BOOKS FOR MANAGERS
could have been substantially
expanded.
Chapter 3 deals with culture for
knowledge sharing and transfer.
Again, the analysis of ‘‘knowledge
imagery’’ could have been greatly
improved in order to benefit the
reader and the flow of presentation.
Good insights into organisational
culture and effectiveness. The
assessment of structure and
knowledge shaping is limited in
scope and ‘‘sketchy’’, although the
indication of strategies for sharing
is good. Chapter 4 introduces the
leadership role in the management
of knowledge structures and
culture. The management
considerations for different types of
knowledge and learning outcomes
require further exploration. Good
introduction to the relevant issues
related to managing the individual
towards learning. This chapter
deserved a short summary at the
end and a ‘‘link-up’’ with the topics
of ‘‘measurement and technology’’.
(Chapter 5). The chapter contains
some very elementary reasoning
and simplistic frameworks. Still,
good overview of some popular
knowledge management
measurement tools. The discussion
of data warehousing and creation of
knowledge repositories called for
expanded thoughts, including the
‘‘transfer’’ to the next topic based
on its own key points. Finally,
Chapter 6 deals with the learning
of knowledge management
imperatives—plotting the present
into the future. This is a good
‘‘wrap-up’’ chapter containing a
good ‘‘gap analysis’’. Good
analytical discussion of a scenario
of knowledge management
development ahead. By the way, I
think that process-based and
values-based management are
critical for the future of
management! Good and ‘‘rich’’ (in
information) British Airways case
study as well as the interesting
case of BP Amoco. Good facet
incorporated within Celeni’s
Intangible Assets Monitor . . . and
the Chevron case study. Another
good case study is Hewlett-
Packard as well as IBM (dealing
with Intellectual Capital
Management—ICM), the Post
Office (Knowledge interviews—
K1s) and Xerox.
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Limited case studies––Ford, Honda,
ICL, Lucent Technologies,
Monsanto, Pacific Western Airlines
and Singapore Airlines.
In conclusion, easy reading,
informative, topical and . . . above
everything, I suspect that some of
the very good case studies and
illustrations might have a greater
degree of impact on the reader (as
measured by broadness of
discussion issues and involvement
in the understanding process) as
compared to Part 1––the conceptual
chapters. Summing up, a good
writing effort by the three
authors. . .!
Luiz Moutinho
International Human Resource
Management: Managing Peo-
ple in a Multinational Context
P.J. Dowling, D.E. Welch, Thomson,
2004, 4th ed. ISBN: 1-84480-013-X,
333pp £ 29.99
This is the welcome fourth edition
of a well-known text book in the
International Human Resource
Management subject area, albeit,
without the involvement of Randall
Schuler in this case. The change of
publisher has provided the
opportunity for the authors to re-
organise the material, update
existing chapters and add some
new ones.
The book consists of four basic
sections. Part 1 comprises three
chapters, which deal with various
aspects of the multinational context,
including the strong emphasis
(maintained from previous
editions) on staffing for
international assignments. Part 2
looks at the mechanisms for
managing and supporting
international assignments, with
individual chapters covering
recruitment/selection, training and
development, compensation and re-
entry/career issues. Part 3 is
concerned with global HR issues,
with four chapters examining the
host country context, industrial
relations, performance management
and international HR trends and
future challenges. Each individual
chapter contains a useful set of
discussion questions and exercises,
European Management Journal Vol. 22, No. 5, pp. 605–608, October 2004
while part 4 consists solely of cases
and exercises.
As with every new textbook or new
editions of one, each and every
teacher will have their own
‘favourite’ topics where they would
have welcomed more emphasis and
priority. I personally would have
welcomed more material on cross-
national bargaining as a ‘lens’
through which differences in
national culture are played out in
tangible terms, and more generally
the context of human resource
management policies located in the
larger content of national
differences in strategic thinking
and larger decision-making
processes.
This being said, I am delighted to
have the new edition on my
bookshelves, will utilise it in class
and indeed find it hard to imagine
any course in IHRM not making
some use of this book.
Phil Beaumont
Go to Market Strategy
Lawrence G. Friedman, 2002, Butter
worth-Heinemann Publishers, ISBN 0
7506 7460 1, 292 pages, £19.99
This book is positioned as a
systematic and practical guide for
selecting, entering and capturing
markets. Clearly, the
implementation of a
comprehensive, multi-channel go-
to-market-strategy is key for any
company to achieve profitable
growth. The book provides a
framework, supported by practical
examples, which will help readers
develop sound strategies. The
author is trying to get the
fundamentals of focus, discipline
and execution effectively aligned.
There are many examples and best
practices across a variety of
industries. Friedman lays out an
actionable blueprint for building a
go-to-market plan. Some critical
questions are raised. For example,
what mix of channels and partners
will help the company reach and sell
to the most customers at the
lowest possible cost? What would
make the ‘message’ work,
compelling—and drive more
purchasing activity? The book

builds upon the experiences of go-
to-market innovators.
