Sources & Further Reading
Explore original works, research, textbooks, and explanations by their authors or institutions. The entries offer concise explanations rather than quotations; the reading below provides context and depth.
Some links lead to an abstract or publication record, and full texts may require access. Further reading may address a broader topic; it does not attribute every practical suggestion to the cited author.
Online references
- Primary textA. H. Maslow (1943), A Theory of Human Motivation
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - Official explanationASQ, Decision Matrix
Weighted Decision Matrix - Author / publisher referenceAnthony Giddens, The Constitution of Society — publisher edition
Structuration Theory - English translation of a primary textAristotle, Rhetoric, Book I — W. Rhys Roberts translation
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos - Research record / abstractArkes & Blumer (1985), The psychology of sunk cost
Sunk Cost Fallacy - Textbook / courseAswath Damodaran, An Introduction to Valuation
Discounted Cash Flow Valuation - Textbook / courseAswath Damodaran, Working capital in valuation
Working Capital Management - Official explanationBCG, What Is the Growth Share Matrix?
BCG Growth–Share Matrix - Official explanationBain & Company, Decision Insights — RAPID roles
RAPID Decision Roles - Official explanationBain, Elements of Value — official interactive reference
Elements of Value - Official explanationBain, Measuring Your Net Promoter Score
Net Promoter Score - Official explanationBarbara Minto, The Minto Pyramid Principle — author’s course description
MECE Grouping · The Pyramid Principle - Research record / abstractBroken Windows, Informal Social Control, and Crime: Assessing Causality in Empirical Studies (2020)
Broken Windows Theory - Primary textCharles Darwin (1859), On the Origin of Species — first edition
Natural Selection · Adaptation · Natural Selection - Author / publisher referenceCharles T. Munger, Poor Charlie’s Almanack — Stripe Press edition
Inversion - Official explanationChristensen Institute, Health for Hire — Jobs to Be Done theory
Jobs to Be Done - Official explanationChristensen Institute, Our Theories — Disruptive Innovation
Disruptive Innovation · Disruptive Innovation - Primary textClauset, Shalizi & Newman, Power-law distributions in empirical data
Power-Law Distributions · Normal and Power-Law Distributions - Primary textDavid Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
Deduction and Induction · The Is–Ought Problem · The Is–Ought Problem · Deduction and Induction - Official explanationDeloitte Digital / Doblin, Ten Types of Innovation
Ten Types of Innovation - Primary textDonella Meadows, Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System
Leverage Points - Research record / abstractE. H. Simpson (1951), The Interpretation of Interaction in Contingency Tables
Simpson’s Paradox - Primary textElinor Ostrom (2009), Beyond Markets and States — Nobel lecture
The Commons Problem · The Commons Problem - Research record / abstractEric R. Pianka (1970), On r- and K-Selection
r/K Selection: A Historical Model - Official explanationEric Ries, The Lean Startup: Methodology
Lean Startup - Research record / abstractFischhoff, Hindsight not equal to foresight — reprint of the 1975 paper
Hindsight Bias · Multiple Causes and Hindsight Bias - Research record / abstractGeorge A. Akerlof (1970), The Market for “Lemons” — publisher record
Information Asymmetry - Primary textGhibellini & Meier (2025), Interruption, recall and resumption: a meta-analysis of the Zeigarnik and Ovsiankina effects
Zeigarnik Effect - Official explanationGoldratt Research Labs, Introduction to the Theory of Constraints
Theory of Constraints · Theory of Constraints - Research record / abstractHeinz Weihrich (1982), The TOWS matrix—A tool for situational analysis
SWOT and TOWS - Author / publisher referenceHeskett et al., Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work — publisher reprint
Service–Profit Chain - Textbook / courseHossein Pishro-Nik, Expectation
Expected Value - Textbook / courseHossein Pishro-Nik, Introduction to Probability, Statistics, and Random Processes, §7.1.1
Law of Large Numbers · Law of Large Numbers - Textbook / courseHossein Pishro-Nik, What Is Probability?
