Research Seminar 2 "Current Research in Strategic Management"

Master 2020/2021

Type: Compulsory course

Area of studies: Management

Delivered by: Department of Strategic and International Management

Where: Graduate School of Business

When: 1 year, 3, 4 module

Mode of studies: offline

Instructors: Mikhail Antropov, Nikolay Filinov

Master’s programme: Business Strategies: Management and Consulting

Language: English

ECTS credits: 4

Contact hours: 60

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Abstract

The research seminar is designed to serve as an important complement to the “Strategic Analysis” and “Strategy Implementation” disciplines. It has 2 dimensions: a substantive one and an instrumental one. The substantive dimension deals with knowledge of scholarly conversation(s) in the strategic management field. As Anne Sigizmund Huff has beautifully worded, “Each scholarly subfield understands the world in a somewhat different way and focuses on somewhat different issues. Some fields have a long tradition, with many accepted assumptions; others are sorting out the basic rules of the game. These complexities merely underscore the importance of being an active participant in the field and having a knowledge of the scholarly conversation that is rich and current.”( (Huff, 1998, p. 5). We assume that future strategic management professionals should get knowledge of the scholarly conversation in the field of strategic management still while at Business School. It’s realistic to expect master level students starting to speak to the scholarly community themselves. Those, who will choose the academic career path will be doing this in few years to come. Those, who choose careers in business, however, should eventually become the connoisseur readers of publications in the field. For both groups, it’s thus vital to be introduced to changing trends, key personalities and discussion platforms, publishing outlets in the field of their professional work. Basic fundamental disciplines of the Master Programme tend to address well-established agendas, as their mission is to develop students’ competences in a wide array of strategic management topics, including those, that do not appear to be challenging and lucrative for today’s researchers because of the existence of a well-established body of knowledge. Thus, a certain gap between the fundamental course and the current research agenda emerges. The seminar aspires to close this gap. Given the practical orientation of the Master Programme, we treat the scholarly conversation extensively via including not only academic but also trade and professional journals, at the same time accounting for the differentiating degrees of rigor and evidence in these kinds of publications, following the guidelines of Evidence-Based Management. The instrumental dimension deals with the state-of-the-art tools utilized today for systemic (systematic) literature review. The application of these techniques will work for both familiarization with the conversation content and participants and for developing practical skills. The seminar implies a minimal amount of lecturing (needed for orientation, projects’ launch, and introduction of tools and methodologies), while most classes will be dedicated to presentations of co-existing conversations in the field and discussion thereof.

Learning Objectives

to create awareness of key conversations in strategic management global research community
to create awareness of key academic journals in the field, their peculiarities, publication foci, editorial policy, and relative impact
to create awareness of leading researchers and research centers in the area of strategic management
to create awareness of leading conferences in the area of strategic management
to secure mastering the methodology and tools for systemic literature review
to secure mastering the methodology and tools of Evidence-Based Management

Expected Learning Outcomes

compiles the relevant pool of sources for analyzing research problem, or practical issue in the area of strategic management and consulting
efficiently reads and quickly understands research papers in strategic management, summarize and presents their content in academic discussion
gathers information from non-academic sources, assesses its validity, and aggregates it
gathers the information sources, processes the data, and comes up with a systemic literature review on the topic
assesses the maturity of Evidence-Based Management in the organization and develops and implements steps to increase it

Course Contents

Strategic Management Research Landscape: Academic Viewpoint
Strategic Management Research Landscape: Business Viewpoint
Strategy Research Agenda Evolution
Strategy Research Methods Evolution
Evidence-Based Management (EBM) Concept and Methodology
Systemic Literature Review Techniques

Assessment Elements

Assignment 1. (Individual)
Assessing assigned research/media publication using the EBM framework
Assignment 2. (Group).
Compiling a research development timeline, excellence centers’ map and journals’ ranking for a given topic. (10 topics). If it is impossible to participate in the implementation of the group assignment, the student is obliged to complete the assignment on his own and be ready to present results
Assignment 3. (Individual).
Writing and presenting an essay (2000 words, 10 sources) on the research frontier for a given topic
Assignment 4. (Group).
Making a case for one of the parties in the ongoing academic discussion. (3 topics). If it is impossible to participate in the implementation of the group assignment, the student is obliged to complete the assignment on his own and be ready to present results .
Assignment 5. (Group).
Use of Literature-based Interpretive Structural Modelling for developing causal model in a given subject area. (12 topics). If it is impossible to participate in the implementation of the group assignment, the student is obliged to complete the assignment on his own and be ready to present results.
Assignment 6. (Individual).
Compiling and presenting literature review for own master thesis.

Interim Assessment

Interim assessment (4 module)
0.1 * Assignment 1. (Individual) + 0.15 * Assignment 2. (Group). + 0.2 * Assignment 3. (Individual). + 0.15 * Assignment 4. (Group). + 0.15 * Assignment 5. (Group). + 0.25 * Assignment 6. (Individual).

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Elsbach, K. D., & Knippenberg, D. (2020). Creating High‐Impact Literature Reviews: An Argument for “Integrative Reviews.” Journal of Management Studies (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), 57(6), 1277–1289. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12581
Nina Shin, & Sangwook Park. (2019). Evidence-Based Resilience Management for Supply Chain Sustainability: An Interpretive Structural Modelling Approach. Sustainability, 2, 1.
Reay, T., Berta, W., & Kohn, M. K. (2009). What’s the Evidence on Evidence-Based Management? Academy of Management Perspectives, 23(4), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.23.4.5

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Mats Alvesson, & Jörgen Sandberg. (2020). The Problematizing Review: A Counterpoint to Elsbach and Van Knippenberg’s Argument for Integrative Reviews. Journal of Management Studies, 6, 1290. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12582
Rezaeian, A., & Bagheri, R. (2018). Modeling the Factors that Affect the Implementation of Knowledge Networks. https://doi.org/10.17323/2500-2597.2018.1.56.67
Wright, A. L., Zammuto, R. F., Liesch, P. W., Middleton, S., Hibbert, P., Burke, J., & Brazil, V. (2016). Evidence-based Management in Practice: Opening up the Decision Process, Decision-maker and Context. British Journal of Management, 27(1), 161–178. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12123

Course Syllabus