This new textbook examines how industry environment and business strategies determine company performance. It provides an introduction to the economics of business strategy, introducing key concepts drawn from microeconomics, industrial organisation, business economics, business environment, organisation studies and strategic management. The book is written for the growing number of courses at MBA, undergraduate, and foundation level where readers require not only an integrated theoretical framework in economics and management, but also the practical skills and knowledge to examine how and why firms behave in certain ways in the real world.
The effectiveness of a good strategy well implemented determines a business' future success or failure. Yet history is full of strategic decisions, big and small, that were ill-conceived, poorly organized and consequently disastrous. This updated guide looks at the whole process of strategic decision-making, from vision, forecasting, and resource allocation, through to implementation and innovation. Strategy is about understanding where you are now, where you are heading and how you will get there. There is no room for timidity or confusion. Although the CEO and the board decide a company's overall direction, it is the managers at all levels of the organization who will determine how the vision can be transformed into action. In short, everyone is involved in strategy. But getting it right involves difficult choices: which customers to target, what products to offer, and the best way to keep costs low and service high. And constantly changing business conditions inevitably bring risks. Even after business strategy has been developed, a company must remain nimble and alert to change, and view strategy as an ongoing and evolving process. The message of this guide is simple: strategy matters, and getting it right is fundamental to business success.
This book, first published in 1980, discusses corporate strategy for those interested in applying economic analysis to business problems. Drawing on a wide range of economics and management literature, the book shows how an understanding of industrial economics can help in analysing strategic decisions. Furthermore, the author explains how a firm's development must be adapted to its environment, its history and the experience of its personnel. Other topics discussed include integration and diversity, the growing importance of multinational operations, the strategic role of mergers, and innovation.
The past two decades have seen a gradual but noticeable change in the economic organization of innovative activity. Most firms used to integrate research and development with activities such as production, marketing, and distribution. Today firms are forming joint ventures, research and development alliances, licensing deals, and a variety of other outsourcing arrangements with universities, technology-based start-ups, and other established firms. In many industries, a division of innovative labor is emerging, with a substantial increase in the licensing of existing and prospective technologies. In short, technology and knowledge are becoming definable and tradable commodities. Although researchers have made significant advances in understanding the determinants and consequences of innovation, until recently they have paid little attention to how innovation functions as an economic process. This book examines the nature and workings of markets for intermediate technological inputs. It looks first at how industry structure, the nature of knowledge, and intellectual property rights facilitate the development of technology markets. It then examines the impacts of these markets on firm boundaries, the division of labor within the economy, industry structure, and economic growth. Finally, it examines the implications of this framework for public policy and corporate strategy. Combining theoretical perspectives from economics and management with empirical analysis, the book also draws on historical evidence and case studies to flesh out its research results.
This text is an unbound, three hole punched version. Access to WileyPLUS sold separately. Economics of Strategy, Binder Ready Version focuses on the key economic concepts students must master in order to develop a sound business strategy. Ideal for undergraduate managerial economics and business strategy courses, Economics of Strategy offers a careful yet accessible translation of advanced economic concepts to practical problems facing business managers. Armed with general principles, today's students--tomorrows future managers--will be prepared to adjust their firms business strategies to the demands of the ever-changing environment.
This authoritative collection of the most important published articles on the economic basis of business strategy includes articles that illustrate the origins of familiar concepts in business strategy - the experience curve, the portfolio matrix, and the five forces. It also presents the foundations of the modern resource based theory of strategy.
Blends tools from intermediate microeconomics, game theory, and industrial organization for a managerial economics text. This fourth edition offers a balanced coverage of traditional and modern topics.
Each year, thousands of businesses file for bankruptcy protection because managers fail to efficiently organize the company’s operations, misread market trends, pay inadequate attention to product quality, or misinterpret the activities and intentions of rival companies. Perhaps they fail to formulate optimal advertising or financing strategies, procure raw materials and components at least cost, or provide adequate incentives to motivate workers to put forth their best efforts. Managerial economics is the application of economic principles to topics of concern to managers. This textbook develops a framework for predicting managerial responses to changes in the business environment. It combines the various business disciplines with quantitative methods to identify optimal solutions to more efficiently achieve a firm’s organizational objectives. The topics discussed in this textbook are readily accessible to students with a background in the principles of microeconomics and business mathematics. The selection and organizations of topics makes the textbook appropriate for use in a wide range of curricula by students with different backgrounds.
With the onset of the third millennium, increasing numbers of corporations around the world have been undergoing cultural and mindset shift paradigms whilst developing corporate strategies that are increasingly attuned to the highly competitive and dynamic business realities arising from globalising national economies around the world. This research book represents an eclectic collection of latest research articles and empirical studies conducted in different parts of the world on corporate strategy, including usually neglected countries of study such as Germany, Turkey, Greece and Spain. This research book contains over twenty research papers examining various aspects of corporate strategy in different national and international settings, this book is intended to equip readers with the latest knowledge to understand the complexities of corporate strategy both at a theoretical and operational levels. Further, the book is specifically written with the needs of the students of strategy both at an undergraduate and postgraduate who may want to gain contemporary knowledge of strategy based on empirical research.
A number of peripheral discussions have been eliminated, particular those for which there was substantial mathematics with little insight to show for it. * Chapter on measuring cost and benefit advantage have been eliminated. * Integrates insights from the theory of the firm, industrial organization, and strategy research. * Contains hundreds of examples to illustrate how the economic principles of strategy apply to the actual business world.
