Richard Whittington

Understand and apply the essential concepts and techniques of strategy. Fundamentals of Strategy, 6th Edition is a concise and easy-to-follow introduction to the core issues and techniques of strategy from the author team of the market-leading Exploring Strategy. This latest edition is renewed and revised to reflect contemporary strategic issues with increased emphasis on business ecosystems, platforms, purpose and implementation. Each chapter includes a diverse range of international examples from across sectors and industries, including start-ups, non-profits, and multinationals. End-of-chapter case studies further help you to connect theories to real-world scenarios. The nine chapters provide an accessible introductory analysis of the 'strategic position' and 'strategic choices' facing contemporary organisations. Topics explored include macro-environmental and industry analysis, strategic capability, stakeholders and culture as well as a discussion of business-level strategies, business models, international strategies, strategic entrepreneurship, innovation and mergers and acquisitions. The final chapter, 'Strategy in action' addresses implementation issues such as organisational structure, managerial systems and strategic change. In addition, new supporting content at the end of the book on ‘Working with strategy' for case study analysis and presentation further provides practical tools to help you develop your strategic analysis and communication skills. As a result, this textbook is ideal for undergraduate and MBA students who study strategy analysis-related courses or strategy as part of a wider degree in areas such as science or engineering.

Introduce your students to the latest concepts in strategic thinking with this industry-leading text. Exploring Strategy tackles the biggest issues surrounding the operation, growth, and innovation of organisations. With longer case studies included in the TextCases edition your students will gain deeper insight into the manager-way of thinking.

This thought-provoking book draws together research from genetics, anthropology, psychology and the social sciences to show that widespread assumptions about the inevitability of human violence are almost entirely a collection of myths. While violence has been a recurring feature of human life, there is no reason to suppose that it is inherent in 'human nature'. On the contrary, patterns of aggressive behaviour are largely learned through experience and even those individuals who have often acted violently can learn to change. Rejecting the speculations of much contemporary writing about human aggression, Violence Rewired presents an evidence-based alternative: a multi-level model of action to reduce violence at both individual and collective levels, linked to public health initiatives developed by the World Health Organization. If humanity is to survive the challenges it faces, a more realistic appraisal of ourselves and our basic tendencies is an indispensable part of the solution.

Understand and apply the essential concepts and techniques of strategy with a text coming from the leading team in the field. Fundamentals of Strategy, 5th edition, by Whittington, Regnér, Angwin, Johnson, and Scholes is an easy-to-follow guide to the fundamental issues and techniques of strategy from the author team of the market-leading text Exploring Strategy. This textbook is ideal for students who study strategy analysis-related courses, or strategy as part of a wider degree in areas, such as science or engineering. The latest edition is updated to reflect the impact of the Covid-19 crisis and provides insights and examples from a broad range of international organisations. The text has nine chapters and can be studied in connection with the twelfth edition of Exploring Strategy, offering an in-depth analysis of some of the core terms and theories developed in the latter, such as the 'strategic position' and 'strategic choices'-facing organisations. The topics include, among others, analysis on a macro-environmental and industry level, capability, and culture, as well as a discussion of business-level strategies, business models, international strategies, strategic entrepreneurship, and innovation. The final chapter, 'Strategy in Action', raises fundamental issues on the structure of organisations, managerial systems, and strategic change. With useful features, including a wide range of illustrations to complement the reader-friendly content, end-of-chapter case studies, and a companion website to consolidate your understanding, this must-have textbook demonstrates how the strategic theories of today apply in real-life scenarios.

This thought-provoking book draws together research from genetics, anthropology, psychology and the social sciences to show that widespread assumptions about the inevitability of human violence are almost entirely a collection of myths. While violence has been a recurring feature of human life, there is no reason to suppose that it is inherent in 'human nature'. On the contrary, patterns of aggressive behaviour are largely learned through experience and even those individuals who have often acted violently can learn to change. Rejecting the speculations of much contemporary writing about human aggression, Violence Rewired presents an evidence-based alternative: a multi-level model of action to reduce violence at both individual and collective levels, linked to public health initiatives developed by the World Health Organization. If humanity is to survive the challenges it faces, a more realistic appraisal of ourselves and our basic tendencies is an indispensable part of the solution.

Strategy is becoming more 'open' - more transparent and more inclusive. Opening Strategy tells the story of how corporate strategists and strategy consultants have worked since the middle of the last century to open up the strategy process. First strategic planning, then strategic management, and now 'open strategy' have all brought more people into the strategy process and provided more strategic information, for the benefit of both business and society at large. Informed by interviews with corporate strategists and consultants at leading firms such as General Electric and McKinsey & Co, and drawing on the historical archives of strategy's pioneers, this book provides vivid insights into the trials and tribulations of practice change in the strategy profession. Above all, it stresses the hard work of the little recognized and sometimes eccentric individuals who have been leaders in practice change. By building on a wide range of illustrations, covering both successes and failures, the book draws out general lessons for practice innovation in strategy. Those studying the topic will be able to set standard strategy techniques in historical and social context and develop new areas for investigation, while practising executives and consultants should gain a sense of how to innovate in strategy - and how not to.

