How do firms decide where to compete internationally? What challenges arise when competing across borders? What are different ways to enter a new foreign market? How should the firm compete in that new market? What factors make a foreign market "flat" versus "lumpy"? This technical note follows the format of The Strategist's Toolkit in laying out a framework for analyzing the "where" and "how" of international strategy. Thinking carefully about both local responsiveness and global integration can help managers successfully navigate the tension between these imperatives.

This case presents the evolution of Nintendo's gaming technology and discusses the history of the video gaming sector over eight generations of releases. It illustrates how industry dynamics shift over time and how different phases of the competitive life cycle place different demands upon those firms that are all vying for the top position. The case provides history and context for students to discuss an age-old question: How do firms sustain a competitive advantage over time? Based on public sources and written from the perspective of Aya Kyogoku, the manager of Entertainment Planning and Development (EPD) Production Group No. 5, the case offers a launching point into a discussion of how different product strategies can become dominant at different times, an insight that has implications for future strategies. The case also includes sales, stock prices, consumer spending, and product release data that allow for calculations and discussions of the performance of the broader market. The case opens with Kyogoku pondering the future of the entire gaming industry-one facing explosive growth-and Nintendo's place within it. She reflects on the company's need to continue to experiment and innovate and wonders where Nintendo should focus its creative spirit going forward. The case is targeted to MBA students and executives who are building a foundation for analyzing and developing competitive strategies. It is used in the required core Strategy course at the Darden School of Business, where it is employed to highlight industry evolution and the changing nature of competitive dynamics within an evolving context. It would also be suitable for any course on disruptive strategy or digital transformation.

This case uses Apple Inc. (Apple) and its Mac line of personal computers (PCs) to allow for an analysis of competitive positioning and the building of sustainable competitive advantage. In spring 2020, as Apple evolves its various product offerings, a product manager at Apple must think about how the Mac fits into its broader product portfolio. What is the future for desktops and laptops broadly and the Mac specifically? The case facilitates an exploration of Apple's underlying capabilities and broader market dynamics, in the face of uncertainty over the industry's future direction, and it highlights the way in which Apple made deliberate strategic choices for the Mac that have worked to alleviate the typical competitive pressures of the laptop industry. The case provides a historical summary and an overview of the current forces in the PC industry, including market-share trends, mobile computing, cloud computing services, the Mac portfolio of products, and competitors. The case offers the opportunity to conduct a five forces analysis as well as explore to competitive advantage and market position. Crucially, the case highlights the possibility of carving out a valuable competitive position even in an industry with difficult competitive dynamics. This case is used at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business in "Strategic Thinking and Action," a required course in the first-year core curriculum of the MBA and EMBA programs, and the students' introduction to the discipline of strategic management. This case can be used to introduce or build upon the five forces framework and connect theory with action.

In 2016, new CEO Chris Linthwaite had been brought in to turn around Fluidigm Corporation (Fluidigm), a biotechnology company based in San Francisco. Following a year of missed earnings, strong currency headwinds, product backorders, strong competition, and a lag in product demand, Fluidigm's stock had collapsed 87% in 10 months. Fluidigm was burning through cash; it had posted yet another quarter of losses; employee morale had plummeted; and the company had mounting cash flow issues. Linthwaite was preparing his turnaround strategy to present to his board of directors. He had many levers he could pull to right the ship, including cost cutting and restructuring, launching new products, and making an acquisition. This case is intended for a first-year MBA course in business strategy. The course develops students' ability to evaluate, design, and execute a firm's strategy by analyzing the competitive and organizational factors essential to sustained success. The case is used in the latter half of the course and is about selecting an appropriate growth strategy for a company in turmoil. It is used to introduce the basic tradeoffs between pursuing organic growth strategies, such as R&D and innovation, and pursuing other possible strategies, such as inorganic growth through acquisitions, cost cutting, and restructuring.

When Brian Huseman, vice president of public policy for the Seattle-based internet retailer and technology company Amazon.com (Amazon), prepared to meet economic-development officials and community leaders from Arlington, Virginia, in the wake of the company's February 2019 decision to pull a second headquarters location out of New York City, a lot was on the line. Facing a limit on its growth in Seattle, Amazon had embarked on a search for a second corporate headquarters, dubbed HQ2, in September 2017, and ultimately surprised the country when it announced its decision to split its HQ2 into two locations, Arlington and New York City, in late 2018. New York ultimately failed to give Amazon the warm welcome it was looking for, so Amazon focused solely on Arlington to claim the "biggest economic development prize in recent memory." Amazon was making a huge commitment to Arlington-including plans to develop up to eight million square feet of office space and hire 25,000 employees (each with an average salary higher than $100,000) over the next 15 years -one that would make it the region's largest private-sector employer. Huseman wanted to be sure Virginia was fully prepared to create the right ecosystem for Amazon's HQ2 to thrive. How should the e-retail giant approach the meeting, considering what could be asked of it-and what it should request in return?

Corporate sustainability has gone mainstream, and many companies have taken meaningful steps to improve their own environmental performance. But while corporate political actions such as lobbying can have a greater impact on environmental quality, they are ignored in most current sustainability metrics. It is time for these metrics to be expanded to critically assess firms based on the sustainability impacts of their public policy positions. To enable such assessments, firms must become as transparent about their corporate political responsibility (CPR) as their corporate social responsibility (CSR). For their part, rating systems must demand such information from firms and include evaluations of corporate political activity in their assessments of corporate environmental responsibility.