Small Business Management in the 21st Century
David Cadden, Quinnipiac University
Sandra L. Lueder, Southern Connecticut State University
Copyright Year: 2012
ISBN 13: 9781453345566
Publisher: Saylor Foundation
Language: English
Formats Available
Conditions of Use
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
CC BY-NC-SA
Reviews
The book has 15 chapters and covers all important aspects of small business management which small business owners and managers must understand. The materials are comprehensive and understandable. read more
The book has 15 chapters and covers all important aspects of small business management which small business owners and managers must understand. The materials are comprehensive and understandable.
The contents are unbiased and correct.
The book was published in 2012, but the concepts are still valid and relevant today. Although some materials and references could be undated, minor revisions could be done easily to make an updated version as a textbook for small business majors at four-year colleges or universities.
The 15 chapters provide excellent context of small business management in all major disciplines of business, including accounting, finance, human resources and organization, supply chain, information technology, and business laws.
The book uses consistent terminology and framework. Each chapter has clear learning objectives and 3-Thread summaries.
The 15 chapters have excellent modules and are easy to re-organized to meeting individual instructor's needs.
The organization of the book is fairly clear. A table of contents could be included at the beginning of the book. Sections, especially sub-sections could be numbered clearly to show the hierarchy of structure of the chapter.
The layout and fonts could be improved a bit.
The text is well written.
The book is small business friendly, and fits the small business culture.
1. The lists of references could be aggregated and are placed after each chapter with smaller fonts to reduce the volume of the book. 2. The two chapters for Marketing could be merged into one chapter. 3. The chapter of E-Commerce and E-Business could be expanded into a chapter about IT for small business which could include e-commerce/e-business, use of social media, business analytics, decision support systems for small business.
The book covers all traditional topics of entrepreneurship such as value creation, family business, business plan, marketing strategy, accounting, financing, and organization. I found it especially valuable today that the book also has chapters on... read more
The book covers all traditional topics of entrepreneurship such as value creation, family business, business plan, marketing strategy, accounting, financing, and organization. I found it especially valuable today that the book also has chapters on E-business and international business, which are increasingly common venues for entrepreneurial small businesses. As a result, I think the book provides aspiring entrepreneurs with what they need to know in order to start, operate, expand, or close a business in today's world.
The content seems unbiased to me. The book includes necessary topics and wisdoms in entrepreneurship that have been in practice in real businesses.
The content is up-to-date and the ideas and knowledge will not quickly become obsolete. Every chapter begins with a case that is relatively recent. Necessary updates to the cases or replacement of them will be relatively easy to implement.
The text is written in clear language. Business and entrepreneurship terminologies are highlighted in the text and immediately defined for easy understanding.
I think the text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and theory framework. Concepts and methods such as breakeven analysis are repeated a few times in different chapters, which actually is good for understanding and for students to practice these methods with some repetition.
The text is divided into easy-to-read subsections. There are always subheadings and bold-typed emphases of key terms, which made the reading easy to follow. The text summarizes some of the comparisons of key concepts into tables, which makes the content clear and easy to understand at a glance.
The author organizes the topics in a logical manner that follows the natural steps when preparing for a business startup.
The text is smooth to navigate in general. The only problem I encountered was that video clips on the online version do not open after I click on the links. I'm not sure if this is a problem with my computer only.
I did not find grammatical errors in the text.
I did not find the text culturally insensitive or offensive. It objectively evaluates the benefits of outsourcing and international expansion for small businesses.
This is a very good cost-free open-source textbook to replace a traditional entrepreneurship textbook with for an undergraduate entrepreneurship class. It not only covers all the topics in entrepreneurship in a clear manner, but it also has great examples and exercises after each chapter. I'm going to adopt this textbook for my entrepreneurship class next semester.
Table of Contents
- Chapter 1: Foundations for Small Business
- Chapter 2: Your Business Idea: The Quest for Value
- Chapter 3: Family Businesses
- Chapter 4: E-Business and E-Commerce
- Chapter 5: The Business Plan
- Chapter 6: Marketing Basics
- Chapter 7: Marketing Strategy
- Chapter 8: The Marketing Plan
- Chapter 9: Accounting and Cash Flow
- Chapter 10: Financial Management
- Chapter 11: Supply Chain Management: You Better Get It Right
- Chapter 12: People and Organization
- Chapter 13: The Search for Efficiency and Effectiveness
- Chapter 14: Icebergs and Escapes
- Chapter 15: Going Global: Yes or No?
- Chapter 16: Appendix: A Sample Business Plan
Ancillary Material
About the Book
Small Business Management in the 21st Century offers a unique perspective and set of capabilities for instructors. The authors designed this book with a “less can be more” approach, and by treating small business management as a practical human activity rather than as an abstract theoretical concept.
The text has a format and structure that will be familiar to you if you use other books on small business management. Yet it brings a fresh perspective by incorporating three distinctive and unique themes and an important new feature (Disaster Watch) which is embedded throughout the entire text. These themes assure that students see the material in an integrated context rather than a stream of separate and distinct topics.
First, the authors incorporate the use of technology and e-business as a way to gain competitive advantage over larger rivals. Technology is omnipresent in today's business world. Small business must use it to its advantage. We provide practical discussions and examples of how a small business can use these technologies without having extensive expertise or expenditures.
Second, they explicitly acknowledge the constant need to examine how decisions affect cash flow by incorporating cash flow impact content in several chapters. As the life blood of all organizations, cash flow implications must be a factor in all business decision-making.
Third, they recognize the need to clearly identify sources of customer value and bring that understanding to every decision. Decisions that do not add to customer value should be seriously reconsidered.
Small Business Management in 21st Century boasts a new feature called Disaster Watch scenarios. Few texts cover, in any detail, some of the major hazards that small business managers face. Disaster Watch scenarios, included in most chapters, cover topics that include financing, bankers, creditors, employees, customers who don't pay, economic downturns, and marketing mistakes.
About the Contributors
Authors
David Cadden, Professor Emeritus, Quinnipiac University. Dr. Cadden was born in New York and received his undergraduate degree in engineering from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. He received an M.S. in Management from the same institution. He attended Baruch College, which is part of the City University of New York, where he received his MBA and earned his PhD in Management Planning Systems. Dr. Cadden is the author of many journal articles, book chapters, and proceedings’ publications. For several years he ran a program at Quinnipiac University where students traveled to Nicaragua to assist local small businesses improve their operations. He teaches in the areas of operations and strategy and places special emphasis in these courses on the unique demands of small businesses. Cadden has consulted with several firms including McDonald-Douglas Aircraft and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Prior to coming to Quinnipiac, Dr. Cadden worked for Hazeltine Corporation, Baruch College, and Fairfield University.
Sandra L. Lueder is an Associate Professor Emeritus, Southern Connecticut State University. She has a PhD in Marketing from the City University of New York (Baruch College), an MBA in Management and Marketing from the University of Connecticut, and a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She has also taught at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. Her non-education employment includes working in government, small business, and United Engineers and Constructors, a large corporation that is a division of Raytheon. Dr. Lueder has been passionate about small business for more than 25 years. As the proud daughter of a twice-entrepreneur, she has lived the life and has seen the ups and downs of small business ownership. She has taught small business management courses and has integrated the small business perspective into most of the marketing and leadership courses that she teaches. Dr. Lueder has published in the New England Journal of Entrepreneurship and The E-Business Review. She has also made many presentations at academic conferences.