The German-language Strategic Management textbook (“Strategisches Management: Wie strategische Initiativen zum Wandel führen”) co-authored with Günter Müller-Stewens, Christoph Lechner, and Joachim Stonig (Schäffer-Poeschel) is intended for strategy practitioners, students, and instructors of strategic management.
This book is intended as a travel guide for an expedition into strategic management. As such, it structures the terrain, presents different approaches, critically examines existing knowledge, and raises open questions. The book deliberately focuses on the interface between academia and business practice. It aims to convey theoretical ideas on the one hand and practical concepts on the other. We are aware of the difficulties involved. These are illustrated and explored through practical examples, excursions, and workshops.
To organize the wealth of material available on strategic management, and also to provide ourselves with a tool for our strategic work, we will use an overarching reference framework that we call the Strategic Management Navigator (SMN). It consists of five fields and uses them to structure the discipline of strategic management logically and practically. For the most part, we draw on existing strategic management knowledge, but where there are gaps, we use our own approaches. In each area, both academic reflection and design approaches are offered.
Müller-Stewens, G., Lechner, C., Kreutzer, M., Stonig, J. (2024) Strategisches Management: Wie strategische Initiativen zum Wandel führen. 6th edition. ISBN: 978-3-7910-5755-2; https://shop.haufe.de/prod/strategisches-management
Ways through the book
Depending on your goals and interests, you can follow different reading paths. These paths offer different approaches to strategic management:
The hurried reader: If you want to understand the logic and structure of the Strategic Management Navigator as quickly as possible, you should start with chapter 1.3. It briefly introduces the frame of reference. You can then concentrate on the chapters that are of particular interest to you.
The academic reader: If you are more interested in understanding the scientific underpinnings of each area, the chapters titled "Reflection" are particularly relevant. These chapters focus on theories and models that provide insight into the specifics of each subfield. In addition, you can learn more about the historical development of strategic management in Chapter 1. We have tried to write these chapters in a way that is understandable and helpful to those with little background in economics.
The focused reader: If you have a specific question or want to learn more about a particular area, you may want to skip directly to that chapter. Each chapter is written to be read on its own.
The comprehensively interested reader: We are, of course, very happy about the thorough reader, who reads the book attentively from cover to cover and is inspired by the explanations and encouraged to think critically. The whole spectrum of the book will be revealed to him.
The consultative reader: With the help of the detailed index, the book can also be used as an efficient reference work.
We provide interested readers with a wealth of material on the textbook homepage, including all figures, updated and expanded case studies, and past exam questions. This is a valuable resource for both students and lecturers.