ALL LECTURES Strategic Management + BONUS PRACTICE TEST
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Course
Strategic Management (6012B0430Y)
Institution
Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
This document contains a summary of ALL LECTURES of the 2020/2021 edition of the Strategic Management course offered at Universiteit van Amsterdam (course code: 6012B0430Y), which is part of the minors “Business Administration: Managing Strategy and Marketing”, “Business Administration: Desig...
This document contains a summary of ALL LECTURES of the 2020/2021 edition of the
Strategic Management course offered at Universiteit van Amsterdam (course code:
6012B0430Y), which is part of the minors “Business Administration: Managing Strategy and
Marketing”, “Business Administration: Designing Effective Organizations”, and the exchange
programme of the Faculty of Economics and Business. Each lecture has been summarized
in depth and provides a solid overview of all discussed content. All relevant tables and
figures are included and explained.
As a BONUS, this document contains ALL Kahoot questions from the weekly Q&A sessions
on monday, which you can use as an extra practice test. The answers and short
explanations are included on a separate page.
I also made a document with summaries of all required articles, which is available on my
Stuvia profile: https://www.stuvia.nl/user/davidschouten
Lecture 1 26 October 2020 1
Lecture 2 29 October 2020 3
2.1 Examining Internal Drivers of Strategy - VRIN Model 3
2.2 Examining internal drivers of strategy - Value chain analysis 4
2.3 Combining internal and external analysis - SWOT Analysis 4
2.4 Integrating internal and external resources 5
Lecture 3 6 November 2020 6
3.1 Business-level strategy - Customers 6
3.2 Business-level strategy - Generic strategies 6
3.3 Corporate-level strategies 8
Lecture 4 16 November 2020 10
4.1 Strategic Leadership 10
4.2 Corporate governance 11
4.3 Organizational structure 12
Lecture 5 27 November 2020 14
Lecture 6 (Q&A Session) 27 November 2020 19
Q&A sessions/practice test 20
Answer sheet 25
Strategic Management lecture summary by David Schouten (david@schouten.io)
1
,Lecture 1 26 October 2020
!!! This lecture is relatively short because a large part was spent discussing course planning
and practicalities, which I did not include in the summary.
Strategy comes from strategos (Greek), which means “the general’s view”. The book defines
it as “an integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions designed to exploit (and
develop) core competencies and gain a competitive advantage”.
Some key definitions used throughout the course:
Competitive advantage A firm has a competitive advantage when it implements a
strategy competitors are unable to duplicate or find too
costly to try to imitate it.
Above average returns … are returns in excess of what an investor expects to earn
from other investments with a similar amount of risk.
Operational effectiveness … means performing these activities better -- that is, faster,
or with fewer inputs and defects -- than rivals.
Strategic positioning attempts to achieve sustainable competitive advantage by
preserving what is distinctive about a company.
… (by) performing different activities from rivals, or
performing similar activities in different ways.
Two models underly the strategic perspective of the course:
● The I/O model is used to analyze the external environment of an organisation. It
assumes resources are mobile, organisations make rational decisions, and firm
strategies are similar in nature. Uses Porter’s five forces (discussed this lecture).
● The resource-based view is the opposite. It believes that internal characteristics of
an organisation (e.g. the team) is a more important determinant of a firm’s success.
Uses VRIN Model (discussed in Lecture 2)
General environment analysis is used to analyse the environment of a firm that is not
under the control of managers. A strategy can not directly influence this. It is basically the
same as a PESTEL analysis. Factors included in this analysis are Political/legal, Economic,
Socio-cultural, Technological, Demographic, Global, and Environmental.
An industry is a group of firms that are active with the same/similar products on the same
market. An industry’s structure has big effects on profitability.
After determining the industry boundaries we assess the industry characteristics using
Porter’s five forces1:
1. Rivalry Among Competitors
high if:
i. large number of competitors
ii. low switching costs
iii. slow ratio of industry growth
iv. high exit barriers
1
Image source (next page):
https://www.targetinternet.com/michael-porters-5-forces-explained-a-marketers-guide/
Strategic Management lecture summary by David Schouten (david@schouten.io)
2
, 2. Threat of New Entrants
determined by:
i. time and cost of entry
ii. economies of scale
iii. technology protection
iv. high switching costs
3. Bargaining Power of Buyers
high if:
i. concentration of buyers
ii. low product
differentiation
iii. low switching costs
iv. backward integration
4. Threat of Substitute Products or
Services
high if:
i. better price/quality ratio
ii. low switching costs
5. Bargaining Power of Suppliers
high if:
i. concentration of suppliers
ii. importance of input
iii. high switching costs
iv. forward integration
If all forces are LOW, the industry is attractive. If all forces are HIGH, the industry is not
attractive. In the latter case, the organisation should improve their position or leave the
industry.
Strategic Management lecture summary by David Schouten (david@schouten.io)
3
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