Industrial organisation and business strategies

The course deals with corporate action on markets characterised by imperfect competition, the design of business strategies and the internal organisation of markets and industries. The course is based on the so called transactional cost theory, which explains the horizontal and vertical size of a company. Strategic scenarios and choice of competitive means and strategies for investments in, for instance, excess capacity, marketing, diversification and entry deterring pricing. The appropriateness of the traditional assumption of profit maximisation as a basis for analysing company action is questioned and alternatives presented. The course also deals with models of analysis for individual sectors, such as Michael Porter's competitive strategy model. The usefulness of the model is discussed and students apply it to a real case.