Randomness and Uncertainty - Official explanationIDEO, Design Thinking: Process
Design Thinking - Official explanationIUPAC Gold Book, Autocatalytic reaction
Autocatalysis - Research record / abstractJ. L. Kelly Jr. (1956), A New Interpretation of Information Rate — publisher record
Kelly Criterion · Kelly Criterion - Research record / abstractJensen & Meckling (1976), Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure
Principal–Agent Problems - Official explanationJim Collins, The Flywheel Effect — author’s explanation
The Flywheel Effect - Primary textJohn Nash (1951), Non-Cooperative Games
Nash Equilibrium - Primary textKahneman & Tversky (1979), Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk
Loss Aversion - Author / publisher referenceKaplan & Norton, The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance — publisher reprint
Balanced Scorecard - Research record / abstractKaplan & Strömberg (2009), Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity
Leveraged Buyout Model - Official explanationKim & Mauborgne, Four Actions Framework — official explanation
Eliminate–Reduce–Raise–Create Grid - Official explanationKim & Mauborgne, Strategy Canvas — official tool explanation
Strategy Canvas - Official explanationKotter, The 8-Step Process for Leading Change
Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Approach - Research record / abstractKruger & Dunning (1999), Unskilled and unaware of it — original research abstract
Dunning–Kruger Effect - Research record / abstractLeary et al. (2017), Cognitive and Interpersonal Features of Intellectual Humility
Intellectual Humility - Research record / abstractLieberman & Montgomery (1988), First-mover advantages — research article
First-Mover Advantages and Disadvantages - Primary textMark Granovetter (1973), The Strength of Weak Ties
The Strength of Weak Ties - Primary textMcKinsey Quarterly (1996), Staircases to Growth
Staircases to Growth - Official explanationMcKinsey, Enduring Ideas: The 7-S Framework
McKinsey 7-S Framework - Official explanationMcKinsey, Enduring Ideas: The GE–McKinsey nine-box matrix
GE–McKinsey Nine-Box Matrix - Official explanationMcKinsey, Enduring Ideas: The three horizons of growth
Three Horizons of Growth - Official explanationMcKinsey, From moments to journeys
Customer Journey Mapping - Official explanationMcKinsey, Merger Management Compendium — integration reading
Post-Merger Integration - Official explanationMcKinsey, The consumer decision journey (2009)
Consumer Decision Journey - Official explanationMichael Porter’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness: The Five Forces
Porter’s Five Forces - Research record / abstractMoore & Healy (2008), The trouble with overconfidence
Overoptimism and Overconfidence - Textbook / courseOpenStax, Biology 2e, §18.1 Understanding Evolution
Heredity and Variation - Textbook / courseOpenStax, Biology 2e, §45.6 Community Ecology
Ecological Niche · Symbiosis · Ecological Niche · Symbiosis - Textbook / courseOpenStax, Biology 2e, §46.1 Ecology of Ecosystems
Ecosystems - Textbook / courseOpenStax, Chemistry 2e, §12.5 Collision Theory
Activation Energy - Textbook / courseOpenStax, Chemistry 2e, §13.3 Le Châtelier’s Principle
Chemical Equilibrium and Le Châtelier’s Principle - Textbook / courseOpenStax, College Physics, §13.5 Phase Changes
Phase Transitions and Critical Points - Textbook / courseOpenStax, Physics, §4.4 Newton’s Third Law of Motion
Newton’s Third Law - Textbook / courseOpenStax, Principles of Economics 3e, Chapter 2: Choice in a World of Scarcity
Opportunity Cost · Opportunity Cost - Textbook / courseOpenStax, University Physics Volume 1 — index entry for standing waves and resonance
Resonance · Resonance - Textbook / courseOpenStax, University Physics Volume 1, §5.2 Newton’s First Law
Inertia · Inertia - Textbook / courseOpenStax, University Physics Volume 1, §6.2 Friction
Friction - Textbook / courseOpenStax, University Physics Volume 2 — thermodynamics chapters
Laws of Thermodynamics · Conservation of Energy - Textbook / courseOpenStax, University Physics Volume 2, §4.6 Entropy
Entropy and the Second Law · Entropy and the Second Law - Primary textParasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry (1988), SERVQUAL — paper hosted on an author profile
SERVQUAL and Service-Quality Gaps - Textbook / coursePenn State STAT 414, Independent Events
Combinatorics and Probability - Primary textPierre Bourdieu (1986), The Forms of Capital — English text
Cultural Capital - Author / publisher referencePrahalad & Hamel (1990), The Core Competence of the Corporation — publisher record
Core Competencies - Official explanationProsci, The ADKAR Model
ADKAR Model - Research record / abstractRochet & Tirole (2003), Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets — author-institution record
Two-Sided Markets and Platforms - Official explanationScaled Agile, SAFe Lean-Agile Principles
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) - Official explanationShell, What are Shell Scenarios?
