CASS BUSINESS SCHOOL

TERM II, 2015-2016

ADVANCED STRATEGY ANALYSISSMM861/881

ADVANCED STRATEGY ANALYSISSMM861/881

(updated Feb 16th, 2016)
Module Lecturers: Dr. Paolo Aversa and Dr. Simone Santoni
Teaching Assistant: James Knuckles
(Office hours - by appointment only - please email the lecturers or your
T.A. directly)
paolo.aversa.1@city.ac.uk simone.santoni.1@city.ac.uk
james.knuckles.1@city.ac.uk
1. COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES
This course asks why some firms are more successful than others and
explores what corporate executives can do to enable superior results.
This course revolves around one specific advanced topic in strategic
management: business models and business modelling. Cass strategy
faculty is internationally acclaimed as one of the leading groups on the
topic of business model, which makes this module a compelling journey
exploring key implications for competitive dynamics, technological
innovation, new business venturing and e-business coming from Cass
leading research. This module aims to provide our students with a wide
but also thorough understanding of what a business model entails, as well
as practical application of business modelling tools to achieve competitive
advantage.
2. TEACHING STYLE AND CLASS FORMAT
Conceptual understanding is developed through lectures, group
discussion, case studies, and textbook/course readings. While the first
Strategy module in Term 1 was rather aimed at learning how to apply
some basic and established strategy analysis tools, this module revolves
around an intellectually engaging debate that will benefit from the
discussion of multiple perspectives over the same topic. Accordingly, a
selection of the most experienced Cass academics on business models
will be invited to teach in this module. We acknowledge this creates a
challenging trade-off: on the one hand it is a priceless opportunity to
enlarge and enrich your understanding in an unconventional and
heterogeneous way, but on the other hand it requires an additional effort
to engage with different teaching styles and perspectives. Lecturers will
do their best to homogenize the different lectures, but a higher level of
flexibility is required from the students.
Specifically, each class is usually split in two: a lecture part (theory and
examples) and a case study. Guest speakers will contribute to the course.
Groups of students are expected to prepare the assigned cases and
readings before each class (expect questions on the spot to check your
actual preparation). Informed and engaged participation is an essential
part of this course and is expected from everyone. Active engagement
means that you listen carefully to the comments of your peers and seek
opportunities to make comments that move the class discussion forward.
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We also encourage interaction through social media within and outside

class.
3. COURSE MATERIALS
Mandatory readings
Given the timeliness and multi-faceted nature of the topics, no textbook
adequately covers the entire scope of this course. The Advanced
Strategy Analysis course thus relies on selected chapters from a
recommended textbook, relevant articles, and, foremost, lecture notes.
A package containing all mandatory readings (i.e., the ones listed in the
detailed course outline) will be provided at the beginning of the
module. Lecture notes will be posted on Moodle after each session.
Complementary readings
Several basic concepts will be taken from:
Grant, Robert M. Contemporary Strategy Analysis9th Edition.
John Wiley & Sons, 2015;
Saloner, S., & Shepard, A. Podolny, J. Strategic Management. John
Wiley & Sons, 2001.
4. ASSESSMENT
The course assessment is based on an individual exam and the quality of
the submitted group coursework. Individual exam and group coursework
account for 60% and 40% of your final mark, respectively.
The module assessment is in three parts:
1. FORMAL EXAM (60%): Individual, closed book (multiple-choice
questions and one open question), based on case slides and
mandatory readings listed in the syllabus. More information on the
format and other details will be given in class.
2. GROUP COURSEWORK (40%): Group project on business model
innovation;
3. GROUP PRE-SESSION ASSIGNMENTS (Pass vs. Fail; if not
delivered or poor in contents, penalization up to 10 points):
before each class, students are required to read the assigned
materials and respond as a group to a specific set of questions
and/or exercises whose development should not exceed 2 pages
(plus unlimited references). During the class, the topic will be
explained and the lecturer will discuss how the students were
supposed to respond to the questions. This activity has three
important goals:
- Preparing you to individually face the type of open questions
that you will find in the Formal Exam. Students who
successfully complete these individual assignments will rarely
fail the exam.
- Making sure you will do and understand the readings. As a
matter of fact, the readings will provide the sufficient
knowledge base to respond to the assignment.
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Enhancing individual learning ex-ante the lecturers class. In

real life, you will need to master important knowledge and tools
without having someone explaining them to you.

