List of business theorists
This is an annotated list of important business writers. It is in alphabetical order based on last name.
A
- David Aaker - marketing, brand strategy
- Wil van der Aalst
- James Abegglen - management and business in Japan
- Bodo Abel
- Russell L. Ackoff - operations research, organizational theory
- John Adair - leadership
- Karol Adamiecki - management
- Ichak Adizes
- Niclas Adler - Swedish organizational theorist
- Charles Constance César Joseph Matthieu d'Agoult
- Yoji Akao
- Ali Akdemir
- Howard E. Aldrich - American sociologist and organizational theorist
- Leon P. Alford - scientific management
- Tim Ambler - marketing effectiveness
- Igor Ansoff - strategic management
- Ingeman Arbnor
- Chris Argyris - learning systems, learning organization
- Horace Lucian Arnold
- Neal Ashkanasy
B
- Stephen R. Barley - technology, organizational change, organizational culture
- Chester Barnard - management
- Gary S. Becker
- Charles Bedaux - scientific management
- Warren Bennis - leadership studies
- Per Olof Berg - Swedish organizational theorist
- Manfred Berliner
- Björn Bjerke
- Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett - operations research
- Ken Blanchard
- Charles Bosanquet
- Matthew Boulton - labor productivity
- Marvin Bower
- Richard Boyatzis - emotional intelligence, behavior change, and competence
- Leland Lawrence Briggs - American accounting scholar
- John Seely Brown
- Wilfred Brown, Baron Brown
- Nils Brunsson - institutionalized hypocrisy of organizations
- Lawton Burns - health care systems
C
- Noel Capon
- Charles U. Carpenter
- Jean-Luc Cerdin
- James A. Champy - business process reengineering
- Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. - management, Pulitzer Prize for The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business
- Clayton M. Christensen
- Alexander Hamilton Church - industrial management
- C. West Churchman
- Stewart Clegg
- Ronald Coase - transaction costs, Coase theorem, theory of the firm
- James C. Collins - vision statement, strategic planning and BHAG
- Morris Llewellyn Cooke
- Cary Cooper
- Stephen Covey
- Philip B. Crosby
- Richard Cyert
- Barbara Czarniawska
D
- Robert Dahlstrom - American organizational theorist, works on international marketing
- David Dale
- Thomas H. Davenport
- George S. Day - marketing
- Jeff DeGraff
- Morris H. DeGroot
- W. Edwards Deming - statistical quality control
- Daniel R. Denison
- Eric Dent
- Hugo Diemer - industrial engineering
- Jan Dietz
- Patrick Dixon
- Henk van Dongen
- Sytse Douma
- Wiebe Draijer
- Peter Drucker - management
- Anna Dubois - Swedish organizational theorist
- Peter Dunn
E
- Andrew S.C. Ehrenberg
- Michael Eisner
- Chester Elton
- Tunç Erem
- Richard F. Ericson
- Hans-Erik Eriksson - Swedish computer scientist and organizational theorist
- Agner Krarup Erlang
- Hamid Etemad
F
- Henri Fayol - management
- Armand V. Feigenbaum - quality control
- Tim Ferriss
- Harry Anson Finney - American accountancy author
- Ronald Fisher - statistics
- Mary Follett - organizational studies
- Nicolai J. Foss
- R. Edward Freeman
- Mike L. Fry
- Adrian Furnham
G
- John Kenneth Galbraith - The New Industrial State
- Henry Gantt - Gantt chart
- Burleigh B. Gardner - motivation research
- Michael Gerber - E-Myth Revisited
- Jamshid Gharajedaghi - American organizational theorist, management consultant, and Adjunct Professor of Systems Thinking
- Sumantra Ghoshal
- John P. van Gigch
- Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr.
