STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT READING LIST, 2002
All opinions given here are entirely
my own and are not the responsibility of the University of Westminster...Adrian
Haberberg
General Texts
Adrian Haberberg and Alison Rieple, The Strategic Management
of Organisations, Prentice-Hall, 2001. If you
want an objective review of this book, then you are looking in the wrong
place! For the record, my co-author and I believe that we have come up
with a text that is more readable, more comprehensive and more up-to-date
than any of its competitors, and one that is alone in giving balanced attention
to considerations of economics, culture, power, politics and human fallibility.
We have also tried to take a genuinely international approach, with examples
from throughout the world. Most importantly, we think you will find that
more teaching goes on in our pages than in competing books. We don't just
describe
the different models and frameworks, we give practical tips and examples
on how to use them - and on how to avoid the most common mistakes.
And we show how to structure a good strategic analysis. Written with undergraduates
in mind, but Masters students have also appreciated the extra depth of
explanation.
Robert M Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 4th Edition,
Blackwell, 2002. Consistently liked by Masters level
students for its clear structure and style. Shows impeccable scholarship,
is strong in its treatment of industry analysis and the value chain and
on analysis of firms' resources. Although there is a now a thorough section
on structure and control systems, Grant's treatment of the "soft" side
of strategy - culture and of the management of change - remains very thin.
Nonetheless, highly recommended reading for any serious student of the
subject.
Garth Saloner, Andrea Shepard and Joel Podolny,
Strategic
Management, Wiley 2001. The main strengths
of this book are its very clear writing style and its novel, rigorous and
interesting approach to industry analysis. It gives far more detailed attention
than normal to topics like barriers to entry, differentiation and competing
in concentrated markets, and the best treatment I have so seen of competition
under increasing returns. Other plus factors are good, concise treatments
of strategy development (which it avoids treating as a linear, rational
process, as so many US texts seem to) and a neat framework for analysing
the impact of organisation structure and systems on strategy. Its main
weaknesses are the absence of any good frameworks for the detailed analysis
of organisations' capabilities and culture, a thin treatment of strategic
change and an occasional tendency to confuse the predictions of economic
theory with reality. Few concessions to the non-American reader in its
choice of examples and its explanation of the activities of the firms it
does use. Nonetheless, a worthy competitor to Grant.
Shiv Mathur and Alfred Kenyon, Creating Value, Successful
Business Strategies, 2nd Edition Butterworth Heinemann, 2001. Like
the Saloner book, this has an unorthodox but rigorous approach. It eschews
the idea of firms competing in industries, and prefers the concept of offerings
competing in markets.
David Collis and Cynthia Montgomery, Corporate Strategy -
Resources and the Scope of the Firm, Irwin/McGraw Hill, 1997. Concisely
written with a thorough treatment of resource-based theories. However,
students have not always found it easy to follow, or to make use of the
book's innovative treatment of the links between corporate-level and business-level
strategies. Adequate coverage of organisation theory and culture (unusual
in books written from the economist's standpoint), but nothing on the management
of change and strangely weak on competitive positioning and manoeuvring.
Cliff Bowman and David Faulkner, Competitive and Corporate
Strategy, Irwin, 1997. A comprehensive and quite
readable book, with however less theoretical depth than some of its competitors.
Liam Fahey and Robert M Randall, The Portable MBA in Strategy,
Wiley, 1994. Don’t be put off by the implied hype
in the title. This is a collection of solid contributions from such names
as Michael Porter, C K Prahalad, James Brian Quinn and Gerry Johnson. There
are useful articles on developing strategic options and managing change,
which make it a handy complement to texts like Grant and Collis and
Montgomery. Rather lacks a clear thread to stitch the articles together.
Charles W L Hill & Gareth R Jones, Strategic Management
- An Integrated Approach, 5th Edition, Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Very
American in its approach and its examples, but thorough, and commendably
clearly written. Until recently, the set text for all our main undergraduate
strategy modules. Good on the value chain
and organisation structure, but its analyses of corporate culture and the
implementation of change are too rational to be completely realistic -
a common fault in authors with an economics bias.
Gerry Johnson & Kevan Scholes, Exploring Corporate Strategy,
6th Edition, Prentice-Hall, 2002. Classic European
text, always strong on corporate culture and the management of change,
and has improved its all-round coverage in the most recent edition. Its
treatment of one key topic, the analysis of an organisation's competitive
advantage remains rather rushed, however, and the writing style is still
somewhat scholarly in places.
Richard Lynch, Corporate Strategy, 2nd Edition, Prentice
Hall, 2000 is quite well written and has a good range
of European examples. However, it is rather long, and tries so hard to
include everything and take account of divergent points of view that you
may find it confusing in places. New edition imminent.
