Peer Review

• The textbook is extremely well organized and includes clear and concise information that is very detailed and relevant to the content covered.
• Appropriate links are included so that readers can view supporting documentation.
• The author(s) explain very well how each aspect of the text is used in to strengthen the overall content and as a result, student learning can be impacted.
• A summary of the content is provided as well as anticipated learning outcomes.
• Case examples from restaurant, airline, and retail contexts were excellent.

Content discussed involves several complex concepts, ideas, and assumptions (ex, “Strategic Architecture” in Chapter 5.) Having a summary or “key takeaway” section at the end of chapters would be helpful in providing users with important learning “nuggets”.

It would also help to provide a sentence that introduces the user to the next section or chapter. For ex, having read sections 5.1 to 5.4, it would have been helpful to summarize what was presented on Building and Managing the Strategic Architecture, and in a sentence or two in anticipating the next chapter, You Need Quality Resources as Well as Quantity.  

Important: if the author intended for sections to be used as stand-alone, learning resources, the above point may not be critical. However, if there is a chronological or inter-dependent relationship among chapters, a “key takeaway” or chapter summary section could be helpful.   

• Identifies learning objectives.
• Builds on prior concepts.
• Demonstrates relationships between concepts.
• This content would be easy to integrate into curriculum.
• This would be an effective resource for faculty looking to add a new textbook. to their course to use this resource as a model/guide.
• This content would be very easy for faculty and curriculum developers to follow in course development.
• Chapter titles and sub-sections are accessible via the Table of Contents.
• A brief explanation of the chapter content is presented in bullet format. 
• Chapter sub-sections begin with a brief note of what has been learned in previous chapters or sections. This helps to set a foundation for what is to be discussed in the current section.  
• Chapter sub-sections have a good balance of text, figures, and tables. Hovering over certain words (ex, “resources” in Chapter 5) produces a pop-up glossary. 

• Compared with other teaching and learning resources at the undergraduate level, the text is more simplified and concise in its approach to teaching strategy and performance.
• The almost exclusive focus on the resource-based view, while helpful, limits exposure to other industry-organization (I-O) views of firm performance.

• The textbook is easy to view, search, and understand.
• The text is clean and easy to follow.
• The textbook is easily accessible.
• The Textbook has a downloadable PDF option and can be accessed with and without the Internet.
• The content from the textbook may be used on multiple mobile devices.
• The text is importable to the LMS.
• The backward/forward navigation arrows on each page are very helpful. This was consistent throughout. 
• There is a comprehensive glossary provided.

• The textbook is not interactive. The faculty member would need to take the content and create web 2.0 content.
• There are several figures in most chapters. These figures are detailed, provide quite a bit of information, and are uniform in design. At times, I found it difficult to understand and wished for greater clarity in navigating the figures, particularly the flow of arrows. For example, 7.1.1 and 7.1.2.   Section 7.1 is entitled Types of Rivalry. The author excellently uses the Barbie doll company case to illustrate rivalry types. There is, however, limited use of other related theories, frameworks, or cases. Perhaps the section could be a Supplement or retitled “Types of Rivalry: The Case of Barbie” given that 95% of the section material focuses on this case.  
• Given the concise nature of chapter sections, a list of suggested additional (pre- or post-) readings could enhance learning.