Written by a team of leading academics, this groundbreaking new text is an invaluable guide to the core elements of strategy courses, that will challenge conventional thinking about the field. It provides a coherent and engaging overview of the established classics of strategy, while taking an innovative approach to contemporary issues such as power and politics, ethics, branding, globalisation, collaboration, and the global financial crisis. It is a unique critical perspective that encourages you to reflect on the strategy process and strategic decision-making. It is packed with learning features, including a wealth of international case studies and accompanying discussion questions. A website offering a full Instructors Manual, video cases, podcasts and full-text journal articles. Read the authors research paper Re-Framing Strategy: Power, Politics and Accounting in which they make the case for a critically informed approach to studying strategy in the special issue of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (Vol 23, Issue 5). Praise for Strategy: Theory and Practice: "Finally, something different in a strategy text!
This new volume provides a broad view of strategy covering the conventional as well as less mainstream alternatives like the growing strategy-as-practice perspective. It also does a great job of providing balanced critiques of the existing orthodoxy and provides explicit connections to some of the more accessible academic articles providing more depth to the arguments presented. All in all, it is an excellent break from the unfortunate tendency to make strategy a narrow economic enterprise in a world that is far more complex and social than that. Strategy: Theory and Practice is a welcome addition to the available texts on strategy." (Nelson Phillips, Professor of Strategy and Organizational Behaviour Co-Editor, Journal of Management Inquiry). "A super and overdue book. It embraces the central importance of organization theory and, especially, the play of power and politics both inside and outside the organization. This erudite, almost polemical book promises to redraw how we approach the study of strategy - and not before time!" (Royston Greenwood, Associate Dean, School of Business, University of Alberta).
"It explains where strategy originates from and how contemporary ideas and practices facilitate or constrain decision-making and action. In particular, this book illuminates the role of power and politics in strategy - an issue that has been overlooked in most textbooks in this area. Enjoyable and inspiring reading for students, researchers and practitioners." (Eero Vaara, Professor of Management and Organization Dean of Research Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki). "The authors have managed to produce a unique and admirable combination of critical external engagement with strategy, understood as a complex object of organizational and political construction, and a useable insiders text book rich in illustrative cases. As such it is essential reading for academics, students and practitioners - all of whom will discover how theory and practice are more intertwined than they ever imagined." (Michael Power, Professor of Accounting, London School of Economics and Political Science).
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION The Context and Emergence of Strategic Thinking PART TWO: CENTRAL CURRENTS IN STRATEGY Strategy and Competitive Performance Strategy Discovers Uniqueness The Role of Resources and Knowledge Strategy as Process and Practice Marketing and Branding as Strategic Forces Strategy and Innovation PART THREE: THE POLITICS OF STRATEGY Strategists, Top Management Teams and Governance Strategic Decision-Making Organizational Politics and Strategy PART FOUR: GLOBAL STRATEGIES International and Collaborative Strategies Financialization, Risk and Accountability Globalization and Strategy