This thesis develops a model for the net present value to the firm of a strategy of increasing an SBU's market share as a function of four quantitative variables: the firm's initial market share, the current position in the product life cycle, as viewed by the firm, the competitor's relative experience curve slope and the competitor's view of the shape and size of the product life cycle. The net present value is calculated using traditional definitions, but includes a limit pricing strategy by the firm and assumes the existence of the experience curve. The prime reason for the development of this model is to test quantitatively the capital budgeting implications of the portfolio matrices proposed by the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey and Company. And, to suggest a format that better integrates corporate strategy and finance. The most important finding of this research is that the inclusion of experience curve effects causes relative market share to assume dominance over market growth rate in the BCG matrix and causes business strength to assume dominance over industry attractiveness in the McKinsey matrix, at least within the limitations and assumptions of the model. Put into laymen's terms, that means that corporate planners should abandon attempts to convert low share but high growth businesses (what BCG calls "Problem Children") into "Stars", if such conversion can only be accomplished .through price, or price equivalent competition, as long as both participants are equally competent. A second important finding is that other variables, beyond growth and share, can be successfully and quantitatively incorporated into the model. This means that the two-dimensional approach of the Boston Consulting Group can be improved upon by adding additional variables or that businessmen can make better use of the McKinsey approach to strategy and its investment implications, by logically quantifying their variables.

Business leaders increasingly face pressure from stakeholders to be transparent. There appears however little consensus on the risks and payoffs of disclosing vital information such as corporate strategy. To fill this gap, this study analyzes firm-specific determinants and organisational outcomes of voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. Stakeholder theory and agency theory help to understand whether companies serve their interest to engage with stakeholders and overcome information asymmetries. I connect these theories and propose a comprehensive approach to measure voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. Hypotheses from the theoretical framework are empirically tested through panel regression of data on identified determinants and outcomes and of disclosed strategy through annual reports, corporate social responsibility reports, corporate websites and corporate press releases by the 70 largest publicly listed companies in the Netherlands from 2003 through 2008. I found that industry, profitability, dual-listing status, national ranking status and listing age have significant effects on voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. No significant effects are found for size, leverage and ownership concentration. On outcomes, I found that liquidity of stock and corporate reputation are significantly influenced by voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. No significant effect is found for volatility of stock. My contributions to theory, methodology and empirics offers a stepping-stone for further research into understanding how companies can use transparency to manage stakeholder relations.

Business leaders increasingly face pressure from stakeholders to be transparent. There appears however little consensus on the risks and payoffs of disclosing vital information such as corporate strategy. To fill this gap, this study analyzes firm-specific determinants and organisational outcomes of voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. Stakeholder theory and agency theory help to understand whether companies serve their interest to engage with stakeholders and overcome information asymmetries. I connect these theories and propose a comprehensive approach to measure voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. Hypotheses from the theoretical framework are empirically tested through panel regression of data on identified determinants and outcomes and of disclosed strategy through annual reports, corporate social responsibility reports, corporate websites and corporate press releases by the 70 largest publicly listed companies in the Netherlands from 2003 through 2008. I found that industry, profitability, dual-listing status, national ranking status and listing age have significant effects on voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. No significant effects are found for size, leverage and ownership concentration. On outcomes, I found that liquidity of stock and corporate reputation are significantly influenced by voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. No significant effect is found for volatility of stock. My contributions to theory, methodology and empirics offers a stepping-stone for further research into understanding how companies can use transparency to manage stakeholder relations.

Strategic group theory has become a popular tool for analysing the competitive structures of industries. A 'strategic group ' is a group of firms in an industry following the same or a similar strategy along strategic dimensions. Since its initial development in the early 1970s by Hunt, the concept of strategic groups has initiated a plethora of empirical research in both the industrial organisation economics and strategic management dliscipliiies, emphasising the importance of strategic groups in understanding the differences across firms within an industry. Despite the rich theoretical tradition from which the strategic group concept is derived and the numerous empirical efforts to test its implications, there is no consensus concerning the appropriate method to identify strategic groups. In addition, a number of important questions concerning this concept remain unanswered and many previously researched issues require further refinement. This study was concerned with the development of a general framework for formulating strategic groups within the UK construction industry and examining both the dynamic characteristics and the performance implications of strategic groups membership. The focus of this thesis was at the corporate level of 35 UK construction firms for the period starting from 1986 to 1991 inclusive. To operationalise the strategy concept the study utilised two components of strategic decisions, namely scope and resource allocations. The findings of the longitudinal analysis demonstrated that the construction industry has witnessed significant structural transformations over the study period. The number, location, and composition of strategic groups has changed over time in accordance with changes in key strategic dimensions. The results also demonstrated that there is partial support for the existence of performance differences among strategic groups. The m2jor contributions of this study are the development of a general framework for formulating, interpreting, and validating the identified strategic groups; the detailed measurement of the strategy concept; and the longitudinal analysis of the dynamic and performance implications of strategic groups. The application of the strategic group concept to a diversified and complex industry such as the UK construction industry provided more insight into the strategic group phenomenon and its usefulness to strategic management analysis. The developed methodology has a potential for providing a comparative basis for future longitudinal research on strategic groups in other industries.

