1: Introduction to Strategic Work, Language, and Value
2: Strategic Analysis - Consulting Tools
3: Strategic Analysis - Academic Models
4: Building Language and the Business Model
5: Persuading Supporters
6: The Business Strategist's World
Appendix A - On Case Writing and Teaching
Appendix B - Teaching from This Book
Appendix C - Some Strategy Texts and Their Implicit Theory
Appendix D - Further Reading
J.-C. Spender trained initially as a nuclear engineer, and worked
for Rolls-Royce & Associates, IBM, and as a merchant banker. He
completed his PhD in Strategic Management at the Manchester
Business School, which won the 1980 Academy of Management AT
Kearney Prize. This was later published as Industry Recipes
(Blackwell 1989). After being on the faculty at various
universities including the Cass School, York University (Toronto),
UCLA, University
of Glasgow, and Rutgers, J.-C. Spender retired in 2003 as Dean of
the School of Technology & Business at SUNY/FIT. He is now Visiting
Professor at ESADE, Universitat Ramon Llull, and in addition holds
visiting
positions at Lund University School of Economics and Management,
Cranfield School of Management, Open University Business School,
University Campus Suffolk, and International School of Management
(Paris).
In this fascinating book, Spender integrates decades of study of
uncertainty, knowledge (and lack of it), entrepreneurship, industry
recipes, language, and judgment into mainstream strategic analysis.
The result a brilliant reinterpretation of strategy tools and
uncertain situations. Nurtured on economic rationality, I found
this a major step towards closing the gap between managerial
practice and strategic theorizing.
*Robert M. Grant, University of Bocconi*
For too long, strategy and entrepreneurship have been different
fields. Now Spender shows entrepreneurship not founding firms but
creating value under uncertainty to be the nub of the strategizing
process, irrevocably linking them. The result is important for
scholars and practitioners alike. Strategy now embraces
entrepreneurship as the starting point of any explanation of
superior firm performance.
*Jay B. Barney, University of Utah*
Business managers usually say more than they intend, so employees
often interpret strategies differently and go in different
directions. Spender re-examines strategizing under conditions of
uncertainty, showing entrepreneurs construct special language to
shape what others note and act on. He provides managers and
consultants with a structured practice for value-creation.
*Andrew H. Van de Ven, University of Minnesota*
Fascinating much to be learnt from the books exposition and
content. Taking Knightian uncertainty seriously, Spenders
subjectivist approach is wholly novel. The entire positivist
strategy oeuvres relevance to managerial practice (and much else
besides) is questioned.
*Stewart Clegg, UTS Business School*
Yes! Managerial rhetoric should be central to our teaching.
*Peter Lorange, Lorange Institute of Business*
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