The feedback will be pass vs. fail. If failed, you will be invited to re-take
the assignment until you get it right. If you are not able to deliver a
correct result by the deadline of the Group Project (Wednesday March
30th, 10am), in your final grade you will be penalized by 2 points per
each failed group assignment (5 assignments in total up to a maximum of
10 points).
If you do not deliver your assignment on time, you will fail and will not be
allowed to resubmit, thus experiencing a penalization of 2 points for each
group member.
Group Coursework Guidelines
Cass Business Schools is strategically located in one of the most dynamic
business environments in the world: the City of London. Companies of
any size, age, and range of activities are located in this area. Among
these, more than 3,000 start-ups engage everyday with the challenges of
business modelling and business model innovation. Your task is to identify
a company or a start-up and help its executives to consider implications
for business model innovation. A small selection (approximately 5) of
presentations will be chosen to present in front of the entire class on the
last day of the module. Company executives will be invited to this session,
to sit in on the evaluation board of all groups projects, along with your
lecturers.
Your analysis should include the following points:
1. What is/are the most relevant business model(s) this company is
based on? Describe it and classify it/them using the models
discussed in class.
2. Is the company aiming to add (i.e., going for a portfolio of BM) or
substitute a business model (i.e., going for BM change)?
3. What business model solution do you suggest?
4. What are the opportunities and challenges this change entails?
5. Try to quantify the results/advantages this business model
innovation will lead (bring figures, make explicit assumptions and
projections).
Our suggestion is to focus on established companies or start-ups that
already have activities and operations in place, in order to access a richer
set of data, and avoid mere speculations on not-yet-realized businesses.
We suggest you to take the opportunity to actually engage with the
executives from a real company or start-up, as this will make your
learning more valuable and enjoyable. We will take into consideration
groups who manage to work with a real company. You will be asked to
invite the executives to attend the final presentations at Cass, in case
your team will be selected for the presentation finals. They will sit with
the evaluation committee and judge both your groups and other groups
presentations.

However, in case you cannot/do not want to work with companies, the
project can also be developed in theory, that is by observing a company
through publicly available data, without an actual engagement with any
of the executives. Particularly in this case, it is important to find
companies whose figures and data are publicly available, so that we can
cross check your data and sources.
You will be developing your group coursework throughout the entire
Advanced Strategy Analysis course, with two key milestones.
Milestone 1: Video and document submission by Wednesday March
30th, 10am. Each group will develop a response to the case question
presented in the first class. The response to the aformentioned business
model questions needs to be in the form of a 3 minute video (longer
videos will be penalized) and an accompanying document of 1 page
minimum, 3 pages maximum (plus one cover page, plus unlimited
references). The video and the document are assessed on (a) the level of
quality of the contents and (b) creativity of the answer to the business
model question. Specific details on the evaluation criteria will be
provided in the coursework guidelines. Message clarity and precision are
important, but cinematography and professional video editing skills are
not assessed per se. The video should be engaging and contain relevant
strategic answers related to business model innovation. You can shape
your 1-3 pages either as a source of backup information and references
or as a guideline to lay out the argument set forth in the video. It can be
complementary or explanatory. Any sources used need to be in the
document as references data sources. References can point to other
written or multi-media material if needed.
Submission deadline for both files: Wednesday March 30th, 10am
(delays, even minimal, will be penalized).
Video: the 3min videos should be uploaded on Vimeo.
o The name of the group and all participants should be in the
credits at the end of the film and in the document.
References go into the accompanying document, not in the
video.
Document: the 3-page document (plus cover page, plus unlimited
references) should be posted on Moodle in pdf format. The
document should contain
o Name of the group.
o A working link to the Vimeo video.
o Disclaimer stating whether executives would/would not
attend the presentation finals in case your project was
selected among the 5 finalists.
Please do *not* send any material to you lecturers email accounts.
Milestone 2: Presentations Finals, Monday, April 4th, 3-6pm Your
lecturers will pick a small number of videos (approximately 5) to be
presented to your peers and to the company representatives during the
last lecture of the module. The selection scans for diversity, problem
formulation, and overall quality. Thus, the videos selected for the
presentation will not necessarily overlap with the best videos submitted.
Suppose one group produces a mildly engaging video but offers a point of
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view no other group developed, the video is likely to be selected. Given