Scenario Planning - Research record / abstractSteven Kerr (1975), On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B
Incentives · Incentives - Official explanationStrategy&, Our approach to capabilities-driven strategy
Capabilities-Driven Strategy - Official explanationStrategyzer, The Business Model Canvas
Business Model Canvas - English translation of a primary textSun Tzu, The Art of War — Lionel Giles’s English translation (1910)
Know Yourself and Your Opponent - Primary textTversky & Kahneman (1974), Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases
Availability Heuristic · Anchoring - Research record / abstractTversky & Kahneman (1981), The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice
Framing Effect - Official explanationU.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Critical Mass
Criticality and Critical Mass - Textbook / courseÅström & Murray, Feedback Systems — author-hosted textbook
Feedback Loops · Feedback Loops · Feedback Control and PID
Books & additional reading
- Albert Einstein, “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” (1905).
Principle of Relativity - Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics (1890).
Supply and Demand - Archimedes, On the Equilibrium of Planes.
Levers and Mechanical Advantage - Aristotle, Physics, Book II.
Teleological and Mechanistic Explanation - Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Book I.
First-Principles Reasoning - Arthur M. Hughes, Strategic Database Marketing.
RFM Analysis - Aswath Damodaran, Investment Valuation.
Return on Invested Capital · Sensitivity Analysis · Synergy Assessment - B. F. Skinner, The Behavior of Organisms (1938).
Reward and Punishment Responses - B. H. Liddell Hart, Strategy (1954).
The Indirect Approach - Barbara Liskov and Stephen Zilles, “Programming with Abstract Data Types” (1974).
Abstraction - Barbara Minto, The Minto Pyramid Principle.
Issue Trees and Logic Trees - C. Northcote Parkinson, “Parkinson’s Law” (The Economist, 1955).
Parkinson’s Law - Carl Friedrich Gauss, Theoria Motus (1809).
Normal Distribution - Carl von Clausewitz, On War (1832).
Concentration of Effort - Charles A. Janeway Jr. et al., Immunobiology.
Immune Systems - Charles Conn and Robert McLean, Bulletproof Problem Solving (2019).
Seven-Step Problem Solving - Charles Perrow, Normal Accidents (1984).
Cascading Failure - Charles S. Peirce, Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism (1903).
Abductive Reasoning - Chris Anderson, “The Long Tail” (2004) and The Long Tail (2006).
The Long Tail - Cliff Bowman and David Faulkner, Competitive and Corporate Strategy (1997).
Bowman’s Strategy Clock - DAMA International, DAMA-DMBOK, second edition (2017).
Data Governance and Maturity - Dale T. Miller and Michael Ross, “Self-Serving Biases in the Attribution of Causality: Fact or Fiction?” (1975).
Self-Serving Bias - Dave McClure, “Startup Metrics for Pirates” (2007).
AARRR Metrics - David A. Aaker, Managing Brand Equity (1991).
Aaker’s Brand Equity Model - David A. Nadler and Michael L. Tushman, Competing by Design (1997).
Organizational Capability Assessment - David L. Parnas, “On the Criteria To Be Used in Decomposing Systems into Modules” (1972).
Modularity and Decoupling - David Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817), chapter 7.
Comparative Advantage · Comparative Advantage - E. Jerome McCarthy, Basic Marketing (1960); Bernard H. Booms and Mary J. Bitner, “Marketing Strategies and Organization Structures for Service Firms” (1981).
Marketing Mix: 4Ps and 7Ps - Edward L. Thorndike, “A Constant Error in Psychological Ratings” (1920).
Halo Effect - Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations (1962 and later editions).
Diffusion of Innovations - Francis Galton, “Regression towards Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature” (1886).
Regression to the Mean · Regression to the Mean - Francis J. Aguilar, Scanning the Business Environment (1967).
PESTEL Analysis - G. Bennett Stewart III, The Quest for Value (1991).
Economic Value Added - G. W. F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit (1807).
Dialectical Reasoning - Galileo Galilei, Two New Sciences (1638).
Thought Experiments - Geoffrey A. Moore, Crossing the Chasm (1991).
Crossing the Chasm - George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (1980).
