Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Value chain analysis is widely taught in business schools and applied by practitioners to improve business performance. Despite its ubiquity, many students struggle to understand and apply value chain concepts in practice. JetFighter uses a complex manufacturing process (making intricate paper planes) to provide students an opportunity to enhance their value chain competencies. Teams of students are asked to use value chain concepts to develop innovative business strategies that will enable them to fulfill customer requirements and outperform rival teams. The exercise involves two production periods with a brief value chain lecture occurring after the first production period. Given that teams of students typically lose money in the first production period, their motivation to learn about the value chain concepts is enhanced as they are immediately provided an opportunity to apply this knowledge in the second production period. The award-winning exercise was developed over a 9-year period with the help of undergraduate and masters’ students. Student feedback suggests that they found the exercise an engaging and enlightening way to learn about value chain analysis as 99% of students (n = 244) recommend that instructors at other universities use the exercise.

Keywords

value chain analysis internal analysis strategy formulation cost chain activity-based costing experiential exercise

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anthony, R.N. , & Govindarajan, V. (2007). Management control systems (12th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Atkinson, A.A. , Kaplan, R.S. , Matsumura, E.M. , & Young, S.M. ( 2007). Management accounting (5th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall .

Barney, J.B. , & Hesterly, W.S. (2008). Strategic management and competitive advantage (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Blocher, E.J. , Stout, D.E. , Conkins, G. , & Chen, K.H. ( 2008). Cost management: A strategic emphasis. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

CMA Canada. (1999). Value chain analysis for assessing competitive advantage. Mississauga , Ontario, Canada: Author.

Dess, G.G. , Lumpkin, G.T. , & Eisner, A. ( 2007). Strategic management: Creating competitive advantage . Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin.

Ghemawat, P. ( 2008). Strategy and the business landscape (3rd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Ghemawat, P. , & Rivkin, J.W. ( 2006). Creating competitive advantage (HBS Note 9-798-062).

Hitt, M.A. , Ireland, R.D. , & Hoskisson, R.E. (2009). Strategic management: Competitiveness and globalization. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Cenage Learning.

10.

Horngren, C.T. , Foster, G. , Datar, S.M. , Teall, H.D. , & Gowling, M.P. ( 2007). Cost accounting: A managerial approach (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall.

11.

Johnson, G. , Scholes, K. , & Whittington, R. (2007). Corporate strategy: Text and cases (8th ed.). London: Financial Times.

12.

Lynch, R. ( 2005). Corporate strategy (4th ed.). London: Financial Times.

13.

Marcus, A.A. ( 2005). Management strategy: Achieving sustained competitive advantage. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin .

14.

Osland, J.M. , Kolb, D.A. , Rubin, I.M. , & Turner, M.E. ( 2007). Organizational behaviour: An experiential approach (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

15.

Porter, M.E. ( 1985). Competitive advantage. New York: Free Press.

16.

Porter, M.E. ( 1991). Towards a dynamic theory of strategy. Strategic Management Journal, 12, 95-117.

17.

Porter, M.E. ( 1994). Competitive strategy revisited: A view from the 1990s . In P. P. Duffy (Ed.), The relevance of a decade (pp. 243-285). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

18.

Porter, M.E. ( 1996). What is strategy. Harvard Business Review , November-December, 61-78.

19.

Porter, M.E. ( 1998). Competitive advantage. New York: Free Press.

20.

Ramos-Rodriguez, A.-F. , & Ruiz-Navarro, J. (2004). Changes in the intellectual structure of strategic management research: A bibliometric study of the Strategic Management Journal, 1980-2000. Strategic Management Journal , 25, 981-1004.

21.

Saloner, G. , Shepard, A. , & Podolny, J. ( 2005). Strategic management. New York: Wiley.

22.

Shank, J.K. ( 2006). Cases in cost management: A strategic emphasis (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.

23.

Sheehan, N.T. ( 2005). Why old tools won’t work in the "new" knowledge economy. Journal of Business Strategy, 26(4), 53-60.

24.

Thompson, A.A. , Strickland, A.J. , & Gamble, J.E. ( 2007). Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage (1 5th ed.). Boston : McGraw-Hill.

25.

Walker, G. ( 2006). Modern competitive strategy (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

26.

Wheelen, T.L. , & Hunger, J.D. ( 2007). Strategic management and business policy (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.30 MB

JetFighter: An Experiential Value Chain Exercise

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material