Appendix Two
Author’s Recommended Books and Business Biographies (Unabridged)
Veracity does not consist in saying, but in the intention of communicating truth.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).
Poet, philosopher, theologian.
Introduction
Because of the diverse range of management science disciplines which are covered in Outside Fortress Europe: Strategies for the Global Market (2e), including international business, finance, economics, strategic management, marketing, innovation and organizational behaviour, carefully screened books and textbooks on specific subject areas for those readers interested in greater depth of study are recommended throughout its pages.
Textbooks are an invaluable resource in this regard. A standard definition of a high-quality business or management textbook is ‘a critical evaluation of the extant literature’, primarily an objective assessment of empirical, evidence-based research from leading peer-reviewed journals combined with insights from ‘discussion focused’ journals such as the Harvard Business Review, the California Management Review and the McKinsey Quarterly.
Some of the texts presented here will lean towards a more practical perspective while most are traditional academic textbooks. All are introduced with “our recommended textbook” or “for excellent insights” at the relevant section in the book, and many will have been referred to on multiple occasions.
General business books are less reliable than high-quality textbooks regarding evidentiary veracity. Still, they frequently capture the imagination of practising managers and often have a significant impact on how businesses are managed, ranging from inspirational texts on leadership philosophies to treatises on operations management. Publications such as The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Management Today regularly review a broad cross-section of business books, providing expertise and editorial insights which can be considered a proxy for quality and relevance.
Author’s Recommended Books
The selected textbooks listed below are chosen based upon cumulative feedback from working with University masters’ students and participants attending management development programmes. They have been recommended because they:
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- Are up to date.
- Are pitched at the right intellectual level for MSc/MBA/DBA/PhD core courses and electives and/or the inquisitive reader.
- Are fully referenced and indexed to guide readers towards original sources (e.g. peer-reviewed academic journals) for areas of specific interest to them.
- Have many illustrative examples and thought-provoking case studies to enhance readers’ learning experience.
- Are complementary to all the other activities (lectures, cases, practical examples etc.) that are typically undertaken during taught-course sessions.
- Are in most cases supported by a comprehensive web resource.
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New editions of these books are common (another indicator of a text’s quality) so please check for the latest version at, for example, Amazon.com, where you will also find ISBN details and ‘verified reader’ reviews.
As per the discussion in the introduction, in addition to textbooks, we also include examples of generic books relating to business and management studies in the following list.
Buchanan, D., & Huczynski, A. (2019). Organizational Behaviour (10 ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2019). Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models, Tools and Techniques of Organizational Change (5 ed.). London: Kogan Page.
Christopher, M. (2016). Logistics and Supply Chain Management (5 ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
Collinson, S., Narula, R., & Rugman, A. M. (2020). International Business (8 ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Pride, W., M, & Ferrell, O. C. (2019). Marketing: Concepts and Strategies (8 ed.). Andover: Cengage Learning.
Fill, C., & Turnbull, S. (2019). Marketing Communications: Touchpoints, sharing and disruption (8 ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
Gaughan, P. A. (2018). Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructuring (7 ed.). London: John Wiley & Sons.
Hollensen, S. (2020). Global Marketing (8 ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
Hooley, G., Nicoulaud, B., Rudd, J., & Lee, N. (2020). Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning (7 ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
Jobber, D., Lancaster, G. & Meunier-Fitzhugh, L. (2019). Selling and Sales Management (11 ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
Keller, K. L., & Swaminathan, V. (2019). Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity (5 ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations (6 ed.). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Lasserre, P. (2017). Global Strategic Management (4 ed.). London: Macmillan Education UK.
McDonald, M., & Wilson, H. (2016). Marketing Plans: How to Prepare Them, How to Profit From Them (8 ed.). Chichester: Wiley.
Pfeffer, J. (2015). Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time. London: Harper Collins.
Pike, R., Neale, B., Akbar, S. & Linsley, P. (2018). Corporate Finance and Investment: Decisions and Strategies (9 ed.). Harlow: Pearson
Slack, N., & Brandon-Jones, A. (2019). Operations Management (9 ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
Soloman, M. R., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S., & Hogg, M., K. (2019). Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective (7 ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
Steers, R. M., & Osland, J. S. (2019). Management Across Cultures: Challenges, Strategies, and Skills (4 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tjemkes, B., Vos, P., & Burgers, K. (2017). Strategic Alliance Management (2 ed.). London: Routledge.
Wheeler, A. (2017). Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team (5 ed.). London: John Wiley & Sons.
Whittington, R., Regner, P., Angwin, D., Johnson, G., & Scholes, K. (2019). Exploring Strategy: Text and Cases (12 ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
Wilson, A., Zeithaml, V., Bitner, M. J., & Gremler, D. (2020). Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm (4 ed.). London: McGraw-Hill Education.
Zimmerman, A., & Blythe, J. (2017). Business to Business Marketing Management – A Global Perspective (3 ed.). London: Routledge.