- Frank Gilbreth - time and motion study
- Seth Godin
- Eliyahu M. Goldratt - theory of constraints
- Marshall Goldsmith
- Daniel Goleman
- Vytautas Andrius Graiciunas - management
- Lynda Gratton
- C. Jackson Grayson
- Danny Greefhorst - Dutch enterprise architect
- James Bray Griffith - American business theorist
- William H. Gruber - American organizational theorist
- Erich Gutenberg - theory of the firm
H
- Stephan H. Haeckel
- Stephen G. Haines
- Noel Frederick Hall
- Brian Halligan
- Gary Hamel - core competency, strategic management
- Michael Hammer - business process reengineering
- Charles Handy - organisational behaviour
- Paul Harmon - management author
- G. Charter Harrison - Anglo-American management consultant and cost account pioneer
- Sven A. Haugland - Norwegian organizational theorist
- David L. Hawk
- Igor Hawryszkiewycz - American computer scientist and organizational theorist
- Robert Heller
- Frederick Herzberg - two factor theory, motivation theory, job enrichment
- Steen Hildebrandt
- Charles DeLano Hine
- Geert Hofstede
- Kenneth Hopper
- Yasheng Huang
- Albert S Humphrey - strategic planning, SWOT analysis
- Shelby D. Hunt
- Walter Hunziker
I
- Masaaki Imai - Kaizen
- Anders Indset
- Kaoru Ishikawa - Ishikawa diagram in industrial process; quality circles
J
- Mike Jackson - systems scientist
- Lars Jaeger
- John Jantsch
- Dave Jenks
- Anita Jose
- Joseph M. Juran - quality control, especially quality circles
K
- Rosabeth Moss Kanter - business management and change management
- Robert S. Kaplan - management accounting and balanced scorecard
- Dexter Keezer
- Kevin Lane Keller
- Roy B. Kester - American accountancy scholar
- Tarun Khanna
- Walter Kickert - Dutch academic and professor of public management
- John Warren Kindt
- Charles Edward Knoeppel
- Richard Koch
- Lars Kolind
- Monika Kostera
- Philip Kotler - marketing management and social marketing
- John Kotter - organizational behaviour and management
- Vladimir Kvint - strategy
L
- John Christian Langli
- Jean-Claude Larréché
- Kyoung Jun Lee
- William Henry Leffingwell - office management
- Paul Leonardi
- Harry Levinson
- Theodore Levitt - marketing and globalization
- Michael Lewis
- Peter Lindgren - Danish organizational theorist
- John Lintner - capital asset pricing model
- Ted London
- Juan Antonio Pérez López
- Jay Lorsch
- Michael Lounsbury
- Randi Lunnan - Norwegian organizational theorist, works on strategic alliances
- Reijo Luostarinen - Finnish organisational theorist
- James Alexander Lyons - American accountancy author
M
- John Van Maanen
- James MacGregor Burns
- Kenneth D. Mackenzie
- Teemu Malmi - Finnish organizational theorist
- Vincent Mangematin
- James G. March - theory of the firm
- Constantinos Markides - strategic management and strategy dynamics
- Harry Markowitz - modern portfolio theory, Nobel Prize in 1990
- Perry Marshall
- John C. Maxwell - leadership
- Elton Mayo - job satisfaction and Hawthorne effect
- John H. McArthur
- Daniel McCallum - organizational charts
- Douglas McGregor
- Dalton McGuinty, Sr.
- Geoff Meeks - British accounting scholar
- Lucas Meijs
- Leo Melamed - currency futures and derivatives
- Gary Metcalf
- Henry C. Metcalf - the science of administration
- Henry Metcalfe - the science of administration
- Gerald Midgley
- Danny Miller - economist
- Merton Miller - Modigliani–Miller theorem and corporate finance
- Henry Mintzberg - organizational architecture, strategic management
- Franco Modigliani - Modigliani–Miller theorem and corporate finance
- Geoffrey Moore
- Richard Moran
- Gareth Morgan
- Gerry Morgan
- Silvina Moschini
- Hugo Münsterberg - psychology of work
- J. Keith Murnighan
- Christa Muth
N
- Peter Naudé - marketing and business networks
- Nicholas Negroponte - human-computer interaction
- Nobuo Noda - Japanese business scholar
- Kjell A. Nordström
- Arne Nygaard - Norwegian organizational theorist
O
- George S. Odiorne - management by objectives
- Kenichi Ohmae - 3C's model and strategic management
