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Strategic Management: Text and Cases

11th Edition Gregory G. Dess


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eleventh edition Page i

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
text & cases

Anatoli Styf/Shutterstock

GREGORY DESS
University of Texas at Dallas

GERRY McNAMARA
Michigan State University

ALAN EISNER
Clark University

STEVE SAUERWALD
University of Illinois at Chicago
Page ii

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Published by McGraw Hill LLC, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019.
Copyright © 2024 by McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of
America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 LWI 28 27 26 25 24 23

ISBN 978-1-266-20046-5
MHID 1-266-20046-0
Cover Image: Anatoli Styf/Shutterstock

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at these sites.

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Page iii

dedication

To my family—Margie; Taylor; Alex, our new son-in-law; and my parents, the late Bill and
Mary Dess

To my first two academic mentors—Charles Burden and Les Rue (of Georgia State
University)
–Greg

To my wonderful wife, Gaelen, and my children, Megan and AJ


–Gerry

To my family—Helaine, Rachel, and Jacob


–Alan

To my wife, Pla, and daughters, Miriam and Layla


–Steve

We thank Seung-Hyun Lee for his contributions to previous editions and wish him the best
as he refocuses his time toward his academic research in strategic management and
international business.
Page iv

about the authors

Gregory G. Dess

Gregory G. Dess
is the Andrew R. Cecil Endowed Chair in Management at the University of Texas at Dallas.
His primary research interests are in strategic management, organization environment
relationships, and knowledge management. He has published numerous articles on these
subjects in both academic and practitioner-oriented journals. He also serves on the editorial
boards of a wide range of practitioner-oriented and academic journals. In August 2000, he
was inducted into the Academy of Management Journal Hall of Fame as one of its charter
members. Professor Dess has conducted executive programs in the United States, Europe,
Africa, Hong Kong, and Australia. During 1994 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Oporto,
Portugal. In 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bern
(Switzerland). He received his PhD in business administration from the University of
Washington (Seattle) and a BIE degree from Georgia Tech.

©He Gao
Gerry McNamara
is the McConnell Broad Professor of Management at Michigan State University. His
research draws on cognitive and behavioral theories to explain strategic phenomena,
including strategic decision making, mergers and acquisitions, and environmental
assessments. His research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, the
Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes, the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, the Journal of
Management, and the Journal of International Business Studies. Gerry’s research has also
been abstracted in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, New York Times,
Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the Economist, and Financial Week. He has served as an associate
editor for the Strategic Management Journal and the Academy of Management Journal. He
received his PhD from the University of Minnesota.
Page v

Alan B. Eisner

Alan B. Eisner
is Dean of the School of Management and Professor of Management at Clark University. He
received his PhD in management from the Stern School of Business, New York University.
His primary research interests are in strategic management, technology management,
organizational learning, and managerial decision making. He has published research articles
and cases in journals such as Advances in Strategic Management, International Journal of
Electronic Commerce, International Journal of Technology Management, American Business
Review, Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, and Global Journal of Business
Pedagogy. He is the former associate editor of the Case Association’s peer-reviewed journal,
The CASE Journal.
Steve Sauerwald

Steve Sauerwald
is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management in the College of Business at the
University of Illinois at Chicago. His research interests focus on corporate governance,
strategic leadership, and stakeholder strategy. He pursues this research program in a global
setting by examining how institutions surrounding domestic and international firms shape
organizational outcomes. His scholarship has been published in journals such as Strategic
Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal
of Management, and Journal of Management Studies. His research has been covered by
Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and BBC. He received his MBA and PhD from the
University of Texas at Dallas. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Texas at
Dallas and a visiting scholar at Free University Berlin.
Page vi

preface

Welcome to the Eleventh Edition of Strategic


Management: Text and Cases. We always appreciate the
constructive and helpful feedback that we have received on our work. Later in this preface,
we are happy to acknowledge by name the reviewers for all 11 editions of Strategic
Management. Following are some examples of the encouraging feedback we have received:

I have found this text, after several years of using it, to be comprehensive and extremely well
structured. The many, varied real-world examples resonate with students. I see no reason to
change from an excellent text.

Karen Ford-Eickhoff, University of North Carolina-Charlotte

The textbook by Dess et al. comprehensively integrates research to explicate the strategic
management process, delivers a variety of high-quality case studies, and provides interesting
insights from executives on strategy.

Steven Dionne, Georgia State University

We find the Dess text to be an exceptionally well-suited companion for business simulations
used in the course. I use all the chapters as the fit is logical and portrays a realistic
examination of how business functions are interdependent.

Robert W. Reich, Tarleton State University

I am biased towards this text as I’ve found it invaluable for me as a student-centered teacher
who focuses on bringing as much value to my students as possible. I want each class meeting
to be as full as possible with insightful, relevant, and meaningful content that students can
immediately apply to their business comprehension. This text helps me facilitate this!

John Sanchez, University of North Carolina-Greensboro

This textbook is a rich resource for the students. The accompanying videos and cases assist
the students in applying what they learn. The concepts are always tied to corporate
examples, often using companies the students can easily identify with.

Renata Mayrhofer, Concordia University St. Paul

I have used the Dess strategic management textbook for six years and I plan to continue
using the Dess textbook. I think it is the best strategy textbook on the market today.

Robert Dintino, Rowan University

Overall, a solid textbook that organizes the strategic material clearly and concisely (and)
provides great examples of cases inside and at the end. I have been happily using the book
for the last 11 years.

Omer Gokalp, Suffolk University

I have used the previous edition of the text in my course and found it very useful. I consider
it to be the most comprehensive yet concise text on strategic management. I will continue to
use the text in the future.

Alex Makarevich, California State University-East Bay

This title brings to life core parts of the strategic process, helping students to get a better
understanding of the untidy process of strategizing. I will definitely continue to use Dess!

Isaac Wanasika, University of Northern Colorado

We always strive to improve our work and we are most appreciative of the thorough Page vii
feedback that many strategy professionals have graciously given us. The author team
has worked hard to incorporate many of their ideas into the eleventh edition.

We believe we have made valuable improvements throughout our many revised editions of
Strategic Management. At the same time, we strive to be consistent and true to our original
overriding objective: a book that satisfies three Rs—rigor, relevance, and readability. And we
are pleased that we have received feedback (such as the previously noted comments) that is
consistent with what we are trying to accomplish.

What are some of the features in Strategic Management that reinforce the three Rs? First, we
build in rigor by drawing on the latest research by management scholars and insights from
management consultants to offer a current and comprehensive view of strategic issues. We
reinforce this rigor with our Issues for Debate and Reflecting on Career Implications that
require students to develop insights on how to address complex issues and understand how
strategy concepts can enhance their career success. Second, to enhance relevance, we
provide numerous examples from management practice in the text and Strategy Spotlights
(sidebars). We also increase relevance by relating course topics and examples to current
business and societal themes, including environmental sustainability, ethics, globalization,
entrepreneurship, and data analytics. Third, we stress readability through an engaging
writing style with minimal jargon to ensure an effective learning experience. This is clearly
evident throughout the text, but in particular, in the conversational presentations of chapter
opening Learning from Mistakes and chapter ending Issues for Debate.

Unlike other strategy texts, we provide three separate chapters that address timely topics
about which business students should have a solid understanding. These are the role of
intellectual assets in value creation (Chapter 4), entrepreneurial strategy and competitive
dynamics (Chapter 8), and fostering entrepreneurship in established organizations (Chapter
12). We also provide an excellent and thorough chapter on how to analyze strategic
management cases.

