Christopher McKenna. The World's Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century

In this engrossing study of management consulting, ChristopherMcKenna seeks to understand the prominence of consulting withinAmerican business. Focusing on a small set of elite consultingfirms, but frequently discussing others, McKenna argues thatthe legitimacy and knowledge sold by consultants to their clientswere rooted in the growing complexity and internationalizationof the American economy (the forces conventionally invoked toexplain consulting's rise), as well as changes in federal regulationsin the 1930s, 1950s, and 1980s.     

Multiples of Six: The Six Companies and West Coast Industrialization, 1930-1945

In this article I explore the protean organizational forms usedby the Kaiser and Bechtel construction companies between 1930and 1950. Kaiser and Bechtel prospered during the Depressionand World War II because, as members of the Six Companies consortiumof construction firms, they refused to adopt a "best practice"model of corporate organization drawn from the diversified manufacturingand distribution sectors. Instead, Kaiser and Bechtel used avariety of organizational forms to win numerous government contractsfor public works and defense production, transforming themselvesfrom small regional firms into substantial national and globalcorporations. I contribute to modern academic debate over thehistorical forms of business enterprise and the conjunctionof state consumption and private production.     

John Storey, ed. The Management of Innovation. 2 vols. Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004. xxxi + 734 pp. (vol. 1); ix + 570 pp. (vol. 2). ISBN 1-84376-429-6, $495.00 (cloth).

Edited by John Storey of Open University Business School inthe United Kingdom, The Management of Innovation (MoI) consistsof fifty-three of the most important social science works onorganizational and technological innovation. Predominantly journalarticles with some book chapters, the contents of the twin volumesare organized into nine sections that, as Storey says in hisintroduction, shift from overviews and general issues to morenarrowly focused topics. In the former category are three sections:Theoretical Perspectives and Overviews; National Systems, Diffusionand Historic Trajectories; and Business Strategy, Entrepreneurshipand Innovation. In the latter category are the remaining sixsections: Technology Strategy and New Product Development; Barriersand Enablers; Managing Innovation through