Postgraduate Course: Corporate Strategy (MSc) (CMSE11097)
Course Outline
| School |
Business School |
College |
College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type |
Standard |
Availability |
Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) |
SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits |
15 |
| Home subject area |
Common Courses (Management School) |
Other subject area |
None |
| Course website |
None |
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| Course description |
Corporate Strategy is concerned with what a business is trying to achieve and how it will try to do so. This course integrates other knowledge from both your previous learning and experience and your other courses on the MSc programme with these concerns. These questions we ask in strategy often appear simple, but the answers can be very complex. Similarly, the concepts that we use often appear very straightforward, but they are, in practice, difficult to apply. There is rarely a right answer, but there are often many unconvincing and unpersuasive ones. As someone who we hope will be engaging in persuading others about what the strategy of an organization should be, you will need to have a view, and an argument that will persuade others. By the end of this course, you should be able to engage in such an argument, and do it well.
Participants will gain an overall understanding of the needs, contexts and processes of strategic management in businesses, and some useful approaches to analysing them. These range from commonly applied $ùprescriptive&© approaches, to lessons drawn from the observation and analysis of real firms and managers (i.e. management research). This course is tailored to the background and interests of those undertaking a MSc programme at Edinburgh .
All teaching will be based around application of concepts to a single case written by the course co-ordinator, of a firm facing an internationalizing industry. By combining the conceptual material with case studies that will be used in assessment, participants should become able to (a) address the complexity of strategic management in international firms, (b) manage and analyse relevant information about firms in a clear, sound and explicit way, and (c) use strategic management and other relevant approaches to produce persuasive conclusions about real firms, and present them effectively.
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Entry Requirements
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites |
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| Prohibited Combinations |
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Other requirements |
None
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| Additional Costs |
None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2010/11 Semester 2, Available to all students (SV1)
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WebCT enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| No Classes have been defined for this Course |
| First Class |
First class information not currently available |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Subject specific knowledge, understanding and skills
&· Understanding the complexity of strategic management.
&· Understanding of the traditional approaches of strategic analysis.
&· Knowledge of the tools of strategy analysis and their limitations.
&· Knowledge of strategy alternatives.
&· Understanding the different perspectives for managing
&· Understanding the current issues being faced by managers in developing their international businesses
Cognitive abilities and non-subject specific skills
&· The ability to manage and analyse relevant information about firms in a clear, sound and explicit way.
&· The ability to use strategic management concepts and approaches to produce persuasive conclusions about real firms.
&· Ability to apply strategy theories and models to new environments and contexts
&· Ability to read original academic articles, to summarise their essential ideas, and to present them in the context of other ideas and frameworks
&· Ability to evaluate and critique international business theories and models.
&· Ability to analyse complex business situations
&· Skills of argument development and persuasion
&· Group working and presentation skills
&· The ability to communicate analyses and conclusions clearly and persuasively.
Planned Student Learning Experiences
&· Learning from each other in the group situations in the preparation of case studies.
&· Appreciating the value of academically sound research articles, and how to use and cite them
&· Learning the dynamic process of argumentation towards a senior-management type decision
&· Presenting at a senior level.
&· In interactive plenary sessions they will learn from each other and from the teachers input.
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Assessment Information
A. Coursework A (20%): Teams reading presentations in weeks 5 & 6 (based on the contributors&© key readings summaries).
B. Coursework B (20%): Teams present strategy analyses of the ESC case in weeks 9 & 10.
C. Role-play exam (60%): Individuals will answer two questions set by the CEO of a case company, the case having been given to the students some weeks before. |
| Please see Visiting Student Prospectus website for Visiting Student Assessment information |
Special Arrangements
| Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser |
Dr Simon Harris
Tel: 07946 645069
Email: Simon.Harris@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary |
Ms Eileen Robinson
Tel: (0131 6)51 3028
Email: eileen.robinson@ed.ac.uk |
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copyright 2010 The University of Edinburgh -
1 September 2010 5:45 am
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