USAFA Library Guides: MGT 472 (Strategic Management Capstone): Getting Started

Keywords

Not finding enough on your topic? Not finding anything on your topic? Are you using the best keywords and concepts to describe what you're looking for?

Brainstorming the different words and phrases used to describe your topic is one the most helpful things you can do to start your research. It gets you really thinking about your topic and the ways it can be approached.

If you're having trouble getting the storm started, try reading a few references articles or authoritative websites. Look for words or phrases that are repeated in the article and the different ways they are described there. Also check out the Reference List or Works Cited for more sources on topic.

Writing Executive Summaries

Anatomy of a Business Plan: The Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Business & Securing Your Company's Future
Chapter 3: Executive summary with examples.
Business Planning and Market Strategy
Provides insights into developing business plans and market strategies. Chapter 12: Guidance on writing executive summaries.

Key Concepts

CAGE Comparator
Online tool to make cross-country comparisons using the CAGE (Cultural, Administrative, Geographic & Economic) framework across 163 countries and 65 industry groups
Diagram of Porter's 5 Forces
To help differentiate your competitive analysis by industry
Market Research and Competitive Analysis
Information & advice from the US Small Business Administration
Strategic Management Insight
Includes SWOT analyses and strategy tools used by companies to implement their strategic plans & gain competitive advantage

Harvard Business Review

HBR offers a choice of topics on strategy, competitive strategy, innovation, and other important research areas of business. Select topics from main menu. Full-text articles available through Ebsco.

Harvard Business Review
Find research topics related to business strategies & more
Harvard Business Review (in Ebsco)
Get full-text articles in Ebsco Business Source, 1992-present

Suggested Online References

Dictionary of Strategy
Provides terms and concepts to help illuminate major debates, issues, and scholarship in strategic management by presenting over 550 terms within a framework for understanding terms and topics in a broader strategic management perspective.
Essentials of Strategic Management
Covers key topics of strategic management. Over the text, these principles are put into context with illustrations and examples drawn from all over the world and from all kinds of organizations.
Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement
Provides guidance to help you bring everything together into a workable organizational strategy.
The Strategist's Handbook: Tools, Templates, and Best Practices across the Strategy Process
Best materials, insights, tools, and templates that comprise the core Strategy course taught in the undergraduate & graduate programs at Oxford.
Strategizing: New Thinking About Strategy, Planning & Management
A valuable accompaniment for business students of strategy, this book is an essential read for anyone seeking guidance about planning the futures of their organizations.

Suggested HBR eBooks

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Leading Digital Transformation
Selected as the most important Harvard Business Review articles on digital strategy to hopefully inspire you to devise an industry-transforming business model.
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy
Compilation of some of the most important Harvard Business Review articles to help you select the best strategy for your company. Includes bonus article "Creating Shared Value" by Porter and Kramer.
A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness
Highly rated guide on strategy and management praised by some of today's leading business thinkers.

Harvard Business Review Press Collection
Access to the complete collection of ebooks from HBR Press including guides to building your strategic skills