In developing Strategic Management: Text and Cases, we certainly didn’t forget the
instructors. As we all know, you have a most challenging (but rewarding) job. We do our
best to help you. We provide a variety of supplementary materials that should help you in
class preparation and delivery. For example, our chapter teaching notes do not simply
summarize the material in the text. Rather (and consistent with the concept of strategy), we
ask ourselves: “How can we add value?” Thus, for each chapter, we provide numerous
questions to help guide class discussion, at least 12 boxed examples to supplement chapter
material, and three detailed teaching tips to further engage students. Importantly, we
completed the chapter teaching notes ourselves. That is, unlike many of our rivals, we didn’t
simply farm out the work to others. Instead, we felt that creating our own teaching notes
helps to enhance quality and consistency—as well as demonstrates our personal commitment
to provide a top-quality total package to strategy instructors. With the eleventh edition, we
also benefited from valued input by our strategy colleagues to further improve our work.

Let’s now address some of the key substantive changes in the Eleventh Edition. Then we will
cover some of the major features that we have had in previous editions.
WHAT’S NEW? HIGHLIGHTS OF THE ELEVENTH
EDITION
We are happy to welcome Steve Sauerwald to the author team. Steve has developed an
extensive publication record in the areas of strategic management and corporate
governance. He pursues his research program in a global setting by examining how CEOs
and boards of directors address important corporate challenges. His addition to the author
team provides a global perspective, especially in the areas of strategic control and corporate
governance.

We have endeavored to add new material to the chapters that reflects the feedback Page viii
we received from our reviewers as well as the challenges today’s managers face. Thus, we all
invested an extensive amount of time carefully reviewing a wide variety of books, academic
and practitioner journals, and the business press.

We also worked hard to develop concise chapters. Based on feedback from some of the
reviewers, we have tightened our writing style, tried to eliminate redundant examples, and
focused more directly on what we feel is the most important content in each chapter for our
audience. The overall result is that we were able to update our material, add valuable new
content, and—at the same time—shorten the length of the chapters.

Here are some of the major changes and improvements in the Eleventh Edition:
Connected Strategies. We address how firms have successfully implemented new forms of
connectivity with their customers, which involve low-friction, frequent, and customized
interactions. This enables companies to be more proactive; that is, respond to customer
needs as they arise—or even anticipate them. Thus, a win-win is created: Customers
receive a superior experience, and companies enhance their operational efficiency. A few
examples include:
Nike’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) business model, which enables the firm to create
closer relationships with its customers by, for instance, providing them with running
advice through their fitness app as well as finding out more useful information about
customer habits and preferences. (Chapter 2)
Rolls-Royce, a leading producer of jet engines, leveraging the power of its technology to
better serve its customers. Sensors generate gigabytes of data that give customers real-
time data on the many components in their engines. Compared to the old fixed-
maintenance schedule, Rolls-Royce is able to create significant cost savings by avoiding
service that is too late or too early. Further, the sensor technologies benefit the firm’s
ongoing engineering efforts by providing information on how operational data can
impact design and production. (Chapter 3)
Wearable X, a Sydney-based startup, which helps yoga enthusiasts improve their yoga
poses without the assistance of an expensive yoga instructor. How? Its Nandi pants
feature woven-in wearable sensors that continuously measure body positions and
provide feedback. Bluetooth technology connected to users’ smartphone helps people
attain correct yoga positions through gentle vibrations. (Chapter 12)
Integrative Themes. As with our previous editions, we include multiple integrative themes
in this edition. These include the digital economy, environmental sustainability, and
ethics. Many new content issues—as well as Strategy Spotlights (our sidebars)—are used
throughout the text and cases to illustrate these important and timely topics central to the
study of strategic management. Given the salient relevance of diversity in today’s business
environment, we devote additional content to it in text material as well as in strategy
spotlights.
Insights from Executives: We received very positive feedback for our initial interview with
Usman Ghani, an internationally recognized consultant who is Chairman of Conflucore,
LLP, in our 10th edition. We are happy to include his interview in this edition. We have
also conducted interviews with three other individuals who have graciously provided us
with valuable insights. Kelly Pfiel, former vice president of PepsiCo, shares her views on
the timely topic of women in management (Chapter 4); Jasmine Crowe, social
entrepreneur, provides tips learned through her experience creating Goodr Inc., a
sustainable food-waste management company based in Atlanta, Georgia (Chapter 8); and
Jim Mapes, a former executive with several companies, including Perot Systems, shares
his views on strategic leadership. Of particular interest is his valuable learning experience
working directly with H. Ross Perot (Chapter 11). Page ix
Half of the 12 opening Learning from Mistakes vignettes that lead off each chapter
are new. Unique to this text, they are examples of what can go wrong, and they serve as an
excellent vehicle for clarifying and reinforcing strategy concepts.
Over half of our Strategy Spotlights (sidebar examples) are brand new, and many others
have been significantly updated. We offer a total of 54 Spotlights that are designed to focus
on bringing the most important strategy concepts to life in a concise and highly readable
manner. And we work hard to eliminate unnecessary detail that detracts from the main
point we are trying to make. Many Spotlights focus on hot issues that are critical in
leading today’s organizations—ethics, environmental sustainability, the digital economy,
and connected strategies.

Key content changes for the chapters include:


