Table of Contents
1. An Introduction to Strategic Management
2. Understanding Organizational Performance
3. Tools of the Trade
4. Analyzing the Environment
5. Organizational Strengths and Weaknesses: Analyzing a Firm’s Capabilities and Resources
6. Strategies for Competitive Advantage
7. Corporate and Multi-Business Unit Strategy
8. Implementation, Adaptation, and Learning
9. Disruptive Megatrends
10. Issues of Context, Setting, and Application
About the Authors
Allen C. Amason is Dean of the Parker College of Business at Georgia Southern University. He earned his Ph.D. in Strategic Management and International Business from the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina and served on the faculties of Mississippi State and the University of Georgia, where he was Chair of the Terry College Department of Management.Dr. Amason’s research focuses on strategic decision making and the role of top management in the strategy process. He has published more than 40 articles, books, and chapters in various scholarly outlets, served on the editorial boards of several top journals, and was Associate Editor for the Journal of Management Studies and the Journal of Management.He is past-President of the Southern Management Association. Professor Amason’s teaching and consulting focuses on strategic management and decision making. He has served on the boards of various organizations and done C-level consulting on issues related to strategy and strategic decision making with a variety of widely recognized and leading firms in the U.S. and around the world.He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance, from Georgia Southern, and, prior to her passing in 2019, was married for 36 years to his high school sweetheart and Georgia Southern alumna, Cricket Amason. They have 4 children, the youngest of whom is the subject of his book Expensive Yanna: An Adoption Story.
Andrew Ward is the Charlot and Dennis E. Singleton ’66 Endowed Chair in Corporate Governance and Professor of Management. From 2010 to 2018 he also served as the Associate Dean for the College of Business at Lehigh University with responsibility for all graduate programs (Ph.D., Master’s, and MBA) for the college. Prior to joining Lehigh University, he was a member of the management faculty at the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia and previously at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University.Dr. Ward conducts research on issues related to corporate governance including CEO successions, CEO compensation, the roles and concerns of the chief executive officer, CEO/board relations, reputation, and leadership and has published articles in several leading academic journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Organization Science. Dr. Ward’s work has been featured in numerous publications including Harvard Business Review, Business Week, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, Directorship, Directors and Boards, Investor’s Business Daily, and Leaders Magazine. His first book, The Leadership Lifecycle: Matching Leaders to Evolving Organizations (Palgrave, 2003) examines how leadership needs change over the course of an organization’s life. His book Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters is co-authored with Dr. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of Yale University and was published by Harvard Business School Press in 2007. Firing Back has received national and international media attention with reviews in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, Forbes, Business Week, and The Economist among other publications.A native of England, Ward received his undergraduate degree from the University of Surrey, his MBA from the Goizueta Business School of Emory University, and his Ph.D. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.