Competing for Advantage - Thinking Strategically

• Competing for Advantage - Thinking Strategically

Competing for Advantage - Thinking Strategically Specialization Courses

Overview

This course offers an introduction to the application of game-theoretic tools and techniques to real-life strategic decision making. The focus of the course is on strategic situations and settings in which payoffs (often profits) to decision makers depend on the actions of others, and conversely, when a decision maker’s action often affects the profit made by others. These situations are often most conveniently analyzed by using game theory. However, the course is not an economics course in which ever more advanced techniques are introduced. Rather, it focuses on applying simple techniques correctly to generate novel insights about real-life settings. The course is therefore a useful complement to courses on corporate strategy and on functional strategies as it develops a toolbox to inform strategic decision making at all levels. As the course progresses, increasingly complex situations will be studied and the key strategic decisions analyzed and evaluated. At the end of the course students are expected to be able to identify the key tradeoffs and inter-dependencies in real-life contexts and to be able to make better informed strategic decisions as a result.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge of how to:

• Understand basic game-theoretic tools and techniques to develop strategic thinking
• Interpret real-life information to form necessary input for the analysis of real-life situations using game-theoretic methods
• Select models to fit the strategic situation to be analyzed
• Apply the various methods to a variety of different markets and situations
• Analyze complex real-life situations using strategic thinking