equal quality of videos, priority will be given to projects developed with
actual company engagement, and where executives agreed to attend the
presentation finals. In other words, even videos that are not selected for
the final presentation can (theoretically) be evaluated with merit and
distinction marks. However, the presenting teams will have the additional
possibility to showcase their work and obtain up to 5 additional points
based on their performance. Mind that particularly poor or sloppy
performance could also obtain negative marks. Attendance to the
presentation is mandatory even if your group was not selected to present,
as giving feedback is part of the learning objects of the module.
The teams selected for presenting will have time to complement their
presentation with additional materials to display/offer to the committee
(composed of Cass lecturers and executives from the companies). The
presentation represents an opportunity: apart from additional grades and
visibility for the teams, managers from the company will evaluate the
projects and their comments could help the lecturers adjust the final
grade. You will be graded not only by the executives of the company you
consulted, but also by the other teams.
Note: Approaching new contexts and people in your coursework will
enhance your learning experience. You can use the video assignment as
an opportunity to approach and briefly interview knowledgeable
informants (e.g. customers, retailers, experts, etc.). For this reason,
personal affiliation (e.g. family ties) with the interviewees must be
disclosed and clearly justified to the lecturers in the submission.
Friendly suggestion: Executives and professionals agendas tend to be
full. Make sure you contact them far in advance (at the beginning of the
course) and schedule meetings and interviews as early as possible in
order to handle possible changes in the schedule (e.g., in case they need
to postpone your interview for some reason).
Group Pre-Session Assignments Guidelines
A great deal of learning on strategy topics comes from: i) studying and
dissecting case studies; and ii) hearing what your colleagues have to say
about those cases and responding to it. In order to stimulate in-class
discussion, groups of students are expected to carefully go through and
to address the fundamental problem/challenge described in the assigned
readings.
In terms of deliverables, groups are expected to summarise their view
on individual cases in a Office Word documentto be uploaded two days
before the lecture (8.00pm), on weeks 2, 3, 4, 5.
Mandatory Format:
Strictly max 2 page content (plus unlimited references), 1.5 line space,
font 12, 1-inch margin.
Write your group name and all its members at the beginning of the
document.
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Upload a Microsoft Word file (no .pdf please).