Chapter 1 addresses environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment funds. These
funds offer investors access to companies that strive to do good and avoid harm and have
attracted a new generation of investors. Although these funds have recently outperformed
traditional investment funds, many new funds espouse ESG principles on paper—but not
in spirit. We also discuss some of the different types of ESG funds.
Chapter 2 discusses the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, a salient outcome of the digital
economy and data analytics. Many top management teams are now data analytics driven,
enabling them to manage strategic uncertainties and identify strategic opportunities. AI
also helps to define key performance indicators (KPIs) that help executives monitor,
optimize, and revise strategic initiatives.
Chapter 3 introduces the concept of connected strategies, which is a central theme in this
edition. This approach enables a firm to evolve from having episodic interactions with
suppliers and customers to achieving ongoing connected relationships with them. The
firm can better anticipate supplier challenges and customer needs as well as customize
supply and delivery options. This approach can even create new business models.
Chapter 4 addresses how social capital can help firms leverage the value of both new and
former employees. Firms typically spend time onboarding new employees. However, they
often miss out on the benefits of maintaining relationships with employees who leave the
organization and who may become suppliers, boomerang employees, mentors to current
employees, and ambassadors for the firm. Like universities, many firms are benefitting
from creating active alumni organizations.
Chapter 5 discusses some of the challenges associated with achieving a competitive
advantage based on a firm’s green initiatives. Although consumer surveys typically show
that consumers are willing to pay a premium price for socially and environmentally
sustainable products and services, practice does not bear this out. Three reasons for this
gap may be that consumers may perceive the green products and services as inferior on
some attributes; they may be reluctant to change to an unfamiliar product; and, some
consumers may talk about the benefits of sustainability but not follow up with actual
purchasing behavior. We address how to potentially overcome such resistance. Page x
Chapter 6 explains how firms can become more successful in integrating an
acquisition into their existing organization. Clearly, the success of any acquisition isn’t
determined once the deal closes. We focus on four practices that McKinsey & Company
has advocated: protecting the base business, accelerate capturing value, institutionalizing
new ways of operating, and catalyzing the transformation.
Chapter 7 addresses some of the supply-chain disruptions that arise when there are trade
tensions or global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, firms should
consider the risks associated with becoming dependent on a few countries for critical
inputs to their production processes.
Chapter 8 explains how some recent developments in the digital economy have enabled new
ventures to outsource many technical functions to third-party service providers, hence
reducing the need to hire technical talent. Third-party IT solutions such as cloud
computing further reduce the need to have hardware and software physically on site. The
reduction of such resource intensive investments in human capital lowers entry barriers in
many industries.
Chapter 9 addresses how companies are more likely to incorporate social objectives as part
of CEO compensation arrangements. These objectives include increasing the
representation of traditionally underrepresented groups in labor and management. Such
initiatives are believed to provide strong, formal incentives for CEOs to consider
stakeholder interests more broadly.
Chapter 10 discusses how agile teams can help organizations achieve their objectives quickly
in rapidly changing environments. Such teams help companies transform themselves from
traditional, slow-moving bureaucracies into flexible and agile organizations. We focus on
the role of “hidden stars” in making agile teams successful.
Chapter 11 discusses a salient trend that has become a greater focus for high-level
executives: enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in their organizations. An
inclusive leadership approach involves not only diversity at all levels in the firm but also
the creation of an inclusive culture where traditionally underrepresented groups feel
appreciated and heard. We provide examples of what firms have done to foster inclusive
culture.
Chapter 12 explains how large companies use real options logic by investing in small startup
companies. This allows them to have a firsthand look into the promise of novel
technologies and gives them the right, but not the obligation, to acquire the nascent
technology. We discuss how such corporate venture investments can be used by non-tech
firms such as an insurance company, Aflac, and Toyota Motors.
Chapter 13 updates our Appendix: Sources of Company and Industry Information. The
authors owe a debt of gratitude to Ms. Loreen Henry, of the University of Texas at Dallas.
She has provided us with comprehensive and updated information for the Eleventh
Edition that is organized on a wide range of issues. These include competitive
intelligence, annual report collections, company rankings, business websites, as well as
strategic and competitive analysis.
We have worked hard to further enhance our excellent case package with a major focus on
fresh and current cases on familiar firms.
More than half of our cases are author written (much more than the competition).
While many of the titles look familiar, we have created fresh stories and added
interesting data about the companies to minimize instructor preparation time and
maximize freshness of content. Page xi
We have added several exciting new cases, including Coinbase (cryptocurrency
trading), Haribo (candy manufacturers), H&M (fast fashion), LVHM (luxury goods),
Pocket Radar (sports technology), and Theorybridge (startup company).
These new cases, along with 38 fresh stories about familiar firms and classics such as
Robin Hood, give instructors many great options.

WHAT REMAINS THE SAME: KEY FEATURES OF


EARLIER EDITIONS
Let’s now briefly address some of the exciting features that remain from the earlier editions.
Traditional organizing framework with three other chapters on timely topics. Crisply
written chapters cover all of the strategy bases and address contemporary topics. First,
the chapters are divided logically into the traditional sequence: strategy analysis, strategy
formulation, and strategy implementation. Second, we include three chapters on such
timely topics as intellectual capital/knowledge management, entrepreneurial strategy and
competitive dynamics, and fostering corporate entrepreneurship and new ventures.
Learning from Mistakes chapter-opening cases. To enhance student interest, we begin each
chapter with a case that depicts an organization that has suffered a dramatic performance
drop, or outright failure, by failing to adhere to sound strategic management concepts and
principles. We believe this feature serves to underpin the value of the concepts in the
course and that it is a preferred teaching approach to merely providing examples of
outstanding companies that always seem to get it right. After all, isn’t it better (and more
challenging) to diagnose problems than admire perfection? As Dartmouth’s Sydney
Finkelstein, author of Why Smart Executives Fail, notes: “We live in a world where success
is revered, and failure is quickly pushed to the side. However, some of the greatest
opportunities to learn—for both individuals and organizations—come from studying what
goes wrong.”* We will see, for example, how Luckin Coffee, founded in 2017, attempted to
take on Starbucks in the fast-growing Chinese market. Luckin took a different approach: It
operated in small pickup locations, where customers place their orders via a smartphone
app. This eliminated the need for cashiers and enabled Luckin to collect data to optimize
sales. Success came quickly and the firm had an initial public offering (IPO) on the
Nasdaq stock exchange in less than two years after its founding. However, things quickly
unraveled! In April 2020, the firm revealed it had inflated its 2019 sales numbers. Its stock
plunged 75 percent overnight. A culture of financial misconduct incentivized employees
to create fake transactions to prop up sales numbers, and the firm’s leadership failed to
institute effective internal controls. Luckin was delisted from the Nasdaq exchange in
June 2020.
Issue for Debate at the end of each chapter. We find that students become very engaged
(and often animated!) in discussing an issue that has viable alternate points of view. It is
an exciting way to drive home key strategy concepts. For example, in Chapter 10 we
address a trend at many large corporations: the flattening of hierarchical organizational
structures. On the one hand, such restructuring has its advantages—it can offer cost
savings, flexibility, and quicker response times. However, some of these benefits may be
offset by negative consequences. These include the overstretching of management
attention, additional friction among managers at various levels since there are fewer
middle managers to resolve conflicts, and demotivating effects caused by reduced
opportunities for managers to advance through the management ranks. Clearly, one size
does not fit all. Firms must consider the relative benefits and costs of flattening their
structures, plus take into account such factors as a firm’s size, technology, and culture, as
well as the industry in which it competes. Page xii
Insights from Research. We include six of these features in the Eleventh Edition.
In them, we summarize key research findings on a variety of issues and, more importantly,
address their relevance for making organizations (and managers) more effective. For
example, in Chapter 2 we discuss findings from a meta-analysis (research combining
many individual studies) to debunk several myths about older workers—a topic of
increasing importance, given the changing demographics in many developed countries. In
Chapter 4, we address a study that explored the viability of rehiring employees who had
left. Such employees, called boomerangs, may leave an organization for several reasons
that may strongly influence their willingness to return to it. And in Chapter 6, we explore
a study that investigates how closely CEOs attend to media assessments of their actions.
Using a large database of 745 large acquisitions undertaken by S&P 500 firms, researchers
find that CEOs pay attention to media evaluations of acquisitions. However, the extent to
which they are future focused or past focused influences whether and how they learn from
the media.
Reflecting on Career Implications. We provide insights that are closely aligned with and
directed to three distinct issues faced by our readers: Prepare them for a job interview
(e.g., industry analysis), help them with current employers or their career in general, or
help them find potential employers and decide where to work. We believe this will be very
valuable to students’ professional development.
Consistent chapter format and features to reinforce learning. We have included several
features in each chapter to add value and create an enhanced learning experience. First,
each chapter begins with an overview and a list of key learning objectives. Second, as
previously noted, the opening case describes a situation in which a company’s
performance eroded because of a lack of proper application of strategy concepts. Third,
at the end of each chapter we offer four different types of questions/exercises that should
help students assess their understanding and application of material:
1. Summary review questions
2. Experiential exercises
3. Application questions and exercises
4. Ethics questions

Given the centrality of online systems to business today, each chapter contains at least one
exercise that allows students to explore the use of the internet in implementing a firm’s
strategy.
Key terms. Approximately a dozen key terms per chapter are identified in the margins of
the pages. This addition was made in response to reviewer feedback and improves
students’ understanding of core strategy concepts.
Clear articulation and illustration of key concepts. Key strategy concepts are introduced
clearly and concisely and are followed by timely and interesting examples from business
practice. Concepts include value-chain analysis, the resource-based view of the firm,
Porter’s five forces model, competitive advantage, boundaryless organizational designs,
digital strategies, corporate governance, ethics, data analytics, and entrepreneurship.
Extensive use of sidebars. We include 54 sidebars (about four per chapter) called Page xiii
Strategy Spotlights. The Strategy Spotlights not only illustrate key points but also
increase the readability and appeal of new strategy concepts.
Integrative themes. The text provides a solid grounding in ethics, globalization,
environmental sustainability, and technology. These topics are central themes throughout
the book and form the basis for many of the Strategy Spotlights.
Implications of concepts for small businesses. Many of the key concepts are applied to
startup firms and smaller businesses, which is particularly important since many students
have professional plans to work in such firms.
Not just a product, but an entire package. Strategic Management features the best chapter
teaching notes available today. Rather than merely summarizing the key points in each
chapter, we focus on value-added material to enhance the teaching (and learning)
experience. Each chapter includes dozens of questions to spur discussion, teaching tips,
in-class group exercises, and about a dozen detailed boxed examples from business
practice to provide further illustrations of key concepts.

