Strategic Management Spring Semester
Registration for Strategic Management in Spring Semester 2025:
Due to didactic reasons, the number of participants is limited to 80. Please register through myStudies to enroll for the course. Slots are assigned based on a first-come first-serve policy (in the order of the registration date on myStudies).
Please be aware that many students cancel their registration and you will move up the list over time.
This course conveys concepts and methods in strategic management, with a focus on competitive strategy. Competitive strategy aims at analyzing and establishing position of firms within an industry, securing firm performance. Thus, the course focuses on a number of important topics, such as the evolution of industry, industry structure, the analysis of a firm's resources- and knowledge, and innovation.
Instructors: Prof. Dr. Fredrik Hacklin, Dr. Ann-Kristin Weiser
Teaching Assistant: Manuel von Krosigk
Goals of the course
Strategic Management is designed to teach relevant competences in strategic planning and -implementation, for both professional work-life and further scientific development. The course provides an overview of the basics of strategy as well as the most prevalent concepts and methods in strategic management.
Format
The course is a combination of lectures about concepts/methods, and case studies where the students solve strategic issues of the involved companies. In two sessions, the students will also be addressing real-time strategic issues of firms that are represented by executives.
Schedule
In-class sessions: Thursdays, 16:00 - 18:00 (4:00pm - 6:00pm) in CAB G51
Case debate: Thursday, 18:00 - 20:00 (6:00pm - 8:00pm) in CAB G51
The sessions only take place at the specified dates below.
The details of the exam can be found on the program webpage:
https://mtec.ethz.ch/studies/programme-framework/performance-assessments/examination-dates.html
Date | Time | Contents and Lecture Slides |
---|---|---|
06.03.2025 | 16:00-20:00 | Introduction + Entering the field |
13.03.2025 | 16:00-20:00 | Strategy and Technology Dynamics |
27.03.2025 | 16:00-20:00 | Strategy and Industry Evolution + Case |
10.04.2025 | 16:00-20:00 | Resource-based view of the firm + Case |
17.04.2025 | 16:00-20:00 | Knowledge-based view of the firm + Case |
08.05.2025 | 16:00-20:00 | Course summary + Case |
EXAM |
Administrative
Credit: 3 ECTS Credit Points
Performance Assessment:
- 50% end-of-semester examination
- 50% case assignments
The grade is calculated by 50% end-of-semester examination and 50% case assignment (compulsory continuous performance assessment). The case assignment must be passed on its own and will be performed in a group of maximum 5 students.
Exam
The exam will be in the form of a "End-of-semester Examination", closed book.
The exam date is announced via the D-MTEC website
Please find a protected page sample exam here.
Literature Strategy Concepts
Please access all links via the ETH network (from outside: VPN). If you encounter problems accessing the relevant literature, please contact the ETH Library.
Entering the field
Required readings:
- external page Porter; Michael. 2008. The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review. 86 (1): 78-93.
- external page Mintzberg; Henry. 1994. The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning. Harvard Business Review. 72 (1): 107-114.
Optional readings:
- external page Porter; Michael. 1996. What is Strategy. Harvard Business Review. 74 (6): 61-78.
- external page Spanos, Y. E., & Lioukas, S. (2001). An examination into the causal logic of rent generation: contrasting Porter’s competitive strategy framework and the resource-based perspective. Strategic Management Journal, 22(10), 907–934.
- external page Ronda-pupo, Guillermo Armando, and Luis Angel. (2012). "Dynamics of the Evolution of the Strategy Concept 1962–2008: A Co‐word Analysis." Strategic Management Journal 188: 162–88.
- external page Von Krogh, G., and Raisch, S. (2009). "Focus Intensely on a Few Great Innovation Ideas." Harvard Business Review, October 2009.
Literature Strategy and Technology Dynamics
Required readings:
- external page Christensen, C.M.; Suarez, F. F.; Utterback, J. M. 1998. Strategies for Survival in Fast-Changing Industries. Management Science. 44 (12): 207-220.
- external page Kim, W. C; Mauborgne, R. 2004. Blue Ocean Strategy. Harvard Business Review. 82 (10): 76-84.
- external page Hacklin, F., Battistini, B., & von Krogh, G. (2013). Strategic Choices in Converging Industries. MIT Sloan Management Review, 88(1), 65–73.
- external page Trantopoulos, K., von Krogh, G., Wallin, M., & Wörter, M. (2017) External Knowledge and Information Technology: Implications for Process Innovation Performance. MIS Quarterly.
- external page Garriga, H., von Krogh, G., & Spaeth, S. (2013). How constraints and knowledge impact open innovation. Strategic Management Journal, 34(9), 1134-1144.
- external page Anthony, S. D., & Putz, M. (2021). How leaders delude themselves about disruption. MITSloan Management Review. 61 (3): 56-63.
