RSM2040H – Advanced Value Capture Strategies: Theory and Applications

General Information

Target Audience

MBA students in the Full-Time and M/E programs who have completed their required courses and are interested in pursuing a career in which they will be expected to think critically and analytically about issues related to firm strategy, business models, diversification, innovation, and market entry and exit and how these things integrate to determine a firm’s overall strategy and resulting market value.  This includes careers in consulting, internal strategy or finance roles, investment banking, venture capital and entrepreneurship.

Prerequisites

Students must have completed all first-year required courses.

Format

Classes will take place online – 12 weekly sessions

Make-up class for Thanksgiving holiday on October 28 – 9:15-11:15

In-person requirement for the final exam/assessment (subject to adjustment imposed by public health requirements) which will take place during the exam period (Dec 6-17).

Course Mission

1. Develop a working understanding of the mathematics of the value capture model, its logical structure, and its interpretation;
2. Become skilled in applying the framework to making strategic business decisions in special settings, including but not limited to:
   • Setting firm boundaries
   • Operating in platform markets
   • Innovation and commercialization strategies
   • B-to-B relationships
3. Grasp insights from scholarly empirical work in the area of value capture theory;
4. Develop the ability to coalesce these principles into integrated strategies at the corporate level

Course Scope

Built on a formal, game-theoretic foundation, the Value Capture Model (VCM) provides a modern, integrative, and prescriptive approach to developing high-performance business strategies. The VCM is nicely introduced in Rotman’s first-year strategy core. However, there is much more to this framework than can be covered in a broad, core course. The purpose of this elective is to take a deep dive into Value Capture Theory, both in terms of understanding and application to real-world business strategy.

Over the past decade, we have been deeply involved in both developing the underlying research and translating it into teaching content targeted at MBA students. One of the salient features of this work is that it treats firms as unified wholes that operate within complex value networks designed to create and capture economic value. In doing so, it forces students to think about how things like resources, activities, industry structure, and the competitive landscape (ideas introduced in the first year Starety core course) fit together in an integrated way. This course will be organized into three parts. It will begin by elaborating the formal details of the general value capture model using mathematical notation that we have developed to make the theory both analytically rigorous and accessible to students. Then, students will learn to apply the general theory to particular strategic decisions, such as those involving innovation, pricing, or horizontal diversification. Finally, all the pieces will be brought together to show students how to use the theory to develop an overarching, integrated business strategy with a focus on medium and long-run performance (as opposed to a single decision or particular economic opportunity). Throughout the course, the focus will be on translating insights from research to practice and helping students understand how ideas get ‘commercialized’ from the academic whiteboard to real-world practice.

Evaluation and Grade Breakdown

Component	Due Date	Weight
Two Individual Homeworks	TBD	15% each
Group Assignment	TBD	30%
Final Exam	Exam Period (December 6-17)	40%

Required Resources

Course reading package

Last Updated: 2022-06-28 @ 11:21 am

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