TEACHING RESOURCES
Instructor’s Manual (IM)
Prepared by the textbook authors with valued input from our strategy colleagues, the
accompanying IM contains summary/objectives, lecture/discussion outlines, discussion
questions, extra examples not included in the text, teaching tips, reflecting on career
implications, experiential exercises, and more.

Test Bank
Revised by Christine Pence of the University of California, Riverside, the test bank contains
more than 1,000 true/false, multiple-choice, and essay questions. It is tagged with learning
objectives as well as Bloom’s Taxonomy and AACSB criteria.
Assurance of Learning. Assurance of Learning is an important element of many
accreditation standards. The Eleventh Edition is designed specifically to support your
Assurance of Learning initiatives. Each chapter in the book begins with a numbered list
of the learning objectives that appear throughout the chapter. Every test bank question is
also linked to one of these objectives, in addition to level of difficulty, topic area, Bloom’s
Taxonomy level, and AACSB skill area. Test Builder, an easy-to-use, cloud-based test bank
software, can search the test bank by these and other categories, providing an engine for
targeted Assurance of Learning analysis and assessment.
AACSB Statement. McGraw Hill is a proud corporate member of AACSB International.
Understanding the importance and value of AACSB accreditation, the Eleventh Edition
has sought to recognize the curricula guidelines detailed in the AACSB standards for
business accreditation by connecting selected questions in Dess 11e and the test bank to
the general knowledge and skill guidelines found in the AACSB standards. The statements
contained in this new edition are provided only as a guide for the users of this text. The
AACSB leaves content coverage and assessment in the purview of individual schools, the
mission of the school, and the faculty. While this new edition and the teaching package
make no claim of any specific AACSB qualification or evaluation, we have labeled
selected questions according to the six general knowledge and skills areas. Page xiv
Test Builder. We provide a comprehensive bank of test questions in a
computerized test bank powered by Test Builder, a cloud-based tool that enables
instructors to format tests that can be printed or administered in an LMS. Available in
Connect, Test Builder offers a modern, streamlined interface for easy content
configuration that matches course needs, without requiring a download. Test Builder
allows you to:
Access all test bank content from a particular title
Easily pinpoint the most relevant content through robust filtering options
Manipulate the order of questions or scramble questions and/or answers
Pin questions to a specific location within a test
Determine your preferred treatment of algorithmic questions
Choose the layout and spacing
Add instructions and configure default settings

Test Builder provides a secure interface for better protection of content and allows for just-
in-time updates to flow directly into assessments.

PowerPoint Presentation
Prepared by Pauline Assenza of Western Connecticut State University and Drake Mullens of
Tarleton State University, more than 400 slides incorporate an outline of the chapters, tied
to learning objectives. Also included are instructor notes, multiple-choice questions that can
be used as Classroom Performance System (CPS) questions, and additional examples
outside the text to promote class discussion.

The Business Strategy Game and GLO-BUS Online Simulations


Both allow teams of students to manage companies in a head-to-head contest for global
market leadership. These simulations give students the immediate opportunity to
experiment with various strategy options and to gain proficiency in applying the concepts
and tools they have been reading about in the chapters. To find out more or to register,
please visit www.bsg-online.com or www.glo-bus.com.

Page xv

COURSE DESIGN AND DELIVERY RESOURCES

Craft your teaching resources to match the way you teach! With McGraw Hill Create,
www.mcgrawhillcreate.com, you can easily rearrange chapters, combine material from other
content sources, and quickly upload content you have written, like your course syllabus or
teaching notes. Find the content you need in Create by searching through thousands of
leading McGraw Hill textbooks. Arrange your book to fit your teaching style. Create even
allows you to personalize your book’s appearance by selecting the cover and adding your
name, school, and course information. Order a Create book and you’ll receive a
complimentary print review copy in three to five business days or a complimentary
electronic review copy (eComp) via e-mail in about one hour. Go to
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Strategic Management represents far more than just the joint efforts of the four co-authors.
Rather, it is the product of the collaborative input of many people. Some of these individuals
are academic colleagues, others are the outstanding team of professionals at McGraw Hill,
and still others are those who are closest to us—our families. It is time to express our sincere
gratitude.

First, we’d like to acknowledge the dedicated instructors who have graciously provided their
insights since the inception of the text. Their input has been very helpful in both pointing
out errors in the manuscript and suggesting areas that needed further development as
additional topics. We sincerely believe the incorporation of their ideas has been critical to
improving the final product. These professionals and their affiliations are:

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It had engaged itself, before I commenced my observations, upon a
roast gigot of mutton, which happened to lie near it. This it soon
nearly finished. It then cast a look of fearful omen at a piece of cold
beef, which lay immediately beyond, and which, being placed within
reach by some kind neighbour, it immediately commenced to, with
as much fierceness as it had just exemplified in the case of the
mutton. The beef also was soon laid waste, and another look of
extermination was forthwith cast at a broken pigeon-pie, which lay
still farther off. Hereupon the eye had scarcely alighted, when the
man nearest it, with laudable promptitude, handed it upwards.
Scarcely was it laid on the altar of destruction, when it disappeared
too, and a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth look, were successively cast
at other dishes, which the different members of the party as
promptly sent away, and which the Mouth as promptly dispatched.
By this time all the rest of the party were lying upon their oars,
observing with leisurely astonishment the progress of the surviving,
and, as it appeared to them, endless feeder. He went on, rejoicing in
his strength, unheeding their idleness and wonder, his very soul
apparently engrossed in the grand business of devouring. They
seemed to enter into a sort of tacit compact, or agreement, to indulge
and facilitate him in his progress, by making themselves, as it were,
his servitors. Whatever dish he looked at, therefore, over the wide
expanse of the table, immediately disappeared from its place. One
after another, they trooped off towards the head of the table, like the
successive brigades which Wellington dispatched, at Waterloo,
against a particular field of French artillery; and still, dish after dish,
like said brigades, came successively away, broken, diminished,
annihilated. Fish, flesh, and fowl disappeared at the glance of that
awful eye, as the Roman fleet withered and vanished before the
grand burning-glass of Archimedes. The end of all things seemed at
hand. The Mouth was arrived at a perfect transport of voracity! It
seemed no more capable of restraining itself than some great engine,
full of tremendous machinery, which cannot stop of itself. It had no
self-will. It was an unaccountable being. It was a separate creature,
independent of the soul. It was not a human thing at all. It was
everything that was superhuman—everything that was immense—
inconceivably enormous! All objects seemed reeling and toppling on
towards it, like the foam-bells upon a mighty current, floating
silently on towards the orifice of some prodigious sea-cave. It was
like the whirlpool of Maëlstrom, everything that comes within the
vortex of which, for miles around, is sure of being caught,
inextricably involved, whirled round and round and round, and then
down that monstrous gulph—that mouth of the mighty ocean, the
lips of which are overwhelming waves, whose teeth are prodigious
rocks, and whose belly is the great abyss!
Here I grew dizzy, fainted, and—I never saw the Mouth again.
RICHARD SINCLAIR;
OR, THE POOR PRODIGAL IN THE AISLE.

