The purpose of this text is to provide an introductory handbook to Strategic Management that summarises its most important aspects. This has involved an analysis of its more significant components, largely based on our reference manual, Guerras and Navas (2022): La Dirección Estratégica de la Empresa. Teoría y Aplicaciones [Strategic Management: Theory and Applications] (6th edition).

In light of the experience gained from previous editions (2013, 2018), new theoretical underpinnings have been incorporated to enrich the content considered. The business applications have also been updated, with new and more recent ones on the performance and circumstances of firms both in Spain and abroad. Each one of the chapters continues to feature a series of learning aids, such as the general overview of the model that highlights the location of each chapter, the goals pursued, a summary table containing the main ideas included, self-assessment exercises, suggested activities to be undertaken based on the content, discussion cases in the book by Guerras and Navas (2020): Casos de Dirección Estratégica de la Empresa [Strategic Management Case Studies] (6th edition) related to the chapter’s content and a recommended reading list that directs the reader to other specific references of interest for each one of the topics addressed. A novelty is the inclusion of a section on videos, called Strategic Pills, available on the text's website or on the YouTube channel, featuring audiovisual material recorded by the authors themselves on various topics in each chapter, with English subtitles.

Two types of boxes have been maintained with external links to supplementary knowledge and information that cannot be included in the book for reasons of space, but which may be of great interest. The first of these, called “See the digital edition”, refers the reader to the e-version of the book, which provides links to new applications or short cases posted there and not included in the printed edition, but which can be easily downloaded from the digital edition. There is also unrestricted access to some of them at www.guerrasynavas.com, together with other learning resources (new applications and brief cases, Latin American cases, videos, interesting links, etc.) As a novelty in “See the digital edition”, a series of Strategic Tales has been incorporated as short stories that, in a fun way, try to make you reflect on various aspects of strategic management.

The second of these, called “Analysis”, refers to academic journals that feature scholarly papers providing in-depth treatment of certain topics, from both theoretical and practical perspectives, and includes the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) or the journal's website where they can be found. There are also occasional references to the websites for the documentation, organisations, and institutions cited in the text, where the full document can be found or additional information is available.

These links appear, as appropriate, as notes in the margins of the pages. It should be noted that these websites were operational at the time this book went to press, so the authors cannot guarantee their continued accessibility. In short, we have aimed to provide students and professionals with a better working tool that will enable them to gain a broader, more up-to-date perspective on Strategic Management.