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Global Business Strategy
Module Description
In today’s international business world, managers in all organisations have to understand the trends shaping the global business environment and the strategies that businesses have to adopt in order to deal with the challenges of operating within an increasingly competitive and dynamic marketplace. The rapidly changing international business environment requires companies to be capable of continual self-renewal; managers must be entrepreneurs, innovators and change agents. Managers at all levels must be involved in maintenance and development of the strategic capability of the organisation. They must be able to contribute to decisions about the future strategy of the organisation and take responsibility for its implementation. Increasingly, they must be able to manage trans-nationally, doing business in international markets, managing global supply chains and supervising a diverse workforce.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Evaluate critically alternative views of strategy.
- Assess the resources and competences possessed or required by an organisation to develop and implement a future strategy.
- Identify the main forces shaping the national and global business environment and critically evaluate the approaches of a variety of organisations to environmental analysis.
- Recognise the importance of both organisational culture and the role of cultural factors in the development of business strategy.
- Explain the links between the various functional areas of an organisation’s activities and the relationship between these activities in the formation of an overall strategic approach.
- Devise and evaluate possible strategies for an organisation, both profit-oriented and not-for-profit.
- Appreciate some of the key issues involved in the implementation of strategic decisions and the influence of implementation factors on the choice of strategy.
- Explore and evaluate issues associated with business ethics and corporate social responsibility.
Indicative Content
- Perspectives on strategic management and approaches to strategy. development; generic strategies; deliberate and emergent strategies; the RBV of strategy.
- Strategic capability, obtaining and deploying resources, building competences; strategic architecture.
- The global business environment; environmental analysis; forecasting and scenario planning; cultural factors.
- Strategic choices; organic and inorganic growth; transnational and global strategies; market entry strategies; strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions; strategy and structure; functional strategies.
- Strategic entrepreneurship; innovation and change; small business creation and development; virtual businesses.
- Ethics and the organisation; corporate social responsibility.