By Thomas Aird.
Chapter I.

With many noble qualities—firmness, piety, integrity, and a


thorough affection for his family—the father of the poor prodigal,
Richard Sinclair, had many of the hard points of the Scottish
character; a want of liberality in his estimate of others, particularly of
their religious qualities; a jealousy about his family prerogative,
when it was needless to assert it; and a liking for discipline, or, as he
styled it, nurture, without tact to modify its applications. Towards his
eldest son—a shy and affectionate youth—his behaviour, indeed,
seemed distinctly opposite to what we may characterise as its usual
expression—overbearing gravity. Without this son’s advice, he never
ventured on any speculation that seemed doubtful. He was softly
amenable to the mild wisdom of the lad, and paid it a quiet
deference, of which, indeed, he sometimes appeared to be ashamed,
as a degree of weakness in himself. But the youth had never
disobeyed his parents’ will in any one particular; he was grave and
gentle; and his father, who had been brought up amidst a large and
rugged family, and was thus accustomed to rather stormy usages,
was now at a loss, in matters of rebuke, how to meet this new species
of warfare, which lay in mild and quiet habits, and eventually became
afraid of the censure which was felt in the affectionate silence of his
eldest son.
This superiority might have offended old Sinclair’s self-love; but
the youth, as already stated, made ample amends, by paying in his
turn a scrupulous and entire deference to his parent, whom he thus
virtually controlled, as a good wife knows to rule her husband, by not
seeming to rule at all. From this subdued tone of his favourite
prerogative in the father before us there was a reaction—something
like a compensation to the parental authority—which began to press
too hard upon his second son Richard, who, being of a bolder
character than his brother, was less scrupulously dealt with; besides
that the froward temperament of this younger boy frequently
offended against what his father honestly deemed propriety and
good rule.
He lost no opportunity, when Richard had done anything in the
slightest degree wrong, of checking him with disproportioned
censure, and of reminding him of what he owed to his parents; and
this was repeated, till bearing blame in the boy became a substitute
for gratitude—till the sense of obligation, instead of being a special
call to love, was distinctly felt to be an intolerable burden. From all
these circumstances there naturally grew up a shyness betwixt father
and son, which was unintentionally aggravated by Richard’s mother,
who, aware of her husband’s severe temper, tried to qualify it by her
own soft words and deeds of love. This only brought out the evil
more distinctly in its hard outline; and the very circumstance that
she constantly tried to explain into good his father’s austerity became
her own refutation, and stamped that austerity as a great degree of
tyranny.
Home thus became associated with disagreeable feelings to young
Richard Sinclair; who, being a boy of a giddy character, and naturally
self-willed, could not cling to the good, despite of the admixture of
evil. He neglected his books, fell into gross irregularities; and the
admonitions of his father, rendered useless from the above miserable
system of discipline, were now, when most needed, thoroughly
despised. The death of his elder brother, by which he was left an only
son, softened for a while the harsh intercourse which subsisted
between Richard and his father, and checked the youth for a little in
his bad habits. But vice overcame him anew; and, growing daily
worse, he at length completed the character of the prodigal, by
running off to sea, hardening his heart against his father’s worth, and
heedless of the soft affection of his mother.
The hardships of a sea-faring life, heightened by a series of
peculiar misfortunes, still farther aggravated by a long course of bad
health, gradually subdued the young prodigal’s heart; and after the
lapse of several years we find him on his way returning to his native
village, clad in the meanest attire, slow and irregular in his step; his
countenance, besides being of a dead yellow hue from late jaundice,
thin and worn to the bone; yet improved in his moral nature, caring
not for pride, ready to forgive, and anxious to be forgiven; and, above
all, yearning to confess his crimes and sorrows to a mother’s
unchanging love.
About the noon of an October day, he reached the churchyard of
his native parish, his heart impelling him first to visit the burying-
ground of his family, under the fear, not the less striking because
altogether vague, that he might there see a recent grave; for he had
heard nothing of his parents since his first departure to sea. As he
entered the graveyard by a small postern, he saw a funeral coming in
by the main gate on the opposite side; and wishing not to be
observed, he turned into a small plantation of poplars and silver firs,
which hid the place of graves from the view of the clergyman’s manse
windows. Onward came the sable group slowly to the middle of the
churchyard, where lay, indicating the deep parallel grave beside it,
the heap of fat, clammy earth, from which two or three ragged boys
were taking handfuls, to see, from its restless crumbling, whether it
was the dust of the wicked, which, according to a popular belief,
never lies still for a moment. The dark crowd took their places round
the grave; a little bustle was heard as the coffin was uncovered; it was
lowered by the creaking cords, and again the heads of the company
were all narrowly bent over it for a moment. Not a sound was heard
in the air, save the flitting wing of some little bird among the boughs;
the ruffling of another, as, with bill engulfed in its feathers, it picked
the insects from its skin; and the melancholy cry of a single
chaffinch, which foretold the coming rain.
In natural accordance with the solemnity of the mourners before
him, our youth, as he stood in the plantation, raised his hat; and
when the crowd drew back to give room to the sexton and his
associates to dash in the earth, he leant upon the wall, looking
earnestly over it, to recognise, if possible, the prime mourner. At the
head of the grave, more forward a little than the others, and apart in
his sad privilege, stood a man, apparently about sixty years of age, of
a strong frame,—in which yet there was trembling,—and a fine open
bald forehead; and, notwithstanding that the face of the mourner
was compressed with the lines of unusual affliction, and bowed down
over his hat, which with both hands was pressed upon his mouth,
Richard saw him and knew him but too well—Oh, God! his own
father! And wildly the youth’s eyes rambled around the throng, to
penetrate the mystery of his own loss, till on his dim eyeballs reeled
the whole group, now scattered and melted to mist, now gathered
and compressed into one black, shapeless heap.
But now the thick air began to twinkle, as it still darkened; and the
rain, which to the surprise of all had been kept up so long, began to
fall out in steep-down streams from the low-hung clouds, driving the
black train from the half-finished grave, to mix with a throng of other
people, apparently assembling for public worship, who ran along the
sides of the church in haste to reach the doors. The bell began to toll,
but ceased almost in a minute; the clergyman hurried by in his white
bands; and before Richard could leave the plantation and advance
into the churchyard,—perhaps for the purpose of inquiring who was
the person just entombed,—every one was in save that bareheaded
man—God bless him!—who, heedless of the rain, still stood by the
sexton, whose spade was now beating round the wet turf of the
compacted grave. The young prodigal had not the heart, under a
most awful sense of his own errors, which now overcame him, to
advance to his afflicted father. On the contrary, to avoid his
observation, he slunk away behind the church, and by a door, which
likewise admitted to an old staircase leading to a family division of
the gallery, he got into a back aisle, thickly peopled with spectral
marbles, which, through two or three small panes, admitted a view of
the interior of the church. “Have I lived not to know,” said he to
himself, “when comes God’s most holy Sabbath-day? Assuredly, this
loss of reckoning, this confusion of heart, is of very hell itself. But
hold—to-day is Monday; then it must be the day after a solemn
commemoration, in this place, of Christ’s bleeding sacrifice for men.
I shall sit me down on this slab a while, and see if there may be any
good thing for me—any gleam of the glorious shield that wards off
evil thoughts and the fears of the soul—any strong preparation of
faith to take me up by the hand, and lead me through my difficulties.
At all events, I shall try to pray with the good for the mourners, that
claim from me a thousand prayers: and God rest that dead one!”
Owing to the unusual darkness in the church, the twenty-third
psalm was chosen by the clergyman, as one that could be sung by
most of the congregation without referring to the book; and its
beautiful pastoral devotion suited well with the solemn dedication
which yesterday had been made of a little flock to the care of the
Great Shepherd, and with their hopes of His needful aid. And the
sweet voices of the young, who in early piety had vowed themselves
to God, seemed to have caught the assured and thrilling song of the
redeemed; and their white robes, as they rose to pray, twinkled like
glimpses of angels’ parting wings, bringing home more deeply to the
heart of the poor youth in the aisle a sense of his misery as an alien
and an outcast from the ordinances of salvation.
Richard made an effort to attend to the instructions of the
clergyman; but his heart was soon borne away from attention; and so
anxious did he become in the new calculation, which of his father’s
family it might be whom he had just seen interred, that he could not
refrain from going out before the church windows and looking at the
new grave. Heedless of being seen, he measured it by stepping, and
was convinced, from its length, that either his mother or his sister
Mary must be below. “God forbid!” he ejaculated, “that it should be
my poor mother’s grave! that she should be gone for ever, ere I have
testified my sense of all her love!” It struck him, with a new thought
of remorse, that he was wishing the other alternative, that it might be
his sister Mary’s. And then he thought upon early days, when she
who was his first playmate led him with her little hand abroad in
summer days to the green meadows, and taught him to weave the
white-fingered rushes, and introduced him, because she was his
elder, to new sports and playfellows; whose heart, he knew, would
brook to lie beneath the cold flowers of the spring sooner than give
up its love for him, prodigal though he was; and how was the
alternative much better, if it was she whom he had lost! As he made
these reflections, he was again sauntering into the aisle, where,
sitting down in his former seat, the sad apprehension that his mother
was dead laid siege to his heart. Her mild image, in sainted white,
rose to his mind’s eye; and she seemed to bend over him, and to say
to him, “Come, my care-worn boy, and tell me how it has fared with
you in the hard world?” This vision soon gave place to severe
realities; and in bitter sadness he thought of her who came each
night to his bedside when he was a little child, to kiss him, and
arrange the clothes around him that his little body might be warm.
With a reeling unsteadiness of mind which, from very earnestness,
could not be stayed upon its object, he tried to remember his last
interview with her, and the tenor of his last letter to her, to find out
what kind expressions he had used, till, painfully conscious that he
could muster little to make up an argument of his love, he was again
left to guess his mother’s anguish of soul in her last hour over his
neglect, and to grapple with the conviction that his own folly had
brought her down prematurely to the grave. At length his heart,
becoming passive amidst the very multitude and activity of
reflections that were tugging at it from all sides, yielded to the
weariness which the day’s fatigue, acting upon his frame, worn by
late fever, had induced, and he fell into a deep sleep. When he awoke,
the voice of the clergyman had ceased, and all was silence in the
church; the interior of which as he looked through the small pane, he
saw had been darkened by the shutting of the window-boards. Next
moment he glanced at the aisle door and saw it closed upon him.
Then looking round all over the place, with that calmness which
signifies a desperate fear at hand, “Here I am, then!” he exclaimed;
“if that door be locked upon me, as I dread it is!” Cautiously he went
to it, as if afraid of being resolved in his dreadful apprehension; and,
after first feeling with his hand that the bolt was drawn upon him, he
tried to open it, and was made distinctly aware of his horrid
captivity. Sharply he turned aghast, as if to address some one behind
him; then turning again to the door, he shook it with all his strength,
in the hope that some one might yet be lingering in the churchyard,
and so might hear him. No one, however, came to his assistance; and
now the reflection burst full and black upon him, that here he might
remain unheard till he died of hunger. His heart and countenance
fell, when he remembered how remote the churchyard was from the
village, and from the public way, and how long it was till next Sunday
should come round. From boyhood recollection he remembered well
this same aisle door; that it was black on the outside, with here and
there large white commas to represent tears; and that it was very
thick, and yet farther strengthened by being studded with a great
number of large iron nails.
“Yet I must try to the very utmost,” he said, “either to break it or
make myself be heard by the inmates of the manse, which is my best
chance of release.” Accordingly he borrowed as much impetus as the
breadth of the vault allowed him, and flung himself upon the door in
a series of attacks, shouting at the same time with all his might. But
the door stood firm as a rock despite of him; nor could he
distinguish, as he listened from time to time, the slightest symptoms
of his having been heard by any one. He went to the small grated
window which lighted this house of death, and after watching at it for
some time, he saw an old woman pass along a footpath beyond the
graveyard, with a bundle of sticks upon her head; but she never
seemed to hear him when he called upon her. A little afterwards he
saw two boys sauntering near the gate of the burying-ground; but
though they heard him when he cried, it only made them scamper
off, to all appearance mightily terrified.
Chapter II.

