Book Summary of Strategic Management : Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantage Strategic Management explores how firms build, extend, organize, and sustain a competitive advantage, focusing on five key themes: distinctive competence, quality, globalization, change, and ethics. This text takes an applications-oriented approach and is organized to reflect the stages that a firm goes through while implementing the strategic process. Key Feature • Concise Presentation: This texts concise presentation of theory allows instructors to supplement with their own cases and readings. Competitive Advantage: The organizing framework of the text allows the reader to see the connection between how to be strategic while maintaining a competitive advantage. • Ethical Issues: Discussion of ethics is included in most chapters as they relate to the difficult judgments that often occur in strategic situations. Exercises and Discussion Questions: Help the reader apply the material. Up-to-date References and Examples: Provides cover the most recent developments and research. • Globalization: A global focus explores the advantages and disadvantages of competing in the global business environment in every step of the strategic management process. • Emphasis on Alliances: An emphasis on alliances and cross-firm networks discuss the practice of how firms move from traditional in-house operations and processes to alliances. • Competitive Advantage: This text includes discussion of specific aspects of the advantage dimensions, value chain, Internet compression, mass customization, speed innovation, agility, and nimbleness. • Ethics: Ethical issues are discussed in most chapters as they relate to the difficult judgments that often accompany the choice of strategies. Table of Contents Introduction. • The Competitive Environment: Assessing Industry Attractiveness. • Firm Capabilities: Assessing Strengths and Weaknesses. • Opportunities for Distinction: Building Competitive Advantage. • Shifts in Competitive Advantage: Responding to Environmental Change. • Corporate Strategy: Leveraging Resources to Extend Advantage. • Global Strategy: Harnessing New Markets to Extend Advantage. • Strategic Alliances: Competing and Cooperating for Advantage. • Designing Organizations for Advantage. • Balancing Integration and Change: Building Learning Organizations. • Corporate Governance: Instilling Principles for Enduring Advantage.
