Course Overview

This is an advanced course in strategic management. This course will have a particular strong emphasis on competitive strategy and will apply some basic tools from economics to examine the strategic decisions that managers make. We will examine those decisions concerning pricing, capacity investment, advertising, new product introductions, research and development, and organizational design. The course will integrate traditional economic models with case study materials.

Course Announcements

Course Syllabus

Course Slides

I. Course Introduction

• Session 1 - Introduction
  

II. Competitive Strategy

A. Price Competition

• Session 2: Entry Barriers A and B
  
• Session 3: Pricing to Deter Entry
  
• Session 4: Fog of Business
  
• Session 5: Signalling Costs
  
• Session 6: War of Attrition
  

1. Strategies to Lessen Competition

• Session 7: Toy Game
  
• Session 8: Contracts with customers
  
• Session 9: Promotional Pricing
  

II. Industry Analysis

A. Commitment and Competitive Strategy

• Session 10: Taxonomy of Business Strategies
  
• Session 11: Commitment and Competitive Strategy
  

B. Sunk Costs and Market Structure

• Session 12: Sunk Costs and Market Structure: Five Forces Reconsidered
  
• Session 13: Advertising Sunk Costs
  
• Session 14: Advertising Sunk Costs Continued
  
• Session 15: In Class Midterm Examination
  

III. Technology Competition

A. Imitation

• Session 16: Innovation and quick imitation
  

B. Patent Races

• Session 17: Races for New Technology
  

C. New Product Competition

• Session 18: Power Play
  

IV. Corporate Strategy

A. Diversification and Market Entry

• Session 19: Entry Choices
  
• Session 20: Multimarket Contact
  
• Session 21: Diversification through new product entry
  
• Session 22: Credible Spatial Preemption
  
• Session 23: Capacity Preemption
  

B. Strategies in Declining Industries

• Session 25: Exit
  

C. Vertical Contracting

• Session 26: Vertical Contracting
  

Please email us with suggestions or course comments.

Professor Louis Thomas
Office location: E52-536
Office hours: To be announced
Office phone: 253-3781
Lathomas@mit.edu

Teaching Assistant: To be announced