A-Level Business: Strategic Analysis Models

This material trains the named models that A level Business uses to analyse a firm's strategic position and choices, and above all the skill of applying them to a case rather than reciting them. The models are those listed in the specifications, for example AQA A-level Business sections 3.7.1 (SWOT), 3.7.3 (Kaplan and Norton's balanced scorecard and Elkington's triple bottom line), 3.7.6 (Carroll's CSR pyramid), 3.7.7 (Porter's five forces), 3.8.2 (Bowman's strategic clock), 3.10.1 (Lewin's force field analysis), 3.2.3 (stakeholder mapping by power and interest) and 3.3.4 (the Boston Matrix). Pearson Edexcel includes SWOT, Porter's five forces and portfolio analysis in topics 3.1.2 to 3.1.4.

Each quiz question puts one model to work on a short invented scenario: sorting a walking-boot maker's SWOT, judging buyer power when four supermarkets buy most of a dairy's milk, reading barriers to entry in jet engines, placing a board game and an app in the Boston Matrix, finding a retailer's position on the strategic clock and a coach firm's failure position, adding up weighted forces for a change of computer system, mapping a residents' group, and deciding where training, emissions and prompt payment to suppliers belong in the scorecard, the triple bottom line and Carroll's pyramid.

The material offers four formats. The quiz has twelve questions with full explanations. The flashcards hold each model and its main limitation. The written work has eight longer tasks built like the extended questions in the exam: construct and use a SWOT, analyse an industry with the five forces, manage a four-product portfolio, evaluate a move to a hybrid position, build and score a force field analysis, map a water company's stakeholders, justify a balanced scorecard, and discuss whether a business should aim for more than profit. The oral exam puts you in front of an examiner who describes invented firms one at a time and asks you to apply the models and justify a conclusion, then gives brief feedback.

All businesses are invented. The material is practice written by Zestly and is independent of any exam board.

• Classify factors correctly in a SWOT analysis and explain its value and limits
• Apply Porter's five forces to judge an industry's profitability
• Classify products with the Boston Matrix and advise on a balanced portfolio
• Identify positions on Bowman's strategic clock, including failure positions
• Weigh driving and restraining forces with Lewin's force field analysis
• Map stakeholders by power and interest, and apply the balanced scorecard, triple bottom line and Carroll's CSR pyramid

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the A level Business specifications, for example AQA A-level Business (7132) sections 3.2.3, 3.3.4, 3.7.1, 3.7.3, 3.7.6, 3.7.7, 3.8.2 and 3.10.1, and Pearson Edexcel A level Business (9BS0) topics 3.1.2 to 3.1.4.