Name the file Group_SessionNumber.doc (e.g. Group1_Session_3.doc)
Penalization will be applied for the ones who do not align to the
aforementioned format. Mind that we are particularly meticulous on this
apparently irrelevant aspect as a way to check your level of precision and
discipline in task assignment.
Teams are randomly cold called to discuss their view of the case to the
class.
The document will be evaluated along the following dimensions: a)
contents, organization and clarity; b) application of notions and
frameworks from strategy literature and practice; c) insight provided.
5. SOCIAL INTERACTION AND SOCIAL NETWORKING
Information systems continue to change the way strategies are developed
and implemented. In this spirit, we experiment with social networks that
can involve all course participants. You are encouraged to engage,
contribute, and voice opinions related to class discussions through these
channels. You are allowed to use computers, cell phones and tables to
tweet insights about your ASA classes #StrategyCass
Twitter: follow updates on #StrategyCass and join the discussion.
Spotify: Can there be a soundtrack to a strategy course? Given the case
discussed in class, songs can be shared on Spotify (search for the playlist
StrategyCass). You are invited to contribute to the playlist to refine the
community sense of music sharing among participants. One guideline: the
songs should be somehow related to a topic discussed in class!
Questions, and suggestions and communications to the lecturers:
In case you have additional questions on the course or assessments
please ask them on the Course Forum (rather than via email,
individually, or in classas we are split in two groups) so that the
lecturer can fairly provide the same information/response to all the
participants.
We relentlessly work to make this the best module of your Master.
We thus welcome your suggestions on how to improve your
learning experience. Feel free to directly approach your lecturers
or teaching assistant to advance your personal suggestions. Do not
wait for the course evaluation to come up with your suggestions;
speak sooner and we might be able to respond promptly to your
requests.
If you think that most of the class participant would like to request
a change in some aspects of the module (either for this or future
editions) prepare a documents in which you state: 1. What is the
issue and 2. How you suggest to solve it and why. Then collect at
least 80% of the signatures of your colleagues. This will avoid
disappointing (but common) situations where individuals advance
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personal requests on behalf of the class, without actually having

an official support and delegation for doing so on that specific
issue.
Suggested filmography:
This a list of movies that relate to some of the topics we will cover in
class. I leave to you discovering which one. Feel free to comment on those
in our social media channels or in class.
Kinky Boots
Moneyball
The Wolf of
(2005)
(2011)
Wall
Street
(2013)
Soul Kitchen
Rush (2013)
The Big Short
(2009)
The
Angels
(2016)
The
Social
share (2012)
Joy (2016)
Network
Too big to fail
(2010)
(2011)
Dogtown and
Z-Boys (2001)
6. ACADEMIC PLAGIARISM: AN IMPORTANT NOTE
To most of you this will be probably self-evident, but we want to make
sure that we all understand: Copying phrases, sentences and paragraphs
from sources (magazine, newspaper articles, analyst reports, Wikipedia,
other websites etc.) without properly citing them is a serious offense.
Properly citing means: if you copy word-by-word, you have to mark this
by enclosing the copied text with quotation marks and citing the
source [e.g. write (Batman, 2015) and then add the reference in the
bibliography at the end of the document]. Even if you do not copy wordby-word, but you paraphrase someone elses idea, you must indicate in a
citation its source. This citation has to follow directly the idea (attach a
footnote or an endnote). At the end of the paper, you should then list all
sources that you have cited in the text. Use the referencing format you
prefer.
Let us re-iterate: incomplete or lack of referencing is a very serious
academic offense that in other courses has led professors to fail students
and bring them to the attention of the academic review board of the
University. All of us want to avoid any such incidentwhich is really easy
to avoid: simply be careful in your papers that you attribute
ideas/frameworks etc. that you use to their respective sources.
Keep in mind that Cass lecturers and tutors are supplied with antiplagiarism software that can easily identify texts that have been copied or
even paraphrased from other sources and from other languages.

DETAILED COURSE OUTLINE

LECTURE 1 - 19/02/2016 (ROOM LG001, 3.10PM-6.00PM)
INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE, STRATEGY TOOLS REVIEW
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BUSINESS MODEL ZOO AND FINAL COURSE
PROJECT LAUNCH

Readings:
o Zott, C., Amit, R., & Massa, L. 2011. The business model:
recent developments and future research. Journal of
Management, 37(4): 1019-1042.
o Aversa, P., Haefliger, S., Rossi, A., & Baden Fuller, C. 2015.
From Business Model to Business Modeling: Modularity and
Manipulation. Advances in Strategic Management, 33:
151-185.

