Strategic management - An online collaboration between two class groups separated by a "small pond" and six time zones

An undergraduate course in Strategic Management seemingly provides similar basic content to students including the infamous SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat) analysis along with the identification of functional level, business level, and generic strategies to enhance an organization’s competitiveness. One of the most common resources for this type of course is the article outlining a theoretical framework “How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy” by Michael Porter [Porter, 1979]. This paper discusses the differences and similarities of teaching an undergraduate Strategic Management course for two different institutions located in different countries. Secondly, the paper addresses the logistics of connecting the two separate student groups for a collaboration project using an on-line platform. Additionally, the paper shares the experiences learned when students work in multi-culturally mixed groups to analyze an industry around Michael Porter’s framework [Porter, 1979].