Mary Coulter, Strategic Management
in Action, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall 2002;
a very decent attempt at compressing the subject into 300 pages without
being too simplistic and prescriptive, this book genuinely attempts to
make the reader think and reflect. Whether it is up-to-date enough to justify
a copyright date fully 10 months ahead of its publication can be left to
the reader to decide, but the material on competitive and business-level
strategy
fully reflects contemporary debates. However, important compromises have
been made for the sake of brevity, so there is nothing on organisation
structure, control systems or the management of change. There are few concessions
to the non-American reader - almost all the examples are US firms, and
a not-for-profit organisation is defined in terms of the US tax code.
Craig Fleischer and Babette Bensoussian,
Strategic
and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business
Competition, Prentice Hall 2002. Not intended
as a textbook, but as a supplement to one, this compilation of twenty-seven
strategic and general management tools and techniques is aimed at practitioners.
For each technique there is a rigorous examination of the advantages and
disadvantages and a guide to applying it in practice that would have been
enhanced by some warnings against the most common practical mistakes that
people make. Nonetheless, a sound mixture the theory and practice make
this a useful reference tool.
"Simple" Overviews
James C Craig and Robert M Grant, Strategic Management, Kogan
Page, 1993; a good, simple overview of the subject,
recommended as a starter text.
Cornelius A de Kluyver, Strategic Thinking - A Executive
Perspective, Prentice Hall, 2000; an excellently
written overview that I would recommend as pre-course reading for Masters
students. Commendably up-to-date in most regards, though it gives a little
too much prominence to portfolio models for my own taste.
Paul Joyce and Adrian Woods, Essential Strategic Management
- from modernism to pragmatism, Heinemann, 1996; another
simple overview which also contains a coherent account of what postmodernism
means in management terms (if you are interested in such intellectual niceties),
and some nice summaries of key research findings. Skimpy on implementation
and change, however.
Collections of Readings
Susan Segal-Horn (ed.), The Strategy Reader, Blackwell,
1998. Marketed as a companion volume to the book
by Grant (see above) this is a straightforward, well-chosen collection
of readable and influential articles. Recommended.
Andrew Campbell and Kathleen Sommers Luchs (ed.), Core Competency-Based
Strategy, International Thomson, 1997. A useful
and compact selection of readings broadly representing the currently fashionable
resource-based view of strategy.
Bob de Wit and Ron Meyer, Strategy - Process, Content, Context,
An International Perspective, 2nd Edition, International Thomson, 1998.
A
well-chosen selection of important recent articles. The structure
is a considerable improvement over that of the previous edition, making
it easier to follow and to tie in with other text books. An excellent source
book for those doing projects in the strategic management area, or for
anyone wanting to get quickly up to speed with current theoretical debates.
The first edition, which contains many classic articles from the 1970s,
is also worth a look for people in both categories.
Bob de Wit and Ron Meyer, Strategy Synthesis - Resolving
Strategy Paradoxes to Create Competitive Advantage, International Thomson,
1999. In essence, this is a more portable (though
only slightly cheaper) version of Strategy - Process, Content, Context,
with shorter cases, fewer readings and a more pretentious title. Worth
considering as an alternative to the book by Segal-Horn.
Henry Mintzberg, James Brian Quinn and Sumantra Ghoshal (ed.),The
Strategy Process - Concepts, Contexts and Cases, 2nd European Edition,
Prentice-Hall, 1997. Covers much of the same ground
as de Wit & Meyer, but with more of Mintzberg’s own writings and with
extracts of articles rather than the unabridged text. I personally find
de Wit and Meyer the more stimulating read, but this book is also well
worth a look, particularly for articles on the slighter older-established
schools of strategy which de Wit and Meyer have started to leave behind.
David A Klein (ed.), The Strategic Managment of Intellectual
Capital, Butterworth Heinemann, 1998. A
selection of readings in the cutting-edge areas of organisational learning
and knowledge management. Slightly more scholarly than the articles in
Campbell and Sommers Luchs.
General Books on Strategy
Robert Kaplan and David Norton, The Strategy-focused Organisation,
Harvard Business School Press, 2001. For the most
part this is a set of case studies on how Kaplan and Norton's Balanced
Scorecard can be applied in practice, and as such can be a little monotonous
- not the kind of book you'd sit down and read straight through. Its main
strength is its clear grasp of the realities of strategy - how strategy
comes down in practice to the behaviour of quite junior staff, such as
sales representatives, delivery drivers and factory operatives. It also
provides strong insights into the way that control and reward systems influence
these strategic behaviours, and into the problems of implementing strategic
change. There are clear and accurate summaries of key elements of relevant
strategic management theory.
Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher Bartlett, The Individualized
Corporation, Heinemann, 1998. Stimulating analysis
of how some modern international corporations organise themselves to cope
with the complexity of managing multiple businesses in multiple cultures.
