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Exploring Strategy: Text and Cases cover

Business

Business

Exploring Strategy: Text and Cases

Richard Whittington; Patrick Regnér; Duncan Angwin; Julia Hautz; Gerry Johnson; Kevan Scholes

A European-rooted strategic management textbook that treats strategy as the long-term direction of an organization, analysed through strategic position, strategic choices, and strategy in action. The text and cases edition pairs each topic with illustrations and a substantial collection of case studies drawn from businesses, public bodies, and non-profits around the world.

Prerequisites: No previous strategy course is required; some exposure to introductory management, marketing, or economics helps with the analytical frameworks.

Difficulty Level
Intermediate
Academic Level
Undergraduate
strategystrategic analysisstrategic choicecase studieseuropean businessTextbook

01 / Reading Guide

Reading Guide

Citation

Whittington, R., Regnér, P., Angwin, D., Hautz, J., Johnson, G., & Scholes, K. (2026). Exploring Strategy: Text and Cases (14th ed.). Pearson.

Chapter Summary

The contents list shows 17 chapters organised in a three-part framework: Strategic Position, Strategic Choices and Strategy in Action. Two opening chapters come first, each part has a short introduction and a closing commentary, and the Text and Cases version ends with a set of case studies and a glossary. Pearson describes the book as drawing on a range of perspectives to examine how organisations prosper, grow, innovate and adapt.

Chapters 1–2: Introducing strategy; Working with strategy

The framing chapters, before the three parts. Pearson lists new content on artificial intelligence, sustainability and open strategy for this edition, with sustainability described as a cross-cutting theme, and a new running illustration that follows Emilie, a business graduate trying to grow her coffee shop.

Part I, Chapters 3–7: Macro-environment analysis; Industry and sector analysis; Resources and capabilities analysis; Purpose and stakeholders; Culture and strategy

The strategic position: the external environment, industries and sectors, the organisation's resources and capabilities, its purpose and stakeholders, and its culture. The part closes with "Commentary on Part I: The strategy lenses".

Part II, Chapters 8–12: Business strategy and models; Corporate strategy; International strategy; Entrepreneurship and innovation; Mergers, acquisitions and alliances

Strategic choices: how a business competes, how a corporation chooses its scope, how organisations operate internationally, how they innovate or start new ventures, and how they grow through mergers, acquisitions and alliances. A commentary on strategic choices closes the part.

Part III, Chapters 13–17: Evaluating strategies; Strategy development processes; Implementing strategy; Leadership and strategic change; The practice of strategy

Strategy in action: judging options, the processes by which strategies develop, implementation, leadership and change, and the practice of strategy. A commentary closes the part.

Case Studies

The Text and Cases version includes end-of-text case studies; Pearson says 30 are new or updated in this edition.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–2: Introduction

  • Working with strategy: the title of Chapter 2, which sits before the framework.
  • Running illustration: the new coffee shop example used to apply concepts.

Part I: The Strategic Position

  • Macro-environment and industry analysis: the external view, covering the wider environment and the industry or sector.
  • Resources and capabilities: the internal view of what an organisation can do.
  • Purpose and stakeholders; culture: the organisation's aims and the beliefs that shape it.
  • Strategy lenses: the commentary that closes Part I.

Parts II–III: Strategic Choices and Strategy in Action

  • Business and corporate strategy; business models: choices at business-unit and corporate level.
  • International strategy; mergers, acquisitions and alliances: scope and growth choices.
  • Strategy development processes; implementing strategy: how strategies emerge and are put into effect.
  • Leadership and strategic change: the human side of change.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

  • A clear three-part logic. The progression from position to choices to action, with an introduction and commentary for each part, helps a reader see where each tool fits.
  • Critical devices built in. Pearson says the Strategy Lenses and commentaries are designed to encourage critical thinking, and "Thinking Differently" sections introduce distinctive approaches to the issues of each chapter.
  • Cases and illustrations. Chapters carry learning outcomes, practical questions, real-life illustrations and examples; the Text and Cases version adds end-of-text case studies. Pearson lists organisations such as Airbnb, Stanley, Ryanair, She Works and Novo Nordisk among the cases.
  • Choice of version. The Text and Cases version is offered alongside a Text-only version for courses that use their own cases.
  • Current themes. The 14th edition adds material on artificial intelligence in strategising, sustainability throughout and open strategy.

Limitations

  • Breadth over depth. Topics that have specialist books of their own, such as international strategy, innovation and mergers and acquisitions, receive one chapter each.
  • A very new edition. It was published in 2026, so published reviews and experience of the 14th edition are limited.
  • Longer in the Text and Cases version. The cases lengthen the book and are placed after the main text, so integrating them with the chapters is left to the course.
  • Few formal tools in the contents list. The chapters are about analysis, choice and process; formal economic tools such as game theory are not named in the contents, so a course that wants them needs a more economics-based text.

Where It Fits in the Course

Exploring Strategy is the broad introductory survey in this strategy course. Chapter 4 covers industry and sector analysis, the topic of Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy, which is the original source for it, and Joan Magretta's Understanding Michael Porter is a short guide to the same ideas. Richard Rumelt's Good Strategy Bad Strategy is an argument about what a coherent strategy contains and works as a counterweight to a framework-driven text.

For more analytical rigour, Robert Grant's Contemporary Strategy Analysis builds strategic analysis on economics and the resource-based view, and Besanko, Dranove, Shanley and Schaefer's Economics of Strategy is built on microeconomics. Exploring Strategy is the text to start from when the aim is to see the whole field, including culture, change and the practice of strategists, before choosing where to specialise.

How to Use This Book

The book is for undergraduates in a first strategy module, for postgraduate and MBA students and for professionals who want a structured overview. No earlier strategy study is needed; some exposure to management, marketing or economics helps.

A practical reading plan:

  • Core: Chapters 1–2, then the chapters of Part I and Part II that match the course, each followed by its commentary.
  • Part III: Chapters 13–16 for implementation and change; Chapter 17 on the practice of strategy.
  • Cases: after each chapter, choose a related case and apply its frameworks before reading anything else.
  • Online and courseware: the book has an online companion and digital courseware.

Read the commentaries on the strategy lenses as seriously as the chapters; they are where the book invites you to question the tools it has just taught.