Corporate strategy is a foundation for companies operations, processes and  the ways in which its various businesses  work together to achieve particular goals.  Scholars and managers  recognize different levels of strategy for organizations. One of  the  differentiations  is  based  on  governance structure of the organization, and divides  corporate strategy on two levels: corporate strategy  and business-unit strategy. In many cases, some might think that business and corporate dimensions are the same. However,  when divided into strategies, there is a difference. This especially relates to MNEs (multinational enterprises), with their massive and sometimes complicated structure  and business units all over the world.  This study intends to find out whether and how corporate strategy as whole is employed and engineered in terms of this differentiation at MNEs, as well as to explore the additional factors   to well-known ones, affecting strategy development on both levels. Even though, a decent amount of studies have been done on a field,  the views on which questions should be answered by corporate level  strategies or business unit strategies are significantly differ. Hence, in order to develop understanding and contribute to the further research, this study has been undertaken.

¡¨Corporate strategy¡¨ is not only argued and discussed by experts, but has even been adapted for practical applications by companies for a long time. Corporate Strategy deals with the what, when, and why; which when answered lead to policies and decisions. ¡§Blueocean strategy in business¡¨ has become the ¡§in¡¨ word these years. Yet ¡§Innovation¡¨ still is important, especially in a competitive market because entrepreneurs aim at leadership, if not at dominance of a new market or a new industry. Innovation is the specific tool entrepreneurs use to exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service. Every practice rests on theory. This paper uses the case of GJ restaurant as the research subject because it is applying changes while it attempts to create something new and different for a new market. As GJ company grows and develops, it tries to satisfy every one and excel at consumer relationship management at the same time. GJ is always market-focused and market-driven .The company has made a new market for itself. The company will continue growing at a fast rate thanks to continuous innovation. The innovations employed by GJ have proven to be successful. Now the work will really begin .Industry and society in China is growing and changing at an incredible rate and management models are also changing with each passing day. So, it will be a challenge for the entrepreneur to continue innovating in this fluid environment.

Extensive research has previously been conducted in the field of corporate strategies during economic crisis, analyzing different contexts and countries. Nevertheless, the main focus has always been on small and medium enterprises without considering the importance that micro enterprises have in the European business tradition. The research gap for this study has been identified concerning Italian micro and small enterprises which, despite the importance of these kinds of companies in the national scenario, have not been considered yet. A literature review on this area highlighted the status of the research within the field, identifying the research gap and the purpose of this dissertation. The purpose is to contribute the research by understanding which is the relationship between strategies and performance with special attention on micro and small enterprises, aiming to formulate a guideline that may be followed by other enterprises dealing with such situation. The study was performed through a qualitative investigation based on semi-structured interviews with twenty companies which are part of a ceramic district in the north-east of Italy. More in detail, fourteen of the respondents are owners or CEOs of companies that survived the crisis while six interviews have been held with former owners of enterprises that did not survive. The research strategy used is a multiple case study with inductive approach. The data shows how firms adopted different strategies to survive the crisis, highlighting a considerable difference between the enterprises that survived and the ones that did not. Moreover, a further difference can be identified between the companies that survived but have been able to grow during the economic crisis and the ones that experienced a stable performance or a fall. The findings of the study shows how a combination between product innovation, marketing, internationalization and an open flexible approach is what is needed in order to reach superior performance during a crisis, transforming a threat into opportunity. The role of the leader seems to be the boost of every enterprise defining the success of the business. However, it is still not clear how the personality of the entrepreneur is related to company’s performance, thus this area needs to be developed through further research.

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Corporate strategy forms the foundation when considering the strategic alternatives available to an organisation. Corporate diversification and specialisation are two of the more popular configurations often proposed by corporate strategy theory in order to grow and sustain financial performance. The issue of whether or not diversification leads to financial performance has been debated since the early 1950s. Ample research has been conducted from an international perspective. However, the findings have been inconclusive/mixed/inconsistent and there remains a lack of consensus regarding the diversification-performance relationship. This study attempts to provide clarity on the matter by using a quantitative method to assess the financial performance of companies listed on the industrial sector of the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) for the period 2003 to 2010. Thirty-nine companies met the criteria for inclusion in the sample and were classified as either focused, moderately or highly diversified. Three financial measures were compared for the different categories, namely return on average equity, return on average assets and market return. Two of the three hypotheses are not statistically significant and the differences in the average (mean) performance measures are due to sampling error. One of the performance measures, return on assets, indicates that the difference in the ii average (mean) performance is statistically significant. The pairwise comparisons revealed significant differences between highly and moderately diversified companies as well as between moderately diversified and focused companies. The mean difference between focused and highly diversified companies was not statistically significant. In this regard, moderately diversified companies performed better than highly diversified and focused companies. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted