ok, this applies to mingster (and any other mba students and grads). this is an essay question for my last mba subject on strategic management. anyone wanna give me tips or good webpages where i can find info.
"discuss the propostition that theories or models of strategic management are only relevant to firms of a certain size or in certain industries"
word limit 3000 wds

 

http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/depts/sml/jo...al/harfield.htm


Try that on for size
BIG BOY

Google is your friend.

 

Well, I think it depends on which model or theory you want to refer to. If you're talking specifically about Porter's "Five Forces" industry analysis, I think it is safe to assume you can apply that model to just about any industry. There was a Harvard Review article that came out about a year ago, in which Porter dismissed claims that the Five Forces model would not apply to the e-commerce/internet industry, but he makes a very good claim for the model's applicability.

You might be able to find this article online. If your school has acess to Lexis-Nexis, Business Source Premier, etc you should be able to tons of access to journal articles which argue for or against the topic of your paper.

Personally, I believe you can use most, if not all, theories and models in order to analyze a company, regardless of the industry or size. After all, there is no perfect model for analysis - they're really just tools to help you identify important issues. You can talk about Five Forces, Resource Based View, what's his name's "star" or "congruence" model (all parts of the star model have to align for a company to have a successful implementation - , strategy, structure, rewards systems, people, decision making/info systems). You can also discuss the "Strategic Repertoire" matrix (Pearl, Performer, Partner, Pioneer). Anyway, I'm rambling here.

If I find any specific sites relating to this, I'll make sure to post them here.

Best of luck

 

i agree with rodan's POV as i wrap up my MBA program. in fact, porter's five forces model were a hot topic of debate a month or so ago during our session. the basic foundation of the model:

- threat of new entrants
- substitutes
- suppliers
- buyers (customers)
- industry competitors
- the model should also include complements to the product - and i don't believe there are any business that this model won't apply to. just thinking out loud, any of these theories you and i study in school can be applied to businesses large and small, legal or not as rodan stated, it just depends on what angle you're looking at the problem.

if you must find something, try and see if you CANNOT stuff value chain analysis (one of those things that takes up a long time and lots of money consultants get paid for) in a given industry - that industry must be QUITE equal in terms of competitive forces though, and the only thing i can think of is the securities industry...just a suggestion, i'd say keep lookin' good luck!