Does the review indicate a comprehensive understanding of the topic area and literature discussed? Is the literature and class material appropriately applied?

This is an essay for one of the subjects of the MBA programme of a UK university.

The individual essay should be 2,000 words maximum (+/- 10%) in length.

If you feel your review warrants additional length, feel free to report information into Tables.

Tables can be used to present analytical frameworks in order to save space for written discussion and evaluation.

Note that References and Tables are excluded from word count.

 

EXPECTATION

1. a) To FIND an article [article is attached] in the popular business press that illustrates one or more of the following topics:

Business Strategies: Strategies for Competitive Advantage

Strategic Positioning and the Scope of the Firm

Corporate Strategies: Vertical Integration, Outsourcing and Strategic Alliances

Corporate Strategies: Managing Group of Businesses: Diversification

Corporate Strategies: Strategies for International Growth

Organizational Structure: Elements of Organizational Design

Strategy Execution: Corporate Culture and Leadership

(Read more about the business topics on page 3 of this attachment)

 

STRUCTURE OF THE ESSAY

There will be FIVE sections of this essay, namely:

Write a brief introduction / abstract (does not go into word count)

1. Section 1: summary of the article, name of author, sources, put link to the article or reference of the article
2. Section 2: background of the company (maybe one company or a number of companies) — this article if about Alibaba but please also mention briefly about a competitor of Alibaba, e.g. Amazon or eBay and how Alibaba demonstrated competitive advantage etc.
3. Section 3: summary of business case
4. Section 4: main contention, theory, gap, critical analysis, critique of the paper, political situation or background affecting the writing / content of the author of the article (please refer to the topics above / on page 3 of this attachment)
5. Section 5: what did you learn, conclusion of your thought vs. the authors, any development since the timing of the article, future of the company, some comments.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

The article review will be evaluated based on the following marking criteria:

Marking Criteria – Article Review	Marks allocated to criteria:
Focus Is the article linked to relevant topics covered in the module?	10%
Synthesis Does the review provide a clear summary of the discussed article?	10%
Relevance/Consistency with class material Does the review select the appropriate literature and class material to discuss the article? There must be evidence of use of class material.	30%
Understanding Does the review indicate a comprehensive understanding of the topic area and literature discussed? Is the literature and class material appropriately applied?	30%
Clarity of structure and mechanical soundness Is the review well organised and logically constructed? Is the review clearly written, spell checked, and grammatically sound, and referenced appropriately?	10%
References Is the review using an adequate reference list and a proper and consistent referencing style?	10%

More information about the core business topics

The individual essay consists of a review of a journal article that must be related to the topic around “Analysis and Practice of Global Strategy”, and included a number of the following key concepts around business strategy:

6. Strategy of a company
7. The external environment of the company
8. Macro-environment –> PESTEL Analysis
9. Industry

• Main opportunities and threats

8. The internal environment of the company
9. Resources and competencies
10. The distinction between threshold and distinctive resources and competencies appraisal of the distinctive resources and competencies

• SWOT Analysis

9. Is the business strategy consistent with the external environment and the sources and competencies of the company?

The reading lists below will give you a more idea about the topics we covered but these are only for your reference.

It is not necessary to reference the below academic literature but best to reference some.

(a) The main textbook for this module is:

 

Author	Title	Publisher
Arthur A. Thompson, Strickland A.J., Alex Janes, Ciara Sutton, Margaret A Peteraf, John E. Gamble. 2019	Crafting and Executing Strategy : Concepts and Cases 22nd Edition (International edition).	McGraw- Hill.

 

Alternatively, the various topics covered in the module can also be found in:

Author	Title			Publisher
Gerry   Johnson,    Richard	Exploring  Strategy:	Text	&	Pearson
Whittington, Patrick Regnér,	cases. 11th Edition.			education.
Kevan   Scholes,    Duncan
Angwin.
2017

 

 

(b) Additional readings (by Lecture/Topic):