Some graphic examples of what knowledge management and learnig actually
mean in practice. However, the reader should beware: not everyone is as
convinced as Ghoshal and Bartlett of the effectiveness of firms, like Kao
and ISS, to which they give unstinting praise. Those on tight budgets can
find much of the material in this book in the authors articles (see article
list).
Shona Brown and Kathleen Eisenhardt,
Competing
on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos, Harvard Business School
Press, 1998. This book contains some interesting
prescriptions on how to manage a modern business. Brown and Eisenhardt's
ideal organisation is one that holds itself on the "edge of chaos" so that
it can spontaneously reorganise to meet new challenges. The ideas in the
book are given a theoretical "wrapping" of complexity theory which is not
sustained throughout and which I for one do not find totally convincing.
It is also difficult to believe that Brown and Eisenhardt's ideas truly
hold for all organisations, whatever the context, which is what the authors
imply. Their prescriptions on how to manage a diversified corporation,
for example, are contested by other researchers. With these caveats, the
book is a worthwhile read.
Gary Hamel and C K Prahalad, Competing for the Future,
Harvard Business School Press, 1994. A bestseller
which some people find quite inspiring. Alternatively, read their articles
in de Wit and Meyer or the Harvard Business Review
John Kay, Foundations of Corporate Success - How business
strategies add value, Oxford University Press, 1993. A
useful and finely written overview of strategy, from an economists point
of view, but certainly not just aimed at economists. Excellent on the strategic
implications of game theory and different types of contract.
Kenichi Ohmae, The Mind of the Strategist, Penguin, 1982;
one
of the few books to look with any success at how to formulate creative
strategies. Good value.
Andrew Pettigrew and Richard Whipp, Managing Change for Competitive
Success, Blackwell, 1991. Despite its title,
this book is not really about managing change, but more about how some
organisations seem able to adapt more readily than others over a long period
time. It studies matched pairs of UK firms and analyses why some consistently
outperform the others. A bit scholarly.
Michael Porter, Competitive Strategy, Free Press, 1980
and Competitive Advantage, Free Press, 1985. These
books revolutionised strategic management thinking, in the 1980s, but are
difficult to read, especially the second, with too many obscure US examples.
For a clear and readable exposition of Porter's ideas, the book by Grant
is recommended.
Corporate Culture
and Change
Julia Balogun and Veronica Hope-Hailey, Exploring Strategic Change,
Prentice-Hall Europe, 1999. The most successful
of a series of books launched to capitalise on the brand created
by Johnson and Scholes (see above). A bit prescriptive in its approach,
but introduces some interesting models for analysing strategic change,
and explains them well.
Bernard Burnes, Managing Change - A Strategic Approach to
Organisational Dynamics, 3rd Edition, Prentice-Hall, 2001; extremely
useful for the change management elements of strategy modules - but make
sure you get the second or third editions - the first is far more limited
in its approach.
Robert Paton and James McCalman, Change Management - A guide
to effective implementation, 2nd Edition, Sage, 2000. Rather
more scholarly in its approach than its title would suggest, this describes,
in some depth, a number of approaches for mapping and implementing change.
Does not offer a lot by way of evaluation or comparison of the different
models, so it is left to the reader to devine how they interrelate, and
which might be most productively deployed in particular circumstances.
Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence,
Harper and Row, 1982
Tom Peters, Thriving on Chaos, Knopf, 1987. There
seems to be a rule that business writers' credibility with academics has
a strong inverse relationship with their consultancy income. Tom Peters
and, more recently Michael Porter have both suffered from this (Gary Hamel
could well be next). Peters in particular has many detractors who find
his research methods academically suspect, and many people take delight
in pointing out the problems suffered by the "excellent" companies in his
first book in the years shortly after he published it. However, the reason
he got rich is because there is a discernable grain of truth in what he
preaches, and academic research seems to validate many of his ideas.
Useful Books on Specialised
Topics
Clayton Christensen,
The Innovator's Dilemma,
Harvard Business School Press, 1997. One of
the few business books that manage to combine readability and practical
relevance with theoretical rigour. Christensen gives a convincing and thoroughly
researched explanation of how established firms can find it difficult to
come to terms with innovative technologies until too late. Highly recommended.
Charles Baden-Fuller and John Stopford, Rejuvenating the
Mature Business, Routledge, 1992. Challenges
the conventional wisdom of writers like Porter about how firms can compete
in mature industries.
John M Bryson, Strategic Planning for Public and Non Profit
Organizations, Revised Edition, Jossey-Bass, 1995
Philip Crosby, Quality is Free, McGraw-Hill, 1979. Cheapest
and most readable introduction to the Total Quality movement. But don't
take the title too literally.
