The Oxford Handbook Of Strategy

This two-volume handbook presents an authoritative and up-to-date analysis of how thinking on strategy has evolved and what are the likely developments in the near future. All the contributors are experts in their area, and bring to the topic an understanding informed by many years' experience of research, teaching, and practice. Volume One focuses on two major areas: first, the various different approaches to strategy, and secondly, the development of competitive or business unit strategy, where the pursuit of sustainable competitive advantage is the key objective.

A clearly articulated, well-defined, and relatively stable grand strategy is supposed to allow the ship of state to steer a steady course through the roiling seas of global politics. However, the obstacles to formulating and implementing grand strategy are, by all accounts, imposing. The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy addresses the conceptual and historical foundations, production, evolution, and future of grand strategy from a wide range of standpoints. The seven constituent sections present and critically examine the history of grand strategy, including beyond the West; six distinct theoretical approaches to the subject; the sources of grand strategy, ranging from geography and technology to domestic politics to individual psychology and culture; the instruments of grand strategy's implementation, from military to economic to covert action; political actors', including non-state actors', grand strategic choices; the debatable merits of grand strategy, relative to alternatives; and the future of grand strategy, in light of challenges ranging from political polarization to technological change to aging populations. The result is a field-defining, interdisciplinary, and comparative text that will be a key resource for years to come.

The Oxford Handbook of Strategic Sales and Sales Management is an unrivalled overview by leading academics in the field of sales and marketing management. Sales theory is experiencing a renaissance driven by a number of factors, including building profitable relationships, creating/delivering brand value, strategic customer management, sales and marketing relationships, global selling, and the change from transactional to customer relationship marketing. Escalating sales and selling costs require organisations to be more focused on results and highlight the shifting of resources from marketing to sales. Further the growth in customer power now requires a strategic sales response, and not just a tactical one. The positioning of sales within the organisation, the sales function and sales management are all discussed. The Handbook is not a general sales management text about managing a sales force, but will fill a gap in the existing literature through consolidating the current academic research in the sales area. The Handbook is structured around four key topics. The first section explores the strategic positioning of the sales function within the modern organisation. The second considers sales management and recent developments. The third section examines the sales relationship with the customer and highlights how sales is responding to the modern environment. Finally, the fourth section reviews the internal composition of sales within the organisation. The Handbook will provide a comprehensive introduction to the latest research in sales management, and is suitable for academics, professionals, and those taking professional qualifications in sales and marketing.

Multinational enterprises must contend with increasingly challenging conditions in the international business environment. This Handbook explores how classic principles of international competitive strategy are transformed in today's markets and provides suggestions on how firms can develop effective strategies to respond to these transformations.

Presents an analysis of how thinking on strategy has evolved and what are the likely developments. This work includes chapters on six key areas: Approaches to Strategy, Strategic Analysis and Formulation, Corporate Strategy; International Strategy; Strategies of Organizational Change; and Strategic Flexibility and Uncertainty.

While innovation is widely recognised as being critical to organisational success and the well-being of societies, it requires careful management to ensure that innovation processes have the best possible impact. This volume provides a wide range of perspectives on the nature of innovation management and its influences.

The Oxford Handbook of Project Management presents and discusses leading ideas in the management of projects. Positioning project management as a domain much broader and more strategic than simply 'execution management', this Handbook draws on the insights of over 40 scholars to chart the development of the subject over the last 50 years or more as an area of increasing practical and academic interest. It suggests we could be entering an emerging 'third wave' of analysis and interpretation following its early technical and operational beginnings and the subsequent shift to a focus on projects and their management. Topics dealt with include: the historical evolution of the subject; its theoretical base; professionalism; business and societal context; strategy; organization; governance; innovation; overruns; risk; information management; procurement; relationships and trust; knowledge management; practice and teams. This handbook is of particular relevance to those interested in the research issues underlying project management.

The growth of the multinational enterprise (MNE) has led to an increasing interest in international business strategy from scholars, professionals, and policy makers alike. MNEs must contend with challenges in both their home and host international markets, and increasingly uncertain conditions in the international business environment demand superior firm-level capabilities for multinational firms to achieve and maintain competitive advantages in the long-run. This Handbook explores the progress made in international business strategy theory and practice in the last few decades. Written by an international team of leading experts, it captures the differences in motivations and decision-making processes between smaller and larger firms, private, family, and state owned firms, and emerging or developed market multinationals. It elaborates on the links between international strategy and the social responsibilities of the firm in its various host market contexts, including the deployment of effective and ethical human resource practices in international markets. Most importantly, it lays out how the classic principles of international competitive strategy are transformed in today's markets, in great part due to digitalization, and provides suggestions on how MNEs can develop international business strategies to respond to these transformations. The implications of these discussions for strategy and practice are becoming ever more profound. This Handbook will prove a valuable resource for both international business scholars and practitioners.