What is strategic management?
"Strategic management, often called "policy" or nowadays simply "strategy," is about the direction of organizations, and most often, business firms. It includes those subjects of primary concern to senior management, or to anyone seeking reasons for success and failure among organizations. Firms, if not all organizations, are in competition - competition for factor inputs, competition for customers, and ultimately, competition for revenues that cover the costs of their chosen manner for surviving. Because of competition, firms have choices to make if they are to survive. Those that are strategic include the selection of goals; the choice of products and services to offer; the design and configuration of policies determining how the firm positions itself to compete in product markets (e.g., competitive strategy); the choice of an appropriate level of scope and diversity; and the design of organization structure, administrative systems, and policies used to define and coordinate work. It is a basic proposition of the strategy field that these choices have critical influence on the success of failure of the enterprise, and that they must be integrated. It is the integration (or reinforcing pattern) among these choices that make the set a strategy.

Strategic management as a field of inquiry is firmly grounded in practice and exists because of the importance of its subject. The strategic direction of business organizations is at the heart of wealth creation in modern industrial society. The field has not, like political science, growth from ancient roots in philosophy, nor does it, like parts of economics, attract scholars because of the elegance of its theoretical underpinnings. Rather, like medicine or engineering, it exists because it is worthwhile to codify, teach and expand what is know about the skilled performance of roles and tasks that are a necessary part of our civilization. While its origins lie in practice and codification, its advancement as a field increasingly depends upon building theory that helps explain and predict organizational success and failure." (from pages 9-10 of Rumelt, R.P.; Schendel, D.E.; and Teece, D.J. 1994. Fundamental Issues in Strategy. Harvard Business School Press: Boston.

Strategic Management Seminars
Students that choose our doctoral program have the benefit of two full years of intensive seminars, preparing them to be experts in our field. There is some flexibility in the seminar offerings:
 

Offered every two years:
Business and Competitive Strategy

Corporate Strategy and Diversification

International Strategy

Strategy Process & Implementation

Examples of other seminars offered at discretion of area:

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Sociological Perspectives on Strategy

Applied Research Methods

These seminars are complemented by curriculum in research methods and seminars related to the student's choice of a minor.