Major IB / IBE Strategy

What is strategy?
One widely agreed upon definition of strategy is that it is the study of the determinants of the long-term performance of firms, and that fundamentally it seeks to answer the question of what makes one firm able to outcompete another?

The focus on long-term performance makes strategic decisions different from the day-to-day operational decisions made by each firm. At the corporate level, these decisions are related to what businesses the firm should be in. One way to make such decisions is for the firm to identify what it sees as its long-term core competences and unique resources. At the business(unit) level, major investment decisions are by their very nature strategic, since they define the set of feasible options for the future. The factors that affect the performance of firms also differ across industries and across countries. Each industry has a set of best practices that most firms would adopt, while for example Swedish firms tend to share some characteristics and business practices with other Swedish firms. The challenge for the student of strategy is to try to determine the extent to which any observed differences reflect merely inconsequential variety, as opposed to differences that have a systematic impact on corporate performance.

One way to approach the question of performance is to separate the drivers of performance that are internal to the firm from those that are external to the firm. Among the internal factors are questions of resource allocation, which are reflected in the investment decisions made by firms. The study of corporate investment under conditions of uncertainty and the use of real options reasoning are both issues that occupy strategists. Other important issues internal to the firm are decisions about the boundaries of the firm, also known as the make-or-buy decision. Once a firm has defined its core competences, it can decide which activities it should carry in-house, and which activities are to be left to other firms. The configuration of the activities carried out by the firm, its suppliers and other network partners is seen as critical to its future performance. Finally, investments in research and development (R&D) have become increasingly important to the competitiveness of firms, and many strategic decisions relate to knowledge management, for example in the choice of network partners and forms of research collaboration.

Among the external factors affecting firm performance are the influence of market structure and differences in business systems. The degree to which markets are competitive or monopolistic, and how this affects firm strategy, is a topic with a long history in strategy. This includes examining how entry and exit barriers determine whether a market will be dominated by a few buyers and sellers, or whether it is populated by a large number of smaller firms. While market structure affects firms’ strategic reactions to one another, the underlying rules of the game are derived from the business system that the firm operates in. These rules can be explicit, such as legislation and regulation that restricts business activity, but they can also be less apparent, such as the norms and values that govern competition and corporate behaviour in different markets.

What can you do with a strategy major?
If you choose to forego further education and want to enter the job market right after your Bachelor’s degree, a major in strategy offers you a number of possibilities. As with any other generalist area of study, strategy does not in itself prepare you for a specific job. Chances are that you would not be starting your career in the strategic planning or business development department, without having first experienced some positions in other departments in functions such as sales or accounting. Majoring in strategy gives you opportunities to learn a range of analytical methods, and to exercise your critical thinking in a wide variety of different scenarios. Such skills are highly desirable from an employer’s point of view. They do require some additional job specific skills to become truly valuable. Such skills can be gained on the job by taking on a number of different assignments within a firm. They can also be honed by engaging in further study in a specific area.

If you choose to continue your studies at the Master’s level, a major in strategy offers you ample opportunities for further study. Since strategy explores a wide range of issues affecting the competitiveness of firms, combining it with a more narrowly specialized major would be a desirable option for most strategy students. If you continue with a strategy track, the Master’s level courses in Maastricht offer a more specialized focus on specific areas of strategy, such as knowledge management and strategic alliances. If, on the other hand, you choose for a different major in your continuing study, a strategy major can be usefully combined with any of the available specialties, such as marketing and logistics, but also accounting and finance.

Courses in the program
Click here for a brief overview of the courses that form the core of the program.

Contact
If you need more information or do you have questions, please contact the Bachelor Strategy coordinator Dr. Sarianna Lundan, phone 0031-(0)43-3883776/3823 or e-mail: S.Lundan@OS.unimaas.nl.