This unique book is positioned at the crossroads of strategic management and international business. Based on an in-depth literature review, the author empirically assesses the widely shared, implicit assumption that strategic management processes can be globally applied in a standardized, i.e., culture-free, manner. So far, a variety of tools have also been recommended but without incorporating cultural differences. As many organizations observe that this ethnocentric view is more an illusion than reality, strategic management research has started to focus on the cultural sensitivity of its theories, tools, and processes to provide practitioners in a multicultural setting with adequate know-how and tools. To foster long-term decision-making despite uncertainty, scenario planning is frequently applied by practitioners. Up until today, scenario planning has however gained little attention from the academic community. Through this book, the author presents a newly developed framework for strategic management that combines the cultural value scale to test the cultural sensitivity of the long-term planning tool called “scenario planning.” The different process steps of scenario planning have been individually examined for their sensitivity toward the cultural dimensions of uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation. The investigation is based on a unique, global set of management consultants working for a leading professional service firm. The results of this research show the cultural sensitivity of scenario planning, with different degrees of the process steps and the tested cultural dimensions.

This book challenges the universal applicability of strategic management concepts. It argues that it is necessary to pay attention to contextual facets of the environment, in particular to societal culture. It also depicts the current planning situation in the banking industry. The culture-boundness of strategy formulation and implementation is challenged and advocated trough discussing planning systems, processes, and heuristics, and contextual influences both an a theoretical basis and with empirical research. The book is based an my doctoral dissertation, which was completed at the Marketing and Banking Departments of the Vienna University of Economics under the auspices of Fritz Scheuch and Gustav Raab. Their teaching, constructive criticism, and encouragement provided the intellectual stimulation for bringing this dissertation to completion. This applies equally to several professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Harry Triandis and Anant Negandhi introduced me to cross-cultural research and inter national management. Howard Themas, Marjorie Lyles, and Irene Duhaime helped me to crystallize thoughts. Hanns-Martin Schönfeld, Seymour Sudman and Gerald Salancik challenged my thoughts about organizational behavior and methodology. Richard Watson, Univer sity of Georgia, and Louis Flores of Northern Illinois University were very helpful in providing address material for Australia and Latin America, as well as through assistance with translations. Norihiro Suzuki of Int'l Christian University, Tokyo, and Hiro Matsusaki of Tokyo University helped with Japanese translations.

Going beyond the traditional application of strategic planning, this book also addresses issues for the nonprofit sector and global aspects of strategic planning.

In a global survey by the Katzenbach Center, 80 percent of respondents believed that their organization must evolve to succeed. But a full quarter of them reported that a change effort at their organization had resulted in no visible results. Why? The fate of any change effort depends on whether and how leaders engage their culture: the self-sustaining patterns of behaving, feeling, thinking, and believing that determine how things are done in an organization. Culture is implicit rather than explicit, emotional rather than rational--that's what makes it so hard to work with, but that's also what makes it so powerful. For the first time, this book lays out the Katzenbach Center's proven methodology for identifying your culture's four most critical elements: traits, characteristics that are at the heart of people's emotional connection to what they do; keystone behaviors, actions that would lead your company to succeed if they were replicated at a greater scale; authentic informal leaders, people who have a high degree of "emotional intuition" or social connectedness; and metrics, integrated, thoughtful measures to track progress, encourage the self-reinforcing cycle of lasting change and link to business performance. By leveraging these critical few elements, you can tap into a source of catalytic change within your organization. People will make an emotional, not just a rational, commitment to new initiatives. You will elicit enthusiasm and creativity and build the kind of powerful company that people recognize for its innate value and effectiveness.

Strategic Management has a unique approach goes beyond the traditional application for the for profit sector to address issues for the non-profit sector. It is the only graduate-level text that approaches strategic management from a global cultural perspective.

This indispensable guide for the creative manager takes readers on a powerful, comprehensive, and illuminating tour through the fields of strategic management. The result is a brilliant, penetrating primer on business strategy that is, at the same time, immensely readable and fun.

Strategic Management is a core strategy textbook, covering all the major topics particularly from a global perspective. It delivers comprehensive coverage of the subject in an easy-to-read style with extensive examples and a range of free support material that will help you learn actively and effectively. This eighth edition of Strategic Management builds on proven strengths ... · over 70 short case studies to provide easily accessible illustrations of strategy in practice and additional cases available online to provide more in-depth examples of recent strategic decisions involving Sony, Apple and industry sectors · a continuous contrast between prescriptive and emergent views of strategy to highlight the key debates within the discipline · emphasis on practice throughout with features to help you turn theory into practice · major international strategy cases from Europe, Africa, China, India, Middle East and the Americas · clear exploration of the key concepts · comprehensive, logical structure to guide you through this complex subject · Specialist chapters on public/third sector strategy, green strategy and sustainability, entrepreneurial strategy and international and global strategy New for the eighth edition: - Dynamic capabilities and resource renewal explored in a revised and updated chapter - Emergent strategy completely revised in two new chapters, one focusing on innovation, and technology and the other exploring knowledge and learning - New material on innovation and strategy in uncertain environments - Case studies from large and small organisations from Google, Spotify and Cadbury to Snapchat, Uber and green energy companies with 14 new cases and many cases updated This new edition also includes a wealth of free, online, open-access learning resources. Use these materials to enhance and test your knowledge to improve your grades. Online resources include web based cases with indicative answers, chapter based support material, long cases and multiple-choice questions. Richard Lynch is Emeritus Professor of Strategic Management at Middlesex University, London. He is an active researcher, lecturer and consultant, particularly in the area of global strategy and sustainable strategy.