For students embarking on an MBA project/dissertation/thesis or a DBA/PhD programme, the fast-track way to become immersed in the relevant research streams is to find a high-quality textbook in the appropriate field and start ‘chasing the references’. For an MBA project, depending on the guidance provided by the student’s academic institution and supervisor, it may be adequate to review only the source referenced by the textbook. For DBA and PhD students, the most fruitful textbook references will be those describing themselves as a ‘review article’, for example, the one suggested in Chapter Nine: Gomes, E., Barnes, B. R., & Mahmood, T. (2016). ‘A 22-year review of strategic alliance research in the leading management journals’. International Business Review, 25, 15-27.
Recommended Complementary Texts
To view the recommended complementary texts for the 2nd edition of Outside Fortress Europe, categorised with reference to the relevant chapters they support, please click/tap the ‘Bookshelf’ icon to the left/above.
Author’s Recommended Business Biographies
Over many years, business and management students, whether at universities or as participants in seminars and workshops, have requested recommendations for insightful business biographies and autobiographies. The references below have all been cited and/or reviewed in the chapters of Outside Fortress Europe: Strategies for the Global Market (2e).
Business biographies contribute greatly to our understanding of management practice and often provide unique insights into topics such as leadership, company histories, economics and political economy. The selection here includes:
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- Autobiography, e.g. Gerstner and his time with IBM, 2003.
- Authorised biographies, e.g. Isaacson on Steve Jobs, 2011.
- Unauthorised biographies, e.g. Bower on Richard Branson, 2014.
- Authorised business biographies, e.g. Clark on Alibaba, 2016.
- Unauthorised business biographies, e.g. Stone on Amazon, 2014.
- ‘Whistle-blower’ insights, e.g. Bloodworth on working conditions at Amazon, Uber and ‘gig economy’ employers, 2018.
- ‘Events-focused’ histories, e.g. Bernanke on the 2007/08 financial meltdown, 2017.
- Scholars’ biographies, e.g. Schoorl on Jean-Baptiste Say, 2015.
- Political biographies, e.g. Taubman on Mikhail Gorbachev, 2017.
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Becraft, M. (2014). Bill Gates: A Biography. Oxford: Greenwood.
Bernanke, B. (2017). The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath. London: W.W. Norton & Company.
Bloodworth, J. (2018). Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain. London: Atlantic Books.
Bower, T. (2014). Branson: Behind the Mask. London: Faber & Faber.
Branson, R. (2009). Losing my Virginity: The Autobiography. London: Virgin Books.
Branson, R. (2017). Finding my Virginity: The New Autobiography. London: Virgin Books.
Brown, G. (2010). Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalisation. London: Simon & Schuster.
Clark, D. (2016). Alibaba: The House that Jack Ma Built. New York: Harper Collins.
Darling, A. (2012). Back from the Brink: 1000 Days at Number 11. London: Atlantic Books.
Doz, Y. L., & Wilson, K. (2017). Ringtone: Exploring the Rise and Fall of Nokia in Mobile Phones. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Edwards, D. (2011). I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 39. London: Allan Lane.
Garr, D. (2000). IBM Redux: Lou Gerstner & the Business Turnaround of the Decade. London: John Wiley & Sons.
Gerstner, L. (2003). Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance: Inside IBM’s Historic Turnaround. London: HarperCollins.
Hagstrom, R. G. (2013). The Warren Buffet Way (3 ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Isaacson, W. (2011). Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography. London: Abacus.
Lewis, M. (1990). Liar’s Poker. New York: Penguin Books.
Lewis, M. (2017). The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed the World. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Morito, A. (1988). Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony. London: Fontana Press.
Nasar, S. (2002). A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash (Tie-in Film edition). London: Faber and Faber.
Ogilvy, D. (2011). Confessions of an Advertising Man. London: Southbank Publishing.
Pascale, R. T., & Athos, A. J. (1986). The Art of Japanese Management. New York: Penguin.
Paulson, H. (2010). On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Finance System. London: Headline Publishing Group.
Rumsfeld, D. (2013). Known and Unknown: A Memoir. London: Penguin.
Schoorl, E. (2015). Jean-Baptiste Say: Revolutionary, Entrepreneur, Economist (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics). London: Routledge.
Sculley, J. (1989). Odyssey: From Pepsi to Apple, the Story of a Marketing Genius. New York: Fontana Press.
Sloan, A. P. J., McDonald, J., ed., & Stevens, C., ed. (1965). My Years with General Motors. New York: Sidgwick & Jackson.
Stone, B. (2014). The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. London: Bantam Press.
Taubman, W. (2017). Gorbachev: His Life and Times. London: Simon and Schuster.
Wheen, F. (2010). Karl Marx. London: Fourth Estate.
Concluding Remarks
Readers will be aware that variations on ‘the truth’ will feature in such an eclectic selection and the spectrum of objectivity/subjectivity is indeed broad, ranging from ultra-objective (e.g. Isaacson on Steve Jobs, the greatest corporate wealth creator of modern times) to ultra-hubristic (e.g. Scully, the self-proclaimed ‘marketing genius’ who very nearly destroyed Apple, starting with his firing of: Steve Jobs!). Our assessment is made in the relevant chapters of the book; readers, we are sure, will draw their own conclusions!
Happy Reading!
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