With the calmness almost of despair, when the closing eve took
away his chance of seeing any more stray passengers that day, the
poor youth groped his way to his marble slab, and again sat down
with a strange vacuity of heart, as if it would refuse further thought
of his dismal situation. A new fear came over him, however, when
daylight thickened at the grated window of his low room, and the
white marbles grew dark around him. And not without creeping
horror did he remember that from this very aisle it was that old
Johnny Hogg, a former sexton, was said to have seen a strange vile
animal issue forth one moonlight night, run to a neighbouring
stream, and after lapping a little, hurry back, trotting over the blue
graves, and slinking through beneath the table stones, as if afraid of
being shut out from its dull, fat haunt. Hurriedly, yet with keen
inspection, was young Sinclair fascinated to look around him over
the dim floor; and while the horrid apprehension came over him,
that he was just on the point of seeing the two eyes of the gloating
beast, white and muddy from its unhallowed surfeits, he drew up his
feet on the slab on which he sat, lest it should crawl over them. A
thousand tales—true to boyish impressions—crowded on his mind;
and by this rapid movement of sympathetic associations, enough of
itself, while it lasts, to make the stoutest heart nervous, and from the
irritation of his body from other causes, so much was his mind
startled from its propriety that he thought he heard the devil ranging
through the empty pews of the church; and there seemed to flash
before his eyes a thousand hurrying shapes, condemned and fretted
ghosts of malignant aspect, that cannot rest in their wormy graves,
and milky-curdled babes of untimely birth, that are buried in
twilights, never to see the sun.
Soon, however, these silly fears went off, and the tangible evil of
his situation again stood forth, and drove him to renew his cries for
assistance, and his attacks upon the door, ere he should be quite
enfeebled by hunger and disease. Again he had to sit down, after
spending his strength in vain.
By degrees, he fell into a stupor of sleep, peopled with strange
dreams, in all of which, from natural accordance with his waking
conviction that he had that day seen his mother’s burial, her image
was the central figure. In danger she was with him—in weariness—in
captivity; and when he seemed to be struggling for life, under
delirious fever, then, too, she was with him, with her soft assuaging
kiss, which was pressed upon his throbbing brow, till his frenzy was
cooled away, and he lay becalmed in body and in spirit beneath her
love. Under the last modification of his dream, he stood by confused
waters, and saw his mother drowning in the floods. He heard her
faintly call upon his name; her arms were outstretched to him for
help, as she was borne fast away into the dim and wasteful ocean;
and, unable to resist this appeal, he stripped off his clothes and
plunged in to attempt her rescue. So vivid was this last part of his
vision, that in actual correspondence with the impulse of his dream,
the poor prodigal in the aisle threw off his clothes to the shirt to
prepare himself for swimming to her deliverance. One or two cold
ropy drops, which at this moment fell from the vaulted roof upon his
neck, woke him distinctly, and recalled him to a recollection of his
situation as a captive. But being unable to account for his being
naked, he thought that he had lost, or was about to lose, his reason;
and, weeping aloud like a little child, he threw himself upon his
knees, and cried to God to keep fast his heart and mind from that
dismal alienation. He was yet prostrate when he heard feet walking
on the echoing pavement of the church; and at the same time a light
shone round about him, filling the whole aisle, and showing
distinctly the black letters on the white tombstones.
His first almost insane thought was that a miraculous answer was
given to his prayer, and that, like the two apostles of old, he had won
an angel from heaven to release him from his midnight prison. But
the footsteps went away again by the door, and ceased entirely;
whilst at the same time the light was withdrawn, leaving him to curse
his folly, which, under an absurd hope, had lost an opportunity of
immediate disenthralment. He was about to call aloud, to provoke a
return of the visitation, when, through the grated window of the
aisle, he observed a light among the graves, which he set himself to
reconnoitre. It was one of those raw, unwholesome nights, choked up
with mists to the very throat, which thicken the breath of old men
with asthma, and fill graveyards with gross and rotten beings; and,
though probably not more than twenty yards distant, Sinclair could
not guess what the light was, so tangled and bedimmed was it with
the spongy vapours.
At length he heard human voices, and was glad to perceive the
light approaching his window. When the men, whom he now saw
were two in number, had got within a few yards of him, he called out,