Assignment: No assignment for the first class. Suggestion: start

working on the second lectures assignment

LECTURE 2 - 26/02/2016 (ROOM 2002, 9.00AM-11.50AM / ROOM G001

3.10PM-6.00PM)
PRODUCT STRATEGY, POSITIONING, AND VALUATION

Readings:
o Saloner, S., & Shepard, A. Podolny, Strategic Management.
John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Chapter 7, The Spectrum of
Competition and Niche Markets, pp. 149 184.
(REQUIRED).

Case:
o Carrol, G. & Drabkin, D. Coppersea: Emergence of the
Microdistillery Movement. Stanford Graduate School of
Business Case Series, 2014.
o Supplementary readings for the case:
Carroll, Glenn R., and Dennis Ray Wheaton. "The
organizational
construction
of
authenticity:
An
examination of contemporary food and dining in the US."
Research in Organizational Behavior 29 (2009): 255-282.
Carroll, Glenn R., and Anand Swaminathan. "Why the
Microbrewery Movement? Organizational Dynamics of
Resource Partitioning in the US Brewing Industry1."
American Journal of Sociology 106.3 (2000): 715-762.
Kinstlick, Michael, and Coppersea CEO. "The US Craft
Distilling Market: 2011 and Beyond." (2011).
Kinstlick, Michael, and Coppersea CEO. "The US Craft
Distilling Market: 2012 and Beyond." (2012).
Assignment:
o Please upload a file in line with formatting requests due by
Wednesday February 24th (8.00pm).

LECTURE 3 - 04/03/2016 (ROOM 2002, 9.00AM-11.50AM / ROOM G001

3.10PM-6.00PM)
BUSINESS MODELS: VALUE CREATION & VALUE CAPTURE
TO BE CONFIRMED:
Readings:
o Baden-Fuller, C. & Mangematin, V. 2013. Business models: A
challenging agenda. Strategic Organization, 11(4): 418-427.
o Zott, C., Amit, R., & Massa, L. 2011. The business model:
recent developments and future research. Journal of
Management, 37(4): 1019-1042.

Case: Video on Demand

o Baden-Fuller, C. & Mikhalkina, T. 2013. Video-on-Demand
Streaming Industry Case. Cass Business School Case Study

Assignment:
o To Be Confirmed

Assignment Deadline:
o Please upload a file in line with formatting requests due by
Wednesday March 2nd (8.00pm).

LECTURE 4 - 11/03/2016 (ROOM 2002, 9.00AM-11.50AM / ROOM G001

3.10PM-6.00PM)
OPEN AND USER INNOVATION

Readings:
O Haefliger, S., Jager, P., von Krogh, G., 2010. Under the radar:
Industry entry by user entrepreneurs. Research Policy 39,
11981213.

Case: Machinima and Computer Gaming

O Browse business activities of Rooster Teeth Productions:
http://roosterteeth.com/home.php

Assignment:
o Growth is challenging even with innovative products.
Ideation may be in collaboration and networks can help
learning and also support the diffusion of innovation. Yet, in
entertainment, companies struggle to stay relevant.
Consider the case of Rooster Teeth Productions, a firm based
in Austin that grew out of the founders passion to create
Machinima films and epic comedy series such as Red vs.
Blue since 2003.
o

Based on desk research and background reading about

Machinima, can you formulate a smart response to Burnie

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Burns who put this challenge specifically to students of this

Module on February 18, 2016?
o

"On YouTube every minute, users upload over 400 hours of

video. That's almost three weeks of content PER MINUTE.
With all of that noise out there, how does a brand like
Rooster Teeth cut through the clutter and reach new
viewers? How do we grow by getting new viewers to
discover our content? Burnie Burns, Rooster Teeth
Productions 2016

Assignment Deadline:
o Please upload a file in line with formatting requests due by
Wednesday March 9th (8.00pm).

