Wharton on Dynamic Competitive Strategy

A well-chosen set of essays is compiled, based on a 4-level framework: i)Analyze the competitive environment, ii)Anticipate competitor's actions & reactions, iii) Formulate Dynamic Strategies, iv) Choose among alternative strategies. 'Wharton on Dynamic Competitive Strategy' provides a great way to update one's strategy knowledge; but I find 'Mastering Strategy: The Complete MBA Companion in Strategy' by Financial Times Editors to be a better book with greater depth and broader spectrum.

Both editors are marketing professors at The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania), which is the world's leading business school (BusinessWeek and Financial Times). George Day is well-known for his market-driven strategy, while David Reibstein is one of the leading scholars in the field of competitive marketing strategy. The book is split in 4 parts, each consisting of 3-to-5 stand-alone chapters.Part I - Understanding Advantages in a Changing Competitive Environment - discusses competitive arenas, competitor analysis, and competitive advantage. The first two chapters expand largely on Michael Porter's (Harvard Business School) frameworks, whereby the other two chapters introduce approaches to include policy and technology trends into the strategic planning process.The aim of Part II - Anticipating Competitors' Actions - is to get inside the heads of competitors. Chapters 5 and 6 explain the possible use of the game theory within competitive strate!gy and strategic decision making. Chapter 7 builds on these chapters to integrate the economic frame (chapter 5), the behavioral frame (chapter 6), with an coevolution frame. The final chapters of this part introduce frameworks and approaches to understanding competitor response and competitive relationships.Part III - Formulating Dynamic Competitive Strategies - builds on the first two parts and introduces approaches to designing strategies. It introduces reactive strategies, preemptive strategies, signaling opportunities and uses, competitive positioning, and antitrust constraints (which is increasingly important to companies).In Part IV - Choosing Among Alternative Competitive Strategies - the three chapters introduce methods and frameworks for choosing the right strategy. Chapter 15, in which conjoint analysis is combined with scenario analysis, is perhaps the most complicated chapter of the book. Part IV also introduces the possibilities to use simulation !tests for analyzing and testing strategies.Although this book is named "Wharton on Dynamic Competitive Strategy", there are various chapters from other academic institutions. Each chapter is an excellent piece of work and can be read on a stand-alone basis. For beginners in the strategic field I recommend chapters 1 and 2 highly. The book is written in business US-English.

This book is amazingly well written and goes from the basics of strategy to more complex subjects such as game theory. But the best of it is not the wide variety of strategy subjects or the amount of real world examples it uses but the integration between chapters. One can easily read this book at once or skip to chapters that are more interesting to him/her.I consider this book essential for MBA students, management consultants and managers in general. Excellent choice!

It is a good book for everyone who want to have a further understanding and comprehensive scope on strategy. However, it maybe a hard one for somebody, who recently study this subject!

This book is wonderful. Unlike many business books which take one very simple concept and drive it into the ground over 400 pages, Wharton on Dynamic Competitive Strategy has several (17) discrete topics which are interlinked through common themes. Need to understand applications of game theory to strategy formulation? Want to understand how to structure scenario analysis for a working session with a group of business unit directors? This book will help you understand some very academic concepts with very real, material impact when used properly. This is also a great book for MBA students who want to understand a topic before taking to a whole class. One final point, the caliber of the authors is incredible. Each author is writing about his/her specific areas of expertise, and the topics are extremely timely. These are my opinions alone and not necessarily those of my employer.