“I pray you, good people, be not alarmed; I have been locked up in
this aisle to-day, and must die of hunger in it if you do not get me
out. You can get into the church, and I doubt not you will find the key
of this aisle-door in the sexton’s closet. Now, I hope you have enough
of manhood not to let me remain in this horrid place from any silly
fears on your part.”
Instead of answering to this demand, the fellows took instantly to
their heels, followed by the vehement reproaches of our hero, whose
heart at the same time was smitten by the bitter reflection, that every
chance of attracting attention to his captivity was likely to be
neutralized by the superstitious fears of such as might hear him from
his vault. In a few minutes the light again approached, and after
much whispering betwixt themselves, one of the men demanded who
and what the prisoner was.
“I can only tell you farther,” replied Sinclair, “that I fell asleep in
this place during the sermon,—no very creditable confession, you will
observe,—and that, when I awoke, I found myself fairly entrapped.”
The men retired round the church, and with joy Richard heard
next minute the rattling of the keys as they were taken from the
sexton’s closet. In another minute he heard the door of his dungeon
tried; it opened readily; and with a start, as if they thought it best at
once to rush upon their danger, his two deliverers, whom he
recognised to be of his native village, advanced a little into the aisle,
the foremost bearing the light, which he held forward and aloft,
looking below it into the interior, to be aware for what sort of captive
they had opened. No sooner did Sinclair stand disclosed to them,
naked as he was to the shirt—for he had not yet got on his clothes—
than the sternmost man, with something between a yell and a groan,
bended on his knees, whilst his hair bristled in the extremity of his
terror, and catching hold of his companion’s limbs, he looked
through betwixt them upon the naked spirit of the aisle. The
foremost man lowered the light by inches, and cried aloud,—
“Fear-fa’ me! take haud o’ me, Geordie Heart! It’s the yellow dead
rising from their graves. Eh! there’s the lightning! and is yon no an
auld crooked man i’ the corner?”
“Will Balmer! Will Balmer! whaur are ye?” cried the other, from
between Will’s very knees, which, knocking upon the prostrate man’s
cheeks, made him chatter and quiver in his wild outcry.
“Oh! there’s the lightning again! Gin we could but meet wife and
bairns ance mair!” ejaculated the foremost man.
“Lord have mercy on my widow and sma’ family!” echoed the
sternmost.
“Tout! it’s but the laird’s drucken mulatto after a’!” said the
former, gathering a little confidence.
“Oh, if it were! or but a man wi’ the jaundice, our days might be
lengthened,” cried the latter.
Richard advanced to explain; but at that moment the dull
firmament in the east, which had been lightning from time to time
(as often happens previously to very rainy weather), opened with
another sheeted blaze of white fire, the reflection of which on
Richard’s yellow face, as he came forward, seemed to the terrified
rustics a peculiar attribute of his nature. With a groan, he in the van
tried a backward retreat; but being straitened in the legs, he tumbled
over his squatted companion. Leaving his neighbour, however, to sit
still upon his knees, he that was the foremost man gathered himself
up so well, that he crept away on his hands and feet, till, getting right
below the bell-rope at the end of the church, he ventured to rise and
begin to jow it, making the bell toll at an unusual rate. The inmates
of the manse were immediately alarmed; and first came the
minister’s man, who demanded the meaning of such ill-timed,
ringing.
“Oh! Tam Jaffray! Tam Jaffray! sic a night’s in this kirkyard! If sae
be it’s ordeened that I may ring an’ live, I’ll haud to the tow. Oh! Tam
Jaffray! Tam Jaffray! what’s become o’ puir Geordie Heart? If the
Wandering Jew o’ Jerusalem, or the Yellow Fever frae Jamaica, is no
dancing mother-naked in the aisle, then it behoves to be the dead
rising frae their graves. I trust we’ll a’ be found prepared! Rin for a
lantern, Tam.—Eh! look to that lightning!”
A light was soon brought from the manse; and a number of people
from the village having joined the original alarmists, a considerable
muster advanced to the aisle door just as Sinclair was stepping from
it. Taking the light from one of the countrymen, he returned to the
relief of the poor villager, who was still upon his knees, and who,
with great difficulty, was brought to comprehend an explanation of
the whole affair. The crowd made way as Sinclair proceeded to leave
the graveyard; but whether it was that they were indignant because
the neighbourhood had been so much disturbed, or whether they
considered that proper game was afoot for sportive insolence, they
began to follow and shout after him—
“Come back, ye yellow neegur! we’ll no send ye!—stop him! Come
back, ye squiff, and we’ll gie ye a dead subject!—Stop the
resurrectionist!—After him, gie him a paik, and see if he’s but a batch
o’ badger skins dyed yellow—hurrah!”
Sinclair wishing, for several reasons, to be clear at once of the mob,
was in the act of springing over the dyke into the plantation already
mentioned, when he was struck by a stick on the head, which
brought him back senseless to the ground. The crowd was instantly
around the prostrate youth, and in the caprice or better pity of
human nature, began to be sorry for his pale condition.
“It was a pity to strike the puir lad that gate,” said one. “Some folk
shouldna been sae rash the day, I think,” remarked another. “Stand
back,” cried Tam Jaffray, pushing from right to left; “stand back, and
gie the puir fallow air. Back, Jamieson, wi’ your shauchled shins; it
was you that cried first that he was a resurrectionist.”
The clergyman now advanced and asked what was the matter.
“It’s only a yellow yorlin we’ve catched in the aisle,” cried an
insolent clown, who aspired to be the prime wit of the village; “he
was a bare gorblin a few minutes syne, and now he’s full feathered.”
This provoked a laugh from groundlings of the same stamp, and the
fellow, grinning himself, was tempted to try another bolt,—“And he’s
gayan weel tamed by this time.”
“Peace, fellow,” said the minister, who had now seen what was
wrong; “peace, sir, and do not insult the unfortunate. I am ashamed
of all this.”
By the directions of the clergyman, the poor prodigal was carried
into the manse, where he soon recovered from the immediate
stunning effects of the blow he had received.
“How is all this?” was his first question of surprise, addressed to
his host. “May I request to know, sir, why I am here?”
“In virtue of a rash blow, which we all regret,” answered the
minister.
“I crave your pardon, sir,” returned the youth. “I can now guess
that I am much indebted to your kindness.”
“May we ask you, young man,” said the clergyman, “how it has
happened that you have so alarmed our peaceful neighbourhood?”
The poor prodigal succinctly stated the way of his imprisonment in
the aisle; and with this explanation the charitable old clergyman
seemed perfectly satisfied. Not so, however, was his ruling elder,
who, deeming his presence and authority indispensable in any
matter for which the parish bell could be rung, had early rushed to
the scene of alarm, and was now in the manse, at the head of a
number of the villagers. He, on the contrary, saw it necessary to
remark (glancing at his superior for approbation),—
“Sae, mind, young man, in times future, what comes of sleeping in
the time of two peeous and yedifying discoorses.”
“A good caution, John,” said the mild old minister; “but we must
make allowances.”
“Was it you that struck me down?” said Richard eagerly to an old
man, who, with evident sorrow working in his hard muscular face,
stood watching this scene with intense interest, and who, indeed, was
his own father.
Smitten to the heart by this sudden question of the youth,
ashamed of his own violent spirit on such a night, and grieved, after
the explanation given, for the condition of the poor lad before him,
old Sinclair groaned, turned quickly half round, shifted his feet in the
agony of avowal,—then seizing his unknown prodigal boy by the
hand, he wrung it eagerly, and said,—
“There’s my hand, young man, in the first place; and now, it was
me indeed that struck you down, but I thought——”
“Oh! my prophetic conscience!” interrupted the poor prodigal,
whilst he looked his father ruefully in the face, and returned fervently
the squeeze of his hand. “Make no apologies to me, thou good old
man; thy blow was given under a most just dispensation.”
“I sent two neighbours,” said the old man, still anxious to explain,
“to see that all was right about the grave. I heard the alarm, and
came off wi’ my stick in my hand. I heard them crying to stop ye, for
ye were a resurrectionist. I saw ye jumping suspiciously into the
planting. Ye maun forgie me the rest, young man, for I thought ye
had been violating the grave of a beloved wife.”
“My own poor mother!” sobbed forth the prodigal.
Old Sinclair started—his strong chest heaved—the recollection of
his rash blow, together with the circumstance that it had been
dispensed on such a solemn night, and near the new grave of one
whose gentle spirit had been but too much troubled by the harshness
and waywardness of both husband and son, came over his heart with
the sudden conviction that his boy and himself were justly punished
by the same blow, for their mutual disrespect in former years.
Yearning pity over that son’s unhappy appearance, and the natural
flow of a father’s heart, long subdued on behalf of his poor lost
prodigal, were mingled in the old man’s deep emotion; and he sought
relief by throwing himself in his boy’s arms, and weeping on his
neck.
His sturdy nature soon recovered itself a little; yet the bitter spray
was winked from his compressed eyes as he shook his head; and the
lower part of his face quivered with unusual affliction, as he said in a
hoarse whisper—
“My own Richard!—my man, has your father lived to strike you to
the ground like a brute beast, and you sae ill?—on the very day, too,
o’ your mother’s burial, that loved ye aye sae weel! But come away wi’
me to your father’s house, for ye are sick as death, and the auld man
that used ye ower ill is sair humbled the night, Richard!”
The prodigal’s heart could not stand this confession of a father. His
young bosom heaved as if about to be rent to pieces; the mother, and
hysterica passio of old Lear, rose in his straitened throat,
overmastering the struggling respiration, and he fell back in a violent
fit. His agonized parent ran to the door, as if seeking assistance, he
knew not what or where; then checking himself in a moment, and
hastening back, yet without looking on his son, he grasped the
clergyman strongly by the hand, crying out, “Is he gone?—is my
callant dead?”
Ordering the people to withdraw from around the prostrate youth,
whose head was now supported by the clergyman’s beautiful and
compassionate daughter, the kind old pastor led forward the
agonised father, and pointing to his reviving son, told him that all
would soon be well again. With head depressed upon his bosom, his
hard hands slowly wringing each other, while they were wetted with
the tears which rained from his glazed eyes, old Sinclair stood
looking down upon the ghastly boy, whose eye was severely swollen,
whilst his cheek was stained with the clotted blood which had flowed
from the wound above the temples, inflicted by his own father.
After standing a while in this position, the old man drew a white
napkin from his pocket, and, as if himself unable for the task, he gave
it to one of his neighbours, and pointed to the blood on the face of his
prodigal boy, signifying that he wished it wiped away. This was done
accordingly; and, in a few moments more, Richard rose, recovered
from his fit, and modestly thanking the clergyman and his beautiful
daughter for their attentions to him, he signified his resolve to go
home immediately with his father. The kind old minister would fain
have kept him all night, alleging the danger of exposing himself in
such a state to the night air; but the youth was determined in his
purpose; and old Sinclair cut short the matter by shaking the hand of
his pastor, whilst, without saying a word, he looked him kindly in the
face to express his thanks, and then by leading his son away by the
arm.
The villagers, who had crowded into the manse, judging this one of
those levelling occasions when they might intrude into the best
parlour, allowed the father and son to depart without attempting
immediately to follow—nature teaching them that they had no right
to intermeddle with the sacred communings of the son and father’s
repentance and forgiveness, or with the sorrow of their common
bereavement. Yet the rude throng glanced at the minister, as if
surprised and disappointed that the thing had ended so simply; then
slunk out of the room, apprehensive, probably, of some rebuke from
him. The ruling elder, however, remained behind, and wherefore
not?
THE BARLEY FEVER—AND REBUKE.

