of strategic management.
  • Identify strategic problems within organizations and industries.

 

Skills

  • Asses strategic problems within organizations and industries.
  • Analyze strategic problems and argue for relevant strategic solutions
  • Analyze organizations and their environments. 
  • Develop strategies and create a strategy implementation plan.
  • Debate about organizations and their environment within a clear and accurate language that makes use of relevant terms and concepts from the field of strategic management and relevant economic theories.
  • Argue for and evaluate the strength and weakness of the applied terms, concepts, models, processes and perspectives within the field of strategic management in relation to the behind economic theories.

 

Competences

  • Manage and implement different strategy models and processes drawn on different types of economic theory.
  • Johnson, Whittington, Scholes, Angwin & Regnér: ”Exploring Strategy Twelfth  Edition”, Financial Time/Prentice Hall 2020. (530 pages) ISBN 978-1-292-28251-0

  • Joseph T. Maghoney: “Economic Foundations of Strategy”, Saga Publications 2005. (200 pages)

  • Mehmet Barca: “Economic Foundations of Strategic Management”, Ashgate 2003 (selected parts).

In order to follow this course a basic understanding of micro and macroeconomics is necessary as from Principle of Economics A (Økonomiske Principper A) and Principle of Economics B (Økonomiske Principper B) at the first year of the Bachelor in Economics, University of Copenhagen.
Within the classes a combination of lectures, group work, student speeches and plenum discussion are applied. As a consequence students must prepare the text and cases in advanced. Further students must be willing to engage in presentation and discussion of text and cases.
Schedule:
3 hours lectures a week from week 36 to 48 (except week 42).

Schema:
The overall schema for the BA 3rd year and Master can be seen at KUnet:
MSc in Economics => "Courses and teaching" => "Planning and overview" => "Your timetable"
BA i Økonomi/KA i Økonomi => "Kurser og undervisning" => "Planlægning og overblik" => "Dit skema"

Timetable and venue:
To see the time and location of the lectures please press the link under "Timetable"/​"Se skema" at the right side of this page. E means Autumn.

You can find the similar information partly in English at
https:/​/​skema.ku.dk/​ku2021/​dk/​module.htm
-Select Department: “2200-Økonomisk Institut” (and wait for respond)
-Select Module:: “2200-E20; [Name of course]”
-Select Report Type: “List – Weekdays”
-Select Period: “Efterår/Autumn – Weeks 31-5”
Press: “ View Timetable”
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 40
  • Preparation
  • 165,7
  • Exam
  • 0,3
  • Total
  • 206,0
Oral
Individual
Collective

 

The students receive oral feedback on their case presentation and the oral discussions in the class.

Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination, 20 min
- individual oral ONLINE exam without preparation.
The exam must be performed in English. It is no longer possible to perform the oral exam in Danish/Scandinavian otherwise through a received dispensation.
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Exam registration requirements

To qualify for the exam the student must during the course make a group presenation of a case.

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Aid
All aids allowed

 

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Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
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Exam period

The exam takes place:

Week 49 and/or a few days in week 50, December 2020.

The exact dates will be decided and informed by the Exam office through the Digital Exam portal.

 

Exam information:

For enrolled students more information about examination, rules etc. is available at Master students (UK), Master students (DK) and Bachelor students (DK).

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Re-exam

The reexam takes place:

Week 7 and/or 8, February 2021. (Changed from week 8/9)

The exact dates will be decided and informed by the Exam office through the Digital Exam portal.

 

Reexam information:

More information is available at  Master students (UK), Master students (DK) and Bachelor students (DK).

Criteria for exam assesment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the course.

 

To receive the top grade, the student must with no or only a few minor weaknesses be able to demonstrate an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes.

 

In order to acquire the mark 12 within the course Strategic Management the student must demonstrate an ability to:

  • Account for relevant terms, concepts, models, processes and perspectives within the field of strategic management and be able to relate these to different perspectives on economic theory and value creation.
  • Identify and solve strategic problemswithin organizations and industries by applying relevant terms, concepts, models, processes and perspectives from the discipline of strategic managementon either cases or real organizations.
  • Discuss and evaluate the strength and weakness of the applied terms, concepts, models, processes and perspectives within the field of strategic managementin relation to the behind economic theories.
  • Argue for organisations and their environment within a clear and accurate language that make use of relevant terms and concept from the field of strategic managementand economic theory.