Alpha chiang elements of dynamic optimization

What are some of the features in Strategic Management that reinforce the 3 R’s? First, we build in rigor by drawing on the latest research by management scholars and insights from management consultants to offer a current a current and comprehensive view of strategic issues. We reinforce this rigor with our “Issues for Debate” and “Reflecting on Career Implications. . .” that require students to develop insights on how to address complex issues and understand how strategy concepts can enhance their career success. Second, to enhance relevance, we provide numerous examples from management practice in the text and “Strategy Spotlights” (sidebars). We also increase relevance by relating course topic and examples to current business and societal themes, including environmental sustainability, ethics, globalization, entrepreneurship, and data analytics. Third, we stress readability with an engaging writing style with minimal jargon to ensure an effective learning experience. This is most clearly evident in the conversational presentations of chapter opening “Learning from Mistakes” and chapter ending “Issues for Debate.”

Unlike other strategy texts, we provide three separate chapters that address timely topics about which business students should have a solid understanding. These are the role of intellectual assets in value creation (Chapter 4), entrepreneurial strategy and competitive dynamics (Chapter 8), and fostering entrepreneurship in established organizations (Chapter 12). We also provide an excellent and thorough chapter on how to analyze strategic management cases.

In developing Strategic Management: Text and Cases, we certainly didn’t forget the instructors. As we all know, you have a most challenging (but rewarding) job. We did our best to help you. We provide a variety of supplementary materials that should help you in class preparation and delivery. For example, our chapter notes do not simply summarize the material in the text. Rather (and consistent with the concept of strategy), we ask ourselves: “How can we add value?” Thus, for each chapter, we provide numerous questions to pose to help guide class discussion, at least 12 boxed examples to supplement chapter material, and three detailed “teaching tips” to further engage students. For example, we provide several useful insights on strategic leadership from one of Greg’s colleagues, Charles Hazzard (formerly Executive Vice President, Occidental Chemical). Also, we completed the chapter notes—along with the entire test bank—ourselves. That is, unlike many of our rivals, we didn’t simply farm the work out to others. Instead, we felt that such efforts help to enhance quality and consistency—as well as demonstrate our personal commitment to provide a top-quality total package to strategy instructors. With the Ninth Edition, we also benefited from valued input by our strategy colleagues to further improve our work.

Let’s now address some of the key substantive changes in the Ninth Edition. Then we will cover some of the major features that we have had in previous editions.

WHAT’S NEW? HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NINTH EDITION We have endeavored to add new material to the chapters that reflects the feedback we have received from our reviewers as well as the challenges today’s managers face. Thus, we all invested an extensive amount of time carefully reviewing a wide variety of books, academic and practitioner journals, and the business press.

We also worked hard to develop more concise and tightly written chapters. Based on feedback from some of the reviewers, we have tightened our writing style, tried to eliminate redundant examples, and focused more directly on what we feel is the most important content in each chapter for our audience. The overall result is that we were able to update our material, add valuable new content, and—at the same time—shorten the length of the chapters.

Final PDF to printer

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