The traditional master of business administration (MBA) capstone strategy course is intended to integrate the prior course work of the MBA program but is doing this less and less well in today's high-velocity and complex business environment. The traditional strategy course structures, emphasizing formulation— implementation and the internal—external environments, do relatively well at developing theoretical and applied integration skills but do poorly in developing practical integration skills—the very skills increasingly demanded by employers. The authors do not believe that the traditional organization of and pedagogies for the capstone strategy course develop the level of integrated thinking necessary for managers to make good decisions in today's business environment. They suggest reorganizing the strategy capstone course along the levels of managerial decision making and emphasizing pedagogies that employ rich-enough cases and business simulations to better develop integration skills—particularly practical integration skills—in MBA students.
Anderson, S.C. (2000). The globally competitive firm: Functional integration, value chain logistics, global marketing, and business college strategic support . Competitiveness Review, 10, 33-45.
2.
Andrews, K.R. (1980). The concept of corporate strategy. Homewood, IL: R. D. Irwin.
3.
Ansoff, H.I. (1965). Corporate strategy: An analytic approach to business policy for growth and expansion. New York: McGraw-Hill.
4.
Argyris, C., & Schon, D.A. (1974). Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness . San Francisco: Jossey-Boss.
5.
Bailey, J., & Ford, C. (1996). Management as a science versus management as practice in postgraduate business education. Business Strategy Review , 7(4), 7-12.
6.
Baker, T., Miner, A., & Eesley, D. (2002). Improvising firms: Bricolage, account giving and improvisational competencies in the founding process. Research Policy, 32, 255-276.
7.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
8.
Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage . Journal of Management, 17, 99-120.
9.
Bartlett, D. (2003). Management and business ethics: A critique and integration of ethical decision-making models. British Journal of Management, 14, 223-235.
10.
Bazerman, M.H., & Chugh, D. (2005). Decisions without blinders. Harvard Business Review, 83, 88-97.
11.
Behling, O., & Eckel, N. (1991). Making sense out of intuition. Academy of Management Executive, 5(1), 46-54.
12.
Bonoma, T.V. (1989). Learning with cases. Boston : Harvard Business School.
13.
Bossidy, L., Charan, R., & Burck, C. (2002). Execution: The discipline of getting things done . New York: Crown.
14.
Boyatzis, R.A., Murphy, A., & Wheeler, J. (2000). Philosophy as the missing link between values and behavior. Psychological Reports, 86, 47-64.
15.
Brookfield, S.D., & Preskill, S. (1999). Discussion as a way of teaching: Tools and techniques for democratic classrooms. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
16.
Brown, S.L., & Eisenhardt, K.M. (1998). Competing on the edge: Strategy as structured chaos. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
17.
Cohen, M.D., March, J.G., & Olsen, J.P. (1972). A garbage can model of organizational choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 1-25.
18.
Coughlan, R. (2005). Codes, values and justifications in the ethical decision-making process. Journal of Business Ethics, 59, 45-53.
19.
Crittenden, W.F. (2005). A social learning theory of cross-functional case education. Journal of Business Research, 58, 960-966.
20.
Cyert, R.M., & March, J.G. (1963). A behavioral theory of the firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
21.
Daley, B. (1999). Novice to expert: An exploration of how professionals learn. Adult Education Quarterly, 49(4), 133-147.
22.
Darr, W., & Johns, G. (2004). Political decision-making climates: Theoretical processes and multi-level antecedents. Human Relations, 57(2), 169-200.
23.
Das, T.K., & Teng, B.-S. (1999). Cognitive biases and strategic decision processes: An integrative perspective. Journal of Management Studies , 36(6), 757-779.
24.
Eisenhardt, K.M. (1997). Strategic decision making as improvisation. In V. Papadakis & P. Barwise (Eds.), Strategic decisions (pp. 251-257). Norwell, MA: Kluwer.
Elg, U., & Johansson, U. (1997). Decision-making in inter-firm networks as a political process. Organization Studies, 18(3), 361-385.
27.
Elliot, C.J., & Goodwin, J.S. (1994). MBA programs and business needs: Is there a mismatch ? Business Horizons, 37(4), 55-61.
28.
Fayol, H. (1949). General and industrial management. London: Pitman.
29.
Fritsche, D. (2005). The business policy game: An international strategy simulation (5th ed.) [Computer software]. Retrieved from www.eskimo.com/bgp
30.
Garvin, D. (2003). Making the case: Professional education for the world of practice. Harvard Magazine, 106(1), 56-65, 107.
31.
Giacalone, R.A. (2004). A transcendent business education for the 21st century. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 3(4), 415-420.
32.
Greco, J. (2001). Does that MBA really make a difference? Journal of Business Strategy, 22, 39-41.
33.
Greiner, L.E., Bhambri, A., & Cummings, T.G. (2003). Searching for a strategy to teach strategy. Academy of Management Learning and Education , 2(4), 402-420.
34.
Grey, C. (2004). Reinventing business schools: The contribution of critical management education. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 3(2), 178-186.
35.
Hamilton, D., McFarland, D., & Mirchandani, D. (2000). A decision model for integration across the business curriculum in the 21st century. Journal of Management Education, 24(1), 102-126.
36.
Hammer, M., & Champy, J. (1993). Reengineering the corporation: A manifesto for business revolution. New York: HarperCollins.
37.
Herreid, C.F. (1997-1998). What makes a good case?Journal of College Science Teaching, 27(3), 163-165.
38.
Hitt, M. A.,Freeman, R. E., & Harrison, J. S. (Eds.). (2005). The Blackwell handbook of strategic management . New York: Blackwell.
