Learning Strategic Representations: Exploring the Effects of Taking a Strategy Course

Mana Heshmati () and Felipe A. Csaszar ()
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Mana Heshmati: University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
Felipe A. Csaszar: Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

Organization Science, 2024, vol. 35, issue 2, 453-473

Abstract: Despite the popularity of strategy courses and the fact that managers make consequential decisions using ideas they learn in such courses, few studies examine the learning outcomes of taking a strategy course—a research gap most likely the result of the methodological challenges of measuring these outcomes in realistic ways. This paper provides a large-sample study of what individuals learn from taking a strategy course and how those learning outcomes depend on individual characteristics. We examine how 2,269 master of business administration (MBA) students evaluate real-world video cases before and after taking the MBA core strategy course at a large U.S. business school. We document several changes in their performance, mental representations, and self-perceptions. Among other findings, we show that taking a strategy course improves strategic decision making, increases the depth of mental representations and the attention paid to broader industry and competitive concerns, and boosts students’ confidence, while making them more aware of the uncertainty pervading strategic decisions. We also find that the magnitude and significance of these changes are associated with individual characteristics, such as cognitive ability, prior knowledge, and gender.

Keywords: learning strategy; expertise development; mental representations; strategy course; managerial cognition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:35:y:2024:i:2:p:453-473

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