Introduction
The essence of corporate strategy is the creation of sustainable competitive advantage, i.e. creating products and services that the customers perceive as valuable and unique. The field of strategic management provides a range of models that is useful in the attempts to develop sustainable competitive advantage. In this module the students will get acquainted with several of these models, both through lectures and case applications. On the level of the business unit, we will study both external, environmental conditions and internal resources and activities. External conditions include markets, economic parameters and competitive arenas with players and conditions that together give the conditions that the firm must position within. Internal analysis is a method to understand what resources and activities the firm possesses to take strategic action. On the corporate level, we will study the benefits of organizing several firms under the same corporate leadership. Strategic expansion, and different forms of organizations like alliances and mergers and acquisition will be given specific attention. We will also discuss firms operating across borders, and the specific challenges met by internationalisation. Finally we will look at some challenges related to strategy implementation.