AØKA08101U Strategic Management

Volume 2021/2022
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 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 or similar courses.
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.


Restrictions due to Coronavirus:
The teaching in this course may be changed to be taught either fully or partly online due to COVID-19. For further information, please see the course room on Absalon (for enrolled students).
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/​ku2122/​dk/​module.htm
-Select Department: “2200-Økonomisk Institut” (and wait for respond)
-Select Module:: “2200-E21; [Name of course]”
-Select Report Type: “List – Weekdays”
-Select Period: “Efterår/Autumn”
Press: “ View Timetable”

Please be aware:
- It is the students´s own responsibility to continuously update themselves about their studies, their teaching, their schedule, their exams etc. through the curriculum of the study programme, the study pages at KUnet, student messages, the course description, the Digital Exam portal, Absalon, the personal schema at KUnet and myUCPH app etc.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 40
  • Preparation
  • 165,3
  • Exam
  • 0,7
  • 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 exam with around 17 minutes preparation time.

The exam must be performed in English. It is not possible to perform the oral exam in Danish/Scandinavian otherwise the student have received a dispensation through the Study Administration.

Changes due to Coronavirus:
In the event of COVID-19 restrictions, the oral exam and re-sit might change to a 20 min. oral ONLINE exam with all aids, but without preparation time. If done so, the changes will be announced in study messages at KUnet, in the Digital Exam portal and here in the Exam section of the course description.
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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

At the oral examinations it is only allowed to look into keywords on the written one page paper made during the preparation time.

Bookes and written notes are allowed during the preparation time.

Electronic devices of any kind are not allowed.

 

In the event of COVID-19 restrictions, the oral exam and re-sit might change to oral ONLINE exam with all aids, but without preparation time.

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

The regular exam takes place:

8 th to 10 th and/or 13th to 15th of December 2021.

 

Exam information:

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

In special cases decided by the Department, the exam can change to another place, type, day and/or time than announced.

 

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 2022. Or when decided by the lecturer and the Exam Office.

 

Reexam information:

Information about the reexam day, time and place will be available in the Digital Exam early February.

In special cases decided by the Department the re-exam can change to another type, day and/or time than announced.

 

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.

 

In order to obtain the top grade “12”, 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.

Including to 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.

 

In order to obtain the passing grade “02”, the student must in a satisfactory way be able to demonstrate a minimal acceptable level of  the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes.