Course Objectives: a. To understand the nature of strategic competitiveness and develop the ability to analyze the competitive environment facing a firm, and to assess the attractiveness of the industry and isolate potential sources of competitive advantage and disadvantage. b. To understand how to build up a firm’s competitive advantage through functional-level, business-level, corporate-level, and global strategies in order to create value-added. c. To assess the dynamic process behind the sustainability of a firm’s competitive positions. d. To integrate knowledge and apply analytical techniques from various disciplines, including finance, accounting, marketing, operations, organization theory and organizational behavior and particularly economics. The goal is to identify and analyze strategic issues with the purpose of developing and sustaining competitive advantage.