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This masterclass offers a guide to the disciplined approach to getting strategy fundamentals right and the strategy review process that A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin developed at P&G.

The article demonstrates how P&G practiced a process that revolves around five major interrelated questions and the choices that flow from them.

The article shows how a key determinant in searching for the right match between potential where-to-play and how-to-win alternatives is whether and how the combination will draw on a company's unique strengths in a way that competitors will find difficult to replicate or neutralize.

The article describes how P&G developed an innovative dialogue-driven approach to creating, reviewing and communicating strategy, in which the process of assertive inquiry, as opposed to more conventional advocacy, came to play a key role.

Executives are offered a step-by-step guide through the five questions and two key tools which structure P&G's generation and analysis of where-to- play and how-to-win alternatives and the companies “strategy logic flow” and “possibilities-based strategy” methodologies.

Teaching objectives are as follows: students need to understand the critical choices involved in introducing a product into a new market, including but not limited to the macroeconomic context, the target consumer segment, the positioning of the product, distribution channels, pricing and promotion strategy. Students must learn to appreciate the importance of anticipating the reaction of incumbents, and how such reactions may determine the success or failure of a new product entry into the market. Students develop skills to analyze complementarities between different distribution channels and understand how investments in developing one channel can result in positive or negative consequences in other channels.

How can health products such as multivitamins and other nutritional supplements make headway into emerging markets that are moving up the ranks of middle-income economies? This case study investigates the case of Thailand, a country that in the early 1990s registered a per capita income comparable to Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia today. It illustrates, through the real experience of Pat – an executive of a local subsidiary of an American multinational pharmaceutical company – how a new entrant exploited the rapidly changing economic and retailing environment to become a successful player in an important and growing segment of consumer products.

This case is suitable for master’s degree students or short-course executives.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the management of information flow for delivery reliability. It analyses how the integration strategies of traceability, transaction costs and vertical integration that shape integrated information flow are managed during delivery processes of firms. While delivery reliability contributes to firm competitiveness, information flow is central to firms interaction internally and externally to facilitate delivery.

The paper applies an exploratory multiple-case study involving 21 delivery team members in three industrial technology-based firms. Informed by a multidisciplinary framework from literature, the study captures “what” and “how” existing firms manage information flow during delivery. Individual cases from the company were compared analysed to determine themes that drive delivery-related integrated information flow management.

The paper finds that case firms prioritised understanding interaction logics, maintaining process timeliness, review-oriented streamlining and communication-oriented coordination. The study also finds that for delivery reliability in technology-based firms, the interplay of vertical integration, market relations and long term, voluntary relations, especially through the use of small, dedicated and highly skilled team, is required to effectively manage delivery-related integrated information flow.

The major contribution of this paper is an exposition on practices for facilitating information flow integration. It also offers insights that suggest integrated information flow for delivery reliability could be enhanced through the use of customer-focused communication channels, context-driven documentations, multiple and alternate communication channels as well as intuitive and user-friendly documentation strategies.

Key components of the logistics mix are described in an effort to create an understanding of the total logistics concept. Chapters include an introduction to logistics; the strategic role of logistics, customer service levels, channel relationships, facilities location, transport, inventory management, materials handling, interface with production, purchasing and materials management, estimating demand, order processing, systems performance, leadership and team building, business resource management.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine strategic decisions surrounding critical events to show how the decision-making processes evolve and how the dominant logic changes vis-à-vis those decisions. Further, this study explores the processes of managerial decision making focusing on spatial and temporal cognition dimensions.

The methodology adopted in this study is a case study using the retrospective processual analysis approach. Data were collected using both primary and secondary sources. In all, 40 years of secondary data on key critical events and decision making were collected using a range of secondary sources. Those events were further examined using 49 in-depth semi structured interviews.

The findings of this study explain the relationship between operant conditions, strategic actions and outcomes of strategic decisions by highlighting the significance of knowledge strategy, strategic agility and intentionality in shaping and reshaping managers’ dominant logic. Further, the authors show that the dominant coalition, among other factors, plays an important role in building decision-making capacity and in the formation and transformation of an existing dominant logic.

