As an aspiring MBA candidate you may be beginning to think about the upcoming new academic year and what preparation you might be able to do over the (northern hemisphere) summer period to stay one step ahead of the game.
MBA candidates are expected to read widely in each subject area using the library text books and online peer reviewed academic journals using search engines such as Business Source Completed (EBSCO), Emerald and Science Direct (accessed off campus via the ‘campus anywhere’ VPN application).
In September registered students will be provided with a full, academic reading list for each module.
No doubt though, you have been considering what you might be able to do in the coming months to help prepare yourself once you have fully satisfied all the various conditions.
Some lecturers ask students to buy a course text or two because it will be used extensively for in class case studies and regular readings. These texts are usually described as ‘must buy’ or ‘required texts’. Others recommend (but do not require) one or several texts and expect you to read from them in the library or perhaps you may choose to buy them.
The following list contains suggestions of books that you might want to buy or borrow now and start reading over the summer. They will also feature in the longer reading lists once the new academic year commences.
Marketing
Baines, P., C. Fill and K. Page (2011), Marketing. 2nd edition, Oxford: OUP
Lee, K. and S. Carter (2012), Global Marketing Management. 3rd edition, Oxford: OUP
Philosophy of Management
Martin Hollis – Invitation to Philosophy (1997 edition)
Information Systems
Laudon, K.P. and Laudon, J.P. (2012), Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, 12th Global Edition, Pearson.
Readings:
Carr, N. (2003), "IT doesn't matter", Harvard Business Review, May 2003, 41-49. Available at http://www.proxios.net/pdf/ITDoesn%27tMatter.pdf
Weill, P. and Aral, S. (2006), “Generating premium returns on your IT investments”, MIT Sloan Management Review, 47(2), pp 39-48, available at http://web.mit.edu/sinana/www/SMR.pdf
Accounting and Finance
The ‘must buy’ is: D. Alexander and C. Nobes, Financial Accounting: An International Introduction, Prentice Hall, 5th edition, 2013.
Operations Management
“Operations Management: An international perspective”, by David Barnes, published by Thomson Learning, London (2008) (ISBN: 978-1-84480-534-1)
International Business Economics
Economics of Strategy. (2010, 5th Edition) Wiley (David Besanko, David Dranove, Mark Shanley and Scott Schaefer)
Human Resource Management
Harzing, A.-W. and Pinnington, A.H. (2011) International Human Resource Management, London: Sage Publications (3rd ed.)
Leadership & Behaviour in Organisations
Grint, Keith (2005) Leadership: Limits and Possibilities Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Strategy
A Very Short, Fairly Interesting, and Reasonably Cheap Introduction to Studying Strategy. (2008) London: Sage. (Chris Carter, Stewart Clegg and Martin Kornberger).
I hope this helps you start preparing for the Royal Holloway MBA in September.
Philosophy of Management
Martin Hollis – Invitation to Philosophy (1997 edition)
Information Systems
Laudon, K.P. and Laudon, J.P. (2012), Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, 12th Global Edition, Pearson.
Readings:
Carr, N. (2003), "IT doesn't matter", Harvard Business Review, May 2003, 41-49. Available at http://www.proxios.net/pdf/ITDoesn%27tMatter.pdf
Weill, P. and Aral, S. (2006), “Generating premium returns on your IT investments”, MIT Sloan Management Review, 47(2), pp 39-48, available at http://web.mit.edu/sinana/www/SMR.pdf
Accounting and Finance
The ‘must buy’ is: D. Alexander and C. Nobes, Financial Accounting: An International Introduction, Prentice Hall, 5th edition, 2013.
Operations Management
“Operations Management: An international perspective”, by David Barnes, published by Thomson Learning, London (2008) (ISBN: 978-1-84480-534-1)
International Business Economics
Economics of Strategy. (2010, 5th Edition) Wiley (David Besanko, David Dranove, Mark Shanley and Scott Schaefer)
Human Resource Management
Harzing, A.-W. and Pinnington, A.H. (2011) International Human Resource Management, London: Sage Publications (3rd ed.)
Leadership & Behaviour in Organisations
Grint, Keith (2005) Leadership: Limits and Possibilities Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Strategy
A Very Short, Fairly Interesting, and Reasonably Cheap Introduction to Studying Strategy. (2008) London: Sage. (Chris Carter, Stewart Clegg and Martin Kornberger).
I hope this helps you start preparing for the Royal Holloway MBA in September.
