Strategic Management - Concepts

I'm a tenure track professor of strategy with many prior years of industry work experience and I have reviewed many textbooks trying to find a good match for my students at the undergraduate, masters and executive levels. Until this book, I have not been successful in this search.

I knew that I liked Frank Rothaermel's new textbook "Strategic Management" when I had a chance to review an early version of it myself. It has great examples and very crisp yet rigorous strategic concepts throughout the book. The text also has an entire chapter on innovation which I believe is quite important for our students to consider as they graduate and get into today's workforce. The book has a wonderful and unique chapter on three different lenses of viewing or measuring competitive advantage. I personally like the pithy chapter openers which not only relate to the material in each chapter but also have a `case closing thoughts' for each chapter to bring the ideas home for the students. The `strategy highlights' are another of my favorite features. They are excellent ice breakers for class discussions. Students love the examples of Threadless, Starbucks, Nintendo and Pixar and Frank has done a great job of tying the exemplar firm's to the tool and topics in each chapter.

What surprised me however was the degree that my students related to Dr. Rothaermel's textbook. Until using this text I have rarely if ever seen comments like this in the "what did you like about the course?" student evaluations... " The textbook was easy to read and had great current examples that made it easier to understand.", "Not only was the text extremely useful, but it applied to everything we did." , "the textbook was NOT boring, it included up-to-date information about companies that was very interesting". "The textbook actually enhanced the learning experience and helped emphasize the points learned in class with real live companies and how they used the tools to gain a competitive advantage." "It was one of the most interesting textbooks I've had in my college courses". Yes these are actual quotes from my student course evaluations.

Further, my actual course evaluation scores are UP when using this textbook. I've taught 16 sections of this course thus far and my average student evaluation is about 4.6 out of 5.0. However fall 2011 I had the chance to beta test Dr. Rothaermel's book and my student evaluation scores soared up to 4.91! Same course, same professor, different textbook.... You be the judge!

Anne Fuller
Assistant Professor
Strategy and Entrepreneurship
College of Business Administration
California State University, Sacramento

Comment | Was this review helpful to you?

I'm a professor of strategy, and have been teaching Strategic Management for undergraduates, MBAs, and executives (in and outsides the U.S.) for over 10 years, and never found a text that satisfied my desire to present top-notch material in a synthesized fashion. But I now have found this book--Frank Rothaermel's new Strategic Management text is really a brand-new text that makes a quantum leap forward in presenting cutting edge theory and examples leveraging the unique intersection of theory/concepts, empirical research, and practical application. Strategic management is about superior positioning for competitive advantage, and no other book on the market except Frank's has been able to position itself in this sweet spot. Not to mention the cutting edge examples that today's students can relate to (Facebook, Tesla Motors, Apple, BYD, Tata Group, and so on). Another great differentiator is that Frank wrote not only 12 MiniCases (great to get discussion started) but also 15 full-length cases that are perfectly integrated with the text to teach concepts and frameworks presented therein. The full-length cases also come with financial data already prepared in spreadsheets for ratio analysis, another first in the strategy textbook industry. Clearly, Frank's book is unique on many dimensions and has carved out a valuable, rare, and hard if not impossible to imitate strategic position in the textbook market combined with fully integrated and innovative example and exercises. It is not just a textbook but a new generation strategy teaching product that will make even novices look like rock stars. And students just "love" the content--how often do you find that emotional reaction about college textbooks? What Michael Porter has done for the academic work in strategy, Frank is now doing for strategy textbooks: setting a new standard while providing a superior paradigm to teach strategy. Truly awesome!

Gideon D. Markman

Associate Professor of Strategy, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship
Dept. of Management
Colorado State University
218 Rockwell Hall
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1275
USA