New Features :

• Up-to-date coverage of the continuing march of industries and companies to wider globalization, the growing scope and strategic importance of collaborative alliances, the spread of high-velocity change to more industries and company environments, and how online technology is driving fundamental changes in both strategy and internal operations in companies across the world.
  
  
• The resource-based view of the firm is prominently and comprehensively integrated into the coverage of crafting both single-business and multi-business strategies. Chapters 3 through 9 emphasize that a company's strategy must be matched both to its external market circumstances and to its internal resources and competitive capabilities. Then, chapters 11, 12, and 13 on various aspects of executing strategy have a strong resource-based perspective that makes it unequivocally clear how and why the tasks of assembling intellectual capital and building core competencies and competitive capabilities are absolutely critical to successful strategy execution and operating excellence.
  
  
• The authors have revitalized the highly important chapter on “Strategy, Ethics, and Social Responsibility” with new discussions and material so that it can better fulfill the important functions of (1) alerting students to the role and importance of incorporating business ethics and social responsibility into decision-making and (2) addressing the accreditation requirements of the AACSB that business ethics be visibly and thoroughly embedded in the core curriculum. In addition, there are discussions of the roles of values and ethics in Chapters 1, 2, 11, and 13, thus providing professors and students alike with a very meaty and comprehensive treatment of business ethics and socially responsible behavior as it applies to crafting and executing company strategies.
  
  
• In response to market feedback, more chapter-end exercises have been included, and e xercises are now more varied in format (rather than just internet searches), more detailed, and more closely aligned with chapter content.
  
  
• The 15th Edition includes 33 cases representing the very latest and best that the authors could find about companies that students know and can relate to. There's a good blend of cases from a length perspective—close to a fourth are under 15 pages, yet offer plenty for students to chew on; about a fourth are medium-length cases; and the remainder are longer, detail-rich cases that call for more sweeping and detailed analysis . There are four “dot-com” company cases, plus several others that will provide students with insight into the special demands of competing in industry environments where technological developments are an everyday event, product life cycles are short, and competitive maneuvering among rivals comes fast and furious. Over 20 of the cases involve situations where company resources and competitive capabilities play as large a role in the strategy-making, strategy-executing scheme of things as industry and competitive conditions do. Scattered throughout the lineup are 10 cases concerning non-U.S. companies, globally competitive industries, and/or cross-cultural situations; these cases, in conjunction with the globalized content of the text chapters, provide ample material for linking the study of strategic management tightly to the ongoing globalization of the world economy. There are 7 cases dealing with the strategic problems of family-owned or relatively small entrepreneurial businesses and 23 cases involving public companies about which students can do further research on the Internet. Eleven of the cases (JetBlue Airways, Competition in the MP3 Player Industry, Netflix, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, eBay, Google, Harley-Davidson, Wal-Mart, Monsanto, Starbucks, and Merck-Vioxx) have accompanying videotape segments.

Retained Features:

• The fundamental character that has driven the text's success over the years is evident throughout the 15th. The chapter content continues to be solidly mainstream and balanced, mirroring both the best academic thinking and the pragmatism of real-world strategic management.
  
  
• The 13 chapters in this edition are arranged in the same order as the prior edition and cover essentially the same topics. But every chapter has been given a refreshing facelift that includes the latest thinking and evidence from the literature, more refined presentations, and a greater number of current examples.
  
  
• The comprehensive package of support materials is a breeze to use, highly effective, and flexible enough to fit most any course design.
  
  
• Margin notes highlighting basic concepts, strategic management principles, and kernels of wisdom help students by reinforcing key points in the text.
  
  
• Extensive use of examples and Illustration Capsules, which accurately portray today's business world and link theory to practice.