Resources Firms And Strategies

Strategic management has been increasingly characterized by an emphasis on core competences. Firms are advised to divest unrelated businesses and return to core business. Moreover, competitive advantage is now increasingly seen as a matter of efficiently deploying scarce knowledge resources to product markets. Much of this change in emphasis has occurred because of the emergence of a unified and rigorous approach to strategy, often called the resource-based approach. This Reader brings together extracts from the seminal articles that created this dominant perspective in strategic management. It includes the pioneering work of Selznick, Penrose, and Chandler and more recent writing by Wenerfelt, Barney, Teece, and Prahalad and Hamel.

Strategic Management (2020) is a 325-page open educational resource designed as an introduction to the key topics and themes of strategic management. The open textbook is intended for a senior capstone course in an undergraduate business program and suitable for a wide range of undergraduate business students including those majoring in marketing, management, business administration, accounting, finance, real estate, business information technology, and hospitality and tourism. The text presents examples of familiar companies and personalities to illustrate the different strategies used by today's firms and how they go about implementing those strategies. It includes case studies, end of section key takeaways, exercises, and links to external videos, and an end-of-book glossary. The text is ideal for courses which focus on how organizations operate at the strategic level to be successful. Students will learn how to conduct case analyses, measure organizational performance, and conduct external and internal analyses.

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 75%, University of the West of England, Bristol (Bristol Business School), course: Strategic Management, language: English, abstract: There is no common definition of strategy or the way how to implement it. However, it is common understanding that the purpose of each business1 is to maximise profit and that this is reached through a competitive advantage a firm might have over its rivals. Therefore, strategy should describe a mean to manage and direct a business in its environment towards a favourable market position which offers a competitive advantage (e.g. Rumelt, 1996; Porter, 1996). In this sense, “a firm is said to have a sustained competitive advantage when it is implementing a value creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential competitors and when these other firms are unable to duplicate the benefits of this strategy.” (Barney, 1991: 102) However, there are different approaches regarding what strategies need to be based upon to achieve that competitive advantage, i.e. what are the sources for a favourable market position and a competitive advantage.

The 'Resource-Based View of the Firm' has emerged over the last fifteen years as one of the dominant perspectives used in strategic management. It addresses the fundamental research question of strategic management: Why it is that some firms persistently outperform others? Resource-Based Theory provides a considered overview of this theory, including the latest developments, from one of the key thinkers in its development. In broad terms it offers an alternative to Michael Porter's approach, focusing more on the competences and capabilities of the firm, rather than its positioning in its chosen markets. Jay B. Barney has long been recognised as one of the leading contributor to the resource-based theory literature. In this book he has collaborated with Delwyn N. Clark to produce the first book to examine the theory in a holistic and in-depth manner. The authors explore not only the applications of the theory in research, teaching, and practice, but also its early roots in traditional economic theory, development and proliferation in the 1990s, and later influence on management thinking.

Managing strategies for professional service firms is an important and complex activity. The main issues in this book cover the core management principles for service firms in a comprehensive way. Based on current research findings it includes the management of service quality, knowledge and marketing as well as people, organizational and strategic issues. In understanding critical resources managers and partners will be able to effectively develop and exploit them. The book contains practical advice and offers a profound insight into the managerial excellence of service companies.

Based on current research in the resource based view of the firm and organizational economics, this text develops a rigorous approach to the many important issues surrounding the scope of the firm. Beginning from the analysis of how valuable resources contribute to the competitive advantage of a single business, it progresses through the analysis of scale, scope and vertical integration within an industry, to the treatment of diversification and the management of multibusiness firms.

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.