Chapter 1 deals with the go-to-
market strategies supported by
useful vignettes and a short case
study. There is a good section on
the ingredients of a winning go-to-
market strategy. Chapter 2 presents
the ‘ten commandments’ of going to
market. The chapter is well
illustrated but the discussion on the
high-control and the high-coverage
strategies could have been
expanded. There are some good
insights on the role of the Web.
There is also a comprehensive
coverage of the topic.
Chapter 3 discusses the issues
relevant to targeting the right
markets. It includes good ‘warning’
highlights and a good application
example. The discussion is quite
‘light’ at times but the limits may
prove to be effective. The section on
‘customer buying behaviour’
includes some interesting insights
into channel usage. There are also
some good comments on how to get
customer information efficiently
and effectively. The notion of
‘staying on top of trends in the
customer base’ has a lot of potential
to be explored but as is presented in
the text is some- what limited in
scope. The chapter includes another
good mini case study on Procter
and Gamble’s IAMS.
Chapter 5 covers the choice of the
right channels and partners. I have
enjoyed the illustrations dealing
with customer channel behaviour
analysis and the application of a
product channel fit filter. Good
overview of market coverage
issues. Chapter 6 deals with the
need to rethink the product mix and
the issue of value proposition.
There are some good insights into
the impact of market, customer
and channel charge. There is a
good, short but effective, example.
Also there are some good
considerations on the value
proposition.
Chapter 7 has a focus on the
integrated multi-channel model and
it contains a good discussion on its
construction, including effective
illustrations. A number of models
(i.e. lead operation’, ‘high margin’,
European Management Journal Vol. 22, No. 5, pp. 605–608, October 2004
the high-coverage partnering and
the maximum growth) are
discussed. The author could have
expanded his comments on channel
coercion vs. migration.
Furthermore, there are some
interesting thoughts into
ensuring a ‘seamless’ customer
experience through channel co-
ordination, as well as a good
section on anticipating and
managing channel conflict (e.g.
market separation, product
configuration etc.) the discussion
on designing performance metrics
for an integrated multi-channel
model would have benefited from
being extended. Finally, Chapter 8
deals with ‘getting started: the 90-
day go-to-market action plan’. I
am afraid I had high expectations
for this concluding chapter. . . but
its content is too basic and sim-
plistic!
The book is a ‘light-hearted’ text
with some good passages. Yes, it is
a practical guide, pragmatic and
implementation-oriented. The
illustrations and examples are
reader friendly, as well as the
‘warning’ highlights. Still, the
discussion thoughts are light. . .,
although the insights into channel
management are good, and
‘refreshing’!! Interesting leisure
reading. . .!
Luiz Moutinho
Stochastic Frontier Analysis
Subal C Kumbhakar, and C.A. Knox
Lovell, Cambridge University Press
hardback, 2000, 333 pages, £40.00
This text is a good, all-round, up-to-
date insight into both the theory and
techniques used in Frontier
production, cost and profit analysis.
Models for cross-sectional and panel
data are introduced and discussed.
Kumbhakar and Lovell provide a
thorough review of all the
developments that have taken place
during the last twenty odd years. I
have no doubt that this book will
trigger further research into
measurement and explanation of
efficiency and productivity
(change). Least square based
regression techniques have been
used to estimate production, cost,
BOOKS FOR MANAGERS
profit and other functions. This book
develops econometric techniques
for the estimation of production cost
and profit frontiers, and for the
estimation of the technical and
economic efficiency with which
producers approach these frontiers.
There is a good section on ‘‘A Brief
History of Thought’’ covering the
intellectual antecedents, origins,
and developments of Stochastic
Frontier Analysis.
The chapter dealing with
‘‘Analytical Foundations’’ contains
a good section on ‘‘Production
Technology’’. The authors include a
very effective discussion on cross-
sectional models and
heteroskedasticity, as well as
multiple-output models.
This is most certainly a text for the
specialist, providing an extremely
comprehensive and authoritative
review of the relevant literature.
The quality and style of its
treatment can be gauged from a
brief glance at the bibliography,
where sources such as the Journal of
Econometrics and others of similar
high quality are listed.
The book is written very specifically
for economists and readers need to
be comfortable with the various
tools used in that particular
discipline. These tools include
Econometrics, given that many of
the issues treated in the book
concern properties of error terms in
regression models. Much attention
is devoted to composite error terms,
which in addition to the standard
noise effects are also taken to
represent departures from
optimality in production. Given
that only points inside the frontier
are feasible, the latter approach
requires the use of interesting and
non-standard distributions such as
the Half Normal Distribution. There
is in-depth treatment of such
distributional assumptions and the
resulting likelihood functions.
It is perhaps a pity that the book
will not be easily accessible
outside of the Economics
profession, given that issues such as
efficiency and capacity utilisation
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