By D. M. Moir (“Delta”).
Sages their solemn een may steek,
And raise a philosophic reek,
And, physically, causes seek
In clime and season;
But tell me Whisky’s name in Greek,
I’ll tell the reason.—Burns.

On the morning after the business of the playhouse happened,[13] I


had to take my breakfast in my bed,—a thing very uncommon for me,
being generally up by cock-craw, except on Sunday mornings whiles,
when ilka ane, according to the bidding of the Fourth
Commandment, has a license to do as he likes,—having a desperate
sore head, and a squeamishness at the stomach, occasioned, I
jalouse, in a great measure from what Mr Glen and me had discussed
at Widow Grassie’s, in the shape of warm toddy, over our cracks
concerning what is called the agricultural and the manufacturing
interests. So our wife, puir body, pat a thimbleful of brandy—Thomas
Mixem’s real—into my first cup of tea, which had a wonderful virtue
in putting all things to rights; so that I was up and had shapit a pair
of leddy’s corsets (an article in which I sometimes dealt) before ten
o’clock, though, the morning being gey cauld, I didna dispense with
my Kilmarnock.
13. See ante, “My First and Last Play,” p. 394.
At eleven in the forenoon, or thereabouts,—maybe five minutes
before or after, but nae matter,—in comes my crony Maister Glen,
rather dazed-like about the een, and wi’ a large piece of white
sticking-plaister, about half-a-nail wide, across one of his cheeks,

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