GRA6821 - Technology Strategy and Strategic Technology, Fall 2010
[What's new] [Course overview] [Administrivia] [Detailed seminar plan: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12]
[Prior courses: 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2007 | 2009 [Instructor's home page]
Changes may occur at any time! This used to be the home page for the M.Sc and Siv.øk Strategy major course GRA6821 Technology Strategy and Strategic Technology. The material will, for 2010, be available in It's Learning.
What's New?
- August 23, 2010: Former page archived, link to 2009 blog posts.
Course overview
Technology - in the widest sense of the word - shapes the competitive landscape by changing what is possible. This course aims to give students a thorough understanding of the impact of technology on business strategy, how technology evolves and affects markets and competition. The students will study the interaction between technology, management and strategy, learn to recognize and understand disruptive technologies, use frameworks and models in a case-based setting to analyze technologies and learn how to manage technology innovation and commercialization. A number of technologies will be studied, including the disruptive impact and innovative dimensions of the Internet and other forms of information and communications technologies.Prerequisites: Foundations in strategy analysis, the siviløkonom program or foundations in strategic management, the diplomøkonom program or equivalent courses from other majors.
Areas that will be covered may include:
- technology evolution and technology history
- disruptive and sustaining technologies
- entering new markets with technology
- linking strategy and innovation
- building strategic innovation capability
- technology market structure and evolution
- componentization and integration
- industry structures and competitive environments in eBusiness
- electronic markets and market facilitators
- technology implementation and institutionalization
Administrivia
Use of computers
This course uses computers and the Internet extensively - including a course area in Blackboard. Handouts, messages, discussions, some of the literature and some of the hand-ins will be done electronically. All communication between professor and students outside the classroom will be electronically. Students are expected to be active in discussions -- in class and electronically.Required literature
There are two books that are required reading:
Christensen, C. M. and M. Raynor (2003). The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth. Boston, MA, Harvard Business School Press.
"Innovation fails because companies unwittingly strip the disruptive potential from ideas before they ever see the light of day". This is the followup book to The Innovator's Dilemma, a great book summarizing Christensen's research since the first book, with great examples of when and how technologies can be made to be disruptive - as well as a torrent of highly relevant for any manager wanting to do strategy in technology-rich industries.Shapiro, Carl & Hal R. Varian (1999) Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy, McGraw-Hill/Harvard Business School Press
(For more information, check out the dedicated Web site at http://www.inforules.com/. You can also read the first chapter here.) In the words of The Economist: "These two Berkeley professors bring a discipline to their analysis that is usually quite absent from the overheated burblings of the cyberprophets... [This book is about] rigorous and practical strategies, based on solid foundations, for surviving and prospering in the network economy. [...] what is so likeable about this book--its fairmindedness and its wise pragmatism."
Class preparation
Each class will have reading (cases, articles and/or book chapters) associated with it. You are expected to prepare for each class by reading the assigned material (the study questions may help you find a perspective on the reading). Individual time required to analyze material, especially cases, varies significantly. Some students may be unfamiliar with the use of cases and discussion-based teaching. Experience suggests that students should plan to spend at the very least two hours (more, if lacking in English language skills, business or technical experience) on reading and analyzing each case (exclusive of articles and other course reading), and prepare extensive notes of their analysis to guide them in their discussion. The cases will be accompanied by study questions, which provide guidance in analyzing the case. The articles or book chapters may also help in analyzing a case, as well as discussions with your peers.
Classroom discussion
This is a course at the Master level, meaning that there is a joint responsibility between the instructor and the student for the learning reached. Classroom discussion is the main interaction between teacher and students in this course. It is crucial both for the students' understanding and the quality of the discussion that the students are intimately familiar with the contents of the material before the lecture begins. When the assigned material contains a case, every student will be expected to be able to give a short (3-5 minute) presentation of the case company, as well as discuss strategic and technological issues of importance, at each class.
Grading
Grades are determined as follows:
- Term paper (50%): Term papers are to be handed in in It's Learning. Done in groups of 2 students, choose (or suggest) an Norwegian IT company (from this list) and write a descriptive case about them.
- Class participation (25%): Determined by course instructor based on quantity and quality of discussion and preparation during classes. All students should use name tags (if you lose yours, there is a template to create one in It's Learning) and sit at the same place in the classroom during all course sessions.
- Individual written assignments (25%): Additional, smaller assignments. For more details, see It's Learning.
Detailed seminar plan
See It's Learning for details.....
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