First published in 1989, this book is based on detailed comparative case studies of eight firms’ responses to the recession of the early 1980s, the worst crisis for British manufacturing in the post-war period. Following these companies’ progress from 1979 to 1985, Whittington examines the various recession strategies they adopted and the consequences of these for management change and financial performance in the recovery. Drawing on the Realist social theory of Roy Bhaskar, Whittington argues that the class, gender, generation and ethnicity of the decision-makers involved in the eight case studies collectively made an impact on their strategic choices. This is a timely and practical reissue, which will be of value to students, managers and academics concerned with strategic management, developments in organizational theory, and the current economic climate.

First published in 1989, this book is based on detailed comparative case studies of eight firms’ responses to the recession of the early 1980s, the worst crisis for British manufacturing in the post-war period. Following these companies’ progress from 1979 to 1985, Whittington examines the various recession strategies they adopted and the consequences of these for management change and financial performance in the recovery. Drawing on the Realist social theory of Roy Bhaskar, Whittington argues that the class, gender, generation and ethnicity of the decision-makers involved in the eight case studies collectively made an impact on their strategic choices. This is a timely and practical reissue, which will be of value to students, managers and academics concerned with strategic management, developments in organizational theory, and the current economic climate.

Research in strategy has shifted significantly towards strategy as something organizations have, rather than strategy as something that managers do. The activities of the people who actually manage and develop organizational strategy have become marginalized. Strategy as Practice argues the reverse: that research on strategy needs to take seriously what strategists do and the effects of what they do. Written by a distinguished team of researchers and educators, this book sets out a research agenda, provides guidelines on theoretical perspectives and alternative methodologies for research on practice as well as commentaries on published illustrative papers that exemplify the practice perspective. Strategy as Practice will be essential reading for doctoral students, researchers and academics who wish to understand or undertake research in this important field of management research.

Research in strategy has shifted significantly towards strategy as something organizations have, rather than strategy as something that managers do. The activities of the people who actually manage and develop organizational strategy have become marginalized. Strategy as Practice argues the reverse: that research on strategy needs to take seriously what strategists do and the effects of what they do. Written by a distinguished team of researchers and educators, this book sets out a research agenda, provides guidelines on theoretical perspectives and alternative methodologies for research on practice as well as commentaries on published illustrative papers that exemplify the practice perspective. Strategy as Practice will be essential reading for doctoral students, researchers and academics who wish to understand or undertake research in this important field of management research.

This work traces the evolution of the large industrial corporation in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, from the 1950s to the 1990s. It combines long-run trends with case studies of leading companies and their managers to present a rich and complex picture of corporate change.

In this revision of his classic book Richard Whittington challenges the basic assumptions of management orthodoxy. By applying four basic theoretical approaches of strategy-making to a series of key strategic issues, Whittington demonstrates the practical implications of different theories with many examples. Students are then challenged to critically evaluate their own personal approach to strategy-making in practice. The new edition is fully updated to cover the latest issues in strategy including expanded coverage of the resource-based and knowledge-based views of the firm, and utilises new examples from the international, service and ‘ebusiness’ sectors.

This book traces the evolution of the large industrial corporation in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1990s. It combines long-run trends with illustrative case studies of leading companies and their managers to present a rich and complex picture of corporate change. In particular, the authors highlight the paradox of increasingly similar patterns of corporate strategy and structure across advanced industrial nations with continuing marked differences in corporate ownership, control, and managerial élites. Despite strong institutional contrasts between the leading European economies, and regardless of the decline of the American model of management, big business in Europe has continued to follow a strategic and structural model pioneered in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century and encapsulated long ago in Alfred Chandler's (1962) 'Strategy and Structure'. This finding of similar patterns of corporate strategy and structure across Europe challenges recent relativist perspectives on organizations found in postmodern, culturalist, and institutionalist social science. Nevertheless, it does not endorse standard universalist accounts of convergence either. The book distinguishes between Chandlerism, with its original ideology of universalism, and the broader Chandlerian perspective, an enduring but evolving core of good sense about the corporation in certain kinds of advanced economies. Thus the authors show how the surprising success of conglomerate diversification and the increasing adoption of more 'networked' multidivisional structure simply extend the core principles of the Chandlerian perspective. They argue that the extent to which Chandlerian principles have held good across the advanced economies of Western Europe through the whole post-war period makes them a model for the kind of adaptive and bounded social scientific prescription appropriate to a changing and varied world. The book contributes to contemporary academic debates on relativism and universalism by proposing a middle-way based on a boundedly-generalizing social science. For policy-makers, it suggest the possibility of steady economic convergence independent of radical and external pressure and sensitive to other aspects of national social structures. For business decision-makers, it offers a more positive model of diversification, especially conglomerate diversification, as well as a new networked organization appropriate to the demands of today's knowledge economy.