AØKK08081U Seminar: Strategic Management

Volume 2019/2020
Education

MSc programme in Economics

The seminar is primarily for students at the MSc of Economics.

 

It is not possible to be registered at this seminar if the Danish version: Strategisk ledelse (AØKK08347U) have been passed.

It is not allowed to participate in both seminars at the same time.

Content

Autumn 2019:

The purpose is to train students in applying classical and new models, approaches, and perspectives in Strategic Management on industries and organizations in order to come up with suggestions for top managers concerning actions for the long term development of the organization. In order to construct a budget or to evaluate the economic value of a company or to make investment decision regarding a company it is normally necessary to understand the corporate strategy of the corporation.

 

Specific examples of seminar assignments include:

  • An analysis of an industry and a firm (business unit) and, based on this, a development of one or more strategies for the company, for example a competition strategy, a growth strategy, a strategy for internationalization and/or a strategy for innovation.
  • An industry analysis which lead to the identification of trends within the industry and further an analysis of how these trends will affect different groups of companies within the industry.
  • An analysis of a specific company, or a specific business united of the firm that identifies relevant activities, resources and competencies as well as an evaluation of these in order to propose a development of these activities, resources and competencies.
  • An analysis of the role of a corporate center, and of the corporation’s portfolio of subsidiaries (business areas). Furthermore, a suggestion for an adjustment of the corporate centers role, and for an adjustment of the portfolio of business units. This could be followed by a suggestion for an appropriate overall organizational structure for the corporate group.
  • An evaluation of an existing strategy for a business (business area).
  • An analysis of the situation and context of a company and, on the basis of this, provide suggestions on how the strategy development can take place or how a strategy can be implemented.

 

Spring 2020:

The purpose of the seminar is to train students in applying strategy models on companies and industries and to make recommendations to management regarding the company's overall and long-term development. Examples of seminars could be:

1) To develop a concrete business strategy for a company consisting of e.g. a competitive and growth strategy based on analysis of the company's environment and internal circumstances.

2) To develop an analysis of a specific industry in order to identify the future winners and losers of that industry.

3) To analysis a specific department’s or specific business area's activities, resources and competencies in order to propos how the areas resources and competencies could be strengthen for the future.

Learning Outcome

In addition to the learning outcome specified in the Curriculum the student is after completing the seminar expected to be able to:

 

Knowledge:

  • Show knowledge and understanding of concepts and models within the field of strategic management.
  • Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the industry and the company that is under investigation.

 

Skills:

  • Identify and formulate a clear goal with associated problems for the seminar.
  • Account for relevant choices of models within the field of strategic management.
  • Use the concepts and models within the field of strategic management to solve the (identified) problem(s).
  • Base analyzes on relevant and sufficient empirical data.
  • Summarize each analysis in a clear sub-conclusion.

 

Competences:

  • Evaluate and discuss an industry's current and future attractiveness and, where appropriate, evaluate who would be the future winners and losers.
  • Assess and discuss a company's strategic advantages (activities, resources and competencies) and assess whether it has significant strategic disadvantages.
  • Develop strategies for a company (or for groups of companies) based on analyzes of the company and its environment and discuss the possibilities for maintaining and implementing the developed strategies.
Literature

“Exploring Strategy - Text and Cases – Eleventh Edition”, by Johnson, Whittington, Scholes, Angwin & Regnér published by Pearson Education 2017.  ISBN 978-1-292-14517-4

BSc in Economics or similar
The seminar covers the practical application of strategic models and concepts on specific industries and/or companies.

It is recommended to have followed the course Strategic Management before or in parallel to the seminar but is not a prerequisite.
Activities:
- Kick-off meeting
- Finding literatur and defining the project
- Writing process of the seminar paper
- Presentation of own project and paper
- Giving constructive feedback to another student´s paper
- Actively participating in discussions at the presentations and other meetings.

At the seminar the student is trained independently to
- identify and clarify a problem,
- seek and select relevant literatur,
- write a academic paper,
- present and discuss own paper with the other students at the seminar.

The aim of the presentations is, that the student uses the presentation as an opportunity to practice oral skills and to receive feedback. The presentations is not a part of the exam and will not be assessed.

There is no weekly teaching/lecturing and the student cannot expect guidance from the teacher. If the teacher gives a few introduction lectures or gives the opportunity for guidance, this as well as other expectations are clarified at the kickoff meeting.

Process:
It is strongly recommended that you think about and search for a topic before the semester begins, as there is only a few weeks from the kick-off meeting to the submission of the project description/ agreement paper.

Before the presentations, your nearly finished version of the seminar project paper must be uploaded in Absalon, as the opponents and the other seminar participants have to read and comment on the paper. It is important that you upload a paper that is so finalized as possible due to the fact that the value of feedback and comments at the presentation is strongly associated with the skill level of the seminar paper.

After the presentations, you can with a few corrections improve the seminar paper by including the feedback and comments emerged during the presentations. It is NOT intended that you rewrite or begin the writing of the full project AFTER the presentation has taken place.
Schedule: Suggestions of dates in the seminar:

Autumn 2019:
• Kick-off meeting: 2th of September 2019 from 14.15 – 15.00
• Commitment paper: Not later than 16th of September
• Individual supervision: 26th and 27th of September between 09:00 and 16:00
• Upload of nearly finished paper at Absalon no later than the 21th of April at 10 AM
• Presentations: Thursday the 7th of November and Thursday the 14th of November

Spring 2020:
• Kick-off meeting: 3th of February from 14.15 – 15.00
• Max. half a page of commitment paper: Not later than Monday the 17th of February at 10 AM
• Half an hour of individual supervision: 19th, 20th and 21th of February
• Deadline pre-paper: 21th of April before 10 AM
• Presentationsdays: 11th, 12th and 13th of May

All information regarding the seminar is communicated through Absalon including venue. So it is very important that you by yourself logon to Absalon and read the information already when you are registered at the seminar.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Project work
  • 186
  • Seminar
  • 20
  • Total
  • 206
Oral
Individual
Collective
Feedback by final exam (In addition to the grade)
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written examination
A seminar paper in English that meets the formal requirements for written papers stated in the curriculum and at KUNet for seminars.
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Exam registration requirements

Attendance in all  activities at the seminar as stated in the formal requrements in the Curriculum  and at the KUnet for Seminars (UK)  and  Seminars (DK)  is required to participate in the exam.

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Aid
All aids allowed

for the seminar paper.

The teacher defines the aids that must be used for the presentations.

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

Exam information:

Autumn 2019:

Deadline for submitting the final seminar paper: December 2, 2019 before 10 AM

Spring 2020:

Deadline for submitting the final seminar paper: June 2, 2020 before 10 AM

 

Exam information:

The seminar paper must be uploaded to the Digital Exam. More information will be available from the middle of the semester.

 

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

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Re-exam

Reexam information:

The reexam is a written seminar paper as stated in the Curriculum.

Deadline and more information is available at Seminars(UK) and Seminars(DK).

More information about reexam etc is available at Master(UK)andMaster(DK).

Criteria for exam assesment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the seminar and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes in the Curriculum of the Master programme.

 

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.