This course supports the Mission Statement of Nagoya University of Commerce & Business by developing students who can reason about why some firms succeed where others fail, and act on that reasoning. Students take the position of general managers making decisions with incomplete information and real consequences. Cases span Ireland, the United States, Spain, and Korea, so that students practice analyzing competition in different institutional settings and reasoning across the boundary between the new era of Asia and the rest of the world. In requiring students to commit to a position and defend it under challenge, the course cultivates the Frontier Spirit the mission calls for.

Firms in the same industry, facing the same customers and the same technology, earn persistently different returns. Strategic management studies why.

By studying this course, students will deepen their ability to answer that question for a specific firm rather than in the abstract. The course works outward from the industry and inward to the firm: what structure permits, what position a firm occupies within it, what resources make that position defensible, how rivals respond, what businesses a firm should be in, and what happens when the technology underneath the whole arrangement changes.

The course is taught entirely through the case method. There are no lectures in the conventional sense. Each session centers on a real company facing a real decision, and students take the position of the executives who had to decide without knowing how it would turn out. Class time is spent building an argument collectively: students take positions, defend them under questioning, and revise them when a classmate's reasoning proves stronger. The instructor directs that inquiry rather than delivering conclusions. Frameworks and concepts emerge from the discussion rather than preceding it.

Several cases contain financial and operating data. Students should work with the numbers, not just the narrative.

By the end of this course, students will be able to,

Knowledge and Understanding: Explain why firms in the same industry earn different returns, and distinguish strategy from operational effectiveness,
Specialized Skills: Analyze an industry's structure and the profitability it permits; assess a firm's competitive position and the trade-offs that make it defensible; identify which of a firm's resources are genuinely hard to imitate; anticipate how rivals will respond to a move; evaluate whether a corporate parent adds value to the businesses it owns,
General Abilities: Analyze an unstructured business situation, work with quantitative evidence, identify the decision that must actually be made, and take a defensible position under incomplete information; argue persuasively in a demanding discussion environment,
Attitudes: Approach strategy as a set of choices with costs rather than a list of aspirations, and accept that a real position requires giving something up.

*本学の教育ミッションを具現化する形で設定されています。

By completing this course, students will gain,

The ability to analyze an industry's structure and explain the profitability it permits, using the five forces as a diagnostic rather than a checklist,
A method for assessing a firm's competitive position and identifying the trade-offs that make it defensible,
The ability to distinguish resources and capabilities that are genuinely hard to imitate from those that merely appear so,
Practice in anticipating competitor response — reading intent from observable action, and judging commitment and credibility,
A framework for evaluating corporate scope: whether to diversify, whether to integrate, and whether a parent adds value to what it owns,
An understanding of why incumbents fail at the moment they look strongest, and of disruption as a specific mechanism rather than a synonym for change,
Experience working with financial and operating data to support a strategic argument.

教育手法 Teaching Method		% of Course Time
インプット型 Traditional		0 %
参加者中心型 Participant-Centered Learning	ケースメソッド Case Method	100 %
	フィールドメソッド Field Method	0 %
合計 Total		100 %

I. Prerequisites for the Course

Students are expected to dedicate 2 to 4 hours of preparation before each case.

Pre-Class Preparation
Every case is distributed in advance. No case materials are handed out during class. Where a case comes in several parts — (A), (B) — all parts are assigned and read together as one package before the session.
Read the assigned case in advance and come prepared to take a position and defend it. Where a case includes exhibits, work through the numbers before class.
Cold calls are a standard and graded part of this classroom.
Post-Class Review
Revisit the frameworks that emerged in discussion and apply them to a firm of your own choosing, in preparation for the final report.

Assignment questions are issued for every case in a separate assignment sheet. A laptop is required.

II. Final Report

Case to be used: all cases. Assignment: synthesize what you have learned across the cases discussed in class and build a strategic analysis and recommendation. Detailed instructions will be announced during the course. Individually written and individually graded; students may research and discuss together, but every submission is the student's own work. Submission Deadline: 11:00 pm on the final class day. Submission Method: via Google Classroom (within 20 A4 pages, Times New Roman 12pt, double-spaced, PDF).

III. Feedback

There is no written preparatory report in this course. Feedback is given in three ways. First, contribution is acknowledged and challenged in class as discussion proceeds — this is the primary feedback mechanism of the case method, and it is continuous. Second, each student receives an individual written comment on the quality of their class contribution at the midpoint of the term, so that there is time to act on it before the final grade. Third, the final report receives written comments through Google Classroom on submission. No work is due after the course ends.

*成績は下記該当項目を基に決定されます。
*クラス貢献度合計はコールドコールと授業内での挙手発言の合算値です。

講師用内規準拠 Method of Assessment	Weights
コールドコール Cold Call	0 %
授業内での挙手発言 Class Contribution	70 %
クラス貢献度合計 Class Contribution Total	70 %
予習レポート Preparation Report	0 %
小テスト Quizzes / Tests	0 %
シミュレーション成績 Simulation	0 %
ケース試験 Case Exam	0 %
最終レポート Final Report	30 %
期末試験 Final Exam	0 %
参加者による相互評価 Peer Assessment	0 %
合計 Total	100 %

評価の留意事項　Notes on Evaluation Criteria

Students are expected to study the case assigned for each week.

By university policy, active class participation is a fundamental component of this course and accounts for 70% of the final grade. In assessing class participation, emphasis will be placed on the quality of contributions rather than mere frequency. Thoughtful engagement in discussions — demonstrating logical reasoning and deep insights — will be valued over simply sharing facts, paraphrasing, or summarizing previous points.

Where a case contains financial or operating data, arguments supported by that evidence are valued above arguments that ignore it.

Cold calls are a standard and graded part of this classroom. Students who do not participate in discussion cannot learn by this method, and their grade will reflect that.

The final report is graded on the strength of original reasoning, not on summary. It is important to deliver your own thoughts and critical reasoning, built on the cases discussed in class.

Turning in the assignment with imperfect English is fine. Using generative AI to write your report is strictly prohibited; if I judge that AI wrote a report, it will receive zero points.

All grading is individual. Students may research and discuss together, but every submission is the student's own work.

• N/A「N/A」N/A（N/A）

N/A

Newly Assigned Course