Sainsbury's

Unit 1
Models of Strategic Management

    Learning Outcomes

After studying this unit you should be able to:

  • describe the difficulties involved in defining the models of strategic
    management

  • identify the main influences on the different approaches to strategic management

  • recognise the role that different schools of economic thought plays in shaping the models of strategic management

  • explain the implications for decision making of each of the different approaches.

    Recommended reading

Mintzberg, H (1994) The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning (Prentice Hall), chapters 1 and 2

Mintzberg, H, Quinn, J B and Ghoshal, S (1995) The Strategy Process, European edition (Prentice Hall), chapters 1 and 4

Whittington, R (2000) What is Strategy and Does it Matter? (Routledge), chapter 2

The text of the unit covers the essential material, but it is interesting to read through the topics in more detail to discover how different writers treat the same ideas. This is particularly interesting when the area is as diverse as the one being covered in this module. Other major texts such as De Wit and Meyer (2003) Strategy: Process, Content and Context, and Johnson and Scholes (2007) Exploring Corporate Strategy provide alternative reading on the subject area.

1.1 Introduction

Business strategy is concerned with the long-term direction and scope of a business – its overall long-term perspective. It should not be confused with strategic planning which is an entirely separate activity and which can be used to support differing processes of strategic management.

How an organisation positions itself with regard to the environment, and in particular to its competitors, is important in its establishment of competitive advantage. The underlying theories that direct the decision makers are important and the danger is that we forget the impact of these theories. As Keynes (1936) stated:

“Practical men, who believe themselves to... [continues]

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