Strategic Management: Concepts 2nd Edition

Book Preface

The market responded very positively to the first edition, and I’m grateful for that strong vote of confidence. In this second edition, I built upon the unique strengths of this text and continue to improve it based on hundreds of insightful reviews and important feedback from professors, students, and professionals. The vision for this text is to provide students with core concepts, frameworks, and analysis techniques in strategy that will integrate their functional course offerings and help them become managers who make well-reasoned strategic decisions. It is a research-based strategy text for the issues that managers face in a globalized and turbulent 21 st century, blending theory, empirical research, and practical applications in a student-accessible form.

The competition in the strategy textbook market can be separated into two overarching categories: traditional strategy books, which are the first-generation texts (from the 1980s); and more recent, research-based strategy books, which are the second-generation texts (from the 1990s). This new text is different—a third-generation strategy text, positioned to compete successfully with the primary first- and second-generation incumbents. The third-generation approach you will find here combines the student accessibility and application-oriented frameworks found in first-generation texts with the strategy research in the second-generation texts.

This text synthesizes and integrates theory, empirical research, and practical applications in a unique combination of rigor and relevance. With a single strong voice, the chapters weave together classic and cutting-edge theory with in-chapter cases and strategy highlights, to demonstrate how companies gain and sustain competitive advantage. The strategic intent for the book is to combine quality and value with user-friendliness. In particular, the content of this product is based on the principles discussed next, each of which provides a value-added dimension for instructors or students, or both.
■ Synthesis and integration of rigorous and relevant strategy material . For example, the text includes strategy material that has stood the test of time (such as the resource-based view and Porter’s five forces model) as well as up-to-date strategy material and current research (such as the dynamic capabilities perspective and the triple bottom line). It also includes student-accessible coverage of strategic management research. It draws on articles published in the leading academic journals (for instance, Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal/Review, Organization Science, Management Science, Journal of Management, and so on). Although academic theory and empirical research form the foundation of the text, I also have integrated insights from leading practitioner outlets (such as Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review ) to enhance the application of concepts. To weave in current examples and developments, I draw on The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, Forbes, and others . In sum, theory is brought to life via the embedded examples within each framework and concept.
■ The comprehensive yet concise presentation of core concepts, frameworks, and techniques . Although comprehensive, the text does not include every single idea ever introduced to the strategy field. Many students don’t read the assigned readings in their strategy textbooks because the books contain too much information, presented in a disjointed fashion. Many strategy books read more like a literature review, without addressing what the research findings mean and why they are important for managers. This jumble prevents students from seeing the bigger strategic picture. They may see the trees, but they fail to see the forest. In contrast, this text will be an enjoyable read for students—clear, concise, and filled with examples from companies today’s students know—while at the same time providing the content and value-add that instructors expect. It has one vision and one voice!
â–  Combination of traditional and contemporary chapters . As a review of the chaptercontents listing will demonstrate, the text includes the traditional chapters needed in the core strategy course. In addition, it includes three contemporary standalone chapters that reviewers and users have identified as providing additional value:
● Chapter 2, “Strategic Leadership: Managing the Strategy Process,” discusses the roles of leaders in setting strategy within three different models: top-down planning, scenario planning, and strategy as planned emergence. This chapter allows for a thorough discussion of the role of vision, mission, and values; customer versus product-oriented missions; the combination of intended and emergent strategies; and the importance of long-term success in anchoring a firm in ethical values.
● Chapter 5, “Competitive Advantage, Firm Performance, and Business Models,” neatly ends the analysis section of the book by providing five approaches to measuring firm performance and assessing competitive advantage. It looks at three traditional approaches to measure performance (accounting profitability, economic value creation, and shareholder value creation) and at two holistic approaches (the balanced scorecard and the triple bottom line). Instructors can easily cover as many of the approaches as desired for their course and its goals. A new addition is the detailed discussion of business models. Putting strategy into action through innovative business models is becoming more and more important across all types of industries.
● Chapter 7, Innovation and Strategic Entrepreneurship, addresses the important topics of innovation and strategic entrepreneurship as aspects of business strategy. Driven by Schumpeter’s “perennial gale of creative destruction,” competition seems more heated than ever, with innovation playing a key role in gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. This chapter addresses various aspects of innovation, beginning with the industry life cycle (ILC) and the modes of competition and business-level strategies at various stages in the life cycle. Given the importance of different customer preferences at different stages of the ILC, it introduces the crossing-the-chasm framework and illustrates it with an application to the smartphone industry. Using tools and concepts of strategic management, it explores four types of innovation, social entrepreneurship, and the Internet as a disruptive force. This chapter especially will engage students and provide much food for thought in their jobs and careers.
■ Up-to-date examples and discussion of current topics within a global context. Having spoken to hundreds of students around the world, I want to minimize the frustration they express in seeing the same, out-of-date examples in so many of their (generic and boiler-plate) business-school textbooks. The book has been written for today’s students to reflect the turbulence and dynamism that they will face as managers. I have drawn on up-to-date examples to illustrate how companies apply strategy concepts in today’s business world. Although this text contains a standalone chapter on Global Strategy, examples throughout the book reflect the global nature of competition and the importance of emerging economies such as the BRIC countries and highlights non-U.S. competitors such as Lenovo, Siemens, the Tata Group, and BYD in globalized industries. Each chapter contains two Strategy Highlight boxes. These in-chapter examples apply a specific concept to a specific company. They are right-sized for maximum student appeal—long enough to contain valuable insights, and short enough to encourage student reading. For a list of the Strategy Highlight companies and topics, see page xiii.

I also have drawn topics and examples from recent and seminal business bestsellers, such as The Black Swan; Built to Last; Co-opetition; Crossing the Chasm; Good Strategy, Bad Strategy; Good to Great; Great by Choice; How the Mighty Fall; In the Plex; Innovator’s Dilemma (and Solution); Innovator’s DNA; Lean In; Playing to Win; Predictably Irrational; Steve Jobs; The Long Tail; The Wide Lens; Wisdom of the Crowds; World 3.0; and Why Smart Executives Fail; among others. I have included these ideas to expose students to topics that today’s managers talk about. Being conversant with these concepts from business bestsellers will help today’s students interview better and effortlessly join the discourse in the corporate world.
■ Use of the AFI strategy framework. The book demonstrates that “less is more” through a focused presentation of the relevant strategy content using A nalysis, F ormulation, and I mplementation as a guiding framework. This model (see Exhibit 1.5 on page 18) integrates process schools of strategy (based on organization theory, psychology, and sociology) with content schools of strategy (based on economics). Process and content can be viewed as the “yin and yang” of strategy. Current strategy textbooks typically favor one or the other but do not integrate them, which leads to an unbalanced and incomplete treatment of strategic management. The AFI strategy strives for beauty through balance, which is lacking in most current strategy texts on the market. The model also emphasizes that gaining and sustaining competitive advantage is accomplished in an iterative and recursive fashion. The framework offers a repository for theoretical strategy knowledge that is well translated for student consumption, and it provides a toolkit for practicing managers.