Economics of Strategy
Author: David Besanko, David Dranove, Mark Shanley, Scott Schaefer
List Price: $102.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 047121213X
Publisher: Wiley Text Books (11 July, 2003)
Sales Rank: 45,791
Average Customer Rating: 4.47 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Firm¡¯s strategic positioning
This is a textbook for MBA classes both on business strategy and on business economics which focuses on the economics of industry and firm. Textbook is supposed to introduce students to the vocabulary of each discipline, not to specific or uncommon theory. So it¡¯s far from singular or creative. Nevertheless, to be a good textbook, at least in social sciences, it should meet two criteria:
1.it should relate concepts to empirical cases. Social sciences are the empirical sciences. So their concepts are also empirical. But when I took economics courses, textbooks led me to think ¡®economics is no more than a math exercise.¡¯ When deriving and calculating ISLM model, for example, you could not disagree with me. And worse, such a knowledge could be neither applicable nor realistc, and could not endure against student¡¯s amnesia. In this regard, this book is worth recommending. It¡¯s full of cases from real business world and always attempts to explain concepts in the real world meaning.
2.A good textbook should have a consistent framework which integrate various concepts introduced in the book into a coherent and meaningful whole. This book, from start to end, raises the question, ¡®What is the business strategy?¡¯ the business strategy is about how to attain competitive advantage, put another way, how to strategically position one¡¯s firm in the competitive environment. Competition increase the supply of output in the market, and drive down price, therefore, profitability. The firm is the organization to earn profit. Them the strategy of firm is how to earn higher profit than competitors¡¯. When a firm earns a higher profit rate than the average rate of competitors , the firm has a competitive advantage in the market. A firm¡¯s profitability within a market depends both on market-led economics and firm¡¯s capabilities. Part I and II of this book is about what constitutes and affect firms¡¯s market and industry or firm¡¯s environment. Part III is about how to achieve and sustain competitive advantage or about firm¡¯s strategic positioning. In a nutshell, a firm has the ultimate objective to earn higher profit rate. To achieve that goal depends both on firm¡¯s environment and on firm¡¯s own capabilities. Strategy is firm¡¯s interaction with its environment.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Theory and Practice of Competitive Strategy
This is the definitive review of strategic analysis concepts: their basis in economic theory and application in the real world of business. Economics of Strategy is thee core textbook for strategy courses at the University of Chicago, but, ironically, it was written by members of the Northwestern University faculty. A great marriage of left and right brained strategic thinkers!
Well worth the time to understand and digest its many lessons on competitive strategy.
Rating: 5 out of 5
A book that reasons the strategies
Many business books provide models of competition, innovation, etc. without adequately reasoning how the models were reached. Whereas they provide solutions to a problem - they do not provide the understanding of how the solution is reached.
However, this book provides a sound reasoning for every model on the basis of microeconomics. Even apparently abstract concepts like organization structure are explained on the basis of economics. I personally feel that the concepts covered in this book have been ingrained in my mind. Similar Products
The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Profitable Decision Making (3rd Edition)
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, 3rd Edition
Co-Opetition : A Revolution Mindset That Combines Competition and Cooperation : The Game Theory Strategy That's Changing the Game of Business
Microeconomics: An Integrated Approach
Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life
Book Index