- external page Christensen, C. M., Hall, T., Dillon, K., & Duncan, D. S. (2016). Know your customers’ jobs to be done. Harvard Business Review, 94(9), 54-62.
Optional readings:
- external page von Hippel, E.; von Krogh, G. 2015. Identifying Viable “Need–Solution Pairs”: Problem Solving Without Problem Formulation. Organization Science. 27 (1): 207-221.
- external page Reeves, M., Love, C., & Tillmanns, P. (2012). Your strategy needs a strategy. Harvard Business Review. 90 (9): 76-83.
- external page von Hippel, E.; von Krogh, G. 2003. Open Source Software and the 'Private-Collective' Innovation Model: Issues for Organization Science. Organization Science. 14 (2): 209-223.
- external page Chesbrough, H. (2007). Why companies should have open business models. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48(2), 22–28.
- external page Garriga, H.; von Krogh, G.; Spaeth, S. 2013. How Constraints and Knowledge Impact Open Innovation. Strategic Management Journal. 34 (9). 1134–1144.
- external page Spaeth, S., von Krogh, G., He, F. (2015). Perceived Firm Attributes and Intrinsic Motivation in Sponsored Open Source Software Projects. Information Systems Research. 26 (1). 224-237.
Literature Strategy and Industry Evolution
Required readings:
- external page Bryce, D.; Dyer J.H. 2007. Strategies to crack well-guarded markets. Harvard Business Review. 85 (5): 84-92.
- external page Harrigan, K.R., 1981. Barriers to entry and competitive strategies. Strategic Management Journal 2 (4): 395–412.
Optional readings:
- external page Santos, F.M. and Eisenhardt, K.M. 2009. Constructing Markets and Shaping Boundaries: Entrepreneurial Power in Nascent Fields. Academy of Management Journal. 52 (4): 643-671.
- external page Young, G.; Smith, K.G.; Grimm, C.M. 1996. "Austrian" and Industrial Organization Perspectives on Firm-level Competitive Activity and Performance. Organization Science. 7 (3): 243-254.
- external page Chen, MJ, and Miller, D. (2014). Reconceptualizing Competitive Dynamics: A Multidimensional Framework. Strategic Management Journal. EarlyView published online.
Literature Resource-Based Theory
Required readings:
- external page Barney, J.B. 1991. Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of Management. 17 (1): 99-120.
- external page Collis, D.; Montgomery, C.A. 2008. Competing on Resources. Harvard Business Review. 86 (7/8): 140-150.
- external page Leiblein, M. J., & Madsen, T. L. 2009. Unbundling competitive heterogeneity: incentive structures and capability influences on technological innovation. Strategic Management Journal, 30(7): 711–735.
- external page Pisano, G. P. 2015. You need an innovation strategy. Harvard Business Review, (June 2015).
Optional readings:
- external page Newbert, S. (2008). Value, rareness, competitive advantage, and performance: a conceptual‐level empirical investigation of the resource‐based view of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 29, 745–768.
- external page Hoopes, D.; Madsen, T.L. 2003. Toward a Theory of Competitive Heterogeneity. Strategic Management Journal. 24 (10): 889-902.
- external page Josefy, M.; Kuban, S.; Ireland, R.D.; Hitt, M.A. 2015. All Things Great and Small: Organizational Size, Boundaries of the Firm, and a Changing Environment. Academy of Management Annals, 9, 715-802
- external page Lungeanu, R.; Zajac, E. 2015. Venture Capital Ownership as a Contingent Resource: How Owner/Firm Fit Influences IPO Outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, Advance online publication. doi: 10.5465/amj.2012.0871
Literature Knowlede-Based Theory
Required readings:
- external page Grant, R.M. 1996. Toward a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm. Strategic Management Journal. 17 (Winter Special Issue: Knowledge and the Firm): 109-122.
- external page Nonaka, I. 2007. The knowledge-creating company. Harvard Business Review. 85 (7/8): 162-171.
- external page Nonaka, I., Toyama, R., & Konno, N. (2000). SECI, Ba and Leadership: a Unified Model of Dynamic Knowledge Creation. Long Range Planning, 33(1), 5–34.
- external page Kogut, B.; Zander, U. (1992). Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology. Organization Science, 3 (3), 383-397.
- external page Haenlein, M., & Kaplan, A. (2019). A brief history of artificial intelligence: On the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence. California management review, 61(4), 5-14.
Optional readings:
- external page Nonaka, I.; von Krogh, G. 2009. Perspective-Tacit Knowledge and Knowledge Conversion: Controversy and Advancement in Organizational Knowlegde Creation Theory. Organization Science, 20 (3), 635-652.
- external page King, A.W.; Zeithaml, C.P. 2003. Measuring Organizational Knowledge: A Conceptual and Methodological Framework. Strategic Management Journal. 24 (8): 763-772.
- external page Pugh, K., & Prusak, L. (2013). Designing effective knowledge networks. MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2013, 55(1), 79–88.