Value of Strategic Control for Organizational Success This exam covers a broad scope of topics and will be given to you during the first couple weeks of the semester and is to be completed individually by the due date which is toward the end of the semester.
The exam consists of five essay-type questions that require the student to perform an extensive literature review (at least 10 PRJ articles per question) and explain how the findings of the research resonate with the student’s professional experience. Please answer all questions on the same Word document and include your reference list after each question.
Question 1: Managers and academics have emphasized the importance of strategic management for organizational success. Please search the extant academic literature (only peer reviewed academic/scientific articles) and perform a literature review on the current state of our knowledge about the impact of strategic planning on organizational performance. In other words, where does the current (last three years) scientific body of knowledge stand concerning the relationship between strategic planning and organizational performance? For example, through what mechanisms does strategic planning influence performance, to what extent does it impact performance…? Furthermore, please relate the scientific findings to your professional experience.
Question 2: Organizations are increasingly seeking to grow by increasing their international presence. Please identify three important considerations/issues that firms face when expanding abroad along with the strategies suggested in the literature that these firms might use to reduce their exposure.
Question 3: Corporate culture has been cited in the popular press and in academic literature as being an important internal environmental element in achieving a competitive advantage. Please select 3 orientations (i.e., marketing, entrepreneurial, customer) and explain how and to what extent these orientations influence organizational performance. Also, don’t forget to tie-in how your findings from this literature review resonate with your experience
Question 4: Four corporate-level growth strategies include vertical, horizontal, concentric (related) and conglomerate (diversified). Please explain each strategy, offer a brief literature review of each including the context under which each strategy is appropriate, and offer an example of a firm that you consider best follows (or has followed) each of these strategies.
Question 5: Explain what it means by ‘structure follows strategy’ (words from the great management historian, Chandler). Also, provide a literature review of the impact of corporate structure on organizational performance and relate these findings to your experience.