George Day, Paul Schoemaker and
Robert Gunther, Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies, Wiley,
2000. A collection of useful articles covering
a number of cutting-edge topics, including real options.
Michael Goold, Andrew Campbell, Marcus Alexander, Corporate-Level
Strategy - Creating Value in the Multi-Business Company, Wiley, 1994.
Excellent,
innovative text on what distinguishes successfully diversified corporations
from the many unsuccessful ones.
Nancy Hubbard, Acquisition: Strategy and Implementation,
MacMillan Business, 1999. Comprehensive review of
the theory, practice and pitfalls of mergers and acquistions, with illustrations
from Hubbard's own research. Not many of her conclusions will be new or
surprising to people who are already familiar with M&A theory, but
this is a well-written compendium, useful to practitioners and an essential
starting point for students doing projects in the area.
I Nonaka and H Takeuchi, The Knowledge Creating Company:
How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation, Oxford University
Press, 1995. The book that triggered the current
vogue for knowledge management.
Stuart Slatter and David Lovett, Corporate Turnaround:
Managing Companies in Distress, Penguin, 1999. A
follow-up to Slatter's 1984 classic analysis of what makes a successful
corporate turnaround, Corporate Recovery.
Joe Tidd, John Beassant and Keith Pavitt, Managing Innovation
- Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change, Wiley,
2nd Edition 2001. An excellent treatment of innovation
which reinforces many of the key messages in contemporary strategy.
International Strategy
Christopher A Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal (ed.), Transnational
Management - Text, Cases and Readings in Cross-Border Management, 3rd
Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2000. Written by two of the
leading authorities on international strategic management, and with a good
selection of readings that make it of interest to anyone looking at the
behaviour of large corporations, international or not.
Charles Hampden-Turner and Fars Trompenaars, The Seven Cultures
of Capitalism, Piatkus, 1994; intriguing insights
into how different cultures (US, UK, Japan, Germany, France, Sweden and
Netherlands) generate different models of capitalism.
Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations, HarperCollinsBusiness,
1994. Hofstede is the doyen of cross-cultural organisation
studies. More thoughtful and less expensive than Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars.
James H Taggart and Michael C McDermott, The Essence of International
Business, Prentice-Hall, 1993. Along with a lot
of material outside the scope of this subject, this includes exceptionally
clear summaries of the main topics in global strategic management.
George S Yip, Total Global Strategy, Prentice-Hall, 1992.
A
good, if rather specialised, text, aimed more at practising managers than
at students, and focusing, as the title suggests, upon global strategy.
Mavericks and Critical Thinkers
Colin Egan, Creating Organizational Advantage, Butterworth-Heinemann,
1995. A short book with an unusual but coherent view
of what strategy is about. Useful on topics like markets and hierarchies.
Savage, if not altogether convincing, debunking of TQM and BPR.
Charles Hampden-Turner, Charting the Corporate Mind,
Blackwell, 1990. Genuinely original, exploring ways
in which to reconcile conflicting strategic imperatives rather than let
one prevail.
Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel, Strategy
Safari, Prentice Hall, 1998. Identifies ten different
schools of strategic thinking, discusses the similarities and differences
between them and attempts a synthesis. Comprehensive and quite entertaining.
Tudor Rickards, Creativity and the Management of Change,
Blackwell, 1998. An intriguing book that promises
more than it eventually delivers. Gives a well-written overview of a number
of strands of management and economic thinking, and points out their strengths
and limitations. Its aim is to stimulate the reader to think beyond established
orthodoxies.
Ralph Stacey, Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics,
3rd edition, FT-Prentice Hall, 2000; Stacey's
own field of interest is complexity theory and its applications in organisations,
and this book is worth reading if you want to investigate this quite intriguing
way of looking at organisations. The value of Stacey's work is rather undermined
by the polemical nature of much of what he writes, and his decision to
ignore most of the advances in mainstream strategic management theory over
the past ten years.
Richard Whittington, What is Strategy and Does it Matter?,
Routledge, 1993; explores different schools of strategic
thinking.
Collections of Scholarly
Articles
The books in this section are written by academics
for academics. They are not recommended for students who find the subject
difficult or who find academic English a challenge. They may be useful
for people who are contemplating further study in strategy, are interested
in the directions the subject is taking, or are doing a project in a specialised
area. Sage and Wiley are the best-known publishers of this kind of book,
and it is worth consulting their list for recent updates.
Colin Eden and J.-C. Spender (eds.), Managerial and Organizational
Cognition, Sage, 1998
Amy Edmondson and Bernard Moingeon (eds.), Organisational
Learning and Competitive Advantage, Sage, 1996.
Adrian Haberberg
University of Westminster
Last updated on 29 May 2002