Appendix Three
Author’s Recommended Resources for Further Inquiry: A Sample

Introduction

Because of the diverse range of management science disciplines which are covered throughout British Business Manifesto: Strategies for Profitable Growth, including business strategy, marketing, innovation and organisational 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.

General business books are less reliable than high-quality textbooks in terms of evidentiary veracity but 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 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:

1. 1. Are up to date.
  2. Are pitched at the right intellectual level for MSc/MBA/DBA/PhD core courses and electives and/or the inquisitive reader.
  3. Are fully referenced and indexed to guide readers towards original sources (e.g. peer-reviewed academic journals) for areas of specific interest to them.
  4. Have many illustrative examples and thought-provoking case studies to enhance readers’ learning experience.
  5. Are complementary to all the other activities (lectures, cases, practical examples etc.) that are typically undertaken during taught-course sessions.
  6. Are in most cases supported by a comprehensive web resource.

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 the list which follows we also include examples of generic books relating to the field of business and management.

A sample…

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.
Hooley, G., Nicoulaud, B., Rudd, J., & Lee, N. (2020). Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning (7 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.
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.
Slack, N., & Brandon-Jones, A. (2019). Operations Management (9 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.

Author’s Recommended Business Biographies

Over many years our students of business and management, whether at universities or as participants in seminars and workshops, have requested recommendations for insightful business biographies and autobiographies.

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:

- - 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.

A Sample…

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.
Bower, T. (2014). Branson: Behind the Mask. London: Faber & Faber.
Bloodworth, J. (2018). Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain. London: Atlantic Books.
Branson, R. (2017). Finding my Virginity: The New Autobiography. London: Virgin Books.
Clark, D. (2016). Alibaba: The House that Jack Ma Built. New York: Harper Collins.
Doz, Y. L., & Wilson, K. (2017). Ringtone: Exploring the Rise and Fall of Nokia in Mobile Phones. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gerstner, L. (2003). Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance: Inside IBM’s Historic Turnaround. London: HarperCollins.
Isaacson, W. (2011). Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography. London: Abacus.
Morito, A. (1988). Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony. London: Fontana Press.
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.

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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Appendix Three Author’s Recommended Resources for Further Inquiry: A Sample