Defining CSR is not merely a descriptive exercise. It is not as simple as attaching a linguistic label to a particular business practice, as is the case with many other concepts in strategic management. It is a normative exercise in the sense that defining CSR requires enumerating what businesses should be responsible for in society. Taken far enough, defining CSR is also a political or ideological exercise that describes how a society's political economy should be structured, bounded, and ultimately, controlled. Given its nature, it is not surprising that there is little agreement on the specifics. The Beal supplement is designed to allow strategy faculty to bring these ideas into a strategy class and debate them.
This text provides upper-level undergraduate students with an international managerial perspective that concisely integrates both market (i.e., industry structure) and nonmarket (i.e., political forces) analysis. Conklin teaches students how to understand the impact of environmental forces on the firm's profitability, how to prioritize both risks and opportunities, how to analyze the relationships among them, and how to recommend firm responses to them to maximize MNE profitability.
New in Paperback: Publishing February 2006! `If you had to read only one book to understand the roots and branches of the study of strategy & organization, this would be it. Pettigrew, Thomas and Whittington have gathered an impressive array of contributions, which provide a comprehensive guide to the current state of the art. It's a book that reflects a maturing field, offering thought-provoking discussions of the major issues in strategy, reflections on how they have been tackled in the last three decades, and identifying the themes, promises and challenges that lie ahead. Useful for a novice and an accomplished scholar alike, this is a remarkable effort that shows how far the Strategy field has come' - Michael G. Jacobides, London Business School `This is an interesting, insightful and thought provoking collection. It not only comprehensively maps the field of strategic management but also offers a critical reflection on past and present work. The rich mix of contributors criticize, entice and provoke, while also scoping a future research agenda. The authors have accomplished a major and important contribution to our understanding of the history and development of strategy and research in strategy' - David Asch, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law, De Montfort University. `The publication of the Handbook of Strategy and Management is a major event. The Handbook not only brings together the World's leading strategy and management scholars; it is also remarkably well-organized and future-oriented, having the right balance between focus and diversity. By critically taking stock of the field and by discussing future paths of strategy, this Handbook will serve as an important stimulus for intellectual development for years to come'- Nicolai Foss, Copenhagen Business School `Finally! We have a comprehensive, reflective and critical overview of the field of strategy in the new Handbook of Strategy and Management. The strategy literature has come of age with this "mapping of the terrain" by Andrew Pettigrew, Howard Thomas and Richard Whittington. The Handbook provides an useful overview of different streams of thought with contributions by leading scholars and researchers. Equally importantly, this Handbook provides us with reflections on the past and insights into the future of the field. Such a critique is an important aid in understanding and researching strategy for newcomers and experienced scholars alike' - Cynthia Hardy, Head of Department of Management, University of Melbourne The Handbook presents a major retrospective and prospective overview of the strategic management field and will be an important benchmark volume for management scholars worldwide. The Handbook frames, assesses and synthesizes the work in the field and helps to define and shape its current and future development. The editors combine focus with diversity in the material and approaches covered, thus providing a powerful critical analysis and synthesis of diverse disciplinary contributions to this rapidly growing body of knowledge. Each of the four parts of this book concentrates on a specific area of strategy and management. Within these parts, leading international scholars provide historical overviews of the key strands delineating the `topography' of their particular themes, address the central problems and approaches which have characterized these, critically assess the state and quality of current theory and knowledge, and set out agendas for future theoretical and empirical development. The resulting volume is a unique overview of the inputs and dynamics that shape the core ideas and practices of strategy and management.
Marketing Strategy: The Thinking Involved is an innovative text that promotes the idea that effective marketing thinking leads to successful marketing strategy. The book's theories go beyond simply introducing the reader to concepts in the field by providing tools and methods to develop marketing thinking and questioning skills that will help with application of real-life marketing strategies. As the chapters progress, the thinking/questioning develops toward higher levels and more specialized inquiry, helping readers acquire the skills needed in the practice of marketing. The book's timely focus on developing thinking agility leading to strategic agility provides the necessary skills for navigating businesses in today's dynamic markets. The book contains a wealth of pedagogy to support this active learning approach.
'Demystifies strategy making while at the same time deepening our understanding of what the process entails. Their work is a marvellous guide for those striving to make sense of complexity' - Karl E. Weick, Rensis Likert Distinguished University Professor of Organizational Behavior and Psychology, University of Michigan 'This book is at the very cutting edge of strategic management theory and yet also of immense practical use. It is truly a rare and stunning achievement' - John M Bryson, McKnight Presidential Professor of Planning and Public Affairs, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota 'Using this book enabled me to facilitate a multicultural team of seven managers so that they very quickly got to grips with the challenges and opportunities facing the organization and developed a realistic workable strategy, whilst at the same time building a real sense of team cohesion and the feeling that individuals had been listened to' - Alison Devine, Director, British Council, Taipai This lucid and highly-accessible text addresses the challenges of how to build a robust and implementable strategy. Strategy making is seen as something relevant to managers of departments, divisions, SME's, as well as the top management teams of public and for-profit organizations. Four key routes to creating a strategy are discussed. These routes, when taken together, provide a powerful means for agreeing a negotiated strategy, and comprise: strategic issue management, agreeing organizational purpose, competitiveness from the exploitation and protection of distinctiveness, and the strategic management of stakeholders. The designs have been used extensively, in a wide range of countries, by management teams in all types of organisations.