Lecture/Topic	Reading
1	One of: Mintzberg, H. (1987) “The strategy concept 1: Five P’s for strategy” California Management Review; Mintzberg, H and Waters, J. (1985) “Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent” Strategic Management Journal, Vol.6 No.3 pp.257-272 or Porter, M.E.(1996) “What Is Strategy?” Harvard Business Review 74, no. 6 (November–December 1996), pp. 65–67.
2	One of David J. Collis and Michael G. Rukstad, “Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?” Harvard Business Review 86, no. 4 (April 2008), pp. 82–90., or Bartkus, B. and Glassman M. (2008) “Do firms practice what they preach? The relationship between mission statements and stakeholder management”, Journal of Business Ethics, 83(2): 207-16.
3-4	One of; Grundy, T. (2006) “Re-thinking and Re-inventing Porter’s 5 forces model” Strategic Change, Vol.15, pp.213-229; Brandenburger, A. and Nalebuff, B. (1995) “The right game: Using game theory to shape strategy” Harvard Business Review, July-August, pp.57-71; or Schoemaker, P. and Day, G. (2009) ”How to make sense of weak signals” MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring 2009, vol.50, no. 3, pp.80-89.
5	One of; Kraajienbrink, J., Spender, J-C, and Groen, A. (2010) “The Resource Based View: A Review and Assessment of Its Critiques”, Journal of Management, Vol.36, No.1, pp.349-372.; Peteraf, M.A. (1993). ‘The Cornerstone of Competitive Advantage: A Resource-Based View.’ Strategic Management Journal, 14(3): 179-192.; or Ambrosini, V., Bowman, C. and Collier, N. (2009) “Dynamic Capabilities: An Exploration of How Firms Renew their Resource Base” British Journal of Management, Vol.20, pp. S9-S24.
6	Additional reading: One of; Hendry (1990) “The problem with Porter’s generic strategies” European Management Journal, vol. 8 no. 4 pp. 443-450; Morehouse, J., O ‘Meara, B., Hagen, C. and Huseby, T. (2008) “Hitting back: strategic responses to low cost rivals” Strategy and Leadership, vol. 36, no.1, pp. 4-13; or Williamson, Peter, J. (2010) “Cost Innovation: Preparing for a ‘value- for-money’ revolution” Long Range Planning, Vol.43 pp.343-353.
7-8	One of; W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, “Blue Ocean Strategy,” Harvard Business Review 82, no. 10 (October 2004), pp. 76–84.; Reeves, M. and Deimler, M. (2011) “Adaptability: the new competitive advantage” Harvard Business Review, Jul/Aug 2011 pp.134-141; or Dyer, J., Kale, P. and Singh, H. (2004) “When to Ally & When to Acquire” Harvard Business Review, July- August, pp.109-115.
9	One of Dyer, J., Kale, P. and Singh, H. (2004) “When to Ally & When to Acquire” Harvard Business Review, July-August, pp.109-115.; Zook, C. (2007), “Finding Your Next Core Business,” Harvard Business Review 85, no. 4 (April 2007), pp. 66–75.; or Ng, D. (2007) “A modern resource-based approach to unrelated diversification” Journal of Management Studies, vol. 44, no. 8, pp.1481-1502.
10	One of; N. Kumar, “How Emerging Giants Are Rewriting the Rules of M&A,” Harvard Business Review, May 2009, pp. 115–21.; or K.E. Meyer, M. Wright, and S. Pruthi, “Institutions, Resources, and Entry Strategies in Emerging Economies,” Strategic Management Journal 30, no. 5 (2009), pp. 61–80. Group Task – identifying and evaluating Accor’s business level strategies.
11	One from; Galan, J. and Sanchez-Bueno, M. (2009) “The continuing validity of the strategy-structure nexus, new findings, 1993-2003”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 30, pp. 1234-1243; or E. Olsen, S. Slater, and G. Hult, “The Importance of Structure and Process to Strategy Implementation,” Business Horizons 48, no. 1 (2005), pp. 47–54.
12	One from; Simons, R. (1995) “Control in an age of empowerment” Harvard Business Review, Vol. 73, Iss. 2, pp. 80-8; Bushardt, S., Glascoff, D., and Doty, D. (2011) “Organizational culture, formal reward structure, and effective strategy implementation: A conceptual model” Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 57-70; or Clayton M. Christensen, Matt Marx, and Howard Stevenson, “The Tools of Cooperation and Change,” Harvard Business Review 84, no 10 (October 2006), pp. 73–80.