Strategic Management and Competitve Advantage

For courses in strategy/strategic management. For professors who want students to see connections between big ideas in strategy (thus understanding vs. memorizing), Barney/Hesterly provides an organizing framework (VRIO) as the foundation of the text. Students have a clear decision-making framework to use in analyzing cases and business situations.For courses in strategy/strategic management. For professors who want students to see connections between big ideas in strategy (thus understanding vs. memorizing), Barney/Hesterly provides an organizing framework (VRIO) as the foundation of the text. Students have a clear decision-making framework to use in analyzing cases and business situations.Do your students tend to view concepts, models, and theories as fragmented and disconnected? Do you feel like they are often trying to memorize versus truly understand? The VRIO Framework - a theory-based, multi-chapter organizing mechanism that provides a decision-making framework for students to use in analyzing case and business situations. "VRIO" integrates two existing theoretical frameworks: the positioning perspective and the resource-based view. It stands for four questions one must ask about a resource or capability to determine its competitive potential:The Question of Value: does a resource enable a firm to exploit an environmental opportunity, and/or neutralize an environmental threat?The Question of Rarity: is a resource currently controlled by only a small number of competing firms?The Question of Imitability: do firms without a resource face a cost disadvantage in obtaining or developing it?The Question of Organization: are a firm's other policies and procedures organized to support the exploitation of its valuable, rare, and costly-to-imitate resources. Benefit: Students gain real understanding, and this enables the student to better analyze business cases and situations - the goal of the course. Example: See Chapter 3; inside front cover Value icon example: pg 153; Rarity/Imitability icon example: pg 158; Organization icon example: pg. 164 How do you manage to fit all the course material into one semester? What topics do you tend to focus on when using detailed Strategic Management textbooks? Professors don't want to be talking heads from the textbook- Strategic Management and Competitive Advantage has designed flexibility into the book. The instructor can take full advantage of having all the necessary information and teaching tools at their fingertips while given the freedom to still be "the teacher". Each chapter has five short sections that present specific issues in more depth. These sections allow instructors to adapt the book to the particular needs of their students. The five sections are beneficial to both instructor and student alike: o Strategy In Depth - examines the intellectual foundations that are behind the way managers think about and practice strategy today. (Pg. XX)o Global Perspective - discusses an extended example of that highlights the global challenges associated with that chapter's topic. (Pg.XX)o Strategy in the Emerging Enterprise - presents examples of strategic challenges faced by new and emerging enterprises. (Pg. XX)o Ethics and Strategy - delves into some of the dilemmas that managers face as they confront strategic decisions. (Pg. XX)o Research Made Relevant - includes recent research related to the topics in that chapter. (Pg. XX) Is it important to change your lesson plan to adhere to the changing world? As the world changes--so does the classroom, it's essential to have a book that follows a similar path. Ideas such as the five forces framework, value chain analysis, generic situations, and corporate strategy are all in the book. Because the VRIO framework provides a single integrative structure, we are able to address issues in this book that are largely ignored elsewhere including discussions of vertical integration, outsourcing, real options logic, and mergers and acquisitions to name a few. OTHER POINTS OF DISTINCTION NEW! Included in the second edition are many new cases; cases that provide students an opportunity to apply the ideas they learn to business situations. The new cases include a variety of contexts such as entrepreneurial, service, manufacturing and international settings.