The study identified a number of limitations. First, the issue of generalization as the data were collected from only two case study companies. Second, in some cases respondents were asked to respond to research questions using “memory of the events” which took place a long time ago, hence the issue of credibility. Further, sometimes respondents reported information collected through hearsay. To overcome the limitations of this research, the authors made all efforts to ensure that the data collected were reliable and credible such as by using diverse data sources, confirmation of events at multiple level and personal observations.

The study identifies and explains a number of factors which influence decision making. The authors also present the revised dominant logic model which can act as a tool in managerial decision making.

The paper shows how managerial decision making changes knowledge strategy, which in turn leads to changes in existing dominant logic or the creation of a new dominant logic, hence looking at the issues of decision making using an evolutionary perspective. Second, the paper empirically tests and explains the relationship between intentionality, actions and organizational outcomes using spatial and temporal learning. Finally, the use of the longitudinal retrospective processual analysis and events analysis, is a novel way of understanding a particular phenomenon.

Mathematical models were used to explore research methodology in the field of marketing; however, the methodology was focused more on quantitative than on qualitative methods. Utilizes the mathematical model on deductive technique and flow chart to explain how the means‐end chains (MECs) method establishes the MECs logic construction to apply on computer programming for instituting useful marketing strategies. Based on the mathematically deductive technique and logical construction methods, seeks to enhance the MECs procedure, to describe the procedure of the MECs data collection, and further to transfer tabular data when building a hierarchical value map (HVM). Logic construction on MECs in this research improves the MECs methodology. Moreover, researchers can use the logic construction to understand the MECs procedure and to develop powerful marketing strategies for an enterprise.

The purpose of this research is to apply a simulation experiment to investigate the impact of new components purchasing and used components recovery strategies on multiple performance measures. The research compares the effectiveness of these strategies, given different levels of uncertainty for the return flow from the contingency perspective.

The experimental design is implemented using an ARENA simulation model. Simulation results are used to test the proposed research model. Multivariate analysis of variance is used for data analysis.

The results demonstrate that while a proactive purchasing strategy reduces total system cost, it also negatively affects service level. While there are some general conclusions, it is equally important to make decisions under specific business contexts.

The primary implication is that a firm has to align its purchasing strategy and recovery strategy with its business strategy. Given the tradeoff on multiple performance dimensions, the business strategy guides the selection of the appropriate purchasing and recovery strategy.

This paper demonstrates that using multiple performance measures is necessary to accurately assess cost and service trade‐offs related to a proactive purchasing strategy. Considering a wide range of circumstances, this paper suggests that the contingency perspective is a valid approach for investigating closed‐loop supply chains.

The purpose of this paper is to examine shopper marketing through service-dominant logic and service ecosystem lenses. In doing so, the authors reveal challenges and opportunities for supply chain management.

The work is conceptual, drawing on contemporary service-dominant logic thinking.

Examination of shopper marketing reveals that it is currently stuck in goods-dominant logic and micro-level ways of thinking. By taking a macro service ecosystem view, all actors, including shoppers, are seen as resource integrators seeking resource density. The macro view highlights a significant amount of goods and information flow and variance now being added throughout shopper marketing systems.

A guiding framework with appropriate terms defined offers new research directions and new ways practitioners can approach challenges in the industry. Research programs are suggested in the areas of facilitating resource density, examining the extent of ecosystems, measurement, mapping of resources, and creating shopper marketing innovations.

This study provides an alternative way of looking at problems that arise in supply chain management planning and execution of shopper marketing initiatives.

Few scholastic articles address shopper marketing even within marketing and essentially none do so in supply chain management despite it having significantly disrupted supply chains since 2004. This article offers an overview of shopper marketing and helps supply chain managers identify quickly how they can add value and supply chain management researchers begin to address the challenges.