325-228 Business Strategy

Availability

Coordinator

Prerequisites

316-102 Introductory Microeconomics.

Contact

Subject Description

This subject analyses the origins, evolution and attributes of the modern business corporation. The principal focus is on strategic decision-making by managers which determines the form of the firm's relationship with its external environment and the organisation of its internal structure. Specifically, the subject investigates how managers introduce policies for vertical integration, diversification and multinational expansion and how managers implement monitoring and control mechanisms which determine the form of the firm's organisational structure.

Australia's corporate economy is described and the issues surrounding the revitalisation of the Australian economy in a competitive world discussed.

The subject contrasts the different ways Western and Japanese firms are organised, assessing the relative merits of these alternative types of business organisation. The subject explores whether the Japanese form of business organisation and the close external relationships between Japanese parent firms and subcontractors and supplier are uniquely Japanese. Other organisation forms are analysed. The rise of scientific management and the evolution of segmented and internal labour markets are investigated.

Principal/agent theory and transaction and cost economics form the organising concepts for the subject.

Assessment

Written work of not more than 3000 words (30%) and a 2-hour end-of-semester examination (70%).