Strategic management has long been viewed as the concept and process that link an organization

and its environment together (Leibold, Probst & Gibbert, 2002). It consists of the

analysis, decisions and actions an organization undertakes in order to create and sustain

competitive advantages (Dess, Lumpkin & Taylor, 2005).

Within the history of strategic management research there has been an unbalance between

the internal and the external perspective. During the 1980s Michael Porter, one of the most

prominent strategic management researchers, and his Five Forces model focused strictly on

the external competitive environment (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand & Lampel, 1998). Further, in

the 1990s the focus shifted from external to internal along with Jay Barney’s development

of the resource based theory in 1991 (Barney, 1991). The issue of excluding one or the

other perspective has now started to be acknowledged and researchers today are striving

for developing models integrating both perspectives. However, theoretical models existing

today that combine the two perspectives are complex and hard to apply in practice for

managers within the business world.

In order to address the complexity of the strategic management concept we have chosen to

develop a model with the purpose to connect and relate the external and internal perspectives

by conducting an in-depth analysis of a chosen company. The model also strives to be

easily communicated, applicable and understandable for managers and employees on different

levels within the organization. This leads us to the purpose of this thesis: “to develop

a simplified model that combines the external and internal perspective of strategic management

and apply this to a chosen company”.

The research was conducted through a case study based on the authors’ participation in a

PBM (Project Based Module) - project. The model was tested on the company in question

by analyzing the company’s internal and external environment with the means of analysis

tools such as PEST-analysis, strategic group analysis, threshold analysis and the SWOTanalysis.

To conclude it is important to balance an organization’s internal efforts with the external

market conditions and avoid excluding one or the other from the strategic management

process. Combining the two perspectives results in identifying the current capabilities and

competences and the direction of how to use these in order to meet market demands and

gain competitive advantage.