- Taiichi Ohno - Toyota Production System, lean manufacturing, just in time
- David Ogilvy - advertising
- Sharon Oster
- William Ouchi - Theory Z
- Robert Owen - cooperatives
P
- Luca Pacioli - double-entry bookkeeping system and financial statements
- Javier Perez-Capdevila - strategic management and business analysis and valuation
- Krishna Palepu - business analysis and valuation, financial statements
- Scott Patterson
- Keith Pavitt - innovation clusters and innovation taxonomy
- Edith Penrose - The Theory of the Growth of the Firm
- Juan Antonio Pérez López - negative learning
- Oscar E. Perrigo - shop management
- Laurence J. Peter - Peter Principle
- Thomas J. Peters - management
- Jeffrey Pfeffer - organizational development
- Robert Allen Phillips
- Rebecca Piekkari - Finnish organizational theorist
- Henry Varnum Poor - principles of organization
- Michael Porter - strategic management and Porter's 5 forces
- C. K. Prahalad - core competency
- Derek S. Pugh
R
- J. Donald R. de Raadt
- Navi Radjou
- N. Ravichandaran
- Jeffrey Rayport
- W. Charles Redding
- Robert Reich
- Fred Reichheld
- Reg Revans
- Jeremy Rifkin
- Fritz Roethlisberger
- Georges Romme
- Mike Rother
S
- Martti Saario - Finnish organizational theorist and Professor of Accounting
- Kenan Sahin
- Mohammad Ali Sarlak
- Jason Saul
- August-Wilhelm Scheer
- Edgar Schein
- Eugen Schmalenbach - economic value added
- Hein Schreuder
- David Meerman Scott - inbound marketing and PR in the Internet era
- Walter Dill Scott - psychology of personnel management
- Esbjörn Segelod - Swedish organizational theorist
- Peter Senge
- Dorian Shainin
- Stanley J. Shapiro
- Seena Sharp
- Oliver Sheldon - business philosophy
- Walter A. Shewhart - control charts
- Shigeo Shingo - Zero Quality Control and Single Minute Exchange of Dies
- Herbert A. Simon - satisficing Nobel Prize, 1978
- Ibrahim Sirkeci
- Adrian Slywotzky - marketing strategy
- Linda Smircich
- Adam Smith - economics, capitalism, free trade
- Ivan Snehota, Italian organizational theorist
- Henk G. Sol
- Rolf Solli
- Thomas J. Stanley
- Andy Stefanovich
- Victor Hermann Stempf - American accountant
- Joel Stern - economic value added
- Rosemary Stewart - business theorist
- Antonio Strati
- Robert I. Sutton
- G. A. Swanson
- Richard A. Swanson
- William R. Synnott
T
- Genichi Taguchi - Taguchi methods, quality control
- Don Tapscott
- Frederick Winslow Taylor - scientific management, time and motion study
- Sridhar Tayur
- David Teece
- Vern Terpstra
- Jacques Thomassen - Dutch organizational theorist
- C. Bertrand Thompson
- Alvin Toffler
- Thomas Thorburn - Swedish Professor of Business Administration
- Jean-Marie Toulouse
- Phil Town
- Henry R. Towne - scientific management
- John Tregoning - factory management
- Jack Trout
- Josiah Tucker
- Bruce Tuckman - stages of team development
- Dominique Turpin
U
V
- Peter Vaill
- Andrew H. Van de Ven
- Jan Vanthienen
- Hal Varian
- Antoaneta Vassileva
- Henrik Virkkunen - Finnish organizational theorist and professor of accounting
- Henk Volberda
- Victor Vroom
W
- André de Waal
- Jean-Baptiste Waldner - computer-integrated manufacturing
- Alexandra Waluszewski - Swedish organizational theorist
- James Watt - Industrial Revolution, division of labour, standard operating procedures, cost control
- Max Weber - a founder of the modern study of sociology and public administration
- Frank E. Webner - American consulting cost accountant
- Karl E. Weick
- Lawrence Welch - Australian organisational theorist
- Joseph Wharton - protective tariffs, business cycles, Wharton School
- Alasdair A. K. White
- John Whitmore - American accountant, contributed to standard costing
- Eli Whitney - interchangeable parts, cost accounting
- Jennifer Wilby
- Thomas Williams of Llanidan
- Oliver E. Williamson - transaction costs, theory of the firm
- Mark W. Willis
- Pieter Winsemius
- Clinton Edgar Woods - factory organization
Y
Z
- Udo Zander - Swedish organizational theorist