Strategy teaching: Contemporary challenges

Abstract

The paper focuses on relevant problem, which business schools all over the world face and which is connected with the necessity to include concepts and instruments of strategic management valuable for the managers into the syllabus of the courses. In order to solve this problem it is necessary to define the requirements and expectations of the managers studying in business schools. The purpose of this paper is to determine the existing conformity of strategic management course syllabus and the Russian managers’ perception of competitive advantage sources and the process of strategic management. During the empirical study a survey with the participants of the Executive MBA program (in one of the leading business schools in Russia) has been conducted. The aim of it is to reveal the expectations towards syllabus of “Strategic management” course. The results of the analysis indicate that managers link the sources of competitive advantage with better position of the company in the external environment, that leads to greater interest in learning strategic tools which are appropriate for its detecting. The findings raise serious challenges for strategic management teaching and put into question the usefulness of proactive development of competences in strategic management education.