Essentials of Strategic Management: The Quest for Competitive Advantage

Essentials of Strategic Management responds head-on to the growing requests by business faculty for a concisely-written strategic management text that’s robust and theory-driven and supported with a compelling collection of cases. This text was written with four objectives in mind: 1) Although relatively brief in length, the text provides students with an up-to-date and thorough understanding of essential strategic management concepts and analytic tools; 2) It simplifies the task of demonstrating student learning through course embedded assessment; 3) The concepts are supported by contemporary, well-written cases involving headline strategic issues; and lastly, 4) The text serves as the theoretical foundation of a teaching approach incorporating a business strategy simulation.

John E. Gamble is currently Associate Dean and Professor of Management in the Mitchell College of Business at the University of South Alabama. His teaching specialty at USA is strategic management and he also conducts a course in strategic management in Germany, which is sponsored by the University of Applied Sciences in Worms.

Dr. Gamble's research interests center on strategic issues in entrepreneurial, health care, and manufacturing settings. His work has been published in various scholarly journals and he is the author or co-author of more than 50 case studies published in an assortment of strategic management and strategic marketing texts. He has done consulting on industry and market analysis for clients in a diverse mix of industries.

Professor Gamble received his Ph.D. in management from the University of Alabama in 1995. Dr. Gamble also has a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Alabama.

Thompson’s teaching experience includes 25+ years at the University of Alabama, and 3 years at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He earned a BS in Liberal Arts and a PhD in Economics from the University of Tennessee. He is a member of the American Economic Association, the Academy of Management, and the Southern Management Association. He has also served on the editorial boards of a number of journals, including the Journal of Economics and Finance, the Journal of Management, the Journal of Management Case Studies, and the Journal of Management Issues.