The Oxford Handbook of Business History

edited by Geoffrey Jones and Jonathan Zeitlin
(Oxford University Press)

This handbook surveys research in business history, a broad area of study generating empirical data that have sometimes confirmed and sometimes contested widely held views in management and the social sciences. Bringing together leading scholars, the book is organized in four parts: Approaches and Debates; Forms of Business Organization; Functions of Enterprise; and Enterprise and Society.

Capitalism, Democracy and Development

edited by Bruce R. Scott
(Springer-Verlag)

This book looks at the emergence of capitalism and democracy as systems of economic and political governance and considers how they may be both mutually supportive and antagonistic. Chapters on the theory and history of these systems challenge the assumption that their spread will bring about a convergence of incomes either among countries or within them. Inequalities of income and power emerge as a major societal issue alongside poverty, and the book develops alternative societal models based upon the degree of inequality in wealth and power.

The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage

by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton (DBA ’73)
(HBS Press)

Building on their previous works on strategy-focused organizations, the authors describe a multistage system enabling a manager to gain measurable benefits from a carefully formulated business strategy. They show how to develop an effective strategy (with tools such as SWOT analysis and strategic-change agendas); plan execution of the strategy (through portfolios of strategic initiatives linked to strategy maps and Balanced Scorecards); put strategy into action (by integrating operational tools such as rolling forecasts and activity-based costing); and test and update the strategy (using carefully designed management meetings to review operational and strategic data).

Marketing Metaphoria: What Deep Metaphors Reveal about the Minds of Consumers

by Gerald Zaltman and Lindsay Zaltman
(HBS Press)

Why do consumers feel that companies don’t understand their needs? Because marketers don’t think deeply about consumers’ innermost feelings. This book reveals the powerful, unconscious viewing lenses, “deep metaphors,” that shape what people think, hear, say, and do. Drawing on thousands of interviews, the authors describe how some of the most successful firms, nonprofits, and social enterprises have successfully used deep metaphors to solve a wide variety of marketing problems.

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