The aim of this course is to give an overview of the most important frameworks and new frontiers in strategic analysis and teach the student how to apply these frameworks through a combination of lectures, case discussions, and group work.
The course will include topics on the strategic purpose of firms, and debate the balance between shareholders and stakeholders together with financial and social goals. Moreover, we will cover macro forces impacting firms and how to analyze and deal with the associated uncertainties. The course then includes a part dedicated to the internal analysis of organizations. In this part we address topics such as the resource-based and activity-based views, dynamic capabilities, and value configurations. We then move on to take a closer look at strategic analysis at different levels, including the business unit level, the corporate level, and the ecosystem level. Here the course addresses subjects such as business models, game theory, and networks.