Kim, W.C., & Mauborgne, R. (2005). Blue ocean strategy. Boston : Harvard Business School Press.
43.
Knights, D., & Willmott, H.C. (1997). The hype and hope of interdisciplinary management studies. British Journal of Management, 8(1), 9-22.
44.
Langley, A., Mintzberg, H., Pitcher, P., Posada, E., & Saint-Macary, J. (1995). Opening up decision making: The view from the black stool. Organization Science, 6(3), 260-279.
45.
Levitt, B., & Nass, C. (1989). The lid on the garbage can: Institutional constraints on decision making in the technical core of college-text publishers. Administrative Science Quarterly, 34(2), 190-207.
46.
Lewin, A.Y., & Stephens, C.U. (1994). CEO attributes as determinants of organization design: An integrated model. Organization Studies, 15(2), 183-212.
47.
Liedtka, J.M., & Rosenblum, J.W. (1998). Teaching strategy as design: A report from the field. Journal of Management Education, 22(3), 285-303.
48.
Miles, R., & Snow, C. (1978). Organizational strategy, structure, and process . New York: McGraw-Hill.
49.
Mintzberg, H. (1994). The rise and fall of strategic planning. New York: Free Press.
50.
Mintzberg, H., & Gosling, J. (2002). Reality programming for MBAs. Strategy and Business, 26(1), 28-31.
51.
Mintzberg, H., Raisinghani, D., & Theoret, A. (1976). The structure of "unstructured" decision processes . Administrative Science Quarterly, 21, 246-275.
52.
Moorman, C., & Miner, A. (1998). The convergence of planning and execution: Improvisation in new product development. Journal of Marketing, 62(3), 1-20.
53.
Nobuo, T. (1997). A single garbage can model and the degree of anarchy in Japanese firms. Human Relations, 50(1), 91-108.
54.
O'Fallon, M.J., & Butterfield, K.D. (2005). A review of the empirical ethical decision making literature: 1996-2003. Journal of Business Ethics, 59, 375-413.
55.
Parker, G.M. (1994). Cross-functional teams: Working with allies, enemies and other strangers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
56.
Penrose, E. (1959). The theory of the growth of the firm. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
57.
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. (1974). Organizational decision making as a political process: The case of a university budget. Administrative Science Quarterly, 19, 135-151.
58.
Porter, L.W., & McKibben, L.E. (1988). Management education and development: Drift or thrust into the 21st century?New York: McGraw-Hill.
59.
Porter, M.E. (1981). The contributions of industrial organization to strategic management. Academy of Management Review, 6(4), 609-620.
60.
Rapert, M.I., Smith, S., Velliquette, A., & Garretson, J.A. (2004, September/October). The meaning of quality: Expectations of students in pursuit of an MBA. Journal of Education for Business, pp. 17-24.
61.
Schelfhaudt, K., & Crittenden, V.L. (2005). Specialist or generalist: Views from academia and industry. Journal of Business Research , 58, 946-954.
62.
Schon, D. (1983). The effective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.
63.
Sharfman, M.P., & Dean, J.W.J. (1997). The effects of context on strategic decision-making processes and outcomes. In V. Papadakis & P. Barwise (Eds.), Strategic decisions (pp. 179-203). Norwell, MA: Kluwer .
64.
Simon, H. (1957). Models of man. New York: John Wiley.
65.
Smith, L.J., & Smith, D.L. (1994). The discussion process: A simulation. Read, 37, 582-584.
66.
Steiner, G.A. (1969). Top management planning. London : MacMillan.
67.
Steiner, T., & Wells, M.J. (2000). Integration of the business curriculum: The case of finance and marketing in a MBA program. Financial Practice and Education, 10, 148-159.
68.
Stephen, J., Parente, D.H., & Brown, R.C. (2002). Seeing the forest and the trees: Balancing functional and integrative knowledge using large-scale simulations in capstone business strategy classes. Journal of Management Education, 26(2), 164-193.
69.
Thomas, A.S. (2002). The business policy course: Multiple methods for multiple goals. Journal of Management Education, 22(4), 484-497.
70.
Thompson, A., Strickland, A., & Gamble, J. (2004). Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage: Concepts and Cases. New York: McGraw-Hill.
71.
Trevino, L.K. (1986). Ethical decision making in organizations: A person-situation interactionist model. Academy of Management Review, 11(3), 601-617.
72.
True, S.L., Pelton, L.E., Selden, G., & Alsup, R.G. (2000). The integration allegation in executive MBA programs . Marketing Education and Review, 10(3), 77-84.
73.
Valikangas, L., & Hamel, G. (2003). The quest for resilience. Harvard Business Review, 81(9), 52-63.
74.
Vera, D., & Crossan, M. (2004). Theatrical improvisation: Lessons for organizations . Organization Studies, 25(5), 727-749.
75.
Weick, K.E. (1998). Improvisation as a mindset for organizational analysis. Organization Science, 9(5), 543-555.
76.
Wernerfelt, B. (1984). A resource based view of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 5, 171-180.
77.
Wheatley, W., Hornaday, R., & Hunt, T. (1988). Developing strategic management goal setting skills . Simulation and Games, 19(2), 173-185.
78.
Yucelt, U. (1998). Comparative study of students' perceptions on quality of MBA programs. Journal of International Marketing and Marketing Research, 23(1), 27-33.
79.
Zajac, E., Kraatz, M.S., & Bresser, R.K. (2000). Modeling the dynamics of strategic fit: A normative approach to strategic change. Strategic Management Journal , 21(4), 429-453.
80.
Zantow, K., Knowlton, D., & Sharp, D. (2005). More than fun and games: Reconsidering the virtues of strategic management simulations. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 4(4), 451-458.
