Acting Strategically, Thinking Critically: Concepts, Cases and Tools for Business Students is a student-friendly, strategic management textbook and utilizes activity-based learning strategies, short and comprehensive cases, critical thinking exercises, and several well-known analytical frameworks to not only help students master strategic management concepts, but also "think about thinking." This text emphasizes knowledge acquired in business degree programs and provides a vehicle for students to engage in active learning strategies by demonstrating their competencies in acquiring, retaining, and applying their knowledge as students of strategy and prospective strategic leaders and thinkers. As such, this book is designed for life-long learning and application, and provides information that will be of use in a variety of classroom settings, business organizations, and other learning environments.

Students will gain a foundation in strategic management as a dynamic process through the lens of five schools of strategic thought: style, competitive forces, resource-based view, learning, and entrepreneurship. The book emphasizes strategic decision making and action-based learning in the 21st century environment of accelerated change and exponential growth. It will teach students the importance of being agile and creative in today's fast-paced environment. Among the topics covered are: conceptual foundation of strategy, case method, corporate strategy, business-level strategy, strategic leadership and strategy execution, global strategy, and innovation-based strategies. Students will apply concepts, tools, and models to case studies and thinking critically exercises to reflect on the impact of strategy within specific organizational and individual situations. They will also come to understand the professional and career benefits associated with acting strategically and thinking critically.

Developed for the capstone course required in undergraduate business and masters of business administration degrees, Acting Strategically, Thinking Criticallyprepares students to make meaningful contributions to the organizations in which they work.

Michael J. Merenda earned his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is a professor of strategic management and entrepreneurship at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at University of New Hampshire, Durham, where he also directs the university's annual Holloway Prize Innovation-to-Market Competition. Dr. Merenda's research interests include the role of entrepreneurial education in fostering entrepreneurship and the strategic use of information technology in market competitiveness. His work has appeared in the Case Research Journal, International Journal of Case Method Research and Application, and the Sloan Management Review among others. Dr. Merenda also co-authored (with Ross Gittell and Matt Magnusson) The Sustainable Business Case Book.