Business Models: Traditional and Emerging Perspectives

COURSE OBJECTIVE

Through the combination of lectures, case discussions, guest lectures, teamwork, and an individual essay, students will encounter and engage with core concepts surrounding the dimensions of competitive advantage, industry-level competitive dynamics, business model design, and business model innovation. This combination will help students develop competence in understanding and analyzing business models and identifying opportunities for business model innovation in today’s dynamic business environment.

After successfully completing Business Models: Traditional and Emergent Perspectives, students will:

• understand the core theories and ideas surrounding business-level strategy
• understand how traditional and emergent business models implement a business-level strategy
• be able to effectively apply their conceptual understanding of the course concepts in real-world settings
• be able to draw on evidence to put forward well-founded and substantiated points of view, both in spoken and written formats
• gain comfort and competence in discussing business concepts in unprepared/real-time discussions and debates
• improve their skills in working effectively with teammates from with diverse backgrounds
• gain competence in allocating tasks among team members under time pressure
• develop their critical thinking and creativity in their problem-solving approach
• hone the critical thinking need to analyze and evaluate complex organizational problems and make well-reasoned decisions

COURSE CONTENT  

The central concern of strategic management is understanding what drives firm performance. Why do some firms outperform others? Why do some prosper and grow, while others in the same industry die? In short, how—and why—do firms create value? The firm’s strategy is its approach to gaining a competitive advantage and its business model is way it executes on that strategy to create, deliver, and capture value.

This course begins with an in-depth exploration of ideas around business-level competitive advantage, value creation, and industry-level competitive dynamics. We build on these foundations to explore how business models address these competitive realities. In this way, the course provides a "deep-dive" into the relationship between an organization's strategy and its business model. Students will learn about both traditional and emergent business models and explore their connection with theories of business-level strategy.

TEACHING METHODS 

This course takes an active blended learning approach that leverages both synchronous (face-to-face & on-campus) and asynchronous (remote & on-line) modes of teaching and learning. Students are expected to fully engage in both the synchronous and asynchronous classes. Remote participation in the synchronous on-campus sessions is not an option.

The first lecture every week will comprise one or more “knowledge clips” that students will watch on-line. These knowledge clips are short videos that will introduce the topics and lay the foundation for the material students will explore that week.

On-campus lecture sessions will provide students with the opportunity to explore more fully the material presented in the week’s knowledge clips. These classes will be interactive: there will be no direct lecturing, and the content for each session will be determined by the students' questions, interests, and results from the comprehension quiz. Students should come to the class with the questions, observations, thoughts, and points of clarification that occurred to them when they did the readings and watched the knowledge clips for the week. 

The tutorials combine case studies and team presentations/work. Students should come to the tutorials having fully prepared the case and/or the other readings assigned for the session. These will be discussion-based sessions, where the students are expected to do most of the talking: active in-class participation is required and graded. Attendance is mandatory for all tutorials. Students are allowed one unexcused absence from the tutorials. Each additional absence will result in a 0.5-point deduction from the student’s final grade for the course.

One distinguishing aspect of this course is its interactive nature. Students are expected to be active participants in all class discussions. As such this course provides the opportunity for students to become more comfortable with, and develop their competency in, an important skill for career success: engaging in unscripted and organic group discussions and debates.

TYPE OF ASSESSMENT

There are both individual and team-based assessments.

Individual: class participation, weekly quizzes, essay (NOTE: there is no exam & in-class participation is graded)

Team: company analysis, presentations, and projects TBA.