Metaphor and Conceptual Framing - George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” (1946).
Writing as a Tool for Thinking - Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (1949).
Category Mistakes - H. Igor Ansoff, “Strategies for Diversification” (1957).
Ansoff Product–Market Matrix - Howard Raiffa, Decision Analysis (1968).
Decision Tree Analysis - Jerome Bruner, “The Narrative Construction of Reality” (1991).
Narrative Framing - John H. Holland, Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity (1995).
Complex Adaptive Systems - John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944).
Zero-Sum and Positive-Sum Games - John von Neumann, “Probabilistic Logics and the Synthesis of Reliable Organisms from Unreliable Components” (1956).
Redundancy and Fault Tolerance - Joseph M. Juran, Quality Control Handbook.
Pareto Principle · Pareto Analysis - Judea Pearl, Causality (2000).
Correlation and Causation - Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (English edition, 1959).
Falsifiability · Falsifiability - Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull, The Peter Principle (1969).
The Peter Principle - Lee Ross, “The Intuitive Psychologist and His Shortcomings” (1977).
Fundamental Attribution Error - Leigh Van Valen, “A New Evolutionary Law” (1973).
Red Queen Hypothesis · Red Queen Hypothesis - Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957).
Cognitive Dissonance · Consistency-Seeking - Martin Christopher, Adrian Payne, and David Ballantyne, Relationship Marketing (1991).
Customer Relationship Ladder - Michael E. Porter, Competitive Advantage (1985).
Value Chain Analysis - Michael Hammer, “Reengineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate” (1990).
Business Process Reengineering - Michael L. George, Lean Six Sigma (2002).
Lean Six Sigma - Michael L. Katz and Carl Shapiro, “Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility” (1985).
Network Effects - Munger, Poor Charlie’s Almanack, “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment”.
Liking and Disliking Tendencies · Contrast Effects · Curiosity · Stress and Judgment - Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan (2007).
Black Swan Events - OpenStax, Chemistry 2e.
Structure–Property Relationships - Orit Gadiesh and James L. Gilbert, “Profit Pools: A Fresh Look at Strategy” (1998).
Profit Pool Analysis - Paul A. David, “Clio and the Economics of QWERTY” (1985).
Path Dependence · Path Dependence - Peter A. Pyhrr, Zero-Base Budgeting (1973).
Zero-Based Budgeting - Peter C. Wason, “On the Failure to Eliminate Hypotheses in a Conceptual Task” (1960).
Confirmation Bias - Philip Kotler, Marketing Management.
Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning - Philip W. Anderson, “More Is Different” (1972).
Emergence - Plato, Republic, Book VII.
The Allegory of the Cave - Plutarch, Life of Theseus, section 23.
The Ship of Theseus - Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May, Thinking in Time (1986).
Historical Analogy - Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation (1984).
Prisoner’s Dilemma - Robert B. Cialdini, Influence (1984).
Social Proof - Robert C. Camp, Benchmarking (1989).
Operational Benchmarking - Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, Pygmalion in the Classroom (1968).
Expectancy Effects - Solomon E. Asch, “Opinions and Social Pressure” (1955).
Conformity and Social Influence - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Simplicity.”
Occam’s Razor · Occam’s Razor - Sunil Gupta and Donald R. Lehmann, Managing Customers as Investments (2005).
Customer Lifetime Value - Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System (English edition, 1988).
Five Whys - Thirty-Six Stratagems (三十六计), “以逸待劳.”
Conserve Strength and Wait - Thomas Bayes, “An Essay towards Solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chances” (1763).
Bayes’ Theorem · Bayes’ Theorem - Thomas C. Schelling, Micromotives and Macrobehavior (1978).
Tipping Points - Thomas H. Cormen et al., Introduction to Algorithms.
Divide-and-Conquer Algorithms · Algorithmic Complexity - Tim Koller, Marc Goedhart, and David Wessels, Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies.
Value-Based Management · Value-Focused Due Diligence - Tversky and Kahneman, “Belief in the Law of Small Numbers” (1971).
Belief in the Law of Small Numbers - Tversky and Kahneman, “Evidential Impact of Base Rates” (1982).
Base Rates and Conditional Probability - Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters.
Economic Moats - William Stanley Jevons, The Theory of Political Economy (1871).
Diminishing Marginal Utility · Diminishing Marginal Utility