LECTURE 5 - 18/03/2016 (ROOM 2002, 9.00AM-11.50AM / ROOM G001

3.10PM-6.00PM)
BUSINESS MODEL PORTFOLIOS/CONFIGURATIONS*
*we use portfolios and configurations as synonyms

Readings:
O Markides, C. & Charitou, C. D. 2004. Competing with dual
business models: A contingency approach. The Academy of
Management executive, 18(3): 22-36.
O Casadesus-Masanell, R. & Tarzijan, J. 2012. When one
business model isn't enough. Harvard Business Review,
90: 132-137.
https://hbr.org/2012/01/when-one-business-model-isntenough

Case: Formula 1
O Aversa, P., Furnari, S., & Haefliger, S. 2015. Business
model configurations and performance: A qualitative
comparative analysis in Formula One racing, 2005
2013. Industrial and Corporate Change, 24(3): 655-676
O Aversa, P. 2015. How to save Formula 1 without overhauling
the
business
model.
The
Conversation
(web).
https://theconversation.com/how-to-save-formula-1-withoutoverhauling-the-business-model-39205

Optional readings for the case:

In case you are clueless about what F1 is and why it is
important as an industry, or you are passionate about F1 and
want to know more, you might want to go through these
enjoyable and not very technical readings:
Jenkins, M., Pasternak, K., & West, R. 2005.
Performance at the limit: business lessons from
Formula 1 motor racing: Cambridge University Press.

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Chapters 7: "The High Performance Organization" (pp.

114-133);
Chapter 9: "Innovating. The Driver for Continual
Change" (pp. 152-177);
Chapter 12: "Twelve Business Lessons from the Formula
One Motor Racing (pp. 223-227)

Assignment
o What are the complementary and substitution effects
between the configurations of business models in the
portfolios at Red Bull Racing and Williams F1 teams?

Assignment deadline:
o Please upload a file in line with formatting requests by
Wednesday March 16th (8.00pm).

LECTURE 6 - 01/04/2016 (ROOM 2002, 9.00AM-11.50AM / ROOM G001

3.10PM-6.00PM)
SOCIAL VALUE/BUSINESS MODELS FOR SOCIAL ENTERPRISES

Readings:
O Thompson, J.D., MacMillan, I.C. 2010. Business Models:
Creating new markets and societal wealth. Long Range
Planning, 43(2/3): 291-307.
O Yunus, M., Moingeon, B., Lehmann-Ortega, L. 2010. Building
social business models: Lessons from the Grameen
experience. Long Range Planning, 43(2/3): 308-325.

Case: TBD
O TBD

Optional Readings:
O Santos, F. 2012. A positive theory of social entrepreneurship.
Journal of Business Ethics, 111(3): 335-351.
O Santos, F., Pache, A., Birkholz, C. 2015. Making hybrids
work: Aligning business models and organizational design
for social enterprises. California Management Review, 57(3):
36-58.
O Wilson, F., Post, J.E., 2013. Business models for people,
planet (& profits): exploring the phenomena of social
business, a market-based approach to social value creation.
Small Business Economics, 40: 715-737.

Additional Resources for Impact Evaluation:

O "The Seven Deadly Sins of Impact Evaluation" by Matthew
Forti
in
the
Stanford
Social
Innovation
Review:
http://ssir.org/articles/entry/seven_deadly_sins_of_impact_ev
aluation
O Global
Social Ventures Competition resources page:
http://gsvc.org/compete/how-to-enter/resources/
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Assignment:
o To Be Confirmed

Assignment Deadline:
o Please upload a file in line with formatting requests due by
Wednesday March 30th (8.00pm).

LECTURE 7 - 05/04/2015 (ROOM LG001, 3.10PM-6.00PM)

CONCLUSION AND STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: PRESENCE IS MANDATORY FOR
ALL STUDENTS

DRESS CODE: BUSINESS OR BUSINESS CASUAL

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